For those of you that don’t know, SoftTech VC is one of the original seed firms in Silicon Valley. The list of successful startups that have been backed by Clavier and his team is truly an inspiration. Household startup names like Postmates, FitBit, Eventbrite, Bleacher Report and many more would have nothing but a few pennies to their name without the involvement of Clavier. His firm even saw acquisitions by Groupon, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and AOL, a veritable who’s-who of tech giants....

Since the end of May, six teams have been working out of StartFast, a mentorship-driven venture accelerator in downtown Syracuse. With renowned mentors and team members coming from as far as Australia, StartFast is truly a world-class accelerator. Every year, the accelerator chooses 5-10 software, mobile, and Internet companies that each receives $25,000. The six teams pitching include Platypus TV, Mass Mosaic, Wyzerr, Zursh, Instamour, and Interface Foundry. Additionally, according to their website, “StartFast’s managing directors have invested in and mentored more than 26 companies, enabling them to raise over $40 million (10x the original capital of their initial angel investments)....

“Hey there, I’m Bob Smithback from Howdy Toyota,” says the neon shirt guy. “I have that Prius C hatchback you’ve been looking for. Here’s my card!” First thought? Weird. Second thought? I just bought a Ford Focus. Go away. Third thought? Wait, how did he know I considered buying a Prius? Six months ago, you did some online research about purchasing a Toyota Prius, but you ultimately went with the Focus instead....

But our official guesses about the future can be a real mixed bag: Sure, we predicted personalized news feeds in 1988, but that was the same year we predicted everyone would have a robot butler. Thanks to a big meta-analysis of tech predictions from the past 31 years, we now know exactly how likely our predictions are to come true, and honestly, it’s a little higher than I would have thought: 73% of smart tech predictions from the last three decades have become reality in some form or another....

According to a recent survey, sending a bad text, particularly in a workplace environment, can lead to professional consequences and even bullying. Even worse, the survey found that nearly one third of respondents had made someone close to them upset by sending a text that they wished they could take back. This is far from a small problem. 84 percent of respondents sent more than ten text messages a day, making for a lot of opportunities to send something insensitive, rude, or just plain poorly spelled....

So which move has the best odds of becoming a millionaire: winning the lottery, going pro as an athlete or becoming a tech engineer? If you’ve read the title of this article, you’re not going to be surprised. But here’s the rundown. They Both Beat Getting a Lottery Ticket The odds of winning the lottery are one in 14 million. Meanwhile, one out of 659 players make the leap from a high school baseball team to a pro team, just one out of almost 12,000 high school basketball players do the same, and for high schoolers headed for the NFL, just one out of 4,233 get in....

That’s right, a study published by the University of Melbourne stated that working more than three days, or 25 hours, per week is bad for cognitive function. In fact, cognitive abilities were dramatically improved in both males and females when working up to three days or 25 hours. But once they pass the threshold, a steep decline in cognition was found. The study focused on three typical measures of cognitive ability, including the National Adult Reading Rest, the Backward Digital Span and the Single Digits Modalities....

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If you take a step further back and examine the landscapes of other big cities across the US you’ll see that there are also countless people riding bikes. Turning towards bicycles instead of cars is, obviously, an incredibly hot trend right now, and it was only a matter of time before somebody started innovating in the realm of bicycles to effectively user in a new age of ‘smart cycling’. There’s a company out of Shenzhen, China, led by Brian Zheng and Ken Liu – LIVALL – that spent a lot of time analyzing different parts of the bicycle trend that were begging for an upgrade....

Devices like Fitbit and the Apple Watch now tout easy access and integration with these apps as a defining feature. It’s a clear selling point for developers and tech companies, especially when studies like the one by Research2Guidance estimating revenues from health apps to hit $26 billion in 2017. Yet the dearth of clinical research backing these apps has remained an area of concern for healthcare providers, and should give pause to consumers as well....

Most email service providers make it easy for you to set up your basic lifecycle programs. The hard part is how to structure the program and optimize the communications. Here are the top four lifecycle triggered emails you should set up to help optimize your channel. 1. Welcome Message When it comes to a new email subscriber, this is your first opportunity to build a relationship and make an impression on your new customers....

The fund, called EXXclaim Capital, will invest in companies focused on areas like pediatrics, health and wellness, and digital health. According to MedCity News, the fund was started by Dr. Anula Jayasuriya and Karen Drexler and has already invested in Wildflower Health and Medable. EXXclaim Capital, which is still looking for limited partners to provide more capital, is willing to invest up to a few million dollars in companies who are expecting to exit for just $30 million or $60 million, Grossman said – a smaller return than most VCs are looking for....

The Google logo redesign comes shortly after the company announced the creation of parent company Alphabet. Rightly so, the new logo’s colors and typeface more closely align with Alphabet’s. But outside of those ties, Google says that the logo change is motivated in large part to adjust to the changing ways through which we interact with Google on multiple devices. Originally built for a single desktop browser page, the Google logo has been readjusted to work and read more smoothly across several platforms....

When digital payment alternatives arrived for businesses, many assumed a similar transformation would occur, hailing the new age of B2B payments. This was simply not the case. The rise of ACH, Paypal, electronic bill pay services, p-cards, and other digital payment alternatives over the past decade has given businesses more options when it comes time to pay. Yet, around 50 percent of US businesses still use paper checks as their primary method of payment....

As you watch the sun crest over the purplish gorge, slowing revealing rainbow colors, you smile. Your phone is safely stowed in your pocket, but you’re not missing a thing. The little Memoto camera on your collar is capturing everything. Memoto raised $550,000 on Kickstarter in November for a device that’s just 3.6 centimeters wide. But their goal is far from tiny: creating a photographic memory of your life so you never miss special moments, or blissfully mundane ones either....

Every major tech leader got their chance to do just that at the 2016 Code Conference last week. But, unfortunately, it looks like they failed. Ticket prices for the conference are $6,500 a pop, a number that ensures all attendees are leaders in their field. Yet as Buzzfeed reporter Nitasha Tiku reported in a fascinating article, those tech leaders often downplay their power: Despite the mounting antitrust cases against Google, CEO Sundar Pichai faced only one question about about investigations in the European Union....

As the year comes to a close and the weekend looms around the corner, taking some time to enjoy the silly things in life is imperative. Fortunately, YouTube users really stepped it up this year and viewers around the world were lucky enough to enjoy some of the funniest, strangest, and most interesting videos they’ve ever seen. So sit back, veg out, and enjoy the official list of the most popular YouTube videos of 2016 below and start brainstorming ideas for how you can make the list in 2017:...

The average overall designer salary is $80,606, while the highest-paid ones work either at startups or inhouse for smaller businesses. Here’s how those number broke down by work environment, in order of lowest paid to highest paid: $60,611 Education Companies $63,900 Agencies $72,912 Freelance/Contract $79,889 Startups $84,438 Inhouse Salaries ranges varied fairly widely between different types of jobs within the design field: Product designers and usability researchers could make nearly $90,000 on average, while marketing directors made half that amount....

One app, messageLOUD is looking to change that. This is an app that will read your text messages for you. Upon entering your car, the app will ask if you want to go into Drive Mode. Once you’re in Drive Mode, all of your SMS texts, WhatsApp messages, and emails are automatically read out loud (unless you customize your contacts to allow or ignore certain messages). You can then choose to delete or respond with simple swipes so that you can keep your eyes on the road....

Managing is an art. It’s one of the hardest parts of starting up, because it involves people’s emotions and egos. LivingSocial co-founder Tim O’Shaughnessy always keeps in mind that people want to feel engaged, like they can make a difference, and be fairly compensated. Satisfy these needs, and your team will respect you and be even more motivated to get the job done. Manage poorly, and your team will feel frustrated, fearful, or angry....