By Daylin Mantyka
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 Mark Suster, PandoDaily, Jason Cohen and MarketingProfs.
How to configure your startup team
Mark Suster, 2x entrepreneur and current VC, has been known to base 70 per cent of his early investments on the team — in an unpredictable market with competitors, funding requirements or PR disasters for example, only great teams will pull through. Suster posts his slide deck on “How to build out your early team” and summarizes the key findings.
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By Leo Valiquette
We were back at full steam last month after a welcome holiday break in December. In addition to our usual counsel about effective and strategic marketing practices, we featured guest posts on topics ranging from the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung to regional economic development, how music affects the brain and the future of venture capital in Canada. There was even something about bootleggers, smugglers and a certain big football game.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
Jan. 8: Five new year’s resolutions all marketers must adopt, by Francis Moran
Jan. 15: The revitalization of the Canadian venture capital sector, by Chris Arsenault
Jan. 16: Let me wave my magical content wand, by Tara Hunt
Jan. 29: It takes more than bricks and mortar to build a regional economy, by Denzil Doyle
Jan. 22: A primer on strategic thinking, by Caroline Kealey
Jan. 09: When the cat’s already out of the bag …, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 30: Bananatag discovers the marketing power of good press, by Fiona Campbell
Jan. 21: Music and the brain, by Bob Bailly
Jan. 14: Making the business case, face to face, by Leo Valiquette and John Hill
Jan. 04: First-time entrepreneurs: There are big ideas, and then there are doable ideas, by Alexandra Reid
Jan. 28: Do you know what your customer actually wants?, by Maurice Smith
Jan. 24: Customer service must be a deliberate strategy, by Francis Moran
Jan. 23: Brand marketing that is inspired, but not imitative, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 10: It takes a village … to succeed in social media, by Megan Totka
Jan. 31: Super Bowl weekend: That time of year when a marketer’s fancy turns to thoughts of…advertising?, by Francis Moran
Jan. 17: A year in the life of bringing technology to market, by Francis Moran
Jan. 02: Apple vs. Samsung: U.S. Patent Office – Challenges to patent validity, by David French
Jan. 03: Holiday lessons for anyone trying to get their tech to market, by Leo Valiquette
Image: The Printable Calendar
By Daylin Mantyka
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 ventureburn, Marketo, 451 Marketing, Silicon Valley Business Journal, and Startup Professional Musings.
Series A crunch blah blah… Get over it. Learn from Africa’s example
Michelle Atagana talks about the Series A Crunch and whether or not it applies to the African Venture Capital scene. She goes on to say that the so-called crunch might even be good for Silicon Valley.
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By Francis Moran
It’s Super Bowl weekend, that time of year when a very large swath of North America — and even some of the rest of the world — tunes in to see a once-a-year clash of multimillion-dollar Goliaths fighting it out in a no-holds-barred battle. There will be drama. There will be pathos. There will be unexpectedly brilliant plays. There will be dismal and desperate failures. There will almost certainly be scantily clad young women cavorting about.
There will also be a football game, but that doesn’t really interest me. The spectacle that I and many marketers will tune in to see is the annual showdown of Super Bowl ads.
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By Caroline Kealey
The word “strategic” is used so often that we’ve lost track of what it means. You might think it’s nothing but another bit of corporate-speak tossed around to make things sound fancier. In fact, something real and utterly important is at stake in this word.
A strategic state of mind is one that directs a systematic plan of action toward a specific result. It’s about looking at the big picture – what outcomes you’re trying to achieve – before working out the detailed tactics that might be taken to get there. This is the state of mind that makes communications activities work in the service of larger corporate goals. Being a strategic thinker demands always holding yourself to a standard of acting based on strong evidence and a logical progression of planning steps. That’s no easy thing when you’re frazzled by the day-to-day demands on your time.
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