fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Covid19: Call for grants in India
By: Shivangi Saxena
Tags: Covid 19, Grants For Nonprofit, India, Startup, Coronavirus

#COVID19 #thread #grants

With the #cornonavirus crisis, a lot of organizations have come forward with grant announcements. Below is the list of the grants being offered (collated from multiple sources):

Grants in the time of Covid19

1. Antler

Antler is inviting startups to propose solutions in Mitigation (e.g. masks, contact tracing, surveillance, data infrastructure), Medical Equipment (e.g. test kits, protective devices, ventilators), Remote Health (e.g. telehealth, remote patient monitoring, symptom checkers) and Digital Tools (e.g. remote work, smart delivery, e-learning).

https://www.antler.co/covid19-call

2. Aavishkaar Group announces Facility for Humane Action — in response to Covid19 challenge

The Aavishkaar Group Facility for Humane Actions is established as part of the Aavishkaar Foundation with an INR 2 crore grant.

The grant facility would work under the direct guidance of a Facility Task Force (FTF), chaired by Mr U. K Sinha, (Independent Director, Aavishkaar Group Holdco),

You can send your proposal at humaneproposal@aavishkaarfoundation.in

If you are thinking about supporting our initiative and contribute to this resistance please write to support@aavishkaarfoundation.in

#impactinvesting #impact #initiative

3. Collated list:

https://actgrants.in/

This is a initiative by various funds in india. Grants for companies

4. Bumble

Bumble is giving Grants to small business in these times of Covid

https://bumble1.typeform.com/to/mXxLh9

5. Omidyar

Omidyar Network India today announced a Rapid Response Funding Initiative and a call for proposals to tackle the challenges of the Covid-19 situation and the consequent socio-economic impact.

Who can apply: NGOs, research organisations, social entrepreneurs, and for-profit businesses seeking to do this on a no-profit basis.

The application process is simple and we will make quick decisions. For details, see here: https://bit.ly/3bjl2CP

Additionally, Best Practices for Founders in the wake of COVID-19 — https://www.notion.so/Best-Practices-for-Founders-in-the-wake-of-COVID-19-54f0c0db17064e6f9e5dd456d9cb26de

(Using my social media to collate important links, advisories, fundraisers in the time of Covid19. I have tried to collate the most used ones here, however, in case I have missed anything, please add in comments.)
The essential skill to become a successful founder
By: Mitadru Dey
Tags: Startup Lessons, Originality, Startup, Entrepreneurship, Thought Leadership

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

It baffled me in the past what is the key ingredient to become a successful startup founder. Conviction, passion, tenacity, communication, ability to influence are all important factors. Ever since I introduced myself to the word “intellect” it became crystal clear to me.

What do I mean by “intellect”? A human is made up of body, mind, and intellect. Mind and intellect are unseen part of us. The mind is made of various emotions like joy, sorrow, anger, hate, love, compassion, passion, etc. Intellect gives us a reason, logic, clarity in thinking. It is not the same as intelligence. We get intelligence from books, tutorials, e-learning, university courses. It is the one that helps us to convert information to transformation. That is why millions of people go to medical college, but a handful of them discover life-saving drugs, practices. When the whole world was focusing on reducing the size of the disc, Steve Jobs asked why we need a disc. The intellect enables your original thinking. This is the crux of success. That is why companies like Airbnb, Uber brought revolution as they found a unique way to solve a daily problem.

Photo by sk on Unsplash

How to develop an intellect?

There are two ways. Never take anything for granted and question everything. Developing intellect not only takes you to the pinnacle of your professional success, but it also makes you a successful spouse, parent, responsible citizen and above all a perfect human being.

It requires a systemic daily study early in the morning. There is no short cut to improve this skill like you cannot get a 6-pack overnight. The early morning 4–6 AM is ideal to study the literature and reflect on the values. Multiple studies have shown most of the CEOs get up early to think and plan their days as you have minimum internal and external disturbances. I would highly recommend A.Parthasarathy’s”The Fall of the Human Intellect” to kick off your journey.
A Quick Guide to Flutter’s Helpful Tools and Resources
By: Manabie Tech-Product Blog
Tags: Tools, Engineering, Flutter, Startup, Edtech

Flutter is Google’s UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. After one year of experience working with Flutter, I have found some interesting tools and resources to make my coding life easier.

Json to Dart converter

If you are working with json and need to part data to Dart class, you can use this tool with many functions such as:

Making all properties required

Making all properties optional

Making all properties final

Generating CopyWith method

Try it here: https://app.quicktype.io/

2. Continuous integration and continuous delivery for Flutter with Codemagic

With Codemagic, all you need is an account to make CI/CD for your Flutter app.

With a free account, you’ll receive a generous 500 minutes of building time per month with no restrictions on these features:

Building triggers

Environment variables

Dependency caching

Testing

Build options

Publishing

Try it here: https://codemagic.io/start/

3. Building UI with FlutterStudio

Currently, Flutter doesn’t have an official UI builder, but you can try FlutterStudio.

Just drag and drop UI elements from the left banner to the UI, and this tool generates code for you. It supports a lot of UI elements.

Try it here: https://flutterstudio.app/

4. Learning from other developers’ projects

Itsallwidgets is a website where developers share their Flutter projects, many of which are open-source. If you need a sample project, this is the place to look.

Visit the website here: https://itsallwidgets.com/

You may also want to visit https://flutterawesome.com/ this is an awesome list that curates the best Flutter libraries and tools.

5. Flutter Widget of the Week

This is an official series from the Flutter dev team, in which all widgets are described in detail. You can find many useful widgets for your project here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjxrf2q8roU23XGwz3Km7sQZFTdB996iG

6. Learning Flutter with Reso Coder

This channel owner may be young, but he’s a master of Flutter development.

His free, easy-to-understand content will guide you from basic to advanced.

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIvrn68cUk8CS8MbtBmBkA

Website: https://resocoder.com/

What’s missing from our list? Let us know which Flutter resources have made your life easier!

For additional resources, check out the links below.

Official Flutter Medium: https://medium.com/flutter-community

You can find more articles about Flutter in our Manabie Publication too!

Don’t forget to follow us on Medium and visit our website https://manabie.com
What needs to be done to make agriculture profitable for more farmers in India?
By: Kranthi Kumar
Tags: Future, India, Development, Startup, Agriculture

Assume there are 134 crores of population in India,in that we have about 12 crore cultivators or farmers. In that average monthly income of each farming family is around RS 6000/- .

Almost every government in India trying to solve their problems and giving their basic necessities .Reasons may be anything they are trying by providing various schemes , policies and giving confidence through scholarships and schemes. Every environmental aspect that we studied from our childhood is correct.But in my point what we have to focus is

We need to focus on soil parameter,water problems,climatic predictions and Socio-economic parameters

Fertilizers are mainly for preventing crop from diseases and for nutrients .But applying fertilizers on farms are based on soil nutrients capacity like N,P,K etc.

But they are giving fertilizers like anything.For that latest innovative startups like LeanAgri ..they developed an algorithm on scheduling and every pin pointed works collecting samples from farms and give the proper scheduled on complete needs like,when to do what ,how much quantity from beginning to end

After experimenting on many farms ,If we follow the proper schedule and proper amount fertilizers as give we can increase high profit

We need to get awareness on farmers to follow latest technologies .If we focus on this everything that implemented by government is works as they expected.

Make farming as a compulsory course on their school level
Remote Ideation techniques
By: Caterina Carraro
Tags: Ideation, Remote Working, Startup, UX, Design

Ideation in the UX design process can be conducted remotely, without having team members in the same room. Here are some of our top tips:

Stay Flexible: not everything will be done in one video call

You will probably have to split your workshop into an asynchronous part (so that people will be able to contribute with research and analysis at different times) and a synchronous part, where everybody participates remotely at the same time. It may sound tricky and scary, since designing a feature might include many solutions and decisions, as well as many different perspectives when envisioning the product (HR, Branding, PM, Designers). With that many viewpoints and decisions, there will be many ideation techniques involving paper sketching. However with the help of a Facilitator, a time-tracker and a shared agenda you’ll have the superpowers to work through it!

Asynchronous Work — benefits:

Contribute with your research, notes and sketches when your schedule allows you to do it. This means part of the work can be done separately, the collaborative meeting will be shorter and during the video-call people can directly present their thoughts.

with your research, notes and sketches This means part of the work can be done separately, the collaborative meeting will be shorter and during the video-call people can directly present their thoughts. Let your ideas rest: since you don’t have the pressure of a collaborative ideation session, in which your creativity must be delivered in 8 to 35min, working asynchronously could help you to focus more on your ideas and improve them!

since you don’t have the pressure of a collaborative ideation session, in which your creativity must be delivered in 8 to 35min, and improve them! Projects can be completed, even if people are working in conflicting time zones for big meetings.

Synchronous Work — benefits:

You’ll move forward in the design process just in this part of the project. As all decisions about the product will be team decisions, to speed up ideas and get things done push for collaborative discussion (calls)!

just in this part of the project. As all decisions about the product will be team decisions, to speed up ideas and get things done When a situation is complex and requires back and forth discussions, it’s important to talk about solutions together.

It is good for team spirit and clarity. Remember: the product you are designing will reflect your process. If your team was lacking in communication, your final result might not be so well thought through.

How to conduct a Design Sprint remotely:
Ably secures $7M to set a new standard in realtime edge messaging
By: Kieran Kilbride-Singh
Tags: Funding Round, Realtime, Startup, Real Time Communication

Ably has closed a $7M Series A funding round led by MMC Ventures, with our seed funders Forward Partners co-investing. This funding enables us to deliver on our mission to provide the new standard of realtime edge messaging infrastructure required for a connected future.

Consumers today, more so than ever, expect their digital experiences to be realtime, yet as you know it can be incredibly difficult to deliver that. Ably solves this problem by providing simple APIs that developers can depend on, so that they can get on with building their apps and services.

This funding comes as a result of huge milestones for Ably:

We’ve streamed 1.5 trillion realtime messages over the Ably network

100 billion realtime messages now streamed to 50 million end-users each month

150% year-on-year growth since 2017

Some of the largest companies in the world depend on Ably to deliver mission-critical realtime experiences around the world

We’re using this funding to scale our team — we’ve already quadrupled in size since 2019 — so that we can focus on three things:

Ably has come a long way since 2013 when Matthew O’Riordan, Ably’s CEO, and Paddy Byers, Ably’s CTO, were unable to find a realtime solution that provided adequate guarantees for performance without compromising on data integrity or reliability. They launched Ably in 2016 after three years of intense research and development, investing over 50,000 hours into building the foundation of Ably’s complete realtime edge messaging platform.

Our focus from day one was architecting the Ably platform around Four Pillars of Dependability:

Performance

Reliability

Availability

Integrity (of data)

Today, Ably is still the only realtime edge messaging platform that is able to operate within strict, dependable, transparent boundaries, at any scale. It’s why we’re honoured to see so many engineers from tech startups to large enterprises, across numerous industries such as SaaS, mobility, sport, eCommerce and eLearning, to name a few, trust us for their mission-critical realtime needs.

Everyone at Ably is incredibly grateful for all of our customers who’ve supported us and we feel privileged to work with you, especially those that have trusted us as we’ve grown.

If you want to be part of Ably’s next stage and empower developers everywhere to build next-generation experiences, check out our careers page :).
How We Created Our Own Illustration Library
By: Sleeknote Design
Tags: Saas Tools, SaaS, Startup, Illustration, Design

Our solution: Illustration Library

The objective for this library was to gather all illustrations to one well-structured library in Figma. By doing this, we are able to work more efficiently while improving our design consistency.

There are some basic steps that helped us to build a healthy illustration library.

Here’s how we did it.

Step 1: Locate and collect all illustration work from the last 2 years.

The first time-consuming obstacle — identify and gather all worthy illustrations. This includes digging deep into what has been created before.

Step 2: Recognize what works and what doesn’t.

Deciding what to ditch and which are worthy of keeping for the future. Not everything has potential to be reused due to the natural development of the style.

Step3: Collect all to single illustration master file.

This is quite self-explanatory. It was crucial for both, the backup and next step to make sure all illustrations are available in single Sketch file.

Step 4: Break down to 6 different components.

To ease future use of the library, I decided to break illustrations down to the following six components:

Heads

Characters

Hands

UI Elements

Flowers

Other

Step 5: Move everything to Figma.

Most of our illustration work has been completed in Sketch. However, all our other designs are created in Figma. So, let’s import all svg files there. That way everyone, regardless of the department, can have access to the library.

Step 6: Organizing and naming

For obvious reasons, it was crucial to implement a well-organized structure. Avoiding this step would have cancelled out all our previous efforts.

Now that we have completed all the steps above, it is time to tap into maintaining habit. A regular component updating process keeps our library easy to manage.

Our illustration library will make our workflow much more efficient, allowing us to execute illustration projects flawlessly as we scale. Moving ahead, this tool will, and already did, help our team tremendously.
humanID Progress Update 04/05/20
By: Shuyao Kong
Tags: Nonprofit, Privacy, Startup, Identity, Cryptography

What’s humanID: humanID is a nonprofit building a replacement to social media logins like “Login with Facebook”. Unlike existing logins, humanID allows users to sign onto third-party websites or apps with full anonymity.

For more info please visit: https://www.human-id.org/

Greetings human,

It’s been a few ( tumultuous months) since our last update. We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe, healthy, and above all hopeful.

Our growing team of volunteers has been moving humanID forward unstop for the past few months. We’d love to share with you some exciting updates.

Sit back tight and enjoy the read.

TLDR Accomplishments:

Ongoing:

Grant application to NMV Open Call Product Development: Launching iOS MVP in 3 weeks.

Ask

We are looking for platforms that could benefit from a privacy-native identity solution that demands minimum integration. Shoot us a message and let’s talk: shuyao@human-id.org If you know any funding source that support privacy-focused startup that aims to fight against fake news. let’s talk as well: shuyao@human-id.org

We love you.

Cheers

humanID team
Market Fit Analysis — The Color Work / Luis Barragán
By: Ido Peleg
Tags: Architecture And Raising, Startup, Facetrom, Fundraising, Luis Barragan

Part Three:

In this part, I will present the color work that Luis Barragán created in his works, analyze his works against the initial user analysis carried out for the product.

In the second part (initial work on the concept = Guggenheim Museum Bilbao / Frank Gehry), I presented the novelty and disorder that characterize the relation between the inside and the outside. The unique proposal of the building that was first of its kind in terms of materials and scale, managed to attract tourists. However, it was also presented that in order to avoid making the product a gimmick and the existing competition, a significant value must be created for the users.

There are about 7 billion people in the world and about 7 billion opinions and desires, you won’t be able to satisfy them all as every person has its urges and wills.

First of all, the target audience must be characterized, as well as how to address it.

I will examine the user analysis using the works of Luis Barragán, that was one of the leading modern architects.

Barragán had an engineering qualification, but the soul of an architect. He never studied architecture, though he had a unique perception of space and an unusual message regarding the ways to convey experiences in a modern world with traditional content.

Barragán was influenced by the Modernist Movement and especially by Le Corbusier, who claimed that a building is a “machine for living”, but with time Barragán started to believe that this message was wrong, and began believing in “emotional architecture”.

The use of colors was dominant in his works.

Barragán respected the Mexican legacy, which is, in fact, the tradition of 62 tribes. There is no one dominant tradition, same as the fact that Mexico surprisingly doesn’t have an official language! Each region and tribe have their own tradition and unique combination of colors. Barragán used the tradition of the tribal colors in his modern design, he added emotion to the modernist style, that initially addressed engineering capability and functionality.

Traditional Mexican clothing patterns

The product design in a startup begins with a general concept, then the market fit is analyzed, and afterwards the specific details are reviewed, to adjust and examine the product.

Each user has a unique “color”, the product needs to meet the colors and needs of the user.

Luis Barragán characterized the colors by the movement of the sun and the shades spread by the colors during the day. He characterized the feeling that needs to prevail within the space, and chose the colors that could generate this feeling in accordance with the reflection of light from the sun.
Founders’ silent struggle — Key takeaways (Part 9)
By: Inga Stasiulionyte
Tags: Mental Health, Interview, Startup, Entrepreneurship, Founders

Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Getting addicted to the constant high of an adrenaline rush is exciting. A dream of changing the world and making a difference is inspiring. Pressure, competition, passion for the dream force people to push abilities beyond their limits. Startups and sports are very similar in that. However, the support systems are very different between founders and professional athletes.

In sports, elites have all the help to drive their performance results. They train every muscle on their body and mind to handle pressures, they are supervised by doctors and advised by personal coaches daily.

Founders, in contrast to athletes, have to learn how to survive these pressures on their own, in silence and constantly pretending what everything is “amazing”.

If we want to get stronger and not weaker from failures it all depends on our preparation to face them.

Due to startup development pace and experimentation with novel ideas founders have to elevate their self-management skills to much higher levels.

Key takeaways reflecting on founders from all around the world candid interviews:

Pivots are necessary;

Startup failure doesn’t mean that the founder is a failure;

Have a financial and emotional safety net;

Never sacrifice family;

Build meaningful relationships;

Ask for help sooner;

Create a very strong support system.
#30MinsWithSamLaryea Webinar — COVID-19: Survival Strategies for Startups and Small Businesses
By: Praise Catalogue
Tags: Covid 19, Praise Catalogue, 30minswithsamlaryea, Startups, Ghana

As small business owners, we’re prepared for a lot of things, whether it’s a seasonal shift in sales or an unexpected employee absence we have to step in and cover. But we’ve never seen anything like the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving us uncertain about how to cope in these strange times

Small businesses will be the hardest hit from the current COVID-19 pandemic. The bigger businesses have a better chance of surviving; however, small businesses tend to live only with a few months of cash flow (at most), so when something as significant as this hits, it can be devastating not only for the small business owner, but also for the employees they support. So, how can small businesses survive the turbulent times coming ahead in 2020?

Join us on our next edition of #30MinsWithSamLaryea as we engage our guest Amina Diagne in an insightful conversation about how startups can survive in this challenging times.

#30MinsWithSamLaryea, a webinar which takes place on WhatsApp promotes dialogues on all things concerning faith and technology. It is hosted by Sam Laryea, a digital media consultant and CEO of praise catalogue

The topic for this edition of the webinar is “COVID-19: Survival Strategies for Startups and Small Businesses”.

At the end of the webinar we hope to prepare a guide for business continuity to help participants to steer their companies through today’s uncharted territory. Participants will also be given tips and advice on planning for a range of operational contingencies, including people and systems, such as technology.

Our guest: Amina Diagne

3 parameters allowed Amina to develop a company that coaches entrepreneurs and sells online learning classes : MinaPro .

A Risk Management Master from Sciences Po Bordeaux

4 years in the KPMG consulting department in Senegal and Montreal

7 years as Sales Director and Associate SOLID, Microsoft Gold Partner and founder of the platform sales and streaming music MusikBi partially acquired by AKON

Her social activism, founding member and Secretary General of Festic (Senegalese Women in Technology) and Vice President of JEADER, allowed her to notice a major handicap for startups and businesses in Francophone Africa: lack of an integrated organizational system that can support their growth.

Thus she launches MinaPro firm in 2016 to support entrepreneurs through training, consulting and coaching. In 2020, Amina Diagne has trained nearly 300 entrepreneurs from Senegal.

It is no doubt that there is so much information coming at us daily. Yet, founders and small business owners are struggling to decipher what it all means for business operations.

Join us and let’s walk through what we know and what we can reasonably expect, given the best available information from trusted sources. Then we can offer some recommendations to help you adapt your business operations during this pandemic.

To join the webinar — Send “Add me” via WhatsApp to the number +233 555 986 901 or an email to info@praisecatalogue.org.
How to create a market
By: Sammy Abdullah
Tags: Startup Lessons, Software, Venture Capital, Startup

One of our companies had a sales consultant audit their sales team and methodology. Our portfolio company’s market has some interesting traits: i) the market is greenfield and almost all homegrown; ii) ‘no decision’ is the company’s primary competitor; and iii) the market as it stands is currently small, but large enterprises are the target customers. The consultant’s recommendations for approaching the market were as follows:

Focus on one vertical. Target a particular vertical and only focus on that vertical until you’ve saturated it. Go to every conference in that vertical, get industry publications for your reps, and make you product as applicable as possible to the vertical. In our case, tech companies are our initial vertical of focus.

Land a ‘buffalo’ in the vertical. Sign the industry leaders in the vertical, prove the ROI out to them, and then use that buffalo or buffalos as case studies and references to win the rest of the vertical.

Move into other tangential verticals. In our particular case, the first vertical to target was hardware and software companies. Once we dominate that vertical, the goal will then be to move into IT Services and Electronics, which are complimentary. As you dominate verticals, the next vertical should be somewhat related so that when you refer to past successes, new customers will be able to relate. For instance it makes no sense for us to go from hardware/software companies to food companies, because food companies may not fully appreciate our past successes in the hardware/software space.

If your company is a SaaS business with similar characteristics as ours (greenfield market, no decision is your competitor), then taking a sales approach similar to the above may be the way forward.

Visit us at blossomstreetventures.com and email us directly with Series A or B opportunities at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com. Connect on LI as well. We invest $1mm to $1.5mm in growth rounds, inside rounds, small rounds, cap table restructurings, note clean outs, and other ‘special situations’ all over the US & Canada.
[Founder Feature@TC] April 2020
By: Technopreneur Circle
Tags: Startup, Founder Stories, Technology, Founders, Entrepreneur

Name: Moses Kakanga, Founder, 35yo, Ugandan

Technopreneur Circle member: Since April 2019

Company: Recornea Pte Ltd (Healthcare)

Website: http://www.recornea.com/

Fun facts about me:

I am an extremely outgoing person and likes traveling, all things music, and fine art.

The company under 20 words:

Recornea Pte Ltd is a med tech company developing implants for reshaping deformed corneas.

What my company name & logo means:

RECORNEA means rebuilding your cornea.

Why I started the company & my journey so far:

We started the company in reaction to an unmet clinical need of treating people with bulging corneas — a disease called Keratoconus. The journey has been good so far but not without its challenges — it has been very challenging to raise funds in Singapore for med tech and biotech before doing clinical trials!

My lightbulb advice:

Transitioning from being an academic, I advise young aspiring entrepreneurs to take a leap of faith to start companies as there is no better time to start company than now. But you need to remember that starting your own company comes with many challenges, it needs one to develop persistence and the ability to start again when one idea fails.

I am looking for:

Investors, Mentors / Advisors, Partners, Talents (team members)

You can reach me @

moseskakanga@gmail.com

Technopreneur Circle is a member-based community platform funded by Vertex Ventures for tech startups to connect, communicate, and collaborate. More information available at www.technopreneurcircle.com.

Contact us: techcircle@vertexholdings.com
We’ve been busy-take a look at all our initiatives!
By: Mariana Neves Cruz
Tags: Startup, Careers, Events, Technology, Initiative

We just finished Landing.Jobs 3rd week working remote and we are finally settling in with this new routine. We’ve been taking care of each other and having sync meetings so we keep ourselves in the loop.

Also, we’ve been launching a bunch of initiatives while trying to adapt to this new reality. Take a look at everything we have been shipping these days — and there’s a lot more to come!

Know Your Value

Know Your Value — an initiative for all the Tech talent

We want to share knowledge, give you tips and help you with your career path as a whole, no matter if you want to work remotely or not. With this in mind, we developed the ‘Know Your Value’: a full-remote initiative that aims to help you understand what is your Market Value.

Through this process, we will measure how attractive your Tech Profile is based on your strengths and aspects you should work on. You can apply here. Good luck!

Barometer of Remote Work (in Portugal)

Barometer de Remote Work — an initiative to the Portuguese context

We are aware that countless Portuguese companies have had to adapt the way they work due to the circumstances imposed by the current pandemic. We are no exception — we are learning on a daily basis and creating processes that ensure both our individual productivity and the company’s profitability.

Together with People Magazine, we launched an initiative entirely focused on this new reality: the Remote Work Barometer. We intend to collect weekly feedback from Portuguese workers who are working remotely during the COVID-19 crisis.

Home Offic(ially)

Home Offic(ially) — an initiative about Remote Work

One of the biggest challenges in making the move to working fully remote is keeping the team connected and engaged. Home Offic(ially) is Landing.Jobs new series where one of our landers will be joined by someone from the community to share experiences and provide some insights about remote working.

The first session will be on 7th April at 5PM WET — Mariel Dommering (Chief People Officer @ Nmbrs) will join our DE & NL Market Lead Damian Ciocianu! You can participate here — hoping to see there!

We’ll be releasing the results of the Tech Survey soon. Stay tuned for more!

Mariana Neves Cruz

Content Specialist @ Landing.Jobs
The Pelotoning of Education
By: Ninad Naik
Tags: Schools, Internet, Homeschooling, Startup, Education

Source: Pexels

Schools have historically — and I’m referring to the 20th century history here — been centers of education; within the confines of this framing, there’s been a lot of discussion recently about the advantages of homeschooling. Two popular concerns with schooling are:

Schools are becoming quite inefficient as mechanisms of education because teachers end up teaching for the average student; no one student’s needs are fully met since the teacher’s efforts aren’t enough for students that need more help, and classroom time is inefficient for students that don’t need as much help or attention. Students adapt to these challenges by taking on tutors and “extra classes” outside of school when needed or by pursuing interests outside of school curricula on their own time. This leads to a less exploratory and highly results-oriented school life. Schools are becoming quite inefficient as mechanisms of education because the content is very generic and often does not align with students’ aptitude or interests. Forward-thinking nations try to alleviate this concern by allowing students to pick electives, but students still need to operate within a sandbox; there are enforced diminishing marginal returns for students that want to really delve into something specific. In a world where higher education still (albeit on its last legs) counts for something, students attending traditional schools still need to play by an increasingly irrelevant set of rules.

In short, the one size fits all nature of education is very last-century. In the last couple of years, there’s been increasing talk of homeschooling as the alternative to schools. Homeschooling is interesting in that it appears to diagnose the problem appropriately; but is it the right solution?

In my opinion, it isn’t. That’s because — as made amply clear by COVID-19 — the primary role of schools isn’t education: it’s babysitting. Regardless of how the concept of schools came to be, its role in the industrial era is very clear. Schools are what enable people to show up to work in the first place. Without childcare, there likely wouldn’t be a labor shortage per se (since money has to be earned somehow) but it’d be awfully challenging to get everyone to work 9–5. This — higher efficiency and productivity — is the indispensable value of schools, and homeschooling is generally incompatible with this requirement (it would only work in cases where parents have surplus time or money).

A secondary — and in my opinion, overlooked — value of schools is social and personality development; note: results may vary.
Batch 10 up on the virtual stage — Meet faktual
By: Next Media Accelerator
Tags: Innovation, Journalism, Startup, Media, Research Methods

How did you come up with your idea?

Moritz: Abraham and I did an additional Master’s program. During that time a company that produces software for publishing houses had the idea of building a Social Media Listening Tool. Since there are already similar tools on the market, we instead took two weeks of our time to conduct approximately 20 interviews with journalists. We’ve found out that they are currently struggling with the increasing amount of information on the Internet. To solve this problem, we have then developed faktual. Since December we are working on it full-time.

Where’s faktual now?

Moritz: We are currently finishing our prototype. Now people actually can test it. We have already scheduled several testings with large newspaper publishers and broadcasting companies which will start next month. We plan on having our MVP ready to launch until the end of May.

“We give journalists the time back to do what they love most: investigative research!”

What was the best piece of advice you received as a startup?

Moritz: I heard it at NMA and I heard it before: be open and talk about everything you have in mind! Especially when you talk to people from different domains, they all have a different understanding of what the world needs and what you are doing. Putting all these together helps you to create a good product. Don’t be afraid of talking about new ideas and don’t worry too much about anyone stealing it!
Why Copywriting Is Similar to Dating and How to Master It
By: Sinem Günel
Tags: Business, Copywriting, Startup, Social Media, Freelancing

Why Copywriting Is Similar to Dating and How to Master It

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Did you know copywriting is one of the highest-income skills of the 21st century?

And did you know most people suck at it?

Why?

Because copywriting is different from any other type of writing.

Good copywriting has one goal:

Leading people to take action.

And if you are doing some sort of business online, you need good copywriting.

You’ve probably done copywriting without even knowing it exists.

Your sales page is full of copy, your landing pages are copy, and every email you send out is copy.

Even your call-to-action at the end of a blog post is copy.

And if you don’t know how to write good copy, you will lose leads, customers, and potential income.

So yes, copywriting is highly relevant, and even if you’re a writer, you need to learn copywriting from scratch.

Because good copywriting isn’t good writing.

It’s an entirely different world, and most mistakes people make come down to one single thing:

Sequence.
Understanding the core engineering definitions required to start an MVP
By: Agu Campos
Tags: Founder Insights, Learning, Startup, Tips, Founders

Since the company started, we have been promoting 1–1 introduction meetings. A 30 minutes free space we make available for any founder to talk to us about the problems they are facing with their products to see if we can help them with some guidance or even collaborate together.

This allowed us to spoke with many first-time founders. During these conversations, what we’ve found is that most of them keep making basic mistakes that cause their product to attempt against the business soon after launch.

The top common scenario always is:

“Our product worked well for a few months, but now is hard for the team to make additions with the current code. A change over here breaks something over there and that delays our roadmap.”

From that point is when we notice the path repeats itself:

The “team” is actually different contractors working in silos. Most of the time, one group creates and launches the product and another is required to make the future changes. Each group brings its own development patterns and principles onto the product

There isn’t a staff person who is accountable for guiding the core engineering aspects. Contractors takes all the technical decisions by themselves

The technology used on the product depends on what the company hires and that hiring is made according to the best price offer. Sometimes, changing a contractor means that a new part of the product is made with a different technology

Since the contracts are usually hourly basis, founders prefer contractors to avoid creating or maintain any kind of documentation and focus on building only

Of course, we are all hardly perfect, and the product path doesn’t always work out exactly the way we want it to. There will always be economic, business and timing reasons that make founders take those decisions and that’s fine.

After hearing from so many people struggling with this scenario, we’ve have decided to put together three tips for new founders to help them gain more control over their product paths. We’ll explain them in plain english so, you can understand the value and get a better analysis of your current situation.
7 Crypto Firms Targeted by 11 Lawsuits in New York
By: Solutions Foundation
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Startup, Crypto, Bitcoin

NEWS

Seven crypto companies have been targeted by 11 lawsuits that were filed in a New York federal court on April 3.

The suits were filed by Roche Freedman — the same law firm representing the estate of the late Dave Kleiman in the ongoing dispute with self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright.

Eleven lawsuits target seven crypto companies

The eleven putative class action suits name dozens of parties including cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, KuCoin, BiBox, and BitMEX and parent company HDR Global Trading Limited, and alleged crypto issuers Block.one, Quantstamp, KayDex, Civic, BProtocol, Status, and the Tron Foundation.

Many of the company’s principals are named, including several leading figures in the crypto sector such as Changpeng Zhao, Dan Larimer, Vinny Lingham, and Brendan Blumer.

Crypto firms accused of wholesale securities violations

The lawsuit alleges that numerous exchanges have sold unlicensed securities without broker-dealer licensing and engaged in market manipulation.

The plaintiffs also argue that many token issuers selectively withheld information from investors to ensure that it would not be apparent the tokens comprised securities until well after the token sale.

Bibox Token (BIX), Eos (EOS), Bancor (BNT), Status (SNT), Quantstamp (QSP), Kyber Network (KNC), Tron (TRX), Funfair (FUN), Icon (ICX), OmiseGO (OMG), ETHLend (LEND), Aelf (ELF), TomoChain (TOMO) and Civic (CVC) are among the crypto assets that the plaintiffs argue comprise securities.

Proceedings expected to move slowly

Several non-US defendants will need to be served via the Hague Convention due to their location outside of the United States. Disruptions to the judicial system resulting from the COVID-19 panic will also have an impact.

The case is likely to invoke familiar discussions surrounding the jurisdiction of the court in ruling against parties based outside of the U.S., discourse concerning the efforts of exchanges and token issuers to exclude U.S. residents from their platforms and offerings, and whether the crypto assets in question comprise securities.

By Samuel Haig

Source
What is the Bepro Scouting Feed?
Tags: Football, Innovation, Soccer, Startup, Technology

Taking video production to a level above mobile cameras and user-uploaded videos, with our fixed camera system we are able to offer the perfect controllable viewing perspective for analysis. The Bepro scouting feed captures all 22 players in one shot, giving viewers eyes to the whole show. With a view that is as if you are sat in the stands, users can see every player movement for the entire game and training sessions thanks to this bird’s-eye view.

How does it work?

The original image captured is a full panoramic view that has been created by stitching images from 3–4 of our fixed cameras.

Panoramic Camera View from Bologna F.C.

With the full view logged, we can then start using video processing technology to detect the players and ball. Each player’s movement is registered and our system is able to follow their location throughout the game. This then generates our auto-view scouting feed logic that users can enable when they watch and analyse their footage. This ensures that all outfield players remain within the frame so that the game can be followed closely.

Back-end view

End result as seen on the Bepro platform

What is possible with our scouting feed?

Zoom

In order to enhance the capabilities of the scouting feed, we also provide a zoom function in our web and mobile app service. This fills the gap between two different demands which are to see the game as a wide-angle view and a closer view to check the match event situation in detail.

Real-Time Video Editing (and Non Editing)

Combined with the Bepro Editor, analysts have access to this viewing platform instantly when they are live coding users. They may be sat in the changing rooms or in the boxes but wherever they are, they have the best view of the pitch thanks to the scouting feed. They can add analysis notes in the editor tool for all the match events that have occurred directly with full controls of zooming enabled.

Another beauty from the real-time video is that even for non-analysis purposes, perhaps the owner or technical director wants to watch the game but cannot be there in the stands, this is a great way for them to watch it live from any location.

The Perfect View for Training!

The Bepro scouting feed is not just for matches, training recording is available too! Capturing training is very important for clubs these days and instead of standing on the touchline or getting the intern to manually record small frames of the pitch, you now have the possibility to see everything. Better yet, all it takes is to simply click a button to start recording. Just like for the matches, any member of the team who has permission is able to watch and keep up to date with training live from any location.
Browsing courses on Cademy 2.0 🎉 — Changelog #11
By: Adrian Binzaru
Tags: Cademy Changelog, Startup, Education, Product, Updates

Why?

How often do you know exactly what you want to order when you open your takeout app of choice? When was the last time you opened Netflix and knew exactly what you wanted to watch? It happens sometimes, but just as frequently you tend to browse and explore and let serendipity determine your fate.

This is why we’ve decided to redesign our browsing experience to encourage exploration and discovery. This is the very first step towards our vision of the future of Cademy.

Behold ! 🎓Cademy 2.0!

A new home page & search experience

Featured courses

Subject areas and categories

We launched the first version of Cademy exactly three weeks ago, and we have been working around the clock to bring it closer to our vision of the future. We hope you’ll enjoy the new look and if you have any comments or feedback please post a comment below or email us. Don’t forget that you can keep in the loop with all our updates on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and on our blog. Or sign up below for email updates:
Coming full circle with refunds
By: Ziyad Parekh
Tags: Pakistan, Startup, Ecommerce

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

We’re constantly working to challenge the status quo for online payments in Pakistan. When we launched Safepay, one of our core features was to empower merchants to make quick and easy refunds.

Easy refunds benefit both the merchant and their customer, and generally makes the world a happier place. A merchant can easily refund any transaction directly from their Safepay merchant dashboard — no need for calls and emails to unhelpful customer support. As long as you have a positive balance in your Safepay account, you can refund your customer. The refunded amount usually shows up in the customer’s account within 7–10 business days.

Now, we’re super excited to launch an even more useful feature for our merchants — partial refunds. Previously a merchant would only be able to refund the entire amount of a transaction. Partial refunds now allow a merchant to refund any amount less than the entire transaction value. This feature will save merchants time and pain. A merchant is now able to surgically decide amounts to refund to keep their customers happy and also resolve any chargebacks or disputes raised quickly.

We believe easy refunding is important to grow the trust in making online payments in Pakistan. This feature is now live and available for every merchant using Safepay. Please email us if you notice any issues or have any concerns.

To take advantage of this feature as a merchant, learn more by reading our refund guide on our knowledge center
Big Board Showdown is Live!
By: Champions Round
Tags: Fantasy Football, NFL Draft, Startup, Fantasy Sports, Fantasy Sports App

Each roster will have 12 spots, with no bench spots. You will be tasked with drafting two Quarterbacks, two Running Backs, two Wide Receivers, one Tight End, four Defensive players and one Flex Spot that can be used on any player.

Your goal is just like any other fantasy game mode: Score more points than everyone else and become a champion! How do you score points? Well, the higher your players are drafted by NFL teams, the more points you’ll score.

Here is our scoring system for Big Board Showdown:

Flex Is Fun Again 💪

Usually when you play fantasy football your flex spot is limited to Running Backs, Wide Receivers and sometimes Tight Ends. Not in Big Board Showdown!

In our new game mode you will be able to pick ANY player and place them in the Flex spot. So if you love Louisville offensive tackle Mekhi Becton and you think he’ll score some points for your squad, go ahead and take the big guy!

The Flex is now truly flexible.

Making Mr. Irrelevant Relevant 🎲

We’ve already presented our standard scoring system for Big Board Showdown above; however, we left off one crucial element: The Big Board Bonus. Yes, that’s right. There’s more than one way to win.

Sure, if you have Joe Burrow, Chase Young and Tua Tagovailoa on your roster you’re going to have a great chance to win. But if you select a player who is taken with the LAST pick in the NFL Draft, you’ll also have an excellent shot at claiming the crown.

The 2020 NFL Draft will have 255 picks. If you draft the player that is chosen with the 255th pick, aka Mr. Irrelevant, you will receive a 50 POINT bonus. That’s enough to take you from last place to first!

The Big Board Bonus is the ultimate fantasy game changer.

A Special Present is Waiting 🎁

Along with our Big Board Showdown game mode, we’ve gone through an extensive re-design of our app. Stay tuned in the next few weeks as we deliver some unique and awesome theme modes.

Download the App, Create a League and Draft. After seven rounds a champion will be crowned!

Get ready, because #YouGotNextPick