New York Becoming As Solid A Hub For Tech Startups As Silicon Valley

by steven on March 21, 2013

While California’s Silicon Valley is known for being the biggest tech startup hum in the country for decades, New York City is finally starting to rival it. According to data from SeedTable.com, 127 startups were founded in NYC over the past year, nearly equal to the combined 131 that launched in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

“New York is booming — here to stay as a big tech center,” Eric Hippeau, a partner at Lerer Ventures, told CNBC’s ”Squawk Box” he sees a shift from Silicon Valley to New York. “It’s very different than the Valley. I don’t think the people in New York are trying to replicate what’s going on in the Valley. New York is doing what New York is good at — commerce, media, publishing, enterprise, marketplaces.”

“The old adage that ‘if you want to be a true tech entrepreneur, go west’ — shown in the Facebook movie ‘The Social Network,’ when a young Mark Zuckerberg was told he must move to Silicon Valley for any hope of succeeding — no longer holds true, our data confirms,” said Sam Hamadeh, PrivCo’s chief executive. “One can now start a company in New York City, and find top venture capital firms and a thriving tech ecosystem for the first time. New York’s tech ecosystem is now built to last.”

New York’s diversity, both occupationally and demographically, is one of its biggest draws. However, despite the fact that the venture capital scene seems to be improving in the city,  the scarcity of nearby colleges that put a heavy emphasis on tech poses challenges.

“One of the things that’s not quite as well developed in New York is the university system,” said Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson. “For example, in the Bay Area, you have Berkeley and Stanford as feeder schools, and they’re right in the heart of the Bay Area. In New York, we have NYU, but NYU’s not really sort of a tech school.”

In an attempt to continue to foster additional growth, a number of initiatives have emerged in New York to aid fledgling companies. The city government extended its “We are Made in NY” campaign to the tech sector last month, leading to more than 900 tech startups signing up to post job openings on the campaign’s site. The program’s website also provides links to find subsidized office space, apply for funding through NYC Seed, bid on government contracts and seek out up to $400,000 in training grants.

While New York’s tech scene still trails Silicon Valley, it has become apparent that it is transforming the state’s economy and continuing to improve.

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Catholic Cardinals Elect New Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio

by steven on March 13, 2013

Yesterday, Catholic cardinals gathered at the Sistine Chapel to pick a new pope from among their midst — Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, the first South American to ever lead the church and the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,000 years.

Bergoglio, 76, will be called “Francis,” the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Francis was born to Italian immigrant parents and was raised in the Argentine capital. He had been the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in choosing him, the cardinals sent a powerful message that the future of the Church lies in the home to the bulk of the world’s Catholics, the Global South.

“I would like to thank you for your embrace,” said Francis from the white balcony on St. Peter’s Basilica. “My brother cardinals have chosen one who is from far away, but here I am.”

“Habemus papam!,” “We have a pope!,” and “Viva il Papa!,”members of the crowd shouted.

The Church has been facing with an array of challenges that intensified during his predecessor Benedict XVI’s time as Pope. These challenges include a priest shortage, growing competition from evangelical churches in the Southern Hemisphere, a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority in the West, and difficulties governing the Vatican itself. Benedict ended his eight-year papacy last month, announcing he was no longer up to the rigors of the job and becoming the first pontiff in 598 years to resign.

Before beginning the secret ballot voting in the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday, the cardinals swore an oath of secrecy in Latin, a rite designed to protect deliberations from outside scrutiny  and to protect cardinals from earthly influence as they seek divine guidance.

“The pope’s election is something substantially different from a political election,” Cardinal Schönborn told the NY TImes, stating that the Pope is not “the chief executive of a multinational company, but the spiritual head of a community of believers.”

Francis will also inherit power struggles over the management of the Vatican bank, and will have to help make the Vatican bureaucracy work more efficiently for the good of the church.

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Guide To Talking About Politics Civilly And Without Arguments

by steven on March 13, 2013

Most people know that talking about politics can be a bit taboo in polite conversation, but that doesn’t mean it won’t come up often – especially with family and co-workers. Despite popular believe, you don’t have to sound pretentious or off-putting when discussing (not arguing) politics, and doing so can broaden our horizons and expose us to different opinions. Life Hacker‘s Politics writer Alan Henry has a few tips on how to approach political conversations in an informed, civil manner.

  • Go Back to Civics Class. People are very quick to blame spending/taxes on the President, even though Congress holds the power of the purse (and the House is the only chamber that can introduce bills that have to do with the budget) – the President can draft and propose the national budget to Congress, but cannot change taxes and spending by himself. The only way to see through this kind of political confusion is with education – try to regain an understanding of what the basic branches of government are, what they’re responsible for, the powers they hold, and the checks and balances among them. 
  • Study Sources that Offer Multiple Viewpoints. Confirmation bias is our own natural tendency to seek out and prioritize sources of information that back up our own opinions and preconceived notions, while marginalizing information and evidence that may contradict our long-held opinions and positions. You need to be able to check your bias at the door and be open to information that may contradict your position. You don’t have to change your opinion just because there’s a flaw in your argument, you just have to be willing to acknowledge it.
  • Take Your Emotions Out of the Equation and Stick to Facts. When you’re talking to people about politics, make the conversation as fact-based as possible; fervor is what leads to heated arguments, while facts and information are the components of a calm and reasoned discussion.
  • Separate People and Parties from Their Policies. Be willing to take even politicians you vote for to task openly when you disagree with them, and support them when you do. Policies are things that can transcend offices, people, and even parties.Focus on the issues that matter to you, rather than just focusing on a political party, and you’ll be a more well rounded citizen, a more informed voter, and a more level-headed conversationalist.
  • Disengage When You’re At An Impasse. Our brains are addicted to being right, but much of our goal here is to shut down that need to “win” a conversation – there’s a big difference between discussing and arguing, and staying on the civil side of that line is key to maintaining your composure and having informative, intelligent discussions with people. If your politics are personal to the point where you have no desire to associate or speak with people who disagree, your best bet is to avoid talking about politics whenever possible; you never know when you may be confronted with a coworker, friend, or family member you’ll never be able to talk to again.
  • Just… Don’t Talk About Politics. Sometimes the best way to avoid sounding like an idiot is to keep your mouth shut.

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Shaquille O’Neal And Tout Team Up To Find Next Big Tech Startup At SXSW 2013

by steven on March 7, 2013

This weekend’s South by Southwest in Austin, TX was filled with hundreds of startups hoping to get discovered. And one of the individuals who attended the event in hopes of finding the next big tech startup was former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal, who is know for his social media savvy and was among the first big-name celebrities to start using Twitter (which first made a name for itself at SXSW 2007).

“I’m a big tech geek,” O’Neal told American-Statesman. “I’m a nerd. I’m always looking for the next big thing.”
O’Neal teamed up with Tout, a smartphone app that enables users to record and share quick video clips, at the event for the “Pitch Shaq” contest. After reviewing 15-second pitches submitted through the app by SXSW attendees, he selected his choice companies to make face-to-face presentation to him; that startup could then potentially walk away with O’Neal as an advisor or investor.

“I’ve always tried to partner with people who are way, way smarter than me,” said O’Neal at the event.

“I’m looking for something that’s very simple … and that’s going to change the world. I look for individuals who are sort of like myself — big dreamers.”

On Monday, Shaq said he had viewed more than 150 pitches and had chosen two winners: Beam, which makes a mobile videoconferencing device that rolls around on wheels like a Segway; and Speakerfy, a social-sound app that lets you wirelessly sync music between different Apple mobile devices.

“We’re very flattered. I’d love to figure out how Shaq could use (our device) in his business,” Scott Hassan, CEO of Beam, told CNN. “We’re not really looking for funding right now. We’re well funded. But if he really wants to, we could probably work something out.”

“We’re very excited, don’t get me wrong. We would love to do anything with Shaq. We want his advice,” said Austin Wright, vice president of operations for Speakerfy.”But we’re good, funding-wise. That’s awkward. Do we tell Shaq no?”

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Startups Attempt To Make Hiring Process Easier For Employers

by steven on February 28, 2013

According to Northwestern researcher Lauren Rivera, those who conduct interviews in an attempt to hire individuals for jobs often tend to fall back on themselves and defining merit in “their own image,” making the “most qualified applicants” simply those who best resembled their interviewers. But thanks to several startups, this sort of biased hiring is starting to become a thing of the past.

Startup: EmployInsight

  • EmployInsight aims to allow you to profile your work along a psychological dimension, helping employers search for individuals based on their  psychological resources and thus add diversity to their staff. They can search for people with creative abilities, organizational skills, etc.

Startup: eHarmony

  • Launched back in 2000, this company is now taking first steps into the recruitment racket. VP of customer experience Grant Langston says eHarmony will try to slow down the rate of job-hopping, similar to what they did with divorce. He chalks the turnover rate up to superficial assessments of job fitness for both employee and employer, leading to fundamental disconnects and leaving employees feeling underappreciated.

Startup: Bright

  • Bright combed through 2 million resumes (and 15 million job descriptions) to sculpt their algorithmic Brightscore, which matches skillset and experience to position. The company admits that it is difficult to gather sufficient systematic data to predict person-job fit; person-organization is much easier. They have the goal of collecting enough data from enough corporations to improve person-job fit.

Startup: jobFig

  • Founded in 2011, jobFig uses the five-factor model of personality to measure compabililty between pre-existing teams and potential hires. Employers can take the 100 people who applied to their last posting and reduce the number to those that will get along with the team, and then interview those individuals themselves.
  • This startup tracks leadership and work styles. Using their personality mapping tech, the startup can measure where there’s a leadership vacuum or a lack of implementers (if you’ve already got a leader, jobFig will filter out the leader-types). Using their personality data crunching, the qualitative ambiguities of team cohesion grow more quantitative and actionable–similarly to the other startups in the prehire assessment space.

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