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JBL’s Bar 5.0 MultiBeam soundbar delivers virtual Dolby Atmos on a budget
Tags: Lighting, Chargers, Deals, Connected Home

JBL’s Bar 5.0 MultiBeam soundbar delivers virtual Dolby Atmos on a budget Henry Jan 14·2 min read

After wowing us last year with a high-end 5.1.4-channel soundbar with detachable, battery-powered wireless surround speakers, JBL’s latest budget-minded soundbar dials it down a notch with an all-in-one design, multi-room audio support, and virtualized Dolby Atmos.



Mentioned in this article JBL Bar 9.1 Read TechHive's review$999.95See iton JBL Announced less than a week before CES kicks off, the JBL Bar 5.0 comes equipped with a quartet of passive radiators in the place of a wireless subwoofer, while JBL’s MultiRoom audio technology (which previously appeared on the JBL Bar 5.1 soundbar) is designed to deliver an “immersive listening experience” (read: virtual surround effects) without the need for separate surround speakers.



Speaking of virtualized immersive audio, the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam also comes with virtual Dolby Audio, Dolby’s method of teasing height cues from a soundbar that lacks upfiring drivers.



[ Further reading: The best soundbars ]We’ve seen (and heard) plenty of affordable soundbars that employ virtual 3D audio, either from Dolby or via DTS’s Virtual:X mode. What sets the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam apart from its budget-priced competitors is support for a trio of multi-room audio platforms: AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and Alexa, which means you’ll be able to add the speaker to AirPlay, Chromecast, and Alexa speaker groups. That’s pretty impressive given that budget soundbars with virtual 3D modes generally relegate you to just one wireless multi-room audio platform, if they support any at all. You can also connect an iOS on Android device to the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam via Bluetooth.



JBL hasn’t detailed exactly how many drivers are housed within the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam, nor do we know whether the soundbar supports eARC, an “enhanced” version of ARC that allows for lossless audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. (We’re guessing “no,” since we’re talking a budget soundbar here.)



In any case, we do know how much the Bar 5.0 MultiBeam will cost: $400, a reasonable price given the soundbar’s feature set.



Look for the JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam to ship this spring, and keep your eyes peeled for a full review once we spend some time with a sample unit.



Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.
Netgear has one of the first Wi-Fi 6e routers: The Nighthawk RAXE500
Tags: Cord, Chargers, Electronics

Netgear has one of the first Wi-Fi 6e routers: The Nighthawk RAXE500 Tonya Jan 14·2 min read

Netgear took the wraps off its all-new Nighthawk RAXE500 router at CES today. This is a true tri-band Wi-Fi 6e device that operates three independent wireless networks using spectrum in the 2.4-, 5-, and the newly deregulated 6GHz frequency bands to deliver huge amounts of bandwidth—theoretical top speed of 10.8Gbps combined—with very little latency.



The FCC opened 1,200MHz of bandwidth in the 6GHz frequency band to Wi-Fi in April 2020. The primary benefit is the availability of 59 non-overlapping channels in that spectrum, compared to 25 in the 5GHz band and just three in the 2.4GHz band. Wi-Fi 6e gear is likely to have somewhat shorter range—particularly compared to 2.4GHz—because shorter-wavelength radio signals are more easily absorbed by walls and even the atmosphere.



Netgear The Nighthawk RAXE500 can take advantage of the fastest residential broadband speeds available via its multi-gig WAN and link aggregation features.



The 6GHz frequency band, on the other hand, will be much less congested. Plus, only Wi-Fi 6e clients will be allowed to use that spectrum. The short-term downside, on the other hand, is that there are very few Wi-Fi 6e clients to begin with. Intel has a part now, and Broadcom and Samsung will have one soon, but that’s it.



[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]The Nighthawk RAXE500 is powered by a 1.8GHz quad-core processor and is outfitted with a multi-gig (2.5Gbps) WAN port for those with very fast broadband connections. Two of its five gigabit ethernet ports can be aggregated for either 2Gbps LAN or WAN connections. The batwing-shaped router also has dual USB 3.0 ports. It will be available later in Q1 and sell for $600.



Netgear The Netgear Nighthawk AX6/6-Stream is a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem/Wi-Fi 6 router combo.



Netgear is also showing a new DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem with an integrated Wi-Fi 6 router. The Nighthawk AX6/6-Stream (model number CAX30) is compatible with cable broadband service from Xfinity, Spectrum, and Cox. It will sell for $300 when it becomes available later this month, joining Netgear’s currently available cable modem offerings, the higher-end Nighthawk WiFi6 AX6000 (model CAX80, $430) and the Orbi Tri-Band WiFi6 Cable Mesh System (model CBK752, or $600 for the router plus one satellite, $450 for the cable modem/router solo).



Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.
Sonos announces new artists contributing to its Sonos Radio services
Tags: Home Theater, Chargers, Home Tech

Sonos announces new artists contributing to its Sonos Radio services Angie Jan 14·1 min read

Sonos has announced new offerings in its Sonos Radio music-streaming services. The ad-free Sonos Sound System will launch three new shows: Object of Sound, a weekly music and culture podcast; Black is Black, a monthly radio show “examining the black diaspora’s impact on modern music;” and Unsung, a biweekly show hosted by the independent British music publication Crack Magazine.



[ Further reading: The best smart speakers and digital assistants ]Subscribers to Sonos Radio HD ($7.99 per month) will gain access to new stations curated by Icelandic singer Björk, British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, American singer and producer, D’Angelo, and English singer/songwriter FKA Twigs. These same artists will contribute one-hour segments to the Sonos Radio Hour on the free version of Sonos Radio.



Back on the paid side, subscribers will also gain a new hip-hop and R&B station, Blacksmith Radio, hosted by artist manager Corey Smyth.



Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.
Netgear has one of the first Wi-Fi 6e routers: The Nighthawk RAXE500
Tags: Surveillance, Chargers, Home Tech, Deals

Netgear has one of the first Wi-Fi 6e routers: The Nighthawk RAXE500 Kristen Jan 14·2 min read

Netgear took the wraps off its all-new Nighthawk RAXE500 router at CES today. This is a true tri-band Wi-Fi 6e device that operates three independent wireless networks using spectrum in the 2.4-, 5-, and the newly deregulated 6GHz frequency bands to deliver huge amounts of bandwidth—theoretical top speed of 10.8Gbps combined—with very little latency.



The FCC opened 1,200MHz of bandwidth in the 6GHz frequency band to Wi-Fi in April 2020. The primary benefit is the availability of 59 non-overlapping channels in that spectrum, compared to 25 in the 5GHz band and just three in the 2.4GHz band. Wi-Fi 6e gear is likely to have somewhat shorter range—particularly compared to 2.4GHz—because shorter-wavelength radio signals are more easily absorbed by walls and even the atmosphere.



Netgear The Nighthawk RAXE500 can take advantage of the fastest residential broadband speeds available via its multi-gig WAN and link aggregation features.



The 6GHz frequency band, on the other hand, will be much less congested. Plus, only Wi-Fi 6e clients will be allowed to use that spectrum. The short-term downside, on the other hand, is that there are very few Wi-Fi 6e clients to begin with. Intel has a part now, and Broadcom and Samsung will have one soon, but that’s it.



[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]The Nighthawk RAXE500 is powered by a 1.8GHz quad-core processor and is outfitted with a multi-gig (2.5Gbps) WAN port for those with very fast broadband connections. Two of its five gigabit ethernet ports can be aggregated for either 2Gbps LAN or WAN connections. The batwing-shaped router also has dual USB 3.0 ports. It will be available later in Q1 and sell for $600.



Netgear The Netgear Nighthawk AX6/6-Stream is a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem/Wi-Fi 6 router combo.



Netgear is also showing a new DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem with an integrated Wi-Fi 6 router. The Nighthawk AX6/6-Stream (model number CAX30) is compatible with cable broadband service from Xfinity, Spectrum, and Cox. It will sell for $300 when it becomes available later this month, joining Netgear’s currently available cable modem offerings, the higher-end Nighthawk WiFi6 AX6000 (model CAX80, $430) and the Orbi Tri-Band WiFi6 Cable Mesh System (model CBK752, or $600 for the router plus one satellite, $450 for the cable modem/router solo).



Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.
How Can I Find the Best Uber Clone Source Code?
By: George Kittle
Tags: Business, Tech, Startup, Entrepreneurship, Technology

We have built an Uber-Like App — Wooberly, using Flutter technology.

The app gives an accelerating performance, bug-free product and is easily customizable to any solution. The platform is enclosed with full-fledged features to perform all the tasks an Uber-like app is supposed to.

There are websites that claim to provide free sources. But the quality of the code is questionable. If their app is implemented in real-time, you may discover many errors, slow performance of app functioning and possibly poor mobile app design.

About Wooberly:

The Wooberly comes with two apps — For driver and rider and an admin dashboard for the on-demand platform owners.

The Uber clone App has mainly 3 users — Admin, Drivers, and Riders (customers). You design a 3 app for each user group.

Looking into the features the MVP Uber clone bring is:

Main features in Driver App:

Vehicle details — Vehicle and a copy of the original documents of the vehicle.

Document verification — Scanned documents of the vehicle.

Payout method — Cash and stripe payment is present

Currency and language — Integration of multi-currency and five languages.

Trips — Having two sections — upcoming trips and completed.

Privacy mode of earned details — Hiding earned pricing to provide security.

Driver’s availability — Driver can switch back to offline if he doesn’t want to take a ride.

In-call option — Driver can call the rider to know their exact location.

Main features in Rider App:

Multiple vehicle options — auto/micro

Fare breakdown — based on km, durations

Live tracking — the rider can monitor their ride

Payout options — cash and Stripe payment

Multiple currencies and language options — select according to their wish

Track ride history — upcoming/past trips

Fare estimation — calculate their ride fare

Incall options — contact driver regarding trip details

Ratings and reviews — customers can rate their drivers

Technology:

We have built our Wooberly app in Flutter technology, an open-source SDK for cross-platform development created by Google. You can build your iOS, and Android apps simultaneously using a single codebase. Flutter develops mobile applications faster with unique and creative UI design layouts by using the widgets.

For more details about our product, find us in this link: https://www.rentallscript.com/uber-clone/
Now, Next and Beyond
By: Pascal Finette
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Covid 19, Leadership, Startup

Let me start with the most important question: How are you doing?

As many of you, I find myself in a “💩 is hitting the fan”-moment of epic proportions. And we are truly he lucky ones — we have a business which, I expect, will make it through these batshit crazy times; we have enough money in the bank to keep paying our employees for the short- and mid-term. It’s hard, but it will be okay.

The other day I spoke to a dear friend of mine who heads up EYQ, EY’s global think tank. EYQ looks at the world in three time dimensions: Now, Next and Beyond. In the world BC (Before Covid-19) “next” was 1–2 years out, and the beyond was somewhere past the five year mark. Today Now and Next are happening in parallel and at the same time, while Beyond is AC (After Covid-19).

It requires a very different view of the world and leaders to show up in very different ways. Fluidity has replaced stability. Now, more than ever, we ought to fall back to scenario planning. You need to know what the boundary conditions are, to give yourself the option space in which to navigate in.

And double-down on your financial planning. Now, more than ever, cashflow is king.

I hear people talk about this recession being a V-shape (a sharp dip with an equally as sharp rise) or a U-shape (same thing with a bit more time in the dip) or even a W-shape (as Covid-19 might rear its ugly head again in the fall). From all I can see (and the many people I talk to who know this much better than I do), we are in an I-shape: A complete fall of the cliff like nothing we have seen before. And it will take a while to get out of this. Better be prepared for a long winter.

Now here is the good news: We will get through this. A lot of new opportunities will come out of this. It will make us stronger and more resilient. We need to dig our heels in, do the work and care for those who are less fortunate.

P.S. In case you haven’t done so, sign up for the radical Briefing; we just published a great post on this very topic.
How Do Start-Ups Gain Popularity?
By: Satshri Technologies
Tags: SEO, Digital Marketing, Seo Services, Startup, Digital Marketing Agency

Running a successful start-up requires hard work and patience. Popularity is something that cannot be achieved within just starting. You have to struggle hard, and wait for the outcome to show up. According to a survey, most of the companies give up right in the starting. The most challenging fact is that, no matter how great your products are, you’ll attract not enough customers if they are not aware of your brand. Brand popularity is most important to run a successful business. Here are some tips on how can a start-up help to gain their popularity:

Make a business plan: Making a business plan on how you would like to see your business in the future. It helps in more growth and receiving more revenue investment.

Have a proper website and location of your business: It is important that your business has both physical as well as the web address in order to directly attract your customer. You can make good leads out of your websites with the help of SEO (Search engine optimization).

Use social media platforms: Digital marketing is adapted by almost every company. People trust your brand more if you have an online presence. Marketing after making your products needs to be your top priority. Digital marketing services will help you gain your popularity even more. If you are not a digital marketing expert and looking for someone to trust it with your company, then we are here for you to help you with it.

Partner up with influencers: Influencers are the new trend of gaining popularity. You should definitely use this service to promote your products because people still believe the social personality recommending something. Word of mouth still counts.

Create your own content: Whether it’s a blog post or a social media announcement, it’s expected that companies should create their own content and share it with people. Creating your own identity helps you to attract a new customer.

Just wait for the outcome to show. One day your hard work will reflect. If you are looking to gain some popularity and you can’t do it alone, visit us at www.satshritech.com. for the best digital marketing services.
What is haram and halal food?
By: Dr. Saad
Tags: Business, Religion, Startup, Islam, Food

The words Halal and Haram are the usual terms used in the Quran to designate the categories of lawful or allowed and unlawful or forbidden.

What is Halal?

Halal is an Arabic term which can be basically translated to mean ‘permissible or lawful (in Islam). And Halal food is something which is permissible or lawful to consume.

What is Haram?

This is another Arabic term which means Impermissible, sinful, forbidden or Unlawful (in Islam). And Haram food is something which is unlawful or impermissible to consume.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

“Halal is clear and the Haram (unlawful) is clear.”-(Sahih al-Bukhari).

Halal Foods

The following food items are Halal for consumption:

All domestic birds

All cattle

Sheep

Goats

Camels

All types of buck

Seafood

Water

Milk

Fruits

Etc

Haram Foods

The consumption of the following food items is/are against the dietary laws of Islam. Likewise, any ingredient or product derived from them or contaminated with them is also prohibited for a Muslim to consume:
COVID19: WHAT CAN STARTUP EMPLOYEES DO TO HELP THEIR FOUNDER
By: Akshay Bhatia
Tags: Employees, Founders, Startup, Small Business

As a startup founder, the past 3 weeks for me (and I’m sure most business owners) have been nothing short of a battle. A battle against cash flow, operations and time. There is an unsaid expectation that founders should ‘know it all’. At the cost of being honest and maybe shattering some bubbles

A part of every founder today is clueless.

We are all facing this pandemic for the first time and everyone’s guess to COVID19 timelines and impact is as good as anyone’s. The only commonality I see — Every founder is in fight mode.

It is important we all realise one glaring truth — It is NOT business as usual. To a large extent, it is an emergency. Cash in the bank is the ventilator that companies are surviving on. In order to survive, companies can’t act in the way they did before. When I say companies, I mean all members of the organisation — right from the CEO to a customer care executive.

There is a lot of narrative around how founders must act when it comes to mindset, vision and ethics. While I absolutely stand by the fact that a company’s future will depend on what decisions a founder takes during this pandemic, I also believe now is an important time for employees to stand up and take responsibility.

Let me start with the elephant in the room — Job Security.

As employees, lets change the question from “Will I still have my job?” to “What all can I do to keep my job?”.

Layoffs are never the first choice for Founders. Every business owner is currently thinking about what all can they do to ensure all employees have their job.

With that, here are a few suggestions around how employees can play their part (largely inspired by my team’s actions).

Help preserve capital or recover stuck capital. Cut down on your perks/allowances and pause all non-essential recurring business expenses. Help recover outstanding receivables stuck with customers.

Ask yourself “what are my essential personal expenses?”After this, if you can afford to let go of a certain percentage of your salary, reach out to your HR or manager.

Don’t stick to your core role. If you see a division that is overworked, reach out to them at the earliest. No one will refuse an extra pair of hands.

Take up a dream project or business idea that can yield additional revenue. Post-Lockdown, companies will be raring to work 2X their speed to make up for the loss. Try to be ahead of the curve.

Drop an occasional slack message or email to your Founder and let them know that you are there for them. Being a Founder is lonely and every ounce of positivity during this time will add to their fighting spirit.

A company’s employees are its greatest asset and this holds true now, more than ever. So while your CEO tries to steer the boat through muddy waters, hold that Oar for them.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

If you can think of any other ways employees can or have stepped up, I would love to learn from you.
How to Thrive as an Average Programmer
Tags: Work, Programming, Coding, Startup, Self Improvement

“Git Gud” at What You Do

Photo by Àlex Rodriguez on Unsplash.

I have always lived by a general rule that mastery in one area isn’t as desirable as getting decent at several things — and in programming, that is even truer.

There are various ways to do your job well, either through hard work or just through experience and being fast at fixing bugs others would take much longer with. If you manage to keep your head above water for a while, you’ll start seeing light on the horizon, start to understand how the system works, and you’ll find your own little workarounds for problems that may put sweat on other people’s heads while they imagine all the things that could go wrong.

Part of my work contains such atrocities as “production database tests,” where I bypass, trick, reverse, and edit against the live database to fix critical errors that I can’t test since the test database is only cloned once a week and never when you need it. “Pray and commit,” as I like to say. What’s the worst that could happen?

It may lead the purists at work to a minor identity crisis, especially considering there is no way to unit-test this stuff and I committed straight into the master branch since I’m the only one working on this system anyway and have no one to approve my pull requests. It took me some time to bypass those stupid rules to permit check-ins to the master branch, and I’m proud of that. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

All of this is to say that there are many shades of “gud” in the world of programming. Even if that only means being there when things break in spectacular fashion and being the kind of guy who owns up to his mistakes and mops the floor after.

I’m deep into the “chaotic good” corner, but just as I have found my niche there, you can find yours in the opposite where you have your whole system in order, where the tasks are so damn well-formatted that even someone without coding skills can take over your work when needed, and where they all have just the right amount of story points assigned to them. Expertly crafted user stories, elegant displays of law and order in a world where there is none — that’s the stuff that makes your team leader see your face in his dreams.
For Founders, by Founders
By: Exit Velocity
Tags: Scaleup, Venture Capital, Accelerator, Startup, Founders

We get it!

It used to be great fun when it was just you and your co-founder working out of the garage on the initial MVP. But then it got complicated as the team grew, investors started asking questions, and product market fit continued to be elusive.

That’s ok!

You’re not the first company to experience this and definitely won’t be the last. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t do it all. What matters is how and when you bring in the best people to set your business up for success.

And with current events, it’s never been more important to access experienced people willing to roll up their sleeves and help you get through the challenges ahead. In fact, we’ll shortly launch a special version of EV Evaluate™ for founders needing assistance.

We understand you don’t want a bunch of consultants telling you things you already know. You want real-world experience to fill knowledge gaps in your team and ready access to exceptional resources to help scale your business.

That’s why we created Exit Velocity.

We’ve founded and exited startups in the US, UK and Australia. We’re also experienced mentors, advisors and angel investors. We’ve raised capital, grown sales and engineering teams, managed international manufacturing and distribution and got numerous products to market both in the consumer and enterprise space.

We’ve lived the same extreme highs and lows of daily startup life. We’ve got a wardrobe full of startup T-shirts and now we want to use that knowledge and experience to help other exceptional founders.

Our mission is to help companies to grow, scale and thrive. To become strong, confident and successful businesses. We do this by working alongside the founders, initially to understand and resolve key business issues, and then over the long-term to support the business as it grows to maturity.

We’re a unique personalized business accelerator and our results speak for themselves. If you’re a good fit for us, we would love to dig in, see what makes you tick and get you heading in the right direction to Grow, Scale and Thrive.

Get in touch today to see if we can help.

Celebrating our launch overlooking Silicon Valley.

Mark and Stu
A Huge List of Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
By: Donny Landis
Tags: Productivity, Programming, Software Engineering, Startup, Web Development

The Why

When people use the phrase time investment these days, they often mean time suck, as in, “I’d always wanted to rewatch the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies but it’s such a time investment. Now that we’re quarantined though…”

Here and now, let’s reclaim the original meaning of the phrase: that is, time spent doing something that will pay off in the future. You can apply it as big and abstract (going to college) or as small (organizing your sock drawer) as you want.¹ Specifically, we’re here to talk about a time investment that pays off with the thing that money can’t buy: more time.

Let’s pretend for a second that every action you take on your computer in the course of a day were represented as a line of code in a file. There would be some big, headline activities that take up many lines, like writing code, surfing the web, writing emails, and listening to music. You would also see a ton of micro-activities, such as switching between applications or opening a browser window. In our imaginary file, there would be so much repetition of those micro-activities that we would be monsters if we didn’t at least try to DRY them out.

What are the magic tools that allow us to do this, you ask? Answer: keyboard shortcuts. I know that this is a deeply un-sexy term, but you know what is sexy? Having more time to do stuff that’s not repetitive. Since, after all, this is an article on shortcuts, we’ll abbreviate it as SC going forward.

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s this. Every second spent learning an SC will yield hours of time in the future. This is a stone-cold fact; if you don’t believe it, check this footnote.²

Ultimately, the choice is yours on how diehard you want to get with SCs. You don’t have to be one of those people who find the idea of using a trackpad repulsive and curse Steve Jobs for popularizing the GUI. Even picking up a few SCs will make your life better. After all, we’re lazy programmers — not doing more work than we have to is our M.O.!
Meet the CoProcure Team: Joe Huang
By: Mariel Reed
Tags: Team, Technology, Govtech, Startup, Careers

We’re excited to welcome Joe Huang to CoProcure! Joe is passionate about the intersection of technology and government. Previously, he worked at an urban data startup (his geospatial analysis of zoning in American cities was featured in the NYTimes) and with the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He’s an Oregon native and a proud Vanderbilt University graduate.

We asked Joe about himself and the experiences that brought him to CoProcure:

What led you to CoProcure?

From a young age, I discovered an enthusiasm for civics. In high school, I volunteered for my county’s Democratic Party. In college, I worked on a campaign promoting better transportation in Nashville. Later, I interned in the Nashville Mayor’s Office. Meanwhile, I’d been tinkering with computers since childhood, and I learned to derive an unusual amount of satisfaction from a hard session of debugging.

My political experiences convinced me that my software engineering skills were highly needed, so I’ve prioritized career opportunities that allow me to connect government and technology. While there are many govtech opportunities out there, I knew I wanted to join CoProcure when I met the team. During the interview process, they provided me with the most comprehensive FAQ I’ve ever read. From that document, and the overall interview process, I could tell that the people at CoProcure were passionate, diligent, and highly collaborative, and I wanted to be a part!

Who’s one person you admire, and why?

I really admire my university rowing coach Jon Miller. At the point that I met him, he was already a father of two, a high ranking executive at his day job, and a well-respected coach in the rowing community — and he was just in his early 30s! He could be harsh — the entire rowing team once had to do wall sits because I showed up late — but he was always fair. He constantly pushed me past what I thought were my limits. And he set an example: he held annual contests to row against him for an hour. No one ever beat him.

What’s a goal you have for the year ahead?

I want to be more multilingual. I’m working towards fluency in Esperanto. For those that don’t know: it’s a language that was created in the late 1800s for the specific purpose of uniting people across countries and cultures. It’s an intentionally easy language to learn. Beyond Esperanto, I’m also hoping to learn Scots, since it’s the most similar language to English.

What’s unexpected about you?

I like cold, windy beaches. They are less crowded and I enjoy the way overcast light scatters in seawater. I’ve spent quite a few Sundays netting crab from a Peninsula pier.
10 Lessons for startups to survive this
By: Angel Academe
Tags: Covid 19, Startup, Investment, Cash Flow

As the COVID-19 situation develops daily, swift and decisive action focussed on managing cash is the order of the day. Here are 10 lessons synthesised from conversations with founders and investors as well as drawing on previous experience:

Preserve cash — take payment holidays where offered (VAT and loans), give up office space, cut or furlough non-essential staff, reduce hours and take salary cuts (or even no salary), move people into different roles and negotiate with suppliers for better terms. Spend money ONLY to make money. Bring in cash — give discounts to keep customers and win new ones, up-sell and bundle, chase payments. Bring forward R&D tax credit claims. Re-forecast for worst case scenario — question every previous assumption; assume this will last 12 months; update your forecasts regularly with real data. Delay fundraising (or plan for a lower valuation) — there will be less money available as investors will be more cautious or focus on supporting existing portfolio. Do the right thing — the way you handle this crisis will be remembered. Swift action is less damaging to team morale; flexibility with customers will build goodwill. (Over) communicate — with customers, suppliers, investors, partners, peers. Even if it’s just to say you’ll be in touch properly soon. Keep yourselves and your people fit and positive — both mentally and physically. Look for opportunities — to pivot, or to hire previously unaffordable talent, to merge, exit or form new partnerships. Be open to advice — seek out advisors who’ve navigated previous crises. Come out of this a winner by demonstrating resilience and excellence.
Why Secondary Market Research Should Be Your First Step
By: David Park
Tags: Market Research Reports, Research, Analysis, Startup, Marketing

Why Secondary Market Research Should Be Your First Step

Photo by Tierney on Adobe Stock

How do you look for market research?

Google?

Most of us go straight to Google and browse through page after page to look for information. But we’re not very good at it. And that’s an expensive problem. Fortunately, it’s not hard or expensive to fix.

There are two types of market research: primary and secondary. Google searching is part of secondary market research — research that already exists. Primary market research is research that you have to go out and find through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other methods.

Primary market research is supposed to answer questions we couldn’t answer through secondary market research. And it costs 10x or even 100x more than secondary market research. But too often, we use expensive primary market research to answer questions we could have answered with basic secondary market research.

For most of us, secondary market research involves lots of Google searching, and if we’re lucky enough to have them, searching through our research subscriptions, like Gartner or Nielson. Many of the questions we have about our industries, products, and competitors have already been answered by others. So let’s take a look at how we can get better at finding them without resorting to needlessly spending extra time and money on research.
ELI5: What is Aave?
By: Token Terminal
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Startup

TL;DR: Aave is a protocol for earning interest on your deposits and borrowing assets. This year Aave pivoted from a P2P lending model to a pool-based model. Liquidity is deposited in a liquidity pool — think Compound.

Anyone can borrow from the pool by depositing a collateral (token). Interest is determined algorithmically. The less funds available in the pool at a specific time → the higher the interest (attracting more liquidity due to bigger fees for LPs).

Every asset in the pool has its own Loan-to-Value (LTV) parameter, which dictates the collateral ratio. If a position is undercollateralized it is liquidated for a discount (max of 50% of the loan can be liquidated). This incentivizes liquidators to buy the collateral.

How does Aave differ from its competition?

Aave differs from other lending protocols with:

Flexible rates. Users can switch between two different interest rates — stable and variable. Flash loans. Undercollateralized loans that rely on the timing of repayment (only approved if repaid within the same block)

Examples of interest rates.

How does Aave’s roadmap look like?

Currently the Aave Lending Pool is the first pool built on the Aave protocol. The upcoming “Pool Factory Update” will allow anyone to create their own pool = multiple lending pools with segregated liquidity, parameters, permissions, and type of assets.

How does Aave’s governance work?

Governance is split into two parts:

Protocol level — token holders vote on upgrades and parameters of the protocol (similar to MakerDAO) Pool level — LPs vote based on their liquidity amount. Governance includes pool specific parameters (such as collateral types).

👉 This means that every pool has their own governance separate from the protocol. LEND token holders control the protocol and LPs control the pools.

What’s LEND’s token model?

0.25% of every loan is collected and swapped to LEND. 80% of the collected fee is burned. 20% allocated to “referral integrators”.

Aave is about to release a paper on their upcoming upgrades for governance and token model (Aavenomics).

We are looking forward to the Pool Factory Update and the new token model! Aave is on track to become a serious competitor to Compound, and seems far ahead with their own token with both economic and governance rights.

Similar to 👏 traditional 👏 company 👏 shares 👏.
Don’t Panic; Let’s Talk
By: Micah Baldwin
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Founders, Startup

“You are not alone.”

Over the years I have received and given so much advice about how to build and run a company. Things about hiring, fundraising, leading, and growing. But of all the advice those four words always rang as the most important.

“You are not alone.”

It is always hard as a founder to realize that even as the buck stops with you, that you are not unique in having to make those decisions. Many have made similar decisions and experienced similar paths. I always found comfort in that. Someone could share the elation of success or the pain of failure with me because they had been there before.

Today that is harder as we are socially distancing ourselves from each other and isolating at home from our coworkers and peers. We spend a lot of time with ourselves, by ourselves — mostly in our own minds and thoughts, and it can be a lot. It can be overwhelming. And with social isolation come other responsibilities. For some of us, we have to teach our kids, or care for family members, or deal with the economic burdens that COVID-19 has brought. And while those challenges may make us lonely, we are not alone.

Even more so today than yesterday we have each other. Simply getting on a video call with other founders in a safe space to discuss concerns and worries (even the difficulty of succeeding in this new reality) can be a lifesaver. While we may not be able to connect physically, we can still connect and support each other.

At Grasshopper, a fully digital bank built by founders for the modern founder, we know that our ability to support the startup community is paramount. As founders, we knew we must do more. In partnership with New York Tech Alliance, we are launching a series called Don’t Panic, Let’s Talk. This bimonthly series is exactly what it sounds like. A safe space to talk with like-minded founders to help us navigate and share strategies that will help each of us as people and leaders.

“You are not alone.”

We cannot say it enough or hear it enough. Together, we can learn from, and lean on, each other.

Come join us at Don’t Panic, Let’s Talk this Thursday where we welcome Helen Reeves, partner at Dentons to talk about navigating the CARES Act.

RSVP here for your free ticket.

Helen Reeves is a member of the Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies practice. Her practice focuses on representing growth-stage companies on a wide range of complex transactional matters including mergers & acquisitions, venture capital transactions, start-up founder/corporate structuring issues, employment matters and general corporate advice.

Helen regularly serves as the outside general counsel to a number of emerging growth and middle-market companies, providing both strategic and transaction advice on major business transactions domestically and internationally.

Helen is a member of the American Bar Association’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee.
Moving in and out of industries, the same growth principles apply
Tags: Adaptation, Startup, Change, Industry

After my cross-industry learning article was published and I used the example of entering the swimming industry, I received some questions on why I’d pursue an industry that was female-dominated, a workforce that is casual and workplaces that’ll be non-existant for the next few months.

The opportunity wasn’t swimming as an industry or a career choice, it was a startup — an early stage business… ownership, personal progression, high growth potential, and investors.

I say, cross-disciplinary and cross-industry learning and development gets you innovation. And I don’t think the service offering of business matters, in my experience the same principles of growth marketing and innovation apply in all environments. Every business wants to grow.

Even if a business fails, which I’ve experienced twice — once a prior startup and once a corporate merger, the experience of that is valuable. All businesses can fail. And when they do and when you’re in a startup, the difference is you had ownership, you got personal progression, had the potential, and investment.

As every business is susceptible to disruption and failure and we will need a much more innovation across all industries — right now. In Australia, a lockdown is being extended possibly until October. Taxpayers will carry debt as many more people will lose their jobs. People are going to have to switch jobs and maybe industries… and why not rather than wait for everything to go back to ‘normal’. Will it ever be normal again? In full-time employment, a job is never really secured and your career progression is never really guaranteed.

There is opportunity even in disruption, downturns and seemingly random industries not identified as growth industries. New industries are created — who has seen Tiger Kings on Netflix? It’s a crazy example, but these people made an industry out of slandering one another on social media about their exotic animal zoos in the middle of nowhere.

Wherever there’s this possibility of ownership, personal progression, high growth potential, and investors — people who’ll invest in you by backing you or the entity, there are opportunities. Regardless of the industry, it may not be a huge market or a high growth industry, there is always market share to be had. The same principles of growth marketing will apply and in turn, crossing industries will enable you to innovate elsewhere. Move in and out of industries — don’t be defined by one career in one industry.
Certified translation agency in Berlin — Linguidoor
By: Rishi Anand - Founder, Ceo Of Linguidoor
Tags: Translation, Startup, Localization, Language

Linguidoor is a certified translation agency in Berlin, Germany and offers you professional translations by domain-specific native language experts and deliver you quickly and reliable Translation Services. Whether you need a translation of your website or a certified translation of your Birth certificate or Marriage Certificate, our team consists of certified and professional translators and interpreters who know how to render the content of your texts authentically. The text will appear as if it had been written in the translation language.

You can choose from over 100 languages. We at Linguidoor (certified translation agency in Berlin) have high standards for ourselves and therefore always pay attention to good quality. This is the only way we have managed to set ourselves apart from other translation agencies in Berlin and expand internationally. In addition to the certified translation agency in Berlin-Mitte, we also have a further location in Noida, in northern India.

What does the translation process look like?

The process at Linguidoor is simple and easy to understand. First, please send us the text you want to translate by e-mail or attach it to the contact form on our website. If you need subtitles for a video in a specific language, please also send us the video or a link.

Of course, we treat all contents confidentially. We offer tailor-made translations for both companies and private customers. Each project is tailored to your individual needs. Please let us know by sending us an e-mail or using the contact form. You will find a price list with three different price categories on our website. After we have discussed all the details, our team will process your translation as quickly as possible. You will then receive the finished translation.

Advice and processing by a certified, friendly and experienced translation agency in Berlin

Consulting and processing by a certified, friendly and experienced translation agency in Berlin

Even if you have a lot of questions about a translation: we look forward to hearing from you. Our professional and friendly team will gladly answer all your questions and discuss the necessary details with you. We know that you want to receive your translation quickly and reliably, so we make sure that you receive excellent service. For example, we will process the certified translation of your birth certificate carefully, quickly and discreetly by a court sworn translator, so that you can have it at hand immediately.

We provide documents Translation, certified translations and we can also translate your website or create content in 50+ Languages. Our certified translation agency in Berlin also offers SEO translations and the translation of games, software and apps. We add subtitles or a dubbing voice to your videos, transcribe, interpret and much more. Feel free to contact us to learn more at www.linguidoor.com
The Benefits of Professional Development
By: Andrew Yang
Tags: Employee Experience, Vancouver, Startup, Professional Development, Data Engineering

I‘m a Junior Developer working on the Data Engineering team at Clir. The Data Engineering team builds infrastructure to help sift through data and organize it into a form that allows our domain experts to perform analytics.

Professional Development at Clir

The world of tech is fast-paced and constantly evolving. It can be hard keeping up with all the new frameworks and language-specific changes while balancing all the obstacles life throws your way.

For this reason, at Clir, we encourage our employees to pursue their professional interests outside the scope of work through a professional development program. The program can take the form of workshops, online courses, night school or even just a good old fashioned textbook.

The benefit of the program is that work hours are designated to be used towards any of these modes of learning. One of our core values at Clir is innovation, which we embody by always learning new things and constantly challenging the way we’re currently doing things. Professional development is just one way that Clir fosters innovation.

An added benefit of professional development is the spread of knowledge throughout the teams. At a tech company, developers are constantly learning from each other. Whether it be through code reviews, paired programming or design meetings, there’s a plethora of knowledge sharing between members. As a result, any additional insight gained from a team member provides value for the whole group.

Takeaways From My First Professional Development Experience

As part of Clir’s professional development program, I attended a week-long deep learning workshop. The workshop provided me with many motivation experiences from speaking to researchers using time based convolutional neural networks to detect tumors in the human body, to attending lectures where they went to great lengths about the vast capabilities that neural networks have. Being around many brilliant minds is a very humbling, but yet motivating experience.

Apart from figuring out that deep learning is indeed a complicated and broad subject to grasp in a week of lectures, the workshop I attended left me with a few takeaways from my professional development experience.
Stephen King’s Guide to Consistent Writing
By: Nicole Sudjono
Tags: Life, Business, Writing, Startup, Self Improvement

Stephen King’s Guide to Consistent Writing

Source from Wikimedia.

Stephen King is a genius writer. He has been writing for a really long time and his works managed to reach the big screen, which made even more hits for him.

About two years ago, he and George R.R. Martin had a conversation with each other about consistent writing.

Now, for anyone who has read The Song of Ice and Fire, George has not even finished the books. His last book from the series is A Dance With Dragons, and it stopped with a cliffhanger there since 2011. Now that the T.V. series caught up way ahead from the books, George knew he had to be serious, especially since the last season was a big letdown, which was why he asked this to Stephen King.

His answer is very simple and straightforward, and I think this is something we can take away as well. For writers, this is one that we can take to make this writing business ongoing, especially in the outbreak we are experiencing — we can have more time to write.

If you are not a writer and you are reading this, it’s okay. You can still interpret this in your own ways and can still help you.

Based on the conversation, below is his answer on how he was able to write so many books in a span of time. So, here goes: