fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Listen to the first sounds recorded from the surface of Mars
By: Cris, Paperboy
Tags: NASA, Technology, Mars, Tech, Cool

NASA has just publicly released the first videos taken by the Perseverance rover and the first sounds ever recorded from the surface of Mars. The rover landed on Mars last Thursday, the end of a journey that began last July. On the spacecraft’s way down to the planet’s surface, it snapped images and recorded a wealth of video footage that has given us a historic view of the nail-biting landing.

The landing footage: The three-and-a-half minute video stitches together footage of the rover’s landing recorded by five different cameras, starting from about 9.5 kilometers above the surface and as it descends. The red landscape is shown in exquisite detail, with dotted hills, ledges, craters and small valleys coming into closer focus as the rover fell.

Sounding off: Perseverance also made history by taking the first audio recording on Mars. A snippet of noise was made available that includes the sound of 5 mph winds blowing through the Martian landscape

Check the audio and photo -> https://tinyurl.com/bppzxjcm
Why NASA’s Perseverance Rover is Important
By: Pranav Bansal
Tags: Perseverance, NASA, Space, Mars, Perseverance Rover

Perseverance, a rover designed to explore Mars developed by NASA, launched on July 30, 2020, amidst the added challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 18, 2021, it landed at Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake and river delta.

NASA’s Perseverance rover took its first-ever test drive on the terrain of Mars on March 4th, traveling about 21 feet near its landing point, Jezero Crater, in a short trip that scientists believe represents a major milestone. Perseverance sent back images of its wheel tracks across the Martian surface on Friday.

According to Anais Zarifin, Perseverance’s mobility bed test engineer, the drive on Thursday went “incredibly well”.

“So many people I can’t even count have worked towards this very moment for years. It's just amazing to see. I don’t think the team could have been happier,” said Zarifin.

The rover is still undergoing a period of an initial evaluation, which includes more detailed testing and calibration and longer drives. The team has already crossed a series of other important firsts off of their list, according to NASA.

Although Perseverance has the same body design as NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, improvements to its maneuverability system mean that it can drive for long distances in the same amount of time. While the two rovers have the same top speed, Perseverance’s new cameras and improved navigation software allow it to think where it is going while in motion.

Perseverance is equipped with more sensors and tools compared to Curiosity (Image Credit: Caltech Magazine)

The Perseverance Mars mission is just one out of the hundreds more NASA will conduct. But what exactly does this mission signify for space exploration? And how does this mission affect the future of space exploration? Let’s find out.
Mars Landing & Web Augmented Reality — Lesson Learnt
By: Swapratim Roy
Tags: NASA, Augmented Reality, Webar, Innovation, Digital

Watch NASA Mars Rover Panoramic 360 View

Web Augmented Reality is taking the world by storm by breaking the entry barrier for people to enter the world of augmented reality without downloading massive apps or buying super expensive AR-glasses or headsets.

One week prior to Perseverance landing on Mars (Feb 18th, 2021), I launched a Web AR app to celebrate the milestone of science — “Bring Mars Rover at Your Desk” and bring an outstanding Augmented Reality experience for everyone.

Within two weeks, the response received, from all across the world, was outstanding. I never thought that so many people from different countries would try this out in such a short time.

Global Usage Statistics from Perseverance WebAR

There were some key findings from within the statistics and I’d share them in here. I used Marvin AI WebAR platform to host the Augmented Reality web app. It also captures a great amount of statistics which is amazing.

Quick summary: It was viewed in 48 countries,125 cities, by 290 users and over 450 times.

A detailed view of number of users from each country was a quite interesting stats. Apparently India and US topped the chart with maximum engagement. Although EU was the point of the maximum engagement from demograghic region wise.

Heat Map

Next thing I was interested to see when exactly, in a week, users prefer to use the WebAR solution for fun. I know that LinkedIn has a golden rule of Wednesday which means maximum engagement happens there generally on Wednesdays. For our WebAR, it was Friday. Although maximum engagement within an hour of a day came between Wed & Thursday. The heatmap showed the minute level of user engagement habit.

Device Usage Insight

The fun of WebAR is that its usage not only restricted to iOS/Android but users can view it from Windows or Mac too. The device insight showed that most of the users opened it from iPhone and Android phones. But few people opened it from Windows and Mac too — hmm! interesting.

Browser usage statistics

WebAR is browser agonstic. It can be opened in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge or other leading browsers. I was curious to see what are users favorite browsers to open the WebAR. It was a head on competition between Chrome and Safari. Firefox took a share of it. But Edge really had a poor share of it.

Overall, this was a great experience to run. I learnt a lot from the WebAR launch, especially people loved it because of Perseverance being the center of attraction of it. The insight showed that regardless of country, people love something which is easy and fun, like AR playing on web browser.

The WebAR is still live. If you want to give it a try, follow the earlier article: Part 1.

If you like the story, share your reviews in the below comment.

Special credit to: Marvin AI
Space Exploration x Climate Change
By: Jaya Sra
Tags: Education, Earth, NASA, Climate Change, Space Exploration

Most people that you ask will say that they know about climate change, some might say it’s a hoax or have different opinions but it’s everywhere literally and figuratively. It’s everywhere but we haven’t taken enough action for a stable solution. If you’re not into space then you might not know about the current plan for space exploration and what we’ve done so far. But the two have more in common than one might assume.

Nasa just landed their rover on mars named Perseverance. This will scan for life on Mars and if mars will be a steady planet to live on. Since our planet is literally falling apart astronauts are anticipating possible habitat on Mars for humans. Space exploration has much to do with mars currently but why. Well…… climate change is an ongoing problem occurring for more than now one hundred years. Put simply our earth is getting hotter and hotter every day and is literally falling apart. The cause of this are things such as pollution, waste, heat and greenhouse gases which are trapped in our atmosphere and many more factors that tie in.

You might have heard the phrase we only have 12 years left to save our planet, but now might only have until 2026. And that is exactly what space exploration has to do with climate change. In theory, if by 2026 or 2030 our planet is unlivable then humans will essentially “migrate” to mars as our new planet. Current space researchers are working on making mars livable so by chance if we do need to move to mars we wouldn’t have to scramble for resources there but be prepared to live there. That’s the problem, earth is such a beautiful planet we shouldn’t wait to throw it out when it gets old. Humanity grew here and we should plan to thrive here. So we shouldn’t be living and relying on mars as another earth. IMAGINE Mars doesn’t work out what will humanity do then we can’t just sit and watch our planet rot away. Could you imagine soon getting on a spaceship to move to mars and packing your bag to move to mars?

How will moving to mars work one we will need a BUNCH of space ships to get our planet of billions of people there. We’re gonna want to be eco-friendly considering the reason humanity would ever want to live on Mars. But if you take out the climate change factor in space exploration there are also many exploration reasons we want to go to mars.

In my opinion, instead of putting most of our focus into mars, we should work on improving the beautiful earth that we live on right now. Now I’m NOT saying we should eliminate the idea of moving to mars or even minimize it I’m implying that humanity needs to expand work on climate change. Nasa is a public space exploration company but space x is a private company they both have their own advantages in every field which can expand our success rate with this overall goal.

Space exploration and climate change currently are very closely tied. Each may be reliant on the other in many ways. But if you are reading this please do all you can to save our planet.

Sources :
Nasa Image Search with Vue Js
By: Mohamed Jinas
Tags: Vuejs, API, NASA, Tailwind

Story

Recently I started using Vuejs for my projects and immediately fell in love with the framework. Vuejs is easy to learn and from someone who hasn’t worked with javascript. It was a really fun experience to learn VUEJS. So last night I was scrolling through NASA API documentation to check out the contents they have I discovered an end-point that you can pass queries to and the NASA API will fetch the matched contents along with some images. I always wanted to try to make a web app that uses NASA API. So what I built last night is a web app that fetches image of the thing you searched for and display the result in a webpage. Demo app

Technologies I used

Vuejs

Tailwind CSS

NASA API

UI

For styling the web app I used a popular CSS framework called tailwind. Tailwind CSS is a highly customizable, low-level CSS framework that gives you all of the building blocks you need to build bespoke designs without any annoying opinionated styles you have to fight to override. It was created by one of my favorite keynote speaker Adam wathan. The Ui components I used are directly taken from the tailwind CSS documentation.

Vue js Codes

new Vue({

el: "#app",

data: {

results: [],

query: ""

}, methods: {

getPics: function() {

fetch(

`https://images-api.nasa.gov/search?q=${this.query}&media_type=image`

)

.then(response => {

return response.json();

})

.then(parsedJson => {

this.results = parsedJson["collection"]["items"];

});

}

}

});

In the javascript code what I am doing is fetching the search query from the NASA API and the search query is dynamically added to the request URL because the text field is bind to the query variable. After the response comes back from the NASA API JSON is then parsed and added to the result array to loop in the HTML.

Connecting Everything Together

The last thing to do is to loop through the result in the HTML to display the result. It was done like so

<div v-for="result in results" class="mb-5">

<div class="rounded overflow-hidden shadow-lg">

<img class="w-full" :src="result.links[0].href" />

<div class="px-6 py-4">

<div class="font-bold text-xl mb-2">{{result.data[0].title}}</div>

<p class="text-gray-700 text-base">

{{result.data[0].description}}

</p>

</div>

<div class="px-6 py-4" v-for="keyword in result.data[0].keywords">

<span

class="inline-block bg-gray-200 rounded-full px-3 py-1 text-sm font-semibold text-gray-700 mr-2"

>{{keyword}}</span

>

</div>

</div>

</div>

There you have it. All the source code is given below:
Elon Musk, SpaceX and NASA Are Taking The Second Step In The Direction Of Mars
By: Johnna Crider
Tags: Inspiration, NASA, Space, Spacex, Elon Musk

Everyone has a dream. Dreams light the fires in our lives — fires that give us purpose, passion, and drive. These passions shape our lives and our outlooks on life.

We view the world through the lens of our dreams. However, we also filter that lens with our hopes, fears, goals, and actions. Sometimes that lens gets too filtered and many lose sight of something they once saw with clarity.

For many, doubt clouds the lens. We are often told, “You can be whatever you want, do whatever you want to do — dream big,” but when we do, those words prove empty with all of the sighs and shock which are often followed by, “That’s impossible,” or “Well, no not that.”

Many are often conditioned to believe that they will fail. This leads to the dimming of their light. And that light dies. Sometimes that light is reignited whether by events or by another’s light reflecting upon their lives.

In stark contrast, we have those rare gems — the Jeremejevites of the human race, who, despite all odds, push their way through the “you cannots” or the “it’s impossibles.”

They do this with the sheer focus and determination to withstand the intense pressure that would crush many —and become the gems that dazzle brilliantly for all to see and remind us that dreams can come true.

Elon Musk is the gem of the space industry. His dream is to make humans a multi-planetary species and get us to the first step: Mars. We’ve already taken the first step — we’ve been to the moon. But that was almost 51 years ago. We should have gone from there, but instead, we stopped.

The Moon Landing

I remember being in school learning about this. As the teachers would speak in awe of memory of watching the NASA astronauts walk on the moon, I often wondered why they didn’t go further. Why didn’t we make it to Mars already? I remember my mother talking about it briefly.

She had this far off, dreamy look in her eyes — as if she were talking about a bygone era, the good ole days — a time that phased out into our current existence. She spoke about it as if it were the past and the idea of future space explorations was not even present.

The ISS and The Last NASA Space Shuttle Mission.

In 1998 NASA teamed up with Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA to take part in creating the International Space Station. It seemed that we were taking another small step after the previous one that resulted in a leap for mankind.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong

In 2011, NASA announced the ending of the Space Shuttle program. Shuttle Atlantis flew four astronauts to the ISS and it was the last time that America flew NASA astronauts to the ISS. It seemed as if NASA were giving up on its dream by ending the program.

Enter Elon Musk and SpaceX
We All Come Home to Our Roots, in the End
By: Yvonne Owens
Tags: Wildlife, NASA, Environment, Technology, Nature

Isis, the Egyptian Goose with her chicks on Mothers’ Day

My brother Ian and my sister-in-law Lee love and nurture these wild creatures where they live in West Palm Beach, just adjacent to the venerable Hippocrates Centre natural nutrition and healing centre. (Lee is a Raw Foods master chef who used to work at the Hippocrates Centre, and somehow makes all manner of raw ingredients taste like heaven.) Egyptian Geese, a community of turtles, iguanas, tree frogs, squirrels, and other creatures are the beneficiaries of their care, feeding (organic native wild diets only when in short supply for whatever reason) and protection.

For this reason, my brother and sister-in-law have been invited to participate in the screenings of productions like WLRN’s ‘Troubled Waters: A Turtle’s Tale’ and the independent film, ‘SPY IN THE WILD.’ This is a long way indeed from Ian’s original entrance into scientific and technological fields at the tender age of 18, when he was recruited straight out of high school by his science teacher to go with him to staff a new semi-classified enterprise, Comsat Satellites, the first communications satellite company, responsible for the medium through which we are communicating right here, right now, coordinated out of Washington DC. in the CIA and FBI-infested Dupont Building, right off the Mall, with satellite launch centres in Texas and Cape Canaveral.

From there he went to NASA, working in ‘cargo logistics’ for the Challenger, until his final disillusionment over NASA’s failure to fulfill the potential (for all) entailed in the easily obtained production of orbit-mounted solar mirrors for the production of free or cheap illimitable, non-polluting energy for the planet, in favour of developing the malign and ill-advised program popularly named ‘Star Wars.’ Now he works in radio engineering, a low-tech alternative to his initial pioneering of communications technology and the requisite computing skills, and the medium by which, many times, we as a family survived, mid-sea, during our on-board years on the Rhode, our 45-foot ocean-going wooden-hull deep-sea sailing ketch — home for most of the years of our early childhood.

We all come home to our earliest roots in the end.
Open Source Rover
By: Liam Arbuckle
Tags: Space, NASA, Space Projects, Raspberry Pi

Originally published on the ACORD portal — http://acord.tech/d3499

Thanks to NASA & Github, we have a way to (kind of) recreate the Mars 2020 rover in our own backyard. This means we can create another branch of robots — the ones inspired by space probes and rovers. All branches can be controlled in Stellarios (see this post on how releases work).

“The JPL Open Source Rover is an open source, build it yourself, scaled down version of the 6 wheel rover design that JPL uses to explore the surface of Mars. The Open Source Rover is designed almost entirely out of consumer off the shelf (COTS) parts. This project is intended to be a teaching and learning experience for those who want to get involved in mechanical engineering, software, electronics, or robotics.”

Technical Attributes

Notes:

Cost is in US Dollars

We are using metric measurements

We will probably use an Android app, maybe with the Arduino Esplora we acquired

We’ve forked this repo to Github/Acord-Robotics/Open-Source-Rover

We can change the parts, however by changing the parts we may improve one thing but compromise another -

“One potential change is for the motors; you can, for example, select higher RPM motors (to drive your rover faster) at the sacrifice of max stall torque, which would potentially limit your rover’s ability to climb” (from the Project’s Readme)

Stellarios
_The forth dimention
By: Doc Dar
Tags: NASA, Eindhoven, Arvind Kejriwal, Jira Agile, Einstein

People more often says

This is worst time of mine.

Time will come and we will see

time and tide wait for none

u can’t escape one day will come you will get what you did.

Whats matter, how they are pretty sure;because of only what they experienced or anything else🤔🤔.

Let see

There is nothing beyond the unlinked to other. May be it is optically not visible but internally it is obvious attach to someone and that someone in nothing other than time.

Before the genius of 20th century sir Albert einstein’s theory of relativity there was concept of ‘unit and measurement’. but that guy thinks more than the limit of world_@the limit of universe.

He gave the theory of relativity and opens tha door of A vast and annoying sessile knowledge

“ The time”. Since it was only based on comparison.

But how can we say time is comparable who itself a entity to show himself/herself in any situation. Who is moving just like water or a wave or a train.[it have unifrom speed for more precisely it have uniform velocity let’s say it is point no. 2 we will discuss it after few paragraph ] just like a physical qunatity who have everythings like other quantity except it is not physical we cant touch or pull or pick.

The concept:

According to albert in concept of gravitation, An entity surrounded by units creats distortion of space, that distortion causes attractive nature of object. The big one causes more distortion and result more attraction

Pic courtesy :internet

But here comes real problem suppose the 4 points in a 3D cell where other entities are nullified except that 4 points — alpha, beta, gamma, and epsilon. Putting them such an order so that the distance between alpha an beta is equals to alpha and gamma

Thus_

Therefore the distortion [¢] is not same everywhere

lets see

at alpha position, distortion[¢]

¢2 >¢1 [because of linear summation of ¢3&¢4]

Thus any object near point alpha should move toward point gamma in that 3D space from [above diagram].

But it doesn’t happen. Did moon of saturn dione and titan escaped toward jupiter?? Because of summative distortions [ ¢] of sun jupiter and mars etc.

No.

Big NO. Infact they are in their place from birth of our solar syatem, galaxies, cosmos.

The only entity behind it is TIME. time prevent them from falling into larger distortion.

If their time unit got over they will be fall in larger distortion ie sun and other stars.

If there any collison, incident or accident happens time is only causitive. Because it is ambiguous Universal box ie. It is the same box in which that alpha beta gamma entities are placed. And that entities are variable they could be anything a man, a bus, a tree a mountain, a planet anything.

The timebox filled with smaller time unit around the all matters as years, months, week, days, hours, seconds etc.. It constituted time same as a jar filled by moving water where no place is left over.

That timebox was so hard to explain it can’t be say only in term of time or space: Einstein used to a term spacetime for it.
NASA SPACE APPS
By: José Santos
Tags: Hackaton, Space Apps Challenge, NASA, Covid 19

COVID-19 GLOBAL CHALLENGE

Space Apps is an international hackathon for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, technologists, and others in cities around the world, where teams engage with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s free and open data to address real-world problems on Earth and in space.

Summary

This project is an expression of the conditions of the Covid-19 time. They are conveyed by art. Various situations were gathered and blended together to reflect the actual time such as quarantine, online work and research. Following the worldwide spread of COVID-19, people opted to stay home to stay healthy. Many activities seem to make them interested, such as reading, doing sports, the project also explained the great role of doctors in overcoming the virus. Wearing masks is very important

The Art of It All

This project makes an artistic reflection in relation to the current and delicate moment that the planet lives because of COVID-19. In this reflection, we try to explore the emotions felt by an astronaut, showing that his isolation is different from ours, however, the emotions are the same.
Apollo 11
By: Dan Clendenin
Tags: Space, World, Moon, NASA

By Dan Clendenin

Apollo 11 (2019)

Next month will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first two people (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) on the moon on July 20, 1969. The Vietnam war was raging. Nixon was president. King and Kennedy were assassinated the year before. But the event was broadcast on live television across the globe, and brought the entire world together if only for that eight day mission. I was thirteen years old, and still remember how Armstrong descended the ladder of the lunar module Eagleand declared, “that’s one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.” This 90-minute documentary film edited, produced, and directed by Todd Douglas Miller tells that remarkable story. There is no narration or any interviews in the film (although it does have a powerful soundtrack), just archival footage that until now has never been released to the public. The film had its debut at the 2019 Sundance festival. On Rotten Tomatoes Apollo 11 has an approval rating of 99%. Sure, this film is partly a history lesson, but it’s mainly a huge adrenaline rush (even though we know what happens), from blast off to splash down.

Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net
This Seven Years Old Girls Discovered Seven Asteroids for NASA
By: Aswin Kumar
Tags: Asteroids, NASA, Astronomy, Space, Space Exploration

Nicola Oliviera, a 7-years old girl from Brazil who discovered seven asteroids has become the youngest astronomer in the world.

Nicola was just two years old when she discovered her love for space and astronomy. She took part in a citizen-science program called ‘Asteroid Hunt’ organized by International Astronomical Search Collaboration and NASA is also a part of this program.

Under this program, Nicola helped discover seven asteroids for which she was awarded a certificate as a token of appreciation for her effort.

According to a Brazilian news organization named ‘R7’, Oliviera’s love for astronomy only grew by leaps and bounds. At the age of two, she asked her mother to get a star. She got her a toy star to make do with at that point but it was only then that she realized what her daughter actually wanted.

Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation also invited her to give a lecture during their first-ever International Seminar on Astronomy and Aeronautics.

Nicolas also hosts her youtube channel where she imparts her knowledge of astronomy and talks about asteroids, space, and things that fascinate her. At times, she even invites eminent researchers and professors in this field to share their wealth of knowledge in the same for the people who truly want to know more about the subject.
Out of this World NASA #FlashChat Inspired by “Hidden Figures”
Tags: Education, NASA, Women, STEM, Women In Tech

The students were excited to be hearing from an African American STEMinist who currently works for NASA, especially because they were able to refer to what they had learned from reading “Hidden Figures.”

Dr. Shea is a scientist working at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and went on to receive her Masters and Ph.D from the University of Colorado.

“Dr. Shea’s presentation enhanced our lesson because she reiterated the lesson/topics we have discussed in class in regards to writing, research, and referring back to “Hidden Figures.” In our study of “Hidden Figures,” we focused a lot on civil rights in regards to the female scientists featured in the book. However, it has also been a women’s history lesson. It was an amazing opportunity to have an African American women in this field speak to us,” said Jennifer.

During Dr. Shea’s flashchat, a student had asked a thoughtful question regarding the relation of her job and “Hidden Figures”:

Q- “How does it feel working at Langley like the women of Hidden Figures?”

A- “I think it’s pretty cool…It’s great to be a woman of color at Langley and getting the opportunity to continue that torch of working as a woman of color in STEM at Langley so it’s kind of cool to have that brush with history.”

After the chat, one student said that working for NASA would be simply “magical.” Dr. Shea inspired the students “to pursue their passions and to never give up, no matter how hard it may be.”

After the flashchat, Ms. Barefoot wrote to us:

“It is so important for our students to see a successful African-American female working in a profession that she loves. Her message resonated, especially the importance of hard work and following one’s passion. One student said it ‘was so neat that her love for her profession evolved from overcoming her fears.’

We couldn’t agree more, and can’t wait to see what the future holds for these Georgia scholars. The sky’s the limit!
The Indian Thrasio Model
By: An Anonymous Vc
Tags: Startups In India, Venture Capital, Thrasio, VC, India

If there is something the Indian startup ecosystem loves, it is to bring to our shores successful business ideas that have worked in the West. Sometimes the ideas are great, sometimes they do not pan out at all. The pace of the transferability of these ideas is what plays the catalyst in how soon will you achieve the escape velocity that every venture capitalist dreams of. There is one such idea that has become every VC’s darling in the consumer startup ecosystem almost overnight. The name of the idea is the title of this piece.

On a routine call with one of my colleagues at another fund a few months back, the main takeaway from the conversation was that the Thrasio model is into the works and it is going to blow up in India in a huge way. First-mover advantage. That is what it meant. A potential market disruptor idea comes but once in a unicorn and that is when I started looking in deeper into this.

You know this idea is going to be a rocker when it has three things any kind of smart money (us) is looking for- sounds cool, growth and most importantly, profitability before a Series B round. A better explainer of the Thrasio model in India can be found here.

Over the course of the past couple months, these Thrasio-styled startups are all that people in my industry have been able to talk about. There are many potential pitfalls in the approach, but we don’t think about problems till they don’t come up.

There is strong money and a stronger pedigree of founders making a play in the industry- a recent example being Goat Labs, led by former Flipkart execs and backed by Tiger Global. Before that 10Club led a “seed” round of $40 million dollars.

The entire story is going to be under the lights of media, VC execs, the industry titans, and the consumers. Companies in this industry are going to be racing against getting the best tech, best analytics, fighting for acquisition for the best brands, employing the newest marketing techniques, and figuring out how to best build synergies between brands. More than about quality of apparels, this is about which company is able to best select and analyze data to make the proverbial dream house of brands that is truly going to cement the company’s future.

Until next time…
Want to Buy or Sell but the Fees are Too High? Introducing CFL365
By: Ali Datoo, Ventures
Tags: Defi, Cryptocurrency, VC, Investment, Blockchain

Introducing the all new, first of it’s kind trustless decentralised application (dApp) for skill based trading contests for BOTH crypto assets and capital markets. They sport an unbelievable list of industry problems they aim to solve. It includes, but is not limited to rigorous KYC processes, geographical limitations, high trading fees, liquidity issues, delayed withdrawals, and minimum and maximum limits.

With regards to the CFL365 technological development progress, their smart contracts are currently under audit with an estimated time of completion being in Q3. In terms of the growth of their public following, the twitter profile has seen thousands of new follows recently, and the telegram community is reported to have grown from 2,000 to 35,000+ in last 7 days.

PayPal’s big news but slightly lacklustre showing with regards to crypto purchasing and merchant payment processing has shown the crypto world that there is still a huge gap in the market for ergonomic, easy to use platforms such as this with sustainable fees and an attractive interface that offers services that aren’t freely available on the market for a variety of traders interested in both private equity shares and cryptocurrencies.

“CFL365.Finance has a young and dynamic team, the business model is strong and novel. The industry lacks active mass participation and their passion to address the gap is admirable.” — Nathan Pearson Smith

An early assumption was that large established corporations such as Visa and Mastercard for example would quickly attempt to monopolise the crypto payment and trading scene, however a lack of crypto pedigree and many procedural hurdles in place has helped identify a huge opportunity for platforms such as CFL365.
The Story of Climate Tech
Tags: Climate Change, Vc Funding, VC, Climatetech

Image taken from pwc.com

Finance has a new goal: to battle climate change. Increased frequency of extreme weather events and a more focused, global effort towards net-zero emission now raises calls for climate tech solutions and with that, funding.

Sustainable finance aims to help in decarbonizing solutions. Renewable power generation, sustainable forestry and EVs are growing and finance has backed these areas up. More and more private equity firms have detected the winds of change. In 2021 alone, over $14 billion have flooded various climate and clean tech funds.

Global investors have pushed for climate centric investments, with funds in 2021 equivalent to the previous five years combined! Low-carbon or zero-carbon real estate and infrastructure has picked up the pace ever since the Biden-Harris administration entered the picture. Their call and firm stance on slowing down climate change has been followed by investments in start ups focusing on reducing carbon footprints of buildings.

It’s clear that North American and Canadian markets have entered the race against climate change in a big way and don’t show any signs of stopping soon.

Learn more at: https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/climate-tech-startups-and-investors-fundraising
THE ULTIMATE VC LIST, 2019 EDITION
By: Marie Brayer
Tags: Venture Capital, Funding, VC, France, Startup

In 2016, we published our very first list of the VCs and corporates who invest in French start-ups. Since then, our different articles have accumulated over 80k views and we shared the list with over 5.000 entrepreneurs

Thanks for the love ❤ !!!

We know how much fundraising is mission critical. The goal of this list is to help you maximize your chances to raise, save your time and help you target the right funds quickly.

We’re publishing and maintaining this list to be true to our core DNA of being not only an investor, but the provider of operational, actionable best practices to the ecosystem.

What’s new?

The excel file is now split by tabs by type of funds (Vanilla VCs, European, US but also corporate,…) for convenience

We have highlighted investors who have billion dollar companies in their portfolio or companies that raised more than 100M$ (look up the 🦄 emoji)

You can now 🌈PRINT 🌈the ultimate vc list in a beautiful A2/A1 format

that will look good on your wall, admit it

😇 Needless to say that reaching out to all the VCs massively is the best way to waste your time, and the worst way to fund your start-up.

Take some time to understand what type of deals they are doing, what their favorite industries / size of rounds are, and to which specific investment professional in their team you should reach out.

snik pik of the list

TL;DR, I want the file!

Here you go:

⚡️⚡️⚡️ http://srn.vc/vc-list-form ⚡️⚡️⚡️

Note that to get access to the spreadsheet you’ll need to fill out a quick form.

The poster is downloadable here in high quality

The printed version can be purchased on our dedicated website : www.ultimatevclist.com

Lots of success and termsheets to you!

Love,

Seb, Alex and Marie

Other really cool content of ours that you should read/download

The last board deck template you’ll need for your SaaS company

http://srn.vc/IZban2iR

http://srn.vc/IZban2iR VC-proof excel file to calculate your cohorts

http://srn.vc/ONfERdpP

http://srn.vc/ONfERdpP Ready to use SaaS budget excel template

http://srn.vc/ZBRqPBs2

About Serena

Serena invests in bold ventures, providing them on-demand expertise and operational support in Paris, New York and Singapore.

Serena portfolio companies can leverage our Operating Partner model, unique in Europe, and also benefit from the support of our very active C-Level community through the Serena Squad platform, open exclusively to past and present companies, each contributing to the others’ success.

Serena was founded in 2008 by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, based on the core belief that VCs should work for their portfolio companies, not the other way around. The firm currently has 400 million euros under management.

Find out more at www.serena.vc.
Founders Should Never Pay to Pitch
By: Sarah A. Downey
Tags: Pitch, VC, Startup, Investing, Business

Founders Should Never Pay to Pitch

I’m writing this in a Lyft on the way to judge a startup pitch competition, and I’m pissed. So pissed that I’m knowingly getting myself carsick because I want to get this out now.

Someone I know referred the person running this competition to me because they were expanding to Boston and needed VCs to judge it. Neither person told me in their intro emails that they were charging founders to pitch. Thus I agreed, because meeting founders and judging pitches is something I do all the time.

Then when I was getting ready for the event a couple of hours ago, I searched my email to remind myself of what I was supposed to do tonight. I saw that someone with the group running the event had sent me an email with a link to it, and that page listed prices for attendees. Here’s the kicker: they’re charging founders $200 to present to VCs for ten minutes.

There are so many things wrong with this that I don’t know where to start. And now I’m in this uncomfortable position where I’d have to bail on an event that I committed to going to right before it happens, knowing that founders paid with the expectation that investors would be there, versus associate my and Accomplice’s brand with a practice that is completely against my values.

I’m going, but I’m writing this on the way there and then directing people to it while I’m on stage. Awkward, but I feel like both the founders and I were mislead. I’m not going to call out this event or these people in this post because they’re probably startups themselves and I don’t want to wreck someone publicly without giving them the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure you can figure it out if you search, though.
I interviewed a dozen VCs on relationship building, core skills, and value add
By: Jess Li
Tags: Networking, Startup, VC

a) How do you stay connected with and cultivate relationships with co-investors over time?

Focus on authentic relationships (quality over quantity and being open and transparent)

Regular connection

Have regular catch ups with other investors Organize a book club with people with shared experiences and interests

Knowledge sharing

Share interesting articles to spark great discussions Share deal flow and give feedback on their companies raising Becoming the go to person on a particular topic

Collaboration

Support companies together collaboratively Involve people in your work (panels, events, organizations)

b) How have the skills you developed in your pre-VC work played into your role now?

Operator & founder experience and empathy

Being open about weaknesses and areas you are less familiar with Asking better questions to get the core of a problem, product, or business Building an operating plan, especially to stretch out runway

Consulting & investment banking

Recognizing attributes that make a great leader Asking founders how they delegate or split up responsibility with concrete examples Using structured frameworks of thinking to work background from goals to steps Understanding a company’s core value proposition

Academia

Taking psychology classes to better understand people

c) How do you add value to portfolio companies in pre-GP capacities?

Ideation

Think through product launches Be a sounding board for product and strategy and other tough decisions Dive deep into and make yourself an expert in an area, like PPP (at the start of COVID)

Fundraising

Introductions to later stage investors Feedback on fundraising materials and decks

Hiring

Help make engineering hires or any other hires, especially from university networks

Growth
Technology: A veritable tool that fosters investor-entrepreneur relations
By: Damilola Cole
Tags: Technology, Investors, VC, Startup, Entrepreneurship

Technology is the application of the right tools in solving problems which are generally our day-to-day activities. By way of globalization, the world has become a small place. While having your physical presence in Lagos, you can transact business real-time with people in Lisbon, Lusaka, New Delhi, and San Francisco.

This development is not limited to e-commerce but also finds application in governance, healthcare, and others including Fundraising.

Technology has aided fundraising activities tremendously. Some of the impacts it has had are discussed in this article.

Exposure: With technology, businesses get exposed regardless of geographic location and reach. Via website and digital marketing, it has been easy for investors to identify ‘the next big thing’ even without personal knowledge of or introduction to founders. Tele-conferencing and presence: While the fundraising process is quite hard, the use of teleconferencing and presence has bridged the gap of traveling and logistics for founders and investors alike. This is a typical case especially when raising ‘overseas money’. With the elimination of physical meetings, time and money are saved with teleconferencing tools such as zoom and Skype. Keeping one abreast of development: Typically, investors have key areas/business sectors they fundraise. For instance, some are Fintech investors, while others invest in edutech, health tech and other sectors they have a specialty in. With technology, you can easily have an overview of portfolio companies that have been invested in by would-be investors, reach-out to learn their philosophies and have a whole lot of information. Evaluation: With access to comparative startups, it is easy for investors and founders alike to determine facts such as company valuation, projection, and other necessary information even at the pre-revenue stage. Notably, MoneyRemit was able to base its valuation at billions of dollars a few years after takeoff because of comparative valuation across its industry. Reporting and monitoring: Investors have no reason to fear in investing in startups across geographical locations with business reporting tools generated in real time. Performance evaluation is processed in real time and business decisions are made quicker. Crowdfunding: Unlike institutionalized investing, crowdfunding is a method of fundraising in which so many people can contribute bits of a whole sum. People also get equity shares depending on their investment size. This has been made possible by technology.

originally posted on inveeca.com
Michael Zhu: Strategic Deep Tech Investment
By: Gobi Partners China
Tags: Venture Capital, VC, Investment, China Startup, Deeptech

Gobi Partners China’s Michael Zhu at the China Finance Summit 2019

At the China Finance Summit 2019, Gobi Partners China’ Managing Partner Michael Zhu shared on deep tech investment strategies. Below is a translated excerpt from his speech:

Gobi Partners was founded in 2002, and in the last 17 years we have been a close witness of China’s tech revolution. In its overall development, the high volume of traffic and demographic dividend has been a key driver of growth where startups have been able to innovate and thrive provided that they are able to leverage and position themselves accordingly.

This year, we see a dramatic shift in the finance and startup markets as a result of the trade war and culmination of China’s tech journey, and find ourselves in a very interesting point in time. While the usage and development of mobile devices have grown rapidly, we have seen negative growth for the first time in the last decade. There has also been a dramatic drop in the total amount of funds raised in the capital market, recording a 50% drop compared to the amount raised by this time last year. As for the IPO market, while companies have rushed to get listed, we have not seen the stocks perform strongly either.

Having said that, China never lacks in opportunities. Even in the midst of the trade war, 5G carries huge implications for the market. This does mean however, that Chinese enterprises must remain as strong leaders in innovation and be willing to invest in developing foundational platform technologies.

Gobi Partners China’s Michael Zhu at the China Finance Summit 2019

When it comes to investing in deep tech, in the midst of numerous considerations, here are four key ones:

1. Making an impact.



China’s population has undergone a significant shift where there is now a shortage of cheap labor and has in turn driven enterprises to automate. Having said that, as investors, we need to recognize that not all tech startups are ripe for investment and must study in depth how disruptive and value-adding the technology is going to be, especially in terms of applications.

2. Timing, timing, timing.



Do not forget that while we have been witnessing massive leaps in technological developments, R&D takes time, and investment is a commitment. If the platform technology being developed is too far from being able to be applied in use cases, how far is it also from monetization?

3. Leveraging resources.



Operations require resources. What are the ones available to the team and where are they weak? Think supply chain and leveraging strategic partnerships.

4. Working as a team.



If there is no capability to drive go-to-market strategies, the startup simply remains as a lab. Do not take the complement of the team lightly.
Abridge and meeting minutes
By: Kumara Raghavendra
Tags: Health, Machine Learning, VC, Startup, Tech

I came across this product called Abridge on Fred Wilson’s blog today.

It is an elegant product that lets anyone record conversations during their doctor / physician visits and within a minute after the recording ends, publishes a written transcript of the conversation highlighting key medical terms in the conversation like MRI, knee surgery, etc, for easy follow up.

These transcripts are later searchable. Meaning, if I’ve recorded five years worth of conversations with doctors, physicians, dentists, etc and I search for something related to my blood pressure or my root canal, then every relevant conversation around that turns up for an easy sort and read.

This is an exciting application of a growingly prevalent technology of speech to text and I’m keen to see this expand to other verticals.

I think there is a big opportunity for someone like a Zoom or Bluejeans to build this feature for meetings.

At the end of each meeting, it is the responsibility of someone to take notes and send out a summary of important points discussed to follow up on. And this whole task can be automated and even personalized to highlight specific terms relevant for each individual that the summary is sent out to.

The potential to scale to other verticals seems limitless. If I were a VC, I’d be betting big on Abridge or any similar product with this vision.