When I first interviewed Ben a few months ago, it only took a few minutes before I was trying to sign him up. Finding a good marketing exec is one of the toughest challenges out there -- very few people have the gift to bring big ideas together with an execution mindset, the ability to build a category while working closely with the field, partners and customers; and most importantly, a talent for making the people around them better. In short, Ben is a hugely talented leader who brings the energy and focus needed to put more distance between us and the competition in the Social Business Software (SBS) category.

Ben will be responsible for Jive's global marketing strategy, in addition to spearheading strategic partnerships and corporate development activities. He is joining us at a pivotal time in our evolution where, despite the brutal economy, we continue to post record-breaking quarters and demonstrate market momentum. Ben's track record in scaling companies for growth and success, and capitalizing on unique opportunities, is going to be pivotal in our strategy.

Before joining Jive, Ben was the Chief Marketing Officer for Interwoven, one of the fastest growing companies in the web content optimization market, through their recent acquisition by Autonomy. He has also held executive management positions for technology leaders including Siebel Systems, Onyx Software, and Clarify (where he worked alongside fellow executive Tony Zingale, now a Jive Board member). In addition, Ben has led product marketing, corporate marketing, field marketing, and partner teams for both emerging companies as well as billion-dollar organizations, and has been very closely involved with the industry analysts. You can learn more about his credentials on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ben-kiker/0/167/7a4).

You'll be hearing more from Ben soon (he'll have a blog shortly) as we get him ramped up!

Created Clearspace-branded condoms

True. Amid a lot of controversy at Jive, I created thousands of Clearspace-branded condoms to distribute at San Francisco's Love Parade. In fact, we still have a box of them. I thought it would be a good way to promote a good cause and reach a very techy crowd when they didn't expect it. Although it did get the positive attention of a few customers and some Flickr love, in retrospect, I should have chosen a risk that could have paid off more directly. That said, it's been the joke that keeps on giving. Want one? Ping me: sam@jivesoftware.com.

Fought for a Frankensuite

I argued with Matt and Bill about building Clearspace from the ground up. I wanted to sew together best-of-breed products. They kept telling me that while if we cobbled something together we'd get to market faster, that we'd just end up with a bad product and more work long term. I thought no one would know the difference. Now I make fun of other Frankensuites.

Thought no one would use the blogs in Clearspace 

I argued with Aaron Johnson, the killer engineer behind the blogging part of Clearspace (among other things) that no one would blog inside a company. I even made fun of his " meaningful URLs". As you can see from this screenshot from Jive's internal deployment of Clearspace, I sorta ate my words. Turns out 35% of our company blogs and there's an average of 4 comments per blog. I imagine it could be even higher once all our new hires settle in.

Decided to relaunch an entire website in 2 weeks

That's right. A couple of weeks before we launched Clearspace, my small "mini-wesbite" project ended up taking over the entire website. Ten of us worked around the clock for 2 weeks straight and overhauled absolutely everything. It was burnout central. Ironically, we're in-process of overhauling everything again right now but this time we've taken 4 months to do it right.

Didn't hire fast enough

Once we released Clearspace and we were (surprisingly) flooded with interest, I couldn't seem to let go of all the work that needed to be done long enough to focus on hiring. Of course, it could have also been my post about the sort of Marketing people I would never hire.