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Tag: #Zoom

The Rise of the Rest?

The Rise of the Rest?

Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash

It’s mid-August and thoughts of back-to-school and returning to work are in high gear. Or at least amping up.

Especially since tech companies are tightening their rules on remote work.

“Zoom, once the poster child for remote work during the pandemic, is now forcing a significant number of its employees back to the office, joining the growing chorus of tech companies pivoting away from remote work. Despite its explosive growth and popularity as a virtual communication tool, Zoom seems to have caught the in-office fever. The company’s hybrid approach demands that employees within 50 miles of an office show up in person at least two days a week, supposedly to foster team interaction,” the New York Times reported. Read More...

The Founder Test: Do You Have What It Takes?

The Founder Test: Do You Have What It Takes?

 

We all know the statistics: most startups fail for various reasons, primarily because they run out of money, or didn’t raise enough – or any. There is another factor to consider: do you have what it takes to be a founder of a company? There’s a lot of advice out there on the slides you need in your deck and why startups fail, but what about some basic skills you need to be a founder? We do know that many founders of very successful companies are psychopaths – do try to avoid going that route – and that aside, here are some things you need to consider: Read More...

The Heat Is On…Big Tech

The Heat Is On…Big Tech

It may be summer, but we well know that tech – and rust – never rest. Last week, “Former President Donald Trump, who has been banned from most major social media platforms, announced a class-action lawsuit against tech giants Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, along with their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai,” Yahoo reported. “…In court documents, Mr. Trump’s legal team argued that the tech firms amounted to state actors and thus the First Amendment applied to them. Legal experts said similar arguments had repeatedly failed in the courts before,” said the New York Times.

But Palace Intrigue noted a while back that in April, 2012, “Barack Obama himself admitted that the government helped Google and Facebook get off the ground. The government was present at the beginning when both companies were created.”

  Read More...

Audio-Only Platforms: Listen and Learn

Audio-Only Platforms: Listen and Learn

The lockdowns have certainly had a huge impact on the online world. First, Zoom mushroomed from out of nowhere, and when Zoom fatigue seemed to be setting in, there was Clubhouse, taking over the zeitgeist and becoming, as the Daily Caller noted (in Here’s What We Know About Clubhouse, The New App That’s Dominating Social Media), the fifth most popular social media app on the Apple store, trailing behind only Facebook, Messenger, Discord, and WhatsApp.

 

Not to be outdone, Facebook is launching several new audio-only features, including “Soundbites…and an audio-only version of Rooms (called Audio Rooms – think Clubhouse).” as The Sun reports. Read More...

Thanksgiving in the Tech World…and what better time to flip Big Tech the bird…

Thanksgiving in the Tech World…and what better time to flip Big Tech the bird…

It’s Thanksgiving this week here in America. We know that there are lockdowns in some states, but some of us will be able to enjoy the holiday with friends or family and more likely, both, since we will be joined by friends who are unable to gather with their families due to the lockdowns, and for the records, there is no difference in the number of reported ‘cases’ in states with lockdowns and those without them. But it’s Thanksgiving – one of our favorite holidays – so let’s talk turkey.

This past week, we watched a movie from the late 80s. There were computers in the film or rather, terminals, but not the sort that were social media or surveillance enabled. People who gathered in pairs or groups had conversations with each other. No one pulled out one of those dang disruptive cellphones. And wonder of wonders, people still managed to get sh*t done.

As the industry promised, tech was disruptive, but on many levels and in many instances, is that a good thing (Alexa ruins Christmas by blurting out girl’s gift)? Read More...

The Investment Landscape in the New For-Now

The Investment Landscape in the New For-Now

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

It’s an odd time in the industry, to put it mildly. World economies have certainly been challenged (again, to put it mildly). Still, Crunchbase reported that “Despite the turmoil of an ongoing pandemic, global venture funding for the second quarter of 2020 was not as dire as we expected, but it was down from previous years.” Specifically, it was down 7% from the first half of 2019.

According to CNBC the First half of 2020 sees 30% drop in startup deals; seed funding falls 40%. The big winners in overall funding: fintech, health tech and long-time also-ran edtech.

We live in strange times, again to put it very mildly. After all, Meditation app Meditopia raised $15m funding round. “Mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower reckons that the top 10 meditation apps generated $195m of user spending in 2019 – and that was before a global pandemic created a new spike in their popularity.” Read More...

Observations and More Lessons Learned from the New Normal

Observations and More Lessons Learned from the New Normal

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...

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

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

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...

The Technology Company Sniff Test

The Technology Company Sniff Test

Tech has long operated under the mistaken belief that you can barrel ahead, damn all laws and regulations, what to speak of the basic rules of business, ask forgiveness instead of permission and it would all work out in the end. That one might have flown – for a time – when tech was a nascent industry attempting to elbow its way to a seat at the table: the problem is that the waiter always comes around with the check.

There have been a spate of IPOs and non-starters, and IPOs that more or less turned out to be non-starters: Uber and Lyft have not exactly been great rides for investors; stationery so-called connected exercycle Peloton has been spinning its proverbial wheels. The We Company pulled its IPO because it turned out to be not about We after all, but rather I, I, me, me. Read More...

Lyme Disease and the Entrepreneurial Bug

Lyme Disease and the Entrepreneurial Bug

Image by 13smok from Pixabay

A different kind of editorial this week, due to our having contracted Lyme Disease, which basically turns you into something of a narcoleptic for at least several days.  We’ll be fine – it was caught early. And note to self, since our doctor told us that many people wait two weeks before seeking treatment, thinking that it’s merely a summer flu, since it has many of the same symptoms: ache and pains and fever.  The bullseye shaped rash doesn’t develop immediately, and it doesn’t show up at all in some cases. It takes at least 24 hours to develop, and it’s not always shaped like a bullseye, or even large, so it can be mistaken for a spider bite. Still, the same antibiotics are prescribed for the same amount of time. But you do have to see a doctor.

Don’t ignore it. Waiting to seek treatment can lead to serious and permanent health issues.

As a head’s up, you don’t have to be out in the country or even in deer country to contract the disease: a friend told us that a friend of his had gotten it in Central Park, while walking his dog. If you’re going anywhere where there’s grass or wooded areas, make sure to apply insect repellant (by the way, the infected area is extremely painful and sensitive to the touch for days). Summer’s not over yet and Lyme Disease-bearing ticks are around until early Autumn, so let’s be careful out there. Read More...