INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
David Friend is the CEO of cloud storage company Wasabi, and co-founder of cyber security company Carbonite, recently bought for $1.4
Wasabi is his sixth startup
would rather spend an extra dollar on product development than brand-building
It is dangerous (or at least foolish) to assume that the ROI on product development is greater than the ROI on brand building.As a serial
entrepreneur and CEO, I have had to make this choice many times
In 2006, I co-founded PC backup company Carbonite
I left the company five years ago after taking it public and I no longer have any financial interest in it, which is why I can write about
I would argue that Carbonite was slicker than most of the others, but essentially every backup product accomplishes the same result.Unlike
That meant raising more money than we would have if we were just investing in R-D
But, after five years of investing in our brand, we had eleven times the brand recognition of any other consumer backup company and we
Since none of our competitors had widely recognized brands, we got most of that 59%
Of the remaining 41%, we fought it out on other criteria and won most of that as well
Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer looking to back up their PC
What do you worry about? Well, before we even launched the company, we asked PC owners to choose the five most important attributes of their
ideal backup company from a list of ten possible attributes, and we found the following:1
Peace of mind: when I go to retrieve my backup, it will always be there (811 votes)3
Helpful: if I lose my computer, I want to talk to a human who can help me (446 votes)5
Fast: backups happen quickly
