Tech Cocktail asked: “What process do you use to spur creativity, especially when you’re feeling blocked?” Their answers are below. 1. Mindmapping Works Like a Champ Start with a topic or question, and mindmap your way around it. Don’t censor yourself as you come up with all the surrounding topics and bubbles that go with your initial topics. This type of “hyperlinked” thinking is what allows us to come up with new ideas....

Whether you need to find a dog-sitter before you go out of town, pet food on a moment’s notice, or a veterinarian that makes house calls, there is a pet startup that can help you. While most of them are based out of New York or San Francisco, they provide global services that can make pet ownership easier than ever. Wonder what kind of pet startup can are out there?...

Procrastinating isn’t always bad – after a long and stressful day at work, surfing the web and checking random sites without a worry in the world can do wonders. Also, it does not have to be negative, as we can learn while doing nothing. For that specific purpose, here is a selection of ten of the best sites for procrastination. The Useless Web As the name perfectly implies, this website features a single button that sends you to any one of millions of random sites....

We asked ten entrepreneurs to share one way they’re optimizing their business for the wider adoption of wearables. Check out their answers below: Studying How Consumers Use Wearables My company focuses on fintech and wearables have started to get a lot of attention. It is still early days, but we focus on identifying how consumers can use wearables. This involves analyzing technology and hardware mediums and making predictions. The more important thing to note is that at the end of the day, it will be the consumer who decides what wearable solutions will be successful....

The app has been removed from the store, but it had already been installed over 100,000 times. It’s far from the first time a Google Play malware app has spread far and wide through the online store (Squid Game-themed malware was big for a while), so consider this your reminder to weed out any old apps that aren’t trustworthy brands. Let’s be honest, you probably never use them anyway....

The folks at siegemedia curated a list of the top 750 subreddits by type, and added additional helpful information about what type of submissions that community allows. This type of information is highly valuable to every content creator, whether looking to share their own valuable content or to help a client connect with the right community. But remember the golden rule lest you become a banned domain: Feel free to post links to your own content (within reason)....

One way to narrow your list is to ask successful women entrepreneurs for recommendations. Don’t know any off the top of your head? Well you’re in luck, because I’ve asked several and have compiled a list of the best books they’ve read that have helped mold the way they run their businesses. 1. How Google Works “A fab book with loads of tips on how to keep staff intrigued and motivated, keep business model invigorated, tips for being lean and how to scale....

While having this data and the tools to analyze it right at your fingertips is indeed helpful, it’s also a double-edged sword: Relying too heavily on big data may mean ignoring your powerful (and often correct) gut instincts that simply can’t be quantified. Rather than blindly following numbers, these 12 entrepreneurs from YEC offer their advice for taking advantage of big data without letting it rule all your business decisions....

This post hopes to familiarize you with just a few (well, 15 to be exact). They are below. Enjoy. 15 Female Entrepreneurs You Should Know About (But Probably Don’t) (Tweet this article) Erin Balogh Bio: Erin Balogh is a mother of three, former ER nurse, and inventor of the Hot Iron Holster. Advice to aspiring female entrepreneurs: I know it’s been said before but I will say it again: be persistent and don’t give up!...

What if you are a small business or a start up with very less resources and budget? What if all you want to do is get the word out and get some much needed visitors to your website? What if you knew how to create good content but your social media following numbers are dwindling in two digits? Don’t think there is a lot you can do. Here are 3 ways you can stand out:...

Unlike traditional VCs, micro-VCs make smaller investments in seed-stage companies, and they’re a rapidly growing funding source. As of 2016, there were almost 500 micro-VCs in the market, and most were based in the U.S. This is good news for small American startups as more than 40 percent of micro-VCs are located outside major tech hubs such as San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. What This Means for Early-Stage Startups The proliferation of micro-VCs beyond the standard tech clusters means there’s much more working capital in the ecosystem for early-stage companies....

Big data is perfect for assisting companies in making the most of their limited resources. It gives them information that allows them to be more effective at everything they do. With added efficiency, companies can more easily increase capital and increase revenue. Big data isn’t just for big business. With the number of companies that now offer Hadoop as a service, any size business can afford to implement big data....

So, it is important to know how to protect your site, preventing it against hackers attack pages or server – especially now, in a time where the business of cybercrime is big, expensive and growing. The three following items can be important for anyone, especially website admins, to be better prepared to defend a website against hacks and overall threats. Use SSH Private/Public Keys Secure Shell, more commonly known a SSH, is the most common way for people to connect with a remote server, such as the ones that host websites....

Rogers sees the co-creation and micro-manufacturing process as “an evolution from crowdsourcing,” referencing the community-sourced t-shirt design process of Threadless. “It’s about rapid product development with a community. You get better ideas faster, you get products to market faster, getting ideas you might not have otherwise had.” Changing the pace of product development and manufacturing has the potential to bring better, safer vehicles and parts to market in record time....

Here is a look at four of them: Manufacturing Generally speaking, manufacturing operations provide the perfect environment for the large-scale implementation of robots and automation technology. In fact, the International Federation of Robotics has forecasted the introduction of no less than 1.3 million industrial robots to global manufacturers by 2018. This is in addition to the robotics already in use around the world. The IFR’s report announces South Korea as the current leader in the robotics race....

So, what are the best social apps out there for you? Rounds The Rounds video chat app is a social networking app that can be awesome for your business. The app helps you interact with clients and stay connected with your own employees who work in remote places. There are lots of interactive and fun features in this app, making it more suitable for personalization. So whether you want to send an SMS, do a voice chat, video calls, play games, group chat, snap and share photos or watch video with your colleagues, Rounds can help improve your business....

Your morning coffee is a big deal, obviously. But what is on the horizon? Are there any big breakthroughs? Or are we relegated to sipping the same old “black with two creams and a sugar” drip coffee we’ve been enjoying for decades? Thanks to a select group of startups in the coffee industry, we might be on the verge of a coffee revolution. Let’s look at some of the big players poised to make an impact on your morning coffee below:...

As a startup, you likely can’t match the salary of large companies, however, unlike previous generations, millennials are motivated by things other than money. Millennials have grown up with the mantra of “work hard, play hard.” They also believe in a strong work-life balance, which is good news for you. This generation is willing to put in the long hours if they feel appreciated and dedicated to the company. As you look for millennials to join your startup, consider offering a few unique perks that inspire a strong company culture and reflect the lifestyle and work environment millennials value....

Malware Malware lurks in the background stealing company data such as usernames and passwords. These malware is mostly installed by unsuspecting employees. According to Blue Coat, the average data breach can cost an organization 5.4 million dollars. In April 2016, MetStar, a non-profit organization running 10 hospitals in the Baltimore and Washington area was a victim of SAMSAM ransomware that encrypted sensitive data, requiring them to pay up the amount of 45 Bitcoins (approx....

In an ever more globalized world, knowing a second language is very important. Professionally, it can even be a differentiating factor, giving you extra points when applying for a new job. Some of the aforementioned learning sources are not exactly obvious, which is why it is important to mention them. International Blogs Following foreign sites and blogs regularly can be a great accelerator of the learning process. By reading text written in the target language, it is possible to increase contact with the main words and slang of the language, as well as keep informed and updated on the hottest and current issues in that country....