DTCW is Rebranding, Relaunching, Recruiting!

DTCW Communications is relaunching, re-branding, and most exciting for us – recruiting! We are launching a brand new website which will advertise our new range of services as a full service digital media and communications agency for high-growth startups. We now offer a full range of services from copywriting through to web design, development, PPC advertising, video production and a white label analytics platform.

We will also be able to announce a board of advisors, all seasoned entrepreneurs and respected members of the startup community. Douglas Ackerman has been promoted to the role of co-founder and a Partner, responsible for delivering our communications services to clients. Liz Hardy also joins us as a social media consultant, adding her colorful personality to our team, and we are bringing on board our own internal marketing team. The New Goldrush, which is the book Dominic Tarn has been working on since the summer of 2012 will be launching in May.

Recruitment: We Need You! DTCW is recruiting a team of freelance copywriters, designers, content marketing professionals and social media managers. If you have the skills, want the excitement of working in a growing company, and enjoy working for startup clients then get in touch. We only work with clients we want, and our credibility in the sector is already established. Our team take care of winning clients – you will be responsible for delivering the service end of the contracts. We offer clients a series of packages, as well as a wide range of complimentary communications solutions.

The role would be freelance, but our billable hourly rates are usually in line with or higher than standard freelance rates, and we would aim to secure minimum contracts from clients of at least 3 months. Our target market is the UK, US & Canada, with partners enabling us to extend into Asia and the Middle East North Africa region.

We are aiming to be a global agency capable of deploying the best talent from across the North East in support of our startup clients who equally are launching themselves into the world.

If this sounds like the kind of challenge you are up for, and you have the skills (copywriters, designers, content marketing professionals and social media managers) then please get in touch. We would require a minimum time committment of 10 hours per week, as we would expect this to win contracts which will make this a good revenue stream for all our freelance partners. Be part of launching the next big thing! We look forward to hearing from you.

Dominic Tarn, Co-founder & Partner: dominictarncopy [@] gmail .com

Liz Hardy, Social Media Consultant: liz [@] liz-hardy .co.uk

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks on American leadership at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)

In the Ben Franklin Room at the State Department Hillary Clinton took one last curtain call as she stepped down from President Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of State, last Thursday. This might be the last time a Clinton occupies one of the most powerful offices in the land, and as a former opponent of Obama in the 2008 primaries she has been his strongest ally, both in the corridors of power, and as the highest ranking representative of US interests around the world. Her impact on domestic and foreign politics dates back to her time as First Lady, a role which prepared her for a very active four years at the State Department.

Both the Clinton and Obama administrations have been longstanding supporters of Silicon Valley. They are both responsible for enacting legislation which has encouraged entrepreneurship, and equally many Valley elite regularly donate to Democrat campaigns.

In her final speech before stepping down Hillary gave Silicon Valley one last helping hand. A flurry of new initiatives were announced which were being engineered in preparation for her stepping down, one of which is the Alliance for an Affordable Internet.

Still ambitious in her goals as ever, Clinton announced: “We’re going to help the next billion people come online.” … (You can continue reading this article on Pinster’s blog)

Startups: Want to be in TechCrunch?

For most startups appearing on the high profile, AOL owned, high traffic blog, TechCrunch, is a dream in itself.

An article confers legitimacy, acknowledgement, and usually ensures a surge of interested new users, even paying customers, and fellow entrepreneurs and investors sit up and take notice for a few minutes. Then the internet moves on, as it always does, and your above the fold moment in the spot light soon fades. But the recognition lives on.

Therefore it is a worthy aim for any aspiring startup entrepreneur. Happily I can report that I achieved this goal for one of the startups I work with. The article was shared over 550 times, they received hundreds of new users for their Beta launch, and I got a high-speed lesson in media relations. I want to share what I learned.

How is it done?

A few useful points to think about before firing off your email pitch:

- Volume. Journalists receive hundreds every day, at every hour, from eager startup founders, investors, advisors and employees. Getting any response is a win. Write an eye-catching headline and opening.

- Be authentic. With the journalist. Before saying “I love your articles”, please do them the professional courtesy of reading some beforehand. Ideally find a journalist who covers your sector. They are more likely to take an actual interest.

- Find an angle. Just announcing something isn’t necessarily news, unless you are Apple, Facebook, or Google. A household name. The default response you should expect from telling people about your startup is, “So, why should I care?” Sounds harsh, but sadly its true. No one cares you have sweated blood into your vision, raised some money, got people to buy into your dream. In order for a journalist to care you have to give them a reason.

- Be honest. Might sound obvious, but bending the truth with someone who is a professional human BS detector won’t get you very far.

- Help them. Journalists are busy people. Help them as much as you can. Have the facts lined up, think of an angle, or several. Be ready to answer questions straight away, and if you can think of something, make sure its quote-worthy.

And good luck! I hope you will find this advice helpful, and who knows, I could be reading about your startup in TechCrunch tomorrow.

New Year, New Team

Newcastle upon Tyne, England - DTCW Communications is pleased to announce that 2013 is staring with our expansion.

Given the vast opportunities present for Enterprise, Cloud, SaaS and other B2B focused startups (in comparison to the various predictions circling B2C and consumer web focused startups – the “Series A Crunch”) we are doubling down on the strategy to provide the most comprehensive message services for startups.

Which is why DTCW Communications has developed new service offerings, from social media marketing, to content marketing, and an e-publishing imprint.

Dominic Tarn will retain overall editorial and communications responsibility, whilst executing the strategies he developed for his core client accounts. In order to continue our expansion, and provide e-publishing services (one of the books being launched this year is The New Goldrush by Dominic Tarn), we have taken on a new partner: Douglas Ackerman.

Douglas Ackerman is a multimedia, entrepreneurially minded individual trained in journalistic and online media practices. Douglas has been producing videos, plays and podcasts for four years, active on Facebook and Twitter since the start and is focussed on cutting-edge techniques. Douglas can be described as a youthful, fast learning generalist with a passion for digital media.

We have also brought on-board a team of freelance professionals, capable of delivering on all aspects of a startups message and communications strategy. We look forward to crafting your message, and taking your vision forward with a professional level of execution which it needs.

Entrepreneurship is a Game

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, is never short of good advice. For entrepreneurs everywhere he has reached a level of a Jedi master.

His words of wisdom always comes down to simple, basic truths. Branson didn’t do an MBA, and I doubt he has ever spent much on books about how to do business, or marketing, or any number of business advice books which crowd the shelves of bookstores. He has just lived it.

Hence “playfulness” being his definition of what entrepreneurship really is. We all love to play. As Ted Turner noted, money is how we keep score. I agree with Branson. And Gordon Gekko, in the movie Wall Street (and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), when he said business is simply a game between people. So my plan for 2013: keep playing this game I am fortunate to be in, and I hope you all do the same.

ignite100 Demo Day

Europe’s first £1m accelerator, ignite100, in Newcastle upon Tyne, launches its cohort of nine teams today. One week later they go down to London and present themselves to the worlds tech media.

This is the second year ignite100 has been run, thanks to the support of a consortium of local angel investors, VC firms, serial entrepreneurs and mentors, and the unwavering support of passionate members of the startup community, like Paul Smith (Programme Director).

Betarocket got a look at the teams a few weeks ago. Now the world gets to put them under the microscope. Accelerators like ignite100 are great examples of entrepreneurial Darwinism at work. From its unassuming home, in the loft of a large Victorian townhouse, near the Central Station, around the corner from the best coffee in Newcastle (Pink Lane), it would be easy to forget that each team can access £100,000 worth of investment. Several of last years cohort have already raised much more, hired staff, and are generating revenue. Ultimately, that’s the hope for this group.

In a few hours I’ll be boarding a train and taking a seat front and centre (with any luck, given the weather) to get a look at the teams myself.

Under30CEO. Startups: What’s Your Story?

A few weeks ago I was published in Betarocket, a tech startup news website about the north east of England. I’m pleased to be able to write that I’ve now been published in Under30CEO, a leading media outlet for ambitious young entrepreneurs the world over. Without further introduction here is the article (which explains why every startup would benefit from having a strong and engaging message and content strategy):

Startups: What’s Your Story?

Being an entrepreneur means living in a blender where facts, figures, optimism, realism, faith and self doubt all co-exist and blend together. As an entrepreneur you have a lot of competition, and sometimes it might feel like being in The Hunger Games. Google for Entrepreneurs notes that there are 400 million building some 69 million early stage startups [continue reading] ….

Am I An Entrepreneur?

Given this week is Global Entrepreneurship Week, and I’m both a copywriter for startups, and writing a book about this vast and fascinating group of people, I have to return to an old self reflective question: am I an entrepreneur?

Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch and Uncrunched, knows a thing or two on this subject. His posts about being “a pirate“, and the man in the arena sum up his views very well. He is perhaps one of the worlds most passionate advocates of entrepreneurs, and naturally is strongly against anybody who falls under the ‘wannabe’ category.

Which is perhaps why I wouldn’t class myself as an entrepreneur. I class myself as a writer. This is what I do, this is what I love. If I am an entrepreneur I fall into the ‘accidental’ category, suggested here by the founder of GiveForward, Ethan Austin.

All too often I see LinkedIn profiles which include the words “disruptive,” “visionary” and “entrepreneur”, usually in the same sentence. A cursory glance of the offending profile inevitably makes me roll my eyes like Anna in Fifty Shades of Grey.

My previous experience in startups, at what is called the “sweat equity” level (a lot of work for no money, unless things go well), happened very much by accident. An accident at the confluence of wanting to escape a corporate customer service sweat shop, needing to finish a degree, and somehow finding the time to cram in a startup, and a life, just about. I’m honestly not sure how I did it. Although large quantities of Red Bull, Starbucks, and Johnnie Walker Black Label played useful supporting roles during this time. I was brought on-board as a hired gun for a dead in the water e-learning startup, in the hope that I could resuscitate it.

I couldn’t. A high speed roller-coaster of a journey through various stages of startup life, culminating in a meeting with an interested Angel investor, offset by a lukewarm reception from VC firms, confirmed the diagnosis. Most startup deaths are tragedies. Not this one. This was a mercy killing.

But my journey in the world of startups didn’t end there. I have returned to the scene, which also includes  writing about my own region in Betarocket, and being involved in ignite100.

But I am still left wondering: am I an entrepreneur? Or more importantly, does this question even matter? So long as you are doing what you love and making a positive difference, then what does a job title or LinkedIn profile headline really matter?

 

Betarocket Op-Ed: Dare to Dream

As a writer I feel an opinion is best shared. A prerogative of the work I have chosen, or that which has chosen me. But I only like to share these thoughts if I honestly feel they are worth sharing.

Therefore out of a desire to contribute to an ongoing dialogue amongst the tech community in the north east of England, I submitted an opinion piece to a great new tech blog in the region, Betarocket.

“Dare to Dream” is an accumulation of my thinking during the last few weeks, and builds on earlier posts I published here. I welcome your comments.

(Featured image taken by Neil Thompson (williamsdb), reproduced under Creative Commons)

Do you want to work for a startup?

Do you want to work for a startup? This is a question not to be considered lightly. You have to really want it.

There are some great websites to go if you are looking for that kind of work, whether you’re a coding ninja or sales and marketing street hustler. One such website, a startup in its own right, founded by Rajeeb Dey (co-founder of StartUp Britain, and one of the most prolific and high profile young entrepreneurs in the UK. Disclaimer: I interviewed Rajeeb for The New Goldrush), is Enternships.

Rajeeb bootstrapped, networked, and hustled like the best of them, both during and after his time at Oxford University (where he was President of Oxford Entrepreneurs), so he knows a thing or two about what startups look for when it comes to job applicants and interns.

As it happens, when I was hustling away at my own startup, my own experience of this was useful enough to be published on the new Enternships Resource Zone. I consider it an oldie but goodie, so here’s a few extracts for anyone considering applying to work at a startup, and links to the articles.

How to land that gig with the coolest new startup on the block? 

When I put that question to Kathy Ver Eecke, startup consultant who goes by the name of Working For Wonka, she said ‘Ask any entrepreneur and they’ll tell you the same, the most important thing you can do to get a startup job is….be enthusiastic.’

Be enthusiastic, but be sincere. Startups are the babies of those who found them. Here’s a link to part one, and two. And this is what you do when you land that startup gig you have been dreaming of and sweating over (link to part three):

You’re going into something where there are a lot of questions, and precious few answers. You may have to figure out the question, and solve it. Questions could be along the lines of – how do we get media attention? How do we tackle this much larger, better funded competitor? And as Working for Wonka points out, the answer was needed yesterday!

The answer is: step up, be creative, demonstrate you can solve the challenges they face. That’s how you break into the world of startups. Course, that’s not everything you need to know – for a few more ideas, hints and tips, you may want to buy my book when its published. Thanks for reading.