Bootstrapping a Global Software Product Company Using Services From Denmark: Sitecore CEO Michael Seifert (Part 6)

Sramana: Could you give me an example of some of your customers?

Michael Seifert: One of the better examples is one of Europe’s largest airlines, easyJet. When they went live on Sitecore a few years back, they had a huge launch strategy, which is normal for large enterprises. When you turn on the new site it is substantially different, so you let traffic in little by little. The important thing to remember about easyJet is that they only sell online.

They used Sitecore to build an experience platform that offered a very highly customized experience. There was a lot of effort targeting existing customers that they knew as well as anonymous customers, the best possible way that they could for each customer. They found that by doing so they were able to increase their conversion rates by double digit rates. That is a big deal when you only sell online.

They were so encouraged by those results that they ramped up the transition to the new site really fast. They have had amazing business success with the launch of the new site.

Sramana: How many customers are you catering to? Is your sweet spot with large enterprise customers?

Michael Seifert: We are growing very quickly in the enterprise segment as well as globally.

Sramana: How many customers are you catering to at this point?

Michael Seifert: We have about 3,500 customers at this point.

Sramana: What has been your customer acquisition strategy? Has it been through system integrators?

Michael Seifert: Our selling motion is to go to market together with and through our partners. We have partners who are both system integrators as well as partners who are digital agencies.

Avanade is one of our larger partners and you can go to the completely opposite end of the spectrum to find partners who have just 50 employees.

Sramana: So your primary go-to-market model is through system integration partners?

Michael Seifert: Yes. We are directly involved in the sales process itself as well.

Sramana: Do you maintain a global enterprise sales channel?

Michael Seifert: Yes.

Sramana: What has your financing strategy looked like? You started as a spinoff from a parent company. What has been happening since then?

Michael Seifert: We have always been growing organically and have been profitable. We have always had double digit growth rates. We have had niche markets to grow in. From that perspective, we have never been in the situation where we have needed financing. We are a self-financed, organically growing company.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Bootstrapping a Global Software Product Company Using Services From Denmark: Sitecore CEO Michael Seifert
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