Karbon is work management software for accounting firms and professional service businesses

Karbon

The office as we know it is undergoing a massive change. According to a recent study, 70% of people globally at least once a week. And predicts that in the next year, nearly half of all employees will be working remotely full-time. work remotely research In fact, many businesses are now choosing to forgo physical offices altogether. Not only are younger generations entering the workforce today prioritizing the work/life balance remote gigs provide, but urbanization is also driving up prices and making city-living unaffordable. But with a growing freelance labor pool and the proliferation of coworking spaces, today’s workers can have their dream job without having to break the bank in an expensive city. And advances in communication technology — like video conferencing apps, the cloud, and collaboration software — are making it possible to get your work done, no matter your zip code. Plus, there’s the added bonus of not having to spend 40 hours a week planted in a cubicle. Since the remote workforce trend is showing no signs of slowing down, here’s how to get your company ready for the post-office age: 1. Don’t let 9–5 become 24/7. One of the best things about technology, in general, is that it’s enabled us to stay in touch with our friends and family whenever, wherever. But it’s almost made us connected. too Research shows that Americans spend a whopping . And while Slack, Gmail, and Skype are useful tools for an increasingly remote workforce, they often come with the expectation that we’re always available. Think about all the hours of meaningful work you’ve lost trying to stay on top of emails as soon as they come in. In fact, Deloitte found that 1 in 3 people . looking at a screen each day 10 hours check their smartphones in the middle of the night The truth is, very few of us have the brain power to constantly be on. Managers have to be respectful of employees’ time by allowing for some lag time in email replies — especially on nights and weekends. Encourage your team to actually enjoy their time off, unplug and relax, and take vacations. That way, everyone will be in better spirits and more productive when they log back on. Remember the reason alternative work arrangements are trending in the first place — to honor lifestyle and flexibility. 2. Rethink the perks. Ever since Google started offering free massages and nap pods to its employees, trendy office perks have become the norm. Some offices offer 30 different cuisines for lunch, provide shuttles to and from work, and give employees allowances to decorate their workspaces. But most of these perks were designed to keep employees . in the office As the workforce becomes increasingly remote, these types of perks aren’t likely to draw the talent you want**.** Instead, reward employees with good benefits and ample vacation time. I’ve heard of some companies that will provide an all expenses paid two-week vacation on your third year anniversary. Other companies offer continuing education opportunities, which is valuable given the rapidly shifting nature of work in the era of digital transformation. And some contribute to a gym or sports club membership for each employee, which also goes a long way toward negating the effects of my first point, where workers are struggling to switch off. In the coming years, the most attractive organizations will be those who understand that when life outside of the office is prioritized, everyone benefits. 3. Keep an open mind and hire the best person for the job. At my software company, , we have a mix of remote and in-office employees. Karbon While we have more people on-site at this point, we’d always consider a candidate who would work remotely. The fact is, the market is really competitive, and there’s more than ever. To keep up, you have to be creative about hiring. Don’t confine your search to your geographic location or even the United States. There’s a lot of great talent in places like Russia, Bulgaria, Australia, and New Zealand. capital flowing If you don’t know where to start, try looking for talent using the following: readers are often your best candidates. They’re familiar with your business and interested in what you have to say. Your blog provides listings for contract and freelance work. FlexJobs services remote workers who love to travel. You can find highly-qualified workers, even if they are working from a beach in Thailand. WorkingNomads allows you to list a wide variety of jobs in virtually any industry, and everything must be remote. SkiptheDrive.com Even if your company isn’t fully remote, you should stay open to hiring the best talent. 4. Always listen to your staff. According to a 2010 study, 68% of people worked in an with either no walls or low walls, and the number has surely grown. open office There’s just one problem: employees hate open offices. They’re loud. They’re distracting. There’s no privacy. In fact, people in open offices take nearly and report greater unhappiness, more stress, and less productivity. two-thirds more sick leave Company leaders would have known this if they’d only listened to their employees. You can’t implement new work arrangements or processes without soliciting honest feedback and being open to it. If you provide those feedback loops and make sure that you’re progressing in all the right ways, you’ll be in a much better position to weather the shifting tides of a changing workforce. In a climate where the top talent prefers to work remotely, business leaders are smart to listen. In fact, a recent survey found that as many as 42% of workers would leave their current jobs for a option, like remote work. And a whopping three-quarters of . flexible work millennials said they’d prefer to be able to work remotely Now more than ever before, successful companies know that their teams do best when they’re allowed to thrive outside of the traditional office space.

From Town To Country: 4 Ways To Prepare Your Business For An Increasingly Remote Workforce

Having been in the heart of the technology universe for over 6 years, I’ve seen many trends come and go. Certain trends — like Google Fiber and Pebble — get a lot of buzz for a short period only to fade into the background. I remember when Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), for example, was briefly hailed as the ultimate mobile internet solution that would revolutionize how we use the internet and cellphones. Eventually, newer technologies came along and rendered it obsolete. More recent trends like cryptocurrency have also taken a beating. A Boston College study of firms’ Twitter activity after their initial coin offerings found within four months of this milestone. over half of cryptocurrency startups fail But turn down the noise, and you’ll find there are a few promising trends quietly emerging — or in some cases, re-emerging — in the tech industry. Here are five you need to know: 1. The intranet rises again. A lot of ink has been spilled on the in general. death of the intranet Intranets are painted as archaic vestiges of the past — a network that companies pursuing success in the era of digital transformation should have nothing to do with. The intranet is often associated with a stereotyped idea of old-fashioned interfaces from a decade ago, characterized by ugly design, unilateral communication, and poor content sharing. Cough, Sharepoint, cough. But intranets are not dying. Rather, the intranet is experiencing a re-imagining. Instead of static homepages, think of intranets as the surfacing of relevant data from many disparate systems. This is the modern intranet. Services like and are retooling the intranet to provide teams the ability to connect disparate business apps in an intuitively designed digital workplace compatible with Microsoft Office 365 or SharePoint on-premise. LiveTiles GetGuru And that makes for a seamless experience across devices, between departments, and beyond time zones. In 2019, there’s no reason not to take advantage of this new wave of intranet tools. 2. RPA and the enterprise is still trending up. In recent years, CIOs of large enterprises have been turning to an emerging technology called robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline operations and reduce costs. With RPA, businesses can automate mundane processes and enable business users to devote more time to serving customers or performing other high-intensity work. Many see RPA as a stopgap to intelligent automation via machine learning and artificial intelligence tools, which can be trained to make judgments about future outputs. en route Digitization can sometimes seem out of reach — or intimidating, at the very least — to smaller enterprises. But this year, you’re going to start seeing RPA trickle down to small and medium-sized businesses. RPA improves the operations and service offerings of your mid-range company while, at the same time, sparing you from excessive financial risk. RPAs can take over entire workflows or . And by automating repetitive and time-consuming work, employees are able to take on more meaningful responsibilities. simply complement the work of human employees In short, RPA can save costs in a way that other tech implementations can’t. 3. Integration apps are here to stay. Today’s (the average business today uses roughly ) creates data silos that make effective communication nearly impossible. tech clutter 129 apps According to a Deloitte survey, said they couldn’t make information-backed decisions because the data they needed is trapped in siloed departments. That’s why the “data integration problem” is one of the most popular and pressing topics in tech today. 52% of respondents But now, software as a service (SaaS) and integration apps are becoming an increasingly popular way of solving this issue. With manual coding, there’s not likely to be any documentation of where the stored procedures are. They’re scattered across multiple databases, meaning you don’t know how they’re interconnected and neither do the developers. But integration apps provide code management, process management, and built-in documentation. Integration platform as a service (IPaaS) represents the next generation of application integration. IPaaS is a suite of cloud services that enable integration flows connecting any combination of on-premises and cloud-based processes, services, applications and data within individual or across multiple organizations. In other words, it’s an integration product that runs in the public cloud and is managed by the vendor. There are literally hundreds of integration apps out there right now — , , , and are some popular examples — and there are sure to be hundreds more in the near future. Cleo Mulesoft Jitterbit Tray 4. Worker shortages are driving the need for remote and elastic resources. that 70% of employees in the companies surveyed worked remotely at some point during each week and another 53% for half of the week or more. Research shows Here’s why: To get a good job today, workers still have to live in larger cities, but the rising cost of living — particularly for housing — in urban centers like New York, Beijing, London, and San Francisco means that many people can’t afford a high quality of life. But tech has also enabled people from all of the regions of the world to quickly and cheaply connect online, making it possible for workers to live in places they can actually afford. The result is a talent shortage in major urban areas. That’s why businesses today need to make sure to accommodate the changing workforce. they’ve got the tools they need Cloud-based technology like video conferencing and collaborative documents provide the infrastructure and tools to work together from anywhere there’s an internet connection. Slack, Asana, and Zoom are also great tools for keeping your team keep in touch and on track. And I may be biased, but a acting as the foundation of everything is incredibly useful — and will only become more so in the future.. workstream collaboration tool At my company , we use to provide 24/7 training, management, and support for our customers, without needing to have someone on site. Karbon Influx As top talent spreads geographically, elastic resources may be the key to staying innovative in your industry. 5. B2B companies will start to look a lot like media companies. All business people are familiar with marketing a product. We spend countless hours trying to create materials to attract and keep customers by communicating that our products provide value. But the digital revolution has completely changed the way we reach potential customers. Old marketing tactics like TV ads, direct mail, and billboards just don’t have the same impact anymore, particularly when selling to other businesses. In a world with unlimited competition for attention, you need to find a way to meet your audience where they’re already spending their time — online — and providing content they can’t help but pay attention to. One way to do this is to make content that’s genuinely useful, inspiring, or just plain entertaining — and so valuable that you can market it in the same way you would a product. Podcasts are a great way to do that. The epic success of shows just how influential they can be. Media companies like Gimlet, produce award-winning podcasts, and B2Bs should look to these sorts of teams to give customers something they can benefit from in a meaningful way. Serial which just sold to Spotify This is what media companies have been doing for years — creating and distributing content to the public that helps them build audiences. If you can master content creation, you’ll really stand out. Innovation in the tech industry moves at a breakneck pace, and your relevance and success will be directly proportional to your ability to keep up.

Beyond Crypto: 5 Tech Trends To Know In 2019

For too long, social media apps have been constantly tweaking their algorithms as the only way to keep users hooked and sell more ads. But attention spans are decreasing as people no longer feel comfortable giving their attention and receiving nothing in return. They demand a seat at the table. “In low-income countries, young people are increasingly seeking new innovative ways to supplement their income and improve their lives. And there are many examples around the world, from Nigeria to Argentina and India. GameFi (game finance) offers a unique opportunity to develop an attention economy model that encourages these communities to monetize their attention and build a solid stream of income.” Iurii Kardonov, co-founder of Cheelee. What’s Attention Economy Attention economy centers on the idea that human attention is a scarce commodity. The limiting factor in the modern digital economy isn’t information. Instead, money is made by capturing and keeping user attention as much as possible. The battle for user attention has spurred the attention economy. Digital consumers are human first and only have so much attention to give. As a result, companies use this concept to reduce human users to mere eyes to monetize rather than equal participants in the economy. Facebook, for instance, claims to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” But in reality, the company is only interested in increasing user engagement and growing its ad revenue. Features like “News Feed” only became a mainstay because it successfully increased the amount of time users spent on the platform. Facebook is just one example. Rather than satisfy a user’s interest, YouTube’s goal is to increase the number of videos watched by prioritizing videos that elicit strong emotional responses. Other platforms also use similar tactics to “steal” users’ attention. The ferocious battle for human attention hurts younger generations rather than benefits them. And since attention is a finite resource, we must manage it wisely by focusing on what matters. That means putting a price on our attention instead of giving it for free. When you pay attention to something, you’re contributing your energy to it. So it’s only fair that you’re compensated for giving it. Ways of Earning for Young Generation of Developing Countries The majority of youth in developing countries do not have stable economic opportunities. One-third of Africa's youth population is unemployed and discouraged. In Latin America (LATAM), that figure stood at in 2021. There are not many opportunities for the young generation in these countries to generate income. As a result, many turn to freelancing, OnlyFans, and TikTok to provide for themselves and their families. 21.6% However, freelancing is not the magic ticket out of poverty and freedom. Getting clients challenging, the competition is fierce, and it's difficult to stand out sometimes. This uncertainty puts freelancers from poor countries in survival mode. Either offer your services for dirt-cheap rates or keep getting ignored. Hardly a sustainable way to grow your income. Making a living out of OnlyFans and TikTok can be tricky too if you don't have a large following. In fact, the top 1% of OnlyFans creators receive , while the top 10% get a whopping 73% of revenue. The same trend persists on TikTok. Not a single TikTok creator from Africa, LATAM, or Southeast Asia made the "Top-Earning TikTok-ers of 2022" , which collectively earned $55.5 million.\ a third of the platform’s earnings list As it stands, the average person from a low-income country does not earn enough on these platforms to survive. To empower young creators to earn a living from web3, Cheelee hopes to change this rampant pay inequality, starting with monetizing attention. With Cheelee, everyone can watch and make money. How Cheelee Beats the Poverty Cheelee combines GameFi mechanics and the power of human attention to create earning opportunities for young people in developing countries and beyond. Game finance typically refers to the dynamic combination of gaming and decentralized finance. In its simplest form, it pays users to play games. However, with Cheelee, you get paid for giving your attention. We’re living in an age of attention-grabbing, non-stop notifications, filled up inboxes and tracking by apps and an unrelenting stream of content. It’s no surprise that the average consumer spends 474 minutes a day on digital media. What if there was a way to convert this too much attention into money? Cheelee is a short form video content platform that allows anyone to earn money from watching videos and playing games. This approach allows under-privildeged communities to monetize their attention, generate income and escape the poverty trap. Unlike other social networks that treat users as a means for gathering data for advertising purposes, Cheelee is a community-driven platform where every user is a member, a partner, and a beneficiary. Here’s how it works three simple steps: Sign up on Cheelee app and get free NFT glasses to start with. Watch the feed and get the boxes with LEE tokens (in-app tokens). You will earn LEE from the boxes that drop within 30 minutes of watching the feed. Once your tokens drop, feel free to withdraw or exchange for real-world currency such as USD. You can also increase your earnings by leveling up your starting NFT glasses. Simply buy the new NFT glasses directly from the app using LEE tokens. For each level up you will get points. Allocate the points to NFT glasses modules. You can also upgrade the module using Gems (special NFTs). Allocating points increases your income. Buy additional NFT glasses to increase the amount of Attention and rewarded time of watching the feed. 1 Attention is equivalent to 5 minutes of rewarded feed viewing. More Attention means more income for you. Conclusion If you’re a fan of short videos, stop wasting your time and energy on apps that won’t compensate you for engaging with their content. Join Cheelee to earn extra money and boost your income. Cheelee is now available to both Android and iOS. Also, check out our to claim your share of the $5 million prize pool when you create or watch short videos on Cheelee. community airdrop

How Attention Economy Is Becoming the Main Source of Income for the Young Population

Cómo la Economía de la Atención se está convirtiendo en la principal fuente de ingresos de la población joven

Comment l'économie de l'attention devient la principale source de revenus pour la population jeune

कैसे ध्यान अर्थव्यवस्था युवा आबादी के लिए आय का मुख्य स्रोत बन रही है

アテンションエコノミーが若者の主な収入源になりつつある方法

Como a economia da atenção está se tornando a principal fonte de renda da população jovem

Nền kinh tế được chú ý đang trở thành nguồn thu nhập chính của dân số trẻ như thế nào

注意力经济如何成为年轻人的主要收入来源

Despite major technological advancements in the healthcare sector, dentistry is still largely a manual practice with crucial administrative functions relying heavily on human interaction and input. This aspect will continue to change drastically as technology advances. One area that will significantly impact how practices function is Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA uses artificial intelligence to automate tasks that are repetitive and rule-based. RPA can perform these processes at high speeds with an extremely low rate of errors, making it popular in the business world. While treating patients is the core of any dental practice, many dentists are also business owners and responsible for the administrative side of their offices. Dentists and staff must devote precious time and resources to creating, tracking, and managing patient records. This is in addition to setting and managing appointments, billing, insurance authorizations, and more. Many of these tasks are ideally suited for RPA technology. RPA is designed to address the labor-intensive and repetitive aspects of those jobs. By eliminating repetitive tasks through automation (i.e., RPA bots), dental practices can: • reduce manual effort • increase efficiency • ultimately improve patient care by freeing clinical providers from administrative distractions With RPA software solutions from emerging tech startups, large amounts of manual back-office work can be automated quickly, easily, and cost-effectively. This means dentists can focus on patients instead of paperwork, increasing efficiency and productivity while minimizing errors. RPA is poised to make a major impact on the dental industry. It will not only improve productivity but also increase the quality of services, and provide companies with greater data management capabilities without affecting care. If you are in the dental industry, now is the time to consider RPA technologies. Manuchehr Kurbonali, Co-Founder Zentist

Brief Thoughts on the Benefits of RPA in Dentistry

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your  background. I am passionate about using technology to solve hard problems in complex and highly regulated industries. I found the problem of U.S. dental insurance billing to be a perfect candidate for disruption. Currently, I am working as the Co-Founder and CEO at Zentist, where I set the direction and strategy for the company. Prior to founding Zentist, I spent more than 10 years in corporate financing and investments at various large international financial institutions. I served as the Chief Investment Officer of National Investment Corporation, a $100B sovereign wealth fund in Central Asia. Prior to that, I served as the Head of Corporate Finance at Samruk-Kazyna, an $80B sovereign wealth fund focused on regional investments in Central Asia. I graduated with a dual MBA from the London Business School and Columbia Business School. What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? Zentist. We are automating the insurance billing process and revenue cycle management for dental practices and dental groups in the US. What is the origin story? I co-founded Zentist with Manuchehr Kurbonali and Paulina Song in 2016 with the mission of bringing transparency and affordability to financial transactions in dental care. In the first few years, we discovered that the biggest impact area that serves our mission is insurance claim transactions. We built the Zentist platform with the goal of helping dental practices collect insurance claim reimbursements faster and more accurately by leveraging software and process automation. Prior to Zentist, Manuchehr and I built a large network of primary care and diagnostic centers in Central Asia that serves a population of 5M people across 4 cities. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? What I love about our team: A very diverse group of people from different walks of life share the same mission, vision, and passion for overhauling how insurance transactions are handled. That we build real and friendly relationships with our customers and the market we serve. We are the right group of folks to solve this problem because: Many of us - families, and friends - are dentists and folks who have been part of the dental industry for quite a long time. We’re insiders to the problem. As consumers, we would like to have a better experience and significantly fewer headaches when trying to pay for our dental care. We would like to solve this problem for ourselves and everyone else. We’ve brought together a team of world-class software engineers, product managers, designers, and operations experts to share their expertise and experiences in solving the very specific problems found in dental insurance transactions. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? Investing in social impact initiatives that leverage new and emerging technologies to make our lives better. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? We align our success with the success of our customers by delivering efficient and effective insurance billing results including: The speed at which we are able to collect insurance revenue compared to industry averages. How accurately claims are processed the first time around so the system does not create excess operational work for our customers’ back-office operations. Whether we are collecting insurance revenue as close as to our estimate of collections, the collection ratios are best in the industry How much back-office work in dental practices we are able to eliminate, so that office staff can primarily focus on patient care and satisfaction. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? Today, we process more than $250M in insurance billings per year and have grown more than 20x in the past 2 years. Our average collection time cycle is less than 12 days when the industry average is more than 22-24 days. What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? We’re excited about the application of AI and RPA to dental insurance transactions - and how they can be leveraged to increase automation of tedious, mundane, back-office tasks. We’re worried about the level of openness of insurance carriers to technology adoption that brings transparency. What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? We are bringing to dental care, which is a highly regulated and sophisticated industry, many technologies that are already in use and leveraged in other parts of our lives – like AI, RPA, automation, and the cloud. However, the problems in healthcare that we’re addressing don’t have the same visibility here as other industries. As such, we would like to get the attention of the great engineers, product builders, and designers that make up the HackerNoon community. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Try many things before settling on your professional interests. Don’t forget that you will always have enough time ahead of you, so don’t rush trying to be successful. Have fun while spending your early professional years learning and solving hard problems with great people. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? Don’t underestimate the potential complexity in seemingly simple problems. LINK to City Award Page with your company listed. Startup of the Year

Startup Interview with Ato Kasymov, CEO & Co-founder of Zentist

Hi! Recently, I have told you about the process of creating Victa and why I came up with the idea of ​​developing a running app with deep gamification. Today I would like to share our experience of launching on and tell you how we got “Product of the day”. Product Hunt https://hackernoon.com/how-i-launched-victa-a-running-app-for-gamers-and-got-a-top-ranking-in-the-app-store?embedable=true Victa is the first running and walking app that combines game mechanics, lore and series with functional tracker and analytics. It helps keep you motivated on the path to your desired shape and turns monotonous workouts into a real adventure! The idea of launching on Product Hunt appeared almost immediately, as we approached the stage of promotion, large-scale user acquisition and investment. We studied cases of launches and were inspired by stories about the growth of the audience by 15 times in a year due to publication on the platform. Some context: we are currently at a stage where it is critical to attract as many users as possible, collect feedback and statistics to develop the product. In addition, it is important for us to reach the US audience, and Product Hunt can be a starting point for attracting organic traffic in the States. It is worth noting that PH is not about one-day traffic, but a resource that can appeal new users for a long time. And of course, a successful launch on the platform and getting the “Product of the day” helps in communicating with investors, while we have just reached a new round of fundraising. Despite the fact that some products take 1–2 months to prepare for a launch, we did not have such luxury, and decided to do it in a week! What goals did we set for launching on Product Hunt: New audience, including from the USA “Product of the day” and “Product of the week” Feedback and data for product improvement READY It is important to note that this was our second launch on PH. The first was January 1st. At that time we didn’t have much knowledge about American resources and the way the platform works. We posted on PH without any preparation together with publishing the first on Medium. article Later, we realized what had been missed. We began communicating with support, so that they allow us to make another launch. To do this, it was necessary to prove that we had a big update [and we had it]. In general, you can release on PH once a half-year. But it is considered a good practice to do this once a quarter, making a big update in a product and pushing it through the support. This time, we decided to approach the process on a larger and more organized scale. We have identified two possible dates for ourselves: March 20 or 27. On one side the dates were limited by the consideration period at Skydeck Berkeley, and on another side by the preparation time and advice from our hunter, but more on that later. Choosing the day Task #1 is to choose the day of the week to launch [this affects the amount of traffic and the level of competition] and check that there are no great releases [ChatGPT, etc.] on this day. If you believe that your product will be out of competition, then Tuesday is a good choice. You can check upcoming releases in the “Coming soon” section. We opted for a balanced Monday, which also allowed us to use the entire week to compete in the “Product of the week” race. We had to use all the capabilities of the team and think over the details of the launch in just a couple of days. The main workload fell on the designer and me. We distributed the preparation of visual materials and texts, and also consulted familiar founders who had experience in launching on the PH. Since this was our second launch, it was a little easier: we already knew about the guides, the importance of high-quality content, the preparation makers, and the hunter, a person who “vouches” for the product, helps with many aspects in preparation and supports team on day X. Hunter search As far as we expected to get the most out of this opportunity, we decided to launch with a help of a hunter. In general, you can successfully launch on your own if you know all the details and also do it not for the first time. But since we were very limited in time, we chose a more stable path. Our hunter was Chris Messina, the creator of the hashtag [you heard it right] and #1 hunter on Product Hunt. Chris provided useful advice and was in touch with us before and after the launch. Preparation for voting To break out into top, you need to call on all the help of the universe on day X. Therefore, we attracked our entire social capital on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Slack, as well as on Product Hunt itself. We divided our activities into three slots [morning, afternoon and evening] and made a mailing schedule taking into account time zones [USA, Russia, Europe]. This helped us reach the maximum number of awake audience and spread the load on the PH for 24 hours [it doesn’t like peaks]. The important point was the CTA. It is highly desirable to avoid a direct link to the launch page as well as upvotes from new accounts registered 5 minutes ago. They may not be counted and lead to the reset of part of the votes. Therefore, you should go to the product from the main page, leave comments. It is good to repeat the whole procedure for one or two competitors. STEADY I won’t repeat the basics that can be easily found with the help of Google, but I will describe interesting points that the hunter or people with successful launch experience on Product Hunt suggested to us. Makers’ profiles The PH community loves reading about makers and learn about their side activities [comments, discussions, stories, collections and products used]. This builds credibility and helps gain followers for future launches. Launch page Everything is quite clear with the title and subtitle: they should make users open the launch page. However, we decided to experiment with the product description. We analyzed the descriptions and identified the main keys of the top 20 products in the running category, then tried to reuse them. Visuals play an important role in design. To avoid experimenting on PH, we used a site where we could upload all materials and preview how the page would look on launch day. It’s important to create animated icons, videos, and GIFs showcasing the features of the product. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCySTUhSCs&embedable=true Creating a video for the page was a real challenge for us! It was necessary to prepare content quickly and efficiently with limited resources taking in mind that the whole team is located in different countries and time zones. I wrote the script in the evening and, together with the designer, made a storyboard for the video. The next day I went to record it. After about 120 takes [🤤] I sent the materials to the designer. Post-production took approximately 20 hours, and we faced one more challenge during the editing. There was a visual artifact, which destroyed the whole picture at an important moment of the monologue. We had to kludge, taking a similar episode from another video with unfinished inserts and merging it with a sound from a new one. Maker’s comment The first comment for the launch is always the maker’s comment. As well as «Support is great. Feedback is even better” block, it contains the main description about the release and directs new comments that are no less important than upvotes. Products with more upvotes but fewer comments sometimes give way to more engaging ones. In a post, the main functions of the product are usually listed using emojis instead of bullet points, gifts are offered, and the hunter is thanked. We decided to stick to the format that is customary for Product Hunt. Teaser After setting the release on the desired date [be sure to put 00:01 PST / PDT to have all 24 hours to vote] you need to prepare a teaser. This is a special page that appears in the “Coming soon” section, where anyone can sign up for your launch in advance. We tried to make the teaser as soon as possible, because it allows you to get a bright label “Coming soon” next to each maker’s comment. And then there is just one little thing left [not really]: you have to start commenting on the launches of all products that occur before your release in order to increase visibility and gain additional followers. Posts and mailing We have divided all messages into several categories: Email newsletters and push notifications to our users Posts and messages in thematic groups in Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Reddit and Facebook Post and personal mailing on LinkedIn to my contacts Personal mailing to founders and CEOs of companies from “Coming soon” on Product Hunt and authors of previous launches Friends, family and fools The goal of all the messages was to convey to the audience that their support would help more people learn about the app and start looking at running and their health in a new way. GO! 9:00 am — we check the readiness to launch mailings to our database, contacts on LinkedIn and Product Hunt, as well as the readiness of posts for thematic groups. 10:01 am — emails have been sent, and the first posts are up. Now it’s time to actively respond to all comments, consistently post new content, and add traffic 🚀 1:00 pm — we make it to first place 🏆 6:00 pm — we publish one of the last prepared posts. Just in case, a few extra posts are saved for the next morning. As seen by the second-place spike at 8:00 am, it could come in handy 🙂 2:00 am — at night, when I couldn’t respond anymore, the team takes over in the comments. 10:00 am — Victory! 🍾 During the day, the team controlled stability and rolled out hotfixes. And for the rest during the first 24 hours, we were as active as possible, responding to all comments, asking users what they think of Victa, and answering their questions. Monitoring competitors On day X, it is useful to use the Product wars tool, that allows you to watch the race in real time and adjust your tactics. For example, vote cheating and their reset by Product Hunt are clearly visible there. It can happen due to direct clicks to the product page and/or upvotes from newly registered users. Results and conclusions In less than a week, we have received several hundred clients and they continue to come. How can more be done? Analysis with a hunter says the following: Product Hunt audience is web first. Web-oriented products get more clicks. Keep in mind. Lack of Android. The obvious fact is that this platform easily expands your target audience by 2–3 times. Make the product multiplatform. I hope this article will help you and your product to take the top of Product Hunt. Good luck and see you on the other side 🤙 If you found this article helpful, we’d love it if you could share a feedback about our app! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/victa-fitness-adventure/id6443617052?embedable=true For cooperation and investment contact: alexander@victa.ai Also published . here

Victa: How we Launched Our App on Product Hunt in a Week and Became “Product of the Day”

You’ll love running, even if the longest distance for you is the way to your refrigerator and back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUA7SpZ1SH4&embedable=true The idea for Victa has matured for a long time, and it is connected with my personal experience. I had six years of background, during which I was coping with one caustic health problem. After I had solved it, I wondered how to apply my product management experience and, at the same time, help people avoid the same issue and live healthier and better lives. fintech In August, I opened miro and started swotting up on health-tech. The first insight for me was the general problem of customer retention in almost all domains: from fitness to telemedicine. There are three approaches to solving it. — having an external observer [a coach or a friend] is rather more helpful for keeping motivation than working on one’s own. Person — once a user spends money on a subscription, they desire to return utility. It also initiates the reverse process of earning for actions. Money — an endorphin-dopamine compulsion loop used in games, a motivating reward that waits for you at the end of the process. Content After I had analyzed competitors and cust-deved their clients, I decided to combine content and personal approaches by exchanging the last one with a character, like in the [the fact that I personally knew the coolest creators of two animated series, Max Konyshev, and Zhenya Ognev, also worked in favor of this decision]. Replika app Victa: Avatar and Levels One of our main ideas is to use the character’s level to display the overall stamina of the client relative to his “zero” and “peak.” This is a non-trivial task that requires a large amount of objective data. In the future, we will personalize this scale for each client according to the information about the body that we can collect. Levels are gained by overcoming a certain distance. For now, we keep them achievable for all budding runners. We want to make it easy for beginners to take up a new activity, deliver maximum endorphins at the end of a run, and encourage regularity in training [everyone who goes out for a run no matter what is a hero]. Progress in levels and story also affects the particles of the elements around the character [because they also become stronger!], as well as the background where they are located [the story doesn’t stand still, and the Avatar moves with it]. Victa: Training Sessions Why do 61% of runners [according to Runner’s World ] prefer to listen to music or podcasts while training? Because the process itself is extremely boring. It can certainly be fun, but it usually becomes a trance state and a tool to achieve the following goals: research Increasing activity and improving wellbeing Purification of consciousness Weight loss Preparation for the competition We want to reinvent the process and make it fun, for example, by searching for artifacts [which can be put on the Avatar then] in places where you may have never run. However, now we can send you to the middle of the lake, so be careful. Step Counter Also, realizing that starting to run could be a tall order for many, we have released a step counter. It makes it easier to immerse new users into the story and helps them take up an active lifestyle. This is an iPhone widget with two modes: – automatic counting of steps and calories per day Passive – starting a full workout for the duration of your run Active The step counter integrates with and will also change along with the equipment and progress in the story. Apple Health Analytics Despite the fact that our target audience is not professional runners but beginners and amateurs who identify themselves as gamers, we pay special attention to analytics. Like any other running app, we collect training data for further analysis. You can see the progress in terms of distance covered, calories burned, height gained, speed, and pace over a given period of time. Now, the analytics have been available for the past week. Each indicator is visualized through the average and the total per day, but we plan to add: More time filters [month, year, all time] for week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year comparisons More professional data [changing mean and maximum speed and pace, elevation changes over a distance, pulse, etc.] More graphs [for historical data and metrics during training] Victa: Story We draw and animate a real series with 20 episodes and four characters. There are currently six episodes available for one Avatar [Atreus]. New episodes are released as they are ready, but three new Avatars (Ellie, Delphine, and Faust) will appear quite soon [their episodes are already drawn]. Each of the Avatars has its own story and their own unique equipment. According to the plot, a human and Avatar become connected. The training process is a way to help your Avatar, but no more spoilers. Episodes are opened for reaching the next level and, together with the search for artifacts, are the main endorphin-dopamine engine in a run. So now we are the first series that isn’t officially friendly with the couch. Besides the story, we created many gamification activities: —  a system of fitness and non-fitness tasks. For completing them, a user will receive a special reward and dive deeper into the app. Quests —  complicated fitness tasks for runners. The user can get some of the rarest artifacts for accomplishing them. One of my favorites is affiliated with walking or running together with one or more friends. Achievements We consider creating even more, for instance: – during the training, it will be possible to save the route in order to analyze your performance directly in this way. The route can be shared with the community if you think that everyone should enjoy the run through your favorite park. Rewards will be given for creating popular routes or opening new ones. Routes – if you are a professional sprinter or stayer, and you want to see yourself in the list of top runners in the area, then this activity is planned especially for you. Rifts – this, like many other ideas, we will describe in the following series, but you will definitely like it. Abyss Let me tell you a little about our journey to this point. August I’m putting together a small team of 5 very cool ex-colleagues, including the author of popular animated TV series. We decided to quickly test the hypothesis through a . In fact, this was a simple stopwatch that assigns levels to the character for the time. During that time, the client had to walk or run. telegram bot Having scrapped together two hundred clients, we asked them if they felt additional motivation and if it was interesting to watch the story. Half of them lacked certain functionality, and obviously, it didn’t work for them, but the other half answered “yes.” September Inspired, we prepared to start development on . This platform was chosen due to its simplicity, the unification of screen sizes for drawing and more retained and paying customers in the long term. iOS We didn’t have the resources to hire full-time employees, so we started to look for those who shared our values and were ready to join us part-time. October Simultaneously, we were opening a company, processing the necessary documents, and closing a small angel round for $100k. November We faced a lot of problems but still managed to make it in 1.5 months and had the MVP in production already on November 7th. At the same time, the functionality was extremely raw, and we did not see installations from anyone other than us and our friends. As it turned out later, we had used ASO keys, with which we simply could not compete organically in either fitness or gaming. December We rolled up our sleeves and made some small releases. We added artifacts on the map and learned how to work with Lottie to animate characters and replace items in the inventory. It was a big pain. By the end of the month, being still ashamed of the product, but not so much, we tried to attract traffic through . Once again, something went wrong. After spending several hundred dollars, we saw almost no installs. Facebook Ads As smart people suggested later, we used too harsh filters in geo and targeting and few creatives. While you need to do the opposite, use more flexible filters and test as many different creatives as possible. January On the first of January, I decided to post articles on and , which brought us the first small organic installs [about 100 clients]! We also talked to a large number of founders and investors, realized the mistakes of the first marketing activities, optimized ASO, and started testing Facebook once again. Medium Product Hunt February At the end of January and beginning of February, we posted some more articles about us on more local resources, and they suddenly got super popular, thanks to how we acquired 1500 clients in a couple of days! At the same time, App Store decided to take us up to the top 16 position in the “Health and Fitness” category, where we stayed for two days in a row! That was simply unbelievable. Also, we continued to look for new investors and applied--I assume--in each accelerator in Silicon Valley acceptable through 🙂 F6S We launched in November but have reached our desired MVP just now. Many features are not ready yet. We are developing, planning to launch on Android, create an app for Apple Watch and make full-fledged integrations with Apple Health, Google Fit, and Strava. We are going to implement our NLP so clients will be able to talk with the characters about the lore and get personal recommendations for running. We are also thinking about how Avatar can help in other health-tech activities. chatbot I confess, if we manage to help people start doing sports, or at least move more and feel better, I will be very happy. Also, of course, we are considering a subscription implementation, but it has been temporarily postponed in favor of quality, features, and client base. For cooperation, you can write me by email: alexander@victa.ai App Store

How I Launched Victa, a Running App for Gamers, and Got a Top Ranking in the App Store

কিভাবে আমি Victa চালু করেছি, গেমারদের জন্য একটি চলমান অ্যাপ, এবং অ্যাপ স্টোরে শীর্ষস্থানীয় র‍্যাঙ্কিং পেয়েছি

Wie ich Victa, eine Lauf-App für Gamer, auf den Markt brachte und im App Store einen Spitzenplatz erreichte

Cómo lancé Victa, una aplicación para correr para jugadores, y obtuve una clasificación superior en la tienda de aplicaciones

Comment j'ai lancé Victa, une application de course à pied pour les joueurs, et obtenu le meilleur classement dans l'App Store

मैंने गेमर्स के लिए एक रनिंग ऐप विक्टा कैसे लॉन्च किया, और ऐप स्टोर में एक शीर्ष रैंकिंग प्राप्त की

ゲーマー向けランニングアプリ「Victa」を立ち上げ、App Store ランキングで上位を獲得した経緯

게이머를 위한 런닝 앱 Victa를 출시하고 App Store에서 상위권을 차지한 방법

Como lancei o Victa, um aplicativo de corrida para gamers, e obtive uma classificação superior na App Store

Oyuncular için Koşu Uygulaması Victa'yı Nasıl Başlattım ve App Store'da Üst Sıralara Nasıl Çıktım?

Cách tôi ra mắt Victa, một ứng dụng chạy bộ dành cho game thủ và đạt thứ hạng hàng đầu trong cửa hàng ứng dụng

我是如何推出一款面向游戏玩家的跑步应用程序 Victa 并在应用程序商店中获得最高排名的

We all know corporate life can be uncertain; smaller fish are swallowed by larger fish from time to time, and that is just the nature of Capitalism. However, it does not diminish the painful consequences mergers and acquisitions tend to leave behind on employees. That is, in fact, the nature of the beast. Greedy giant corporations couldn’t care less about the impact their ambition has on the lives of many of their employees, and in Broadcom’s case, the disfavorable impact on smaller customers as well. Speaking of Carbon Black’s customers, many knew of Broadcom’s reputation, and saw the writing on the wall, as such, they decided to part ways as soon as they heard of the possibility of Broadcom taking over VMWare Carbon Black. Possibly, to ease their concerns, announced  a couple of months ago his intent to divest Carbon Black. Management was thrilled and “Carbon Black” was “back”. Shortly thereafter, CB found out that Hock had not to sell (or was it all intentional from the start?). Symantec would absorb Carbon Black, and layoffs ensued. The bloodbath resembled the famous Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones. Hock Tan claimed decided My Advice to Employees This sucks; it sucks big time, but all changes can lead to new opportunities, besides… ask yourself, would you want to work for a company that is devoid of a soul, has zero scruples, and questionable ethics, but mostly, does not care about the well-being of their acquired employees? Particularly when they have poured their life into the product and while Hock Tan himself has made on the deal? millions Do yourself a favor, and seek out companies that do value your hard work, allow for a work-life balance, and don’t see you as a mere expenditure. What Does This Mean for You, as a Current Carbon Black Customer? Although the CB support had already been affected by Broadcom’s hire freeze, as Broadcom continues to reduce headcount and employees realize their future is dim, Broadcom may potentially dismantle Carbon Black and absorb their intellectual property. Even if Carbon Black as a company survives, all we have to do is look back at Broadcom’s approach and realize they will focus on the large, premium tier accounts and direct their smaller customers to partners. It’s been rumored Hock Tan stated, referring to smaller accounts: “ ” Why would I give a shit about your account when all you give me is $25 a year? Hok’s religion is the almightly dollar, anything and everything is measured in profits. This is what to expect: The security efficacy of the product will continue to decline. Carbon Black won’t be able to prevent new threats as their teams are extremely shorthanded. Support will also be affected, resolution will be slow, and as their more experienced engineers leave the company (voluntarily or otherwise), the quality of support will continue to be adversely impacted. For Tier 1/Platinum level customers spending $250,000 or more, Broadcom may eventually force them to switch over to Symantec, despite the fact Symantec is a dinosaur in the grand scheme of cybersecurity products. If you care about the security posture of your enterprise or organization, public or private, I would consider other options. In closing, former Carbon Black employees, do not despair; even a massive corporation as huge as Broadcom can’t crush your spirit.

KARBON

karbonhq.com

-- employees

Since n.d.

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KARBON

karbonhq.com

-- employees

Since n.d.

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KARBON

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