Ryan Holmes
Ryan Holmes
Ryan Holmesis a Canadian computer programmer and internet entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and CEO of Hootsuite, a social media management tool for businesses. Holmes began developing Hootsuite in 2008 through his agency Invoke Media...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth30 December 1974
CountryCanada
company field following grade hearing playing realized spoke town venture
My first real venture was a paintball company I started in Grade 10, when I was 16. After hearing about it from a friend, I realized my town didn't have a playing field. I did some research, spoke with other paintball company owners, and I started my own field the following summer.
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Sales departments use social to nurture leads and close sales. HR posts job openings and vets applicants. Community and support squads mine networks, blogs and forums with deep listening tools.
companies embraced social teams
Customer service teams at many companies have already embraced social media, often out of necessity.
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Entrepreneurs, by disposition, are built to think big. When a role no longer affords those opportunities, it might be best to leave it in capable hands and move on.
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Early in my career, I was involved with engineer-led projects, where designers came in late in the game and were expected to put lipstick on an existing code base. This almost never works.
build companies developing exit few finite homegrown locally recruiting remains skills successful tech
Tech companies have a finite lifespan: For the successful ones, an IPO or exit is never more than a few years off. But by recruiting locally and developing homegrown talent, companies can build something that remains after they're gone. People, skills and a culture of innovation persist.
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Although the tech industry is very open to change, many people still have a closed-off mentality where, in the interest of protecting their ideas, they keep them hidden in dark caves.
although form primary relatively retailers
Although social media is a relatively new form of communication, it has become the primary way retailers and customers are interfacing.
ask bringing ceo critical maintain reins reinvent
A critical question to ask when bringing in a new CEO to take the reins of a company you started is: Do you want someone who will maintain company culture or reinvent it?
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South America's most populous country, Brazil, is also emerging as one of the region's most social-media savvy.
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As a child, I did what any normal kid who grew up without any electricity would do - I spent countless hours working on a computer wired to my parents' car battery... and learned how to code. This natural passion for computers lead me into the Internet market during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
death life pressures rarely
As an entrepreneur, the pressures of a startup can be enormous, but it's rarely life or death.
anyone blunt encourage offering partly
Anyone working at HootSuite will tell you that I don't sugarcoat my opinions. I heavily encourage feedback and suggestions - partly because I'm blunt about offering the same in return.
build business change exit globally goal ground literally primary success
An exit is only a success if you set an exit as your primary goal. My primary goal was to build a globally influential tool, to build something from the ground up that could literally change how we communicated in business and individually.