Credit Karma, Bookmarks Magazine, FOX Business, CNBC, Yahoo! Finance, and dozens of major U.S. newspapers. Her articles have been cited in seven nonfiction books and two U.S. Congressional hearings. She edits nonfiction, memoir, and fiction, and ...

37% of Cardholders Have Recently Fallen Behind on Credit Card Payments, Survey Finds

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global technology platform that makes Intuit QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp, today announced the availability of several new and improved e-commerce innovations for QuickBooks Online that help small businesses effortlessly manage their inventory across sales channels from one,

Intuit QuickBooks Introduces Integrated E-Commerce Management for Product-Based Businesses Using QuickBooks Online

Gen Z continues to spend on entertainment, while Millennials, Gen X, Boomers hold back due to worries about pricing pressures, new study shows.

Gen Z FOMO Fuels Big Spending Despite Inflation

An in-depth look at cryptocurrency ETFs, their market implications, and the opportunities and risks they present.

Exploring the Pros and Cons of Crypto ETFs

The nonhousing debt in the U.S. has grown every year since 2013. From auto loan debt to credit cards, Americans are leaning more on borrowed money to manage finances. In the second quarter of 2023, nonmortgage debt in America grew to $4.

Debt Consolidation Loan Statistics & Trends In 2023

With that in mind, the club announced on Tuesday that it would be offering all fans in the crowd on Wednesday a credit toward season tickets for next season, or for a future match. A club statement read: “The Chicago Fire are excited to host Inter Miami ...

With Messi in doubt, Chicago Fire offer credit to fans at sold-out game

Credit Karma released new survey data that finds nearly a quarter of Americans (24%) wish the holidays were canceled because of the cost. Category : News, Holidays, Work & Money

Nearly 1/4 of Americans wish the holidays were canceled this year due to financial stress

In fact, nearly 1/4 of Americans (24%) surveyed actually wish the holidays were canceled this year because the financial stress is just too much.

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, will announce its first-quarter financial results for fiscal year 2024 on November 28, following the close of market. The company's first quarter ends on October 31.

Intuit to Announce First-Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Results on Nov. 28

Credit Karma

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Ash Coleman, Head of DEI at Credit Karma, talks about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Work

"In today's digital age, security compliance is not just a necessity but a cornerstone of trust," says Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran, a leading compliance engineering expert at Intuit. He provides insights at a crucial time when cybersecurity threats and regulatory complexities are at an all-time high. Akshay directly enhances Intuit's security environment with his initiatives, setting a high bar for digital security across the industry. The Imperative of Compliance in a Digital World Immense pressure forces businesses to fortify their defenses while adhering to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. Intuit, a global financial software company, faces these challenges head-on and uses professionals like Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran to enhance its security posture. Akshay integrates advanced automation and machine learning into compliance engineering, streamlining processes and reducing human error with his innovative methodologies. "We’ve reinforced a system that automates compliance checks across many layers, significantly reducing the risk of non-compliance and potential breaches," Akshay explains. "This has been a game-changer for us, allowing for continuous monitoring and swift responses to potential threats." Intuit Assist: A Revolution in Financial Guidance Intuit Assist, a distinctive artificial intelligence (AI)-a powered platform offering personalized financial guidance to over 100 million subscribers, is central to Intuit's innovative course of action. Akshay’s role in the development of Intuit Assist was crucial via the achievement of compliance certifications along with the development of new security controls, policies, and standards, which paved the way for an advanced assistant. The system handles 810 million AI-driven interactions and 25 million natural language conversations annually. Intuit Assist provides real-time data to offer customized guidance that adapts to each user's unique financial scenario, setting itself apart. Unlike conventional financial tools that basically react to user inputs, Intuit Assist takes a proactive stance, anticipating needs based on a deep understanding of each user's financial journey. By seamlessly integrating across Intuit products such as Quickbooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and MailChimp, it democratizes financial decision-making for individuals and businesses. Compliance certifications served as a cornerstone to the integration of the assistant across Intuit products whilst also allowing data sharing between Intuit and its financial partners. "Automation in compliance improves accuracy, but it also enhances our ability to predict and prevent security incidents," says Akshay Sekar. "Foresight is a superpower that only AI can supply for now." Automating Compliance: A Technological Leap Akshay leads the compliance automation framework at Intuit, utilizing automation and artificial intelligence to perform real-time audits and generate comprehensive, easy-to-interpret reports. This innovation has streamlined the auditing process, reducing the time required from weeks to mere hours. This allows Intuit to maintain compliance with global security compliance standards such as ISO 27001, PCI, SOC2, and SOX  more efficiently, freeing up resources to focus on proactive security measures. In 2023, Intuit's automated systems flagged potential vulnerabilities in third-party integrations, allowing immediate mitigation before any exploit could occur. A Vision for Sustainable Security As the digital terrain shapeshifts, strategies employed to secure it must also change. Akshay envisions a future where compliance engineering is fully integrated into enterprise operations and advances with AI and machine learning. This integration will enable security frameworks to be more dynamic and responsive and adapt to new threats in real-time. "The future of compliance engineering lies in its ability to scale with the changing digital environment," Akshay reflects. "Our goal is to create a resilient infrastructure that not only meets today's standards but anticipates and prepares for tomorrow's challenges." Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran exemplifies the critical role of compliance engineering in modern enterprise security through his work at Intuit. He has bolstered Intuit's defenses and set a new industry benchmark through his use of automation and AI. "Ultimately, our mission is to build trust through security," concludes Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran. "We can establish a safer digital future for everyone by staying ahead of regulatory demands and emerging threats." This piece was published as part of HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. For more details, please click here. "In today's digital age, security compliance is not just a necessity but a cornerstone of trust," says Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran, a leading compliance engineering expert at Intuit. He provides insights at a crucial time when cybersecurity threats and regulatory complexities are at an all-time high. "In today's digital age, security compliance is not just a necessity but a cornerstone of trust," Akshay directly enhances Intuit's security environment with his initiatives, setting a high bar for digital security across the industry. The Imperative of Compliance in a Digital World The Imperative of Compliance in a Digital World Immense pressure forces businesses to fortify their defenses while adhering to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. Intuit, a global financial software company, faces these challenges head-on and uses professionals like Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran to enhance its security posture. Akshay integrates advanced automation and machine learning into compliance engineering, streamlining processes and reducing human error with his innovative methodologies. "We’ve reinforced a system that automates compliance checks across many layers, significantly reducing the risk of non-compliance and potential breaches," Akshay explains. "This has been a game-changer for us, allowing for continuous monitoring and swift responses to potential threats." "We’ve reinforced a system that automates compliance checks across many layers, significantly reducing the risk of non-compliance and potential breaches," "This has been a game-changer for us, allowing for continuous monitoring and swift responses to potential threats." Intuit Assist: A Revolution in Financial Guidance Intuit Assist: A Revolution in Financial Guidance Intuit Assist, a distinctive artificial intelligence (AI)-a powered platform offering personalized financial guidance to over 100 million subscribers, is central to Intuit's innovative course of action. Akshay’s role in the development of Intuit Assist was crucial via the achievement of compliance certifications along with the development of new security controls, policies, and standards, which paved the way for an advanced assistant . The system handles 810 million AI-driven interactions and 25 million natural language conversations annually. advanced assistant advanced assistant Intuit Assist provides real-time data to offer customized guidance that adapts to each user's unique financial scenario, setting itself apart. Unlike conventional financial tools that basically react to user inputs, Intuit Assist takes a proactive stance, anticipating needs based on a deep understanding of each user's financial journey. By seamlessly integrating across Intuit products such as Quickbooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and MailChimp, it democratizes financial decision-making for individuals and businesses. Compliance certifications served as a cornerstone to the integration of the assistant across Intuit products whilst also allowing data sharing between Intuit and its financial partners. "Automation in compliance improves accuracy, but it also enhances our ability to predict and prevent security incidents," says Akshay Sekar. "Foresight is a superpower that only AI can supply for now." "Automation in compliance improves accuracy, but it also enhances our ability to predict and prevent security incidents," "Foresight is a superpower that only AI can supply for now." Automating Compliance: A Technological Leap Automating Compliance: A Technological Leap Akshay leads the compliance automation framework at Intuit, utilizing automation and artificial intelligence to perform real-time audits and generate comprehensive, easy-to-interpret reports. This innovation has streamlined the auditing process, reducing the time required from weeks to mere hours. This allows Intuit to maintain compliance with global security compliance standards such as ISO 27001, PCI, SOC2, and SOX  more efficiently, freeing up resources to focus on proactive security measures. In 2023, Intuit's automated systems flagged potential vulnerabilities in third-party integrations, allowing immediate mitigation before any exploit could occur. A Vision for Sustainable Security A Vision for Sustainable Security As the digital terrain shapeshifts, strategies employed to secure it must also change. Akshay envisions a future where compliance engineering is fully integrated into enterprise operations and advances with AI and machine learning. This integration will enable security frameworks to be more dynamic and responsive and adapt to new threats in real-time. "The future of compliance engineering lies in its ability to scale with the changing digital environment," Akshay reflects. "Our goal is to create a resilient infrastructure that not only meets today's standards but anticipates and prepares for tomorrow's challenges." "The future of compliance engineering lies in its ability to scale with the changing digital environment," "Our goal is to create a resilient infrastructure that not only meets today's standards but anticipates and prepares for tomorrow's challenges." Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran exemplifies the critical role of compliance engineering in modern enterprise security through his work at Intuit. He has bolstered Intuit's defenses and set a new industry benchmark through his use of automation and AI. "Ultimately, our mission is to build trust through security," concludes Akshay Seka r Chandrasekaran. "We can establish a safer digital future for everyone by staying ahead of regulatory demands and emerging threats." "Ultimately, our mission is to build trust through security," r "We can establish a safer digital future for everyone by staying ahead of regulatory demands and emerging threats." This piece was published as part of HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. For more details, please click here. This piece was published as part of HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. For more details, please click here . here here

Compliance Engineering Expert Elevates Enterprise Security at Intuit

কমপ্লায়েন্স ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং বিশেষজ্ঞ Intuit এ এন্টারপ্রাইজ নিরাপত্তা উন্নত করে

Compliance-Engineering-Experte verbessert Unternehmenssicherheit bei Intuit

Experto en ingeniería de cumplimiento eleva la seguridad empresarial en Intuit

Un expert en ingénierie de conformité élève la sécurité de l'entreprise chez Intuit

अनुपालन इंजीनियरिंग विशेषज्ञ ने इंट्यूट में उद्यम सुरक्षा को उन्नत किया

コンプライアンス エンジニアリングの専門家が Intuit のエンタープライズ セキュリティを向上

규정 준수 엔지니어링 전문가, Intuit의 기업 보안 강화

Especialista em engenharia de conformidade eleva segurança empresarial na Intuit

Эксперт по обеспечению соответствия требованиям повышает безопасность предприятия в Intuit

Uyumluluk Mühendisliği Uzmanı Intuit'te Kurumsal Güvenliği Artırıyor

Chuyên gia kỹ thuật tuân thủ nâng cao bảo mật doanh nghiệp tại Intuit

合规工程专家提升 Intuit 的企业安全性

As you begin a new job, where do you put your focus: building relationships or delivering results? The question itself creates a false dichotomy. Relationships and results are not mutually exclusive. Many of the best-performing companies and teams deliver exceptional results of relationships. Of course, good relationships go by other names in the corporate world: strong culture, , and high-trust work environments. because high-performance teams is an executive product leader, having led product teams at multiple tech companies, from Credit Karma to Twilio to Digital Ocean. She credits much of her success to shifting her focus from results-first to people-first at a crucial point in her career. Jodi Alperstein Shift to People First In the first years of your career, it’s appropriate to focus on results. It’s also a natural transition from academics, where your grade is determined based on the results you deliver via homework, tests, and projects. Alperstein recognized her bias towards execution-driven results and made a deliberate shift. She explains, “ .” Earlier in my executive career, I was too in the weeds, too detailed in terms of execution for a strategic leader. I was overly oriented towards accountability and results. It's not that I didn't care about people. I did, but I wasn't necessarily people-first. I was more focused on results first and people second A turning point for Alperstein was when her team gave her feedback that her communication style around accountability could come across as too direct or even abrasive. She took the feedback seriously. “ I adjusted my approach a little bit with the group to focus more on their needs and the relationships, and we still achieved our goals. And it was a much more enjoyable experience for all of us. Then I went to the next job, and I applied this approach of being in service of and supportive to the people on my team as my primary objective, and that allowed me to quickly build trust, relationships, and appreciation from them - which set us up to achieve results together from the start.” It’s Not a Tradeoff Alperstein learned that you can deliver great results while putting relationships first. That’s a balance many people don’t believe. Elon Musk famously says you can’t have both empathy and results. That mentality sets up a tradeoff that’s widely accepted as truth. Alperstein is unwilling to accept that such a trade-off exists. She believes in prioritizing people, but at the same time, she’s not willing to accept a lower performance standard. In her words, “ .” You can't just have good relationships and not do a good job. You have to be able to do those things in concert with one another Misunderstanding Empathy Doing both in concert – being a people-first leader focused on results – requires a shift in perspective. It’s not “one or the other”, and it’s not “one at a time”. Leaders unlock real value when they learn to be people first holding others accountable. while “ ” Alperstein explains. Doing both at the same time is what leads to exceptional business results. It doesn't mean you're a pushover and don't hold people accountable for their work. You just do it in a more empathetic way, The Dividends of a High Trust Culture Business results are the product of people’s work, and to deliver exceptional results requires effective communication and coordination among teams. Trust and relationships are the foundation for high-quality communication. “ ” Alperstein says. In fact, is one of the most important benefits of a high-trust culture. Without it, rather than deal with them. Even worse, more than 10% of people ultimately quit their jobs rather than deal with the conflict. When you have developed a relationship with people, you can be honest and direct with them when they are not meeting expectations in some particular way, navigating conflict and disagreement 89% of people let conflicts escalate As Alperstein explains, “ ” If you don't have trust and you haven't built a strong relationship, then constructive feedback can be perceived as creating a toxic environment. How to Excel as a Leader Constructive feedback down the organization is important, but communication is equally important going up the organization. When communication flows easily, the leader provides clear direction and priorities to the team, and the team communicates status, obstacles, and requests to the leader. Once again, trust is an essential element that is multi-directional. Reflecting on her style as a leader, Alperstein credits her “ ” ability to create trust with people on my team and empower them so they can do incredible work. Being able to unlock their ability to deliver value and grow in their careers is what leadership is about. A strong team is going to come up with things that are beyond your wildest dreams. A lot of that performance is rooted in relationship and mutual trust. A Barrier to Execution What about companies that aren’t delivering? When facing execution challenges, leadership often blames the team and considers layoffs, reorgs, or other personnel changes. While there may be genuine delivery issues, Alperstein recognizes – like – that execution issues often begin with the leadership. other successful leaders “ ” I see some companies zigzagging all over the place, trying to chase the market and not stick with a strategy. And when their Product team doesn’t deliver anything meaningful, the executives wonder why and blame the Product team when it's really an issue of an executive team that can't stay focused. And this leads to serious trust issues - the employees don’t trust their leaders, and the leaders don’t trust their team. It’s very difficult to execute in an environment like that. Getting more efficient A high-trust environment supports solving the execution issue. “ ” You have to be able to receive information from your team and help them figure out how to get more efficient. They often know what the problems are, and even how to solve them;  however, they might not think they have the authority to do so. Having an open and honest two-way dialogue will help ensure you can unblock the challenges that the team is struggling with. “ .” That requires trust. I'm a big believer in learning at all levels and feedback from all directions. Not just top down, but bottom up in order to make better decisions A Strong Culture Culture is not what’s written on the wall. It is a description of the repeated behaviors and values of a workgroup. If you want a high-performance culture, follow Alperstein’s model of building a people-first organization, emphasizing trust and relationships. They are the foundation of teamwork, communication, feedback, learning, and ultimately performance.

Relationships and Results: The Key to Unlocking Both Simultaneously With Jodi Alperstein

Congrats on raising new financing for Masa Finance. How much money did you raise? And what are the terms of the deal? On May 4, we announced a $3.5 million in pre-seed funding. We offered equity through a SAFE in the sponsoring company and tokens in the DAO which is launching when the protocol goes live later in the year. Who participated in the round? And how will these investors help the business grow beyond the money? The round comes from both traditional and web3-focused VCs. Investors include Unshackled Ventures, executives from GoldenTree Asset Management (a $46bn credit-focused fund), Flori Ventures (Celo-focused fund), GSR, Decentranet, Intersect VC, Lateral Capital, Peer VC, Alves Ventures, and several angel investors in the fintech/blockchain space including Louis Beryl (founder of Earnest), Gustavo Menezes (24hr of Le Mans Driver for Peugeot Sport), and Jacob Riglin; a high-profile NFT artist who will be launching future NFT-collateralized loan products. What does your company offer today? And what do you think it will provide in the future? Masa Finance provides a simple user experience through which people can link, manage, and track traditional and cryptocurrency accounts to create a non-fungible credit report - allowing access to credit through fully on-chain services. You can think of the user experience as credit karma for DeFi in the first version of the app. Underpinning this, Masa’s credit protocol comprises a decentralized credit bureau, a private transaction layer, and an embedded lending protocol consisting of a non-fungible credit report, composable credit primitives, smart contracts, and liquidity pools, enabling developers to launch sophisticated credit products in DeFi to match the existing centralized credit paradigm. At launch, Masa supports over 10,000 data sources across 78 countries through traditional financial data integrations with Credit Bureaus, Banks, and Fintechs; aggregated together with global cryptocurrency coverage through exchange integrations, Masa unlocks a market of 2.97B people through its credit infrastructure. We have several partners ready to provide liquidity and loan products within the app; including , , and . Masa will be the first DeFi platform to offer uncollateralized loans through  partners in the US, Canada, and sub-Saharan-Africa. Goldfinch Blackcopper EQ Exchange What differentiates your product and/or offering from competitors? Masa’s mission is to bring the next billion people to DeFi by bringing data from off-chain financial data and cryptocurrency accounts together on-chain. The platform offers a seamless user experience through which anyone can link, manage, and track their CeFi and DeFi accounts. By giving users the ability to create and leverage a new decentralized NFT credit report, Masa can create a decentralized credit score and unlock access to uncollateralized loans and other tailor-made financial products through fully on-chain DeFi services. In laymen’s terms, how do you plan on spending the money? We are focusing on expanding our senior team by finding the highest performing people who want to work in a decentralized organization (DAO) - this includes roles across engineering, growth, and operations. Given the scale of the vision we have, finding highly experienced engineers is critical. We have just hired a Head of People Operations to drive culture, recruiting, and performance across the organization. With the pre-seed behind us, and with our first partners going live we are raising a Seed Round to expand, and launch the DAO and the protocol's production release. Alongside this, we will conduct a public token sale and scale NFT credit reports and node operators If you want to work for a high-performing distributed team check out our open roles here (link). What’s exciting about your traction to date? And how do you plan on measuring growth going forward? Masa is building on Celo and Ethereum, has 36,000 people signed up to the platform, 8 partners going live in the Masa App, and 2,100+ node operators on its live testnet that supports zero-knowledge private transactions and private smart contracts. Masa has seen double-digit growth each month as we’ve started rolling out our platform into different markets. The first credit products launching on the protocol include a credit builder loan, uncollateralized loans, and an SME line of credit through its app in June. We are focusing on two main drivers for growth and adoption of the platform; the number of NFT credit reports, and the number of partners providing loans through the Masa App. These two components drive private transaction volume to the private zero-knowledge layer which we expect to see continued growth in node operators from the current number live on the testnet. What are your revenue expectations over the next three years? The Masa platform drives protocol revenues through transaction fees on the private transaction layer, fees on loans originated through the platform (the majority of which goes to funding providers), and referral fees for partner loans issued through the Masa App. These fees are shared with validators and node operators who stake tokens to verify and relay private transactions - a percentage of these fees also accumulate in the DAO treasury. As a DAO we are focused on driving adoption of the protocol layer that enables private transactions,increasing the value of the token which is staked by validators and the DAO treasury. Our ambition is to be a globally adopted layer 1 private transaction layer for the entire DeFi credit ecosystem - this means growing to be a multi-billion dollar protocol that drives value for validators and node operators. At launch Masa will have a significant DAO treasury that will secure the long-term growth of the protocol. The north star metric we use to measure  adoption is the number of users who have created NFT credit reports on the platform by connecting off-chain data sources on-chain. What is your TAM (Total Addressable Market)? And what is your strategy to acquire the maximum share of this market? 95% of all lending in DeFi is collateralized with a high barrier to entry. Existing DeFI lenders are building for a world that doesn’t yet. With our data partnerships and integration we support over 10,000 data sources in 78 countries which addresses a market of 2.97B people. We are on track to create 5 million NFT credit reports over the next 18 months and onboarding over 100 lenders to the platform. Long term we want to be the ubiquitous decentralized credit layer for DeFi which means onboarding billions of users globally. In your funding raising pitch deck, what is your favorite slide? My favorite slide addresses our go-to-market for the next 18 months and our ambition in taking on a massive market. It not only demonstrates how incredibly huge the credit market is but it also shows how massive Masa will be by bringing a small bite of the global credit pie to DeFi. If we want to take DeFi mainstream the lowest hanging fruit to me is offering open access to credit services. We are very early on in the growth of DeFi, there are only 4.6M active users. Masa has the opportunity to double the number of users of DeFI wallets over the next 18 months alone by providing them with an NFT credit report. At 5m NFT credit profiles this represents a strong step forward in our mission to bring the next billion people to DeFi. What problem are you solving? And Why is now the time for your company to solve this? 3.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to credit-building services. DeFi is creating an alternate universe of finance, commerce, investment, and sources of capital for DeFi lenders to serve more customers.  DeFi innovation will profoundly transform the global economy and disrupt industries. It is starting to reshape the way people borrow and save and is remaking banking as we know it. DeFi lending has a profound role to play in this transformation. Key benefits of DeFi include greater security, speed, lower costs, a wide range of services - giving more choice, and the ability to unlock financial freedom through crypto holdings. In addition to these accessibility problems developers have no middleware connecting traditional Finance with DeFI AND they can’t access encrypted (private) financial data for smart contracts. We solve for both. What are the potential risks to the business? i.e. technology, regulatory, incumbents, legal, etc. There are several hurdles to the mass adoption of DeFi. These include: Scalability – A sustainable DeFi ecosystem will likely consist of interoperable blockchains. Gas Fees – The issue of gas fees needs to be addressed to enable financial inclusion. We are building on Celo which is both mobile friendly and has low gas fees. Institutional Adoption – Mass institutional adoption will likely follow widespread consumer adoption. Utility – Most DeFi platforms in the space are building for a future that does not exist yet. We need a platform now that can serve and integrate core centralized banking systems and bridge them to DeFi. To overcome these obstacles, we need to educate consumers and institutions on the benefits of DeFi. Currently, there are many, particularly in developed countries, who are comfortable with the status quo. These mainstream users who do not have an immediate incentive to learn about new and complex protocols and the disruptive technology enabling it. We need them on board in order to accelerate mass adoption of DeFi and ultimately achieve financial inclusion. What intellectual and digital property does the company own? Or intend to build/own? i.e. patents, patents pending, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, domains, bored apes, etc. We are planning to open source all aspects of the protocol over time - this process will be governed by members of the DAO and will be done under the philosophy of progressive decentralization. Why should we think Masa could grow to the moon?! There is an undeniable need to extend credit to billions of underserved individuals around the world. Without fair access to credit people cannot build leverage and increase their personal wealth. The fundamentals of wealth creation hinge upon access to credit. The current system does not serve the many, it serves the few. As a credit invisible person in the US - having immigrated here and only having 5 years of credit history I know how big the barriers are for accessing credit if you are not born into the system. Masa will succeed because we are enabling a more equitable future that provides access to financial services to an underserved global population, one of the most overlooked segments by traditional finance. Unlocking this market segment and aligning incentives through DeFi will drive massive growth of our platform. We will be the credit bureau (credit DAO) of the future, owned by all participants - not one central entity.

Q&A with Brendan Playford, Founder of Masa Finance

Russia is increasingly isolated politically and economically, and countries are not the only parties choosing to flex their economic might. Recently, some major companies have implemented their own forms of economic sanctions. But this begs the question: Are these companies’ actions a sign they are too big for their own good? Nearly half of professionals in the U.S. (45%) say they do not support the recent bans of Russian state media companies by major social media companies, according to a on the Blind. More than one in four respondents (27%) said they only supported “censorship” if required by a court or legal order. recent user-initiated poll professional social network Earlier this week, internet giants, including Google-owned YouTube, Meta-owned Facebook, and TikTok, blocked channels and profiles connected to the Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik in Europe amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the same poll on Blind, the remaining 28% of respondents said they supported companies deciding to “censor” as they see fit. “Businesses are free to refuse content that they disagree with, especially when that content is government produced,” said a verified Credit Karma professional. “I do not support government compelled speech.” The professional at the company described the recent corporate actions as “non-government private actors making decisions for their own property.” The user continued: “It’s called liberty.” financial-technology Others expressed concern with the exercise of what some call the outsized geopolitical influence of companies sanctioning another country as a government might. “Big tech flexing their power into politics is such a dangerous and recent thing we have to accept,” - verified Workday professional The growing list of companies sanctioning Russia At least two dozen major private companies and organizations have stopped business or limited access to their goods or services in Russia. Some of the global companies include: Airbnb Apple Airbus Boeing BP Daimler Truck Disney EA Sports Equinor ExxonMobil FedEx Ford GM Harley-Davidson HSBC International Olympic Committee and other major sports governing bodies, including FIFA Maersk Mastercard Meta Microsoft Netflix PayPal Reddit Shell Snap Societe Generale TikTok Twitter UPS Visa Volvo WarnerMedia The wide breadth of the companies involved, including many large U.S. , has also led to criticism from some technologists as evidence of a “big tech monopoly.” technology companies “All my thoughts and prayers are with [the] people of Ukraine,” a verified Airbnb professional said on Blind. “But this censoring is not going to help them [Ukrainians] and sets a wrong precedent for future cases,” citing the actions taken by Facebook, Google, Mastercard, Netflix, PayPal-owned Venmo and Visa. In the end, the issue may be a problem of our own collective doing. “I’d say they are intentionally performative,” an anonymous verified professional said on Blind, referring to the many companies’ decisions to sanction Russia. “Tech companies should not be the judge of anything or step into politics, but everyone expects [from] them some kind of social responsibility to do the right thing. This means they have to do something to make the crowd not mad.” The bottom line The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has extended beyond the borders of Europe, and companies increasingly have a say. The professional social network Blind found that some U.S. tech giants’ recent decisions to sanction Russia have drawn the concern of some technologists about the influence these companies command. Also published on Teamblind's blog

Do Some Tech Companies Have Too Much Influence? - Lessons From the Russia-Ukraine Conflict 

¿Algunas empresas tecnológicas tienen demasiada influencia? - Lecciones del conflicto Rusia-Ucrania

Certaines entreprises technologiques ont-elles trop d'influence ? - Les leçons du conflit russo-ukrainien

क्या कुछ टेक कंपनियों का बहुत अधिक प्रभाव है? - रूस-यूक्रेन संघर्ष से सबक

一部のテクノロジー企業は影響力が強すぎますか? - ロシア・ウクライナ紛争からの教訓

Algumas empresas de tecnologia têm muita influência? - Lições do conflito Rússia-Ucrânia

Một số công ty công nghệ có ảnh hưởng quá nhiều không? - Bài học từ xung đột Nga-Ukraine

一些科技公司的影响力是否太大？ - 俄罗斯-乌克兰冲突的教训

As the world becomes increasingly digital, nearly every company is looking for to code—no matter the industry. The phenomenon has been great news for software engineers and programmers who can now command high salaries for their hot, in-demand talent. software engineers Perhaps it is no surprise that software engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to Silicon Valley and its many tech giants, can command an even higher premium with their pay packages. According to the more than 5 million verified professionals on the professional social network Blind, these are the top 17 best-paying cities for software engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Blind considered the annual base pay and the total compensation package, including the annual salary and any stock-based compensation or bonuses a company might offer. 1. Los Gatos, California n: $500,449 Average Total Compensatio : $475,000 Median Total Compensation : $470,015 Average Salary : $451,000 Median Salary Los Gatos is the best-paying city for software engineers in the U.S., according to Blind. The small town is home to Netflix, which prefers to hire more senior or experienced professionals and pays accordingly. The video-streaming giant typically pays large salaries and gives few employees stock-based compensation. 2. Menlo Park, California : $328,423 Average Total Compensation : $297,000 Median Total Compensation : $167,004 Average Salary : $165,000 Median Salary Menlo Park might be home to only 34,000 people, but its population can swell in size with tech workers during the workweek. Menlo Park is home to the headquarters of Meta, the owner of Facebook and one of the highest-paying technology companies. Google and Roblox were also founded in the city. 3. Cupertino, California n: $279,391 Average Total Compensatio : $255,850 Median Total Compensation : $165,753 Average Salary : $165,000 Median Salary Cupertino is home to Apple and its futuristic Apple Park corporate campus. Software engineers at Apple have enjoyed large paychecks recently, as the iPhone maker briefly topped a jaw-dropping $3 trillion market cap early in 2022. 4. San Bruno, California : $278,368 Average Total Compensation : $225,900 Median Total Compensation : $161,269 Average Salary : $149,500 Median Salary YouTube moved its headquarters to San Bruno in 2007 and has become the city’s largest employer. The Google-owned video streaming service employs more than 2,000 professionals. 5. Mountain View, California : $275,181 Average Total Compensation : $242,000 Median Total Compensation : $160,790 Average Salary : $156,000 Median Salary Mountain View is synonymous with Silicon Valley. Long before startups were birthed in San Francisco Bay Area garages, the city was home to silicon semiconductor producers, which gave the region its name. Of course, the city is now well-known as the headquarters of Google, but other tech companies with prominent presences include 23andMe, Intuit, Mozilla and Synopsys. 6. Oakland, California : $266,869 Average Total Compensation : $197,750 Median Total Compensation : $192,240 Average Salary : $168,750 Median Salary Oakland has become a hub for many financial-technology companies. Credit Karma moved its headquarters from San Francisco to downtown Oakland in 2020. Block and Marqeta also have major offices in “The Town.” 7. San Francisco, California : $265,050 Average Total Compensation : $225,000 Median Total Compensation : $165,042 Average Salary : $160,200 Median Salary San Francisco might be the crown jewel of the technology industry, as the home of too many tech startups and companies to count. The city by the bay is home to Airbnb, DoorDash, Lyft, Twitter, Uber and more, but its top employer is . The cloud giant employs more than 9,000 employees, and its headquarters has made a permanent contribution to the downtown skyline. Salesforce 8. Sunnyvale, California : $260,048 Average Total Compensation : $238,000 Median Total Compensation : $160,499 Average Salary : $160,000 Median Salary Sunnyvale maintains its Silicon Valley roots as home to the chip-maker AMD and advanced technology and networking companies, including Juniper Networks, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn and NetApp. 9. Palo Alto, California : $234,739 Average Total Compensation : $200,000 Median Total Compensation : $157,488 Average Salary : $154,000 Median Salary The tony city of Palo Alto is one of the major cities of Silicon Valley. Cloudera and VMware are some of the largest technology companies based in the city. 10. San Mateo, California : $234,066 Average Total Compensation : $187,875 Median Total Compensation : $158,629 Average Salary : $155,500 Median Salary Companies that call San Mateo home include Coupa, Roblox and Snowflake. Before being acquired by Zendesk, Momentive, which was founded as SurveyMonkey, was headquartered in the city. 11. Pleasanton, California : $225,058 Average Total Compensation : $202,000 Median Total Compensation : $150,887 Average Salary : $150,000 Median Salary Pleasanton is home to many business parks, but the suburb’s top employer is the HR-technology giant Workday. 12. Foster City, California : $220,293 Average Total Compensation : $190,000 Median Total Compensation : $158,319 Average Salary : $148,500 Median Salary Foster City is the headquarters site of the biopharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences and the enterprise software company Zuora, among other companies. 13. Fremont, California : $218,913 Average Total Compensation : $180,000 Median Total Compensation : $144,638 Average Salary : $142,500 Median Salary Notable companies with headquarters in Fremont include Corsair, Synnex and more, although the city’s No. 1 employer is Tesla. 14. Santa Clara, California : $214,168 Average Total Compensation : $197,000 Median Total Compensation : $153,885 Average Salary : $150,000 Median Salary AMD, Intel, NVIDIA and Palo Alto Networks are some of the most well-known tech companies headquartered in Santa Clara. 15. San Jose, California n: $210,801 Average Total Compensatio : $183,000 Median Total Compensation : $153,390 Average Salary : $145,000 Median Salary The largest city by population in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose is home to Adobe, Cisco, eBay, PayPal, Zoom and more. 16. Redwood City, California : $207,955 Average Total Compensation : $190,000 Median Total Compensation : $156,248 Average Salary : $151,000 Median Salary Redwood City is the headquarters location for several global technology companies, such as Box, Carbon, Electronic Arts and Informatica. 17. Milpitas, California : $188,146 Average Total Compensation : $165,750 Median Total Compensation : $154,073 Average Salary : $138,000 Median Salary Some of the top employers in Milpitas are tech employers, including Cisco, FireEye, SanDisk and more. Methodology Blind analyzed the base salaries and total compensation of software engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area on its platform. Cities were ranked by the average total compensation, including annual base salary and, if applicable, stock-based compensation and cash bonuses. All data is self-reported by verified professionals on the professional social network Blind. Also published on Teamblind's blog

17 Highest-Paying Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area for Software Engineers

Las 17 ciudades que mejor pagan en el área de la bahía de San Francisco para ingenieros de software

17 villes les mieux rémunérées de la région de la baie de San Francisco pour les ingénieurs logiciels

सॉफ्टवेयर इंजीनियरों के लिए सैन फ्रांसिस्को खाड़ी क्षेत्र में 17 उच्चतम-भुगतान वाले शहर

ソフトウェア エンジニアにとって、サンフランシスコ ベイエリアで最も給料の高い 17 の都市

17 cidades mais bem pagas na área da baía de São Francisco para engenheiros de software

17 thành phố trả lương cao nhất trong khu vực vịnh San Francisco cho các kỹ sư phần mềm

旧金山湾区软件工程师薪酬最高的 17 个城市

As many companies increase pay to attract talent in today’s hot job market, some workers are finding themselves left behind. Verified professionals at Amazon have reported external hires are receiving increasingly high offers on the professional social network Blind. A at Amazon had their total pay, which includes a base salary and stock-based compensation, increased to $180,000 after earning a promotion to “software development engineer II.” But instead of celebrating, the coder was dismayed to find someone hired in the same role, which might require as little as two or three years of experience, can earn as much as $300,000. software engineer Companies typically set for each position or job function to account for different experience levels, skills, job markets and performance-driven raises over time. So, how can new workers out-earn established or even long-time employees? salary ranges Why new hires make more money than older employees Over time, workers who have been in a job may earn less than new hires in the same position, a phenomenon called wage or pay compression. Pay compression can happen in competitive labor markets. Employers often need to increase pay to hire experienced or in-demand workers when the need for workers outstrips the supply of available talent. At the same time, raises for current staffers may not have kept up. The disparity can also happen when companies use out-of-date data to set pay. Alternatively, inconsistent or shifting salary range schemes might also be to blame. What to do when a coworker makes more money than you Workers looking to earn a higher salary could benefit by searching for a new position elsewhere. About one in two professionals (49%) said they would quit and find a new job, or switch to a different team if possible, if they found out a than they did, according to a recent user-initiated poll of 2,756 verified professionals on the professional social network Blind. new graduate made more money New offers are driven by the current market, and employers often cannot give existing employees a raise to match, a verified Apple professional explained in response to the poll. “But if it doesn’t happen by the next review cycle, you need to bring it up and leave if they don’t adjust because that only means a new employee is more valuable than you are,” advised the same Apple worker. The other half of survey respondents said they would attempt to negotiate their salary with their boss. “Most people understand when it comes to compensation,” a professional at a financial services company said, referring to managers. Before discussing pay or attempting to negotiate a raise at work, staffers should equip themselves with what fair earnings might be. Employees should be well-prepared before their formal ask, which could also include “testing the waters” first. The same financial services professional recommended raise-seekers to “discuss the compensation lightly and test waters” with their manager or lead. “For example: ‘Do you think we made a big impact with X feature? I’ve been thinking about asking for a raise and wanted to start compiling my achievements for my review.’” The supervisor’s response can signal whether the raise-request may be successful. A verified Credit Karma professional approved of the approach, adding it “doesn’t hurt to start a conversation with your manager.” The bottom line Companies have recently found it difficult to recruit new employees and are hiking pay to attract new talent. The result is existing workers may find themselves underpaid compared to external hires. In a competitive job market, it can pay for professionals seeking raises to find a job elsewhere instead of negotiating their salary with their current employer. According to Blind, half of the professionals surveyed said they would quit if they found out a recent graduate earned more money than they did. Methodology In a user-created poll on Blind, 2,756 verified professionals responded yes or no to the question “Would you negotiate salary with your boss if you found out a fresh grad makes more than you?” between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2, 2021. Respondents who answered no said they would quit for a new job or switch to a different team at the company. Also Published on Teamblind's blog.

How to Deal with a Coworker Making More Money Than You 

Here we go again. An increase in cases due to a new highly has thrown a wrench into most employers’ . COVID-19 contagious coronavirus variant return-to-office plans Only one week into 2022, central business districts remain barren, despite many employers’ previously announced expectations that workers come back to the office to start the new year. More than seven out of 10 professionals in the U.S. (71%) said their company had postponed its return-to-office plans because of the omicron variant of COVID-19, according to a new survey of 3,167 verified professionals in the U.S. from the Blind. professional social network The remaining 29% reported no such changes at their workplaces. Return to office: Which companies have pushed back their plans? Blind found that most tech companies moved their return-to-office dates, perhaps unsurprisingly, as many of them embraced flexible work policies. Survey responses from verified professionals at , Cisco, Credit Karma, Cruise, DocuSign, eBay, Expedia, , Intel, Lyft, MathWorks, Microsoft, Oracle, Peloton, Pinterest, Roblox, SAP, Twilio and Uber confirmed the delayed office reopenings, some of them indefinitely. Apple Google A few companies have pushed back their plans by as little as one month, even amid the uncertainty caused by the omicron variant. “Already pushed back a month,” said a verified Credit Karma professional, referring to the personal finance company’s new mid-February return date in a discussion of return-to-office plans. In contrast, many financial services companies, generally loathe in allowing work from home, have also held off on bringing employees back. American Express, Bloomberg, Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, Visa and Wells Fargo have altered their return to the office. “RTO was originally scheduled for now, but they finally caved at the last minute and pushed it back because of omicron,” said a verified Charles Schwab professional. “So stupid that they are forcing us back at all.” How are employers responding to the omicron variant? More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, some employers have not yet honed their workplace policies. Fewer than one in three professionals in the U.S. (31%) said their company requires employees who work in the office to get tested for COVID-19 at least once a week, according to Blind. The other 69% reported no such rule at their companies. The results indicate many employers may be waiting to implement President Biden’s vaccine mandate, which also gives workers the option to be tested for the coronavirus weekly. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing the mandate. A majority of verified professionals at Apple, Bloomberg, Broadcom, Cruise, Goldman Sachs, Micron Technology, Roblox, Salesforce and Wayfair confirmed their companies require COVID-19 testing to work in the office in Blind’s survey. While many companies have taken steps to verify their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19, Blind found few companies have yet to require a “booster” shot. About one in four U.S. professionals (24%) said their company had announced a requirement to get a booster COVID-19 vaccine, according to the survey from Blind, compared to the 76% who said no such policy exists. Bloomberg, Broadcom, Credit Karma and Goldman Sachs are some of the employers with a COVID-19 booster requirement for employees. The bottom line The coronavirus pandemic continues to test the mettle of employers. The omicron variant has forced many companies to rethink and push back return-to-office plans. A large majority of U.S. employers have asked their workforces to continue to work from home for another month or longer, with some companies giving up on setting a return date entirely, according to a new survey from Blind. Methodology Blind conducted an online survey of 3,167 verified professionals in the U.S. on its platform from Jan. 4 to 5, 2022, to understand how employers responded to the COVID-19 omicron variant. Also published on the Teamblind blog.

Omicron Variant is Drastically Slowing Down Return-to-Office Plans in US Tech Companies

Hi, it’s Nate here with a new video on 5 coding concepts that companies will test you on in data science interviews in 2021. As you guys know, I’m always tracking and collecting interview questions from various companies to better understand what technical concepts you need to know to succeed in interviews and what skills you need to have to succeed on the job. So these are questions that . So they’re as real-time as can be. I’ve collected in the first few months of 2021 The companies that I’m sourcing from today are . I’ll introduce the coding concepts to know and then show you a real interview question I collected from the company. Facebook, Postmates, Credit Karma, Ring Central, and Twitch So let’s get started. Technical Concepts Tested Categorizations, aggregations, ratios Let’s start simple -- categorizations, aggregations, ratios -- (aren’t these 3 different concepts?) -- Yes, but they’re almost always tested together in one question. And it’s probably the most commonly tested concept on coding interviews, especially in the beginning rounds. By categorizations, I mean . I’ll stick with SQL technical concepts because I see most people use SQL on coding interviews. CASE statements in SQL Aggregations like taking the sum or average are always tested and usually are applied after the categorization takes place. But they can also take the form of a ratio. Here’s an example by Facebook ( ): https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding-question?id=2005&python= 1. Facebook Data Science Interview Question: Return the Share of Active Users Return share of monthly active users in the United States (US). Active users are ones with “open” status in the table. Here’s what the solution would look like: SELECT  active_users
/total_users: : float AS active_users_share
FROM  
                        (SELECT count (user_id) total_users,
                                          Count (CASE   
                                                            WHEN status = THEN ELSE NULL

                                                                                                                
                                                            END) AS active_users
                        FROM fb_active_users
                        WHERE country = ) subq 'open' 1 'USA' If you read this solution and it makes sense to you then congrats, you’re on the right track. So as you can see, to solve this question, you need to understand how to properly write a case statement, properly aggregate the results of the case statement, and then take a ratio from the result of the aggregation itself. All in one query. The tricky part isn’t really even those 3 technical concepts. It’s organizing your code into logical steps -- as you can see there’s a subquery to split out the logic. And there’s also a data type conversion from an integer to a float so that your output can be between 0 and 1. These are the little nuances you need to know in addition to these 3 concepts. Lots of people forget these small things, especially if you’re out of practice or nervous. 2. LEFT JOINs and Subqueries and CTEs (Credit Karma) JOINs, subqueries, and CTEs. Again, 3 different concepts but they’re always tested together to solve one problem. Here’s an example of what I mean. This question is from Credit Karma ( ) https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding-question?id=2003&python= Write a query that joins this submissions table to the loans table and returns the total loan balance on each user’s most recent ‘Refinance’ submission. Balance Per User on Recent Refinance Submission Write a query that joins this submissions table to the loans table and returns the total loan balance on each user’s most recent “Refinance” submission. Here’s the SQL code solution: l.user_id, (balance) ( user_id, (created_at) (PARTTION user_id, ) SELECT SUM FROM SELECT DISTINCT Min OVER BY TYPE Looks pretty complicated doesn’t it? It even includes other advanced concepts I’m not even covering. But you can see there’s a JOIN statement and a subquery (which could be re-written as a CTE, if you wanted to do that). What’s being tested is if you can blend two sources of data together and aggregate the data from one table, “balance” with a variable from another table “user_id”. Remember, a successful interviewee will talk through the entire logic and why they’re doing what they’re doing. 3. Subqueries in the WHERE clause (Ring Central) While we’re talking about subqueries, they can be found in multiple places --  not just at the JOIN statement like in the last question. Subqueries in the WHERE clause are also really common concepts tested and actually, it’s a question that most people get wrong. Here’s a question from Ring Central ( https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding-question?id=2017&python=) How many paid users had any calls in Apr 2020? Here’s the solution: ( user_id) rc_calls “ ” “ ” user_id ( user_id rc_users = ) SELECT count DISTINCT FROM WHERE date BETWEEN 2020 -04 -01 AND 2020 -04 -30 AND in SELECT FROM WHERE status 'paid' Subqueries in the WHERE clause allow you to quickly grab information from one table and use it as a filtering condition in the main query, like we are seeing here. So in this example, we’re grabbing the user_id of paid users from the user table and using that as a condition to find how many calls they placed in the calls table. In my experience, not many people would solve this problem in this way. Let me know if you have another approach to this problem. I’ll create a video in the next few weeks that covers all the approaches to solving this problem. 4. Data Science Interview Question from Twitch: Window functions The 4th coding concept tested in data science interviews so far in 2021 are window functions. Window functions are heavily utilized in data science work. I’ve talked about them extensively in past videos. One example of this is a question from Twitch. Twitch ( ) https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding-question?id=2012&python= Streamers Sessions By Users Who Had First Session As Viewer From the users who had their session as a viewer, how many streamer sessions have they had?  Return users id and number of sessions in descending order. In case there are users with the same number of sessions, order them by ascending user id. Here’s the solution: user_id, (*) n_sessions twitch_sessions session_type = user_id ( user_id ( user_id,
                         session_type, () ( user_id session_start) streams_order twitch_sessions) s1 streams_order = session_type = ) user_id n_sessions ,
                     User_id SELECT count FROM WHERE 'streamer' AND in SELECT FROM SELECT rank OVER PARTITION BY ORDER BY FROM WHERE 1 AND 'viewer' GROUP BY ORDER BY DESC ASC This one’s insane. And yes it did get asked in an interview. But don’t worry, in the upcoming weeks, I’ll be stepping through the solution for each of the questions I just covered. These questions take a lot of time to solve and they’re typically found in the later rounds (1) because they’re so much code but (2) because there’s so much involved that it just takes time to talk through it. 5. Date manipulations (Postmates) Lastly, date manipulations. This one is always asked on interviews because everyone in analytics from an analyst to a data scientist works with dates. It would be weird not to. Because you’re usually given a complete day, year-month-day-timestamp, but asked to aggregate by weeks, months, or years, you’ll need to know how to manipulate dates. Here’s one from Postmates ( ) https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding-question?id=2014&python= Which hour of the day averages the highest order volume? Here’s the solution: date_part ( , order_timestamp_utc) , ( ) n_orders posmates_orders date_part ( , order_timestamp_utc) ( ) SELECT 'hour' AS HOUR Count id FROM GROUP BY 'hour' ORDER BY count id DESC This one requires you to extract the hour from the datetime in order to find the highest order volume. So it’s really just a matter of knowing these datetime functions, like date_part(). And as you probably have guessed, I have a few videos on that too. Check them out in the description. Conclusion Did you think these questions were difficult to answer? If so, I’m going to step through all the solutions in my next Youtube videos. I also have a link to all the questions in the video and resources I’ve put together on these technical topics. Remember, these are interview questions that were asked in the first few weeks/months of 2021, so many companies are definitely requiring you to master these 5 technical concepts. I hope this was helpful. Let’s start with these 5 questions in the next few videos on my YouTube channel and see how we can solve them together. Until then guys, keep practicing and learning. Hope this is helpful. Watch the video here: Also published on: https://www.stratascratch.com/blog/data-science-coding-interview-questions-with-5-technical-concepts/

5 Data Science Interview Questions via Facebook, Twitch, and Postmates

Today is a great day for startups and small businesses. What used to be an arena dominated by conglomerates and major corporations, is now a level playing field where small players can also thrive. Thanks to angel investors and global accelerators, budding entrepreneurs and startups are now getting solid support and fresh funding that allows them to compete on a much bigger scale. Not to mention that most accelerator platforms also provide mentorship programs that make business decisions easier to tackle — a blessing, especially for young businesses that are still finding their footing. According to an article from , most successful startup accelerator programs yield results and growth that can actually be seen in as little as three to four months from time of launch, a great timeline for entrepreneurs who wish to see if their ideas will work or not. Forbes What’s also great about global accelerators is that these companies generally extend as much help as possible, in exchange for equity. This includes helping businesses find a permanent headquarters, build a solid management framework and even give important product feedback. But most important, perhaps, is access to other investors via the accelerator’s network. Where to find startup accelerators Now, there might be a lot of accelerator programs out there today, but only a few can truly prove that they are the right partner for your business model. More established programs are usually hard to get into, with that might be as low as 1.5 percent. acceptance rates Considerations to be accepted could be anything: Target market, bold ideas and most importantly, who is the team running the business. So, which ones are the best fit for you? Consider the following: The established ones Based on Crunchbase data, there are 10 startup accelerators that are considered to be the leading ones in terms of a successful exit. TechStars, for example, has around 1,557 investments and 134 successful exits or businesses that have been successfully established. Aside from funding, the Company also provides mentoring programs. This Company is so successful at accelerating startups, that their program has produced a thousand companies valued at over $8 billion. The company 500 Startups in California, has over 1,694 investment programs and 162 of those have been established successfully. 500 Startups is described as a ‘seed and early stage venture capital fund’ composed of four major funds and 13 micro funds, which are used to invest in startups in over 60 countries. Part of their funded projects include Udemy and Credit Karma and some of their exits included selling to Google and Rakuten. Plug and Play, on the other hand, has around 731 investments and 60 successful exits. The Company has placed almost 51 % of their investments into pre-seed ventures and successfully established eight companies in 2017 alone. They hold networking events daily for most of their startups as a way to support them. Plug and Play has an in-house venture capitalist who provides seed money, ranging from $25,000 to as much as $500,000. The group of angel investors Startup accelerator company . ( ), a/k/a DigitalAMN, operates a very unique platform. Digital Asset Monetary Network, Inc OTCMKTS:DATI Through their Public Accelerator-Incubator (PAI) model, DATI accelerates potential startups by first, offering programs that speed-up and provide early-stage and angel investors faster access to liquidity. Then, they create a friendly environment that allows disenfranchised investors (those who are not recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] as an accredited investor) — or simply ‘everyday people’ — to access the same investment opportunities into startups and development-stage companies that normally only the rich or people ‘in the know’ had access to. Disenfranchised investors are the folks who usually don’t get the chance to own stakes in companies like Uber or Snapchat when they are affordable. Ultimately, the exclusion of this group grossly reduces a young company’s ability to raise money and grow quickly. Thus, apart from providing effective services for startups that seek funding, DATI also allows everyday people a chance to financially participate in companies that have the potential to become industry leaders. DigitalAMN can do this courtesy of the company’s PAI model and proprietary programs such as . This includes recent business ventures that bigger companies have already begun investing in. Angels+ What’s also great is that through DATI affiliated equity crowdfunding portals and social capital platforms, everyday people can find truly affordable investment opportunities, in a user-friendly marketplace, to begin building their financial future. As little as $10 in some cases. Likewise, entrepreneur’s can find much of the financial, marketing and developmental support needed to grow their first business venture. The new players There are a plethora of new startup accelerators that have begun supporting new businesses this year, and although they are new, many are backed by ‘veteran’ programs like TechStars. MetLife Digital Accelerator, for example, gathered the first three companies that will be under their accelerator program last July. According to , the companies are from Washington, D.C., Singapore and London, and they were chosen out of a hundred applicants. Bizjournals The companies were chosen with the hope of Metlife establishing a Triangle Startup Cluster. “We have a network of companies and startups we’re familiar with. We are an investor in 16 leading Silicon Valley venture companies and our partner, TechStars, also has a lot of relationships and a reputation for helping very young startups accelerate their success,” said John Geyer, senior vice president of MetLife’s innovation office. The VP said that the company has been traveling to Europe and Asia looking for “the best startups in the world.” In Malawi, a new startup accelerator also launched. Malawian hub mHub recently partnered with GrowthAfrica, Dutch investment firm Accesserator, UNDP Malawi and the Norwegian Embassy for the country’s first startup accelerator programme called Growth Accelerator. The program features a nine-month accelerator program, which was established for entrepreneurs looking to significantly develop their business. According to , the organizers of the accelerator said that the objective of Growth Accelerator is to instill entrepreneurial leadership and grow enterprises that could eventually help the Malawian economy. Disrupt Africa With these accelerators in mind, it has become very easy to be hopeful that budding businesses with strong potential have an equal chance to grow and succeed like their major counterparts.

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