How startup funding works
Here’s a great infographic on the typical funding stages from idea to IPO. It’s been kicking around on LinkedIn for a while originating, I think, with Fernando Cabral. However, the content comes the essay, How To Fund a Startup, by programmer, author and investor Paul Graham. A nice visualisation of an often fraught and confusing […]
Stories for powerful presentations – Nicholas Bate
As part of his Awesome Presenting 50 series, Nicholas Bate reminds us: More stories. Definitely more stories. Stories are memorable: they have links, flow, drama. They are easy to remember. Bullets are forgettable. Remember! Read the rest, here. Photo by Mark Rasmuson on Unsplash
The Bukowski guide to copywriting – @HubSpot
Five tips for good writing, grounded in the works of Charles Bukowski: Write with emotion Write with brevity Write with clarity Write with honesty Write with style Read the full post, here. Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
The three stories of self, us and now – ideas.TED.com
Eric Liu discusses the nature of power and how stories can change the status quo, on Ideas.TED.com. This is true far beyond the context of civic power in which Liu writes. “When you want to challenge the powerful, you must change the story.” He outlines three nested stories we must tell; The Story of Self […]
Sci-fi prototyping with @SciFutures #contentmarketing #writing
The Times has a profile of SciFutures, a firm that creates sci-fi short stories to help businesses and other organisations envision the future and develop strategies in response. It’s a great concept and one already taken up by firms like Visa, Ford, Pepsi and Samsung, along with NATO and the US Navy. We are all […]
Less is more: Daniel Kahneman on detail
Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow is essential reading for anyone involved in business communication. It is packed with insights on how we (and therefore our audience) perceive and interpret things. One particular challenge is described in chapter 13: “Linda: Less is More”. The challenge is epitomised by a fictitious character, Linda, that Kahneman […]
Facts are facts, but images resonate – @thisisseth
Great point from Seth Godin, here. Facts and proof-points are essential. They give credibility to your case, they anchor it in reality. But, they are just the anchor; they are not the graceful yacht slicing through the waves. Photo by Alin Meceanu on Unsplash
Stories are told in the body – @JeremyAdamSmith #writing #contentmarketing
Stories are told in the body, says Jeremy Smith: It doesn’t seem that way. We tend to think of stories as emerging from consciousness—from dreams or fantasies—and travelling through words or images to other minds. We see them outside of us, on paper or on screen, never under the skin. But we do feel stories. […]
Microcopy, (or simply attention to detail?) – @thisisseth #contentmarketing
Seth Godin is on a roll about writing… “People rarely read to the end. And they almost never spend as much time reading your words as you spend writing them. Which makes it ironic that the little phrases we use (in designing a simple form, or when we answer the phone) matter so much.” Read […]
Echoes through time: wide views over the sea – #Writing
“It is reason and wisdom which take away cares, not places affording wide views over the sea.” Horace (65BC – 8BC), Epistles I, xi,25-6