This is the first article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of ..duo, a startup based out of Kelowna B.C. that creates simple keywords that use your name, brand, slogan or any other word combination as a shortcut to content on the web.
By Alexandra Reid
Our Francis Moran first met ..duo cofounder Daylin Mantyka while on Startup Canada volunteer duty at Accelerate Okanagan’s Jump:Start:Challenge, a pitch competition for technology companies and entrepreneurs. He was one of the judges who selected Daylin as a top entrant who would receive as a prize eight weeks of expert training, coaching and mentorship to improve her pitch and increase her chances of raising capital.
It was Daylin’s first pitch ever, and, while she had struggled to communicate this idea in the past, she felt she translated it perfectly at Jump:Start.
“It’s a simple concept, but it’s entirely new,” she said.
When asked on the phone what ..duo is all about, Daylin opted to first explain what it is not about.
“We’re not like a web address that can be lengthy and difficult to remember and pass around in conversations, and we’re not like QR codes with which most people have a love-hate relationship,” said Daylin.
So, what is ..duo?
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By Megan Totka
Missteps are increasingly becoming a part of the landscape for business social media. While unfortunate, those of us who run social media pages as businesses are still only human – and make human mistakes.
Some of these gaffes have more dire consequences than others. One of the most recent posts-gone-wrong was on the night of the first presidential debate. This particular post came from the KitchenAid brand and quickly became top business news. KitchenAid tweeted:
“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics”
Many people found this tweet to be rather offensive. It was shocking, too, coming from such a neutral brand as KitchenAid. We don’t typically expect the company that manufactures stand mixers to have a particularly strong political view. This tweet was broadcast to about 24,000 of KitchenAid’s followers before it was deleted from the company page.
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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 ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company, Forbes and VentureBeat.
Why you can’t settle for the “minimum” in your minimum viable product
Many startups scramble to create a “minimum viable product,” or MVP, to get a version of their product to market quickly for testing. It’s a great way to cost-effectively test a website or app with real users. But be careful. If your MVP is too minimalist, it could torpedo your company’s future.
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By Francis Moran 
For the past couple of years, with more than a little envy that we haven’t a similar facility here in Ottawa, I have been watching Notman House in Montreal slowly coalesce as a critical locus for that city’s startup, entrepreneur and diverse geek, maker and hacker communities.
For those not familiar with Notman, it’s a rambling old rabbit warren of a place that was built in the mid-1800s and, until 1991, was operated as a hospital for the terminally ill. More recently, the OSMO Foundation, a group of community-minded people, has opened the house up to the broader startup community. In the last year alone, the house has hosted more than 125 events, including user group meet-ups hackathons, and learning events, been home to over 50 startups, and been visited by over 10,000 entrepreneurs, investors, students and others involved in the growing Montreal tech scene. The OSMO Foundation has been trying to raise the funds necessary to build and refurbish both the main building and a large, even more dilapidated, brick building behind it, and operate them as a not-for-profit hub for Montreal’s startup community. This week, they announced they are within $100,000 of completing their fundraising goal, and they’re asking for community support to get them over the finish line.
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By Alexandra Reid
In this podcast, originally created for IABC Ottawa’s The Voice, I explore the vast world of marketing with digital media and advertising rock star Mitch Joel. Mitch tells us that marketing is not dead but at a crossroads, and explains why businesses (both B2B and B2C) must shift to a “digital first posture” to create more powerful marketing engagements. From content marketing to advertising to more traditional marketing strategy, Mitch explains why marketing must move beyond the first “p” – promotion.
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Apple versus Samsung – Every patent owner’s dream
October 09, 2012 by David French
On August 24, 2012 a California jury issued a decision awarding just more than $1 billion to Apple against three Samsung Electronics companies. This ranks amongst the top patent awards in US history. But the case is not over […]
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Happy Thanksgiving
October 08, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
From all of us here at Francis Moran and Associates, we wish you a safe and happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving […]
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Great articles roundup: Leaky buckets, evil marketing, midnight tokers, affording business and social media fragmentation
October 05, 2012 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 Gabriel Weinberg, Mark Evans, David Crow, Amber Naslund, and James Carson […]
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SoLoMo: How governments are engaging their constituents
October 04, 2012 by Francis Moran
My firm, has developed a meaningful relationship as a supplier of mobile applications to governments at the municipal and federal level over the past two years. Given the integration of social and location-based information into our applications, we have been the defacto leader in implementing what is termed SoLoMo (or Social, Mobile, Local) with these […]
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Government incentive programs set for major shakeup
October 04, 2012 by Francis Moran
The eyes of the Canadian commercialization ecosystem will be focused sharply on Toronto and Ottawa this week as the Ontario and federal governments bring down new budgets that are expected to considerably reshape broad programs of industrial, research and business incentives in each jurisdiction.. At the federal level, where the budget arrives Thursday, the main […]
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Marketing is about more than the color of your new website
October 04, 2012 by Francis Moran
When prospects approach us to talk about our helping them with their marketing, they almost always mean help with their marketing programs, the stuff they do to promote their company and product or service. And while we can certainly create greater value simply through the effective management of marketing programs, real marketing consists of much more than this. Real marketing consists […]
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Great articles roundup: Big data, content loop, content creation madness, CXO, social media sales, and startup PR
September 28, 2012 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 CIO, V3, Fast Company, MarketingWeek and Dave Fleet […]
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Nobody’s ever told me, ‘I have too much money for marketing’
September 27, 2012 by Francis Moran
With the possible exception of a client vying for a huge defence procurement project in the late 1980s, an undertaking for which money certainly seemed to be no object, I’m pretty sure no-one has ever told me they have more money than they wanted or was needed […]
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By Alexandra Reid 
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