http://nataleeroan.comQuick Bloghttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/04/14/how-we-will-know-when-glass-ceiling-is-broken.aspx#comment-1313183Here's a web site that gives the qualities of a good leader and how to acquire them: http://artofmanliness.com/2008/08/17/5-traits-of-true-leadership/">http://artofmanliness.com/2008/08/17/5-traits-of-true-leadership/">http://artofmanliness.com/2008/08/17/5-traits-of-true-leadership/.
(Please note that while the article is aimed at a male audience, it's definitely applicable to women, too.)
One quality that isn't mentioned in the article that I think is crucial is honesty: honesty up and down the chain of command. When your employees know they'll get a straight answer from you, they'll respect you and have confidence in you, which is what leadership is all about.]]>Mike2008-08-26T10:09:04Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/08/14/apparently-im-a-pornographer.aspx#comment-1281800
Also, thank you for sharing your years of experience with us in such a candid and 'real life' fashion both through this blog and, eventually, through the information you share with us about launching and running VJournal. I've learned a lot as I'm sure many other entrepreneurs have as well.

Again, congrats on the launch and best of luck for the future.

P.S.

Sucks about Google. For a company with such power they sure could take a lesson from the startup world about customer service.]]>Anthony Papillion2008-08-15T07:44:30Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/06/23/finallycheetah-revealed.aspx#comment-1223020
I agree with many of the comments I've read here that ECM has a small niche for individuals, but should be mission critical for many businesses. Which is just as well, since their website doesn't seem to even come close to what it should be to target individuals. Corporate sales (which means one on one, face time, palm pressing) will be ECM's money maker, no matter how many individuals with special circumstances sign up. (motor home travelers? living overseas? fine, but small percentages)

As far as the people who run other country's mail system being more interested than those who oversee USPS, it's so common in so many industries, I'm beginning to wonder if that's just "how it's supposed to work." The city on the hill gets most of the rocks and most of the wonder.

I also believe that ECM version 1 (so to speak) that focuses on the receiver is not as interesting as version 2 will be. ;-)]]>Dan2008-07-24T09:16:11Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/06/23/finallycheetah-revealed.aspx#comment-1190714
First, I don't understand the argument that Earth Class Mail is somehow competitive to postal services, that postal services are about to be extinct if they don't look out. ECM *requires* a postal service. It is a mail processing facility, albeit a digital one. Sure, it helps digitize the "last mile", so to speak, but it doesn't really do anything to get the originator's message to the recipient digitally, end-to-end. That's where email, FTP, twitter, facebook, SMS, and other technologies/services fill a void and are truly competitive. Are we to believe that ECM has tremendous value-add over email in a truly end-to-end-digital world? No. It's merely a way of digitizing the final product.

Which leads me to my second point. It *could* be a big service, if it really capitalized correctly versus the opportunity. The military, large corporations, and ex-pats, and perhaps RV'ers/snowbirds are all segments that could use mobile-email. But rather than invest multi-million-dollar sums to build out a processing facility in Oregon, and who knows how much to build dubious street-level facilities in major cities, why not scale operations with customers? If the data shared in Startup Junkies is correct, it's somewhere around 3,000-4,000 paying customers as of last year, adding maybe 300-400 every month. That's terrific, but really, that level of volume only supports maybe 10 employees, adding 3-4 every year. Overcapitalizing is equivalent to accepting $1,000 to mount a dagger to your steering wheel in your car -- it's all fine and dandy if the road is smooth, but if you're at all going to miss plan, it's a very bad thing.

I understand the need to satisfy large corporate accounts and postal services and answer the "scaling" question. But with virtually zero directly-competitive pressure, there is no need to way, way overbuild infrastructure ahead of demand. Have we learned nothing from Webvan?

I have very much enjoyed the show, but I remain a skeptic of ECM, at least at this level of investment/market-cap/infrastructure. It could have been a very interesting, breakeven 20 person company growing larger every year, but I worry that a "get big fast" attitude will doom the company, much as it did Webvan, taking a very good kernel of an idea (e.g., HomeGrocer.com) with it.]]>Steve Murch2008-07-13T09:33:22Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/06/23/finallycheetah-revealed.aspx#comment-1167853
Ultimately, the Earth Class Mail model could destroy traditional postal delivery as we know it. If the Feds were on the ball, they'd be actively looking for ways to either outsource directly to ECM, or simply stealing/adopting the business model for government use.

I'm not a rapid "small government" guy, but this is another example of how private enterprise drives innovation, and the Federal government hinders it...]]>Rich Aubuchon2008-07-03T10:15:54Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/04/20/the-questions-you-must-ask.aspx#comment-1167381
Thanks,
Tracy]]>Tracy Miller2008-07-03T08:08:52Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/06/13/the-ultimate-question-to-predict-your-growth.aspx#comment-1137391
I would personally contact a decent slice of unhappy customers to get the real dirt on what was going on with the company.  I'd call around 10 customers a month - it's a great reality check.  In fact, several of the customers at Entellium I used to call on who had problems early on have now become friends.  As a senior executive, it's easy to get too detached from customers but you need to hear from them how you're doing as a company and what you can improve on - no matter how big the company gets.  Not only does it potentially help save an account, but for each customer that's willing to tell you about a problem, you can be sure there are plenty more who experience it but then simply vote with their feet. 

The shame is that many companies wait until customer retention is a huge problem before focusing on customer service. They see customer service as a "cost" of doing business, and spend their time cutting these costs to the bone.  Take Sprint for example - As someone who used to work there, it embarrasses me to see what the executive team let happen to what was once a stellar company - Only when they were bleeding customers did the exec team turn their focus to customer retention.  Now their reputation is mud - and so is their bottom line.  And for good reason. 

Natalee
]]>Natalee2008-06-21T09:30:35Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/06/13/the-ultimate-question-to-predict-your-growth.aspx#comment-1137358"Based on our Customer Service, would you recommend us to a friend"? Or "Based on our website trading capability, would you recommend us to a friend?"
I assume they are trying to determine where their weaknesses are under this program.]]>Wes2008-06-21T09:05:47Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/06/01/startup-junkies-on-hulucom.aspx#comment-1117637
Again, you wonder why Canada has such a high level of illegal downloading of US TV shows. We have access to shows through our cable networks but cannot ever download to buy and even the DVDs take forever to be released north of the border. Case in point of Apple TV shows on iTunes. We still don't have access to buy TV shows we watch everyday on our cable subscriptions.

Message to rights holders, if you continually delay and restrict access to content due to "rights" reasons, your prospective buyers will turn to illegal downloads.]]>Mike Noirca2008-06-13T07:15:35Zhttp://nataleeroan.com/2008/03/11/female-bosses--your-opinion.aspx#comment-1105649Kathryn2008-06-08T18:29:53Z