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Archive for Technology – Page 10

Is your phone just an expensive calculator?

Posted by Katherine Gish

· Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019

· 7 Comments

Daniela Perdomo realized that without a cellular connection, your phone is basically useless after Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, leaving her without power or internet connection.

Seeing how real this problem was, Daniela began a tech startup called goTenna. Her devices are candy-bar sized transmitters that can send text messages even if there is no cellular connection.

goTenna’s technology has a much broader application than people living in the aftermath of a hurricane. Recently these devices have been used by first responders, the military, and even the Department of Homeland Security.

The company uses what is called “mesh networking” which expands by connecting users on a peer-to-peer basis. These small devices are built to be portable and can be attached to a backpack using a small clip. The price of one of these transmitters is $179, and is becoming more accessible than ever to consumers with a constantly expanding network.

7 Comments

Categories : Smartphone, Technology, Women Entrepreneurs

Nick Evans: Tile

Posted by Avalon Parsons

· Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019

· 3 Comments

Evans started out pursuing an engineering career, he got his dream job with MindTribe Product Engineering, yet he always felt like he was meant for more, something bigger. Evans tried to start up a company called LiveSprout which allowed people to grow real plants virtually, which means that people would order a plant online and Evans and his robot would care for the plant until it was grown and then they would ship it to you. A few months later, Evans noticed that his company was not doing well, so he called a friend. Evans was asked how this would make an impact and then he realized that he did not have a good answer, so he shut down LiveSprout and started to look for a job. When Evans found a job he kept thinking of ways to start his own business, in this time though, he figured out what motivated him and what he wanted to do.

Evans called an old co-worker, Mike Farley, and asked if he wanted to start a business together, within 24 hours they were making calls to figure out how to get their business, Tile, to take off. It originally started as a side project, they kept their full time jobs and worked on this during nights and on weekends. They eventually decided to pursue this full time because of all of the positive feedback that they had received. Tile is a small tracking device that you can put on many items that you easily lose, such as keys or a wallet, and it has an app that is compatible with IOS devices. When starting a campaign to raise money, donations were rolling in like crazy! in just 34 days they had raised $2.4 million from pre-orders. It is only $20 for one Tile, Evans and Farley wanted to differentiate themselves by making a cheap product that lasts a year, they believe that it will keep customers coming back and purchasing another Tile since it works well and is cheap.

Evans stated that it is critical to surround yourself with people who share similar ideas with you. Its essential for growth and productivity. There will be like-minded people wherever you go, sometimes it is harder to find them, usually they will all be in a specific area due to a problem there that needs to be solved, just like how Evans moved to the West Coast to pursue Tile.

3 Comments

Categories : App, Engineering, Technology

Rosie’s Workshop

Posted by Paige Crawley

· Monday, September 30th, 2019

· 2 Comments

Rosie’s Workshop was founded in 2016 by Blair and Jen Koss. At Rosie’s, you can find unique “lighting and home decor made with vintage finds,” as founder Blair puts it. Examples of the vintage pieces include instruments and old cameras.

Rosie’s Workshop is the perfect example of a business dedicated to design and storytelling. Each camera used for the light has a story attached to it. For example, one of the cameras is the same type that was used in one of the Harry Potter movies. When buying the light, one can read the backstory located near the camera. These backstories let the customer connect more directly with the product.

The workshops offered at the store are another example of how Rosie’s excels in the experience they offer to their customers. There are workshop opportunities for customers to make their own lights using their own cameras, which adds to the special connection they have with the products.

The name behind Rosie’s comes from Jen’s grandmothers who worked during World War II. The style of the 20s is very prevalent in the designs, in the metal and fabric chosen for the pieces.

Rosie’s takes the left-brained skills of engineering and combines it effortlessly with right-brained storytelling and design. Rosie’s is located in Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh, PA. You can find them at www.rosiesworkshop.com to learn more about their workshops and products.

2 Comments

Categories : Creating, Household Goods, Manufacturing, Technology, Upcycling, Vintage, Women Entrepreneurs

Daniel Ek- The Man Behind The Music

Posted by Rebecca Cloyd

· Saturday, September 28th, 2019

· 2 Comments

Most millennial’s probably can not remember a time without a music app. Starting with Pandora then transitioning to other apps such as Spotify and Apple music, these apps have changed the way we view and enjoy music. Daniel Ek, a Swedish entrepreneur is the man behind the popularly used app Spotify. This entrepreneurs story is different than most. His creative thinking process began when he was 14 but did not begin to take off until he was 24. In an interview with CNBC he said “I had always wanted to belong and I had been thinking that this was going to get solved when I had money, and instead I had no idea how I wanted to live my life”. Rather than living a life full of partying and useless activities, he decided to move away from that scene and focus what is important and meaningful to him. His separation from what he thought he wanted in life is where his idea for Spotify first started. The creation of the app began in 2006 in Sweden and was launched two years later in 2008.It was not until 2012 that Spotify was first introduced to the United States. Spotify started out with a fairly simple model with the option to listen for free or purchase a subscription, but has developed significantly over the years by expanding the music selection, adding podcasts and allowing users to put together and “download” playlists. Founder Daniel Ek lives a very orderly and strict lifestyle.

Ek says that “the most creative people in the world schedule their creativity”, which is contradictory to what most people would think. Spotify is always changing and that is largely do to the dedication and commitment that Ek has for thinking about new ways to improve the app and get ahead of his competitors. Daniel is currently worth upwards of 2 billion dollars, and currently owns 9% of the companies shares. At 36 years old, Daniel Ek is making drastic changes to the music industry, especially for the listener. He found a way to make music more accessible and made his platform useful for all ages and all music interests. The technological aspect of his invention has brought back songs from decades ago and placed them right at our finger tips to enjoy. He has connected people through a mutual interest, music, and created a community of creative thinking and music enjoyment.

2 Comments

Categories : App, Music, Technology

BuzzFeed

Posted by Stu Rozendal

· Friday, September 27th, 2019

· 2 Comments

Today BuzzFeed is known as a source of “news”, pop-culture, entertainment, and YouTube video series. It exploded into popularity with its listicles (list-articles) which still remain one of its more popular features, though it has since expanded into other forms of online media, including web comics, web video series, and–more recently–serious news.

But BuzzFeed started as something much smaller. In 2006 Jonah Peretti, then working for HuffingtonPost, started BuzzFeed. Back then it was a place that curated web content that algorithms predicted would become viral. Gradually it expanded into articles, first simply posts describing viral web content, and then their famous listicles, and eventually longer entertainment-based pieces and news. In 2016 they split their brand between BuzzFeed (entertainment) and BuzzFeed news (news-based content). Its online video presence also grew in popularity as web series it produced grew popular on YouTube.

From its inception as a viral curator to its modern identity as a source of pop culture content and “serious” news, BuzzFeed, and its millennial founders, have demonstrated a desire to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to producing, distributing, and cultivating content in the twenty-first century. Their strategy seems to involve jumping on trends to see which ones will pay off. Over the past thirteen years they have experimented in many areas of content creation, with varying success. This demonstrates an entrepreneurial spirit of a willingness to experiment and an understanding of the purpose of failure in innovation.

Though far from a perfect company (it has weathered criticism for plagiarism and false-reporting and poor work environments), BuzzFeed will remain a thoughtful example of an entrepreneurial spirit in a decades old medium (the news and entertainment). No doubt, it will continue to innovate and experiment in the years to come.

2 Comments

Categories : Online Companies, Technology

World’s Youngest Bitcoin Millionaire

Posted by Katherine Gish

· Monday, September 16th, 2019

· 5 Comments

Erick Finman, at age 11, invested $1000 into bitcoin, which is now worth millions.

Erik Finman was 12 years old when made a bet with his parents; if he could make a million dollars from investing $1000 in bitcoin, they would let him drop out of school. You could say his bet paid off.

Now Erick is 20 years old, and his thousand dollar investment in 2011 became a net worth of $4.5 million. The approximate value of each bitcoin is $10,320.00, and Erick owns 446 of them. He says he first heard of bitcoin from a hippie wearing a bitcoin t-shirt during an occupy wall street protest in 2008, which convinced him and his brother to invest in bitcoin.

In 2018 he worked with NASA to launch a satellite into space carrying a signed copy of Taylor Swift’s “1989” album and other pop music memorabilia in a digital time capsule.

Erick’s latest endeavor has stemmed from his love for cryptocurrency. He is partnering with a company called Metal to launch a new kind of cryptocurrency to rival Facebook’s Libra (www.metalpay.com). He created a real life Dr. Octopus suit, which has robotic octopus arms intended to be used as prosthetic arms for a young boy with hyper mobility issues.

Another one of his key achievements is an educational start-up called “Botangle”, which paired students with teachers for online schooling. This was a very unique project for Eric, stemming from his bad experience in traditional school. He hopes to enable students to create for themselves the perfect educational system according to their needs. He sold the company for 300 bitcoin, which was a gamble at the time because of the volitility of bitcoins value. Later he bought the company back because he “liked the name too much”.

You can follow his Instagram account @erickfinman for more updates on what he’s been doing with his money lately. He likes to post satirical photos of “new money” stereotypes from time to time. One of his first splurges was on an Audi A8, with the caption saying “My GPA back in High School was 2.1. Now it’s going to be my license plate. (2.1 GPA)”.

5 Comments

Categories : App, Cryptocurrency, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Technology

Quizlet- Andrew Sutherland

Posted by Roman Day

· Monday, September 16th, 2019

· 5 Comments

Have had a last-minute cram? Tried to Google answers to a quiz (not that any Grover would)? or Tried needed to make and catalog flash cards online?

At 15 years old Andrew Sutherland started Quizlet. This online, and now app-based, service allows students to create, share, and view series of flashcards. These cards can be grouped be class/course number as well as a general topic title. As the service has grown- several subscription services are available to both remove adds and not limit content. Sutherland furthered his education by attending MIT for three years. Sutherland dropped out to further his venture. Quizlet, now approaching 40 Million Users, raised $30 Million in it’s last round of financing.

The new ‘Quizlet Pro’ gives users unlimited access and storage for a fee of $20 a year. This platform continues to expand, now offering ‘Quizlet Full’ in seven languages.

I find this platform intriguing as, aside from serves, the company does not have large physical assets- rather, the information and content is created and cataloged by users themselves. This self-perpetuating model is scale-able and long-term, as the more users, the more content, more content means appealing to more users, so on and so forth.

5 Comments

Categories : Academia, App, Great Ideas, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Online Companies, Technology, Uncategorized, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Too Good for ones Good

Posted by Rachel Shoemaker

· Sunday, September 15th, 2019

· 1 Comment

As a young teen Adam Horwitz created a website that identified where parties were in the area and a place to post new music. His website took off and he made money by selling add space on his website. After his immediate success, was an immediate shut down. The site guided over 800 people to a party and the website then had to be shut down. However, young Adam took what he learned and taught classes about how to make money online. One of his classes made 2.8 million in just three months. Adam new he wanted to create something and make money by doing it. I bet that he never thought that he would be able to make so much while being so young. He also took a failure and didn’t let it stop him. He persevered through his struggle of having to shut down his website, and made it into another opportunity to teach people how to become entrepreneurs.

His success started of very fast and slowly trickled down. He now is a YouTube creator and makes travel vlogs. His entrepreneurial mind shifted through out his life but he will always have that spirit. Adam’s story is a great way to see how you need to think before just starting your idea. As a young entrepreneur he started something that in his mind thought was a great idea, and in some ways it was, but as entrepreneurs we must think of our ideas, and see what problem we are solving, or ones that could potentially happen. Adam is know trying to help young YouTubers be able to become successful and does online workshops in order to help them start making money.

https://applications.lpages.co/wolvesworkshop-3times-adam-horwitz-week-of-715/

1 Comment

Categories : Technology, Uncategorized

Jack Kim – Benelab

Posted by Edward Bianco

· Sunday, September 15th, 2019

· No Comments

Jack Kim a high school student from Seattle, Washington goes to school during the day and by all means is a normal high school student. With a little help from some of his friends, he started Benelab. A non-profit search engine that donates the revenue, from advertising, to charities. Kim joined forces with six other high school students this past summer, now they have expanded to 12 members. His focus is involving high school students after instituting a no adult rule.

Kim is motivated by the idea of helping people and finding unique ways to do it. This is the first completely non-profit search engine, which is why it is so innovative. Kim and friends realized that the best way to learn was outside of the classroom, by gaining world experience.

Kim made sure to focus his target market on students and the younger generation. This sets him apart from many entrepreneurs who aim to get as much traffic as they can rather than a specific market. They realized that young people care a lot about charitable causes.

Starting Benelab wasn’t easy spending just $1500 in the process. Although ran by broke high school students Benelab isn’t about the big money for Kim. They donate 100% of their revenue and are way more crowd-source oriented than their competitors. They also have their own technology behind the search functionality. Benelab is completely volunteer run as well. Even though people doubted them and said they couldn’t do it; Kim showed them that even 6 high school students from Seattle can make a difference.

No Comments

Categories : Charity, Online Companies, Technology