Founded in 2003, LogMeIn is a leading provider of SaaS and cloud-based remote connectivity services and platforms for meetings, management, and engagement. 

The company went public in 2009, right in the midst of an economic downturn and has remained as an anchor company in the Boston tech scene.

It may come as no surprise that several of their alumni have gone on to start other companies or are part of the leadership team at other Boston tech companies. Below is a slideshow which highlights 20+ of these alumni of LogMeIn.

For this slideshow, we used the following criteria:

• Must be based in the Boston area
• Tenure at LogMeIn for at least two years
• Currently a founder, board member, or executive (VP or higher)

Take a look at the slideshow below!

Several years ago, I began writing. I had never written outside of school or work, but at the prompting of a writer friend over the course of dinner, I decided to keep an online journal - fully exposing myself in the process - as a way of shaking up my life. So as not to chicken out, I started writing and posting that very night. As with any habit, the first few days were tough to get motivated and actually drive myself to get it done. My writing lacked sophistication and skill, leaving me feeling seriously vulnerable and lame. And yet I kept reminding myself I shouldn’t be concerned about that piece. I didn’t take on that challenge for other people, I did it for me. I embraced that learning and growing can be messy. I chose to work through that mess publicly because I knew myself well enough that even if no one ever read what I was writing, the very act of putting it out there held me accountable to get it done every day.

As you can imagine, dreaming up 365 things to write primarily about one’s self can be rather daunting (and let’s be honest, boring). I had developed the habit of writing and posting every single night before I went to sleep. Some days I would brainstorm a topic during the course of the day, and sit down at my keyboard ready to go.  Other nights, I just started at a blank page and flashing cursor, with no clue how to start. And then I came up with the idea of asking friends to “Give me one word.”

The rules were super simple. I’d reach out to a friend and I’d ask them to provide me with one word - any word - and share with me. I also asked them not to share any context about why they selected that word. Ultimately, I’d take the word provided and riff on it, creating my own story about however I related to that word.  It was an incredible thing; that one word proved to be a fantastic creative outlet for me but more importantly was the opportunity it gave me to connect with the person who shared it. After I posted, I always went back to them to share how I had interpreted it, and then asked what they had been thinking about when they shared it. BOOM! Deeper connection, all based on one word.

This weekend, the notion of the power of one word came up twice.  I was cruising Netflix and stumbled onto Ellen Degeneres’s new stand up special, Relatable. When she told a friend she was thinking of doing stand-up again after fifteen years, she was hoping for a reaction of “REALLY?!!!!!!”  Instead, she received a “REALLY???”  Rather than being met with enthusiasm and support, her friend countered her about her potential change in relatability since her early stand-up days, given the enormous success she’s had. That one word, “relatable” provided fodder not just for a really funny comedic special, but also for her own inward exploration of how her relatability might have morphed over the years of building success. That one word had a tremendous impact.

The second time it came up was during my preparation for the kickoff meetings we are in hosting over the next several weeks at work. Long ago, Rapid7 elected to use a moose as a symbol of teamwork, and it’s become a significant rallying point in our company. I had been telling the story of why a moose along with branding many of our internal programs with this word for years. It wasn’t until I recently sat down with one of the former employees who actually came up with the use of this word in our company vernacular that I realized the impact that one word had actually had.

In its condensed version, the story behind “Why a moose?!” came from two sales leaders back when the company was very small, and trying to gain a grounding in the emerging cybersecurity field. These two guys had very different skills and approaches and, ultimately, we're getting in each other’s way to the point of neither being overly successful. One day, one of the guys said to the other, “The singular of the word moose, is moose.  The plural of the word moose is also moose. You are a moose. I am a moose. Together, we are one moose.” Understandably, the other sales leader looked at him like he was insane. However, they went on to reason that when you are operating singularly, you won’t accomplish nearly as much as you will be partnering together. From that day on, the notion of moose within our company represented teamwork and the importance of collaboration. Since that time, it’s become our mascot, and more importantly, it’s set the tone for the basis of our entire culture. One word had a tremendous impact on the direction of how we scaled our company.

Just one word can have the power and ability to help and to heal, or to harm and to hurt. They can inspire someone to achieve their best, or they can have negative ramifications that last a lifetime. It can influence a brilliant comedy routine, or it can create a cultural foundation for a company.  Depending on the word, and the tone with which it is shared, it can demotivate, or worse, completely alienate someone.

Challenge for the new year: Consider the words you use most often, and the impact they are having. Select the most positive word, and elect it as your mantra. Next, consider the most negative word in your vocabulary. Whether it’s creating self-criticism or contributing to a toxic team environment, identify it and erase it. As illustrated above, even just a singular word can have a dramatic impact. Whether you are writing it, speaking it, or just plain wearing it on a t-shirt, consider your words carefully; they may just change the course of history.

FWIW: While I am likely to choose a number of them over the course of this year, my current word of focus is “evolve.” The word I am erasing from my vocabulary this year is “tired.”

Christina Luconi is Chief People Officer for Rapid7. Follow her on Twitter: @peopleinnovator

For the 64th episode of our podcast, I interviewed Chris Jones, the CTO of iRobot.

It’s likely that you are familiar with iRobot and the Roomba, which is the product they are best known for. I actually recently made my first Roomba purchase, that being the i7, and I have to admit I had pretty high expectations for this product. Let’s just say all my expectations have been totally exceeded. From the ease of setup and use, to the functionality of setting up floor maps of my home and cleaning schedules, how it recharges itself, and of course, and the fact that it does an amazing job cleaning our floors incredibly well. The experience has been truly mindblowing… I’m serious, it's awesome.

Needless to say, I was super excited to interview Chris for our podcast and talk about his career which spans over 20 years in terms of working with robotics and the opportunity to learn more about iRobot, their engineering organization, and how they build these amazing consumer robots.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like:

• The details of Chris’ background growing up in Texas, and how he got interested in robotics.
• The story of how he moved from academia to industry, and how he joined iRobot.
• Everything Chris worked on at iRobot, from military robots to the consumer robots we know today.
• The details behind iRobot’s 500-person engineering team, plus some great tips around what to expect during the interview process.
• The company’s mission to support STEM education.
• The future of robotics in the household.
• Plus, a lot more.

Ok - quick side note. Today’s episode is sponsored by Pluralsight.

It is amazing what machine learning can do. With mounds of data being harvested every day, there’s so much we can learn and create.

Pluralsight, the technology learning platform, is using this data for the good of tech professionals everywhere. Their AI helps you see what level your tech skills are at and recommends opportunities to keep learning.

And they’re looking for help to make their algorithms even smarter. If changing the way the world learns technology through the intersection of Design, Product, Data Science and Engineering is right up your alley, apply to work at Pluralsight.

Want to work here? Visit this link to learn more.

You can listen to the podcast in the player below. To make sure you receive future episodes, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or Soundcloud. If you enjoyed our show, please consider writing us a 5-star review—it will definitely help us get the word out there!

I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. Data suggests that typically only 20 percent of us are actually successful with them...and remarkably that 80% falloff rate occurs by the second week of February. So with a fresh year in front of us all, how do you start anew with something you feel like you can truly achieve?

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A RESOLUTION AND A GOAL

Technically speaking, a resolution is just a decision to do or not to do something. Kind of vague, right?  A goal, on the other hand, is the object of a one’s ambition or effort. Rather than a decision, it’s focused on a result. Perhaps these are just semantics, but it’s an important distinction.

THE ROLE OF GOALS AT WORK

Goals play an important function at work; they keep an individual and/or team aligned and working together to achieve a common goal. They tend to be more quantitative in nature, whereby you can measure your progress and break them down into manageable steps.  Aside from just accomplishment of whatever it is that you set out to do, the mere act of actually setting a concrete goal has been found to boost performance by motivating people and focusing their prioritization and effort.  

THE ROLE OF RESOLUTIONS AT WORK

Resolutions tend toward the personal side, like “I’m going to get healthy this year” or “I’m going to save more money.” Often, they can be a little more intangible and less structured than an actual goal. It might sound odd to consider the role the more qualitative resolution can play at work, but it has its place in addition to goal setting.  

A few examples:

Goal: Hire 50 people by the end of the quarter.

Resolution: Ensure the quality of each of our hires balances skill, attitude, aptitude and culture fit.

Goal: Promote 40% of our employees from within the company.

Resolution: Focus on making sure every employee understands what it takes to be considered for continued career growth and development.

Great, so how do you make them both stick?

CREATE HABITS

I write every week, with an entry of approximately one thousand words per post.  The average book is around 50,000 words. Given that, I wrote the equivalent of one book last year.  I don’t really think about it that way though. I view writing a book as an enormous undertaking is both overwhelming and a little daunting. However, rather than focus on the daunting goal of “I will write a book in 2019,” which is incredibly results oriented and something I’m not even sure I want to try and tackle, I think about the behaviors that would support that action. In my world, I carve out time to write at the beginning of every week, and I post every Thursday. It’s simple, it’s measurable, and it has become a habit. Should I chose to dial that up and write every day, I know the behavioral formula I need to follow to accomplish more.

If your team’s goal is to hire 50 people by end of the quarter, you can structure weekly and monthly milestones to track against. You can parse out the work to team members to ensure everyone has an achievable workload to do their part in reaching the milestone. Ultimately, you break that huge goal into measurable, bite-size pieces and accomplish those bits until you achieve the overall goal. However, if your resolution is to focus on quality hiring through a combination of great skills, a great attitude, strong aptitude to learn and grow and ensuring that each person isn’t just a fit, but adds to your culture, you need to build behavior and habits that will support this focus. The more these behaviors become part of your daily hiring routine, the more likely it will just become part of your ethos. Essentially, goals focus on short-term results. Building the behavioral habits to aid in achieving a new process (your resolutions) focuses on long-term change. And while the goals might be amazing achievements, the process changes are the ones that will have payoffs to you and your team for the long haul.

Setting big goals can be intimidating and overwhelming, and yet they are an important factor for achievement at work.  Balancing them with resolutions, however, can lessen the stress. Creating new approaches to edit your behavior can greatly complement what you are trying to achieve. It’s just about living in the moment and making incremental progress. By creating behaviors that lead to habits that support your goals, you are far more likely to achieve them.  And you might just find yourself more motivated in the process.

Christina Luconi is Chief People Officer for Rapid7. Follow her on Twitter: @peopleinnovator

'Tis the season... and there was no shortage of holiday festivities across the Boston tech scene over the month of December.

You'll see some festive holiday parties, fun in-office celebrations, and lots of giving back. 

It's also a good time to own an ugly sweater company, as there is no shortage of creative options there.

Enjoy the slideshow below!

2018 was another triumphant year for Boston tech! With the year coming to close, it's time to reflect at some of the big moments within the Boston tech scene.

Here's a look at some of the top stories on VentureFizz from 2018 in no particular order.

18 of the Most Impressive Engineering Teams in Boston Tech

Engineering Spotlight is a recurring series on VentureFizz. It's a deep dive into a Boston tech company's engineering team and what it's like working there. The pool of engineering talent in the Boston tech scene is impressive! Here is a sampling of the incredible engineering teams working for some of Boston's hottest companies.

How to Stay Productive in 2018 - Tips From Boston's Tech Leaders

The workplace is full of distractions, but there are many ways to stay focused and productive. We asked some of Boston tech's leaders on their tips and tricks on how to stay productive.

How Carbon Black Empowers Its Women

Part of Carbon Black's company culture are events that highlight diversity and inclusion. Ashley Perez writes and details the various functions and panels her company empowers women through them.

The Incredible List of Successful Babson College Alumni (Part 1: Undergraduates)

Check out our slideshow showcasing just a few of the notable undergraduates who have come from Babson College. Going through the pictures, there's bound to be at least one person that will make you go, "I didn't realize they went to Babson?"

The Incredible List of Successful Babson College Alumni (Part 2: MBA Recipients)

Check out our slideshow showcasing just a few of the notable MBA graduates who have come from Babson College. Going through the pictures, there's bound to be at least one person that will make you go, "I didn't realize they went to Babson?" Since the last one featured undergraduates, this slideshow will feature those who graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Babson.

The Story of Greg Mark, and How Markforged Disrupted the 3D Printing Industry

Markforged offers a platform for 3D printing, as well as a range of 3D printers for industrial uses. While many companies work solely in plastic, Markforged printers can print carbon fiber, stainless steel, fiberglass, and titanium, as well as plastics and other materials. Founder and CEO Greg Mark told us the story of how Markforged went from being an idea to a major disruptive force in this highly competitive industry.

The Colossal Spider Web of Constant Contact Alumni

Constant Contact is one of the Boston tech scene's pillar companies. Various alumni from the company have gone on to start their own companies and hold executive leadership roles in the tech sector. Here's a slideshow of notable alumni.

Boston Emerges as a Hub for Disruptive Food and Beverage Brands and Tech Companies

Over the past few years, Boston has emerged as a player in the food and beverage industry with a variety of innovative startups coming out of the space. Allen Bonde of Repsly writes about some of the companies to come out of this space and what they have been up to.

Blockchain & Cryptocurrency in Boston Tech - Part 1: “Something I Learned Today” - Breaking Down and Defining the Basics

VentureFizz gave our readers an inside look to the blockchain and cryptocurrency scene in Boston; What all the terms mean, who is involved with the technology, what are the investor's points of view, and what the future holds for Boston in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. For the first part of this series, it’s a crash course on what the terms in this new frontier mean.

Summer Reading - Boston Tech Shares What They Are Reading (Part 1: Business/Entrepreneur Books)

Inspired by Bill Gates' list of 5 books worth reading this summer, we asked founders, CEOs, and operating executives across the Boston tech scene for book recommendations. The goal is to give you some great books to check out during those summer vacations or whenever you have a chance to read.

20 Successful Alumni of Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college based in Brunswick, Maine. It is one of the many outstanding academic institutions in New England. As a school specializing in liberal arts, it may come as a surprise how many of its alumni have gone on to incredibly successful careers in business, whether it is as an executive or an entrepreneur. We compiled a list with some of these individuals that are "mostly" in the tech industry. 

The Colossal Spider Web of iRobot Alumni

iRobot is one of the Boston tech scene's pillar companies. Various alumni from the company have gone on to start their own companies and hold executive leadership roles in the tech sector. Here's a slideshow of notable alumni.

Halloween Across The Boston Tech Community - 2018 Edition

When it comes to Halloween, the Boston tech community doesn't mess around. This is our fourth year publishing this slideshow and each year the costumes keep getting better and better. This year, you'll see a lot of Disney-related costumes, famous musicians, The Wizard of Oz... but you'll see some incredibly elaborate costumes like a Transformer, some hysterical groups having fun with their theme, and even the ubiquitous Deadpool hanging around!

Drift's HYPERGROWTH is Back and It's Bigger & Better Than Last Year

Drift's HYPERGROWTH conference returned for 2018 and Keith Cline connected with Dave Gerhardt, Drift's VP of Marketing, to get a preview of the 2018 conference.

The Colossal Spider Web of PTC Alumni

PTC is one of the Boston tech scene's pillar companies. Various alumni from the company have gone on to start their own companies and hold executive leadership roles in the tech sector. Here's a slideshow of notable alumni.

Alice’s Table, A Platform That Empowers Women, is Entering the Shark Tank

Alice's Table fulfills two specific markets: women looking for a “side hustle” and women looking to start a small business. We spoke with Alice Lewis, the Founder and CEO, about how their platform empowers women and she previews her appearance on ABC's Shark Tank.

ZappRx: A Digital Health Platform Grows to New Heights

ZappRx is a platform for specialty drugs that simplifies the intensive process of getting treatment. Founder and CEO Zoë Barry tells us all about the company's recent happenings and offers some lessons she's learned as a first-time founder.

Announcing the Nominees for the 6th Annual NEVY Awards

The NEVCA announced their nominees for the 2018 edition of their awards show, the NEVYs, which includes a number of companies and investors across the complete New England both the life sciences and tech ecosystems.

The Colossal Spider Web of Akamai Alumni

Akamai is one of the Boston tech scene's pillar companies. Various alumni from the company have gone on to start their own companies and hold executive leadership roles in the tech sector. Here's a slideshow of notable alumni.

34 of the Top Leaders in the Boston Tech Scene - 2018 Lead(H)er Recap

As part of our Lead(H)er feature, we’ve had the great privilege of talking to women who are shaking things up not only as founders, but as product managers, C-suite execs, marketing experts, and more in Boston’s vibrant startup scene. Take a look at our list of the talented women we’ve spotlighted this year.

Colin Barry is an Editor & Staff Writer to VentureFizz. Follow him on Twitter @ColinKrash

Here’s your look at the largest deals relating to IPOs, acquisitions, and venture capital investments across the Boston tech scene in 2018!

IPOs

 

Carbon Black goes public

Carbon Black is one of the leading providers of enterprise-wide endpoint security. Carbon Black intends to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “CBLK.”
 

Carbon Black is now hiring!

 

EverQuote goes public

EverQuote is an online marketplace for auto insurance. EverQuote plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "EVER."
 

EverQuote is now hiring!

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Acquisitions

 

PillPack acquired by Amazon

PillPack delivers medications in pre-sorted dose packaging, coordinates refills, and renewals, and makes sure shipments are sent on time. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.
Location: Somerville

PillPack is now hiring!

 

LogMeIn Acquires Jive Communications for $342 Million

LogMeIn purchased a leader in the Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) space.
Location: Boston

LogMeIn is now hiring!

 

S&P Global acquires Kensho

Kensho’s AI, machine learning, data visualization, and analytics technology will be part of S&P’s emerging technology department.
Location: Boston

Kensho is now hiring!

 

Grubhub acquires LevelUp

Grubhub Inc. will acquire mobile payments company LevelUp for $390 million.
Location: Boston

LevelUp is now hiring!

 

Siemens acquires Mendix

Siemens AG will acquire Mendix for $730M in cash, plus a significant multi-year investment to accelerate R&D innovation and global footprint of their platform.
Location: Boston

Mendix is now hiring!

 

VMWare acquired CloudHealth Technologies

VMware has agreed to acquire CloudHealth Technologies for approximately $500 million. CloudHealth will continue to operate as a brand underneath VMWare.
Location: Boston

CloudHealth Technologies is now hiring!

 

Broadcom sells Veracode to Thoma Bravo for $950M

Broadcom is selling CA Technologies' Veracode application security testing platform to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $950 million in cash.

 

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Funding (Over $100M)

 

Cambridge Mobile Telematics receives $500M

This investment will accelerate the adoption of CMT’s successful DriveWell platform used by insurers, fleets, wireless carriers, and other entities to measure driving risk and improve driver safety. It will also fuel CMT’s growth in automated crash and claims management, video analytics, and safety for emerging vehicle and mobility systems.
Investors: SoftBank Vision Fund
Location: Cambridge

Cambridge Mobile Telematics is now hiring!

 

Devoted Health raises $300M in a Series B round

Devoted Health plans on enrolling to its Medicare Advantage plan members in eight Florida counties. The company, which helps Medicare beneficiaries access care through its network of physicians and tech-enabled healthcare platform. 
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Premji Invest, and Uprising

Devoted Health is now hiring!

 

American Well raises $290M in a corporate round of financing

American Well is using the funds to scale their virtual doctor plans business.
Investors: Philips and Allianz X
Location: Boston

American Well is now hiring!

 

Indigo closes Series E with $250M

 Indigo Ag, Inc., a company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet, announces the launch of Indigo Marketplace™, along with the close of a $250M Series E funding round. Indigo Marketplace allows the company to further its vision for decommoditizing agriculture to better support grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health.
Investors: Baillie Gifford, Investment Corporation of Dubai, the Alaska Permanent Fund, and Flagship Pioneering.
Location: Charlestown

Indigo is now hiring!

 

Fuze receives financing round totaling $150M

The company plans on using the funding to accelerate expansion and product growth.
Investors/Groups: Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners
Location: Boston

Fuze is now hiring!

 

Toast closes Series D round at $115M

Toast plans to accelerate investment in research and development, recruit new talent, and expand its market presence.
Investors: T. Rowe Price Associates and Tiger Global Management
Location: Boston

Toast is now hiring!

 

ezCater receives $100M in a Series D round

ezCater enables businesspeople to connect with local caterers and restaurants online. The company plans on using the funds to expand their business internationally.
Investors: Wellington Management
Location: Boston

ezCater is now hiring!

 

Actifio closes another round of funding

Actifio, a data management startup, has added another $100 million round of funding that brings its valuation to more than $1.3 billion.
Investors: Crestline Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners, 83North, Advanced Technology Ventures, Heritage Group, and Andreessen Horowitz .
Location: Waltham

Actifio is now hiring!

 

Hopper raises $100M in an additional round

Hopper plans to use to build out its AI algorithms and expand deeper into international markets.
Investors: N/A

Hopper is now hiring!

 

Flywire raises $100M in a Series D round

Flywire is a fintech company that helps universities, hospitals and businesses accept foreign-currency payments
Investors: Temasek, Bain Capital Ventures, and F-Prime Capital
Location: Boston

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Funding (Over $60M to $99M)

 

TraceLink raises an additional $93M in a Series D

TraceLink is a SaaS platform for tracking pharmaceuticals and trying to weed out counterfeit prescription drugs in the process
Investors: Georgian Partners, Vulcan Capital, and Willett Advisors
Location: North Reading

 

Aras announces $70 Million investment in a Series D round

 

Aras is the leader in open product lifecycle management (PLM) software for the enterprise companies.
Investors: Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing and Silver Lake Kraftwerk

 

Wasabi closes Series B with $68M

Wasabi is a cloud storage company delivering low-cost, fast, and reliable cloud storage founded by Carbonite founding team David Friend and Jeff Flowers.
Investors: Forestay Capital
Location: Boston

 

 

Desktop Metal closes an additional $65M round

Desktop Metal’s newest round of funding brings their total to $277M.
Investors/Firms: Ford
Location: Burlington

Desktop Metal is now hiring!

 

Drift raises $60M in a Series C round

Drift plans on using the funds to expand their business in both Boston and San Francisco.
Investors: Sequoia Capital
Location: Boston

Drift is now hiring!

 

ClearCompany raises $60M in growth equity

ClearCompany said the funds will be deployed to support the company’s strong growth and recently expanded partnership with ADP.
Investors: Primus Capital
Location: Boston

ClearCompany is now hiring!

 

BitSight Technologies raises $60M in a Series D round

BitSight Technologies, the developers of cybersecurity rating software for enterprise companies, has expansion plans in mind with this new round.
Investors: Warburg Pincus, Menlo Ventures, GGV Capital, and Singtel Innov8
Location: Cambridge

BitSight is now hiring!

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Colin Barry is an Editor & Staff Writer to VentureFizz. Follow him on Twitter @ColinKrash

For the 62nd episode of our podcast, I interviewed Aaron Feuer, Co-Founder and CEO of Panorama Education.

Education has always been a passion for Aaron and what ended up being the inspiration behind Panorama actually began when he was in high school. As a student organizer, he got a bill passed in the state of California, which was an attempt at giving students a voice through feedback surveys. Although the bill was passed, it didn’t accomplish what he expected at all, and that frustration ultimately upped the ante for his mission to change the future of what education should be.

Aaron and his co-founders started Panorama Education when they were students at Yale, juggling coursework while embarking on this entrepreneurial journey. Today, Panorama is a venture-backed company ($32M raised) that helps schools collect & analyze data about social-emotional learning, school climate, engagement, and more through its Panorama Platform. The company currently serves 9 million students across 900 school districts.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

• The Panorama journey, from the foundation years of building a company while in college to the current state of their business and products.
• His experience at Y Combinator, and why that time was so valuable.
• Advice on raising capital for first-time founders and how they raised initial seed funding from so many prominent investors like Mark Zuckerberg’s Startup:Education Fund (now known as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative), Ashton Kutcher, Eric Ries, Spark Capital, Owl Ventures, Uncork Capital, and Emerson Collective, which is the firm that was launched by Laurene Powell Jobs and led its most recent round of funding.
• Why focus and solving your customers’ pain points are so important for building out successful products.
• A deep discussion around how he learned to be a leader.
• Plus, a lot more.

Panorama Education is rapidly expanding the team! They are growing quickly and hiring for a number of key roles across the company including marketing, sales, product and client success leadership. Check out their BIZZpage on VentureFizz for a full list of opportunities: venturefizz.com/panorama.

I speak at events frequently, and always find myself spending more time observing and learning from the other speakers around me to strengthen my own style. Fear of public speaking has long been acknowledged as one of the biggest fears in the world, but there are ways to overcome it. Whether you desire to speak on a big stage or just want to get a little more comfortable speaking up in a meeting, read on for a few hints to help bolster your confidence and have you speaking like a boss in no time.

TELL A COMPELLING STORY

Think about the best stories you’ve ever heard.  They are engaging and typically there is a lesson embedded in them. We all have a story to tell; the trick is to connect with your audience on it.  Is it relatable? Does it make a point? Do you have supporting visuals to drive that point home? (think Powerpoint or other graphics).

PRACTICE & DON’T READ LINE BY LINE

Presentations can be great, and you might have the world’s best animations to support your talk track. However, nothing loses an audience faster than when a speaker reads their presentation line by line. Be sure to practice and understand your key messages, rather than relying on reading what the audience can read for themselves. Think of your slides as supporting documentation to the big messages you are trying to hit.  

READ THE AUDIENCE

If you’ve practiced enough and feel confident with your material, hopefully you’ll be in a position to edit on the fly based on audience reaction.  Are they leaning in? Nodding their heads? Appearing engaged? Fantastic! If they aren’t, take a deep breath and regroup. Find a smiling face and focus on regaining your energy from them.  If you are feeling good, it will show, and people are more likely to connect.

BE AUTHENTIC

Often people try to enhance their stories with the inclusion of an abundance of facts, statistics, and quotes. While that can add some interesting credibility, don’t rely just on the recitation of other people’s data.  Be sure to add in your own perspective, experience and point of view. When you bring your authenticity into the mix, it aids in the connection to your audience. Know yourself and your style, and use that to your advantage. If you are really funny, add humor. If you aren’t, move around the stage a bit to keep people engaged.  When you are authentic and bring the energy, you’ll find the connection.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO ANSWER QUESTIONS

Perhaps you feel well rehearsed and comfortable sharing your prepared remarks. Then someone asks you a question, and you are forced to think on your feet and share something seemingly intelligent.  If people are feeling brave enough to ask, it’s an indication your message has landed with them. If you get stuck, own it, and say, “Let me think about that a little and circle back to you.” And then do. Think of questions as an opportunity to go even deeper in a less formal way.

GET SOME FEEDBACK

Speaking in public can be scary for a reason; you are putting yourself out in front of others hoping to land a message. It takes practice to feel comfortable and to gain competency in delivering with impact. Take advantage of asking for feedback about what went well - and not so well - from people who listened.  Ask a trusted friend/colleague to tape you, and watch it back. (Yes, you’ll likely cringe, but you’ll also likely learn some things to do and not do next time). Speaking up is all about continuous learning; don’t be afraid to keep practicing and working on getting better.

Christina Luconi is Chief People Officer for Rapid7. Follow her on Twitter: @peopleinnovator