By Laura Desmond Think the customer is always right? Entrepreneur Kelly Fitzsimmons says in these three cases, you want to listen to your gut, not your customers. Would you bring a new product to market if your current customers said they didn’t want it? Well, that is exactly what happened in 1992. The product? Voicemail. […]

By Burt Dixon College business programs are well positioned to prepare students for careers in cannabis but are hampered because marijuana remains federally illegal. It seems without a doubt, the cannabis industry will experience tremendous growth in the coming years, with one analyst estimating that legal marijuana sales in the US could reach $47 billion within the […]

By Patrick Hall Often I’ll hear from people, especially on Twitter, who try to pitch me on their product in a roundabout way — asking questions and making small talk before finally revealing they just want to sell me something. First they ask what product I’m using for X, and I do my best to answer because I […]

By David Devils Five years ago ICOs were an unknown method of fundraising. Back then, two projects raised $800,000. Now ICOs have become a workable alternative to VCs, hedge funds and angel investments, and many blockchain startups choose it. The number of funds attracted via ICO has grown rapidly, so has regulator attention and investor […]

Technology was at the center of the biggest consumer product launches of the past 12 months and they have one thing in common: they embody what has come to be known as a digital native brand. This is an analysis that summarizes how the top DNVBs differentiate from the rest. Kylie Jenner launched her cosmetics […]

“You have to debug your business model.” I looked across the table at the VC I was having lunch with. It wasn’t going how I thought it would. I was ready to tell him about the cool technology I had developed. How it would transform the world of enterprise computing. He wasn’t interested in that. […]

Marketers experimenting with influencer marketing are finding it difficult to move beyond the experimental stage, according to a new report by Traackr, the influencer relationship management platform. Although more companies have pushed their influencer marketing toward tactical programmes in 2018 (47%, up from 28% in 2017), there’s still a clear lack of more advanced programmes. “This ‘tactical trap’ […]

Over a third (35.5%) of US companies are now using mobile adverts and location targeting to reach audiences based on geo-fencing and geo-targeting, according to new research by BIA Advisory Services. The latest report suggests that businesses with over 500 employees were spending around $4.48 million on ads. Another $2.18 million was being allocated to […]

According to a new survey, Instagram has overtaken Snapchat as the most popular social media platform among American teenagers. Investment banking firm Piper Jaffray released the latest version of it’s bi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” report which showed 85% of the 8,600 participants said that they use Instagram at least once a month. In comparison, 84% of […]

Open risk-taking is a bad idea. But calculated risk-taking is something else again. It’s not uncommon to hear the advice that entrepreneurs should take more calculated risks if they want to be successful. In fact, some billionaires have built their personal brands on a foundation of risk; as an example, Richard Branson often speaks of the […]