WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

Must-do's in order for your hires to reach their full potential you need to put a structure in place that encourages and nurtures their growth, both technically and as managers and leaders.

When it comes to specific start-up sub-sector leadership, we see Montreal emerge as one of the global hotspots for artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups. Since 2016, more than $1 billion has been invested in AI companies located there (including notable startup Element AI), and it has the largest concentration of AI academic researchers in the world. Montreal also hosts the NeurIPS conference, the largest AI event held annually in the world.

Is this 1999?  It sure feels like it...

It seems to us that profitless companies seem to be back in vogue. Recently, companies like Uber and Lyft have gone public with very disruptive business models but no profit in sight. At best, profit might come a long way down the road. Yet they are given market valuations at levels that suggest a wildly profitable business model.

Have you ever wished you could be in the room when founders present to the a16z investing team? Even better, do you wish you could stay to hear the discussion after the pitch? We hear you and are thrilled to launch our latest series of videos called "The a16z Pitch Room". This inaugural episode features the Sandbox VR team Steve Zhao and Siqi Chen pitching to General Partner Andrew Chen. Steve and Siqi present a lightly edited version of their pitch deck. Then Andrew will join them on screen and provide the “director’s commentary”: a slide-by-slide walkthrough of the presentation, describing what resonated, what didn’t, and how he thought about the investment opportunity.

From 2013 to 2017, AI VC funding increased 4.5x while all VC funding increased 2.08x. The 1997 — 2000 boom in all VC funding can be explained by the dot-com bubble. The smaller booms in 2014 and 2015 reflect a period of relatively large economic growth.

When you experiment with work culture as much as we do at Buffer, you tend to receive a lot of questions about it.

What is it like to work remotely? How do you collaborate across time zones? Do people really feel okay making their salaries public? Can you become friends with teammates when you’re not in an office? Do you miss working in an office? Do you basically live in pajamas? (Quick answer to that one: not usually, though I definitely have spent a work day or two in pajamas!)

The research tackles three key areas: economic strength for startups and established businesses, standard of living including disposable income and healthcare benefits, and the inclusion of youth, women and expats in the workforce. The final index ranks the top 100 cities by the total job opportunity score, from highest to lowest, revealing the score for each factor. The data can also be sorted by each individual category.

Après plus de deux ans d’accompagnement de nos startups chez la plupart des grands groupes français, j’ai souhaité dresser un premier bilan.

Once prospective partners in the ecosystem have been identified, there are a variety of ways to work with them, ranging from collaborations that involve a limited financial commitment to outright acquisitions.

We've compiled a collection of the best startups committed to revolutionizing finance, help anybody build a nest egg, get better student loans or rental insurance, invest in non-traditional products like startups or classic cars, or just save some money.

Silicon Valley may favor the young, but technology's romantic idea of the youthful, enterprising entrepreneur may be off by about 20 years, according to a new study.

Investors are pouring record-setting levels of capital into bike and scooter technology. We map out 30+ startups innovating in the bike and scooter space through shared networks, vehicle design, and charging infrastructure.

Additional economic growth, including from business dynamism and rising productivity growth, will also continue to create jobs. Many other new occupations that we cannot currently imagine will also emerge and may account for as much as 10 percent of jobs created by 2030, if history is a guide. Moreover, technology itself has historically been a net job creator. For example, the introduction of the personal computer in the 1970s and 1980s created millions of jobs not just for semiconductor makers, but also for software and app developers of all types, customer-service representatives, and information analysts.

The Warehouse est le premier entrepôt destiné aux startups pour créer la supply chain du futur. Créé par Cdiscount, ce lieu d’innovation propose un programme d’accompagnement de 6 mois, alliant à la fois du mentoring pour challenger la stratégie des startups, mais également des ateliers de codesign avec les utilisateurs experts de leur métier, afin de contextualiser les solutions logistiques des startups sélectionnées.

In late August we rolled out our Growth Framework, a set of documents and tools that described what we value at Medium, how to progress, and how we measure and reward that progress.

2016 was a critical year for augmented reality with new device announcements, major acquisitions and massive adoption by consumers and enterprises alike. There is no doubt that AR is the next wave of computing with all of the major players, from Microsoft and Google, to Facebook and Apple, confirming their commitment to this tech.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are now available to entrepreneurs via a broad range of online tools and applications. AI-powered solutions can help entrepreneurs automate their business communication, generate insights from phone calls, sales and marketing data, create intelligent social media and content strategies, and much more. To help entrepreneurs navigate the expanding ecosystem of business AI solutions, here's a list of six must-have AI tools every entrepreneur should use.

Fintechs have matured rapidly in recent years, and the industry is entering a new phase of development. With no signs of the industry’s growth abating, its reach is likely to broaden quickly to embrace even newer technologies and offerings, blurring the boundaries now delineating financial services. As the momentum continues, some aspects of fintech are likely to reach into a broad swath of the global economy, much like how digital technologies have become a necessity, rather than an option, for every industry. Understanding the seven features that characterize this new era will allow companies to stake out the most valuable plots in the new landscape.

Here's a collection of all 71 CB Insights market maps and unbundling/disrupting graphics.

Here is the list of 100+ tools which includes human resources management, customer relationship management, schedule a meeting etc. for managing small & medium size business effectively.

The stack functions as a mix of shopping list and how-to guide for autonomous cars. Start at the bottom and grab the sensors that will let your car see the world: lidar, cameras, radar. The autonomy bit comes in the middle of the stack because you need more than driving skills to win this game. The top rung goes to the startups with ideas on how to make driverless cars useful, secure, and profitable. That's where you’ll find Uber and Lyft, along with lesser known folks like RideCell, which works with mass transit agencies.

AR/VR hype keeps reaching new heights. Funding to AR/VR startups reached an all-time high in deals and dollars last year. Both Facebook and Apple are reputed to have 1000+ engineers working on their respective headset efforts. And PlayStation said its PSVR, a $400 headset released in October, has sold 915k units in just 4 months. Unsurprisingly, startups of all kinds are flocking toward what could be the next major computing platform.

In this webinar we'll delve into:

• Major startup players in the AR and VR market
• Investigate new enterprise and industrial use cases for AR/VR
• Patents being sought by large corporates like Microsoft, Apple, along with startups like Magic Leap
• Highlight how media companies and movie studios are reacting and driving M&A

The CB Insights artificial intelligence deals tracker looks at top AI deals across industries.

A timeline of six years of Buffer's transparency – all our triumphs, missteps and experiments.