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Tag: Tech Startups

  • How 7 Founders Left Big Tech to Build Multimillion-Dollar Companies

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    There’s security in working for a large tech company: The salary is usually pretty solid and the benefits are top-tier. But that hasn’t stopped many entrepreneurship-minded employees from walking away to found their own companies over the years. (Even some who have been caught in the recent rounds of tech layoffs have set out to found their own startups.)

    The degrees of success, of course, vary. But every now and then, one knocks it out of the park, starting a business that becomes another indispensable tech destination or tool. And every now and then, these founders create something that becomes bigger than the place they left.

    Here’s a look at seven founders who took a leap of faith and saw tremendous success as a result.

    Evan Williams

    Williams joined Google in 2003, when the company acquired Pyra Labs, a company he had co-founded in 1999. Designed to make project management software, it became known for its note-taking feature, called Blogger (which helped blogs take off). He stayed with Google for a year-and-a-half, but left to once again explore the startup space. In 2006, Williams, Biz Stone, and others founded Obvious Corp., which spun off a social-networking project called Twitter into its own company in 2007.

    Williams was co-founder and a board member (and CEO from 2008 to 2010). Two years after stepping down as CEO of Twitter, he created the publishing platform Medium, which he ran for 10 years. (Williams sold his 30-percent ownership share in Twitter in 2017 and left the board in 2019.) These days, he’s working on his next project: Mozi, which helps people foster in-person connections with their social circle.

    Kevin Systrom

    Systrom worked at Google, helping to build Gmail and other tools early in his career. On weekends, though, he spent his time building an app called Burbn which let people share location-aware photos and notes. One enthusiastic early user was Mike Krieger. The two eventually began working together to create what would become Instagram. Systrom was growing frustrated at Google and eventually decided to leave so he and Krieger could focus on Instagram full time. The company was sold to Facebook in April 2012 for $1 billion.

    Assaf Rappaport

    Rappaport co-founded Wiz, a security startup that, earlier this year, agreed to be acquired by Google for $32 billion. Before that, though, Rappaport spent four years at Microsoft after it acquired Adallom, a cloud access security broker he had co-founded in 2012. He ran Microsoft’s Cloud Security Group, but by 2019 was ready for something new. The following year, he launched Wiz, which raised a $100-million Series A round by the end of that year. He initially turned down Google’s offer for the company and was considering an IPO, but when Google raised the offer amount earlier this year, he said yes. The deal is expected to close next year.

    Jason Kilar

    From 1997 through 2006, Kilar was an executive at Amazon, including his last role as SVP of worldwide application software. He left after nine years to co-found a new streaming company called Hulu in 2007, becoming its CEO. Within two quarters, the company was profitable. Today, after a dizzying series of deals since its launch, Hulu is fully owned by Disney.

    Ilya Sutskever

    Sutskever’s first job was at a research company called DNNResearch, which was acquired by Google in 2013. He spent two years with the tech giant, working in the Google Brain AI division, before departing in 2015 to co-found and take the role of chief scientist at OpenAI. That went well until November 2023, when he was one of the board members who voted to fire CEO Sam Altman. Days later, he reversed course, signing onto an employee letter demanding Altman’s return and expressing regret for his “participation in the board’s actions.” He left the company the following June to launch Safe Superintelligence, which raised $1 billion in just three months and another $2 billion in April of this year, valuing the company at $32 billion.

    Brian Acton

    After working in product testing rolls at Apple and Adobe, Acton joined Yahoo in 1996. He spent nine years at the then-web giant as a computer engineer. While there, he met and worked alongside Jan Koum. The two left in 2007. After being turned down for a job at Facebook, they began work on WhatsApp in 2009. Five years later, they sold the messaging app to Facebook for roughly $19 billion.

    Tony Fadell

    Fadell initially made a name for himself at Apple, where he helped design the infrastructure for the iPod. He’s known as the “Father of the iPod” and co-creator of the iPhone. Hardware, firmware, and accessories were all under his supervision from 2006 through 2008. He left that year and, in 2009, launched Nest Labs. Its first product, the Nest Learning Thermostat, was wildly successful after launch. And in 2014, Google acquired the company for $3.2 billion. These days, Fadell oversees a venture fund called Build Collective.

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    Chris Morris

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  • Why Flexible Payment Systems Are Now a Business Essential | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The right payment solution can accelerate growth, while the wrong one can stunt it. For small businesses, nonprofits and even large enterprises, how quickly and reliably money moves through the organization shapes everything from day-to-day operations to long-term strategy.

    Business leaders must regularly evaluate whether their payment solutions can keep pace with evolving demands or risk falling behind.

    Cash flow is the lifeblood of any organization. Whether it’s a small business handling seasonal fluctuations, a nonprofit managing through a grant cycle or a large corporation coordinating purchases across multiple departments, the ability to effectively manage incoming and outgoing funds is fundamental.

    Payment delays, mismatched billing cycles and inflexible payment terms can all create unnecessary strain, limiting a business’s ability to invest in new opportunities or respond to unexpected challenges.

    Related: Slow Payment Options Are Costing Your Business — Here’s the Alternatives of the Future

    Breaking free from operational bottlenecks

    Research reveals the operational realities business decision-makers face. According to a Morning Consult survey commissioned by Walmart Business, nearly 500 small business leaders reported spending approximately 40% of their workweek on administrative tasks.

    A significant portion of this time is devoted to managing spending, cash flow and reconciliation—activities that, while essential, can detract from core business functions such as serving customers, innovating and pursuing growth opportunities.

    For resource-strapped organizations, every minute spent on manual bookkeeping or chasing receipts is time lost driving the business forward. Yet many still rely on traditional payment processes that are rigid, slow and misaligned with their workflows, adding to the administrative burden. Today’s payment solutions must go beyond processing transactions to actively reduce operational friction.

    Related: Struggling with Finances? These Payment Solutions Will Save You

    Seamless systems, stronger performance

    Beyond cash flow, integrating payment solutions into everyday business operations can have a significant impact on efficiency. Traditional payment methods such as checks or manual invoices often require multiple steps for approval, reconciliation and record-keeping. Each additional step introduces the potential for errors, delays and increased administrative overhead.

    Organizations must consider how payment solutions fit into their unique workflows. No two organizations are alike; purchasing needs, approval hierarchies and accounting practices can vary widely depending on the industry, size and structure of the business. Solutions that are too rigid or too generic will fail to meet the specific requirements of a given organization, leading to workarounds that undermine efficiency and accuracy.

    Modern payment solutions are built for integration. When payment options are embedded into the purchasing experience — whether that’s through an online portal, a mobile app or in-store systems — organizations benefit from a seamless workflow that minimizes manual intervention.

    Features such as automated invoicing, real-time reporting and centralized record-keeping simplify the reconciliation process and make it easier for business leaders to monitor spending, comply with internal controls and generate accurate financial reports.

    Putting integration into action: Pay by invoice

    Flexible payment solutions, particularly those that offer extended terms or credit lines, can provide organizations with vital breathing room. By allowing businesses to defer payment on purchases — sometimes for 30 days or more — these solutions support better cash flow management and allow leaders to allocate their time and resources strategically. This flexibility can be especially impactful during uncertain economic times or periods of growth, when upfront investments may be required before additional revenue is realized.

    At Walmart Business, we recognized this need and recently introduced Pay by Invoice, powered by TreviPay. This offer enables eligible customers to access a business line of credit from TreviPay with 30-day net terms, allowing them to make critical purchases when needed and defer payment to better align with their revenue cycles.

    Such flexibility is no longer a luxury; it’s an expectation among business customers who must navigate complex, multi-location operations and fluctuating cash flows.

    The demand for Pay by Invoice is rooted in the desire for streamlined financial operations. By offering consolidated, detailed invoices, the solution simplifies expense tracking and reporting, making it easier for organizations to maintain oversight and accountability.

    The decision to fully integrate the use of Pay by Invoice into the Walmart Business experience across online, app and in-store channels was intentional, so customers benefit from a seamless, frictionless purchasing and payment process wherever they choose to shop.

    Related: What Sparked the Push for Flexible Pay?

    Looking ahead at the future of business payments

    As organizations continue to seek ways to operate more efficiently and adapt to changing economic conditions, the significance of flexible payment solutions will only grow. The broader trend toward digitization, automation and integration is transforming not only how businesses purchase goods and services, but how they manage finances, assess performance and make strategic decisions.

    For business leaders, understanding the available payment options and evaluating them through the lens of their organization’s unique needs is critical. Solutions that provide flexibility, transparency and integration can help remove operational barriers, improve cash flow and set the stage for sustained growth. Payment processes are no longer a back-office concern; they are a strategic lever for business success and future growth.

    The right payment solution can accelerate growth, while the wrong one can stunt it. For small businesses, nonprofits and even large enterprises, how quickly and reliably money moves through the organization shapes everything from day-to-day operations to long-term strategy.

    Business leaders must regularly evaluate whether their payment solutions can keep pace with evolving demands or risk falling behind.

    Cash flow is the lifeblood of any organization. Whether it’s a small business handling seasonal fluctuations, a nonprofit managing through a grant cycle or a large corporation coordinating purchases across multiple departments, the ability to effectively manage incoming and outgoing funds is fundamental.

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    Ashley Hubka

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  • Why Non-Tech Founders Hold the Advantage in the AI-First Era | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I’ve spent 15+ years building across multiple tech ventures and cultures — starting in Vietnam, sharpening my craft in Japan and Singapore, then expanding to the U.S., Australia and Europe. Each stop taught me how different ecosystems turn constraints into capability: how to ship products under pressure, build companies from zero, grow talent pipelines and lead teams through the hardest execution challenges.

    Along the way, I co-founded ventures across domains — from cloud content security and AI-driven fraud detection in finance to AI-powered talent vetting and AI-powered graphic design and marketing.

    That journey left me with a simple conviction: AI is fundamentally changing how we build software, how we build companies and how we build the skills to operate at a new level of business innovation. The shift is so deep that non-tech founders, entrepreneurs and SME owners must rethink how they imagine products, platforms and transformation — or risk shipping the right features on the wrong foundations. This is why I’m sharing what I’ve learned about building AI-first products and AI-first companies now.

    Related: AI Is Taking Over Coding at Microsoft, Google, and Meta

    Software’s evolution through the decades

    For most of the last forty years, we’ve lived through clear eras in software. Before the year 2000, the PC and operating system era was defined by “software in a box.” You bought a CD, installed it onto your personal computer and hoped it would work smoothly.

    Updates were rare, often requiring another CD or manual patch and builders operated on a simple model: ship a big release and trust that it would run on as many machines as possible. Microsoft Office is a classic example of this model — self-contained, tied to the machine and static until the next big update.

    In the early 2000s, the world shifted into the Cloud and SaaS era—software delivered through the browser. Suddenly, the constraint of a single device disappeared. You could log in anywhere, at any time and access your tools. Gmail replaced desktop email clients, Salesforce and Shopify scaled into massive business backbones and updates became continuous and invisible.

    The builder’s mindset changed too: the challenge was no longer compatibility with local machines but designing systems for massive scale, elastic infrastructure and recurring subscription revenue. Releases shrank from multi-year cycles to weekly or even daily pushes, as software transformed into a living service rather than a fixed product.

    We are in an AI-first era

    Now, we are entering what can only be described as the AI-first era — a world where the model itself becomes the new runtime. Instead of clicking buttons or typing into form fields, we state our goals in plain language and intelligent agents take on the work of planning steps, calling tools and escalating back to us only when needed.

    The leap here isn’t just convenience; it’s a redefinition of interaction. Everyday examples are already here: a support assistant that drafts responses for you or a finance copilot that reconciles books.

    Related: Here’s How People Are Actually Using ChatGPT, According to OpenAI

    From clicks to conversions

    What’s actually happening under the hood is profound. We are moving from clicks to conversation: where yesterday’s software waited for us to press buttons, today’s systems can understand goals expressed in natural language and translate them into action.

    We are moving from apps to agents: software that doesn’t just sit idle but proactively plans, integrates with CRMs, ERPs or payment systems and delivers back results with an audit trail. And we are moving from “it works” to “it works, is safe and proves it,” layering in guardrails, evaluation metrics and rollback systems so AI not only performs but stays aligned and compliant.

    Even infrastructure itself is shifting — from the brute force of bigger servers to intelligent placement, with some AI running in the cloud while other tasks live at the edge, close to the user, for privacy and instant responsiveness.

    The takeaway for founders is clear: moving from OS to Cloud to Model-as-Runtime is not simply another product cycle — it’s a mindset change. Thinking in yesterday’s categories, whether screens, clicks or tickets, means you’ll end up bolting AI awkwardly on top of an old product.

    Thinking in today’s categories — goals, agents, tools, guardrails and proof — unlocks AI-first products and, more importantly, AI-first companies. The shift matters because it directly affects how organizations will operate and where profit and loss will be shaped.

    Related: How to Turn Your ‘Marketable Passion’ Into Income After Retirement

    The impact on non-technical founders

    Perhaps most importantly, this moment is uniquely suited to non-technical founders and entrepreneurs. For decades, building software required deep technical expertise. But in the AI-first world, domain knowledge becomes the true advantage. If you already know the realities of freight, healthcare clinics, food and beverage, construction or retail finance, you’re in a better position than ever before to turn that expertise into AI-first operations.

    Large enterprises are trying to adapt, too, but their size slows them down. That friction creates opportunity. Even management consultants are admitting that agentic AI demands a reset in the way organizations approach transformation. For smaller founders, the window is open: you can describe outcomes in plain language, wire them to existing tools and keep human oversight where judgment truly matters.

    At DigiEx Group, we built our company on the idea of combining a Tech Talent Hub, an AI Factory and a Startup Studio to meet our region’s needs. This approach has powered everything from self-cleaning catalog systems to risk-detecting logistics agents with multilingual communication.

    The biggest challenge wasn’t the technology, but helping teams shift their mindset — where change management and open communication proved more important than the code.

    Focus on impact

    Another lesson: focus on impact first. Not every workflow benefits from AI. We resisted the temptation to sprinkle automation everywhere and instead prioritized areas where it could make the biggest difference — speed, quality or decision-making power. From there, we scaled what worked. And finally, we learned to automate with intention. If AI didn’t enhance quality, speed things up or improve decisions, we left it out. Discipline turned out to be just as important as imagination.

    That is why this era matters. If the 2000s were about cloud-first design, the 2020s and beyond are about AI-first thinking. This isn’t about slapping new features on top of old software; it’s about adopting a new way of building. The model is the runtime, language is the interface, agents are the services and LLMOps is the new production discipline. Companies that internalize this won’t just ship faster — they’ll operate differently, measuring quality, trust and cost per task with the same seriousness that older generations measured uptime.

    For non-technical founders, small business owners and entrepreneurs with real-world expertise, the door is wide open. You can scale globally from day one, gain tenfold productivity where it hurts the most, and access insights that used to cost consultant-level fees. For the first time in decades, the playing field tilts toward those who understand the problem best, not those who can only write the code.

    I’ve spent 15+ years building across multiple tech ventures and cultures — starting in Vietnam, sharpening my craft in Japan and Singapore, then expanding to the U.S., Australia and Europe. Each stop taught me how different ecosystems turn constraints into capability: how to ship products under pressure, build companies from zero, grow talent pipelines and lead teams through the hardest execution challenges.

    Along the way, I co-founded ventures across domains — from cloud content security and AI-driven fraud detection in finance to AI-powered talent vetting and AI-powered graphic design and marketing.

    That journey left me with a simple conviction: AI is fundamentally changing how we build software, how we build companies and how we build the skills to operate at a new level of business innovation. The shift is so deep that non-tech founders, entrepreneurs and SME owners must rethink how they imagine products, platforms and transformation — or risk shipping the right features on the wrong foundations. This is why I’m sharing what I’ve learned about building AI-first products and AI-first companies now.

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    Johnny LE

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  • Anthropic Is One of the Most Valuable Startups Ever | Entrepreneur

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    Anthropic, the AI startup behind the chatbot Claude, finalized a deal on Tuesday for a new, $13 billion Series F funding round that catapults its valuation from $61.5 billion to $183 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups ever.

    Anthropic has more than 300,000 business customers and has seen a sevenfold increase in its number of large clients with projects above $100,000 in the past year, the company said in a statement.

    “We are seeing exponential growth in demand across our entire customer base,” Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao said.

    Related: ‘We Don’t Negotiate’: Why Anthropic CEO Is Refusing to Match Meta’s Massive 9-Figure Pay Offers

    The funding round, which was led by investment firm Iconiq Capital, with Fidelity Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners, was one of the largest financing rounds so far for an AI startup, Bloomberg notes.

    Anthropic was initially planning to raise $5 billion, but raised the target to $10 billion following strong demand. The end $13 billion figure arose from more investors wanting to get a stake in the popular startup.

    In the statement, Anthropic noted that its run-rate revenue makes it “one of the fastest-growing technology companies in history,” skyrocketing from $1 billion at the start of the year to more than $5 billion in August. (Run-rate revenue refers to a company’s future annual revenue based on a shorter period of current performance.)

    Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images

    Anthropic joins startups like SpaceX (valued at $350 billion in December) and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance (valued at $300 billion in November), in the high valuation club.

    While Anthropic may be raising ample funds, its main competitor is further ahead. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced in March that it had raised $40 billion in the biggest tech funding round for a private company, elevating its valuation to $300 billion.

    Anthropic was founded four years ago by former OpenAI staff and has since differentiated itself from its competitors with an emphasis on AI safety. It launched its chatbot Claude in March 2023 and Claude Code, an AI coding tool that enables users to generate, edit, and debug code, in February.

    Related: The CEO of $61 Billion Anthropic Says AI Will Take Over a Crucial Part of Software Engineers’ Jobs Within a Year

    Creating functional AI is a costly endeavor, requiring startups like Anthropic to raise as much funding as possible. In July 2024, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Norges Bank CEO Nicolai Tangen in an “In Good Company” podcast episode that training an AI model costs around $100 million, but there are models today that cost “more like a billion.”

    “I think there is a good chance that by [2027] we’ll be able to get models that are better than most humans at most things,” Amodei said in the podcast.

    Anthropic, the AI startup behind the chatbot Claude, finalized a deal on Tuesday for a new, $13 billion Series F funding round that catapults its valuation from $61.5 billion to $183 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups ever.

    Anthropic has more than 300,000 business customers and has seen a sevenfold increase in its number of large clients with projects above $100,000 in the past year, the company said in a statement.

    “We are seeing exponential growth in demand across our entire customer base,” Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao said.

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    Sherin Shibu

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  • Your Startup Seems On Track — But An Invisible Growth Blocker Says Otherwise | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a founder, your focus is growth — more users, more features, more market share. But sometimes the biggest thing standing in your way isn’t your business model, marketing or funding. It’s your tech team.

    Not because they’re doing something wrong — but because they’ve taken you as far as they can.

    And when you finally bring in a new team or vendor, it’s a stress test. For the business, it means facing hard questions about control. For the new team, it means diving into someone else’s legacy code. And for you, the founder, there’s one phrase no one ever wants to hear:

    “Honestly, it might be easier to rebuild this from scratch.”

    But here’s the thing — you don’t need a fire to smell the smoke.

    Related: The Top 2 Mistakes Founders Make That Hinder the Growth of Their Companies

    The calm before the stall

    Sometimes, founders realize something’s off when everything starts breaking — delivery delays, ballooning budgets or a tech stack that feels five years old. But just as often, things look fine on the surface.

    Code is getting shipped. Deadlines are met. Users are active, maybe even paying. On paper, it all looks “on track.”

    But under the hood, your product may already be maxed out. Not because of bugs — but because the team that built it wasn’t thinking far enough ahead.

    This is the silent stall: when your product stops being a launchpad and becomes a ceiling. It still works, but it can’t grow.

    No scalable tech foundation

    Most growth plans boil down to a simple idea: make it work, then scale. But can your architecture, tools and infrastructure handle that scale?

    If your tech partner lacks a long-term mindset, they’ll deliver what you ask for — but not what you’ll need next. That means you’ll constantly be in maintenance mode, fixing things that should’ve been built right the first time.

    And growth adds pressure fast: more users, more data, more complexity. What works for a few thousand users might fall apart at scale — or cost you exponentially more to run.

    A good tech partner doesn’t treat scalability as an upgrade. They design for it from day one. Modular systems, clean infrastructure and smart trade-offs aren’t technical luxuries — they’re what make future features (and funding rounds) possible.

    Because rebuilding later costs more. In time, money and momentum you won’t get back.

    An incomplete team

    Here’s something that trips up a lot of startups: assuming developers alone can carry the product.

    Developers are essential, of course. But building a successful digital product takes more than code. You also need:

    • Business analysts to map user and market needs into features
    • UX and UI designers to shape user experience
    • Solution architects to plan scalable systems

    If your current vendor only supplies engineers, you’re not working with a product partner — you’re working with a contractor. That might be fine early on, but over time, it’s a limitation.

    Without the right roles in place, your product gets built in a vacuum. There’s no one translating strategy into functionality or guiding decisions with the bigger picture in mind.

    A complete product team is cross-functional by design. The best vendors can pull in the right expertise when needed — not weeks later, but immediately.

    No plan for what’s next

    Plenty of teams are great at delivering today’s requirements. But what about tomorrow’s?

    If your tech partner isn’t helping you plan for monetization, scale or the next fundraising round, you’re not set up for sustainable growth.

    Think about how much future planning touches:

    • Payment systems
    • Onboarding flows
    • App store requirements
    • Subscription models
    • Analytics and data tracking

    Miss these pieces early, and you’ll end up rebuilding later — right when you should be scaling. Investors notice too. They expect clean data, thoughtful UX and systems that support growth, not just usage.

    A strong tech partner will challenge assumptions and help you anticipate what comes after this version. Because scaling isn’t just more code — it’s pricing, performance, infrastructure and go-to-market timing all working together.

    If your team isn’t thinking that far ahead, it’s time to find one that is.

    Related: 6 Unconventional Habits That Actually Help Entrepreneurs Find Work-Life Sanity

    Final thoughts

    Not all stalled products fail loudly. Sometimes the most dangerous moment is when everything seems fine — but nothing’s moving forward.

    You don’t need a crisis to justify a change. You need a vision that your current team can grow into — not just keep afloat.

    Yes, switching vendors takes time, effort and sometimes cleanup. But it also gives you a reset — a chance to align your product with where your business is actually going.

    If you’ve hit a ceiling, don’t wait until it becomes a wall. Find a partner who can build what’s next, not just maintain what’s now.

    As a founder, your focus is growth — more users, more features, more market share. But sometimes the biggest thing standing in your way isn’t your business model, marketing or funding. It’s your tech team.

    Not because they’re doing something wrong — but because they’ve taken you as far as they can.

    And when you finally bring in a new team or vendor, it’s a stress test. For the business, it means facing hard questions about control. For the new team, it means diving into someone else’s legacy code. And for you, the founder, there’s one phrase no one ever wants to hear:

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    Ilia Kiselevich

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  • Google Rehires AI Pioneer Noam Shazeer in $2.7 Billion Deal | Entrepreneur

    Google Rehires AI Pioneer Noam Shazeer in $2.7 Billion Deal | Entrepreneur

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    In August, Google entered a $2.7 billion agreement with AI chatbot startup Character.AI. The official reason? Getting a license to use Character’s technology.

    The unofficial reason? According to a Wednesday Wall Street Journal report, the consensus within Google is that the tech giant primarily wanted to rehire a former employee who quit in 2021 after creating an AI chatbot that Google refused to take public.

    The engineer, 48-year-old Noam Shazeer, was one of the first hundred employees at Google. He quickly established himself as an AI expert and wrote a paper in 2017 with seven other Google employees called “Attention is All You Need” which introduced a new deep learning architecture. That paper has been cited by other researchers more than 100,000 times and established him as one of the inventors of modern AI.

    Related: Google Introduces Its New Project Astra AI Assistant at I/O Event — Here’s What Else You Missed

    Shazeer claims credit for his contributions: His LinkedIn “About” section at the time of writing reads, “I have invented much of the current revolution in large language models.”

    Noam Shazeer. Credit: Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post via Getty Images

    In 2021, before the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Shazeer was working on AI at Google. He and his colleagues created an AI chatbot that could interact with users conversationally, and they advocated for Google to demo it to the public. Google refused multiple times and Shazeer quit to start Character, building up the startup from 2021 to the present with over $150 million in funding at a valuation of $1 billion as of March.

    Google’s August agreement with Character brought Shazeer back into the company as part of the DeepMind research team, which works on AI.

    Shazeer made hundreds of millions of dollars as part of the deal, according to the WSJ.

    Related: Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Is Back at the Company ‘Pretty Much Every Day.’ Here’s What He’s Working On.

    Other big tech companies have made similar agreements recently. In late August, Amazon signed a deal to non-exclusively license AI models developed by AI robotics startup Covariant and bring over Covariant’s co-founders and some employees.

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    Sherin Shibu

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  • How to Leverage Fintech for Efficient Cash Management | Entrepreneur

    How to Leverage Fintech for Efficient Cash Management | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    With limited resources and tough competition, efficient cash management can make or break your business. One major challenge is unpredictable cash flow, which often results from irregular sales cycles or delayed client payments. A 2023 QuickBooks survey revealed that 61% of small business owners find cash flow to be their biggest hurdle. This inconsistency can make it tough to plan and ensure there’s enough capital to cover essential expenses.

    Startups often rely on manual processes for things like invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reporting. These old-school methods can lead to errors, inefficiencies and a lack of real-time financial visibility. With tight budgets and limited expertise, managing cash flow becomes even more challenging. Tasks like reconciling multiple bank accounts and forecasting future cash flow can be overwhelming without the right tools. That’s why startups need a smarter approach to cash management, and fintech solutions are here to help.

    Related: How to Properly Manage the Cash Flow of Your Startup

    1. Fintech brings financial transparency

    There are tools that offer real-time payments and notifications, keeping you instantly informed about the status of your transactions. This means you can spot and address any issues right away, helping you stay on top of your finances and avoid any unexpected surprises.

    On top of real-time tracking, these tools can also forecast your future cash flow. They use past data and current trends to predict what your cash flow will look like down the road. This helps you plan better and avoid running into cash shortages. By knowing what to expect, you can make smarter decisions and ensure you have enough funds to cover future expenses, making your financial management smoother and more predictable.

    2. Perfect your numbers

    Fintech tools make keeping your financial records accurate by automating data entry, so you don’t have to do it all manually. For instance, payment software can automatically link with your accounting software and update your records for you. This reduces the chance of mistakes and keeps everything accurate without all the manual work.

    This means they can catch issues before they become big problems, helping you keep your records in check and avoiding costly mistakes.

    Related: Busywork Sucks — How Automation Can Eliminate Boring Tasks for Entrepreneurs

    3. Cut costs and streamline operations

    Fintech tools can help you save time and money by automating everyday financial tasks. They take care of invoicing, expense management and payroll automatically. This means you and your team spend less time on admin tasks and more on important work that helps your startup grow and even thrive.

    Digital payment solutions usually come with lower transaction fees than traditional banking methods. These services have cheaper processing costs as compared to the slow payment options, which helps you keep your budget in check. This way, you can manage your finances more efficiently and save on unnecessary expenses.

    4. Stay agile and make quick decisions

    Fintech solutions make transactions super-fast, so you can jump on financial opportunities or tackle needs instantly. With features like instant payments and real-time bank updates, you can make quick decisions that keep you winning and ready to respond to changes.

    Fintech tools provide detailed financial reports and analytics that help users make smart choices quickly. For startups, where timing is everything, having easy access to clear financial information lets users stay flexible and adapt on the fly. This agility helps users drive growth and challenges more smoothly.

    Related: Slow Payment Options Are Costing Your Business — Here’s the Alternatives of the Future

    Getting started with fintech

    So, how can you get fintech solutions working seamlessly in your startup? Here’s a simple strategy from my experience. Start with the basics — focus on core tools that address your immediate needs, like cash flow forecasting or automated invoicing and billing. Once you’re comfortable with these, you can gradually introduce more advanced tools, such as expense management systems or detailed financial analytics. Make sure the tools you choose integrate smoothly with your current systems to avoid disruptions and keep things running efficiently.

    Investing in training is also important. Around 70% of organizations provide training for their staff to effectively use new technologies. Proper training helps your team maximize the benefits of your fintech tools. Your team must know how to use the software and troubleshoot common issues. Many fintech providers offer training resources and ongoing support to help with this. Regular check-ins with your provider will update you on new features and best practices.

    Lastly, keep a close eye on how your fintech tools are performing. Regularly review their effectiveness to ensure they meet your needs and spot any inefficiencies. Be ready to adapt as your business grows or as new fintech solutions become available. Flexibility is essential for maintaining efficient cash flow management strategies and ensuring your startup stays on top of its financial game.

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    Nick Chandi

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  • Why Business Leaders Need to Learn About about Digital IDs | Entrepreneur

    Why Business Leaders Need to Learn About about Digital IDs | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    We’ve come a long way from the days when identity verification meant simply presenting a handwritten document or a personal endorsement. The Digital ID movement signals a new era where your identity is a digital entity, stored and accessed online.

    This shift promises many benefits, like positively transforming efficiency, security and fraud prevention. Yet, here is the challenge: the transition isn’t an overnight overhaul. It’s a gradual, evolutionary process.

    Physical documents aren’t going anywhere – yet

    Consider the reliability of a physical document – tangible, verifiable and trusted across various industries. Despite the charm of digital transformation, a 2024 Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Regula reveals that 46% of organizations still manually verify documents, including in remote setups. This reliance is even higher in sectors with stringent security demands, such as Aviation (63%) and Finance (44%).

    Why the attachment to paper? It’s simple. Physical documents are trusted and familiar, and they provide unmatched authenticity. They work. For business leaders, this means a gradual transition to digital identity systems is not just sensible – it’s essential. The current systems can coexist with emerging technologies, ensuring operations remain smooth while new methods are integrated.

    The barriers to a digital dream

    The dream of a global Digital ID system faces significant challenges. Chief among them is the lack of universal legislative frameworks. It’s like trying to conduct a global orchestra without a shared music sheet.

    According to the study, 74% of respondents highlight the need for unified global standards to ensure seamless integration and acceptance worldwide. This lack of alignment means businesses are navigating a fragmented landscape, where interoperability across borders is a complex challenge.

    Furthermore, technological disparities create uneven progress. While some regions, like the UAE, are racing ahead with advanced digital infrastructures, others, including the US and Europe, are taking a more cautious approach due to stringent regulations. This disparity underscores the importance of tailored strategies considering regional readiness and capabilities.

    Related: Your Face is Data — and Scammers Are Using it for Fraud. Here are 5 Tips When Using Identity Verification

    Concerns and realities

    As businesses examine the digital leap, several Digital ID concerns weigh heavily:

    • 50% worry about increased data breaches and cybersecurity threats.
    • 46% are concerned about the necessity of robust security frameworks to mitigate the risks of data breaches.
    • 44% fear the implications for privacy due to surveillance and data tracking.
    • 35% highlight dependence on technology potentially leading to system failures.
    • 35% see the risk of identity theft and fraud with digital credentials.

    These concerns are not trivial. They reflect the real and present challenges of a digital transition. But they also point to the need for robust, secure, and reliable systems that can build trust over time.

    Related: Deepfakes Are on the Rise — Will They Change How Businesses Verify Their Users?

    The hybrid solution

    In this complex landscape, a hybrid approach to Digital IDs emerges as the most pragmatic path forward. This strategy embraces both digital and physical verification methods, allowing businesses to transition at a manageable pace. By maintaining physical documents alongside Digital IDs, organizations can leverage the strengths of both systems, ensuring reliability while gradually adopting new technologies.

    For business managers, this hybrid model offers a reassuring compromise. It minimizes disruption to existing processes and provides the flexibility needed to explore and integrate digital solutions incrementally.

    At the same time, to adopt digital IDs into the current IDV (Identity Verification) process, a business must undertake several steps. First, it should assess the compatibility of its existing infrastructure with digital ID technologies, ensuring it can seamlessly integrate the new system. This involves upgrading or adapting current software and hardware to support digital ID functionalities. Next, the business must select a reliable digital ID provider, prioritizing those with strong security measures and compliance with regulatory standards. Implementing digital IDs requires employee training to effectively manage and operate the new system. Additionally, the business should develop a clear strategy for data privacy and protection, addressing potential cyber threats and ensuring compliance with data protection laws. Finally, a thorough testing phase is essential to identify and resolve any issues before fully deploying the digital ID system, ensuring a smooth transition and maintaining the integrity of the IDV process.

    Standard issue

    The development and adoption of Digital ID systems will require collaborative innovation from authorities, businesses and stakeholders in the IDV market. Key players like the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are working to establish frameworks for Digital ID adoption. Their efforts foster interoperability, security and privacy across different systems. However, creating comprehensive standards is a meticulous, time-consuming process.

    However, even if all standards are prepared and fully verified, the next stage involves implementing software according to these standards. This is not just a single module but a comprehensive suite of systems for each vendor, and there will be many vendors. Each vendor may interpret the standards differently, leading to inevitable compatibility issues.

    This brings us to the necessity of having process standards as well as testing and certification standards. However, even if vendors pass certification, questions about the completeness and reliability of the software will remain, especially when used by end-users. For example, an SDK might be fully functional, but during integration, developers might cut corners and not utilize all necessary components.

    Who will handle the certification? Laboratories will be needed to prepare testing software, and these labs will charge significant fees for conducting time-consuming tests. Not all vendors will be eager to invest in certification. Given that each country might have multiple vendors, the scale of the problem is immense.

    Currently, passports function without any online infrastructure, but digital IDs will need online services capable of handling massive volumes of requests, potentially from around the world. Imagine 300 million simultaneous requests in the USA alone. This feels like the scale of Facebook, Instagram or Google, with dedicated data centers and more. The cost could be astronomical. Poorer countries might decide they don’t need such systems or opt for minimal implementations.

    As a result, we will have many document variants: not only paper documents, paper documents with chips, and digital IDs but also many different types of digital IDs.

    Related: U.S. State Will Now Accept Digital Driver’s License on iPhone

    A marathon, not a sprint

    The journey to widespread Digital ID adoption is indeed a marathon. Even after the development of comprehensive standards, global adoption will take time. The initial issuance of Digital IDs will still require physical passports or ID cards, underscoring the ongoing relevance of traditional identification methods. Moreover, the implementation costs and the need for robust infrastructure further slow the transition.

    For business owners and managers, introducing Digital ID is best viewed as a gradual evolution. After all, in this long road to digital transformation, patience and pragmatism will be your greatest allies.

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    Ihar Kliashchou

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  • 5 PR Mistakes AI Startups Must Avoid | Entrepreneur

    5 PR Mistakes AI Startups Must Avoid | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The world of entrepreneurship has been transformed in a big way by the emergence of artificial intelligence. The numbers speak volumes. In 2023, AI startups worldwide raised an impressive $50 billion. And in Q1 2024, they had already scored $11.4 billion, roughly 17% of the total global funding.

    Investors definitely have a soft spot for AI, which explains why it’s still attracting hefty financing during the venture capital winter. It’s no wonder that at Y Combinator demo days in 2024, a whopping 172 out of 247 projects were all about AI.

    The AI boom — from niche to must-have

    AI has come a long way from its days in science fiction and academia. What was once considered niche and impractical has blossomed into a massive industry. Whether it’s voice-activated assistants on our phones or recommendation algorithms that help us shop online, AI is now a vital part of our routines.

    Generative artificial intelligence is the talk of the town, thanks to user-friendly programs like Google’s Gemini (formerly known as Bard) and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This surge in popularity is expected to skyrocket the Gen AI market to a whopping $1.3 trillion by 2032, up from a modest $40 billion in 2022.

    But it’s not just consumer products — in heavily regulated sectors such as healthcare, finance and government services, Gen AI opens up unprecedented opportunities to automate tasks and synthesize data. Take, for example, HCA Healthcare, one of the world’s largest healthcare providers, which is using it to speed up the process of drafting medical notes. And Moody’s, the financial ratings agency, has rolled out its Gen AI Research Assistant to help customers uncover fresh insights from credit research, data and analytics.

    Startups are eager to leave their mark and bring innovation to the table. According to Tracxn, there are over 67,000 AI and machine learning projects, along with more established AI firms globally. The next wave of AI enablement market players is already emerging. Startups assist with Large Language Models training, deployment and evaluation, as well as tackle critical AI concerns, from preventing hallucinations to addressing ethical dilemmas.

    The big question is, how do you stand out among this sea of competitors and avoid getting lost in the crowd?

    Related: 4 Ways to Build a Successful AI Startup

    The PR pitfalls to dodge in a crowded market

    Effective public relations has emerged as a make-or-break factor for AI projects in a hypercompetitive environment. Yet, despite its importance, many startups miss the mark on PR, unknowingly sabotaging their efforts to attract and keep customers. These are the most common mistakes they make.

    1. Putting all eggs in the product basket

    Having cutting-edge tech isn’t enough to guarantee success anymore. Startups tend to assume that their product will naturally speak for itself. Sure, having a superior AI solution is crucial. However, neglecting the importance of strategic promotion and brand building can be a costly oversight.

    To catch attention, AI projects should take the lead in engaging with their target audience. This means reaching out to potential customers through various channels, like social media, platforms such as Product Hunt and popular media outlets, including Forbes, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur and many others.

    But it doesn’t stop there. In a truly competitive environment, it’s essential to stand out from the crowd. Following the same old routine as everyone else won’t do justice to your offering. One effective way to differentiate yourself is by not only growing your company’s brand but also your own personal brand as a founder. Your reputation is the bedrock of your influence, which can sometimes hold more weight than the product itself when it comes to attracting investors or partners.

    2. Neglecting audience analysis

    Another common mistake that many AI startups stumble upon is forgetting to personalize their communications for different audiences. Some projects go for a “one-size-fits-all” approach, hoping to catch everyone’s eye. However, this broad strategy often waters down the message and misses out on opportunities to connect with potential customers as well as investors.

    Imagine there’s a startup developing AI-powered chatbots, aiming to serve both companies and individual users. However, in their PR efforts, they’re only talking about personal content creation. They’re overlooking enterprises by not highlighting how their product can assist in preparing marketing strategies and descriptions. Similarly, some AI projects might use complex jargon that only appeals to tech enthusiasts, instead of crafting compelling narratives that resonate with everyday users.

    To avoid falling into this trap, market players need to conduct thorough research, segment their audience based on relevant criteria like industry, demographics and pain points, and adjust their PR strategies accordingly. As I’ve mentioned in another article, think of your business like a Rubik’s Cube. Just like the cube’s various colors, your company can be showcased from multiple angles tailored to your audience. Always be ready to adapt and roll the dice.

    Related: The Success of Your PR Campaign Depends on These 3 Essential Elements

    3. Starting PR campaigns prematurely

    Timing is everything when it comes to PR. Starting too early may do more harm than good. In fact, it’s a common mistake for startups to launch media campaigns when they’re still in the early MVP stages because they often fail to meet clients’ and investors’ expectations. As a PR specialist, I often see businesses struggling to provide me with answers about their activities, even when it’s for their own sake. Journalists, partners, investors and end users, who have different goals and standards, are much more demanding to satisfy.

    Let’s consider an example. Recently, Krutrim AI unveiled the beta version of its highly anticipated LLM and an AI assistant similar to ChatGPT, but with a focus on Indian culture. Soon, the AI chatbot faced criticism from users who found inaccuracies in responses ranging from general queries to translations, mathematical problems and logical reasoning. The bot even claimed to be produced by OpenAI, with the company attributing these issues to problems in the training dataset.

    Krutrim’s founder has a proven track record of success and has already founded two unicorns in India: Ola Cabs and Ola Electric. It’s highly likely that the company will improve its model and address any concerns raised. It may not be the case for smaller AI startups. It’s better to wait until you’ve built a solid foundation with clear positioning, reliable processes, and ideally some tangible results, before diving into PR.

    4. Overhyping and underdelivering

    In the race to grab attention and secure funding, some AI startups tend to exaggerate their products and capabilities, making big promises they can’t really back up. This often leads to disappointment among customers, investors and stakeholders when the startup fails to live up to its hype.

    Last year, Inflection AI managed to raise over $1 billion at a valuation of $4 billion, with heavyweights like Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Nvidia backing it. Inflection’s flagship product was Pi, an AI chatbot designed to offer emotional support and advice to consumers. However, rumors are now swirling that the startup will abandon Pi less than a year after its launch. It seems the company wasn’t able to deliver on its promises.

    Sometimes, taking a more cautious and transparent approach to communication is preferable. Instead of making lofty claims, focus on highlighting real achievements and milestones. By being honest and upfront, startups can build trust with their audience and investors, ensuring a more sustainable path to success.

    5. Ignoring AI ethics and data privacy

    In an AI-driven world, ethics and data privacy are more important than ever. We’ve even seen the rise of organizations like The Israeli Association for Ethics in AI, which work hand in hand with researchers, developers, policymakers and everyday users to ensure responsible innovation.

    Sadly, not all AI startups are giving these concerns the attention they deserve in PR efforts. This oversight could lead to serious repercussions, including damage to reputation and legal troubles. Whether it’s mishandling personal data or failing to address ethical implications, negligence can push potential customers away.

    Take OpenAI, which is currently facing legal challenges. Most recently, The New York Times sued them for copyright infringement. They’re also dealing with a bunch of lawsuits from authors, artists, music labels and others. One even alleges that the company improperly obtained massive amounts of personal data, such as medical records and information about minors, to train its ChatGPT model.

    To avoid such risks, AI projects should make compliance and ethical conduct their top priorities. Adhering to guidelines and demonstrating a commitment to responsible AI development is one of the key factors to long-term success in the complex AI landscape.

    Related: What Will It Take to Build a Truly Ethical AI? These 3 Tips Can Help.

    Looking ahead

    AI startups might face tougher challenges in the near future. Some leaders in the field begin to wonder if the industry is overhyped, as only a handful of companies have been able to build profitable businesses. In times of uncertainty, effective PR could become the deciding factor between success and failure.

    By steering clear of common pitfalls and embracing strategic promotion strategies, AI startups can boost their visibility, attract both customers and investors, and ultimately gain a competitive edge in the market. Ultimately, it’s all about showing the world what sets you and your AI solution apart.

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    Evgeniya Zaslavskaya

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  • Can blockchain make weather forecasts better? WeatherXM thinks so

    Can blockchain make weather forecasts better? WeatherXM thinks so

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    Accurate weather forecasts are critical to industries like agriculture, and they’re also important to help prevent and mitigate harm from inclement weather events or natural disasters. But getting forecasts right is extremely difficult. That’s why the founders of WeatherXM have been looking to make weather forecasts more accurate for the past 12 years.

    In 2012, Manolis Nikiforakis, Stratos Theodorou and Nikos Tsiligaridis launched an app that allowed community members to provide grassroots weather updates. They then worked as consultants to enterprise customers, like the Athens airport, in weather-sensitive industries. Now, they are building WeatherXM, a network of community-monitored weather stations that are collecting and sharing local weather data through systems built on the blockchain.

    Nikiforakis, WeatherXM’s CEO, told TechCrunch that the startup has already deployed 5,000 of its own weather stations in over 80 countries. These stations collect local ground weather information and are monitored by volunteers that are compensated with WeatherXM’s own crypto token, $WXM. All of the data collected is accessible to anyone to use personally for free with paid offerings for enterprises that want to use it commercially.

    “We are strong advocates of open source,” Nikiforakis said. “We believe [WeatherXM’s mission] is not purposeful without collaboration with multiple different sides of people and expertise. We are making all this data openly available to anyone. You can see in real time what every weather station is reporting.”

    The startup just raised a $7.7 million Series A round led by Faction, an early-stage blockchain-focused fund that is affiliated with Lightspeed, with participation from VCs including Borderless Capital, Alumni Ventures and Red Beard Ventures, in addition to more VCs and other types of investors. The startup will use the capital to expand its team and set itself up to start monetizing its commercial users.

    Tim Khoury, a partner at Faction, said he was drawn to invest in the company because it offered an attractive use case for a community-driven blockchain project that had both the supply of people willing to join the community and the demand for what the company was producing. The potential TAM for more accurate weather data didn’t hurt, either.

    “The falling of a lot of deep networks is the demand side,” Khoury said. “If there isn’t demand for what is actually being generated, or produced, in this case, you can’t sustain the network over time.”

    As someone with a basement that has flooded on multiple occasions during storms that weren’t accurately predicted, this deal immediately piqued my interest. But the blockchain and crypto token aspect of WeatherXM’s strategy confused me initially.

    Nikiforakis told me that the crypto incentive structure is the only way this local weather network could work. Paying each person who oversees a weather station would make the idea too costly and complicated to scale to the size the network needs to reach to be effective. He said via their first app, they discovered that people were willing to provide weather data for free, so WeatherXM’s structure is meant to incentivize users just a bit more.

    “[Using crypto] also helps coordinate that [weather stations] are deployed in the areas where we care about the most, developing nations and rural nations,” Nikiforakis said. “The crypto rewards work as a coordination tool. In many ways this is a community project, therefore that crypto is acting as a governance tool. People can vote using this token on decisions that influence how the project works.”

    While I’ll admit I’m not bullish when it comes to blockchain or crypto, utilizing that structure here does make a lot of sense. It’s also complementary to the startup’s focus on making the data open source, which requires blockchain technology to actually be effective.

    I was moderating a panel earlier this week that was focused on how communities can prepare for climate emergencies and disasters, and one thing that came up on multiple occasions was that data like this needed to be open source so that public and private entities could more easily work together to both plan for climate disasters and better respond to them.

    WeatherXM making all the data open source, especially from its stations in underserved or rural areas, could be advantageous to communities that are fighting the growing threat and damage of climate events without needing a large budget or resources.

    The mission here is easy to get behind, but we’ll see whether bringing weather to the blockchain gets enough demand to really make a difference.

    “We need to create an ecosystem around our technology and ideas for the industry to move forward, for meteorology to improve in general,” Nikiforakis said. “We don’t like the old way where things are happening in silos and not giving access to anyone who has the credentials or payment. We are going against the stream. We are opening the data to everyone.”

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    Rebecca Szkutak

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  • Food supply chain software maker Silo lays off ~30% of staff amid M&A discussions | TechCrunch

    Food supply chain software maker Silo lays off ~30% of staff amid M&A discussions | TechCrunch

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    Silo, a Bay Area food supply chain startup, has hit a rough patch. TechCrunch has learned that the company on Tuesday laid off roughly 30% of its staff, or north of two dozen employees. Silo has confirmed the headcount reductions, clarifying the cuts were across the board and not focused on individual departments.

    Silo shared the following statement with TechCrunch regarding the layoffs:

    We recently made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by almost 30%. We are committed to supporting those team members impacted and have provided severance packages and recruiting support. At the same time, Silo remains dedicated to serving our customers and the perishables industry at large, and will continue to focus more nimbly on building next-generation supply chain management software solutions.

    Founded in 2018, Silo’s platform helps automate the workflows of food and agricultural businesses and later expanded into other areas, like payment products for accounts payable and receivable automation, inventory management, ledger accounting, financing and more.

    Leading up to the layoffs was an issue around a lending product that had hurt Silo’s revenue. A company source confirmed that a customer had become delinquent on their loan, which caused Silo’s banking partner to pause the loan product. Silo then worked with the bank to resolve the problem with the customer, so the facility has the ability to fund again.

    While Silo is now able to lend, the lack of payment from that customer and overall pause in lending meant a drop in revenue for that period, leading to the layoffs. For that reason, Silo will likely be careful about ramping up the lending product as it moves forward.

    This all took place in recent weeks. However, it’s possible that if Silo had implemented stronger risk management processes, it wouldn’t have faced the default.

    In addition, we’re hearing Silo is engaged in M&A discussions as another possible resolution to its current situation. The company had previously engaged in discussions with potential deal partners ahead of its Series C last year, but the fundraise allowed Silo to pause those talks for a time. In recent weeks, those M&A discussions have picked back up again on the back of new growth the company saw last year as well as the possible need for an exit.

    The startup raised $32 million in Series C funding last summer. Investors include Initialized, Haystack, Tribe Capital, KDT, a16z and others.

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    Sarah Perez

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  • How will the changes to capital gains in Canada affect tech sector? – MoneySense

    How will the changes to capital gains in Canada affect tech sector? – MoneySense

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    In response to the criticism, Freeland’s office said it pursued capital gains changes to create fairness for younger Canadians who are struggling with the cost of living.

    Small business owners to see tax changes

    The budget also included a new program that lowers how much tax some small business owners pay when selling their companies. Those who qualify will be taxed on only one-third of their capital gains up to $2 million.

    Several Shopify Inc. executives, including president Harley Finkelstein, posted about the capital gains changes Freeland proposed on X. Hours after the budget’s release, he wrote, “What. Are. We. Doing?!?” 

    “This is not a wealth tax, it’s a tax on innovation and risk taking” he added on Wednesday. “Our policy failures are America’s gains.”

    The Ottawa-based e-commerce giant’s chief executive Tobi Lütke also chimed in, saying a friend had messaged him to say, “Canada has heard rumours about innovation and is determined to leave no stone unturned in deterring it.” 

    Forbes estimates Lütke’s net worth is valued at USD$6.4 billion. While he’s been more vocal in his criticism of the federal government’s policy decisions in recent months, he previously chaired a digital strategy table that convened in 2018 and hosted Trudeau at his company’s conference.

    Meanwhile, the head of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association said on LinkedIn the capital gains changes left her feeling “baffled.”

    “This measure, which effectively taxes innovation and risk-taking, will significantly dampen Canada’s entrepreneurial spirit, stifle economic growth in critical sectors of our economy, and impact job creation,” Kim Furlong said. “Such (a) policy change undermines Canada’s position to attract the talent needed to grow and scale companies here.”

    Furlong promised to “work tirelessly to reverse the decision.”

    AI technology in Canada

    Alison Nankivell, chief executive of the MaRS innovation hub in Toronto, took such reaction to the budget to be a reflection of the tug of war that can pit fairness against economic opportunity. “In some ways, what you’re hearing from the entrepreneur community is a feeling that that balance is maybe not where they want it to be in terms of the ability to build a business,” she said.

    The tension masked some of the benefits for the sector she saw in the budget. For example, the government set aside $2.4 billion to boost artificial intelligence (AI) capacity with the bulk dedicated to a fund that would increase access to computing and technical infrastructure.

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    The Canadian Press

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  • Survive the Startup Graveyard — This CEO Reveals What It Takes | Entrepreneur

    Survive the Startup Graveyard — This CEO Reveals What It Takes | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    From startup to market maturity, there’s much to learn about scaling a business and your career. The harsh reality is that over 90% of startups don’t make it, and nearly 20% fail within the first year. So, if you happen to be among the minority of those who survived the gauntlet of challenges in the early years, first of all, congratulations. Second, you might be at a point where you need to scale in order to grow.

    As CEO of a leading SaaS company, I get a lot of questions about what it takes to grow a company while also learning to scale as a leader. I joined Pushpay in 2016 when the company was experiencing triple-digit growth year-over-year, with about 3,500 customers and less than 200 employees. Fast forward to today — the company is wildly profitable, has more than 15,000 customers, and has 500 proud employees around the globe. On paper, I certainly did advance from a senior manager to CEO in a matter of just six years. Yet the reality is that I had been preparing for a C-suite role for years. From owning my own consulting practice to leading a growing nonprofit organization, I have been investing in professional learning and leadership at every stop, paving the way to my role as CEO.

    Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about what it takes to reach the top — and spoiler alert, they’re all things you can do, too.

    Related: 10 Growth Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know

    1. Invest in mentorship and coaching

    A mentor recognizes your potential and encourages you to reach that potential. Reaching the top is difficult, but it’s even more difficult on your own. Find a mentor who will champion your interests and can act as a good sounding board as you continue to evolve in your career. A good mentor supports and guides you through the ups, downs and everything in between and gives you the nudge you need to accomplish things you didn’t think were possible. Establishing a relationship with a coach is also immensely valuable. A coach can help you develop skills in specialized areas, offer valuable feedback and challenge you to consider different perspectives. There have been times in my career when I was meeting with a mentor or coach weekly — or even daily — depending on the challenge at hand. From a corporate perspective, seek coaches and mentors who understand the challenges of your industry.

    I have received a lot of valuable advice and guidance over the years from these individuals who have influenced my leadership approach. Some tactical examples include:

    Creating a safe place to battle out hardpoints

    In preparation for challenging meetings or discussions, it’s important to practice and refine your talking points in advance. Create a group of trusted people to help you debate topics and use them to help you refine your talking points in advance of a presentation or discussion (think quarterly earnings announcements, investor calls or a business pitch). The entire intent of this group, and these sessions, is to challenge the status quo and to call out the hard points so you have practice in how to respond well.

    Never present a new idea in the boardroom for the first time

    Thoughts and pitches should be circulated and socialized in advance. This allows for an initial temp check and early buy-in so that at the Board meeting, the answer is a quick ‘yes.’ On the contrary, socialization also allows you to understand if there’s a debate to be had and allows people to be prepared to have that debate.

    Involve mentors and advisors in the talent acquisition process

    For most of our VP and above hires, and certainly all of our C-suite hires, I now invite mentors into the candidate review process. They are a critical part of helping build the scorecard and ensure accountability, which has been extremely helpful for me throughout my career. Involving a mentor or advisor also helps ensure you are hiring without bias.

    I attribute much of my success to the many mentors and coaches who have invested in me over the years. As you advance in your career, consider paying this forward by mentoring other aspiring leaders.

    Related: What Meaningful Mentorship For Women Employees Should Look Like

    2. Fail fast

    Taking risks can be terrifying, but to elevate your career, it is necessary to learn how to take calculated risks and embrace failure. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Taking risks challenges you and helps you strive for growth — and if you’re not pushing the envelope, you’re not innovating and evolving. Outweighing the risk versus reward is where the balance comes in. Does the potential failure have a significant negative impact on the business, or would it just be uncomfortable? If (and when) you do fail, the important thing is to be able to pick yourself back up, learn from the failure, move forward fast and improve for next time. When you truly embrace this approach as a leader and support it as a part of your culture, you’ll be amazed by the creativity and innovation that follow from your team.

    In fact, at Pushpay, we embrace, what we call a Blameless Culture approach, which actually originated from the healthcare industry. Moving from blame to promoting a culture of accountability creates trust and psychological safety within your organization and supports growth. At Pushpay, this approach has not only shaped our product and engineer development culture but has benefited our entire company as we work together to achieve our mission. One of the earliest examples I can remember of our team modeling a “Blameless Culture” approach was when a senior leader within our engineering team at the time (in our early startup days) accidentally deleted and lost a mountain of code. It was erased and lost forever, which in turn had some downstream impacts. While it felt like a devastating loss at the time, the team immediately shifted to a solution-focused mindset rather than lingering on the action of the individual. The blameless concept, at its core, is really about learning from failures, implementing those learnings to mitigate for the future, and coming together as a team to celebrate the failures as much as the wins.

    Related: Take the Risk or Lose the Chance

    3. Invest in tools that can help you scale

    Operating with a constrained budget is not fun in the early years and often dictates what investments you can make — especially when it comes to corporate tooling. However, one of the best investments you can make is in software and technology that will have a long-term impact on your business and customers. For example, Salesforce was an early investment for us at Pushpay and one that’s paid dividends as we’ve continued to grow and scale. At the time, it felt like the investment was more than we could justify as a company in its infancy. However, our leadership team understood how important it was to set a solid foundation to ensure we had the right tools in place to support customer relations, sales, marketing and more. From a customer and data management perspective, investing in the right tools helped set us up for success against our competitors in the years to come.

    4. Have a continuous improvement mindset

    No one ever has all the answers – not even the CEO. The path to successful leadership is filled with curiosity and continuous learning. There is a big difference between managing a team of five and leading a team of 500. Ask questions, don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know something, and relentlessly pursue knowledge and truth.

    As leaders, it’s also imperative that we maintain an edge for innovation and personal learning, as we’re responsible for inspiring creativity and innovation among our teams. I think it is critical that leaders are intentional about continuing to learn, improve and advance their skills. This is especially true for middle and upper managers, who often need to activate new skills and capabilities to scale departments. Having a continuous improvement mindset leads to small incremental changes that lead to significant improvement over time. What’s one thing you can learn or do today that will help you be a better leader?

    Be proactive in learning about the industry you are in and expanding both your hard and soft skills. Hard skills that are needed and necessary in advancing in most careers are things like data analysis, decision-making frameworks and performance management methodology. Soft skills include executive communication, cross-functional collaboration, networking and building effective business relationships.

    You can broaden your technology skills by achieving certifications and participating in training, conferences and other continuing education programs. Don’t wait for someone to raise their hand to inform you of industry innovations — take the initiative on your own.

    Related: How to Expand Your Business to Over 30 Markets in 5 Years — 7 Tips for Successful Growth

    5. Do the work

    It sounds cliche and almost crass, but there is no substitute for doing the work. In a world where AI is at our fingertips, and outsourcing is normalized — there is no replacement for digging in and problem-solving in an authentic way. Leadership is hard, getting a promotion is hard, and, as I mentioned above — growing and evolving in your career can be challenging. Simply put, successful leaders aren’t successful because of luck. They are successful because they have put in the time and energy and have prioritized hard work and professional growth. I’m not saying the hustle culture is the way to go here. In fact, as a society, I think we have shifted our mindset to better support a more harmonious balance of careers and home life. However, I firmly believe that success comes to those who put in the work, and oftentimes, that means outside of the standard “work day.”

    What are you doing outside the standard nine-to-five to help you grow as a leader? Are you spending some of your nights and weekends on passion projects that are helping propel you forward in your career? Are you initiating time with leaders or influencers in your industry? Much of my growth as a leader has come from a commitment to myself to maximize those moments and be intentional about what and who I am investing time with beyond the standard workday.

    The last piece of advice I would give to anyone climbing the ladder of success is to love what you do. A large part of success comes from finding clear purpose and meaning in your work. When your mind and heart are connected to what you do, this fuels you to come to work each day to do great things.

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    Molly Matthews

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  • Israeli Tech CEOs Are Leaving Their Startups to Join the War | Entrepreneur

    Israeli Tech CEOs Are Leaving Their Startups to Join the War | Entrepreneur

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    Some of the biggest names in Israel’s thriving tech industry are trading the office for the battlefield.

    Following Hamas’ attack over the weekend, Israel has called on 300,000 reservists to join its war effort. That includes tech workers, who account for 10% of the Israeli workforce, per Bloomberg.

    Tel Aviv was ranked No. 5 for the best global tech ecosystem in 2023, per The Global Startup Ecosystem Report. The industry’s economic impact is valued at $235 billion.

    The tech leaders leaving their startups are reportedly ready for duty.

    RELATED: ‘This Is Personal’: What Business Leaders Around the World Are Saying About Hamas’ Attack on Israel

    “I want to be part of the people who are protecting our country,” Itamar Friedman, co-founder and CEO of Israeli artificial intelligence startup CodiumAI, told The Wall Street Journal.

    Friedman, who reported for reservist duty, raised $11 million for CodiumAI earlier this year with the help of OpenAI and other investors. He told employees to prepare to work without him for the foreseeable future, according to the outlet.

    Shmuel Chafets, co-founder and chairman of the venture capital firm Target Global (one of Israel’s largest, overseeing $3.2 billion in funds), volunteered to join the Israeli army and was deployed to the Gaza Strip.

    “We are seeing hundreds of thousands of people getting out of their lives, getting into uniform,” he told Bloomberg TV. “People have been rushing into military service.”

    Global companies are also reporting a drop in Israeli staffers.

    Cybersecurity firm Armis, which is based in San Francisco, lost about 15% of its Israeli workforce to the draft. “The expectation is that will go up,” said Nadir Izrael, the company’s chief technology officer, per Bloomberg.

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    Sam Silverman

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  • Crypto is Back. Here’s Why. | Entrepreneur

    Crypto is Back. Here’s Why. | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has to make some big decisions soon.

    Though now delayed, the SEC decision surrounding the spot Bitcoin ETF filing from BlackRock has everyone even remotely involved with crypto on the edge of their seats, and for good reason. BlackRock has more assets under management than most countries’ entire GDPs, and having the world’s largest asset manager entering the crypto game will send reverberations across the entire landscape. More importantly, an SEC approval would signal to other leading traditional financial institutions that crypto is back on the menu as an investment and product option.

    But if the crypto and blockchain community has learned anything, it’s that nothing is promised. Despite BlackRock’s near-flawless ETF approval rate and surprise courtroom wins for Grayscale and Ripple Labs against the SEC — truly, anything can happen.

    So, let’s say we expect the unexpected, and the SEC rejects BlackRock’s ETF filing. It’s unlikely that this will dampen crypto’s institutional ambitions and strides to continue partnering with traditional financial infrastructures. You can even see this change in trajectory throughout the industry’s bear market, where the projects still left standing have shifted gears towards sustainable growth and technical, practical use cases.

    Related: Bear With Me: 3 Ways To Capitalize During the Crypto Winter

    Beyond the ETF

    With shifting developments come shifting trends, and the institutional blockchain space is no exception. But with that in mind, it is vital to remember that people behind the institutions guide their decisions and strategies amid these trend shifts. Of course, it’s not a good idea to hop on every trend in any field, and the traditional financial space is usually well aware of that.

    But what should the human force behind these traditional institutions be prepared for in the blockchain space apart from the incoming SEC decision and ETF filings? The directions point towards the rise of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

    If you’re outside of the blockchain bubble, tokenized RWAs have been steadily climbing the ranks as a viable, long-term way to utilize blockchain technology. Essentially, tokenizing a real-world asset involves creating a virtual investment vehicle that’s linked to a tangible item. That tangible item can range from precious metals, art, collectibles, and real estate.

    In practice, tokenized RWAs open up the gates to a few differing uses. Let’s say you buy a house — an immutable record of your ownership can be put on the blockchain instead of receiving a deed. But tokenizing RWAs also allows assets to be fractionalized, meaning multiple people can own or invest in a fraction of a single physical asset.

    Related: I Want To Buy My Groceries With Crypto — So What’s Stopping Me?

    Some projects centered around fractionalized RWAs did emerge in the last crypto bull run, but they usually honed in on NFTs and sustained themselves on diminishing hype cycles. Now, the focus on fractionalizing tokenized RWAs targets market-resistant asset classes where investor appeal is perennial. By doing so, fractionalization also allows assets with a high-cost barrier to become more accessible to everyday investors, such as fine art or precious metals. The average person might not want to own a portion of one single pair of rare sneakers, but owning part of a Warhol could be more enticing.

    Tokenized and fractionalized RWAs show what can happen when crypto and blockchain technology work in tandem with traditional finance and not in opposition to it. They also demonstrate a viable path forward for institutions beyond whatever happens with the slew of crypto ETFs sitting on the SEC’s docket.

    However, creating digital assets for institutional use isn’t a simple plug-and-play task. There are real technological, security, and regulatory hurdles to clear in bringing RWAs on-chain and making them available for the public to interact with. Yes, many countries and international regulators are moving towards some type of regulatory clarity with regard to blockchain and cryptocurrency. But that means the people working for traditional financial institutions have to be firmly aware of what they’re getting into.

    That kind of infrastructure creation to ensure traditional financial institutions are offering digital assets safely and in line with regulatory requirements can be daunting. However, some crypto-native companies aim to help carry the weight. GK8, for instance, tailors its product line for institutional use—covering everything from custody and enterprise-level security to tokenization.

    Related: When in Doubt, Don’t: 4 Lessons to Learn from the Crypto Implosion

    GK8 serves as an example of how traditional institutions can lean on crypto-native companies for their expertise and prowess in navigating the sector’s ever-evolving threats. Many crypto companies have spent years perfecting and battle-testing their products in anticipation of institutional use, which is what makes them stand out.

    Crypto and blockchain products coming back down to earth has translated into heightened authentic interest from massive institutions that can take mass adoption to a new level. But with so many competing paths and uncertainties hanging in the air, it’s hard to tell what exact next steps institutions will take. Either way, preparation, knowledge, and trust are essential to foster an effective and efficient working relationship between the traditional and decentralized finance spaces.

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    Ariel Shapira

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  • 4 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a CRM | Entrepreneur

    4 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a CRM | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The life of a small business owner can be far from easy at times. There are prospects to follow up with, sales to track and commitments to deliver to clients daily. Feeling overwhelmed and fearing the business will fail if you can’t keep up is easy.

    When I became an entrepreneur, prioritizing my tasks and projects was one of my biggest challenges.

    Since I was coding and selling, I had a lot going on at once and was constantly switching between multiple roles. I would forget to call a prospect or customer back, where a previous conversation had left off, and what I had to do as part of a follow-up interaction.

    Initially, I tried to streamline my work process. Yet, after much research, I could not find a solution I needed in the Mac ecosystem.

    So, I decided to build one for myself to meet my needs. As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

    Years later, that initial product designed to keep me organized in my earliest days as an entrepreneur evolved into Daylite, an all-in-one tool for solopreneurs and small business owners.

    I understood that I was not the only entrepreneur to experience the same struggles trying to prioritize my tasks and projects. And we don’t even have enough people on our teams to do it all for a long time, so we are juggling and switching between tasks. We are forced to focus on multiple things simultaneously, leading to errors and client frustrations.

    Related: What Is A CRM? A Beginners Guide

    The path to success in a small business can have many obstacles. Investing in the right tools can be a true game-changer. A CRM can boost sales by 29%, elevate productivity by 34% and increase forecast accuracy by 42%. It can also help us navigate challenges, regain control of our businesses and work more efficiently to close more deals and get more done.

    Today, you have a choice and can take advantage of many options. I can’t say which CRM is right for you, but I can tell you that having one is absolutely crucial to the success of a one-man (or woman) show or any small business.

    With the evolution of my career and after speaking with so many small business owner customers, I’ve learned four important things about having a powerful CRM in your business.

    1. Saves time

    Something as trivial as searching for a client’s contact information, a seemingly trivial task, can accumulate to be a significant drain on your time. Imagine a scenario where you must make a follow-up call but find the contact details missing. You have sent your team a request, and time is lost waiting for the details to be sent.

    In the long run, the ripple effect of such delays compounds into significant time loss. A CRM solves it by being a centralized repository — wherein all essential contact information is present and ready to access when needed.

    Related: How CRMs Can Spark (or Continue) Fast Growth

    2. Helps build better relationships

    An often overlooked aspect of business interactions is the personal touch. Having a repository of insights into our clients’ lives, ranging from family details to memorable dates, can help us build better relationships with them.

    We store information about the achievements of our client’s children and their key life events to reference in future conversations. But even storing something as simple as the client’s birthdate and being able to send them a present, a card or perhaps simply an email with congratulations can go a long way.

    We all care about our clients and want to be attentive, but storing all of this information in our minds is impossible. A CRM acts as our second brain, in this case, storing it all for us.

    Related: How to Create Authentic Relationships and Build Customer Trust

    3. Saves money in case of a dispute

    It’s normal sometimes to forget discussions or even agreements. It’s also normal to remember things differently. And yet, a memory lapse can have dire consequences.

    Imagine you implement something that a client approves via email. And a few months later, he challenges your execution simply because he forgot about this old request. Finding an old email in an overflowing inbox can turn into a nightmare. Being able to pull out any email from a client’s file in the CRM becomes a game changer.

    4. Helps focus on the right opportunities

    Effectively selling to a variety of potential customers requires careful planning. Deciding where to focus our efforts is crucial – some clients are ready to buy, while others need more time.

    Having all this information in one place and being able to categorize prospects helps sales professionals know which opportunities to pursue and which to hold off on. This approach ensures that we can match our efforts with each customer’s progress, increasing the chances of a successful outcome.

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    Alykhan Jetha

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  • 3 Practical Ways AI Can Work for You | Entrepreneur

    3 Practical Ways AI Can Work for You | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The parabolic growth of accessible AI tools has intriguing implications for businesses. Analysts imagine that generative AI, for example, will have a massive impact on productivity across multiple business functions. Many organizations are scanning the horizon for a long-term AI-fueled transformation, eager to make the most of bullish CAGR projections. And while leaders mustn’t lose sight of long-term goals, staring out too far into the future may be overwhelming — distracting, even.

    Rather than redesign their business’ entire approach just to meet AI somewhere along the horizon, leaders can instead take a more practical route and ask how AI can improve their current strategy. Can AI accelerate current tactics? Can it help teams do things better? Can it help organizations reach their goals with less overhead? The answer, especially regarding product, customer success and internal processes, is overwhelmingly “yes.”

    Related: The Robots Are Coming — But They Can’t Outsmart Us When It Comes To This Particular Skill.

    Product teams can let AI do the legwork for them

    AI’s impact on product development begins with the nitty gritty. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can help teams with everything from documentation to marketing briefs and website content. My team has leveraged AI for these very purposes, letting AI rewrite code into additional languages once we create the initial sample code. Humans are still an essential part of the process, but AI helps provide a kickstart.

    Tech companies have taken AI a step further, embedding it into their products. AI represents both a tremendous opportunity and a threat for security solutions providers. Bad actors have new tool sets that enable them to create more sophisticated attacks faster and more intelligently. Cyber product teams use the same tools to defend against emerging threats and offer in-product help to ensure their customers are more productive, better informed and ultimately satisfied with the experience.

    Non-tech companies should be thinking about the experience around their products, and, indeed, many are. Car manufacturers use AI to enhance their collision-detection systems. Healthcare solutions providers embed AI in their diagnostics and imaging products. Nike uses AI to power its product personalization efforts.

    AI helps customer teams create responsive, tailored experiences

    Customer-experience chatbots have been around for a long time, but concerns about data privacy, unnatural language and unhelpful results have kept them from becoming ubiquitous. Recent advancements have helped fine-tune chatbots such that they can answer questions more efficiently and accurately than a support desk person. AI-enhanced chatbots have helped transform these experiences from feeling like an impersonal human replacement to a better and more responsible customer experience, yet some consumers are still wary. Most will use chatbots, provided there is always an option to transfer to a live agent.

    Chatbots aren’t the only way organizations can infuse their customer experience with AI. Many companies effectively employ powerful data analytics, feeding valuable purchase and customer data into algorithms that help create ever-evolving seamless, personalized omnichannel experiences – think about how Spotify recommends new songs based on listeners’ history and allows them to switch from one device to the next easily.

    AI allows everyone to escape process mundanity

    For both product and customer experience teams, much of the AI magic happens behind the scenes. Chances are those teams are also using intelligent tools to automate workflows and speed up processes so that people can do their jobs more effectively. Teams for nearly any business function can use AI to do everything from creating images for a slide presentation to drafting website content and writing documentation.

    Leaders interested in process-focused AI can begin by asking, “How can AI help deliver a product or service more effectively?” and “What are we spending time on that AI could/should be doing?” By leaning into existing tools, such as those that Microsoft, Google and OpenAI provide, organizations can simplify mundane tasks involved in creating documents, spreadsheets and slide decks to free up their workforce for more creative and mission-critical work.

    Related: Automation Is Becoming a Business Imperative: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

    AI: the ultimate means to achieving business goals

    On my product management team, we’re exploring all facets of our roles and asking ourselves how AI can help us spend more time analyzing information instead of gathering and summarizing it. This approach has been a tremendous shortcut for some components of our research and is a helpful way to think about AI as it relates to our company’s trajectory. When we ask how AI can help us fulfill our goals, we stay focused rather than become distracted navigating to some nebulous AI-enabled future along the horizon.

    Making AI work for us — not the other way around — is also a useful reminder that modern intelligent tools aren’t here to replace employees. In fact, a human in the loop is critical, regardless of AI’s application. Product teams must validate AI’s documentation; customer experience teams need to review modeling output for errors and continue to interact with customers when the time comes.

    The next time you make a decision about AI, remember that it is just a practical means to achieving business goals and not the end goal in and of itself.

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    Jason Oeltjen

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  • 5 Ways Startups Can Increase Their Visibility | Entrepreneur

    5 Ways Startups Can Increase Their Visibility | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    During the recent pandemic, many startups had to rethink their business models. In some cases, this meant refocusing on their core business and determining how well they served customer needs. In other cases, startups had to change their business models completely to succeed.

    Now that the world is back to normal, I recommend that startups place a new urgency behind becoming more visible and keeping their momentum going. Methods to do so include attending or speaking at events, competing in startup competitions and establishing new customer or partner relationships. Taking advantage of such opportunities will help startups emerge stronger than ever before from the pandemic.

    1. Target the right events

    Around the world, I see event organizers switching from virtual events to hosting in-person events. I recommend that startups take advantage of this opportunity to increase their visibility. Startups can research which events are the most relevant based on event themes and the typical attendee profile. At technology and business events, attendees often include corporate executives, other startups, potential partners and customers and investors. Most events publish in-depth profiles of their attendees, so startups can study these ahead of time and determine which events are the best fit.

    Before any event, take advantage of event websites and apps to see who is attending. This allows you to reach out to set up networking meetings ahead of time. Journalists often attend business and technology events, so there’s a good chance that startups can meet them and ideally set up press interviews.

    Related: 5 Ways to Make Journalists Actually Want to Publish Your Brand’s Stories

    2. Compete to promote your startup

    I also recommend that startups consider competing in startup competitions to raise the visibility of the business and its founders. Even if you don’t win, you get to pitch your business, fine-tune your elevator pitch and network with attendees – including other competitors, judges, investors and journalists.

    Typical opportunities include:

    • Business plan competitions are offered by MBA programs, which offer startups with a connection to the school to present their business plans and compete to win.
    • Pitch competitions are offered by leading technology events around the world, such as Collision, Web Summit, Startup Grind and The Next Web. Startups who compete typically take the stage to pitch their ideas in front of the event audience.
    • Startup competitions allow startups to compete on a local, regional, national or international basis. At the Startup World Cup, for example, startups compete at 70+ regional competitions worldwide. The grand finale winner earns a $1 million investment prize.

    Related: 8 Business Titans Reveal the Best Social Media Tactics to Promote Your Company

    3. Build new relationships

    While virtual meetings have their place, there’s nothing like meeting in person to build genuine, long-term relationships. Forbes Insights reports that 85% of people reported building stronger, more meaningful business relationships with people they’ve met face-to-face. When I attend events and competitions, I often meet influential people from different walks of life that I would otherwise not meet. Startups should take advantage of such opportunities and either ask for introductions or just introduce themselves. My business relationships with partners, startups, portfolio companies and journalists started with a casual introduction and in-person meeting.

    4. Publish thought leadership content

    Another good way startups can increase their visibility is by publishing thought leadership content. I often advise startup founders to write about what they know – whether about new technologies, business trends or leadership advice. This allows the author to establish themselves as an expert in one or more topics. The press might notice such content, and it often opens the door to new business relationships.

    Research shows that thought leadership works. In fact, 88 % of decision-makers surveyed by Edelman and LinkedIn think that thought leadership effectively improves their perceptions of an organization. Business-to-business decision-makers said that high-quality thought leadership strengthens a company’s reputation and positively impacts requests for proposal invitations, wins, pricing and cross-selling that occurs post-sale.

    Writing thought leadership content can take different forms. The most straightforward method is to write an article on LinkedIn, populate social media or use a self-publishing channel. Experts can also submit their articles to local, regional or national publications that accept contributed content. Doing so will help a startup founder share his or her expertise without generating news, which is typically required to get press coverage. Thought leadership content goes beyond articles. On the technical side, startup founders — or other experts, including chief technology articles — can publish technical articles or research findings. On the creative side, entrepreneurs can create short-form videos that demonstrate their expertise while entertaining the audience.

    Related: So You Want to Be a Thought Leader? Here are 5 Steps to Take

    5. Continue your momentum

    Now that it’s possible to meet people in person and attend live events, I recommend that startups work hard to increase their visibility and maintain their business momentum. Don’t sit back and hope that business will come to you. Put yourself out there and take advantage of opportunities to attend events, network, compete and build new relationships. Each can help startups grow more quickly, enabling them to capitalize on their innovative ideas and ultimately make the world a better place.

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    Anis Uzzaman

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  • 4 Research-Backed Reasons Why Women Belong in Tech | Entrepreneur

    4 Research-Backed Reasons Why Women Belong in Tech | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Having more women in tech has gone from being a feminist slogan to a statistically proven reality. Did you know that 3 out of 4 companies with women in management positions register an increase in profits from 5% to 20%?

    Yep, that’s according to a report from the International Labor Organization (ILO) titled: “Women in Business and Management: The business case for change.” And that’s according to surveys of 13,000 companies in 70 countries worldwide.

    Now that begs the question, why do women remain neglected in leadership across most industries, including tech industries? The findings of the ILO report say it all. They underscore the critical importance of gender diversity at the highest levels of corporate leadership. They also highlight the pressing need for greater female representation in the tech industry.

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    Timothy Odutolu

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  • How the QR Code Will Transform Brand Experiences | Entrepreneur

    How the QR Code Will Transform Brand Experiences | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Welcome to the new, new thing. Some say it’s the new television or radio. Some say it is the new out-of-home experience. Others call it the new way to experience a brand.

    There is certainly no shortage of steroid-injected, turbo-charged descriptions for this amazing, revolutionary technology. So, just what is this radical disrupter, this global game-changer that we’re talking about here?

    Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll, please! It’s the humble cereal carton, a can of soda, a box of washing powder.

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    Gabe Miller

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