StartupNorth

Category: Startups

  • Not all founders are created equal

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    I was reading an excerpt from Noah Wasserman’s The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) about Founder Dilemmas: Equity Splits and it struck home. Equity splits and distribution are often the key issues related to power imbalances, perceived injustice and tension amongst cofounders.

    In Noam’s dataset, 73% of founding teams split equity within a month of founding, a striking number given the big uncertainties early in the life of any startup. The majority of those teams set the equity in stone by failing to allow for future adjustments to equity stakes if there are major changes within the team or the startup…

    Setting the early equity split in stone is one of the biggest mistakes founders can make. With their confidence in their startup and themselves, their passion for their work and their mission, and their desire not to harm the fragile dynamic within the nascent founding team, cofounders tend to plan for the best that can happen. They assume that their early, high levels of commitment will last long into the future, rather than waning as the challenges of founding begin to sap their passion for the idea and for each other. They assume that no adverse events will change the composition of the team.They also tend to take a very short-term view of the factors that should affect equity splits.

    Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, and a founder will choose to leave the company or have the choice made for them. The question is how do you create a set of agreements that is fair to all of the cofounders. Often we think that standard employment and shareholder agreements cover much of the difficult situations that we can encounter with cofounders. But as cofounders it starts by really understand what you each are looking for, and then making sure your agreements cover the specifics of your situation.

    10 Critical Cofounder Questions

    1. How should we divide the shares?
    2. How will decisions get made?
    3. What happens if one of us leaves the company?
    4. Can any of us be fired? By whom? For what reasons?
    5. What are our personal goals for the startup?
    6. Will this be the primary activity for each of us?
    7. What part of our plan are we unwilling to change?
    8. What contractual terms will each of us sign with the company?
    9. Will any of us be investing cash in the company? If so, how will this be treated?
    10. What will we pay ourselves? Who gets to change this in the future?

    A couple of things. I think all founders stock should vest. I like it when founders purchase their initial shares with a one-time acceleration clause for a small percentage at purchase (3-5%). I like when founders’ stock reverse vests with a traditional one year cliff. The initial vesting acceleration is because things can change at 6 months and it seems fair to value the capital risk that each founder has taken at purchase. And the one year cliff because it is standard. What I’ve seen a lot is founders that don’t do the small initial accelerated vesting clause.

    The other thing I like to see is an Employment Agreement with Termination clauses, in particular, an acceleration on vesting regarding “Termination by the Corporation without Cause”. I like to see a single trigger acceleration with 6-12 months of stock vesting on termination without cause (I’m not alone). The goal is to be fair and to protect each cofounder and the corporation if things don’t workout.

    What tips do others have for equity splits? acceleration clauses? terms? That as cofounders we should put in our agreements.

    Other Resources

     

  • The Startup Backoffice

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    Scalabiity Inc

    StartupNorth contributor Ray Luk (LinkedIn, @rayluk) announced the launch of Scalability Inc. (@scalabilityinc). It’s a great service that provides backoffice services including bookkeeping, accounting, government filings, payroll, record keeping, and human resources. It’s the combination of tools and the people with the expertise to help with timing that can make a huge difference. Ray seems to have nailed a need in the marketplace with Scalability Inc.

    It’s great to see startups building these unsexy tools, and sharing their experiences. It’s particularly interesting to see how many Canadian startups are playing in the unsexy backoffice space. Scalability Inc., Wave Accounting (announced $12MM from Social+Capital), TribeHR ($1MM from David Skok at Matrix Partners), Shopify ($22MM from Bessemer), Dayforce (acquired by Ceridian), it seems like Canadians like critical business apps.

    @StartupCFO backoffice talk on oct 4 2011 at Founderfuel

    What are the must have tools that you are using in your startup’s back office?

    Sales & Inventory

    Analytics & Business Intelligence

    CRM

    Human Resources

    Accounting & Payroll & Expenses

    Invoicing

    Payments

    Legals

    Bookkeepers & Accountants

    What are you using in the back office? Who are the consultants and providers that we’ve missed?

     

  • Hot Sh!t 2012 Nominations

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    It’s been 376 days since I put together the Hot Sh!t List 2011. And we’re looking to round out the list with some the next generation of to be watched entrepreneurs. Who in Canada is better than all the rest?  Perhaps we’ll can get custom awards modelled after  Philippe Starck’s Flamme D’Or.

    Who do you think should be on the list? Help us find the next generation of up and coming Canadians. In particular we’re looking for those folks behind the scenes, the developers, business developers, growth hackers, marketers, etc. that often don’t get the sames recognitions as the CEO or founders. But they are critical to the success of Canadian startups.

    [gravityform id=”3″ name=”Hot Sh!t List Nomination” ajax=”true”]

  • CVCA, #FFdemoday and AccelerateMTL

    Chris Arsenault (LinkedIn, AngelList, @chrisarsenault) sent me a message yesterday about writing about the CVCA conference. And I was looking at the conference trying to figure out why as an entrepreneur that I might want to attend this event. It is “the premiere networking and professional development event for Canada’s venture capital and private equity industry”. Well I don’t work in venture capital or the private equity industry, and the professional development I can get that at Ladies Learning Code or Udemy or O’Reilly. So why should I care? Maybe a “free Blackberry Playbook” would get me to pay for the registration. Disclosure: RIM is a sponsor of StartupNorth, though we don’t have any free Playbooks. 

    Then it struck me.

    1. FounderFuel DemoDay
    2. AccelerateMTL
    3. CVCA

    My goodness, this is an incredible opportunity for Canadian entrepreneurs. If you plan this correctly, you can connect with investors, other founders, folks form NYC, Boston, the Bay area. While the specific sessions at CVCA aren’t necessarily my cup of tea, you could sit in the lobby at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth and meet every investor in one shot.

    CVCA attendees will have a “free Blackberry Playbook” . Just like LinkedIn, I’d be building an HTML5 optimized version of my application and making sure as hell it works like gold on a Playbook (which has a great implementation of WebKit browser). You could call the Fairmont and set up an espresso stand and give away coffee to everyone that demos your application. Hell if nothing else a big sign with “Free Latte” for all of the hung over CVCA attendees and have a student running to a local coffee shop for fulfillment. Great opportunity to get out and hustle.

    On top of all of this you get to see some brilliant demos at Founder Fuel. This is going to be a killer event, and you could make it a very interesting opportunity to get in front of potential investors, partners and folks from outside Canada for relatively little cost.

  • Spilling the secret sauce

    Editors Note: This is a guest post by Cory Mcculloch (Linkedin, @CoryMacculloch). Cory studied law at UofT, works at Brooks Law and was a summer student at Cognition LLP. Follow Cory on Twitter @CoryMacculloch.

    The following is not legal advice and may not be full depiction of the law. Do not rely on anything stated below without first speaking to your lawyer. By publishing the information below, there is no creation of a lawyer-client relationship.

    At every entrepreneurial event that I go to, I, without fail meet at least one person who guards his or her business idea like it is the coordinates of a hidden treasure and I am a pirate looming for an opportunity to pillage.

    While I always respect one’s decision not to disclose details about their business idea, one cannot forget about the benefits to be gained from people who, like myself, enjoy connecting entrepreneurs with others. Granted, sometimes the decision to remain confidential is wise, but I suspect people are often misguided.

    When to “shut-up”

    If you are working on a process or machine that you wish to patent (assuming you know what can be patented and what cannot be patented) and you believe that it is going to be more than year or so down the road before you are able patent it, then it may not be a wise decision to disclose details about your process or machine in its early stages. This is because of the “novelty requirement” embedded in the definition of “invention” in the Canadian Patent Act. As interpreted, an otherwise valid patentable subject matter becomes unpatentable when one *discloses how their invention works, and *discloses enough details to enable a skilled reader to make or construct that very invention. This is again assuming that the subject matter for which your “invention” is patentable Most general business ideas that people devise are not patentable inventions, and even if one’s idea is patentable, telling someone your target market and how your business idea will work is generally not enough to violate the “novelty requirement” of a patent as described above.

    If you have signed an employment agreement, consultation agreement, shareholder’s agreement, or any other agreement that has a provision labeled as “confidential information”, then for the sake of legal safety do not disclose any particulars about the related party’s business model or any secrets until you have understood the substance of your promises. Often these agreements are intended to protect the company’s “trade secrets”. With that being said, generally agreements provide that something that is already public is no longer is a secret.

    If you haven’t signed any documents with anybody but you have devised ingredients or steps for the making of a product or code, or you have received those ingredients from someone else, then it may also not be a good idea to disclose what those ingredients are. Even if you decide not to patent your invention, the common law affords a limited amount of protection for what is classified as a “trade secret”. A trade secret loses all of its protection when it is no longer is a secret.

    When it may be a good idea to reveal

    If none of the above situations apply to you and you have the ability to discuss general details about your idea (i.e. what kind of hot sauce you are planning to make and your target market) then it may be a good idea to disclose general details without disclosing the essential ingredients of your hot sauce.

    Contrary to popular belief not everyone you talk to is in the business of ripping off ideas. A very costly mistake is creating a business without early validation. The only way to get any validation is by hearing the plight and praise of potential customers and this may require some opening up. Funding opportunities, staffing possibilities, and connection building are also some essential building blocks that people may miss out on.

    So although there are times when it may be wise to not “spill the secret sauce”, there are other times when giving a little taste test can lead to valued feedback and responses.

  • Waterloo’s Next Five Years

    Following on with Jevon’s original post of Canada’s Next Five Years, I want to discuss Waterloo.

    Five years ago, I organized the first StartupCampWaterloo. It built on the great community and open space tools from BarCampWaterloo and focused participants around startups. Simon Woodside, Ali Asaria, Mic Berman, and myself felt like we needed to something a little different to get the grass roots high tech startup community moving in Waterloo. It was a year after the Accelerator Centre opened and the community was just finding its feet. Waterloo felt bold and creative with a strong core of startups but it was small.

    With the aggressive growth of RIM and Open Text, the Waterloo community has spent the last five years building a strong and diverse tech community. In addition to the homegrown companies, the community was fuelled by a few California based companies making some big purchases in Waterloo Region. These three purchases resulted in the parent companies building a larger presence in the Waterloo Region:

    In the last couple of years Communitech grew beyond simply being a promoter and connector for local tech companies. Communitech has established a home base for startups in downtown Kitchener. They took the bold move to put a vibrant space for startups in an old Tannery complex, which has also attracted the likes of Google and Desire2Learn, each with hundreds of employees based in the building. The Communtech Hub is a strong message to entrepreneurs that the community is there to support you.

    However, the next five years are where all the attention the Waterloo region has drawn to itself is going to have to transition to results and further momentum growth. This will depend a lot on the companies that have been founded in the last five years and includes some that are now YC-backed.

    Looking at what Canada needs to do, what role does Waterloo play in that?

    Education

    Waterloo is home to arguably the top Engineering School in the country, the University of Waterloo. With programs like REAP, CBET, and living environments like VeloCity it is committed to educating and supporting students with regards to entrepreneurship. It is also focused on having them experience it through the Co-op program that allows students to work anywhere in the world with many choosing to work at Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, and a ton of different startups in the valley. This results in students that have a big head start in terms of building a network as well as learning about problems that could turn into great product ideas. That experience and opportunity is a big win for Canada’s startup community. We can see the rise of Waterloo alum lead startups like Vidyard, Kik, Upverter, Well.ca, TribeHR, LearnHub, Thinking Ape, Pair, and others.

    And it’s not just UWaterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga college are also doing their part. The MBA program at WLU has a focus on entrepreneurship and they are leveraging the Communitech Hub environment. Conestoga College is educating the work force in the region making it a very important partner in ensuring there is a workforce for growing companies.

    Community as the Framework

    The Waterloo Region has a ton of tech oriented events. A lot of folks assume the trick is to find time to attend all the events you want to attend. The real trick is figuring out which events you should attend, and how to make the most of your attendance. Are you attending for education? recruiting? to find funding? to be part of the startup scene?  More entrepreneurs need to clearly identify their desired outcomes from each event, and they participate accordingly.

    What there needs to be, is a greater focus on founders and information sharing.  Peer mentorship, breakfasts with friends at Angie’s, or just chatting at the end of the day. We should avoid gossip, we don’t want or need a ValleyWag for Waterloo Region. Building a company is difficult enough that we don’t need to be hindering each other. Entrepreneurs need to be able to establish trusting relationships with each other, to build I see it happening more and more but there isn’t enough peer mentorship going on.There are a large number of entrepreneurs that have been through the ups and downs of a startup. It includes fundraising, business development, channel partner discussions, contract gotchas, etc. We need to help entrepreneurs build connections with each other.  There is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs to build trustworthy relationships and share their experiences.

    Tighter connections to elsewhere

    Jevon calls for tighter ties to Silicon Valley. But it’s more broad than that. Canadians need to get out of Canada. We need to build stronger connections in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Buenos Ares, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Eastern Europe.

    We are doing a pretty good job at getting exposure in Silicon Valley. We have companies going to YCombinator (Vidyard, Allerta, Upverter, Pair and others). The C100 has done an amazing job identifying Canadian expatriates and connecting them across the country. The C100 has expanded to NYC and to the UK. Entrepreneurs need to expand to.  We have startups raising money from NYC (Kik raised from USV), Boston (TribeHR raised from Matrix Partners). We need to get out of the local ecosystem and build products for global customers.

    I would be remiss to ignore the need for tighter connections to Toronto as well. Whenever anyone says “Toronto is better than Waterloo for…” or “Waterloo is better than Toronto for…” a kitten dies. Stop it. No one really cares and outside of Ontario people think it is just one big region. Lets build stronger ties and use both cities for everything they have to offer.

    Policy

    Beyond establishing the Hub, Communitech has done a lot of work on building connections with all levels of government. They have a big role to play with influencing policy as does Canada’s Technology Triangle Association.

    Grow Like Hell and Don’t Stop

    Hootsuite is mentioned but Waterloo is home to tech companies that have taken the long path to growth. RIM, Open Text, and Desire2Learn are examples of rapid growth (over a 10 year period) tech companies. What Waterloo needs is more of that. The challenge is going to be getting the talent that knows how to work sales funnels, marketing, etc to live in the Region in sufficient numbers.

    What I would guess is going to happen initially is that US VC-backed companies that started in Waterloo will have to find a way to balance having their product teams in Waterloo and marketing/sales teams in major US startup hub cities. That means an office in Waterloo and one of Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Francisco, New York, or Boston. This allows them to hire developer talent outside of the higher salaries zones that is on par (or better) but feed on the energy in those cities. The US market and understanding it quickly is key to many of the current fast moving startups in Waterloo.

    For the Region of Waterloo to live up to the expectations, in the next five years these companies will need to attract that marketing/sales talent to move here for work or be able to use Toronto for that.

     

  • ShopLocket makes selling online easy

    Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Katherine Hague (LinkedIn, @katherinehague), co-founder and CEO of Shoplocket.com, a startup that has recently launched and which aims to help people sell anything from anywhere in minutes. Part of our efforts to highlight and support entrepreneurs and projects from Ladies Learning Code.

    After 6 months of hard work, we’re excited to announce the launch of Shoplocket..

    ShopLocket is a simple solution for anyone wanting a quick and attractive way to start selling online without the overhead of running a storefront.

    Think of it as a platform powering popup online retailers. It’s Lean Retail. Much like Lean Startup or Lean Manufacturing. It’s a platform for online retailers to find “a plan that works before running out of resources”. Just like CafePress automates the creation of customized goods, ShopLocket makes it easy for makers to sell online without investing in inventory or ecommerce solutions. It’s a way, much like restauranters testing new menus and concepts in food truck, popup restaurant or underground markets, ito test the sales of products online.

    Shoplocket Cofounders Katherine and Andrew

    During summer of 2011, I had the idea to have some quirky t-shirts printed to see whether I could manage to sell them online. I had a pretty decent blog following and a solid network so it occurred to me that if I posted them for sale on the blog, that people might buy them. For only one t-shirt, signing up for a full storefront solution seemed a little ridiculous, especially since I didn’t even know if I’d sell one to cover monthly fees. At the same time I wanted my product listing to look well designed and professional. These were really great t-shirts, and I couldn’t imagine myself just throwing them onto a marketplace like kijiji or craigslist. I couldn’t figure out why what seemed like an easy e-commerce problem like “I only have one product to sell” was actually so hard to solve.

    Using ShopLocket, sellers can be up and running in minutes and can embed their products directly on any website, or share a link to where we host their product. In some cases, ShopLocket will serve as a customer funnel for larger online stores, helping new sellers figure out whether they’ve got something worth selling. But for many others, ShopLocket will be all they ever need. For these sellers we’re a replacement for back-and-forth email transactions with buyers and unprofessional marketplaces. Think of us as the ideal “display case” for your new product.

    We’ve been in beta with about 1200 users. We’ve been accepted in the first cohort at Extreme Startups. We couldn’t have gotten to where we are today without the incredible support of the Toronto startup community. We’re now gearing up for our Demo Day on June 19th.

  • Startup Festival’s amazing lineup

    Startup Festival - Startups That Matter - July 11-13, 2012 in MontrealIt’s only 76 days (July 11-13, 2012) until Startup Festival in Montreal (are you planning on a roadtrip?), and the team has announced a spectacular set of speakers for the event.

    If you don’t know who these people are, well you should. There are some like Deborah Schultz and Stowe Boyd that are some of the best thinkers about the role that new technology has on work, culture, experience, marketing and behaviour. Go read Debs’ “Dear Miss Manners: the Social Web – WTF?” or Stowe’s Work Talk Research including Data is the New Oil: From Privacy to Publicy. These individuals are talking about the social and political forces that will create the next generation of startups. They are simply amazing.

    Did you know the Internet is for porn? Cindy Gallop gave a not to be missed talk at TED in 2009, Make Love Not Porn. She has been thinking about the role pornography, advertising and entertainment.

    The rest of the schedule is bound to be equally amazing. I’m looking forward to my trip to Montreal. I hope you’ll join me.

     

  • What makes a startup “disruptive”?

    Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @markevans or MarkEvansTech.com. This post was originally published in April 17, 2012 on MarkEvansTech.com.

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    I had coffee recently with a VC who talked about how “disruptive technology” was a key part of his firm’s investment approach.

    On the surface, it makes sense. After all, “disruptive” is impressive because it sounds like something that could make a difference and, in the process, attract a lot of users and be worth a lot of money.

    But after thinking about it, I began to wonder what “disruptive” really means and, in particular, what makes a startup truly disruptive. Is it a product that leaps ahead of the competition in a major way? Is it a product that solves a problem or a need in a new or different way? Is it a product that’s easier to use or less expensive than what exists?

    • Is Wave Accounting, for example, disruptive because it launched a free online accounting service into a market in which most players were offering a fee-based service?
    • Is 500px disruptive because its elegant and service displays photographs so beautifully.
    • Is Engagio disruptive because it offers a “social inbox” at a time when people are getting messages from multiple sources.

    In many respects, “disruptive” can be defined in many ways. This makes it an alluring but, arguably, difficult creature to discover and identify. For one investor, disruptive may be one thing but it entirely different from another investor.

    The problem with “disruptive” is it’s a sexy term for entrepreneurs and investors to throw around. Suggesting your product is “disruptive” is easy to do and get away with because it can be difficult to argue otherwise because “disruptive” is so slippery. How many times have you heard an entrepreneur proclaim their technology is “disruptive”?

    The reality is we love “disruptive” because it’s elusive, multi-faceted and difficult to pinpoint until a startup enjoys success. Then, everyone can confidently say: “I know Instagram/Pinterest/Path, etc. was disruptive when I first saw it”.

    So, how do you define “disruptive”?

    Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @markevans or MarkEvansTech.com. This post was originally published in April 17, 2012 on MarkEvansTech.com.

  • Startup Marketing: Does the Competition Matter?

    Editor’s note: This is a guest post by serial entrepreneur and marketing executive April Dunford who is currently the head of Enterprise Market Strategy for Huawei. April specializes in brining new products to market including messaging, positioning, market strategy, go-to-market planning and lead generation. She is one of the leading B2B/enterprise marketers in the world and we’re really lucky to be able to share here content with you. Follow her on Twitter @aprildunford or RocketWatcher.com. This post was originally published in April 12, 2012 on RocketWatcher.com.

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    I have heard people make the argument that startups shouldn’t think about their competitors. I agree that many spend too much time worrying about how their feature set stacks up against another offering’s feature set. On the other hand, prospects are evaluating your solution against alternatives (which may not be products) and communicating how you are better than those alternatives is a key part of great startup marketing. Simply put – you should care about competitive alternatives if your prospects do.

    Startups are not Big Companies

    I very rarely see useful competitive analysis done by startup marketers, mainly because they are trying to do it like big companies do it. The big companies I’ve worked for have had departments dedicated to creating large detailed check mark matrices that showed how our feature set compared to competitive offerings. These matrices almost never included any feedback from customers. Needless to say, the products and their markets were very mature.

    This approach completely falls apart within the context of a startup. Your competitors, from a customer point of view are almost never so easily defined. For startups, your offering is often competing with “do nothing”, “hire someone to do it”, use spreadsheets/documents/paper, or some other solution that might be completely unsuited to the task but is free/easy/what has always been used. Comparing features of one of these alternatives to your startup’s offering to makes absolutely no sense in this context.

    A More Customer-Centric Approach

    In the context of a startup the only competitive analysis that makes sense is the one that is happening in side the heads of your prospects. The more you understand about that, the more you can use that knowledge to improve your marketing.

    Instead of the traditional competitive comparison matrix, a more useful competitive alternatives snapshot for a startup would look at what customers perceive to be the major benefits of the alternative, what risks they see that might stop them from choosing your solution and how you might address these issues in your messaging.

    An Example

    Here’s an example for CRMster, a fictional solution aimed at mid-sized consulting businesses to help them manage their customer information. The points here are just to give you some ideas about how this might look:

    Competitive Alternative Benefit customers perceive Risk in selecting your offering Value of your offering Proof points
    Do nothing – we don’t use a CRM tool and that’s fine by us Free
    Zero effort required    		 Budget spent on this will mean less money for other thingsConsultants will have to learn the tool and record data they don’t today More accurately predict future workloads so you can budget/staff accordingly and increase your profitability.Gives consultants access to more complete customer information making it easier to do their jobs. 3rdparty data: Research shows companies using CRM are X% more profitable.Customer data: CRMster customers have x% average increase in revenue/profitabilityEnd user quote “CRMster makes collaborating easy. I want to marry it! ”Customer case studies
    Manage customer data in spreadsheets FreeEveryone knows how to use a spreadsheet Budget spent on this will mean less money for other thingsConsultants will have to learn the tool Eliminate the need to consolidate spreadsheets – a process that is time consuming and introduces errorsEasier, more effective team collaboration means projects are delivered on time, on budget. Customer quote: “Consolidating spreadheets was a pain and our data stank. CRMster lets us accurately forecast our business.”Customer quote: “CRMster got our teams working together better so we could deliver projects on budget”End user quote: “So fun to use I gave up playing Angry Birds at work!”Analyst opinion: “Folks using spreadsheets are big losers”
    Use CRMFree, a free CRM tool Free Budget spent on this will mean less money for other things Expert customer supportProvides features for consulting companies that generic CRM tools don’t have. Analyst data: X% of CRM deployments fail because end-users don’t get good support.Customer quote: “Their support is so great we send them chocolates on valentine’s day”Press quote: “If you are a consulting company you are an idiot if you buy anything else”Customer logos, case studies
    Use BigWig CRM, a CRM tool for mid-sized businesses of any type A safe bet: an established brand CRMster might go out of businessThe software might be unproven, buggy crap CRMster is way cheaper.Provides features for consulting companies that generic CRM tools don’t have. Pricing and guarantees.Screen shots, product demosTeam bios – emphasizing successes and background in this market.Investor profiles, investment announcementsCustomer logos, case studies

    For this example, only the last couple of rows get into any discussion of product features and even there those aren’t the only considerations. The other thing to notice is that the feature discussion can happen as part of a higher-level theme (we’re better because we are cheaper, more targeted to this market, or a more elegant solution) rather than a checklist of niggley esoteric features like you would for mature products in a mature market. If you are going head to head with an established player in the market you’re doing it because you have something radically different.

    The Output: Better Messaging

    The next step is to look at the themes and develop key messages that highlight your differentiated value while addressing the potential big concerns. I’ve written about messaginghere and here and I’ll talk more about how you would take the next step and construct messaging upcoming post.

    Editor’s note: This is a guest post by serial entrepreneur and marketing executive April Dunford who is currently the head of Enterprise Market Strategy for Huawei. April specializes in brining new products to market including messaging, positioning, market strategy, go-to-market planning and lead generation. She is one of the leading B2B/enterprise marketers in the world and we’re really lucky to be able to share here content with you. Follow her on Twitter @aprildunford or RocketWatcher.com. This post was originally published in April 12, 2012 on RocketWatcher.com.