Ken Morse, Senior Lecturer at MIT and Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Co-Founder 3-Com and Aspen Technology

Ken is a well-known entrepreneur that spoke to my New Enterprises class last week. Ken's focus was on sales at high-tech start-ups.

Ken Morse's Biography

Notes:

Executive Summary has to say why people are going to buy your stuff

"enable" should be in the first paragraph of the Exec Summary

In the first paragraph you need to talk about the person who will sign the PO to buy your product

Second paragraph should have economic justification. How are you going to sell it? Why members of the "jury" will say Yes.

Selling is much harder than getting the technology to work.

Coming from MIT, people just expect the technology to work

Sales is a science

If you don't understand how you are going to sell it, you don't have a company

Has to be a pain that you are going to solve. People have to be staying up late at night worry about the problem you are going to solve.

Need a sales force that has sold to the decision maker you are going after before.

Start recruiting outstanding sales people after your technology/product is proven.

Good compensation for sales people is 50% base, 50% bonus or 60% base, 40% bonus. Range is from $90K-$250K+

You have a right to expect passion from anyone joining an early stage startup

Entrepreneurship is all about the people