![]() UCSD has been really strong from a software engineering perspective, and they’ve been our anchor for a long time. For mid- to junior-level positions, we’ve done great in San Diego. About 20 percent of our staff was recruited from outside San Diego. But for the early guys - especially for SaaS - it’s definitely been hard hiring those senior positions with software experience. This will get easier over time as software companies begin to succeed here, then their top employees will go on to the next startup. Is it difficult to hire talent in San Diego?įor software, it’s difficult to hire for senior positions. Start with friends and family or angels, and make sure your story is tight and you’ve got real traction with revenue or growth before you approach institutional money. Our business traction is what got us in the door with investors. What advice do you give other entrepreneurs who struggle raising money? That actually led to a partnership with Salesforce, integration with their software, and two investments from Salesforce Ventures. I wouldn’t even have meetings, I would just hang out in the lobby of the Salesforce office hoping to meet people in our world and network with them. We knew no one, so I used to just go up there multiple times a month. ![]() It was a prerequisite to be networked into the Bay Area. Software-as-a-service was relatively new, and there wasn’t a lot of successful SaaS companies for us to lean on for advice. We felt we had to go out of San Diego to raise money and get software advice. In that environment, what strategies did you use to grow the company? And that’s important for raising money, growing, hiring, and getting advice and counsel. Today the fibers are stronger in the startup community. It’s actually extraordinary what’s happened in the past seven years. There were pockets of companies all over San Diego, but nothing to bring them all together. There was no EvoNexus, no startup incubators, and there really wasn’t a community. I won’t lie to you, it was lonely early on. Here’s what he had to say about his experience growing a tech company in San Diego: What has been your experience leading a software company in San Diego, where - at least in the early days - you didn’t have many peers? The San Diego Union Tribune recently interviewed Classy’s co-founder and CEO Scot Chisholm. Image credit: Classy/The San Diego Union Tribune ![]() It has also recently celebrated $1 billion raised through its platform for nonprofit organizations. Today, Classy employs more than 200 people and serves more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations and social enterprises around the world. So it’s comes at no surprise that SaaS startup Classy, whose name was inspired by the film, has resonated within the San Diego community (and beyond). Ever since Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy coined the phrase “You stay classy, San Diego” back in 2004, it has become San Diego staple.
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