Now, you have another task in front of you. You have to find a way to validate your concept. After all, this is what investors are going to look for when you are pitching your idea to them. Check out the following steps that you can take to help ensure that your invention or innovation idea will gain traction. Hit the Pavement and Approach Potential Customers If you have a prototype in hand, it’s time to hit the streets and go door to door or business to business....

Before you take a hatchet to your startup’s travel budget, though, consider this. Sales executives and dealmakers the world over swear by the power of face-to-face contact. The power of face-to-face meetings In fact, when it comes to building business relationships and securing critical funding, the old fashioned methods of in-person meetings over meals or drinks still get high marks for their effectiveness. It makes sense. Think of how much faster you can get to know someone when you’re standing in the same room with them, versus trading voicemails and emails with them over a period of months....

In today’s world, gaming is literally everywhere, but outside of the causal types that are often just shy of gambling, first person shooters or FPS and strategy games are still king. There are several brands that really back this type of gamer, and HyperX, a sub-brand of mega tech giant Kingston Technology, is certainly among the most popular. For console gamers it’s not easy to get a competitive edge outside of a fast internet connection and at times a slightly improved controller....

Four years later, at over 200 employees, Eventbrite is a company that Hartz sees as not just happy, but impressively productive. And her job continues. “I focus my day and my life, really, on the people of Eventbrite,” she says. Below, Hartz shares more about Eventbrite’s culture and what it’s like to be a “Briteling.” Tech Cocktail: What are Eventbrite’s cultural values? Julia Hartz: The values that govern the work we do and the culture we build are the same....

Here’s what to do about it. Unlimited Vacation Is Terrible The problem can be boiled down to one sentence. Wesley Walser, founder and CEO of Ask Inline, has done so in a recent Medium post: “Vacation time is restricted socially instead of by policy.” America’s habit of overwork is keeping people in check, and those unused vacation days wind up majorly benefiting the company: Which Is Useful During Negotiation As Walser explains it, there’s just one question to ask when a recruiter mentions their unlimited vacation policy: “What is the average number of vacation days taken by employees in the last twelve calendar months?...

Cardillo learned how to foster real, meaningful connections with people because of his humbling education. He used that passion for meeting new people to tell his story to them, spread their stories to others, and build a network of good-hearted people. Life took him to PR Newswire where he worked on project management for their content marketing platforms. It was interesting work, but he eventually found his way to Visual....

According to the official Google announcement, there are three primary ways through which the Google News Lab is hoping to create the future of media: 1) providing the tools for better reporting; 2) giving access to more data and better insights; and 3) creating unique programs to reimagine how news and media is created and absorbed. This announcement from the company comes less than a week after it announced the revamp of Google Trends, which will now offer real-time trends and deeper insights....

Lenovo has decided to jump the gun on CES this year, announcing a range of new laptops, tablets, and desktops a full four days before the expo even begins. Let’s take a closer look at all of the Lenovo products. Lenovo launched the world’s first 5G-enabled laptop last year (the Yoga 5G) and is adding the IdeaPad 5G to its lineup. Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, we should say that the IdeaPad 5G isn’t going to be available in North America at the moment....

Inspired by that experience, and a slew of high-profile murder cases in Malaysia, Khoo set out to work on an Android and iOS app called secQ.me. While many apps let you call for help during an emergency, secQ.me tries to gather most of the information beforehand. Before you enter a potentially dangerous situation, you create an “event,” select a timeframe, and add information – the serial number of a taxi, or the photo of a stranger you’re meeting....

The focus around social entrepreneurship and civic tech were major reasons I attended the events. I have worked for companies in the civic tech sphere in the past, and currently work for Nurx, a startup focusing on helping people through mobile health, particularly on increasing access to preventative healthcare. Civic technology has experienced enormous growth in recent years. Over the course of 2015, state and local governments are projected to spend $6....

In short, cryptocurrency is getting a lot easier to use. If you’ve been keeping up with the news over the past few years, this is no surprise — bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been tech industry buzzwords for even longer than that, and the movement is picking up steam. Here’s what that means. What Does Mastercard’s Partnership with Bakkt Mean? The partnership’s with Bakkt — a cryptocurrency firm that will handle the backend custodial services required to support crypto....

Although the functionality has been available on Android devices since early last year, it’s finally getting rolled out to other devices this September. Microsoft claims that the feature will allow front line workers to carry fewer devices, as well as lower security risks from speaking over unsecured channels. It has also added some classic backgrounds to Teams, including the nostalgia-inducing virtual assistant, Clippy. Push to Talk with Microsoft Teams Walkie Talkie With the new walkie talkie features, employees will be able to push a dedicated button to speak with other members of staff, with compatible hardware....

The new scheme, launched last week, means that companies can get shot of old or outdated equipment, for cash. Microsoft is hoping that in doing so, you’ll spend some of that money on new Microsoft Teams-compatible hardware. The scheme covers room systems, as well as desk phones and displays. How Does the Microsoft Trade-In Scheme Work? The new scheme is refreshingly simple – companies make a list of all the hardware that they want to get rid of, such as phones, displays and cameras and sends it off to Network Value, the company that Microsoft has partnered with for this trade-in program....

As Americans continue to become more conscious of their health and take greater ownership over their personal healthcare. Now tech companies are jumping in to provide more and better resources and tools. I was recently introduced to a company that uses four decade old MRI technology, but is reinventing it by making it available to consumers in modern ways. Marcus Foster is founder and CEO of Klarismo, a company that builds 3D body profiles through an automated quantitative image analysis pipeline....

The app, which is available now in the US and UK, is replacing both the payment card app Pay and the biometric password app Pass while introducing an integration with a third Samsung app, the cryptocurrency-centric Bitcoin Wallet. This news comes in the wake of a wave of Apple payments news: The tech giant is bringing Tap-to-Pay to iPhones (and Square-POS-powered businesses) as well as launching its own Buy Now, Pay Later service....

Their latest startup, UnsubscribeDeals.com, unsubscribes you from your daily deal emails. Just like the name sounds. As Edwin explained, inboxes are sacred because we all get a ton of emails. Because he has his phone set to buzz when an email comes in, he said that “every time a daily deal came in, it was like a false alarm and I wanted to kill the deals. My ESPN digest and fantasy league updates totally got lost....

Rather than present yourself as an advertisement to the dating world, as on traditional dating sites, SwoonXO recreates a social atmosphere where more natural interactions can take place. Users are freed from the stale tasks of creating the same old profile, waiting for e-mails, and searching databases for a potential date. Instead, SwoonXO users can log on and immediately begin engaging with people in a fun and social environment. What really sets SwoonXO apart from other dating sites are its Live Mixers....

It’s not the only recent move Shopify has made towards gaining more ground in the ecommerce world. It was already a major player in the online world, having passed up Drupal in May to become the second biggest CMS service worldwide, after WordPress. Now, the Walmart deal is just the latest in a series of collaborations that are helping to cement Shopify’s status as the default ecommerce platform for stores that are moving online....

The panel was aimed at one of the biggest discrepancies surrounding tech diversity that the survey uncovered: While 72 percent of founders stated that they believe building diversity in their companies is “very or extremely important,” just 23 percent of the respondents said that one benefit of a diverse staff is “improved financial performance.” The panel’s title, “Five Steps to Use to Diversity & Inclusion to Improve Your Bottom Line,” directly addressed this concern by emphasizing the financial benefits of a diverse, inclusive staff....

The current batch of Highway 1 startups includes 11 different companies that have gone through a four month course designed to take them from prototype to fully manufacture-ready products. In total, Highway 1 has graduated 35 hardware companies including the current class. PCH provides all Highway1 companies with access to its significant expertise in product development and supply chain management via a 10-day immersion in Shenzhen, China where the companies learn first-hand the nuances of hardware manufacturing and global distribution....