Is it the last day of June already? Perhaps it whooshed by because we were so hard at work, writing about what it takes to bring technology to market. This month, we told you about bridging the investor-entrepreneur gap, accelerator programs for startup mentorship, how to become an investor magnet, the right circumstances for bringing tech to market, how to accelerate women’s involvement in tech, the importance of food in making good decisions, incubation, the role of champions and making effective use of social media, among many other pearls of wisdom.
In case you missed anything, here is a recap of our posts from June, beginning with, in chronological order, the latest installments in our ongoing series, The Commercialization Ecosystem.
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked Jason Flick, Co-founder and President of You i Labs and President and CEO of Flick Software, to share some of his insights. This is the third of his commentaries and we welcome your feedback.
By Jason Flick
Over the past couple of years, incubators inspired by organizations such as Y Combinator and TechStars (see TechStars harnesses the power of mentorship) have taken the limelight and become hotbeds for angel investment and innovation. Montreal alone has seen at least six new incubators created so far in 2011. It is being done and it makes sense. In contrast, large enterprises often invest thousands of times more in R&D than the typical web or mobile startup needs to get to market, with questionable results.
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By Alexandra Reid
This is part two of my three-part series on monitoring, managing and measuring social media. Last week, I discussed a range of tools for monitoring social media and how to use them to their best effect. This week, I’ll teach you about modern, yet free and simple, management methods that I use to organize the information that ours in from my monitoring efforts.
Choosing what to track
Online tools such as Google Analytics, HootSuite, Social Mention, Kurrently and others provide users with excessive amounts of information that can be hard to digest. In my previous post, I explained how to channel the waterfall of information into relevant streams and then filter out the content that is most relevant to you. Part of the management function is to understand what it is your business wants to get out of social media. Knowing the long-term goals and key performance indicators will help you narrow your focus and determine exactly what it is you need to track.
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This is the 22nd article in a continuing series that examines the state of the ecosystem necessary to successfully bring technology to market. Based on dozens of interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers, this series looks at what is working and what can be improved in the go-to-market ecosystem in the United States, Canada and Britain. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In the context of getting technology to market, “champion” can mean a lot of different things.
Early in this series we defined it as individuals within established enterprises who see the value in supporting a new venture or investing resources in an innovation to help realize its commercial potential. This is often driven by the need to solve a pain point that the patron organization has been unable to address with its internal resources.
A champion can also be a senior decision maker within a large enterprise who provides the clout and support for a successful spinout. Many companies often sit on proprietary IP and leave its commercial potential unrealized because it doesn’t fit with their product lines or existing markets. However, with a little vision and persistence from few committed intrapreneurs, a new company can be born.
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By Linda Forrest
Like many B2B companies, we ourselves have been working hard to fill our sales pipeline in recent weeks and months. I was encouraged to see some statistics reported on eMarketer that validated not only our approach to seeking prospects for ourselves (one tactic being this very blog), but also the content marketing approach that we follow for our clients – whether we’re conducting media relations, analyst relations or community management for them.
The tie that binds those offerings together is content. We develop appropriate content that is then pushed out to the audience over a variety of channels, matching content to the audience through the audience’s preferred delivery channel. It’s the goal of our marketing PR agency to help our clients sell more of their stuff; to see content marketing validated as an effective means of doing just that bolsters the business case for our services.
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My three buckets of customer segmentation
June 23, 2011 by Francis Moran
Marketers are well familiar with the concept of segmenting the marketplace. It’s the process of dividing a broad and undifferentiated set of consumers into ever-smaller segments until you have identified that group of potential customers that is the best match possible for your product or service. […}
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First we’ll eat – then we’ll talk
June 22, 2011 by Bob Bailly
I remember several road trips as a teenager travelling with my parents and my younger brothers and sisters to California from Calgary. Back then it was a three-day journey for us, stopping in Idaho Falls, Las Vegas and a final day across the desert to Los Angeles […]
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Drinking from the waterfall: How to effectively monitor social media
June 21, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
This is part one of a three part series I will write on how to monitor, manage and measure social media. I have discussed best practices for each of these processes in previous posts. However, after receiving a comment on LinkedIn, I realized that I neglected to dive into any of these subjects in great detail […]
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Accelerated: Springboard takes a ‘people centric’ approach
June 20, 2011 by Francis Moran
This week we conclude are two-part discussion with Jon Bradford, the man behind The Difference Engine and Springboard, two U.K.-based startup accelerators that took their inspiration from TechStars and Y Combinator in the U.S. The Difference Engine was an initiative supported by public funds that launched in the north east of England in two years ago […]
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How to become an investor magnet
June 17, 2011 by Martin Soorjoo
This is the true story of “Ryan” (not his real name), a serial entrepreneur with no qualifications and a very limited understanding of financials or launching a startup […]
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The key factors that make B2B social media distinct from B2C
June 16, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
Readers of this blog likely know that we work exclusively in the B2B marketplace. It has been common knowledge for some time now that social media is not limited to B2C companies; rather, B2B companies are succeeding (if not dominating) in engaging with online communities through social media channels […]
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Accelerated: The U.K.’s Springboard gets on and does stuff
June 15, 2011 by Francis Moran
Throughout this series, we have often referenced startup accelerators and the important role they play in the commercialization ecosystem, as well as where government support fits into the equation. So we thought it was time to take a closer look at these entities by profiling three different ones from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. […]
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‘Your name here’ is your brand ambassador, whether you like it or not
June 14, 2011 by Linda Forrest
Steve Jobs. Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Jeff Bezos. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. Larry Ellison.
I probably don’t need to tell you with what companies these executives are affiliated because they’re such well recognized ambassadors for their respective brands […]
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Is it the last day of June already? Perhaps it whooshed by because we were so hard at work, writing about what it takes to bring technology to market. This month, we told you about bridging the investor-entrepreneur gap, accelerator programs for startup mentorship, how to become an investor magnet, the right circumstances for bringing tech to market, how to accelerate women’s involvement in tech, the importance of food in making good decisions, incubation, the role of champions and making effective use of social media, among many other pearls of wisdom.
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