As a consumer, there’s no doubt you’ve been exposed to content marketing in one of its many forms over the past few years. The American Express OPEN Forum, infographics on calculating your hourly rate as a freelancer, and 4,000 word blog posts about launching a business while working are all examples of content marketing at […]

I met Tanwi Nandini Islam on an industrial corner in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She escorted me past graffiti adorned warehouses where “Thank You” plastic bags and “I Heart New York” shirts are printed, and just around a furniture refurbishing garage, before we arrived at her studio. Called Hi Wildflower Botanica, it’s a company that creates candles, […]

Deciding who to work for is one of the biggest decisions that a new business makes. People often make the mistake of going about this from the opposite angle—many young companies try to make themselves right for every customer. But as director of sales and marketing at Strategic Sales & Marketing, I’ve found that the truth […]

Startups in Brooklyn Brooklyn is home to many different types of people: the bearded hipsters who drink hand-poured iced coffee and ride handcrafted wooden bikes, the artists and artisans who design silver-plated carving knives and sell refurbished Smith Corona typewriters, and, most recently, the techies who are set on creating the next big thing. With […]

As soon as I meet them, Waqas Shakeel, who goes by Shak, and his brother Farrukh— co-owners and founders of the innovative culinary food cart Halalish—begin showing me how to identify a counterfeit bill. “You scratch the collar with your nail,” Farrukh says, holding out a folded bill for me to touch. “You can tell […]

When I started Hawke Media, I hired seven people to provide custom marketing solutions for our clients. One of them, Tony Delmercado, came in specifically to run our strategy and client services. After interacting with clients, he would come back and tell the team what was needed. Before long, Tony took the reins. Rather than merely report, he […]

Are you feeling stressed out? Startup owners often struggle with managing stress. They over-engage, overreact, and treat every task as overly urgent. Too much mismanaged stress can lead to burnout—which can lead to disengagement, detachment, and depression. Burnout is the ultimate productivity killer. If you’re not in your best mindset, you won’t complete work that […]