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Google

google-ventures

Welcome to HackerNoon’s Ten Questions for Startup Founders Interview series! Want to share your startup story? Take the interview HERE! 1. Describe your company in 2–5 words Security guardrails for AI applications 2. Why is now the time for your company to exist? AI adoption is exploding - companies are building hundreds of AI applications across their organizations, but this rush creates massive security risks around data leakage, prompt injection, and sensitive information disclosure. Traditional security tools aren't equipped for these new threats. Companies need comprehensive security guardrails that can be deployed wherever their AI is - whether through APIs, network gateways, or self-hosted solutions. Our platform provides these critical protections while maintaining speed to market. 3. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? Our team brings decades of cybersecurity expertise from companies like Splunk, Cisco, Symantec, and McAfee. We've worked together before - most recently helping pioneer the SOAR (Security Orchestration Automation and Response) category. We understand both the enterprise security landscape and how to build developer-friendly solutions. Most AI security startups come from AI backgrounds - we bring deep cybersecurity expertise to solve these emerging challenges. 4. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? I've been in cybersecurity since the late 90s, starting as an ethical hacker focused on exploration rather than malicious activities. That led to the founding of multiple security companies - each addressing the next wave of security challenges. The evolution from network security to cloud security and now AI security keeps presenting new frontiers that need protecting. 5. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics? We measure success by how effectively we're helping companies secure their AI applications across various deployment models. Beyond traditional metrics like revenue growth, we track security threats detected and blocked, ease of integration and most importantly - customer impact. When organizations tell us we make secure AI development "an easy and obvious choice" - that's real success. 6. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom? Pangea is a unified security platform for AI software that lets engineering teams rapidly embed enterprise-grade security capabilities into their applications through straightforward API integrations and allows security and AI teams to deploy these capabilities via network gateways. Our mission is to democratize security, removing the complexity that traditionally prevents smaller teams and startups from implementing robust protection. Whether you're building a mobile app, web service, or enterprise software, Pangea gives you instant access to authentication, threat intelligence, user management, and compliance tools - without requiring deep security expertise. We serve organizations and developers who want to build secure, compliant software without having to become cybersecurity experts themselves. 7. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? Nearly two-thirds of our customers already have AI-powered apps in production. We've recently launched Pangea AI Guard and Prompt Guard, demonstrating our ability to rapidly address emerging security challenges. We've also secured strategic partnerships with CrowdStrike and backing from Google Ventures and Okta Ventures, validating our comprehensive approach to AI security. 8. Where do you think your growth will be next year? With estimates showing over one million software companies by 2027, many leveraging AI, we're positioned to be the go-to platform for securing these applications. We're expanding our deployment options beyond APIs to meet customers wherever their AI is - whether in the cloud, on-premise, or at the network edge. The market is rapidly evolving from RAG architectures to agentic AI, and we're building the security foundations for both. 9. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year. One of our first paying customers is an F100 company that I am not permitted to disclose, however, I can talk about early adopter, Grand Canyon Education, a publicly-traded technology and services company serving dozens of universities. They chose Pangea to secure their internal AI chatbot platform and needed to protect sensitive student and medical data while maintaining ease of use. Our ability to provide instant security controls without impacting user experience was key to their decision. We're seeing rapid growth as more companies realize security needs to be built into their AI applications from day one. 10. What’s your biggest threat? Our biggest challenge isn't competition - it's education. Many companies are just beginning to understand the security risks in their AI applications. They often focus on functionality first, only to realize later they need comprehensive security controls. We need to help companies understand that security can't be an afterthought with AI - it needs to be built in from the start through a comprehensive set of guardrails because the scale, velocity, and autonomy of AI technology means it has the real potential to magnify security risks beyond anything we’ve seen before. This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders. Want to share your startup story? Take the interview HERE! Welcome to HackerNoon’s Ten Questions for Startup Founders Interview series! Want to share your startup story? Take the interview HERE! Welcome to HackerNoon’s Ten Questions for Startup Founders Interview series! Want to share your startup story? Take the interview HERE! Ten Questions for Startup Founders Take the interview HERE! Take the interview HERE! 1. Describe your company in 2–5 words Security guardrails for AI applications Security guardrails for AI applications 2. Why is now the time for your company to exist? AI adoption is exploding - companies are building hundreds of AI applications across their organizations, but this rush creates massive security risks around data leakage, prompt injection, and sensitive information disclosure. Traditional security tools aren't equipped for these new threats. Companies need comprehensive security guardrails that can be deployed wherever their AI is - whether through APIs, network gateways, or self-hosted solutions. Our platform provides these critical protections while maintaining speed to market. 3. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? Our team brings decades of cybersecurity expertise from companies like Splunk, Cisco, Symantec, and McAfee. We've worked together before - most recently helping pioneer the SOAR (Security Orchestration Automation and Response) category. We understand both the enterprise security landscape and how to build developer-friendly solutions. Most AI security startups come from AI backgrounds - we bring deep cybersecurity expertise to solve these emerging challenges. 4. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? I've been in cybersecurity since the late 90s, starting as an ethical hacker focused on exploration rather than malicious activities. That led to the founding of multiple security companies - each addressing the next wave of security challenges. The evolution from network security to cloud security and now AI security keeps presenting new frontiers that need protecting. 5. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics? We measure success by how effectively we're helping companies secure their AI applications across various deployment models. Beyond traditional metrics like revenue growth, we track security threats detected and blocked, ease of integration and most importantly - customer impact. When organizations tell us we make secure AI development "an easy and obvious choice" - that's real success. 6. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom? Pangea is a unified security platform for AI software that lets engineering teams rapidly embed enterprise-grade security capabilities into their applications through straightforward API integrations and allows security and AI teams to deploy these capabilities via network gateways. Pangea Our mission is to democratize security, removing the complexity that traditionally prevents smaller teams and startups from implementing robust protection. Whether you're building a mobile app, web service, or enterprise software, Pangea gives you instant access to authentication, threat intelligence, user management, and compliance tools - without requiring deep security expertise. We serve organizations and developers who want to build secure, compliant software without having to become cybersecurity experts themselves. 7. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? Nearly two-thirds of our customers already have AI-powered apps in production. We've recently launched Pangea AI Guard and Prompt Guard , demonstrating our ability to rapidly address emerging security challenges. We've also secured strategic partnerships with CrowdStrike and backing from Google Ventures and Okta Ventures, validating our comprehensive approach to AI security. Pangea AI Guard Prompt Guard 8. Where do you think your growth will be next year? With estimates showing over one million software companies by 2027 , many leveraging AI, we're positioned to be the go-to platform for securing these applications. We're expanding our deployment options beyond APIs to meet customers wherever their AI is - whether in the cloud, on-premise, or at the network edge. The market is rapidly evolving from RAG architectures to agentic AI, and we're building the security foundations for both. one million software companies by 2027 one million software companies by 2027 9. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year. One of our first paying customers is an F100 company that I am not permitted to disclose, however, I can talk about early adopter, Grand Canyon Education, a publicly-traded technology and services company serving dozens of universities. They chose Pangea to secure their internal AI chatbot platform and needed to protect sensitive student and medical data while maintaining ease of use. Our ability to provide instant security controls without impacting user experience was key to their decision. We're seeing rapid growth as more companies realize security needs to be built into their AI applications from day one. 10. What’s your biggest threat? Our biggest challenge isn't competition - it's education. Many companies are just beginning to understand the security risks in their AI applications. They often focus on functionality first, only to realize later they need comprehensive security controls. We need to help companies understand that security can't be an afterthought with AI - it needs to be built in from the start through a comprehensive set of guardrails because the scale, velocity, and autonomy of AI technology means it has the real potential to magnify security risks beyond anything we’ve seen before. just This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders. This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke ’s ten questions for startup founders . HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke ten questions for startup founders Want to share your startup story? Take the interview HERE! Want to share your startup story? Take the interview HERE! Take the interview HERE! Take the interview HERE!

Pangea Founder & CEO, Oliver Friedrichs, Answers 10 Questions for Every Startup Founder

Zakladatel a CEO Pangea, Oliver Friedrichs, odpovídá na 10 otázek pro každého zakladatele startupů

Oliver Friedrichs, fundador y director ejecutivo de Pangea, responde a 10 preguntas para todos los fundadores de startups

Oliver Friedrichs, fondateur et PDG de Pangea, répond à 10 questions pour chaque fondateur de startup

पैंजिया के संस्थापक और सीईओ, ओलिवर फ्रेडरिक्स, प्रत्येक स्टार्टअप संस्थापक के लिए 10 प्रश्नों के उत्तर देते हैं

Pangea-ի հիմնադիր և գործադիր տնօրեն Օլիվեր Ֆրիդրիխսը պատասխանում է 10 հարցի յուրաքանչյուր ստարտափի հիմնադրի համար

Pangea の創設者兼 CEO、オリバー・フリードリヒスが、スタートアップの創設者全員に 10 の質問に答えます。

Fondateur & CEO ya Pangea, Oliver Friedrichs, Ayanoli na mituna 10 mpo na Fondateur nionso ya Startup

Pangea ຜູ້ກໍ່ຕັ້ງ & CEO, Oliver Friedrichs, ຕອບ 10 ຄໍາຖາມສໍາລັບຜູ້ກໍ່ຕັ້ງ Startup ທຸກຄົນ

Pangea įkūrėjas ir generalinis direktorius Oliveris Friedrichsas atsako į 10 klausimų kiekvienam startuolio steigėjui

Aasaasaha Pangea & Maamulaha, Oliver Friedrichs, Wuxuu Ka Jawaabay 10 Su'aalood oo loogu talagalay Aasaasaha Bilowga ah

Themeluesi dhe CEO i Pangea, Oliver Friedrichs, u përgjigjet 10 pyetjeve për çdo themelues fillestar

Оснивач и извршни директор Пангеа, Оливер Фридрихс, одговара на 10 питања за сваког оснивача стартапа

Venture capital, or VC (also known as risk capital), is a type of investment typically aimed at early-stage companies that are small to medium-sized. These companies often include startups, which may have little to no revenue yet. Because of this, they require substantial funding to carry out their operations, making this a high-risk investment model. Venture capitalists essentially bet on the potential of these startups, hoping their resources will grow in value as the company succeeds. Venture capital investments can generally be categorized into two types, each depending on the responsibilities, rights, and obligations of the company's founders and investors: General Partner (GP) – All investors share equal authority in deciding the company’s strategies.
Limited Partner (LP) – Not all participants have the same level of involvement; some contribute financially, while others focus on management and operations. When a startup founder seeks venture capital investment, one of the first steps is to determine how much equity each shareholder will hold, how involved investors will be in day-to-day operations, and what level of power and responsibility each party will have. It’s worth noting that venture capital investments are generally aimed at fostering rapid growth within the company. Unlike traditional investments, it's not always necessary to have a fully developed product already on the market. However, investors will evaluate a variety of factors before deciding whether to invest in an idea or product. Some of these factors may be prioritized more than others when it comes to high-risk investments. The Management Team A strong team and solid leadership are critical in determining whether a company has the structure necessary to move forward with its work or ideas. Even if the startup is small, which is common in the early stages, the interaction among team members, their experience, and their skill sets are of utmost importance. One of the key factors is the ability to execute: it's not a dealbreaker if a startup doesn’t yet have a product; the idea can be promising, but what truly differentiates a good investment is the commitment and execution capability of the team. Ideas are plentiful, but not many have the technical skills and drive to make them a reality. For instance, some companies have managed to carve out significant market space, even in competitive industries, thanks to the collaboration and technical expertise of their team. Moreover, a strong leader is essential to harness the strengths of each team member to achieve the company's goals. The Business Model Now, this part can get a bit tricky. Creating a sustainable business model might seem straightforward on paper, but in reality, it can be a real challenge. While a model might look great in theory, it can completely fall apart when put into practice. Today, there are plenty of tools and examples of business models that can be used for inspiration when building your own. It’s important to note that the real appeal of investing in a business model doesn’t necessarily lie in how it functions. Below are a few key factors that are often considered: Scalability


Viability


Competitive


Differentiation
Scalability and viability are crucial indicators of whether a business has the potential to expand, alongside how easily the business model can be replicated. Essentially, a scalable business is one that can increase its production, profitability, and operations without compromising efficiency and returns. If a business is scalable, replicating it becomes significantly easier. Replicability refers to a company’s ability to recreate a successful business model across different locations and markets. Depending on the business context, these factors can serve as significant competitive advantages and are definitely sought after by investors. By highlighting these aspects, both founders and investors can better understand what makes venture capital investments unique, as well as the key components that are analyzed before funding a startup. 3. Product Value A key aspect of venture capital investment is the value of the product being developed. Recently, I came across a book by Tony Fadell, an American software engineer and investor known for his work on the iPod, titled Build. In this book, Fadell provides a practical and clear guide to creating products that have real value. It's a great resource for anyone looking to build a career in product management and development, offering insights on not just how to build a successful career but also how to create something that adds genuine value to users. I first heard about this book through a news article on Google Ventures (now GV), a firm known for its investment in high-value products like GitLab, Stripe, Verve, and others—all widely used across various industries. It’s crucial for any envisioned product to hold value both for its user base and the broader community. Take GitLab, for example—it's a repository tool designed by developers for developers, making a significant impact within its target audience. Even a product that may seem small or niche has a great potential to grow if it can make a difference to its users. However, while creating a product that delivers value may sound simple and obvious, executing this in practice is often far more challenging than it initially appears. Ensuring a product’s value is not just about features and functionality; it’s about understanding user needs and creating something that stands out in a way that matters to its intended audience. In the context of venture capital, a valuable product can significantly increase a company's potential for rapid growth, which is precisely what investors are looking for. Choosing the Right Technology Choosing the right technology is crucial and can determine how valuable a company becomes, both in its early years and in the future. When I talk about technology, I don't just mean software development technologies like programming languages and frameworks, but also the tools that will help scale the business and build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Companies like Facebook and Twitter adopted web frameworks that allowed them to build a demonstrable product quickly. The ease provided by programming languages like Ruby and PHP was extremely important not only for constructing the first versions of their products but also for creating something easy to maintain and scale. All of this was only possible with the right management tools and personnel. Nowadays, there are essential technologies available for building an MVP. Below, I’ve listed some that are frequently used for web-focused MVPs: React.js or Vue.js: Popular JavaScript frameworks for creating interactive and responsive user interfaces.


Node.js: A fast and scalable JavaScript backend platform suitable for building RESTful APIs.


MongoDB: A flexible and scalable NoSQL database, suitable for MVPs where the data structure can evolve quickly. Additionally, you can use existing management methodologies and tools, such as Scrum, XP, and Design Sprint. To understand how the choice of technology—and any changes to it during business execution—can impact its value, I recommend reading the following article: ‘On Brex: My Thoughts on Backdrop Powers that Chose Kotlin over Elixir’. This article discusses how changing the backend of a company focused on the financial sector can impact its development and investment potential. Conclusion Securing investors for an idea is no easy task; it's not as simple as having a "lightbulb moment" like we often see in movies or dramatizations. In reality, it requires a lot of effort and planning to build something that can benefit both the people involved and others. The important thing is to stick to the execution and the initial plan, adopting technologies that will allow you to achieve these three key factors: Scalability, Viability, and Replicability. Venture capital, or VC (also known as risk capital), is a type of investment typically aimed at early-stage companies that are small to medium-sized. These companies often include startups, which may have little to no revenue yet. Because of this, they require substantial funding to carry out their operations, making this a high-risk investment model. Venture capitalists essentially bet on the potential of these startups, hoping their resources will grow in value as the company succeeds. Venture capital investments can generally be categorized into two types, each depending on the responsibilities, rights, and obligations of the company's founders and investors: General Partner (GP) – All investors share equal authority in deciding the company’s strategies. Limited Partner (LP) – Not all participants have the same level of involvement; some contribute financially, while others focus on management and operations. General Partner (GP) – All investors share equal authority in deciding the company’s strategies. General Partner (GP) – All investors share equal authority in deciding the company’s strategies. Limited Partner (LP) – Not all participants have the same level of involvement; some contribute financially, while others focus on management and operations. Limited Partner (LP) – Not all participants have the same level of involvement; some contribute financially, while others focus on management and operations. When a startup founder seeks venture capital investment, one of the first steps is to determine how much equity each shareholder will hold, how involved investors will be in day-to-day operations, and what level of power and responsibility each party will have. It’s worth noting that venture capital investments are generally aimed at fostering rapid growth within the company. Unlike traditional investments, it's not always necessary to have a fully developed product already on the market. However, investors will evaluate a variety of factors before deciding whether to invest in an idea or product. Some of these factors may be prioritized more than others when it comes to high-risk investments. The Management Team The Management Team The Management Team A strong team and solid leadership are critical in determining whether a company has the structure necessary to move forward with its work or ideas. Even if the startup is small, which is common in the early stages, the interaction among team members, their experience, and their skill sets are of utmost importance. One of the key factors is the ability to execute: it's not a dealbreaker if a startup doesn’t yet have a product; the idea can be promising, but what truly differentiates a good investment is the commitment and execution capability of the team. Ideas are plentiful, but not many have the technical skills and drive to make them a reality. For instance, some companies have managed to carve out significant market space, even in competitive industries, thanks to the collaboration and technical expertise of their team. Moreover, a strong leader is essential to harness the strengths of each team member to achieve the company's goals. The Business Model The Business Model The Business Model Now, this part can get a bit tricky. Creating a sustainable business model might seem straightforward on paper, but in reality, it can be a real challenge. While a model might look great in theory, it can completely fall apart when put into practice. Today, there are plenty of tools and examples of business models that can be used for inspiration when building your own. It’s important to note that the real appeal of investing in a business model doesn’t necessarily lie in how it functions. Below are a few key factors that are often considered: Scalability Viability Competitive Differentiation
Scalability and viability are crucial indicators of whether a business has the potential to expand, alongside how easily the business model can be replicated. Essentially, a scalable business is one that can increase its production, profitability, and operations without compromising efficiency and returns. If a business is scalable, replicating it becomes significantly easier. Replicability refers to a company’s ability to recreate a successful business model across different locations and markets. Depending on the business context, these factors can serve as significant competitive advantages and are definitely sought after by investors. Scalability Scalability Viability Viability Competitive Competitive Differentiation Scalability and viability are crucial indicators of whether a business has the potential to expand, alongside how easily the business model can be replicated. Essentially, a scalable business is one that can increase its production, profitability, and operations without compromising efficiency and returns. If a business is scalable, replicating it becomes significantly easier. Replicability refers to a company’s ability to recreate a successful business model across different locations and markets. Depending on the business context, these factors can serve as significant competitive advantages and are definitely sought after by investors. Differentiation Scalability and viability are crucial indicators of whether a business has the potential to expand, alongside how easily the business model can be replicated. Essentially, a scalable business is one that can increase its production, profitability, and operations without compromising efficiency and returns. If a business is scalable, replicating it becomes significantly easier. Replicability refers to a company’s ability to recreate a successful business model across different locations and markets. Depending on the business context, these factors can serve as significant competitive advantages and are definitely sought after by investors. Scalability and viability are crucial indicators of whether a business has the potential to expand, alongside how easily the business model can be replicated. Essentially, a scalable business is one that can increase its production, profitability, and operations without compromising efficiency and returns. If a business is scalable, replicating it becomes significantly easier. Replicability refers to a company’s ability to recreate a successful business model across different locations and markets. Depending on the business context, these factors can serve as significant competitive advantages and are definitely sought after by investors. By highlighting these aspects, both founders and investors can better understand what makes venture capital investments unique, as well as the key components that are analyzed before funding a startup. 3. Product Value 3. Product Value A key aspect of venture capital investment is the value of the product being developed. Recently, I came across a book by Tony Fadell, an American software engineer and investor known for his work on the iPod, titled Build . In this book, Fadell provides a practical and clear guide to creating products that have real value. It's a great resource for anyone looking to build a career in product management and development, offering insights on not just how to build a successful career but also how to create something that adds genuine value to users. I first heard about this book through a news article on Google Ventures (now GV), a firm known for its investment in high-value products like GitLab, Stripe, Verve, and others—all widely used across various industries. Build It’s crucial for any envisioned product to hold value both for its user base and the broader community. Take GitLab, for example—it's a repository tool designed by developers for developers, making a significant impact within its target audience. Even a product that may seem small or niche has a great potential to grow if it can make a difference to its users. However, while creating a product that delivers value may sound simple and obvious, executing this in practice is often far more challenging than it initially appears. Ensuring a product’s value is not just about features and functionality; it’s about understanding user needs and creating something that stands out in a way that matters to its intended audience. In the context of venture capital, a valuable product can significantly increase a company's potential for rapid growth, which is precisely what investors are looking for. Choosing the Right Technology Choosing the Right Technology Choosing the right technology is crucial and can determine how valuable a company becomes, both in its early years and in the future. When I talk about technology, I don't just mean software development technologies like programming languages and frameworks, but also the tools that will help scale the business and build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Companies like Facebook and Twitter adopted web frameworks that allowed them to build a demonstrable product quickly. The ease provided by programming languages like Ruby and PHP was extremely important not only for constructing the first versions of their products but also for creating something easy to maintain and scale. All of this was only possible with the right management tools and personnel. Nowadays, there are essential technologies available for building an MVP. Below, I’ve listed some that are frequently used for web-focused MVPs: React.js or Vue.js: Popular JavaScript frameworks for creating interactive and responsive user interfaces. Node.js: A fast and scalable JavaScript backend platform suitable for building RESTful APIs. MongoDB: A flexible and scalable NoSQL database, suitable for MVPs where the data structure can evolve quickly. React.js or Vue.js: Popular JavaScript frameworks for creating interactive and responsive user interfaces. React.js or Vue.js : Popular JavaScript frameworks for creating interactive and responsive user interfaces. React.js or Vue.js Node.js: A fast and scalable JavaScript backend platform suitable for building RESTful APIs. Node.js : A fast and scalable JavaScript backend platform suitable for building RESTful APIs. Node.js MongoDB: A flexible and scalable NoSQL database, suitable for MVPs where the data structure can evolve quickly. MongoDB : A flexible and scalable NoSQL database, suitable for MVPs where the data structure can evolve quickly. MongoDB Additionally, you can use existing management methodologies and tools, such as Scrum, XP, and Design Sprint. To understand how the choice of technology—and any changes to it during business execution—can impact its value, I recommend reading the following article: ‘On Brex: My Thoughts on Backdrop Powers that Chose Kotlin over Elixir’ . This article discusses how changing the backend of a company focused on the financial sector can impact its development and investment potential. ‘ On Brex: My Thoughts on Backdrop Powers that Chose Kotlin over Elixir ’ On Brex: My Thoughts on Backdrop Powers that Chose Kotlin over Elixir Conclusion Conclusion Securing investors for an idea is no easy task; it's not as simple as having a "lightbulb moment" like we often see in movies or dramatizations. In reality, it requires a lot of effort and planning to build something that can benefit both the people involved and others. The important thing is to stick to the execution and the initial plan, adopting technologies that will allow you to achieve these three key factors: Scalability, Viability, and Replicability.

Venture Capital Insights: What Investors Look for in Startups

With shifting consumer demands for fast and convenient services, healthcare organizations are embracing digital transformation. In turn, the Big Tech companies are accelerating their pursuit of the healthcare market. They are leveraging their vast resources and data insights to develop innovative solutions that could change the game for both consumers and medical professionals alike. Below, I break down how these tech giants are working to reshape healthcare with new initiatives, products, and investments. Big tech companies are increasing their investments in healthcare. In 2021, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta over $3.1 billion in the healthcare industry, representing a twofold increase from the amount invested in 2016. The year 2020, marred by the pandemic, witnessed a remarkable surge, with FAMGA investing $3.8 billion. Alphabet is particularly active in this respect, having invested $1.7 billion in "future health ideas" during the first six months of 2022 via subsidiaries such as Google Ventures, Gradient Ventures, and others. Since 2020, Alphabet has closed 100 deals in the domains of biology and healthcare. collectively invested Chinese big tech companies, including ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, are also investing hundreds of millions of dollars in startups and new technologies related to healthcare. The big tech companies are seeking a share of the market, which is estimated to be worth more than $8 trillion, with $3.8 trillion of it in the US, . The healthcare market is projected to have an average annual growth rate of almost 4% by 2024. according to CB Insights As CB Insights points out, big tech companies have all the means to successfully enter the healthcare industry: huge amounts of free cash on their balance sheets (over $100 billion for each of the five companies), an existing user base, and serious capabilities for collecting and processing large amounts of information. There are several reasons why the investment boom in healthcare began now: the growing popularity of wearables, new opportunities for using AI in medicine, and the industry's general ambition to reduce healthcare costs through automation. Alphabet’s healthcare-related projects: wearables, AI for drug development, and a patient data platform Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is heavily invested in healthcare and has a number of healthcare-related projects. One of their latest initiatives is Care Studio, which was released in the fall of 2021. for the consolidation of patient health information from various sources into a single location, providing a more complete and comprehensive view of the patient's health. Additionally, Care Studio uses artificial intelligence to efficiently analyze and sort through the data. This platform allows In 2022, DeepMind, a company acquired by Alphabet in 2014 for $500 million, a significant breakthrough in the healthcare industry. Its AlphaFold algorithm can predict the spatial structure of nearly 200 million known proteins, allowing for faster development of new drugs. DeepMind specializes in developing artificial intelligence and, in 2016, an algorithm that can diagnose eye diseases. announced introduced One year before the AlphaFold breakthrough, Alphabet Isomorphic Labs, a company that will develop new drugs using artificial intelligence. Among Alphabet's healthcare investments are Freenome, a platform for early cancer detection; Overture, an embryology startup; and Metabiota, an analytics company that assesses the risks of future epidemics for humanity. created In 2021, Alphabet acquired Fitbit, a manufacturer of fitness trackers and smartwatches, for $2 billion. One of Fitbit's latest developments is a sensor that detects heart rhythm disturbances. The sensor approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2022, enabling Alphabet to use it in its watches, bracelets, and even its Pixel smartphones. received Moreover, Alphabet's Nest smart home systems now have healthcare-related functionality. In 2021, they added a Soli sensor to the system, which a person's sleep patterns without the need for wearables. As of 2022, there have been no significant updates on these developments. tracks Amazon: clinics, telemedicine, and online pharmacies In the summer of 2022, Amazon the purchase of One Medical, a US-based network of clinics that provides telemedicine services and house calls. With an extensive network of over 8,000 partner companies, One Medical also offers healthcare services to their employees. As of Q1 2022, One Medical had of 767,000, a nearly 30% increase from the previous year. Experts the acquisition of One Medical to Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods in 2017, as the company seeks to build a comprehensive healthcare business and integrate it with other services. announced a customer base compare This is not Amazon's first investment in healthcare.  In 2018, the company PillPack, an online pharmacy, for $753 million. Two years later, Amazon launched its e-pharmacy, Amazon Pharmacy, based on PillPack's technology, in the US. At the time of the acquisition, PillPack's annual revenue was approximately $300 million. acquired Amazon also plans to expand its Amazon Care program to 20 more US cities by the end of 2022, with the potential to not only offer remote consultations, but also house calls. The company also intends to add psychological support to the range of services it offers. Amazon Care has been since the fall of 2019, initially providing telemedicine services to Amazon employees only. The program was later expanded to 20 cities in the US and made available to employees of other companies such as Hilton and Silicon Labs, who Amazon for the service based on the number of employees. As of the end of 2021, 40,000 employees from various companies used Amazon Care. reportedly operating pay In 2022, Amazon signed an with Teladoc Health, a telemedicine company, to integrate Teladoc's services into its voice assistant Alexa. In the summer of 2022, Amazon also signed an with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to conduct clinical trials of a vaccine for melanoma and breast cancer. agreement agreement Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Amazon has a two-year, $20 million initiative called the Diagnostic Development Initiative to study COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, as well as develop methods for their diagnosis. During the initial waves of the pandemic, Amazon launched its own COVID-19 diagnostic kit called Amazon DX, but the project has since been discontinued. launched Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud service, is developing support for the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) medical information exchange standard, its services to be used to create a unified interface for working with medical software. allowing Amazon also has its own fitness tracker, Amazon Halo, which did not receive any significant updates in 2022. Microsoft: cloud services In the spring of 2022, Microsoft new capabilities for its cloud-based service, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. One notable addition is Azure Health Data Services, which allows for the consolidation of various medical data types, such as clinical studies, medical imaging, and medical device data, into a single platform. announced Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare was initially introduced in 2020, as a comprehensive cloud ecosystem that combined Microsoft's existing services, such as Microsoft 365, chatbots, and the Azure cloud platform, to cater to the healthcare industry. Microsoft had also announced its plans to add new services to Cloud Healthcare, which was confirmed in the spring of 2022. The company also stated that it would utilize the AI technology of Nuance, a company it for $20 billion in March 2022, to further develop healthcare services. acquired to CB Insights, Microsoft holds the largest number of patents related to medical technologies, followed by Alphabet and Apple. According Apple: iPhone and Watch health features, medical research In July 2022, Apple released a detailing its healthcare strategy, which includes two main areas of focus. The first involves the development of health-related features for the Apple Watch and iPhone, which already collect significant amounts of user health information. The second area involves collaboration with the government and medical communities to facilitate medical research. report Apple is striving to transform its Apple Watch into a smart health monitor by utilizing cutting-edge third-party applications and collaborating with researchers to develop tools for new scientific breakthroughs. Apple has already integrated its smartwatches into 55 healthcare initiatives across 17 countries and its Health Records digital medical card is accepted by 800 medical institutions in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Apple regularly FDA approval for its medical applications and offers medical practitioners access to multiple developer kits so that they could create their own apps. Rumors that the company was planning to launch its own network of primary healthcare clinics with doctors hired directly by Apple; however, no significant progress has been made. obtains circulated In addition to its healthcare initiatives, Apple also offers its Fitness+ service, which provides video and audio workouts. However, there were no significant updates to the service in 2022. Meta: healthcare in the Metaverse Virtual universes, or metaverses, have the potential to greatly enhance telemedicine capabilities by utilizing VR technology. The use of digital twins, which can be used to create a patient's digital replica, also has great potential in understanding how quickly a person will recover after a specific surgery. While Meta has not announced any definite plans in this area, the company a promotional video in mid-July highlighting the benefits of Metaverse for surgeons,  allowing them to practice their skills in a virtual reality environment prior to performing operations. In the fall of 2021, Meta several healthcare-related job openings on LinkedIn. released posted Meta is actively promoting its Oculus VR headset and Meta Portal video communication device to medical professionals. The Oculus headset has many potential applications in telemedicine and working with digital twins, and can also be used for pre-operative training in virtual reality. Several US clinics have already adopted the Meta Portal device to help patients stay connected with their loved ones during hospital stays. The demand for the device has increased significantly during the pandemic, as it has been utilized to alleviate the effects of lockdowns and social isolation. However, the company's healthcare plans may be hindered by ongoing linked to the accusations of unauthorized patient data collection through Facebook. legal proceedings ByteDance: expanding into healthcare with acquisitions and online services In August 2022, ByteDance made headlines with its $1.5 billion acquisition of Amcare Healthcare, one of the largest private networks of women's and children's clinics in China. The network is now fully owned by two ByteDance subsidiaries. The company has not disclosed any details of the deal or future plans for the network. ByteDance's acquisition of Amcare Healthcare suggests that the company is following in the footsteps of tech giants like Amazon and Alphabet, who have also invested heavily in the healthcare sector. Bloomberg also that Chinese companies are investing in healthcare as a means to safeguard themselves from government scrutiny, as the Chinese authorities have been cracking down on "disorderly capital expansion" among big tech companies since 2021. highlights ByteDance also has a medical service called Xiaohe, which allows users to consult with doctors online and make appointments. Similar services are available in the Chinese market from companies such as Alibaba and the insurance company Ping An. Alibaba: e-pharmacies and blockchain for clinics Alibaba's subsidiary, AliHealth, is a leader in China's market for online and offline sales of both prescription and non-prescription drugs. According to its H1 2021 financial report, the majority of Alibaba Health's (84%) comes from direct sales of drugs through its own pharmacies, with another 13% from online sales. The company also provides medical insurance services, which are by approximately 250 million people. revenue utilized However, the company's stated goal is to develop medicine through big data and utilize the internet to "create fair and accessible medical services." One of their recent projects involves using blockchain technology to the medical infrastructure of the city of Changzhou, which has a population of over 4.5 million people. integrate Tencent: telemedicine and robots Tencent, another major player in the Chinese market, is also making substantial investments in the healthcare sector. In the summer of 2022, Tencent a new telemedicine service called i-Care, which is built on the Tencent Cloud platform. The primary goal of i-Care is to enhance the treatment efficacy and patient experience in healthcare facilities. It is equipped with a robot that can turn text into speech, translate between Chinese and English, and has an integrated messenger. launched In addition to its investments in the Chinese market, Tencent is expanding to India and the United States. The company, along with Alphabet and Amazon, in Grail, a startup developing solutions for early cancer detection. invested Key Takeaways: In 2021, FAMGA invested a total of more than $3.1 billion in the healthcare industry. In the first half of 2022, Alphabet became the most active investor in healthcare with $1.7 billion in financing. Since 2020, Alphabet has closed 100 deals in the field of biology and healthcare. In the summer of 2022, Amazon announced its plans to acquire the One Medical network of clinics for $3.9 billion, with the aim of expanding its existing program under the Amazon Care brand. This program currently provides telemedicine services to Amazon's own employees as well as employees of other companies. Microsoft offers a comprehensive cloud-based solution called Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, designed to streamline the work of medical professionals. In 2022, the company introduced new services to the platform, including Azure Health Data Services, which consolidates medical data, enabling different types of medical information to be collected in a single, secure location. In the summer of 2022, Apple released a report outlining its strategy in healthcare.  The company aims to advance the use of the Apple Watch and iPhone in the medical field by collaborating with clinics and medical institutions to develop joint programs and tools that improve healthcare delivery. Meta is focusing on the use of its VR headset Oculus Quest and the potential applications of the Metaverse in medicine. Additionally, the company is directing its attention to the development of its video communication device, Meta Portal. Chinese technology firms are keeping up with their global counterparts. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, recently acquired a network of clinics for $1.5 billion. Also, Alibaba has established a dedicated subsidiary called AliHealth, which is actively exploring ways to integrate blockchain technology into the healthcare sector.

Big Tech Made Huge Moves in the Healthcare Industry in the Past Year

My goal is to start a series of posts breaking down the successes of various NFT and Web3 projects. To start, we'll look at things from a marketing point of view. Based on this, we might spot some patterns that can help new projects that want to be successful on the market, and assist collectors that want to understand and predict what makes this or that project potentially in demand and valuable. Today, let's talk about "Moonbirds", an NFT project that had tons of hype around it, becoming one of the most successful projects of the year. And of course, it’s not investment advice, it’s a marketing review. Many NFT heads asked me to explain their secret. So let’s go! on Twitter Moonbirds: Basic Information are 10k utility-enabled PFPs. Moonbirds It also has a function called ‘nesting’ - something like staking your Moonbirds NFT to get additional benefits from holding it. We will speak about nesting in more detail later, and you’ll see how the team created an additional value for the holders with this. Successful Drop: Figures, Facts The drop took place on April 16, 2022. Mint price: 2.5 ETH The project raised around 19,700 ETH (around $60m+) from the public sale of the 7,800+ raffled NFTS. And only a few days after, secondary sales achieved around 100,000 ETH. An interesting fact is that the project also receives 5% of all secondary sales. So let’s get down to business. What are the main factors that made such results possible? And how did that drop get so much hype before, during, and after the drop? Let’s review it to understand. 1. Strong Team One of the best ways to make your audience believe in your NFT drop (or in any of your projects, really) is . This also takes previous projects and track records of success into account. by having a team that can be trusted Let's take a look at the people behind Moonbirds. Kevin Rose and Ryan Carson make up the two founders. Both have solid experience and have taken part in well-known projects in the past. is a serial internet entrepreneur and former GP at Google Ventures. He took part in many different projects such as Revision3, Digg, Milk, and so on. Rose is also a True Ventures partner and has over 1.6 million followers . Kevin Rose on Twitter is one of the founders of Treehouse (an online technology school that Rose actually invested in!). Carson has 120,000 followers . Ryan Carson on Twitter There's also , CPO of the PROOF project (which we'll talk about below), and the artist behind the pixel-art style of Moonbirds. Mezzel has 43,000 followers . Justin Mezzel on Twitter The team of founders, as you can see, is . Each member has a track record that can be checked to confirm their experience. fully transparent and very knowledgeable On a final, but equally important note, before starting Moonbords, these founders were (and still are to this day) involved in another NFT project that proved their seriousness on the market called PROOF. 2. Previous NFT success: PROOF is a private community of 1,000 NFT collectors and artists. PROOF Collective In order to access PROOF, you need to hold a special NFT, which serves as a key to the community's private Discord server, free NFT drops, allocations in different NFT projects, online and offline events, and so on. NFT passes were minted in December 2021. The initial price was 1 ETH, and there were only 1,000 NFTs released, which sold out very fast. At the time of writing this, the floor price for the PROOF NFT is 60+ ETH. Many people believe that if it can be done once, it can be done twice, and even more, and this is often true. A successful drop like this inevitably draws a lot of attention to future drops. Creating a private club turned out to be a smart move for several reasons. For one, they experienced a successful drop. They also gathered a bunch of people that had blue chips and were ready to make a blue chip out of other projects. And finally, they were able to put together a very strong community for their future projects. PROOF members own a grand total of 150,000+ NFTs, which includes 800+ Bored Apes, 140+ Crypto Punks, 490+ Meebits, and so on. It's a prestigious club to be in, to say the least! And, naturally, when this community supports a project, it's essentially a green light for others looking for trendy and promising projects. 3. Community Building As you can already understand, the for the Moonbirds project. Each PROOF member was given 2 Moonbirds. PROOF Collective became the starting community Discord Holders of Moonbirds also have the main community on Discord. To access the server, you need to own the NFT. This method of community building and communication makes chatting more productive and less spammy. At the same time, it's beneficial for both initial and secondary sales, as you get access to the "secret servers". As stated in the beginning, Moonbirds use additional features to encourage NFT holding and generate a desire to buy on the secondary market. More on that below in the section. "Additional NFT value and features" Twitter Let's take a look at the . Moonbirds Twitter page Content gets published to the page regularly, highlighting new partnerships and news in project development. Sometimes, you'll find posts about their NFT holders, further emphasizing how unique and prestigious the community is. When you purchase the Moonbirds NFT, you don't just own a blue-chip NFT with other additional features, but you also become a member of a closed and high-valued community. And while I've repeated this point several times already, I believe it's a very important one to consider when trying to understand the success of Moonbirds. ** **The founders’ Twitter accounts are also updated regularly. 4. Additional NFT value and features You've probably been waiting for this section, as I've mentioned it several times before. This is an important one. NFTs began as an art that you could own. Yes, a rare piece of artwork that you can own, and the price of it depends on several factors: the name of the artist, speculation, interest, and so on. The artwork itself can be simple or complicated and often isn't the centerpiece of the NFT. The main thing is what gives it its additional value. Nowadays, you get many more chances to drop a successful collection if you can show and prove the additional value. Let's take a look at what Moonbirds did, as it's a good example. Nesting Nesting is similar to staking, but is done with your Moonbirds NFT. You can lock (aka ‘nest’) your NFT, and the more time it remains nested, your Moonbird will achieve new tier levels, which give you more benefits. The project promises that these benefits will include exclusive "crazy airdrops'', access to online and offline events, and so on. It's important to note that This method is interesting in how it encourages buyers to become long-term holders. while NFTs are nested, they can't be sold. https://youtu.be/MskiNZUScqk In addition, there was already an additional drop for Moonbirds holders called . Oddities While it's related to the main drop in some form, there still aren't many details on how it'll be used. At the time of writing this, the floor price is 1.2 ETH. Highrise Metaverse Owners of Moonbirds are also promised access to a new PROOF project called "Highrise". There isn't much information on it yet, but the team says that it will bring something unique to the metaverse sphere. Holders that nest their Moonbirds will enjoy access first (and probably, at least, partly free). Many holders will be waiting for the metaverse and all the potential profits it can bring. Once released, PROOF might announce something related to the metaverse (not a guarantee – just my opinion), which will inspire others to wait for longer. This creates a perfect holding spiral. The team can prove that this can be potentially profitable. Before Moonbirds, PROOF conducted an in-house NFT drop called . They gathered 20 artists and celebs, from Tyler Hobbs to Tim Ferriss, and created a drop of 1,000 NFTs. "Grails" PROOF members were able to choose one of the twenty artworks without knowing the artists behind them. The most valuable "grail" was sold for 120 ETH. Not bad, eh? 5. Celebrity Holders Having celebrities among your NFT holders is a great tool that helps a ton with marketing. It adds more value to NFTs, especially in the eyes of speculators. Famous PROOF members include Beeple, Tim Ferriss, Garry Vee, Alex Ohanian, and others. supported the drop. Snoop Dogg's alter ego Famous Flamingo DAO bought one of four super rare Moonbirds. Beeple created artwork inspired by Moonbirds. And Jimmy Fallon stirred a lot of buzz when he set a Moonbirds NFT as his avatar. Later on, there were rumors that Fallon acquired it for free and didn't actually buy it, but it doesn't really matter. (I’m not saying that Fallon case was the same). Nevertheless, it's a perfect tactic for attracting the masses, especially those who don't know much about NFTs, gaining secondary sales, and increasing the overall reputation of the drop. A lot of celebrities don’t buy the NFTs they own, and they even get paid to own them 6. PR and Media The benefit of releasing a drop right after doing a successful one is that media, influencers, Twitter, Reddit, Discord alpha chats, etc, will start to discuss your new project right away. Moonbirds went through the same process. Many influencers and channels that understood the drop was from PROOF Collective tried to be the very first to announce it (afterward, they're able to proudly say that their recommendations are effective). All that PROOF needed to do was to explain the idea of the drop, the nesting, and the benefits that holders can get to crypto audiences and the masses. And that's what they did – perfectly. One of the founders, Kevin Rose, created many podcasts explaining Moonbirds. For example, he recorded podcasts with Bankless, Tim Ferriss, and Zen Academy. He created simple talking-head videos on PROOF, Moonbirds, and their plans and roadmaps (which is important for every project). The team interacted with the community, answering questions, and making decisions on the opinions they got. and gave members a feeling of being involved in the project. This created an additional level of trust 7. Mint Features (and discouraging bots) The team used several interesting things to make the mint more fair and equitable. Firstly, they decided to resolve the issue of multi-accounters and speculators. The team outlined requirements that had to be met before users could be whitelisted for the raffle: Wallet must contain 2.5 ETH until the end of the raffle Discord and Twitter accounts need to be connected https://twitter.com/divergencearran/status/1514929382283960327 Ryan Carson also shared for the drop: his personal mint strategy The team tried to be as transparent as possible, as you can see, which is always a great sign for the community. Everyone had a fair chance, and everyone felt like the team was aiming for the long haul with this drop. If you're interested in how the drop was distributed, here are the statistics: 7,875 whitelist winners public sale 2,000 PROOF members 125 strategic reserve for marketing, collaborations, and so on 8. Post Mint As you may know, . Release news, do partnerships, involve celebrities, and do anything else your imagination can think of. secondary sales and an increasing (or stable) floor price is as important as the mint itself Take a look at these statistics and news after the Moonbirds drop date: Moonbird #2642 sold for 320 ETH (~$1 million at that time) This record was set within a week of the collection's launch of the NFT was The Sandbox The buyer The seller bought the NFT on OpenSea for 100 ETH a week before Do you get what I mean? See how FOMO works? :) What’s next? Many more details and factors can be added to this, of course, but I don't want this article to go on for too long. These are the main factors and solutions from the marketing side of things that led to the Moonbirds NFT drop having huge success. I hope you like it! If you want similar materials and marketing reviews on different NFT and Web3 projects, let me know . on my Twitter And please message me what project do you want me to review next? Also, if you run an NFT/Web3/Crypto project and are interested in learning , drop me a line. how to promote it P.S. Check out my previous articles at HackerNoon: Understanding DAO: A Basic Explanation Understanding Metaverse: A Basic Explanation Play2Earn for Beginners: Where to Start What is an IGO (Initial Game Offering)? Play 2 Earn: A New Trend on the Crypto Market The Ultimate Guide to NFT Marketing and Promotion The Ultimate Checklist For Marketing DeFi Projects

Marketing was Key to Moonbirds Becoming a Super Successful NFT

Hackernoon Gets the low-down from Amir Khan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Alkira. Network Cloud pioneer Alkira® has announced a close collaboration with the Microsoft for Startups program, a select group of emerging businesses hand-picked by Microsoft for the benefits they offer to Microsoft Azure customers in their journey to the cloud. The select start-ups receive growth partnership and ecosystem support from Microsoft including access to technical, sales and marketing opportunities and leadership. Alkira also announced that the Alkira Cloud Services Exchange (CSX) – the core of the company’s  Network Cloud platform – is now available on the Azure Marketplace. The Alkira Network Cloud platform, which reduces the time, cost and complexity of connectivity cloud environments, provides Azure customers with increased performance, manageability and security when deploying Windows workloads in the Azure cloud. Microsoft Azure customers can access Alkira’s solution in Azure, or in a multi-cloud network alongside other best-of-breed products in the Azure Marketplace. Alkira CSX is delivered as a secure cloud networking infrastructure as-a-service (CNaaS) that dynamically scales according to customers’ needs and reduces the time taken to deploy cloud networks from months to minutes. Mr Khan, thank you for answering our questions on this news story. Firstly, can you tell us about Alkira? "Alkira was founded by my brother, Atif Khan, who is the company CTO, and me as CEO. We have so far raised $76M from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive Technologies, LLC, and GV Capital - (formerly Google Ventures). Alkira developed the Network Cloud which enables enterprises to build and deploy a global unified Network Cloud that delivers network connectivity, advanced network and services, and end-to-end visibility and governance. Alkira CSX seamlessly and securely connects branches, data centres, remote users and clouds." "Alkira’s Network Cloud simplifies a customer’s journey to, across and between clouds, providing enhanced routing and security features and operations, and massive simplification of the total enterprise corporate and cloud networks. Alkira’s Network Cloud reduces the time to add Azure from months or years to minutes and hours. Is there an overarching purpose of the service? The time, cost and complexity of building networks in the cloud with end-to-end security and management visibility are major challenges holding back digital transformation. Our service was developed to help businesses overcome the trade-offs, complexity and long lead times associated with cloud networking. The Alkira Network Cloud platform accelerates the deployment and simplifies the management of cloud workloads, leaving customers free to focus on the objectives of their business." How big a deal is the Microsoft deal? "Microsoft recognizes that businesses are increasingly using multiple public and private clouds and sees Alkira as the best multi-cloud network and security solution. We’re excited to be deepening our relationship with Microsoft through the Microsoft for Startups program and to be able to offer those benefits to the growing number of organizations seeking transformational solutions from the Azure Marketplace. Microsoft customers who access Alkira’s Network Cloud through Azure Marketplace benefit from reduced procurement overheads, simplified billing and quicker deployment, as well as the assurance of Microsoft certification. Alkira is one of a handful of strategic collaborators in Microsoft’s start-up program and the only one focused on cloud." Why would Microsoft back a multi-cloud proposition? I can think of two reasons. First, the Alkira Network Cloud benefits Azure customers even if they never leave the Microsoft cloud environment. Networking in any cloud is challenging and the Alkira solution hides the complexities of routing and network management in Azure, making it easier to deploy and manage application workloads, integrate cloud and on-prem services and monitor network traffic from end to end. Second, Microsoft recognizes that enterprise customers are adopting multi-cloud strategies. It can resist that trend or work with it. Flexera’s State of the Cloud 2020 Report says the average enterprise connects to 4.4 clouds and that 93% profess to a multi-cloud strategy. The endorsement of Alkira suggests that Microsoft sees the value in enabling its customers’ digital strategies, not trying to hold them back. Enterprises often connect to different cloud environments to meet different geographic needs or to take advantage of features from a particular provider. But because different clouds implement networking in different ways, it’s much less common to see these clouds working together as a single, seamless environment for enterprise services. Alkira’s Network Cloud platform enables enterprises to build true multi-cloud networks in a matter of hours or days that would take months or years and millions of dollars in development costs using conventional approaches. and hides the differences between cloud environments, allowing security, disaster recovery and other critical functions to be supported across the entire network with the same levels of visibility and management control traditionally associated with on-prem systems. Its solution abstracts the complexities Whether customers rely on a single cloud provider or multiple providers, to enabling the flexibility, scalability and resilience that enterprises need not just to avoid disaster but to ensure that their businesses triumph. the network is the key Was the OVHCloud fire a reminder of why companies should go multi-cloud? "Absolutely. This fire at a major French cloud provider in March took out millions of websites and underlines the risks for businesses putting all of their eggs in one basket. The fire at a facility owned by OVHCloud in March s for government, banks and retailers. Nearly 2% of all websites on the .fr domain (the top-level web domain in France) were affected. Some customers had to wait a month before the company was able to bring servers back up and restore access to their applications and workloads and it has been reported that some data may be permanently lost. took out online service The moral of the story is not that single or multi-cloud is better, but that regardless of where applications are hosted, processing is taking place or data is stored, enterprises need to maintain control of the network that keeps critical business services running." For more information on Alkira: www.alkira.com

Alkira Teams Up with Microsoft to Transform the Cloud Networking Journey to Azure

Image: Jamie Street on Unsplash The Google HEART framework is a powerful framework to ensure you take into consideration every aspect of the user journey In this post, we will dig into the Google HEART framework: a simple way to ensure you take into consideration every aspect of the user journey. This post is from a set of articles about choosing the right metrics when working as a product manager. When you think about a great product manager (PM), you might picture Steve Jobs and see him as a visionary. He defeats the status quo and follows his intuitions to set up his vision. In practice, all PMs are not Steve Jobs, so following your gut feeling is good, but making data-driven decisions is even better. Having a framework to decide which metrics would best guide your product in the right path is critical. That’s where the Google HEART framework comes in to play. What you will find in this article: An explanation of Google HEART framework Examples of goals, signals and metrics for an e-commerce app Reasons for using the HEART framework 1. What HEART stands for: the five categories of metrics HEART is a metric framework, popularized by Kerry Rodden, a UX researcher at Google Ventures. It is a simple way to ensure you are thinking about every aspect of the user journey and the way a user sees your product. HEART stands for: appiness H ngagement E doption A etention R ask T For example, if we look at telecom companies (your usual internet provider), they usually have thousands of customers, even if those customers are not happy. Happiness: How happy is your user? Engagement: How engaged is your user in the short term? Adoption: How many interested users have tried your product? Retention: How many users do you retain long term? Task success: How successful are you at allowing users to perform the most valuable task? insights.nimblechapps.com Now, looking at the order of each metric, it doesn’t seem right: You would have difficulty getting happiness without adoption. The HEART acronym is easy to remember, but the more correct order of the cycle is: doption A ask success T ngagement E etention R appiness H I guess Google Ventures thought it would be easier to market a HEART framework than an ATERH framework. :p 2. Goals, signals and metrics are the three factors you need to consider The next stage of the HEART metric is called the GSM process: Goals Signals Metrics The “Goals Signals Metrics” process facilitates the identification of meaningful metrics you’ll use ( ). dtelepathy.com Note: For all the examples, I preferred to follow the logical user cycle (adoption, task success, engagement, retention and, finally, happiness) instead of following the order of the HEART acronym. interaction-design.org 2.1 Goals: What do you want to happen? Do we want to maximize or minimize a specific behavior or result? As an example, for an offline retail shop, your goal might be to reduce the time the customer waits at the cashier and maximize the number of items he or she purchases. 2.2 Signals: What is the thing we need to measure to get closer to the goal? Signals are actions that show a goal that has been met, or responses that relate to success or failure. For example, for Twitter, if a user starts writing and editing a tweet but closes it before publishing, it’s a signal of failure for task success. We can explore several examples of signals for each category for an e-commerce app: Adoption Know the number of people who pass at least one order through your app Know the total number of people who download the app Task success Number of people who did not complete an order Amount of time spent completing an order Engagement Order per customer Order value per customer Retention Who has ordered the product? When did they order the product? Happiness App store rating Net promoter score (NPS) 2.3 Metrics: How will signals manifest as metrics? Metrics is a number to look at to know whether the product is going well. Once you identified your signals, you want to connect to metrics that are trackable and measurable. If we break down the signals identified before into metrics, we would get: Adoption Adoption rate: What percentage of people who downloaded the app have done a successful order? Task success Average time it takes all users to complete their order Ratio of completed orders: number of people who completed orders/number of people who started orders Engagement Average order of all customers per day Average number of orders users make per day Retention Retention rate: the percentage of users from last month that comes back this month Churn rate: the percentage of users from last month that didn’t come back this month (the mirror concept of retention) Happiness App store rating over time from month to month Net promoter score (NPS): What percentage of users are promoters, detractors and passive users? clevertap.com 3. Why the HEART framework is so powerful Here are several reasons the HEART framework is so useful in your day job as a product manager: You can use the HEART metrics framework for anything: a company, a feature, a product. You can use the HEART framework for reporting purposes. Have the metrics in a dashboard. Display those numbers for your boss and executives to see. It would bring transparency and save you a lot of time preventing unnecessary update meetings. You don’t need to use all the metrics from the HEART framework to be useful. You can list all relevant metrics, start tracking a couple, then only work on improving a few. You can always start small. Signal helps you define how to track metrics. You can use the signals as a guide to what you need to do to process and track the metrics. You can then share those signals with your data engineer team, so they know what they need to do to set up the correct analytics. Congratulations if you made it this far! This article is just a beginner intro into the HEART framework. Now it’s your turn to play with this framework, and apply it to your product. Have fun :) Also published at https://medium.com/agileinsider/how-to-set-user-centered-metrics-the-google-heart-framework-ab41bf217a34

The Beginner's Guide to The Google HEART Framework

For any startup, finance is a key issue. Attracting financing is not an easy task due to the high risk factor and the complex process of launching startups. There is also another problem — finding the right way to work with investors interested in your project. Knowing how investment rounds are divided and what requirements for startups should be met can help greatly. At each stage, money is attracted for clearly defined tasks, but there are also some limits to financing. Why else is funding divided into rounds? Because it gives investors a clear understanding of what stage a particular startup is at and what tasks it is currently solving. In this article, we will talk about each of the rounds in detail, including its tasks, opportunities, and “pitfalls”. We will also give you answers to the following questions: How Does Funding Work? What Is Pre-Seed Funding? What Is Seed Funding? What is Series A Funding? What is Series B Funding? What is Series C Funding? How Does Funding Work? First, it is good to know what venture capital means. Venture capital is money from private investment funds or companies for the development of startups in their very early stages. A venture capitalist receives an equity stake in the company being funded. Venture fund holders often invest in startups at the idea level, if it looks promising to them, hoping for big profits in the future. The distinguishing feature of venture capital investments is the high degree of risk. has found that “ ” However, the profit from one successful transaction can cover the losses of dozens of failures. CB Insights 70% of upstart tech companies fail — usually around 20 months after first raising financing (with around $1.3M in total funding closed). The main task of a venture investor is to find a company that can become the next new Facebook or Amazon in the future. A company that can grow into a large corporation from a small startup, with a  $10K stake, can earn the investor $1 million as a result. That’s what makes venture investments the most profitable, but at the same time, the most risky. As a rule, the period of venture investment is 7-10 years. After that, investors sell their shares in the company on exchanges or to strategic buyers. Most investment funds operate in the homeland of venture capital investments — the United States. About 1000 venture funds operate here, most of them are concentrated in Silicon Valley. The most famous are Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, to name a few. To understand how venture investment works, you need to know that each startup goes through certain development levels, with each development level associated with an investment stage. Conventionally, there are several defined stages: pre-seed, seed, Series A, B, and C. We’ll focus on each major stage in more detail below. However, some companies can go on to Series D and Series E funding rounds as well. What Is Pre-Seed Funding? The first stage is a pre-seed funding round. In this primary phase, founders invest their own resources to start a business, including funds from FFF (Family, Friends, Fools). This is when the money for your idea comes from from your family members, friends, or “fools”. The word “Fools” is used figuratively and refers to people with little or no investment experience. They may not understand the risks associated with such initial funding. Also, founders may look for options to get grant financing or funds from private investors (Business Angels) who have expertise in their industry. The main tasks of pre-seed funding are to test the hypotheses of a business idea, select an activity vector, and turn the hypothesis into a product. In a typical pre-seed round, the founding team receives a small investment to achieve one or more of the milestones needed before “true” seed investment. At this stage, investors are, more often than not, investing in the team, rather than the product itself. For instance, if you or your co-founders have worked in a large company at a senior level, or already have experience in launching successful startups (not necessarily successful ones, but with good prospects), they will invest in your idea much more willingly. The main questions at this stage are: do I trust this person with my money and do they have a good understanding of the business they are dealing with? It is also possible that the initial product concept will completely alter after the MVP release, with a sharp change in direction at this stage of launching your startup. Average Evaluation of Pre-Seed Startup According to the WSGR Entrepreneurs Report, the average amount raised for pre-seed loans globally amounted to $0.45 million in the first quarter of 2020. In general, the usual funding amount of pre-seed startups is less than $1 million. How to Find Pre-Seed Investors? The most common “pre-seed” investors are the founders themselves. The process is also called ‘bootstrapping’ - which means financing a company with your own money, without attracting external investment. Borrowing from friends and family can be another funding resource here. Meanwhile, other options for startups in the preseeding stage include small business loans, crowdfunding, grant financing, and sometimes accelerator programs. How to Get to the Pre-Seed Round? At the pre-seed stage, startups are evaluated according to a kind of checklist, or scoresheet. Let’s take look at the key factors that influence the decision-making process: ✓Team — Creating a startup is an energy-consuming process. There might be other barriers such as lack of money and constant pressure, but having a good, reliable team will give you a better chance of implementing your idea ✓Saleable Idea — ‘Selling’ your idea for a new product or business is all about how you present it, justify it and backup your words with solid, dependable business data. ✓MVP — Minimum Viable Product is something that can be sold and the customer will be satisfied. Read more about MVP in our separate article How to Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ✓Capacious market — Startups are risky investments and sometimes they fail even after having received the money. This happens if the profit a startup can make is too small ✓Confirmed demand — The most popular reason why startups do not survive is a product that no one wants or needs. The sooner the team realizes that people are willing to pay for the value provided (or MVP), the better their chances of success are. What Is Seed Funding? The second stage of investing usually stimulates the substantial  growth of a startup. At this stage, a startup already has not only a team and a product, but also one or more sales channels. The task of a startup at this stage is to scale the business through these cost-effective channels with the help of new investments. It includes both team expansion and product development, but the main task is to scale the business (quantity of customers, client segments, geography, and so on). Funds are given not only for marketing, development, or other specific things. Primarily, money is given for scaling. This is when a team multiplies its sales volume, while not increasing the staff, or the costs of the company as a whole. With the help of investments, the global goal is to accelerate the company’s growth, so that it captures the largest possible market share in the shortest possible time. Average Evaluation of Seed Startup Typically, a seed funding round produces up to $2 million for the startup in question. Some founders think that their companies only require seed funding for successful growth. Such companies may never participate in a Series A round. The majority of startups raising such investments are valued at somewhere between $3 million and $6 million. How to Find Seed Investors? Beyond friends and family, a major source of seed fundraising is an angel investor. Angel investors, also known as business angels, refer to high net worth individuals who invest in startups (usually at a very early stage of their development). They invest their free financial capital, often accompanied by accumulated knowledge, expert opinion, and contacts. Another great source is accelerator programs. Accelerators offer knowledge and contacts to help with business development. Also, some large corporations (e.g. Intel, Google, or FedEx) provide seed funding to promising startups that work on innovative technologies. How to Get Seed Funding? Raising this type of funding is one of the major accomplishments of a startup. In the seed round, a product and go-to-market strategy have already been built and developed. At this stage, it is important for investors to be sure that this is not an accidental success, but the result of effective business practice. To convince an investor, startups should have developed a product prototype, tested the market, and readied investor interests needed for future financing rounds. Such steps require a significant amount of research and planning. In a nutshell, a seed funding presentation should demonstrate the unique value of the product, the startup’s achievements, and the reasons the founders are willing to push their concept further to the market. What is Series A Funding? There is a team, there is a product with verified sales channels, and there are significant amounts of money flowing into these channels. This is the stage of rapid growth. At this point, you can attract not only money but also expertise and connections, the so-called “smart money”, that can help your startup hit big. Usually, good startups in this phase can already choose who they would like to see on their list of investors. This point is important, since later-stage investors may be reluctant to fund a startup that has “weak” investors on board. In attracting round A investments, companies can raise funds from $500 thousand. The main goals include the organization of mass production or 24/7/365 service work with the recruitment of a full-fledged team. Generally, Series A funding gives a startup several years to develop its products, team, and begin implementation of its go-to-market strategy. Average Evaluation of Series A Startup According to the startup database, just in the U.S., the average amount of Series A investment has grown steadily over the years and is currently at around $15.5 million as of July 2020. It is estimated that around 700-750 Series A deals will take place in 2020. Based on the average Series A startup valuation in 2019, Series A startups have an average pre-cash valuation of $22 million. Fundz How to find Series A Investors? While most startups before this stage have generated only passing interest on the part of large investors, Series A funding creates competition between funds. As stated in , some of the biggest Series A investors in software startups include New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Greycroft Partners, GGV Capital, and many others. PitchBook Data How to get Series A Round?To start with and to set specific goals for your team, you can join an accelerator. For example, if you want to increase revenue five times or to find a channel for attracting new customers. It is about processes that take much longer without accelerators. Accelerator programs offer knowledge and contacts that will help you develop the business, attract investments and give access to a large community of mentors and experts. They will also help you quickly identify and correct mistakes in your business building processes. In addition, having access to an accelerator is a kind of “quality mark” for startups. To qualify for a Series A funding round, a network of contacts with potential business partners should be well-nurtured. Concentrate on the people that you’ve already built in-depth relationships with. Building lasting business relationships won’t happen overnight, since you must show your business is trustworthy and capable. Ideally, meeting with potential investors takes place as early as possible, to give them an idea of your future business goals. As you continue to prove that you are trustworthy and the fact that your business is meeting important milestones, you’ll find that it’s easier to attract the investors your business needs. In a nutshell, the following factors may influence the evaluation of a startup’s value at this stage: proof of project concept; development progress made with seed capital; quality of work of project managers; market size; perceived level of risk. What is Series B Funding? At this stage, a startup project has already been on the market for some time. A Series B round is needed to further scale the business, increase competitiveness, capture a larger market share. The goal of this stage of startup financing is to become a profitable project. Investment risk is lower, therefore the amount of financing is higher than in Series A. Average Evaluation of Series B Startup As stated in , the average capital raised in a Series B round is averaging $32 million in 2020. When we talk about a Series B company, it usually needs $2-10 million worth of investments to enter global markets. Investopedia How to find Series B Investors? A strategic investor is a large company operating in the same or associated, industry, which is interested in acquiring a controlling stake. The list of the top Series B investors includes Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst Partners, etc. How to Get Series B Round? Usually, a company should show some great achievements in its Series A round before Series B funding rounds can occur. Here, the value of a startup is estimated based on the following: comparing company performance with other competitors; revenue forecast; assets (e.g., in terms of intellectual property, etc.). What is Series C Funding? Regarding this type of funding, venture investors usually participate in financing when a project has proven its sustainability and success in the market. A startup participates in Series C when it plans to take on an even larger market share. It may want to purchase or develop more products/services, (which may include buying a competitor). In round C, a company increases its shares in the business and begins to make substantial profits. It is in this round that a company becomes profitable and capable of independent development without further support. Further rounds are also possible if there is a growing need for a significant increase in production or the potential to sell a company to a strategic investor. Many companies remain at the Series C stage and only a few of them reach round D, which involves preparing a company for an initial public offering (IPO) or selling to a strategic investor. Average Evaluation of Series C Startup The average Series C funding amount in the U.S. has reached $59 million in 2020. Generally, Series C funding is between $30 and $100 million settling on an average round of $50 million. The evaluation of Series C companies is often between $100 million and $120 million. However, companies can be worth much more. How to find Series C Investors? Some of the most common investors in Series C funding are late-stage venture capitalists (VC), Hedge funds and Investment Banks. It can also be private equity firms that invest in startups or businesses through shares or ownership in that company. Traditional bank loans can be a valuable financing option during this growth phase if you can secure favorable terms. Banks usually provide startup loans with the lowest interest rates. Also, they do not receive company shares. However, be ready for an in-depth application process that requires a strong credit history. How to Get Series C Round? When approaching Series C, the strategy here will likely be different from the previous rounds. As we mentioned, the average funding amount is around $50 million. That means that such startups are usually established and successful companies in their later stages of development. Previous investors may be keen to further invest in Series C, but the remainder will have to be filled by other investors. The assessment at this stage is not based on expectations, but rather on accurate data. Investors estimate how many clients such a company has, what income it has, and what are the current and expected growth rates. Conclusion In this article, we have described the main startup funding rounds. Dividing startups by investment rounds gives us an idea of where in the business cycle they are and with what dynamics startups are developing. Not all startups go through each of the rounds and often rounds are combined or intermediate ones allocated. As you can see, there is no shortage of funding options when it comes to developing a startup. Detailed research is required at each stage of development. Make sure decisions are made according to your company’s specific needs, aligned with your goals as an entrepreneur, and that provide the best chance of future success. Whatever type of financing you choose for yourself, make sure you have a plan for the return of funds invested. Choose what works best for your company.

Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, B, C: How It Works and How to Get Funding in 2020

Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, B, C: cómo funciona y cómo obtener financiación en 2020

DeepMind may allude to two things: the innovation behind Google’s man-made reasoning (AI) venture, and the organization that is liable for it. The organization DeepMind is an auxiliary of Alphabet, the parent organization of Google. DeepMind’s man-made reasoning innovation has discovered its way into an assortment of Google ventures and gadgets. In the event that you use Google Home or Google Assistant, at that point your life has just crossed with DeepMind here and there. Why Did Google Acquire DeepMind? DeepMind was established in 2011 with the objective of “understanding knowledge, and afterward utilizing that to comprehend everything else.” The originators handled the issue of AI utilizing bits of knowledge from the field of neuroscience. Their objective was to make incredible broadly useful calculations that would have the option to learn and reinvent themselves, instead of waiting be physically modified by people. A few players in the field of AI were dazzled by the ability of the DeepMind group. In 2012, Facebook made a play to gain the organization. That arrangement self-destructed, yet Google plunged in and obtained DeepMind in 2014 for about $500 million. DeepMind then turned into an auxiliary of Alphabet during the Google corporate rebuilding of 2015. Google’s fundamental explanation behind purchasing DeepMind was to kick off its man-made reasoning project. While DeepMind’s principle grounds stayed in London, England, an applied group was dispatched to Google’s base camp in Mountain View, California. That group was to take a shot at coordinating DeepMind AI with Google items. What Is Google Doing With DeepMind ? DeepMind’s objective of fathoming knowledge didn’t change when it gave the keys over to Google. Work proceeded on profound realizing, which is a kind of general AI program. This contrasts and prior AIs like the Deep Blue PC, which in 1996 broadly crushed chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov. Such PCs exceeded expectations at area explicit errands however were insignificantly valuable outside of those areas. DeepMind, then again, was intended to gain as a matter of fact. DeepMind’s man-made reasoning has figured out how to play computer games like Breakout superior to the best human players. In 2016, a DeepMind-controlled program called AlphaGo crushed a title holder Go player—an achievement for the way that Go is significantly more confused than chess. Notwithstanding unadulterated exploration, Google has incorporated DeepMind AI into its leader search and cell phones, including Google Home and Android. How Google DeepMind Affect Your Life Daily ? DeepMind’s profound learning instruments have been executed over the whole range of Google items and administrations. In the event that you use Google, there’s a decent possibility you have cooperated with DeepMind here and there. Probably the most unmistakable uses for DeepMind AI incorporate discourse acknowledgment, picture acknowledgment, misrepresentation discovery, spam ID, penmanship acknowledgment, interpretation, Google Maps Street View, and Local Search. Google’s Super-Accurate Speech Recognition Discourse acknowledgment, or the capacity of a PC to decipher spoken orders, has been around for quite a while. Menial helpers like Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google Assistant have carried the usefulness closer to our every day lives. On account of Google’s voice acknowledgment innovation, profound learning has been conveyed to incredible impact. AI has permitted Google’s voice acknowledgment tech to accomplish a great degree of exactness for the English language, to where it is as precise as a human audience. In the event that you have any Google gadgets, similar to an Android Phone or Google Home, this directly affects your life. Each time you state, “OK, Google” trailed by an inquiry, DeepMind utilizes its muscles to help Google Assistant comprehend what you are stating. In contrast to Amazon’s Alexa, which utilizes eight receivers to comprehend voice orders, Google Home’s DeepMind-fueled voice acknowledgment framework just requires two. Google Home and Assistant Voice Generation Conventional discourse blend utilizes something many refer to as concatenative content to-discourse (TTS). At the point when you associate with a gadget that utilizes this strategy for discourse union, it counsels a database brimming with discourse parts and gathers them into words and sentences. This outcomes in an unusually curved discourse example, and it is normally evident that the speaker isn’t human. DeepMind handled voice age with a venture called WaveNet, which was intended to make misleadingly created voices sound increasingly common. WaveNet depends on tests of genuine human discourse however doesn’t utilize the examples to blend new voices. Rather, it investigates the examples of human discourse to figure out how the crude sound waveforms work. This permits the program to communicate in various dialects, use complements, or even be prepared to seem like a particular individual. In contrast to different TTS frameworks, WaveNet creates non-discourse seems as though breathing and lip-smacking to render a considerably progressively sensible vocal profile. In the event that you need to hear the distinction between a voice created through concatenative content to-discourse, and one produced by WaveNet, DeepMind makes them intrigue voice tests that you can tune in to. Profound Learning/Deep learning and Google Image Search Without man-made reasoning, looking for pictures depends on setting hints like labels, close by text, and record names. With DeepMind’s profound learning instruments, Google Image Search had the option to realize what different individuals and items resemble, permitting you to look through your own pictures and get significant outcomes without expecting to label anything. For instance, on the off chance that you scan for “hound,” Google will pull up pictures of your canine that you took, regardless of whether you never named them. This is on the grounds that it had the option to realize what pooches resemble, similarly that people realize what things resemble. Also, not at all like Google’s pooch fixated Deep Dream, it’s in excess of 90 percent exact at distinguishing a wide range of various pictures. DeepMind in Google Lens and Visual Search One of the most shocking improvements of DeepMind is Google Lens, a visual web crawler that permits you to snap a photo of an article in reality and right away draw up data about it. While the execution is unique, this is like how profound learning is utilized in Google Image search. At the point when you snap a photo, Google Lens can take a gander at it and make sense of what it is. In light of that information, it would then be able to play out an assortment of further developed activities. For instance, in the event that you snap a photo of a renowned milestone, it will gracefully you with data about the milestone. In the event that you snap a photo of a nearby store, it can pull up data about that store. In the event that the image incorporates a telephone number, Google Lens can perceive the data and give you the choice of calling the number.

Learn About Google DeepMind –

It’s still dark out when my alarm rings at 5:00am and I begin the familiar shuffle down the hall to the kitchen and the coffee machine. I pour a steaming cup as my computer boots up, the steam mixing with the early morning fog that’s spilling in through an open window. Headphones on, Zoom meeting link located, and I’m still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I connect to the call. But almost as soon as I begin chatting with Maya Neria, Senior Product Manager at , the inflection in her voice stirs me to life. Andela “What our founders realized is that brilliance is evenly distributed in the world,” says Neria. “And Africa has the fastest growing market of people entering employability age.” Neria is talking to me from Nairobi, Kenya, a city nicknamed “Silicon Savannah” where she’s lived for the past two and a half years. “You have a national park that has lions in the middle of the city and you have booming skyscrapers, development everywhere,” says Neria. “There are tech hubs and co-working spaces of all shapes and sizes. You see really vibrant tech meet-ups across different technologies, anywhere from JavaScript to blockchain.” Nairobi has quickly become one of Africa’s leading tech hubs, along with Lagos, Cairo, Johannesburg, and Dar es Salaam. But it’s the people rather than the geography that led Neria to leave the US and relocate to Kenya. “I don’t know how to say it in less cliché words, but the people I’ve met here are the most driven I’ve ever met,” she says. “I met a fisherman who had virtually nothing and taught himself to code on his Android phone before he found Andela and I just thought to myself, ‘This in incredible.’” Meet Andela While most of our tech news feeds are jammed up with stories of Facebook’s most recent privacy scandal, stories like Andela’s far too often slip under the radar. But companies that you know—Gusto, Invision, GitHub, and Skillshare among them—are already building their products using Andela software engineers. And tech giants like Microsoft have taken notice, moving into Nairobi as the global competition for software engineering talent continues to heat up faster than a Sub-Saharan morning. Founded in in 2014, Andela was built around a simple idea—identify high potential software developers, invest in their training, then place them on global engineering teams where they begin to contribute and continue to grow. The company handles talent assessment, on-boarding, and continuous improvement of the software developers accepted into their program, supporting their mission of “catalyzing the growth of tech ecosystems across Africa.” The company has hired software developers in 17 African countries to date and . Andela’s investors include Google Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation amongst others. Nigeria recently raised a $100M series D investment Aspiring Andela engineers must first apply to the program, where they’re screened for basic technical skills, general aptitude, and learning velocity. The company has received over 130,000 applications to date, leading to the hire of more than 1,300 software engineers. Once accepted into the program Andela engineers work for six months in simulated product environments similar to what they would encounter on global engineering teams. They build real products, contribute to code standups, learn agile methodology, and also have team skill sessions where they work on developing confidence, public speaking, and learn best practices associated with being a distributed team member. “A lot of developers that are coming out of Andela are interested in reinvesting in Africa—they aren't being pulled out of Africa,” says Neria. “They’ve gotten broad experience in international companies, but they stayed locally the entire time so all of that money is being reinvested into the local ecosystem. They're founding startups here. They're able to mentor here, locally. And we're seeing a huge boom in the startup scene here in Nairobi.” Searching for a partner to help assess the technical skills of a continent While Andela’s mission is an easy one to get behind, the logistics of their operation include a wide myriad of challenges. The challenges of growing tech ecosystems in the developing world aside, Andela’s success is directly tied to a challenge much more familiar to even the best funded tech companies in Silicon Valley—the company needed to find a repeatable way to . Sorting through more than 130,000 applications for their fellowship program was only the beginning. identify, assess, and hire engineering talent at scale In the early days, Andela relied on a combination of psychometric tests and a technical assessment tool that their internal team hacked together. “The issue was the internal tool was always buggy, and it assessed knowledge way more than application of knowledge,” says Neria. “I also noticed that we didn't really have a framework for hiring that was consistent throughout our entire recruitment model, so we set out to create that framework.” The recruitment model that Andela landed on seeks to assess developer candidates on three dimensions: 1. Values alignment and cultural fit 2.  Output quality (the degree of excellence in which people are showing skills and producing work) 3. Learning velocity and ability to incorporate feedback “I did a big industry review of over 100 tools, both for values fit, technical skills, and psychometric evaluations,” says Neria. “We looked at software like Codility, HackerRank, and GapJumpers and I was really trying to see whether or not they'd give us more than just the standard technical knowledge testing. The big thing that I was looking for was also if candidates were getting feedback.” What we saw was Qualified is taking a really, really interesting approach in terms of their dedication to mimicking a real work environment. So many technical tools out there basically don't—they only test theory and algorithms. " gave us a deeper level of insight into each applicant by providing insights into things like ‘How are you applying and thinking through technical questions? And based on the curriculum that we provide, how are you applying that knowledge to answer coding challenges?’” Qualified “A lot of our developers were self-taught and so their in-depth understanding of algorithms wasn't necessarily that high—but they could still build great products, were still mathematical, and could apply the concept of an algorithm to the way that they were building products." That's what really drove us to use Qualified—it was a combination of a push to be more rigorous in the data that we collect from our applicants and Qualified's dedication to having people showcase the work that they would do in a real product environment. The technical skills assessments are really aligned with the real work environment which we were hoping for in order to better predict on-the-job performance.” Learning to find, assess, and hire software developers at scale With Qualified identified as a strategic partner to help Andela assess technical output and predict on-the-job performance, Neria’s team set out to build a consistent recruitment process capable of scaling alongside Andela’s lofty ambitions. While the process continues to be refined and improved, talent acquisition and engineering leaders would be wise to borrow from Andela’s approach. —All applicants are provided home study materials that cover computer science basics using either Python or Javascript. Home study materials —After applicants receive their home study materials, they’re asked to complete an initial screening that’s delivered via Google Forms. This first cut in their recruiting funnel is used to help sort through the sheer volume of applications that they receive, by testing an applicant’s understanding of the home study materials as well as their cultural and values fit. Initial screen —Applicants that pass the Google Forms assessment are then invited to take a Qualified assessment, which is designed to test their technical skills and ability to incorporate real world feedback. Currently about 15% of students who complete the are ultimately hired. “Our goal is to continuously bump that up and make Qualified even more predictive,” says Neria. “Right now we’re assessing junior developers, and I think for them technical skills are less indicative of quality and it’s more about cognitive ability and learning. I think the predictive power of Qualified could be much higher for developers that have more experience.” Qualified assessment Qualified assessment —Applicants who are accepted into the program continue to be trained for six months, during which Andela captures thousands of data points on their relative strengths and weaknesses. Six months of paid training —After training is completed, Andela developers become a member of a global engineering team. Their skills continue to be assessed and the company invests heavily in mid-to-senior level developers that provide ongoing mentorship to junior developers. Paired with a global engineering team When I asked Neria about the benefits Andela has realized since injecting Qualified assessments into the recruiting funnel, she’s quick to cite the scalability of the process. “I think one of the things Qualified does really well is offer the entire package of ‘How do you assess software developers at scale?’ It’s not only the technology around automated assessments and customization; it’s also the pre-loaded database of questions that you can work through that are tagged and easily searchable. The keyword here is ‘at scale’ for me. When you have 4,000 developers per month applying to your program you need a system where you can pull questions, easily change or customize assessments, and see the results over time." Our recruitment team has definitely grown less exponentially than our candidate pipeline has and a big part of that is thanks to Qualified assessments. We’ve been able to keep our overhead costs down with Qualified as a growth partner. It’s a very holistic package—I’ve seen software products that provide one piece of the puzzle, and I see Qualified as really being the full thing.” What’s next for Andela and Qualified While Neria’s search for a technical screening methodology that predicts on the job performance was undertaken with the recruitment process in mind, Andela has also begun experimenting with to upskill their existing engineers. Qualified Educate “For internal leveling, the platform allows us to test learners multiple times,” says Neria. “One use case we tried was testing knowledge and behavioral reinforcements by continuously testing our developers on important use cases like certain types of testing or debugging. We wanted to make sure that developers are consistently being tested throughout our training program on those things. We saw that Qualified helped with knowledge retention, which was really promising.” Neria also sees Qualified playing a significant role in benchmarking developers of different skill levels objectively—a need of increasing importance as the prevalence of remote work continues to grow. “The fact that Qualified provides so much data from their community on how developers across the globe perform on different technical questions is huge. I would say that's a really big asset for anyone looking to hire more senior talent.” Andela’s team is now nearly 2,000 strong, but their work in developing tech ecosystems across Africa is just getting started. I know it’s only a matter of time before I find myself chatting with an Andela engineer on my next early morning conference call.

Andela Is Building Africa's Tech Ecosystem—And Companies Like Microsoft Are Following Suit

Think fast. I don’t mean fast like a trip on a Japanese JR-Maglev bullet train or the dive of a Perigrine Falcon. Nor do I mean fast like the 30 minutes it took for Pebble Watch to raise $1 million on Kickstarter. Think faster. Think about the speed of innovation in today’s world. Think about how many startups are formulated within the minds of new computer science majors at the dorms of Cal. Think about apps being designed at the seemingly infinite amount of techie-targeted cafes in Silicon Valley. There will never be a lack of ideas in our technology dominated world. The puzzle lies in development and execution of these ideas. How can software development keep up with the speed of innovation? Let’s consider Uber. Its democratization of a heavily regulated industry in ridesharing helped it raise over 22 rounds of funding from organizations such as Toyota and Tencent. Now, let’s look at Sidecar. As a much less talked about rival to Uber, Sidecar received funding from investors such as Google Ventures and Softbank Capital. It raised $39 million before citing a capital disadvantage to its competitors and . Uber won in no small part due to to its significantly larger war chest. Undoubtedly, a large part of that war chest was used to hire developers. $24.2B shuttering its doors What if companies could get away with hiring only 10% or 1% of their usual number of developers? Without the need to hire developers, many companies wouldn’t need to raise exorbitant amounts of capital to compete. Let’s also consider new startups. Often times, what keeps a new startup from being a successful one is the lack of people necessary to build it and/or a lack of money. If there was a way to quickly and efficiently circumvent building out a large development team, every idea (good or bad) could quickly come to fruition. Very small startups (I’m talking a group of friends or even an individual) can even circumvent the process of raising capital due to how easy it would be build their product. “Move fast and break things” would no longer be considered a cautionary tale about the poor decisions of a certain social media company, but rather an attainable goal for entrepreneurs. “Idea guys” could build ten startups in a year instead of just one. It seems impossible. But, as with many impossible things, technology marches on. Earlier, I told you to think fast. Let’s quantify how fast: 1000x. (short for “don’t repeat yourself”) is a programmable software platform that makes software 1000x faster to build. One developer with minimal coding experience can emulate the coding prowess of a thousand with a few clicks through a simple interface. Users do not need to know the underlying technology behind apps; all they need is some basic knowledge of JSON and Javascript, and they are able to build apps directly from a browser. dry.io The “1000x faster” premise is based off of how much code a user has to type using dry.io. Simply put, a Facebook alternative built on dry.io only takes 150 lines of code to write. When compared with a Facebook alternative built the “normal way,” developers may need to write 1000x as much code depending on how complicated the app is. A Facebook alternative, built with around 150 lines of code. In terms of nuts and bolts, let’s think of blocks. All apps are composed of fundamental building blocks that can be manipulated or modified slightly into something different. Form influences function. dry.io taps into this by allowing users to have full control over the building blocks of apps, allowing users to create any type of app they want. Over time, users are able to modify the granularity of these blocks and therefore scale their apps for new tasks. Users can also add new and different types of blocks to their creations, enriching their app ecosystem as they see fit. As the first platform to allow users to eliminate a significant chunk of coding for projects, the Palo Alto based dry.io stands on unprecedented ground. Of course, we should always do our research when presented with new ideas in tech. As a diminutive yet shrewd man once said, “words are wind.” We should trust more in deeds. As such, the dry.io platform has already been built and continues to be tested heavily. The dry.io team practices “ ,” which is to say that they actively use their own product. Dozens of apps have been built so far, with developers building their own app portals. Imagine how many apps could populate these portals with such little development needed. It’s a lot. eating your own dog food We’ve established that in today’s tech world, dry.io can help development speed catch up with ideation. What exactly does that mean for the average person? Specifically, liberation from monolithic tech companies. What keeps people on the Googles and Facebooks of the world is a lack of alternatives and a lack of power. We depend on big tech companies to provide services but have little to no power to influence their specific features. That means the average user may have needs that aren’t met by big companies. Liberation. dry.io gives the average person a way to create alternatives to today’s big tech offerings, provided they know a little Javascript/JSON. Thanks to its high level of customization, users can build apps that are specifically tailored to their own needs, wants, and interests. Someone who uses Facebook to keep in touch with old friends but feels jaded about the Menlo Park company’s previous stance on privacy may need an alternative. Developers who understand this need can build an alternative on dry.io with very little overhead effort or cost. Interested users can sign up to try dry.io . here In a world where most app development stays clustered within a select oligopoly of power players, dry.io provides a way for users to not rely on big companies to build user-centered apps. Let’s be honest: Jeff Bezos is never going to remove Amazon’s anti-competitive practices. But maybe we don’t need him to. Maybe we can rely on developers who truly understand the needs of users to build apps people full-heartedly want to experience. And they can build fast.

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