Happy holidays
From all of us here at Francis Moran and Associates, happy holidays and the very best for 2013. We will resume our regular blog postings on January 2.
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Is this my very last blog post?
By Francis Moran
I’m not much of one for doomsday predictions.
In the days leading up to January 1, 2000, when the so-called Y2K bug was supposed to affect everything from cellphones to ATMs and would cause both airplanes and elevators to come crashing down, I kept saying that at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999, I wanted to be in an elevator, in a highrise, next to an airport, talking on my cellphone and with no money in my pocket. I was pretty sure I was going to be all right. As it turned out, when the clock struck that feared hour, I was at a New Year’s Eve ball with the woman to whom I had recently become affianced, and we were more than all right.
So I can’t get terribly worked up about the possibility that some long-dead Mayan timekeeper was the very first person in tens of thousands of years of human existence to be able to peer far into the future and with such precision and foreknowledge that he or she could accurately predict that the end of the world is going to come tomorrow.
Certainly, if I did believe it, I would not be spending my last hours writing this tongue-in-cheek blog post.
Great articles roundup: Internet governance, crappy startups, great products, iteration, market demand, women VCs and CMOs
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 The Globe and Mail, Read Write, Mark Evans, The Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
Governing the web (and everything else)
The governance of the Internet ain’t broken, so don’t fix it, says Don Tapscott.
It’s that time again to put life and work in perspective
By Leo Valiquette
I’ve referenced before the old joke about the easy-going work-life balance that results from being an entrepreneur. “I can work for only half the day,” says the entrepreneur. “And I get to decide which 12 hours that will be.”
But long hours are certainly not reserved for the start-up of a new business. I’ve worked with clients with professional practices whose emails often bear time stamps of 3 a.m. And in many industries, there is an ebb and flow to the volume of work based on the time of year.
Take, for example, the accounting industry, where the run up to tax season can be insanely busy. I know one accountant who maintains his focus through the daily practice of martial arts. “It gives me the energy to work until midnight when I have to,” he told me. “Instead of losing steam by 8 p.m.”
But there is always the risk of allowing such extreme work patterns to become habit, endangering personal health and relationships outside of the office.
November roundup: What does it take to bring technology to market?
By Alexandra Reid
This month saw a lot of action in the Canadian startup scene and we covered much of it here on our blog. Most notably, Startup Canada launched its much anticipated Startup Blueprints, an ambitious web platform that summarizes what the organisation heard this past summer, and sets out what needs to be done to turn those ideas and reflections into concrete action.
But that shouldn’t eclipse the wonderful work of Maple Leaf Angels and CanWit, two organisations that have fostered a partnership to create new investment opportunities for women-led startups in Canada. The National Angel Capital Organization also held its annual conference in Halifax, where important debates took place about the value of crowdfunding and how investment in this country could be improved.
Of course, those stories don’t even scratch the surface of our coverage this month. In case you missed any, here’s a handy roundup of our posts, ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers.
November 19: Lessons for entrepreneurs who wish to globalize their startups upon inception: Part 2 by Tony Bailetti
November 28: If Jack and Jill had worked together to engineer a well water system … by Leo Valiquette
November 20: Celebrating 25 years of community support by Alexandra Reid
November 29: A clarion call to make Canada an entrepreneurial economy by Francis Moran
November 6: CMI-MarketingProfs report reveals B2B content marketing confusion by Alexandra Reid
November 12: The CMO is dead by Dominique Turpin
November 27: Product management: Give the user the best possible mobile experience by Peter Hanschke
November 13: Hey, kid, I hear you want to be an entrepreneur by Leo Valiquette
November 26: Supporting investment in women-led startups by Alexandra Reid
November 7: Give capitalists the ball, let them run by Leo Valiquette
November 14: Lessons for entrepreneurs who wish to globalize their startups upon inception by Tony Bailetti
November 5: The neuroscience behind elections by Bob Bailly
November 8: Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes inspires hometown crowd: Video by Fiona Campbell
November 14: The subsistence diet of government — and some VC — funding by Francis Moran
November 21: Walking the digital tightrope: The perils of co-branded employees by Megan Totka
November 22: Startup Canada to call for urgent action to support Canadian entrepreneurs by Francis Moran
November 1: Even angels are going enterprise by Francis Moran
November 16: How to create brighter lives with content marketing by Alexandra Reid
Image: Oana Befort
