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Indigestion from “Half Baked” Mobile Web Browsing

May 21, 2008

Yesterday, Chris Sacca (ex Googler extraordinaire, investor in the likes of Twitter and recent Tech Leadership Conference Keynote speaker) shot a provocative salvo across the bow of the Twittosphere. Many times Twitter is a true belwether, capturing the pulse of market dynamics. And, although saying this might not go down well in Waterloo, it struck a chord with me. …

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Business Strategy

Early Adopters versus Business Models: Shooting Yourself in the Foot?

April 12, 2008

In an attempt to de-mystify seeming abstract business theory, from time to time, we will discuss “real world” examples of business models in action.

Both theory and practice underscore the importance of keeping early adopters engaged with a new product or service, a key enabler for creating a hit in the mainstream market. Of course, such trend setters love to play …

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Business Strategy

Science Fairs, Social Media & Fads – The New Science for the 21st Century

April 9, 2008

Last week, my son Devin Howard (a Grade 12 student, pictured above) won a Gold Medal at Waterloo-Wellington Science and Engineering Fair, enabling him to go on to the Canada-Wide Science Fair, run by Youth Science Foundation, in May at the University of Ottawa.

His topic, for which he developed a computer model written in multi-agent, graphical modelling and simulation …

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Business Strategy

REPOST: New Playbook for Venture 2.0 – Presentation & Spreadsheet

April 2, 2008

It seems that several people missed the “Comments” link where Grover posted his materials for the Venture 2.0 Playbook. Therefore, I’m reposting his comments with the link here below. Also, although we’ve had some great dialogue offline about this extremely important topic, I’d like to see some here.

Thanks to Randall for his kind words. It really was a great event …

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Business Strategy

The “New Playbook for Venture 2.0: How to get from $0 to exit with less capital”

March 19, 2008

Yesterday, long time friend and business colleague Grover P. Righter who is General Manager Americas for Silicon Valley-based iMobileInternet, was the Keynote speaker at the Mars Experience Tech 2008 Conference. That conference was clearly a highlight of the year and was brilliantly executed by MaRS guru Peter Evans.

And, Grover’s keynote address, entitled “New Playbook for Venture 2.0: How to get …

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General

Iotum – Rocketing Through 200 000 Users

March 15, 2008

Today, I am excitedly watching Ottawa-based iotum‘s Free Conference Calls application on Facebook rocket through the 200 000 net installed user mark. As many of you know, iotum is a Verdexus portfolio investment of late last year when I also engaged with the company as Chairman. Note that I plan to discuss the investment cycle for global and Canadian startups …

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General

The World is My Oyster – State of Connectivity in Europe

March 15, 2008

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And, don’t worry, with modern hand luggage restrictions, I didn’t have my sword to open the oyster to extract a pearl! In fact, Oyster is a Transport For London brand for their payment system. Many here in North America feel we are at the epicentre of the technology universe and have a monopoly on great technologies empowering the connectivity …

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General

CeBIT 2008 – World’s Largest ICT Show Still Strong in the Age of the Web!

March 6, 2008

As part of a European trip through Vienna, Munich, London and Berlin to meet with some tech startups and key tech investors, yesterday I stopped in at CeBIT in Hannover Germany.

For those who don’t know CeBIT, this massive Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) show remains the largest computer show in the world. I’ve attended CeBIT off and on …

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Business Strategy

Free Love and the Mini

March 4, 2008

For those from the 1960’s such a pairing might trigger nostalgia. But in the new millennium, what does this mean? Believe it or not, the former is hot, emerging branding strategy for a media-saturated populace.

This week, en route from Vienna, via Munich to CeBIT and on to Berlin, my European Verdexus partner Suresh Patel, and I had an opportunity …

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