Today's Entrepreneur: Ben Lilienthal
No. 1 Mistake: They don't realize how hard it is easy to get customer adoption
Today's Entrepreneur is Ben Lilienthal, Co-founder and CEO of ScreenMeet. ScreenMeet is screen sharing for professionals – for the first time enabling apps, information and presentations to be shared instantly from your phone and computer to any device.
Lilienthal is a serial entrepreneur in communications, an avid surfer, mountain biker, hiker, traveler and food policy geek and he is also active in sfunitedtoreducediabetes.org. Lilienthal started and sold 2 companies to public co's including audio conferencing platform to Citrix Online that powers GoToMeeting.
ScreenMeet self-categorizes in these areas: Collaboration, Enterprise software, and Mobile.
Here's a little about Lilienthal:
Companies I've founded or co-founded: Nascent Technologies, Vapps, OneTok, ScreenMeet
Companies I work or worked for: Citrix Online
Company exits (of companies you founded):
| Vapps, Inc , Citrix Online |
| Nascent Technologies , CMGI |
If you are an entrepreneur, why? I like the challenge
My favorite startups: Nascent, Vapps, ScreenMeet
What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation? I like the challenge on bringing new products
What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make? They don't realize how hard it is easy to get customer adoption
What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
1) Show up everyday and work hard
2) Continue to innovate both on the technology and then go to market
3) Double down when things work
What do you do after enlightenment? Chop Wood/Carry Water
Full bio
Start-up product, sales and marketing aficionado. I have started 4 companies from scratch and sold 2 to public companies. 1 failed and ScreenMeet is #4.
I believe the opportunity we are pursuing with ScreenMeet is enormous. We are creating a brand-new category on mobile which is adjacent to the web conferencing business but has the opportunity to be much bigger. In addition to defining the category, we have the opportunity to own the category.
ScreenMeet is one of the top 8 finalist competing in the Splash Spring. The top eight of the competition will compete live on stage at Splash Spring on May 12 at Scottish Rite Center, Oakland. Register here.
*Want to be included in our Today's Entrepreneur series? Email me: mitos@vator.tv
Mitos Suson
I produce Vator Events and enjoy the challenge. I am learning and growing a lot, being involved with Vator and loving every moment of it!
All author postsRelated Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
ScreenMeet
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
ScreenMeet is creating a new category on mobile that the incumbent web conferencing vendors are not addressing. We have unbundled the killer feature of web conferencing, screen sharing, and offer it as a stand-alone app on mobile. We are first to market with mobile screen sharing. To be clear, we are NOT competing to build a better web conferencing solution for mobile, we are creating the category of screen sharing on mobile. We also enable screen sharing from computers to phone, tablets or computers instantly with no download.
This unbundling enables new opportunities and new use cases that were previously undiscovered. Today, after 3 months of commerical availability, our mobile first business consists of direct sales customers (150+) who previously did NOT have a way of sharing their app remotely with their prospects. Our desktop screen sharing business (50+ customers, 10 companies) is currently software companies that sell to SMB's and consumers.
Extrapolating from these trends, we believe there are huge markets that previously did not participate in web conferencing that will be customers of simple to use and simple to attend screen sharing. This includes real estate agents, independent insurance agents, financial planners and lawyers.
Ben Lilienthal
Joined Vator on
Serial tech entrepreneur. Sold 2 companies to public co's including audio conferencing platform to Citrix Online that powers GoToMeeting. Started company, sold to Citrix at $3mm run-rate and left when business was doing $20mm.