We covered lots of new and interesting subjects on our blog last month. Contributor Caroline Kealey discussed the importance of measurement for communications people. Terry Lavineway shared important information on business incentives in the federal budget. David French further explored the world of patents and explained how get value for your money. Our Francis Moran covered recent developments in Waterloo and shared counsel on the importance of having a good startup team, while Alexandra Reid examined the importance of social media images and interviewed startup champion Victoria Lennox on Startup Canada’s cross country tour and launch, happening this week in Ottawa. Plus, we had our regular monthly check-ins with startups Genevolve, Screenreach and NanoScale.
These topics merely scratch the surface of our coverage last month. If you missed any of our posts, here is a handy roundup.
April 3: Getting ready for the big show by Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
April 12: Learning how to deal with the unexpected by Francis Moran and Alexandra Reid
April 25: Do you know how to dance with angels? by Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
And on a related note…
In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics. Here are our other posts from April, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
April 19: What’s going on in Waterloo? by Francis Moran
April 24: There is no magic recipe for a successful company, only good cooks by Francis Moran
April 16: Innovation and the budget by Denzil Doyle
April 23: Tales from the trenches: New associate joins our team by Jeff Campbell
April 17: Social media strategy: Why meeting in the ‘real world’ matters by Alexandra Reid
April 2: Making measurement work for communications professionals by Caroline Kealey
April 5: How to municipimp your municipality by Alexandra Reid
April 18: What an entrepreneur can learn from a literary conference by Leo Valiquette
April 30: From whiteboard to customers: a perspective from the startup world by Jesse Rodgers
April 9: Are we getting value for all the money we’re spending on patents? by David French
April 4: There were other business-related incentive tidbits in the federal budget by Terry Lavineway
April 26: Victoria Lennox: Startup champion by Alexandra Reid
April 13: The importance of developing a social media image strategy by Alexandra Reid
By Alexandra Reid
“A million people walk into a bar in Silicon Valley. Nobody buys anything. The bar is declared a huge success.”
Harley Finkelstein, CPO of Shopify, shared that illuminating joke during the panel discussion at Startup Canada. It seemed to resonate with the audience because, aside from it being funny, it identified a serious problem in the way many entrepreneurs run their new companies.
The lesson is that startups will fail if they can’t see past the hype and generate sales consistently. Yet there is a common perception that if a new company garners attention, whether that is through media, word-of-mouth, or otherwise, it will automatically be successful.
While attention and success can support one another, this isn’t a business model on which startups should bet their livelihoods. The focus of attention must always be the needs of the customer.
“Need is the mother of all invention,” declared serial entrepreneur Sir Terry Matthews during his speech. It is identifying need and positioning a product to solve it that enables startups to go to market quickly, beat out any competition and ultimately be successful.
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By Leo Valiquette
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been speaking with a number of entrepreneurs, executives and others with a stake in Ottawa’s economy on topics ranging from international trade and building an export-oriented business to financing. The common theme has been what business owners must do to get out of their own backyards and make things happen.
There are, no doubt, those who take miserable comfort in pining away for the old days of high-volume VC and the glory that was Nortel. They would rather spend more time complaining about what’s lacking in the commercialization ecosystem than engage in a more productive exercise to find a workaround. I really wasn’t interested in getting mired in those perspectives. The world is what it is – deal with it.
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By Francis Moran
I have shamelessly adapted the headline of this post from a Wall Street Journal article I read on the weekend that reviewed two excellent books tracking the ascendancy of Africa over the past decade and predicting that the continent’s rise as an economic force to be reckoned with would continue in similar fashion for the next decade. Acknowledging the structural problems many African countries face on the political front, one of the reviewed authors was quoted as writing, “there is no magic recipe for turning countries around, only good cooks.”
The sharp application of the sentiment to the founding of companies was immediately and forcefully impressed upon me. There is no magic recipe for a successful company. There are only good cooks.
When I founded inmedia Public Relations at the height of the telecom boom in late 1998, I used to say our template client was “three engineers, a brilliant idea and $10 to $15-million in U.S. venture capital.” We were seeing these companies form at the rate of several a month, and I thought they were all going to succeed.
Boy, was I wrong.
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Introducing Jeff Campbell
Jeff just can’t seem to get enough of us. He’s twice been a client. He’s long been one of our go-to guys whenever we needed a solid reference. And now, he likes our company so much he’s decided to join as an associate. And we’re delighted to have him.
Jeff is a serial CEO and entrepreneur with a lengthy record of achievement in securing investment, building international sales and business-development channels, and accelerating the commercialization of new technology. With more than 30 years spent in companies both large and small – from the Microsofts and EDS Systemhouses of the world to fast-growth startups like AssetMetrix and PerspecSys – Jeff has a thoroughly rounded perspective on exactly what it takes to bring technology to market.
Jeff will be making regular contributions to our blog, starting with today’s post, below. He will be writing about how to build effective sales and business-development capacity to drive revenue, as well as how to position for investment, strategic partnerships and acquisition. And he represents us in the Waterloo region that he calls home and is a valued team member addressing the sales and channel-development requirements of our strategy clients.
By Jeff Campbell
It is at once intimidating and encouraging to be invited to blog with Francis Moran and Associates. Intimidating because I hold Francis and the folks who work with him in such high esteem, particularly as writers, editors and communicators. Me? I write like I talk. That means a blatant disregard for grammar, structure and spellin’, and a propensity to over use superlative adjectives and adverbs. It is encouraging for this reason (high-quality editing) and because of the collaboration that will ensue. Francis and the band of associates are a team of accomplished individuals with whom I very much look forward to sharing ideas, experiences and learnings in the coming months.Why am I blogging here? What interesting things can I share? Well, with more than 30 years of experience, I have a lot of stories. There are stories just screaming to get told, stories that result from selling a company to Microsoft, stories about commercializing innovative products, stories about building a business with a business model very few people understood at the time, stories about fundraising and stories about building channels and the relationships that make them effective.
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We covered lots of new and interesting subjects on our blog last month. Contributor Caroline Kealey discussed the importance of measurement for communications people. Terry Lavineway shared important information on business incentives in the federal budget. David French further explored the world of patents and explained how get value for your money. Our Francis Moran covered recent developments in Waterloo and shared counsel on the importance of having a good startup team, while Alexandra Reid examined the importance of social media images and interviewed startup champion Victoria Lennox on Startup Canada’s cross country tour and launch, happening this week in Ottawa. Plus, we had our regular monthly check-ins with startups Genevolve, Screenreach and NanoScale.
