Case Study: MapSherpa
"We have been fortunate enough to have worked over the past nine months with Francis Moran and Associates to deliver virtual CMO services for our company, and so far it has been highly effective. With this relationship, we get access to a level of experience and expertise which would be unaffordable to us if we were to hire a full-time equivalent." Dave McIlhagga, Founder and CEO
Case Study: Singletouch
"When I hired Francis Moran to lead our marketing efforts in 2011, I had very high expectations. We needed to completely rebuild our marketing from the ground up. Francis and his team not only met those high expectations but exceeded them. He brought a very high level of strategic thinking, professionalism and creativity to our organization that will be felt for many years to come in our quest to build a successful IT company." Marty Hilsenteger, Founder and CEO
By Francis Moran
I doubt if there’s a single business ever that hasn’t been asked at some point or other to discount its prices. For startups, it’s almost an inevitable part of the process in bringing their technology to market. There are pros and cons to discounting but, as you can probably guess from the headline, I’m not a big fan.
Here are some circumstances where discounting most often comes into play.
This is the 12th article in a continuing series chronicling the growth path of Screach, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screach is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.
By John Hill and Leo Valiquette
Investment. It’s big news in the startup world. Sites such as TechCrunch and The Next Web are full of stories about how much a company has raised and what it wants to do with it. But if you’re set on putting together a round for your business, you’ve got to think about more than just passing around the tin.
There are mountains of articles out there about what investors are looking for, and how to have those conversations, so have a look around and get an idea of how to go about it the right way.
By Leo Valiquette
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with several individuals who reminded me how much a natural part of doing business it should be for philanthropy and giving back in some way to the community that sustains you.
At VLN Advanced Technologies, founder Mohan Vijay spent 13 years fighting uphill to commercialize his company’s forced-pulse waterjet technology. When at last his ship came in, the 75-year-old immediately redirected much of his company’s new profitability into the VLN Reach Foundation. Through his foundation, Vijay supports the Make A Wish Foundation, the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities, the Brain Injury Association of Canada and Propeller Dance, and also makes cash donations to many other charities each year.
But most inspiring of all is his ambitious plan to create a sustainable funding model for worthy charities that struggle year after year to muster sufficient funding. He wants to construct a mixed-use development that operates on a not-for-profit basis, with any net profits donated to charity. The site could be used for almost anything: a convention centre, a retail space, commercial office space, condos or some combination thereof. But the most jaw-dropping aspect of his plan is the physical shape that he wants the building to take.
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 Ash Maurya: Practice Trumps Theory, GigaOm, Fast Company, Marketing Sherpa Blog and Social Media Explorer.
Your business model is a system and why you should care
Ash Maurya talks about the roots of lean development and why understanding where the concept came from is important for successfully finding that sweet spot in product-market fit.
By Maurice Smith
Jim Duffy is a man in a hurry. Since creating Entrepreneurial Spark little more than a year ago, he has expanded twice, helped more than 130 would-be entrepreneurs and stirred up the start-up environment in Scotland.
Who is Jim Duffy? A former police sergeant who moved into business – with mixed results – Jim won a Saltire Fellowship (a quasi scholarship funded by the Scottish Government) and landed himself on a course at Babson College, Massachusetts.
He returned to Scotland, inspired by all that the greater Boston area had to offer business start-ups, from the high tech spin-outs of MIT to the slam-dunk pitching of hopefuls taking part in the high-profile Mass Challenge.
April 17, 2013 by Francis Moran
It doesn’t have much to do with bringing technology to market but today’s post is one I’ve been meaning to write for a while. Having spent the last two weeks travelling across three continents, six time zones and nearly 20,000 miles, it seemed appropriate that I tackle it today […]
Read more... -April 16, 2013 by Bob Bailly
Over the last several months Canadians have watched the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau move from the fringes of the Liberal Party to become its newly elected leader. But what constitutes an effective leader? […]
Read more... -April 15, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
Focus. It’s what distinguishes talkers from doers, which I touched upon in last week’s post about lessons learned at a literacy conference that apply to entrepreneurs as much as they to do authors. While I was at that conference I ran into Canadian fantasy fiction author Ed Greenwood […]
Read more... -April 12, 2013 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 Fast Company, Gabriel Weinberg’s Blog and ReadWriteWeb […]
Read more... -April 11, 2013 by Chamber of Commerce
The Internet offers customers lots of options before they make a purchase decision. In fact, it’s cliché to say that on the Internet your competition is just a click away. But it’s true. Research from Google and others suggests that customers view an average of seven to 10 sites […]
Read more... -April 10, 2013 by Francis Moran
I heard the saddest story the other day. A few years ago, we worked on the launch of a new personal finance website developed by a veteran personal financial advisor […]
Read more... -April 09, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
I’ve blogged before about my ambitions to become a fabulously successful novelist and my annual April trek to Toronto to attend the Ad Astra literary conference. Having just returned from the 2013 edition, here are my latest observations that apply as much to entrepreneurs as they do to authors […]
Read more... -April 08, 2013 by Denzil Doyle
By definition, innovation is all about change, which means that the duties and responsibilities of a high technology CEO are bound to change as the company grows […]
Read more... -
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