Tag Archives: website

December 31st, 2012

Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before.

When entrepreneurs approach venture firms, they come bearing questions. Lots of questions. Questions like: “Do these people care about me?” “Do they have any expertise in my field?” “Are they going to be hard to work with?” …and so forth. This is natural. You’d feel the same way if you were showing off your pride-and-joy to a boardroom full of strangers.  So we’ve always found it strange that most VC firms tend to settle for saying “Look at us! Look at all the logos successful companies we’ve worked with!” as if that’s supposed to be some kind of substitute for telling people who they are and what they stand for. To us, both ends of the VC/entrepreneur relationship are driven by – surprise – ideas. The entrepreneur has an idea, and the VC firm has (or at least ought to have) more than one thought on how to bring that idea to life. So we’re clearly very pleased to see Battery Ventures’ new Mortar-built website place a premium on ideas – the good ones entrepreneurs have had, the innovative ones Battery has used to promote them and of course, the results.

It’s a smart conversation to have. (And a rather stylish-looking presentation, if we do say so ourselves.)

 

January 24th, 2012

The New Mortar Website: Thick-cut, Applewood-smoked and Surprisingly Low in Nitrites.

Finally. Finally. FINALLY. Yes, it took us three years to finish, but here at Mortar we like to drag things out as long as possible to build up maximum excitement for their arrival. (And to drive Jojo up the wall. Girl does a mean sideways cartwheel.) We’re thinking about creating a supplementary site to our new site, called “What Life Was Like When We Started Our Website Redesign.” Swine flu was poised to decimate us all. Ricki Lake was running for president.* Michael Jackson was still alive (RIP, PYT). Alexa and Sylvie weren’t even born yet.**

But no more dwelling in the past. Be here now. Allow us to present The New Mortar Website. Cleaner, meaner, and glistening with bacon-y goodness.

Why bacon, you ask? It’s our way of communicating what Mortar’s goal has been all along – to change the conversation. Everyone else talks about ads. We prefer to talk about love. Love of bacon. And Miles Davis. And good conversation. Because when you talk to your customers like people, rather than customers, they tend to like you a lot more.

In fact, conversations are what drive our whole approach. The conversations your customers are having about your brand now, and the ones you want them to have in the future. So instead of starting with Flashy-Expensive-TV-Spot and working backwards, we start by identifying the right message. (Plus, walking backwards makes us dizzy.)

Today, we’re considered a rare breed of agency that does advertising, branding, research and PR all under one roof – but we don’t see any other way to do it. Maybe one day, our approach will be the norm. We can’t understand why it isn’t already.

Pray tell us what you think of our (extremely) late and great site. Direct all comments to Mr. Butz.

 

 

 

 

*Not really, but how would you remember? It was eons ago.

**Also not true, but those youthful complexions will fool you every time.