By Leo Valiquette
As a regular 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 TechCrunch, Polaris Venture Partners, Pando Daily, Gust and MarketingSherpa.
Median angel deal size rises as startups look for more runway amid a series A bottleneck
TechCrunch’s Kim-Mai Cutler writes about how the median size of angel deals rose to $640,000 in the third quarter of last year – a five-quarter high – as startups looked for more runway amid a bottleneck for Series A rounds. Silicon Valley Bank partnered with data company CB Insights and the Angel Resource Institute to survey different angel groups about activity in the fall of last year.
Read More
By Leo Valiquette
Though we took our usual holiday break in December, we still covered a lot of ground on the blog during the month. Scotland’s startup scene, the unintended consequences of Canada’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit program, and practical pointers for handing off a content marketing program were among the many topics we covered.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
Dec. 5: It’s that time again to put life and work in perspective, by Leo Valiquette
Dec. 12: Don’t spit your PR effort into the wind, by Leo Valiquette
Dec. 6: SR&ED and the law of unintended consequences, by Francis Moran
Dec. 20: Is this my very last blog post?, by Francis Moran
Dec. 3: Lessons from Project Glass: Why embracing technology is not optional, by Megan Totka
Dec. 17: Commercializing research in Scotland, by Maurice Smith
Dec. 4: Top 10 questions every strategic communicator should ask, by Caroline Kealey
Dec. 10: Apple versus Samsung: Samsung’s ‘out’ to escape infringement, by David French
Dec. 11: A timely post about succession planning in content marketing, by Alexandra Reid
Dec. 13: Content is the sun around which all else revolves, by Francis Moran
Dec. 19: Businesses must think like publishers, says C.C. Chapman, by Alexandra Reid
Dec. 18: Data mining, DNA or otherwise, no substitute for real customer dialogue, by Leo Valiquette
By Alexandra Reid
I sat down with award-winning marketer and author C.C. Chapman to talk about storytelling and why businesses must learn to think like publishers.
Pulling advice from his books, Content rules and Amazing things will happen, C.C. tells us about today’s online environment, the attention economy and why it’s so important for businesses to stop stalling and begin developing their online presence NOW. He also explains why he hates the term “content marketing” and shares stories about who did it well and who had epic failures. Most importantly, C.C. offers advice about how to become amazing at your job, and find happiness in the work you do.
Listen here.
Read More
By Alexandra Reid
As a regular 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 Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, David Meerman Scott, Harvard Business Review, Guardian and Wired.
Why most venture-backed companies fail
The current VC model is a play on probability. But this author says this “numbers game” theory, where some will win and some will lose, is not an acceptable approach, especially when fund managers’ fees can reach in the millions while investments may result in massive losses.
Read More
By Francis Moran
Over the past several years, the way in which I describe what we do on the PR side of the house has really changed. For most of its 14 years, inmedia Public Relations was a very sharply focused proposition: We did media and analyst relations and not much else. And we did it for B2B technology companies, and nobody else. That last part hasn’t changed much; the only clients who really interest us are those working in knowledge-intensive or technology applications. And our mastery of the unique challenges of addressing enterprise marketplaces or selling into the value chain as opposed to marketing an end product means our value proposition remains focused on B2B.
What we do for our clients, however, has evolved in tune with the shifting landscape we have been presented with. And the evolution has been so natural that we really didn’t notice we had a new service offering until long after we had started to successfully deliver it.
Read More
By Leo Valiquette
