Intuit Partner Platform team blog

Startups and the Cloud - Video 3 (of 5) - Intuit Founder, Scott Cook Q&A

In June Intuit hosted the "Startups and the Cloud" event bringing together industry experts and successful SaaS startups to discuss a range of issues startups must consider to build a successful business and get an idea to market as quickly as possible.

At the event we were joined by Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit Inc. in 1983 and now serves as the chairman of the Executive Committee. Scott was interviewed by Bill Lucchini (VP of the Intuit’s PaaS Group discussing how cloud computing can foster innovation and how an intense focus on customer needs enables businesses to deliver successful products.

This was also the day that Microsoft announced its plans to stop selling Microsoft Money. As this article puts it:

“The defeat of Microsoft Money at the hands of Intuit's Quicken marks a rare chapter in the annals of software history.

Intuit is one of the few companies to take Microsoft head-on on its home turf--packaged software--and come out on top. Even more notably, Intuit has managed to do it several times, with Quicken of course, but also with QuickBooks and TurboTax.”

It was a special day for Scott and Intuit, and we were very fortunate to have him at the event in person to share his perspective not only on that monumental battle but also few stories about Intuit's early days as a startup, how he sees opportunities for startups in today's economic climate, the importance on solving real customer problems, his excitement around the Intuit Partner Platform (IPP) and the world of SaaS.

More videos from the event:

• Video 1: Welcome, by Bill Lucchini, VP and GM, Platform as a Service Group, Intuit (@wapl).
• Video 2: State of cloud computing and the market opportunity” Vishy Venugopalan (@midtownninja) 

We’ll be publishing the rest of the videos (5 in total) over the next week. Enjoy!

Startups and the Cloud - Video 2 (of 5): State of cloud computing and the market opportunity

In June Intuit hosted the "Startups and the Cloud" event bringing together industry experts and successful SaaS startups to discuss a range of issues startups must consider to build a successful business and get an idea to market as quickly as possible.

Below is the second video (2 of 5): “State of cloud computing and the market opportunity” Vishy Venugopalan (@midtownninja) an analyst at Longworth Venture Partners. Prior to Longworth, Vishy was at The 451 Group, a enterprise IT research firm, where he provided research insights to technology companies and investors on enterprise software market segments.

In this talk, Vishy set the scene for the discussions ahead, describing the cloud computing market and the opportunities as he sees them.

Startups and the Cloud - Video 2 (of 5)

“State of cloud computing and the market opportunity”

We’ll be publishing the rest of the videos (5 in total) over the next couple weeks. You can check out the first video here.

Startups and the Cloud - Video 1 (of 5): Welcome

The choices startup Software as a Service (SaaS) providers have in this new age of “Cloud Computing” can be overwhelming, confusing and risky.

In June Intuit hosted the "Startups and the Cloud" event bringing together industry experts and successful SaaS startups to discuss a range of issues startups must consider to build a successful business and get an idea to market as quickly as possible.

At the event, we were joined by leading VCs and startups who shared their views and experiences about how to navigate the cloud provider space, as well as Intuit’s co-founder Scott Cook who discussed how cloud computing can foster innovation and how an intense focus on customer needs enables businesses to deliver successful products.

It was a successful event, with good attendance and some great content that emerged during the day. We also had a filming crew in attendance who recorded each of the main sessions. Over the next few days we’ll be publishing the recorded sessions (five in all).

Below is the first of the sessions – the event Welcome and introduction by Bill Lucchini, VP and GM, Platform as a Service Group, Intuit. Enjoy!

Startups and the Cloud - Video 1 (of 5) - Welcome

10 Great Things I Heard at the Startups and the Cloud event

Last Thursday Intuit hosted an event titled Startups and the Cloud focused on the changing nature of starting and succeeding at building a technology business given all of the new tools and platforms that are available. I was honored to host such an awesome event with 200+ people packed into Bentley’s Adamian Hall. It was a great group all assembled to hear from Venture Capitalists, Intuit’s Scott Cook, and startup CEOs. We’ll be sharing some of the videos from the event once we’ve had time to edit them down.

At the end of the event (or at least the part before the cocktails) I gave a closing where I recapped ten great things I heard. Several people came up to me afterward to request that I publish the list… so, here it is (in the order I heard them during the day):

• Vishy Venugopalan from Longworth Ventures set a great baseline for the day with this overview of cloud computing.

• Scott Cook shared some great stories about the early days of Intuit from failed ads and trouble meeting payroll to the breakthrough insights that helped Quicken take off… but my favorite was when someone asked him how he had the courage to quit his job and try to start Intuit. His answer: his boss at Bain told him that they had hit a slow patch and his job wasn’t very secure. So relevant in today’s economy.

• Shawn Broderick from TechStars hammered home the importance of relentless execution in building an early stage startup. Gone are the days when you get a few million in funding based on a PowerPoint and you can take your time. Now, it’s all about execution.

• Jeffrey Bier from NorthBridge talked about “Capital to QED”. NorthBridge looks for how much money it will take to find out if the entrepreneur really has identified a big business opportunity. This is exactly how we think about funding new product initiatives at Intuit.

• Jeffrey also talked about one benefit of cloud computing is that entrepreneurs (and their investors) get to put 100% of their dollars towards solving the customer problem where as in the past it was maybe only 50% or less because of the need to build out infrastructure.

• The VC/Investor panel got a question on what they look for in an entrepreneur and they all chipped in to create this list:
  • Passion for their idea. Everyone highlighted this.
  • A desire to change the world.
  • An ability to set their ego aside and self-aware enough to realize where you need help and that someday you may even need to hand over leadership of the company.
  • Strong domain knowledge. Great quote: “I’ve spent my whole life getting ready to solve this problem/build this business”.
  • Unfair advantage: Does the entrepreneur bring something to the table that will be an ongoing competitive advantage… (I’d like to think that partnering with Intuit via the Intuit Partner Platform is step one of gaining competitive advantage in the small business market)
  • Street Smart: Has been around enough to know how things really get done.
  • Driven
  • Can sell their idea and vision unbelievably well.

• From the CEO panel, Software as a Service (SaaS) includes the word “service” and in the small business market that’s critical. Don’t assume you can put the product out there and it will take off on its own. SMB’s need the human touch.

• Cloud computing and one of its forms, Platform as a Service (PaaS) helps the CEO’s focus on being good at their unique competitive advantage vs. hosting/billing/login… all the stuff that everyone else does too.

• Great discussion on software pricing with a debate about everything going to subscription/pay for what you use vs. perpetual license vs. other models. The best point was that customers will drive the answer to this market by market – not vendors.

Overall it was a great session and the response from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive. Keep an eye out for videos of the event to be posted soon. Thanks to those that joined!

Here are a few blog posts inspired by the event:

• Awesome post by Laurie McCabe of Hurwitz and Associates: Intuit Partner Platform: Changing the Rules of Cloud Platforms with Federated Applications
• Jeff Kaplan of Think Strategies: Why Intuit Can Be a Major SaaS Player
• John Bennett: What Cloud Computing Offers Startups

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Bill Lucchini
VP, Platform as a Service Group, Intuit

Startups and the Cloud: free event in Waltham, MA, sponsored by Intuit – Register now!

From the App Gap blog:

"On June 11th we’re organizing a gathering in Waltham, MA called Startups and the Cloud to talk about how starting a successful software business has changed now that cloud computing/ platforms have become highly viable, and in some cases, essential components of a startup’s strategy.

We’re keeping it compact at about four hours and we’ve been able to pack a ton of great content in. The agenda is here, but there’s a talk with Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, a panel of local Venture Capitalists, and a panel of local CEOs. In addition, we’ll be hosting a social event where you’ll get a chance to meet some of the top thought leaders in this new wave of innovation. It’s a great group of tech leaders and, even better, it’s free!"

See: Full blog post and the agenda and how to register.

Meet IPP at Boston Flex User Group, 5/12, 7pm at Adobe, Newton, MA

I'll be presenting at the Boston Flex User Group's next event, to be held on the evening of Tues, May 12th at Adobe Systems' Newton office (275 Grove St, Newton, MA) at 7 pm. Please feel free to come at 6:30pm or so and hang out before the talk. Pizza and drinks will be provided by Universal Mind. There will be a bunch of the IPP peeps there...we look forward to meeting with you!

Please RSVP at http://bostonfug.eventbrite.com/ if you're planning to attend.

Here's what I'll be talking about, along with a demo of the IPP stack with the IPP plugin for Flex Builder.

Today, millions of Small Businesses are adopting the SaaS model. These businesses need their data to connect, synchronize and interoperate across the multiple back-office and front-office applications and services they use to run their business. How will this work? How can the cloud help Small Businesses get more out of their data and leverage the functionality of the cloud? What are the opportunities for ISVs and SaaS providers and Flex developers to connect and program against the Small Business data cloud? This presentation will describe how Intuit’s PaaS offering: the Intuit Partner Platform, is enabling a brand new class of cloud connected services, SaaS and RIA offerings for Small Businesses, and how Intuit partners with ISVs and SaaS providers to solve real problems for millions of Small Businesses. In this session we’ll also be demonstrating how Flex developers can use their skills to take advantage of this huge opportunity.

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Alex Barnett.
Dev Relations, IDN and IPP

Inside SaaS: Deep Dive - Intuit QuickBase Architecture - Presentation, IASANE, April 23rd

Jim Salem, Platform-as-a-Service Group Architect, will be presenting the QuickBase architecture to the IASA New England chapter on April 23d. If you are in the area, and are interested in the nuts and bolts of how QuickBase is built, come on by! You can register at: http://bit.ly/odJjm

Details are below:

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Inside SaaS: Deep Dive into the Intuit QuickBase Architecture

Examine a rich software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform in detail. Used by over half of the Fortune 100, Intuit QuickBase solves critical business problems via its easy-to-use and easy-to-customize applications.

Jim Salem, QuickBase’s architect and co-founder will present its unique, highly scalable application engine which seamlessly integrates multiple web services including database, email, workflow, and reporting.  We’ll discuss its patented active-active load balancing technology that has made it one of the most reliable, fast and proven SaaS technologies today.

Its Windows-based hosting technology has  been extended as the basis for the Intuit Partner Platform, a service for RIA developers to deliver QuickBooks-integrated applications to small businesses. We’ll cover key design choices in data flow, network, and container design that have made QuickBase especially suited to hosting diverse applications for thousands of businesses.

Jim Salem
For the past 25 years, Jim Salem has been a pioneer in distributed computing and in the software/platform as a service space. He has extensive experience in all aspects of internet service delivery including scalable hosting infrastructure design, automated application provisioning, efficient resource management, and 24×7 operations.
In 1999, Salem co-founded Intuit’s QuickBase, where he has been responsible for architecting and delivering fast, reliable PaaS and SaaS services to hundreds of thousands of users. While at Intuit, he has held senior management positions in engineering and operations. Salem is currently the Platform-as-a-Service Group Architect.
Prior to Intuit, Salem served as Director of Web Hosting Engineering at GTE Internetworking (BBN Planet) where he supported thousands of servers in ten data centers. Earlier, he was a senior engineering manager at Thinking Machines, which developed a 65,536 processor parallel computing platform. Salem earned a B.S.E.E. degree from M.I.T. in 1984.

Date: April 23rd, 5pm-8pm
Location: Intuit Offices
100 5th Ave
7th Floor
Waltham, MA 02451
Agenda:
05:00pm-06:00pm Networking
06:00pm-06:15pm Chapter Announcements
06:15pm-07:30pm Inside SaaS: Deep Dive into the Intuit QuickBase Architecture

Register at: http://bit.ly/odJjm

Join the Intuit Partner Platform team at Adobe MAX

This year, the Intuit Partner Platform is delighted to be a Gold sponsor of Adobe MAX, San Francisco (Nov 16-19).

We'll be at booth 313...so join us there to learn more about the Intuit Partner Platform (IPP), see what other developers have built and to meet with the platform team.

In addition, we've got two sessions lined up, plus we're sponsoring the pre-event bash. See you there!

Sessions

1. Birds Of a Feather Session: Monday, November 17^th, 8:30 PM

Topic: Making Money with Adobe Flex - Building a business, not just an application. Come to this session to share ideas and best practices for the monetization of your skills (...er, that means make money) as a Flex developer. Learn how to turn your great idea(s) into a great business.

Host/Moderator: Peter Vogel and Alex Barnett of the Intuit Partner Platform team is joined by Tom Link, CTO of Universal Mind.

2. Introduction to Intuit Partner Platform (60 mins), Tuesday, November 18th, 3:00 PM

Summary: Learn how to build rich Internet applications on the Intuit Partner Platform using Adobe FLEX and QuickBooks data.  Watch live as an Intuit Partner Platform architect creates a Rich Internet Application in real time.  Learn about this huge business opportunity for developers and meet SaaS businesses that have already adopted this platform including the winner of our RIA contest!

Speaker: Peter Vogel, Group Manager, Developer Tools Architect, IDN and Intuit Partner Platform.

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Intuit is also sponsoring the Invitation Only Pre-Event cocktail reception at Jillian’s.

Date:  Sunday, November 16th

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See you all there!

The Intuit Partner Platform team