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The Reading Room

Field notes on go-to-market for deep tech — the market, the position, the practice.

Engraving: a salesman's convention badge being pinned to his lapel in a crowded 1925 banquet hall.

What Is President's Club in Sales? A 3-Time Winner Explains

Stephen Ambrose III

Engraving: an unprepared presenter gestures at a blank easel while a concertina of paper unspools across an editor's office floor.

For The Love of Bog, Please Practice Your Pitch!

Max Maxfield

Engraving: a shouting crowd presses at a barred city gate while the gatekeeper admits one quiet visitor through the wicket door.

Well, That Certainly Got My Attention!

Max Maxfield

Engraving: two exhibition stands side by side, one orderly and one in disarray, as a visitor turns toward the orderly stand.

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Max Maxfield

Engraving: four tradesmen steady a four-legged stool while three figures lie sprawled beside an identical stool with a leg broken off.

We’re All Metaphorically Perched on a Four-Legged Stool

Max Maxfield

Engraving: an open office door spills light into a marble corridor while a second identical door stands closed further down, the floor between them untouched.

Land and Expand Is a Lie You Told Yourself

Darin ten Bruggencate

Engraving: two target boards at a shooting range, one peppered with scattered shot and one punched clean through the bullseye.

The Shotgun Market Entry

Darin ten Bruggencate

Engraving: a machine runs perfectly under a glass bell case while an engineer holds a telephone whose cord hangs unattached, beneath a closed door at the top of the stairs.

The Free Pilot Trap

Darin ten Bruggencate

Engraving: a salesman's convention badge being pinned to his lapel in a crowded 1925 banquet hall.

What Is President's Club in Sales? A 3-Time Winner Explains

Every company sets its own bar, so two identical lines on a resume can mean very different things. What to ask when a candidate says they made Club.

Stephen Ambrose III

Engraving: an unprepared presenter gestures at a blank easel while a concertina of paper unspools across an editor's office floor.

For The Love of Bog, Please Practice Your Pitch!

The briefing mistakes that cost you coverage, from turning up with no slides to a 150-slide deck, and what preparation looks like when a company gets it right.

Max Maxfield

Engraving: a shouting crowd presses at a barred city gate while the gatekeeper admits one quiet visitor through the wicket door.

Well, That Certainly Got My Attention!

What a technology editor does with your press release, why most pitches get skipped in seconds, and what makes him stop and read the ones that work.

Max Maxfield

Engraving: two exhibition stands side by side, one orderly and one in disarray, as a visitor turns toward the orderly stand.

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Why your logo, brochures and slide templates decide what people think of your technology before they read a word of it, and what a small startup can do about it.

Max Maxfield

Engraving: four tradesmen steady a four-legged stool while three figures lie sprawled beside an identical stool with a leg broken off.

We’re All Metaphorically Perched on a Four-Legged Stool

Engineering, marketing, PR and sales each hold up one leg of the same stool. An engineer's account of learning that the hard way, and what happens when a leg gives.

Max Maxfield

Engraving: an open office door spills light into a marble corridor while a second identical door stands closed further down, the floor between them untouched.

Land and Expand Is a Lie You Told Yourself

The board funded the land-and-expand curve. In deep tech it breaks the same way every time — because expansion isn't a motion you built. It's a second first sale.

Darin ten Bruggencate

yes

Engraving: two target boards at a shooting range, one peppered with scattered shot and one punched clean through the bullseye.

The Shotgun Market Entry

You already know which segment to commit to. Staying present in five feels like prudence. It's the risk. Why focus — not breadth — wins deep-tech markets.

Darin ten Bruggencate

yes

Engraving: a machine runs perfectly under a glass bell case while an engineer holds a telephone whose cord hangs unattached, beneath a closed door at the top of the stairs.

The Free Pilot Trap

You gave enterprise value to someone with no enterprise authority. Free pilots are the most expensive way to lose a deal slowly — here's why they break every time.

Darin ten Bruggencate

yes

What Is President's Club in Sales? A 3-Time Winner Explains

Stephen Ambrose III

For The Love of Bog, Please Practice Your Pitch!

Max Maxfield

Well, That Certainly Got My Attention!

Max Maxfield

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Max Maxfield

We’re All Metaphorically Perched on a Four-Legged Stool

Max Maxfield

Land and Expand Is a Lie You Told Yourself

Darin ten Bruggencate

The Shotgun Market Entry

Darin ten Bruggencate

The Free Pilot Trap

Darin ten Bruggencate

Prior Art

Hopes and Fears for Art

How a thing is made is part of what it says.

William Morris

·

1882

Propaganda

The mechanism, stated before anyone thought to be embarrassed by it.

Edward Bernays

·

1928

Confessions of an Advertising Man

A trade manual by a man who kept the receipts.

David Ogilvy

·

1963

Obviously Awesome

Positioning as a sequence, with the category last.

April Dunford

·

2019

Alchemy

Why the defensible answer is so often the wrong one.

Rory Sutherland

·

2019

More on the Shelf

What Is President's Club in Sales? A 3-Time Winner Explains

Every company sets its own bar, so two identical lines on a resume can mean very different things. What to ask when a candidate says they made Club.

Stephen Ambrose III

For The Love of Bog, Please Practice Your Pitch!

The briefing mistakes that cost you coverage, from turning up with no slides to a 150-slide deck, and what preparation looks like when a company gets it right.

Max Maxfield

Well, That Certainly Got My Attention!

What a technology editor does with your press release, why most pitches get skipped in seconds, and what makes him stop and read the ones that work.

Max Maxfield

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Why your logo, brochures and slide templates decide what people think of your technology before they read a word of it, and what a small startup can do about it.

Max Maxfield

We’re All Metaphorically Perched on a Four-Legged Stool

Engineering, marketing, PR and sales each hold up one leg of the same stool. An engineer's account of learning that the hard way, and what happens when a leg gives.

Max Maxfield

Land and Expand Is a Lie You Told Yourself

The board funded the land-and-expand curve. In deep tech it breaks the same way every time — because expansion isn't a motion you built. It's a second first sale.

Darin ten Bruggencate

The Shotgun Market Entry

You already know which segment to commit to. Staying present in five feels like prudence. It's the risk. Why focus — not breadth — wins deep-tech markets.

Darin ten Bruggencate

The Free Pilot Trap

You gave enterprise value to someone with no enterprise authority. Free pilots are the most expensive way to lose a deal slowly — here's why they break every time.

Darin ten Bruggencate

Show more

Darin ten Bruggencate

Anyone can write about go-to-market.
I lived it at Altium, Cadence, Synopsys and Quilter.

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The three-volume set wrapped in kraft paper and twine, sealed in red wax with the raven mark — steel engraving
The Register

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General Correspondence

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