The next platform for Innovation is Wi-Fi.

My WiFi went out again, so I had some time to type this up.

While the tech community is trying to figure whether the next platform of innovation is VR, messaging, or automobiles. I believe that Wi-Fi is the next great platform for innovation, and many startups such as Eero, Luma, Zenreach seem to agree with me. As the world becomes more connected, and businesses are built on the internet, having reliable, robust Wi-Fi has become more important than ever.

I believes there are three areas where Wi-Fi will be innovated and builit upon: 1) Better Wi-Fi 2) Wi-Fi analytics 3) Wi-Fi access.

Better Wi-Fi

A decade or so ago a router would serve one or two computers and that is it, now we have phones, tablets, TVs, and household devices. The proliferation of streaming and connected devices is crowding our networks. Startups like Eero and Luma is innovating amazingly in this category. Luma and Eero is trying to provide surround Wi-Fi, fixing Wi-Fi ‘deadzones’ by helping guide their users into the best place to place their routers, so they no longer will have their Wi-Fi drop for no reason.

A stable Wi-Fi connection is extremely important, especially for growing startups. At the first startup I worked for, we were in a co-working space, and for nearly a week the Wi-Fi at the place continuously dropped in and out, and because of this productivity was greatly affected. Because of the internet age, many new businesses are being built online, and use their connection to the online world for their transactions. Even a moment of not being able to connect to the internet will greatly hinder most startup.

Wi-Fi Analytics

In the world of Foursquare predicting Chipotle sales, or Orbital Insights providing satellite imagery of parking lots to predict retail sales, alternative data has become the new alpha for many hedge funds and other investment institutions. Startups such as Purple WiFi and Zenreach have caught on to this and will be the pioneers of Wi-Fi assisted analytics. Zenreach and Purple WiFi both provide businesses a way to keep track of their customers through the power of Wi-Fi. When customers connect to the Wi-Fi from of businesses using Zenreach or Purple Wifi their activity is tracked and data is provided for these businesses to provide better services for their customers. If a business is noticing less people are active in their stores on Tuesdays they can send out coupons and deals to drive more people in during those specific time. Malls can also use this data to keep track of which stores, consumers visit the most and their walking patterns to provide better marketing efforts.

Alternative data is going to be a really important driver of future b2b growth. As of now these datas are only useful for investment professional, when determining whether to invest in companies or not, but Wi-Fi analytics will be cheap enough that SMBs can afford to adopt and use, which in return will encourage more startups to innovate in that space.

Cheaper Wi-Fi

With the advancement of technology, we will reach a point where Wi-Fi will soon be cheap enough to be a public good. Just check the NYC subway system, now on almost every platform, New Yorkers can connect to the internet, and while the speed is nothing to gloat about, it is a step towards the right direction. Google created, Sidewalk Labs is another startup that is using Wi-Fi to improve everyday living. Sidewalk Labs has the goal to create ‘smart cities’ by connecting all aspects of the public to the IoT. To reach this goal however Sidewalks Labs is attempting to provide Wi-Fi access to the public. Imagine just walking around your city no longer having to worry about data usage, because the very city is a Wi-Fi hotspot. FreedomPop is a startup that is offering unlimited Wi-Fi access to its users at $5/month, which if successful will greatly damage data carriers like Verizon.

Wi-Fi will be an amazing platform to innovate on, and although there might be startups that push limits of Wi-Fi to possibly breaking physics (uBeam) I am incredibly excited to see what the future holds.

Boring is Good.

In the tech world, boring is good. Think about it, the computer used for the first space launch had less computing power than the smartphone in your pocket. That's right that little rectangle in your pocket can send a man to space, amazing isn't it?

Well actually it's not. It's actually boring. While rocket scientist could have used our phone's computing power to send someone to space, we use it to launch birds at green pigs. Our phone has become something as common as sand on the beach, and sands on the beach is boring.

But boring is good, it means that we have reached a point of advancement with technology, that we can find advancements, that a decade ago would have been a miracle. This is good, we have become bored with technology advancements and that just means innovators and entrepreneurs have to try even harder to excite us, and we see in currently in our environment. From meatless burgers, to being able to travel the whole world without ever leaving your living room. My only hope is that another decade from now, we also find this boring. Because boring is good, and its good to be boring.

Apple's WWDC 2016

What pains me after Apple's WWDC were the reporters and journalist being congratulating Apple and being amazed at what they introduced. With buzz words like "runs faster","new UI", "integration", it makes Apple seem like and entrepreneur trying to get funding for his startup.
"Look my company has an amazing UI that allows integration of Apps and helps them run faster." Ok maybe the pitch is not exactly like that but this years WWDC Apple sounds very similar to that.

It seems that Apple, known for introducing the world to the smartphone, a company that is known for it's innovation is at a stand still,  a mid-life crisis, in which Apple is trying to show the world that it is still the hip, young company you wished your company was, but it can't fool anyone.

Changing up its messaging app to have everything that WhatsApp, FB Messaging, WeChat already have is not innovation, it is an attempt at relevancy. Now by no means do I think Apple will ever face a sad decline like that of Yahoo, but I would compare Apple's future to that of Microsoft; yes you still have to use their Office Suite, but thats about it. Apple has become boring for many because it has stopped growing, and lack of growth, no matter how many billions you brought in last quarter is a death sentence for a Silicon Valley company.


**typed on a newly purchased MacBook pro, while listening to music on my iPhone 6.

Apple's Big Bet, Maybe Buffett's too.

Apple $1 Billion Bet

Apple announced Thursday that it had invested $1 billion in Didi Chuxing, the leading ride-hailing service in China. This is a surprise considering Apple usually reluctant to make big investments in the past, with the last largest purchase, being Beats for $3 billion. It is now obvious that Apple is very serious about transportation, with rumors of Apple’s “open secret” car project. It is possible that Didi Chuxing could be Apple’s first customers when and if Apple’s car come out.

With China being a critical market for Apple, this huge investment might make it easier for Apple to expand into the country that has recently ban iTunes Books. Apple is the most successful American tech company in China, and the country has been Apple's main engine of growth in the past few years. Last year, Apple pulled in $59 billion in revenue from China.

Warren Buffett Is Bidding For Yahoo

Legendary billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert are bidding for Yahoo’s internet assets. Apparently Buffett is backing a group of investors in the bidding war for Yahoo’s web assets. This is shocking considering the fact that the famed Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman usually opposes to investing in companies that he doesn’t understand (i.e. technology companies). The only company close to the Yahoo in his portfolio is IBM, which have seen a few bumpy past years. Yahoo is currently in the second round of bidding for its core assets.

YouTube's New Challenger, Facebook and LendingClub is in Trouble

Amazon Video Direct vs YouTube

The battle of internet giants refreshes once again as Amazon releases its own YouTube like service Amazon Video Direct. Amazon will let people post videos on its website and earn money through advertising, and royalties, very similar to Google’s own Youtube. Whole Amazon already offers movies and television shows that compete with Netflix, it is obvious Amazon sees video as a way to attract new customers and retain existing ones. The new Amazon service gives video producers many ways to get paid. They can sell or rent their programs on Amazon, or make videos available to all Amazon customers (not just Prime subscribers) in an advertising-supported format. Another option: Provide videos to Amazon Prime members and get royalty payments based on how many times the content is streamed, or as part of an add-on subscription.

Facebook Is In Trouble

The Senate Commerce Committee has sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg asking him to answer some question regarding Facebook’s Trending Topics feature. Trending Topics displays daily trending news and headlines, next to the main news feed. Facebook faces allegations that the social media giant was suppressing conservative media on its social platforms, while Facebook denies these allegations, it seems like the government wants some answers.

LendingClub CEO Fired

On Monday Renaud Laplanche who was the founder of fintech company LendingClub that upend the finance industry by connecting borrowers directly with investors, was ousted from his firm after the board said it found problems with its lending practices, as well as the executive’s lack of disclosure surrounding his personal investments. A board review found that the company sold an investor $22 million in loans whose characteristics violated the investor’s “express instructions.” The board found that some people at the company knew the loans didn’t meet the investor’s criteria and that the application date on $3 million of those loans had been altered to make them comply.

Why this tech "bubble" is not like the Dot-Com one.

A few weeks ago famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley, who has invested in Uber and Snapchat wrote on his personal blog that “there has been a fundamental sea-change in the investment community that has made the incremental unicorn investment a substantially more dangerous and complicated practice.”

If you don’t yet know what unicorns are, they are startups that are valued at $1 billion or more (Uber/Snapchat), and in 2016 there are more than 160 unicorns now, and of course not all unicorns are worthy of their valuations. With many bad press, and trouble facing unicorns this year (bankrupted Powa, Theranos FDA investigation), many are beginning to talk about a possible tech bubble.

At the end of the dot-com bubble in 2000 many companies that gone public, only to disintegrate and run out of money completely, hurting the public investors that bought into the hype.

However the reason this bubble might be different is because of where the money are coming from this time. This time the funding sources are hedge funds, sovereign- wealth funds, investment banks, and high net worth investors, thus if there is indeed a bubble burst there will be a much reduced pressure on the general public, as they have less exposure to these companies.

Another reason is debt. During the Dot-Com bubble many companies borrowed billions of dollars to finance their company, and they lost money, unable to get new financing, the companies in the current environment have very little debt, and therefore if it burst the economic damage will be much less painful than the 2000s.

Just who is the Inventor of Bitcoin? Twitter tries hard to let us Connect.

Will the Real Satoshi Please Stand Up?

Australian Craig Wright has officially confirmed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of crypto-currency Bitcoin and claims to provide “extraordinary proof”. Wright told the press “I firmly believe that ­bitcoin and the blockchain can change the world for the better. I didn’t take the decision lightly to make my identity public and I want to be clear that I’m doing this because I care so passionately about my work and also to dispel any negative myths and fears about bitcoin and the blockchain.” So the week ahead many people will be glued to Wright’s blog to see the proof that he claims to have, only time can tell…

Twitter’s Connect

Twitter has announced a new feature that makes it easier for their users to find relevant users to follow on its service. The new “Connect” tab is located in the top left of the Twitter app on both iOS and Android, which combines the ability to find associates from your phone’s contact list and Twitter’s own recommendations. While the ability connect was always available on Twitter, this new tab just make things easier. With Twitter stocks dropping to all-time lows, let us just hope this new addition helps connect Jack Dorsey with Wall Street.

Is Foursquare the future of Investing? Twitter co-founder un-pivots Jelly

The Human Powered Search Engine

Christopher “Biz” Stone, co-founder of Twitter and Medium is in his words trying “un-pivot” his ask and answer startup Jelly. Jelly is was started in 2012,  from Stone’s belief that the future of search will not be to be thinking up some keywords, getting lots of results, and then hopefully getting an answer. Instead Jelly will work in ways similar to Quora or Yahoo Answers, where a person ask questions and then just live their life until they get their answers. Biz Stone states Jelly is “Helpful answers for busy people.”

Basically, Jelly learns which people know what things and it learns what your question is about. Then, it pairs your question with people who are most likely able to help you. As a bonus, you can follow up with these real people to get into specifics, and for those who wonder what about trolls who give answers that are irrelevant to the questions, Jelly will have a ranking system where people rate those that give the best questions, and therefore the highest ranking people will be the ones that have their answers shown.

The Future of Investing

Chipotle reported its first quarterly loss on Tuesday, with massive decline in sales, falling nearly 30%. While many investors was expecting a decline, they were still caught off guard by the scale of the drop. However there was one company that was no surprised. Foursquare, the social-media app that allows users to check in and tell their friends what they are up was able to predict a 29% dip in Chipotle visits from its users.

This is the future of investment that many are calling “alternative data”. Alternative data is where obscure data sets can be turned into tradable information. Such firms such as RS Metrics which uses satellite images to examine traffics going into and from stores. RS Metrics was able to predict an increase in traffic into JC Penny from the amount of vehicles in the parking lots of the retail store.

As more and more firms begin to adopt the use of "alternative data" it seems that mining raw and unstructured data for investment insights is going mainstream. Investors are hiring data specialists and putting projects in place to make sure they aren't left behind. At some point this "alternative data" won't be so alternative anymore.

The Future of TV

 Netflix released its Q1 earning last week with disappointing results, however there is still few people who can argue that the video streaming company has not completely changed the face of television.  With Facebook announcing its live streaming service, and Twitter’s signing a deal with the NFL to live stream, which will include pre-game Periscope (Twitter’s livestreaming service) broadcasts with players and team, it is clear that the future of TV will be split into two categories: Live-Stream and On-Demand.

The time of switching through channels looking for something at least moderately entertaining is over, the main reason, that people are still subscribed to cable services, are because of the monopoly cable has over sports events. But as these sports associations begin to realize that they need to begin following the trend of millennial cord cutters, many will start to look for more option to reach their audience, as did the NFL with Twitter.

The future of TV is simple, there will be the side where we watch live-streamed events such as the sports, award shows, musicals, news, and so on, while the other side will be shows targeting specific audiences. With this being the clear path that TV will take, channels such as HGTV, Home Shopping Network, Lifetime might soon be forgotten and ultimately removed from our lives.

Medium Raises $50 Million, Uber loses $100 million, and Sean Parker (Re) launches another startup.

Medium Raise $50 million in funding.

Medium, the social online publishing platform announced that it has raised $50 million in Series C funding. Less than a year ago they raised $57 million in Series B. Medium was founded by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams in 2012, and the startup is a pioneer in what many call social journalism, Evan William created Medium as an idea that encourages users to create longer posts than the standard 140- characters of twitter.

Uber Loses $100 million lawsuit.

Uber has reached a settlement in two class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts that contested that Uber should be classifying its drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. In exchange for up to $100 million to the 385,000 drivers represented in the cases, both sides have now agreed that drivers will remain independent contractors and not employees. Although this might seem like a bit hit for Uber, many see it as a win for Uber, as they can still present their employees as independent contractors instead of taking them up as employees.

Sean Parker Relaunches Airtime.

We previously reported Silicon Valley “Bad Boy” launched Screening Room, the start that is trying to bring recently released movies into the living room. Now Sean Parker is relaunching his failed social media/ mobile chat app Airtime. Originally, Airtime was a mobile app that simulated chat roulette where users chat with different people each time, this time Airtime is presented as a mobile chat room where friends can share photos, music, video that they can all experience simultaneously. If Airtime becomes successful it will face competitors like Snapchat, and possibly chip away at market shares from the social network he helped create: Facebook.

Want to Invest in Companies Like Uber/Snapchat/Airbnb? You just might be able to.

Backround

Seedinvest was founded by Wharton alumnus Ryan Feit and James Han in 2012, who were shocked by how hard it was for startups to get funding.  The basis of Seedinvest is that now everyone can become venture capitalist, by investing in private companies with their own money. They do this in a similar way to Kickstarter the crowdfunding platform but instead of “donating” on Kickstarter, investors on Seedinvest will get shares of the startup idea they are interested in.

How Does it Work?

Seedinvest was kickstarted when President Obama signed the (Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act in 2012, which increased the number of shareholders a company can have before being required to registerd its common stock with the SEC and become a publicly reporting company. The main regulation (Regulation A+) which went in effect last summer allowing private early-stage companies to raise money from all Americans. Startups can now use a Mini-IPO under Reg A+ to turn their customers into investors. Reg A+ is a type of offering which allows private companies to raise up to $50 Million from the public. Companies looking to raise capital via Reg A+ will first need to file with the SEC and get approval before launching their offering. The costs associated with a Reg A+ offering are much lower than a traditional IPO and the ongoing disclosure requirements are much less burdensome, effectively making a Reg A+ offering a mini-IPO.

Downside?

There is consistent noise of a tech bubble getting ready to pop, but this noise is often ignored by many venture capitalist, because they believe even if there was a tech bubble it would not be as serious as the Dot-Com in the late 90s because the insanely high valuations are that of private companies, so any downside wouldn’t affect the general public, but just the wealthy investors of these private companies. Seedinvest would definitely open the door to the general public being affected if a tech bubble on the insanely high valued unicorns popped.

Former Buzzfeed President Launches Cheddar!

Welcome to Cheddar!

Former president of Buzzfeed and CEO of Daily Mail US, Jon Steinberg is launching a new media startup called Cheddar. Cheddar is a new media company that is hoping the future of digital content is videos. Targeting the cord-cutting Millennials, Cheddar’s business plan is to post clip as well as live-stream their daily business commentary straight from the New York Stock Exchange.  We could call Cheddar the CNBC for Millennials.

Officially launching this Monday, and with 5 episodes already finished, Cheddar seems to continue to gain a following, and get more publicity. Steinberg plans to one day stream 8 hours of content daily , instead of the 1-3 hours Cheddar does now. Cheddar’s live shows will focus on tech, media, and consumer stocks, because according to survey of 18-34 years gathered by Steinberg that is what most of the younger generations say they want.

Monetizing

Unlike traditional pre- and post- roll advertising dollars, Cheddar wants its main source of revenue to be distribution deals with services like Netflix and Comcast Watchable. By securing these deals Cheddar would be able to reach television through streaming boxes such as Roku, Apple TVs, and Google Chrome. Now although streaming high quality video is expensive Steinberg has been working with Live X, a cloud-based video shooting and editing technology that can make 4K clips with only a on time cost of less than $200,000, which is 10% less than the cost of traditional control rooms.

Final Thoughts

And although we might be biased here, considering we are also financial media company geared towards Millennials, having raised nearly $3 million in financing and recruiting Peter Gorenstein, a senior producer of Yahoo, as his Chief Content Officer, Cheddar just might give CNBC and Bloomberg TV a run for their money. 

Another Enters the Ring:YAHOO!

Another Challenger Enters…

The Daily Mail has thrown its hat in the ring in the continuing bidding war for Yahoo. The company is apparently in multiple talks with private-equity companies about backing the bid, according to a report by the WSJ. Daily Mail joins nearly 40 companies, with brand names including, Verizon, Microsoft, Google, Time Inc, and CBS who have already or are planning to submit bids for Yahoo’s core business.  Opinions on the value of the Yahoo’s core business have been extremely volatile ranging from $8 billion to some giving the company’s core internet business a value of less than $0, considering its market cap is $34 billion which is roughly the value of its stake in its Asian holdings (Alibaba, Yahoo Japan).

What is for Sale?

Yahoo’s business that’s up for sale can be categorized into 3 categories, its Asian holdings, its’ Display and Video Ad Formats, and its Search engine.

Yahoo’s Asian assets includes its 15.4% in Alibaba Group, which is worth around $30 billion, and its 35% stake in Yahoo Japan, which fairs a lot better than its American counterpart.

Yahoo’s Display and Video Ad Formats on Yahoo’s Display network partners. Ad sales includes Yahoo homepage, sports, finance, mail, as well as the blogging site Tumblr which Yahoo purchased for $1 billion in 2013.

Yahoo’s search engine has generated around 40% of the companies’ revenues and according to a Re/ code report, Yahoo is telling potential buyers that it expects to see its revenue drop another 15% this year.

Why Daily Mail Why Yahoo?

Yahoo might be the purchase entry way for the UK based Media Company. Having debuted a U.S. version of the Daily Mail in 2012 the company has reached 66.7 unique visitors and is looking at the U.S. as a significant growth driver, and Yahoo can definitely contribute to Daily Mail’s global expansion.

The Daily Mail can also use Yahoo Finance to fill the business section, and with the popularity of Yahoo Finance among millennials it can integrate seamlessly with Elite Daily (Daily Mail’s millennial centric media website).

Final Thoughts

It is interesting to see what Daily Mail might have in store for Yahoo, but it seem that the final bidding war would be between Verizon and the Daily Mail, as both sides seem to benefit the most from the purchase of Yahoo’s business, but if Yahoo does not sell itself soon, it can begin another nasty battle with activist hedge fund Starboard value, in the upcoming shareholder’s meeting coming up this spring.

RobinHood: Trading made simple (maybe too simple?)

Robin Hood

Stock trading startup recently announced that they plan on bringing their free stock trading app around the world, and has chosen China as their first country to launch, as reported by TechCrunch. So for those who never heard of Robinhood let us take a look back on what makes this startup so disruptive to the financial markets.

A Brief History

Robinhood was founded by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, two Stanford alumnus who spend most of their career building high-frequency trading platforms for various financial institutions in New York City, that is where they realized that electronic trading firms pay essentially nothing to place trades on the market, which inspired them to start Robinhood and instead of charging $7-$10 per trade like most online brokers do, you can place trades for free.

With $66 million in funding at an undisclosed valuation, led by brand name investors such as Google Ventures, Andressen Horowitz, Index Ventures, as well as celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Nas, and Jared Leto, Robinhood is in an amazing position to overhaul the financial markets and change how we trade.

Is This A Good Idea?

While many applaud the idea (over $1 billion in transaction and over 1 million traders on the platform), and the stylish, simple design (won an Apple Design Award), there are going to be many problems as the app continues to gain a following and grow in popularity.

One of the main concerns many financial experts have is the fact that free trading is not always going to be good idea, because free trading encourages continuous trading and as many financial experts know, consistent trading is often not good for the investor. There are many studies that show the buy and hold method usually brings in a better rate of return than continuous trading, as shown in a study by Brad M. Barber (a finance professor at the UC Davis) named “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth. In the report Dr. Barber found that

“Individual investors who hold common stocks directly pay a tremendous performance penalty for active trading. Of 66,465 households with accounts at a large discount broker during 1991 to 1996, those that trade most earn an annual return of 11.4 percent, while the market returns 17.9 percent. The average household earns an annual return of 16.4 percent, tilts its common stock investment toward high-beta, small, value stocks, and turns over 75 percent of its portfolio annually. Overconfidence can explain high trading levels and the resulting poor performance of individual investors. Our central message is that trading is hazardous to your wealth”

With an app that makes trading look and act like a game, Robinhood might not be stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, but instead stealing from the novice and giving to the market, and now they are moving to a country with the largest amount of mom and pop traders. As renowned value investor, and teacher of Warren Buffet, so eloquently stated
"The investor’s chief problem—and even his worst enemy—is likely to be himself"

Spotify has a $1 Billion Spotty Debt Deal

Spotify Raises $1 Billion in Debt

Spotify, the music streaming unicorn, is adding more cash to its war-chest to go up against Apple Music and Soundcloud in the form of a whopping $1 billion in convertible debt. Private equity firm TPG, hedge fund Dragoneer Investment Group, as well as clients of Goldman Sachs participated in the funding, which is reported by the WSJ. This money is greatly need as the startup continues to take the model of rapid growth over becoming profitable, that Uber made oh so famous. As of now Spotify has around 30 million paying subscribers to their premium service out of 100 million users, but has seen its competition grown from the likes of Apple’s music streaming service, which launched last summer and has more than 11 million paying subscribers, as well as from the audio platform SoundCloud which announced this week that they will soon have their own on-demand music subscription services.

Convertible Debt?

So before we get into explaining why Spotify decide to raise debt instead of equity we must first understand what kind of debt Spotify is raising. Convertible debt are bonds that can be exchanged for stock, but wait Spotify doesn’t really have stocks in the sense of a public company type stock does it? Well this was part of the agreement between Spotify and its lenders. Spotify is apparently telling its investors that it plans on going public in the next two years, and this deal between Spotify and its debt lenders come with the guarantee that this debt can be converted to equity as 20% discount to the share price of its IPO, and after that year, that discount increases by 2.5 percentage points every six months. Adding to that Spotify is also agreeing to pay annual interest on the debt starting at 5%, increasing 1% every six months until the company goes public or until it hits the cap of 10%.

So why Debt over Equity?

While there can be various reasons on why Spotify decides to take the debt route, one of the main reasons might be the fact that the company just can’t find funding that would top its previous valuation of $8.53 billion. By taking on debt Spotify can avoid a down-round, which means raising at a valuation lower than the previous. By avoiding a down- round Spotify can keep its place holder on its huge valuation in the midst of talks of a tech-bubble, and a volatile market. Preventing a down-round also keeps employee morale high, because no employee in public or private markets wants to hear that the value of their companies’ stock has dropped.

Final Thoughts

As Spotify gears up for an IPO it will face immense pressure from its investors to try and become profitable, as well as try to keep its valuation, in a public market. While many people in the private markets might be indifferent to its sky high valuation the public markets are not as friendly, as seen in the IPO of Square and Box. Good luck Spotify I hope you can figure out a way for me and 80 million other users to pay for your premium services, while you do that I’ll still listen to the next 30 minutes of uninterrupted music after listening to some words from your sponsors.

Around the world in 3 hours in 24 minutes

Boom Technology

A Denver startup called Boom Technology plans to bring supersonic passenger travel back, and to bring it to the masses. Boom unveil its design for a 40-seat plane that can fly 1,451 mph, that’s over twice the speed of sound. At that speed, a New York-to-London flight would take about 3 hours and 24 minutes. Blake Scholl, Boom’s founder and chief executive officer, says round-trip tickets will cost $5,000. “The idea is for a plane that goes faster than any other passenger plane built before, but for the same price as business class,” he says.

 Boom plans on testing their first planes by the end of 2017, and the reason they can test them so fast is because while several other companies, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are developing new supersonic jets, Boom’s planes do not require any new technology that would need approval by regulators, Booms team of experienced aerospace engineers will design the planes in a way that makes them meet the goals the company sets out the meet.

Boom has a prominent list of aerospace employees, hailing from the likes of NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, as well as being backed by some of Silicon Valley elites from Y- Combinator, Sam Altman, Seraph Group, 8VC, as well as finishing up deals for the option to buy their planes from Virgin Group (Richard Branson) in a deal valued at $2 billion dollars, and also from an European carrier that declined to be named in a deal valued at $3 billion. While this does not mean that Virgin nor the European carrier bought the plane, it means that they signed a letter of intent in which stating that they intend to buy the planes if everything comes together as planned.

It also seems that Virgin Galactic’s space division is assisting in building and testing the planes, as a Virgin Group spokeswoman confirmed to The Guardian:

“We can confirm that The Spaceship Company will provide engineering, design, and manufacturing services, flight tests and operations and that we have an option on the first 10 airframes. It is still early days and just the start of what you’ll hear about our shared ambitions and efforts”

While they are still in the building and test phase, as a startup it is refreshing that we might be soon getting a product that’s not an app the deletes your pictures after a few seconds, or another new social network, but one that will provide an actual change in our lifestyles and world.

Juno who? Snapchat buys what? Racist AI? Weird Week in Tech

There Is a New Player in Town and its Name is Juno.

Juno the month old, New York-based ride-sharing service is seeking around $30 million in round funding, seeking a “high” valuation. Its CEO Talmon Marco seems to be intent on taking down the all-powerful ride-sharing company Uber. Considering that he sold his last company, Viber for $900 million, it seems like he might just well be able to.

According to Marco he has a wait-list 6 months long full of eager drivers with 4.7-5 star rankings from Uber and Lyft waiting to join his team. Juno also states that it will only take a 10% cut from its driver compare to Uber which takes around 20%. It seems like Juno is trying to be the go to company for all the mad and angry drivers who felt abused by Uber/Lyft.

Snapchat is paying $100 million for an emoji startup

Snapchat has apparently bought Bitstrips, a company that makes personalized emojis. That’s right a 4 year old startup is buying another startup that’s 5 years older than it. Bitstrips started off as a way to make personalized comics, but slowly pivoted to making avatars/emojis that can look eerie similar to the users that create them. There is no mention on what Snapchat is going to do with Bitstrips, but I assume it is going to advance its felts and texts.

Racist AI

You might have heard of Microsoft’s new AI chat bot, hat was short lived, and taken down because of the incredibly racist message it responded to questions over twitter. Microsoft introduced “Tay” on Wednesday, as a bot that responds to users’ questions, and respond in a casual pattern similar to a stereotypical millennial. The aim was to “experiment with and conduct research on conversational understand.” But because of the internet Tay was quickly persuaded to use racial slurs, defending white-supremacist propaganda, and even called out for genocide. As a one highly publicized mentioned “bush did 9/11 and Hitler would have done a better job than the monkey we have now. donald trump is the only hope we've got." In another, responding to a question, she said, "ricky gervais learned totalitarianism from adolf hitler, the inventor of atheism.” Microsoft has now taken Tay offline for some upgrades and deleted many of its terrible tweets. Gives you a perspective doesn’t it? Microsoft wanted to create an AI that mimics the way people speak and act, and in less than 24 hours it becomes like this, what does that say about us as humans?

Apple just announced its new iPhone! So lets talk about Food.....

Obligatory Mention

Because as a tech editor I have to write about Apple right? So in its keynote address, Apple just announced its new software update, an Apple watch price cut and, wait for it, a new iPhone. Surprised? No? As an Apple fan this year just feels a little off and different from the rock party like of previous Apple keynotes I don’t anyone else feels that way?

So here is everything Apple announced that’s news worthy

The base model of Apple Watch which was previously $349; it’s now $299. This might be good news, as it seems that the original announcement of the watch last year brought in less than stellar revenue or hype they expected, so they are hoping to bring in more price consciousness consumers with this price drop.

Here it is the iPhone SE, with months of rumors about a smaller iPhone many expected this, nothing really special this time from the iPhone, except that the 16GB model will go for $399, which is the cheapest priced an iPhone has ever launched at.

IOS 9.3 brings in Night Shift: which change your device’s display from blue to orange in the evening, the reason Apple did this? Because studies suggested that helps you sleep better (I volunteer as tribute! Going to stare at my screen all night.)

Now that that is over… let’s talk food!

Research firm CBinsights announced that food technology startups had a huge uptick in deals and raised nearly $1.25B in those deals in the last quarter of the 2015. So I will name a few startups that is leading the food revolution.

Hampton Creek

While their headquarters is neither in the Hamptons nor near creek, 35 year old CEO Josh Tetrick is leading the charge on changing how we eat with his start up. Hampton Creek wants consumers to introduce egg alternatives in our foods, with their first product Just Mayo proving their point. Just Mayo gets their mayonnaise like flavor from a specific variety of yellow field peas and apparently consumers can’t tell the difference from Just Mayo and egg made mayonnaise. Fighting through lawsuits from Unliver ( owner of ayonassie brands Hellman’s), Hampton Creek is unfazed and is looking to bring more than 43 new products in the following months, with products including salad dressings, pancakes, muffins, brownies, cookies, cakes, Hampton Creek is hoping the world becomes a healthier place, and give chickens a rest from their daily laying of eggs.

Soylent

Charging $34 for 12 bottles, Soylent is introducing a meal replacement for those in a rush, and just don’t have time to make or wait in line for a meal. Soylent 2.0 is a drink that many describe as leftover cereal water that provides all the required nutrients for consumer, without the hassle. Don’t believe it works? Well just google “What happened when I Went 30 days without Food” and be amazed folks. Who needs food when you have Soylent?

Go Cubes

This one does not have as much press as the others and I am a bit surprised, with Americans consuming 400 million cups of coffee per day, this beats the waiting in line, burning your tongue goodness that is coffee. Go Cube is a gummy cube that is actually made out of coffee. Each cube gives 50mg dose of caffeine which is basically half a cup, so you would need 2 to start the day, and because it is made of coffee it will give you the same kick and jitters as coffee does.

HUNGRY HUNGRY FUTURE

What a time to be alive! As a tech and startup enthusiast I’m simply amazed by what the future holds for us. So ladies and gentlemen, wake up, go chew some coffee, go drink a Soylent, and smear that sandwich with some Just Mayo, while staring at your newly attained smaller iPhone, and stay hungry!

$9 for a movie ticket isn’t cool. You know what is cool? $50

He’s Back

Sean Parker the quote on quote “bad boy of Silicon Valley” is back with his new start up, cleverly named Screening Room, which is planning to make movies in theaters available for home viewing, according to a report by Variety.

How does it work?

The start-up plans to allow customers to view movies from home even if the movie is currently in theaters. Brilliant idea right? Why dress up and go to movies when you can stay home and just stream the movies in the comfort of their house. 

Screening Room plans on charging $150 for access to the set-top box that transmits the movie and then charge $50 per view for the movie. Consumers will have a 48 hour time limit to view the movie they selected and would even get hard copy tickets to view the movie at a theater of their choice. The set-top box is to prevent pirating of the movies.

All the participating distributors would get a cut of the $50 charge which is believe to be 20% while exhibitors would get $20 of the fee, finally leaving Screening Room to take its own fee of 10%.

For or Against?

There are many sides for and against Parker’s startup the more well-known directors who support the model are Peter Jackson, J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese

The ones against are the National Association of Theatre Owners, James Cameron, Jon Landau, and Christopher Nolan.

Final Thoughts?

Although it’s a clever an idea that might have its Netflix takes down cable tv moment in the future, as of now it seems that Screening Room would have a long hill to climb before it meets the vision of Sean Parker. Might I suggest me not paying four times the cost for the movie I want to stream? Who knows maybe one day Screening Room will have the spotlight and a slang of its own. Screening Room and Chill

Even the Almighty Alphabet (GOOGLE) Fears The Terminator

Google is in reportedly in talks of selling off their robotics company Boston Dynamics. You know that company that posts those awesome (and scary) videos of their animal-like and now human-like robots on youtube garnering tens of millions of views.

Brief History

Boston Dynamics builds advanced robots with remarkable behavior: mobility, agility, dexterity and speed. Boston Dynamics began as a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and does work with the military. They developed a robot called BigDog and also one called Cheetah which is an animal-like robot developed to run at high speeds.

In December 2013, Google acquired Boston Dynamics. The price and terms of the deal were not disclosed although Google indicated that contracts including a $10.8 million contract with the US Defense Agency Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would be honored.

Why Sell?

There are reports that the purchase of Boston Dynamics by google caused a shift in the leadership structure of the original company, with Boston Dynamics’ engineers and Google’s engineers butting heads, this caused a slow-down of Google’s original plan; to produce and ship affordable robots as quickly as possible.

There is also a recent shift from positivity to negativity on what the robots can actually do, mostly after the recently released video of the Atlas robot. Originally the robot was to make it easier and safer for U.S. military personals to scout dangerous mind-fields, assist in missions, but now it seems that the sentiment is that these robots can take away the jobs of average U.S. citizens, and we all know how much people care about their jobs being mechanized.

So now what?

It seems that the main buyers of Boston Dynamics would be from Auto companies and manufacturing companies, such as Toyota or Amazon, for their manufacturing and warehouse operations, but it seems that Google is not ready (or terrified) that they might being overreaching with this project and this company, and for what it can create, Terminator 6 anyone?

Original Report:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-17/google-is-said-to-put-boston-dynamics-robotics-unit-up-for-sale

Tech Trends 2016

2015 has been an amazing year for Tech. As Apple releases their long awaited Apple Watch, and VR Devices begin to catch on, what do I expect to be trending in 2016?

Virtual Reality

Mark Zuckerberg saw the future when he acquired Oculus Rift in 2014 for $2 billion. Before Oculus Rift there was not much talk about virtual reality, and any devices that did support VR, was extremely bulky and took up the size of a fridge, but Oculus Rift was the trend setter proving that we could take VR, shrink it down and begin to mass market it. Many companies begin catching onto the VR trend. According to CB Insights, In the first nine months of this year, virtual and augmented reality companies raised a total of $408 million, up from $145 million during the first nine months of 2014.

This year alone we witnessed the amazing Magic Leap “commercials” that look like something out of an Iron Man movie, as well as Google’s “cardboard” which is basically a cardboard box designed to turn your smart phone into a VR device. With Oculus Rift released in the first Quarter of 2016, its obvious Virtual Reality will be the top trending tech of 2016.

Artificial Intelligence

Yes Siri has been around for years but with the continuous advancement of technology, AI seems to be the way to go. Tesla gave a big update this year in their Model S which allow Semi-Autonomous driving, and Google has been continuously testing their self driving Google Car 2016 might be the year when news on AI appears every days. According to Business Insider “The Pentagon’s fiscal 2017 budget request will include $12 billion to $15 billion to fund war gaming, experimentation and the demonstration of new technologies aimed at ensuring a continued military edge over China and Russia”. It seems that AI might surely be taking a turn towards the Terminator. So in 2016 there a huge debate and ethics talk on just how far we push AI. As Elon Musk mentioned when he started openAI (a non-profit company dedicated to advancing the science and ethics of artificial intelligence), humanity has taken their place as the dominant species on Earth because of our intelligence, and by making AI smarter than Humanity we might just lose that spot (I’m paraphrasing of course).

Wearables

Apple is probably releasing their 2nd generation watches next year, and with that comes more competition in the Wearable tech space. What’s next? Google glass sorta failed, Apple watch did not get as much reception as it liked. Are people just not ready to turn into cyborgs? Only time will tell, but I think wearables will have another shot at making the headlines in 2016

Yahoo...

Yahoo recently announced their quarterly earnings which are fairly in line with analyst estimates, but that can hardly be called victory for the once leading innovators and tech giants of the early Silicon Valley Tech companies.

WHATS GOING ON?

When the current CEO Marissa Mayers was announced as the CEO of Yahoo many employees and shareholders cheered believing Mayers will bring the struggling company back to its glory. However now it seems that Mayers is joining the group of the ever lackluster CEOs, that have tried to revive Yahoo. Yahoo’s current Market Cap is around $27 billion but that value is greatly contributed by it’s $30b stake in Alibaba (which as a company itself is hitting some rough patches this year). Many attribute Yahoo’s failure to its over purchasing of many companies (around 20) in a short time span (13 months or so), which brought no essential value to the company as a whole.

Solution?

One commonly suggested solution, that Yahoo might try to do is to make Yahoo more focus on the useful parts of it’s companies and try to figure out a way to spin-off its Alibaba holdings ( favorably, tax wised).

My Opinion (Note I’m obviously not an expert)

I would suggest Yahoo take up an Alphabet/ Berkshire Hathaway like structure (which they might be currently trying to do), and structure their company with the profitable or could be profitable businesses.

These would be Yahoo Search, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Mail, Tumblr, and Flicker, and it’s Alibaba holdings. This focus on core businesses would allow the company to focus their resources and employees on what makes Yahoo, Yahoo and give the ! behind its logo an actual meaning.