By Leo Valiquette
It’s Entrepreneurship Week.
There are events aplenty to recognize, celebrate and wax philosophical on what it means to be an entrepreneur, what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and how entrepreneurs should be supported, encouraged and nurtured.
As Francis blogged last week, Startup Canada is making its voice heard on the subject this week with Startup Canada Day on the Hill. I also invite you to read the related op/ed I wrote on behalf of Startup Canada.
On Monday, I had the honour of visiting the folks at the University of Ottawa about their various endeavours to support student entrepreneurship, as well as groom a new generation of intrapreneurs.
All of which makes me think about what is an entrepreneur, or perhaps a better way of putting it is to consider what motivates a true entrepreneur. Why do they choose to endure the long hours, the high risk and the dodgy chance of reward? It would appear to be, from a purely rational standpoint, some form of obsessive madness.
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By Anil Dilawri
I learn a lot from my clients. Recently, I witnessed a couple of clients who had dramatically improved their presentation effectiveness. Their delivery was good, their engagement level was good and the content was clear. But do you know what the real secret sauce was? Their slides really worked for them, not against them. They had simple, easy-to-understand slides that supported and reinforced their strong verbal content.
Those text-filled, complex and cluttered slides may work well in a presentation document that is sent to people via email and then read like a document. But when busy slides are put up on a screen or discussed at a meeting, the audience tunes out the presenter. This is frustrating to you, the presenter, because the presentation should be all about you, your golden verbal content, and your valuable context. The focus should be on you, not the slide.
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By Daylin Mantyka 
Friday is the day for our weekly content roundup. This week, we’ve read and shared a number of interesting pieces published in Fast Company, Techvibes, Forrester Research, SmartBlogs and Forbes.
First, we’ve got an article on content strategists, followed by a post on granting equity in a startup. Next, we’ve selected a piece on the rise of a new discipline, content distribution. Rounding out our selection is an article on monitoring your social media campaigns and a piece on how to get your new business off the ground.
Five must-know things about content strategists
Rusty Weston, a seasoned content strategist himself, knows the ins and outs of this evolving industry. In this thoughtful post, he shares his wisdom to current and future content strategists on how they can best serve the businesses they work with.
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By Francis Moran
The biggest mistake Canadian angel investors could make if and when equity crowdfunding is made more widely available in Canada “is to sit on the sidelines and do nothing and let crowdfunding pass them by,” says one of this country’s leading legal experts on the subject.
Lawyer Brian Koscak, who will be part of a crowdfunding panel discussion at next week’s National Angel Capital Organization national summit in Banff, said in an interview that the potential broadening of equity crowdfunding in parts of Canada “is a wonderful opportunity for angels to step up and show what they’ve got.” Angels, he said, have a wealth of expertise both in the specific sectors in which they invest and in the investment process itself, making them invaluable participants in any crowdfunding portals that are established.
Angel investors are often the first external source of funding that startups and young companies receive. (A survey of 20 out of NACO’s 24 angel group members reported that angels made 139 investments worth $40.5-million in 2012.) In Canada, as in most other countries, angels must have a minimum income or net worth before being allowed to invest, criteria that shuts out most investors. Securities regulators in Ontario and Saskatchewan have proposed expanding the opportunity for early-stage private investment by allowing companies to solicit small investments from larger pools of individual investors. Even if these proposals never become law, ordinary investors can already, under certain circumstances, participate in early-stage investing everywhere in Canada except Ontario.
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By Maurice Smith
Define the term “digital media.”
Easy, right? It’s all about tablets and smartphones and the super-duper things we can do with them.
No, it’s all about the content that flows through and to these devices and many more. You know, apps and all that. Video…
Wrong. Digital media is an entire industry that defies definition because it is completely nebulous. It resides within the term “creative” yet it’s technical at the same time. It sits across many disciplines, from publishing to e-commerce.
Such is the debate I am grappling with right now. As chairman of the somewhat grandly-titled Industry Leadership Group on Digital Media in Scotland, I should know the answer to the definition question above in my sleep. Yes?
Well, actually no. As a group, we are attempting such definition at the moment. Or, more accurately, whenever two or more of us have any dialogue.
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Build more than just a great product
November 12, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
It’s been top of mind for me the past couple of weeks while wearing one of my other hats – editor of the Ottawa Chamber magazine, the Voice. The next issue of The Voice will serve as a takeaway for the Best Ottawa Business Awards gala taking place in Nov. 21 […]
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Join Startup Canada for an entrepreneurial invasion of Parliament Hill
November 11, 2013 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran In a just over a week, the largest-ever contingent of Canadian entrepreneurs will congregate at the seat of Canada’s government, on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, to engage in a national celebration of Canadian entrepreneurship. I’ve been proud to be associated with Startup Canada since its genesis more than 18 months ago and I […]
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Great articles roundup: Social media, creativity, startups and productivity
November 08, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
It’s Friday again, which means we’ve compiled a short list of the top articles we read and loved this week […]
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Best of: There is such a thing as bad publicity
November 07, 2013 by Linda Forrest
This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from September 2011. We welcome your feedback […]
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Our tribal identities govern our decision making, but change requires more than that
November 06, 2013 by Bob Bailly
By Bob Bailly My reading over the last several weeks has been all over the map, from political parties entrenching in unsupportable positions in Canada and the US, to the neuroscience of leadership. While I’ll discuss more about this later, it was at a board meeting of a not-for-profit that I attended last week that […]
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It’s amazing how fast a tight, all-hands meeting can clear the air
November 05, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
I don’t have an MBA and I haven’t partaken of any executive leadership programs. Whatever insights I offer on this blog about group dynamics and management arise from what you might call qualitative participant observation […]
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October roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?
November 04, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
Last month’s contents were newsworthy and informative. Leading the pack was Maurice Smith’s post on the ultimate marketing challenge followed by Leo Valiquette’s piece on phone etiquette […]
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Great articles roundup: Content briefs, entrepreneurship, behavioural economics and social media
November 01, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
It’s Friday — which means that it’s time for the weekly roundup. This week we’ve read a handful of informative content published by velocity, Founder Dating, memeburn, The Buzz Bin and Duct Tape Marketing […]
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