Revenue = Resources
(I originally drafted this post years ago while at Foursquare an in an effort to share more thoughts I edited for 2019 and bringing this to the surface — enjoy!)
[2019 addition] When I first made the switch from BD to sales at Foursquare I learned a very valuable lesson that has stayed true throughout my career and other companies I have worked with. In any early stage environment there are typically limited development cycles, budgets, and overall resources to get things done. The CEO/co-founders role can be that of air traffic controller for these resources to make sure the business is doing the most with the least, and figure out who needs what. In this constant struggle, I learned (definitely the hard way) that Revenue = Resources.
When I was first on the BD team at Foursquare we would optimize many of the initiatives and strategic partnerships around brand recognition and exposure — there was no scalable revenue to speak of. This was in 2010 and certainly early in the life cycle of network growth and sales. Looking back of course we should have focussed on these things sooner, but the future was bright and the sky was the limit — so we focussed differently.
When I started beating the drum to drive scalable revenue and products to match, I was met with some opposition (to say the least!). This was warranted because the network was growing, consumers were…
