Build Credibility The best sales decisions are usually based on mutual trust. But when you are a new company, how do you leverage the trust factor? Share the details about your team and work process. Use your social media to curate employee’s profiles, share the aspects of your work culture and behind-the-scenes snaps. Transparency leverages credibility. Buffer, for instance, took it onto the new level by making their financial activity public....

Alongside ground, sea, and air bombardments from Russian forces, the Ukrainian government and military have had to repel a barrage of cyberattacks. If a full-scale global cyberwar soon becomes reality, then US businesses – already top targets for ransomware – are expected to be targeted. American companies are being advised to review their cybersecurity measures and update their systems in order to mitigate to account for the heightened risk of attack....

Take, for example, the field of social work. In addition to information about a given issue—say domestic violence—being readily available via search engines like Google, there are also networks such as Twitter that enable social workers to follow a conversation topic. A Twitter search, for example, is more likely to reveal results that are relevant to people at a specific point in time, due to the use of hashtags and directed Tweets that address specific users with specific handle names....

Image Credit: Flickr/ Hipnos Taking breaks could also be in the context of taking vacations. All of us have paid leaves but some people don’t utilize them. That’s a bad move and that can mean lesser productivity. Taking a vacation replenishes job performance, while not taking vacations mean more mistakes and resentment towards colleagues. So take the time off your company gives you. You’ll do yourself a favor and them as well as a result of your increased productivity upon your return from your vacation....

So, let’s examine a few of these unicorns and identify some of the factors that contributed to their sky-high valuations. Uber Stats: Founded: March 2009 Employees: around 4000 CEO: Travis Kalanick Money Raised: $4.9 Billion Valuation: $41 Billion during latest round How they got there Here’s another one of those “overnight successes” that took 6 years of hard work to come to fruition. Uber is a mobile app that connects passengers with drivers for hire....

Immediately following the develop.idaho conference, Tech Cocktail invites you to check out some local startups, hang out with your fellow technophile, and of course enjoy a few cocktails at the Stueckle Sky Center at BSU. < Register for the Mixer Here > We’ll have a dozen up-and-coming startups on hand showcasing their goods, but before the Mixer kicks off, we want to know what you think – who is Boise’s Hottest Showcasing Startup?...

So, when Apple announced the new iOS 10 would offer voicemail transcription, techies and busy entrepreneurs rejoiced and surmised the new feature would “fix” voicemail once and for all. But I think (and hope) that voicemail transcription will actually kill voicemail for good. Because, as annoying as voicemails are to listen to, they’ll be even more annoying to read (even without all the inevitable, maddening typos and mistranslations). This is because, for all the talking people do over voicemail, they don’t say very much – even the shortest voicemails ramble....

Decades in the future, however, we might see these two gadgets as a sign of the technology to come. It all depends on whether we can crack Brain-Machine interfaces, and we’re a lot farther along than many people realize. The Brain-Machine Interface Wired has the latest on our progress developing a mind-control ability over our technology, a concept which has long lived only in sci-fi. Here’s what the startup CTRL-Labs says of their goals on their website: And here’s where they’re at, per Wired....

If you are someone like me who runs a startup digital web design agency in New York and has spent several years working remotely out of your home office, then the move to a coworking space can be a difficult decision to make. Let’s be honest, working from home has a lot of pros, and a few cons too. The biggest advantage is the time you save in commuting. The other advantage is the ability to get your errands at home completed....

When his sister was five, she fell off the top of a bunk bed in the midst of an intense game of war with Achor, then seven years old. Just as she was about to erupt into tears and wake their parents, Achor quickly interrupted her: she had miraculously landed on all fours, he said, so she must be a unicorn. The tears stopped in their tracks as she contemplated this new reality of life as a unicorn....

As part of our Customer-Driven Development series, we had the opportunity to chat with Patrick Haig, Product Director at TUNE. Patrick’s relentless focus on understanding customers’ problems and measuring progress is not only inspiring, but also in line with a new generation of product teams embracing better ways to put the customer at the center of the product development process. In this interview, we discuss how engages his team with a new way of working and the mindset needed to make change happen....

The simple answer is, “I’d rather not think about that, thank you very much.” The less simple answer involves countless economic trends creating an elaborate tapestry of necessary wages and productivity numbers that the layman could never understand… just kidding! It’s because of greed! The Numbers Insisting that the average worker isn’t more productive than they were in the past is on par with claiming that the Earth is flat; sure, there are a few people that would agree with you, but most people will write you off as a crazy person....

According to an infographic from LiquidSpace, there are plenty of reasons why work-life balance has become such a valuable commodity for employees. With approximately one third of Americans claiming that they work too hard and US workers spending more time at the office than any other country, of course we want a little extra free time. Fortunately, because work-life balance has been a staple of employee demands for a few years, companies have begun to take notice and have been steadily improving their company’s perspective on work-life balance....

Xero states that the buyout will help its customers digitize their workflows and get paid faster using cloud technology. The acquisition occurs in the same month that the firm also purchased workforce management company, Planday. Considering Xero? Read our guide to Xero versus QuickBooks The Xero Acquisition of Tickstar Tickstar are a Swedish company specializing in e-invoicing, founded in 2007. The firm already worked with Xero prior to the acquisition, providing its invoicing solution....

In his book The Age of the Platform, four-time author and tech/management consultant Phil Simon explains what these companies have in common. In short, they have built powerful platforms, made up of technologies plus a network of partners and users. Think Apple’s devices + software + app store + developers and fanboys from around the world. In the interview below, Simon considers how these giants are different and what startups can learn from them....

That’s right, thanks to some data from Fundz, this Windy City native is happy to report that Chicago has more startup tech funding than any other city. Naturally, New York and San Francisco round out the top three with Boston holding it’s own with just under $3 billion. The list substantially drops off after that, with Irvine, CA taking the fifth spot at less than $1 billion in startup funding....

Tech Cocktail Boise, sponsored by Perkins Coie, will wrap up the day by spotlighting 14 super-niche and highly creative local startups (highlighted below) in the Tech Cocktail Startup Innovation Showcase. For those of you planning to attend, we look forward to seeing you there! LoanTek: SaaS platform that makes it easier for consumers to shop for financial services online. EthicalPro: This online, community-driven site connects consumers with professional providers of the services they use every day....

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve (hopefully) gone through the exercise of laying down a company mission. Articulating a mission can make decisions easier, focus your efforts, and help attract like-minded supporters and customers. The same goes for figuring out your life’s purpose, but it’s a bit tougher. Deciding what gives meaning to your life, what larger goal you want to devote years and years to, what’s most important to you in the entire world – those are lofty questions....

So why aren’t there more women already? One of the problems which may be preventing women from getting into tech is “imposter syndrome”. She++, a documentary about women in tech, explains that girls who are just beginning in the field often worry that they can never catch up with men who have been coding most of their lives. “It was just very intimidating to be around all these people who could just hack out code and I was just struggling to write my first hello world programme,” Shubha Nabar, a development lead at Microsoft says in the documentary....

Tech Tailgating Gadgets and Gear The Coolest Cooler This cooler has all the bells and whistles to keep your tailgate beverages cold – and also blended. The Coolest Cooler comes with wheels to make it easier to move around your tailgate site plus an ice-crushing blender with 20V rechargeable battery for cocktails, smoothies, or other fun drinks. This cooler is built to handle up to 600 pounds of ice, food, and beverages and with extra insulation to keep things icy for up to 5 days....