Last week the Security Division of Ohio’s Department of Commerce publicized a June Notice of Hearing and Notice of Intent to Issue a Cease and Desist Order (PDF). The targets are the Cincinnati-based crowdfunding platform SoMoLend and its founder Candice Klein. Among its allegations, the State lists securities fraud, fraudulent financial projections, false statements regarding current and past performance, and unregistered sales of securities. On August 14, Klein resigned her role as CEO and board member to SoMoLend....

Earlier this week, Venture Hall, Thomas College, and Project Login, announced that they had signed an agreement with Seattle-based Code Fellows to launch a pilot project in Maine to teach software development classes. The pilot, which is set to launch this summer, will be used to determine a “product-market fit” with Maine and Maine employers looking to ramp up the coding abilities of their employees, according to Mike Sobol, CEO of Venture Hall....

Meetup Meetup connects people who share the same interests. It shows upcoming events and activities in your area, so you can meet with others who are interested in the same event. It’s not only a fun way to meet new people, but it provides you with instant conversation material to build up social skills and relationships in a much more comfortable way. Meetup also encourages business networking by allowing you to create and promote professional networking events....

Called Tidal, the project was created by Google’s X subdivision which focuses on ambitious so-called “moonshot” projects. This latest project revolves around an underwater camera system and machine perception tools to track fish behavior over time. Google hopes that these insights will help the fishing industry track the health and stocks of fish. There’s precious little from Google on how Tidal will actually be implemented, but the company is asking for people to get in touch if they want to be a part of “the mission....

The update, which rolls out today, is a long-awaited signal that marketers may now be able to profit off of Snapchat in a measurable and meaningful capacity. The popular messaging platform has long held marketers at arms-length. How It Works Once you hit the paperclip icon to add a link, your friends can swipe up to visit your site. — Matt Navarra ⭐️ (@MattNavarra) July 5, 2017 Yes, this feature is like Clippy....

To get the Tech Cocktail weekly wrap-up direct to your inbox, sign up for the Tech Cocktail newsletter today. This Week’s Top Stories What’s On Tap Next week we’re excited to be implementing the laws of superposition by being in two places at once. On April 17th, at the conclusion of the develop.idaho Conference, we’ll be hosting a Tech Cocktail Mixer in Boise. On that very same night, we’re thrilled to bring another edition of Tech Cocktail Sessions to DC, where Chris Schroeder, Haroon Mokhtarzada, and Melinda Wittstock will be sharing their insights on “Global Entrepreneurship”....

Strong media brands are IN It all started with the success of “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” which directed the developers to add a resourceful media brand to use as the pivotal or central existence of the game. This strong media brand was complemented by a free to play mode which proved to be a sure shot recipe for success. Now it is to be seen that whether any and every game which follows this recipe of attaching a strong commercial face to their product is at all going to pay off or not....

Here are this week’s Tech Cocktail Top Stories:

Instead, I wanted to share a few tools and best practices that can help startups save a lot of time and money. We live by these tricks of the trade at Gamer Duel, and as a startup advisor I all but require any company I work with to do the same. Find the right software for managing your securities docs If you’re a founder and you have a folder with every stock agreement and options grant your company signed from every round, bravo....

Schmidt’s advice was once hard to follow, since replying quickly to every email both increases the likelihood of thoughtlessly sending a stupid message and wastes a lot time weeding through spam. Fortunately, Google’s recently released mobile app, Inbox, makes it easier to follow Schmidt’s strategy, as the app can both algorithmically sort important messages and (now) includes the unsend feature. Together with the mobile app, the undo feature, and Schmidt’s strategy, the company has set up a deliciously effective email trifecta for managing a swelling inbox....

The duo spent a lot of time analyzing the restaurant scene in their home city of London, seeing how they might improve the dining experience for customers while also helping restaurants increase their yield. As they saw it there was an obvious, unique opportunity for the hospitality industry to adapt to what they call the ‘Uberization’ of affluent Millennials who expect access and services via their mobile devices. To that end they built out Velocity, a platform that centers on the philosophy that human interaction is the bedrock of all hospitality....

The third quarter numbers are in. As I previously mentioned, VC funds are down more or less across the board, with a few bumps in the relatively safe area of series B rounds. What does that look in, broken down into more specific sectors? Drone company investment is down 48 percent in 2016’s third quarter. Not a good look for the emerging technology. The Data The facts come via the Venture Pulse report, a quarterly series published jointly from KPMG International and CB Insights....

Pulkit Madan, founder of Waferapp, was fed up with this method of file transfer. But that’s why he built and launched Waferapp: it lets users transfer files from desktop to mobile, or mobile to mobile, insanely fast. All you really need is a dependable internet connection, which fortunately isn’t too difficult to come by these days. When you’re transferring mobile to mobile, you simply put the two devices together and shake them to initiate the transfer....

The new tech specs include a High Dynamic Range (HDR) video that offers the highest picture quality at 2160p for streamed content, and it will support HD10 and Dolby vision profiles. A bonus to users who purchased a video in HD. If there is a 4K version available, Apple will upgrade it to 4K at no charge to the user. For the gamers, this A10X chip will help run games smoother for individual or multiplayers....

It can be difficult to get out into the dating scene tough, especially if you’re an entrepreneur; the very nature of entrepreneurship means that setting aside time for dating is often difficult. However, there’s an online matchmaking service out there, Tawkify, which wants to address this pain point for entrepreneurs and anybody else looking for the perfect date. It’s crucial to realize that it’s not an online dating service, this is matchmaking....

Aside from San Francisco, New York and Boston, there are lots of areas that are continuing to improve their offerings as additional access to capital, talent, and increased density become a reality. To better understand the changes taking place, Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate services firm, just released it’s first ever Tech Cities 1.0 report providing a closer look at market drivers in an effort to distinguish the top tech cities across the United States....

While some investors consider the IoT investment potential to be overblown, the recent global research by Tata Consultancy Services said that 7 percent of the surveyed companies were planning to make over $500 million on IoT investments just in 2015 with home automation startups standing high on the purchase agenda, especially with big name companies like Samsung, Microsoft and Google. As the interest levels continue to grow at the companies’ level, most consumers don’t feel equally excited about adopting the smart home technologies too soon....

Over the last 100 years, the concept of paper receipts backed by government gold has been refined, and the money (currency) that we spend today facilitates trade and exchange. However, “change” is the only constant in life; and, now, the concept of money is undergoing some massive changes that might send paper currencies to the museum as a relic of an era long gone. Digital Wallets on the Rise Technology startups and established tech firms all seems to have declared war on the humble wallet....

In this unsure age, are influencers still worth it? Well, if you read the title of this article, you know my opinion. Here’s why they still have that influence they depend on. Half of the Internet Relies on Influencers for Gift Ideas Let’s start with the facts: In an Open Influence survey covering 529 online respondents between November 08, 2017 and November 09, 2017 — that’s last week, making this stat just about the freshest possible — 63....

In this post I intend to focus on the latter option, our desire for speed. As our species has developed, our impatience has grown with it. Take an everyday task such as cooking: In the UK, the amount of time households spend on cooking meals has plummeted to 30 minutes – that figure is almost half of what it was in the 1980’s. Think about how you react when your internet connection starts being slow, especially when in a rush....