Eureka Moments
Are We Pioneers Yet? Sustainability During COVID-19
Since COVID-19 has confined us to our homes I am noticing some strange (and wonderful) consumer behaviors. There’s a Run on Flour The first episode of King Arthur Flour’s new video series, The Isolation Baking Show, features superstar bakers Gesine...
Grow-NY: Growth Opportunities in Both Senses
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to speak with Jenn Smith, Program Director for Grow-NY. This organization is leading a very exciting competition to bring next generation food and agriculture innovation to the upstate NY region. Please spread the word. Calling All...
Marketing During COVID-19: 5 Strategic Actions to Help You Navigate a Path Forward
For those of you rethinking your marketing during COVID-19 here are 5 strategic actions to help you navigate a path forward. "Getting through a trying year - but not without scars." This note card never fails to crack me up. It seems especially appropriate now. For...
Collaborating during Coronavirus (with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
For those of you remotely collaborating during Coronavirus I wanted to share a new innovation with you. Vibe digital whiteboard. This past January I was at WeWork Labs to present to a group of maritime startups. Just before I stood up to speak, my sponsor Elizabeth...
Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator Makes a Big Splash
What do the following have in common? Marine biology program. Emergency physician practice. Technology to extract contaminants. Data and insights platform. Trucking app and online platform. Fishing gear recycling program. Least-cost ballast water treatment...
Are you letting your customers design their own products yet?
I subscribe to Trend Hunter’s newsletters and it’s always fascinating to read about what innovations they are finding through their community. One of the trends they have been writing about for a while is customization. Customization in this context means enabling...
Which innovation archetype are you? And how might that be holding you back?
A few months ago I treated myself to a day of innovation and attended the Seattle Future Festival, hosted by Trend Hunter. If you don’t already know about Trend Hunter, they are the world's largest, most popular trend community, with a global network of 200,000...
Amazon Go: The Experience of No
In Seattle in January 2018 Amazon opened their Amazon Go store to the public with the very enticing proposition: No lines. No checkout. Removing friction from the shopping process is a strategy that has driven much of Amazon’s online innovation (1-Click ordering,...
Mergers and Acquisitions May Be “Better Than Sex,” But Don’t Get Left Holding the Baby
Hal Conick wrote an enlightening and useful article, How Marketing Can Make Mergers and Acquisitions Easy, in which he referenced the AOL / Time Warner merger. According to Conick, Time Warner executive Ted Turner said the transaction was “better than sex.” We now...
The Importance of F*ucking Up: How Mistakes Lead to Better Innovation
I nearly laughed myself sick when I saw this invitation. According to the organizers, FuckUp Nights is the fastest growing global movement of entrepreneurial people who come together to publicly share failure stories. Thousands of people attend FuckUp Nights each...
A Framework for Finding the Right Startup Target
University of Washington Entrepreneur in Residence, Derek Streat, had a daughter who suffered from a rare medical condition. After spending thousands of hours researching her condition and finding it frustrating to have to sift through all the databases for the exact...
Should We Care About This? 10 Questions to Help Assess Macro Trends
In an earlier post, Tornado Sightings, I wrote about the importance of keeping an eye on macro trends. Macro trends are big social and economic shifts – technology, consumer demographics, culture, or historical turnings – that can reshape markets and create big new...