Dave Duffield: Man in a hurry

Workday is starting to sign up large companies - Flextronics and Chiquita - for its SaaS HR.

Over 18 months ago, when his Workday product was barely ready Dave Duffield asked me to introduce him to some of my bigger clients - to balance the many smaller ones his SaaS product would instinctively be attractive to. He was already thinking 3 years out. Dave has been a good friend over the years. So I did. And for various reasons - mostly because they were not in the HR replacement cycle - they gave Dave an audience but were not ready.

Dave let me know what a poor salesperson I was :)

If you have met Dave, you know he is genial, very untypical of a tech zillionaire.  Someone who strives hard to live up to his initials - DAD. Still gets nervous before a speech. But underneath it all, there is a competitive streak.

Someday soon, I am sure I will find myself negotiating for a client against him. I am bracing myself for another load of what a poor salesman I am for losing him some leverage in the negotiation:)