Meet Innovator of the Week
Rick Ouellette
Founder of Lead2Revenue & SalesGoose
Please provide your 30-second pitch about your company.
I am the Founder of both Lead2Revenue, LLC (est. 2009) and SalesGoose, LLC (est. 2012) – so, here’s 15 seconds on each…
Lead2Revenue, LLC (L2R) is a NH-based sales consulting and lead generation firm focused on helping companies’ jumpstart and accelerate new selling opportunities to grow revenue. We are creators and evangelists of go-to-market strategies. L2R enables customer sales reps to spend more time speaking to, and meeting with decision-level contacts within their strategic targeted accounts.
SalesGoose, LLC (SG) is a self-funded NH-based start-up business that is leading the next evolution of sales engagement. SalesGoose is a social-enabled, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that uses proprietary algorithms to pre-qualify the relevance between a buyer’s business need and a seller’s proposed business solution. SalesGoose is here to level the playing field for buyers and sellers while ensuring that no golden opportunity to make or save your company money is ignored.
Who or what was your best resource for starting your company?
Arguably, the best “resource” for starting L2R was necessity. I was laid off on my wife’s birthday, she was 7 months pregnant, it was 2009…called the worst economy since the Great Depression. Honestly, without the initial “let’s do it” from my wife, none of what we have accomplished thus far would have been possible because we would have otherwise been a house divided against itself. And for SalesGoose, it was in part the accumulation of my professional experience – and more specifically, it was the relationships (new and existing) that I developed with people that really made the difference – like Gary Gilbert, who has helped bring the application to life.
What was your biggest obstacle in starting your company and how did you overcome it?
Sleep deprivation! When starting first company, I had a 2 year old, a newborn, and I took on doing everything for the company before realizing the importance of delegating responsibilities to others, as well as asking for help from those around me. When starting my second, the biggest obstacle was making sure that I did not neglect my primary responsibilities of the first. Even today, delegating and prioritizing continues to help me keep a mostly healthy balance between my personal and professional lives.
What’s the best advice you have received?
The best advice I received dates back to my first real job after graduating college. I just returned from camping around the U.S. for the summer with my at-the-time girlfriend (and now wife, Danielle), when I applied to become a retained executive search consultant at a NH-based search firm. I got the job and quickly learned that customers don’t want to hear that you work really, really hard – they want results. I still remember what I was repeatedly told at that time by my boss and mentor (now friend) during that experience: “Get on your game. Do what it takes to get the job done. Failure is not an option.” Who can argue with that advice?!
What about the NH lifestyle appeals to you?
I am New Hampshire born and raised – and I love all that the state has to offer. The quality of family life is really amazing. I originally grew up in Manchester, but now live on the seacoast and could not be happier, nor feel more blessed. Enjoying NH’s beaches, lakes and mountains along with the convenience of what a city has to offer in Manchester with friends and family is just awesome. As an entrepreneur, the changing seasons is a perfect fit for my personality (with the exception of shoveling snow).
What does the future look like for your company?
I gotta go with an egg pun here – the future of both L2R and SG looks “eggcellent” from all angles. L2R has grown 350% since 2010, up 30% this year alone, and is truly our “one in the hand” business. However, now that the Goose is loose and having been a finalist for TechOut 2015 (NH’s largest startup competition), we are seeing great traction as users are migrating to the application. SalesGoose is clearly our “two in the bush” business with incredible potential to become THE revolutionary product of its class…after all, it’s about time.
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Connect with SalesGoose on Twitter!