Sir Keir Starmer is battling to contain growing unrest among Labour council leaders over the party’s stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Keir Starmer battling to contain growing Labour unrest over Israel-Gaza stance

Ksenia Yudina founded UNest in 2018 to make it easier for families to save for college. The company raised close to $40 million and signed Baron Davis and Laura Dern as brand ambassadors.

The CEO of UNest, a college savings app that raised almost $40 million, says the company is insolvent, according to leaked email

Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by these entities. FinanceBuzz has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of ...

Investing Reviews

There are many venture capital (VC) firms that invest in fintech startups, but not all of them are the same. Some firms focus exclusively on fintech, while others have a broader range of interests. Some firms invest large sums of money, while others are ...

25 Top Fintech Venture Capital Firms 2023

Read an issue on 24 Sep 1887 in Florence, Arizona and find what was happening, who was there, and other important and exciting news from the times. You can also check out other issues in The Florence Arizona Weekly Enterprise. We use Optical Character ...

Page 3 of Sep 24 1887 Issue of Florence Arizona Weekly Enterprise in Florence, Arizona

It’s been a collaborative and seamless partnership.” The agency has done work for Aventon, UNest, General Assembly and Ghost Golf.

Outer Retains adQuadrant As Digital AOR

Two popular platforms that offer easy money transfers are Cash App and Chime. If you’re wondering how to send money from Cash App to Chime, this comprehensive guide will walk you through the step-by-step process. Whether you need to split bills with ...

How to Send Money from Cash App to Chime (A Step-by-Step Guide)

Cash App is one such platform. It allows users to send and receive money in a quick and convenient manner. However, there are times when transactions on Cash App can end up in an “expired” status, leaving users puzzled and concerned. When a transaction ...

What Does Expired Mean on Cash App? Understanding Transaction Expiration and Fund Return

Understanding the intricacies of fiduciary responsibilities and the protection offered by fiduciary liability insurance is essential for both individuals who hold fiduciary roles and the businesses they serve. Fiduciary liability insurance is a specialized ...

What is Fiduciary Liability Insurance? A Comprehensive Guide

UNest

unest

The Conception of Libido

I will share a real problem and how we solved it despite all the opinions and facts that we will fail. You could learn something from the following few paragraphs. What was the problem? We were in a situation to deliver a product with an impossible timeline because of many business-related reasons. For an easy calculation, let’s say our team capacity was around 100 SP, and we got four sprints to produce a stable product version. At this point, we got around 500 SP worth in the backlog + a good amount of unestimated stories + a few new features that we knew would come to our team in a sprint or so. Let’s remember the time allocation for fixing bugs, which in the past was not a part of our capacity for obvious reasons. So we had at least two times more SP that we could deliver. How do we solve this? Ideation . Optimize how we work The first change was to optimize how we work and see whether we could raise the velocity in artificial terms. We achieved that by: Having a strict focus on the stories that needed to be completed and what was stopping us from moving forward faster than usual. Is there something we need to know about the story that would require some research, which is the typical process in normal circumstances? Could we re-assign this to someone who has done this before? Focusing on the fastest PR review process. With the higher throughput comes the responsibility to review PR faster and better to ensure quality. Discussion during the standup about which person should take a specific story based on their experience and knowledge instead of letting the team members pick their own as we usually do. With those changes and some more, we reduced the time from “In progress” to “Done.” by 70%. Of course, this comes with some form of debt we must pay later, so if you go this way, please note this somewhere. Long hours The second change was the most unpopular one that came to your mind. We needed to tackle long hours carefully as a team because it’s a hazardous mitigation option that could reflect your team and product negatively. I can’t measure the effects of this abrupt change yet, so if you have any ideas, apart from asking the group how they feel about that, I am all ears. Sharp Focus on the Value The third change we made was to refocus our sprints and have even smaller milestones that would help us brainstorm and discover all near-time challenges we might have. If you have to deploy a ready solution in 3 weeks and if you have to deploy fewer features in, say, three days, that would change your way of thinking and focus on the more significant value first. And we landed at the apple trees paradigm. Even after we applied all of the changes above, we were still at risk of delivering the value for the deadline (which we cannot move for many reasons). As a program manager, my next step was to ask for help from teams with similar knowledge. The next step for my engineering folks was to push back and say that we can’t have seven apple trees grow an apple for one month (or something similar to that and not so appropriate for my blog), and throwing more people would not solve the problem but will raise more issues. In my vast experience, I’ve seen this failing, but I’ve seen this working. So I’ll focus on how we make it work, despite the initial and deserved skepticism from the engineering organization. Step-by-step approach Onboarding The main problem with a new team member is the learning curve: How long would it take a person to understand our codebase and do their first proper commit? This is a tricky question. I’ve seen teams that give freedom to developers to learn and take as much as they need time to do that, and I’ve seen teams that would pair you with a buddy, and you would do you commit a few days after you joined. Of course, this requires you to 1) be senior enough to understand a certain level of complexity fast and 2) have a perfect task to help you get started. The first is: enabler Have senior enough people to tackle every complex challenge quicker and to have a work area that would not require a lot of learning to get started. The Product Owner and the team leads created a whole new backlog of items that the new team members could pick up and start working on within a day or two. Time of the original team. You would need someone from the original team to help the new team members get started by explaining the architecture, technology stack, or something else. This, for sure, will take from the team’s capacity. Consider it an investment; as with every investment, you must evaluate the return. If you spend 10 SP of the original team, you must tailor the experience to ensure the new team members can do much more in the next sprint. Plan carefully who from the crew could do that and how long this person will be busy with this activity. We started with a few one-hour sessions and then agreed on communicating without disruption. The second is: enabler Focus on the individual skills of the new team members and find a way to optimize their experience. Communication If you were in a situation like that, you would have tons of questions about your task, and you need to know what to do in this case. Encouraging new members always to ask the original team questions could be counterproductive. We set up a new channel in our chat software to allow all the questions. Then the scrum master, PO, or one of the team leads would find a way to get this answered. The enabler is: third Lower the minimum time to unblock anyone so they can do their job faster and better. How do we measure success? The most important KPI is – did we deliver the value on time? Yes The second KPI is – do both teams think this whole experiment worked for good? I’ll let the number talk for themselves. Keep a flexible mindset. This is a particular use case, and the success depends on many elements you might not have in your formulas if you want to apply a similar approach to your project. The lesson here is to know that sometimes throwing more people to help the team helps, and all the time, we should challenge the status quo or the fixed “this wouldn’t work.”, because it might. Cheers! Photo by on Priscilla Du Preez Unsplash Also published . here

An Impossible Timeline: Can Seven Apple Trees Grow an Apple for One Month?

Human, All Too Human,  A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Nietzsche is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series . The table of Links for this book can be found here . PREFACE 1 It is often enough, and always with great surprise, intimated to me that there is something both ordinary and unusual in all my writings, from the "Birth of Tragedy" to the recently published "Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future": they all contain, I have been told, snares and nets for short sighted birds, and something that is almost a constant, subtle, incitement to an overturning of habitual opinions and of approved customs. What!? Everything is merely—human—all too human? With this exclamation my writings are gone through, not without a certain dread and mistrust of ethic itself and not without a disposition to ask the exponent of evil things if those things be not simply misrepresented. My writings have been termed a school of distrust, still more of disdain: also, and more happily, of courage, audacity even. And in fact, I myself do not believe that anybody ever looked into the world with a distrust as deep as mine, seeming, as I do, not simply the timely advocate of the devil, but, to employ theological terms, an enemy and challenger of God; and whosoever has experienced any of the consequences of such deep distrust, anything of the chills and the agonies of isolation to which such an unqualified difference of standpoint condemns him endowed with it, will also understand how often I must have sought relief and self-forgetfulness from any source—through any object of veneration or enmity, of scientific seriousness or wanton lightness; also why I, when I could not find what I was in need of, had to fashion it for myself, counterfeiting it or imagining it (and what poet or writer has ever done anything else, and what other purpose can all the art in the world possibly have?) That which I always stood most in need of in order to effect my cure and self-recovery was faith, faith enough not to be thus isolated, not to look at life from so singular a point of view—a magic apprehension (in eye and mind) of relationship and equality, a calm confidence in friendship, a blindness, free from suspicion and questioning, to two sidedness; a pleasure in externals, superficialities, the near, the accessible, in all things possessed of color, skin and seeming. Perhaps I could be fairly reproached with much "art" in this regard, many fine counterfeitings; for example, that, wisely or willfully, I had shut my eyes to Schopenhauer's blind will towards ethic, at a time when I was already clear sighted enough on the subject of ethic; likewise that I had deceived myself concerning Richard Wagner's incurable romanticism, as if it were a beginning and not an end; likewise concerning the Greeks, likewise concerning the Germans and their future—and there may be, perhaps, a long list of such likewise. Granted, however, that all this were true, and with justice urged against me, what does it signify, what can it signify in regard to how much of the self-sustaining capacity, how much of reason and higher protection are embraced in such self-deception? —and how much more falsity is still necessary to me that I may therewith always reassure myself regarding the luxury of my truth. Enough, I still live; and life is not considered now apart from ethic; it will [have] deception; it thrives (lebt) on deception ... but am I not beginning to do all over again what I have always done, I, the old immoralist, and bird snarer—talk unmorally, ultramorally, "beyond good and evil"? 2 Thus, then, have I evolved for myself the "free spirits" to whom this discouraging-encouraging work, under the general title "Human, All Too Human," is dedicated. Such "free spirits" do not really exist and never did exist. But I stood in need of them, as I have pointed out, in order that some good might be mixed with my evils (illness, loneliness, strangeness, acedia, incapacity): to serve as gay spirits and comrades, with whom one may talk and laugh when one is disposed to talk and laugh, and whom one may send to the devil when they grow wearisome. They are some compensation for the lack of friends. That such free spirits can possibly exist, that our Europe will yet number among her sons of to-morrow or of the day after to-morrow, such a brilliant and enthusiastic company, alive and palpable and not merely, as in my case, fantasms and imaginary shades, I, myself, can by no means doubt. I see them already coming, slowly, slowly. May it not be that I am doing a little something to expedite their coming when I describe in advance the influences under which I see them evolving and the ways along which they travel? 3 It may be conjectured that a soul in which the type of "free spirit" can attain maturity and completeness had its decisive and deciding event in the form of a great emancipation or unbinding, and that prior to that event it seemed only the more firmly and forever chained to its place and pillar. What binds strongest? What cords seem almost unbreakable? In the case of mortals of a choice and lofty nature they will be those of duty: that reverence, which in youth is most typical, that timidity and tenderness in the presence of the traditionally honored and the worthy, that gratitude to the soil from which we sprung, for the hand that guided us, for the relic before which we were taught to pray—their sublimest moments will themselves bind these souls most strongly. The great liberation comes suddenly to such prisoners, like an earthquake: the young soul is all at once shaken, torn apart, cast forth—it comprehends not itself what is taking place. An involuntary onward impulse rules them with the mastery of command; a will, a wish are developed to go forward, anywhere, at any price; a strong, dangerous curiosity regarding an undiscovered world flames and flashes in all their being. "Better to die than live here"—so sounds the tempting voice: and this "here," this "at home" constitutes all they have hitherto loved. A sudden dread and distrust of that which they loved, a flash of contempt for that which is called their "duty," a mutinous, wilful, volcanic-like longing for a far away journey, strange scenes and people, annihilation, petrifaction, a hatred surmounting love, perhaps a sacrilegious impulse and look backwards, to where they so long prayed and loved, perhaps a flush of shame for what they did and at the same time an exultation at having done it, an inner, intoxicating, delightful tremor in which is betrayed the sense of victory—a victory? over what? over whom? a riddle-like victory, fruitful in questioning and well worth questioning, but the first victory, for all—such things of pain and ill belong to the history of the great liberation. And it is at the same time a malady that can destroy a man, this first outbreak of strength and will for self-destination, self-valuation, this will for free will: and how much illness is forced to the surface in the frantic strivings and singularities with which the freedman, the liberated seeks henceforth to attest his mastery over things! He roves fiercely around, with an unsatisfied longing and whatever objects he may encounter must suffer from the perilous expectancy of his pride; he tears to pieces whatever attracts him. With a sardonic laugh he overturns whatever he finds veiled or protected by any reverential awe: he would see what these things look like when they are overturned. It is wilfulness and delight in the wilfulness of it, if he now, perhaps, gives his approval to that which has heretofore been in ill repute—if, in curiosity and experiment, he penetrates stealthily to the most forbidden things. In the background during all his plunging and roaming—for he is as restless and aimless in his course as if lost in a wilderness—is the interrogation mark of a curiosity growing ever more dangerous. "Can we not upset every standard? and is good perhaps evil? and God only an invention and a subtlety of the devil? Is everything, in the last resort, false? And if we are dupes are we not on that very account dupers also? must we not be dupers also?" Such reflections lead and mislead him, ever further on, ever further away. Solitude, that dread goddess and mater saeva cupidinum, encircles and besets him, ever more threatening, more violent, more heart breaking—but who to-day knows what solitude is? 4 From this morbid solitude, from the deserts of such trial years, the way is yet far to that great, overflowing certainty and healthiness which cannot dispense even with sickness as a means and a grappling hook of knowledge; to that matured freedom of the spirit which is, in an equal degree, self mastery and discipline of the heart, and gives access to the path of much and various reflection—to that inner comprehensiveness and self satisfaction of over-richness which precludes all danger that the spirit has gone astray even in its own path and is sitting intoxicated in some corner or other; to that overplus of plastic, healing, imitative and restorative power which is the very sign of vigorous health, that overplus which confers upon the free spirit the perilous prerogative of spending a life in experiment and of running adventurous risks: the past-master-privilege of the free spirit. In the interval there may be long years of convalescence, years filled with many hued painfully-bewitching transformations, dominated and led to the goal by a tenacious will for health that is often emboldened to assume the guise and the disguise of health. There is a middle ground to this, which a man of such destiny can not subsequently recall without emotion; he basks in a special fine sun of his own, with a feeling of birdlike freedom, birdlike visual power, birdlike irrepressibleness, a something extraneous (Drittes) in which curiosity and delicate disdain have united. A "free spirit"—this refreshing term is grateful in any mood, it almost sets one aglow. One lives—no longer in the bonds of love and hate, without a yes or no, here or there indifferently, best pleased to evade, to avoid, to beat about, neither advancing nor retreating. One is habituated to the bad, like a person who all at once sees a fearful hurly-burly beneath him—and one was the counterpart of him who bothers himself with things that do not concern him. As a matter of fact the free spirit is bothered with mere things—and how many things—which no longer concern him. 5 A step further in recovery: and the free spirit draws near to life again, slowly indeed, almost refractorily, almost distrustfully. There is again warmth and mellowness: feeling and fellow feeling acquire depth, lambent airs stir all about him. He almost feels: it seems as if now for the first time his eyes are open to things near. He is in amaze and sits hushed: for where had he been? These near and immediate things: how changed they seem to him! He looks gratefully back—grateful for his wandering, his self exile and severity, his lookings afar and his bird flights in the cold heights. How fortunate that he has not, like a sensitive, dull home body, remained always "in the house" and "at home!" He had been beside himself, beyond a doubt. Now for the first time he really sees himself—and what surprises in the process. What hitherto unfelt tremors! Yet what joy in the exhaustion, the old sickness, the relapses of the convalescent! How it delights him, suffering, to sit still, to exercise patience, to lie in the sun! Who so well as he appreciates the fact that there comes balmy weather even in winter, who delights more in the sunshine athwart the wall? They are the most appreciative creatures in the world, and also the most humble, these convalescents and lizards, crawling back towards life: there are some among them who can let no day slip past them without addressing some song of praise to its retreating light. And speaking seriously, it is a fundamental cure for all pessimism (the cankerous vice, as is well known, of all idealists and humbugs), to become ill in the manner of these free spirits, to remain ill quite a while and then bit by bit grow healthy—I mean healthier. It is wisdom, worldly wisdom, to administer even health to oneself for a long time in small doses. 6 About this time it becomes at last possible, amid the flash lights of a still unestablished, still precarious health, for the free, the ever freer spirit to begin to read the riddle of that great liberation, a riddle which has hitherto lingered, obscure, well worth questioning, almost impalpable, in his memory. If once he hardly dared to ask "why so apart? so alone? renouncing all I loved? renouncing respect itself? why this coldness, this suspicion, this hate for one's very virtues?"—now he dares, and asks it loudly, already hearing the answer, "you had to become master over yourself, master of your own good qualities. Formerly they were your masters: but they should be merely your tools along with other tools. You had to acquire power over your aye and no and learn to hold and withhold them in accordance with your higher aims. You had to grasp the perspective of every representation (Werthschätzung)—the dislocation, distortion and the apparent end or teleology of the horizon, besides whatever else appertains to the perspective: also the element of demerit in its relation to opposing merit, and the whole intellectual cost of every affirmative, every negative. You had to find out the inevitable error in every Yes and in every No, error as inseparable from life, life itself as conditioned by the perspective and its inaccuracy. Above all, you had to see with your own eyes where the error is always greatest: there, namely, where life is littlest, narrowest, meanest, least developed and yet cannot help looking upon itself as the goal and standard of things, and smugly and ignobly and incessantly tearing to tatters all that is highest and greatest and richest, and putting the shreds into the form of questions from the standpoint of its own well being. You had to see with your own eyes the problem of classification, (Rangordnung, regulation concerning rank and station) and how strength and sweep and reach of perspective wax upward together: You had"—enough, the free spirit knows henceforward which "you had" it has obeyed and also what it now can do and what it now, for the first time, dare. 1 1 1 Ungerechtigkeit, literally wrongfulness, injustice, unrighteousness. 1 7 Accordingly, the free spirit works out for itself an answer to that riddle of its liberation and concludes by generalizing upon its experience in the following fashion: "What I went through everyone must go through" in whom any problem is germinated and strives to body itself forth. The inner power and inevitability of this problem will assert themselves in due course, as in the case of any unsuspected pregnancy—long before the spirit has seen this problem in its true aspect and learned to call it by its right name. Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law to our to-day. Granted, that it is the problem of classification of which we free spirits may say, this is our problem, yet it is only now, in the midday of our life, that we fully appreciate what preparations, shifts, trials, ordeals, stages, were essential to that problem before it could emerge to our view, and why we had to go through the various and contradictory longings and satisfactions of body and soul, as circumnavigators and adventurers of that inner world called "man"; as surveyors of that "higher" and of that "progression" that is also called "man"—crowding in everywhere, almost without fear, disdaining nothing, missing nothing, testing everything, sifting everything and eliminating the chance impurities—until at last we could say, we free spirits: "Here—a new problem! Here, a long ladder on the rungs of which we ourselves have rested and risen, which we have actually been at times. Here is a something higher, a something deeper, a something below us, a vastly extensive order, (Ordnung) a comparative classification (Rangordnung), that we perceive: here—ourproblem!" 2 3 Rangordnung: the meaning is "the problem of grasping the relative importance of things." 2 Uebereinander: one over another. 3 8 To what stage in the development just outlined the present book belongs (or is assigned) is something that will be hidden from no augur or psychologist for an instant. But where are there psychologists to-day? In France, certainly; in Russia, perhaps; certainly not in Germany. Grounds are not wanting, to be sure, upon which the Germans of to-day may adduce this fact to their credit: unhappily for one who in this matter is fashioned and mentored in an un-German school! This Germanbook, which has found its readers in a wide circle of lands and peoples—it has been some ten years on its rounds—and which must make its way by means of any musical art and tune that will captivate the foreign ear as well as the native—this book has been read most indifferently in Germany itself and little heeded there: to what is that due? "It requires too much," I have been told, "it addresses itself to men free from the press of petty obligations, it demands fine and trained perceptions, it requires a surplus, a surplus of time, of the lightness of heaven and of the heart, of otium in the most unrestricted sense: mere good things that we Germans of to-day have not got and therefore cannot give." After so graceful a retort, my philosophy bids me be silent and ask no more questions: at times, as the proverb says, one remains a philosopher only because one says—nothing! Nice, Spring, 1886. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Nietzsche, Friedrich. (November 26, 2011). HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN, A BOOK FOR FREE SPIRITS. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved DECEMBER 7, 2021, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38145/38145-h/38145-h.htm#PREFACE This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Of The First and Last Things: Part 2

Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech: Chapter 7 

Meet the Winners of Startups in North and Central America

Planning means more than just “staying organized” IT project management is hard to imagine without planning. Planning orchestrates the work of different project departments (software development, marketing, sales, etc.). Having a plan enables business decision-makers to stay focused on where they go and see the vector of product development clearly. Planning cannot work without estimating the time of execution for each of your tasks. Developing a habit of splitting your tasks into subtasks while defining the estimated time of execution for all of them is not easy. This sin can be common not only with Junior developers but more experienced professionals can also avoid estimates. In this article, I’ll explain how we encourage our developers to estimate tasks using simple & smart Jira configuration. Where the problem originates from? To quickly start a new project in JIRA, our PMs often use the default settings for workflow, fields, screens, etc. These settings are a good fit for a broad variety of projects, which is excellent! However, if you have a more specific task to complete, you’ll need to go deeper into configurations, like in our example. You will have to learn something new, too. At the sprint planning stage, our PMs ask developers to fracture and estimate their tasks. This enables us not to overload the sprint and stay committed to what we can deliver on time. However, at times a developer may drill into an unestimated task which may let the entire team down. This person may be unaware of the full scope of work that he or she needs to do. This is the reason behind such actions. The developer’s estimate is their personal commitment to complete the task on time. The manager can surely control estimates manually by checking out every ticket, but this is not what we really want. We need to save time. A project manager can automate their routine tasks by picking the existing tool or even creating one from scratch. This principle is driving the entire IT industry forward. Now let’s have a look at the simple and elegant solution to the problem with the tasks estimating. JIRA can do more than you think To solve the problem, I needed to make developers fill the field before they start working on a task (this is important). I’ve been working with JIRA for over a year now. Thanks to the courses I took, I came up with a solution fast. I assigned a task in JIRA to myself and started as follows: Original Estimate Atlassian University Prevent developers from moving an issue to the In Progress status until the issue has Original Estimate field filled By default, JIRA allows you to start working on a task freely, without providing an estimate. So let’s fix this! Go to the workflow of your project and find the from to the status. Step one. transition To Do In Progress Add validation to the in the . Add the error text explaining why a developer cannot proceed with the task. Apply the changes to your workflow. Step two. Original Estimate Field Required Validator Testing. Let’s try to move the task to the status with and without an estimate. Step Three. In Progress Perfect! Now no one on your team is able to start working on a task that hasn’t been estimated. (Bear in mind that this configuration applies to tasks going through the transition . If you need to set up the estimation required for certain , you will need to set additional steps in ). all To Do → In Progress issuetypes Conditions Conclusion This simple & smart configuration will help you as a manager to always see how long all tasks take to be completed. Such a condition makes your developers think about the number of tasks taken into work. The estimation process is automated with zero micromanagement! Previously published at blog.maddevs.io

Automating Task Estimating Process In JIRA

Could crowdfunding be the new frontier for real estate investing? Crowdfunding is an emerging industry alternative to property investment trusts for modern investors looking to gain exposure to real estate. Crowdfunding is a growing phenomenon, based off of collecting funds from groups of individual investors to make a great variety of projects a reality with the funds raised. So far, crowdfunding has been a significant capital-raising tool, and the World Bank predicts that in a few years the crowdfunding industry as a whole will be worth an estimated . In the US alone, crowdfunding has grown by nearly , with real estate making up a significant amount of that number. $93 billion 145% However, despite this promise of capital appreciation, there are still significant challenges for this budding industry to overcome before it can reach its full potential as an investment space. Below, we examine some of these challenges and opportunities that crowdfunding will face in 2020. Challenge: Lack of Track Record Crowdfunding is still a young industry, and as such, it needs to be established more definitively to be considered a viable alternative to currently established real estate investment solutions. Typically, the innovation needed to transform an entire industry can take several years. With a new field like crowdfunding, the lack of track record raises other questions for investors, for example, what happens if the crowdfunding platform shuts down? The reality is that many of these platforms are , and investors will naturally have questions about the risk surrounding their investments (as they should). not cash flow positive Generally, should a crowdfunding platform suddenly close down, investors would want some measure of investment protection or surety. Nobody likes to lose access to their hard-earned capital, especially in an unexpected manner. This is a complicated challenge, but not one without a solution. Crowdfunders should have a solid balance sheet, and appoint a receiver or a trust that would take over in cases of insolvency. Challenge: Industry Standards Because real estate crowdfunding is still a largely unestablished space, there are only a or control measures that have been put into place thus far. As such, while existing crowdfunding platforms have shown some early signs of success, there have not been enough cases to show successful long-term outcomes as a consistent result. few industry standards There is also the issue of how these real estate projects are valued by crowdfunding platforms, based on which criteria, without clear industry standards put into place. Valuing real estate is arguably one of the most important factors in the success of such investments and will dictate potential performance. Without some clarity as to how these properties are selected by crowdfunding platforms, there is the potential that they could have been overvalued, and the returns won’t be as high as expected. In order to achieve these standards, there is still some work that needs to be done. Things like introducing transparent regulatory frameworks, clear and uniform valuation methodologies and other consistencies in order to allow investors to have a deeper look at these very important vectors of their investment. Challenge: Little Independent Investment Advice The majority of investments do not offer guarantees of success, and the same applies to real estate crowdfunding. Therefore, finding reliable investment advice for this fledgeling industry is difficult. In more traditional areas such as stocks, people can visit an investment advisor or wealth manager for recommendations and ideas, or check out places like Morningstar to get performance ratings and other investment management services. At present, no such advisory services are available to crowdfunding investors, which is an important challenge the industry will have to overcome. Without such guidelines from more-experienced professionals, newer investors may be too intimidated to make more significantly-sized investments because they don’t know how to maximize their returns or select the projects with the highest potential to perform well. In such a new field of investing, it’s safe to bet that many investors will be hesitant to participate without clear guidelines in the form of precedents set by others, and it may be a while before crowdfunding is familiar enough to have them. Challenge: Regulations Some of the regulatory challenges involve supposed ‘investor protection’. Not too long ago, the JOBS Act was passed which opened up investments to non accredited investors under Reg CF. However, Regulation CF only allows for raising a maximum amount of just above $1 million, hardly enough to make a significant dent in real estate. The majority of crowdfunded real estate projects instead rely on , which allows for the raising of unlimited amounts, but only from accredited investors. Further,  crowdfunding platforms based in the US that want to use Reg CF have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to legally comply with raising regulations. While the intent of these regulations may be good, it limits options for both security issuers and investors as a whole. Regulation D There has recently been some to increase the maximum amounts that can be legally raised under Reg CF to be $20m or more. This will allow many more later-stage companies to raise using these specific exemptions, and allow larger real estate deals to do the same. The regulators are currently looking at balancing these industry desires with strong investor protection in a more balanced approach. pressure from the industry The crowdfunding industry still has some significant challenges to overcome in its journey towards becoming a fully established investment alternative to the options already available in the real estate market right now. It’s important to note this still doesn’t take away from the industry’s overall potential - by the year 2025, the crowdfunding sector is predicted to raise USD and real estate likely will make up a large part of that number. The key to these challenges is that they are conquerable. Real estate is a great way to diversify a portfolio, and crowdfunding will put the tools of this diversification into the hands of the many. $300 billion About the Author: Kirill Bensonoff is an immigrant, investor and a serial tech entrepreneur with multiple exits. He is an expert in enterprise IT, blockchain and fintech. Bensonoff currently serves as Chief Product Officer of New Silver, a fintech non-bank loan originator. As a graduate of the EO Entrepreneurial Masters at MIT, he has served as both an advisor and angel investor to over 30 different companies. As a mentor at the MIT Enterprise Forum, Kirill has helped startups with scaling, product market fit and growth strategies. Kirill invests personally and via the Chain Reaction Boston group, as well as with the Blockchain+AI syndicate on Angel.co. Kirill runs an entrepreneurship-focused podcast called The Exchange With KB, which has produced over 20 episodes to date. He has been published or quoted in national business and technology media, including Inc, CNN, The Street, Forbes, Huffington Post, Bitcoin Magazine and CoinTelegraph, and others. More information is available on kirillbensonoff.com . Photo by Matt Pritchard on Unsplash

The Real Take on Real Estate Crowdfunding Challenges in 2020

by Iryna Bezborodykh Vibrant showcases, repetitious rows of shelves, enticing muzak, smiling assistants… A precise picture of a shopping paradise, a place where you readily change your cash for 1001 something, as if enchanted by a magic wand of a mighty wizard. Well, it seems no — not anymore. The shopping dream is progressively dematerializing and moving online. Though the money spent on shopping in the net are quite real — , in 2017, customers readily splurged online as much as $ 2,3 billion globally. according to Statista Online marketplaces have become commercial meccas of contemporaneity. Fast, comprehensible, cost-effective — they guarantee near-inevitable gains for all the players involved (buyers, sellers, and platform operators). No wonder their number is constantly growing. The newcomers are successfully developing alongside well-established giants, such as Amazon, eBay or Uber. Investors also like online . In Europe only, there were over the €10 m mark in 2017. That very year, the NY-based online marketplace Artsy announced $ 50 m investment, and Japanese flea market Mercari expanded to the US having raised $ 47 m from undisclosed investors. There are 4,425 marketplace investors in AngelList, and the average valuation is $ 4,3 m. What are the prospects for online marketplaces development in the future? marketing 53 online marketplace investments startup But First, What Is an Online Marketplace? An online marketplace is a platform that allows multiple buyers and sellers to exchange goods and services directly. The platform is managed by a marketplace operator. The operator is responsible for attracting players from both sides, ensuring safety, providing information and facilitating transactions. As a revenue, the operator takes a percentage from all the sales across the online marketplace platform. Its main difference from the online store is that there are many vendors and as the owner of the marketplace you act more like a tenant. Today, online marketplaces sell almost everything: clothes, software and hardware, media, medicine, entertainment — whatever you like. There are marketplaces for products, services, and even projects. They may be organized as auctions or crowdfunding, B2B, B2C or C2C oriented, horizontal (selling goods from a large number of categories) and vertical (specializing in a particular product or service), searching and matching. Constant transformations make any classifications relative and flawed. So, let’s put the attempts aside and simply make a virtual stroll beholding their luring attractions. The Sprawling Giants Multivendor e-commerce marketplaces are the oldest and the most well-established online marketplace platforms. The idea of online marketplaces itself grew out of them. Those were Amazon and eBay who established the rules and sharpened techniques of online sales. And they still set the tone. Such e-commerce marketplaces follow horizontal model acting as ‘one-stop-shops’ which sell everything to everyone both in B2C (Rakuten, Walmart, Jet.com) and B2B (Alibaba, JOOR) segments. But it is not only the range of goods that attract customers to these platforms. So, the major key to Amazon’s success is special treatment of clients which company sticks to from its very first days. Prime accounts, maximum visibility, high customer service level — they reflect corporate values, but they encourage people to , too. Another example showing how special attitude helps to build strong company reputation is eBay’s Charity Shop. There, everybody can buy and sell gifts that support good causes. spend two times more annually The plethora of options these e-commerce spots propose is unquestionably their main advantage. Though, it is so easy to get lost. Many people are distracted from online purchases because they lack personalized communication. They like to address a consultant and ask questions. Some sellers also consider detail specification an indispensable part of professionalism. They will certainly prefer RFQ (Request For Quotation) and Catalog online marketplaces — as, for example, Global Sources. On them, buyers browse offerings but don’t make payments right away. Instead, they submit a request for quote or contact the supplier before finishing the order. It helps to establish trusting relationships and to get sure that the purchase fits the customer’s needs 100 %. But sometimes even narrower limits are desirable. Carving Out a Niche While some marketplaces offer a really wide range of goods, others focus on a single category or product (Newegg, Houzz, etc.). These are vertical, or niche online marketplaces. Niche marketplaces address the needs of the shoppers by offering a narrow set of specialized items. They are better targeted, and clients like them because they do save time. For some of them, specialization even creates additional value. Thus, it helps Artsy, an online marketplace platform that connects professional artists and collectors, not only enlarge the number of people who buy art by creating the atmosphere of exclusivity and high-mindedness but reveal to the world unestablished talents. These days, Artsy has 2,800+ paying galleries on the platform. The awareness that you need to be in line in order to be allowed helps the platform to keep high standards and to create additional demand. For comparison, let’s look at another popular online marketplace for artists, Etsy. Etsy’s special feature is the focus on unique handmade products. On the contrast to Artsy, this marketplace has a really low barrier to entry, which is very attractive for sellers, while popularity ranking helps buyers not to get lost in the ocean of low-quality offers. Etsy takes care of both crafters (by conducting workshops, providing business consultations, and giving small loans) and shoppers (making browsing and purchasing as easy as possible). It helped to create a strong identity and brand loyalty. Having started as a simple small website in 2005, today, Etsy is a big public company with over $ 360 m funding. that the future belongs to niche marketplaces and we are going to see more and more of them in the nearest decades. Another frequently mentioned e-commerce trend is the shift of emphasis from goods to services. A lot of experts predict Let Me Serve You Service marketplaces guarantee speed and convenience when it comes to the search of various works and services. To prove their popularity it is enough to mention such top online marketplaces as Uber or Airbnb. The business models developed by these companies have become so popular that «Uber-like» and «the Uber of» are already household names for a wide range of services from to s. And few people organize a trip abroad without checking an Airbnb website. legislation lotterie Another group of popular service online marketplaces includes websites for freelancers. , by 2020, there will be more than 7 m people in on-demand economy in the US only, reaching as far as 43% of all the country workforce. And these are not only digital nomads, but electricians, plumbers and taxi drivers as well. Currently, the niche is dominated by Upwork, Fiverr, and TaskRabbit with services ranging from software engineering to repairing a stool. According to forecasts As for C2C segment, the sector where online marketplaces have shown their especial efficacy is collaborative consumption. Rather than buying, they enable anybody to rent out or swap various items. Such rental marketplaces as Ukrainian Maemo save your money on things you might need once in your entire life. And these are not only already existing services that online marketplaces propose. Often, they create whole new categories of services no one even would think about some 10–20 years ago. Thus, Collabary connects brands with social networks content creators, DogVacay helps to find a pet sitter for the period of your trip, and on Indiegogo you may order tech and design innovations which few people even have heard about. Satellite Formation The growth of marketplaces results in expanded functions. And one day, the needs and expectations of the clients exceed their capacities. It leads to the formation of satellite businesses which provide related services and support for marketplace vendors and shoppers. In such a way GuestReady and Pass the Keys provide property management services for Airbnb hosts. Uber, which started as a platform for finding a driver, now welcomes companies that are buying and leasing cars. Satellite online systems plug into already existing online marketplace platforms and build on top of them. An illustrative example is Vistr, a cash flow forecasting service built on top of an outstanding accounting software platform Xero. New business options are emerging for the marketplace tenants themselves. So, Amazon today is not only the largest American marketplace but also the leading and the most innovative delivery provider. And another global online marketplace for freelancers, Freelancer.com recently introduced a recruitment service which helps companies organize interviews for the candidates. The Social Network Power In the mid-2000s, Facebook introduced buy and sell groups which set in motion one more type of e-commerce spots — network marketplaces, or market networks. They combine the main elements of both social networks which are so popular nowadays and online marketplaces. Actually, people had used social networks to promote goods and services for many years, and what Facebook did was just following the already existing current. It resulted in launching Facebook Marketplace in 2016 which quickly became one of the most favored online spots for multivendor e-commerce. An average user spends on Facebook about 50 minutes a day. Together with targeted adds, almost unlimited access to thousands of profiles, and free and easy communication, it creates great opportunities for businesses. Well, Facebook existed as a network for communication long before they decided to monetize the platform. And what about newcomers — do they have any chances? The example of Californian startup HoneyBook, a network for event professionals, shows that yes, it is quite possible. HoneyBook is a collaborative platform that streamlines event-planning through thoroughly organized interactions between all the participants under one network umbrella. Different professionals involved in event planning can cooperate with each other and their clients, build their circle, receive payments and make deals. The initiative received active support from the industry attracting thousands of new users every year. In 2015, the company raised $ 22 m from the best-known Silicon Valley investors who but were vying for the honor. From E-commerce to M-commerce How much time have you spent online today? Was it from the desktop or from a mobile? Where are you reading this article from? Well, let’s put aside guesswork and turn to statistics: , 51.89 percent of all global web traffic originated from mobile devices. Is it wonder then that now mobile is getting the biggest piece of online sales and is rapidly growing? Unlimited access (even in offline mode), easy and secure payments, big potential for personalization make the mobile an ideal option for e-commerce. as of the second quarter of 2018 There are two major ways mobile marketplaces rise. Some of them are no more than recently developed mobile versions of web-based e-commerce platforms. Thus, Amazon, eBay, Etsy already have their mobile apps. Others started as mobile marketplaces from scratch. Here belong Lyst, Grabble, and Wish. The examples mentioned above are all from the product category. But there are service mobile marketplaces as well. In travel industry, for instance, CoolCousin represents a mobile app that connects tourists and locals ready to share authentic experiences. With this app, you can ask for advice, find hosts and guides, choose routes, places of interest and cuisine recommended by the locals — and discover the real world as it is. And Even Further Towards the Future The last innovation in online marketplace development we would like to mention within the limits of this article is blockchain. Blockchain serves a digital ledger for different cryptocurrencies in order to record transactions chronologically and publicly. The main point of a blockchain marketplace is its decentralized structure — these are basically open-source platforms owned and controlled by no-one. On such marketplaces, transactions between sellers and buyers are performed without any third parties. As a result, all payments are processed instantly without any payment system involved and transaction fees are very low. There already exist a number of blockchain marketplaces focused on multiple goods and services. For example, OpenBazaar is a multivendor blockchain platform which supports businesses from more than 30 countries. All transactions are made anonymously through escrow accounts. Other examples of blockchain marketplaces are ModulTrade, Multiven, CanYa, and Storj.io. To Sum Up In the future, online marketplaces are expected to continue their growth, which is certainly good news for everybody. For customers, it means that online shopping is going to become even more convenient, pleasant and well-turned. For retailers, it is an excellent opportunity to reach more shoppers. And for those who are thinking about developing an online marketplace, it is a solid evidence that they are on the right track. Have already got an idea? Let’s together! And maybe yours will become the best online marketplace in future! discuss it Originally published at stfalcon.com .

Online Marketplaces: Modern Consumer Paradise

“Can I trust you?” Is a question we ask every day. We ask it of our friends, family, colleagues, and even the tech companies who hold our data. In our most cherished relationships trust is implicit, while in the fledgling ones it’s unestablished. We all cherish our and search. We grew up with it and we’ve been using it for as long as we can remember. We trust Google simply because we always have.  But, should we trust Google simply because we have up until now? Trust is a continued education. The same way attorneys and doctors update their knowledge, people update their trust in their relationships, for it is far too simple and far too dangerous to trust out of habit. Yet, trust is comfortable and it’s in our nature to seek it.  We seek it for the safety that lies inside it. Every day we’re bombarded by over-stimulation and the need to be hyper-aware. This is why we cherish those trusted relationships that allow us to let our guard down. Where we have a safe space and can turn off the draining observation and hyper-awareness.  It is no surprise then, why trust, is an important part of customer experience and the relationship to a company or organization that they do business with or receive something from. In today’s “shame culture”, trust is one of the most monumental things that keeps a company going. Trust to deliver on goods and products, trust to employ outstanding individuals that care about human rights, trust to care of everyone around including their employees, trust to keep the customer safe. When that trust is broken, it can sometimes be hard to gain back. One company, Edelman, releases an annual study on this very thing called the Here you can find and learn more about insights on how the same trust we demand from our personal relationships, is demanded from our professional ones as well. It’s something we’re all wondering these days. How do I trust the news? How do I trust my government? ? Does this person actually have this much of a social following?  As entrepreneurs, creatives, lawmakers, and even friends, what are the things you are doing to develop trust everywhere you go? Is it better to broadcast your honesty? According to Edelman, it’s better to let your actions speak, their study points out the two most mistrusted institutions amongst its participants are the media and the government. One always broadcasting the other. Whereas, the NGOs and the businesses are more trusted, but why?  In modern times we’re seeing more companies and private organizations stepping up to solve problems. Look at the philanthropic works of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While change on a governmental level requires cutting through a veritable Amazon jungle of red-tape, private institutions can mobilize more quickly.  This bodes well for all of us. Now, you can take the future into your own hands. No, you’re not going to be Google and get the world to trust you with their data. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t take on an issue and own it. That twenty years from now someone will be writing an article on trust and they’ll say “we trust X simply because we always have.” Gmail Google Edelman Trust Barometer. How do I trust my chipotle burrito Originally written for the Future Party Newsletter

Stories, News & Mentions about UNEST

Unest’s Stories on HackerNoon

Unest's News & Mentions