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Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

Bio

I have over 26 years' experience in IT and over 10 years in Project Management of Software and Infrastructure projects. I worked in many areas of IT as a Business Systems Consultant, Business Systems Analyst, Info Security, Project Management (Waterfall and Certified ScrumMaster) and IT Management(CTO, VP of Technology, Director of Technology). Building many successful teams from the ground up to deliver projects to customer internal and external. I have a solid understanding of performance and scalability of enterprise systems and integration. I have even spoken at a conference on scalability and performance for SugarCRM. I also have extensive background in many Atlassian Products (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Bamboo) and 3rd Party tools from Go2Group (SynapseRT). I have not only consulted in startups but have also worked in Fortune 500 companies and know how to engineer for growth to Large Businesses.

Recent Answers

Information Security

What should you do when your business has been hacked and is being defamed online?


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

I would recommend reaching out to law enforcement within the country which is hosting the content and the company hosting the content. In the US Side of things, I would contact google youtube and Vimeo hosts have your attorneys draft a letter with cease and desist on the videos as they are tied to hackers. FBI investigated Cyber crimes within the US as it is illegal to hack a system and against policy to propagate criminal actions. DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer I am just telling you some actions I have taken with regard to hackers.

Start-ups

What are the most known start-ups business models other than a marketplace, SaaS, an on-demand service, and e-commerce model?


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

The question you are asking appears not to be business models but types of business you apply to a business model. I found this great article on Huffington Post which gives a greater understanding of what business models are and why they work. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nina-tomaro/9-proven-business-models-_b_7949932.html The article lists 9 which are commonly used: * The Middle Man * Become a Marketplace * The Subscription Model * Customize Everything * On-Demand * The Modernized Direct Sales Model * Freemium Model * Reverse Auction * Virtual Good Model I would also Like to add to that list * Professional Services - Project Management, Software Development, Networking, Systems Administration, Business consulting, Management Consulting and other Consulting work. (Examples Robert Half consulting, TeKSystems, Aerotek ...) * Value Added Reseller (VAR) - Similar to Customize Everything, except you resell and add cusomizations or provide other services bundled with the items sold. There are many business models and variation on the above business models. Many businesses have hybrid business models combining aspects from several models. Some of them are well implemented and successful but not all achieve great success.

Business planning

What framework or process do you follow for planning your week, month, quarter, and year?


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

The best time management advice I have found was on Entrepreneur. Time management is in the real world not by clock time. Plans always change but goals are targets for which you aim to accomplish. Set realistic timeframes for those to complete. Look at the follow video on time management https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553

Startups

Is there a website that lists CFOs of tech companies or digital agencies that also includes their emails?


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

There are 2 information list brokers that come to mind. https://www.infousa.com/product/business-lists/ https://www.salesgenie.com/ Both of these sites have extensive demographic data to target the information you are seeking. Remember if you are bulk emailing these people you will be in violation of multiple countries SPAM laws. If you email each one individually and type it manually tailored to each companies CFO it will not violate those laws as you sent each one manually.

Asterisk

Best PBX to use with call center cloud software.


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

Asterisk is a good choice for integration as it is customizable to meet the needs. If you want to break into larger business you may also want to consider Cisco Call Manager with its API access. This is widely deployed in corporate America in mid to large corporations.

Payment Gateways

Anyway to setup recurring payment daily at specific time or time window in Paypal or any other processor?


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

Most payment processors on the internet have a Recurring Billing option to bill for a specific interval for a specific recurrence count. I recall Authorized.net specifically does it and can meet PCI compliance. Most processors offer recurring option but may not provide a daily option. You may need to a custom solution such as Authorized.net Customer Information Manager (CIM) for dynamic recurring billing (you bill your customers different amounts or on different days each month).

SaaS

What are the most effective distribution channels to sell SaaS products?


Max Blackmer

Agile Technologist scaling to Enterprise

There are several options available which would work for SaaS. The best one I can suggest is Referral Program. The referral program would need to have Training Documentation well defined as well as marketing material. This would allow you to pay other consultants or individuals to pipe leads or signups to your site to get exposure. This is especially effective in SMB market and tends to be targeted to the customer who would purchase. The second is to be more specific in contacting specific demographic targeted customers (be aware in the US you must be subscribed to Do Not Call Registery to Scrub call list for telemarketing or be potentially be fined by US Government). You can engage Lead generators to accomplish this for you but be careful that they are registered and scrub their list against the US Do Not Call Registery. Email Campaigns are good if you have users who have requested to opt into receiving an email and also have opt out options to remove themselves from the list to comply with US and other countries SPAM Laws. Then there are advertising though multiple media types beyond email and banner advertisements such as radio, TV, Billboards, Magazines and other print media.

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Areas of Expertise

Information TechnologySoftware EngineeringInformation SecurityEnterprise SoftwareSolution ArchitectureEnterprise ArchitectureEnterprise CollaborationInformation Technology Strategy