During a talk titled Growing Diverse Businesses in High Growth Clusters, a number of lenders and training providers based in the Seattle area talked about the importance of providing avenues to capital for underserved entrepreneurs. Panelists included: Kara Williams, Women and Minority Business Manager, Seattle City LightHeather Englebrecht, VP of Operations & Strategic Initiatives, Economic Development Council of Seattle & King County (EDC)Michael Verchot, Founding Director, UW’s Consulting & Business Development CenterChe Wong, Business Development Specialist, Craft3...

We’ve all gone digital, and companies are investing heavily in mobility and the innovative tools that create seamless customer service for their clients. Right now, more and more users are moving from desktop computers to mobile devices, and this is changing the face of business as we know it. There are some notable statistics in regards to this shift. 63 percent of adults in America use mobile devices several times every month for customer service support....

Who doesn’t remember Michael Jackson singing for Pepsi or the legendary “Macho Man” Randy Savage snapping into a Slim Jim? Those commercials became iconic and will forever be affiliated with the aforementioned celebrities’ legacies. On the other hand, not every match works, as some collaborations can often be offbeat, horrendous, or simply strange, but once a celebrity appears in a commercial, the result is mostly memorable. But what happens if you’re not a Fortune 500 company or a top brand with a high marketing budget, yet you still a want a famous face to advertise your product?...

I promise, you too can whip your fickle WEMOs into shape. Setting Up Your WEMO Smart Home All you have to do is follow this step-by-step, four-years-in-the-making smart home setup guide… Step 1: Build a solid home network It doesn’t matter what smart home devices you are trying to install; if your home network is haphazardly implemented, you’re likely to encounter problems that will compound on each other as you attempt to add more smart devices to your network....

This time I won’t be spending 6 months hiking miles across the country. Rather, I’ll be spending 6 months learning web development, studying, coding, and building things at Galvanize. I’m taking the Web Development Immersive (WDI) starting this week. My first day is rapidly approaching – it’s tomorrow – and I’ve already spent days studying to get caught up on prep materials, getting my personal and professional life in order, and mentally getting ready....

MakeWorks’s 10,000 square-foot studio offers startups working in the digital and physical markets not just a coworking space, but also access to prototyping tools, various maker tools like 3D printers, and a large event space to hold community meetups and hackathons. These past four months, Stern has been working on building the space, which is now already home to more than 30 different startups, including Pawly, which has created a robotic dog companion that can be controlled through a mobile app....

Among them, Apple introduces everything from better security features to more expressive emojis. There’s also now a dedicated dark mode for after-hours browsing, plus the introduction of Apple Arcade, the company’s new gaming platform. One thing’s for sure, iOS 13 is no half measure – it has some significant changes to previous generations of the operating system. The good news is that you don’t even need to buy one of the latest iPhones to get these new features....

Facebook’s head of security Alex Stamos adhered to the same position and called for Adobe Flash player to be killed. So, now, the main question is: is Adobe Flash really potentially dangerous and what will happen if Adobe Flash dies? Adobe Flash is a common software for watching videos, animations, and GIFs in browsers. In order to fully kill Adobe Flash, there needs to be new software to replace the current functions they serve....

Augmented Reality for Dummies Augmented reality is precisely that: an augmentation of real things. In practical terms, it’s a view of the real, physical world, with digital elements overlaid in an effort to modify reality. Ultimately, it is the integration of digital information with a user’s physical environment. You may have heard the term virtual reality in the past – but, this isn’t the same thing. The difference between the two is that VR creates a completely new, digital environment, and does not use the real world at all....

Huawei has also become embroiled in a row about 5G infrastructure. The US government, for example, has been steadfast in its refusal to Huawei components. However, the British government has recently defied US wishes and begun to include Huawei in its 5G rollout. According to prime minister Boris Johnson, Huawei’s components will be on the “periphery” of the UK’s 5G network. But, the move still marks a major defiance of the US government....

On March 25, it was announced that the Philadelphia Fusion Overwatch League team will open the first esports arena in the US. Then, just four days later, it was announced that tech heavyweights and rapper Drake invested $3 million in Players’ Lounge – an online platform that lets regular people play Fortnite, Apex Legends and other games in tournaments for cash. So, is the future of esports in big budget arena spectacles, or will it all play out in people’s living rooms?...

The 3-month program, which takes place in the Kaplan offices in New York City, offers startups $20,000 and mentorship from advisors like Kaplan CEO Andy Rosen, TechStars CEO David Cohen, Washington Post Company CEO Don Graham, and TechStars cofounder Brad Feld. It’s in the style of other corporate accelerators powered by TechStars, like Microsoft and Nike+. In addition, Kaplan can offer its extensive network to the startups. Built up over seven decades, that includes over 1 million students, 300 US school districts, 20 university partners, and thousands of corporate customers....

This online food aggregator takes care of the marketing, orders, online payments, etc., and then THEY take the payment for the business they’ve sent your way, minus any commission. Sounds good, right? Well, not it’s not really as good as it sounds in some cases. What if the aggregator you’re dealing with decides to up their commissions, without any notice? This affects your bottom line. What if your eatery becomes so dependent on the orders that come through the food aggregator that you could never part with their service?...

Apple officially announced that its iPhone 5 launch event will be held on October 4th at 10:00 a.m. PST at Apple’s Cupertino, California campus. Apple’s event invitation included four iOS app icons (Calendar, Clock, Maps, and Phone) along with the quote: It has been 15 months since Apple’s iPhone 4 went on sale, so a new device is definitely due. If you are like me, you have been waiting for this event for quite some time, as your current iPhone is probably on its last leg....

The Downtown Las Vegas community was thrilled to see one of our own, Local Motors, take home Best of Show. Specifically, the Local Motors team won for their Strati 3D printed car. Plenty of other great concepts, companies, and products took home awards as well, and we’ve included the full list in this article. The winners of the SXSW Innovation Awards are: Best of Show: Strati, The World’s First 3D Printed CarBy: Local Motors Inc....

Thanks to a certain pandemic you might have heard of, employees and employers alike have embraced remote work like never before. We don’t yet know the full impact of the shift to flexible working. But, one thing’s for sure: we’ll need new software infrastructures to make sure that everyone at an online-only workspace can find the tools and data they need when they need it. Will LogMeIn’s new updates help?...

Automattic grew to become the power source for WordPress and the multiple other companies Mullenweg has acquired since its inception like Gravatar, Simplenote, and Simperium. Whatever his current project, venture, or acquisition Mullenweg has kept one constant that drives his success: open source. This is one of the topics he talks about in his fireside chat with our own Jen Consalvo, and he equates the open source model to life and not just software....

Sometimes, despite the huge value of those ideas, they are put aside simply because creators and entrepreneurs cannot find the right partners and the needed financing to bring those ideas to market. In order to go against this wave, an international competition has been created, that is now in its second stage and has the prize of £100,000 ($156,300): let’s meet the MBJ Launchpad. The international MBJ Launchpad competition gives teams the opportunity to win £100,000 worth of business and technical expertise, in order to help develop a business idea into a profitable and viable enterprise....

To make way for these cuts, the Silicone Valley company is planning to reorganize departments and put some workers on a “30-day list” – a measure that will squeeze them out of the company if they don’t find a new role within a month. Much like its fellow tech company Google, which is currently requiring select employees to reapply for different positions to remain at the company, Meta is avoiding using the term “layoffs”....

Will Weinraub, CEO of LiveNinja, had the idea years back but had to wait for the technology to catch up in order to execute it properly. Now, with video conferencing becoming increasingly available, it’s possible to have meaningful interactions with people no matter their physical distance. In December 2012, Will, along with his team Emilio Cueto and Alfonso Martinez, launched LiveNinja in their hometown of Miami. LiveNinja is a platform designed for people to sell their expertise online....