When you start to unpick the visitor behavior on your website, one thing is apparent: Everyone has a limited amount of tolerance for frustration before they drop off. Last week’s Masterclass with SessionCam and Subway—How to Convert Your Website Visitors into Customers—covers the optimization tactics that work to stop this bucket spilling over and maximize your conversion rates. Only 19.2% of webinar attendees are satisfied with their conversion rates, which highlights what a key challenge this is for marketers; 42.6% of attendees are dissatisfied with their conversion rates. Read more>>
Monthly Archives: November 2017
Researchers create a light-based key distribution system for quantum encryption
Researchers at Duke University, OSU and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have solved one of the biggest problems with new forms of quantum encryption: quantum key distribution. QKD is the process of distributing keys during a transmission and in a way that will tell both sides of the conversation that someone is eavesdropping. The new system, which uses lasers to transmit multiple bits at once, can be used to connect and secure quantum computers in the future. Read more>>
Predicting success in startup consumer brands
Nearly three years ago, Saar Gur and wrote about how early-stage consumer product companies were overlooked by venture capitalists, but had the potential to create breakout success. At the time, VCs largely shrugged off the category by pointing to the lack of sizable outcomes in the consumer vertical and the difficulty of predicting which brands would be successful. These startups are taking advantage of not only the changing habits of millennial consumers, but also the ability to reach those consumers and build brand awareness through under-exploited digital marketing channels. Read more>>
Blockchain: Reshaping advertising, removing fraud, rebuilding trust
In part two of our four-part guest series from marketing veteran and blockchain expert Jeremy Epstein, we highlight four companies that are at the forefront of disrupting the $532 billion advertising industry. Awareness is critical and advertising is a necessary component to driving consideration. You also know that the current model does not optimize your effectiveness or your return on marketing investment. For every dollar you invest in advertising, you only get 44 cents of value. Read more>>
Top Winners of 2017 Florida VentureTech Showcase
The Florida Venture Forum/Venture Education Foundation and Space Florida are pleased to announce the top two winners of the 2017 Florida VentureTech Showcase and Space Florida’s Accelerating Innovation prize, held at the FAU Tech Runway in Boca Raton on November 16, 2017. A total of 17 Florida-based companies from across the state and a variety of industry sectors were selected to present before an audience of investors, deal professionals and entrepreneurs. A panel of judges reviewed each selected company’s presentation and supporting materials. The top two winning companies, which each received $25,000, were: Read more>>
The battle for control of data could be just starting
Companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon happily take our data in exchange for convenience, lower prices or free services, but individuals and businesses are beginning to understand the value of controlling their data instead of simply handing it over to the world’s largest technology companies. The battle to regain control over that data could be starting in earnest. Read more>>
A decade of Amazon Kindle
The decade since the release of the first Kindle has been a turbulent one for publishing. Barnes & Noble — once a large enough threat to local bookstores that it served as the basis of a Meg Ryan rom-com — has shuttered locations at a steady clip. The big publishers have become increasingly consolidated. Amazon was already well on its road to dominance by the time the Kindle rolled around, but, the runaway success of the company’s e-reader has only served to cement the online retailer’s stranglehold on publishing. Read more>>
As Autonomous Technology Transforms the Global Freight Sector, Natilus Attracts More Seed Investment from Starburst Ventures, Seraph Group, Gelt VC, Outpost Capital and Draper Associates
Large cargo-capacity drone poised to challenge incumbents on price and scale as it prepares for first flight test. Just as the long-haul freight sector has made huge strides in efficiency gains and cost reduction due to technology innovation, the $15.5 trillion global freight market is poised for disruption as it strives to offer customers more cost-effective delivery solutions beyond the decades-old vessels and aircraft which serve as its primary sources of transport. Natilus, a manufacturer of large aircraft drones, has identified the sweet spot between sea and air freight in the international freight market, offering a large cargo-capacity UAV that challenges current incumbents on price and speed of commercial-scale freight delivery. Read more>>
NVCA, Entrepreneurs, and Startups File Lawsuit Challenging Delay of International Entrepreneur Rule
WASHINGTON, DC –The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) today joined entrepreneurs and startup companies in filing a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) delay of the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER). Finalized by the Obama Administration, the rule would have allowed talented foreign-born entrepreneurs to travel to or stay in the United States to grow their companies for two and a half years with the possible extension of another two and a half years. NVCA and the other plaintiffs are represented by the American Immigration Council and Mayer Brown LLP. Read more>>
What can we learn from the successes and failures of Unicorns?
There are 217 companies identified as unicorns including the likes of Uber, Spotify and Pinterest. With a combined valuation of $752 billion these privately-owned businesses offer some of the most vivid examples of how technology can be the catalyst to rapidly transform industries. Here we examine what we can learn from the successes and failures of these fascinating creatures. Read more>>
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