Lars Dalgaard! 

Amidst the screaming groupies and the hushed wispers of "OMG! It's really him!" Lars Dalgaard took the stage with the confidence befitting of the nickname given to him by so many: "The Reigning Rockstar of SaaS".

Haven't heard of Lars referred to by that nickname, yet?  Maybe, that's because I just made it up.  But, I think it fits...  Lars is passionate about SaaS but not in an overly techie kind of way. What I mean by that is he's great at talking about SaaS in terms of real world benefits and not necessarily in terms of software architecture and database relationships.  You could say that he brings SaaS out of the clouds and down to earth.  That and he swears on camera... 

So what did he talk about at SIIA's OnDemand '09?  Here are some highlights:

• SuccessFactors' goal helps companies execute on their strategy
• 70% of companies don't execute on their strategy (Harvard University)
• SuccessFactors was built on online demos
• SaaS is uniquely positioned to encourage and realize innovation
• Innovation has allowed them to keep acquisition out of the picture
• To SaaS startups: don't think IPO - think about building a rock-solid company and things will happen
• SuccessFactors funded themselves largely through debt financing, but only after recurring revenue was solidly on the horizon
• Recessions are a great time to build a company
• Significant customer win: All of Siemens' 420k employees now on SuccessFactors (previously SAP - ouch!)
• SuccessFactors utilizes 150 servers to support 5.4 million users!

Lars Dalgaard ended his speech by telling us the two reasons why he started SuccessFactors: 1. "I was really tired of a--holes" and 2. Well, he never got to number two...  He obviously feels very strongly about #1...

Lars Dalgaard Keynote SIIA OnDemand 2009 from Derrick Lee on Vimeo.

http://www.successfactors.com/

http://www.siia.net/ondemand/2009/