Mon.May 03, 2021

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How a bot-fighting test turned into edtech’s most iconic brand, Duolingo

TechCrunch

Luis von Ahn, an entrepreneur who has dedicated his career to scaling free education, has probably annoyed you more than once. In fact, you’ve likely been annoyed by his work dozens and maybe hundreds of times over the years. A decade before he co-founded the whimsical and language-learning app Duolingo , one of the most popular education apps in the world with over 500 million downloads and 40 million active users, he was building the technology that would become CAPTCHA, those human-annoying b

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NEWS – Intuit QuickBooks Report Shows Small Businesses on Road to Financial Recovery

Smart Hustle Magazine

U.S. small businesses are on the road to recovery from the financial losses experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report by Intuit QuickBooks. The report, Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Recovery, published today by Intuit, uncovers the varied impact the pandemic has had on small businesses across different industries and geographies since March 2020, when COVID-19 caused many business owners to temporarily shut their doors.

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How Duolingo became fluent in monetization

TechCrunch

As its meandering route to monetization will demonstrate, Duolingo isn’t mission-oriented, it’s mission-obsessed. Co-founders Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker never wanted to charge consumers for access to Duolingo content, a purpose imbued throughout the company’s culture. For years in order to work at Duolingo, you had to be comfortable with joining a company in Pittsburgh that was in no rush to make money.

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Four Decision-Making Rules By a Former Spy Admired in Wall Street and Silicon Valley

Entrepreneur's Handbook

#3 Read the book, not the tweet Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Navigating the Future: Generative AI, Application Analytics, and Data

Generative AI is upending the way product developers & end-users alike are interacting with data. Despite the potential of AI, many are left with questions about the future of product development: How will AI impact my business and contribute to its success? What can product managers and developers expect in the future with the widespread adoption of AI?

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Duolingo can’t teach you how to speak a language, but now it wants to try

TechCrunch

Duolingo has been wildly successful. It has pulled in 500 million total registered learners, 40 million active users, 1.5 million premium subscribers and $190 million in booked revenues in 2020. It has a popular and meme-ified mascot in the form of the owl Duo, a creative and engaging product, and ambitious plans for expansion.There’s just one key question in the midst of all those milestones: Does anyone actually learn a language using Duolingo?

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The product-led growth behind edtech’s most downloaded app

TechCrunch

Duolingo CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn was tired of the gray and dreary design aesthetic edtech companies used to emulate universities. Instead, he and the company’s early team sought inspiration from games like Angry Birds and Clash Royale, looking to build a class that screamed more cartoon anarchy than lecture hall. From that frenetic creativity came the company’s distinctive mascot: a childish and rebellious evergreen-colored owl named Duo.

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The Demand Side Of A Crypto-Network

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I was purchasing some domains with Ethereum yesterday and ran out of funds in my wallet and went to Coinbase to buy some more ETH. The price was approaching $3000 and I thought to myself, “the demand side of this network is exploding.” The way crypto-networks work is that the supply side gets built first with incentives to mine, validate, stake, etc.

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Gatheround raises millions from Homebrew, Bloomberg and Stripe’s COO to help remote workers connect

TechCrunch

Remote work is no longer a new topic, as much of the world has now been doing it for a year or more because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies — big and small — have had to react in myriad ways. Many of the initial challenges have focused on workflow, productivity and the like. But one aspect of the whole remote work shift that is not getting as much attention is the culture angle.

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I Am Taking a ‘Mini-Retirement.’ This Is a New Concept You Can Use to Discover What’s Next.

Entrepreneur's Handbook

You don’t need to be rich, famous, or privileged either. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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Zoomo raises $12 million to expand e-bike subscription offerings

TechCrunch

Zoomo, the Australian startup with a mission to electrify delivery fleets through e-bike subscriptions, announced a $12 million interim capital raise on Monday. The company made a name for itself through partnerships with Uber Eats and DoorDash to help delivery workers access e-bikes through weekly subscriptions at discounted rates. Zoomo then grew to offer monthly subscriptions to corporate partners in Australia, the U.S. and London for last-mile delivery, with a fleet that has expanded beyond

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[Nexa3D in TCT Magazine] Nexa3D & BASF launch three new photopolymer materials for NXE400 3D printer

OurCrowd

Nexa3D has announced the launch of three new photopolymer materials for its NXE 400 stereolithography 3D printing platform in collaboration with BASF. Read more here. The post [Nexa3D in TCT Magazine] Nexa3D & BASF launch three new photopolymer materials for NXE400 3D printer appeared first on OurCrowd Blog.

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Sony announces investment and partnership with Discord to bring the chat app to PlayStation

TechCrunch

Sony and Discord have announced a partnership that will integrate the latter’s popular gaming-focused chat app with PlayStation’s own built-in social tools. It’s a big move and a fairly surprising one given how recently acquisition talks were in the air — Sony appears to have offered a better deal than Microsoft, taking an undisclosed minority stake in the company ahead of a rumored IPO.

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Oprah Did You Fart? The Power Of Vulnerability with A.J. Jacobs and Dave Kerpen

Smart Hustle Magazine

Dave Kerpen , is the founder and chairman of Likeable Local. He hosted A.J. Jacobs in the Likeable Business Club on Clubhouse as part of the club’s interview series with celebrity entrepreneurs and/or personalities on Sunday evenings at 8pm EST. According to his Twitter profile, A.J. is a bestselling author, journalist, TED talker, human guinea pig, overthanker, and your cousin.

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How Embedded Analytics Gets You to Market Faster with a SAAS Offering

Start-ups & SMBs launching products quickly must bundle dashboards, reports, & self-service analytics into apps. Customers expect rapid value from your product (time-to-value), data security, and access to advanced capabilities. Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) tools can provide valuable data analysis capabilities, but they have a barrier to entry that can stop small and midsize businesses from capitalizing on them.

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Will fintech unicorn Flywire’s proposed IPO reach escape velocity?

TechCrunch

It’s a big morning for fintech startups today: Flywire , a Boston-based magnet for venture capital, has filed to go public. Flywire is a global payments company that attracted more than $300 million as a startup, according to Crunchbase , most recently raising a $60 million Series F last month. We don’t have its most recent valuation, but PitchBook data indicates that the company’s February 2020, $120 million round valued Flywire at $1 billion on a post-money basis.

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Dell is Celebrating You This Small Business Month with Exclusive Member Savings

StartupNation

StartupNation readers save up to 50% off during Dell’s Small Business Month, running May 3 through May 26. From laptops, desktops and must-have accessories, StartupNation members save an extra 5% to 10% on Dell-branded solutions. Visit www.Dell.com/StartupNation to access these savings or call 855-900-5548 to chat with a Small Business Advisor today.

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The Duolingo EC-1

TechCrunch

Education may well be the most important activity we conduct as a society — and it may also be the hardest space to build a startup in. Selling to school districts and universities is notoriously difficult, but enticing consumers is even harder. Learning takes focus, patience, tenacity and resources, and most consumers would prefer to watch some lip-sync videos on TikTok than stare at math equations (not to mention that such entertainment is free).

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New E-Commerce Tool Yottled Helps Small Businesses Shift to Online Operations

StartupNation

E-commerce trends emerging from the pandemic. From steel buying to online retail , e-commerce has quickly developed into a sophisticated new growth space for business due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushing business operations online. In fact, moving sales mostly online is now essential for many companies to stay in business. So far the trends show every sign of sticking around long term to create lasting change in how the world does business.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

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As companies prioritize diversity, startups are trying to productize diverse hiring

TechCrunch

When the iconic American power tools company Stanley Black & Decker began looking for ways to improve the pipeline of diverse candidates that the company was reviewing for potential roles, it turned to an Israeli-based startup called Talenya for help. The company wasn’t alone in looking to startups for support in new hiring initiatives. Last year’s social reckoning that occurred in the wake of nationwide protests against systemic racism triggered by the murder of George Floyd pushed companie

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[Syqe in JNS] Israeli medical cannabis inhaler receives approval to sell in Canada

OurCrowd

(May 3, 2021 / JNS) The Israeli pharma-tech company Syqe Medical has received approval from Canadian health officials to sell its metered-dose medical cannabis inhaler in Canada, the company announced on Wednesday. Read more here. The post [Syqe in JNS] Israeli medical cannabis inhaler receives approval to sell in Canada appeared first on OurCrowd Blog.

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Path Robotics raises $56M Series B for automated welding

TechCrunch

Columbus, Ohio-based firm Path Robotics today announced the completion of a $56 million Series B. The round, led by Addition (featuring Drive Capital, Basis Set and Lemnos Lab) brings the robotic welding company’s total funding to $71 million. Adding another piece to the broader automated manufacturing puzzle, the company is focused on robotic welding.

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[Freightos in PR Newswire] Veem and Freightos Announce Partnership To Enable More Secure Global Sourcing for Small Businesses

OurCrowd

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Veem, a leading provider of online payment solutions, announced today that they will be partnering with Freightos.com, the online global freight booking platform. Through this partnership, Veem will become an available payments option on Freightos.com, offering users more ways to pay for international freight shipping.

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Embedding BI: Architectural Considerations and Technical Requirements

While data platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and programming platforms have evolved to leverage big data and streaming data, the front-end user experience has not kept up. Holding onto old BI technology while everything else moves forward is holding back organizations. Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) aren’t built for modern data platforms and don’t work on modern architectures.

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Hangry, an Indonesian cloud kitchen startup with plans to become a global F&B company, closes $13M Series A

TechCrunch

Hangry , an Indonesian cloud kitchen startup that wants to become a global food and beverage company, has raised a $13 million Series A. The round was led by returning investor Alpha JWC Ventures, and included participation from Atlas Pacific Capital, Salt Ventures and Heyokha Brothers. It will be used to increase the number of Hangry’s outlets in Indonesia, including launching its first dine-in restaurants, over the next two years before it enters other countries.

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[Stellar Cyber in Business Wire] Brite Builds World-Class SOC-as-a-Service with Stellar Cyber Open XDR Platform

OurCrowd

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stellar Cyber, the leading security operations platform for MSSPs, announced today that Brite, a three-time Top 100 MSSP award winner based in Rochester, New York , is using the Stellar Cyber Open XDR platform to deliver world-class SOC-as-a-service offerings to its customers. The platform’s tightly-integrated toolset and award-winning user interface enables Brite to deliver comprehensive security services more quickly and effectively to its nation

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Equity Monday: TechCrunch goes Yahoo while welding robots raise $56M

TechCrunch

Hello and welcome back to Equity , TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets.

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WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: The Midwest is Now a Hotbed for Startup Companies (Episode 218)

StartupNation

On this morning’s Business Beat, Jeff welcomes Ryan Landau, founder of Purpose Jobs , to discuss the rise of startup companies in the Midwest. Landau is dedicated to building the startup ecosystem in the Midwest by connecting startups with top talent, and has a particular passion for Detroit tech startups. Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more about the emerging tech startup market based in the Midwest: “I think the tide is shifting to specifically the middle of the coun

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PE Mastery: CAPTARGET's Playbook for Quality Lead Flow

CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.