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Great articles roundup: Internet governance, crappy startups, great products, iteration, market demand, women VCs and CMOs

link2 300x240 Great articles roundup: Internet governance, crappy startups, great products, iteration, market demand, women VCs and CMOsBy 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 The Globe and Mail, Read Write, Mark Evans, The Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.

Governing the web (and everything else)

The governance of the Internet ain’t broken, so don’t fix it, says Don Tapscott.

Let’s all shed tears for the crappy startups that can’t raise any more money

It’s wannabe journalists writing about wannabe investors giving money to wannabe entrepreneurs.

The best marketing is a great product

Make sure your product delivers, says Mark Evans. And, as important, make sure the entire process surrounding the product is seamless and delightful. It starts with the messaging and the stories being told, and then involves how consumers can learn more about the product and its benefits, and, finally, the buying process.

Two-part series:

Part 1: Build it and they will come?

This post focuses on how successful repeat founders test their offerings/company prior to launch. Fewer entrepreneurs test their products because of how cheap it is to launch a product today, primarily due to the low cost and on demand availability of infrastructure. Instead, most entrepreneurs are in a ‘launch and iterate’ mode. On the flip side, it’s hard to remain on top – competitors can launch and iterate quickly as well. But perhaps even more interesting, enterprise customers are willing to be part of the test cycle – they take a chance on relatively new technology and in return get to help shape the product. A decade ago no enterprise customer wanted to touch a product until it was “fully baked.” This is an important change.

Part 2: How VCs test market demand

In this installment, Ed Zimmerman turns to how VCs test market demand for a product when conducting due diligence prior to investing. While this is important for founders like those discussed in the last article, without the track record those founders had, diligence on market adoption becomes even more important.

D’oh! The top 5 mistakes when attempting U.S. market entry

Over the past five years, many northern European companies have eyed the U.S. market as an opportunity for sales expansion and profitability. However, according to recent statistics from the National Venture Capital Association, less than five percent of these companies are successful in gaining revenues and market share within their first year. Interestingly, an even smaller percentage continue to pursue U.S. business after year one.

Despite this, now is the time to act, says Jennifer Vessels. As the U.S. economy is recovering from the recession, there is an openness to new ideas and funds available in the U.S. market. To take advantage of these opportunities, avoid these top five mistakes of U.S. market entry.

A wave of angel investing organizations focuses on women

As we see more women taking the reins of companies and filling seats on corporate boards, the number of female investors has lagged. Studies show that women make up just 10-15 percent of angel investors and venture capitalists. Fortunately, this is beginning to change.

CMOs: Here’s how to stay relevant in 2013

Today’s marketing initiatives must be data-driven, customer-centric and omnichannel. Unfortunately, though, many CMOs seem to be struggling to gain alignment and build consensus across their lines of business and into the boardroom. As a result, the C-suite can be plagued with uncertainty and misunderstanding, and CMOs are starting to worry about losing relevance. Here’s what it takes to get us all on the same page, pulling together.

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Alexandra Reid

Posted by: Alexandra Reid on December 7, 2012

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Posted in: Commercialization ecosystem, Financing and fundraising, Marketing strategy, Product marketing, Random thoughts, Startups, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

Pitch perfect: Startups should focus on problems, not platforms

This is the ninth article in a continuing monthly 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.

FMA banner Screach 300x145 Pitch perfect: Startups should focus on problems, not platformsBy Alexandra Reid

Not everyone understands a platform. But everyone understands a problem.

That’s a hard lesson a lot of startup teams fail to grasp.

You’ve seen this pitch before — The technical cofounder goes on at length about the ins and outs of the wonderful new technology his team is bringing to the world. He explains what it is, what it does, and shows you all of its cool features. But when you look to your left and right, you see your fellow audience members’ eyes glazing over, and before you know it your mind begins wandering to dinner plans.

He was enthusiastic in his pitch, and it’s awesome technology, yet he failed to reach you.

Why?

He showed off his technological wizardry but didn’t deliver a jaw dropping story about why his product matters to you, what problem it solves, and why you must have it to mend an otherwise gaping pain in your life, plain and simple.

Following one such pitch that failed to get him into Y Combinator, Rocketr CEO Andrew Peek wrote a (not so new but fascinating) blog post urging pitching businesses to “Lay it on thick. Tell a story. Get them to empathize.” Indeed, while you may love your innovative solution with all your heart, telling your audience about the tech won’t necessarily make them care.

As resident neuromarketer Bob Bailly wrote in his post, “The pitch from a neuromarketing perspective,” pitches have to persuade the “old brain” — the ancient, emotional brain that controls the decision making process. Pitches “should always identify a clear problem, provide a compelling solution and be differentiated, aspirational, inspirational, and visually communicative,” he wrote.

The pitch

Screach cofounder Sam Morton and COO Richard Dodd put this lesson to the test while pitching their latest product, Screach TV, two weeks ago at Web Summit – Europe’s biggest technology conference.

ScreachTV is Screach’s first physical product. For the last couple of years, Screach has been demonstrating the potential of a software platform that allows people to interact with screens using smartphones.

But people would sometimes complain that they loved the product but didn’t have the budget or resources to adopt it, said Sam. ScreachTV was the affordable solution.

Richard, who pitched the concept at the Summit’s pitch competition, found that he got a much more positive reaction when he talked about the issue the technology solves rather than the technology itself. Similarly, both he and Sam received positive reactions from several investors and potential partners when they used this strategy.

“The Screach platform is very cool,” said Sam. “However, we realized that to sell ScreachTV, we didn’t need to talk so much about the platform.”

Curious to hear his pitch, I asked Sam what ScreachTV is all about.

“TVs in venues sit around not showing anything a lot of the time. We’ve developed a product that allows people to put local, relevant and engaging content on their TVs, from the venue’s own ads to Twitter and Instagram feeds, as well as Screach’s own unique interactive experiences such as pub quiz games,” he said.

He had me at, “TVs in venues sit around not showing anything a lot of the time.”

In addition to opening with the problem the technology solves, they also showed their audience how it works, tying in the “visually communicative” element of a strong pitch.

“We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the platform and the technology,” said Richard. “We just showed people what it does, and they responded really well to that.”

How large-scale pilot testing informed the pitch

While the team was confident the product would solve a problem for venue owners, they knew it was vital that the product was perfect before they put it on the market. As a result, they spent several months working with a firm to road test the ScreachTV boxes in select pubs.

This testing process helped the team identify problems that might come up in the pubs themselves, such as wifi connection issues. It also enabled them to work out exactly what sort of content was best suited for a pub environment.

“The only way to work out if you’ve got the right content is to get out to the venues and show it to the people who know – the staff and the customers,” said Richard. “We didn’t get it right the first time, but we listened and learned, and with our flexible platform were able to quickly change the content to make it relevant.”

By talking to the prospective customers in their marketplace, the team learned about what matters to them, tailored the product to fit customers’ needs, and honed their pitch to reach them.

The team made the decision to pitch ScreachTV as a B2B product, and offer it to venues and organizations that were looking at new ways to engage their customers.

“We’ve been into so many pubs where the owners or breweries have charged the manager with the task of coming up with a social strategy,” said Sam. “This product provides that for them because it’s a way to keep people engaged and keep them in the venue longer.”

With the testing complete, ScreachTV boxes are being rolled out with participating venues. They’re currently running on 45 screens in 10 U.K. locations, and are also being switched on in a couple of New York venues.

“We’re aiming to have boxes installed in around 100 venues in the U.K. by Christmas, working on about 600 to 1,000 screens in total,” said Sam.

We’ll check in with Sam, Richard and the rest of the Screach team in the coming months to hear more about their progress.

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Alexandra Reid

Posted by: Alexandra Reid on October 31, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story — Leave a comment

Giving your team ownership

This is the fifth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, 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.

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Giving your team ownershipBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

In our last post, we looked at how Screenreach Interactive is managing its beta testing process to prepare for the launch of a new version of Screach in the near future. We focused on the logistics of soliciting, encouraging, filtering and interpreting user feedback to fine tune and debug the new app.

But working toward a deadline and ensuring that all of the pieces fall into place is about much more than technical and logistical details. Perhaps the most important variable to manage is the human factor. Individuals from different parts of the organization, each with their own role and responsibilities, must work together collaboratively and appreciate the needs and priorities of their peers.

“We are fortunate to have a team that is more interested in achieving an ultimate common goal than focusing on their own interests,” said Screenreach CEO Paul Rawlings. “Decisions must be made based on what’s best for the product and the collective.”

In this post, we’ll look at how the beta testing process is coming along and how the Screenreach team has learned to keep everyone rowing in the same direction.

Assessing the feedback as a team

In the last post, we described two different third-party platforms that Screenreach is using to help manage the beta testing process. The first is Test Flight, a free web service that provides developers with an easy means to distribute their beta apps for testing. The other is Get Satisfaction, an online platform for brands to host their community of users, interact with them, and collate the feedback.

To quickly and easily disseminate the data, the Screenreach team categorized the feedback from Get Satisfaction based on whether it was related to bugs, functionality, user experience, design or was simply a content-based suggestion.

Assessing the feedback involved the whole Screenreach team. As marketing manager Sarah Athey pointed out, “the whole team had already been involved in engaging with the beta testers so many of them already had a good understanding of the feedback we’d received.”

This is important. Preparing and launching a product touches every aspect of an organization, from sales and marketing to technical support.

“We place a big emphasis on the whole team having ownership of the product, so for us it’s essential that everyone is involved,” said Robyn Lingard, head of operations. “We only ever take decisions to small groups once the discussion has been narrowed down and refined.”

However, this approach doesn’t come without its challenges, not the least of which is keeping the process from getting bogged down.

“When things like this are discussed you have to be aware that each department is looking at the suggestions with more of a design, development, or marketing eye based on their expertise,” Lingard said. “Although this can cause conflicting suggestions, it’s vital for getting the overall picture and coming to those decisions together based on these different perspectives.”

Crunching the data, making the decision

Once priorities have been set through this team process, the senior team looks at the themes which have emerged that impact on the technical aspects of the app. They must consider what changes in functionality and design should be made and what impacts this will have elsewhere. Always, the emphasis is on looking at the final product from the end-user’s point of view.

“Then it’s time to get down to the real work,” said Lingard.

Lingard, along with Screenreach’s account manager, created an action plan for the whole team based on what the senior team decided. To help manage the process, Screenreach uses another third-party platform, a project management and online collaboration software called Basecamp.

With the launch of the new version of Screach only weeks away, the team is busy working through final changes and testing them along the way to resolve any issues early.

“In all of this, it is very important for us to be aware of what our individual roles are and how they have to complement the work and objectives of our colleagues,” Lingard said. “When working to such tight and precise deadlines it is essential that everyone is working in sync.”

Lessons learned

Early on, the team encountered some challenges in this regard. Messages would get miscommunicated within a group that included highly technical individuals and those who were less so.

“We realized this early on in the process and had to step back and realign,” Lingard said.

Openness is crucial. Screenreach has a very strong collaborative team culture and full team meetings are used as a forum in which every individual is encouraged to discuss how work is being managed, how they are coping and how effectively the team is functioning. These meetings will often erupt into brainstorming sessions with unexpected benefits, such as a developer coming up with the solution to a marketing problem, or one of the sales teams solving an issue for the design team.

“I think many people can shy away from such openness but by always agreeing that we are all working towards the same ultimate goal, we accept that we have to constantly adapt to achieve this,” Rawlings said. “What worked for us as team three months ago will almost certainly not work in the same capacity today. We’ve found that by regularly changing our approach – and never our goals – we are evolving as a team as much as our product is.”

While the team has had challenging times over the past few weeks, Rawlings emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of those times when things go wrong to sit back, assess what’s happened and speak frankly to clear the air.

“It’s easy to put issues to one side while preparing for a launch, but actually they are what determine whether you make it through or not,” he said. “We’ve always actively encouraged team members to raise any issues they have.”

Of course, unforeseen hiccups do arise, such as a recent incident in which a key team member came down sick and everyone had to scramble to pick up the slack and keep things on track. But in Rawlings’ view, if someone is struggling to meet their targets despite their best efforts, it is a symptom of a deeper issue.

“We’ve learned that, without a doubt, any problem is never one person’s fault or responsibility,” he said. “If someone is struggling to make a deadline then we need to look back through the full production chain and assess why this might be. Doing so will perhaps raise two or three areas for improvement across multiple departments. Then we can act on these.”

In out next instalment, we will catch up with the team post-launch to see how it turned out.

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on February 8, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Startups — 1 Comment

Putting your assumptions to the test

This is the fourth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, 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.

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Putting your assumptions to the testBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

In our last post, we looked at Screenreach Interactive’s recent inroads in the radio and television industries, including its appearance on Popular U.K. television program The Gadget Show at Radio Festival, Europe’s top radio industry event, and its new “experience” for long-running U.K. current affairs program Dispatches.

But making a splash at major industry events and with high profile clients demands one thing – a compelling product. But a compelling product can’t be developed in a vacuum; it must address a clear market demand. As we have emphasized time and again on this blog, marketing and product development must work together from the get go. To quote guest commentator Ronald Weissman, “Great companies constantly test the market, for validation and feedback.”

The team at Screenreach has taken this to heart. With a new version of the Screach app expected to launch in February, every effort is being made to solicit input from beta testers and prospective users. In this post, we’ll look at how Screenreach approaches the beta testing process, what third-party tools it has found to make life easier and the lessons it continues to learn along the way.

In beta with social media

While the team is reluctant to reveal too much about the new features and functionality that will be included in the new version of Screach, it is safe to say the app has been in a constant state of evolution since its launch in the summer of 2010. Market feedback has been fundamental to the process, with social media emerging as a primary means to attract and engage with users.

Screenreach’s blog has proven to be a useful tool and this time around, the lure of winning a MacBook Air is an added incentive. But building a community following on Twitter has been fundamental to mustering a strong and outspoken group of testers. The team has built its following by getting involved in specific industry conversations on Twitter and constantly discussing Screach through the micro-blogging platform.

“There is a need to strike a balance between too few and too many beta testers,” said Screenreach CEO Paul Rawlings. “Realistically, you may have a lot of people signed up for beta testing but experience has shown us that only 25 percent of those will actively download the app and provide feedback – perhaps even less. So from that point of view you need to account for drop off.”

The mobile platform being tested also impacts how large the group can be. At this stage, Screenreach is only testing the iPhone version and Apple limits beta tester groups to 100. Google, on the other hand, imposes no such limitation for the Android.

Finding the forest among the trees

It’s one thing to build a strong community of beta testers who are willing to provide useful feedback and quite another to manage the logistics of all that crowd-sourced input and distil it into meaningful data. For that, Screenreach has found two useful third-party tools.

The first is Test Flight, a free web service that provides developers with an easy means to distribute their beta apps for testing. For the Screenreach team, there just isn’t anything else comparable.

“TestFlight has proved to be a useful tool for us, it has a great dashboard and organizing tools,” said Rawlings.

However, its current version does have one drawback.

“One problem we have experienced with TestFlight is that it only allows you to assign one account to your device which has posed problems when a beta tester has previously registered another account,” said Rawlings. “It means they have difficulty swapping the accounts over – this was something we were already aware of and could help the testers resolve but it’s definitely something you need to be aware of. Anything that inhibits the tester from downloading the app as quickly as they need to obviously isn’t great.”

The other tool is Get Satisfaction, an online platform for brands to host their community of users.

“We looked around at a number of tools that could be used to collate feedback on the new app and we chose Get Satisfaction for a couple of reasons,” said marketing manager Sarah Athey. “First, we really liked the way it allows a user to categorize their posts, it means we can manage feedback based on whether it’s a question, idea or problem. It has useful admin features too, such as a management view which helps to track and stay on top of all your posts.”

The Screenreach team never really considered handling these kinds of logistics in house.

“Third party apps like Get Satisfaction are good at what they do and make it easier to categorize feedback topics and assign the best team member to respond to a specific question, problem or idea from a tester,” Athey added. “It also creates a forum for testers to compare notes with each other and for the whole team to get involved in these conversations.”

In some instances, however, nothing beats good old fashioned face-to-face contact. While Get Satisfaction has proven effective for engaging in conversations through online forums, the Screenreach team has still found it useful to hold focus groups for feedback on the Screach experience for versions that have been customized for a specific market vertical, such as television programming.

“We’ve also had a couple of testers who have really gone the extra mile and their fresh perspective on Screach has been fantastic, so we’ve thought about inviting them in to meet the team and see the impact their feedback has made,” said Athey. “Some of the testers put a lot of their time and thought into the process and we’re very grateful for that.”

Lessons learned

Despite the benefits of using social media and specialized third-party tools, the team has found that the process can be more complicated than expected, with a host of small details to manage around the release to ensure the install of the beta version is as painless as possible for testers.

“One thing we’d say is make sure you have the full team involved in the process. Everything that comes out of this involves just about every aspect of the organization,” said Rawlings. “It’s also an interesting way to generate new ideas within the team. We’ve always placed great emphasis on every team member being deeply involved in the user and client perception of Screach so this is an important part of that.

“For example, your developer needs to be ready with the technical aspect of things but this has to be correctly communicated to your marketing person for them to translate that message to the user. Then there will be feedback that revolves around design or bugs or product questions in general – you need to have all of the correct people on board to answer these questions.”

One risk the Screenreach team took was opening beta testing during the holidays.

“We took a bit of a risk, but as it turned out, it meant our core testers had free time on their hands to get more actively involved,” said Rawlings. “You need to be aware of things like this.”

The important thing, Rawlings added, is to immerse yourself in the feedback that you receive by asking followup questions to understand the thought process behind why a beta tester is making a specific suggestion.

The learning process never ends. The new version of Screach will soon be pushed out to Android beta testers, which promises to provide a whole new flood of feedback given the growing variety of Android devices that are now available.

“We’re aiming to launch in February so things are very full on at the moment and the beta tester feedback is at the heart of everything we are working on,” said Rawlings.

In our next instalment, we will take a closer look at the launch efforts for the latest version of Screach, provided, of course, that the team’s best-laid plans do not go astray.

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on January 10, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Social media, Startups — Leave a comment