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RPI Severino Center Innovation Day

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:29:13 GMT

Next Generation of Tech Innovation at the RPI Incubator Center

I met with some incredible B2B tech innovators at the RPI Innovator Network, hosted by the RPI Severino Center on April 24 in Troy, NY. Eric Ledet, PhD, director of the Severino Center, focused on incubating the next generation of tech innovations, planned a compelling event for students, professors, investors, and alumni.

Six student finalists competed for the Bala Innovation Prize - a $20K grant for the best pitch and business plan. The innovations ranged from innovative Med Tech, Ed Tech and Computing. The RPI grad students, post doc researchers and academic advisors demonstrated amazing innovations and viable business plans. The next generation of innovation is in very good hands.

Congrats to Heman Kolla of HKQuantum for his project to create an easy on-ramp for trialing Quantum Computing algorithms.

Looking forward to see how these tech and business plans develop over the next 12 months.

The Thinking Person's Guide to AI

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:55:09 GMT

The Challenges AI presents to business and technical professionals

De-Skill vs. Re-Skill vs. Up-Skill

These are the questions facing tech professionals and any "gold collar" professions now. Decades of displacement in US based manufacturing employment through out-sourcing to low cost, low (no) regulation and low (no) cost capital countries have forever changed the US industrial base. Either workers Re-skilled or better yet, Up-skilled.

The same is true now in all gold collar professions. AI based workflows are de-skilling much professional value add. Corporate management layers are now compressed, cloud-based data give instant performance dashboards, and analytics and decisions are automated with little or no human intervention. What is a professional to do?

First step is to Re-skill. In the era of rapidly improving AI inference, re-skilling is the critical first step. Learn a few of the AI tools. Apply them to your workflows - use your prompts as a starting point to organize your thinking (not replace it). Gold collar professionals do not have years to re-skill, so the sooner you start, the more adept you will become.

The next step is to Up-skill. That means to become an expert at using AI for your workflows. For marketing up-skilling means using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to improve your communications reach to your target customers. Also, for technical white papers, getting good at framing the target customer value proposition in your narrative. Today bots are scrapping the web for content - either yours makes the cut or gets ignored. Your ability to connect with potential customers depends on it.

In the next few weeks I'll explore up-skilling technical marketing. Let me know what you think.

Do You Experience Messaging Pain Points?

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 11:00:12 GMT

When was the last time you reviewed your messaging across all of your communications channels?

Delivering clear value messages for your products or services becomes more difficult when your marketing programs are siloed. Social Media posts are disconnected from your email campaigns. Your executive keynotes are not consistent with your sales pitch decks. Are you being as clear as you need to be in a cluttered messaging world?

A strategic assessment of your integrated marketing campaigns may be required to refresh your messaging. The consequences of having disjointed marketing messaging can result in having your target customers getting mixed signals as to the true value proposition of adopting your product. If your customers get unclear messages, they will quickly move on from evaluating your company, before you even know it. In today's product evaluation world, your customers do a tremendous amount of research before even contacting your company. Your product or service does not even get a seat at the table, even if you think you have a superior technical and business solution for your target customers.

Whether you are looking for a Product Pivot, a Customer Segment Pivot, a Channels Pivot, a Environment Pivot or a Technology Pivot, Schapfel Tech Marketing Services offers a structured approach for you. A free initial consultation is available.

You will get a customized assessment and integrated marketing campaign to improve your marketing results in 2026.

Time to Revenue

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:34:24 GMT

Is your marketing driving leads into and through the sales funnel?

Small and medium tech companies need to be highly effective in generating sales leads. Do you seek to to be more effective in 2026?

The key metric is low cost per lead acquisition . Broad, unfiltered list purchases increase the cost per lead and increase time to work the lead into a real opportunity. Sales teams require well qualified leads. The better the filter process, the faster the sales team can work the leads productively.

The key approach is be intentional in your targeting approach . One size does not fit all. Create and deliver clear, differentiated value propositions for each customer segment. Evaluate how your value proposition resonates with your current customers, and map that into refining your messages into each target market segment.

Refresh your analysis on what your competitors are doing . You compete in a dynamic environment. Replacement technologies are being developed, and with AI these solutions hit the market at an even faster pace.

Start the dialog with a free consultation.

Why Schapfel Tech Marketing Services?

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 21:36:51 GMT

Experience. Deliver results in a variety of markets and products.

Practical. Common-sense approach to implementing marketing programs.

Flexible. You can start small and grow into a comprehensive program as your business grows.

Customized. Tailored to your business and marketing goals.

Technical and Analytical. Engineering-oriented to bring out high contrast product messaging and positioning.

Why did I start Schapfel Tech Marketing Services?

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 21:36:50 GMT

I observed a market need to closely develop technical Marketing Strategies and Integrated Marketing programs, focused on High Tech products and services.

Identified a desire by small and medium companies to be highly efficient in developing a marketing strategy once, then delivering it across multiple channels in a consistent manner.

Found that small and medium enterprises under-invested in integrated marketing programs that achieves their business mission.

Come explore how Schapfel Tech Marketing Services can help you achieve better High-Tech marketing results.

Official launch of the Schapfel Tech Marketing Website:

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 21:36:51 GMT

The Mission of Schapfel Tech Marketing Services is to bring Strategic Marketing services to small and medium high-tech enterprises. We deliver fractional CMO services to those firms that desire immediate impact on their business success.

Schapfel Tech Marketing Services can parachute in marketing experts to design, deliver and measure your new marketing programs. We customize a marketing plan to achieve your business and revenue mission.

We use a structured and analytical approach to bring your technical products or services to market. Through our approach we focus on developing highly differentiated positioning and messaging so that you stand out from the crowd.

We can leverage your existing marketing infrastructure and staff to speed up implementation, and augment with external experts that you do not have access to or have not yet integrated into your marketing team.