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In this post, we look at different aspects of competition and how a startup can deal with its competitors. Do the Market Research Before You Launch Before you launch your startup, you need to study the market. Startups are about the opportunities, and to identify an opportunity, the founding team needs to do market research. The worst way to start the company is to start without understanding the market. Just identifying the need and talking to customers is not enough....

1. Use Pre-Show Marketing Strategies It is important to build up hype about your trade show in the days and months leading up to the event. Announce your event to potential attendees, and send out an email or letter inviting your customers to stop by your booth. If there is a trade show directory, advertise there and send out personalized invitations to registered attendees to visit your booth. If your company uses radio, print, or television advertisements, in the weeks leading up to the show, you may want to add a note about your upcoming event to further spread the word....

A new report from streaming video watchdog Exstreamist states that, out of all the kids who have lived within Netflix-only households for their entire lives, a full 82 percent do not know what commercials are. The Study Exstreamist surveyed a small group for the report: Just 100 people in total, and only 50 from Netflix-only households, so take the news with a grain of salt. But the discrepancy between Netflix and normal television homes is certainly obvious....

But don’t let that deter you from having an amazing time. You can still enjoy the heck out of your Halloween this year outside of dressing up in a costume. There are apps abound that will help you pass time at work, scare yourself, or scare your friends. So play a few pranks, get prepared for your parties, and don’t let Halloween be boring. Here are nine cross-platform apps that will make this year’s Halloween awesome:...

Just as a forewarning, many of these blunders could have been easily avoided by testing the software beforehand. If you’re not running both integration and unit tests on all of your programs before release, you risk this chance of catastrophic failure. If you’re running a .NET application it’s essential to test each individual unit of code to make sure it runs appropriately by itself. For instance, a tool like Typemock allows you to run these tests fluently....

There are dozens of angels that are at the top of Business Insider‘s Silicon Valley angel investor list and are jointly considered the most influential investors on AngelList. The common thread that ties these angels together could in fact be their deep knowledge of the tech industry through previous experience. So, here are 9 big-time angel investors on both lists that are worth paying attention to; their investment portfolios speak for themselves....

A few miles northeast of the Strip, the Downtown Project is slowly and quietly creating a lively and friendly local community and culture, in a city that almost everyone visits but no one wants to live – yet. Here’s a guide to where the locals work, hang out, and plan the future of Vegas. New Zappos headquarters In October 2013, Zappos will be moving its headquarters from Henderson, Nevada (a nearby suburb of Las Vegas) to downtown....

One software developer argues: yes. Over on his blog, Henrik Warne explores the idea that bugs aren’t all annoying problem, but a fascinating and unexpected key to solving common coding problems. Whenever he encounters a particularly interesting or complicated bug, he explores the idea of how it can help him become a better software developer and programmer. So, what method does Warne follow to learn from his bugs? It’s rather simple – he writes a short description of the bug, including all known facts about it, and the lessons learned from it....

To learn first hand just how interesting and sometimes terrible the resulting dates are from Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, and the other dating apps can be, we went straight to the source. Washington, DC-based Trustify, a startup making it easier to conduct in depth background checks, was kind enough to lend us some of their team members and friends to share past dating stories. Granted not all apps and sites are created equal, even the most simplistic of offerings such as Tinder have some safety features....

A rudimentary understanding of “discovery” or what it means to discover something is cemented in the notion that what once was underrecognized, lost, or totally unfounded is stumbled upon through both effort and a little bit of luck. The core of discovery, I believe, is this lack of expectation – with the word’s positive connotations predicated on fortuitous phenomena. Ronald Barba Managing Editor, Tech.Co

It’s a Big Win for Voice Interfaces Echo Could Be the Smart Home’s Big Break Image: Guillermo Fernandes

Originally, iOS update 14.7 (which released mid-July) was an update that allowed iPhones to connect to MagSafe battery packs. However, this update came with an unintended security exploit that Apple is now fixing. While the implications of this security issue weren’t specifically spelled out by Apple, the issue wasn’t major enough for any large investigations or inquisitions. Still, users should make sure to update their devices at their earliest convenience....

Assistly, a San Diego-based startup, looks to help companies make their customers happy by creating an enterprise grade, multi-channel support platform wrapped in a smart, intuitive interface. Assistly offers a dashboard for managing customer interactions by phone, chat, twitter, and more. With an easy to use queuing system, your company can now easily stay on top of customer interactions with the goal of turning your customers into evangelists. Assistly has a wealth of startup experience as they are made up of the former Goowy Media team that was acquired by Aol in 2008....

Crowdfunding sites are a benefit to entrepreneurs worldwide, but what if there were more worthwhile causes to give your money to? VideoJuice is a social fundraising platform “where we ask and you answer the question, ‘What would you do to raise money for your favorite cause?’” the Chicago startup explains. You do something creative; the crowd funds you for your personal or charitable needs. For example, CEO Tom Denison vowed to dye his hair pink for a month if he could raise $1,000 for the Susan G....

Bottoms Up is an app that is changing your nightlife experience. It includes everything from happy hour specials and local events to showing you the location of where your friends choose to go out. “Bottoms Up started as a nightlife website that contained all the information you would want to know about bars, transportation, drinking games, fashion tips and more,” says Keith Martiny, Bottoms Up CEO. “That was the grand idea and as we went through the ups and downs of developing the company, we refined it into a nightlife app specifically focused on providing our app users with all of the information they could want for bars and restaurants....

Additionally, we talk about what Brian has learned about life and business from his mom Brenda Barnes, Former CEO of Pepsi and Sara Lee, what the most effective marketing channels have been, how M1 Finance’s message has evolved over time, how to communicate a relatively complicated product to consumers quickly, the importance of design in fintech, why Brian moved back to Chicago after going to Stanford and whether he thinks it matters, and why Chicago has to improve our risk appetite....

Renowned as the home for the world’s leading companies in technology – with a long-running history in the industry (its roots going all the way back to Stanford University’s early – and still on-going and prevalent – role in developing the region) – Silicon Valley has grown to represent the birthplace of American tech innovation. Indeed, companies like Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Apple originated in the California region, and continue to lead sections of the technology industry up to this day....

That’s right, Councilmen Anthony Beale and Ed Burke are attempting to have a city ordinance passed that would make it illegal to operate self-driving cars. This law would make the operation of self-driving cars, with or without a human supervisor, punishable by up to $500. While Chicagoans may be lamenting their recent Tesla purchases after hearing the news, the law is not designed to deter personal automotive preferences (although that is a pleasant side effect for these ruiners of fun)....

Working remotely has become a smooth process these days, with tech like web conferencing seamlessly bridging the gap between the home and office. There are lots of great perks too – you might even live longer if you work from home. If you’re looking for a remote job, be it fully working from home or hybrid, it’s good to know which ones allow it before you send in your application....

Hence it is imperative for businesses of every size to consider implementing a winning Content Marketing strategy as a major part of Conversion Rate Optimization. Keeping in mind the new Panda update 4.1 & Google’s guidelines, I decided to highlight 13 content marketing strategies that you should consider if you’re looking to boost your website conversion rates. Wherever possible, I’ve included real-time examples to make you understand better. Creating high quality content should be on the top of your list because that’s the only thing that you can do to hook viewers and please Google at the same time....