Posted by Veronika @ MaRS, March 2nd, 2010
You: Your best communication tool
Preparing your communication tool kit is an on-going process of refining your message for different audiences. There are many vehicles through which to deliver your message but you, the entrepreneur, remain the best communication tool. All successful entrepreneurs have a talent for sales: they listen well, are able to connect to their audience and project integrity.
In my CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101 lecture last Wednesday, I had several guest speakers (albeit all virtual). One of them, Dave Rose, spoke at length about the personal attributes sought out by investors. Integrity topped his list and I would put it as one of key attributes of any sales superstar.
Posted by Keri @ MaRS, February 1st, 2010
Watch PR 101 for entrepreneurs
The right media coverage can be a boon for any company and even more so for a start-up. Just ask the London, Ontario-based voice-over company Voices.com who was recently mentioned in the New York Times article “The Do-It-Yourself Economy” by Thomas Friedman (author of many influential books such as “The World is Flat”). Friedman wrote about how the recession is encouraging companies to increasingly shop around the online marketplace for cheaper, faster and more convenient services and gave examples of companies like Voices.com who are profiting from this trend.
The coverage landed the company several large new accounts as well as thousands of new users. Website registration and sales increased by 53 per cent after the article ran.
Posted by Peter @ MaRS, January 26th, 2010
Sometimes you need less cowbell
During the first of two lectures on marketing in this month’s CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101 classes, I gave the students in the program a little homework applying the course materials. I asked them to explain how three notable business ideas came to be known as classic failures: Apple’s Newton PDA device, the Segway Urban Transporter and one of the most notable dot-com disasters, Pets.com. Congratulations to our winner, Ryan Coelho who went beyond the call of duty to apply the course concepts to all three of the cases. Congratulations also go out to Alivia Ye and Vincent Cheung who also earned high marks for their description of these market failures as they related to our discussion in our first lecture.
A key consideration in awarding the prizes was applying some of the course concepts to these cases. In the first lecture, we talked about the importance of aligning innovation with key market trends and the fundamentals of customer utility across the customer experience cycle. While these concepts are discussed in detail in the lecture videos and slides here, the main mantras we discussed were: “Trend is Your Friend” and “Less Cowbell.” We discussed the importance of trendspotting within the context of ensuring that six key market conditions (political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, capital) form your venture; otherwise you risk a serious uphill battle.
Posted by Sharon Dotan, January 5th, 2010
Usha Srinivasan, Director of Market Intelligence
Moderator James Sbrolla said it best: It figures that a panel of three brilliant women would be participating in a session on market intelligence. Last month’s “Growing Your Business” session hosted by the RIC Centre and OCETA saw Usha Srinivasan, Director of Market Intelligence at MaRS, Christine Konig of Konig & Consultants and Isabel Alexander, founder of Phancorp Inc., discuss the topic of “Using Market Intelligence as your Strategic Weapon”.
Posted by Keri @ MaRS, December 15th, 2009
Steve Carkner talks about product development
Last week’s CIBC presents Entrepreneurship 101 lecture featured Steve Carkner, President of Panacis Medical, on the topic of product development. Steve is an award-winning designer as well as an investor and advisor to start-ups.
Product development is central to any technology enterprise and the results of the product development process can heavily influence the success or failure of a start-up. Fortunately it’s a very structured process and a model like the V-Model of Development that Steve discussed can help you navigate though the various stages no matter how big or small your product.
What did we learn from Steve’s more than 20 years in product development? Here is some of his advice to avoid common perils of product management:
