Startup

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin It’s a known quantity in the world of startups that your failure is your credit. Please re-read the previous sentence. While failure in most walks of life hangs over those who failed sometimes in career-limiting ways, this isn’t true in startups. Precisely because they’re pursuing what seems impossible, the entrepreneurs who create businesses eager to take us in an all new direction aren’t haunted by their past. Quite the opposite. If you have no stupendous blow-ups to point to, you’ve likely not been reaching very high. All of this came to mind while reading Sophie Theen’s new book, The Soul of Startups: The Untold Stories of How Founders Affect Culture . Not a founder herself, Theen has many years of high-level HR experience inside startups. Which explains why the book intrigued me. I wanted to better understand the culture of startups through the eyes of someone who has long been the Chief People Officer (or name … [Read more...] about Book Review: Sophie Theen’s ‘The Soul of Startups’

(Illustration by Suneesh K.) With schools, colleges, and physical tuition centres reopening, India's edtech startups have struggled to raise funds from investors this year. To make matters worse, the much-discussed funding winter has made it difficult for edtech startups to raise funds. Despite this, a niche category of online learning - higher edtech and upskilling - appears to have found favour with investors due to continued growth in demand for their offerings. Higher education and upskilling startups have raised $1.1 billion in private equity and venture capital funding so far this year, slightly less than the $1.25 billion raised in the first 11 months of 2021, according to data by Tracxn Technologies. K-12 (kindergarten through class 12) and test preparation platforms, on the other hand, have seen a 60 percent decline in funding during the same period. According to the data, K-12 and test prep startups have raised $1.78 billion so far this year, compared to … [Read more...] about Investors favour upskilling platforms as other edtechs struggle with funding winter

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Henrike Von Platen has been an equal pay activist for as long as she can remember. In 2016, however, she decided to change her approach. Instead of organizing campaigns to raise awareness, she started to work directly with companies to ensure fair pay. Von Platen launched the Fair Pay Innovation Lab, a nonprofit working with companies of any size to provide Fair Pay certification. That’s how she believes she can have the biggest impact. “I prefer talking positive and looking into making things better,” she said. “And that works and that's why it's so enjoyable.” FPI is a German-based organization, but Von Platen is not shy with her ambitions. “I want to certify the world to make sure the world pays fairly,” she said in a video call. To date, FPI has certified 11 German companies, and two in Iceland. Many more are currently going through the application process. To get one of FPI’s three certifications — … [Read more...] about This German Startup Wants To ‘Certify The World’ For Fair Pay

Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. (Photo: ANI) The digital economy has created 88 lakh direct jobs till now which is set to cross the 1-crore mark over the next two years, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on November 30. "The trend that we have observed over the last eight years is that India is becoming a technology producer rather than being a mere consumer of technology," the minister said. "We are the second biggest manufacturer of mobile phones now. The electronics manufacturing sector has created 25-30 lakh direct jobs, IT services have crossed 55 lakh jobs and the startup sector has contributed 8 lakh jobs," he added. Vaishnaw was speaking at the launch of a government-backed initiative under which 40 startups have been selected to exhibit their products in the US and seek financing from venture capital fund managers there. The minister exhorted the startup founders in the audience to prepare for any possible line of questioning by the US fund managers. … [Read more...] about Digital economy job creation to cross 1 crore mark in next 2 years: Ashwini Vaishnaw

SentBe CEO Alex Choi speaks during an interview with Korea JoongAng Daily in the company office in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Nov. 22. [PARK SANG-MOON] SentBe, a remittance provider, started offering transfer services from the United States on Monday. It also offers outward remittance services to Singapore and Indonesia. “I’ve learned that different countries have different standards and market practices,” said Choi in an interview with Korea JoongAng Daily at the company office in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Nov. 22. Choi said different markets all have very different business environments for overseas foreign exchange remittance. In the United States, SentBe had to be “particularly cautious about information security.” Choi added, “there are so many unicorn startups competing, but a lot of their primary markets are South America or Europe. They don’t seem to consider Southeast Asia as a primary market." He named Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand as some … [Read more...] about SentBe offers U.S. remittance services

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin “Career cushioning” is the newest job-related term added to the growing lexicon of the Great Resignation, acting your wage and quiet quitting . According to LinkedIn career expert Catherine Fisher , career cushioning is creating an action plan to prepare for if things take a terrible turn with your current position. The onslaught of layoffs, hiring freezes and job offers rescinded calls for action, instead of waiting for the ax to fall. “Think of it like an insurance policy to set yourself up for success,” Fisher wrote in her recent LinkedIn newsletter. Similar to how ghosting moved from the dating world to job interviewing, cushioning is derived from the act of keeping an eye open for other options and suitors, in case your relationship sours. What You Need To Do Right Now Start taking action. Hoping that things will improve is not a strategy. If you feel that your job is in jeopardy, immediately … [Read more...] about How To ‘Career Cushion’ Your Job During Challenging Times

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin This week NeurIPS 2022 happens, one of the most important events of the year where the latest in AI research is presented. The topics covered by the keynotes are a great sample of the key preoccupations of the AI research community today: From whether large language models are sentient to the forward-looking alternative to backpropagation. Sentient or not, MineDojo got Nvidia’s researchers the NeurIPS 2022 Outstanding Datasets and Benchmarks Paper Award, demonstrating their belief that large language models in the future will be “embodied agents that proactively take actions, endlessly explore the world, and continuously self-improve.” The current version of this AI agent learned Minecraft’s flexible gameplay using a massive online database of more than 7,000 wiki pages, millions of Reddit threads and 300,000 hours of recorded gameplay. (Here’s a Twitter thread summarizing all 15 Outstanding papers, written by Nvidia’s … [Read more...] about State Of AI, December 2022

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Whatever you think of him, there’s no denying that Elon Musk is a fascinating person. At today’s date he’s the richest person in the world, with his net worth estimated at $222bn, and he has cofounded companies including electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunnelling startup Boring Company. His success rate is incredibly high. Contrasting Musk to Jeff Bezos, the second richest person in the world who has won big but famously failed at 57 different projects (and happily admits to his, “cascade of experiments and mistakes and failures”), Musk’s approach appears to be rifle shot rather than scattergun. Musk and Bezos are the two richest people in the world, so there must be merit in both methods. But how does Musk continue to build companies that never fail in a big way? While you could chalk these consistent successes up to his IQ, reported to be 155, there are plenty of people with just as high an IQ who … [Read more...] about How Elon Musk Solves Problems: 4 Key Frameworks

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Augmented reality in retail. bigstockphoto.com Any application of AR or VR in retail needs to fit into the customer shopping journey. Every customer goes through some manifestation of that journey, from awareness to exploration, to selection and purchase, and even post-purchase service and advocacy. Sometimes those steps are long, drawn-out, and iterative, and sometimes consumers employ shortcuts, like when they use brand awareness and trust to focus on “their” brand of product. Long or short, it’s still a journey, and retailers’ jobs are to support those journeys when and where they might happen. Thus, it’s most helpful to think of AR and VR for retail in terms of where they fit within the shopper journey. So far, that means four distinct opportunities. Low-end Engagement: What’s the best way to explore products or categories? AR is the go-to engagement method of choice when it comes to product and … [Read more...] about The Four Definitive Use Cases For AR And VR In Retail

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin How consumers engage online is changing rapidly. In a recent survey , 71% of customers said they would shop more frequently with AR. Now, with the arrival of the metaverse, users are exposed to a new alternate world that allows them to experience an immersive and virtual experience, ushered in by advanced technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality. For users, this allows for seamless transitions between virtual and physical environments. Metaverse is offering many features afforded by blockchain technology, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets. In many ways, immersive commerce is an extension of traditional ecommerce as it creates new and improved customer experience by utilizing new tech. As the metaverse gains ground as the new shiny thing, the concept itself isn’t new. Back in 1992, Neal Stephenson spoke about the metaverse in his sci-fi novel called ‘Snow Crash’: “This imaginary … [Read more...] about The Rise Of The Metaverse, NFTs And Immersive Commerce