By Francis Moran
The eyes of the Canadian commercialization ecosystem will be focused sharply on Toronto and Ottawa this week as the Ontario and federal governments bring down new budgets that are expected to considerably reshape broad programs of industrial, research and business incentives in each jurisdiction.
At the federal level, where the budget arrives Thursday, the main concern will be around the future of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit, a widely used program that accounts for well more than half of Ottawa’s annual $7-billion support for research and development. More than 24,000 companies every year underwrite at least part of their operations through this refundable tax credit that gets paid out whether the company is profitable or not. The fear is that the federal government will follow the advice of the Expert Panel Review of the Federal Support to Research and Development, a task force that suggested SR&ED be scaled back and the savings redirected into more direct funding of research.
Read More
By Francis Moran.
FounderFuel participants enjoy a pizza lunch
When I first learned of FounderFuel, the Montreal-based accelerator program developed by the folks at Real Ventures, I asked if I could be part of their mentor program. I was pretty up front about what I was looking for; we had been writing a fair bit about accelerators and I wanted the chance to see the process from the inside even if, like sausages, you should never look too closely at how some things are made. Because Real Ventures focuses its investments on companies in web, mobile and digital media, none of which are really my sandbox, I didn’t think I’d be the most useful mentor they recruited so I was pretty chuffed when they let me in with the first cohort and delighted that they asked me back for the second. The truth is, many of the companies in the first and, now, especially the second cohort are working in areas where my experience has some relevance and I’ve enjoyed the work with these teams of young entrepreneurs.
I stepped up that contribution a bit yesterday when I put on a class looking at the basics involved in developing a marketing strategy. It was the shallowest of dives into the planning process as I tried to skim over in an hour what it usually takes me several weeks of work to bring a client through. Still, attendance at the session was pretty good, the questions were excellent, and it was only the necessity of catching my train home that obliged me to put a halt to the one-on-one consultations I had with several of the teams that could have gone on for some time.
Read More
By Francis Moran
I first became aware of the Stop Kony 2012 campaign late on Wednesday evening and, from my very first viewing of the video, I had a sharp visceral objection to what I was watching.
The marketer in me objected to the video’s manipulative emotional hard sell whilst acknowledging with no small amount of awe the incredibly slick and effective manner in which it was done.
The informed citizen in me objected to the video’s simplistic reductionism of a complex, multi-dimensional and long-standing and intractable issue.
The journalist in me objected to the video’s factual misrepresentation and cheap sensationalism, and cried over the tragic African illiteracy of too many westerners that would allow this sort of intellectual pablum to be swallowed as truth.
The due diligence streak in me objected to the video’s expensive and lavish production values, and further investigation confirmed the charity behind the video has a superb track record at fund-raising and a less-than-superb track record of spending that money on front-line programming.
And, most viscerally, the Africaphile in me objected violently to the video’s deeply offensive subtextual narrative that Africans are helpless savages who must be rescued by some white man.
Read More
By Francis Moran
Ottawa is about to finally get its own edition of Startup Weekend, a global phenomenon that has seen more than 45,000 technical and business people come together in more than 200 separate events around the world to spend a full weekend building new businesses. The intensive 54-hour company-building competition will take place in the nation’s capital April 27 to 29 at Shopify’s headquarters at 126 York Street in the Byward Market.
Although The Ottawa Network had a similar event a couple of years ago, this will be the first time the city has welcomed the official Startup Weekend, an initiative of the Kauffman Foundation, the large American NGO that promotes entrepreneurship. The event kicks off on Friday evening with rapid-fire pitches from participants who would like their ideas to be the focus of company-building teams over the weekend. All participants vote on which ideas will be workshopped, and teams form organically around each idea. The teams work feverishly all weekend, breaking occasionally for presentations, sleep and coffee, and present their ideas late on Sunday afternoon. A panel of judges selects the winning team.
Read More
This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from April 2010. We welcome your feedback.
By Francis Moran
I can’t remember when or from whom I first heard the line, “Marketers should think like the fish, not like the fisher.” But I have always enjoyed it as a pithy summary of our marketing credo that says you must put yourself in your customers’ shoes when plotting your marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter how fancy your new spinning rod might be, or how pretty the fly is that you just put on the end of your fly rod, if the fish aren’t hungry for what you’re offering, they’re not going to bite. You need to know what the fish are looking for and then craft your marketing message accordingly.
Driving along the other day, I saw the truck in this picture and I drove around a couple of city blocks so I could come back and take the picture. I tweeted this the other day but I thought I’d also share it here because it is such a simple-yet-brilliant example of this precept. Enjoy.
By Francis Moran
