Entrepreneurweek Be Driven

April has held executive marketing positions at a number of startups, helping them grow from early stages to an acquisition including Janna Systems (acquired by Siebel Systems), DataMirror (acquired by IBM), Watcom (acquired by Sybase) and others. She has also held senior marketing positions at Global 500 companies including IBM where she launched their Information Integration portfolio and Huawei Technologies where she helped launch their Enterprise portfolio of products.

April founded Rocket Launch Marketing to help expansion-stage startups bring more discipline to their marketing planning processes. April also works with startups as an advisor, board member, mentor and investor.

What challenge is your company addressing?

I'm working to improve efficiency and effectiveness of startup marketing by introducing a customer focused, metrics oriented, approach to marketing planning and execution.

Why are you an entrepreneur?

I've worked at large companies and I learned a lot there but there is nothing as interesting, challenging and exciting as creating something from nothing.

What is your best piece of advice to entrepreneurs?

You need to be constantly aware of and challenging your assumptions about your target customers, how they buy and how they view your market.