By Alexandra Reid
As a regular weekly feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Business2Community, Financial Post, VentureBeat, eMarketer, and TechVibes.
‘Looking big’ is not an effective B2B marketing message
It’s not rare to see B2B companies sucked into the distorted reality that they must market themselves as larger companies to woo their prospect bases. The traditional logic is that if you are selling to larger companies, you should act larger in an effort to appeal to them. Author Brian Jameson explains that B2B marketing is not a boxing match where fighters fall into weight classes.
Two common mistakes inventors make
Inventors make a number of common mistakes when trying to turn an innovative idea into reality, but most of them fall under two categories: presenting an idea to investors too soon and lacking a clear marketing strategy for the product.
The dirty secret behind the incubator boom
By its very nature, entrepreneurship involves a certain amount of throwing spaghetti against a wall. This “spaghetti” is called a minimal viable product, and it is launched because nobody really knows what’s going to stick. Eventually, with a little luck and learning, entrepreneurs become better chefs, and their spaghetti will stay up more often than not. But while watching a recent demo day for one of the countless incubators that have sprung up in the last 18 months, author Francisco Dao was struck by a horrifying revelation. There are now so many people out there trying to build the next app or website that it has become a better bet to throw minimal viable entrepreneurs against the wall than it is to teach them how to throw their own spaghetti.
For brands, social media shows returns but measurement hurdles remain
C-suite executives are increasingly convinced of the benefits of engaging with their customers on social media platforms. A February 2012 survey of 329 senior executives in North America found that the vast majority of companies who had invested in social media saw a positive shift in their bottom line as a result. Despite positive results, almost half of executives said that the major impediment to social media campaigns was the lack of a standardized metric that can measure a return on investment.
Okay, so what’s the difference between an incubator and an accelerator?
Somehow, the words “incubator” and “accelerator” have become interchangeable. They’re not. They’re two different things. Business incubators have been around for decades—they’re the original. Accelerators, the new kids on the block, started popping around the turn of the millennium. Author Knowlton Thomas expertly examines their similarities and differences.
Must-read for founders: A VC explains how to build a key value proposition
On the surface, value propositions seem straightforward. In reality, getting a value proposition right requires some focused thinking and structured analysis. In this post, author Michael Skok examines the DNA of a value proposition by stripping it down to its foundational elements and reassembling it around a variety of new business ideas.
