As a relatively unschooled person in the land of marketing – I did not take business classes, and I am not formally trained in marketing – I have personally struggled through professional life in certain areas, trying to understand how marketing people see the world of the consumer and the product. My best guess at this is the following: You make a great product – and in fact, this can be objectively tested....
TurboAppeal – which launched earlier this year, and pitched at Tech.Co’s Tech Cocktail Startup Celebration at SXSWi 2015 – brings together Big Data, analytics, and data mining to create a technology solution that greatly streamlines the property tax appeals process. Typically, consumers must go through a tax attorney in order to sift through all the paperwork and work their way through the appeals process. With TurboAppeal, homeowners simply have to fill out a short form on the company’s website in order to file and process and appeal....
Colonial Pipeline, which supplies around 45% of the oil that serves 50 million Americans across the East Coast, has not yet stated when it plans to reopen. The shutdown may boost oil prices in the near future, and it’s another example of the need for increased cybersecurity measures across essential US infrastructure. The Hackers Just Want Money The Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline shut down on Friday and revealed that they had suffered a ransomware attack on Saturday....
The rise of texting and message apps are a big reason behind the falling popularity the traditional phone call, but robocalls seem intent on hammering the final nail in the coffin. Thanks to the robocalling tech that lets spammers reach a thousand phone numbers within a few seconds, scam calls have never been higher: They leapt from constituting 3.7% of all US mobile calls in 2017 to making up 44....
There certainly are plenty of founders that meet that description. But there are plenty that don’t. The average age of the successful startup founder is around 40 years old, according to the Kauffman Foundation, and the only age group with an increase in entrepreneurial activity over the last twenty years are those between 55 and 65. Tom Sanocki is the CEO of the amusingly titled Limitless Ltd, a new VR startup that enables content developers to create interactive VR characters that respond to voice, gestures, gaze and more....
Our venue host for the night was the Virginia Air & Space Center on the waterfront in Hampton, VA. The event was part of ICE 757 Innovation Week which is the premiere east coast festival featuring top experts in entrepreneurship, film, music, and extreme sports. About 100 people showed up to check out demos from the following startups: Aesop Technologies LLCFeedbacK Enterprise, LLCFitBox365Hortus AmericaNASONINetarus, LLCRedono, LLC Southeastern Virginia’s Startup of the Year– Reader’s Choice NASONI – Nasoni is a unique patented faucet design that makes faucets dual purpose....
Networking is a vital part of everyone’s career – especially for younger professionals – but the global shift to remote working almost two years ago means connecting with like-minded businesspeople is much harder than ever before. Now, that’s all about to change thanks to twine/Glimpse’s web conferencing integration. Zoom’s App Marketplace has grown exponentially since 2018, but there are few apps that will add value to the lives of professionals in the way “twine for Zoom” is expected to....
Research has shown that as stress levels rise, leaders tend to become more binary in their decisions, shoot from the hip and end up stressing out employees – none of which are good for the company. Stress Impacts Taking Risks In a stressful situation, it’s possible for the fight-or-flight instinct to take over causing individuals to take risks they wouldn’t under normal circumstances. Research by the Association for Psychological Science indicated that men and women approach risk taking differently under high stress....
Over the last few years, lax security standards have given way to a plethora of cyberattacks that result in lost money and data for businesses around the world. The problem is so dire that even the US government recently invested a hefty sum to bolster cybersecurity research, and if Uncle Sam is opening his wallet to invest in a more secure online experience, you probably should too. Still, this new study shows that everyday users simply don’t understand how tools like password managers can make a huge impact on securing your data online, whether you’re an individual or a business....
Higher Loans Correspond to Lower Entrepreneurship Higher student loan debt does correspond with lower rates of young adult entrepreneurship. However, not at the highest levels of debt: Almost Half of Young Entrepreneurs Say Loans Affected Employment Nearly half of the college-educated entrepreneurs surveyed said that their student debt had affected their future employment plans. Some said they needed to take “less desirable” jobs or one outside their field of study thanks to their debt....
According to a study from the Pew Research Center, 49 percent of Americans consider themselves “relatively disengaged and not very enthusiastic about information or about gaining more training, especially when it comes to navigating digital information.” In contrast, 13 percent considered themselves cautious and curious about technology, while 38 percent were relatively engaged in digital information and technology. If, like me, these numbers made you do a double take, consider the medium through which your learning the information: a tech publication....
But there are two sides to the coin, and I would bet you are primarily focused on the distilled and information-rich professional side, or “explicit” data side of things. The other side is an imprint of our passions, thoughts, and hobbies made by our social media pages, forum posts, and blogs: the “implicit” data. Recently featured at SXSW V2V, Peter Kazanjy founded TalentBin, a search engine for recruiters and companies to fill tech-related positions....
For anyone considering where to start or move your company, these takeaways come from deciding where to launch my telehealth startup, Well Connected Now, after sponsoring entrepreneurial community events like Tech in Motion as a Microsoft Product Marketing Manager and Tech Evangelist. Signs of a Strong Startup Launch City When choosing where to start your company, try to spot some themes or genres among the local startups. For example, how would you characterize the tech community, its size, and expertise?...
MantelMount’s Kickstarter Campaign Just like many other technology based startup companies, MantelMount launched the initial production run of their product with the help of a Kickstarter campaign. This successful fundraiser accumulated more than $120,000 from 425 donors, and the first batch of MantelMounts was shipped in October 2014. Since that time, this product has repeatedly sold out via the company’s website. There is currently a presale list for consumers who are interested in getting a MantelMount from the June production order....
First founded in 2006 and based in San Jose, CA, TechShop has since opened several locations across the US, including locations in Pittsburgh, PA, and Detroit, MI. Since 2006, the workspace has given birth to a lot of different innovative products – all from its members – ranging from the original prototype for Square to things like the Lumia lamp and the DODOcase. In the case of DODOcase, it was created by someone who initially had no idea how to use any of the tools, who made over a $1 million in sales three months later....
We are proud to announce Techstars Energy Accelerator in Partnership with Statoil, a Norwegian-based company. Norway is internationally recognized for Energy so it only makes sense that this is the focus of our first Norwegian accelerator. I am excited to be the managing director for this program. The Techstars Energy Accelerator in Partnership with Statoil will take place in Oslo, Norway. Applications open in February 2018 and the program kicks off September 2018....
According to Cohen, Boulder desperately needed the help when it came to building out the reach of their entrepreneurs in the community. The only big firm in the area was Mobius VC, but the overall participation from angels was incredibly low. Along the way the TechStars method of accelerating startup communities has become one of the most potent available. Cohen actually announced during his keynote speech that TechStars will be rolling out two new initiatives to stay on top of the market....
Tech.Co chatted with one serial innovator, Anthony Conti, the CCO at award-winning mobile platform developer Software Ops. Here’s what he had to say on the future of UI in 2017, alongside some additional trends I’ve spotted myself. Expect to See Conversational Interfaces This prediction falls right in line with the marketing trends I just mentioned. Stronger engagement is a must, and a cutting edge UI in 2017 should be able to hold a conversation with users, as Conti explains:...
The Biggest Digital Marketing Mistake Most business owners see social media platforms as the perfect place to set up shop because that’s where their customers are. And that’s rightfully so. But the fumble comes along when businesses don’t understand the true function of social media. They see social media as a place to sell and promote products, but it’s more complex than that. In his article on this very topic, Vishal Kataria writes:...
Call it the IKEA meatball strategy verses the Apple Store strategy. Here’s how each trick works. Meatballs Are Loss Leaders The NY Post explains the concept behind IKEA’s business psychology trick, using an expert’s opinion: The same principle applies to the whole chickens that Costco sells: They price them at $4.99, losing money but luring in loyal customers. So how come some stores pick an opposing strategy? ‘You have no idea how much a couch costs....
