Sandhill Series: ENTREPRENEURSHIP PURE - WATCH TIEN & ZUORA: THE BEST COMPANIES ARE BUILT IN A DOWNTURN
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Tien Tzuo, founder and CEO of Zuora Inc. (former SVP of Strategy at Salesforce.com) has a very unique combination of experiences to share. He will tell us about his personal experience being one of the first employees of Salesforce.com in 1999 building the frontier player of OnDemand computing. Scaling a company to Salesforce.com’s currently $1B revenue line through the dot.com bust deserves attention. Now, Tien is building his own technology company, Zuora Inc., leveraging the fast expanding ‘Cloud” eco-system. Tien’s new company is growing rapidly and the team just closed significant funding rounds, all in the current very challenging environment. Clearly, it seems we can learn a few lessons from Tien here. A pattern of entrepreneurship that might help you understand how to think about new opportunities in the market as well.
Tien will talk about the following:
- Lessons learned from Salesforce.com
- Current ideas and experiences building a successful subscription business
- Why Zuora’s Model thrives in an economic downturn
- Tips on looking for the right investors
Register Online
Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Time: 6:00-6:30pm Reception, Check-in. 6:30-7:30pm, Event
Location: Carr & Ferrell, 2200 Geng Road, Palo Alto
Cost: WCNC members, members of affiliate clubs and their accompanied guests: $20 per person. Non-member alumni and other guests: $40 per person. Registrations after 4:00pm Monday, March 30th an extra $10 per ticket, if available. Cancellations after 4:00pm Monday, March 30th at the discretion of the WCNC.
Tien Tzuo, Founder and CEO
Tien Tzuo joined Zuora after 9 years at salesforce.com. Tien was one of the "original forces" at salesforce.com, which he joined in 1999 as the 11th employee, when the company was still operating out of a house on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. In his 9 years at salesforce.com, Tien built salesforce.com's original billing system and held a variety of executive roles in salesforce.com's technology, marketing, and strategy organizations, including building out the product management & marketing organization, serving as Chief Marketing Officer for two years, and most recently as Chief Strategy Officer.
Tien personally oversaw the vision, direction, and design of the first 17 releases of salesforce.com's award winning product line, including overseeing the launch of salesforce.com and the AppExchange. In 2004, Tien was named CMO of the Year Finalist by the CMO Council and BusinessWeek Magazine. Tien is also widely recognized as one of the thought leaders in the software-as-a-service industry. His podcast on the Secrets of Salesforce is widely cited and has been downloaded over 250,000 times since it was first published.
Prior to salesforce.com, Tien was at CrossWorlds Software, where he launched CrossWorlds' Telecommunications business unit focused on integration with billing systems such as Portal, Kenan, Amdocs, and MetaSolv, and at Oracle Corporation where he managed several of Oracle's largest Telecommunications accounts, including MCI, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), and AT&T. Tien holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and a master's in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
