#seattle startup week

[anemonay]

2023 wrap up ( thanks @spaceoperetta for the idea, hasn't even considered doing one!)

-very long, been a big year for me-

tw: d/ru/g usage discussed positively

- also worst depression since college, but at least it's not the manic-depressive mixed state I was in for most of those 4 years

- BUT I also found the first ever antidepressant that works for me a couple months ago! I've been on a mood stabilizer that's "worked" for me for years in terms of controlling the hypomania, but I would still sink into low, low depressions. Now I just feel capable of happiness, but I need to rebuild those neural pathways since they haven't been used in so long

- my husband and I's relationship is much, much better. Once we moved things got really not great, and he is a lovely and great person but I think he'd never had to /actually/ deal with anything or question himself before and being in a new place, with someone holding him accountable, who wouldn't just ignore any of the ineffective things he was doing or any of the negative things occurring freaked him out a bunch, especially because he had no distress tolerance skills. I have my own stuff to work on too, but his refusal to accept what he doesn't understand really exacerbated my emotional reactivity and now I have to unlearn all of those habits.

- I found a therapist who works with my brain!

- my best friend moved to my city, and it was only supposed to be for like 10 months but she met her boyfriend and is blossoming and getting opportunities in her field like crazy so she's staying longer which means we can hang out more!

- knees got worse, but I finally went to physical therapy (because I maxed out my insurance OOP with the name other medical things I had to do this year) and it helped a bunch!

- a ton of drama with my husband's family. His youngest sister randomly decided that I am abusive (not even during like any interaction or anything, she just randomly started having an attitude with me 2 weeks before their annual (white, well-off people) family vacation), and then was cold to me during the vacation, and went on a walk with my husband where she essentially tried to convince him that I AM abusive. (Husband also handled it poorly - he's the "everyone is right in some way" type and didn't tell her she was completely out of line, but that has also gotten better thanks to couple's therapy). Then over Thanksgiving she decided to create drama with the older sister over her own poor behavior when older sister was doing absolutely nothing mean or wrong. It's been really stressful, we didn't even do a zoom call for Christmas this year which they normally try to make happen no matter what.

- I lost my job at a startup (blessing in disguise) and got a new job. The company is great, but I hate the work. It's not what I applied to do, it's way more technical and I would like that if ANYONE had the time to train me. But they lost a ton of people going from fully remote to hybrid, so everyone I work with has less experience than I do actually. I'm also struggling to do it because of how lost and flustered I feel.

- I picked up journaling and that's been so great and helpful.

- I went to Portland! I adored it very much. Though towards the end something about it felt vaguely threatening/heavy/scary. But I definitely want to visit again.

- I reconnected with my childhood best friend! We definitely grew in different ways but the foundation is still very much clicking. I'm going to stay with her and her husband in Seattle and visit again in May. She's so, so wonderful and I missed her so so much I'm tearing up writing this. We've continued to message frequently since, and once Baldur's Gate's cross play feature is out (fingers crossed) we're going to play together.

- I learned that stimulants don't work for my brain. ADHD stims caused anhedonia, coffee just triggers migraines, and Modafinil semi kinda maybe works but not well. I've managed to quit coffee for a week or so now. It's definitely an addiction. But chai tea lattes are filling the void. And the void also means that I'm getting back into tea! A childhood Internet friend is the one who got me into tea, and it feels very heartwarming to remember them through it.

- I lost my first cat together with my husband. You will be missed dearly forever, little man.

- I found my favorite d/ru/g! Technically I think it's 2-fdck that's my favorite favorite if my testing was correct, but basically ke/tam/ine and its analogues in general. It's so amazing and it checks all my boxes. I haven't personally experienced any negatives from it, though if you ever try it please read up on appropriate doseage, periods between use, and all that. It's helped me a ton with figuring stuff out, feeling motivated, and rewiring my brain. I'm weird and drugs have never worked the same for me as other people now have I ever had it impact my life negatively so please don't take my experience as advice or normal.

- I tripped for real for the first time in forever over Christmas break! My meds make it really, really difficult. Most people can't trip at all no matter how much they take on these meds. But I just kept raising my dose and bam, finally! I also had my first ever LSD epiphany and I feel like I can really move forward with my life. Tripping has also always helped my brain reset - like turning a computer off and on instead of just locking it or hibernating. I always feel so refreshed.

- I generally just feel more compassion for myself and more capable of being the person I want to be. Sometimes it hurts because it feels like I was on such a good trajectory, and then a ton of negative things happened to me with no support system and everything in my life just stopped. And then I was getting better and then COVID really broke me - at least when the bad stuff was happening I had stimulation, but COVID liked my brain. I think I still have it in me to be happy in the ways I want.

I hope we live in unprecedented times where history is made! Precedented times and the continuation of the normal just means the rich get richer and people die at the hands of oppressors. I hope things change for the better, greatly and permanently.

[gromyb]

Unlocking Success: Strategies to Expand Your Business in Key American Cities - San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Houston

Every city is a source of different opportunities and challenges that can be used to increase chances for success. Some of the front runners for expansion to tighten up schedule would include San Francisco, Philadelphia and Seattle with Houston as well.

• San Francisco: The Tech Hub

The survey only covered half of the Festival's main data. Secure your spot now to get a special preview of part 1 and discover the career paths digital nomads take when they change jobs. City A MInteractives NEWS provides news analysis, highlighting the need for long-term solutions to temporary issues. Last week in City A... Tech heart is beating in San Francisco. Thanks to the city's ecosystem that allows many tech giants and leftovers, it is easy for startups. This magnet for innovation attracts top talent from across the globe so that there is a constant exchange of ideas, thereby making it grow into an intellectually vibrant place. Tips for Networking & Partnership Building with TecLocals Networking is key to succeed in San Francisco. Remember to attend local tech meetups, join groups in the industry and participate in hackathons.

• PHILADELPHIA: THE CENTER OF HISTORY AND CULTURE

Which Brings Us Back to Market Diversification... Including One Part of the Very Large Customer Base in Philadelphia. The diversity of the Philadelphia market is as expansive as its history. This makes the consumers of the city interesting; SA has a rich cultural heritage and different taste buds, which is ideal for businesses that intend to serve distinct needs. Utilizing Local Culture and History Tactics in Marketing Use historical landmarks and cultural components to the city of Philadelphia in marketing efforts. Being able to connect local buyers with the rich history that a city offers and vibrant culture can really give your brand some relatability. Health And Education Sector Jobs Philadelphia is home to celebrated hospitals and universities. Businesses can look at providing path-breaking solutions and partnering with local institutions for businesses in the space across various verticals.

• Seattle: The Innovation Capital

These Platforms Are Based In Seattle & Overview - The Virtual CTO

The Seattle-area is a tech/e-commerce juggernaut, with talismans [sic] like Amazon and Microsoft in its backyard. This huge market is the best breeding ground for startups that revolutionize and innovate technologies.

How to Utilize the Local Talent Pool and Workforce

If you are serious about hiring in Seattle, learn how to partner with local universities and tech companies. Attend job fairs, provide work placements and joint working on research studies to attract and retain highly skilled individuals.

The Significance of Sustainability and Green Business Practices

Sustainability is part of the DNA of Seattle. Adhere to green business practices like sourcing renewables, and minimizing waste - this will be in keeping with local values as well attract the environmentally conscious consumer.

• The Energy and Business Hub - Houston

Assessing Houston in the Energy and Beyond

Energy is the lifeblood of Houston, but its economic reach also extends to healthcare, aerospace and manufacturing. Unique and multifaceted business environments in cities mean that market entry can only be successful if the dynamics of a city are well understood

Engagements with Local Industry and the Business Groups

Join local business networks & associations in Houston and attend industry specific events. Establishing connections to the key players - will become networks that can open doors for partnerships and business deals.

Healthcare, Aerospace and Manufacturing Opportunities

Houston is home to many of the nation's top medical institutions and research centers; so it has become a hub for healthcare. Aerospace and manufacturing also look promising. This is the area where businesses can look for rich potential areas of growth.

• Market Research and Knowing Local Demographics

Why it is Important to do an Extensive Market Research in Every City

Research is Paramount to a Successful Expansion Local demographics and preferences, as well as economic conditions also allow for a more tailored approach to market business strategies.

Demographic Data Collection Applications

Use sources like census data, market research reports and business directories. This data can provide useful insights into population traits as well as procurement habits and industry climate.

Adapting Business Strategies to Local Markets

Tailor business strategies to fit local requirements and preferences. This methodology guarantees an effort-relevance and success-likelihood in every market being targeted.

• Establishing Your Local Brand with Marketing and Promotion

Tactics to Create a Compelling Brand Identity in New Markets

Based on your target market, shape your brand identity to local taste. A consistent message, visual appearance and belief system across platforms make for a more reliable brand.

Local SEO & Digital Marketing Techniques for Beginners

Local Search Optimization for a Better Online Visibility Keyword targeting with Google location ads, maintaining a strong presence on the map and using social media to connect those in your area.

Event and Community Engagement

Hold Community Events-including hosting some. Partner with Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations This shows local consumer focus and builds great relationships in the community.

• Navigating The Local Regulatory Landscape

City by City: Untangling Business Regulation and Compliance

Every city has its own rules and compliances for small businesses. Knowing these sets of rules is necessary to avoid legal hurdles and proper working.

How to Interpret and Apply Global Laws Locally

Seek local attorneys, business consultants. Health Ministries will be well-equipped to provide guidance on necessary regulatory requirements as well reform business practices in accordance with local laws.

The Relevance of Legal Counsel and Local Expertise

Getting an attorney in place on the ground lets you know everything that's going to happen and what they'll need - a property is one thing, code-wise while another city would ask for different things. Legal service providers help you navigate the often complex and arcane local legal frameworks.

• Building Relationships Pages Networking & Collaboration

So, It's important to network with local business leaders and organizations

Get to know the local business movers and shakers. #Networking with other businesses is a great way of gaining insight into what education or employment opportunities may be available locally. Which nurtures further the relationships with your local business community and starts supporting one another

Meeting Industry Events and Conferences Strategy

Conferences and trade shows of your sector. Such meetings are a good time for networking, knowing about the trends emerging in market and getting connected to future partners or clients.

Partnering to Grow and Support Each Other

Local businesses and organizations can connect you to new customers. Such collaborations result in collective expansion, resource sharing and market positioning.

• Conclusion

The launch in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle and Houston has significant growth potential. With the right strategy in place, i.e. networking, market research and localization among other measures to ensure that your business appeals not only abroad but at a domestic scale can be successful within these growing cities. Significant potential for businesses means they must act quickly to capitalize on these new and rapidly expanding markets.

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[kabirshahni]

Amperity reveals marketing data platform and Microsoft partnership as it aims to become Seattle’s next great startup

Amperity reveals marketing data platform and Microsoft partnership as it aims to become Seattle’s next great startup

GeekWire’s in-depth startup coverage tells the stories of the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene.

Amperity co-founders Kabir Shahani and Derek Slager. Photo via Amperity.

Amperity has top talent, solid venture investment, and a tested solution to a pressing problem. Now the company is coming out of stealth mode to share its vision with the world as it aims to become one of Seattle’s top new startups.

Kabir Shahani and Derek Slager are back at it again, four years after selling Seattle-based healthcare marketing startup Appature to IMS Health in 2013.

A year-and-a-half ago, the entrepreneurs teamed up for another go in the marketing automation space, only this time with a much bigger vision for a product tackling a much more difficult problem.

The result is Amperity, which today lifted the hood on its technology that helps some of the world’s largest companies better understand their individual customers by connecting disparate data sources from across the internet.

The 40-person startup raised $9 million in February 2016 from Madrona Venture Group — which participated in the initial venture round for Appature in 2009 — along with a who’s-who list of angel and venture investors like Liquid 2 Ventures founder Joe Montana; Founders’ Co-op partner Chris DeVore; former Microsoft corporate vice president S. Somasegar; Concur co-founder Rajeev Singh; former drugstore.com CEO Dawn LePore; Isilon Systems founder Sujal Patel; and former ExactTarget chief marketing officer Tim Kopp, who now is a partner at Hyde Park Ventures.

Amperity used that cash to build out its team and create a marketing technology platform which ties together unorganized data about individual customer habits and helps clients fine tune their targeted marketing campaigns.

Based on their experience at Appature, which helped healthcare companies track and enhance marketing campaigns, Shahani and Slager knew that there was an opportunity across various industries to better leverage data to create a more complete view of a customer. They worked with Dan Suciu, a computer science professor at the University of Washington and a data management expert, to help figure out how to connect customer data across different sources without a unique identifier.

“We spent a bunch of time with Dan last year to really understand if this was technically feasible — how to handle this scale of data and how to apply machine learning to this problem,” Shahani told GeekWire this week.

Amperity had early pilot customers test its technology earlier this year and saw “extraordinary results,” Shahani said, with revenue increasing and customer acquisition costs dropping. The startup has continued to build out its technology that ingests trillions of data points from a single customer and crunches that information with machine learning to give marketers a holistic understanding of a given user.

Amperity links together several discrete data sources related to one customer — everything from an in-store transaction, online purchasing tendencies, browsing behavior, mobile app activity, email campaign responses, CRM information, etc.

Shahani noted that part of Amperity’s secret sauce is making it easy for companies to plug that data into its system. The CEO said this process has historically been human-driven and “incredibly error prone.”

“We have the scale to not only ingest that data very quickly, but actually do something really meaningful and useful with it so you can action on it to drive the kind of results we’re seeing with our customers,” he added.

The platform can help a retailer figure out customers who spent more than $1,000 last year, but only $250 so far in 2017, for example. Or, it can help an airline identify customers who flew four times in 2016, but only once this year.

“This arbitrary question you might want to ask of your customer data — this is stuff that these companies can’t do today,” Shahani said. “It’s impossible for them to quickly get that data.”

Amperity is not a predictive analysis platform; instead, its clients can take this data and then figure out how to tweak their marketing campaigns. Its technology is particularly valuable for companies that are not “internet-first.”

Amperity’s customers, which include Fortune 500 companies, range from a wide variety of industries — one of many differences from Shahani and Slager’s experience at Appature.

“We have a very big vision around what we see this business capable of being in terms of its contribution to the market and our customers, and to our employees and this community,” Shahani said. “That’s something that really drives us in a way that I don’t think we were driven by before and thought about before.”

Shahani and Slager have long-time ties to the Seattle area and are bullish about creating the next great local startup. Shahani said today marks a milestone in reaching that goal.

“If we continue to play our cards right, continue to serve our customers well, and continue to build great product, we will have the same opportunity that many of those lighthouse companies like Tableau, Apptio, and others have done,” he noted.Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at Microsoft Envision.

Being in the Seattle region also helped Amperity link up with Microsoft for a “really meaningful partnership,” said Shahani, who has spent the past year working directly with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft customers will get access to Amperity via its independent software vendor system while the company will look to integrate the platform with its Adobe partnership.

“The way Amperity lights up products like Azure, Azure Data Lake, Azure Machine Learning, the Power BI stack, Dynamics — when you feed those products with better, unified data about the customer that is more complete, those products perform a lot better for the user,” Shahani explained. “Satya was very persuasive in getting us to build Azure compatibility, which is something we hadn’t done historically with our product.”

Shahani noted that Amperity is not exclusive to Azure and expects the same level of integration with Amazon Web Services in the future.

Amperity has steadily added veteran talent to its leadership team, from bringing on Dave Fetterman as vice president of engineering, to hiring Amy Pelly as its CFO, to adding Aashish Dhamdhere as vice president of marketing.

But Amperity has also seen a bit of churn with some hires. Shahani acknowledged a “sub-15 percent attrition” but said the company considers that within a normal range.

“One thing we’ve always been committed to as an operator is that if things aren’t working, you try to make it work where it makes sense, but if it doesn’t, you make the call early,” he said. “It’s not always us saying it’s not a fit, or the other party saying it’s not a fit. Sometimes you both look each other in the eye and say, ‘you know what, we thought this was a great idea, but for both of us it turns out it’s not working out.’ We’ve worked extra hard to make sure we have those conversations candidly and we do them quickly when we realize there isn’t a great fit and we treat people the way we want to be treated on the way out.”

Shahani said the company is still working off its initial $9 million investment — “we’ve been very capital efficient,” he noted — but expects to entertain additional funding conversations down the road.

Amperity is celebrating its launch with an event in Seattle today featuring executives from Crate & Barrel, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, Alaska Airlines, Nordstrom, and Starbucks.

“Every brand wants to have a more personal relationship with their customers, but they often have data in disparate locations and systems,” Matt McIlwain, managing director at Madrona Venture Group and Amperity board member,’ said in a statement. “Amperity combines modern machine learning and cloud technology to create compelling customer data management solutions that help the world’s leading brands serve those customers better.”

[marketingyts]

In a surprising turn of events, Dave Clark, the Chief Executive Officer of Flexport Inc., is stepping down from his role, making way for the return of the company’s founder, Ryan Petersen. 

Clark, who joined Flexport from Amazon.com Inc. just a year ago, cited Petersen’s desire to focus on the core freight business as the reason for his departure.

The announcement came as a shock to many in the tech industry, as Clark had recently posted about his upcoming speaking engagement at a Flexport “exclusive launch event” in Seattle, scheduled for next week. Additionally, Flexport made headlines in May by agreeing to acquire Shopify Inc.’s logistics unit in exchange for a 13% stake in the startup.

[forgotn1]

Antitrust is so underrated. It's cheesy at times and Ryan Phillipe overacts his ass off, but it's still a lot of fun to watch. It's a hacker/thriller from the early 00s that used the sleek Silicon Valley and Seattle tech vibe rather than a cyberpunk vibe like most other 90s hacker films.

It's got Tim Robbins as a sinister Bill Gates/Steve Jobs type tech entrepreneur who is literally having his competition killed and stealing their code to finish his next big innovation. While Ryan Phillippe plays a genius coder who is recruited to the company and mentored by Robbins' character. He leaves a startup he created with his childhood best friend to take the job and several weeks later, the friend is killed under mysterious circumstances.

There's even an impromptu allergen check before dinner to see if his girlfriend is trying to kill him with sesame seed. It's got a lot of interesting twists and turns along the way and it's an entertaining watch. It also advocates for open source software, which is pretty cool.

[youroriginaltimemachinestudent]

Stably Launches #USD as the First BRC20 Stablecoin on the Bitcoin Network

Renton, United States, May 25th, 2023, Chainwire Stably, a leading Stablecoin-as-a-Service (SCaaS) and fiat on/off-ramp infrastructure provider for Web3 projects, is aiming to revolutionize the nascent Bitcoin ordinals market by launching its US Dollar (USD)-backed stablecoin, Stably USD, as a natively-issued BRC20 token under the symbol #USD. This groundbreaking development marks a critical milestone in the exponentially growing Bitcoin ordinals ecosystem that is now reaching half a billion dollars in total market capitalization in less than six months. #USD is a BRC20 standard stablecoin created via the Bitcoin ordinals protocol which was introduced in January 2023 after the recent Taproot upgrade. BRC20 tokens use a technique called ordinal inscriptions to attach data to individual "satoshis," the smallest unit of a Bitcoin. These satoshis can then represent anything from digital art ownership to “meme coins” and even stablecoins. According to Stably, every #USD token is backed 1-to-1 with USD in a collateral account managed by a US-regulated custodian for the benefit of KYC/AML-verified token holders. Monthly reports for the account are also conducted by a third-party stablecoin attestor to ensure #USD tokens are always fully collateralized with USD. "When I met Domo, the creator of the BRC20 standard, at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, I told him about our upcoming plans for #USD," said Kory Hoang, Stably’s CEO and Co-Founder. “He thought it was great and funny how we are creating a stablecoin on Bitcoin to enable Bitcoin trading on-chain… With a stablecoin built on Bitcoin. I’m still chuckling about it to this day, actually. In just one week after that, however, we made it happen!” The integration of BRC20 #USD into the Bitcoin network is part of Stably’s mission to power the next billion Web3 users with a seamless fiat-to-crypto and stablecoin onramp to all popular and emerging blockchain networks. The company’s upcoming collaborations with prominent ordinals and BRC20 projects, including UniSat–the world’s largest decentralized wallet/marketplace for ordinals–and Ordzaar–Asia’s first decentralized ordinals marketplace project, reflect Stably's aspiration to drive global innovation and adoption toward decentralized finance on the Bitcoin network, or “BitFi.” Additionally, Stably’s engineers are now exploring the new ORC20 standard for Bitcoin ordinals, which could significantly enhance the token properties of #USD once implemented. #USD can be issued/redeemed with Fedwire, SWIFT, USDC, and USDT by KYC-verified users across 200+ countries/regions currently, including up to 44 US states. Stably states that it is employing a manual process of issuance/redemption for #USD’s initial launch but plans to release support for automatic issuance/redemption through Stably Ramp, the company's plug-and-play fiat gateway widget, during Q3 2023. By then, users of #USD will be able to on/off-ramp via more traditional payment methods like ACH, instant ACH, and credit/debit cards, in addition to bank wires. Founded in 2018, the 20+ team member Seattle FinTech is backed by leading institutional and angel investors in the crypto space, such as Morgan Creek Capital, BEENEXT, 500 Startups, Hard Yaka, CREAM Labs, Sunny Lu of VeChain, and Paul Stahura of Donuts, Inc. The company has raised over $7.5-million in total funding to-date, $5-million of which was collected during its last Pre-Series A round in December 2021. Stably has also expanded its fiat on/off-ramp and stablecoin natively to more than ten emerging networks, including Arbitrum, XRP Ledger, Stellar, Tezos, VeChainThor, Harmony, Polymesh, Coreum, ICON, and Chia Network. About Stably Stably is a Web3 payment infrastructure provider and FinCEN-registered MSB from Seattle. The company specializes in providing stablecoins and fiat crypto on and off-ramps to users of Web3 applications. Stably’s mission is to power this decade’s next billion Web3 users with regulatory-compliant payment infrastructure across both developed and emerging blockchain ecosystems. Visit stably.io to learn more. Risk Disclaimer: Digital assets involve significant risks, including (but not limited to) market volatility, cybercrime, regulatory changes, and technological challenges. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Digital assets are not insured by any government agency and holding digital assets could result in loss of value and even principal. Bridged or wrapped digital assets (e.g. WBTC) involve additional risks, such as technical challenges, higher fees, security vulnerabilities, and reliance on third-party custodians. Please conduct your own thorough research and understand potential risks before purchasing/holding digital assets. Nothing herein shall be considered legal or financial advice. For more information about the risks and considerations when using our services, please visit: stably.io/terms-of-service. Contact Stably Head of Marketing Matthew Barrett Stably matt.barrett@stably.io Read the full article

[xtruss]

A dummy goes through the composting process with Recompose. Photograph: Sabel Roizen

From Cradle To Compost: The Disruptors Who Want To Make Death Greener

Startups rush to gain foothold in a burgeoning industry as New York and California move to legalize human composting

— By Kari Paul | Sunday February 19, 2023

Americans are looking for greener ways to die, and a new wave of deathcare startups are rising to the occasion.

After death, bodies are typically handled in one of two ways: embalmed and buried in a casket, or incinerated and turned into ashes. But both of these options have contributed to the environmental crisis – with fossil fuel-intensive cremation emitting chemicals such as carbon monoxide into the air, and burials taking up large swathes of land.

As interest in alternatives rises, startups aiming to disrupt these practices are gaining steam. New York in January became the sixth state in the US to legalize human composting, also known as “natural organic reduction”, which uses heat and oxygen to speed up the microbial process that converts bodies into soil.

The growth in demand comes in part due to Covid-19, experts say. The pandemic brought death to the forefront of the public consciousness and exposed concerns about its environmental destruction, as places like Los Angeles had to suspend air pollution rules to allow an influx of bodies to be processed.

Human composters are pitching themselves as part of the solution – and trying to dismantle the funeral industry in the process. The potential to alter an age-old practice has brought together former Silicon Valley types, celebrity investors and mission-driven entrepreneurs as interested in lofty green goals as they are in changing our relationship to death.

Katrina Spade, founder and CEO of Recompose, poses with a shrouded mannequin in front of an array of human composting vessels, in Seattle. Photograph: Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Recompose

Providers say they are seeing unprecedented demand. The human composting startup Return Home has seen 20 people from California, where human composting is not yet legal, transport loved ones to the company facilities in Washington state – including five who drove with bodies in tow.

“The fact that we are now seeing so many Californians flocking to Return Home in order to pre-purchase services for themselves and their loved ones is proof-positive that [our technology] is the future of funeral services,” said Micah Truman, the company’s CEO and founder.

Founders paint a picture of an industry that is both collegial and competitive, where entrepreneurs connect at meetups and through group chats but often find themselves looking over their shoulders for people entering the industry with less altruistic views. This is especially true as old guards of the funeral industry seek to cash in on the new trend, Truman said.

“It’s interesting because to create disruption, we are going to have to have outsiders coming in,” he said. “Because everyone in the funeral industry is so invested in existing technologies, you need outsiders to help with thinking outside the box – no pun intended.”

An Industry Poised To Explode

Natural organic reduction is a relatively new process, recognized throughout the industry as having been pioneered by a woman named Katrina Spade. In her graduate thesis in 2013, Spade investigated methods farmers had been using to compost animals and found they could be applied to human bodies. When remains are placed in a container with natural materials like straw and wood chips, the microbial process that converts bodies into soil can be accelerated. Composting a human currently takes eight to 12 weeks, and is estimated to use just one-eighth the energy required for cremation.

In the ensuing years, Spade worked with lobbyists, lawmakers and investors to legalize natural organic reduction in Washington in 2019. By December 2020, her company Recompose had made it available to consumers for $7,000 – in line with the median cost of cremation, at $6,971, and the median cost of a funeral with burial, at $7,848, not including cemetery plot costs, which can run upwards of several thousand dollars.

In the years since, at least three companies have sprung up in Washington alone, some of which have secured millions in funding from venture capital firms. And with more states catching on, entrepreneurs say the industry is livelier than ever.

At least six states have legalized the process so far, and California, the most populous US state, will allow human composting in 2027 after a law passed last year goes into effect, opening up the potential for millions of new customers.

“In Washington, where human composting has been legal for some time, the industry is concentrated and hyper-competitive,” Truman said. “But I’m sure everyone is going to be doing pushups and getting ready to go to California as soon as it opens.”

Micah Truman shows a demonstration vessel for the deceased, decorated by Return Home with flowers and family photos, in Auburn, Washington. Photograph: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images

Truman holds a sample bag containing composted animal remains. Photograph: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images

The commercialization of alternative deathcare is already creating tension in an industry built on a fraught product. It’s difficult to get people to talk about death, much less invest in it. This has left deathcare entrepreneurs and advocates for greener death grappling to balance altruistic goals with the demands of startup culture, according to Caitlin Doughty, a mortician and author of several books about death and the funeral industry.

“There is a newer disconnect between the fundamental idea of ritual around death in human composting versus a bizarre appeal to Silicon Valley that is emerging,” she said. “It is a fascinating development.”

With the traditional funeral market worth $20bn, it is no surprise new technologies have piqued the interest of tech investors. A 2019 survey from the funeral directors’ association found that nearly 52% of Americans expressed interest in green-burial options, and experts have estimated that the emerging market opened by legalization efforts in Massachusetts, Illinois, California and New York could create a market value in the $1bn range.

There is also a growing market in Gen Z and millennials, who have been called the “death positive” generation – more willing to discuss after-life plans at younger ages and try green alternatives. Startups are rising to the occasion with social media outreach: Return Home has more than 617,000 followers on TikTok, where its employees answer questions like “what happens to hip replacements in the human composting process?” and “how does it smell during the process?”

Human composting is not the only alternative deathcare option that is seeing increased interest. Others include aquamation, a process legal in 28 states by which the body is turned into liquid and then powder. Green burial, in which bodies are interred without embalming or a casket and allowed to decompose naturally over time, is legal in almost all states, but laws vary as to where the body can be buried.

Darren Aronofsky is one of the more high profile supporters of human composting startups. Photograph: Scott Kirkland/Rex/Shutterstock

But of all the alternative options, human composting seems to have gotten the most attention, said Doughty.

“I do see the composting space as being uniquely competitive in a way that I haven’t seen with [other processes] like aquamation or even cremation,” she said. “It seems uniquely positioned at a nexus of climate change policy and new technology that appeals to the Silicon Valley ethos.”

A Focus On Ethics

The environmental benefits of alternative deathcare have become a large selling point for companies as green investments trend upwards. Transcend, a New York-based green burial startup that promises to turn human bodies into trees after death, highlights its goal of mass reforestation and eco-friendly burial in its advertising, stating on its website: “Every Tree Burial creates a healthier foundation for all life on Earth.”

Its founder and CEO, Matthew Kochmann, has a Silicon Valley background, counting himself as one of the first employees at Uber. He came to the deathcare industry after meditating on the spiritual nature of burial options, he says.

“I was thinking about how I personally would like to become a tree after death, and I realized that there weren’t any options out there to make that happen – I’d have to do it myself,” he said. “I am a huge advocate of helping heal humanity’s relationship and fear around mortality.”

Through Transcend’s process, the body is buried in organic biodegradable flax linen along with a unique blend of fungi-enriched soil, and a young tree is planted in the ground above it. The company says the mushrooms then “work their magic” to ensure “a direct connection between the nutrient-rich body and the tree’s root system so that the body can literally become the tree”.

A Recompose cradle in Seattle. Photograph: Sabel Roizen

The company has piqued the interest of investors and celebrities, with Darren Aronofsky, director of Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream, counting himself among the company’s advisers. Still, fundraising hadn’t always been easy, Kochmann said, adding that some investors had told him: “We don’t invest in taboo areas like pornography or death.”

“Putting death on par with pornography just shows that there’s still a lot of work to do in our culture and our society to get people more comfortable with it,” he said.

Recompose, the original human composting startup, has raised nearly $18m – none of which, its founder is quick to point out, came from traditional venture capital funds, but instead from accredited “values-aligned investors”, Spade said – investors who “are first and foremost investing for the mission and the vision” of Recompose.

Spade said the company had prioritized fundraising models that allow it to stay true to its roots as an advocacy group while still creating sustainable funding. It has also launched a “community fund” to help subsidize its services for clients who cannot afford to pay full price.

The company has worked directly with legislators to pass laws that allow for human composting while creating a framework that supports strong ethics in the burgeoning industry.

“We want to be sure that any kind of human composting operator that’s working with grieving families is doing so within the utmost ethical practices,” she said. “It is not only about how to decompose, operate, and care for our clients – but also, how can we support an industry that always has the most ethical, rigorous operations?”

Spade said although her company had been the first to pioneer human composting, she was “thrilled” to see the movement grow. And although the new frontier of deathcare is getting increasingly crowded in some places, those involved say there is an environment of camaraderie and support as they work towards a common goal: taking down the monopoly that the traditional funeral industry has on death.

“This is a community that has to prioritize solidarity,” said Kochmann. “You are fighting for legislation, you are fighting regulatory battles, and you are fighting an uphill consumer battle because people don’t want to think about death.”

[euro-journal-english-news]

The 4-day work week is good for business, according to these Seattle startups – GeekWire

The 4-day work week is good for business, according to these Seattle startups – GeekWire

(Bigstock Image) When Seattle startup Uplevel adopted a four-day week in January, it was betting on the fact that employees would get the same amount done in less time.  “We were interested in seeing how the decrease in working days would push people to be more efficient,” said Jori Maurer, vice president of marketing and people at Uplevel. The experiment exceeded expectations: during a…

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[tototavros]

favorite place you've lived and why?

there was a place i was staying in seattle where I *really* don’t like the memories but the location was pretty good, it was right near the U District so easy to get food n shit, but was close enough to Fremont that I could walk there when I felt like really having good food and the UW Botanical Gardens that I accidentally wandered into

Also the place after that where I crashed with a twitter friend for a few days in like...North Westlake? Idk it was very very pretty and nice to walk around and get my shit together, the guy i was crashing with mostly just let me be on my own and read his books but would occasionally like, offer me a bottle of good booze from his wall as replacement for the town police having dumped out my vodka stash a few months earlier while I was in college while he was high

also an AirBnB I stayed at in Raleigh where it was *really* trying to profit off of like, an imaginary startup boom in Raleigh (maybe because that’s where the Red Hat office is?), we’re talking bitcoin house accessories and copies of “Zero to One” lying around the house, but there was a cool guy who was an Australian mech eng who made money off of selling *racetams and *finils to the local college kids during finals weeks; also Raleigh’s kinda fucked since the downtown is basically bordered by a state prison but the downtown is...kinda nice? Reminded me of like, shitty Madison

[insightsmarketreports]

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) in Medical Diagnostics Market Report - Forecast 2026

The worldwide AI in clinical diagnostics marketplace length is expected to develop from   Artificial Intelligence (Ai) in Medical Diagnostics Market Report    USD 454.Zero million in 2020 to USD four,744.6 million through 2026 at a CAGR of forty seven.9%.

 Growth in this market is basically pushed with the aid of authorities efforts to increase the adoption of AI-based technologies, increase the call for for AI tools in the medical area, increase-centered on decreasing the workload of radiologists team of workers, extra and extra complicated statistics entry, increase in AI-based startups, and growing enterprise and cooperation.

 A pandemic along with COVID-19 requires the funding of extra personnel, system, device, and other resources to ensure one hundred% whole hospitalization and, if vital, in-patient treatment. The COVID-19 epidemic is accelerating AI era by creating opportunities to apply those tools for fitness development.

 AI and radionics, used for X-ray and CT scanning as advanced imaging equipment in detecting and monitoring COVID-19, are able to detect the presence of disorder. This is due to the fact AI algorithms and radionics used for X-rays on the chest can help make first-rate screening applications. For instance, Zhongnan Hospital (China) makes use of AI to interpret CT scans and discover signs and symptoms of COVID-19 while human radiologists are not to be had. Similarly, Tampa General Hospital (Florida, US) makes use of AI-driven era to check human beings with COVID-19 before contacting health facility personnel and different sufferers. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, US) has also used AI-enabled robots, detecting essential signals and supplying COVID-19 affected person care. This allows health workers to lessen touch with people, which is critical to prevent the spread of the disorder.

 Providence St. Joseph Health (Seattle, US) used an AI-powered chatbot that examined and evaluated more than forty,000 sufferers, categorizing them with the extent of care needed and liberating medical doctors and nurses to recognition on at-risk people in every week-long duration. Therefore, physicians take the help of superior AI abilties and reply to wishes extra efficaciously and fast.

 Increasing recognition of the blessings provided via AI strategies and their sizeable software areas has caused elevated manufacturing of those products and services in the healthcare market. The various leading healthcare organizations input into partnerships and collaborations with main AI era vendors to come up with new AI solutions for healthcare programs. Such strategies enable these marketplace gamers to provide brilliant solutions to their clients and enhance their function in this dynamic marketplace.

 The fast growth of virtual health has empowered healthcare carriers to assist sufferers with new treatment alternatives. AI technology provides physicians with tools that help them diagnose and deal with patients better. However, there is a developing dislike among physicians approximately new technologies. For instance, there may be a misconception amongst clinical experts that AI will update docs in years to come. Doctors and radiologists agree with that capabilities along with empathy and persuasion are simply human competencies, and consequently era cannot absolutely remove the presence of a health practitioner. Additionally, there are issues that patients may also show an excessive interest in those technologies and might pass over out on needed personalized treatment, which also can be a task in lengthy-term health practitioner-patient relationships.

[robertreich]

Warren is Correct about Busting Up Big Tech

Presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren announced Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.

America’s first Gilded Age began in the late nineteenth century with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” like JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and William H.(“the public be damned”) Vanderbilt.

The answer then was to bust up the railroad, oil, and steel monopolies.

We’re now in a second Gilded Age – ushered in by semiconductors, software and the internet – which has spawned a handful of hi-tech behemoths and a new set of barons like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

The answer now is the same: Bust up the monopolies.

The current move is bipartisan. At a Senate hearing I testified at last week, arch-conservative Republican Josh Hawley asked me, rhetorically, “Is there really any wonder that there is increased pressure for antitrust enforcement activity, for privacy activity when these companies behave in the way that they do?”

Hawley added, “Every day brings some creepy new revelation about these companies’ behaviors. Of course the public is going to want there to be action to defend their rights. It’s only natural.”

Natural indeed. Nearly 90 percent of all internet searches now go through Google. Facebook and Google together account for 58 percent of all digital ads (where most ad money goes these days).

They’re also the first stops for many Americans seeking news (93 percent of Americans receive news online). Amazon is now the first stop for a third of all American consumers seeking to buy anything.

With such size comes the power to stifle innovation. Amazon won’t let any business that sells through it to sell any item at a lower price anywhere else. It’s even using its control over book sales to give books published by Amazon priority over rival publishers.

Google uses the world’s most widely used search engine to promote its own services and Google-generated content over those of competitors, like Yelp. Facebook’s purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram killed off two potential rivals.

Contrary to the conventional view of America as a hotbed of entrepreneurship, the rate new job-creating businesses have formed in the United States has been halved since 2004, according to the Census Bureau. Part of the reason: gargantuan entry barriers put up by Big Tech.

Such size also confers political power to get whatever these companies and their top executives want.

Amazon – the richest corporation in America – paid nothing in federal taxes last year. Meanwhile, it’s holding an auction to extort billions from states and cities eager to have its second headquarters.

It also forced Seattle, it’s home headquarters, to back down on a plan to tax big corporations like itself to pay for homeless shelters for a growing population that can’t afford the sky-high rents caused in part by Amazon.

Facebook withheld evidence of Russian activity on its platform far longer than previously disclosed. When the news came to light, it employed a political opposition research firm to discredit critics.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who holds the world’s speed record for falling from one of the most admired to the most reviled people on the planet, just unveiled a plan to “encrypt” personal information from all his platforms.

The new plan is likely to give Facebook even more comprehensive data about everyone. If you believe it will better guard privacy, you don’t remember Zuckerberg’s last seven promises to protect privacy.

Google forced the New America Foundation, an influential think tank it helped fund, to fire researchers who were urging antitrust officials to take on Google.

And it’s been quietly financed hundreds of university professors to write research papers justifying Google’s market dominance.

What to do? Some argue the tech mammoths should be regulated like utilities or common carriers, but this would put government into the impossible position of policing content and overseeing new products and services.

A better alternative is to break them up. That way, information would be distributed through a large number of independent channels without a centralized platform giving all content apparent legitimacy and extraordinary reach. And more startups could flourish.

Like the robber barons of the first Gilded Age, those of the second have amassed fortunes because of their monopolies -- fortunes that give them unparalleled leverage over politicians and the economy.

The combined wealth of Zuckerberg ($62.3 billion), Bezos ($131 billion), Brin ($49.8 billion) and Page ($50.8 billion) is larger than the combined wealth of the bottom half of the American population.

A wealth tax (also proposed by Warren) would help.

Some of the robber barons of the first Gilded Age were generous philanthropists, as are today’s. That didn’t excuse the damage they did to America.

Let’s be clear: Monopolies aren’t good for anyone except for the monopolists.

In this new Gilded Age, we need to respond to them as forcefully as we did the first time around. Warren’s ideas are a good start.  

[kabirshahni]

Amperity raises $100M to unify customer data

Amperity, a Seattle, Washington-based customer data platform, today announced it has raised $100 million in series D funding, valuing the company at more than $1 billion post-money. Founder and CEO Kabir Shahani said the company will use these funds, which bring its total raised to $187 million, to expand sales and marketing, grow internationally, and invest in R&D.

The pressures of the pandemic made knowing consumers a matter of survival for many businesses. Faced with the challenge of optimizing performance without third-party data, brands recognized the necessity of having an identity graph as part of an effort to sustain customer relationships. These graphs, which are at the foundation of customer data platforms, allow enterprises to make sense of trillions of data points from customers across in-store visits, web traffic, mobile usage, loyalty programs, and other touchpoints.

How human-centered design drives data-driven experiences In today’s competitive market

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Amperity was founded in 2016 by Shahani and Derek Slager, who aimed to free engineers from integration duties while giving businesses access to the data they need to build loyalty. Prior to founding Amperity, Kabir and Derek worked together to launch enterprise marketing management startup Appature, where Kabir was CEO and Derek was VP of engineering. Appature was purchased in 2013 by IT medical services provider IMS Health, which has since merged with Quintiles.

“Amperity has created the first-party data graph and customer toolset for many of the world’s most loved consumer brands. There’s a vast universe of solutions that might provide an element of what we do, but no one can deliver a more complete customer [view] with an agnostic approach we provide at both ends — data in, data out,” Shahani told VentureBeat via email.

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Behind the scenes

Customer data platforms are collections of software that create persistent, unified customer databases accessible to other systems. Data is pulled from multiple sources, cleaned, and combined to create a single customer profile. This structured data is then made available to other marketing systems.

The customer data platform market is anticipated to be worth $10.3 billion by 2025, according to Markets and Markets, up from $2.4 billion in 2020. Amperity’s competitors include homegrown solutions, as well as legacy on-premises systems from Acxiom and Epsilon Independent and cloud-based services like ActionIQ and Redpoint Global.

But Shahani claims Amperity is the only customer data platform with an “AI-driven customer 360.” Each of its products is built on what the company calls the DataGrid, a fully connected customer infrastructure that processes terabytes of data each day. DataGrid streams billions of rows of data at under 100 milliseconds per API call, enabling Amperity’s AI models to provide deterministic and probabilistic individual and household identity throughout customer segments.

Amperity works with customers across retail, travel, hospitality, and financial services, including Patagonia, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, The Home Depot, Lucky Brand, and Crocs. Recently, Amperity teamed up with a lifestyle retail client to better understand the company’s customers. In 18 weeks, Amperity says it built a dashboard with transaction, marketing, store, product, and privacy data, correcting lifecycle status for 25% of the client’s customers with interaction and revenue attribution. This led to $7.7 million in campaign revenue from predictive segmentation and churn prevention campaigns.

[animesprout]

LinkedIn relocation information shows that nerds aren't leaving Seattle

Nerds are obviously leaving Silicon Valley. The pandemic has started what some portray as an "mass migration" of tech organizations, workers, and speculators who are moving to Austin, Miami, Reno, Madison, and different metros for a heap of reasons.

In any case, shouldn't something be said about Seattle, another enormous west coast tech center point and home to industry monsters, for example, Microsoft and Amazon?

New representative relocation information from LinkedIn shows that Seattle actually added 2.2 tech laborers for each one specialist that left, from March to October of this current year. That is only marginally beneath the 2.5 number recorded a year ago at animesprout.

The "inflow-surge proportion" information, given to GeekWire from LinkedIn and first provided details regarding by Alex Kantrowitz's Big Technology pamphlet, is sourced from LinkedIn individuals who have demonstrated city-to-city development on their profile.

The Bay Area saw the greatest year-over-year rate drop for the proportion cross country, falling 35% from 1.48 to 0.96. New York City has the second-greatest drop, plunging 20% from 1.08 to 0.86.

Extra information from LinkedIn shows that many Bay Area transfers are really migrating to Seattle. The quantity of individuals moving from the Bay Area to Seattle expanded 28% year-over-year from March to October.

Keith Rabois, a long-term Silicon Valley financial speculator who just moved to Miami, said he's seen a similar pattern narratively.

"Apparently, a sensible part of individuals I know expertly or socially that have left the Bay Area have likewise relocated to Seattle," Rabois said on a new This Week in Startups digital broadcast with Jason Calacanis.

Jennifer Stojkovic, leader head of the tech support bunch sf.citi, told GeekWire in July that she expected some Bay Area tech organizations and laborers to move to the Seattle zone, which offers numerous comparative civilities yet a moderately lower typical cost for basic items.

GeekWire detailed recently on Tanium, the $9 billion online protection organization that moved its central command from the Bay Area to the Seattle locale. Tanium CEO Orion Hindawi depicted California as having a "genuine administration issue."

Different California tech monsters including Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise as of late declared designs to move their central command to Texas, while organization pioneers, for example, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Dropbox CEO Drew Houston are likewise purportedly moving to the Lone Star State. Then, recently open information examination programming organization Palantir moved its HQ from Palo Alto to Denver recently.

"The designing world class of Silicon Valley may know more than most about building programming. Be that as it may, they don't find out about how society should be coordinated or what equity requires," Palantir CEO Alex Karp wrote in the organization's IPO reports. "… Our organization was established in Silicon Valley. However, we appear to share less and less of the innovation area's qualities and responsibilities."

[sciencespies]

Mother of invention: the new gadgets dreamt up to fight coronavirus

https://sciencespies.com/news/mother-of-invention-the-new-gadgets-dreamt-up-to-fight-coronavirus/

Mother of invention: the new gadgets dreamt up to fight coronavirus

LONDON/OAKLAND/BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Driving to work at his factory to the west of London last week, designer Steve Brooks had coronavirus on his mind. What could he make that would let him open a door without touching the handle?

Entrepreneurs Matthew Toles and Joseph Toles, co-founders of the company Slightly Robot, show smartbands, the Immutouch, which buzz when the wearer’s hand goes near their face, to prevent spreading the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Seattle, U.S., in this handout picture taken March 31, 2020. Immutouch/Handout via REUTERS

“Everyone has to use their little finger or find the bit of the door that nobody’s touched,” said the designer and owner at DDB Ltd, a company which makes office furniture. So he produced a hook to do the job.

The so-called hygienehook is small enough to fit in a pocket and made from a non-porous material, which makes it easy to clean. It is one of hundreds of gadgets dreamt up in recent days and weeks to help prevent people from spreading the coronavirus.

From furniture makers to AI software developers, companies around the world are adapting existing products or inventing new ones to help fight the pandemic or just make life easier for those working from home, in hospitals or stuck in quarantine.

The flurry of innovation comes as companies from Ford (F.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) to luxury goods giant LVMH (LVMH.PA) retool plants to make critical equipment like hand sanitizers, ventilators and masks.

In years gone by it was large companies like these, with the financial clout and factories, who typically had to be relied upon to move rapidly from designing a prototype to manufacturing the product.

A crucial difference now, though, is that 3D printing and high-tech software mean devices can be produced faster than ever by companies big and small.

“There is definitely a ton of people with 3D resources very willing to help,” said MacKenzie Brown, founder of California-based product design company CAD Crowd.

Two weeks ago, his company launched a month-long contest for practical devices for navigating the new coronavirus world.

About 65 entries have poured in, including a wrist-mounted disinfectant sprayer, half gloves for knuckle-pushing of buttons and a device that lets you open car doors without touching the handle, aimed at cab users.

As the pandemic makes people far more aware of hygiene, some new products may have a shelf life beyond the current crisis.

‘WE HAD THE ALGORITHM’

Startups are retooling their technology.

In Seattle, brothers Joseph and Matthew Toles and their friend Justin Ith, who own a young company called Slightly Robot, had developed a wristband after college aimed at reducing compulsive skin-picking, nail-biting, and hair-pulling.

When their home city reported its first fatalities from the virus last month, they adapted the design to create a new smartband, the Immutouch, which buzzes when the wearer’s hand goes near their face.

“We had the algorithm, we had the software and the hardware. We’ve repurposed it for face-touching,” Matthew Toles said in an interview. “We made 350 devices and a website in one week and now it’s how fast can we ramp up.”

Romanian robotic software company UiPath has meanwhile found a way for nurses in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in the Irish capital Dublin to ditch time-consuming data entry and automate filing of virus test results. It hopes to replicate it in other hospitals.

Scylla, a U.S.-based AI company that makes gun detection systems for schools and casinos, turned its sights on the virus when China, the original epicenter of the outbreak, reported its first cases three months ago.

It has re-deployed its AI analytics software to measure the temperature of a person’s forehead, sending out an alert if it detects a fever. Taking images from a thermal camera, the software can be used in public buildings like hospitals and airports, and corporate offices, chief technology officer Ara Ghazaryan said.

The government of a South American nation has placed an order for 5,000 licenses of Scylla’s system for its public buildings and transport system, Ghazaryan said. He declined to name the country.

WORLD WAR TWO INNOVATION

Global upheaval often spawns new products and innovation.

The current burst of creativity may eventually compare to that seen during World War Two when companies, governments and scientists embarked on projects that had lasting consequences.

Technology used to help guide rockets eventually led to the first satellites and putting men on the moon.

“There’s no question that inventors will be coming up with hundreds, if not thousands, of new ideas,” said Kane Kramer, inventor and co-founder of the British Inventor’s Society. He first conceived the idea of downloading music and data in the late 1970s.

“Everyone’s downed tools and are only picking them up to fight the virus. It’s a global war.”

Many companies are donating their new wares or selling them at cost price. The CAD Crowd contest designs are free for download and use, for example. For some, though, the extra business could provide a financial cushion as other sources of income evaporate during the pandemic.

DDB designer Brooks near London has worked quickly.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Less than a week after his first design, four different models of the hook went on sale this week, selling at just under 15 pounds ($18.60) each. He is donating one hook for every one he sells.

Now Brooks is turning his creative eye to another gadget along similar lines.

“We’ve already had a request from the National Health Service in Wales about designing something for pushing a door.”

Additional reporting by Nadine Schimroszik in Berlin; Editing by Pravin Char

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

#News

[mycngs-blog]

                it’s  ya  girl  𝒅𝒓𝒊  (nineteen  —  twenty  next  week  !,  she/her,  pst),  a  soft  edgy  born  with  a  name  that  means  "dark  one  of  the  lord"  on  friday  the  13th  !  some  fun  facts  are  that  i  have  the  incredibly  dangerous  combo  of  high  ambition  and  poor  time  management  and  i’d  Risk  It  All  for  a.c.e,  ateez,  and  loona  !  so,  anyway,  here’s  my  girl  olivia  !  if  you’re  interested  in  plotting  connections,  feel  free  to  im  me  or  ask  for  my  discord  (where  i  would  be  Way  easier  to  reach)  !

                𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐆  𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐎𝐍.  𝐒𝐇𝐄/𝐇𝐄𝐑.  𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄.  ╱  was  that  𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀  𝐌𝐘𝐔𝐍𝐆  i  just  saw  in  the  hideaway  lobby  ?  i  hear  the  𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎  year  old  spends  most  of  their  time  𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐀𝐒  𝐀  𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇  𝐓𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐑,  but  i’ve  always  just  seen  them  𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐑𝐇𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐌  𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒.  they  live  in  𝐀𝐏𝐓  𝟓𝐂  and  i  often  see  them  in  the  halls.  they  always  give  me  a  vibe  of  𝐃𝐎𝐆-𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃  𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒,  𝐂𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐃  𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒,  and  𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒  𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐃  𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓.

* ╱  𝒒 𝒖 𝒊 𝒄 𝒌  𝒔 𝒕 𝒂 𝒕 𝒔

𝗕𝗜𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘:  olivia clarisse myung  

𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦:  vi, oli, no one calls her liv tho

𝗔𝗚𝗘:  twenty-two  

𝗗𝗢𝗕:  january 12, 1997 

𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗡:  santa clara, california

𝗭𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗖:  capricorn sun, pisces moon 

𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡:  bisexual  

𝗢𝗖𝗖𝗨𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡:  tutor

* ╱  𝒃 𝒂 𝒄 𝒌 𝒈 𝒓 𝒐 𝒖 𝒏 𝒅

originally hailing from santa clara, california, the myung family was nothing short of a series of tech success stories. her father a machine learning engineer and her mother a user experience architect, it was to no surprise when olivia's older siblings (a sister 6 years older and a brother 4 years older) followed suit and found themselves pursuing similar careers. they were coded to be a stereotypical silicon valley family, so growing up, expectations were high for olivia, the last of the bunch.

olivia was that girl in school who knew she was smart and made sure everyone around her knew it as well. in high school, a lot of people didn’t really like her because they perceived her as a show-off, which she totally was, but she’s aight once you get past her insecurity-generated superiority complex. her parents were overprotective and pressured her to do better than her classmates, so she just grew up conditioned to be super competitive because she was kind of scared of her parents and therefore scared of failing them.

she majored in statistics at uc berkeley and ended up finishing in three years with plans to go into data analysis (she’s really good with numbers and doesn’t quite understand how people have trouble with math… Nerd).

a few months out of college she got offered a position with a startup company in seattle that she had interned for remotely in the past, so she made the trip to washington!

however, the company later began to experience major losses and had to let go of employees, which unfortunately included cleo, before dissolving completely. she had only been working there for about half a year.

olivia wasn’t ready to return home, wasn’t ready to break the news to her parents that she — in her mind — had failed, so she remained in seattle and kept up this lie of being a successful data analyst for a rising company, when in reality, she put all of her marbles in the wrong bag. she didn’t want to be the one to fail when everyone else in her family was succeeding, she didn’t want to be the disappointment, so she lied. she wasn’t that close with her family, so the vague information that their daughter was making Big Moves would suffice for them to sprinkle into conversations with their colleagues.

currently, she’s trying to get back on her feet and secure a stable position of a similar caliber, but in the meantime, she’s been back and forth between different jobs and also getting paid to tutor people (mostly over skype, sometimes irl). not being certain of what she’s doing terrifies her and Sucks because she’s not used to the feeling of not being good enough.

* ╱  𝒑 𝒆 𝒓 𝒔 𝒐 𝒏 𝒂 𝒍 𝒊 𝒕 𝒚

olivia is like... accidentally blunt a lot ?? not even gonna lie, she really does not think before she speaks sometimes (book smart but not street smart Big Time)

i don't think she ever really had a Solid friend group growing up; she was the type to be on the border and never really belong to any specific set of people

she has, like, Zero patience and a low tolerance for stupidity, so how she manages to tutor people is something many people cannot comprehend

olivia's like the gordon ramsay of academia: rude if u act like u know everything, kinder and understanding if u genuinely want to learn something or get better

her demeanor is so deceiving i would say ?? she's the opposite of someone who looks intimidating but is actually really sweet — she's like a siren or some shit, seemingly approachable but once u do approach, u regret

despite the fact that she's quite cold 90% of first encounters, over time, she does warm up to people, which bring the coldness probability to about a 50% depending on how she feels about u

she’s not heartless i promise !! it’s mostly a front bc she was Played a lot growing up and has some trust issues :// when ur smart n want friends sometimes it’s ok to be used right ?? haha ?? :(( ??

her way of caring for people is .. tbh .. kinda awkward ?? she has compassion but she doesn’t really know how to express it without feeling kinda weird about it KSDLHDS she’s the type that wouldn’t be comforting emotionally but she tries .. her Best in her own way 

did i say rly guarded ?? superiority complex turned impostor syndrome ?? someone PLEASE validate this girl , living in her siblings’ shadows did Not do her well

secretly a romantic but she thinks love is a privilege she hasn’t quite earned yet

in short, i’d say she could be classified as a Classic Tsundere

i feel like i didn't list that many redeeming traits DSGJSDG but she's got some !! she's dependable and a hard worker !! if ur close to her it's ride or die !!

* ╱  𝒇 𝒖 𝒏  𝒇 𝒂 𝒄 𝒕 𝒔

can speak english, korean, french, spanish, and knows asl

owns a large collection of books; really into personal essays

has never been in a serious relationship; claims she’s too busy but really just lacks the ability to be vulnerable so she prefers things to be non-committal

when she was 14 she had a crush on this guy but then people found out and it eventually reached him ;/ he asked her out after school with some people around ;/ she accepted ;/ turned out he was joking ;/

can play the viola, clarinet, and piano

really really really good at rhythm games, especially osu !! played local tournaments before but when her parents found out she was investing a fat chunk of time into the activity, they had her stop ;/ now that she doesn’t live with them anymore, she’s taken it up again

surprisingly holds her alcohol well and is an affectionate drunk; perhaps if u met olivia when she's drunk she wouldn't be as intimidating

incredibly bad at responding to text messages !! it's like a roulette, she either replies within seconds or the text is lost forever and suddenly it's been months