The Sounding Line, January 2021

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January 2021

Greetings TSL readers,

First, a quick lesson for those of us who aren't seaworthy (like me — boats and I don't agree 🤢). A "sounding line" is a weighted line that measures the depth of the water under a boat. Unlike me, William Lee — who for the uninitiated is a founding partner of Pilot Growth — is a big time yachtsman. In fact, boats have becomea big part of Pilot's branding, and this newsletter — The Sounding Line (aka TSL) — is no exception. In this month's TSL, we feature a piece on why cold callers can become your company's best closers. SDRs are the underdog of the enterprise tech sales team, but Jonathan Sherry discusses how they can become your biggest asset. Then we have an exciting announcement regarding Bizzabo's latest funding round (during which Pilot exited our position). Finally we have a new monthly feature, The NavPod Challenge, where our readers will have the opportunity to win a NavPod plushy.

Lots to cover, so grab your Dramamine and let's dive in!

The NavPod Challenge

In each issue of The Sounding Line, we have a section called "NavPod Challenge." It's a fun and educational way for us to share the technologies that surround us in Pilot Growth. This month, the riddle is:

NavPod was created using a collection of famous software tools that has a recursive name. If you can correctly guess the name of the software we used to create NavPod, you will be entered to receive a NavPod Stuffy! (Hint: See image below to help understand what “recursive” means.)

To enter, simply respond to this email with your answer or click the button. One lucky winner will be chosen from all entries and will be announced in our next Sounding Line.

Answer the NavPod Riddle

Cold Callers become Your Best Closers

The idea of hiring Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) to cold call prospects and pitch them on your enterprise technology product is a horrifying one. I know because I've been there.

However, not only does it work in terms of driving leads, but these SDRs eventually grow up to become your organization's best closers.

Click here to read how SDRs become your best closers →

Portfolio Company Milestone- Bizzabo

Congratulations to the Bizzabo team for a tremendous 2020. After growing over 80% in 2019, Bizzabo followed up with over 100% growth in 2020 while expanding their offering into Virtual Events. Over the past three years, Pilot helped Bizzabo expand their business over 5x with a dominant foothold in the Enterprise market. We helped attract new institutional investors and advised the company on the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic helping avoid a blackswan event for the company through insights from our portfolio company Metabiota that noted the forthcoming impact of COVID-19. In November of 2020, Pilot sold our entire stake in Bizzabo to Insight Partners resulting in a great outcome for all parties. We wish Bizzabo — Eran, Alon, Boz, the team, the investors, and the customers great success in the future.

Upcoming Events

Save the Date

Thursday Jan 28th, 2021

1:00 pm EST

Mike Smith Discussing Post-Election Impact on Tech Companies

There is a lot to discuss now after the election, as it pertains to the future for tech companies which is why we're excited to host a webinar with Mike Smith, a Business Development Advisor in Government Affairs with Pilot Growth Equity.

Please join us on

Thursday Jan 28th, 2021

1:00 pm EST

The Sounding Line is a publication of Pilot Growth Equity offering facts, insights and opinions on growth equity in technology.

We aim to provide quality information that interests you and helps you understand a small part of our constantly changing and complicated world of growth equity in technology.

We hope you enjoy The Sounding Line.

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