Innovación en el sector financiero: La Revolución FinTech

Gracias a la tecnología digital, a la telefonía móvil y a las herramientas de la llamada economía colaborativa, existe una solución Fintech para cada parte de la cadena de valor de un banco, desde el front-office hasta el back-office y toda la infraestructura intermedia. Es por esto que el número de empresas Fintech y la variedad de servicios que ofrecen representan un serio riesgo de disrupción o desintermediación para las instituciones financieras que no se reinventen a tiempo.

A bad decision is better than no decision

As the saying goes: “Procrastination is the thief of time.” Far too many great ideas have fallen flat or lost momentum, because the options that were open disappeared during the decision making process.

Almost all entrepreneurs will acknowledge that success in business comes from timing. So, when you get an opportunity, you've got to go for it wholeheartedly, not wait in the wings for some imaginary perfect time to materialise.

The Amazon Go store is a crazy high tech shopping experience

Imagine scanning your phone when you walk into the grocery store, doing all your shopping, and then just walking out. No lines, no scanning your items, no bagging. That’s how the Amazon Go store works.

Amazon Dash Button! 

Amazon Dash is a consumer goods ordering service which uses a proprietary device for ordering goods over the Internet. 

NOTE CREDIT: http://holykaw.alltop.com/amazon-go-store-crazy-high-tech-shopping-experience?gk1

Internet of Things – Online guide to the Internet of Things (IoT)

What is the Internet of Things (IoT)? Where does ‘it’ come from, how is IoT used in practice, what are the key IoT benefits and challenges, and what can we expect in the future across several vertical markets and from various angles and IoT use cases? From the Consumer Internet of Things to the Industrial Internet of Things and the Internet of Everything.

$1.9 trillion dollars of economic value could be created by the use of IoT devices and asset tracking solutions

Using sensors, tags, and other IoT devices to track goods through the global supply chain is one of the fundamental use cases for the Internet of Things, and also one of the most impactful.

Cisco and DHL, the world’s largest logistics provider, estimated last year that $1.9 trillion dollars of economic value could be created by the use of IoT devices and asset tracking solutions in the global supply chain and logistics sector.

The top 10 tech stars in the north

From an app that boosts declining high streets, to a platform where anyone can create an online radio station, these startups have been tipped for big things.

he north’s digital economy is creating jobs at 10 times the rate of the region’s non-digital sectors, according to a recent report.

To celebrate and promote the emergence of this so-called digital powerhouse, Tech North on Thursday night held the grand final of its Northern Stars competition to uncover the region’s 10 brightest tech startups.

Why Christopher Columbus was the preeminent entrepreneur

For everyone giving European entrepreneurs a hard time, consider this: Christopher Columbus created a model for the modern entrepreneur to follow.

Think about it.

Walt Disney: “Si lo puedes soñar, lo puedes tener”

Walt Disney, es un hombre que sencillamente se atrevió a tener la osadía de soñar, y no sólo eso, se armó de valor para convertir esos sueños en realidad y a su vez poner a soñar al mundo entero. Disney fue un dibujante estadounidense, pionero en la creación de películas de dibujos animados y creador de todo un mundo que lleva su nombre y está dedicado al entretenimiento familiar.

Nokia CEO ended his speech saying this “we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”.

Nokia CEO ended his speech saying this “we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”.

 During the press conference to announce NOKIA being acquired by Microsoft, Nokia CEO ended his speech saying this “we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”. Upon saying that, all his management team, himself included, teared sadly.

To Create Great Customer Experiences, Do This

Ever contact a company for help with its product, only to have your inbox flooded with endless help-desk tickets? Nick Francis is here to fix that. As the cofounder and CEO of Help Scout -- which hit $3.5 million in revenue in 2015 -- he has created software that helps such businesses as Blue Bottle Coffee and Timbuk2 streamline their customer service operations (so customers actually get help rather than endless frustration). He tells us his dos and don’ts of building a business -- and keeping your customers happy.

Los 10 factores que llevan a la muerte de las startups

El Instituto del Fracaso presentó los resultados del primer estudio que revela por qué fracasan los emprendimientos de base tecnológica en México.

La semana pasada se celebró en Ciudad de México el cuarto aniversario de FuckUp Nights, el movimiento global que busca compartir historias de fracaso en los negocios.

Social Out, VR In: We Analyzed Thousands Of Early-Stage Startup Descriptions To See Where Tech Is Headed Next

We mined early startup company descriptions to track the evolution of what's falling in and out of favor with founders and investors. Social, email, mobile are out.

By itself, a startup’s company bio doesn’t make for great reading.

But in aggregate, company descriptions reveal important trends shaping innovation in Silicon Valley and beyond. Are founders still trying to build the next Snapchat? Is virtual reality finally poised to come into its own?

Why True Entrepreneurs View Setbacks As Opportunities

Experiencing success as an entrepreneur is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. Once you and your team have been directly responsible for building something that provides value to customers and stakeholders alike, you want to stay in that place forever. And that's understandable.

However, anyone who has ever started his or her own company knows that setbacks will inevitably happen. Here’s why you shouldn’t let those stumbles block your path to getting things back on track for the continued prosperity of your business.

7 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Go Skydiving More Than Once

Skydiving and entrepreneurship may seem unrelated, but they actually have seven commonalities you may be overlooking. I think an entrepreneur should skydive more than once for one simple reason -- risk. Risk taking is an ongoing hurdle in every entrepreneur's life. I don't just mean the initial gamble of entering entrepreneurship.

A High-Stakes Bet: Turning Google Assistant Into a ‘Star Trek’ Computer

Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world, but its future, like that of all tech giants, is clouded by a looming threat. The search company makes virtually all of its money from ads placed on the World Wide Web. But what happens to the cash machine if web search eventually becomes outmoded?

Yesterday we had our last meeting of the North America section of our nine month journey from Alaska to Argentina.

It was with Bibop G Gresta and his team from Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, who are developing an entirely new sustainable transport system that will allow people to travel between cities at the speed of sound. The meeting was on Labour Day, a public holiday for most Americans, but not the Hyperloop team.

Las 4 ambiciones de Elon Musk para cambiar el mundo

Es el propio Musk quien ha desvelado en un blog en la web de Tesla su ‘Plan Maestro II’: cuatro objetivos ambiciosos con los que el visionario deja claro, una vez más, que está empeñado en cambiar el mundo. Con estos cuatro horizontes Musk busca alcanzar una “economía sostenible de la energía” para que, cuando falten los combustibles fósiles, “la civilización no se venga abajo”.

4 Crucial Stages Of Startup Growth

To be successful it is important to understand the different stages of business growth and what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
 There are a lot of unknowns and uncertainty when it comes to startups. For example:



What defines a growing startup as compared to an early-stage one?

What are the
 different phases startups go through before becoming multi-million dollar enterprises?

How do you know if a company has “unicorn” potential to become the next Uber or
 Facebook?


In this article, we will discuss four crucial stages to startup growth which will answer these questions.

5 New Businesses You Can Start That Prove 2016 Is the Best Time Ever for Entrepreneurs

According to a foreword for the Kauffman Foundation Growth Index by Third Wave author Steve Case, entrepreneurs are on the cusp of transforming rapidly-changing healthcare, education, food, and transportation sectors. And Case knows what he’s talking about: as the co-founder of AOL, he saw the mainstream importance of the internet decades before anyone else could fathom how it would impact our lives.

Infosys CEO On Mission To Transform His Company Into Design Thinkers

It’s been just over a year since Vishal Sikka surprised many when he walked away from SAP. Several months later, he shocked a few more when he took the job as CEO at Infosys, the Indian consulting firm. I talked to him this week, and nine months into his new job, he’s making a concerted effort to change the culture and introduce design thinking.

What he means by that is thinking beyond the boundaries of the defined process to look for something new — to think more like a startup. Sikka says his first nine months have been amazing, but very different from his experience working at SAP for 11 years.

MARK ZUCKERBERG: Consejos para ser un buen emprendedor

La humildad, el ingenio y la constancia son algunos de los valores que Zuckerberg aconseja para ser un buen emprendedor

El CEO y fundador de Facebook, la primera red social del mundo en número de usuarios y en relevancia, es uno de los mejores ejemplos de lo que implica ser un emprendedor.

OPINIÓN: CÓMO INNOVAR EN TU EMPRESA UTILIZANDO 'DESIGN THINKING'

Al ser un gran generador de innovación se puede aplicar a cualquier campo, desde el desarrollo de productos o servicios hasta la mejora de procesos o la definición de modelos de negocio.

Por: ARSENY LEPIAVKA

What Customer Intimacy Has To Do With Payments

What have the powerhouses Starbucks and Airbnb managed to do better than anyone else? Establish customer intimacy, according to Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay. Clerico has built WePay from the ground up through his innate love of people and by building relationships with customers to provide them with a payments platform that is exactly what they want and need. Karen Webster chatted with Clerico to find out what has inspired him along the way.

Associate with people you want to be like

I have based my life on surrounding myself with people better than me. I have always looked up to my parents and siblings, and wanted to spend as much time around them as possible, learning from them and laughing with them. The same goes for my wife, children, grandchildren and family. The principle also applies in the working world.

How to brainstorm a project plan

Previously, I discussed how you can use past experiences, of both yourself and others, when creating a project plan. In this post, I will focus on how you can use a simple tool, mind mapping, to develop and brainstorm a project plan. Mind mapping is a tool created by Tony and Barry Buzan. It allows you to take a ‘big idea’ and break it down into minute detail, whereby you can identify each individual task required to achieve the ‘big idea’. These individual tasks form the to-do list for your project plan. Mind mapping is the ideal tool to help you brainstorm a project plan.

Scary and fascinating: The future of big data

It's reasonable to see big data as a revolutionary development in IT and business in general -- but its implications should make us pause for thought.

ZDNet recently spoke to Bernard Marr, author of the book, Big Data: Using smart big data analytics and metrics to make better decisions and improve performance, to see what's next for the technology.

Globant se expande en Europa con la compra de una empresa inglesa

La inversión ascendería a los u$s 8 millones, si bien la firma argentina no difundió el importe. Se suma a la compra de la empresa india Clarice Technologies, realizada el año pasado

Acostumbrados a las noticias sobre la compra de empresas locales por parte de firmas extranjeras, la última adquisición de la compañía argentina Globant se convirtió en una de las pocas excepciones que va en el camino contrario. Es que acaba de quedarse con la empresa inglesa WAE, especializada en propuestas innovadoras de diseño. Y aunque el monto no fue difundido por la compañía, según fuentes del sector fue cercano a los u$s 8 millones.

7 errores al emprender con un socio

Las sociedadeS han sido una parte importante del éxito de los negocios. Las razones son simples: habilidades complementarias, gastos compartidos y la idea de que una persona con capital económico puede crear sinergia con el capital intelectual de otra persona, de manera que ambos se beneficien.

Young entrepreneurs focus on making a difference, according to study

Young entrepreneurs are driven by a desire for independence, a belief in social good and a commitment to employee happiness, according to new research.

Sage’s global Walk With Me report looked at millennial entrepreneurs in 16 countries and came up with five distinct personas that they fit into. It found that 61 per cent of young entrepreneurs would sacrifice profit to stay true to their values – this rises to 78 per cent in South Africa, 70 per cent in the US and 72 per cent in Singapore.

Mujeres pioneras que cambiaron la historia para siempre

Justo como versa la canción Mujeres de Silvio Rodriguez, hay mujeres que son reconocidas por su labor u obra, por el atrevimiento de no seguir las normas del sistema o las costumbres tradicionales; y al mismo tiempo, muchas otras han hecho esto mismo y han permanecido en el anonimato o apenas han sido notadas por su valerosa aportación al cambiar lo establecido.

Todas las mujeres que aquí aparecen, todas y cada una, se atrevieron a cuestionar o a simplemente hacer algo distinto a lo que se esperaba de ellas por su género. Gracias a todas ellas muchas mujeres siguieron sus pasos y cambiaron para siempre la historia, su entorno y a todas las mujeres en sí.

The Internet of Things Promises a Future of Being Coddled by Your Appliances

We interact with countless things each day that support us as we sleep, eat, work and play -- the bed we get out of in the morning, the shower head, your toothbrush, the car steering wheel, your watch and your lunchbox. Your stove, blender and refrigerator -- you get the picture. What if these objects, on which we rarely spare a second thought, had intelligence of their own?

The Books Every Startup CEO Should Read

Since I’m always talking about the books I’ve read, I often get asked for book recommendations, especially by fellow Startup founders.

This morning Nick Rellas the CEO of Drizly asked me for a list of must-readbooks, so I quickly put together this list.

I think every Startup CEO & Founder would benefit from reading the books on this list.

Sorted by books I’ve re-read the most:

5 SECRETS TO DE-STRESS FROM THE STARTUP COMMUNITY

We’ve all felt stressed out at one point or another. We know it’s not good for us but it’s a hard thing to shake. It triggers a fight or flight response which gives us adrenaline and makes our heart beat faster. In the worst scenarios, it can lead to anxiety and poor decision-making. A certain amount of stress though can be good. Some people even say they work better when they have a tight deadline or a hands-on manager. Stress at work is almost inevitable. But with greater connectivity and longer working hours, many people are finding it hard to stop stressing when they leave work. How can you leave stress at the office door?

El primer vuelo de Aquila, el dron de Facebook para llevar Internet desde los aires

Aquila, una de las partes más ambiciosas de Internet.org de Facebook, por fin ha hecho su primer vuelo largo y se prepara para llevar Internet por los aires a lugares que no tengan buenas infraestructuras.

Uno de los grandes objetivos de Facebook, para expandir sus números en zonas poco desarrolladas, es llevar Internet a todas partes. Para ello, están desarrollando la iniciativa Internet.org, con la que buscan que el 60% de la población mundial que aún no dispone de conexión a Internet pueda, de manera económica (incluso gratuita) y sencilla, conocer y aprovechar las ventajas de la red de redes. Una de las partes más ambiciosas del programa es Aquila, un dron con el que Facebook quiere llevar Internet a lugares recónditos durante 90 días.

The End Of Advertising, As We Know It

Eighty-eight percent of Fortune 500 companies that were around in 1955 no longer exist today.

Industries get disrupted. How’s that working out for advertising?

Until relatively recently, the ad industry has been dominated by the same media that dominated it in 1955: print, radio and TV. Only TV still dominates today, but its grip on media buyers is slipping. It’s hanging on by its fingernails.

That’s about to change. Cataclysmic forces are shifting corporate culture and disrupting pent-up organizational malaise.

These are the technological trends to follow in the coming months

Dusting off your crystal ball and scrutinizing the technological innovations that the year has in store is usually a healthy exercise and to help you to complete it, we are giving you 10 keys that must be considered to monitor trends in the coming months.

In the case of 2015, some old acquaintances that have never finished getting off the ground entirely return, such as wearables or the Internet of things, and others, such as smartphones and mobile environments will finally reach a more than necessary maturity.

Jeff Bezos says Blue Origin’s next space mission will deliberately go wrong

Once Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin team are happy with the operation of their New Shepard reusable rocket system, the first manned test mission could get off the ground as early as next year, with suborbital adventures offered to deep-pocketed paying passengers soon after.

Having so far made three successful launches and landings with New Shepard, the ambitious project is clearly making progress, and while reliability and efficiency are both of vital importance, Bezos knows that when people start climbing aboard, safety will be the top priority.

BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR TAKES THESE FIVE THINGS

Being an entrepreneur is a no nonsense gig, especially if you’re looking to make a lot of money.

If you think you’re going to be a slacker and do well, don’t bother, because you’re not… but if you’re willing to put the time in, you can really live an incredible life.

So here’s what it takes…

Eric Ries quiere eliminar los informes cuatrimestrales para premiar la innovación

El padre de la metodología 'lean', propone una bolsa de valores "a largo plazo" que premie la innovación sostenida frente a los rendimientos económicos a corto plazo. La acogida de su plan ha sido desigual

Aquí va un plan audaz para cambiar la manera en la que operan las empresas: crear una nueva bolsa para valorar la innovación sostenida por encima de la búsqueda de beneficios a corto plazo.

7 QUICK WAYS TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE ENTREPRENEUR

If you want to become the ultimate entrepreneur, follow the below seven simple steps, and be sure to practice them in all your affairs moving forward. None of the steps are that difficult, you just need to learn to embody them in everything that you do.

Whether you’ve started your own company already, or you’re an entrepreneur at heart but are still working at an enterprise level corporation, it really doesn’t matter… what matters most is that you’re starting to take steps to better yourself.

Vision Board: What Is It and How Does It Work?

Many entrepreneurs use vision boards and swear by them! So what in the world is a vision board and how does it work?

A vision board is usually a large piece of cardboard that has visual cut outs of what you aspire to be, do or have when you are successful. It is based on the law of attraction…what you put out there is constantly working and will eventually deliver those thing to you. Visualizing what you want is considered to be an even stronger connection and why so many recommend creating them. This picture describes the how to’s pretty good.

Want To Work From Home Part-Time? These Are The Top 35 Companies Hiring In 2016

The rise of Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com and other gig companies shows how strong the demand is for part-time remote work opportunities.

But if you’ve seen those sketchy signs blaring ‘WORK FROM HOME!!! EARN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS MONTHLY!’ on subway trains or local bulletin boards or even parking signs, you know that not all such opportunities are legitimate.

El mundo se hizo eco de este empresario argentino pero él no quiere ser encasillado

Los medios internacionales hablaron de él, todos usaron su desarrollo y su cara se volvió conocida en el mercado. Sin embargo, Máximo Cavazzani trabaja para no quedar sólo como "el pibe de los juegos"

En el primer piso de la fábrica en la que aún opera la firma textil CD Way, ubicada en el barrio porteño de Villa Urquiza, decenas de computadoras se replican una al lado de la otra y forman líneas que, desde la entrada, resultan infinitas, pero desembocan en la oficina de quien, firme, con los puños apretados y el mentón en alto camina entre las pantallas repletas de códigos indescifrables para ajenos de los bagajes de la programación.

4 Crucial Startup Questions Answered

 Do you dream of launching your startup, but don’t know how? If you’ve always had the mindset of an entrepreneur but have unanswered questions dancing around your mind, you could be in business limbo for longer than you care to admit. Fortunately, there are answers to all of your questions!

That’s right, people have gone through your struggle before and have come out alive. How? By keeping their heads up and pushing forward through the issues. Just be sure to get a feel for these questions because you are going to be seeing a lot of them.

The top 10 coming tech trends, from five top tech investors

Designers will succeed programmers as the kings of Silicon Valley, machines will become as smart as humans, and ambient computing will supplant smartphones in the next few years.

Those are three of the top 10 trends coming in technology, according to five venture capitalists who made their predictions Wednesday night at a local Silicon Valley institution. The Top 10 Tech Trends event has been held annually for the past 18 years by the Churchill Club, which hosts forums with tech’s top executives, financiers, entrepreneurs, and thinkers.

5 Steps for Making the Most of Investor Assistance

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, holds true in the VC world: More than 80 percent of our returns come from 20 percent or fewer of our bets. You’d think I spend the majority of my time assisting that 20 percent, but I don’t. I spend most of my time with the 80 percent -- our portfolio companies that’ll return little to nothing. And I’m not alone.

FIVE TIPS TO BECOME A ROCK STAR ENTREPRENEUR

As an entrepreneur it’s easy to get caught up in the next big thing, only to find out a few months later that it’s a complete waste of time and money. It’s ok though, because as entrepreneurs, we know that not everything we touch is going to turn to gold.

If every entrepreneur project that we worked on turned to gold, there’d be no challenge in trying new things and breaking new ground. Successful entrepreneurs understand that failure is just a pothole in the road, you hit it, and you just keep driving, it’s that simple.

7 Deadly Sins of Venture Capital Fundraising

Every year, thousands of great ideas are funded by venture capital (VC) funds. At the same time, 10 times, if not a 100 times more ideas are not. The recurring mistakes are not always based on the failures of the business.

It is not always because the ideas are unsound, the product not finished or the customers not happy. It is because the process of securing VC financing is difficult, sometimes arcane, requiring a lot of research and often exceptional patience. Very few 1st-time entrepreneurs are knowledgeable of what it takes and ready to go through the struggle. Yet, unless you can fund your project on your own nickel, VCs are the necessary partners to get your enterprise off the ground.

6 secretos de emprendedores millonarios

¿Alguna vez te has preguntado cuál es el secreto de los empresarios exitosos para acumular fortunas y obtener grandes logros? Te lo develamos.

Muchos nuevos empresarios ven a emprendedores exitosos y envidian sus logros y estilo de vida. “Si tan sólo supiera sus secretos”, piensan, “¿Por qué mi negocio no es tan rentable ni crece a grandes pasos?” El secreto es simple: No es sólo trabajar duro y muchas horas; es actuar como empresario, sin importar el tamaño de tu empresa.

WHO DO B2B TECH BUYERS TRUST AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MARKETERS

By Mike Neumeier, APR, Principal at Arketi Group

Recently we hit a generational milestone – millennials have officially become the largest generational group in America’s workforce. This got us thinking. We wanted to understand how this much-hyped group was impacting B2B enterprise tech purchasing.

We looked around to see if anyone had studied this and found a few interesting reports. A 2014 thinkwithgoogle survey found nearly half of B2B researchers are millennials, up 70 percent from 2012. This was interesting!

Here's what will happen when 30 billion devices are connected to the internet

The Internet of Things (IoT), built from inexpensive microsensors and microprocessors paired with tiny power supplies and wireless antennas, is rapidly expanding the online universe from computers and mobile gadgets to ordinary pieces of the physical world: thermostats, cars, door locks, even pet trackers. New IoT devices are announced almost daily, and analysts expected to up to 30 billion of them to be online by 2020.

Expect more robots, health-focused start-ups in the next 5 years, say VCs

Prepare for many more household robots, a new wave of health-conscious individuals and more data extraction. At least that's what some of Silicon Valley's top venture capitalists are predicting.

Five VCs discussed up-and-coming tech trends Wednesday night during Churchill Club's 18th-annual dinner in Santa Clara, California. On the panel were Pat Grady of Sequoia Capital, John Lilly of Greylock, Emily Melton of DFJ, Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate and Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures.

Throughout the night, each of the panelists held up green or red paddles to indicate whether he or she agreed or disagreed with each trend as it was revealed. The audience also reacted to the trends via an online polling service, and most attendees agreed with the VCs' 10 forward-looking insights overall.

Goldman Sachs: Blockchain Tech Could Save Capital Markets $6 Billion a Year

A new report from Goldman Sachs Investment Research projects that the implementation of blockchain technology could streamline the clearing and settlement of cash securities, saving capital markets $2bn in the US and $6bn globally on an annual basis.

The figures are supported by breakdowns of the specific market areas where Goldman Sachs sees the technology as valuable, as it projects up to $900m could be saved in reduced personnel and $700m could be saved from IT systems improvements.

How To Scan Your Business Model Environment For Disruptive Threats And Opportunities

It's not easy to systematically assess your business model environment for potentially disruptive threats or to seize opportunities that can improve or reinvent your business model. It's something every company should learn how to do. We created the Business Model Environment tool to help you ask specific questions that can uncover new business model ideas. In this post, I'll show you how to use it.

Three qualities all great intrapreneurs have in common

Intrapreneurs are the people happily working for your company, but with the mind-set of an entrepreneur. They can give your business purpose. They can come up with amazing ideas for exciting new products and services. They can drive your company forward, helping you achieve long-term success.

But before this can happen, it’s up to the leaders in your business to spot the intrapreneurs within your workforce and give them the tools and encouragement they need to triumph.

Here are the three qualities that all great intrapreneurs have in common.

Exponential Finance: Financial Advice In the Age of AI and Long Life

Ric Edelman is one the top financial advisors in the US. His firm, Edelman Financial Services, has 41 offices across the country. And he thinks, all things constant, most financial advisors as we’ve known them won’t be around much longer.

Future-financial-planners-61At Exponential Finance, Edelman said, “I firmly believe that in the next ten years, half of all the financial advisors in this country will be gone.”

Profit First's Founder Reveals the No. 1 Mistake That Hurts Profits

Profitability is undoubtedly the most important aspect of running a business. Almost all entrepreneurs recognize this when they first launch their business, yet most find that their business models evolve as they grow, making it difficult to grow profits consistently.

As a result, many entrepreneurs find themselves in a race to the bottom, as they begin to focus on using revenues to keep up with expenses, instead of produce profits.

The internet is still at the beginning of its beginning

Can you imagine how awesome it would have been to be an ambitious entrepreneur back in 1985 at the dawn of the internet? At that time almost any dot-com name you desired was available. All you had to do was simply ask for the one you wanted. One-word domains, common names—they were all available. It didn’t even cost anything to claim. This grand opportunity was true for years. In 1994 a Wired writer noticed that mcdonalds.com was still unclaimed, so with my encouragement he registered it. He then tried unsuccessfully to give it to McDonald’s, but the company’s cluelessness about the internet was so hilarious (“dot what?”) that this tale became a famous story we published in Wired.

En 2018 habrá más dispositivos conectados que teléfonos móviles

Unos 16.000 millones de dispositivos conectados en todo el mundo formarán parte de la Internet de las cosas (IOT, sigla en inglés) a finales de 2021, mientras que las suscripciones de "smartphones" superarán las de los teléfonos básicos en el tercer trimestre de 2016, según el último Mobility Report de Ericsson.

Entre 2015 y 2021, los dispositivos conectados crecerán un 23% anual y la mayor tasa de incremento será para la IOT.

The Only 5 Things You Need to Launch a Startup in Any Economy

In 2008, one of my startups, Career Marketplace, was sinking fast.

The market had tanked, new business was hard to come by and jobs were drying up. Career Marketplace, an online intermediary for job seekers and job creators, was getting hit particularly hard.

After a few rough years and many tough decisions I was able to save the business, but when it was all said and done, it wasn’t the economy or the job market that hurt Career Marketplace. It was my departure from common sense business principles.

Cash Flow Is Key: How One CEO Turned A Bad Deal Into A Multimillion-Dollar Construction Company

By Heather Whitley

At age 13, Isaac Lidsky starred in a ’90s teen sitcom. By age 15, he enrolled at Harvard University. When he was 20, he founded an Internet company. Five years later, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Lidsky then clerked for Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He got married, had triplets and bought a struggling construction company that he has now turned into a thriving, multimillion-dollar business. It’s an impressive resume for someone who is still under 40. But perhaps even more impressive when you discover Isaac Lidsky is blind.

Doing Business in Latam: Advice for Foreign Entrepreneurs

By Nathan Lustig

When Startup Chile invited me to share my advice for new foreign entrepreneurs doing business in Latin America, it gave me an opportunity to synthesize the things I’ve learned over the past five years living and working in Latam. After coming to Startup Chile with a startup that did business in the US, teaching entrepreneurship at Chilean universities, starting a Latin American property business, starting my own ecommerce startups and meeting hundreds of entrepreneurs looking for investment via Magma Partners, I’d gotten a pretty good feel for the cultural differences between Latam and the US.

Las ‘startups’ sacuden a América Latina

Zonngo no nació en un garaje. Su fundador, Kevin Melgarejo, nunca estuvo rodeado de mentores, inversores y emprendedores que se dan a chorros en los hubs tecnológicos de EE UU, Europa o Asia. La idea de montar una calculadora web de precios para vender y comprar móviles, tabletas y ordenadores se forjó en la Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería de Perú, a 7.000 kilómetros de Silicon Valey, la tierra prometida para aquellos que deciden montar una startup. El proyecto de este joven universitario de 21 años germinó en mayo de 2015 y desde entonces ha recaudado 22.000 dólares (19.600 euros) de capital semilla. "América Latina es una región en movimiento y ha demostrado su capacidad para generar empresas innovadoras", dice Annalisa Primi, jefa de unidad de políticas estructurales e innovación de la OCDE.

10 Tips to Help Entrepreneurs Get Motivated

Often, when entrepreneurs make the bold leap from employee of a corporation to leader of their own business, one of the first challenges they face is no longer having a person or group of people above them to set goals, deadlines and incentives. The responsibility of inspiration becomes a task of self-motivation.

7 Technical Skills All Entrepreneurs Should Master

Today’s entrepreneurs have a lot of i’s to dot and t’s to cross. The environment is complicated, to say the least, and entrepreneurs have various methods, ideas, tactics, and techniques to grow their business.

Frankly, the modern small business landscape is pretty bewildering, and there are several really important things entrepreneurs need to know and realize about how the Internet is changing the way we live. Entrepreneurs need to possess the technical skills to move their business forward in the digital age. Take a look at these skills today’s entrepreneur should work hard to master.

5 Telltale Signs You Don't Understand Big Data

I’ll admit it: Big Data is not my favorite term.  It really trivializes and summarizes the trend too far, creating misconceptions and misperceptions of what this incredible shift in our technology, culture and world actually is.

Despite the fact that I bill myself as a “big data” expert, I wish we could come up with a better term. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, you’re not alone.  Here are five of the biggest misunderstandings about big data I see regularly:

How to turn your passion into a business

5 Daily Tasks Successful Entrepreneurs Never Put Away

Check out these five tasks your successful colleagues accomplish every day and put them on your daily list as well.

Nobody wants to be a failure. Of course, eager pull towards success cannot be put in one row with instinct of survival, however, I doubt anyone underestimates its importance in personal life and business - especially for those who prefer to take control of themselves.

How This Online Design Company Got Google Ventures Funding -- On The First Pitch

Umaimah Mendhro (oo-my-ma mend-ro) is one of the few entrepreneurs who can say she won funding on her first pitch. It sounds like a lucky break, but she’s been piecing together an ambitious plan since childhood.

Mendhro’s earliest memory is wanting to build and lead a large, multi-national company. Harvard also figured prominently in her childhood aspirations, even in the face of geographic disadvantages.

5 Ways a Culture of Excellence Boosts Your Bottom Line

As you grow your business, it’s easy to focus on results you can sink your teeth into. Materials, products, profits, and revenue…without these you have no business. As a business owner, however, it can be difficult to watch your bottom line flatlining or dropping without a tangible reason. You have the product or service. The inventory of supplies is well-stocked. So what is going on?

One of the leading causes of small business failure is complacency. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more businesses fail each month than the 543,000 that get off the ground. It is the companies who focus on building a culture of excellence and teams that continuously drive forward that succeed in the long term.

GM and Lyft Will Test Self-Driving Taxis Within the Next Year

The duo also plans to make Chevy Bolt cars available for Lyft drivers eventually

General Motors and Lyft’s self-driving taxis will begin testing in the not-too-distant future.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal published some details shared by Lyft director of product Taggart Matthiesen about how an upcoming pilot from the companies will likely work. It could involve a self-driving Chevrolet Bolt, a GM-made  GM 1.56%  electric car due out later this year, Matthiesen said.

6 Questions to Answer Before Starting Your Project Plan

So you’ve asked enough questions and feel that you have acquired all of the possible information about the project that you’ll need to craft a plan, it’s time to get serious. Chances are, you’re feeling fully prepared and ready to dig into the hows and whens of the project. It’s so easy to jump right into your project planning tool of choice to create what looks like a well-thought-out plan. If that’s your process, that’s fine! Just be sure to think through every possible scenario before you put the time and effort into a formalized document. If you don’t, you’ll have to go back through your work and make adjustments, and we all know that could end up taking more time than you bargained for. So why not start with a simple sketch to map out and communicate your ideas on process, deliverables, dependencies, and timing? It can take you as little as 20 minutes and will help you to sell your ideas to your team before delivering something that feels “written in stone.”

30 Motivational Quotes to Help Realize Your Entrepreneurial Dreams

A little extra motivation and inspiration can sometimes help you push through difficult times and remain focused on the end goal. A positive mindset goes a long way.

Read the following quotes to help you reach your entrepreneurial dreams, regardless of what they might be. Use them as motivation to achieve happiness as well as success.

3 Ways to Simplify Your Company Culture and Build Trust

We're now accepting submissions for our 2016 Top Company Cultures list. Think your company should be on it? Apply Now »

The 2015 books are closed and the 2016 kickoff meetings have concluded. Now is the perfect time to take one final look at what went well last year and what we could have done better. It’s also a great time to review our 2016 priorities. Which areas demand better performance? Which programs will we emphasize in the coming months?

From Elon Musk to Richard Branson: What These 5 Famous Leaders Learned From Their Mothers

By Carolyn Sun

With Mother’s Day coming up, we’d like to take this opportunity to give a big ole fist bump to the mothers of some of the greatest leaders and learn about how they lived by example.

After all, it was Abe Lincoln who once said, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

30 ideas de negocio para importar

Muchas veces, lo que funciona fuera, también puede triunfar en nuestro país. Por eso hemos seleccionado 30 modelos de negocio que están teniendo éxito fuera de nuestras fronteras, para que vayas tomando nota.

Case Study: Should You Adjust Your Business Model for a Major Customer?

“There’s another one!” Cameron Burke’s son said, pointing to a darkened streetlight across the park. “But it’s out too!” Cameron regretted having started this game with his four-year-old. His company, Lumiscape, produced smart, connected streetlights that had been installed in cities throughout the United States, including Cleveland, where they were now, visiting his parents. He and Graham had decided to squeeze in a walk to Forest Hill Park before bedtime, and he’d challenged the boy to count all the lights he could find. But they’d already seen three that weren’t working properly.

Las 20 principales razones por las que las startups fracasan

Ser dueño de tu propio tiempo, no tener horarios ni tope de sueldo y no rendir cuentas a ningún superior, son sólo algunas de las ventajas de tener tu propia empresa.

Sin embargo, el camino no es tan fácil como la mayoría imagina y el éxito muy pocas veces depende de la buena suerte, nunca la frase “si fuera fácil cualquiera lo haría” ha encajado tan bien en una situación.

10 Things that stress out entrepreneurs more than anything

By Jason DeMers

Entrepreneurship is a stressful role for anybody. You’ll be in charge of leading people, making decisions, and determining the fate of your business with your actions -- and to top it all off, you'll probably have a significant chunk of your personal savings invested in the project. All those stressful little situations you ran into as an employee seem far less important when you’re in charge of your own business; and at the same time, your perspectives on what constitutes a “challenge” or a “concern” will shift.

These 10 situations stress out entrepreneurs more than anything else:

Por qué la inteligencia artificial necesita (como agua de mayo) una pizca de ética #rpTEN

Una entrenadísima red neuronal dotada de inteligencia artificial (y supuestamente muy lista) tuvo en una ocasión la osadía de afirmar con un porcentaje de probabilidad el 99,7% que el sombrero que la reina Isabel II de Inglaterra lucía sobre su regia cabeza era en realidad un gorro de ducha.

Con este ejemplo (tan gracioso como preocupante), Kate Crawford, directora de Investigación Microsoft Research, quiso poner ayer sobre la mesa, durante su intervención en la conferencia de internet re:publica, las múltiples debilidades de una inteligencia artificial repleta no sólo de lagunas técnicas sino también de lagunas éticas.

7 Social Media Tips for Non-Tech Entrepreneurs

By Jeff Shavitz

We constantly hear about it. It’s everywhere. However, as a busy entrepreneur and business owner, are you properly using social media to help your company grow? Be introspective and tell the truth. My answer was “no.” Yes, I know my three teenage children are living on Instagram, Facebook and all the other cool social media programs; however, as a relatively smart business guy who will soon hit the 50 year mark, I had no clue what I was doing. This new medium was totally intimidating but I eventually learned some easy steps that soon had social media helping grow my my company. The concepts are relatively simple; the harder part is the execution and consistency of developing your social media program.

Social media should not be a fad in your business. You can't do it today and then come back several months later to work on it again. Obviously, this will not work. In 2016, it’s now a very real, highly monetized business strategy that must be embraced. I recently uploaded a new Facebook photo to change my profile picture from 2012 and thought I had mastered the art of social media. I have so much to learn. For your company to stay current in this business climate, you must have a social media presence. Below are seven tips about social media for us "non tech" business owners (and please understand, I’m one of them as my VCR is still blinking from the year 2000).

1. Consider retaining an expert.

As highly motivated entrepreneurs, we think we can micro-manage every aspect of our business. We’re smart, we boast that we work 80 hours a week and there isn’t anything we can’t learn or do. However, social media, although not difficult is a real expertise that takes significant time when executed properly. It takes time and you need to determine whether you want to be the leader of your social media campaigns; if not, hire a “consultant” to help. Although many times, I hate to use the word “consultant”, they can be very effective if you know how to manage the process, their time, the money and the deliverables.

2. Begin with popular social media platforms.

Today, the most popular social media platforms include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For starters, setting up an account on these platforms is simple. All you need is to fill a few details like your names, address, email address and phone number.

And again, don’t be discouraged when you have 0 followers on day 1. If you built it, they will come.  John Heywood, an English playwright profoundly said, “Rome wasn’t built in 1 day.” (did anybody know the name John Heywood because I didn’t, but thankfully Google did). Just get started as mentioned in Tip #1.

When creating your profile or about page, you need to exercise care and professionalism. On LinkedIn, you can keep it professional while on Facebook and Twitter, you can be less formal and more conversational. Use polls and giveaways in order to elicit consumer feedback and use articles to provide more information about your business and company.

3. Establish your brand.

The first challenge (or said differently, “opportunity”) in social media is to make sure that the customer quickly notices your company and your brand. Simple techniques like ensuring that your website and Facebook and Twitter links on your home page or any blog or communication created by your company.  Thanks to creative graphic designers, you can have the links in form of buttons or logos of the social media platforms. You need to be prepared to talk about your social media pages every time you network or interact with potential customers.

4. Don’t forget about the lesser known social media sites.

While the fashionable social media platforms are very popular, do not forget about the less talked about social media sites. Start up and growing social media companies are popping up daily. Identify ones that match your company’s vision, demographics and although they may not have the huge following that Facebook and Twitter have, they will help you increase your market share for new customers.

They have very special tools that can allow you to be become more noticeable on the web. When you are on Google Plus, you will be able to have a higher chance of ranking higher on Google search engine especially in local business section due to local business listings.

5. Quality trumps (sorry for the political innuendo) quantity.

Less is more! The one thing you need to know is that you don’t have to keep posting on your social media platform if it’s bad or verbose content. As a general rule of thumb, you need to know what and when to post. Always remember that quality trumps over quantity. We are all busy with lots of content. Your potential consumers want to read/watch rich content. Think about your personal Facebook account and don’t you hate when that one friend constantly posts “stuff” every few hours that really has no relevance. We don’t care that you are now getting dinner for your family. Get over yourself and post great content. If you do, your followers will look forward to reading your information, whether it’s educational in nature or one of your new product offerings. Think before you upload information to your social media sites.

6. Your business listing report.

More and more small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) today (and the numbers are huge with many statistics saying there are 25 million SMBs in the USA depending on your actual definition) are using online directories to their benefit. As an independent business owner/entrepreneur/CEO of a SMB, one of your many roles in your company is strategizing and developing your marketing plan. The implementation of employing “Online Directories” can and should be a great addition to your overall marketing and advertising strategy. And, if it’s not, you are missing out on a significant opportunity to increase your customer base at a low Cost Per Acquisition fee. Online directories will help your business expand its website traffic, market presence, increase the likelihood that your website will be found by prospective customers and increase your profitability and bottom line revenue. Online directories is used properly in conjunction with your social media strategy is a very powerful combination.

7.The time is NOW!

The one important thing every entrepreneur needs to know is that the time to embrace social media is NOW. Now means today. It’s not going away. Don’t feel intimidated like me to get into the game (think of the analogy of walking into Starbucks the first time and being overwhelmed with the ordering process and knowing the fancy names for coffee -- but you did it). Same with social media -- you just need to start. After all, social media is where more and more of your customers are going and you need to be omniscient and everywhere that they are searching for your type of product or service.


Social media is here to stay. Whether you wish to employ one tip or all aeven in your social media programs, take an introspective look at your current strategies to ensure that you and your company are getting the greatest social media ROI.

NOTE CREDIT: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274951

How Airbnb Expanded To 190 Countries By Thinking 'Glocal'

Airbnb may be the most global among Silicon Valley’s mega-unicorns.

With homes and bedrooms available in 34,000 cities and 190 countries, Airbnb operates in more than double the number of territories as does ride-share giant Uber. And unlike Snapchat or Pinterest, which have grown mostly within the United States, the $25 billion home-sharing service now sees two-thirds of its trips booked across country borders. Europe is actually Airbnb’s largest market. But a truly international startup presents it’s own problems.

14 Marketplace Mistakes That Are Killing Your Startup

By Tristan Pollock

One week ago, I hosted my fifth Marketplace Dinner. This particular one took place at the DogVacay headquarters in Santa Monica.

Marketplace Dinners are a series of happy hour-esque meetups that bring together founders and leaders at startup companies growing, you guessed it, marketplaces.

So far, we’ve gathered over 250 founders and leaders (averaging about 50 founders per event), including entrepreneurs and executors from Airbnb, Odesk, eBay, Lyft, Uber, Thumbtack, and many more.

Each event is three hours of eating, drinking, and telling tales of what it took to build a marketplace.

Google compra la startup canadiense Synergyse

Para mejorar su servicio Google Apps for Work, Google ha decidido comprar la empresa Synergyse, dedicada al entrenamiento interactivo para esta plataforma.

En 2013, un grupo de extrabajadores de Google decidió poner en marcha la empresa Synergyse en Toronto, Canadá. La empresa tiene como objetivo ofrecer herramientas de entrenamiento interactivo para el servicio Google Apps for Work de Google.

6 Fatal Mistakes of Startup Founders

Adeo Ressi is Founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, where he and his team mentor hundreds of first-time founders. In addition, over the last 20 years he has founded several successful companies of his own. So when we asked him about the typical mistakes that first-time founders make that could prove fatal to their companies, we listened!

Ressi emphasizes that the fatal mistakes are often made in those critical first few months in the founding of a new company. That’s when every move can have a huge positive or negative impact on the fledgeling company. During this time the founder needs to make a lot of critical decisions in a short period of time.

20 Of The Most Powerful Quotes From Steve Jobs That Will Inspire You

“I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.”
– Steve Jobs

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
– Steve Jobs


“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
– Steve Jobs

Andrea Gamarnik, una mujer que cambió el mundo

En la embajada de Francia, L’ORÉAL ARGENTINA reunió a más de trescientas personalidades para homenajear a la doctora argentina Andrea Gamarnik, quien fue galardonada con el Premio Internacional L’Oreál-UNESCO For Women in Science.

Esta distinción la ubica como una de las cinco científicas más relevantes del mundo en 2016, por sus descubrimientos sobre el modo en que los virus transmitidos por los mosquitos se reproducen y causan enfermedades, en particular el virus del dengue.

Sure, let's get excited about innovation – but only if it makes our lives better

As the business cases of Yahoo!, Blockbuster and Borders all illustrate, even the best-prepared CEO can easily fail to innovate at their company, sometimes leading to bankruptcy, or worse: total commercial irrelevance.

Throughout the upcoming election cycle, we will no doubt be hearing a lot about innovation in Australia. From Malcolm Turnbull’s “ideas boom” to the ALP’s “powering innovation” strategy, the basis for an innovation agenda is already outlined in their platforms.

But building an innovation nation takes a lot more than just headline policies. It also requires reflection on exactly what you are trying to achieve.

How to Raise the Next Mark Zuckerberg

Everybody wants to give their children the tools to be a success in life. But let’s think really big for a minute: How could you prepare a child to start the next billion-dollar tech company?

Think the odds are stacked too high against them? Consider the advantage today’s children have over the first generations of tech entrepreneurs: They’re growing up immersed in technology. It’s second nature to them. They grow up expecting that there will be a next big thing, and wondering what it will look like.

Working for a startup is sort of depressing these days, and one essay writer described the change perfectly

Last year, 2015, was the year of the unicorn, a startup that raised so much venture investment, it was valued at $1 billion or more.

But 2016 has become the year of the "unicorpse."

Many unprofitable, once high-flying startups are having their come-to-Jesus moments: they may have problematic products, can't easily raise more VC money, no one wants to buy them, and no one is interested in their IPOs.

And their employees, who were once proud, company-T-shirt-wearing loyalists, are starting to wake up and feel a sense of quiet desperation.

What’s So Special About Andreessen Horowitz?

By Michael Troiano

A Boston entrepreneur’s take on the secret of a16z's success.

Flying back from a few productive days at the Andreessen Horowitz Executive Briefing Center. That such a place even exists speaks volumes about their philosophy and approach, but it’s worth some deeper reflection for the benefit of my friends on both the entrepreneur and investor sides of the startup equation.

Elon Musk's Vision for the Future

NOTE CREDIT: http://elonmusknews.org/issues/9?m=web#CT89d9Z

Google predice el futuro: hay que apostar por la inteligencia artificial

En su primera carta a inversionistas, el presidente ejecutivo de Google, Sundar Pichai, dice que la próxima ola de la informática tendrá que ver con el aprendizaje de máquinas.

Es un hecho que lo más importante para Google -- la empresa/verbo/sitio web que es sinónimo de encontrar cosas que utilizan el Internet -- es su negocio de búsquedas. Y ahora que la empresa pone a punto su plan maestro para el futuro, Google quiere asegurarse de que el negocio sea inyectado con una buena dosis de inteligencia artificial (IA).

Al menos esa es la gran conclusión de la carta anual de Google, publicada el jueves, y escrita por primera vez por el presidente ejecutivo, Sundar Pichai, en lugar de por los co-fundadores de Google, Larry Page y Sergey Brin.

9 Inspiring TED Talks That Will Make You Rethink Effective Communication

When you hear the words “effective communication,” what do you think?

You might imagine people having a conversation in which they’re truly engaged and absorbed in what’s being discussed. Or you might think of a team making progress on a project together.

And while those scenarios fall under the umbrella of effective communication, it’s so much more than an exchange of words.

Why succesful entrepreneurs live in the present

This article is part of DBA, a series on Mashable about running a business that features insights from leaders in entrepreneurship, venture capital and management.

The journey matters as much as the destination.

Well-intentioned people like to drop this pearl of wisdom on entrepreneurs who are single-minded in their determination to reach their goals. But the adage doesn't sit well with destination-oriented people. In business, partnerships or parenthood, they like to know where they’re going and how they're getting there. The rest is just scenery, right?

Not true.

Autos conectados, el nuevo fichaje de Uber y la novedad de Shopify para comerciantes

Estas son algunas de las noticias más destacadas en el mundo digital y tecnológico hoy.

» Google, Uber y Ford se unen para impulsar los autos conectados

Las tres compañías trabajan en una coalición para promover el mercado de los coches autónomos y presionar al gobierno para actuar en esta materia; específicamente, poner orden en las leyes que los regulan, según información de Reuters que publica mediatelecom.

Big Data: Will We Soon No Longer Need Data Scientists?

The job of data scientist — the quintessential big data job, and the job that was just voted the best job in America for 2016 — is at risk.

Data scientists have been called “unicorns” because finding the right person with the right set of skills — including coding, statistics, machine learning, database management, visualization techniques, and industry-specific knowledge — could be practically impossible.  But machine learning and big data itself may be making those unicorns as obsolete as they are mythical.

New machine learning algorithms can autonomously analyze data and identify patterns, even interpret the data and produce reports and data visualizations.

Empresario regaló a sus empleados millones de dólares en acciones

Un inmigrante kurdo que llegó a Estados Unidos cuando era joven creó una compañía de yogur que vale una fortuna y decidió compartirla con sus trabajadores

El fundador de Chobani, el yogur griego que agitó el mercado estadounidense, sorprendió este martes a sus empleados con un regalo estimado en millones de dólares y que podría llegar a valer mucho más.

Emprendedores como Plan B

¿Has pensado en emprender un negocio? ¿Por qué?

Esa es la primera pregunta que habría que realizar a todo individuo que trae una idea bajo el brazo y que quiere materializarla en un negocio que proporcione beneficios.

Emprender es un modo de vida, y como tal requiere de esfuerzo y cierta cantidad de tiempo disponible para poder desarrollar un modelo de negocio que realmente sea sostenible en el tiempo, por lo que en esta ocasión vamos a hablar de aquellos que deciden emprender como plan B.

The Power (and Risks) of Measurement in a Fitbit World

Scoreboards work better than ever in this wired world, but be careful.

Several months ago, a wellness expert strapped a Fitbit accelerometer to my wrist and told me she wanted me to walk 10,000 steps a day. I had no idea how many steps I usually walked, so I ignored the gizmo. A few weeks later, my smartphone buzzed with an unexpected email congratulating me on being only 2,318 steps shy of “my” goal.

20 Most Disruptive Innovators of 2016

As Clay Christensen points out, these twenty people are just like you. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

On Friday, April 22nd, I attended one of the most inspiring and arguably one of the best award shows available to entrepreneurs today: The Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards. So many CEOs talk the jargon of innovation, but actually disrupting entire industries is another matter. This award show featured 20 of the most disruptive innovators of our day and I had an incredible journey learning about what really inspiring people are doing to make our world a better place to live.

Why Google and car companies are about to spend billions mapping American roads

Are fully functional self-driving cars right around the corner? After years of optimism, we're starting to see people wonder if they might be further away than people thought. And skeptics point to mapping as a key obstacle.

Writing at the Marginal Revolution blog, for example, economist Tyler Cowen argues that "mapping the territory, reliably, will remain the key problem. Until that is solved, driverless cars will be a form of mass transit — except without the mass — along predesignated routes."

Which Financial Services Firms and Corporations Are Investing in Bitcoin?

Over 70+ strategics are invested in blockchain and bitcoin startups including BBVA, Seagate, Rakuten and NYSE Euronext.

By leading a huge $50M investment into bitcoin payments firm Circle in April 2015, Goldman Sachs became the first bulge bracket bank to invest in a digital currency or blockchain startup.

While Goldman’s investment was a bold move toward Wall St.’s acceptance of the technology, who are the other financial services firms and corporate strategic investors with stakes in the bitcoin/blockchain ecosystem?

Researchers create technology that’s powered by thin air

As the cord-cutting wireless generation, we’ve managed to distance ourselves from most potential fetters. But there’s one limitation from which we haven’t quite rid ourselves — until now. The battery, that pesky power source that’s constantly cramping your style, may finally be a thing of the past. At least, that’s the hope of the University of Washington’s Sensor Lab, where researchers have created the WISP, or Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform. It’s a combination sensor and computing chip that requires neither a battery nor a wired power source to operate. So what does it run on? Think air.

Why Sony And Other Big Tech Companies Are Tapping Into The Maker Movement's Spirit

By bringing new tech directly from its R&D labs to the public and asking for feedback, Sony is preparing itself for a new era of gadgets.

Sony is trying to tap into some of the mojo of Maker Faire and Indiegogo to bring more innovative, and specialized, gadgets to market. The company recently launched an Indiegogo-like site called Future Lab for the U.S. where it wants to show off products straight out its R&D department in Japan.

It may not be the most obvious road to innovation, especially for such a big, well-established company. But oftentimes, it takes a disruptive approach to get a large organization thinking in a different way. And Sony isn't alone in using this approach.

Elon Musk Wants To Fix Public Transportation

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a new idea he thinks could radically change public transportation.

The billionaire tech mogul said Thursday that he’s developing a new self-driving vehicle that could replace buses and help ease gridlock in cities, according to Bloomberg.

“We have an idea for something which is not exactly a bus but would solve the density problem for inner city situations,” Musk said at a conference in Norway. “Autonomous vehicles are key,” he added.

For now, Musk is keeping mum about the project’s details. “I don’t want to talk too much about it,” he said. “I have to be careful what I say.”

9 Entrepreneur Habits That Lead to Long-Term Success

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle that requires staying power, because starting a new business is a long-term process with many tough challenges. As an angel investor, I look diligently for signs that an aspiring startup founder has what it takes to thrive and prosper for the long haul ahead. Passion and vision are necessary, but not sufficient, to really change the world.

Many of the best-known entrepreneurs who achieved long-term successes, including Howard Schultz (Starbucks) and Steve Jobs (Apple), shared a common set of attributes and habits, including the following:

La llave de la creatividad

Un día de 1855 el pequeño Thomas, de apenas ocho años, regresó a su casa llorando y descorazonado. Entre sollozos le contó a su madre que su maestro le había dicho en la escuela que era un alumno “estéril e improductivo”. Veintidós años después el alumno estéril patentaba el fonógrafo y tres años más tarde fundaba General Electric.

Su apellido era Edison y, aunque suene extraño, la razón de que haya alcanzado el éxito fue probablemente ese día que llegó a casa llorando.

El propio Edison contaría años después que su madre reaccionó a su historia llevando al niño de vuelta a la escuela donde enfrentó al profesor. Hecha una furia le dijo que no tenía idea de lo que estaba diciendo.

Netflix shares how it grew to 81 million monthly subscribers: Secrets of a subscription model (webinar)

How did Netflix become a global, best-in-class monthly subscription service? Join our free, in-depth look at converting users into long-term members, optimizing payment solutions, and expanding into the growing global market.

With a record-breaking quarter — a gain of 6.74M new subscribers in the first quarter of 2016, for a total of 81.5 million subscribers worldwide — Netflix is arguably among the top dogs in the subscription model ecosystem, dominating the recurrent billing model market for almost twenty years.

Luis Vargas, head of payments at Netflix, says that there are two fundamental components for their success.

Niche to Win, Baby. Don’t Go Big or Go Home. Go Small at first, then Iterate, Dominate, & WIN.

Abstract: Startups are more likely to find product/market fit by narrowing their target demographic, understanding customer needs/benefit better, and building more focused & differentiated products along with more specific marketing messages that are better tuned to those audiences. Later, after getting initial traction with a small audience, startups can then grow their market and expand product offerings to go after bigger market segments.

Many investors give startup entrepreneurs this terrible piece of advice: “Your ideas are too small. You need to think bigger & go after a larger market. Otherwise you’re not worth my time or money. We only want to invest in entrepreneurs who are changing the world & doing something REALLY BIG.”
What a load of horse shit. That’s the WORST suggestion for a startup just getting started, when it hasn’t quite figured out product/market fit yet.

What My Three Years At Netflix Taught Me About Scaling A Startup

Ariel Tseitlin began working on Netflix's cloud platform in 2011. Here's what it taught him about culture and high-speed innovation.

I joined Netflix at the beginning of 2011, just as the company was making the transition from operating in the data center to the public cloud. My job was to help build out Netflix's cloud platform and manage streaming operations. It was an incredible three-year experience seeing the company scale its people, culture, and technology.

In my life since then as an investor, I still apply what I learned in my time at Netflix to companies big and small. These lessons I picked up there might not save your life, but they might save your business.

El mundo corporativo y el mundo emprendedor: ¿una competencia o un diálogo?

Marta Cruz, Co-fundadora de www.nxtplabs.com

A simple vista, el mundo corporativo y el mundo emprendedor parecerían tener más diferencias que coincidencias. Mientras las grandes corporaciones suelen tener un largo historial en el mercado, una estructura robusta, ordenada, con muchos procesos establecidos y escalabilidad al alcance de la mano, la mayoría de las startups suelen ser muy jóvenes, tener equipos pequeños y flexibles, poco posicionamiento en el mercado, procesos que se van construyendo sobre la marcha e innovación como parte de su ADN.

Es justamente en el área de innovación donde startups y corporaciones poseen un campo fértil para interactuar, conectarse y  hacer que esas diferencias se conviertan un gran potencial para complementarse, dialogar y salir mutuamente beneficiados.

A CFO's Perspective on Scaling Startup Growth

By David Stack

As the chief financial officer of a startup, driving continual growth is a critical component of the job. In addition to managing accounting, finance and other areas, focusing on scale is just as important. One of my early mentors said it best when he asked, “If you don’t think about scale, who will?”

From optimizing your resources to figuring out how to grow revenue while keeping operating costs low, scale is something that any entrepreneur must carefully consider while launching and growing a startup. As a CFO, a big part of my role is helping to guide the constant questions that arise when thinking about scale. Here are five factors to keep in mind as you embark upon scaling your business into the best version it can be.

Las mejores alternativas 'fintech' a los bancos para ahorrar tiempo y dinero

Llegar donde los bancos no llegan. Es el objetivo principal del sector tecnofinanciero (del inglés, 'fintech'): pequeñas empresas centradas en un servicio determinado que la banca tradicional no ofrece. Datáfonos sin mínimo por operación, transferencias internacionales sin comisión... Estas 'startups' amenazan con comerse un pequeño trozo de la tarta financiera, hasta el punto de que algunos grandes bancos han comenzado a colaborar con ellas e incluso adquirirlas. En Teknautas hemos reunido algunos ejemplos de cómo ahorrar tiempo y dinero con estas alternativas.

What Marketers Need to Understand About Augmented Reality

Imagine being able to see how a couch would fit in your living room before actually buying it — or being able to see which sunglasses suit your face or which lipstick looks good on you without physically trying anything on.

Each of these scenarios is already possible. These are real examples from Ikea, Ray-Ban, and Cover Girl of how companies are currently using augmented reality (AR).

AR has been piquing marketers’ interest in recent years, as it has the potential to change a range of consumer experiences, from how people find new products to how they decide which ones to buy. AR technology enhances the physical environment you see by overlaying virtual elements, such as information or images over it, either through displays such as HoloLens and Google Glass or through the camera view on your smartphone.

Finnish startup Magic Add secures $250K to create the internet of packaging

The Finnish startup Magic Add has raised $250,000 in angel funding for its “internet of packaging” solution (IoP). The Turku-based company has been working in partnership with the global food packaging specialist Huhtamaki on digitalized applications for foodservice packaging.

Why Talent-Centric Entrepreneurs Should Treat Their Business Like a Fashion House

We are all endowed with unique talents. Some of us are lucky enough to helm businesses that rely on these gifts and abilities. If you’re a solopreneur or a small business owner with a company that owes its success, largely, to your personal talent or skillset, consider modeling your business like a fashion house.

What does that mean? Well, imagine Diane Von Furstenburg or Tom Ford or Valentino. Their brands exist to nurture the extraordinary talent of one individual -- the visionary, the designer, the creative force. Without these creative titans, their companies would not exist. Therefore, their businesses are structured entirely and necessarily around them.

4 Must-Watch Inspirational TED Talks on Creativity in Business

By Larry Kim

There are days that I'm on fire with creative ideas--I have tons of Post-It notes and email reminders to prove it!

But there are also those dreaded days that a creative block strikes, when it's like pulling teeth get the wheels turning again. When that happens, it's time to turn to the pros. TED Talks are a great source of inspiration, particularly their segments on creativity.

Millennial Nanny Turned Shark Tank Entrepreneur Stampedes Into 10,000 Stores Despite Cancer

By Ky Trang Ho

Building a successful business is as hard as finding the cure for cancer. Now imagine doing it while you actually have cancer. Tiffany Krumins, inventor of the wildly successful Ava the Elephant children’s medicine dispenser, did just that with the help of Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran.

Krumins, a former nanny from Atlanta, struck a deal with Corcoran in the pilot episode of Shark Tank in August 2009. Krumins sought $50,000 for 15% equity in her company. But Corcoran insisted she needed 55% of the business for the amount of risk involved, considering that Krumins had nothing more than a clay prototype of her talking, elephant-shaped medicine dispenser. She had no manufacturing let alone sales. Corcoran reportedly had to invest $285,000 as the costs of bringing the product to market was much more than originally anticipated.

Alibaba invierte 1.000 millones de dólares en Lazada

El gigante del ecommerce Alibaba continúa con su intención de expandirse todo lo que pueda en el sudeste asiático y por eso ha decidido realizar una inversión que le ayudará. Así, ha puesto 1.000 millones de dólares en la plataforma de comercio electrónico Lazada, compañía valorada en 1.500 millones de dólares.

SpaceX y lo paradójico

SpaceX, ideada por Elon Musk, es uno de los emprendimientos del momento, que con origen en 2002, se sitúa entre los más peculiares y ambiciosos.

Durante largos años, el debate de la innovación en el transporte ha estado limitado a los automóviles: hacerlos más rápidos, más aerodinámicos, ecológicos... Los trenes han visto con Hyperloop su mayor ejemplo vinculado a la innovación y los aviones vuelven a ver el concepto de supersónico como una realidad factible. Sin embargo, algunos han mirado aún más allá. El espacio, que tan lejos ha quedado para el ciudadano común, cada día está más cerca de convertirse en una realidad. Wernher von Braun, ingeniero espacial en los años setenta, ya dijo que "el dominio del espacio por el hombre es la mayor aventura y la más inspiradora empresa". Y efectivamente lo está siendo; con Elon Musk a la cabeza.

Global Investment In Solar Slips, Venture Capital Shifts Focus To Downstream

By william Pentland

Venture capital firms invested $406 million in the solar sector during the first quarter of this year, according to Mercom Capital Group, a clean energy research company based in Austin, Texas.

The lion’s share of the total investment – or about $333 million – went to solar downstream companies, according to a new report by Mercom that details funding and merger and acquisition activity for the solar sector in the first quarter of 2016.

Entrepreneurs must build startups that address daily user needs

By Ravi Gururaj

IoT startups will disrupt several sectors in the next 4-5 years.
External funding alone cannot assure a startup’s rise.

While raising capital is important, entrepreneurs should not focus on getting money first to deliver consumer value later. From day one, the user has to be at the center of what you do. Running a successful venture is not just about burning cash and grabbing eyeballs. Even if one gets all these ingredients right, the issue of scaling up comes to the fore. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The hardest part in being an impact entrepreneur, is not business model, nor money

By Solene Pignet

I have been a strategy consultant for impact entrepreneurs and changemakers since 2014. I have consulted with over 100 value-driven individuals from 32 different countries (thanks to the magic of Internet!) and I noticed one common denominator that makes almost everyone struggle.

That is not about business modelling, about making money, or even about scale. It is not about unfriendly regulations, unready market or uncaring investors.

7 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Invest in Themselves

Startup entrepreneurs often go it alone or almost alone, serving every function in their new companies. They are the idea people, the passionate leaders, the team builders, engineers, marketing experts, logistics officers, bookkeepers and strategists all in one.

The reality is that often this phase is necessary. That means that one of the most challenging things for the startup-minded to do is to keep investing, keep building their own personal skills and abilities. Time and focus-wise, it’s a monumental challenge. Most entrepreneurs skip the personal investments because those investments seem disconnected from their businesses and products. If an entrepreneur has an extra hour, for example, many prefer to invest in their company over investing in themselves.

The problem with that approach is that most entrepreneurs are their brands and products.

6 consejos de Elon Musk para emprendedores

Musk, fundador de PayPal, Tesla Motors y SpaceX es un emprendedor en serie, con mucho de visionario y sin miedo al fracaso.

Hay emprendedores y después está Elon Musk. Fundador de PayPal y Tesla Motors, en realidad lo que quiere de verdad es fundar la primera colonia humana en Marte. Y lejos de quedarse en pensar en casa en cómo sería nuestra vida si viviéramos en el Planeta Rojo y ver muchas películas de ciencia ficción, fundó SpaceX, una compañía que quiere primero poner allí un invernadero y, después, la colonia.

Está claro que no todo el mundo está cortado por el mismo patrón, que no todo el mundo se atrevería a ser un emprendedor en serie a esta escala, pero para los que quieran seguirle los pasos al CEO de Tesla, estos son sus consejos. No apto para quien no ame el riesgo:

HAVI HASSON: “Los emprendedores en Israel son como las ‘estrellas del rock”

El científico jefe del Ministerio israelí de Economía e Industria, Avi Hasson, ha detallado que la colaboración entre el sector público y el privado y con otros países es primordial para crear y asentar un “ecosistema innovador” y ha dicho que los emprendedores en Israel son como “estrellas del rock”.

“El éxito hay que celebrarlo socialmente”, ha afirmado el máximo responsable de la Oficina del Jefe Científico del Gobierno israelí en un encuentro con un grupo de periodistas organizado por la embajada de Israel, y ha señalado que en todos los países, también en España, hay buenos emprendedores: solo hay que facilitarles el camino e implementar los mecanismos y las políticas correctas.

Según Hasson, en su país “el sueño” ahora es ser emprendedor y la generación actual de jóvenes es “más global y está más preparada para serlo” -esto último no solo lo percibe en Israel, ha afirmado-.

A Social Entrepreneur's Tips For Taking On The Impossible

Lisa Curtis is a serious social entrepreneur. Since she started her career as a Peace Corps volunteer, she has been all about doing good. Her company, Kuli Kuli, which sells products with moringa (don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it; most people haven’t) sourced from West Africa. It takes optimism to face all of the challenges associated with selling a new food; she shares three secrets to her success.

Curtis tells the story of how she started eating moringa as a way to supplement her diet after her Peace Corp stint left her malnourished. Later, she would launch Kuli Kuli to provide others with the health benefits and to support and grow the women’s cooperatives in the tropics where she sources the moringa.

13 Women leading the life sciences movement in Silicon Valley

Breakthroughs in genetic engineering, 3D printing, cloud-based science experiments, A.I. machine learning technology have created a weird and cool new kind of cutting-edge biotech that goes beyond pharma into what just a few decades ago seemed like magical thinking.

And women are leading the charge in this brave new world, specially in Silicon Valley.
While there are plenty of women throughout history who´ve contributed to life changing science, we wanted to bring your attention to some of the amazing work of female founders up and down the peninsula...(and a few beyond).

Presenting the women rocking life sciences in startup land.

10 Game-Changing Innovations In Wearable Technology

By Bernard Marr

The Wearable Technology Show in London developers showcased over 40 new products and services designed to take advantage of today’s always-online society.

What started with the smartphone has now involved into smart televisions, kettles, lightbulbs and just about every type of clothing garment. What is immediately apparent are that many of them are variations on a theme – different types of sports and activity trackers, for example. The question is less, these days, “what do you want to measure?” but rather, “how do you want to measure it?” A wrist band? Socks? Boxer shorts?

Here’s a quick run through of some of the more interesting and unique ideas being touted at the event, which as well as wearables and IOT technology, heavily featured virtual and augmented reality.

Fintech’s $138 billion opportunity

Fintech is in the midst of a golden age of investment and innovation. According to KPMG and CB Insights, investments in fintech startups doubled between 2014 and 2015, to $14 billion. However, comparatively little of this money has been focused on the $138 billion market opportunity to disrupt alternative financial services in the United States. This lack of focus is damaging America’s financial health. So why hasn’t fintech done more to meet this vast market need?

Part of the reason is that many of the design methodologies that have become common practice in the last decade — the “lean startup” ethos, rapid prototyping and rigorous a/b testing — are much harder to deploy in consumer financial services, where regulations and legal requirements are often interpreted as limiting innovation.

How to robot-proof your children’s careers

Sarah O’Connor, Employment Correspondent

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0c7906d6-be89-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html#ixzz458vNHVmI

Pity school careers advisers. If economists are to be believed, vast numbers of jobs will have evaporated by the time today’s pupils reach the labour market. Oxford university’s Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne say almost half of the jobs in the US are at high risk from computerisation in the next two decades, together with two-thirds of those in India and three-quarters in China.

Onyx Solar’s Low-e photovoltaic glass voted the most innovative product in USA

Onyx Solar’s Low-e photovoltaic glass has been awarded Most Innovative Glass Product by Glass Magazine and the National Glass Association of the US

Onyx Solar’s Low-e photovoltaic glass voted the most innovative product in USA
Low-e produces electricity and also matches and sometimes surpasses the properties of conventional low-e glass.

Using low-e photovoltaic glass, clients can save up to 90% of their electricity bill. With this amount of savings in cities like Los Angeles, the investment is amortized in only 3 years with annual average yields of 40%.

Funding Gets You Started, Revenue Sets You Free

There is increasing pressure on business models and the landscape for edtech entrepreneurs is changing. Which companies will survive?

K-12 Edtech Funding, '10-'15

K-12 Edtech funding increased by 5x over the past five years

So much has changed—yet there’s still so much to prove.

¿Quién es Elon Musk, y por qué está cambiando al mundo?

Poco conocido en Argentina, es uno de los emprendedores más importantes del mundo. Aunque su marca de autos eléctricos, Tesla, le dio más notoriedad, tiene una amplia trayectoria profesional: fue uno de los innovadores más importantes de PayPal y promete, con su compañía de viajes especiales, llevar al hombre a las estrellas.

El dinero no es importante pero si fuese un factor relevante para medir a los empresarios exitosos, los US$ 13.000 millones que ostenta Elon Musk darían testimonio de su trayectoria profesional. Aunque en Argentina pocos conocen su nombre, es uno de los innovadores más importantes del mundo. La cara detrás de Tesla, la compañía que quiere revolucionar la industria automotriz con sus autos eléctricos, y su infraestructura ad hoc. Pero también fue una de las personas que hizo posible el sistema de pagos electrónicos PayPal y, potencialmente, los viajes especiales con Space X. Por qué es tan desconocido en Argentina es una verdadera incógnita: quizás se deba a que sus productos no son comercialmente masivos en el país o que, más que otros pesos pesados de IT como Steve Jobs o Bill Gates, prefiere el perfil bajo.

El chófer de Uber sin brazos ni piernas

Rafael Reyes es conductor de Uber en México e idea un gran proyecto para integrar a personas con discapacidad en el transporte público.

Why Everyone Must Get Ready For 4th Industrial Revolution

First came steam and water power; then electricity and assembly lines; then computerization… So what comes next?

Some call it the fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0, but whatever you call it, it represents the combination of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and the Internet of Systems.

In short, it is the idea of smart factories in which machines are augmented with web connectivity and connected to a system that can visualize the entire production chain and make decisions on its own.

And it’s well on its way and will change most of our jobs.

(Dos que la pegaron) La increible historia de AIRBNB

La necesidad hace el ingenio. Y si no, que se lo pregunten a Brian Chesky y Joe Gebbia, los multimillonarios fundadores de Airbnb, la plataforma de alquiler de propiedades que ha cambiado la forma de viajar y que en junio del año pasado valía ya 25.000 millones de dólares.

Érase una vez dos estudiantes de diseño que un día se dieron cuenta de que ese mes no podrían pagar el alquiler de su piso. Corría el año 2008, y esa semana se celebraba en San Francisco una importante feria del diseño que había abarrotado los hoteles de la ciudad. Y entonces a los dos veinteañeros se les encendió la bombilla: montarían un sitio web y comprarían unas camas hinchables para aprovechar el espacio que les sobraba en su apartamento.

7 TED Talks para encontrar un propósito en la vida

Pasión, interés, carácter, multipotencialidad, valentía y motivación. Son conceptos y sentimientos que, pueden definir el éxito o el fracaso de un emprendedor.

Verás vídeos que te dejarán varias lecciones de vida y te inspirarán para continuar en tus emprendimientos o hacer un punto de inflexión.

Sin más preámbulo, te invito a ver los 7 TED Talks para encontrar un propósito en la vida

7- David Brooks: Should you live for your résumé … or your eulogy?

El columnista de The New York Times, David Brooks, menciona que existen dos tipos de naturaleza que habitan en nuestro interior y vivimos con una autoconfrontación entre ambas. Él te enseñará la importancia del amor y del perdón, en nuestra vida diaria.

These Will Be The Top Jobs In 2025 (And The Skills You'll Need To Get Them)

As work changes at warp speed, here are 2025's hottest job sectors (and the skills you'll need to work in them).

Two-thirds of Americans believe that, in 50 years, robots and computers will do much of the work humans now do. The World Economic Forum’s 2016 report, The Future of Jobs, estimates that 5 million jobs will be lost to automation by 2020 and that the number will keep growing. Jobs that once seemed like "safe bets"—office workers and administrative personnel, manufacturing, and even law—will be hit hardest, the report estimates.

"There are some overarching shifts poised to change the nature of work itself over the next decade," says Devin Fidler, research director at Institute for the Future, a nonprofit research center focused on long-term forecasting. That includes a demand for new skills and strategies that could help people to thrive in future work environments,

Why A New Generation Of On-Demand Businesses Rejected The Uber Model

The idea that an "Uber for X" model could fit any service proved arrogant, especially for customer-service focused startups.

When Miguel Zabludovsky opened his first laundry delivery service, Slate, in 2005, he pitched customers convenience: He would pick up their unsorted laundry (literally: he was both CEO and courier), and his subcontracted eco-friendly dry cleaners would clean it however they saw fit. Two years later, he opened his own laundry facility, which for several years cleaned dresses for high-fashion rental service Rent the Runway. Two years after that, he added home cleaning to the business. It wasn’t until 10 years after starting the laundry service, in January 2015, that Zabludovsky repositioned Slate as a tech company.

Could blockchain technology make big banks a thing of the past?

After nearly a decade of crisis, bailout, and reform in the United States and the European Union, the financial system – both in those countries and globally – is remarkably similar to the one we had in 2006. Many financial reforms have been attempted since 2010, but the overall effects have been limited. Some big banks have struggled, but others have risen to take their place. Both before the 2008 global financial crisis and today, just over a dozen big banks dominate the world’s financial landscape. And yet the ground is shifting beneath the financial sector, and big banks could soon become a thing of the past.

TRANSFORMACIÓN DIGITAL

¿Qué es la transformación digital, para qué sirve y cómo conseguirla? Estas son tres preguntas que me hacen comunmente en conferencias, esta fue la razón por la que todos en ClowderTank nos reunimos a pensar cómo expresar la importancia de transformar una empresa de forma digital. Al final, decidimos que lo haríamos a través de una infografía.

Corporations Need a Better Approach to Public Policy

All companies that operate internationally face a striking dual challenge in dealing with public policy: Nations across the globe enact an ever-changing, ever-expanding array of detailed legislation and regulation to protect workers, consumers, investors, and the public welfare, and these diverse rules shape what companies can and cannot do. Moreover, corporations are not trusted in this era of populist discontent because their role in shaping public policy is often seen as bought by money, shaped by elites, and concerned solely with private not public interests

14 Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Start Out in Sales

A surprising number of entrepreneurs I've met over the years got their first taste of business while working in Sales. Here's why, based on some observations from Doug Camplejohn, the CEO of the sales technology vendor Fliptop.

1. You'll gain business expertise.
As you work with customers, you'll gain an intimate familiarity with their most critical business challenges and how they measure success.

This is useful because you'll inevitably find areas where a startup could add value and thereby make money.

2. You'll gain technical expertise.
As you help your customers, you'll learn about your product and product category and how your own industry works.

El sector financiero mundial apuesta por el "fintech"

Un estudio publicado por Accenture en 2015 señala que la inversión en tecnología financiera se triplicó de cuatro billones de dólares en 2013 a 12 billones en 2014.

China, Japón y Alemania están a la carrera en la aplicación de la tecnología al sector financiero, pero es el gigante asiático el que destaca respecto del resto. China cuenta con tres grandes compañías tecnológicas, Alipay, Baidu y Tencent y 1.500 millones de ciudadanos, por lo que va a ser la gran protagonista en la restructuración de la banca tradicional.

En la actualidad Alipay, una plataforma de pago internacional destinada tanto a empresas como a consumidores, acapara el 80% de los pagos online en China. Además, Baidu, el Google chino, se está comenzando a utilizar también para adquirir fondos patrimoniales.WeChat, el sistema de mensajería de Tencent, lo utilizan 500 millones de personas a diario para comunicarse y para realizar pagos y gestionar su patrimonio.

biffle: a new take on eCommerce

What is biffle?

Biffle is a new kind of consumer-friendly eCommerce Marketplace with all the purchasing assurances found in the securities and commodities markets – assurances of best price and transaction security.

biffle has a business model that will disrupt eCommerce by establishing a “Stock Market” with spot-market pricing for new name-brand consumer products using a reverse auction where the ceiling price is set at the lowest price currently available online and where vendors compete anonymously to fulfill the next purchaseorder.

'Shark Tank' Star Robert Herjavec's Top 5 Small-Business Marketing Tips

When Robert Herjavec wanted to start his own company, people discouraged him. They said he couldn’t do it. He had zero experience, he didn’t have a business degree and he knew nothing about running a business.

The headstrong Shark Tank star investor steamrolled ahead anyway. In 1990, he launched his first company, BRAK Systems, which he later sold to AT&T.

“I only knew that I loved what I do and how to work hard,” Herjavec told Entrepreneur. Today, Herjavec Group, his Toronto-based Internet security firm, has grown from three workers in 2003 to 220 employees strong, and it’s on pace to bank $150 million in revenue this year, according to the company.