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The Sunday Edition of the Comunicano Communique for January 24th 2016

The Comunicano Communique

Hello from COLD and CHILLY Miami. You read right. Cold and Chilly. It's only 46 degrees, and I'm staying INSIDE. The Marathon is running outdoors, but before the race began you could feel the chill in the air. Today's top story has to be the winter storm that is wrecking havoc all along the east coast, messing up transportation this weekend and potentially impacting travelers to this week's IT Expo in Fort Lauderdale....You've heard of rain outs in baseball and games getting called because of rain. Well here's one in hockey. The Islanders and Flyers game in Brooklyn was cancelled, DUE TO SNOW.  Ooops . I did it again. I proved YOU CAN make phone calls on Wi-Fi equipped airliners. Have a view on the news today? Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     Calling from 35,000 Feet Using Switch and Fly-Fi on Jet Blue JetBlue just became my favorite airline.....I'm flying my way to Fort Lauderdale and next week's IT Expo when I decided to try something that back in 2008, along with now Wall Street Journal Tech Reporter, Joanna Stern, caused quite a stir with AirCell and the GoGo team.     [continue...]     Battered by East Coast Snowstorm, Cities Face Digging Out The day after a blizzard covered New York City with more than 30 inches of snow in some parts, grappling with its sheer volume was the next order of business. At 7 a.m. on Sunday a travel ban imposed by New York State and city officials on Saturday afternoon was lifted.     [continue...]     Flyers-Islanders game postponed due to storm Posted: Saturday, January 23, 2016, 10:55 AM NEW YORK -- The Flyers' scheduled game against the New York Islanders Saturday night at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn has been postponed. No makeup date was immeditely announced, but the team planned to go through with its morning skate at 11:30 a.m.     [continue...]     Shaquille O'Neal surprises Florida teens, officer with game of basketball | Fox News A former NBA superstar surprised a Florida police officer and a group of teenagers days after the officer was captured on video responding to a call of children playing basketball too loudly in the street and instead of breaking up the game, the officer joined them.     [continue...]     Amazon brings personalized sports updates, movie theater details to Echo - GeekWire Updates to Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant are coming in thick and fast, with Jeopardy! showing up on the Echo smart speaker last week and the ability to start your car coming in the future. This week, Amazon announced a couple entertainment-related abilities coming to the Echo.     [continue...]     LinkNYC's free Wi-Fi could threaten cellular carriers with Passpoint roaming, speedy connections As Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and others work to bolster their cellular networks in the heart of the Big Apple, they are now facing another competitor: New York City, which this week began offering public access to its small but growing network of LinkNYC-branded public Wi-Fi hotspots.     [continue...]     Google's free Wi-Fi launched at Mumbai Central Station Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu Friday launched a free high-speed public Wi-Fi service in collaboration with technology giant Google at Mumbai Central, the first station in the country to get such facility. Terming the facility as "world class", Prabhu said around 100 busiest stations across the country will be brought under the free public Wi-Fi service by this year-end, making it the world's largest such project.     [continue...]     How Facebook's Plan To Give The World Free Mobile Internet Went So Wrong On a Tuesday afternoon in May 2010, a Facebook program manager named Sid Murlidhar published a blog post announcing "another way for people to access Facebook anytime, anywhere." It was called 0.Facebook, literally a URL you could type into your mobile phone's browser that called up a stripped-down, quick-loading, text-only version of Facebook - accessible only as long as you were using a participating mobile operator.     [continue...]     FreeBee Data - Verizon's Sponsored Data Service is Out Verizon, the largest mobile operator in the US has unveiled its own version of Sponsored Data service, dubbed FreeBee Data, joining the likes of T-Mobile and AT&T. FreeBee Data will help businesses drive better engagement with mobile content, said Verizon. The service will be offered in two models, FreeBee Data 360 and FreeBee Data.     [continue...]     Live messaging is the future of online sales, says Grabble app boss Daniel Murray, co-founder of Grabble, an online shopping app dubbed the 'tinder for fashion', predicts 2016 will be the year for personalised services such as instant messaging for the 'busy or bored'. Grabble, an iPhone app that lets people browse the latest collections from fashion retailers such as ASOS and Zara, launched in 2014.     [continue...]     Dubai unveiling for Scots carbon fibre wheelchair A SCOTTISH business is to demonstrate a revolutionary new wheelchair at a leading Arab health exhibition in Dubai this week that it hopes will drive its exports in a key international health market.     [continue...]     Certify Releases its Third Annual SpendSmart™ Report on Current Business Travel Spending TrendsCertify Press Release     Certify Releases its Third Annual SpendSmart™ Report on Current Business Travel Spending Trends PORTLAND, MAINE, January 21, 2015-Certify, a leading cloud-based travel and expense management software provider, today announced the results of its third annual SpendSmart™ report for the fourth quarter and full year 2015.     [continue...]     CEO Advice from a New CEO - The Biz Stone Collection Usually advice for new CEOs comes from those who have made a career for themselves out of those three letters. I'm new to this particular C-Job having taken it on officially when Ben and I founded Jelly. I felt the time was right after working alongside CEOs over the last fifteen years or more.     [continue...]     This is how we will say goodbye to the rock-and-roll generation It was one of those waves. David Bowie died on a Sunday. Seven days later, it was Dale "Buffin" Griffin from Mott the Hoople and proto-rapper Clarence "Blowfly" Reid. Then Glenn Frey of the Eagles the day after that. And here's the thing about waves: Some are bigger than others, but they never stop coming.     [continue...]     On Wine. A tragedy. On wine. A Tragedy I'm a wine insider. I've met, or known, most of the big names in wine today; and from time to time, have had the honor to collaborate with them. I run a large-ish conference about wine communications.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Communique-The Sunday Paper Edition for January 17th 2016

The Comunicano Communique

Sunday is the day I look more for the non-news articles and stories that make you think. Learn. Discover. Sure I toss in the occasional "fact" based news story but Sunday's are lazy days. Lean back. Relax. So today you're going to find what I call "The Sunday Paper." Back when I was a kid on Sundays, I would race downstairs for the Philadelphia Inquirer, pull the sports section for Dad, kill off the classified sections (want ads, car ads, for sale ads) rummage through the inserted circulars then give those to mom, and take the rest of the paper upstairs to read. News. Entertainment. Society. After I got through the news sections (National, Local, Community) dad and I would trade sections. I got the sports, he got the news,  and by 930 am on a Sunday I was done and out the door. That's the idea of these stories, plus something new.  Interesting web sites for you to know about.... Have a view on the news today? Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     SITES YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT I love MUSIC. For me, music is all about discovery. Back in the day of the "Sunday Paper" I would pull the circulars from Korvetts, Sam Goody and Peaches, figure out who had which new album the cheapest, and convince dad to drive to the store so I could score the latest LP. That was then. Today, we have iTunes, Pandora and Spotify and unless you want some vintage vinyl, or an out of print CD, you likely never go to the record store.. Likely, if you're a music junkie you know about SoundCloud. But do you know aboutBandCamp? Are you tuned in to the best DJ's from around the world on Mixcloud? These are just two sites that are where what's really happening in music is taking shape.     My Phone Notifications Took Over My Life. So I Turned Them All Off. This story is part of a 10-piece series for which HuffPost staffers agreed to experiment with improving their health and decreasing their stress on the job. It's also part of our monthlong "Work Well" initiative focusing on thriving in the workplace . Notifications: Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.     [continue...]     Why Entrepreneurs Shouldn't Waste Time On Personal Branding Back in 1997, marketing guru Tom Peters wrote in Fast Company, "We are CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." At the time, this struck me as liberating. In 2016, it doesn't.     [continue...]     The 11 digital tools I use every week as Head of Product User research and usability testing + UX TawiPay is a start-up on its way to the product-market fit, developing a comparison platform for international money transfer services. Our target users are expatriates, migrants, international students, etc. As Head of Product, one of my key role is to understand our users and to translate their needs into an easy-to-use and highly valuable product.     [continue...]     Among U.S. airlines, WiFi offered on 78% of available seat miles: Travel Weekly U.S. airlines continue to lead the world in in-flight WiFi coverage. Meanwhile, carriers throughout the globe are making connectivity in the sky more common. So says the Annual Global State of In-Flight WiFi report, authored by Routehappy, which ranks flight amenities worldwide.     [continue...]     Accenture points to uneasy consumer IoT adoption - Rethink IoT It looks like there will be a difficult few years ahead for consumer-focused IoT products. Accenture's Digital Consumer Survey polled 28,000 consumers in 28 countries about their use of consumer tech, and found that the declining demand for smartphones, tablets and laptops would not be offset by the rise in consumer IoT devices - as the next generation of devices will not initially grow quickly enough to replace the losses in today's consumer tech.     [continue...]     The New York Library has just released a treasure trove of incredible archive images to the Internet Searching for a 14th Century manuscript for a school report? How about an old baseball photo for your stash of sports memorabilia? You might try the New York Public Library's Digital Collections. Recently, the library made more than 187,000 digitized, public-domain items more easily accessible in the highest resolution available.     [continue...]     How Snapchat is getting serious about advertising Snapchat wants to get serious about advertising-and it's looking for some much needed help. The media company wants to build ad technology to automate its ad sales, and as part of the effort, Snapchat is looking at possible ad tech acquisitions to help bolster its in-house team, according to multiple sources.     [continue...]     10 Fast-Growing B2B Startups That Might Just Transform Your Business This Year As each new year begins, businesses search for ways to be more productive and successful than ever. Often this means rethinking processes and either adding resources or streamlining existing resources to save money. For many it can also mean finding new business partners to help them grow.     [continue...]     Tenacity One of the things I admire most in companies and their leaders is tenacity. I don't mean sticking with a failed idea for too long. That is a mistake I see a lot of entrepreneurs make in the Seed and Series A stages. That does nobody any good.     [continue...]     6 Machine Learning, AI, Analytics Trends To Watch - InformationWeek Big data and analytics are set for a big 2016, as more devices and types of software are connected and exchange information. Here are some considerations for businesses as they look to maximize the value of all this data.     [continue...]     26 great people spearheading change in tech investment Weary of waiting for change in the tech industry, these impatient instigators are making changes to what receives investment. Research shows diversity is good for business - take your pick from Harvard Business Review , Scientific American , McKinsey & Company and many more. Yet fundamental change in any industry can take time.     [continue...]     Jarich: Crowdsourced trends in telecom for 2016 Congratulations! It's just about mid-January, which means you made it safely through the holiday season, survived CES (if you went) and endured countless 2016 predictions pieces. This year, I held off on putting out my own predictions for a simple reason: I know a bunch of people who can do a better job than I can.     [continue...]     The Quick & Dirty: The Anti-Trends for 2016 or "Enough is Enough" I really wasn't going to do this piece: the standard trends piece for the new year. Last year I wrote about the distractions we can do without in 2015, and this year I decided to stay out of the game of predicting anything for 2016.     [continue...]     USA's Best and Worst Tippers: American Tipping Habits Last November, I spent the month in Europe traveling to some of the continent's most famous cities. Besides googling the normal amount of words like bathroom, check, wine, please and thank you in whichever foreign language needed at the time, I also searched for that country's tipping etiquette.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Communique for Monday December 28th 2015

The Comunicano Communique

It's Monday, and I have to wonder how many people are really back to work versus being "at work" this week. Well, your trusty curator has been sniffing out the stories and making news myself in CommPro.Biz and realizing how great it is to not be traveling this holiday season.  Today we'll look at the best commercials and ads from 2015--love the Nike spot and the Atlantic spots--, read a piece about celebrity endorsements-good or bad, a rant from pal Dean Bubley and much, much more. Have a view on the news today? Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     2016 Predictions from An Early Adoptive Comms Pro - CommPRO.biz Editor's Note: CommPRO is reaching out to our community, asking the c-suite for 2016 predictions. We welcome your commentary. Please email By Andy Abramson, CEO/Founder, Comunicano, Inc. As the year comes to an end, and as our minds wander and look ahead to 2016, one cannot reflect on what's happened in 2015 to envision what the upcoming year may look like.     [continue...]     Zuckerberg compares free internet services to public libraries and hospitals Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has written a forceful defense of the company's plans to offer limited, free internet access in India, comparing Facebook's Free Basics service with libraries and public hospitals.     [continue...]     Amazon Shattered Records with an an Insanely Successful Holiday Season Amazon reports that it had an absolutely massive holiday season, the biggest ever in its 21-year history, hitting numerous milestones. The Seattle-based company added 3 million new Amazon Prime subscribers in the third week of December alone, buoyed by free two-day shipping-only two- hours in some areas.     [continue...]     Amazon Prime adds more than 3M new members in 1 week at peak of shopping season - GeekWire Amazon said tonight that it added more than 3 million new Amazon Prime members globally in just one week at the height of the holiday shopping season this year. It's the latest sign of growth for the company's $99/year free-shipping and video-streaming subscription service.     [continue...]     Mobile internet is now just the internet The Christmas holidays are the time of year when different generations of the family gather around the dinner table. So it's a perfect opportunity for a spot of tech anthropology. Here's how to do it. At some point, insert into the conversation a contemporary topic about which most people have strong opinions but know relatively little.     [continue...]     Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless: New Year Rant: 10 Awful Tech-Industry Terms to Stop Using in 2016     In the spirit of the holiday season and New Year, this is another list about 2016. There's a bunch of words and concepts used in the technology industry that make you look like a fool, or at least lazy and sloppy. They're often meaningless, duplicitously-used to "misframe" an argument, or just generally cringe-worthy.     [continue...]     10 of the Best Ads of 2015 For all the fear surrounding ad blocking, there are still a lot of people watching ads. Consider Geico's Unskippable pre-roll ad: It currently has more than 8.1 million views on YouTube. Or look to Android's ad featuring unlikely animal friends: It became the most shared ad of all time, with more than 6.4 million shares.     [continue...]     2016's Biggest Social Media Trends for Business This year, social media adoption hit a new high. Around the world, there are now more than 2 billion active social media users (growing at a steady pace of 25 percent a year). This means more people now regularly use social media than the entire populations of the United States and China, combined.     [continue...]     Unfortunate Celebrity Endorsements of 2015-They're No Slam Dunk! Many people may think that celebrity sponsorships are the holy grail of marketing, but are they really worth it? While stars can boost a brand's image temporarily, they can also be a horrible match for a company in the long term. As a result, many consumers end up viewing the brand as inauthentic-or worse!     [continue...]     6 Ways to Quit Bullet Points with Style 6 simple yet stylish design alternatives to the hated bullet point - to help you step up your presentation game.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Communique for Friday December 25th 2015

The Comunicano Communique

Merry Christmas....While today is a holiday, the start of a three day weekend or the start of a ten day break for many, I'm still reading and curating news articles.  Today's Comunicano Communique features of course a story on Google's Santa Tracker, as well as a few hard news items about Kickstarter, IBM's Watson and Amazon, plus a bunch of lists to keep you well informed over the coming days of some of the best ofs...so have a happy, safe, sane and sincere holiday, wherever you may be. Have a view on the news today? Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     The engineering elves building Google's Santa Tracker  SAN FRANCISCO---Google launched the start of its annual summertime I/O developer summit by championing Android's active user base of one billion and counting. It appears Santa Claus might be one of them. One of the internet giant's more charming projects, the Santa Tracker has become somewhat of a digital yuletide tradition over the last decade.     [continue...]     Kickstarter hires journalist to investigate campaign that failed to deliver to backers Failure is a part of crowdfunding. And Kickstarter is making a push to be more transparent about what that failure looks like and why it happens. Science and technology journalist Mark Harris announced this week that he has been hired by the Brooklyn-based crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to investigate and write an expose about why a crowdfunding campaign on its platform failed.     [continue...]     IBM Watson: AI For The Real World IBM Watson, the company's AI cognitive computing platform, has attracted an ecosystem of developers and users who are layering the technology on top of their own to make it even smarter. Here's an update on Watson's evolution and why IBM can confidently assure us it won't ever become HAL.     [continue...]     Amazon Seeks to Ease Ties With UPS As the clock counts down to Christmas, workers at United Parcel Service Inc. are busy hustling packages along loading docks and conveyor belts at its Louisville, Ky., hub-part of a costly, intricate system built in part to cater to Amazon.com Inc., its biggest customer.     [continue...]     35 Cool Social Media Facts Social media seems to have been with us forever. In fact Facebook has turned ten!...that is an eternity in tech. Social media is so old that the fun police have turned up and are threatening to ruin the party. The no rules and the dope smoking, beer swilling social media parties have started moving into the board room.     [continue...]     13 Asian Startups To Watch In 2016 2015 was an eventful year for the tech industry in Asia. Funding started to flow in India, which is expected to become the world's second-largest Internet market soon, while many tech companies in China, South Korea, and Southeast Asia also hit key milestones.     [continue...]     The European Startup Revolution has arrived The following is my (slightly edited version) foreword of a new book that is being released today. Written by one of our co-founders, Croatian entrepreneur / writer Ivo Špigel, and co-published by Tech.eu, we're extremely proud to present you with 'The European Startup Revolution'.     [continue...]     The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015 A year's worth of highlights from an increasingly vibrant genre Please consider disabling it for our site, or supporting our work in one of these ways Subscribe Now > More than 300,000 podcasts exist in the world as of the close of 2015.     [continue...]     12 Travel Apps Worth Keeping in 2016 Recently I deleted dozens of travel apps from my iPhone. Many are great. They allowed me to research unfamiliar places, listen to audio tours and turn my photos into postcards. But travel is about tapping the world, not a screen, so I'm ending the year with an app purge.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Communique for Wednesday December 23rd 2015

The Comunicano Communique

It's Wednesday before Christmas. In looking for the news I found a few tidbits for travelers, an acquisition by former client Truphone in the IoT space, moves being made by Google, a spat between T-Mobile and YouTube, the fact that the Beatles are giving us all a long lasting holiday present, insights about the changing face of in store retail marketing, how Uber manages to win and more. Have a view on the news today? Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     Google Accuses T-Mobile of Throttling YouTube Traffic Google Accuses T-Mobile of Throttling YouTube Traffic Google has accused T-Mobile of throttling YouTube traffic, even when customers are opted out of the company's Binge On service. As we noted last month, T-Mobile's new Binge On service exempts video services from the company's data caps, but throttles that content back to 480p.     [continue...]     Google Plans New, Smarter Messaging App News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. Users will be able to text friends or a chatbot that will scour the Web and other sources to answer a question Google is building a new mobile-messaging service that taps its artificial intelligence know-how and so-called chatbot technology to try to catch rivals including Facebook Inc.     [continue...]     Genius for Android Detects the Song You're Playing, Provides Lyrics If you ever needed an Android app that could not only recognise the song playing on your phone, but also display its lyrics, you will want to check Genius. The app added the latter feature in a recent update. The feature is not available on Genius' iOS app.     [continue...]     The Beatles Are Coming to Apple Music, Spotify and Everywhere Else on Christmas Eve You can spend Christmas streaming the Beatles. The world's most famous band will finally be available on streaming music services, starting this Thursday, Christmas Eve. And they'll be available very, very widely: Industry sources say that the Fab Four's music will be on all of the obvious music services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and Tidal, as well as some you might not expect, including Amazon's Prime Music.     [continue...]     New NBA Store Has an 'Endless Aisle' Thanks to E-Commerce Partner E-commerce is increasingly invading physical retail, and the National Basketball Association is jumping on board. The league's new capabilities were on display on Monday - the grand opening day for the new NBA flagship store at 5th Avenue and 45th Street in New York City.     [continue...]     Five Trends Ready to Disrupt In-Store Retail in 2016 | Xconomy With 2015 coming to a close, retailers are looking ahead for the next wave of technology that will impact in-store innovation. While we're still waiting for some popular 2015 predictions to take off, including the merging of online recommendation engines with in-store visits, other trends such as e-commerce sites opening more brick and mortar locations and the increased focus on mobile continue to flourish.     [continue...]     Data guru who changed baseball to help scientists Economist Paul DePodesta, whose pioneering methods for evaluating baseball players were lionized in the movie "Moneyball," has been hired by the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla to find new ways to analyze medical data.     [continue...]     Comcast installs DOCSIS 3.1 Gigabit class modem on live network in Philadelphia Comcast, the largest broadband provider by subscribers in the United States, has announced what it claims is the installation of the world's first live DOCSIS 3.1 modem on a customer-facing network. Having deployed the equipment in a property in Philadelphia late last month, the cableco said this represented 'the next important step forward in delivering Gigabit speed broadband over [its] hybrid-fibre coaxial (HFC) network'.     [continue...]     UK Start-up Truphone Acquires IoT Connectivity Management Platform From CoSwitched UK based global mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Truphone announced the acquisition of the Internet of Things)(IoT) Connectivity Management Platform from CoSwitched, an IoT start-up providing management platform for connected machines, such as connected cars, asset trackers or smart meters.     [continue...]     Uber backed by competition watchdog in TfL regulation battle Uber has been given a boost in its attempts to stave off proposed changes to regulating the taxi trade in London, after the competition authority said the reforms would not serve the public interest.     [continue...]     12 Best Long-Haul Airline Seats in the Sky to Fly in 2016 Long-haul flight can be excruciating, but it doesn't need to be. Aeronautics engineers, aircraft manufacturers, designers, and airlines have collaborated to improve the choices available, introducing cabins which could make flying long distances bearable again.     [continue...]     The Best Restaurant in America's 40 Biggest Airports Because no one likes having to settle for the Spear O Mint Life Savers in the baggage-claim vending machines, we've painstakingly sought out the best restaurant and its precise location in each of the 40 largest American airports. Please adjust your travel plans accordingly.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Comnunique for Tuesday December 22nd 2015

The Comunicano Communique

It's Tuesday and the news is S L O W !!!! But yesterday Skype Microsoft made an acquisition of sorts, snapping up Talko. I played around with the HyperVoice based Talko when it first was released and understand the premise. For Skype think of this as an acquihire that includes some forward looking technology that they need to keep up with Cisco. Have a view on the news today? Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     Talko comes to Skype I am pleased to announce today that Microsoft has acquired technology from Talko, maker of an innovative mobile app for on-the-go business communications. As part of the agreement, Talko employees will join the Skype team. Together, the new technology and talent will help us deliver great new features and capabilities in both Skype and Skype for Business.     [continue...]     If you like Stephen Colbert's sense of humor or are a StarWars fan you have to watch his "Plot Summary" riff. It's too funny to miss.     Stephen Explains "Star Wars" To China When the first "Star Wars" came out in 1977, western media was suppressed in China. So to get his Chinese viewers excited about the new film, Stephen sums up what they missed.     [continue...]     How APIs are Disrupting Business Changing the world, one API Enterprise at a time. In today's installment of #BigIdeas2016, I'd like to take a quick minute to talk about how APIs are disrupting not just the tech industry, but all of business. Application programming interfaces or APIs, are one of the driving forces behind a lot of digital disruption out there.     [continue...]     Zapier soothes BYOA woes, connecting APIs from enterprise apps The story of how Zapier got its start is not dissimilar to that of many other startups. The company, which offers app integration and automation services, began when its founders started noticing a distinct trend in their previous work.     [continue...]     The 10 Biggest Tech Trends for 2016 If you already feel like you are living in a sci-fi futuristic fantasy, just wait. Technology is getting exponentially faster, more immersive and intuitive. And as technology changes, so does the way we live.     [continue...]     Hospitality Net - Are Virtual Reality Concierges Coming? In the next several years, virtual reality is expected to see massive adoption. According to Digi-Capital, VR is predicted to grow into a $30 billion industry by 2020. Already, a number of large and small hospitality brands are utilizing this new technology to reach and engage guests. But what does this look like?     [continue...]     Fact-Checking the Debate on Encryption As politicians and counter-terrorism officials search for lessons from the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, senior officials have called for limits on technology that sends encrypted messages. It's a debate that has repeatedly recurred for more than a decade.In the 1990s, the Clinton Administration directed technology companies to store copies of their encryption keys with the government.     [continue...]     CES 2016: What Not to Miss for Marketing and Media Professionals An informed look into the must-see brands, startups and events from PSFK's conference guide Virtual media environments, connected home ecosystems and emotion-controlled entertainment have shaped the media and marketing landscapes of today. The integration of such future-focused technologies into brand experience has presented ever more opportunities to reach an audience, allowing brands to design for more immersive and hyper-targeted conversations.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Communique for Friday December 11 2015

 

The Comunicano Communique

The Comunicano Daily is no more. We've changed the name to the Communique. The name has been changed for a few reasons. First, doing this everyday, especially when I've been globally nomadic the past seven months has been challenging. But also I wanted to mix up the content and bring to you more timely and insightful articles vs. only the news of the day. Lastly, the name is more in line with the business we're in. Communication and the delivery of it. So as with any "experiment" the content mix will always change, but the premise will never as each time the Communique comes out, there's likely something every day you'll want to read.  Please let me know what you think....Andy Abramson     More and more I find really well written and articulate content in MEDIUM. It's really a thinking persons' content trove. Today, this 13 minute read on The Mobile Growth Stackreally got me thinking about the changing landscape of communications.      2015: The Mobile Growth Stack Revised (Disclaimer: I lead a growth team at SoundCloud. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer) It's been just over a year since I published my original Mobile Growth Stack post on Medium.     [continue...]     When VCs, especially respected ones start to talk about the availability of of capital it is more of a rallying cry to startup more, to invest more and to do more.     Capital Is No Longer Scarce Capital is no longer scarce. This is an assertion I made a while back in my post " Land, Capital, Attention: This Time it Is the Same. " Today I want to elaborate on that a bit. Estimates put global investible capital at north of $100 trillion.     [continue...]     FanDuel and DraftKings are in trouble. This in my view is only the tip of the iceberg. What was once really fantasy sports is now fantasy gambling, and sports betting has never been really allowed in the USA on wide scale basis, as it has always been a staple of the underground economy.      Judge orders FanDuel and DraftKings to halt all business in New York Online fantasy sports betting sites FanDuel and DraftKings will need to temporarily shut down operations in New York, as a judge today granted an injunction against both companies. State Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez sided with New York's attorney general, finding that the underlying model that's helped put these businesses atop a multibillion-dollar industry likely amounts to illegal sports wagering and gambling under state law.     [continue...]     As a stats junkie from way back I always enjoy a good read on metrics and how they are applied. This article cites some pretty good resources and provides a nice primer to marketers.     50+ Statistics Designed to Influence B2B Marketing Budgets in the New Year It is that time in the year again. As we wind down 2015, marketing budgets and planning for the new year begin to take focus. Hopefully, the performance metrics associated with your organization's marketing programs have yielded success and validation for tactics proposed at the beginning of the year.     [continue...]     FaceBook is taking aim at LinkedIn. Make no mistake about it. With Apple also going after the Enterprise, my view is the mobile enterprise will be where the money can be made, so this means have your social selling strategy aligned with your product and marketing efforts from the start with Facebook.     Facebook at Work chief shares details on its new social enterprise tools Facebook plans to release its Facebook at Work social network for business in the 'coming months.' The project's leader spoke with CIO.com about the motivation behind Facebook at Work, how the consumer-focused company prepares to take on business customers and how the tools enable new levels of productivity.     [continue...]     IoT can't be ignored. It needs to be part of any company's strategy.     IoT trends in the mobile carrier market Wireless analyst Chetan Sharma rolled out his numbers on the US mobile market a couple weeks ago, with some indicators of where future growth might come for the carriers. Spoiler alert: It's not in the smart phone market. Sharma writes: Smartphone penetration increased to 81% and roughly 97% of the devices sold now are smartphones....     [continue...]     We often hear about SalesForce but overlook their biggest rival, NetSuite. The company is making moves to simplify while they expand their offerings.     NetSuite's OneWorld goes Centurion  It may sound like it is a small step for a business, but NetSuite's announcement that it can now service the business management needs of global enterprises in over 100 countries with the latest set of upgrades to its OneWorld service is quite a significant step.     [continue...]     The Intranet used to be a big deal in most large corporations. Today, the mobile app is the key to keeping everyone--CONNECTED and informed.     Bye-bye Intranet, Hello Mobile App Many corporate intranets are not well equipped for mobile usage. Application development platforms like APPrise Mobile offer an alternative. The corporate intranet tries to be a lot of things to a lot of people: a repository for workplace documents, a channel for social collaboration, an employee help desk and a content distribution tool.     [continue...]     The calendar has been the same for many years, even with all types of apps to make it "better." But Future looks at the calendar in a new way...and it may be a better way.     Future - Calendar events around the clock Future for iPhone and Apple Watch puts calendar events around the clock. The 24-hour spiral timeline gives an all-day overview at a glance.     [continue...]     Catch me today at 245 PM Pacific Standard Time on Business RockStars with Ken Rutkowski. I'll also be on again Monday at 1:45 PM. Each day I'll bring you and the nationwide audience in 185 markets and in 31 million cable TV households the newest in apps, services and cool technology.

The Comunicano Daily for July 28th, 2015

The Comunicano Daily

My co-founder, along with Josh Baylin, in VelocityGrowth, Jeff Belk was one of the key executives who put Qualcomm on the map. There Jeff, who rose to CMO and CSO, instilled a marketing culture amongst a group of inventors, IP attorneys and engineers. Jeff retired from Qualcomm eight years or so ago, but he remains close to many there. His perspective, as someone close to everyone from Paul Jacobs on down provides him the unique insight to author this piece on the recent news and explain why it may be the best thing to happen to San Diego in years. Now, only if the Chargers get a new football stadium....       Are Qualcomm Layoffs a Disaster for San Diego---or an Opportunity? | Xconomy After years of strong corporate and financial growth, the pace of change in the wireless industry has forced a massive global layoff at San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM. If the wireless giant had only 1,000 employees, a layoff of 150 folks would not be big news.     [continue...]       As the owner and user of a OnePlus One Android smartphone I can't wait for the Two to be offered. Not only is the OnePlus One the best Android I ever owned, it may be the best value smartphone around. Give a read of the next three stories and see if you would pay more for less.       How the OnePlus 2 Plans to Be More Than a One-Hit Wonder Imagine being Dexy's Midnight Runners, circa 1982. "Come On Eileen" just came out of nowhere and is blowing up. It's on every radio station, and playing at every party. Nobody had ever heard of you; now you're everywhere.     [continue...]     The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship smartphone can be The bang for your buck ratio here is pretty great There are more options than ever for getting a good, cheap smartphone, and last year's OnePlus One was a standout. For $300, you got a well-made, nice-looking phone with cutting-edge hardware and few compromises to be found (assuming its 5.5-inch size didn't put you off).     [continue...]     OnePlus 2: everything you need to know The OnePlus One was released last year Under the hood Potential buyers were required to obtain an invitation through OnePlus' website before they were able to buy it, with the first 100 handsets offered as part of a "Smash" promotion where people were invited to destroy their existing phone for a chance to buy a One for just $1.     [continue...]       The Terminator movies were legendary and help put "the Arnold" on the map once and for all. Never shy about his love of the WWF, largely due to a friendship forged with Jesse "The Body" Ventura years ago, Arnold is going to be featured in a new video game, bringing back his "Terminator" character....Watch the two videos and see how the computer generated graphics look, and how good some of the WWF heels are at acting.....       Arnold Schwarzenegger WWE Commercial: T2 Bar Scene Reenactment Okay so Arnold Schwarzenegger has been revisiting a lot of his old Terminator scenes lately, not just in Terminator Genisys which resets and revisits some moments from the first film in different ways, but also in a new commercial for the WWE 2k16 video game.     [continue...]       Everyone is looking to one up Uber....and here's a new spin on it.  In London to be a taxi driver you have to pass "The Knowledge." Well now aspiring drivers can learn London streets and make money doing it...       Taxi app Gett to deliver champagne as Uber battle intensifies The champagne will be delivered on motorbike by people learning The Knowledge "For the last five years, we've been moving customers around safely and now Gett Clicquot will use the same business model to bring this revolutionary new service to Londoners," said Remo Gerber, Gett's UK CEO.     [continue...]       It's not taking long for changes to happen at Cisco follow John Chambers retirement. New people in key positions. Some execs leaving. A flatter, more nimble organization. Sounds like what is also taking shape at Microsoft is happening at Cisco as well.       Cisco Recruits Two Outsiders as Executives Cisco Systems Inc.'s new chief executive marked his first day in the job by naming two outsiders to high-profile management posts. Chuck Robbins, who assumed the CEO role at the networking equipment maker Monday after John Chambers' ended his tenure after 20 years, said in a blog post that Zorawar Biri Singh will serve as senior vice president and chief technology officer.     [continue...]       If you're a Comcast customer you may be wondering who else is on your WiFi network. Basically Comcast has taken a page out of the European operator's mode of operation, and enabled their subscribers to latch on to other subscribers networks.       Comcast Hits 10M WiFi Hotspots Comcast said Monday that it surpassed the milestone of 10 million WiFi hotspots nationwide, including wireless access points installed in public areas and neighborhood hotspots powered by second antennas contained in WiFi gateways deployed in subscriber homes.     [continue...]       Verizon has video on the brain. Their new G90 service is starting trials across the USA and is looking like it's closer to becoming a reality.       Verizon Mobile Video Service Details Uncovered: To Be Called Go90 (Exclusive) Verizon is getting ready to launch a new mobile video service called Go90 this summer, Variety has learned. Go90 promises users full episodes of TV shows from select networks as well as music videos and other shortform content, and the company will at least initially offer the service entirely free...     [continue...]       Last week PayPal went public. This week Visa retorts with an investment in Stripe.       Visa Invests in Stripe at $5 Billion Valuation and Strikes Commercial Deal, Too Credit card companies think they have a found an ally in the increasingly competitive world of online payments. Its name is Stripe. Visa has inked a commercial agreement with the payments startup, and has separately made an investment in the San Francisco-based company that values it at $5 billion.     [continue...]       The medical world has lagged for years in the area of IT for the physician. Now it seems to be catching up.       Efficient doctors need IT prescription Whether using products such as Telehealth, which uses apps and texting to treat patients without the need to visit hospital, Sleepio, an online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme aiming to reduce insomnia, or Simman 3G, a robot that makes sure doctors are prepared to treat patients with allergic reactions, medicine is constantly changing - and GPs, running practices as small businesses, must adapt, cut costs and find innovative treatments.     [continue...]     Software Turns Smartphones Into Tools for Medical Research SAN FRANCISCO - Jody Kearns doesn't like to spend time obsessing about her Parkinson's disease. The 56-year-old dietitian from Syracuse, New York, had to give up bicycling because the disorder affected her balance. But she still works, drives and tries to live a normal life.     [continue...]       I love lists of tips. Here are three to help you through your day..       20 Great Podcasts for Entrepreneurs - Listen up, makers. :) by Product Hunt A collection curated by Product Hunt, featuring products like The Pitch, StartUp Podcast Season 2, How To Start A Startup , The Twenty Minute VC (podcast), and This is PM Podcast     [continue...]     15 Essential Content Creation Apps You Need Right Now Writing is your drawcard. It's the number one tool you have at your fingertips for marketing an online business. So it needs to be good. You need to write compelling copy that engages readers, gets them to listen up and encourages them to buy.     [continue...]     27 travel hacks that even frequent fliers don't know Even the most seasoned jetsetter will learn a thing or two from these travel hacks.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Wednesday July 23rd 2015

The Comunicano Daily

Personal note Today I honor my late father, USMC Master Sergeant Bernard Abramson, retired. Dad served in WWII and the Korean Conflict. During World War Two he was based in Guam and staged the Marines who captured Iwo Jima and planted the US flag there. As he once said to me, I sent a lot of people away who never came home. He would have been 102 as he was born in 1913 and was a pre-recession baby. The first in his family and the first to pass away now 24 years ago in 1991. Dad taught me many things, but one saying from his days in the Corp will always stay with me. "The impossible we do right away. Miracles take a little longer." It's something I still live by. Semper Fi Dad...         The market looks at guidance and sales and when you miss, they slap you down. Apple and Microsoft are seeing value in their companies dropping this morning because old school economics are being applied, and the analysts are missing the value of apps, content and the cloud. Both Microsoft and Apple are rapidly moving into a cloud enabled customer model, much like where Google and Facebook already are. The problem is the two giants love to play hide and seek with what they are doing, where Google just goes out and does it. Lots of coverage on Apple and Microsoft, and opinions abound.       Apple Reports Record Third Quarter Results CUPERTINO, California - July 21, 2015 - Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 third quarter ended June 27, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share.     [continue...]     FY15 Q4 - Press Releases - Investor Relations - Microsoft Press releases relating to Microsoft Investor Relations for FY15 Q4     [continue...]       Ken Rutkowski and I have been on the air since 1998, first with the World Technology Roundup, and now with Business Rockstars.  Once a week I join Ken on his massively seen and heard show, now on CBS and on over 185 radio stations, plus on the web. Here's our show from Monday July 13th where I talk about new apps from Microsoft and more.       3 Services that make Startup life easier Andy Abramson, the Founder and CEO of Comunicano, Inc. Andy discusses new apps and services he loves that are coming out of the Microsoft Garage! 1. Tossup - lets you make plans with your friends and is aggregated in one place 2.     [continue...]       If you can't beat them, join them. The old approach of Windows first at Microsoft is going away, and now you're seeing Office not only on iOS and Androids but the ability to use Google Drive. This will help slow down the defection to Google Apps as it will allow for more cross platform use by either set of tools. Is Apple iCloud next?       Google Drive plugin for Microsoft Office lets you 'use the apps you're already comfortable with' Are you a growth marketer? Do you want to know what it takes to be one? Join us at GrowthBeat, on August 17-18 in San Francisco. Thought-leaders from the biggest brands and most disruptive companies will share winning growth strategies on the most pressing challenges marketing leaders face today.]     [continue...]       Retracing your steps, or breadcrumbs sure help recall where you were. Google is adding that feature to Google Maps so you can recall where you were, and when.       Your Timeline: Revisiting the world that you've explored Have you ever wanted a way to easily remember all the places you've been -- whether it's a museum you visited during your last vacation or that fun bar you stumbled upon a few months ago? Well, starting today, Google Maps can help.     [continue...]       The Microsoft Surface 3 is a sexy lightweight hybrid computer. You can use it as a tablet with a touchscreen or with a keyboard. Now it's adding LTE/4G with AT&T in the USA, with other operators around the world coming next.         AT&T Will Be First Carrier to Office Surface 3 with 4G LTE in the US AT&T Wireless announced today that it will be the first wireless carrier in the United States to offer Microsoft's Surface 3 tablet with 4G LTE capabilities. The device goes on sale Friday, July 24. Pricing is ... complicated. Which is why we love the carriers so much.     [continue...]       The long expected and awaited approval of the DirectTV-AT&T merger is coming. But it comes with lots of strings attached that are good for a more neutral net and greater choice. It also comes with AT&T having to move more rapidly on expansion efforts for their fiber based business.       FCC Nears Approval of AT&T-DirecTV Merger FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said that he is recommending approval of the AT&T merger with DirecTV with conditions, including provisions to prevent the combined company from discriminating against online video competition. "The proposed order outlines a number of conditions that will directly benefit consumers by bringing more competition to the broadband marketplace," Wheeler said in a statement.     [continue...]       The days of the connected car is here and self driving cars are not too far away. The US Senate is looking to see standards set to prevent hacking of cars and trucks that can cause serious harm.       Senate Bill Seeks Standards For Cars' Defenses From Hackers     A few years ago, the notion of hacking a car or truck over the Internet to control steering and brakes seemed like a bad plot point from CSI: Cyber. Today, the security research community has proven it to be a real possibility, and it's one that at least two U.S.     [continue...]       The University of Michigan has built a test town for driverless cars.       Inside the Fake Town Built Just for Self-Driving Cars Motown is trying to take back some swagger from Silicon Valley. The dominance of software in automobiles these days in everything from infotainment systems to safety and the coming autonomous revolution has made the San Francisco Bay Area a hub for the auto industry.     [continue...]       As a business traveler, AirBnB presents an amazing option. Now they are going to put serious effort behind that customer segment.       Airbnb Overhauls Service for Business Travelers Marc McCabe has become a familiar name among people working in human resources departments around Silicon Valley. When it's time to compile travel expenses for the month, McCabe, who runs the business travel group at Airbnb, would manually send out invoices and Excel spreadsheets breaking down how much a company's employees spent on room rentals.     [continue...]       In an attempt to keep the future release features under wraps, Apple is restricting the publishing of app reviews in the iOS store of future apps and versions.       Users can no longer post app reviews in prerelease iOS versions It appears that Apple is disallowing iOS 9 beta users to submit app reviews with the latest build released on Tuesday, solving what many developers see as a , a feature that became an issue once the company released beta versions for public consumption.     [continue...]       The life cycle of a CMO is rising to almost 50 months. Many aspire to be a CEO. Here's what it takes to become one, in one authors view.       What Does It Take for CMOs to Become CEOs? Overall, things are looking good for chief marketing officers. Among the trends they're enjoying: longer tenures than ever. Years in office have grown steadily over the last decade, executive recruiting firm Spencer Stuart has found: Combine that with fast growing budgets and an unprecedented ability to place messaging in front of customers, and it's hard to miss the opportunity that lies ahead for heads of marketing departments.     [continue...]       There are lots of tools to help startups. This 150 page report from Bowery Capital is a great reference toolkit to refer to.       The 2015 Ultimate Guide To Startup Sales Tools Here at Bowery Capital, startup sales tools are top-of-mind on a daily basis. They're core to our portfolio support efforts: we work closely with every one of our founders to build an optimal sales infrastructure from the ground up.     [continue...]       We love when our clients get recognized. In this case it's our Seattle FinTech client, Finsphere. They're in the running to win the Seattle Business Magazine Tech Impact Award that gets awarded later this year. Unlike some awards, this isn't a popularity contest. Only the reporters and editors decide.  Congrats to the team at Finsphere.       Finsphere is named a finalist in Seattle Business Magazine's Tech Impact Awards I am pleased to announce that Finsphere has been named one of Washington's top 3 security companies of the year in the 2015 Tech Impact Awards. Finsphere is a small company and I recognize this accomplishment as a team effort from all of our employees, our partners, and our investors.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Tuesday July 21st, 2015

The Comunicano Daily

The rain and humidity in San Diego wasn't the only thing causing the locals to be irritable. Employment giant, sponsor of the football stadium and pretty much the heart of the county's economy, Qualcomm announced there are going to be changes. I am not surprised as the writing has been on the wall since Paul Jacobs moved out, or was moved out of the CEO role about two years ago. The company has been in transition, laying off people in San Diego, offering exit packages to some senior folks, and then hiring on people elsewhere, where costs are lower. This is going to be an ongoing story so I suggest reading the writing locally of Bruce Bigelow of Xconomy once San Diego's media wakes up to the story.       Qualcomm to Conduct Strategic Review, May Consider Breakup Qualcomm Inc. is expected to conduct a sweeping strategic review that will look at the possibility of a breakup, among other options, after an activist investor pushed for change at the chip maker. Qualcomm, the world's largest maker of chips used in mobile phones, may announce it is considering that and other options-including returning more cash to shareholders-when it reports fiscal third-quarter results Wednesday, according to...     [continue...]       When big brands make moves you have to watch the impact. Chase Bank is making a whole series of moves. First, they are going mobile first. Second they are adopting a very user experience focus. Third they are becoming masters of their own content. This is all happening as the upgrade their services and become more customer friendly online.       Chase Reboots Online Banking to Resemble Mobile Experience JPMorgan Chase refreshed its online banking homepage for the first time in three years yesterday. The result looks a lot like the bank's recently revamped mobile site. All the buzz is around mobile banking these days, but online banking still serves more people. Chase has nearly 40 million online users, vs.     [continue...]       I read the proposed telco to VoIP story and not much has changed in 12 years since I started VoIPWatch when it comes to the issues. The only difference is now we actually have an FCC Chairman who will see things through.       FCC Chairman proposes rules for telco transition to VoIP FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a set of guidelines that start the process to regulate telephone companies as they transition from a legacy TDM voice infrastructure to IP-based real time communications. Wheeler's rules will be up for consideration at the Commission Open Meeting on August 6.     [continue...]       There is no question text is replacing many things. One of the keys is customer relationships and service. But text is more than just a "message" these days. And, with IoT (Internet of Things), sensors, beacons, big data analytics, faster networks and smarter apps, we're going to see things that are all about what pals Robert Scoble and Shel Israel wrote in the "The Age of Context" and which client FollowAnalyticsunderstands with their mobile first approach. In app communications with alerts, notifications and messages is why text is replacing many things.       Brands Are Using Text to Strengthen Customer Relationships Chat offers a direct line of communication for timely and personalized interactions A customer walks into a store in search of a black jacket and a new pair of jeans. With so many brands, sizes and styles available, they seek out the nearest sales associate for some help with recommendations.     [continue...]       As an AirBnB dweller off and on the last year in various cities (Miami, Seattle, San Jose and now Lisbon) I tend to do one of three things when it comes to meals-shop and cook, go out to dinner, order in. And, when it the past the idea of ordering in was usually pizza, except in New York City where everything was available by phone, online ordering was a rarity. In the AirBnB era it has exploded. Now you can order food of all kinds, and either the restaurant or a third party service like Doorstep Delivery or GrubHub will get it to your door. This though is just the start. Watch as pharmacies resume home delivery, see how house calls from doctors return and watch as Amazon with their same day delivery becomes even more finely tuned. But there's going to be one more sector that feels the winds of change. Hotel room service. Why order from a limited menu when you can order from anywhere in town and have better food.       Online food delivery ordering is about to overtake phone ordering in the US Getting your dinner to your door is now easier than ever, and thanks to the internet, almost no human interaction is required. While phone orders dominated delivery only five years ago, the balance between meal orders placed over the phone versus those placed online have nearly switched, with internet orders on track to surpass phone orders any minute...     [continue...]       There's a reason why cable is losing, and YouTub is just the start. The cable industry knows it which is why they are going mobile. But there's a whole group of "never corders" as YipTV founder Mike Tribolet calls them, and they are causing the shift, and YouTube, which has been around and mobile ready longer, is the early winner.       YouTube Is Crushing Cable TV, According To Google Credit: Lionel Bonaventure via Getty Images YouTube is giving cable TV a run for its money. The popular video-sharing platform -- which was acquired by Google in 2006 -- reaches more 18- to 49-year-olds in America than any U.S. cable network, said Google's chief business officer, Omid Kordestani, during an earnings conference call on July 16.     [continue...]       If you are part of the world of startups, the next few stories are so, so, so focused on you. First is where the growth is. Second is all about how to hire a marketer. Third is some real pearls of wisdom from Brad Feld about being a "founder" and last is the difference between your lawyer and the company's lawyer.       The Fastest Growing Areas of Startup Investment in 2015 Earlier this week, we examined the trends in the major categories of startup investment including eCommerce, Software, Social Networking and Education. But which lesser known startup sectors are starting to raise venture dollars? Where are founders finding unique opportunities to innovate?     [continue...]     Marketing Shouldn't Be a Dirty Word in Silicon Valley You could say that I got into marketing (or "growth", if you prefer that euphemism) mostly by accident. It was a right time, right place kind of thing: Upstart had an awesome product and killer team, but they needed a growth strategy.     [continue...]     Do We Need A New Word For Entrepreneur? - Feld Thoughts     Has the word entrepreneur become too trendy as to have lost its meaning? I'm hearing it and the word entrepreneurship being used in so many conversations incorrectly. Here's a simple example. On a daily basis, I have an email exchange with someone who says they are an entrepreneur.     [continue...]     A Startup Lawyer is Not a Founder's Lawyer - Silicon Hills Lawyer     TL;DR Nutshell: It's extremely important to hire independent counsel who isn't incentivized to favor, because of existing relationships, the interests of your investors above those of the company. But it's also important to understand that company counsel represents the best interests of the company, including all stockholders, and that can often conflict with the personal interests of individual founders.     [continue...]

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