fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
What Should You Look at While Choosing a B2B Portal?
By: Maruf Hossain
Tags: B2b Marketing, B2b Sales, Wholesale, B2B, B2b Portal

Whether you are a wholesale buyer or supplier, you already know the importance of a reliable B2B portal. So, how can you ensure that your chosen B2B portal will work for you?

The first important thing to look at is its flexibility. You should be capable of creating multiple catalogs where you can present to various sectors of your buyer base so that they don’t need to scroll up to the end of the page of a product that doesn’t interest them. Having a multi-product view is also important where buyers can see everything, and they can make a cart according to their choice.

You should also expect your chosen portal should be responsive. They usually offer many most convenient payment methods for their buyers, including escrow, credit card, bank transfer, cash on delivery, etc where suppliers also get similar facilities for getting paid without any hassle.

Integration is another key point to look at while choosing a B2B portal. As we have discussed, having your B2 portal connected with your existing software can help you stay in the leading position of business forever. Your portal should have good integration capabilities with your product management software, so you can always see the number of products you have on hand. Besides, if your portal is integrated with your accounting software, your system will automatically update your transaction and track regular sales.

The most crucial aspect of your trading is payments. After all, you can not run your business without having orders. Your chosen portal should be capable of handling complex pricing models which are accepted all types of customers regardless of their location, number of orders, frequency of orders, or other factors. You should be capable of promoting ads and discounts, setting a minimum order value, and offering flexible payment options.

Finally, make sure the flexibility of your chosen B2B portal. Your customers need to create their own profiles for accessing previous orders and maintaining payment information. They can also navigate the site and place an order intuitively, and if they ever have any questions, customer support should be available all the time. Keeping your customers happy will help your business prosper beyond anything you could imagine.

So you have to choose such a B2B portal that will provide a full range of digital functionalities to fulfill all buyer’s and seller’s business trading needs without any hassle with complete security.

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How To Use The Power Of Compounding To Improve Your Life
By: Lee Kantor
Tags: Podcast, Retirement Living, Motivation, B2B, Inspiration

Below is a rough transcription of the latest BRX Pro Tip Podcast from the owners of Business RadioX ®

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you this afternoon. Lee, don’t you feel like there’s some real wisdom in just making a commitment to get a little bit better each day?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah. This is where that compounding effect comes into play. Getting better each day definitely adds up and will move the ball for you down the road. But the thing is, remember that life isn’t like a movie where something monumental happens, and then, “Oh, my God, this your life is miraculously changed.” Life is relentless. And if you relentlessly just work on yourself and try to move the ball just even an inch down the road, it’s going to pay off over time, and you’ll eventually reach your goals.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] So, do something that moves the ball every day and just kind of relentlessly, tenaciously work on that, and that’s going to get you where you want to go. And if you don’t have the skills to move the ball in the way you want, hire somebody to do that. Pay the price whether it’s in time or money to get the skills you need in order to move the ball. And don’t make excuses. Just do the work a little bit each day, and then utilize that compounding effect, and then you’ll be able to create real change.
5 Steps to Effectively Sell Your B2B SaaS Product Before You Build It (Script Included)
By: Dan Martell
Tags: Startup, B2B, SaaS, Sales, Development

Pre-selling your software before you’ve even built it is a very attractive idea.

Think about it: You get people to buy a concept, take that money and use it to build the software, and then you launch it to everyone else.

…All with no money out-of-pocket.

But the reality of actually PITCHING the pre-sell is hard! I mean, how do you get someone to buy into an idea based on the few minutes you spend with them?

Well, this week’s video is gonna save you a lot of pain, because I’m giving you the exact script you can use for your next pitch.

Essentially, there are two distinct parts to this pitch.

The first will get them to practically describe what your product should do, and the second will help you get a real commitment from a potential customer.

Exclusive Download: Idea to Exit Mini-Course — Learn How To Build a Product Without Spending Money & True Customer Validation

There’s 5 stages you’ll want to move through for this pre-sell pitching style, and it’s like this for a reason. They are:

Early Adopters Filter Offer The Value Part 1: Customer Development Part 2: Pre-Sell Take The Money

This bullet list doesn’t do it justice. Part 1 and Part 2 work together (obviously) and they are where the real magic happens.

Even if you don’t get a buyer every time, which — let’s be honest — happen, you’ll still walk away with AWESOME insights into what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong and how to make your software the best it can be.

When you start to approach pitching this way, it’s actually… fun.

Rather than fearing rejection, you can safely know that it doubles as customer research… and only good things can come from that.

Don’t skip out on this video . If money is an obstacle to reaching your software’s potential, then this could really make a difference.

And leave me a comment under the video to let me know what your experience with pitching has been.

—

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
The A-Z of healthcare marketing: A journey from scratch
Tags: Health, B2b Marketing, Marketing, Healthcare, B2B

Introduction

The landscape of marketing has been in a constant state of mercurial progression. Unfortunately, its younger sibling (Healthcare marketing) has been slow to catch-up. If you are contemplating on where your marketing journey should begin or start, we say, why not here? Collect all the gear you need from this piece and make your way to that starting line, if you are not there already! It is time to reshape the future of your healthcare business.

Plan your marketing journey before you start.

Stage 1:

Plan Your Healthcare Marketing Journey

Stage 2:

Set Your Business’ Objectives

Stage 3:

Identify Your Healthcare Market

Stage 4:

Find Your Target Audience

Stage 5:

Fix a Budget for Your B2B Healthcare Marketing Campaign

Conclusion

The Healthcare Marketing journey we have created for you will point your business in the right direction and help you succeed in this convoluted market. Grab this opportunity to shine. This is your shot to take your healthcare business to the epitome of success.

Join us on this journey and accomplish your business’ goals. Subscribe to our blogs and become a healthcare marketing virtuoso.

Are you looking for a comprehensive guide to master healthcare marketing? Need a reliable guide to accompany you on your journey to success? Download this informative whitepaper “A Definitive Marketing Guide for Healthcare Marketers” now.

Read More…

For More Information

Call us- 1–800–523–1387

Or Login to Our website- connect@reachstream.com
Stop Dropping the Baton
By: Activant Capital
Tags: Tech, Startup, Venture Capital, B2B, Implementation

Stop Dropping the Baton

Last month, Baton announced its $10MM Series A and exited stealth as they build the system of record for software implementations. We at Activant are proud to have led the round alongside Global Founders Capital with participation from Hybris founder Carsten Thoma.

At Activant, we’re investors in growth-stage software companies. By the time companies reach this stage, many would assume that most of their operational problems have been ironed out and that growth capital is primarily to scale their marketing and sales processes. Yet over the years, we have found only half of that to be true. While many companies had found product-market-fit and were growing their top line quickly, they were also accumulating what we call “Ops Debt”: processes and solutions developed in the early days to get to market that don’t scale with the business.

As we investigated further, we found Ops Debt accruing most urgently in the implementation process, as software companies bring their customers from a signed contract to “live” on their product. For many businesses, the methods used to get customer number 10 live persist until number 100 and become a drag on the organization as it grows.

In theory, implementation is straightforward, but in practice, it is much messier. For most core B2B software applications, additional development work needs to be done to get a customer up and running. Because every customer has unique needs and a different set of existing systems, these builds are different every time.

Implementation is just as much a part of the customer experience as sales, support, and using the product itself, but has long been ignored because there’s never been a scalable discipline built around it. Today, companies take one of three approaches to solve the implementation process:

They build a large professional services organization to manually handle it, which gets expensive. They build a multitude of connectors and integrations that come “out of the box” but still always require extra integrations and effort to work. They hack together Asana or other project management tools, which ultimately end up as impediments to scale, as these tools don’t have a direct hook into the customer and so can’t provide real accountability. Every Monday someone is still herding cats to provide an update.

Ultimately, each approach hurts the customer experience and delays the time to value. They keep the software company from collecting revenue, and when coupled with manual processes, this Ops Debt hurts margins while increasing burn.
About The Business Fame | TBF Magazine
By: The Business Fame Magazine
Tags: B2B, About Us, Magazine, Digital Platforms, Entrepreneurship

The Business Fame | Logo

Who are we?

The Business Fame (TBF) is Business-to-Business (B2B) Magazine, a platform to share knowledge for business insights, analysis, business outreach and technological advancement. In this data driven era, we bring to you the asset of information, procuring and verifying it with thorough attention to offer the highest quality. Along with highly precise insights on industry-specific trends, news and topics, it is also a podium where businesses can advertise their products and services to expand their brand’s presence and awareness.

Our viewers comprise of individuals from various verticals, experts, industry leaders, laymen as well as potential clients for businesses. They have the access to different magazines, where they can see latest market trends, offerings industry knowledge, market disruptions, competition, and future predictions or market demands to be aware and strategize growth.

The Business Fame | Teaser

What we offer

Our services encompass two key offerings, a business magazine and a digital platform.

Business Magazine: The very first step to crafting a masterpiece of a magazine is the research about the industries, geographical areas, market trends, and more. As soon as the key focus of any issue is carefully decided, we move on to researching about the main players, the leaders and the individuals or companies that making a difference in that particular niche.

Meticulously studying their journey, their aims and their profile, we bring to our readers the stories that are beautifully drafted to offer the right information and to inspire those with similar dreams.

Showcasing the brands in the best light, this is a platform to expand the reach of your brand. Right from the interview to content creation to designs to finally publishing the issue, you are at the center of all our processes with quality and transparency being our strong suit.
the esellas growth platform
By: Matt
Tags: B2B, Sales, Enterprise

In our last story, we talked about the esellas mission and how we’re aiming to shift centuries old thinking about how selling works. Instead of focusing solely on sales, how to sell better, how to sell more, or how to convince the buyer, we’re flipping the model on its head.

We aim to be more than a services company, a saas product, or even a hybrid. We’re creating a platform company.

Let the questions fly:

Do I mean a platform like Uber, or AWS, or AirBnB?

Is this just another sales tech play with a marketing slant?

Why does being a platform help me and my business?

All great questions that we hear every day. Let’s start with a definition; what esellas as a platform company means:

esellas is a Growth Platform company that focuses on the creation of products, digital communities, and marketplaces that allow B2B buyers and sellers to interact and transact.

Let’s break this down and talk more about why being this kind of platform company, we best serve the market in it’s current and future state.

At our core, we believe and strive for growth. But beyond just helping companies grow revenue by selling more, we’re simultaneously helping the buy side find the right solution(s) and continuously add value to their businesses.

Bringing both sides together

Creating that engagement bridge between the 2 sides is paramount to our platform. In everything we do our goal is to bring both sides together in a way that creates parallel value for both companies. Growth on both sides.

And in today’s market (and for the foreseeable future) this couldn’t be more important.

Companies are running leaner than ever.

Only the most critical of projects are getting funded.

Transformations are happening at a pace an order of magnitude faster than just 6 months ago.

All this means that buyers have an increased sense of urgency, require a level of collaboration like never before, and demand a new level trust and transparency through the selling process.

We’re here to help facilitate all of this. Helping both sides come together confidently, collaboratively, and with a desire to create shared value.

In the next post, we’ll dive deeper into the capabilities that support this platform and our roadmap for bringing both sides closer together.

Sound interesting? Join us on this highly ambitious mission.

www.esellas.com
Ep. 98: Shifting Your Field Sales Strategy, Leading Sales Indicators and Honey Badgers — An Interview with Steve Benson
By: Scott Sambucci
Tags: B2B, SaaS, Enterprise Sales, Sales, Scaleup

Ep. 98: Shifting Your Field Sales Strategy, Leading Sales Indicators and Honey Badgers — An Interview with Steve Benson Scott Sambucci Aug 7, 2020·2 min read

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Steve Benson.

Listen to this episode here on the Startup Selling Podcast.

Steve is the Founder and CEO of Badger Maps, the #1 route planner for field salespeople. After receiving his MBA from Stanford, he joined Google, where he became Google Enterprise’s Top Sales Executive globally in 2009.

In 2012 Steve founded Badger Maps to help field salespeople be more successful by optimizing their routes and schedules to save time and be on time so they can sell more.

He hosts the Outside Sales Talk podcast where he interviews industry experts on their top sales tips. He is also the President of the Sales Hall of Fame.

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

Steve’s process of getting on to podcasts and shows.

How to think through the process of ‘outside sales’.

How do you make adjustments in a world where you can’t go out and sell?

How to leverage your Product Champion in ways that you’re not doing but you should be doing?

How to think through and how to build an account map?

How to think about motivation as a Sales Leader or CEO?

What should you be doing as a Sales Leader to keep your reps sharper?

Why you should not be discounting your price.

How to shift the structure of compensation plans for your sales team.

Link & Resources:

Outside Sales Talk Podcast: www.outsidesalestalk.com

Badger Maps for Field Sales: www.badgermapping.com

Steve Benson on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevenbenson

Sales Hall of Fame: www.badgermapping.com/sales-hall-of-fame

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.
Coronavirus: How to protect your China-manufacturing based business
Tags: Logistics, Shipping, Ecommerce, Freight Shipping, B2B

What can you do to keep your China-manufacturing based business running?

With coronavirus infections continuing to spread, it’s hard to overstate how severe the production and transportation impact will end up being.

Bookairfreight recommends looking into the following:

If you still want to continue manufacturing in China:

Contact your suppliers to understand the production timeline.

If you already have orders, you need to ask them about the timeline. Based on our experience, you’ll need to add 5–7 days buffer, as production is likely to be delayed.

If you want to cancel your placed order, you’ll need to double check your contractual terms (if any). Your factory is likely to be protected under “Force Majeure”, meaning if any dispute is involved ( which mostly happens in big money orders) you won’t be protected.

If you are considering a new order, you need to ask your factory about their backlog from the Lunar New Year. Some of our factory contacts in the Ningbo area told us they couldn’t take new orders until the end of May.

You can also try different factories, which due to different municipal governments’ policy, may start to re-open earlier and have more capacity.

Once you understand the production timeline, you can make an informed decision on whether to place an order or not.

Look at your own inventory data, handle inventory management accordingly.

Once you understand your current inventory status, by looking back at your historical order data (if any), you can plan your inventory/marketing.

Here are some tips:
CPA — Accountant Mailing Database
By: Simith Jones
Tags: Marketing, Cpa Accountant Database, B2B, Accountants Email List, Sales

Accountant Email List

The Accountant Mailing List from DataCaptive will help your reach decision-makers supporting fund from different ventures. Our point is to fulfill our client’s needs and assist them with making the better business bond. We, at DataCaptive guarantee that we have the best information arrangement that will take your business to the extremely next level. Along these lines, with our broad information show, you can disentangle your multi-channel promoting effort and begin coming to your focused on crowd. Due to a 95% exactness rate, you have the choice to gain better inbox situation. In any case, with ordinary communication through phones and messages, you are qualified for higher change rate.

We collect personal data from various public records such as annual reports, company’s websites, magazines, trade conferences, social media platforms and much more. After collecting all the data, our team will verify and update the necessary changes regularly. We will guarantee delivery through your preferred offline channels by selecting our CPA — Accountant Mailing Database

Our customised Accountant Email Address List assist you with coming to focused Accountants and obtain convertible leads over the business. You can perform multi-channel promoting drives and get perceived universally with our generally solid and exact records. Get your pre-bundled or modified Accountants List today.

Benefits of Availing Accountant List

· Genuine and high quality list

· Data is up to date and error-free

· Pitch about your products and services to them directly

· Increase in sales rate and high ROI

· Guaranteed deliverability

· Well-researched and well-grounded data

· Help run a successful marketing campaign

Why DataCaptive?

Their data experts ensure that the data is up to date and error-free as you cannot take a chance with B2B Accountants Contact List. It is a onetime opportunity where you can win the deal. You can pitch about your products and services to them directly.

Establishing contact with Accountant Email Database helps you in the long run. To make your work easy, their data team collects the data from trustworthy sources that help them in maintaining brand loyalty. They assure an increase in sales rate and high ROI and guaranteed deliverability.

It helps you reach the right people and enhance the growth of your business. Their data experts ensure that the data is well-researched and well-grounded. They help you select the lists that suit your requirements and assist you in dealing with the problem.

Then why waste time? Contact DataCaptive now! And run successful B2B marketing campaigns with their effective marketing strategies.

To avail the most updated Accountant Mailing Database, reach us at DataCaptive.

Email ID: connect@datacaptive.com

Phone: 1–800–523–1387
Your Online Business Solution
Tags: Loyalty, Blockchain, B2B, B2c, B2c Marketing

Over 50,000 merchants, including Pizza Hut, Burger King, Mac Donald and Champion, are the partners of DragonBite. Why aren’t you ?

DragonBite is an digital application tools for Loyalty customers to manage their Rewards points, E-vouchers, Coupons and Air mileages. People, who make consumptions from our partners, will join DragonBite ecosystem. Given the large customer base of our business partners, we believe over one million of customers will become our community within a very short period of time.

DragonBite offers an advanced and comprehensive Online-to-Offline business services for merchants, including Sales promotion, Reward program management, Reaching the right target customers and Sales evaluation.

On the other hand, DragonBite is also the Reward program management tool for merchants, taking over the administrative work of rewarding customers. Merchants can utilize DragonBite platform as a Sale promotion tool to advertise their brands, to distribute digital Discount coupons and to drive online traffic into their physical shops. DragonBite will handle all the membership accounts and manage Reward program on behalf of merchants. So, the administration expenses of merchants can be reduced, and they can focus on their core business too.

Reaching the right target customers is the essential element to success. DragonBite has advanced geographical targeting engine which will able to detect users locations. Sales promotion advertisement can be received by customers, who have satisfied the pre-set criteria of demographic, preference and spending behaviour, within the target zone in real time. As a result, merchants are able to reach out to the right target customers within their radar instantly. In addition, DragonBite also contains an analytics tool for Sale performance evaluation, running statistic data and generating sales reports. Promoters can easily access the performance of Sales campaign from response perspective, lead generated sales, token generated sales and the actual sales figures. Those data and reports are produced from our system automatically upon request. Merchants do not need to spend time or human power to prepare, but they can adject their sale strategy as quickly as possible according to their sales report.

DragonBite is your Online-to-Offline business solution definitely. Please goto www.dragonbite.io to find out more.

Email: corporate@dragonbite.io

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dragonbite/

Telegram: https://t.me/DragonBite

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DragonBiteDB/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/DragonBiteOfficial

Instagram: http://instagram.com
A PROFITABLE BUSINESS SOURCING STRATEGY IN MALAYSIA
Tags: B2b Marketing, B2B, Businessdirectorymalaysia

It is extremely important for companies that have a rapidly-changing product portfolio to stay ahead of the game. This is usually done by evolving the plan for the sourcing services of Malaysia best sourcing marketplace during the time the product design time and actively seeking out potential suppliers that can best meet the projected demand. Since much of the technology can be very new, there needs to exist a supplier involvement from every early in the product development stage so that they can also deliver accordingly.

Because of the scale of operations in large companies, senior management from virtually all the functions need to be involved in the sourcing strategy development and implementation. This b2b business directory Malaysia ensures that the procurement function is more deeply integrated into the business strategy of the company.

Trademalaysia

Managing Quality and Supply Consistency Risks

It is vital that companies whose fortunes depend substantially on the success of their sourcing services have a very well-established system of supplier inspection and certification. The process needs to take into account multiple parameters such as the vendor’s financial strength, manufacturing capacity, and QC systems. The process from Malaysia fastest growing B2B marketplace also needs to continually track vendor performance so that deviations can be addressed even before they impact upon the supply chain.

Among the criteria used for vendor identification are its competencies, and ability to respond to disruptions in supply chain. An effective risk mitigation strategy is put into place that not only investigates and identifies issues but ensures backup for sustained supply chain management in the face of natural disasters or supplier insolvencies. Long term investment and cooperation programs nurture key relationships, while joint promotion of identified products reduces supply-variability risks.

The Ideal Supplier Profile

The complexities of global sourcing services for Malaysia fastest growing B2B marketplace have elevated the status of suppliers from mere vendors to business partners. This necessitates a sea change in the way their role is perceived within the company. It also necessitates an appreciation that supplier performance lies not only in cost-effectiveness but also in driving innovation and maintaining high standards of manufacturing and associated support.

Basically, you end up thinking the suppliers to be extended divisions of the company itself. Of course, this means that suppliers too have to gear themselves up completely and also undertake a radical change in their perception of the relationship with their principals.
Rugs VS Carpets — Which One To Choose?
By: William Austin
Tags: Rugs, B2B, Carpets, Business

When decorating your home, you have to make a lot of choices. Should you go for a modern or minimalist look or a more traditional one? Should you choose neutral colors or bright colors? Should you place a couch on the right side of the room or on the left side of the room?

But, of all the choices you make, perhaps the biggest one comes down to the floor.

Namely: Should you choose to carpet your floors or should you keep a rug?

Though Rugs and Carpets seem to be the same thing there is a huge difference between both of them. Rugs and Carpets can be referred to as a piece of thick cloth woven using specific materials like cotton, wool, jute, bamboo, silk, and sometimes synthetic fibers. Both of them are used to decorate your space be it your office or home.

Rugs and Area Rugs are a section of floor covering which does not extend to the entire floor. Area Rugs are not attached to the floor. Carpet, on the other hand, covers the entire space attached to the floor using glue and different chemicals.

You can create your own Rugs in a limitless way depending on the shape, size, color, and material used. for more information
A Comprehensive Guide to Products Pricing & Packaging
Tags: Product Management, Strategy, Pricing, B2B, SaaS

Pricing & Packaging what?

Have you ever wondered why Spotify only has one paid plan to chose from? And why does Uber has 10 different options to pick from when ordering a buzz infused ride home at 4AM in the morning from you local pub?

Have you ever bended your mind why all of the “Enterprise” pricing options in any given SaaS product shows “Contact us” instead of giving a dollar figure? Or why does NordVPN always shows a limited time 72% off offer that will expire in 9 hours and 40 minutes — no matter when you would visit their landing page?

All of these options & marketing tricks are not “happy accidents“- majority of them are carefully thought through decisions that were part of products pricing & packaging strategy.

Because I had a pleasure of working with pricing & packaging (P&P) for multiple SaaS products — I’ve done my fair share of research, analysis, tests, prototypes, designs, fails & wins.

That’s why I’ve decided to start a series of Medium articles that will cover various topics that are crucial to consider whether you’re just starting up a new product or you are already a flourishing and well established unicorn that’s taking the world by storm. As a Product Manager I’ll be sharing both my experience and opinion on how product driven & sales led organisations could do the P&P.

All of my thoughts & topics will be mostly focused around tech products — both B2B and B2C, but might be applicable to other types as well.

In the upcoming article series I’m going to cover these essential topics that will potentially help you to structure your product for a commercial success:

Products Pricing & Packaging Strategy

Structuring Plans, Tiers & Packages

Add-ons & Menu A-La-Carte

Pricing For Different Markets & Verticals

Taxes, Fees & “Hidden Service” Costs In Your Pricing

“Pay as you go” & “Pay in Advance” Models

Subscription Model vs One Time Purchase

Monthly, Quarterly & Yearly Pricing Shenanigans

Paywalls! 🧱

Building Your Product Features in a Scalable Way

Your 30 Day Free Trial

The Good Ol’ Freemium Model

The Complexity of Mapping & Maintaining Your Features

9 Circles of Discounting “Hell”

So if you’re interested to hear more about pricing & packaging your product in a smart way — feel free to hop along with me on this long ride where I’ll be trying to post bi-weekly articles about the above mentioned topics. To make sure not to miss any of the updates — feel free to follow me on Medium or on LinkedIn!
Branding and Customer Experience: How to Make It Work
By: Shayan Ahmed Latif
Tags: Chatbots, B2B, Customer Experience

B2B or B2C, customer experience defines your brand. Your brand’s copy or price won’t really matter to the customers in the end. A person’s perception and value will be determined by the experiences they have throughout their journey.

Betting on experience has its challenges as well as perks.

When you determine your brand image based on your personal experiences, you give up some control. Meaning, your messaging and communication are shaped and planned only half of the way, the other half is created over and over again by the receiver’s subjective experiences.

Having a strong customer experience makes it difficult for your rivals to counter it. They won’t be so easily swayed by a marketing message about a brand that you are trying to project, rather than a personal experience with it.

So, how do you go about building experiences that compel?

Business and personal interactions are centered around conversations. Live chat is not an ideal option for all business interactions in the fast-paced international business landscape, however.

You can actively shape experiences with chatbots through real-time conversation. In addition to providing a way to demonstrate your brand’s personality, they also allow you to stay responsive to customer demands. As chatbot automation is instantaneous, it allows for immediate responses in one-on-one conversations.
neolexon
By: Xpreneurs Incubator
Tags: Speech Therapy, Language Therapy, B2B, Medical Technology, Logopedia

How would you describe your business idea to a potential investor?

We are developing digital solutions for the domain of Speech and Language Therapy. neolexon offers digital assistant systems in order to support therapists during their therapy sessions as well as patients (e.g., after stroke) to train at home without limits. Thereby we increase the effectiveness and efficacy of therapy.

What problem do you want to solve, what is your goal?

Speech and Language Therapy is conventionally dependent on analogue methods (e.g., picture cards). Moreover, patients usually receive only one hour therapy per week which is not enough. By using digital solutions, therapy content can be personalized to a much higher degree and trained at home without limits. Thus, we aim to increase therapy success for patients.

How did you come up with your idea/concept?

As speech and language therapists we experienced these problems in therapy sessions on our own. At the same time, we got a deep understanding of the scientific requirements when working as researchers at LMU München. To reduce the gap between research results and work practice, we decided to develop digital solutions for therapists and patients.

What is your business model?

We sell software-as-a-service B2B to clinical institutions and private practices as well as B2C to patients. Our aim is that health insurances will cover the costs for patients in the future. So far, we have already one insurance on board.

What is special about your product?

neolexon provides a huge database for speech and language therapy from which therapists can choose individual training materials for every patient. These can then be trained in user-specific apps. Other software solutions cannot be individualized in such a way. Moreover, neolexon is certified as a medical product and is compliant with data protection requirements.

The founders of neolexon: Dr. Mona Späth (left) und Dr. des. Hanna Jakob (right)

Why did you decide to work with XPRENEURS?

XPRENEURS has a great network of mentors, speakers, and investors which we wanted to profit from. It was highly recommended by their alumni teams.

You can get more information about neolexon on their website or follow them on Facebook.

You want to become part of the XPRENEURS incubator program as well?

Get more information and apply at https://xpreneurs.io/
Getting started with Jenkins & Docker. Part I: Getting Docker
By: Stephany Daneri
Tags: Getting Started, Mac, Docker

Download the one that suits for you from:

To ensure your install was successful, then you need to follow the steps described on:

Docker Install Info

If you need to check your docker instalation info then:

docker --version

docker --version

2. Something particular to notice is that there’s a different command to obtain more info (docker version, but without the “ — ”:

docker version

docker version

3. To getting more info:

docker info

docker info

Test Docker Installation

To see if your installation works, execute the following:

docker run hello-world

hello-world is a docker image stored on the Docker hub. If Docker finds the hello-world image on your local machine, then it would run it directly, but since this is the first time we’re executing this command, then it would have to pull it from Docker Hub:

docker run hello-world

2. In order to list all the docker images on your local:

docker image ls

docker image ls

3. In order to see all the running docker containers alive:

docker container ls

If you want to see all the containers (alive and not alive ones), then execute:

docker container ls --all

Now, let’s continue with the Jenkins install using its docker image:
Getting started with Jenkins & Docker. Part II: Configure Jenkins via docker image
By: Stephany Daneri
Tags: Mac, Getting Started, Jenkins, Docker

If you don’t have Docker installed on your local machine, then please follow the instructions from Part I

Starting with Jenkins by downloading its Docker image

This is the Jenkins official docker image:

Execute:

docker pull jenkins/jenkins

docker pull jenkins/jenkins

Once we have the jenkins image, we need to create a volume to persist our changes:

docker run -p 8080:8080 -p 50000:50000 -v jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home jenkins/jenkins

This will store the workspace in /var/jenkins_home. All Jenkins data lives in there (including plugins and configuration). The command above will automatically create a ‘jenkins_home’ docker volume on the host machine, that will survive the container stop/restart/deletion.

As is possible to see, the logs prints a message stating is necessary to make an initial setup. If you lost the generated password, you can find it on /var/jenkins_home/secrets/initialAdminPassword

To find the generated password, you need to:

Obtain the container id:

docker ps

To execute the following in order to run commands inside the running docker container:

docker exec -i -t <container_id> /bin/bash

Once you’re inside the docker shell, then you can see the password generated by executing:

jenkins@ <container_id> :/$ cat /var/jenkins_home/secrets/initialAdminPassword

For getting out of the docker terminal you just need to execute: ctrl + d

Now, you can go to localhost:8080 and you’ll find the jenkins dashboard with the initial page requesting for the password:

The following page will ask you to add plugins. There will be 02 options: default or you to select some of them. If you select the default option, then Jenkins will install automatically the default plugins.

Once it’s over, Jenkins will ask you to set an admin user:

Everytime you want to initiate Jenkins, you only need to execute:

docker run -p 8080:8080 -p 50000:50000 -v jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home jenkins/jenkins

In Part III, we show how to reset the admin password of your Jenkins (in case you lost it)
Step Two: Screw up
By: Al Wong
Tags: First Post, Overcoming Fear, New Blog, Getting Started, Thoughts

Hi. It took me forever to write that first word. These first few sentences. I’m bad at beginnings, I’ve not much experience with endings, and I’m still trying to figure out what adjectives to put in the middle. It’s funny; writing my thoughts in the public domain is a lot harder than typing them into a Word file or scribbling them in my notebook. I think this time, it’s because I took so long to think of a title. Naming things is difficult. Naming things makes them more real than they were before.

I never know where to begin. I’ve got so many ideas, so many seedlings of projects I just didn’t know how to cultivate. That’s why I’m missing Step One on this page. I don’t know how to begin, so may as well jump right into it, right? The way the saying goes, the first step is always the hardest step, but I disagree. Anyone can start a blog, or a garden, or a New Year’s resolution, but how many can keep it? I won’t be the first one to feel this way; I’m sure someone with far more street cred than I has already told you the difficulties of the second step. How many times have you started to say something, only to cut yourself off and say “Never mind” instead? Following through can be dangerous. It takes a certain amount of recklessness to say “screw it” and forge on ahead. At least, that’s how I’ve approached these things. Scared to send an email to a professor? Grit your teeth and hit CTRL-ENTER. Afraid to break the silence to ask for something? Give yourself an imaginary roundhouse kick to the rear and get moving. I guess what I’m saying is, inertia is a bitch. Newton’s Third Law has relatability far beyond the realm of classical physics. But once you’re moving, you’re moving, hey? That’s how I see it. I’ve gotten the wheels turning by writing this stream-of-consciousness monologue, and I’ll be fulfilling Step Two as soon as I hit “Publish”. If anyone’s reading this, I guess I’ve succeeded. Pandora’s Box is open, and so forth. Be prepared for the onslaught of vices. And Hope. She’s here for the ride, too.
My morning routine
By: Sarah Magarey
Tags: Intentional Living, Getting Started, Morning Routines, Life Lessons, Productivity

Yoga

The first thing I do after I get out of bed is a quick yoga sequence — child’s pose, cat-cow pose, downward dog pose, standing forward bend pose, triangle pose — that I found online.

There’s something about the way it starts on the floor and slowly moves me upwards until I am standing that helps me make that transition from sleep to a ‘starting my day’ mindset, which is usually quite a struggle for me.

Meditation

I’ve done this on and off for a few years but fell off the wagon last year, so I’m starting it again in 2019.

There are two main benefits I hope this meditation practice will bring me — better sleep, something I’ve been struggling with for some time, and better focus during the day (hello, shiny thing syndrome).

A few people have recommended an app to me that has the benefit of tracking which days I use it, so it gives a little dopamine hit of ‘you’ve been doing this for xx days in a row’. Which is a satisfying way to start my day. (It’s the little things, right?)

Shower and dress

This goes in as a specific step in my routine because, since I am not working for anyone else at the moment, I want to tackle my tendency to dither and get distracted in the morning — for example, by reading the news, a big timesuck for me.

It’s an old trick, but feeling the water on my head does give me that little shock to the system that helps me accept that ‘yes, I am actually up and about’.

Breakfast

I’m including this mainly to encourage myself to pre-prepare my breakfasts at the start of the week, rather than blindly eating whatever appears before me, which isn’t always the healthiest option.

I’m trying to have a protein-based breakfast, so I’ve been having a frittata, which is good because all I need to do is cut a piece and heat it up. Fairly idiot-proof, which suits me fine. Especially before I have my first cup of coffee.

Get my water bottle

This is an easy one — a reminder to get my water bottle out of the fridge on my way to my desk and so to drink more during the day. I put the bottle in my eyeline behind my computer screen (on the windowsill) and I try to take a sip whenever I notice it.
Record Book Sales
By: Traverse Davies
Tags: Marketing, Getting Started, Publishing, Filthy Lucre, Sales

I sold four books in February. Now, that’s a small number. Tiny in fact. I’ve certainly sold more in some months, but there was one thing about this month that was different.

I didn’t do anything to make those sales happen. I posted some on Medium but not about my books.

I didn’t do a book launch. I don’t have a new finished work and I haven’t since around this time last year. I basically spent most of the last year doing other things while keeping the writing on a very slow simmer. I don’t have any periods without some writing, but there are lots of days where I only met my five minutes a day instead of my old word count of 2500. I don’t even have any new finished short stories.

I didn’t update the covers or descriptions of any of my published works.

As far as I know, the people who bought those four books are not friends or family. They are random strangers browsing Amazon.

This may not seem like much, but I only have two novels on Amazon. It’s a smallish number. I honestly am not expecting to make money off book sales until I have a fair bit more. I figure ten is the point where I should start to see rewards. Certainly not two.

I do have short stories, but those aren’t what is selling. It’s my two books. One of those books is actually available for free due to the price match program (it’s being given away on Smashwords, so Amazon had to follow suit).

Yeah, that’s right… I made two figures worth of books royalties this month!
Data Science Tools and Resources
By: Chris Glenn
Tags: Analytics, Utilities, Getting Started, Data Science, Tools

Code Editors

Editing code like Python or R is often a highly repetitive task. Simple text editors will allow you to save changes as you go, integrate plug-ins for syntax and styling, execute code in blocks, and provide a more project-focused structure…

Terminal Emulators (Mac & PC)

Frequently (and most especially in cloud-based computing), you will have to perform repeated tasks that can only be accomplished through a “cluster” (a group of computers, working together, with storage or computational “powers” well beyond that of your local machine). This is most often accomplished through terminal controls (ex: Unix-based, Windows-based). These terminal emulators will help you connect to remote clusters and automate data science tasks…

Terminal (default preinstalled on Mac)

iTerm (Mac)

Cygwin (for emulating Unix-based systems on a PC)

PuTTY (for emulating Unix-based systems on a PC)

PowerShell (PC)

Version Control

Have you ever collaborated with others on a single code base and been frustrated with the many independent changes that become hard to track? Enter “Git” repositories, a significantly easier way to track changes to a team or project’s work (ex: from a single large file to an entire project of files)…

Environments and Package Managers

“Uh oh. I just learned, 10 hours into my project, that one of the versions of the Python package that I’m highly dependent on conflicts with another version of a Python package that I’m also dependent on.” Package managers “manage” this problem. They allow for separated “environments” where independent versions of these packages (ex: scikit-learn, NumPy, statsmodels) can be managed and coordinated to work together. No package conflict headaches down the line…

Anaconda (package manager specifically focused on Data Science)

Concepts

Practice Resources

Interesting Publications

Notable Mentions

SQL, or Structured Query Language

Sometimes overlooked (as it lacks buzzwords like “Machine Learning” or “Neural Networks”), SQL fluency is tremendously important to your success as a data scientist. If building a fancy ML model was like building a new house on an empty plot of land, SQL skills would be comparable to your shovel size. You cannot “build a great house” without a strong foundation, requiring a serious “shovel.”

Visualization Tools (Tableau or Power BI)

When you need to do quick visual Exploratory Data Analysis, these tools are fantastic for translating endless rows and columns to visuals like charts and graphs. They are also the standard for “productionalized” reporting tools (ex: dashboards for the C suite).

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