By Leo Valiquette
There is perhaps no marketing tool more disputed in terms of its ROI than sponsorship.
From charities, to naming rights on community ice rinks and signage at industry events, there are always hard questions that must be asked about whether seeing your organization’s name in lights will, in fact, translate into greater awareness among the customers you are trying to reach and make the phone ring more often.
By Francis Moran
Last week, I tackled the assertion I all-too-frequently hear from technology executives that everybody could benefit from their product, and so the whole world is their target customer. This week, I’d like to demolish an equally hoary shibboleth that isn’t really a corollary statement but that goes hand-in-hand with the everyone-is-our-customer myth so regularly that maybe it ought to be.
It’s the notion that you have no competition.
“Nobody does what we do,” is the proud boast of every self-respecting technology venture. And they may well be correct. That doesn’t mean they don’t have competition — probably even fierce, well-entrenched and irresolute competition.
By David J. French
One of the most critical jobs of a patent attorney is to convince a patent examiner to grant patent rights to your client. This means convincing the examiner that your client is entitled to exclusive rights over a described version of the invention that, while being of the widest scope possible, will meet the novelty requirements of the patent law. The key requirement is that you have to define the invention in language that does not describe anything that was previously available to the public. But you also want to use language that will shut-down competitors without leaving any loopholes. Not an easy job.
By Hailley Griffis
Every Friday, we round up some of the best articles we’ve come across in the past week and share them with our readers. Front and centre this time around are Under30CEO, Marketo Marketing Blog, Fast Company and Memeburn.
Tech Startup High Flyers: Israel, India and Brazil
Under30CEO takes a good look at Brazil, India and Israel, three of the most important tech hubs in the world outside of Silicon Valley. Thanks to the specialties they have already developed and their population bases of digital consumers, they are coming up with some incredible and innovative new technology.
By Francis Moran
I love working with young technology companies, and that’s part of the reason I volunteer as a mentor at startup accelerators like Montreal’s Founder Fuel. I was there yesterday, putting on a session I do for each cohort that teaches these budding entrepreneurs a framework for the strategic planning of their marketing function.
I was reminded yesterday of a conversation I had with a Founder Fuel CEO a couple of cohorts ago. It was just a few days before Demo Day, that high-pressure moment when each cohort company presents its investment proposition to a room full of angel and VC investors. I had been working with the CEO on his messaging for his investor deck, and the revised deck he was reviewing with me and another mentor reflected some of that work.
Then the other mentor said, “You know, this is too high level. Half the people in the room aren’t going to understand what you’re talking about.”
