So much rain has fallen in California’s normally bone-dry Death Valley National Park, a temporary lake formed — and it’s deep enough to kayak on, photos show.

Death Valley’s temporary lake is so deep, you can kayak on it — and some have. See it

While Wines is encouraging visitors, it&#x27;s advised that you keep an eye on updates on the Death Valley National Park website, as the temporary lake may be deep enough to kayak for just a couple of weeks but could still be around through April.

Heavy rains form temporary lake in Death Valley; kayaking encouraged

And Kayak, which just turned 20 and sold to Booking Holdings a decade ago for $2.1 billion, is also getting in on the GPT game with a virtual travel assistant that helps users book flights and car rentals. The application is currently ranked first in the GPT Store&#x27;s lifestyle section.

Here's the playbook tech companies like AllTrails, Canva, and Kayak are using to dominate the charts in OpenAI's new GPT Store.

Kayaking at Badwater Basin earlier in February. Photograph: Michael Kohler/NPSView image in fullscreen

Kayakers flock to Death Valley after severe rain creates ‘extremely rare’ lake | California | The Guardian

Oru Kayak has long offered some of the market&#x27;s most compact, conveniently portable watercraft. Now the company is expanding the appeal of its lineup by pairing its vessels with an equally compact, portable electric drive system. Teaming up with the folks at Bixpy, it&#x27;s developed an e-drive ...

Oru motorizes origami kayaks with portable electric outboard

Unlike last year, park visitors can essentially drive right up to the time-limited attraction. Most of the paved roads in the park are open, including Badwater Road, which can be taken to the lake area. (There’s no place to rent a kayak in Death Valley, so those interested in going out on ...

After heavy storms, Death Valley is now open to kayakers: The return of ghostly Lake Manly

Get the most recent info and news about KAYAC on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

KAYAC Inc. engages in the game-related business in Japan. It also operates a game community under the name Lobi; Tonamel, a tournament format where organizers manage their tournaments; and Pla-cole, a matching service for couples and wedding planners, as well as provides esports event planning and management, distribution, and production services under the Well Played name. In addition, the company offers home funeral, real estate, and trading services. KAYAC Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Kamakura, Japan.

KAYAC

Authors: (1) Savvas Petridis, Google Research, New York, New York, USA; (2) Ben Wedin, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (3) James Wexler, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (4) Aaron Donsbach, Google Research, Seattle, Washington, USA; (5) Mahima Pushkarna, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (6) Nitesh Goyal, Google Research, New York, New York, USA; (7) Carrie J. Cai, Google Research, Mountain View, California, USA; (8) Michael Terry, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Table Of Links Abstract & Introduction Related Work Formative Study Constitution Maker Implementation User Study Findings Discussion Conclusion and References 9 CONCLUSION This paper presents ConstitutionMaker, a tool for interactively refining LLM outputs by converting users’ intuitive feedback into principles. ConstitutionMaker’s design is informed by a formative study, where we also collected and classified the types of principles users wanted to write. ConstitutionMaker incorporates three principle-elicitation features: kudos, critique, and rewrite. In a user study with 14 industry professionals, participants felt that ConstitutionMaker helped them (1) write principles that effectively guided the chatbot, (2) convert their feedback into principles more easily, and (3) write principles more efficiently, with (4) less mental demand than the baseline. This was due to ConstitutionMaker supporting their thought processes, including helping them to: identify ways to improve the bot’s responses, convert their intuition into verbal feedback, and phrase their feedback as specific principles. There are many avenues of future work, including supporting users in iterating on and clarifying their principles, organizing larger sets of principles and supporting multiple writers, and helping users test chatbots across multiple user journeys. Together, these findings inform future tools that support interactively customizing LLM outputs. REFERENCES [1] Yuntao Bai, Saurav Kadavath, Sandipan Kundu, Amanda Askell, Jackson Kernion, Andy Jones, Anna Chen, Anna Goldie, Azalia Mirhoseini, Cameron McKinnon, Carol Chen, Catherine Olsson, Christopher Olah, Danny Hernandez, Dawn Drain, Deep Ganguli, Dustin Li, Eli Tran-Johnson, Ethan Perez, Jamie Kerr, Jared Mueller, Jeffrey Ladish, Joshua Landau, Kamal Ndousse, Kamile Lukosuite, Liane Lovitt, Michael Sellitto, Nelson Elhage, Nicholas Schiefer, Noemi Mercado, Nova DasSarma, Robert Lasenby, Robin Larson, Sam Ringer, Scott Johnston, Shauna Kravec, Sheer El Showk, Stanislav Fort, Tamera Lanham, Timothy TelleenLawton, Tom Conerly, Tom Henighan, Tristan Hume, Samuel R. Bowman, Zac Hatfield-Dodds, Ben Mann, Dario Amodei, Nicholas Joseph, Sam McCandlish, Tom Brown, and Jared Kaplan. 2022. Constitutional AI: Harmlessness from AI Feedback. arXiv:2212.08073 [cs.CL] [2] Svetlin Bostandjiev, John O’Donovan, and Tobias Höllerer. 2012. 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Interactively Critiquing LLMs by Converting Feedback into Principle— Conclusion and References

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Yueqing Yueqing Easythink Media Zhuhai In , is the winner! Zhuhai Aijuba Hongo In , the Startup of the Year is . Hongo Smile Robotics, Inc Admiralty In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Admiralty BUNCH Southern In , the Startup of the Year is . Southern Retykle Yongdungpo In , is the winner! Yongdungpo Push News Taichung In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Taichung Wondercise Cyberport, Hong Kong In , the Startup of the Year is . Cyberport Animoca Brands Hefei, China In , is the winner! Hefei Tsinglink New Territories, Hong Kong The winner in is . New Territories, Hong Kong Zeek Dezhou In , the Startup of the Year is . Dezhou Dezhou Baji Kitakyushu In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Kitakyushu Reif Seongnam In , is the winner! Seongnam EOFlow Yanshi In , the Startup of the Year is . Yanshi CASI Vision Top Startup Cities in South Asia Hyderabad, India The Startup of the Year in is with 962 votes Hyderabad Quixy Lahore, Pakistan is the Startup of the Year! It came out ahead with 186 votes. SmartWindows Lahore Bangalore, India When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year with 210 votes! Bangalore vBridge Hub Pune, India couldn’t be beaten for Startup of the Year in , it won with 129 votes! InfraCloud Pune Jaipur, India The Startup of the Year in is with 166 votes Jaipur Emizen Tech Lucknow, India is the Startup of the Year! It came out ahead with 279 votes. Keeros Superfoods Lucknow Noida, India came out as the Startup of the Year in with 156 votes! Bagisto Noida Mumbai, India When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year with 96 votes! Mumbai Sequretek Sylhet couldn’t be beaten for Startup of the Year in , it won with 122 votes! DataXpie Sylhet Mylapore, India In , is the winner! Mylapore Yalimart Goa, India In , the Startup of the Year is Goa Filter Coffee Delhi, India In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Delhi EkAnek Networks Karachi, Pakistan The winner in is Karachi Bykea Ahmedabad, India In , is the winner Ahmedabad MageComp Dhaka, Bangladesh The winner in is Dhaka SOLshare Islamabad, Pakistan In Islamabad, is declared the Startup of the Year! TAG Gurgaon, India In , the Startup of the Year is Gurgaon ixigo Bengaluru, India In , is the winner! Bengaluru Prakshep Private Limited Haryana, India couldn’t be beaten for Startup of the Year in ! Footprints Childcare Haryana Kolkata, India In , is the winner! Kolkata Wow! Momo New Delhi, India In , is declared the Startup of the Year! New Delhi Rusk Media Indore, India The winner in is Indore Chattar Patar Kormangala In , is the winner Kormangala Sanctum Technologies Ghaziabad came out as the Startup of the Year in Craftfurnish.com Ghaziabad! Mohali In , the Startup of the Year is Mohali DataKund Mysore The Startup of the Year in is Mysore Excelsoft Karnal came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Dunar Karnal Kolhapur In , is the winner! Kolhapur Zanvar Group Patiya In , the Startup of the Year is Patiya Kloud Project Kathmandu In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Kathmandu Vairav Technology Bangalore City, India In is the winner! Bangalore City, PagarBook Ernakulam The winner in is Ernakulam Epixel Solutions Colombo, Sri Lanka couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in MAs Foods Colombo Andheri, India When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year! Andheri DoorMint Kanpur, India came out as the Startup of the Year in ! ServiceWalaa Kanpur Faisalabad In , is the winner! Faisalabad DigiKhata Nasik The Startup of the Year in is Nasik Sahyadri Farms Patna came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Asvin Tech Patna Chennai, India In , is the winner! Chennai Agnikul Cosmos Faridabad, India In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Faridabad UClean Panjim, India The winner in is Panjim TempoGO Ranchi, India In , is the winner Ranchi Osam Dairy Surat, India In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Surat Wishbook Thane, India In , is the winner! Thane Delight Foods Trivandrum, India came out as the Startup of the Year in ! GenRobotic Trivandrum Vijayawada, India In , the Startup of the Year is Vijayawada Eruvaka Technologies Visakhapatnam, India In , Ltd is declared the Startup of the Year! Visakhapatnam Greenline Labs Pvt Ahmadabad In , is the winner! Ahmadabad KiwiQA Services Bandra came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Car Club Bandra Bombay In , is the winner! Bombay Locobuddy Mobile Technology (Sportobuddy) Cochin In , the Startup of the Year is Cochin Tuttifrutti Interactive Gandhinagar In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Gandhinagar Kroop AI Guwahati In , the Startup of the Year is Guwahati GNRC Hospitals Jamshedpur In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Jamshedpur Intelliber Kabul The winner in is Kabul Miracle Shop (Vocinno Technology) Karur In , is the winner Karur Karur Vysya Bank Kochi The winner in is Kochi BestDoc Kozhikode In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Kozhikode OfficeKit HR Ludhiana In , the Startup of the Year is Ludhiana Trendy Beat Network Madhapur In , is the winner! Madhapur Head Digital Works Mangalore When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year Mangalore Hangyo Nagpur came out as the Startup of the Year in ! UPrudence Agro Nagpur Rawalpindi The Startup of the Year in is Rawalpindi Pro Options Marketing Rishikesh came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Descatuk Rishikesh Secunderabad couldn’t be beaten for Startup of the Year in Prakriti Biosystems Engineering Secunderabad Tirupur In , is the winner! Tirupur Tubeknit Fashions Udupi The winner in is Udupi Krishitantra Top Startup Cities in Southeast Asia Singapore, Singapore The Startup of the Year in is with 6556 votes! Singapore Cake DeFi Hanoi, Vietnam is the Startup of the Year! It came out ahead with 683 votes. DeFi For You Hanoi Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia came out as the Startup of the Year in with 109 votes! Trambellir Kuala Lumpur Pasig, Philippines When it comes to , . is the Startup of the Year with 110 votes! Pasig Quickreach Inc Bangkok, Thailand couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in , it won with 60 votes! Perception Codes Bangkok Johor Bahru In , the Startup of the Year is . Johor Bahru AGR1 Bandung, Indonesia In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Bandung Prosa Portugal The winner in is . Portugal SCEMAI Tangerang, Indonesia In , is the winner Tangerang Yummy Corp Jakarta, Indonesia In , is the winner! Jakarta Tokocrypto Dki Jakarta, Indonesia In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Dki Jakarta Limakilo Bangkok Metropolis In , is the winner! Bangkok Meticuly Medan The winner in is ! Medan DIKA Manila, Philippines In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Manila PawnHero Phnom Penh, Cambodia In , the Startup of the Year is Phnom Penh vKirirom Bali In , is the winner! Bali Radius App Penang When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year Penang EasyParcel Surabaya came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Super Surabaya Setiabudi, Indonesia The Startup of the Year in is Setiabudi Chilibeli Cebu City came out as the Startup of the Year in MiCab Cebu City! Jawa couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in DAUR Jawa Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam In , is the winner! Ho Chi Minh City Pharmacity Selangor, Malaysia is the Startup of the Year! BabyDash Selangor Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia In , is the winner! Jakarta Pusat StickEarn Semarang When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year! Semarang Food Bear Petaling Jaya, Malaysia The winner in is . Petaling Jaya Deemples Kebayoran Baru, Indonesia couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in ! Yogrt Kebayoran Baru Kuningan The winner in is . Kuningan Prinzio Bukit Merah came out as the Startup of the Year in ! DC Alliance Bukit Merah Huai Khwang In , the Startup of the Year is . Huai Khwang AppMan Co.,Ltd Kuta In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Kuta Gringgo Mandaluyong came out ahead as the Startup of the Year! Work Inspire Mandaluyong Midview City In , is the winner! Midview City BioMers Phuket The Startup of the Year in is ! Phuket Sapahn Yangon, Myanmar The winner in is . Yangon Wave Money Denpasar When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year! Denpasar Revasi Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand The winner in is . Nakhon Ratchasima Siam Lottery co., Ltd Taguig, Philippines In , is the winner! Taguig PayMongo Bogor came out as the Startup of the Year in ! TIRANYX Bogor Senai, Malaysia won as the Startup of the Year. Nutrition Technologies Senai Bekasi Kota couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in ! 8villages Bekasi Kota Top Startup Cities in Middle East Tel Aviv, Israel The Startup of the Year in is with 1,065 votes! Tel Aviv hyro Beirut, Lebanon is the Startup of the Year! It came out ahead with 1,276 votes. Hovi Digital Lab Beirut Riyadh, Saudi Arabia With 350 votes, came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Flicron Riyadh Tel Aviv-yafo, Israel When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year with 167 votes! Tel Aviv-yafo Cymbio Haifa, Israel couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in , it won with 183 votes! Pico Haifa Amman, Jordan In , with 141 votes, is the winner! Amman Edexy Dubai, United Arab Emirates In , the Startup of the Year is with 74 votes. Dubai Ziina Doha, Qatar In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Doha SkipCash Tehran, Iran The winner in is . BeyondBoard AR Tehran Jerusalem, Israel In , is the winner! Jerusalem SolidBlock Rishon Le Zion The Startup of the Year in is ! Rishon Le Zion Passparto Ness Ziona, Israel is the Startup of the Year! Soapy Ness Ziona Kuwait, Kuwait came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Brapper Shop Kuwait Manama, Bahrain couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in ! Doctori Manama Lod, Israel is the winner in ! Phinergy Lod Agudat Israel, Israel When it comes to is the Startup of the Year with [vote ] votes! Agudat Israel, Aqaurius Engines Beersheba, Israel In , the Startup of the Year is . Beersheba Visual Estate Ltd Giv'atayim, Israel In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Giv'atayim WSC Sports Modi'in, Israel The winner in is . Modi'in Loginno Nazareth, Israel In , is the winner! Nazareth AR Guide In Medical Ramat Gan, Israel The Startup of the Year in is . Ramat Gan Datos Health Baghdad When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year! Baghdad Mishwar Khobar In , the Startup of the Year is . Khobar Garage Misgav couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in ! Eden Shield Misgav Sharjah came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Bookends Sharjah Affula In , the Startup of the Year is . Affula eMotion Technologies Bene Beraq, Israel In , is the winner Bene Beraq Reflectiz Caesarea, Israel In , the Startup of the Year is . Caesarea CardiacSense Dubayy In , is declared the Startup of the Year! Dubayy North Ladder Muscat couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in ! iLab Marine Muscat Tirat Carmel In , the Startup of the Year is . Tirat Carmel PassCall Advanced Technologies Hod Hasharon, Israel The winner in is . Hod Hasharon Idomoo Holon, Israel came out ahead as the Startup of the Year! OptimalPlus Holon Jeddah, Saudi Arabia When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year! Jeddah Arabian Combustion Technologies Ramat Hasharon, Israel is the Startup of the Year! Lumen Ramat Hasharon Al Khobar came out as the Startup of the Year in ! Swyft Al Khobar Bet Shemesh In , is the winner! Bet Shemesh Degania Medical Binyamina When it comes to , is the Startup of the Year! Binyamina OncoHost Makkah In , the Startup of the Year is Makkah Scimagine Or Akiva Last but not least, couldn’t be beaten for Startup in the Year in the city of ! WMT Or Akiva More Information: If you’re a winner, please answer ! If you’re a reader, participant, just a curious individual, consider answering one of our interviews . this interview here Read the FAQs about or . Startups here here To see all of the winners you may visit , pick any city and view the name that appears at the top. this site If you’re interested in partnering with us, we invite you to look through some of these or reach out to our business department. unique sponsorship options Perhaps creating your very own tickles your fancy or maybe you have a whole new idea for how we can partner! writing contest Thank you to all of our sponsors! We truly appreciate your contribution to the tech world and thus the future! The Startups Awards are sponsored by: , , , , , , , , , , Blockster Brex FreeCodeCamp LaunchDarkly Coil Udacity Udemy Vercel Asia Pacific Transgender Network Bybit Everscale Network The post was written by Kushal Tamrakar and Valerie Ejegi, edited by Hang Ngo. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to report a discrepancy please email ellen@hackernoon.com.

Meet the Winners of Startups in Asia

As I wrapped up the research for this piece and was about to start writing, OpenAI had a perfect announcement to go with it - they are feature on ChatGPT. If you haven’t used it before, this is a feature available to paying Plus users. Plus gives you access to primarily two things: temporarily disabling the “Browse with Bing" Browse with Bing - By default, ChatGPT does not connect to real-time website data (e.g. if you ask it what are upcoming Marvel movies in 2023, it won’t give you an answer because its training data stops at Sept 2021). Browse with Bing goes beyond this limitation by across the web, which OpenAI now gets access to given their partnership with Microsoft Bing leveraging real-time information from sites Plugins - These are integrations built into ChatGPT by independent companies to expose their capabilities through ChatGPT’s UI (e.g. OpenTable lets you search for restaurant reservations, and Kayak lets you search for flights from within ChatGPT if you use their plugins); These are experimental at this point and are “cool” features, but users haven’t really found them useful (yet). Therefore, Browse with Bing is particularly important for ChatGPT because its biggest competitor Google Bard has the ability to use real-time data from Google Search. See example responses from ChatGPT vs. Bard for the Marvel movies in 2023: ChatGPT 3.5 (left) vs. Google Bard (right) for real-time information So, you can see why it’s non-trivial for to disable Browse with Bing (even temporarily). : OpenAI The reasoning is what’s interesting We have learned that the ChatGPT Browse beta can occasionally display content in ways we don't want. For example, if a user specifically asks for a URL's full text, it might inadvertently fulfill this request. As of July 3, 2023, we’ve disabled the Browse with Bing beta feature out of an abundance of caution while we fix this in order to do right by content owners. We are working to bring the beta back as quickly as possible, and appreciate your understanding! It’s interesting because it brings into the spotlight a larger issue: Companies like . OpenAI and Google Bard are using a large amount of data to train their models, but it’s unclear whether they have permission to use this data and how they are compensating creators/content platforms for the use of this data In this article, we’ll unpack a few things: What are Large Language Models (LLMs), and why do they need data? Where are they getting this data from? Why should companies like OpenAI and Google care about how they source data? What strategies are content platforms adopting to respond to this? At the end of the article, you will hopefully walk away with a fuller picture of this rapidly evolving topic. Let’s dive in. What are Large Language Models, and why do they need data? We’ll start with a simple explainer of how Machine Learning models work - let’s say you want to predict how late your upcoming flight’s arrival time will be. A very basic version can be human guesswork (e.g. if the weather sucks or if the airline sucks, it’s likely late). If you want to make that more reliable, you can take real data on flight arrivals times and pattern-match it against various factors (e.g. how arrival times related to airline, destination airport, temperature, rainfall, etc.). Now you can take this one step further, use the data and create a math equation to predict this. For example: Delay minutes = A * airline reliability score + B * busy-ness of an airport + C * amount of rainfall. How do you calculate A, B, and C? By using the large volume of past arrival time data you have and doing some math on it. This equation, in math terms, is called a “regression” and is one of the most commonly used basic machine learning models. Note that the model is basically a math formula comprising of “features” (e.g. airline reliability score, busy-ness of an airport, amount of rainfall) and “weights” (e.g. A, B, C, which shows how much each variable adds to the prediction). weight The same concept can be extended to other more complex models - like “neural networks” (that you might have heard in the context of deep learning) or Large Language Models (often abbreviated to and are the underlying models for all text-based AI products such as Google Search, ChatGPT and Google Bard). LLMs We won’t go into too much detail, but each of these models, including LLMs, is a combination of “features” and “weights.” The most performant models have the best combination of features and weights. The way to get to that combination is through training with a TON of data. The more data you have, the more performant the model. Therefore, having a massive volume of data is critical, and companies that train these models need to source this data. Where are they getting this data from? Broadly speaking, data sources can be broadly categorized into: : These are high-volume data sources that are typically available for commercial purposes, including LLM training. Examples of large open-source data include Wikipedia, (an open repository of web crawl data), (free eBooks), and (free books written by unpublished authors), to name a few. Open Source Data CommonCrawl Project Gutenberg BookCorpus : These include a broad set of websites such as news publications (think Washington Post, the Guardian), creator-specific platforms (think Kickstarter, Patreon, Medium), and user-generated content platforms (think Reddit, Twitter). These typically have more restrictive policies when it comes to scraping their content, especially if it’s used for commercial purposes. Independent Content Websites In an ideal world, LLM companies would explicitly list out all the data sources they have used/scraped and do so in compliance with the policies of whoever owns the content. However, several of them have been non-transparent about it, the biggest offender being OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT). Google published one dataset it used for training, called C-4. The Washington Post put together a of this data. Here are the top 30 sources based on their analysis: neat analysis Most of this data was acquired from scraping, and content platforms contend that this data was scraped in violation of their terms of use. They are clearly unhappy about it, especially given the amount of upside the LLM companies are able to capture from the data. Why should companies like OpenAI and Google care about how they source data? Okay, content providers are complaining. So what? Should companies with LLM products care about this, besides wanting to be “fair” out of the goodness of their hearts? Data sourcing is becoming increasingly critical for two major reasons: : Companies developing LLMs are starting to find themselves embroiled in lawsuits from content creators and publishers who believe their data was used without permission. Legal battles can be costly and tarnish the reputation of the companies involved. Legal Complications Case in point: Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI are being sued for allegedly violating copyright law by reproducing open-source code using AI Getty Images sues AI art generator Stable Diffusion AI art tools Stable Diffusion and Midjourney targeted with a copyright lawsuit [side note: Stable Diffusion and Midjourney are AI image generators and not language generators and therefore not “LLMs,” but the same principles of what constitutes a model and how they are trained are the same] : Enterprise customers employing LLMs or their derivatives need to be assured of the legitimacy of the training data. They do not want to face legal challenges due to the data-sourcing practices of the LLMs they use, especially if they cannot pass on the liability of those lawsuits to the LLM providers. Making headway with Enterprise Customers Can you really build effective models with all of these messy data-sourcing constraints? That’s a fair question. A masterclass in applying these principles is the recent announcement of (it’s a cool product, and in open beta, you can play around with it) - the product has a , including Text to image, i.e., you can type a line of text, and it will generate an image for you. Adobe Firefly wide set of features What makes Firefly a great example is: Adobe . In addition, they have also announced that they want to build generative AI in a way that enables creators to monetize their talents and that they will announce a compensation model for Adobe Stock contributors once Firefly is out of beta. only uses images that are part of Adobe Stock that they already have the licenses for, plus open source images that are not license restricted Adobe will (starting with the text-to-image feature) - if you haven’t heard the term “indemnify” before, in simple terms, Adobe is saying they are confident they have cleanly sourced the data going into their models and are therefore willing to cover any legislation that might come up if someone sues an Adobe customer for using Firefly output. indemnify its customers for Firefly outputs One criticism of the clean data sourcing approach has been that it will hurt the quality of output generated by the models. The opposite side of that argument is that high-quality data owned by content providers can provide better quality input to model training (garbage in, garbage out is real when it comes to model training). In the image below, the left is output from Adobe Firefly; the right is from OpenAI’s Dall-E. If you compare the two, they are quite similar, and Firefly’s output is arguably more realistic, which goes to show that high-quality language models can be built off of just cleanly sourced data. What strategies are content platforms adopting to respond to this? Several companies that have large volumes of content have come out strongly, expressing that they intend to charge AI companies for using their data. It’s important to note that most of them have not come up with an anti-AI stance (i.e. they are not saying AI is going to take over our business, so we are shutting down access to content). They are mostly pushing for a commercial construct that defines how the access of this data will occur and how they will get compensated for it. , arguably the most popular forum that programmers use when they need help, for access to the 50 million Q&A content on its service. StackOverflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar laid out some reasonable arguments: StackOverflow plans to begin charging large AI developers The additional revenue will be vital to ensuring StackOverflow can keep attracting users and maintaining high-quality information, which will also help future chatbots by generating new knowledge on the platform. StackOverflow will continue to license data for free to some people and companies and only looking to charge companies developing LLMs for commercial purposes. He argues that LLM developers are violating Stack Overflow’s terms of service, which he believes falls under a Creative Commons license that requires anyone later using the data to mention where it came from (which LLMs don’t do) came out with a (alongside their controversial changes to API pricing that shut down several third-party apps). Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told the Times, "The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable, but we don't need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.” Reddit similar announcement earlier this year and also announced a recent change that a user can see in a day in an attempt to prevent unauthorized scraping of data. Though the execution and rollout of the policies leave much to be desired, the intent is clear that they do not intend to provide free data access for commercial purposes. Twitter stopped free access to their APIs limits the number of tweets Another group that has come out with a united front and critique of LLMs is news organizations. The , which represents publishers in print and digital media in the US, has published what they are calling . While there isn’t much tactical detail here, the message they are trying to get across is clear: News/Media Alliance (NMA) AI principles GAI (Generative AI) developers and deployers should not use publisher IP without permission, and publishers should have the right to negotiate for fair compensation for use of their IP by these developers. Negotiating written, formal agreements is therefore necessary. The fair use doctrine does not justify the unauthorized use of publisher content, archives and databases for and by GAI systems.  Any previous or existing use of such content without express permission is a violation of copyright law. Again, their arguments have not been to shut these down but to have commercial agreements in place to use this data in compliance with copyright law, and they also make the argument that compensation frameworks (for example, licensing) already exist in the market today and therefore will not slow innovation. Conclusion This is just the beginning. Platforms with a high volume of content are likely to seek compensation for their data. Even companies that have not yet announced this intent but already have other forms of data licensing programs (e.g. LinkedIn, Foursquare, Reuters) are likely to adopt them for AI/LLM companies. Though this development may seem like a hindrance to innovation, it is a necessary step for the long-term sustainability of content platforms. By ensuring they are compensated fairly, content creators can continue to produce quality content, which in turn will feed into making LLMs more effective. Also published . here

Data Scraping: Do Large Language Models Cross Boundaries by Training on Content from Everyone

The future of emerging technologies in marketing is an exciting one. Within the space of three years, the number of marketing professionals using Martech (marketing technology) grew by 186% and the from 2020 to 2027. Martech industry is expected to grow by 18% Where does the outdoor industry stand in all this? The outdoor industry is not only about exploring woods and mountains. It is also about brands that deal with outdoor accessories, footwear, and equipment for outdoor activities. It is about outdoor enthusiasts that engage in mountain climbing, kayaking, whitewater rafting, and other outdoor activities. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, the outdoor industry in consumer spending alone. Much of this spending is a result of effective marketing tactics. Marketing in the outdoor industry is highly competitive and smart brands who embrace innovation are staying ahead of their competitors and increasing their consumer spending power. generated about $887 billion How are they doing so today? How Emerging Technologies are Affecting Marketing in the Outdoor Industry There is an ever-changing marketing world in the outdoor industry. Not only is the competition getting stiffer, but there is also a whole new evolution going on in the outdoor marketing landscape. As an outdoor brand, you have to educate your prospects on why your product or service is a preferable choice and then take steps to convert them into sales. Whether you decide to choose an outdoor marketing agency or not, here are a few emerging technology trends that are affecting the outdoor industry in 2023: 1. Augmented and Virtual Reality Augmented and provide immersive experiences that improve outdoor industry marketing campaigns. How? virtual reality Video Marketing This type of marketing has become popular in this digitalized world. New emerging technologies like Augmented/Virtual reality and live video are great avenues for a successful outdoor industry campaign. Outdoor brands are creating 360-degree ad videos, using drones to create light shows and holographic projections for their marketing campaigns. Fancy right? How about you try this out in your next outdoor campaign? Digital Out-of-Home Ads (DOOH) Outdoor brands are also using AR/VR to improve immersive customer experience and increase customer engagement. AR/VR is helping outdoor marketers with several measurable strategies like location-specific targeting, interactive billboards, drones, and other marketing activities that improve customer experience. Inbound Marketing You may have carried out traditional outbound strategies in reaching customers. While these tactics are still relevant, you are likely to get better success with inbound marketing tactics. Inbound marketing in the outdoor industry is when an outdoor brand focuses on building the interests of prospects, providing value for them, and converting them into customers. An inbound marketing tactic aims to show customers what you have, turn them into enthusiasts, and slowly into customers. Adding AR/VR to your inbound marketing campaign will hasten this process for you. It helps your prospects to be quickly immersed in your product and know how you are creating a difference with your campaigns. 2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning AI is changing the outdoor industry marketing one step at a time. There are several ways AI is doing this today. Here are are a few key areas: Paid Ads Running paid ads is a common marketing practice in the outdoor industry. With AI and machine learning tools, you can create more personalized ads and segment your target audience with more information. How? AI helps businesses to detect their target audience's emotions and determine whether people are happy or angry. Then the AI algorithms can set up personalized ads based on the data from people. This interactive and personalization feature is becoming very important in today’s fast-paced commercial world as it helps outdoor businesses improve their marketing efforts to keep up with the demands of their prospective customers. In-depth Monitoring and Analysis AI and machine learning tools have made it possible for outdoor brands to monitor and analyze important data. These tools help businesses to optimize customer data and provide marketing and ROI evaluation by using key performance indicators (KPIs).  Also, as these AI tools improve analytics, brands can better and customer retention efforts. improve their content creation Content Marketing A good story can turn your prospects into loyal customers. Smart outdoor brands know how important storytelling is to customer retention. AI is helping outdoor brands create stories that reach their target audience. With AI algorithms, outdoor marketers can understand their customer's preferences and create content that improves customer engagement. 3. Web3 Web3 might be a new innovation, but it has great potential that outdoor brands shouldn’t miss out on. Web3 is a new generation of the Internet that focuses on interacting with users and devices directly and providing an open Internet for all. Web3 promotes personalized user experience and it has great potential in the digital marketing space. Smart outdoor brands that recognize and take advantage of it in their marketing strategies are benefiting. How are they doing so? the importance of Web3 Brand Awareness Outdoor marketers are using blockchain tools to create awareness by issuing tokens, NFT collectibles, and digital asset ownership to customers and prospects. People who spend their time creating content for the outdoor industry or outdoor enthusiasts are benefiting from Web3. These enthusiasts can earn rewards in the form of tokens and NFTs and this can be converted into real cash. Customer Experience Web3 helps outdoor brands put their customer first in their marketing efforts. It helps to improve targeted marketing efforts, ad fraud prevention, and other customer interactions. Web3 equips outdoor marketers with tools that improve the virtual relationship of customers. Also, this technology promotes customer data privacy through its private infrastructure. Outdoor Brands that are Using Emerging Technologies in Their Marketing Campaigns Today Adidas Adidas, an outdoor brand in 2017 that allowed people to follow two mountaineers in real time. Through virtual reality, people were able to virtually experience climbing the Delicatessen peak from two mountain climbers' POVs. This campaign helped users to understand how rock climbing works and enjoy the real outdoor experience. launched an AR/VR campaign Bass Outdoor Bass Outdoor adopted an to establish its POV on the outdoors. Origin Outside assisted in bringing this campaign into reality by creating a 60-second interactive video that introduces the brand as a perfect outdoor companion to its target audience. interactive ad campaign TOMS The shoe brand TOMS provided as part of their humanitarian campaign to donate shoes to people. With VR, customers got a virtual experience of what it is like to give shoes to children with the staff. The reactions to this were positive and emotional. an immersive experience to customers HUCK Token This is an ERC-20 token that is built on ETH blockchain for community members who engage in outdoor activities. The main use of this token is to reward anyone engaging in an outdoor activity or creating content for the outdoor industry. Even outdoor enthusiasts who do not understand how cryptocurrency or Web3 works can benefit from this token. In Summary Outdoor businesses, whether big or small, need to embrace the innovation that emerging technologies are bringing to improve their marketing campaigns. Technology is there to make things interesting, and it’s up to you to improve your outdoor industry marketing strategy with technology.

How Emerging Technologies Are Affecting Marketing in the Outdoor Industry

Google has just unveiled mind-boggling advances in artificial intelligence that bring generative AI capabilities to an entirely new level. (1) Bard Google's response to OpenAI's ubiquitous chatbot, , has no waiting list and is available immediately. Bard AI can navigate the internet, has visual search capabilities for images, supports 20+ programming languages, and is compatible with other applications (Gmail, Docs, Spreadsheets, etc.). ChatGPT (2) Bard Plugins In contrast to Plugins, these are accessible to all users. With Bard, you now have instant access to OpenTable (restaurant reservations), Kayak (travel bookings), Spotify (playlist creation), Walmart (direct ordering), and Indeed (job searching), among others. OpenAI will now need to up its game. ChatGPT (3) Gmail powered by AI Google released "Help me write" in Gmail, permanently altering the nature of email. Now, you only need to write a single-line prompt, and AI will compose the entire email for you in mere seconds. You can edit your communications, alter the tone, etc., later on. (4) Google Photos The new "Magic Editor" in Google Photos allows you to alter the illumination of a scene, remove unwanted elements, adjust your position, and more. You can now alter your photographs like a specialist. (5) MusicLM MusicLM, Google's audio generator, is the finest music model currently available. It generates tunes based on your requests, which is utterly astounding. The music business will never again be the same. (6) Google Food Alerts This app uses machine learning to analyze search queries related to foodborne illness and food safety to identify potential outbreaks. It then sends alerts to public health officials to help them quickly identify and respond to outbreaks. Google is a member of the , a group of companies and organisations working to improve food safety through collaboration and innovation. Food Protection Alliance (7) PaLM 2 This is Google's new state-of-the-art language model, which has superior multilingual and reasoning capabilities and is more computationally efficient than PaLM. It has been taught more than 100 languages and is available in four sizes: - Gecko (10 billion parameters) - Otter (100 billion parameters) - Bison (1 trillion parameters) - Unicorn (ten quintillion parameters) Google(Today begins a new era of generative AI) Daily, 's 15 products serve 4 billion individuals and over 6 million enterprises. The most recent AI capabilities will alter how they operate, collaborate, produce, and travel. Today begins a new era of generative AI. Google

7 Ways Google is Competing with ChatGPT

After the phenomenal , one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, investors from all over the world were spurred to deeply reexamine the “well-being” of their prospective portfolio companies. As a result, what we can see now is a rising number of investors’ requests to carry out strict due diligence procedures before making any investments. Such procedures involve a comprehensive analysis of the financial, product, strategic, and legal aspects of the company’s operations, especially if they pertain to the current developments in cryptocurrency. collapse of FTX We expect that the upcoming year will bring in a new era of conscientiousness for the investor and a heightened level of transparency regarding the solvency and intentions of a company. At the same time, we believe that in order to adapt and prepare proactively, it is vital for investors and startup founders to have an easy-to-understand guide of what to contemplate and prepare for within the legal realm of due diligence. This brief guide centers on the legal aspects of due diligence, which refers to the process of collecting and assessing a company's legal documents to identify risks for both the company and its investors before entering into an investment agreement. In the following sections, we will cover the major aspects of legal due diligence related to the company’s intellectual property and outline the 10 most common mistakes. For your convenience, at the end of this guide, you will find a comprehensive due diligence checklist designed for investment and simple M&A transactions. How to Prepare for the Upcoming Legal Due Diligence Process Once a potential investor has analyzed the substance of a project and made a positive decision to invest, the next step is legal due diligence (“ ”). While every investor might have their own focus of interest within the DD process, they all will engage in a review of the company’s legal documents. DD The range of the requested documents varies and is dependent upon the level of investor scrutiny. However, virtually all legal DDs involve a review of the company’s charter documents, actual capital structure, IP assignment agreements, employee relationship structure, history of litigation, previous investment documents (if any), and materially important contracts with suppliers, partners, or customers. IP Protection The main value for each company, especially technological startups, is its (“ ”). Therefore, in this section, we’ll break down the most common features of legal due diligence related to the company’s IP as a cornerstone of each project. intellectual property IP Consolidation of IP In the U.S. standard market practice, virtually all equity financing term sheets and investment agreements stipulate that all intellectual property developed within the project must be transferred to the investment recipient, which means that: All founders must sign the IP assignment agreement; All employment and services agreements must contain the IP assignment clause; If the company has any subsidiaries in other jurisdictions, all intellectual property assigned to these entities by the local employees must also be transferred to the US entity; and All domain names must be registered on the name of the entity, and not its founder. Trademarks Trademarks serve as an indicator of the source of goods or services. Trademark registration confers certain privileges, such as constructive notice to market participants of the company’s ownership of the trademark (the right to use the ® symbol) and additional rights in the event of litigation. Thus, if the company has any trademarks, it is vital to assess the following criteria during the DD process: The ownership, validity, scope, and enforceability of the company’s trademarks; Any possible risks of trademark infringement posed by the use or registration of the company’s trademarks; and The ability to expand the use and registration of the trademarks to other goods and/or services provided or to be provided by the company in the foreseeable future. If the company doesn’t have any trademarks, founders and investors should evaluate whether the actual stage of the company’s development requires trademark protection for the goods or services provided. If yes, check whether the desired name is available for trademark registration. Patents To avoid situations where larger tech companies copy the company’s idea, certain IP should be properly patented. As a rule of thumb, patents are issued for inventions (such as processes or machines) that are new, useful, and non-obvious, as well as for industrial designs. Startup founders and their investors often inquire about the applicable national boundaries placed on their patent or if they can obtain a patent on the startup’s invention, especially in terms of patenting certain software. The most important points to consider in this regard are: . The patentability of software is still a hot topic discussed by the courts and the USPTO. Generally, if the company’s software implements technical improvements to the computer system, it might be able to obtain a patent registration with the help of a competent patent attorney. Software can be patentable in the U.S sometimes . If the company operates in several markets, it might be necessary to obtain a patent registration in each applicable jurisdiction. U.S. patents are effective only within the U.S For DD purposes, make sure that you have timely access to all the information about the patents registered in the company’s name, including its scope, date of registration, expiration date (if any), and the essence of the invention. Top 10 Legal Mistakes in Startup Documents 1. The Company Is Not in Good Standing with the State of Incorporation One of the most common mistakes we’ve witnessed is when a company submits its documents for legal review and the first thing that pops up is that the company has lost its good standing with the state of incorporation. For Delaware entities, there can be two major reasons behind such outcomes: (1) failure to timely pay franchise tax, and (2) failure to appoint a registered agent. Thus, before initiating the due diligence process, make sure that the company has paid all the state-imposed taxes. Investors are advised to request a Certificate of Good Standing (“ ”) issued by the state from the company beforehand. If you’re a startup founder, before ordering a copy of a CoGS, we recommend looking up your entity on the state’s website and checking whether it has paid all taxes due and has a registered agent appointed. CoGS Failure to timely pay state-specific taxes or appoint a registered agent may lead to forfeiting the company’s active status. In Delaware, a forfeited status lasting for more than 2 years may lead to the administrative dissolution of the entity. Therefore, be extremely attentive to state-specific regulations, and, if you plan to invest in a certain project, don’t hesitate to ask for the documents confirming the company’s good standing before writing a check. Otherwise, in the words of Charles Perrault, “At midnight, it all will turn into a pumpkin.” 2. Investment Agreements and Stock Purchase Agreements Are Not Approved by the Company’s Board of Directors Our experience in due diligence audits tells us that in 90% of cases, companies fail to approve stock transfers by the board of directors. To avoid this, remember the general rule: almost each and every transaction involving the present or future sale, purchase, or transfer of shares must be approved by the company’s board of directors. Stick to this rule and you’ll avoid disputes relating to the validity of the stock transfers in the future. 3. Cap table Contains a Reference to the Employee Stock Option Plan While None Is Actually Adopted Another common mistake we see in every second cap table is the allocation of certain shares for the purposes of the employee stock option plan (“ ”) without any documents approving its actual implementation. One should keep in mind that it is not enough to create a corresponding line in the cap table titled “Option Plan.” If the company hasn’t granted any options yet, the ESOP must contain at least three mandatory documents: ESOP The ESOP itself outlining the rules for granting and exercising the options; Board approval of the ESOP; Shareholders’ approval of the ESOP. If the company has verbally agreed to grant options to certain employees, it is a slippery path. Without any documented evidence of such intention, the company may revoke its offer at any time without any consequences other than losing a valuable employee and damage to the team morale. Therefore, once someone is granted an option to purchase the company’s shares, such option grant must be confirmed by the corresponding Option Grant Notice, Option Agreement, and Exercise Agreement set aside until the moment of actual exercise of the option. And, it is worth repeating it: each option grant must be accompanied by the corresponding board resolution. 4. Cap table Contains References to Persons Who Have No Documentary Allocated Stock This mistake often occurs when shareholders transfer a portion of their stake to another person. For example, a company has signed a term sheet with the first angel investor that stipulates that aside from the SAFE to be entered into between the investor and the company, the founder also undertakes to transfer a portion of their shares of common stock to the investor. However, after receiving the investment amount, the founders just changed the numbers in their cap table without taking any additional actions to ratify the transfer. One should always remember that term sheets are aimed at documenting the intent to enter into certain agreements and are generally not legally binding. Therefore, if there was some kind of reallocation of shares within the company, always secure it with a corresponding stock transfer agreement and a board resolution. 5. Documents Are Not Signed or Lost The general path for each transaction should contain 5 simple steps: (1) negotiate, (2) draw up an agreement, (3) sign it, (4) immediately upload it to the company’s data room, and (5) send a signed copy to your counterparty. Nevertheless, in a rush toward the project’s commercial success, founders often forget about proper bookkeeping and signing the essential documents. While preparing for or conducting DD, ensure that each and every document has all necessary signatures. For board resolutions, check that all directors have signed the documents. If the directors were not able to reach a unanimous decision and it was taken by the majority of the board, check that the resolution itself contains this information. Another case is when the founders use several methods of document signing and thereby store the signed versions of the documents in several different places: someone’s cabinet, DocuSign account, email, photos gallery, etc. As a result, when it comes to due diligence, it takes weeks or even months to compile all the documents in a single place. Such a delay may be qualified as a red flag by the investor making him reconsider his investment decision. If you’re a founder, remember that consistency is the key: try to keep all of your documents in a specific data room, be it created via an additional platform or on the company’s Google Drive. 6. Documents Are Signed by Persons Having No Authority to Do So As a general rule, the company’s CEO is the only signatory, unless other officers or employees are specifically granted such rights. However, it is not uncommon as part of DD to see stock purchase agreements or other agreements signed by a member of the board or any other corporate officer who have no such signatory rights. This is especially the case when the document is supposed to be signed by one person (CEO) from both sides in its capacity as the company’s CEO and shareholder. Nevertheless, it is a standard market practice and the document will not be voided just because it was signed by the CEO twice. While checking the signatures on the company’s documents, verify that the signatory was allowed to sign by virtue of the company’s bylaws, board resolution, or the power of attorney valid as of the date of signature. 7. The Number of Issued Shares of the Company Exceeds the Number of Authorized Shares This mistake is usually repeated by the newly incorporated companies at the pre-seed or seed stage. The company’s Certificate of Incorporation always states the maximum amount of shares that the company may distribute among its shareholders at any time in its existence. However, we often see that the companies with 10,000,000 authorized shares of common stock in their cap table distribute 12,000,000 or even 17,000,000 shares among their shareholders. One should remember that the number of issued shares can never exceed the number of authorized shares. If the number of issued shares in the company’s cap table is approaching the number of authorized shares, the company should either repurchase a portion of shares or file a Certificate of Amendment of Certificate of Incorporation with the state to increase the overall number of shares available for further distribution. 8. The Documents Are Signed as of the Date Earlier Than the Date of the Company’s Incorporation This mistake usually appears in connection with vesting schedules. Founders sometimes choose the date of vesting commencement as of the date they created the project even though this date is sometimes multiple years before the actual date of incorporation. Some lawyers agree that the vesting commencement date can be indicated before the incorporation, while others argue that a non-existent entity cannot be a party to any agreements prior to its incorporation. We usually advise founders to recalculate the vesting schedule starting from the date of incorporation rather than explaining to investors’ lawyers why it is set 2 years prior to the company’s formation. 9. No Employment or Services Agreements Are Signed with the Team When it comes to key employees, it is standard practice to offer them an employment agreement that is effective for a certain term and provides them with certain guarantees. At the same time, for non-key staff, it is more common to use service agreements instead of employment agreements. If none of these agreements are present and the team receives its compensation based on verbal agreements, it reveals two major red flags: All intellectual property created by non-employed team members remains the sole property of its creator even after they decide to leave the project; and Nothing prohibits direct competition for the duration of employment with the company and for a few years thereafter. 10. The Company Plans to Acquire Investments Through SAFEs and Convertible Notes While Being an LLC Be careful with the entity type you plan to use as an investment recipient. The most common investment agreements such as SAFE, KISS, and Convertible Notes work out only with C-Corporations. While it is theoretically possible to create a legal Frankenstein in a form of the Convertible Note designed for LLCs, it will make no practical sense because it places an unnecessary tax burden on both the company and its investors. If you do not plan to attract additional investments but rather sell the whole business at a certain stage or are unsure what entity type will suit your needs best, feel free to consult our . Legal Guide for Startup Founders Startup Legal Due Diligence Checklist Throughout the years, we were involved in 300+ legal due diligence reviews on multiple sides, be it a startup or the investor’s legal team, different parties to M&A transactions, etc. As a result, we compiled our best legal due diligence practices into a checklist of must-have documents for every U.S.-incorporated entity. The proposed checklist does not take into account the peculiarities of a particular project, but it has proven to be viable in many projects. Just follow each line and check the box across the relevant documents while going through the company’s data room. Download Startup Legal Due Diligence Checklist >> Quick tip: if you are a company’s founder, you can use the sections of this checklist as a guideline to structure your company’s internal documents database long before the due diligence procedure is even on your radar. This will save you a few nerves when the time for due diligence comes. This article was written by and , with some editorial help from Roman Buzko and Robert Lynch. The authors are lawyers at Buzko Krasnov, a law firm that advises entrepreneurs and investors under US law with a focus on new technologies and investment deals. Anastasiya Belyaeva Polina Karachentseva

Startup Legal Due Diligence: A Brief Guide for Investors and Founders

Diligencia debida legal para empresas emergentes: una breve guía para inversores y fundadores

Devoir de diligence juridique des startups : un bref guide pour les investisseurs et les fondateurs

स्टार्टअप लीगल ड्यू डिलिजेंस: निवेशकों और संस्थापकों के लिए एक संक्षिप्त गाइड

スタートアップの法務デューデリジェンス: 投資家と創業者のための簡単なガイド

Due Diligence Legal de Startups: Um Breve Guia para Investidores e Fundadores

Thẩm định pháp lý khởi nghiệp: Hướng dẫn ngắn gọn cho nhà đầu tư và nhà sáng lập

创业法律尽职调查：投资者和创始人简要指南

Do Today What Others Won’t. When John Harley created in 2015, his motivation was to do things better. This concept is not new, and it is certainly prevalent in the business world, where entire industries have flourished on simple day-to-day improvements. Fishing Online However, Harley’s approach to his one-stop shop for all things fishing has encompassed this idea time and time again. His refusal to accept the satisfactory or even comfortable status quo has consistently yielded Fishing Online and its customers benefits that will only continue to grow. From its inception, through numerous growing pains, to being honored on the INC. 5000 list for the third year in a row in 2022, Harley has strived to make his company as efficient as possible. “Oh, the places you’ll go?” -Dr. Seuss Coming from a family with five other siblings, Harley was no stranger to facing challenges. Even as the family struggled to pay for his college education, he was able to earn his degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh. Although he always wanted to own his own business and be his own boss, his career as a software engineer provided him with a good life. Even as his brother launched a successful online business, Harley had yet to make the jump himself, instead helping his brother streamline his company on the side. It wasn’t until he went to a kayak fishing tournament that he visualized his path to entrepreneurship. He saw countless competitors with their kayaks and gear, often valued in the tens of thousands of dollars. He realized that this was a massive market, without a convenient, fully stocked, vendor with the data integrity customers demand when providing their credit card information. From here, Harley set out to build Fishing Online. For the first three and a half years, he had to keep working his day job to accumulate the capital he needed, where he had entire months with no days off. In his own words, “I thought I’d be a millionaire overnight. With my automation background, I’d just optimize everything, it would just run itself. This was not true.” Despite the hardships, and hitting low points, Harley’s final words of wisdom to me were “Stick with it. Keep pushing through the hard times, and eventually you’ll get there.” He sacrificed his own comfortable life to pursue his dream of owning a business because he knew there was a better way for avid fishermen to shop for all their needs. “Automation is driving the decline of banal and repetitive tasks.” -Amber Rudd Harley’s pursuit for improvements didn’t end once the company began. He continued to optimize his electronic footprint, both externally and internally. Originally, Harley used Bigcommerce for his platform, but they were overbearing and had several negative issues. After forcing him into a corner, he made the decision to switch to Shopify. This was a major risk, as this could’ve crippled his business for an unknown amount of time. However, Harley was willing to take the risk, as he knew there had to be a better way to operate, and he wasn’t willing to accept the current situation. With his programming background, he was able to get his company to go live on Shopify within three days and has been much happier with their service. In regard to catching the search algorithms, there was a rude awakening for Harley to develop the brand. He was unaware that the product descriptions were crucial to getting in front of customers as they searched the web. From his own experience, his brother told him that good descriptions are a necessity to being found organically. Harley had thousands of products that all needed new descriptions. Despite the task in front of him, he did not accept the state of things and invested the time to improve the search engine presence of Fishing Online. Inside his own walls, he first relied on C# to build his accounting software, with the hopes of crafting a system that would automatically manage the ordering process. He soon learned that Excel, with the right Macros could accomplish everything he needed, catapulting his efforts with a solid foundation he no longer had to construct. His custom-made spreadsheets incorporated all the different data that his employees tracked, including inventory, invoicing, and ordering materials. His automated bookkeeping system was able to instantly pull all the information he needed to issue purchase orders. He could now make orders as large as a quarter of a million dollars within minutes, with zero errors. Harley acknowledges that there is existing software that could mimic this capability, but his current system has been crafted and polished to specifically meet the needs of his company. From his service provider to his online sales pitches to his internal data management, Harley continuously pushed for a better way to do business. “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” -Michael LeBoeuf His dedication wasn’t limited to the virtual world. From limited warehousing to product selection and customer experience, Harley also looked to optimize his operations in the real world. By the time his original shop had grown to include a 10,000-square-foot warehouse, this space was already too small. Rather than slow his scaling, he worked to reduce or eliminate slow-moving products, while also negotiating with a third-party logistics firm. Luckily Harley’s business model was well established to keep his largest items moving, in this case, kayaks. They would sell out before even hitting a shelf. This enabled him to relegate using 3PL for smaller items, which is naturally their strong suit. The kayaks themselves were an excellent opportunity for him, despite their challenges, and often provided the coattails for accessory sales, increasing overall profits. As mentioned, he had to prioritize his inventory due to space, but he made sure to account for the secondary sales a loss leader could generate. One example is the Hawk Trough. As he said “We made no money on it. But we were the only vendor that offered it. Everyone who needed one came to us. Even though it wasn’t profitable, it got people to shop.” Harley’s understanding is that a better customer experience with limitless options, despite the detriments, would pay off in the end. Finding a better alternative for his customers and his business has certainly contributed to Fishing Online’s success. Be Proud, but Never Satisfied. Harley’s unwillingness to settle drove him to create a lucrative, niche business that caters to all the needs of its target clients. Over the course of creating and growing Fishing Online, had he simply accepted the status quo at any of its crucial milestones, the company might not exist, let alone thrive the way it has. From his personal goals that drove him to leave his comfortable programming job to developing a superb, automated process for inventory and order management, to optimizing his real-world footprint and product selection, Harley has always kept his eye out for better and more rewarding opportunities, regardless of the hardships required to seize them. He stated that his next goal is to surpass his personal best on the INC. 5000 list of 260, which he achieved in 2019. I have no doubt he will accomplish this, as his success over the years has never made him complacent or scared of hard work and change.

How to Make Inc's Fastest Growing Companies by Catching the Big Fish

In the finance world you often hear that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. No matter how frequently you remind yourself of this principle, occasionally you will delude yourself into believing you found a great opportunity. This situation presented itself to me a few years back when I started researching high-fee credit cards. I ended up going choosing the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card based on a friend’s recommendation and the whopping 50,000 points sign up bonus (worth ~$750)! The credit card boasted a huge list of benefits; including but not limited to, an annual travel stipend of $300, trip cancellation insurance, extended warranty protection, and 3x points on restaurants and travel. However, the card came with an annual fee of $450 — which can be hard to swallow. Required Return on Investment Once I exhausted through the sign-up bonus, the question became whether I would use the card enough to warrant the annual fee, which was unfortunately increased to $550 in 2021. Additionally, one has to consider the opportunity cost of a no-fee card. Assuming annual credit card expenses of $30,000 and an average conversion rate of $.015/point, I estimated the ROI for the Chase card to be ~$291 in a post sign-up bonus world. An annual ROI of \$291 is nice, but not worth spending an inordinate amount of time trying to optimize credit card points. However, the “Other Benefits” mentioned above include a number of items that could prove to be useful and change my assumptions. After a recent negative experience with one of these “other benefits”, I decided to analyze them in more detail. Calculation Example: $29,700 expenses * 2 = 59,400 points * .015 = $891 rewards – $450 annual fee + $300 travel credit benefit + \$50 other benefits = $791 profit – $450 opportunity cost = $341 ROI pre-2021. Other Benefits Chase Travel Portal Chase advertises their incredible travel portal where users can earn 5x points on airfare booked within the portal and 10x points on hotels and car rentals. While this appears to be an incredible benefit, they forget to mention that most, if not all, bookings are more expensive in their portal than outside of the portal. Every time I have compared prices between the Chase travel portal and prices found googling, the portal was often higher*. Do the extra points still make it worth booking via the portal? Let’s walk through an example. Imagine a weekend trip where you will spend ~$500 on the round trip flight and ~$500 on the hotel. Let’s compare a scenario where the portal is $50 more expensive for each item to see if the points justify this higher expense. In the scenario above, the additional rewards points received for booking through the Chase travel portal did not make up for the higher prices. The price would have to be no more than $70 higher in order to justify using the chase travel portal (assuming equal split between airfare/hotel cost and an ~$1000 total trip cost). Another disadvantage that is not mentioned in most reviews is the worse user experience. Take a look below to see how it is MUCH simpler to search flights across multiple airports in Kayak versus the Chase Travel Portal. I was unable to select all nearby airports in the Washington, DC area in the Chase Travel Portal, while this was a simple feature in Kayak. Another useful feature excluded in the Chase Travel Portal is Kayak’s “Fee Assistant”. This makes it easy to compare prices with and without luggage. Chase’s interface is okay, but not quite as user-friendly and intuitive as some others (e.g. Kayak, Google’s Flight Search). *The price difference is primarily explained by the additional options via googling or another website when compared to the Chase Travel Portal. For example, you cannot book Southwest flights or see Airbnb listings through the travel portal. Special Lounge Access When I first received the , I was pretty excited. I used to hear stories from colleagues about the incredible benefits of flying first class and getting access to exclusive lounges. I assumed Priority Pass would yield some luxury experience. Priority Pass Unfortunately, many of the exclusive lounges you see in airports are not part of the Priority Pass program. While the Priority Pass has lounges at most airports, they are only available at specific concourses. Even if your airport has one, it might be nowhere near your gate. I have yet to utilize this feature in the 3+ years of having this benefit. Experiences and Special Offers The experiences are extremely limited. The lack of options and diversity of locations made me forget about this feature quickly. I have never once booked any of their experiences. As seen below, they currently only offer experiences in 4 different locations. Chase Shopping Portal Because the travel card only gives 3x points (or higher multipliers) for travel and restaurants, shopping and groceries get left out of this bonus. They only get the standard 1x point multiplier for purchases. The Chase Shopping Portal is an additional benefit where you can get higher points multipliers for shopping online with some vendors. This can be a worthwhile benefit if you are able to make a large percentage of your shopping via this online portal, which requires you to click their special links prior to making any purchases. The huge limitation for this shopping portal is its lack of availability for shopping via your mobile phone or shopping in-person. As far as I know, there is no mobile app for using the Chase Shopping Portal and no way to receive the bonus points for shopping in-person. Personally, a large percentage of my shopping takes place via my mobile phone or in-person. Therefore, most of my shopping and grocery purchases have not been via the Chase travel card. The poor user experience drove me to use my other credit card for these purchases since it yields higher rewards for these types of purchases. Doordash/Lyft Chase will often have new or limited benefits, such as Doordash and Lyft. Currently, I receive $5/month in Doordash and a free Dashpass membership. If you use Doordash at least once per month, this is a worthwhile benefit that can easily yield $60 or more in annual savings. If I remember correctly, there was previously a limited time Lyft membership benefit that reduced fees for using their app as well. Trip Cancellation Insurance I recently had to cancel several trips because my traveling companion received some unfortunate medical news that would require a lengthy treatment. The cancellation fees were irritating until I remembered that my Chase card had travel cancellation insurance. It could help me recoup ~$500 in cancellation fees. I proceeded to their to file two new claims. The issues with this web page loading slowly was an ominous sign for what was to come. After the page finally loaded, I tried to fill out their confusing and poorly functioning web form. I called their helpline, whom after putting me on hold for 25 minutes, guided me in filling out the online claims form. They required A LOT of documentation to prove that your situation qualified for the insurance. I obtained a letter from my travel companion’s doctor to verify her condition and date of diagnosis, collected the cancellation confirmations from my vendors (i.e. hotels), and got my bank statements to prove the purchase. I was confident that I provided everything they would need to verify my claims. Upon submission, they said I should expect a response in 5-7 days. claims site Fast forward 4 weeks (and multiple calls) — I finally received a response for my claims. They sent me a response that requires further confirmation that I received no future benefits from the vendors and required my travel companion’s physician to fill out a custom form. At this point, I honestly debated whether getting the refunds was still worth it. My travel companion’s physicians and nurses are extremely busy people and we already asked them to fill out several other forms for us. I used one of those forms instead of Chase’s custom, physician statement form. I doubt it will be sufficient for their verification process. The trip cancellation insurance which started as a promising benefit has now become a huge pain in the ass. I’m not sure whether I’ll recoup the cancellation fees even if I pester the physicians to complete Chase’s custom forms. Summary While the high fee credit cards appear as a no-brainer, the ROI significantly diminishes in the years following the sign-up bonus. My first-hand experience has shown that many of these benefits come with hidden limitations or disadvantages. The opportunity cost for not choosing a high-fee card, coupled with their benefits’ limitations, reduces the expected ROI of choosing high-fee cards. While the supplemental benefits were unimpressive, the sign-up bonus justifies consideration of this high-fee card. I would recommend individuals with the following characteristics to consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (or something similar): Expects to spend $2500+ per month via this and can comfortably afford the bills credit card Will spend $4,000 within 3 months after signing up to receive the *** sign-up bonus Can easily afford paying the high annual fee of $550 at the beginning of each year Will dedicate extra time if they want to take advantage of the supplemental benefits Spends at least as much on travel (e.g. planes, gas, hotels) and restaurants as the average consumer Is willing to risk a negative annual ROI if they don’t spend enough each year Is willing to bear the burden of a temporary credit rating hit if they need to cancel the card While there is no such thing as a free lunch in finance, credit cards rewards are as close as they come. ~ The Data Generalist ***If you want to sign up for the , please use my and you will receive if you spend $4,000 or more in the first 3 months. Chase Sapphire Reserve card referral link 60,000 bonus points Image Source: Arrested Development Meme Source Also published . here

KAYAC

kayac.com

201-500 employees

Since 1998

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KAYAC

EVERGREEN INDEX #6174

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KAYAC

kayac.com

201-500 employees

Since 1998

COMPANY RANKING

KAYAC

EVERGREEN INDEX #6174

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