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Last week, the Chicago-based daily deal behemoth announced the purchase of FeeFighters, a startup that provides online payment services and comparison shopping for credit card processors. We have been following FeeFighters since 2008 when they were known as TransFS and were a showcased startup at our winter 2008 Chicago mixer. Tech Cocktail co-founder Eric Olson was part of the initial TransFS team until he took on grad school. After the name change, they pulled in our former intern Stella Fayman as a marketing co-founder, and they were part of the first Excelerate Labs accelerator class, raised $1....

Part of the agile development methodology, niko niko calendars have everyone record their emotions for the day for the whole team to see. It might seem like a strange practice, but it’s part of agile’s focus on productivity and rapid improvement. Situations where everyone is upset, or only one person is upset, might be cause for investigation – why aren’t we happy? Are we creating bugs? Managers can also take the calendar as feedback on their performance....

If a healthier 2017 is on your list of priorities, keep reading. Here are five apps that you can use to level up your health. Charity Miles This walking and running app is available for both iPhones and Android devices. In some ways it isn’t much different from other running apps. It helps you to track distance and other metrics that you can use to measure your progress as an emerging runner....

The propagation of technology has empowered companies to collect and record customer at every interaction. Hence acquiring customer information is not difficult but utilizing customer information is more difficult. It is very difficult to convert bulk data into relevant information which can be used in giving personalized experience to the customer. Here are 5 ways that will be helpful to leverage the customer base with personalized CRM: 1. Segmentation of the Customer Base With the help of robust data that can be obtained from CRM, companies can segment the customers....

Today I attended a panel at SXSW Interactive called Old Sports, New Life: Outdoor Culture in Cities. The panel members included Abigail Wise, News Editor and Social Media Manager for Outside Magazine, Alyssa Ravasio, CEO and Founder of Hipcamp, Scott McGuire, President and Founder of The Mountain Lab, and it was moderated by Sarah Knapp the Founder of OutdoorFest. The panel focused on all of the ways that outdoor culture is being introduced to those who would not normally seek it out....

Now things might start to change. Earlier this week, Howard University and Mayor Muriel Bowser selected Luma Lab to operate a new DC-based incubator on Howard’s campus. It is the District’s first venture capital hub for start-ups and emerging companies. The incubator will provide much needed support for underrepresented entrepreneurs and businesses that provide innovative products and services to underserved communities. The innovation hub on Howard’s campus had multiple tech and entrepreneurship organizations to choose from and Luma Lab came out the winner....

That’s what I thought. Those things are about as easy to read as “Beowulf” in its original version, and often almost as long. (Airbnb’s terms of service fill 22 printed pages!) Software companies know perfectly well that users aren’t going to go read those terms of service (ToS), and often, they don’t really want them to in the first place. Why You Want Users to Read Your Terms of Service Companies know that if you actually tried to figure out what you were agreeing to, you’d probably give up and ignore their products altogether....

In the spirit of Tech Cocktail, however, we want your take. We ran a poll for each category (Education, Energy, Health, and Smart Cities), to see who you thought was the hottest of the group. The readers have spoken. Below are your Reader’s Choice winners. The Challenge Cup Berlin’s Hottest Showcasing Startups Education Webinars – platform for production and sales of educational content and an advanced tool for managing educational content easily....

With the space race in full force, NASA has been on the hunt for the top startups, inventors and organizations that will help them achieve their goals for space exploration and landing on Mars. With so many unique challenges to be met, a new approach was needed, which is how NASA iTech was born. This unique program was specifically designed to identify cutting edge technologies that are solving problems here on earth (with a commercial market) but also have the potential to solve challenges for NASA in space....

A successful startup ecosystem is not exclusively defined by innovative products and revolutionary services. A truly impressive ecosystem is one that is inclusive, diverse, and overflowing with unique perspectives and ideas. And at Innovate! and Celebrate, you can expect a wide range of founders, entrepreneurs, and startup employees that are committed to developing their respective industries competing in our fourth annual Startup of the Year competition. Women founders are staples of a startup ecosystem that is poised to succeed....

SWOL will join a class of startups that will be provided with direct investment, extensive business development resources, and a 12-week intensive program consisting of workshops taught by industry leaders, office space at DG717 and mentorship. After the twelve week program, the startups will continue to have access to advisors for the life of the company. Momentum’s previous class of nine startups raised more than $16+ Million in outside venture funding from investors like Google Ventures, NEA, True Ventures, Anthem Capital, Crosslink Capital, Band of Angels and others....

Hubspot and RingCentral were also among the top 10 companies ranked by their own employees’ feedback, praised for their “vision” and for “never lead(ing) with results” respectively. The mass shift to hybrid, flexible and remote working arrangements over the last two years has ushered in a new era of company-cultural norms, and tech companies are evidently among the most willing to embrace that change and accommodate employees’ needs. Microsoft: The Best Place to Work The report, carried out by Comparably, derived company ratings from the anonymous feedback of current employees at over 70,000 businesses, over the past year....

The research, carried out earlier in the year, shows that using the text chat feature during a video call can help clear up issues, help team building, share links, and generally be an extension of the call itself. Only in very extreme circumstances can it be distracting, and handily, Microsoft has even generated their own top tips for keeping your video meeting on course. Microsoft’s Chat Report The recently released paper from Microsoft on the behavior of using the chat function stems from research conducted earlier in the year, although for the sake of transparency, we should point out that the sample is comprised entirely of Microsoft employees....

The cancellation of support has been on the cards since August, and while Teams won’t suddenly cease working as of today in Internet Explorer 11, the experience is likely to be a diminished one, and users won’t see any more updates. Microsoft is also removing support from the browser for Microsoft 365 apps, and also removing the legacy Edge browser, later next year. What Internet Explorer Users Should Do Next It’s important not to panic if you’re a Microsoft Teams user that has up until now depended on Internet Explorer 11....

This switch will be flipped at the beginning of October this year, giving users plenty of time to adapt to the changes. This does not mean that devices with iOS 13 installed will be unable to use Microsoft Teams, it just means that Microsoft Teams won’t be able to update itself. This means that security updates won’t support iOS 13, which can be a pretty big omission when considering Microsoft Teams....

At the Surface Event 2019, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 7, the Surface Pro X, the Surface Laptop 3, and the Surface Earbuds — the company’s answer to AirPods — which will all be available this year. They also teased two prospective products- the Surface Neo, a dual screen tablet that folds in on itself, and the Surface Duo, a foldable mobile device running Android. Take a look at everything Microsoft announced at the special event today, and keep your eyes out for some of their more innovative ideas in the coming years....

Part of the reason we chose Maine is because it has both great early stage startups and a supportive community of entrepreneurs who are churning out some great ideas (our COO Jen Consalvo is also from Maine!). We even welcomed the Mayor of Portland up on stage to say a few words before the event kicked off. So, here it is folks, the winners of our first ever Maine Mixer & Startup Showcase are:...

The Google One VPN has already been certified under the criteria, making it one of the first VPN apps to receive a mark of approval from the Internet of Secure Things Alliance, which goes by the acronym “ioXt.” A laundry list of top VPN providers have also passed muster. Scalable VPN standards are better for everyone In a statement on the new certification, ioXt Alliance CTO Brad Ree highlighted the organization’s goal of developing security standards that can help keep everyone on the same page when it comes to mobile VPN effectiveness: Previously, the ioXt Alliance focused on security checks for IoT devices themselves, so moving to focus on VPN software is a new direction, albeit one that makes sense for an IoT-oriented organization....

The two organizations share a common history as current Mobomo Chairman Barg Upender founded Intridea in 2007. Upender then founded Mobomo later in 2009. In a statement by Intridea CEO Marc Garrett regarding the company lineage, he said that “joining Mobomo feels like coming home.” Merging the two companies will put them at a greater competitive advantage as they will now support additional specializations. Mobomo focused on Rails web development and mobile with a focus on government clients; and Intridea focused on product development, user experience, and AngularJS with a focus on startups and enterprise businesses....

Before she began her career with Lumo BodyTech, Perkash was the CEO and co-founder of TuitionCoach, which was ultimately acquired by SimpleTuition in 2009. She oversaw the financing, launch, and general management of the startup and stuck around as the VP of Products post-acquisition. But as time went on, she had an urge to get back into the entrepreneurial game and do something else; Perkash wanted to leave a positive impact on the world....