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Analysis of Sample Dreams

The Jungle: Chapter XXX

Life is determined by a few key moments. That was the case when in 2016, Masa Son met Adam Neumann in the WeWork offices. Masa had only twelve minutes to decide whether to place a $4 billion bet on WeWork! With the usual coolness, Adam Neumann - a tall guy that felt ok in walking barefoot without a shirt in the middle of the street - played his cards at best. A few minutes later, Masa Son, among the wealthiest people in Japan, scribbled $4 billion on his iPad. That made Adam's company, WeWork, valued at $47 billion! Masa and Adam would project WeWork to be valued at $10 trillion by 2028! Yet the wind was going to change very quickly. And just two years later, the whole thing was to implode. From the height of a $47 billion valuation, the company risked losing it all! This isn’t a movie by Oliver Stone, who wrote the legendary Wall Street, interpreted by Michael Douglas, in 1987, and which would paradoxically inspire generations of financiers. We’re, at this time, into WeWork’s offices, a real estate company claiming to be among the largest tech players, running what the company called  a Space-As-A-Service Business Model. This story is so exciting that Apple TV+ is making a series about it, interpreted by Jared Leto. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAuhT5241h8 Recapping the WeWork story When , a reporter at Wall Street journal since 2010, he had been following WeWork’s founder rise for a few years. Eventually, the story got so compelling that when WeWork crashed, Eliot wrote a book about it called “The Cult of We.” Founded in 2010, in SoHo, NYC, by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, WeWork quickly expanded. By 2012, WeWork was a successful and profitable company that was now worth over a hundred million in a very short time. I interviewed Eliot Brown 2016 would be a turning year for WeWork as it managed to get a $4 billion offer after a 12 minutes tour of the offices, Masa Son, founder of SoftBank. Masa Son would later promise to take over the company for $20 billion and make it into a $10 trillion behemoth by 2028! Things didn't turn out as expected. Masa Son pulls back from its promised investment as liquidity drains out. WeWork, therefore, tries to IPO to getting the funding it needs to survive. Yet, as it submits its S-1 form to the SEC, the whole scandal comes out, as a conflict of interests, bad management, and extreme losses become public! WeWork would have to withdraw its IPO. As the company restructured, it went public via a SPAC company BowX, valuing it at $9 billion (instead of the $47 billion of value at its peak). By March 2022, WeWork is valued at less than $4 billion. What happened there? Let’s look at one of the craziest stories of the tech industry, which might well resemble the epitome of what can go wrong when markets are supplied with massive liquidity and private investors are looking for the next big thing! The Early Years As Eliot Brown explained to me, Adam Neumann's entrepreneurial story started when he moved back to Israel with his mother, where he lived most of his life, before adulthood. In Israel, he lived in a Kibbutz, a communal socialist experiment. There, he learned the value of community. He also learned how the place was a mess as it was hard to make the community keep going without the financial resources. After a short stint in the Navy in Israel, he moved to New York. In the city, he found the perfect place for him to bloom. He just wanted to become rich, and with his sister already in New York, working as a supermodel, he was right on introduced to interesting people. Adam was quite energetic, a natural extrovert; he found it very easy to make friends and build communities just for having fun. His first venture as an entrepreneur was a baby clothes company (mainly financed with his sister’s money), which tried to make clothing that had knee pads for babies when they were crawling. It was called “Krawlers.” The idea was that babies’ knees must hurt, so here’s a way to make it, so they don’t and didn’t go very well. Yet Adam was a great salesman. However, his inability to understand the product and his lack of passion about it (he was a man in his 20s) made the business continuously struggle. The real turn of events came when he met someone who ran an office space subleasing company, a little incubator-type environment called Sunshine Suites. It was the son of a classmate of his at college. Adam felt impressed by how much money Sunshine Suites was making. In the meantime, Adam had met an architect, which turned into a good friend named named Miguel McKelvey. Adam Neumann pitched the idea to do something similar to Miguel McKelvey, who became the co-founder of something very similar to what would later become WeWork. Back in Brooklyn, they convinced their landlord to give them a floor and put up the money to organize a first co-working space. The landlord put in the money, and real estate, and Adam and McKelvey put in sweat equity. The deal worked pretty well! Soon enough, the company, which they called Green Desk, was a success. We’re in the 2010s. When Adam Neumann saw the idea was working well, he figured to turn it into something way bigger. Yet the landlord didn’t seem to agree. Thus, he liquidated the two co-founders and gave them about $500K each. Adam Neumann recommended McKelvey to keep his money as he would have spent it, so that they could use it for their next venture. A Real Estate or Tech Company? Finally, as the vision was shaping into Neumann’s mind, he wanted to build something big, a multi-billion dollar business. He also understood that to do so; he had to play the venture capital game. And as it would later turn out, he was very good at it. But before we get to that, Adam Neumann, in the meantime, had  also met what would become later on his wife: Rebekah Paltrow, causing with the actress Gwyneth Paltrow. At the first encounter, Rebekah Paltrow tried to inspire Neumann to think big, but also to do so with vision, and not to only think about money. While this might seem inspiring, as we would see throughout the story, it also turned into one of the paradoxes of the whole WeWork story, in what we can call “fake leadership.” Fast forward, WeWork is indeed a good idea. That’s a sort of real estate arbitrage, where you leverage on a longer-term lease to rent the real estate locations at a much higher price to co-working companies by offering them ancillary services. This model is well known today, yet pretty new in the 2010s. However, while this business model turned out to be profitable at the time (we’re right after one of the greatest real estate bubbles of our times), when commercial real estate was under pressure, it was still a business that was very hard to scale. The primary reason was that WeWork had to anticipate the costs related to long-term leases and pay them out slowly as more members came in. While over time this model would make sense, in the short-term this form of arbitrage also carried negative cash flows. Yet, we’re in a period when private markets were heating up, and venture capital was massively betting on tech companies. Adam Neumann, therefore, realized the importance of reframing WeWork as a tech company rather than a real estate player. Indeed, over the years, WeWork called itself a . This was done to mimic the successful and rising industry of software companies offering their technology for a monthly fee ( ). Space-as-a-Service business model the Software-as-a-Service The move was successful, as WeWork quickly convinced venture capitalists to invest. Among the first, there was Benchmark, a well-known name in Silicon Valley. They were the first big check into Uber. This created an aura of success, it validated WeWork as a tech company, and it made it into a multi-million dollar success. And the road to billions wasn’t that far! Radio on The Internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo One of the most hilarious scenes of the series Silicon Valley (above) well explains in a hot market what makes a company successful. It’s not the revenues. It’s the hype you can create, but also how much you can shift your narrative around growth rather than profitability. That is what WeWork did. Adam Neumann, at that point (we’re around 2014-2015) had mastered the venture capital game. And he started to secure other financing deals. The real breakthrough came when they managed to pull in a mutual fund, Fidelity. A growth fund part of the Fidelity family gave WeWork an over $200 million cheque, making the company valued over $10 billion for the first time. Fidelity at the time was pulled into WeWork as it was trying to show it could invest in innovative companies, and for the mutual fund, a cheque of over $200 million was a small thing compared to the hundred of billions it had under management. Lack of Skin in the Game While WeWork grew to become what is called a , yet, as WeWork was growing by surfing venture capital investments, Adam Neumann was taking money off the table by selling some of his shares to finance his lifestyle. Decacorn At the same time, he was also opening personal loaning lines to keep the extravagant lifestyle the family was living. On the one hand, he preached to his team to work hard and do it for the mission; on the other hand, he was taking money off the table where he could to finance his lifestyle. To be sure, there is nothing bad about taking money off the table, especially if you’re letting some of your early employees, and the people that made the company successful do the same. Instead, he was taking favorable deals for himself, and that’s it. And there is more to it. The rising conflicts of interests and crazy acquisitions As WeWork was growing, a plethora of conflicts of interest started to build up. In fact, Adam Neumann, on a growing number of deals, would, on the one side, invest in the property behind the commercial building. And on the other hand, manage the company as WeWork’s CEO. For a company that was now worth more than $10 billion this was a matter of concern. And yet, as the company scaled, things only got worse. The money that Neumann would take from the various financing rounds, were also used to do acquisitions that didn’t make any sense. The epitome of it was the acquisition of a company called Wavegarden, which actually made artificial waves for surfing! Two visionaries or two Madmen? The real turning point for Neumann (or, if you wish, the beginning of the end) and WeWork came when he encountered Masa Son, the patron of SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, who had billions of dollars at its disposal. Masa Son’s career is quite interesting. In fact, he managed to become among the wealthiest person in the world, during the dot-com bubble, only to see his wealth to evaporate. Even though he failed with the dot-com bubble he still managed to build an aura of success thanks to a huge winner. Indeed, Masa Son had invested $20 million in the early days of Alibaba, turning it into a multi-billion win! The approach he used was gut instinct in spotting a visionary founder. Thus, it was this ability (as he later recalled) to spot a visionary like Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba) that made the investment so successful (according to Masa Son). As , referring to Jack Ma (I edited the text for readability): Masa Son recounted He had no business plan, and zero revenues, but his eyes were strong, strong eyes, shiny eyes, I could tell from the way he talked, he had charisma, leadership. So his business model was wrong, but the way he talked, and he could bring young Chinese people following him. Masa Son, after the dot-com crush, had started to rebuild his business by investing in the communication industry, until he tried to merge Sprint and T-Mobile, and failed. Yet, when Masa Son real mission was to find the next visionary. When he met Neumann he had successfully built one of the largest funds ever created, for tech companies. The Vision fund, in fact, had secured over $45 billion from Prince Salman (King of Saudi Arabia). With that money Masa Son was ready to invest in the next tech messiah, able to change the world. Here we go back to the day Masa Son had scribbled the $4 billion investment on his iPad. That made Adam's company, WeWork, valued at $47 billion! Yet the story wasn’t over yet. All is Falling Apart Masa Son became the main mentor of Adam Neumann, at the point that the two met to discuss the final vision for WeWork, making it into a multi-trillion-dollar success! Indeed, as Son and Neumann met, in 2018 Son had promised Neumann to buy out WeWork, make it a private company, and bring it to become a $10 trillion company by 2028. That was the grandiose/mad vision! Yet, as the deal was about to close, things changed pretty rapidly. As market liquidity started to drain up, pressure mounted on the Vision fund, and Masa Son called the deal was off the table. This made Neumann go in the path of one of the most unsuccessful IPO attempts. As the window of opportunity to IPO was closing, WeWork tried to go public in 2019. Yet, as the WeWork S-1 was released the public was shocked to see a company’s bearing massive losses, and with no plan whatsoever to turn a profit any time soon. And to make things worse, all of Neumann’s conflicts of interests started to be made public, until the situation became unsustainable, and after various theatrical moves, Adam Neumann was ousted, yet he left the company with one of the most generous, severance packages of all time. At the time of this writing, WeWork, which would later IPO through a SPAC, is now worth less than $4 billion. The once envisioned multi-trillion success, turned into a nightmare. The overall company survived all that, showing that overall, WeWork wasn’t a bad idea. But of course, neither a tech company that could be worth more than Apple, Amazon, and Google combined.

How WeWork's Implosion Turned it into a Shell of its Initial $47 Billion Promise

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can hardly be called emerging in 2019. For the last decade, domains of all sorts have been leveraging them, and speaks to the fact. Today, ML and AI create value for organizations across Consumer Services, Automotive, Agriculture, Retail, Healthcare, and other major industries. the visualization by McKinsey Global Institute As businesses realize these technologies are a boon, the demand for machine learning consulting companies is skyrocketing, which predictably influences the supply. In such a way, today’s IT market is literally larded with ML vendors tackling projects of any scope and budget. To help you make your way through this enormous and diverse offering, we assembled a list of today’s most trustworthy vendors of machine learning consulting and development services. Our IT market analysts assessed an extensive range of companies according to the following objective criteria: Proven machine learning expertise Prior projects: size and complexity Diversity of business domains served Client references Speed and quality of customer service As a result, we got a list of 30 companies worthy of attention. For readers’ convenience, we present the vendors in descending order. 1. Itransition A recognized custom software development company, Itransition has delivered 1,500 projects over the span of its 20-year market presence. With more than 2,000 IT experts on board, the company has served 810 clients from 30 countries. Among the ML services the company provides there are data mining, natural language processing, computer vision, robotic process automation, and machine learning consulting. To deliver its ML solutions, Itransition uses such technologies as Python, R, Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. Location: Denver, CO Established: 1998 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Expedia, Xerox, Toyota, eBay, PayPal, Shell, adidas Other, non-ML services: custom software development, CRM consulting, ecommerce development Website: https://www.itransition.com/ 2. Tooploox EU-based Tooploox has around 100 skilled experts on board. For seven years of the company’s operation, they delivered 150+ successful projects. Tooploox is a machine learning consulting company using this technology to deliver computer and 3D vision, sensor fusion, deep learning, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and other ML-related services. The company has expertise with other emerging technologies, such as blockchain. Location: Wrocław, Poland Established: 2012 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: CoinDesk, DTS, ING, Spire Health, Group Nine Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, product design Website: https://www.tooploox.com/ 3. Skim Technologies London-based Skim Technologies is an internationally recognized machine learning consulting company delivering a wide range of related services. The company’s data scientists offer chatbot development, custom ML model creation, and NLP engineering. Skim Technologies also delivers AI workshops as well as ML and AI consulting services. Location: London, United Kingdom Established: 2014 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Jones Lang-Lasalle, Breast Cancer Care, Quant Insight Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting, custom software development Website: https://www.skimtechnologies.com/ 4. ThirdEye Data US-based ThirdEye Data has been delivering its ML development services for nine years. The company specializes in chatbot development, custom ML algorithms, and machine learning consulting. Among the data science technologies the company works with, there are Spark, TensorFlow, Caffe, and others. Location: Santa Clara, CA Established: 2010 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Microsoft, Amazon, Nokia, Ford Direct, Getty Images, Amgen Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting, cloud consulting Website: https://thirdeyedata.io/ 5. Chatbots.Studio As its name implies, Chatbots.Studio is a company focusing on AI-powered chatbot development. It builds multichannel conversational platforms, automates business processes, and designs conversations. The company’s technology stack includes React, Redux, Angular 6, Node.js, Express.js, Botkit, and others. Location: Lviv, Ukraine Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Visa, Unibot, Aldi, Digital Flex Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://chatbots.studio/ 6. Azati Software Since 2001, Azati's experts have cooperated with 330 clients globally. Among the ML competencies of the company there are supervised and unsupervised learning, distributed computing, natural language processing, digital signal processing, and machine learning consulting. Azati’s tech toolkit includes CuDNN, Scikit Learn for Python, and Tensor Flow. The company mainly targets clients in the Insurance domain. Location: Livingston, NJ Established: 2001 Project budgets start at: $1,000 Key clients: MedPro Group, SequenceBase, Casio, Thomson Reuters Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://azati.ai/ 7. Hidden Brains Since its foundation in 2003, Hidden Brains has cooperated with clients from 107 countries. The company delivers AI, ML, deep learning, and data science services. It also specializes in developing natural language processing software. Hidden Brains also delivers chatbots, including those for Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack. Location: Ahmedabad, India Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: McAfee, Raymond, Maxtor, SanDisk Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.hiddenbrains.com/ 8. InData Labs Established in 2014, InData Labs houses 50+ data scientists, engineers, and analysts. The company develops ML algorithms and natural language processing solutions. Besides, InData Labs specializes in computer vision and predictive modeling. The company's stack includes Python, SpaCy, TensorFlow, Keras, and more proven languages and frameworks. Location: Minsk, Belarus Established: 2014 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Captiv8, Flo Health, Wargaming Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting Website: https://indatalabs.com/ 9. Arcanys Since 2010, Philippines-based Arcanys has been delivering its ML and AI services to clients from all over the world. The company specializes in sentiment analysis, recommender systems, and image recognition. As one of its cooperation models, the company provides dedicated teams of highly experienced data scientists and developers. Location: Cebu City, Philippines Established: 2010 Project budgets start at: $100,000 Key clients: General Electric Korea, Enfo, Payment Logic, L’Oreal, Spinetix Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.arcanys.com/ 10. MobiDev Since 2009, MobiDev’s IT experts have delivered 350+ software solutions. While headquartered in the US, the company provides its services globally. MobiDev uses the following machine learning technologies: Python, R, C++, Go, TensorFlow, ONNX, and Keras. MobiDev’s mobile ML toolkit includes Core ML, TensorFlow Lite, and Cafe2Go. On top of that, the company provides machine learning consulting. Location: Atlanta, GA Established: 2009 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Verizon Media, Comcash, Quality Bridge, SmartTab, SMS Group Other, non-ML services: IoT development, web development Website: https://mobidev.biz 11. Spire Digital For over 20 years that Spire Digital has been providing IT services, it has cooperated with 600+ global customers. Among the ML and AI development services the company offers, there are natural language processing, supervised and unsupervised learning, and sentiment analysis. Also, Spire Digital creates chatbots for Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype, and Cisco WebEx. Location: Denver, CO Established: 1998 Project budgets start at: Undisclosed Key clients: TomTom, Lockheed Martin, US Navy, USDA, Western Union Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.spiredigital.com/ 12. Icreon New York-based Icreon is a digital innovation agency mostly targeting medium-sized businesses. The company uses AI and ML technologies to create innovative applications, platforms, and ecosystems. The company’s technological expertise in ML includes Amazon Web Services, Azure, Caffe2, Google Cloud, Keras, and more. Location: New York, NY Established: 2000 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: National Geographic Channel, FOX Movies, Harry Winston, Nokia Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://www.icreon.us/ 13. Miquido For eight years, Miquido's team has successfully completed more than 100 projects, including in machine learning. The company offers solutions for AI-based personalization, predictive and behavioral analytics, and churn prediction. Miquido also develops chatbots. Recognized by Deloitte as one the fastest growing companies in Europe, Miquido also offers UI/UX design creation and mobile apps development. Location: Kraków, Poland Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Skyscanner, Abbey Road Studios, HelloFresh Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.miquido.com/ 14. Neoteriс Founded in 2005, Europe-based Neoteric offers a wide range of ML solutions, including predictive analytics, recommendation engines, NLP, robotic process automation, and machine learning consulting. The company also specializes in such AI platforms as SaaS Manager, SoapBox, AppOrchid, and RapidSOS. Location: Gdańsk, Poland Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: LunchBadger, Arvata, IT Trans Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://neoteric.eu/ 15. Unicsoft Established in 2005, Unicsoft employs more than 100 specialists in emerging technologies and software development. Within its ML tech stack, the company offers development of predictive and behavioral analytics solutions, neural networks, and recommendation engines, among other ML applications. The company also delivers consulting services, and maintenance of existing ML platforms. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key Clients: Hoodifood, Executive Eye, GOFORIT, Intellica Group Other, non-ML services: blockchain Website: https://unicsoft.com/ 16. Abto Software With 12 years of its market presence, Abto Software’s has worked with 200+ global customers. Specializing in AI and ML, the company offers custom enterprise solutions for advanced and predictive analytics, virtual assistants, recommendation systems, and intelligent business process automation. Abto Software works with the following tools and frameworks, among others: TensorFlow, Keras, Caffe, OpenCV, and AWS. Location: New York, NY Established: 2007 Project budgets start at: Undisclosed Key clients: Just Answer, Skybow, Medikit, Up Great Other, non-ML services: web development, enterprise app modernization Website: https://www.abtosoftware.com/ 17. Accubits Technologies, Inc. US-located Accubits started in 2012 and has already cooperated with 140+ clients. The company’s ML capabilities include development of conversational and classification tools, video, image and text analytics solutions, as well as predictive analytics software. Besides, Accubits offers machine learning consulting. The company’s experts work with NumPy, PHP, Python, SpaCy, Spark, and several other platforms. Location: Vienna, VA Established: 2012 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key сlients: Dubai Land Department, Smart Dubai, Eduvalue, Landmark Other, non-ML services: blockchain, custom software development Website: https://accubits.com/ 18. BotsCrew Established in 2016, BotsCrew is a global leader in chatbot development, delivering to mid-sized companies and startups. BotsCrew has its own enterprise chatbot platform that is ready to be customized and optimized according to customers' needs. Besides the proprietary platform, the company offers development of voice assistants and IoT bots. Location: London, United Kingdom Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Ailira, IVA, ReVA, Dr. Dean Other, non-ML services: None Website: https://botscrew.com/ 19. STX Next Founded in 2005, STX Next is a custom software development company that specializes in streamlining IT solutions with AI and ML technologies. The company’s main technological advantage is in its exceptionally skilled Python developers. For 14 years on the market, STX Next has delivered over 250 successful projects. Location: Poznań, Poland Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Seerene, Verve, Hogarth WW, Pixomondo, Unity Technologies Other, non-ML services: web development, custom software development Website: https://stxnext.com/ 20. Dogtown Media California-based Dogtown Media specializes in delivering mobile applications, enhanced with ML and AI technologies. Besides ML-powered mobile apps, the company provides machine learning consulting. For the last eight years, Dogtown Media has brought to life at least 200 applications. Location: Venice Beach, CA Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Google, Lexus, United Nations, Citibank, Red Bull, YouTube Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, IoT development Website: https://www.dogtownmedia.com/ 21. Sigmoidal Sigmoidal is a New-York-based consultancy specializing in machine learning and data science, mostly for companies in Finance, Trading, and Pharma. The company integrates these technologies into web and mobile applications and APIs. It also offers solutions for NLP, computer vision, and predictive analytics. Location: New York, NY Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $1,000 Key clients: Undisclosed Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting Website: https://sigmoidal.io/ 22. Cyber Infrastructure Established in 2003, Cyber Infrastructure is a custom software development company with 100+ clients worldwide. Its ML expertise includes development of virtual assistants and chatbots for a variety of domains. Cyber Infrastructure also provides machine learning consulting and employs Python, Java, C++, Lisp, and R as its primary ML and AI stack. Location: San Francisco, CA Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Mannatech, Bell Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://www.cisin.com/ 23. Azilen Technologies US-headquartered Azilen Technologies has 250+ IT experts on board distributed across four offices worldwide. They employ ML technologies to deliver customer service, survey, and informational bots. On top of that, the company delivers facial recognition and predictive analytics solutions. Location: West Bloomfield, MI Established: 2009 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Samsung, Pizza Hut, Sodexo, ICICI Bank Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://www.azilen.com/ 24. Stermedia Stermedia has been delivering its ML and data science services since 2007. The company’s dedicated teams of data scientists and software architects design ML algorithms and models for extracting knowledge from big data sets. The company also provides NLP solutions and uses such technologies as TensorFlow and Keras, to name just a few. Location: Wroclaw, Poland Established: 2007 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key Clients: Family Fabric, WorkService, ISOK Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://stermedia.ai/ 25. Belatrix Having five offices with 600+ professionals all around the world, Belatrix is one of the most fast-evolving machine learning consulting companies on the market today. Its machine learning experts have a proven track record of building various solutions, from predictive modeling to communication automation. Location: Mendoza, Argentina Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Disney, Adobe, AOL, FIS, Chatman Financial Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.belatrixsf.com/ 26. DataRoot Labs DataRoot Labs is an agency focusing on ML and AI development. It delivers full-cycle ML software development, including project evaluation, machine learning consulting, strategy development, architecture, integration, and support. Besides, DataRoot Labs helps enterprises with digital transformation with AI at the core. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Servers.com, Everad, ABM Cloud, Cargofy Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://datarootlabs.com/ 27. Softengi Since 1995, Softengi has completed 900+ projects for clients across six continents. The company’s ML services include chatbot engineering and NLP algorithms. For these purposes, Softengi uses R, Hadoop, and Python, among other tools. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 1995 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Boeing, Zeppelin, Enviance, OneRoof Energy Other, non-ML services: custom software development, AR/VR development, IoT development Website: http://softengi.com/ 28. Waverley With 27 years of software development experience, Waverley is a company housing 370K talented engineers. Among other services, they offer ML-centric solutions such as data clustering and unsupervised algorithms. On top of that, the company offers NLP and computer vision solutions and chatbots. To deliver ML products, Waverley’s engineers use Java, Python, Scala, and R. Location: Palo Alto, CA Established: 1992 Project budgets start at: $50,000 Key clients: Mozilla, Qualcomm, Swisscom, American Express Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development, IoT development Website: https://waverleysoftware.com/ 29. Imaginovation Founded in 2011, Imaginovation is a software development agency that has successfully completed 300+ IT projects of various complexity. As for ML and AI, the company develops recommendation and effectiveness assessment engines as well as solutions for speech and text processing automation. Location: Cary, NC Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: MetLife, Nestle, UNC Pembroke, Contractor Score Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.imaginovation.net/ 30. E2logy Established in 2005, E2logy has delivered 300+ projects to businesses of various sizes. Being a leading Amazon Web Services and Azure AI vendor, the company develops ML algorithms and chatbots. They also offer machine learning consulting. In addition to their ML services, E2Logy brings custom IoT solutions to its global customers. Location: Ahmedabad, India Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: McMillan Publishers, Polaris Industries, Vodafone Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://e2logy.com/ This was a full list of the top 30 machine learning consulting companies in 2019. If you cooperated with any of the presented vendors, please do get in touch and share your story.

Top 30 Machine Learning Consulting Companies

Every company is becoming a software company these days, and there is so much happening around making software development occur at record speeds. In today's cloud market, there are many DevOps tools and methodologies that are emerging every day. People have so many options to choose from that competition has reached its peak, which in turn has put pressure on these software firms to constantly deliver products and services even better than their competitors. As the cloud approach is intensely gaining in popularity, many firms are starting to embrace cloud practices and concepts like containerization, meaning DevOps tools like are in high demand. In this article, we are going to see some facts related to Docker that are useful for developers and architects. Docker Virtual machines and the evolution of Docker: Long ago, before the introduction of Docker and containers, big firms would go and buy many servers to make sure their services and business didn’t go down. This process usually meant that firms bought more servers than needed, which was extremely expensive. But they needed to do this because, as more and more users hit their servers, they wanted to make sure they could scale well without any downtime or outage. Then we had VMware and IBM (there is still a debate on who introduced it first) introducing Virtualization that allowed us to run multiple operating systems on the same host. This was a game-changer, but also seemed to be very expensive with multiple kernels and OSs. So fast forward to modern-day containerization, we have this company ‘Docker’ that solves a lot of problems. Why do developers like Docker? Docker makes it easy for developers to develop and deploy apps inside neatly packaged virtual containerized environments. This means apps run the same no matter where they are and what machine they are running on. Docker containers can be deployed to just about any machine without any compatibility issues, so your software stays system agnostic, making software simpler to use, less work to develop, and easy to maintain and deploy. Simply put, the days of ‘It is working on my machine’ are long gone. A developer will usually start by accessing the Docker Hub, an online cloud repository of Docker containers and pull one containing a pre-configured environment for their specific programming language, such as Ruby or NodeJS with all of the files and frameworks needed to get started. Docker is one such tool that genuinely lives up to its promise of Build, Ship, and Run. Worldwide and across the industry, so many companies and institutes are using Docker to speed up their development activities. PayPal has over 700+ applications now, and they have converted them all into container-based applications. They run 150,000 containers, and this has helped them to boost their dev productivity by 50%. MetLife, another great example, made huge savings on their infrastructure because they were able to use fewer operating systems to manage more applications. This gave them a lot of their hardware back, and hence they were able to save a lot of money on infrastructure and cost reduction. After moving to Docker, MetLife saw a 70% reduction in VM costs, 67% fewer CPUs, 10x avg. CPU utilisation, and 66% cost reduction. That's the power of Docker for you. Why has Docker became so popular? > Lightweight > Portable > Fast > No hypervisor Docker is a form of virtualization, but unlike the virtual machines, the resources are shared directly with the host. This allows you to run many Docker containers where you may only be able to run a few virtual machines. A virtual machine has to quarantine off a set amount of resources like HDD space, memory, processing power, emulate hardware and boot the entire operating system. Then the VM communicates with the host computer via a translator application running on the host operating system called a ‘Hypervisor.’ On the other hand, Docker communicates natively with the system kernel, bypassing the middleman on Linux machines, and even Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, and above. This means you can run any version of Linux in a container and it will run natively. Not only this, Docker uses less disk space too. Virtualization vs. containerization: Source: This image is everywhere on the internet but I first saw it on Nick Janetakis's tutorial In virtualization, the infrastructure is going to represent your server is the bare metal–the host could be your laptop or desktop. On top of that we have the operating system, something like a Windows server, or for your personal laptop, Mac OS or a Linux distribution. In virtualization, we have something known as a Hypervisor. Because we are running these virtual machines, which are basically isolated desktop environments inside of a file, the Hypervisor is what’s going to understand how to read that file. This is what a virtual machine image is, and common Hypervisors like VMware and VirtualBox know how to interpret these operating systems. On top of that, we have the actual guest OS. Each one of these guest OS will have their own kernel, and this is where things start getting a little expensive from a resource allocation perspective. On top of the OS is where we would actually install our binaries, libraries, and then finally we could copy over all of our files on to this operating system that actually makes up our application that we want to deploy to the server. Now let’s contrast this with containerization. In this we have the infrastructure and OS, but no Hypervisor. It has a process that directly runs on the operating system known as Docker Daemon, and this facilitates and manages things like running containers on the system, the images, and all of the command utilities they come with Docker. The applications that we run within these images basically run directly on the host machine. What happens is we create images that are like copies of the application that we want to distribute, and a running instance of an image is what’s known as a container. Containerization basically kills the ‘It works on my machine but not theirs’ drama. Docker terminologies: Image is basically an executable package that has everything that is needed for running applications which includes a configuration file, environment variables, runtime, and libraries. Image: This contains all the instructions for building the Docker image. It is basically a simple text file with instructions to build an image. You can also refer to this as the automation of Docker image creation. Dockerfile: Creating an image snapshot from the Dockerfile Build: Version of an image.  Every image will have a tag name. Tag: A lightweight software package/unit created from a specific image version. Container: Image repository where we can find different types of images. DockerHub: Docker daemon runs on the host system. Users cannot communicate directly with Docker daemon but only through Docker clients. Docker Daemon: The system that allows you to create and run Docker containers. Docker Engine: It is the chief user interfacing for Docker in the Docker binary format. Docker daemon will receive the docker commands from users and authenticates to and from communication with Docker daemon. Docker Client: Docker registry is that stores your Docker images. This service is responsible for hosting and distributing images. The default registry is the Docker Hub. Docker registry: a solution Embracing DevOps with Docker: Docker as a tool fits perfectly well in the DevOps ecosystem. It is built for the modern software firms that are keeping pace with the rapid changes in technology. You cannot ignore Docker in your DevOps toolchain; it has become a de facto tool and almost irreplaceable. The things that make Docker so good for DevOps enablement are its use cases and advantages that it brings to the software development process by containerizing the applications that support the ease of development and fast release cycles. Docker can solve most of the Dev and Ops problems, and the main one, ‘It works on my machine,’ enables both the teams to collaborate effectively and work efficiently. According to , Docker is already winning the container game with an amazing YoY adoption growth. RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report With Docker, you can make immutable dev, staging, and production environments. You will have a high level of control over all changes because they are made using immutable Docker images and containers. You can always roll back to the previous version at any given moment if you want to. Development, staging, and production environments become more alike. With Docker, it is guaranteed that if a feature works in the development environment, it will work in staging and production, too. took a sampling of its customer base, representing more than 10,000 companies and 700 million containers, in its report on the survey, it is shown that, at the beginning of April 2018, 23.4 percent of Datadog customers had adopted Docker, up from 20.3 percent one year earlier. Since 2015, the share of customers running Docker has grown at a rate of about 3 to 5 points per year. Datadog Source: Datadog Docker best practices: Before approaching Docker, you must know some best practices to reap the benefits of this tool to the fullest extent. Listing down here some Docker best practices to keep in mind, Build images to do just one thing (Also, See ) Security Best Practices for Docker Images Use tags to reference specific versions of your image Prefer minimalist base images Use multi-stage builds Don’t use a root user, whenever possible Use official, purpose-built images Enable Docker content trust Use Docker Bench for security Use Artifactory to manage Docker images Leverage Docker enterprise features for additional protection Writing a build docker image which is slim and smart not the fat one docker file is always critical, Persist data outside of a container Use and keep track using tags Docker compose to use as Infrastructure As Code Role-based access control Do not add user credentials/keys/critical data to the image. Use it as a deployment variable , try pushing "COPY . ." to the last line in Dockerfile if possible Make use of docker caching Use .dockerignore file Don't install debugging tools to reduce image size Always use resource limits with docker/containers Use swarm mode for small application Don't blindly trust downloads from the DockerHub! Verify them! See more at ‘ ’ DockerHub Breach Can Have a Long Reach Make Docker image with tuned kernel parameters Use alpine image Docker is all about speed: Source: Docker Containers are the next once-in-a-decade shift in infrastructure that we all need to take part in. The hardest part in any IT industry whenever new tools are developed is the migration part–we have to learn those new tools, workflows, understand the terminology, and much more. But the nicest thing about Docker is it is created with developers, sysadmins, test engineers, Ops people & IT architects in mind. According to Gartner research, it is said that more than 50% of global organizations will be running containers in production. Without containers today, organizations get into something called the 'Matrix from Hell' problem, where you have different types of applications, dependencies, and environments, and all these things need to work together to make your software work efficiently. That really is hell. This problem has been fixed by Docker. Docker is all about speed, and it helps to develop fast, build fast, test fast, deploy fast, update fast, and recover faster. Docker is a fantastic piece of technology with a high level of adoption, making it a default tool when it comes to embracing DevOps practices. Docker has initiated the digital transformation at various firms. Millions of users rely on Docker, downloading 100M container images a day, or maybe even more (as per their blog) and over 450 companies have turned to Docker Enterprise Edition – including some of the largest enterprises in the globe. With such vast adoption, the range of stories to tell, and the diverse set of use cases continues to grow.

Why We Love Docker and Best Practices for DevOps

2019 is the year of adoption. We have weathered the storm of early 2018, lived through the ensuing drought and we can see glimpses of the promised land on the horizon. At , we are strongly passionate about overall adoption of blockchain technology as we believe it can benefit many people and industries. As such, we are always on the look-out for news of increasing adoption and collaboration. aelf Last year I wrote an article with a as I found it very difficult to find a single source for this information online. Comprehensive List of Banks using Blockchain tech Although there was a strong interest in blockchain tech over the last 24 months, due to a mixture of issues, including the volatile ‘unproven’ market and rampant ICO scams, many companies avoided public exposure linking them to the blockchain industry. Many would agree we have seen a shift in this mindset as more high profile individuals and companies are now being more open about their association with blockchain. Take for example, the #1 YouTuber, . Pewdiepie, who has recently partnered with Dlive In fact, according to a by Gemalto, adoption of blockchain to help secure IoT doubled in 2018. report Deloitte recently released survey results in regards to . The companies represented by these executives all have an annual revenue of over $100M USD. One point to note, was that over 75% of respondents believe they will lose a competitive advantage if they do not adopt blockchain. Did someone say FOMO? executive’s views on blockchain adoption Also, according to the survey, over 90% of respondents are already participating in or planning to within 12 months, a blockchain consortium or alliance. According to the , global spending on blockchain development will almost double to $2.9 Billion this year, and increase exponentially to reach $12.4 billion by 2022. International Data Corporation The financial sector will lead the charge with an estimated of $1.1 Billion to be spent in this sector alone. The Manufacturing and resources sector will see the fastest growth this year with a growth rate of 77.6%. Notably, of (Statisca.com), over 50% are included in this list; and in particular, 9 out of the top 10 with a combined market value of over $5.6 trillion USD in 2018. the 100 largest companies in the world by market value Surprisingly, the largest industry in this list is Transport, Shipping & Logistics. There could be a few reasons due to this, firstly, there were a few large alliances that have been created specifically to aid in blockchain adoption with members in the hundreds. Secondly, this is one of the biggest industries in which there is a high degree of interdependence and cross company reliance. The finance industry was always going to be in the top of this list, but another exciting development is the high rank that government received with many countries showing a clear positive attitude towards the technology. In light of all this, it is safe to say, blockchain is here to stay and 2019 is the Year of Adoption. So let’s take a look at the enterprises who have already taken the leap. This list is focusing on active enterprises in 2019. For those that are wondering, this list has almost 1,000 Enterprises in it. *There may be early adopters that are not in this list due to having little activity in the first quarter of this year. If there are ones that are active and not on this list, comment below with the links and I’ll aim to add them in **Accomodation** Cheval Blanc The Dolder Grand **Agriculture** Bayer Crop Science Bumble Bee FoodsCargill **Auto Industry** Hyundai BMW Ford General Motors Genuine Parts CompanyGreat DaneHummer Jaguar Karamba Security Volkswagen Waymo Data **Automated Retail Companies**AAEONAR SystemsFastcorp VendingGlobal Vending GroupGreenbox RoboticsInvendaIVMIVSRetail Automated ConceptsSandenVendoThe-Venders and Wemp **Communication** Deutsche Telekom NEC Europe Smart Communications Solace Corporation Swisscomm Broadridge China Mobile Comcast FarEasTone Kakao OrbcommOrange SoftBank Sprint Telefónica **Consultancy**21 Consulting GmbHAccentureAdaptive Financial Consulting Bain & CompanyBCS ConsultingBerkeley Research Group CH & CoCOMPELLIO DNV GL Business Assurance Group Everis InfosysJDX Post Oak LabsProtivitiRaoof Consultancy Limited Scrypt.MediaSynechronSynpulse XLNTEC Thomas ReutersThoughtWorksTigerRiskTomorrow Labs AizoonAONAsset Balance Solutions Cambridge Associates Deloitte enVista EY J.J. Keller & Associates Inc KPMG RevUnit ThreatAdvice Tata Consultancy Services **Data Managemen**Accuity CommodDT EverisInterxion RoyaltyRange Ansonia Credit DataApplya Connected Holdings Docusign Nielsen Ocean Protocol **Digital Security**CrossVerifyGemaltoGuardtimeObjectTechSLIBSovrinUtimacoYoti **Education** RMIT Duke University Harvard University Swinburne University The Air Force Institute of TechnologyThe University of TennesseeUniversity of Central ArkansasUniversity of Denver University of Colorado Boulder University of Memphis University of Michigan University of Nevada Yale University **Finance**ABN AMROAIBAl Rajhi Banking & Investment CorporationAlawwal BankAlfa Bank Allied Irish Bank ANZ Banking GroupATB FinancialB3Banca Intesa SanpaoloBanca MediolanumBanca MifelBanco BICEBanco BisaBanco Bradesco Banco de Crédito del PerúBanco de Investment GlobalBanco de SabadellBanco de Galicia y Buenos AiresBanco IndustrialBanco Mercantil del NorteBanco Mercantil Santa CruzBanco Nacional de BoliviaBanco Popular DominicanoBanco RegionalBanco SantanderBangkok BankBank ABCBank Al Habib LimitedBank BusanBank Frick & CoBank of America | Merrill LynchBank of CyprusBank of Montreal BankinterBanorteBanreservasBanque Internationale de Commerce — BRED (Suisse)Banque ThalerBarclays BCIBladex BNY Mellon Bolsa de MadridBPCE BRAC Bank LimitedBradescoCBH Compagnie Bancaire HelvétiqueChina Banking AssociationChina Merchant BankChina CITIC Bank International LimitedChina Guangfa BankChong Hing Bank LimitedCIBCCIM Banque S.A GeneveCitiBankCLS GroupCommercial Bank of Africa LimitedCommerzBankCommonwealth Bank of AustraliaCooperatieve RabobankCredicorp BankCredit Agricole S.A.Credit Libanais SAL CTBC BankDaiwa Securities GroupDanske BankDavivienda DenizBank A.S. Deutsche BörseDigiledgeDianrongDNB Ernst & Young European Central Securities Depositories Association First America BankFulton Financial CorporationGazprombank Habib Metropolitan Bank LimitedHo Chi Minh City Development JS CommercialHQLA ICICI Bank LimitedIndovina Bank Ltd Intesa SanpaoloItaú Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of VietnamJoint-Stock Company BCS-Investment BankJPMorgan ChaseJS Bank Limited KASIKORNBANK Public Company LimitedKB Financial GroupKEB Hana BankKuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi Macquarie Bank MauBank LimitedMizuho Bank National Bank of CanadaNational Bank of EgyptNational Bank of Kenya LimitedNational Bank of KuwaitNatixis Norddeutsche Landesbank GirozentraleNordeaNorthern TrustOmidyar NetworkOP Financial Group Paris Europlace PKO Bank PolskiPortal FinancePrime Bank Ltd.Privatbank IHAG Zurich PT Bank Central Asia TbkPT Bank CIMBNiaga TbkQiwiRaiffeisen BankRBCRBSRCBCRCI Bank & ServicesResona Bank, Ltd. Reyl & Cie SA Satoshi Systems ScopusSEB Group Shinhan BankShuttle HoldingsSIA SMBCSnapCheck SRI Capital Stock Exchange of ThailandSuMi TRUSTSunTrust Synchrony Bank Temasek Holdings The First International Bank of Israel Ltd The Toronto-Dominion Bank TradeCloudTradeIXTradeWindTurkiye Finans Katilim BankasiUBSUniCreditUnion Bank Of The PhilippinesUSBancorpVietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade Volksbank Mittweida Wells FargoWestpac Woori Bank Alipay Ant Financial Banco BTG Pactual Bank MellatBank Melli IranBank Pasargad BBVA Bloomberg BNP Paribas Boerse Stuttgart Digital Ventures BP PLC Credit Suisse DBS Deutsche Bank DTCC Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Employees’ Retirement System eToro Fidelity Investments Goldman Sachs HSBC ING International Chamber of Commerce International Securities Services Association Jamica Stock Exchange Julius Baer Linx Partners London Metal Exchange London Stock Exchange Luxembourg Stock Exchange Mastercard Morgan Creek MUFG NASDAQ Nomura Pakistani Central Bank Paypal Proof of Capital Revolut Santander SBI Holdings SGX Signature Bank Silvergate Bank SIX Group Société Générale SoFi Square Standard Chartered Bank Swissquote SWIFT Telenor Microfinance Bank Thai Stock Exchange The National Payments Corporation of India Thomson Reuters Eikon Tora Virginia’s Police Officer’s Retirement System Visa WEG Bank Western Union **Government** Caisse des dépôts et consignations CSIRO United NationsU.S. Department of Agriculture Australian Federal Government AUSTRAC Brazil’s Ministry of Planning, Budget & Management Canadian Municipality of Innisfil City of Denver Colorado State Government Colorado Water Institute Commerce Committee of Connecticut General Assembly County Auditors’ Association of Ohio Department of Homeland Security Government of Kyrgyzstan Government of Rwanda Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation Illinois Department of Transportation Luxembourg Government Malta Financial Services Authority Ministry of Land & Natural Resources, ZambiaMunicipal Government of Tulum, Mexico Municipal Government of Tsukuba, Japan New York City Economic Development Corporation Pennsylvania’s Economic Development Office (Venture Capital Arm) Seoul Digital Foundation Singapore Government South Korea’s Defence Acquisition Program Administration South Korea Internet & Security Agency Thailand’s Ministry of Science & Technology UK Parliament U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of State U.S. House of Representatives West Virginia State Government Wyoming State Government **Insurance** MetLife Ping An Insurance Aegon AIA Allianz AXA Generali Health Care Service Corporation MAPFRE RE Munich Re State Farm Swiss ReTokia Marine TrueNorth XL Catlin ZhongAn Zurich **Internet** Google Twitter Baidu Digital Garage Facebook Opera **IT Solutions**7CommAKonceptsAmazon Web ServicesAOS SASAppwayAt.cashaXpireBillon Group LtdBlanc LabsBoleroBRQ Digital SolutionsCalypso TechnologyCanonical Česká fintech asociace, z.s. CIeNETCMACOCUS AGCodeITCognizantcoIB Eclipse FoundationEPAMEvernym FinastraFinFabrik GFT TechnologiesGiant MachinesGoogle CloudGuildOne Hewlett Packard EnterpriseIBM Inacta AGInfosys Finacle iSiDLG CNSMagiaDigitalMicrosoftNec NTT Data PCCW SolutionsRedhat Vyoma SoftwareWiproZirconTech Capgemini Cass Information Systems Inc. CISCO Collabrian EXL Fujitsu Technology Solutions HCL Imaginnovate Intel Neuro Red Oracle Salesforce SAP SE VMWare **Legal**ACCORD ProjectCOALA National Council of Clerks (France) Linklaters Orrick Taylor Associates **Medical** COCIR European Federation of Nurses Associations Abbvie AnthemBig Blue Cardinal Health Ciox Health CVS Health Genentech HumanaMultiplan NMC Healthcare Optum Pfizer Quest DiagnosticsUnited Healthcare **Media**Les Échos _CBS_Fox Business Network **Mining** BHP Billiton GoldcorpKutcho CopperLG CorpOcean Partners USAWheaton Precious Metals **Non-Profit** Oxfam Freshwater Trust UNICEF **Online Marketplace** Moonlighting **Pharmaceuticals**Amgen MerckPfizer Sanofi Boehringer Ingelheim Roche **Real Estate** Convexity Properties Emaar Group Greenbrier Management Growth Capital ServicesICP Medici Land Governance St. Regis Aspen Resort **Retail & Manufacturing** Acqua di Parma Ardbeg BelvedereBenefit CosmeticsBerlutiBodega Numanthia BulgariCaffe-Pasticceria CovaCape Mentelle CelineChandonCharles & KeithChâteau Cheval BlancChâteau d’YquemChaumetCloudy BayDFSDiorDom PerignonEmilio PucciFendiFenty Beauty by Rihanna FREDFresh (Cosmetics & FragrancesGivenchyGlenmorangie GuerlainHennessyHouse of BijanHublotKalaKat Von D BeautyKenzo KrugLa Grande Epicerie LoeweLoro pianaL’Oreal Maison Francis KurkdjianMarc JacobsMercierMoet & ChandonMoynat Naja Newton VineyardNicholas Kirkwood RimowaRuinartSephoraStarboard Cruise ServicesTAG Heuer Terrazas de los AndesThomas Pink Veuve ClicquotVolcan di mi tierra WenjunZenith A. Favre & Fils AB InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev Albertsons Companies BASF Bridgestone Carrefour Foxconn Golden State Foods Kroger Levi Strauss Louis Vuitton Naked Brand Group Nestle Nike Overstock Parfums Christian Dior Rakuten Target Unilever Walmart **Sports Teams** U.S. LA Kings (Ice Hockey) **Technology** Dell HuaweiLenovo T-Mobile Aidant Technologies AMD Apple Avnet Bosch Foxconn Fujitsu Hewlett PackardHitachi HTC LG NASA Nvidia PitneyBowes RCS Global Samsung Sapphire Technology Seagate TechnologySiemens Sony SweetSense Tencent TSMC **Transport, Logistics & Shipping** CMA CGM ERTICO Feadship Penske 10–4360dataABAQ.USAble FreightAdventAGForceAITAgistixAltriaAmaltoAmerican Global LogisticsAmerican Short Line & Regional Railroad AssociationAMTRAMXAnhueser-BuschApex APL ArcBest CorporationAriaLogisticsAriesArrive LogisticsArrowATSAxle LogisticsBCGBest TransportBlueGraceBlue HorseshoeBourque LogisticsBP BNSF Railway BoyleBoxLockBreakthrough FuelBucklandBurris LogisticsC.H. RobinsonC & K TruckingC.R. EnglandCargoChainCarrier DirectCDL MarketingCenturyCerasisChopTankCitizens ReserveClearDestinationCJ Logistics CNColumbia TransportConvoyCovenant TransportCowan SystemsCoyoteCRST InternationalCSXCTSI GlobalCustoms DirectDaimlerDAMCODasekeDATDDCDecker Truck Line Inc.DeringerDescartesDexFreightDicomDleveredDLT LabsDMTBDreamOrbitDriverReachEagle TransportationEast Coast TransporteCapitalEchoEdge LogisticsEnergy Transportation GroupEnvio360Eroad eShipGlobaleVansEXPAK Logistics FedExFirstFleetFleetCompleteFleetPalFLSFMIFontinalis PartnersForward AirFourKitesFR8StarFraightFreight RoverFreight SourceFullbayGateHouse LogisticsGebruder WeissGE TransportationGlobalTranzGT SolutionsHill Bros Hyundai Merchant Marine IMCInnovativosIntelligent AuditIrvingITLIts LogisticsJ.B. HuntJD LogisticsKamionKansas City Southern LinesKencoKingsgate LogisticsKion GroupKleinschmidtKochKonexial Kuehne & Nagel LabelmasterLandStarLanehubLazer SpotLDILiquid FreightLivingstonLoad OneLoadblockLoadDeliveredLogiflexLogistics+Logistyx TechnologiesLotte Global LogisticsLyncAmericaMach1 Maersk Manhattan AssociatesMatch FactorsMaven MachinesMaverickMcLeod SoftwareMedallion Transport & LogisticsMercerMercuryGateMMM ExpressMode TransportationMorpheus.NetworkMSTSNascentNavistarNBTGNFINGLNorfolk SouthernNT LogisticsNTGNVision GlobalOAROmnitracsOpenPortOOIDAOrigintrailP & GP & S TransportationP.B. IndustriesPackygePAMPanalpinaPantos LogisticsPaschall Truck LinesPavestone CapitalPegasus TransTechPeir Phillips Connect TechnologiesPhoenix Capital GroupPilot Freight ServicesPitt OhioPlatform SciencePLMPolarisPrecisionPrime3Project44ProTransPTIPurolatorPWCQITR & R ExpressRaider ExpressRail IncRay-Mont LogisticsRedwoodReliance PartnersRIMRoadrunner Transportation SystemsRoadSyncRouteiqueRSI LogisticsRTWAirRUANRyderSAIASaint John Capital Schneider Trucking SCLogicScopelitisSeaboard MarineSharelogisShawSheerShipwellSimpleLogisticsSinglePoint CapitalSkyBitzSmartHopSMC3SolarisSouthEastern Freight LinesSource Alliance NetworkSpireonSuddathSunsetSupplyOnSyfan LogisticsTadmoreTAFSTeam WorldwideThe Home DepotThird Coast LogisticsTideworks TechnologyTMCTMW SystemsTRAC IntermodalTraffixTransCardTransfixTransfloTransLytixTransPlaceTransportationInsightTransProTranzlogixTranzportTrinity LogisticsTrinium TechnologiesTriumphPayTrucker PathTruckstopTruck ToolsUber FreightUNISUnion Pacific UPS U.S. XpressUSA TruckVelocity TransportVHI TransportVitesseVnomicsWataco Supply Chain ServicesWELWernerWhirlpool CorporationWhite ArrowWiseTech GlobalWolf DirectWOLTWorldwide ExpressWWS TradingXLNTECYRC WorldwideZoof-It **Utilities** ENGIE Repsol WASSHA (DIGITAL GRID Corporation) Concentric Gazprom Petroteq TEPCO Wien Energie **Noteworthy Individuals** — Russian Opposition Leader — U.S. Presidential Candidate — South Korean Actor — Inventor of World Wide Web — Founder SpaceX & Tesla — French President — CEO Twitter & Square — Retired NBA Basketball Player — №1 Youtube Channel — LinkedIn co-founder — Professional Tennis Player — CEO Berkshire Hathaway & Billionaire investor Alexei Navalny Andrew Yang Bae Yong-joon Tim Berners-Lee Elon Musk Emmanuel Macron Jack Dorsey Kobe Bryant Pewdiepie Reid Hoffman Serena Williams Warren Buffet <a href="https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href">https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href</a>

A Comprehensive List of Enterprises Partnering with blockchain in 2019

List of 50 Billion Dollar Companies (and their Key Leaders) Who are Using Blockchain Technology Introducing Blockchain 50 With assistance from industry consultants and other experts, ’ team of reporters and editors identified more than 100 big companies actively exploring blockchain through industry consortiums and other proprietary projects. This new list features 50 — with minimum revenues or valuations of $1 billion, and U.S. operations — that are currently leading the way in adapting decentralized ledgers to their operating needs. Forbes Allianz SE - Germany Hyperledger Fabric, Corda Robert Crozier, head of Allianz’s Global Blockchain Centre of Competence Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Amazon - Seattle Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum (later in 2019) Rahul Pathak, general manager of Amazon Managed Blockchain at AWS Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Anheuser-Busch InBev - Leuven, Belgium Ethereum, Corda Tassilo Festetics, VP of global solutions Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Ant Financial, Hangzhou- China : Ant Blockchain : Geoff Jiang, VP of Ant Financial Blockchain Platforms Key leader BBVA-Bilbao, Spain : Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, public Ethereum : Carlos Kuchkovsky, CTO, new digital business Blockchain platforms Key leader Bitfury- Amsterdam : Exonum, Bitcoin : Valery Vavilov, CEO and cofounder Blockchain platforms Key leadership BNP Paribas- Paris : Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum : Jacques Levet, head of transaction banking for Europe, Middle East and Africa Blockchain platforms Key leader BP PLC- London : Ethereum, Cardano, Quorum : Julian Gray, technology director, Digital Innovation Organization Blockchain platforms Key leader Broadridge- New York City : Hyperledger Fabric, DAML, Quorum : Michael Tae, head of strategy Blockchain platforms Key leader Bumble Bee Foods- San Diego : Multichain : Tony Costa, CIO Blockchain platform Key leader Cargill- Wayzata, Minnesota : Hyperledger Sawtooth, Hyperledger Grid : Keith Narr, VP, Cargill Digital Labs Blockchain platforms Key leader Ciox Health- Alpharetta, Ga : Ethereum : Florian Quarre, chief digital officer Blockchain platform Key leader Citigroup- New York City Ethereum Puneet Singhvi, managing director Blockchain platform: Key leader: Coinbase- San Francisco Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Lumen Brian Armstrong, CEO; his Coinbase holdings make him a billionaire Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Comcast- Philadelphia Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Quorum Gil Beyda, managing director, Comcast Ventures Blockchain platforms: Key leader: CVS Health- Woonsocket, RI IBM Blockchain, Hyperledger Indy, Hyperledger Sawtooth Claus Torp Jensen, CTO of both CVS and Aetna Blockchain platforms: Key leader: The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation- Jersey City Axcore Rob Palatnick, chief technology architect Blockchain platform: Key leader: Facebook- Menlo Park, CA Unknown David Marcus, blockchain lead Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Fidelity- Boston Bitcoin, Ethereum Tom Jessop, president, Fidelity Digital Assets Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Foxconn- Taipei, Taiwan Ethereum Jack Lee, founding managing partner of venture arm HCM Capital Blockchain platform: Key leader: Golden State Foods- Irvine, CA IBM Blockchain Bob Wolpert, chief strategy and innovation officer Blockchain platform: Key Executives: Google- Mountain View, CA Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Zcash, Dogecoin, Dash Allen Day, science advocate Blockchain platforms: Key leader: HPE- San Jose, CA Corda, Ethereum, Quorum, Sia, Hyperledger Fabric Raphael Davison, worldwide director of blockchain Blockchain platforms: Key leader: HTC- Taoyuan, Taiwan Bitcoin, Ethereum Phil Chen, decentralized chief officer Blockchain platforms: Key leader: IBM- Amsterdam Corda, Quorum, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy Mariana Gomez de la Villa, program director of distributed ledger technology Blockchain platforms: Key leader: ING- Amsterdam Corda, Quorum, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy Mariana Gomez de la Villa, program director of distributed ledger technology Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Intel- Santa Clara, CA Corda, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth Michael Reed, director, blockchain program Blockchain platforms: Key leader: JPMorgan Chase- New York City Quorum Christine Moy, blockchain lead Blockchain platform: Key leader: Maersk- Copenhagen IBM Blockchain, Corda Michael J. White, head of TradeLens Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Mastercard- Purchase, NY Its own platform, built from scratch. Ken Moore, EVP and head of Mastercard Labs Blockchain platform: Key leader: MetLife- New York City InsureChain built on Ethereum Zia Zaman, CIO of MetLife Asia Blockchain platform: Key leader: Microsoft- Redmond, WA Ethereum, Parity, Quorum, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Nasdaq- New York City Symbiont, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric Johan Toll, head of digital assets, market technology Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Nestle- Vevey, Switzerland IBM Blockchain Benjamin Dubois, manager of digital transformation Blockchain platform: Key leader: Northern Trust- Chicago Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum Justin Chapman, head of market advocacy and research Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Oracle- Redwood Shores, CA Oracle Blockchain Platform Frank Xiong, group vice president, Blockchain Development Platform Blockchain platform: Key leader: Overstock- Midvale, UT Bitcoin, Ethereum, RVN, Florin Patrick Byrne, founder and CEO of Overstock Blockchain platforms: Key leader: PNC- Pittsburgh Hyperledger Fabric, DAML, Corda, Ripple J. Christopher Ward, EVP and head of Treasury product management Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Ripple- San Francisco XRP Ledger Brad Garlinghouse, CEO Blockchain platform: Key leader: Samsung- Seoul Nexledger, Ethereum Jeanie Hong, SVP and head of Blockchain Center Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Santander- Madrid RippleNet, Hyperledger Fabric María de la Concepción de Monteverde, director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence Blockchain platforms: Key leader: SAP SE- Walldorf, Germany Hyperledger Fabric, MultiChain, Quorum Raimund Gross, chief innovation strategist, Blockchain Blockchain platform: Key leader: Seagate Technology- Cupertino, CA Hyperledger Fabric Manuel Offenberg, managing technologist and data security research lead Blockchain platform: Key leader: Siemens- Munich Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda Bernd Rosauer, head of research, Technology Field IT Platforms Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Signature Bank- New York City A private, Ethereum-based blockchain Frank Santora, senior vice president and director of digital asset solutions Blockchain platform: Key leader: State Farm- Bloomington, IL Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, Quorum Mike Fields, innovation executive at State Farm RED Labs Blockchain platforms: Key leader: UBS- Zurich Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum, Quorum, Corda Sam Chadwick, head of blockchain Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Visa- San Francisco Hyperledger Fabric . Kevin Phalen, global head of business solutions Blockchain platform: Key leader: VMware- Palo Alto, CA Project Concord, a new blockchain, which supports multiple frameworks such as Ethereum Mike DiPetrillo, senior director, Blockchain Blockchain platforms: Key leader: Walmart- Bentonville, AR Hyperledger Fabric Karl Bedwell, senior director, Global Business Services & Technology Blockchain platform: Key leader:

List of Leading Billion Dollar Companies using Blockchain

I summed up the most important reasons why Google Assistant is soon going to change the game for good. Now let me take you a step deeper into the rabbit hole, and explain what it takes to integrate with it, and what business opportunities it opens for you. In the last article, Assistant is everywhere — use it to reach your customers There are already over 1 billion Assistant-enabled devices — including smartphones, smart speakers, headphones, TVs, smartwatches, smart home appliances, and more! Every day brings news of new ones being released. Integrating with Google assistant means your business will be there to assist your customers whenever and wherever they need it. Ordering products, finding stores, scheduling appointments, giving instructions, accessing content — it is only a fraction of what can be done with Google Assistant. Whatever the focus of your business is, I am fairly sure Google Assistant can help you boost it in a way you might not have thought of yet. Below, I will give you plenty of such examples. But first, I will briefly explain how you can write your own Google Assistant extension. Actions on Google — Cloud platform of the future Actions on Google is a platform that allows you to extend the functionality of Google Assistant with your own applications and deploy them for all Assistant-enabled devices. It is a cloud-based platform which means that the apps you are writing are never really installed on any of the end devices. This makes it extremely convenient for both the developers and the users. First of all, you don’t have to worry about many things that are big issues for mobile or desktop apps, like supporting older versions of the hardware, running updates, etc. Moreover, users don’t have to install your actions to use them — all that is required to open an action is to say: “Ok Google, talk to…” and name the action you want to invoke. When it comes to the development effort, actions are far easier to implement than any mobile or web application, and their user interface is simple and standardised, thus eliminating much of the standard UI work. What it takes to create an action for Google Assistant What is really great about actions development is that Google’s tools and machine learning algorithms do most of the heavy lifting for you. They handle both speech-to-text and text-to-speech, and most importantly, they can cleverly guess user’s intents and choose the best path of the conversation. Don’t worry, you don’t have to provide every possible combination of user’s words for the algorithms to work — they manage to correctly infer intents even if a user doesn’t use the exact words you provide in the console. The most important of these tools is definitely Dialogflow. It is a natural language understanding tool, where most of this magic happens. The biggest challenge during the creation process of an action is to design the conversational experience that is both efficient and pleasant for its users. This requires an in-depth knowledge of the capabilities, restrictions and Google’s guidelines for the platform. Another challenge is to provide a business logic that will deliver content for the action, perform operations and integrate with external services. This logic is handled by a backend application called a fulfillment service. A fulfillment service is basically a piece of software that receives requests from the Assistant, processes them and responds. It can be written in any technology you prefer, as long as it can communicate with Google’s API. There are also Node.js and Java/Kotlin client libraries that further simplify the implementation. Possible use cases for integration with Google Assistant I do not intend to cover all possible use cases here. I just want to point out a few popular scenarios that might apply to your business, or at least will move your imagination. – The most straightforward scenario is an intelligent FAQ bot, which can share its “knowledge” and answer questions about your service or products. FAQ Examples: Visa Guru, Pringles. – Going further, a virtual assistant can aid your call centre, staff or even banking system in some of their duties. Customer service Examples: Bank of America, Mr. Spring, AGL, U. S. Bank. – Ordering a cab, coffee, pizza or even flowers? You can do all of that with Google Assistant in a matter of seconds! Ordering Examples: Uber, Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza, 1–800-Flowers. – From groceries through tickets to pretty much everything… You can buy them just by using your voice or screen interface. Purchases Examples: Asda, Fred Meyer, Ticketmaster, Fandango, eBay. – Checking flights, air quality, the weather or movie recommendations can be done on the go using voice interface. Information Examples: Singapore Airlines, World Air Quality Index, AccuWeather, Itcher. – You can listen to and control your music and video streaming services. There are also use cases for audiobooks, children stories background music or even meditation! Multimedia Examples: Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, Google Play, Disney, StoryCastle, Headspace. – Shopping lists, work trackers, notes — Assistant can be the fastest and most natural way to interact with those. Lists, tasks and notes Examples: Todoist, Evernote, Trello, Timesheets Companion. – You can give your users instructions on pretty much everything. The most common scenarios would probably involve cooking and workouts. But assistant could be easily used to make quick, hands-free guides for things like hair colouring or newborn bathing. Instructions Examples: Tasty, Fitness Buddy, Clairol Color Expert, Johnson’s. – Assistant can be a quick way to send and receive messages and emails, add posts on your social app, or even find a date._Examples: WhatsApp, Twitter, Viber, Sonus Mail, Only One._ Communication & Social media – Finding nearest branch offices, restaurants, dental providers, events, or dogs to adopt — you can write an action that will direct clients to your business. Location Examples: OCBC Bank, Hipster Cat, Sunfish Events, Petfinder, MetLife. – Dining, activities, beauty and fitness — the Reserve with Google service allows your clients to book appointments with Google Assistant. There are also many existing services that provide appointment scheduling actions. Using one of them will allow you to reach your clients even without writing your own action. Reservations Examples: Appointy, Booksy, MINDBODY, Tiqets, TripAdvisor. – Once you try it, voice becomes the most natural interface to control your smart home appliances like light, entertainment systems, heating, cleaning robots and more. But it doesn’t really stop with home smart devices there. Many car brands like Lexus, Mercedes or Volvo provided integrations with Google Assistant that let their users check fuel level or turn on heating remotely. Smart home Examples: Philips Hue, Harmony, Nest, Roomba, Volvo on call, Mercedes me. These are just a taste of what you can do with Google Assistant. Basically, if you can think of any fast and frequently used scenario within your service where you interact with its users, it is a likely candidate for an action! How to make your action profitable? There are a few ways to monetise your action directly. If it is an extension or another interface of your premium service, you can introduce account linking to allow for authorisation. There is also an option to integrate payments via Google Pay, enabling users to pay for access to premium features directly from Google Assistant. Purchasing is another example. With the Google Pay integration mentioned above, the checkout process can be pretty seamless. But if you don’t want to integrate Google Pay, you can as easily implement only part of the flow in Google Assistant, and when the user is ready to check out, ask him to use their phone (if one isn’t already using one), and continue the process in a browser opened directly from your action. But the business value can also be gained through different ways than online payment. There are countless use cases which prove that assistant can bring profit by allowing users to connect to your service easily, find your business locations, or just by increasing your brand recognition. From Zyrtec’s allergy forecasts to Johnson’s newborn bathing instructions — there are many actions that are not only useful but are actually very smart marketing campaigns. Wrap-up Google Assistant can provide a powerful interface for your business to connect with your clients, and creating an action is simpler and faster than writing an app for other platforms like mobile, web and desktop. Start small, think of a simple scenario, and release your first app to the Actions Directory. It won’t cost you much, and the results can exceed your expectations! Want to develop an action? If you’re interested in writing a Google Assistant application for your business, reach out to — . And if you have any questions about Google Assistant, drop me a note at . Miquido Actions on Google development experts jerzy.biernacki@miquido.com What’s next? I’m far from done when it comes to Google Assistant and actions. The next piece in the series is going to be about Google’s guidelines and tips on how to design a high-quality action for the pleasure of its users and Google’s reviewers. Stay tuned and follow ! Miquido’s blog Read more: How Google Assistant is about to disrupt your business Miquido joins an exclusive group of Actions on Google experts

How to boost your business with Actions on Google

Introduction A recent study revealed that more than about 30% of the top ICOs have dipped in value, and an enormous majority of ICOs are trading at a loss. All of this has led to a drop in the volume of trading thereby making it exceedingly difficult for the budding ICOs to raise more capital in the past few months. But what strikes as a surprise is the high amount of institutional interest in blockchain, the development of cryptocurrency infrastructure, and the launch of new capital. A close correlation has been observed between the performance of the Nasdaq between 1994 and 2003, and that of Bitcoin between October and August, 2018. This has raised questions like whether the price of Bitcoin too will see an increase like that of NASDAQ. An interesting fact is also that a lot of companies that issued tokens will see the effect of multiplication in the market, with token prices likely increasing alongside Bitcoin, aiding the enhancement of the overall capitalization of the cryptocurrency assets in the market. Perhaps the price of Bitcoin will see pressure from different hard fork versions of its protocol, like Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, and many more. Regardless, one thing to keep in mind moving forward is the concern surrounding the operation of the Bitcoin blockchain and the enormous amount of electric power that it consumes, specifically from the public perception perspective of the average individual. Reduction in retail involvement due to the adoption of cryptocurrency by institutions Despite the significant fall in the capitalization of the cryptocurrency assets from $800 to $130 billion, there has been an uninterrupted flow of declarations from several multinational businesses and companies who are filing patents — including Amazon, Google, Facebook, MasterCard, and others — around blockchain due to an increased institutional interest in the technology. The institutional interest in blockchain has been further reinforced by stock exchanges in London, New York, Gibraltar, Malta, Singapore, Switzerland, Boston, that are working to launch of security exchanges and thereby enabling the enlisting and trading of tokenized securities. Allowing pension managers and mutual funds to easily invest in diverse cryptocurrency assets through listings on recognized exchanges could prove essential for growth. Another significant part of the framework that the institutional managers require for trading in cryptocurrency assets are custody services, and so Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and Coinbase have confirmed that they will provide such services. All over the world, banks are testing out blockchain technology for an extensive variety of use cases. In Europe, the ABN Amro bank commercially launched the Escrow management solution use case, and Allied Irish Bank and BNP Paribas are still in pilot mode with regards to domestic interbank payments and trade finance respectively. In North America, Citigroup is in pilot mode for a digital payment solution for the private securities use case, and Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo are in a testing phase with equity swap trading and private label MBS securitization use cases respectively. Korean Banks and Woori Bank in Asia are in pilot mode with customer identification and cross border transaction processing use cases respectively. The institutional interest in blockchain technology is not restricted to banking services. Vitana of Metlife is the first automated insurance product in the world for gestational diabetes powered by Blockchain technology. Beluga Pay of Pemex allows cryptocurrency payment at the Pemex gas station. TradeLane of Maersk IBM has established a joint business to conduct trading with the utilization of Blockchain technology. Walmart Food Traceability Initiative of Walmart has devised a way of tracing the leafy green products of Walmart back to the original farm by the employment of the platform powered by Blockchain technology. These are just some of the many use cases that are sprouting up around the world. Conclusion The institutional interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency resources was initially centred around raising capital, predominately for technology startups and new ventures. But alas, with almost $20 billion being raised against a setting of negligible guidelines and regulations, various con artists were attracted to the guarantee of making quick and easy money, and as such, vast numbers of the 4,500 of current ICOs launched on the market are bound to come up short. Nonetheless, crypto resources have heralded enthusiasm for this new asset class and the wider technology in general, and there is expanding and unmistakable proof that actual cash is being spent on valuable blockchain projects. Two examples of such are supply chains and loyalty schemes, both of which are being disrupted by companies leveraging blockchain technology. Lastly, crypto resources are currently progressing on their way towards being utilized for offering partial proprietorship in substantial resources bonds, private and cited funds, property, and even products such as gold bars that JP Morgan is tokenizing. In this way, there are tons of proof that institutional interest in Blockchain and crypto resources is growing. Blockchain innovation is not a worldview, nor are crypto resources the response to every one of our issues, although they do offer some impressive new apparatuses to limit the expenses of working together, and they offer straightforwardness, security, and control in our quickly digitizing world.

The Institutional Interest In Cryptocurrency And Blockchain

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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