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 […]
Sci-fi for scenario planning
The French army turns to sci-fi writers to imagine the future. Here’s an interesting article from the BBC news site. It was retweeted by Sci Futures who, although not involve in this project, specialise in exactly this sort of approach for business and government. In summary, the French military has engaged a team of sci-fi […]
Friction – @RogerDooley
New on my reading pile is Roger Dooley’s new book Friction, complete with a sandpapery dust jacket. I can’t wait to get my teeth into it. I also found this in my Twitter feed… And, of course, you can find Roger, here, on Neurosciencemarketing.com.
Our affinity for stories is deep-rooted
This is interesting. Jordan Peterson on perceptions of reality: Scientific truths were made explicit a mere five hundred years ago, with the works of Francis Bacon, René Descartes and Isaac Newton. In whatever manner our forebears viewed the world prior to that, it was not through a scientific lens (any more than they could view […]
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
How paying for online reviews backfires – @HarvardBiz #ContentMarketing
We all know, deep down, that there’s something just a little bit suspect about paying for endorsements. This month’s Harvard Business Review (September-October 2017) has a short summary of research that shows how paying for reviews can actually backfire – reducing the number of reviews as valuable reviewers shy away from being seen as paid […]
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 […]
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 […]
Seth on words – @thisisseth #writing
Two useful posts from Seth Godin on the power of words; use sparingly… “… if you try to say three things, we will hear nothing. Because most of the time, we’re hardly listening. Ads, instructions, industrial design—they all work better when they try to say one thing at a time.” and … “Words matter. They […]