#do better patrick dugan

[multifandom-lesbian09]

Pat Dugan, all the time: Court, you’ve gotta listen to me because what you’re doing could endanger everybody. You, me, your mom, Rick, Beth, Yolanda, the dog… oh, and also Mike.

[isleofdarkness]

SPY KIDS!!!!! I love spy kids sm its like my childhood we had it on vhs. May we know any drtails about how spy kids is incorperated? Where are they? What are they doing?

Beast still has the OSS and Spy Kids program up and running, but most of the original agents (like the Cortez family) have left because they didn't agree with how he was changing things- he was making things more dangerous, giving agents less support in the field, agents were being captured or killed and he was considering it just part of their job, meanwhile the OSS hadn't had an in-field agent death in seven years, not since a Spy Kid died in the field and the Spy Kids program was shut down (they say it was due to budget cuts but really, it was because they realized how dangerous the program was and couldn't ask a parent to risk their child like that.) Most of the current OSS agents joined after Beast took over and most of the former OSS agents are either dead or imprisoned by Beast's orders. The current head of the OSS, an old mystery man named Lee Travis, is kind of a spy for Xavier. He keeps track of who OSS agents are sent out against and tries to warn Xavier if they're being sent out against a former OSS agent and not an actual criminal. Sometimes Xavier can protect them, sometimes he can't. The best Lee can really do is protect the current agents, make sure budget cuts don't impact the safety of their equipment or essentials like food, clothing, and safety measures like tracking devices for Spy Kid agents. He also makes sure the Spy Kids are taken care of, that they receive tutoring because most of them aren't in school, and he tries to keep them off of dangerous missions if he can do so without Beast noticing. If he wasn't head, things would be way worse for OSS agents. That's the only reason he's stayed.

(Of course, he's not the only Xavier operative in the OSS. The man who heads the technology innovations lab, Patrick Dugan, also works for Xavier. The current head of the Spy Kid division, Wing How, is also one of Xavier's, as are his second-in-commands, Courtney Whitmore, Artemis Crock, and Mike Dugan. Then there are a few in the ranks of the field agents, like Lawrence Crock and Paula Brooks. Xavier has plenty of plants in the OSS. Volunteers, of course. If they get caught, there's no way he'd be able to protect them and they'd be killed. But since the people he sent in are all former mystery men/women or former vigilantes or villains, they know how to keep a secret and fly under the radar. Lee's alter ego, the Crimson Avenger, is actually in the FBI's top five most wanted, and Beast has no idea. That's how good they are.)

A lot of OSS agents, both adults and Spy Kids, are from impoverished families or prisons. They recruit the desperate and then train them and give them no way out except in a coffin. There wasn't really an ethical way to recruit Spy Kids in the beginning, now they don't even bother trying to be ethical in recruiting at all. If Beast had his way, OSS agents would probably be treated like SCP D-Class personnel, but Lee is protecting the agents as best he can and justifying it with "We need our agents to be at their best or we'll never get anything done." The adult agents do their best to take the bad missions and to keep the kids safe and give them better circumstances, but it's hard because they have no real power in the OSS.

It used to be a good program, before Beast got his hands on it. Now it's horrible

[hedgiwithapen]

For dhd: Charles and the shade “ I haven’t been resting. I can’t sleep“

Charles McNider hadn’t expected to see the Shade again after he left for Indiana. Of course, he hadn’t expected to see anyone after being trapped in the Shadowlands--not Patrick Dugan or Starman or his wife again. After years of walking through an endless void, he had been elated to hear any other voice, even if it had not been the same amount of time for him as for them, a calculation that he dared not think on too long.  Still, he had expected to leave the Shade, and all of that side of his past behind him once more.

Finding the Shade waiting in the hotel restaurant sipping a cup of tea was still fairly high on the list of things Charles did not expect--and the list was long. “Charles,” the Shade said with too much warmth. “Join me?” Charles sat, and a waitress brought over a plate of toast and a menu. “Richard,” he said. “Good morning.” “You know, you can call me Dickie,” The Shade insisted. “Really.” “I do know,” Charles agreed, and ordered the pancakes. “So, did you get bored of Blue Valley after all?” “Of course not. It’s not exactly a quaint little town, but at least it has newsies, so I think I’ll stay, for now at least.” “Then why are you at this hotel in…” “Brookfield,” the Shade filled in promptly. “And don’t tell me it’s because they have good tea.” “And no devon cream, either,” the Shade sighed. “Very well, I suppose I do owe you a bit of truth, then. I… it wasn’t that I was worried, of course. Merely… concerned that there may be linger effects from that unfortunate detour I inadvertently sent you on.” “And?” Charles prompted. “Well, are there?”

Charles considered. “I’m not resting well.  I can’t sleep.” He backpedaled. “Not in the sense that I can’t, just that it’s deeply unpleasant.” “I see.” The Shade spread butter on a so-called English Muffin. “Not surprising, I suppose. I did say I was sorry, didn’t I?” “I know it wasn’t your intention. And you did save my life. Any hard feelings I may have had…” The Shade smiled a bit too widely. “I am glad to hear that. But no, oh, I don’t know, sudden manifestations of powers, fainting spells, deathlike symptoms?” “Not yet, though I’m sure if I do you’ll be the first to know, and I’ll be second.” Charles sighed. “I just don’t know what exactly to do now. If my wife… has moved on…” “I could explain, if you like,” “No,” Charles said pointedly. “I’ll do that.” “You might… call her, before appearing on her porch,” the Shade offered. “I’m told that can be a bit unsettling.” “Not by someone you listened too, clearly,” Charles said as the waitress returned with a truly appalling number of pancakes. “Yes, well, it’s different for me, no one really thinks I’m dead these days.” the Shade shrugged, slipping two hundred dollar bills into the receipt booklet. “You look better, Charles. I’ll, erm, drop by to see you again sometime soon. If that’s not a bother.” “Would it matter if it was?” Charles asked. “No, not really.” The Shade stood, donning his hat. “Take care, doctor.” “You too….Dickie.”

[stationromance]

May YA Book Releases 2021

This is very late but here it is. Books that have or a hint of romances releasing in May. I am going to be doing one for adult romances later so stay tuned for that. Bold titles are releases that I am excited for.

Take Me Home Tonight -- Morgan Matson

Any Place But Here -- Sarah van Name

Ember of Night -- Molly E. Lee

Tremendous Things -- Susin Nielsen

Misfit in Love -- S.K Ali(2nd book in series)

Sunkissed -- Kasie West

Kiss and Repeat -- Heather Truett

Some Girls Do -- Jennifer Dugan

Shipped -- Meredith Tate

Words Composed of Sea and Sky -- Erica George

Perfectly Parvin -- Olivia Abtahi

Made in Korea -- Sarah Suk

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating -- Adiba Jaigirdar

From Little Tokyo with Love -- Sarah Kuhn

Tokyo Ever After -- Emiko Jean

Better than the Movies -- Lynn Painter

It Goes Like This -- Miel Moreland

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry -- Jaya Goffney

Not my Problem -- Ciara Smith

Meet Cute Diary -- Emery Lee

Last Chance Books -- Kelsey Rodkey

The Summer of Broken Rules -- K.L. Walther

The Other Side of Perfect -- Mariko Turk

In the Ravenous Dark -- A. M. Strickland

Cool for the Summer -- Dahlia Adler

May the Best Man Win -- Z. R. Ellor

Blade of Secrets -- Tricia Levenseller

Counting Down with You -- Tashie Bhuiyan

This is for Tonight -- Jessica Patrick

Where the Rhythem takes You -- Sarah Dass

Sixteen Scandals -- Sophie Jordan

[moonaft]

The Winter Long - Reread

Rosemary and Rue

A Local Habitation

An Artificial Night

Late Eclipses

One Salt Sea

Ashes of Honor

Chimes At Midnight

Interlude : Full of Briers

As always, spoilers up to The Brightest Fell and October 2018 for the Patreon stories. No spoilers for Night and Silence, and at this point I think I’ll have finished the entire reread by the time I get my copy. Which is just as well.

First off, ‘the winter long’ is one line after ‘rosemary and rue’. Is the final book going to be ‘Grace and Remembrance’? 

I really like TWL. This was a good book, filled with shifting allies and cameos by my favorite people. It’s probably my favorite after The Brightest Fell and not just because of Simon. 

I am going to ignore the fact that the knowe is called ‘Muir Woods’ even before it was named that in 1908. Maybe? Maybe Arden took up the name really quickly. I can’t find a mention of it by name in Patrick’s first short story and I can’t dig up “In Little Stars” right now to check if it was called Muir Woods back then. Patreon’s search sucks.

Onto the ball! A good ball, in which no one gets poisoned or nearly assassinated and Toby doesn’t commit murder. Yeah, if I was her I also wouldn’t want to go to fancy balls. She takes after Sylvester in that regard. 

Speaking of, hi Sylvester! Hi Li Quin!

Arden has social anxiety and needs more friends than Madden. I am surprised no noble Daoine Sidhe have come a-courting. At least she’ll get Walther and Cassandra to take jobs at court soon. 

I love Arden subtly copying Quentin in table manners. 

Are Raven-maids and -men the opposite of Selkies, born birds and need the feathers to transform?  Jazz takes off her band to turn into a raven. Amandine doesn’t, but presumably her magic can force the transformation regardless. Though Amandine does imply that destroying the band will keep her as a human. 

Yes, it’s time to put everyone to bed. Meanwhile, Toby gets to pull some all nighters.

Hello, Simon.

I love how no one has questioned where he was since Late Eclipses, and that only as a brief mention. He’s the tragic backstory, not meant to show up in the present. Oleander was that too, but now she’s dead and can’t hurt anyone anymore. 

Yeah, she was really not expecting that. Why is it that the bad things only happen to Toby during the books? From the plot summaries, the time between the books is the only time she gets to relax.

Yes, that’s not Sylvester. 

It’s sad how much Toby has internalized him as her personal boogeyman. Dugan, Riordan, Samson, the false Queen could all be fought. It wasn’t easy by any means, but here Toby’s given up without a fight which just doesn’t happen. She’s already determined this is a fight she can’t win. 

I love that the first thing Simon does is praise her. He genuinely does not mean her ill-will.

So Simon has not seen Evening in years prior to TWL and did come to warn Toby about it. Or, turn her into a tree for a hundred years, but to him, that is helping. Evening didn’t send him so he must have gotten word somehow that she was returning. Where was he all those years?

Hello Jazz, you have great timing. Sorry that you are once again attacked in your own home.

Simon didn’t come in limping – Toby turning his spell back against him must have hurt him badly.

Why exactly does Simon have so many transformation spells? Is this his own flower-based transformation or something he got from Evening? It could be his own – he once transformed Patrick’s suit into something more modern and there’s no indication that eventually failed. And why fish? Could he have transformed Patrick into a fish so he and Dianda could spend time together in the Undersea without breathing spells? That would be so cute.

Good job on using your cats to warn Tybalt.

I think even May gets over her feelings by the time of TBF, or at least, she’s willing to let him try so they can save Jazz.

All in all, Simon’s going to get what he wants by the end of this book, namely, Toby’s safety. Sure, he’s elf-shot but so’s Evening. It’s TBF where he’s going to get his ass kicked repeatedly.

Same, Quentin – I too have an endless supply of songs about boats. Five bucks says you’re singing “The Mary Ellen Carter”.

Tybalt probably would still shred Simon to pieces given the change but he’s out of the picture for all of TBF.

Why do you think you can predict what Simon’s going to do, Toby? You know literally nothing about his objectives. He’s also willing to answer what he can of your questions and tell you things without being asked.  

The knowe is willing to let Toby through, and she is family. Would the knowe have let Simon through because he helped build it? What about August?

Way to mess it up, Sylvester. You definitely should have told Toby about Simon before you sent her after him. But that’s in the past and doesn’t matter, does it, Sylvester? Just like September, just like August. It can’t hurt you anymore, right?

I do believe the twins were close once, and by 1840 that’s no longer the case, but it doesn’t matter until 1906. You didn’t help enough to find August, or you encouraged her too much, it doesn’t matter. Simon wanted you to hurt the way he hurt, and if you can’t see that, you have forgotten too much.

Yeah, I can’t imagine Simon hurting Amandine unless it was in direct defense of August or Toby. Sylvester, you should know Amandine’s not going to let him back into her life without August present. You should know this, why don’t you know this?

Tybalt, you told them to run, that is not the Torquills’ fault. Hey, remember that decree that says if you want to marry one of the three, that one can’t refuse?

“I need you to live long enough to be cannon fodder when Simon decides to attack.” Quentin loves you too, Toby.

You are missing a vital, vital piece of why Simon was running around with Oleander. He’s not doing it for shits and giggles, Toby.

Poor Luidaeg. It sucks having the answers and not being able to tell them. Toby’s doing better on the questions this time around.

“At least we know that Simon won’t be able to come after us there.” One small problem with that, Toby.

Does each Library have its own library card, or is it an all access pass?

Mags definitely wanted Toby to show up after Simon left. Whoops. And Toby, you still owe her your mother’s history.

Hi again, Simon. Maybe this time you can actually talk?                                                                        

Yeah, the arrangement with Oleander is definitely non-con. Everyone is glad she’s dead except probably Evening.

Simon has three modes in this book: what he thinks will help Toby, what Toby thinks is helpful, and what he does as a servant of Evening. This is the middle interaction – useful information, no one is transformed or hurt.

Toby, remember you still owe Mags info on your mom.

Amandine definitely ruined your life, Toby, even if you don’t want to admit it.

Good job on raising the dead, Toby.

I guess Evening is a vampire? There’s at least one Snow White legend like that.

“Your lover was a Selkie; he told me quite a bit after he died.” How- What- Did the Luidaeg summon the night haunts to talk to Connor?

How long had Simon been sitting on Toby’s doorstep? He must have gotten straight to Shadowed Hills to get the roses and then back to her place. To the rose gardens at least, he couldn’t have gotten into the halls themselves.

This is the other thing – Toby stops again to ask her personal boogeyman for help. She trusts him enough to do that, which is something we don’t see anywhere else in the series. To be fair, Simon does keep insisting that he’s there to help, which is something no other villain does.

And Simon’s convinced she’s going to die.

May’s benched again, which is a recurring theme that she specifically acknowledges. Let this girl have a field trip with Toby.

Although not into the ocean because that’s where everyone ended up! Hi Dianda. Thanks for saving Toby from drowning.

I wonder what would have happened if Toby told Dianda that Simon gave her the warning. Probably nothing good – here’s yet another trusted authority figure who knew about that relationship and didn’t tell her.

Hello Evening. Hate to see you again. If only Dianda could punch you in the face.

Here her magic is roses and snow but I swear I’ve seen it described as roses and apples somewhere.

So where was she these past few years as she recovered? Does she have another knowe?

So why is Marcia not affected by Evening’s magic? Evening doesn’t recognize Marcia as anything other than changeling, I think. But Evening wouldn’t care that much. I really really want her to be Titania. Maeve would be cool too, but I want her to be Titania.

Good thing no one drowned in that little episode, including Tybalt and Quentin.  

Hi Raj! Everything’s ok!

Props to Toby for being willing to burn the Library down to get it to close, and kudos to Mags for listening to her.

And Simon’s playing double agent on the phone. Toby couldn’t have gotten through this book without him.

Toby hasn’t actually slept since before the Yule ball. How many days and nights has it been since then?

So why did Evening get Quentin sent to Shadowed Hills directly after Luna and Raysel’s return? How did they break free?

Riordan was once in Alameda – how did she move down to Dreamer’s Glass?

And how did Sylvester know they were coming? Simon must have told Evening, or maybe Evening assumed Toby would show up.

Hi Etienne, Bridget and Chelsea!

Yes, leave the boys behind to play Xbox games. Good plan.

Luna does have several points about Evening, Raysel and Karen. Why, exactly, does Stacy have two Seer daughters? She is also smart enough to get her favor from Toby before telling Toby what’s going on.

Is Toby going to have to do a favor for every ally she has?

You can take the Daoine Sidhe out of the Torquill but you can’t take the fox-fur hair and golden eyes.

Poor Raysel. I hope this helps her.

Huzzah, Toby gets to sleep!

Hello again, Simon. OK, Toby doesn’t think he told Evening that she called Shadowed Hills. And he’s back at the house.

There’s something to be said for the image of Simon petting Toby’s rosebush-cat for hours.

Yes, everyone needs group therapy, which clearly doesn’t exist in Faerie.

Correction: there’s nothing in his blood now that she could change. If Toby knew enough to look, could she tell immediately? Maida told Toby that she was once a changeling, and now Toby can look at Quentin and see those watermarks. She has since looked at Sylvester and Simon and been unable to tell that they had human blood once, but Toby misses a lot.

Hmm, Toby is not this… intimate with anyone else. Mind walking while riding Simon’s blood? She’s never done this with living people before. I think if he can be saved in the end, it will involve something similar.

Yep, the non-con is strong here. Simon is a fascinating villain.

So what exactly was Simon planning here? Toby is not a tree. She’s out for several hours and up again. Was Simon buying her time?

Hi Luidaeg! Glad to see you up.

Titania also sounds like a shit mother.

Septiminus was Evening’s grandson. He certainly didn’t get his coloring from her.

“Most of her children died young.” But there were enough grandchildren to establish several Daoine Sidhe lines. Aethlin and Maida aren’t closely related to the Torquills or Dugan or Rhys or Riordan.

Maeve took what vengeance she could against Titania for the Luidaeg’s binding and we don’t know what that is, yet.

Ok, yes. This is where the Luidaeg says Evening’s signatures are apples and roses. Her own magic is brackish marshes and ocean air. Toby doesn’t ask about this.

Elizabeth Ryan would probably argue that the Luidaeg stole her heart but she isn’t here right now.  

I am pretty sure Evening is older than the Luidaeg, but the Luidaeg implies Maeve could have had children before her, just not through Oberon. And none of them are living now.

The Luidaeg knows who Amandine’s mother is and can’t say.                                    

Yes Evening, we know you don’t like Dianda and Patrick’s marriage. You can shut up about it now.

Is Dawn one of the things the Luidaeg can’t talk about? She is not mentioned at all in this book, least of all by Toby.

And Simon’s under Evening’s control again. Poor Tybalt.

And Toby’s covered in her own blood again.

Dammit, Sylvester, Simon’s better at giving Toby answers than you are.

Yes, which of the Queens owned that key? And what exactly is it?

Oh you still don’t know better by now, Toby. You are still somewhat blind to what’s going on around you.

Nice job breaking Evening’s spell, Toby.

Oh Simon, you were so close.

Being stabbed with Simon’s elf-shot laced blood is enough to take out a Firstborn but somehow drinking Nolan’s blood didn’t put Toby out.

Though being asleep isn’t going to stop her…

Naww, Tybalt and Toby are cute together.

Man, I really want to see Dianda and Patrick’s reactions on learning that Evening is the Daoine Sidhe Firstborn. And why does no one seem to recall Dawn? Is there a world-wide “don’t think about it” spell? If so, who could cast it?

[bcvcsc]

Many people argue that private blockchains, run by private firms, are useless, since they make users dependent upon a third party ‒ the firm managing the blockchain. Many believe that private blockchains currently being considered are not blockchains, but rather, distributed ledger technology which has already existed.

Others believe private blockchains could provide solutions to many financial enterprise problems that Bitcoin does not, such as abiding by regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) laws.

The Hyperledger project from the Linux Foundation, R3CEV’s Corda, and the Gem Health network are just several of the different private blockchain projects under development.

Bitcoin Magazine spoke with some well-known blockchain thinkers on their opinions of what the uses for a private blockchain might be.

Jeff Garzik, co-founder at Bloq:

“In general, Bloq feels it is important to build and support software that works on both public and private blockchains. This connects the private blockchain customer with public blockchain innovation, developers and new applications.”

Brian Hoffman, founder of OpenBazaar:

“I'll preface my comments with the fact that OpenBazaar is a public blockchain Bitcoin-only project, so I don't have tons of experience with private blockchains. I personally don't believe that private blockchains provide much added value above a privileged database and have yet to really see a necessary use case for them.”

Dan Wasyluk, Syscoin team manager:

"Private blockchains provide interesting opportunities for businesses to leverage [their] trustless and transparent foundation for internal and business-to-business use cases. With the advent of smart contracts, this technology could eventually replace many centralized businesses."

Max Kordek, Lisk CEO:

"I see quite a few use cases for private blockchains, and they definitely have their place. Traditional institutions won't switch to a completely public blockchain from one day to the other. A private blockchain is a great first step towards a more cryptographic future. The biggest advantages of private blockchains in comparison to centralized databases are the cryptographic auditing and known identities. Nobody can tamper with the data, and mistakes can be traced back. In comparison to a public blockchain it is much faster, cheaper and respects the company's privacy. As a conclusion, it's better to rely on a private blockchain than no cryptographic system at all. It has merits and pushes the blockchain terminology into the corporate world, making truly public blockchains a bit more likely for the future."

Patrick Dugan, Omni Board Member

Private blockchains, or as I like to call them, shared databases, have a place in improving efficiency for financial institution for back-office settlement processes. They should not be seen as controversial, or part of some dialectic struggle between punks and police. To the extent that the identifying shroud of AML/KYC can be placed into public blockchain metadata (possible in Omni Layer transactions over the Bitcoin blockchain) there may even be interoperability between these two sides of the train tracks. Right now, due to state-granted monopolies to issue credit, most of the world's liquidity is still in banks. However, we believe that in the long-term, public blockchains, especially those based on work, will come to take a more significant part in the ‘System D’ informal economy, which is where most of the global economic growth will originate.”

Eugene Lopin, CEO of CHEX:

“A private blockchain is hardly different from a traditional database. The term is synonymous with glorified databases. But the advantage is that if they are to ever start adding public nodes to it then it becomes so much more. An open blockchain is the best method for having a trustless ledger. The broader the range of decentralized adoption the better. The Bitcoin blockchain hits all those points.

“For CHEX, the goal is to have that expandability as an option. We plan to start privately and evolve into a regular public blockchain for public cross-verification as demand/volume grows. Whereas, if that's not on the goal, you might as well use one of the many well-established database technologies.

“We see plans like the R3 Consortium as a counter-productive grab to maintain centralized control. There are already reports and rumors that things aren't going according to plan. The Bitcoin blockchain method will only become better with more of such competition.”

Ryan Charles, founder of Yours.Network:

“Private blockchains are valuable to solve efficiency, security and fraud problems within traditional financial institutions, but only incrementally. Private blockchains will not revolutionize the financial system. Public blockchains, however, hold the potential to replace most functions of traditional financial institutions with software, fundamentally reshaping the way the financial system works.”

Eric Larchevêque, CEO of Ledger:

“Ledger enables secure blockchain applications through trusted hardware. Public, private or federated, blockchain technology cannot scale without secure key management, and therefore we are developing solutions for all use cases.

“We believe that public blockchains with censorship resistance have the potential to disrupt society, when private blockchains are merely a cost-efficiency tool for banking back offices. One can measure its potential in trillions of dollars, the other in billions. But as they are totally orthogonal, both can coexist in the same time, and therefore there is no need to oppose them as we can often see it.”

Anthony Di Iorio, CEO and founder of Decentral and Jaxx, co-founder of Ethereum and chief digital officer of TMX Group (Toronto Stock Exchange):

“The reason why you put up private blockchains is potentially because you want to have control over the participants in the blockchain. So as we have banks and financial institutions, who have to worry heavily about regulations, they can’t use the public blockchains right now because they are open and permission-free, and anyone can participate, and that’s contradictory to the regulations to which they must abide.

“Private blockchains are a way of taking advantage of blockchain technology by setting up groups and participants who can verify transactions internally. That does also put you at the risk of security breaches just like in a centralized system. So you’re at further risk, rather than a public blockchain secured by mining hashing power.

“Private blockchains have their uses. They can be faster; they do more transactions without scalability issues. There are security advantages, and also security disadvantages.”

Andreas M. Antonopoulos, author of Mastering Bitcoin:

“The only reason the banks have gotten to the point of thinking about permissioned ledger is because they finally reached the stage of bargaining, third stage in five stages of grief, for industry they’re about to lose. They start with denial, and the basis of denial is, well, this thing isn’t gonna work, it’s gonna die any day soon, and it doesn’t. And then they say, it’s just silly money and it doesn’t have any value, until it does; and no one else is gonna play with it, except they are; serious investors won’t put money into this, except they did; and it still refuses to die. We go from denial to bargaining. Somewhere in between might be anger, some depression, and eventually they’re going to reach acceptance, but it’s gonna take a long time.

“Not only is decentralization, open protocols, open source, collaborative development and living in the wild a feature of Bitcoin, that’s the whole point. And if you take a permissioned ledger and say, that’s all nice, we like the database part of it, can we have it without the open decentralized P2P [peer-to-peer] open source non-controlled distributed nature of it, well you just threw out the baby with the bathwater.”

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder/creator of Ethereum:

“The consortium or company running a private blockchain can easily, if desired, change the rules of a blockchain, revert transactions, modify balances, etc. In some cases, e.g. national land registries, this functionality is necessary; there is no way a system would be allowed to exist where Dread Pirate Roberts can have legal ownership rights over a plainly visible piece of land, and so an attempt to create a government-uncontrollable land registry would in practice quickly devolve into one that is not recognized by the government itself��.

“Given all of this, it may seem like private blockchains are unquestionably a better choice for institutions. However, even in an institutional context, public blockchains still have a lot of value, and, in fact, this value lies to a substantial degree in the philosophical virtues that advocates of public blockchains have been promoting all along, among the chief of which are freedom, neutrality and openness.”

[ncmagroup]

  by Jaclyn Robinson

COVID-19 has swept businesses into uncharted waters. With new direction each day, many companies are being forced to close their doors or change their approach to work, implementing mandatory work from home requirements to comply with CDC and government guidelines. While every team is uniquely impacted, sales teams are facing an urgent need to generate revenue to keep businesses in operation.

To better understand COVID-19’s impact on our sales and customer-facing teams, we sat down with our sales leadership team to understand the top five ways our sales and customer teams are adapting to stay on track during this unprecedented time.

  1. Listening to our customers

Customer-facing teams are the eyes and ears of our operation — whether or not we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. Given we are in the midst of a global pandemic, it’s more important than ever that our teams are listening intently to existing customers and prospects.

At Crunchbase, our sales and customer-facing teams have made this a priority, scheduling daily team stand-ups to share customer feedback and concerns they’re hearing from sales prospects. This enables our teams to better understand the broader impact and implications of the situation and discuss any patterns and trends we’re seeing with our customers that could be helpful in how we help them. These important insights are then funneled up to team leadership to help gauge and better understand COVID-19’s impact on our business.

Customer and sales managers should share insights from external conversations with the broader company, allowing visibility into COVID-19’s impact for current users, customers, and prospects. “Real-time, open lines of communication with the broader company facilitates cross-functional alignment and the ability to address customer challenges in a thoughtful and proactive way across all channels, including marketing, social media, and other consumer content,” added the head of business development and sales, Neal Patel.

Key takeaway: Establish open lines of communication and share customer feedback with the company.

  2. Putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes

Practicing empathy is more important than ever. While feedback from Crunchbase customers is integral for our understanding of the state of the business, our teams are aware that taking the time to provide this feedback may not be number one on the priority list for our customers and prospects, who may be busy taking care of their families and loved ones. “Putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers is an important way to find the right time and platform for communication and feedback,” shared director of sales, Jeff Rice.

Our team is balancing the current situation with the need to continue to do their jobs – which is certainly a double-edged sword. “The frame of mind I’m trying to build for my team is that if a company’s corporate goals have not changed, then their decision to buy a solution that backs into that goal likely hasn’t either,” added Jeff. “However, with some companies updating board targets, OKRs, and cutting or freezing spending, our teams need to re-prioritize targets to back up their pipeline.”

Our team has turned to social listening via Twitter to feel out the market and figure out where the money is still flowing. Some VCs still have investment goals and funds from recent funding rounds that need to be invested. Using tools within Crunchbase, our sales team has rebuilt prospecting lists that focus on accounts supporting industries holding steady through the pandemic.

Key takeaway: Put customers first and practice empathy.

  3. Prioritizing internal communication

The way team leaders communicate and interact with teams greatly impacts morale and adaptability. It’s challenging enough to not feel isolated in quarantine – to keep teams engaged, leaders should make it a top priority to keep communication and company culture alive throughout remote work.

It’s important to keep a regular cadence of updates to encourage team camaraderie and maintain company culture. “Our CS team has maintained a daily standup each morning just to catch up before the day starts, it keeps us all aligned and feeling like a team,” added our director of customers, Tyee Dugan.

Likewise, our sales teams have found lighthearted ways to stay connected and engaged, prioritizing team hangouts, and challenges. Our sales team created a Slack channel in which team members compete in “Chopped” cook-offs and post pictures of their gourmet (or not-so-gourmet) breakfast each day. The team also recently celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with an all-hands Zoom meeting where each member dressed up before hopping on video chat.

In line with the sales team, teams across Crunchbase have been utilizing Slack and Zoom for daily communication. As in-person facetime is limited these days, our teams have set the standard that every team meeting is a Zoom meeting — static images don’t cut it. Our teams have also implemented mobile meetings and walking 1:1 meetings so team members can get some fresh air or run an errand while still checking in on team members. “I was in the grocery store doing a post mortem of a customer call with an AE,” said director of sales, Jeff Rice. “It’s important to take into account the challenges your team may be having with closing deals and pulling back on pushed deals. Sometimes you’ll need to multitask but we can’t forget to encourage our teams to take care of themselves and their families through this tough time.”

“We’ve also utilized the power of recorded video to cut down on meetings,” added sales manager, Shamus Noonan. “Our team has been pre-recording update videos, reviewing spreadsheets and reports, and sharing those with our colleagues to view on their own time. We are conscious that more time is being booked as meetings to get key points across internally, and we want to be sure our teams still have time to do their jobs.”

Key takeaway: Efficient, effective, and fun communication keeps company culture alive.

4. Keeping our sales teams motivated 

For most sales teams, company and team culture likely have something to do with competition or another form of motivation. Winner’s Circle and President’s Club may not look the same this quarter, but adapting these rewards to a donation to a charity of choice can be just as, if not more, motivating.

If finances allow, leaderboards, spiffs (immediate bonuses for a sale) and other incentives can still be a part of your sales team’s culture, and can easily be adapted for remote work. “We had some light spiffs running this month. Most were team-specific to keep everyone working toward a team goal beyond themselves,” added Jeff Rice. “It helps us celebrate short-term, small wins and in the long-term, hitting or missing these team targets helps us gauge if we need to relax our goals to cope with the current situation.”

If your team uses Salesforce, the platform allows team members to see real-time sales prospecting updates and deal leaderboards. If your company does not use Salesforce, leadership can consider sharing daily or weekly leaderboard and goal progress updates via Slack, email, or other team communication platforms.

While it is important to stay positive and celebrate wins with shoutouts, our teams also need to be swift to recognize low performance. According to the head of business development and sales Neal, our sales leadership team meets twice a week to review activity performance to ensure the team is active and working. “We celebrate the top performers and quickly determine what we can do to help the lower performers. Not every miss is due to a lack of work ethic. Some people are out helping family or friends, and we need to take that into account.”

Key takeaway: Set individual and collective goals, and approach performance issues with compassion.

  5. Encouraging our sales teams and CSMs to focus on value

Customer teams across the board are also facing the need to communicate value under changing circumstances. At Crunchbase, and likely at other companies, our sales, and customer-facing teams have two immediate priorities:

Continuing to demonstrate value for current customers

Proving to potential customers that our product provides significant enough ROI to justify the purchase when money is tight

Communicating these value propositions effectively can make or break any company, and it’s certainly a challenging time to do so. For sales prospecting, new opportunities may be scarce, but prioritizing these key messages and ensuring they are pulled through in all communications will help sales and customer teams stay on track in uncertain times.

Key takeaway: Communicate and demonstrate value to stay on track.

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

5 Ways Sales Teams Can Adapt During COVID-19 by Jaclyn Robinson COVID-19 has swept businesses into uncharted waters. With new direction each day, many companies are being forced to close their doors or change their approach to work, implementing mandatory work from home requirements to comply with CDC and government guidelines.