Heidi Brown’s Post

The CLTRE EveryDay Creative Program is not just about fostering creativity— it’s about creating a sustainable path for talented individuals to thrive in their craft and contribute meaningfully to the vibrant community in Sacramento. We are thrilled to unveil the EveryDay Creative Program and announce that applications are officially open! Get the details through the link below, and apply here: bit.ly/liEveryDay24App With expert mentorship, tailored training, a storefront residency, and substantial financial support, CLTRE (with support from the Office of Arts & Culture - City of Sacramento and in partnership with us at Creative Startups) aims to provide an immersive experience that transforms creative projects into impactful ventures— shifting the cultural landscape of Sacramento forever! 📅 Key Dates: Application Deadline: September 8th, 2024 at 11pm. Program Kickoff: September 26th & 27th. 🌟 Program Highlights: - Mentorship & Training: Insights from seasoned industry experts. - Networking: Connect with peers, potential collaborators, and investors. - Customized Support: Tools to develop, refine, and implement your business. - Storefront Residency: Utilize CLTRE's storefront for product sales, meetings, and events. - Funding: Grants ($3,500-$10,000) and investments ($10,000-$25,000) for early revenue-generating businesses. 📍 Eligibility: - Designed for BIPOC participants, but open to all within Sacramento city limits. - Suitable for diverse creative roles including designers, content creators, musicians, and more. More details through the link below! #Sacramento #CLTRE #EveryDayCreative #CreativeSacramento

Branding is a competitive advantage if you can get it right - driving word-of-mouth, customer adoption, and team morale - so we made a big investment this time. Meet Tandem! Tandem improves company performance through continuous feedback. Here's what I love: - The name captures what we do, it's easy to spell and understand, and we got a great domain (tandem.team) - You can FEEL our brand across your experiences with us - ad, website, deck, product - We have a design system that's sophisticated AND easy-to-use - The logo is easily recognizable across platforms - It allows us to represent the diversity of our users and include employees across religions, race, geography, ability, age, etc. We also picked colors that enable accessibility across mediums. We're here to help everyone succeed at work! Here's what I learned: - Make logistics decisions early (e.g. new DBA or entity?), talk to a lawyer, and figure out what needs to be done pre- and post- launch - Pick a creative partner you can communicate with directly and that shares the same values. UntilNow put in the hard yards throughout the 12-week process. They challenged us, they went back (and forth and back...), and they delivered a thing of beauty! - Identify which co-founder is running point on the project and figure out when/how to align co-founders outside of creative meetings - Know how you want to prioritize the branding work as it can become all-consuming. At the time, I was deep in product and had to time box it ruthlessly. It was priority #4 and I stuck to that because UntilNow had agreed to fill in the gaps - The process is non-linear. You'll take 3 steps, 2 back, 1 sideways. Have an overall deadline and otherwise go with the process. - Differentiation comes from radical clarity on what you are and what's out there. Go deep on your industry and what's at the heart of your mission, vision, and product to carve out a brand that is differentiating - Make sure you can apply your brand, day-in, day-out. We pushed our creative partner hard on this. I kept saying, "I need to be able to make on-brand LinkedIn ads and decks with a couple clicks not a full-day photoshoot and Adobe pro license" - Sweat the details because they will come out, amplified. Don't hold back and spend the time if it's on your mind - Find someone who can translate your brand into product and website design for consistency and impact. We worked with the masterful Audrey T and she smashed it! - Start the domain transfer - i.e. email account - sooner so that you can start to build up trust in the domain. You don't want the domain failing on launch day - If you're switching domains, be ready for a long-tail of ops tasks and have a clear owner who can drive to completion and a deadline - People won't care about your brand as much as you do; if you launch the brand, accompany the launch with a product or feature that will actually help people

When driven leaders champion the work of brand they power their businesses and products with disproportionate and unfair advantage. Good branding is a complex, psychologically engineered toolset that harnesses everything from meaning to memory recall. Check out this stellar write up from Lauren Humphrey at Tandem- so many good tips for founders and seasoned leaders alike 🙌

At BeyondGTM., we’re inspired by stories of visionaries who transform their ideas into reality. One such story that never fails to captivate me is the journey of Melanie Perkins, co-founder of Canva. Her path from a simple concept to creating a billion-dollar company is truly remarkable. Back in 2007, Melanie was a university student in Perth, Australia. She noticed her peers struggling with complex design software for their projects. It sparked an idea: what if there was a simpler, more accessible tool for graphic design? Melanie, alongside co-founder Cliff Obrecht, started small. Their first venture, Fusion Books, allowed students to create their own school yearbooks online. This venture laid the groundwork for what would eventually become Canva. Building Canva was not an easy road. Melanie faced numerous rejections from investors who doubted the market potential. Despite these setbacks, she persevered, refining her pitch and continually improving the product. Their persistence paid off when they secured funding from Silicon Valley investors. Canva launched in 2013, quickly gaining traction with its user-friendly interface and powerful design tools. Today, Canva is valued at over $40 billion, empowering millions around the world to create beautiful designs effortlessly. What strikes me most about Melanie’s journey is her unwavering belief in her vision and her relentless pursuit of it. She saw a problem, envisioned a solution, and despite the hurdles, she never gave up. Her story is a testament to the power of perseverance, creativity, and a customer-centric approach. At BeyondGTM., we draw inspiration from stories like Melanie’s. We understand that every big success starts with a small idea and a lot of hard work. Our mission is to help businesses unlock their potential and bring their visions to life, just as Canva has done for so many. Here’s to the visionaries and trailblazers—your journey fuels our passion and drives us to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Harshit S. Adesh Kumar Grewal Sachin Grewal Sameer Anand Srivastava Urishma Tyagi Harsh Kumar Surya pratap #Entrepreneurship #Inspiration #StartupJourney #BeyondGTM #Innovation #Resilience #MelaniePerkins #Canva

Melanie Perkins, the co-founder and CEO of Canva, has become a prominent figure in the tech industry. Her innovative approach to design and her leadership skills have propelled Canva to global success. Perkins' journey to the top began in Perth, Australia. She started her career as a teacher, using her passion for design to create educational materials. This early experience laid the foundation for her vision of democratizing design and making it accessible to everyone. Before co-founding Canva, Perkins had already dabbled in entrepreneurship. At the age of 19, she and her business partner, Cliff Obrecht, launched Fusion Books, a company that created personalized yearbooks for high schools. This early venture provided Perkins with valuable experience in the business world. From the outset, Melanie had a global vision for Canva. She recognized that design is a universal language and that people all over the world could benefit from a tool that simplified the process. This international perspective has been instrumental in Canva's rapid growth and expansion. One of her key goals for Canva is to empower users to create beautiful designs. Melanie believes that everyone, regardless of their design skills, should have the ability to express themselves creatively. Canva's intuitive interface and extensive library of templates and elements have made this vision a reality. Melanie is a strong advocate for women in technology. She has been vocal about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the tech industry and has actively worked to create a more equitable workplace. Canva's leadership team reflects this commitment, with a significant number of women in key roles. Beyond her business ventures, Perkins is deeply committed to giving back. She has supported various philanthropic causes, including education, environmental sustainability, and community development. Her belief in the power of social impact aligns with her vision of creating a positive change in the world. Melanie Perkins is a remarkable entrepreneur who has revolutionized the design industry. Her passion for design, her entrepreneurial spirit, and her commitment to empowering users have made Canva a global success. This incredible vision and passion to make changes is why Melanie is an Amazing Woman in Technology. #SheTek #MelaniePerkins #WomenInTech #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #TechForGood #DesignThinking #WomenEmpowerment

🔵 Blue vs Red Cyclops 🔴 I've had a few people send me messages on social since I made the announcement yesterday of our new service offering—Red Cyclops. Each asking the same thing—"What's the difference between the two?" The simplest answer is... → Blue Cyclops is your Creative Partner, there to help you diagnose, navigate, and solve your creative problems with the ultimate goal of helping you succeed. → Red Cyclops is your Production Partner, there to help fulfill your designs as a virtual team member. Both have their target audiences and use cases. → Blue Cyclops targets brand and marketing teams to help them overcome creative hurdles and develop systems to create harmony within their brand and departments. → Red Cyclops targets startups who need help fulfilling their design needs, helping to fill a gap they might have in terms of creative resourcing. The dynamic part of the two is that when Blue meets Red, you get a true Dynamic Duo— an external design department for your business. If you wanna learn more about Blue Cyclops or Red Cyclops, feel free to send me a DM or visit our websites: www.bluecyclops.co / www.redcyclops.com #designsubscription #creativeagency #designstudio #creativepartnership #productiondesign #bluecyclops #redcyclops #design #branding #webdesign

Hey everyone! Just hatched a fresh new logo for WorkNest! WorkNest is a Co-Working space for individuals and startups who can't afford to have a big space at the beginning of their career/business. .  I love how playful and memorable it turned out! What creatures inspire your brand identity?  . ➡ Need a logo that pops? Let's chat about your project! 🤝🏻 . . . . . . . . #logodesign #graphicdesign #branding #brandidentitydesign #brandidentitydesigner #arifullah #arifullah.design #arifullah-io #visualdesigner #business #StartupChallenge #startuplogo #businesslogodesign #corporatelogo

If you’re a startup founder embarking on a new venture, this is for you. When starting out, remember that you don’t need to break the bank on branding. Things will evolve before you hit product-market fit, so invest wisely. Below are six building blocks. (1 and 5 are crucial. They will shape your strategy, operations, culture, and sales.) 1- Your core ideology—purpose, mission, values 2- What you do and who you do it for 3- A simple logo, a couple of colors, and a typeface with a couple of fonts 4- Templates for presentations and social media 5- A compelling brand story 6- A communication plan emphasizing how your brand solves customer needs Feel free to send me a DM if you want to go deeper on this topic. #branding #brandmarketing #startuplife #startupfounders

Some highlights captured from Day 1 of SXSW Sydney. Melanie Perkins shared some of the secrets of Canva's initial success: * Initial users didn't trust themselves to make graphic design content, so they added a game that initial users played that required them to make an initial artwork * Social media marketers needed to create a ton of content and none of them had formal graphic designer training - Canva happened to come to market at just the right time to serve this market Michael Biercuk showcased a new super-sensitive gravimeter that worked on the floor of the conference while someone was shaking it. It also turns out: * Sensing gravity is a great way to know where you are, since it can't be spoofed unless someone moves a mountain * The earth's shape and hence gravity actually changes ("earth tide") due to the pull of the moon and sun. This effect can be mitigated because it is well-modeled. Adrian Turner, CEO of biosecurity startup ExoFlare, and Will Crowe, CEO of space startup HEO, talked about why Australia is the best place for their startups to take root: * Australia hasn't had a big space program, so we don't have much of a regulatory regime. This allows a lot of innovation to be done quickly. * Australia is an island (!) so has had to protect its unique flora/fauna, leading to us being world leaders in biosecurity. William Payne, CDO from Mirvac, revealed that three years ago, they had stopped costing technology projects as capex, so all projects take cash off the bottom line. This has greatly simplified technology innovation. Paul Fletcher, Shadow Minister for Digital Economy, talked about how the Australian BRW200 has changed to today's "Rich 200" list. Now about 30 or so people on the list have made their money in tech. Tim Minchin commented how he couldn't recommend people be their authentic self in order to achieve success. If being authentic leads to success, that's mostly luck, but you'll be more satisfied. He also blames part of his success on an old school work ethic to slave away until he's proud of the result. #sxswsydney

🚀 Elevate your vision with Folok! Through inventive techniques and creative storytelling, we build brands that set new paradigms in the digital arena. Whether you're an early-stage startup or an established enterprise, our approach is tailored to carve a distinctive visual identity. Ready for the transformation? 🌈🌟 #Folok #brandidentity #CreativeGoals #VisualImpressions #visualcommunication #graphicdesigner #motiongraphicsdesign #videotransformation #videoeditor 💻🎨