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Seriously, time is running out. You officially have less than a week to get your applications in for your chance at joining 100 semi-finalists in San Francisco for our annual Innovate! and Celebrate conference. So get on it! What are you waiting for?! Reap the Benefits Some startup competitions don’t care about their participants. But with the Startup of the Year competition, you know you are in good hands with benefits that extend far beyond the winner’s podium....

We’ve scoured the startup scene to find out which budding businesses have made big waves in 2022 — and whose growth is showing no signs of slowing down. From state-of-the-art clean energy solutions to breakthrough podcasting platforms, here are six tech startups you should be keeping an eye on in 2023, and beyond. Reverion Taking a proactive approach to dealing with the climate crisis, Reverion is a Munich-based startup that’s gaining momentum at a rapid speed....

But last week, I traveled to Los Angeles for a wedding. And now, my trusty Bluesmart smart bag is sitting in LAX next to a trash can. That’s because, apparently, smart bags aren’t allowed on airplanes anymore. The Smart Bag Ban Thanks to a rare collaboration from top airlines around the country in late 2017, smart bags have been effectively banned from airplanes since early 2018. News which hadn’t reached me, since I’d travelled with that bag several times since the start of 2018....

The other guest on this week’s episode is Jesse Jacobs, CEO and Founder of Samovar Tea. A triad of low-key, wi-fi free lounges in which a strange thing happens – people are looking each other in the eye and carrying on conversations. Jesse will share his take on technology and mindfulness in his business. Social Media Hour Episode #57 Editor’s Note: Cathy Brooks’s Social Media Hour offers a rotating selection of top industry experts to discussion about the way in which social media is impacting business and society....

This seed financing brings the total funding raised to more than $1.2 mm. The team, currently located in Downtown Las Vegas, is now hiring full stack developers. Full stack engineers with skills in Javascript, HTML, CSS, MongoDB, Node.js; front end developers; and back end developers should connect with Wedgies. It was not long ago that Wedgies announced that they had processed one million votes in 2013, after having launched in April of that year....

Medical From Check-in systems to sending information about a patient’s status to their family, hospitals and medical centers can send all critical information directly via iBeacons installed in their premises.With iBeacon powered apps, the patient’s family members can easily schedule appointments to meet the patient and check-in when they finally arrive at the clinic lobby.Receptionists can also see a full list of those people who’ve checked in and how long they’ve been waiting to meet the doctor/patient....

The goal of Sparkpad is “to make customized touch screen displays as easy for businesses to produce as web pages”. Their new line of Wi‐Fi enabled devices, which run on Linux, are designed to allow companies to easily develop and deploy their own digital signage and interactive touch panels that require an Internet‐connected screen. Once a company creates their own app, they can purchase any number of Sparkpad devices that come pre-loaded with their app on it....

Squaggle is a tablet designed to ensure that screen time is safe and educational for your kids. Between the fun, learning-focused apps, the adult website blockers, and the time control features, this device could be the first step in welcoming your children to a safe and comprehensive world wide web. The features of the Squaggle go far beyond the simple “kid-mode tablet.” This device has 62 award winning apps, accounting for more than 324 games, puzzles, and books for your child....

Your prayers may have been answered as website builder Squarepace announced a new partnership with point-of-sale (POS) giants Square. The POS company’s payment processing software and hardware will now be baked-in to the Squarespace’s Commerce app, making selling online and in-person a piece of (presumably square) cake. So does this partnership mean that the two companies have squared the ecommerce and in-person shopping circle? Did you know? You can create an ecommerce site with Square – see our Square Online Store review...

Inevitably the two cities influence each other, and startups are no exception. The government is known for attracting bright-eyed idealists who want to change the world, and entrepreneurs often have a similar attitude. In particular, DC is ripe for political startups that aim to improve government or work with the hundreds of nonprofits in the capital. For example, DC startup Encore helps nonprofits and cause-driven organizations collect member stories to galvanize their community and donors....

StartUpTradeUp is a platform that serves as an online marketplace for various businesses and startup companies, along with individual freelancers, to trade and barter their surplus skills, space, or products and services. It allows direction interaction between those with an excess of a specific commodity or service and those interested in the opportunity to trade their own excess of resources for something they are lacking. Basically: I have plenty of chocolate cupcakes, but I’m low on milk; you have a lot of milk, but you’ve only got half a cupcake; I’ll trade you some of my cupcakes for some of your milk (this example assumes that neither party is a greedy glutton)....

Sure, the new Apple Watch encourages you to track and concentrate on your breathing, but it doesn’t specifically focus on continuously monitoring your breathing patterns or helping you train it. Spire, a small pebble shaped device that sits inside your waistband or middle of your bra, looked to solve just this about two years ago. Since launch, their hardware has remained the same, but with numerous iterations of their software, it was worth a second look at how well Spire works now....

Of course, this makes sense when you think about it, as those who are working more than one job are likely struggling to make ends meet, and picking up extra jobs in order to simply survive rather than thrive. But one study makes the distinction between the two ways of working even sharper. After polling more than 1,000 working Americans, Insurance Quotes produced a report comparing the happiness of those working one job with that of those working two or more....

According to research from Webroot, 78 percent of IT decision-makers at mid-sized businesses (100-499 employees) believe that cyber attacks will cost they’re company less than $1 million. To make matters worse, 62 percent believe that it will cost less than $500,000 and 22 percent believe it will cost less than $100,000. So how wrong are they? A lot. While the math isn’t exact and numbers vary across the board, the consensus is pretty clear: it costs a lot more than these people think....

And, while the losses faced by regular users should not be disdained, businesses can potentially have a lot more to lose. Vital contracts and other documents, and personal information of their employees and clients, are just a couple of examples of the information that can be lost, which can be a complete disaster in more than one way. With this in mind, it is very clear that backups are mandatory for every single company....

For the last two years, remote work has been a given for a wide range of positions around the world. Now though, employers are happy with the lower cases and substantial vaccine rate, and they’ve decided that now is the time to head back to the office. However, employees are pushing back, noting that flexible schedules make life infinitely easier, and the improved productivity numbers imply that there’s no need to go back....

Today, Denver Startup Week ran a panel on diversity among startup founders and employees. The five panelists in the “Startups & Diversity: The Challenges and Opportunities” discussion covered their own experiences in the unconscious biases of startup culture as well as discussed the Colorado-based nonprofits available to assist underserved entrepreneurs. The panel follows an announcement from JPMorgan Chase & Co. the day before: They will donate $240,000 total in philanthropic grants — $60,000 each to four Colorado nonprofit organizations that assist small businesses and have strong programs for women, minority, and underserved entrepreneurs....

The Data You’ll have to click through to the article for a full rundown of Pew’s methods, but here’s a chart that visualizes how senators’ number of Facebook followers dips farther the closer they are towards the platonic ideal of the moderate politician. Pew also gives a few examples of the most ideologically driven senators and their Facebook fanbases. A notable outlier is the relatively moderate John McCain, but his 2008 presidential run accounts for his over-a-million followers....

Need more funding news? You can get the Tech.Co Deals Roundup sent directly to your inbox by subscribing here. Funding Stamford’s Tru Optik Raises $1.7M Seed Round Tru Optik, a Stamford, CT-based digital media audience intelligence startup that helps brand marketers and agencies gain insight on how to monetize Millennials via media, announced yesterday that it has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. The funding was led by angel investor Alex Blum and Progress Ventures....

Tech Cocktail Celebrate Conference went down in Downtown Las Vegas earlier this week, and the beautiful, aptly-named Inspire Theatre played host to the bulk of the events. Here, attendees found collaborative panel discussions on stage in the main theater offered by speakers from startup accelerators, civic entrepreneurship programs, coworking spaces, corporations, and other roles that have been created around the country to help grow communities led by entrepreneurs. Throughout the venue, attendees found spaces to meet, mentor, network, and form connections with others who are starting or running their own business, or stimulating innovation with funding, partnerships, and mentorships....