Browsed by
Category: Advice

Observations and More Lessons Learned from the New Normal

Observations and More Lessons Learned from the New Normal

Comments 0 Comment

It’s odd how companies have always had rules to which they had strictly adhered, but the lockdowns and behavioral changes brought several other necessary changes and issues to light, and always important for founders to observe and find that white space in the landscape that need that needs to be filled.  In terms of the current work landscape, for example, employees are not only working from home, but presently, sometimes from a home that might be thousands of miles away from the office. Suddenly, we can not only work remotely: it has been more or less mandatory for months and considering that 500K+ residents have already permanently left NYC, that trend may well continue.  No worries: we’ve proven that we can work for a NYC-based company, even if we’re in, say, Ohio. Zoom is the new normal and the stock price, yes, zoomed.

Not surprisingly, tracking devices on employees’ computers are also becoming the new normal.  Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean your boss isn’t watching you, Vox reported. In fact, “Software that monitors remote employees is seeing a sales boom.” Speaking of Zoom, “The videoconferencing software, for example, used to allow hosts on its paid service to turn on something called “attention tracking.” This feature let them see if meeting attendees navigated away from the app for longer than 30 seconds during a meeting, which served as a good indication that they were looking at something else. It couldn’t see what they were looking at instead, and it could only be activated when the host was in screen-sharing mode… the company disabled the feature after widespread outcry, which demonstrates how much people dislike features like these and why employers should exercise discretion if and when they use them.” Read More...

Ripping the Mask Off Online Networking

Ripping the Mask Off Online Networking

Comments 0 Comment
Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

‘The New Normal,’ ‘Zoom me,’ ‘let’s do a screen share.’ There’s no doubt that the patois – and much of our behavior – has changed in the last several months, but some things don’t, such as the importance of ‘getting out there’ and networking and staying connected.

There’s no excuse not to. You may be sitting at home, but let’s be honest: you have the world at your fingertips, so instead of wasting even more time on TikTok (and head’s up: Apple Caught China-Owned TikTok Spying on Millions of iPhone Users) or posting yet again to the gram or checking out what everyone else is doing, one of the most invigorating activities in which you can engage is meeting new people. Here are a few suggestions for doing that:

  1. Events these days are taking place virtually. Find the ones that appeal to you and participate. Ok, so you’re having a bad hair day. Most of the world has been having a bad hair three months, so don a cap, post your photo instead, and even post simply your name or initial, if you must. But remember: the web – and video conferencing – is visual. Fine to retreat behind a little black box, but at some point – especially during introductions – remember that the importance of networking is to literally show your face.
  2. Find online networking groups in your areas of interest. While in some events, you can participate in the chat only and are more or less a fly on the wall, there are those in which the attendees are actively engaged with each other and the host, en masse, or in breakout rooms. Good way to meet new people, and since people from all over the country and all over the world have the ability to participate, these are opportunities you might not have ordinarily gotten. Ever.
  3. Behave yourself. Play nice with the other kids/attendees. Participate, but refrain from using this as an opportunity to get up on a soap box or your high horse. People are participating because they want to reach out, not be shut out or shouted down.
  4. If you’re participating because you have a particular need – looking for work, employees, investors, whatever  – don’t start with that or use your agenda to monopolize the conversation. Find out who everyone is first. Participants usually also post their emails or LinkedIn information in the chat – which you can save. Establish a relationship first, and continue the conversations later – or via email or phone call or LinkedIn chat or a separate video chat. Just because it’s a video conference doesn’t mean you need to get in everyone’s faces.
  5. Participate in online activities, too. Trust us, there’s something for everyone out there – chess, yoga, cooking, karaoke, even cocktail hours. You name it, you can find it. Good time to develop an interest or pursue one that you’ve been putting off – and you never know who you meet that way. As for the cocktail hours: you may be holed up in your apartment, but no reason why you should have to imbibe alone.
  6. Good ice breaker rather than the usual, ‘who are you and what do you do?’ Try, ‘so where in the world are you at the moment?’ Many people are away from their usual home base. Always interesting to know where they’ve gone off to and how that has altered their lives. It’s a much more interesting way to connect in this age of the New Normal.
  7. LinkedIn. You may have a ton of connections, some of whom you know and some of whom you decided to connect with out of the blue for whatever reason and for whatever reason, they accepted. Good time to check in with some of those connections. Say hello. See how they’re doing and what they’re doing. Not everyone updates their profile all the time, so you never know what might have changed. Drop them a note. Or look for people/former coworkers with whom you might have lost touch. You might even want to look at some of your connections’ second degrees and perhaps introduce yourself to them. You at least know someone in common: that second degree may also have common interests or be able to help you push the envelope forward a bit – or vice versa.

We are admittedly a compulsive networker, as we enjoy meeting new people and you just never know whom you might encounter just by showing up, even if it means moving just a bit out of your comfort zone. It can be energizing. It can be thought-provoking. It may help you to look at something you’ve been thinking about/stressing over with a new perspective. If you’re working on something/need something in particular, it might even help you to move the needle forward. Read More...

About Those Cell Phones: Is It Really Your Call?

About Those Cell Phones: Is It Really Your Call?

Comments 0 Comment

We reported a month or two back that Apple and Google were building a coronavirus contact tracking system into iOS and Android. “, which is laid out in a series of documents and white papers, would use short-range Bluetooth communications to establish a voluntary contact-tracing network, keeping extensive data on phones that have been in close proximity with each other,” The Verge reported.

Not that these two esteemed members of the tech cartel are known for serving the public good uber alles, and note to self: “At least eight global companies identified as benefitting from China’s enslavement of Muslim minorities published statements celebrating Juneteenth, an American holiday marking the end of slavery in the country.” Of course the list includes Apple and Google – as well as Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon, FILA, General Motors, Nike, and Ralph Lauren. Read More...

Urban Distancing and the Rise of the Rest

Urban Distancing and the Rise of the Rest

Comments 0 Comment

For years, our urban areas have been attracting the young and the talented away from smaller towns, cities and suburbs, which had been leading to a seeming unabated expansion of our major urban centers into sprawling megalopolises. You could rattle off the destinations almost by rote: New York, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Los Angeles, plus a few more here and there. It didn’t matter that housing costs were absurd and, in many cases, up to half one’s salary would go into living quarters roughly the size of one’s college dorm. These were the epicenters, the hubs, at what may well prove to be, in retrospect, a moment in time.

We have yet to see the full after effects of the lockdowns, and while there have been reports of urban areas and states like New York and California hemorrhaging citizens, we’ve been hearing from our readers that many of them who moved out New York et al seemingly temporarily, sheltering with family or friends, gravitating back to the cities/towns/communities where they grew up, carrying on business over zoom et al, and watching the Draconian lockdowns and more lately, urban rioting, from afar, now have no intention of moving back. In fact, one investor friend who moved to a farm upstate at the onset, recently posted on the gram, showing off his new brood of calves. They were like having little kittens, he said. Read More...

Lift-Off! A Milestone Week in Tech

Lift-Off! A Milestone Week in Tech

Comments 0 Comment

First, SpaceX made history with the First-Ever Human Rocket Launch For NASA, as Forbes reported. Saturday’s launch was the first time since 2011 that humans had launched into orbit from U.S. soil. The Dragon shuttle did successfully dock at the International Space Station, and we recall when SpaceX was considered more or less a moonshot.

Tech has come of age, and with age comes responsibility. Read More...

Going Viral in the Age of the New Normal

Going Viral in the Age of the New Normal

Comments 0 Comment

Dipping a bit deeply into C-19 points up, given that we’re some sixty-odd days into lockdown, but we do have our reasons – and a point to make.

For 50+ years, the CDC has postulated a theory – based on no science or studies – that if a pandemic hit, a lockdown could eradicate the virus. Read More...

Subject Matter Experts and Entrepreneurship

Subject Matter Experts and Entrepreneurship

Comments 0 Comment

This week, we thought we’d look at subject matter experts, taken from the lens of carbon emissions with lessons for both entrepreneurs, and investors.

The good news about the lockdown: carbon emissions, which we’ve been told are a danger and will wipe us all out in X amount of years, are decreasing, given that fewer factories are fully operational, and there are fewer commuters on the roads. On the other side of the coin, although COVID-19 Cuts Car Crashes — But What About Crash Rates? According to StreetsBlog (and underreported in mainstream news), “both car crashes and crash fatalities have more than doubled in the North Star State (Minnesota) since the virus began to accelerate in the state.” In New York City, more motorists died in the period between March 2 and April 8 — even though there are so few cars on the road, as Streetsblog NYC reported.” Read More...

Post-Covid Tech: The Tipping Points and the Breaking Point

Post-Covid Tech: The Tipping Points and the Breaking Point

Comments 0 Comment

Om Malik did an excellent piece recently entitled The Inevitable has happened. And in a hurry, on fairly recent past crises and the opportunity zones that they created for technology. Head’s up, people: take note of this current crisis, especially since we’re still in medias res and observing first-hand where the shortfalls are. Case in point: The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020.

It’s not tech,but it’s there. Read More...

Notes from the New Normal: Is There a Silver Lining?

Notes from the New Normal: Is There a Silver Lining?

Comments 0 Comment

If you look closely enough, you’ll almost always find a silver lining somewhere, and so it goes with the Wuhan Flu. That said, as happens whenever it comes to silver, there are invariably some spots that are tarnished. Still, if you’ve tired of all of the Daily Corona Death Count stories, here are some points you might have missed, including a few silver linings:

People are certainly cooking more at home. You can’t exactly go out to restaurants these days, but many do deliver, and head’s up: Maryland restaurant owner: ‘Delete all the delivery apps’. They do take “25-30% commission rates” and restaurants are having a tough enough time as is trying to survive. As we’ve mentioned before, meal kit Blue Apron’s stock price is up. No info on the uptick in traffic on recipe/cooking sites or sales of Soylent,
although Amazon is hiring big time – 75,000 more workers as demand rises due to coronavirus, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Secretly Upgrades Tech to Target and Squash Unionizing Efforts Read More...

Lessons from History and the So-Called ‘New Normal’

Lessons from History and the So-Called ‘New Normal’

Comments 0 Comment

At times like these, we have found that in order to see where the world might possibly be going, there is often no better teacher than history. Being in the midst of a “global pandemic,” good to look at what came before.

Often called the “greatest medical holocaust in history,” according to History, “The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918…infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide—about one-third of the planet’s population—and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans.” Read More...