For 30 years Chris Beall has led software start-ups as a founder or early-stage developer. He believes the most powerful part of a software system is the human being, and that the value key is to let the computer do what it does well — go fast without getting bored — in order to free up human potential. Chris is currently CEO of ConnectAndSell, Inc., based in Silicon Valley, and hosts a podcast at MarketDominanceGuys.

Most passionate about

What I'm doing now, and I’ve been doing for quite a while, is running a company called
It helps companies dominate their markets by leading with the human voice.
I've been passionate for a long time about having computers and humans work together in a way that unleashes the strengths of each.

Chris’s career and story

I was raised out in the desert in Arizona, pretty far away from most people.
I was raised by animals—by horses and dogs and cats and goats and all manner of creatures like that. I think that's how I learned how to sell. My first sale ever, where I was successful, was getting a bridle on a horse when I was seven years old.
I was very interested in mathematics and the physical sciences.
Kerry Wilcox took me aside and said, “I want to let you know something that might change your mind about teaching.” Here I was with this dream of being a teacher. She said to me, “You are an entrepreneur by nature.”
“I invest in my former students' companies.” This was all a revelation to me, that she was an angel investor. She said, “You can teach if you want to, but I don't want you to go off into industry, get a job in some field where there's a lot of opportunity.”
I reluctantly followed her instructions when I got a job at an NCR computer company in 1979. Sure enough, I was dissatisfied. That led me down a path where, within four years, I was starting my first company.

Best advice for entrepreneurs

One thing I find that's the number one mistake that entrepreneurs make is that they build the product before they sell the product. I think you should do it the other way around.
I highly recommend that any entrepreneur who wants to be a product entrepreneur, especially in B2B, start by having conversations—sales conversations, not survey conversations. If you're not doing it under pressure, you're probably not really doing it. So, try to sell your product before you build it and be serious about it.

The biggest, most critical failure with customers

I can go back to 1984. The company was called Unison software. Unison was an ERP system before there were ERP systems. So, it was called an MRP II system. It was intended ...