THE QUARTERLY STARTUP

YOUR STARTUP CDW

NOW YOUR STARTUP IS OFF THE GROUND.

1 cbinsights.com, “The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail,” October 2014

A successful startup must be constantly adapting, evolving and preparing for every possible scenario. CDW is in it together with you to give your startup the tools and partnerships it needs to succeed. Check out these articles and tips that can help turn your startup into a growing business.

When it comes to hiring people, there are two questions to keep in mind: “Do they want to work?” and “Do they fit the culture?” This article from Entrepreneur provides practical advice on who to hire, what to look for in an employee and why you should look twice at a candidate with “server” on his or her resumé. CDW.com/startuphiring

Three tips for hiring the right people for your startup

Any number of obstacles can derail a business, but the difference between success and failure is how well yours can adapt. Check out this article from Fast Company to see how a well-executed pivot brought this company out of the grave and into the green. CDW.com/pivot

What it’s really like to pivot a startup

What works for starting up may not work for scaling up. Restructured office roles, additional offerings, and a series of other changes must be made for a successful shift. Read the four reasons Galvanize CEO Jim Deters was able to transition so smoothly. CDW.com/smoothscaleup

Four ways to smoothly transition from the startup to the scale-up phase

It takes guts to leave a steady financial job to form a successful startup, something SkyBridge Capitol founder Anthony Scaramucci knows all about. From building a strong brand to embracing failure, Scaramucci shares the 10 principles CEOs should know before starting a business today. CDW.com/10principles

Ten guiding principles for growing a startup into a business that will last

STARTUP Q&A

Erez Saf Chief Executive Officer

See page two »

of over 100 startups studied said they failed because they did not assemble the right team.1 23%

DID YOU KNOW?

To learn more about how we can help you grow your startup, call 800.800.4239 or visit CDW.com/startups

The terms and conditions of product sales are limited to those contained on CDW’s website at CDW.com. Notice of objection to and rejection of any additional or different terms in any form delivered by customer is hereby given. CDW®, CDW•G® and PEOPLE WHO GET ITTM are trademarks of CDW LLC. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

MKT11002

CDW: How did the idea for CriskCo begin?Erez: Many years ago at my previous company, I had a customer

that began to delay payments. That income was crucial for me as a young entrepreneur, so I started to think, “How is this possible? How could they delay payments [without any]negative repercussions?” So I started studying the credit industry and found one system that worked very well: the FICO system in the U.S. People put in a lot of effort to increase their score. … So what we tried for CriskCo was taking the FICO technology and implementing it in the business world.

CDW: Were there any major challenges you had to overcome or adapt to?

Erez: During the first 8 to 10 months, we targeted small- and medium-sized enterprises. Eventually, we realized that we had to make a big jump to corporate banks. From an IT perspective, it was a big change. We were previously serving companies with 20 employees; now we were serving national banks. We also had 100 times the volume in a short period of time. … If we didn’t have our foundation in the right place, and if we didn’t have the scalability option for our servers, we wouldn’t have been able to support it. ... You have to have the right platform and infrastructure from the start or you’ll be at a breaking point, trying to survive.

CDW: Are there any tips you have for a startup to prepare for that?

Erez: You need a scalable cloud, something that can support you. When you write code, it must be in the most common language that everyone can connect with. The first CTO was working in Perl, not the most common language, and it was hard, so we had to change. Once we changed to C# it was much easier for new people to drill in and work on it quickly.

CDW: Tell us about the changes in your team. That can’t be easy, right?

Erez: It’s hard to replace the CTO. It’s a key function. The first CTO was my friend of 10 years. He was a software genius, an ace coder. But working in a team and working for a startup were hard for him. The one who replaced him, I knew for seven years in the Air Force. I believe it has to be someone you can trust and have known for a long time. It’s also important that everything is communicated very openly: who you are, what the risks are, what our ambitions are, etc. Transparency is crucial at this level.

CDW: How important is it to get the right people?Erez: Building a startup or a company is extremely hard, harder

than anyone could expect. It requires a lot of knowledge that usually you don’t have. But partnerships can solve a lot of that along the way and can help speed up the process. … You need to have advice from people who have done it and who have been there. This is why I recommend incubators; they usually have the right people to help you.

EREZ SAFCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CRISKCO

Erez Saf, CEO of CriskCo, has the business world asking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” CriskCo, a growing startup that applies the consumer credit score model to businesses, gives creditors an easy view into the financial state of their vendors, partners and customers. We sat down with Erez to discuss startup challenges, firing a longtime friend and hiring the right people in order to grow.

THE QUARTERLY STARTUP | STARTUP Q&A

RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: 60 STARTUP TOOLS FROM INC.COM

These 60 tools and resources from INC.com will give your startup what it needs to make a website, measure analytics, collaborate with investors and much more.