Cerado people


Cerado background
Cerado, Inc. was formed in late 2001 with the straightforward goal of enabling sales and marketing teams to be more successful. The company was formally launched in July 2002, and had its first revenue-generating customer the following month, in August 2002. Cerado is privately owned and operated by its principals. Cerado is based in Half Moon Bay, California. Since 2002, the company has continued to grow, and has achieved an expanding customer base through providing solid, exceptional service and by consistently meeting its commitments. We have never had a project go over budget. In the small number of cases where a project has had a schedule change (typically as a result of working with an end-customer to free up calendar time in order to participate in a win/loss interview), we have been clear and proactive about communicating those schedule changes.

Our customer and revenue growth was steady and consistent throughout the past four years, with new customers coming onboard each quarter, even despite the market doldrums. More importantly, existing customers continued renewing contracts and expanding and deepening their relationships with Cerado as new services have become available over that same period. Cerado’s mission is “to leverage advanced technology to provide simple, non-intrusive services to marketing and sales professionals that enable them to communicate value more effectively, compete more effectively, and close business more effectively.” Our mission is just part of who we are; it is “what we do.” In addition to describing what we do, describing how we do business is also an important consideration in introducing Cerado.

Our way of doing business is very different than most companies. We believe that business is fundamentally changing, and that developing real connections – call it “working in partnership,” or “building a relationship,” or what have you – is imperative to business success for all parties. As such, we pledge to approach your project thoughtfully, strategically, and intelligently; to execute flawlessly; to speak plainly and communicate clearly; and to work collaboratively with you to set expectations and define metrics. In short, we want to do things right.

Perhaps most importantly, we feel the emerging areas of social technologies -- blogs, wikis, social networks, and the like -- are going to fundamentally change the way that customers and companies interact, as well as fundamentally change the way employees interact with each other within those organizations.

Cerado is the creator of Haystack.

What is Haystack?
Here's the 30-second overview: An organization puts profiles of its sales, marketing and support people into a private-labeled "Haystack" that is integrated with the organization's website. When prospective customers come to the website, the customers can search the Haystack for the person he or she wants to connect with, based on the traits contained in the profiles. Once the customer has selected a rep, the customer can connect directly with the rep via Skype, IM, email or phone.

Looking forward to meeting everyone at Greenhouse!