Gregory Ferenstein says, “Stanford is continuing its ultra-popular course series on creating tech startups. Starting this month, LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman will be teaching a specialized version of the course on scaling businesses from small product ideas to large companies (or what he calls “blitzscaling”). “When you examine the history of iconic Silicon Valley companies, they quickly grew their customers, revenue, and organizational scale to fit a global market,” he explained in a company blog post. “Most of the impact and value creation that Silicon Valley... [...]

Maxim Oliynyk says, “You have probably already heard it said: Important information needs to be kept as secure as possible, especially if it is stored online. But you cannot rely on a regular login and password for that. Such credentials can be easily surveilled, guessed or obtained through one of the hundreds of hacking tricks. Fortunately, there are more effective data protection methods, one of which is two-factor authentication tested over a long period of time and by millions of users. Today, virtually every resource that can be used to store valuable information offers users the option... [...]

Konstantin Andreev says, “Virtual reality is still in the early stages, and it still has several waves yet to go before entering the mainstream. But, with established companies dabbling in VR campaigns, it’s already proving to be a compelling storytelling tool that breaks both physical and economic barriers. Here’s how five industries are using VR to increase engagement, return on investment (ROI), and overall customer satisfaction. Retail Customers cite “wrong size” as the most common reason they return items purchased online. But the return process is a postal nightmare and, quite... [...]

Christopher Lochhead says, “Asking why Google created Alphabet is the wrong question. The right questions to ask are: Why did Google miss social networking? How is it that limo company Carey didn’t see the opportunity in smartphone-powered transportation and Uber’s founders did? Why did it take SAP until 2011 to get into cloud apps, twelve years after the founding of Salesforce.com? And how come most of the innovation in technology security is coming from startups and not Symantec, McAfee, or Bluecoat? Existing Markets Have Gravitational Pull We believe the answer to these questions... [...]

Pini Yakuel says, “Marketers have a veritable arsenal of tools to help them understand and manage their customer relationships. One that has become de rigueur these days is the customer journey map, which is essentially a flowchart that lays out the customer’s experience of dealing with your company. They can be very helpful, acting like visual aids for marketers who want to understand the customer experience and ensure they’re engaged every step along the way. But these flowcharts are inflexible, which makes them less capable of handling today’s consumers and their constantly... [...]

David Nield says, “At the Yahoo Mobile Developer Conference in New York Wednesday, the company announced the arrival of in-app sharing. The new framework aims to make it easier to share photos, videos, links and other media to Tumblr with one tap. The update, integrated into the Flurry software development kit, follows reports earlier this year that Yahoo would focus more on its Tumblr social arm, which it acquired in 2013 for $1.1 billion. With this change, users will be able to send a photo, video, link or any type of content to Tumblr from whatever app they happen to be running at the time“. Yahoo... [...]

David Nield says, “ Google’s attempt to kill off C just got a new development: Today, the company announced a new update for Go, its own 6-year-old programming language, bringing it to version 1.5. It’s the sixth major update since Go’s inception in 2009, and it finally removes all traces of the C language it’s built on. Putting out their own coding language has become a hallmark of many tech giants today: Just as Microsoft had C#, others tout their own efforts, like Facebook (Hack), Google (Go) and Apple (Objective-C/Swift). Some go the open-source route like Hack... [...]

David Nield says, “Amazon has announced that ads on its network (including the Amazon.com portal) will no longer be able to use Flash from September 1. It’s another nail in the coffin for the ailing interactive Web technology, which became the go-to tool for displaying videos, animations, games and other types of content online in the 2000s. “This change ensures customers continue to have a positive, consistent experience across Amazon and its affiliates, and that ads displayed across the site function properly for optimal performance,” reads the Amazon statement, hinting at... [...]

Hugo Messer says, “When compared to office-dwelling counterparts, managing a remote team has always been a challenge. But at least these days, modern technology helps the cause more than ever. Today’s tools enable communication and work in ways previously thought unimaginable. That doesn’t mean challenges don’t persist. Over the past 10 years, I have built many remote teams for our software customers, and I’ve established my own offices in India and Ukraine. As most entrepreneurs, I started without any experience at this. My generic management style was “laissez faire”—and... [...]

David Nield says, “Google’s attempt to kill off C just got a new development: Today, the company announced a new update for Go, its own 6-year-old programming language, bringing it to version 1.5. It’s the sixth major update since Go’s inception in 2009, and it finally removes all traces of the C language it’s built on. Putting out their own coding language has become a hallmark of many tech giants today: Just as Microsoft had C#, others tout their own efforts, like Facebook (Hack), Google (Go) and Apple (Objective-C/Swift). Some go the open-source route like Hack and Go,... [...]