Archives For Projects
Posts about my various work, side, and wishlist projects.
I just spent the last couple days in beautiful Banff at the Banff Venture Forum, a prestigious annual gathering of venture capitalists and other investors. My company RallyEngine was selected to pitch to the whole room, which I did yesterday morning during their “Startup Spotlight”.
We paid for the opportunity and bent our international travel plans to make this event. While we’ve pitched at several events over the past year, this one was a bigger deal because we chose it as the venue for announcing our first-ever fund-raise – a belated Seed round. For a bootstrapped company with sales and momentum, no small thing.
Unfortunately, “Startup Spotlight” turned out to be pitch coaching in disguise – and in public. I delivered what I felt was one of my stronger pitches – five minutes on the dot and nobody in the room looking down at their phones… and then the panel of investors/judges/critics ripped it apart. The thing is they didn’t critique the substance of what I pitched so much as the style. “I felt you didn’t make the best use of the first 20 seconds.” “I didn’t like that photo you used on Slide X.” They criticized one presenter for bringing notes up to the podium and another for slowing down in the middle. Continue Reading…
It’s not everyday that one gets to do an official ceremonial signing at a consulate overseas. Earlier today I was representing RallyEngine at the Canadian High Commission in Bandar Seri Begawan doing just that. Here I am with the High Commissioner, trade commissioners, representatives from Darussalam Enterprise, and the team from RallyEngine’s new partner in Brunei Darussalam, Nuara Group.
The last four weeks were incredible! I was one of 27 lucky participants in Year 3 of the Getting to Maybe social innovation residency at Banff Centre. Continue Reading…
It’s not everyday that one gets to participate in a formal innovation announcement by a federal cabinet minister. On Friday, on behalf of my company RallyEngine, members of our team and I had the pleasure of shaking hands with the Honourable Judy M. Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement. She was in Calgary to announce the Government of Canada’s investment in four made-in-Canada innovations, including us. The media release is here.
Last week I presented The Herd of Cats to a great audience at the World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto. Although I’d floated the premise out there before at CPRS Ascend in Banff last spring, this was the first real public unveiling of many of the ideas and cases that will be featured in the book.
This was the session’s synopsis in the program:
The Herd of Cats: Startups, Improv, and Disasters
The strange, fringe worlds of tech startups and improv comedy may offer some powerful insights for disaster managers (and vice versa). As cliche as it has become to say that the world is faster-paced and more unpredictable than ever before, many of us – individuals and groups alike – are still overwhelmed and ill-equipped to deal with this new normal. Whether it’s the massive disruption created by new technologies, the turbulent shifts in how interconnected politics and markets behave, or the severe impact of Black Swan events like “one-in-100-year” super-storms, it’s evident that our systems, enterprises, governments, organizations, and ourselves must find better ways to adapt. We are more sensitive to the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that surrounds us. And we’re more vulnerable to the predictions, plans, tools, and hierarchies that remain entrenched in all facets of our lives. Much of what worked before simply doesn’t anymore, and we need to learn how to approach this new age with ingenuity, versatility, and resiliency. Fortunately, there’s a vanguard – a herd of cats – who have not only figured out how to endure uncertainty but how to thrive in it. Lean, Agile, Holacracy, APIs, Jobs-to-be-Done, Blue Ocean… “Yes, and”, Follow-Your-Foot, active listening, fluid leadership, play… In The Herd of Cats, Steve Hardy sheds light on the dynamic yet disparate worlds inhabited by entrepreneurs, improvisers, and disaster managers. Blend together the maxims of startup culture, the principles of an improv mindset, and the hard realities of disaster resilience, and what you’ll find is the very best approach to navigating the rapidly changing world around us. Hardy enthusiastically explores this fascinating inter-sectional space, profiling each area’s unique stories, philosophies, and best practices, while also illustrating their remarkable similarities and valuable cross-learning.
And here is a narrated video of the deck I presented:
It was an honour to be invited to speak at such a great event, and I am grateful for all of the positive feedback I received from delegates who attended it.