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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2015/07/05/huaweis-sun-yafang-repeats-atop-new-forbes-china-power-women-ranking/
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Huawei's Sun Yafang Repeats Atop New Forbes China Power Women Ranking
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Huawei's Sun Yafang Repeats Atop New Forbes China Power Women Ranking
The U.S. edition of Forbes magazine had its turn last month weighing in on the world’s most powerful women, including China's. Forbes China, the licensed Chinese-language edition of Forbes, is out this month with its own list of the country’s most influential women based on criteria that focus more tightly on business leadership.
No. 1 once again this year is Sun Yafang, chairwoman of China's telecom hardware leader Huawei. Returnees include billionaires Yang Huiyan and Wu Yajun. Here’s Forbes China’s full ranking:
1. Sun Yafang, Huawei Investment & Holding, Chairwoman
2. Dong Mingzhu, Gree Electric Appliances, Chairman
3. Wang Fengying, Great Wall Motor, General Manager
4. Wu Yajun, Longfor Properties, Chairman
5. Yang Huiyan, Country Garden, Vice Chairman
6. Lucy Peng, Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Services, CEO
7. Zhou Junqing, China Resources Power Holdings, Chairman
8. Sun Yiping, Mengniu Dairy, CEO
9. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Investment & Holding, CFO
10. Chen Chunhua, New Hope Liuhe, CEO
11. Cheung Yan, Nine Dragons, Chairlady
12. Zhou Qunfei, Lens Technology, Chair
13. Liu Chang, New Hope Liuhe, Chairman
14. Huang Xiu Hong, Gome Electrical Appliances Holding, President
15. Zong Fuli, Wahaha, President of Hangzhou Hongsheng Beverage
16. Song Guangju, Poly Real Estate Group, Chairman
17. Wei Christianson, Morgan Stanley, Asia-Pacific CEO
18. Li Dang, China General Technology (Group) Holding, President
19. Maggie Wu, Alibaba Group, CFO
20. Zhang Xin, SOHO China, CEO
21. Duan Xiaoying, GE, Global Vice President
22. Katty Lam, PepsiCo, Greater China President
23. Liu Bing, Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group), Chairman
24. Yu Shumin, Hisense Electric, Chairman
25. Li Xinxi, Baidu, CFO
26. Wang Laichun, Luxshare Precision Industry, Chairman
27. Jing Ulrich, J.P. Morgan, Asia-Pacific Vice Chairman
28. Lin Junbo, Xinhu Zhongbao, Chairman
29. Wang Ai, Central China Land Media, Chairman
30. Lin Weiping, Skyworth Digital Holdings, Chairman
31. Zhang Ronghua, Tianjin Rockcheck Investment Holding Group, General Manager
32. He Qiaonv, Beijing Orient Landscape, Chairman
33. Feng Yali, Zhejiang Hailiang, Chairman
34. Kathy Xu, Capital Today, President
35. Zhang Lirong, Xinjiang Tianshan Cement, Chairman
36. Luo Yan, China CAMC Engineering, Chairman
37. Zhang Hongxia, Weiqiao Textile, Chairman
38. Liu Jingyu, Tianma Microelectronics, Executive Director and General Manager
39. He Chunmei, Sealand Securuties, Chairman
40. Yang Huaizhen, Jiangsu Hiteker, Chairman
41. Wang Jingying, Starbucks China, President
42. Tu Hongyan, Wensli, Chairman
43. Mou Jinxiang, Lianhe Chemical Technology, Chairman
44. Zheng Xiaoyan, Hefei Department Store Group, Chairman
45. Zhang Xiuzhi, Spring Airlines, President
46. Xu Shu, Beijing Kangde Xin Composite Material, President
47. Ma Xiuhui, Opple Lighting, President
48. Chen A
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8b47c73abc4da3e144d252b88b413d4d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2015/07/07/china-stocks-drop-in-u-s-on-worries-about-fallout-from-plunge-in-domestic-shares/
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China Stocks Drop In U.S. On Worries About Fallout From Plunge In Domestic Shares
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China Stocks Drop In U.S. On Worries About Fallout From Plunge In Domestic Shares
China stocks traded in the U.S. fell overnight on worries about the economic and political fallout from the plunge in prices of the country’s domestic shares in the past month in the aftermath of a huge bubble.
Among big-name Chinese stocks, JD.com, one of the country’s largest e-commerce businesses, plunged 4% to a three-month low of $30.61, and Alibaba Group, led by high-profile billionaire Jack Ma, fell 0.8% to $79.62, a two-month low. China Online Finance, a financial website, plunged 9%.
More than $3 trillion of market capitalization has been wiped out in a 30% market pullback after major indices more than doubled over a year and the valuations of many Internet-connected business rose to triple-digit levels that recalled the U.S. Internet bubble of the 1990s. State media talked up prices in part in what analysts said has been an effort by China’s powerful Communist-led government to create a favorable environment for the sale of shares from the country’s massive state-owned business sector to private investors and deleverage the economy.
A government bailout package announced last week failed to cool nervousness, which has been further stoked by the spectacle of a reported more than third of the shares trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen suspending their shares.
-Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
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4e4ace0f12827997f682602af8525b30
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2015/07/28/china-search-leader-baidus-stock-plunge-erases-2-bln-of-ceos-fortune/
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China Search Leader Baidu's Stock Plunge Erases $2 Bln Of CEO's Fortune
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China Search Leader Baidu's Stock Plunge Erases $2 Bln Of CEO's Fortune
Yesterday was a rough day for shareholders in Baidu, the world’s No. 1 Chinese-language search engine. Its Nasdaq-traded shares plunged 15% after the company’s latest financial data released on Monday disappointed investors.
Yet a stand-out sufferer financially was CEO Robin Li. The drop erased $2.1 billion of wealth from his holdings in the company. Our estimate of Li’s stake – about one fifth -- includes stock held by both Li, the 46-year-old main founder, and his wife Melissa Ma.
On the other hand, there’s no reason to feel too bad for Li. The two are still worth $12.1 billion even after today’s big loss, one of the largest fortunes in the tech world. And though there are a lot of questions about Baidu’s profit outlook, it remains one of the most successful businesses in the country that ranks No.1 in Internet and mobile phone users.
Down but hardly out after yesterday's 15% plunge in Baidu shares: CEO Robin Li. (GREG... [+] BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)
--Follow me on Twitter@rflannerychina
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1a41b80687212992db5155bb10aa2a6f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2016/04/10/china-healthcare-billionaire-has-an-eye-for-qihoo-too/
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China Healthcare Billionaire Has An Eye For Qihoo, Too
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China Healthcare Billionaire Has An Eye For Qihoo, Too
Aier Eye Hospital Group, the eye care hospital chain led by China billionaire Chen Bang, will invest $30.3 million for a minority stake in Qihoo 360 Technology, Shenzhen-listed Aier said in a statement on Thursday.
Qihoo, one of China’s largest Internet businesses, is in the process of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Shareholders backed a $9.3 billion privatization plan on March 30, adding the company’s name to a growing number of mainland businesses delisting from the U.S. in search of better valuations at home. Aier will purchase preferred shares in the company (see details here).
Chen Bang ranked No. 854 on the 2016 Forbes Billionaires List with wealth of $2.1 billion. Zhou Hongyi ranked No. 1,198 with an estimated fortune worth $1.5 billion.
--with Maggie Chen and Li Huimin
--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
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ef40cf14bba51dc13cfa729f8fa195f2
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2016/12/08/china-real-estate-billionaires-husband-joins-flagships-board/
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China Real Estate Billionaire's Husband Joins Flagship's Board
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China Real Estate Billionaire's Husband Joins Flagship's Board
The husband of one of China’s richest and most powerful businesswomen has joined the board of her family’s flagship company.
Country Garden Holdings, one of China’s largest real estate developers, said on Thursday Chen Chong had joined its board as a non-executive director. Chen is the husband of Yang Huiyan, an executive director and Country Garden's controlling shareholder with a fortune worth $7.7 billion, according to the real-time Forbes Rich List. Yang received her stake in Country Garden in 2007 when her father, chairman Yeung Kwok Keung, transferred it to her ahead of the company’s IPO.
Chen, 38, graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry, according to a company statement. He also holds a master of science degree in biological sciences research from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College at the University of London. Chen was appointed as the first president of the Overseas Study Youth Association of Guangdong Province in 2015, the statement said.
Chen will receive approximately $55,000 a year in pay for serving on the board.
--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
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90986959e0ac9abe48b20c3a3175a1d4
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2018/03/10/who-are-the-most-notable-new-chinese-billionaires/
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Who Are The Most Notable New Chinese Billionaires?
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Who Are The Most Notable New Chinese Billionaires?
China led the world with 89 of the 259 new faces that appear on the 2018 Forbes Billionaires List unveiled on Tuesday. It’s a diverse group that includes Apple suppliers, Internet entrepreneurs and traditional manufacturers. Here are 10 notable new names to make the cut.
--Zeng Fangqin, chairman, Guangdong LY Intelligent Manufacturing. Fortune: $3.8 billion.
Zeng this month completed a backdoor listing of her Lingyi Technology for the equivalent of $3.2 billion. The listed company changed its name to Guangdong LY Intelligent Manufacturing Company from JPMF. The component supplier to the smartphone industry counts Apple as a customer.
--Melissa Ma, special assistant to the chairman, Baidu. Fortune: $3.8 billion.
Ma is the wife of Chinese search engine Baidu's chairman Robin Li. She left a senior management job at the company in 2007, only to return last year as special assistant to the chairman. She is a graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China Alumni Association, according to the school website.
--William Li, chairman, Nio. Fortune: $1.5 billion.
The entrepreneur dubbed by China as the “Elon Musk of China” told Forbes China in an interview in January: “I have no fear of losing.” Li's three-year-old startup, Nio, has raised $2.1 billion in funding and began taking orders for its first electric SUV in December. Li is also chairman of New York-listed Bitauto, an operator of auto-related websites whose shares have gained a fifth in the past year.
--Robin Zeng, chairman, Contemporary Amperex Technology. Fortune: $1.9 billion.
Zeng is the founder and chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology, one of the largest suppliers of batteries and storage systems for electric vehicles in China. The company in November 2017 applied to list at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Zeng worked at a state-owned shipbuilding company in Fujian Province early in his career.
--Zhang Tao, founder, Dianping. Fortune: $1.5 billion.
Zhang Tao was the founder and CEO of restaurant review site Dianping when it merged with Groupon-like Meituan in 2015. Zhang holds a stake in the combined business, which was valued at approximately $30 billion in 2017. Zhang received an MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2002, and returned to China in 2003, when he set up Dianping.
--Zhao Changpeng, CEO, Binance. Fortune: $1.4 billion.
Zhao is the founder and CEO of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that the became the largest on the planet in just under 180 days. (See related story here.) He goes by "CZ."
--Wan Long, chairman, WH Group. Fortune: $1.3 billion.
Wan chairs WH Group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of pork and packaged meats. Its Hong Kong-traded shares have climbed by more than half in the past year amid growth in China and the U.S., where it owns an American industry leader Smithfield Foods.
--David Xueling Li, chairman, YY. Fortune: $1.1 billion
Li is chairman and co-founder of YY, a Nasdaq-listed live streaming and social media platform. In March, YY’s e-sports subsidiary Huya raised $461 million of funds from investors that include Tencent. Before co-founding YY, Li was chief editor at Chinese portal Netease.com. Earlier in his career, Li founded CFP.cn, a copyright trading platform for journalists and amateur photographers.
--Yao Jinbo, chairman, 58.com. Fortune: $1.1 billion.
Yao is the founder and chairman & CEO of 58.com, the operator of one of the largest online marketplaces in China. Its New York-traded stock has doubled in the past year. Earlier in his career, Yao founded domain.cn, a domain name transaction business in China. Yao holds an undergraduate degree in computer science and chemistry from Ocean University of China in 1999. Mainland Chinese media reported this month that Yao is hoping to obtain a listing for 58.com back at home.
--Lu Weiding, CEO, China Wanxiang. Fortune: $1 billion.
Lu Weiding is the CEO of Wanxiang Group, one of China's largest non-government businesses. He is the son of Lu Guanqiu, who founded the predecessor of Wanxiang Group in 1969; Guanqiu died in 2017. Wanxiang has yet to disclose the distribution of Lu Guanqiu's assets among the beneficiaries of his will. Lu Weiding chairs China Wanxiang, whose business includes insurance and fintech.
-- with Maggie Chen
--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
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650e444645723dd760f0742554fb4411
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2018/03/11/track-chinas-rising-clout-through-the-forbes-billionaires-list/
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Track China's Rising Clout Through The Forbes Billionaires List
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Track China's Rising Clout Through The Forbes Billionaires List
China’s economy will surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest by 2030, according to a forecast by PwC. The new 2018 Forbes Billionaires List published on Tuesday offers a great window into China’s rising business clout, the vibrant state of its economy and technology, and the growing role of its capital markets in creating wealth.
Mainland China boasts a record 373 members on the new list, some 54 more than last year -- the biggest year-on-year increase among all economies. It ranks second in members only to the United States, which has 585 listees. (The mainland and Hong Kong combined have 442 members.) For the first time, the mainland has two members in the top 20: Tencent Holdings Chairman Ma Huateng, who ranked No. 17 with a fortune worth $45.3 billion, and Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, who stood at No. 20 with a fortune worth $39 billion. Those two wealth estimates are largest ever for any mainland Chinese to make the Forbes Billionaires List; they are also bigger than the fortunes of U.S. tech icons Steve Ballmer ($38.4 billion) and Michael Dell ($22 billion) on the new list.
The gains by the two (unrelated) Mas reflect the overall growth of China’s economy as well as the lightening-speed adaption of digital technology by the country with the world’s largest population. The Chinese billionaire group this year also includes tech entrepreneurs from online search (Baidu’s Robin Li), online takeout (Meituan-Dianping’s Wang Xing), and anti-virus software (Zhou Hongyi’s 360), among others. Other notable standouts were Lei Jun, whose Xiaomi makes smartphones, and Ren Zhengfei, whose Huawei makes telecommunications equipment as well as smartphones.
China’s auto market is the world’s largest. No surprise then that more than a dozen of its billionaires made their fortunes in that sector, including newcomer William Li, chairman of electric vehicle maker Nio. Li Shufu, who chairs Volvo owner Zhejiang Geely Holding, made news this year when he added a 9% stake in Daimler; he’s now one of the richest automotive billionaires in the world, worth over $15 billion. A Chinese government push to support electric vehicles has helped to create billionaires from the lithium and lithium battery industry, including Li Liangbin, chairman of Ganfeng Lithium.
More than any other nation in the world, China has been a place of billionaire booms and busts, illustrating the dynamism of wealth creation and destruction in the rapidly evolving nation. Some 89 of the 259 new members of the list this year hail from China (see related post here), but so do 40% of the 120 drop-offs from the 2017 list -- including one-time Internet high-flyer Jia Yueting.
The new list also highlights the growing power of China’s capital markets. Shanghai and Shenzhen combined led the world in IPOs proceeds last year, with 437 domestic A-share listings compared with 227 a year earlier. That helped create new billionaires such as Jiang Yintai, whose Shanghai Daimay Automotive Interiors went public at the Shanghai Stock Exchange last year. Though there will be year-to-year ups and downs in IPOs, China’s capital markets aren’t likely to dramatically reverse their ascent in global importance anytime soon.
--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
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7e571b68c287fef89053078a07de7d92
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2018/05/23/hedge-fund-managers-to-analyze-industry-trends-at-china-summit/
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Hedge Fund Managers To Analyze Industry Trends At China Summit
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Hedge Fund Managers To Analyze Industry Trends At China Summit
About 1,500 hedge fund managers and financial industry executives will gather in Shanghai tomorrow to discuss China hedge fund industry trends.
Speakers at the China Hedge Fund Summit will include Ba Shusong, the chief China economist of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd., and Charles Peng, founder of ZiAsset Management, a provider of services to the hedge fund management industry.
The event comes amid growth in the scale of assets under management by private funds in China. The total last year exceeded 11 trillion yuan, or about $1.7 trillion, for the first time, nearly matching mutual funds.
The event is organized by ZiAsset and supported by Forbes China, the Chinese-language edition of Forbes.com. For more information, contact: [email protected].
--Follow me @rflannerychina
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169891123a973418ab40f6a8e740c4bc
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2018/06/10/beijing-billionaire-gets-u-s-security-go-ahead-that-eluded-alibabas-jack-ma/
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Beijing Billionaire Gets U.S. Security Go-Ahead That Eluded Alibaba's Jack Ma
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Beijing Billionaire Gets U.S. Security Go-Ahead That Eluded Alibaba's Jack Ma
Jack Ma, billionaire and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Photographer: Tomohiro... [+] Ohsumi/Bloomberg
A U.S. regulator that reviews proposed foreign investment projects on national security grounds has cleared a proposed $2.7 billion bid by China Oceanwide Holdings to purchase American insurer Genworth Financial.
Genworth and China Oceanwide said in a statement on Saturday that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, “has completed its review of their proposed transaction and concluded that there are no unresolved national security concerns with respect to the proposed transaction. This satisfies one of the conditions to the closing of the proposed transaction.”
Beijing-headquartered China Oceanwide Holdings is a financial and real estate group controlled by Chinese billionaire Lu Zhiqiang. In January, Ant Financial, the financial services arm of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group, said it had ended an agreement to buy U.S. money transfer firm MoneyGram after it was unable to obtain CFIUS approval.
As part of their proposed transaction, Genworth and Oceanwide have entered into a "mitigation agreement" which, among other things, requires Genworth to use a U.S.-based, third-party service provider to manage and protect the personal data of Genworth's U.S. policyholders, the statement said. The transaction remains subject to other conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the U.S., China and elsewhere.
Ant, one of the world’s most valuable unlisted businesses, made headlines last week with word that it had raised $14 billion in a stock sale to domestic and overseas investors that values the company at $150 billion. Alibaba, however, declined on Friday to say how much Ma owns in Ant; as an unlisted company, it isn’t required to disclose its shareholding structure and make its ownership transparent. In an earlier U.S. filing, Alibaba said Ma's direct and indirect interest in Ant "will be reduced over time" to 8.8% within three to five years from the period starting with Alibaba's Sept. 2014 IPO, and that the "reduction will be caused in a manner by which neither Jack nor any of his affiliates would receive any economic benefit." Ma held an approximately 8.8% stake in Alibaba at the time of its IPO.
China Oceanwide's businesses include operations in financial services, energy, culture and media, and real estate assets globally. It is the controlling shareholder of the Shenzhen-listed Oceanwide Holdings and Minsheng Holdings; the Hong Kong-listed China Oceanwide Holdings; the privately-held Minsheng Securities, Minsheng Trust, and Asia Pacific Property & Casualty Insurance. It is also the single largest shareholder of Australia-listed CuDECO, and a minority investor in Shanghai-listed China Minsheng Bank and Hong Kong-listed Legend Holdings. In the U.S., China Oceanwide has real estate investments in New York, California, and Hawaii. Businesses controlled by China Oceanwide have more than 10,000 employees globally, the statement said. Lu is worth $6.6 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today.
--Follow me @rflannerychina
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e0d9036c1ca0cc573334595e3a80ffbc
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2019/08/09/trade-war-or-not-china-keeps-minting-billionaire-clans/
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Trade War Or Not, China Keeps Minting Billionaire Clans
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Trade War Or Not, China Keeps Minting Billionaire Clans
The great U.S.-China trade volleys of this summer haven’t been enough to shut down China’s billionaire-creating machinery.
Yesterday’s IPO at the Shanghai Stock Exchange by Amlogic (Shanghai), a semiconductor design company 3% owned by China smartphone maker Xiaomi, created a new billionaire clan.
Chairman John Zhong, wife Yeeping Chen Zhong, and father-in-law Chen Haitao own a combined 20.8% of Amlogic, a stake worth 12.3 billion yuan, or $1.7 billion, at yesterday’s closing price. Zhong individually holds 10% of the business, Yeeping Chen Zhong 1.6%, and Chen 9.3%. Yeeping Chen Zhong is vice president of Amlogic California; Chen doesn’t have a position in the company.
Zhong and wife are graduates of the Georgia Institute of Technology and U.S. citizens.
China is second only to the U.S. as home to the world’s second-largest number of billionaires.
A dizzying pace of tariff threats and trade action by both sides have sunk U.S.-China relations to the worst level in years. (See related story here.)
--with Maggie Chen
--Follow me @rflannerychina
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164de90f198007e103bc138d9f31e8ad
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/02/26/hong-kongs-peninsula-hotel-chain-expects-loss-as-coronavirus-spreads/
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Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel Chain Expects Loss As Coronavirus Spreads
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Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel Chain Expects Loss As Coronavirus Spreads
A police water cannon vehicle travels past the the Peninsula hotel, operated by Hong Kong and... [+] Shanghai Hotels, during a protest in Hong Kong last year. The coronavirus outbreak is adding new pressure to businesses there. Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP
The storied five-star Peninsula hotel chain expects to post an operating loss in the first quarter of 2020 as fallout from the spread of the coronavirus cuts into its business and intensifies pressure on businesses already hurt by social tension in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong-headquartered business is operated by Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and chaired by storied billionaire Michael Kadoorie. Peninsula hotels are located in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and New York, among other business capitals. The company’s Hong Kong-traded shares have already lost more than a quarter of their value in the past year.
The spread of the virus “has resulted in widespread travel advisories and airline cancellations to the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and other regions,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “This has negatively impacted the group’s tourism-related businesses across Asia and particularly our three Peninsula hotels in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Hotel occupancy has substantially declined, patronage at our food and beverage outlets has decreased, and the commercial arcades of these three hotels have been negatively affected. We are also starting to see an impact at other hotels in Asia.”
“In addition, the political situation in Hong Kong remains volatile following the serious social unrest and mass protests on the streets in the second half of 2019 which considerably impacted most of our Hong Kong businesses. It remains to be seen if this social unrest will continue in 2020,” the hotel said.
“Based on the information currently available, management estimates that the Group will sustain an operating loss in the first quarter of 2020, despite efforts and measures to contain costs.” That in turn would was expected to lead to a significant fall in profit during the first half of 2020 from a year earlier, the company said.
Besides banks, unrest in Hong Kong last year and coronavirus this year have been hurting a swath of business that include restaurants, retailers and airlines. Carrier Cathay Pacific last week warned of a “crisis.” (See related story here.)
-- Follow me @rflannerychina
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f9cc72cd906706b4e62f2843d14f5bf5
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/03/18/alibabas-jack-ma-raises-philanthropist-profile-plugs-coronavirus-handbook/?fbclid=IwAR1qbyaRRmBOkYsB6YA1b3ezLFQ8rhjT_wy02XQmf-wmPMSERy19Ndg1c08
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Alibaba's Jack Ma Raises Philanthropist Profile, Plugs Coronavirus Handbook
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Alibaba's Jack Ma Raises Philanthropist Profile, Plugs Coronavirus Handbook
Jack Ma, worth $39 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, stepped down as Alibaba Group... [+] chairman last year to spend more time on philanthropy. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP
China billionaire businessman Jack Ma has made a big name for himself by turning start-up Alibaba Group into one of the world's largest e-commerce businesses. Now, he’s carving out an increasingly high-profile role as a philanthropist.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation today announced the publication of a digital handbook that shares lessons and experience from frontline doctors, medical administrators and staff in fighting the coronavirus in China. The report focuses on the experience of the First Affiliated Hospital at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Eastern China’s Zhejiang Province is home to Ma and Alibaba.
The hospital over a 50-day period admitted 104 coronavirus patients, including 78 that were critical, and made it through the worst of the crisis without a single medical staff infection, missed diagnosis or patient death, according to a foundation statement. "Today, with the spread of the global pandemic, these experiences are precious and the most-important weapon for medical personnel," wrote Ma in a foreword in the handbook. "We hope that, with this handbook, doctors and nurses in other affected areas can learn from experience as they face this battle, without having to start from scratch."
The announcement comes after Ma, the former Alibaba Group chairman and one of the world’s richest people, took to Twitter earlier this week to declare that a promised donation of one million face masks and 500,000 test kits for the U.S. was on the way. “The first shipment of masks and coronavirus test kits to the US is taking off from Shanghai,” Ma wrote on his recently created Twitter page. “All the best to our friends in America.”
“Drawing from my own country’s experience, speedy and accurate testing and adequate personal protective equipment for medical professionals are most effective in preventing the spread of the virus,” Ma said in a seperate statement. “We hope that our donation can help Americans fight against the pandemic!”
Ma, worth $39 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today, stepped down as chairman of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba in September to focus on philanthropy.
Ma’s warmth toward the U.S. comes amid one of the worst stretches in official U.S.-China relations in decades. China yesterday announced the de facto expulsion of journalists from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post. Beijing infuriated U.S. officials this month with suggestions that the U.S. military last year planted the coronavirus in the country. A Gallup poll released earlier this month found China tied for first among Americans as the greatest U.S. enemy.
--@rflannerychina
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cb5ebf7e01cb04475ff6d7322154676e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/04/12/another-year-another-loss-for-alibaba-pictures-as-pandemic-strikes/
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Another Year, Another Loss For Alibaba Pictures As Pandemic Strikes
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Another Year, Another Loss For Alibaba Pictures As Pandemic Strikes
Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group Holding. Alibaba's business interests... [+] includes e-commerce, finance, logistics, supermarkets and entertainment. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP
Alibaba Pictures Group, an entertainment and film unit of China e-commerce leader Alibaba Group, expects to report up to 1.1 billion yuan to 1.2 billion yuan of losses ($157 million-$171 million) in the fiscal year ending March 31, a “significant” increase from a loss of 254 million yuan a year earlier, the company said in an announcement at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday evening ahead of the long Easter holiday.
The bigger loss “was primarily due to the complicated difficulties in pursuing profitable operation faced by the entertainment industry in mainland China since 2019 and the significant decrease” in revenue in the January-March quarter, the company said. Business was hurt “as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, as well as the substantial impairment provisions made by the group for certain receivables and investment project(s),” Alibaba Pictures said. Movie theaters in much of China – and worldwide – were shut for much of the first three months of this year to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic; major film releases have been delayed.
Alibaba Pictures' expected new losses would be its fourth straight year of red ink. It also lost 1.8 billion yuan for the 15 months ending March 31, 2018, and 958.6 million yuan for the year ended December 31, 2016. It made 466 million yuan in 2015, but lost 415 million yuan in 2014. All in all, the losses total more than the equivalent of $500 million during the period.
Alibaba Group, whose main founder is billionaire Jack Ma, made a big push into the entertainment industry in 2014 just ahead of its world-record IPO at the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba Group purchased a 60% stake in ChinaVision Media Group, a Hong Kong-listed media and program content producer, for $805 million at a price of HK$0.50 a share in June 2014. The stock tripled in connection with the announcement, and ChinaVision changed its name to Alibaba Pictures. Shares peaked at HK$4.9 in 2015; they closed at HK$1.01 on Thursday and have lost more than a third of their value in the past year. Alibaba Group, a powerful e-commerce leader whose businesses also include finance, logistics and supermarkets, owns 50.6% of Alibaba Pictures, according to Alibaba Pictures’ latest interim report.
Looking ahead, Alibaba Pictures said on Thursday it “remains optimistic on the operations of each segment” of its business for the year ending March 2021 through collaboration with the digital media and entertainment business of its Alibaba Group. (See link here.)
In the here and now, however, Alibaba Pictures shareholders are among owners of other film- and theater-related businesses globally that are under pressure. Shares in UK-based Cineworld Group, hurt by lost business during the pandemic, have plunged by more than 70% in the past 12 months, and AMC Entertainment Holdings, the big U.S. movie-theater chain whose main investor is Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, have dropped during closures. Shares in Wang’s China theater chain, Wanda Film Holding, have lost almost a third in the past year.
As silver screens have gone dark, Chinese in search of entertainment have turned in part to online entertainment platforms like ByteDance, the parent of TikTok that offers a similar service under the name Douyin in China. Another China winner: Bilibili, whose New York-traded shares have climbed by nearly half in the past year and whose CEO Chen Rui debuted on the 2020 Forbes Billionaires List on Tuesday. On Friday, Sony said it would pay $400 million for a 4% stake in the popular Shanghai-headquartered online entertainment platform. “Sony believes China is a key strategic region in the entertainment business, and this investment in Bilibili is in line with Sony's strategy,’ Sony said.
“Alibaba” also has an approximately 2% stake in Bilibili. Unfortunately for Alibaba Pictures shareholders, however, it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group -- not Alibaba Pictures.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange will reopen on Tuesday after the Easter holiday.
@rflannerychina
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288d881d72feeac29f53b2a37953cebc
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/06/07/johnson-johnson-partners-stock-soars-as-investors-embrace-china-health-tech/
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Johnson & Johnson Partner's Stock Soars As Investors Embrace China Health, Tech
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Johnson & Johnson Partner's Stock Soars As Investors Embrace China Health, Tech
Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer of Johnson & Johnson, was upbeat about the company's role in... [+] China during a Shanghai visit last year. otographer: Michele Limina/Bloomberg © 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP
Shares in Legend Biotech, a China business partner of Johnson & Johnson, soared on their Nasdaq trading debut on Friday, underscoring anew some of the conflicting impulses between the U.S. and China at a time of overall strained ties.
Legend, which could end up raising as much as $423.8 million through the U.S. listing, closed up 60.9% to $37.
Legend is a subsidiary of Nanjing, China-headquartered GenScript, which conducts drug research on a contract basis. GenScript founder Zhang Fangliang holds a PhD in biochemistry from Duke, and worked at Schering-Plough before he set up GenScript in 2002. Zhang’s fortune topped $1 billion in the first of last year; Forbes estimates his current fortune at approximately $900 million.
Both GenScript, whose shares trade in Hong Kong, and Legend lost money in 2019. GenScript lost $96.9 million on revenue of $273.4 million; Legend lost $132.9 million on revenue of $57.2 million.
Looking ahead, however, Legend is working with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Biotech on a treatment to fight multiple myeloma, and has other pipeline projects. In April, Legend raised $150 million from investors including Hudson Bay Capital Management LP, Johnson & Johnson Innovation -- JJDC, Inc., Lilly Asia Ventures, Vivo Capital and RA Capital Management. Funds will be used for the commercialization of Legend’s pipeline programs, manufacturing, research, and general expenses, the company said in a statement.
The IPO comes amid contradictory trends affecting businesses in the two countries. On one hand, the U.S. Senate recently moved to force the delisting Chinese companies that don’t meet the same disclosure rules as American businesses; U.S. political leaders have also complained about U.S. reliance on medical-related imports from China during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Yet at the same time, investors at U.S. and global exchanges have embraced China-based businesses such as Legend, and American pharmaceutical companies in search of new treatments and business have looked to China. For its part, Johnson & Johnson in June last year opened an incubator facility in Shanghai that will house up to 50 startups. It started with 31 resident companies at an event that was attended by Paul Stoffels, the company’s chief science officer. “Johnson & Johnson has deep roots in China with an innovation footprint dating back nearly four decades,” Stoffels said in a statement. “We are committed to fueling innovation in the region and unleashing the power of science and technology to advance the health of people in China and around the world,” he said.
And against of backdrop of criticism of Beijing from President Trump, political leaders in the U.S. state of Massachusetts last month warmly welcomed a new investment there by China-headquartered WuXi Biologics. The company and the Worcester Business Development Corp. announced the signing of a land deal for WuXi Biologics’ clinical and commercial manufacturing facility in the city of Worcester that will create 150 new jobs.
“As the central Massachusetts biotech community continues its growth, WuXi Biologics’ arrival in Worcester will strengthen the sector and lead to ongoing economic development,” said Massachusetts Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “Years of planning and collaboration to transform an unused property into a biomanufacturing hub has led to this exciting announcement today and I appreciate the commitment of so many to making this a reality.”
There's a lot riding for businesses in both countries on how U.S.-China ties work themselves out after the American presidential election in November.
See related story:
China Delisting Wave Might Be Up To Beijing
@rflannerychina
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78452b524bfef14193fdad4c09c4bf72
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/07/16/chinas-economic-recovery-unfolds-as-consumer-spending-revives/
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China’s Economic Recovery Unfolds As Domestic Demand Revives
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China’s Economic Recovery Unfolds As Domestic Demand Revives
China announced on Thursday that GDP rose by 3.2% in the second quarter from a year earlier, affirming that a V-shaped recovery may be under way in the world’s No. 2 economy.
“China’s V-shaped economic recovery continued for a fourth consecutive month in June, led by strong domestic demand,” said Andy Rothman, a long-time China specialist and investment analyst at U.S. investment firm Matthews Asia.
“Although consumer spending is likely to remain softer than usual until next year, on a relative basis China is likely to remain the world’s best consumer story,” Rothman said in an email note.
China’s recovery comes at time when the world economy can use a lift. Among the organizations predicting slower global growth this year, the APEC Policy Support Unit this month said APEC region’s economic growth is now expected to decline by 3.7 percent in 2020, down from its initial forecast a 2.7% shrinkage announced in April.
Last year, China accounted for 40% of global economic growth, larger than the combined contributions to global growth of the U.S., EU and Japan, according to IMF data, Matthews noted. Last year was also the eighth consecutive year in which the consumer and services part of China’s GDP was the largest, Rothman said.
Among hopeful signs of consumer spending: Auto sales rose at the second fastest year-on-year pace since January 2018, with sales up 11.6% in June, after rising 14.5% year-on-year in May, in contrast to a decline of 79.1% in February, Rothman noted. Residential property sales also continued their strong recovery last month, he said.
“The recovery of sales of autos and homes reflects that middle-class and wealthy consumers have both sufficient money and enough confidence in the future to spend it,” Rothman said.
Whether the V-shaped economic recovery continues depends primarily on the Chinese government’s ability to keep the coronavirus under control, Rothman said.
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That, too, seems hopeful. In the first 14 days of July, China had only 77 new COVID-19 cases, with only seven the result of local transmission, he said. In contrast, during the first 14 days of July, there were 816,221 new cases in the U.S. and 8,120 in the UK, the note said.
Another risk to China’s growth – intensifying geopolitical strains with the U.S. – isn’t likely to flair to that point that reverses the country’s economic rebound. “The downward spiral in U.S.-China relations is likely to worsen, but is unlikely to derail China’s economic recovery,” the note predicted.
See related story:
APEC Cuts Regional Growth Forecast
@rflannerychina
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26dcd9442efe483ea11f67cce1fb7c6f
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/09/07/nongfu-springs-ipo-pop-briefly-mints-bottled-water-entrepreneur-as-chinas-richest-man/?sh=761f4f012064
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Nongfu Spring IPO Pop Briefly Makes Bottled Water Entrepreneur China’s Richest Man
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Nongfu Spring IPO Pop Briefly Makes Bottled Water Entrepreneur China’s Richest Man
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has racked up another of the world's top IPOs this year: Nongfu ... [+] Springs. Photographer: Roy Liu/Bloomberg © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP
(Updates earlier post with Nongfu Spring’s closing price)
Chinese businessman Zhong Shanshan had already done well for himself on the 2020 Forbes Billionaires List published in April. He ranked at No. 1,063 with a fortune of $2 billion, mainly from his holding in Nongfu Spring, which controls about a quarter of China’s bottled water market.
What a year it’s been. Zhong, 65, added to that in a big way through a Shenzhen IPO in June by Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, in which he is the largest shareholder. Zhong’s stake there is now worth $10 billion.
Then today, Nongfu Spring soared upon listing in Hong Kong. At an early-morning trading price of HK$39.20, Zhong’s total fortune was worth nearly $59 billion, exceeding $57 billion for Internet heavyweight Ma Huateng and $51 billion for Alibaba’s Jack Ma, making Zhong China’s richest man.
Nongfu’s shares closed at HK$33.10, leaving him with a total fortune of $50 billion, still enough to rank among China’s top three richest. Nongfu’s IPO price was HK$21.50 per share.
Nongfu’s IPO is another big success this year for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which has also attracted a secondary listing by JD.com among other large listings.
– with Elaine Mao
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4482dba33abac81a6392f6c8e2016875
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/11/11/china-feihes-hong-kong-ipo-proves-lucrative-for-founder-leng-youbin/?sh=69d62e504587
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China Feihe’s Hong Kong IPO Proves Lucrative For Founder Leng Youbin
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China Feihe’s Hong Kong IPO Proves Lucrative For Founder Leng Youbin
Imagine China/Newscom
This story is part of Forbes' coverage of China’s Richest 2020. See the full list here.
China Feihe, one of the China’s largest powdered-milk producers, went public in November last year in Hong Kong.
Its shares have since surged 150%, putting its chairman Leng Youbin on the list for the first time with a net worth estimated at $9.9 billion. The company was listed before, on the New York Stock Exchange in 2008, under the name American Dairy, even though it had virtually no business in the U.S. market.
It was privatized in 2013 after a merger with its parent company. A listing closer to home has proved lucrative for Leng.
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b782b828b9dd915f305e5b2877b2459e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/11/11/chinas-food-delivery-service-meituan-booms-during-the-pandemic/?sh=120604dc8a74
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China’s Food Delivery Service Meituan Booms During The Pandemic
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China’s Food Delivery Service Meituan Booms During The Pandemic
Wang Xing (center), chairman, CEO and cofounder of Meituan, Mu Rongjun (left), senior vice president ... [+] and cofounder, and Wang Huiwen, senior vice president and cofounder, during the company’s listing ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018. Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
This story is part of Forbes' coverage of China’s Richest 2020. See the full list here.
The pandemic has boosted online meal deliveries, a trend that benefited China’s market leader Meituan and the wealth of its chairman, Wang Xing.
Beijing-based Meituan’s surging revenue and profits in the first half of the year helped nearly triple the value of its Hong Kong-listed shares since last year’s list, pushing Wang’s fortune to $20.5 billion from $7.35 billion last year.
Two other Meituan colleagues join this year’s list: cofounder Mu Rongjun at No. 116 with a fortune of $4.28 billion and Zhang Tao, CEO of restaurant review site Dianping, which merged with Meituan in 2015. Zhang now has a net worth of $9.7 billion.
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e1004e8151f214bd48f6a6e69e2dcb1b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/11/11/eye-for-growth-how-chen-bang-became-one-of-the-worlds-wealthiest-healthcare-entrepreneurs/?sh=1f62ed951154
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Eye For Growth: How Chen Bang Became One Of The World’s Wealthiest Healthcare Entrepreneurs
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Eye For Growth: How Chen Bang Became One Of The World’s Wealthiest Healthcare Entrepreneurs
Imagine China/Newscom
This story is part of Forbes' coverage of China’s Richest 2020. See the full list here.
When in 2005 Forbes Asia first profiled Aier Eye Hospital Group’s founder and chairman Chen Bang, he had only two years earlier diversified from property and trading into ophthalmology hospitals.
Fifteen years later, he’s a world leader in the industry with a network of 500 specialized eye hospitals in China, 86 in Europe, one in the U.S., and 12 in Southeast Asia—with more in the works.
Aier’s shares have climbed roughly 50% in the past year, making Chen one of the world’s wealthiest healthcare entrepreneurs.
He ranks No. 28 on this year’s list, with a $15.7 billion fortune. Last year, he was No. 34 with a fortune of $7.65 billion.
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be68c9c7f4bd155f140c2813f2d68233
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2020/11/11/smoore-chairman-chen-zhipeng-debuts-on-chinas-100-richest-list-with-98-billion-fortune/?sh=7362ce7733b9
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Smoore Chairman Chen Zhipeng Debuts On China’s 400 Richest List With $9.8 Billion Fortune
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Smoore Chairman Chen Zhipeng Debuts On China’s 400 Richest List With $9.8 Billion Fortune
Smoore International Holdings
This story is part of Forbes' coverage of China’s Richest 2020. See the full list here.
The growing global popularity of vaping helped create one of the highest-ranking newcomers to this year’s list. Smoore International Holdings Chairman and CEO Chen Zhiping, 44, debuts at No. 47 with a fortune of $9.55 billion as Smoore’s shares have roughly tripled from its IPO price following its July listing in Hong Kong.
Founded in 2009, Smoore supplies vaping devices and components to a range of customers that includes China e-cigarette maker RELX and U.S. competitor NJOY, as well as British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.
Nearly half of its sales are from mainland China and Hong Kong, with about a fifth from the U.S. Smoore earned 2.1 billion yuan last year ($300 million) as sales more than doubled from 2018, to 7.6 billion yuan.
MORE FOR YOUJack Ma’s Alibaba Hit With $2.8 Billion Fine For Abusing Its Dominant Market PositionHouston, We Have A Problem. Oil Reserves Have Fallen Below 10 YearsGreenland Said No To Trump And Now Says No To Australia And China
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b51467a6d874fcebaed7409ce8681d19
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2021/02/05/china-tech-investors-finally-get-their-pop-tiktok-rival-kuaishou-soars-in-trading-debut/
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Kuaishou Surge Affirms China’s Tech, IPO Clout As World Recovers From Pandemic
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Kuaishou Surge Affirms China’s Tech, IPO Clout As World Recovers From Pandemic
Kuaishou Technology's headquarters in Beijing, on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. Photographer: Yan ... [+] Cong/Bloomberg © 2021 Bloomberg Finance LP
International investors in China technology stocks that had originally expected to end the Chinese lunar “Year of the Rat” with a big gain from Jack Ma’s Ant Group listing finally got a huge return today with the explosive start of trade by a different Internet Chinese company: Kuaishou Technology.
Kuaishou, the country’s No. 2 short-form video platform backed by Internet heavyweight Tencent, gained as much as 194% from its IPO price at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in its debut. The IPO raised $5.4 billion, the world’s largest tech listing since Uber, and valued the company at more than $160 billion. That’s about half of Disney.
Though short-form video rival ByteDance’s TikTok is better known outside of China, Kuaishou entered the business earlier and remains a heavyweight. Its successful expansion into e-commerce further illustrates how China – the world’s No. 2 economy and No. 1 number user of mobile phone users – is making a mark in the global media and entertainment industry. China’s early recovery from the worst of COVID-19 pandemic is fueling the return of GDP growth to pre-pandemic levels, and making it attractive for large international stock offerings even amid continuing geopolitical strains with the United States.
Kuaishou sold 365.2 million shares at HK$115 each in its Hong Kong IPO, raising HK$42 billion, or $5.4 billion. Besides Tencent, its main shareholders include cofounders Su Hua, the CEO, and Chen Yixiao, the chief product officer – both already billionaires even before the IPO – along with funds associated with Morningside, DCM, Baidu, Sequoia and Baidu, among others.
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In the nine months ended Sept. 30, Kuaishou attracted 305 million daily average users and 769 million monthly average users of its apps and mini programs. Users on the popular platform spent an average of more than 86 minutes per day on the Kuaishou App and accessed the app more than 10 times a day, according to iResearch figures in the prospectus.
Mobile internet users in China on average spent 4.35 hours online each day in 2019, compared to 2.90 hours in 2015, and are expected to spend 5.73 hours online each day by 2025, iResearch says. Approximately 29.7% of that time was spent on video-based social and entertainment platforms in 2019, which is expected to reach 36.3% by 2025.
Among Kuaishou’s billionaires, Su – a former executive at Google China and Baidu – holds a more than 11% stake worth $19.2 billion in today’s trading; Chen – formerly with Hewlett-Packard – has a 9% stake worth $15.3 billion. Su, 38, was worth $4 billion on the 2020 Forbes China Rich List; Chen, 37, was worth $3 billion. Today’s listing adds at least two other Kuaishou billionaires: Yin Xin — worth $3.3 billion — and Yang Yuanxi — worth $2.8 billion — also joined those ranks.
Cornerstone investors buying shares in the IPO include funds associated with the Capital Group, Temasek, Invesco, Fidelity International, Blackrock, Boyu Capital, Morgan Stanley and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Alibaba Group’s Ant IPO was postponed in November amid regulatory concerns.
— with Elaine Mao
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e49c4fcf14b4a62d371c5331a524a464
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2021/04/01/tencent-ceo-ma-huateng-is-back-on-top-as-chinas-richest-man/
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Tencent CEO Ma Huateng Is Back On Top As China’s Richest Person
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Tencent CEO Ma Huateng Is Back On Top As China’s Richest Person
Ma ''Pony'' Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd., speaks during the Guangdong-Hong ... [+] Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Forum in Hong Kong, China, on June 20, 2017. Paul Yeung/Bloomberg
Ma Huateng, the CEO of China internet heavyweight Tencent Holdings, is back on top as the country’s richest person.
Tencent shares climbed by 7% in Hong Kong on Thursday to close at HK$654 amid growth hopes, boosting Ma’s fortune by $4 billion to an estimated $63.4 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List. That led him past previous No. 1, Nongfu Spring CEO Zhong Shanshan, whose estimated wealth ended the day at $62.9 billion.
Zhong, China’s bottled water king, has enjoyed a spectacular rise in his fortune following Nongfu Spring’s Sept. 8 listing at HK$21.50 a share at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its shares peaked at HK$66.60 on Jan. 8, and approached that level on Feb. 17, closing at HK$65.95.
It’s been mostly downhill since. Nongfu Spring closed at a four-and-a-half-month low of HK$38.75 on Wednesday this week, before rebounding to HK$40.15 on Thursday. At Thursday’s close, Nongfu Spring’s shares have lost 39% of their value since Feb. 17.
Tencent, for its part, hasn’t had a great run of late, either. Its shares are down by 6.3% since March 2, and off by 14% from a recent closing high of HK$761 on Feb. 10. Still, the Shenzhen-headquartered operator of China’s big WeChat social network of more than one billion users has recently given shareholders better earnings growth than Nongfu Spring.
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Tencent said on March 24 its net profit in 2020 rose by 175% to 59.3 billion yuan, on revenue that gained 26% to 133 billion yuan. Nongfu Spring, by contrast, on March 25 said revenue fell by 4.8% last year to 22.9 billion yuan; its net profit gained by 6.3% to 5.3 billion yuan.
Ma, 49, who is also known as Pony Ma, cofounded Tencent in 1998.
China is home to the world’s second-largest number of billionaires after the United States, but has been closing the gap.
See related posts:
In A Year Of Surprises, China’s Bottled Water King Overtook Jack Ma As Its Richest Person
China Adds A Skincare Billionaire
Follow me on Twitter: @rflannerychina
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8ba49132167f9d76fb21720a334687bf
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russespinoza/2017/07/19/felicity-jones-to-play-scotus-ruth-bader-ginsburg-on-the-big-screen/
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Felicity Jones To Play SCOTUS' Ruth Bader Ginsburg On The Big Screen
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Felicity Jones To Play SCOTUS' Ruth Bader Ginsburg On The Big Screen
Jones, the 33-year-old British actress best known for starring roles in "Star Wars: Rogue One" and... [+] "The Theory of Everything," will portray the famed associate justice when filming begins in September. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Disney)
In a leading role that was widely speculated to net Natalie Portman, Deadline Hollywood reports that British actress Felicity Jones will portray Supreme Court justice and feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a forthcoming biopic called On the Basis of Sex that will begin filming in Montreal this September.
The 33-year-old face of 2016's Star Wars: Rogue One and 2015 Best Actress nominee for The Theory of Everything headlines the Focus Features and Participant Media-produced film about Ginsburg's distinguished law career and lifelong crusade fighting for gender equality and women's rights in the United States.
Although initially slated to be directed by Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), On the Basis of Sex will instead be helmed by veteran film and television director Mimi Leder (The Leftovers, Shameless).
The script by Daniel Stiepleman was awarded a spot on the 2014 Black List and its title cites language commonly employed in anti-discrimination statutes. Variety reports that Focus Features has been primping the project for production since 2015.
Ginsburg, the liberal-minded 84-year-old associate justice who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993, became the nation's second female jurist and the first jewish woman to serve on the high court. Following the retirement of justice Sandra Day O'Conner in 2006, Ginsburg presided as the lone female on the Supreme Court for over three years until the installation of Sonia Sotomayor by President Obama in 2009.
Today, the nine member body consists of six men and three women--Ginsburg, Sotomayor and associate justice Elena Kagan, who joined the court in 2010.
Justice Ginsburg's ascension to the apex of the nation's legal system is rife with gripping personal and professional story elements that regularly intertwined. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Ginsburg's mother instilled her with a love of education; yet, in a cruel twist of fate, she would die a day before her daughter's high school graduation.
In the formative years that followed, the future justice-to-be incurred a demotion from her job with the Social Security Administration in the mid-1950s for becoming pregnant; a year later, she found herself as one of only nine women in a class of 500 at Harvard Law School.
Though filming has yet to begin, On the Basis of Sex joins 2016's Confirmation from HBO Films and the October 2017 release of Marshall as the latest cinematic entry to mine the Supreme Court. The latter--which will star Chadwick Boseman, Kate Hudson and James Cromwell--is billed as a "biographical thriller" about the life of Thurgood Marshall, America's first African-American Supreme Court Justice.
Confirmation premiered on HBO in April 2016 and centered on the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and the media circus that erupted over leaked sexual harassment allegations made by Anita Hill (played in the film by Kerry Washington), a former subordinate of Thomas' at the U.S. Department of Education.
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15f8653499e9de002e1bbc695e382912
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russespinoza/2017/08/17/to-keep-pace-with-production-georgia-is-building-a-homegrown-film-and-tv-workforce/
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To Keep Pace With Production, Georgia Is Building A Homegrown Film and TV Workforce
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To Keep Pace With Production, Georgia Is Building A Homegrown Film and TV Workforce
Over 1,000 Georgians have taken a Georgia Film Academy course since the statewide certification... [+] program went into effect in January 2016. (Photo by Georgia Film Academy) Some man
As the state of Georgia was cementing its name as a leading destination for film and television production, questions began to arise several years ago about whether they had the manpower to sustain their corner of the industry. Driven in large part by an alluring tax credit offered by the state and the presence of over a dozen major sound studio complexes, production revenue in Georgia has skyrocketed from $242 million to $9.5 billion over the last decade.
Historically recognized as the province of Coca-Cola and Turner Broadcasting, Georgia now ranks third in the nation and fifth in the world in film and television production. As a way of further aiding the industry while also serving the economic interests of his constituents, Republican Governor Nathan Deal announced the creation of the Georgia Film Academy (GFA) in January 2015. Functioning as a "collaborative effort" with the University System of Georgia (USG) and the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), the academy provides a certification program of training and internships in a range of production jobs for college credit.
Seven months after its advent, GFA founders recruited veteran Hollywood writer-producer and Georgia native Jeff Stepakoff to serve as executive director.
"I had the chance to come back to my home state, help train Georgians to work in the business and help build a permanent, sustainable entertainment industry here in Georgia, so that never again would a Georgian have to leave our state to go to New York or California or anywhere to work in the business," said Stepakoff, who currently presides over a full-time staff of 17. "That is something I just couldn't say 'No' to."
And in a blitz of course development, approval and integration into its partner public education systems in the ensuing five months, the GFA's first wave of classes were up-and-running by January 2016. As of this June, over 1,000 Georgians have taken courses in crafts like set construction, lighting and grip; among them, approximately 450 received on-set internship training for productions operating all over the state.
Academy Award-nominated actor and Georgia native William H. Macy (Fargo, Magnolia, Showtime's Shameless) utilized GFA interns last year in the Atlanta-area while directing his third feature film, a yet-unreleased dark comedy called Krystal.
"What they wanted was to send their students to work as interns on the film, which was also a godsend for us, because we were a very small-budgeted indie film. So the more help, the better," said Macy. "They were great workers, and they were soaking it all up--you could tell. It was an invaluable help because they did a lot of things that needed to be done. As I said, the more the merrier, because there's just never enough money to hire enough people."
30-year-old Whitney Ellison was one of Macy's interns on the set of Krystal. A Georgia transplant of two years originally from Knoxville, Tenn., Ellison hailed from a family fixated on film--"quoting movie lines was a religion," she says. Nevertheless, it took additional nudges from odd jobs at Universal Orlando as a "character escort" and work at a small-town haunted house for her to embrace film as a calling. By the time she did, she wound up "in the right place at the right time" to enroll for the Georgia Film Academy's inaugural semester.
"I was one of the very first to obtain an internship in GFA history," Ellison said. "Krystal was an incredible production to work on. I honestly expected the inexperienced students to be a burden on the crew, but I was so wrong. Everyone I encountered was more than willing to teach. They were so patient and beyond grateful to have the help no matter our level of experience. I worked as a 'set dec' intern--I was fortunate to dabble in a little bit of everything in the set dec department--[and I] worked underneath the set decorator. I was her shadow for 20 eight-hour days. She took me under her wing and answered any questions I had."
51 movies and 67 television series were filmed in Georgia in 2016, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Baby Driver and AMC's The Walking Dead. And while work on big Hollywood features like Pitch Perfect 3 and Avengers: Infinity War have kept GFA students and graduates busy in 2017, the latter-day proliferation of scripted television in particular speaks to why the GFA is so valuable to producers and Georgians alike.
"Film and TV is an expanding industry," Macy says. "One of the great benefits to this explosion in television is that now a show can stay on the air with a million viewers or fewer, and that's allowed us to tell a lot more varied stories. It doesn't have to appeal to everyone and offend no one. Those days are long past. So there's tremendous need for a lot of qualified people... The Georgia Film Academy couldn't have started at a better time, and predict a lot of 'em will be working for a long time."
Apart from the immediate benefits of free-labor for productions, classroom instruction for students and immersive, hands-on training for interns, the Georgia Film Academy also touts the power of the program to funnel its pupils directly into the statewide workforce. Even before she received her GFA certification in December 2016, Ellison was able to parlay her internship into a "Prop PA" (Property Production Assistant) job on the crew of the CBS action-adventure series MacGyver. She is currently working full-time and has no complaints about the pay from her new career.
"What the Georgia Film Academy is really doing is training Georgians in a way where they are of value to the productions," says Stepakoff. "Then we're placing them in these [internships] where they go right into the job market. Anybody who's worked in the entertainment industry says, 'Well, you just need a break. You just need to get that foot in the door.' So not only are we providing world-class professional training, we're providing that foot in the door. And we're doing it on a scope that is unprecedented... there is no program anywhere in the world that deals with this kind of scope, with this number of students. [It's] evidence that when it comes to the film and television industry, Georgia is all in."
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058618f265c0a026c0f76e27f92f9e60
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russespinoza/2017/09/25/how-the-clinton-patterson-series-deal-landed-at-showtime/
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How The Clinton-Patterson Series Deal Landed At Showtime
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How The Clinton-Patterson Series Deal Landed At Showtime
With the aid of bestselling novelist James Patterson as his coauthor, former president Bill Clinton... [+] will foray into the realm of fiction writing for the first time with the planned 2018 novel "The President Is Missing." (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
As has been established since May, the unlikely tandem of former United States president Bill Clinton and American bestselling novelist James Patterson are slated to publish a fictional thriller entitled The President Is Missing sometime in 2018. Thickening the plot of the yet-unpublished novel's preliminary commercial arc, Showtime announced on Friday that it had purchased the television rights and have plans to adapt it into a series.
On the heels of that news, additional details surfaced about the competition for the project and how the seven-figure deal came to pass. According to Entertainment Weekly, Clinton and Patterson went on a "16-meeting tour around Hollywood trying to select the right outlet" for their highly coveted presidential thriller.
Although a range of networks, studios and streaming services attempted to secure the rights, Variety reported that Clinton and Patterson only took meetings with select parties: most notably Steven Spielberg, Peter Chernin (The Chernin Group), Justin Lin (director); and Brian Grazer, co-chairman of Imagine Entertainment along with director and producer Ron Howard.
The project elicited at least eight formal offers, and sources say that a figure of $5 million was used as a "starting point" given the enormous clout of the names involved.
According to Entertainment Weekly, CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves helped broker the deal between the Clinton-Patterson camp and Showtime. The premium cable channel and flagship of Showtime Networks Inc. is a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, and Variety reported that Moonves' "longstanding" relationships with Clinton and Patterson were vital to the project landing at Showtime.
Patterson has had a working relationship with CBS since the network adapted his novel Zoo into a series in 2015 and appointed him executive producer. CBS is also currently developing a new crime series called Instinct that is based on another Patterson work and will premiere in the spring.
The President Is Missing will reportedly center around the disappearance of a sitting U.S. president "with the level of detail that only someone who has held the office can know." The book will make history as the first thriller to be coauthored by an American president and will provide a stark contrast to the former POTUS' previous works. Clinton, who turned 71 in August, is a bestselling author who has penned five nonfiction books since campaigning for his first presidential term in 1992.
Though hardly a darling among literary critics, Patterson, 70, is easily one of the America's most well-known contemporary authors. In his 40-plus year career as a published author of thrillers, children's books, young adult fiction and more, he's written a total of 147 novels and produced an astonishing 114 New York Times bestsellers. In 2016, Patterson again reigned atop Forbes' list of the world's highest paid authors by grossing $95 million for the year and substantially outselling the likes of Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and John Grisham.
The planned television adaptation of The President Is Missing on Showtime will become the 13th Patterson novel to receive new life on the (silver or small) screen since 1991.
"The White House is such an exciting world to explore and is made even more so with the unique insights of a former president," Patterson said. "Rich storytelling opportunities for this series abound."
The famed author's other film and television credits include the films Kiss the Girls (1997), Along Came a Spider (2001) and the ABC legal drama Women's Murder Club (2007-08).
The novel The President Is Missing will be published jointly by Alfred A. Kopf and Little, Brown and Co in 2018; Showtime, meanwhile, did not give word on when the series will premiere.
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3c0d8df8966d160f2c29d0c81e6620fa
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/russprince/2012/08/27/marketing-the-practice-of-medicine/
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Marketing the Practice of Medicine
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Marketing the Practice of Medicine
While the demand for medical practitioners is growing due to an aging population, new treatments and innovative insurance solutions, the competition among medical practitioners including hospital systems, urgent care networks, private practices and others is intensifying with no let up in sight. This situation is fostering an ever greater reliance on more sophisticated marketing strategies to bring patients to the medical providers.
It’s fair to say that patients are interested in working with the smartest, most capable experts available. The pervasive complication is that no matter what the illness, it is highly unlikely the patients or their close family (unless they’re physicians) can competently evaluate the knowledge and capabilities of the medical practitioners they’re seeing. This means that patients have to rely on other means to decide on whom to go to for care. This decision-making process makes being a thought leader in a particular medical niche an extremely effective and commanding way to bring in new patients and when appropriate, to ensure patients continue to come back.
Many factors come into play in this search for top quality care. The patients’ financial situation, lifestyle, range of their health insurance, geographic location and the seriousness of their conditions all play an important role in deciding where to seek medical care. However, where patients have options, marketing can become the deciding determinant on where patients choose to receive everything from ongoing wellness care to major surgery. In fact, the more options patients have, the more marketing, and in particular thought leadership, can make a difference.
A number of medical practitioners are adopting the thought leadership marketing model. Through educational websites, newsletters, webinars, seminars and books, these medical practices are seeking to communicate their standard of care, as well as the fact that they can deliver this standard. And, there is every indication that this approach works and works quite well.
The effectiveness of thought leadership can be seen in the burgeoning success of WorldClinic--a 24/7 concierge health-care provider. The firm is unquestionably the gold standard in providing a total care platform for wealthy and successful individuals and their families. Despite developing and providing the most sophisticated medical and telemedical solutions for their client base (smartphone video-care, multi-point longevity programs, disaster family medical responses), the company concluded that they needed to do more to rocket their business to new heights.
What they needed to do was better share their solutions with both potential affluent clients and their advisors. By adopting a thought leadership approach, the medical authorities at WorldClinic became very proactive in sharing their once proprietary cutting-edge practice delivery concepts and methodologies. Doing so showed to potential clients, their advisors as well as their competitors, that WorldClinic was indeed the premier organization in its field. Moreover, becoming a thought leader in the telemedical care of the wealthy, for example, has translated into significantly more business as well as more opportunities to share.
In the increasingly hyper-competitive environment of medical practitioners, the lion’s share of the desirable patients/clients will go to the recognized authorities in their respective fields. Thought leadership is one of the more powerful ways of being recognized as a leading medical practitioner.
Bruce H. Rogers and Russ Alan Prince are the co-authors of the just published book Profitable Brilliance: How Professional Service Firms Become Thought Leaders now available on Amazon http://amzn.to/OETmMz
Profitable Brilliance: How Professional Services Firms Become Thought Leaders is now available on... [+] Amazon http://amzn.to/OETmMz
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3d5b9621c4a73f94f04a4081b3678066
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2013/07/23/the-resurrection-of-nirvana-as-sirvana-with-paul-mccartney/
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The Resurrection Of Nirvana As 'Sirvana' With Paul McCartney
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The Resurrection Of Nirvana As 'Sirvana' With Paul McCartney
Krist Novoselic, Paul McCartney, and Dave Grohl perform at '12-12-12' (Image credit: Getty Images... [+] for Clear Channel via @daylife)
In the 19 years since Kurt Cobain’s death, the concept of what the band Nirvana means has gone through somewhat of a cultural dilution. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” has been covered by Miley Cyrus (the 1.0 version) and the Muppets, for example. For some, these attempts to make the song relevant for today’s youth have weakened Nirvana’s identity as hard rockers screaming out against the mainstream.
But now the remaining members of Nirvana (drummer Dave Grohl, bassist Krist Novoselic and touring guitarist Pat Smear) have decided to resurrect the band and, more importantly, take control of what it means. In 2012, they joined Paul McCartney at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief in a performance featuring a new song “Cut Me Some Slack.” Last week, on July 19th, they played again with Paul McCartney during the encore of his concert in Seattle. The joint set included a Little Richard cover and three Beatles songs.
Why is Nirvana joining forces with Paul McCartney for the supergroup now dubbed as “Sirvana”? One answer may be to remind the world just how hard they rock. The business world offers many examples of companies who found their brand diluted over time, especially following the departure of their leader. “When I got back,” said Steve Jobs on returning as Apple’s CEO after more than a decade’s absence, “Apple had forgotten who we were.” In the early 1980s, Harley Davidson had to resurrect the company’s original “retro” appeal after a decade of brand dilution. Lego also turned itself around in 2004 by restoring their core identity around play with simple bricks.
A recent study published in The Academy of Management Journal explores the means through which an organization can resurrect a collective identity that has been diluted. The paper’s findings shed light on what Nirvana is doing right with this series of performances.
Here is how it works: to resurrect an identity, you need to orchestrate experiences that evoke the core identity that the organization would like to reinstate. In the case of Nirvana, these experiences are live performances on prominent high-profile stage. Although they have not played any previous Nirvana songs, they are tapping into the core features of the Nirvana brand: Grohl, Novoselic and Smear crank out high energy punk rock with Nirvana’s signature roaring guitars and pounding drums, while McCartney screams out ear-friendly melodies. Although on the surface Nirvana and the Beatles appear to be opposite ends of a continuum, Cobain had in fact been a huge Beatles fan and incorporated their influence into his songwriting, especially in the emphasis on simple and accessible melodies. In the documentary Classic Albums: Nirvana Nevermind, Grohl says, “Musically we just wanted it to be almost like children’s songs. I remember we would always make that analogy, we would always tell people that the songs were intended to be as simple as possible.”
Likewise, Paul McCartney has been rocking hard in recent years in what appears to be an effort on his end to keep up with the state of music today. In a musical environment in which punk is just as mainstream as the Beatles ever were, the two acts – Beatles and Nirvana – have come full circle.
Nirvana recreated the emotional experience associated with their original identity. In this way, they influenced the way people talk about who they are. This is indeed what has been happening around the new Sirvana performances, which have been described as “ripping” and “raging.”
Last week’s show’s location in Seattle is also important, as it evoked that city’s own recent past as pivotal to rock n’ roll history. According to professors Howard-Grenville, Metzger, and Meyer, the authors of the identity resurrection study, “It is the shared emotional response to an orchestrated experience, not simply shared attendance, that deepens residents’ and fan’s understanding of symbols, bringing the past into the present.” By rocking hard in Seattle, McCartney and Nirvana actively shape their audience’s representation of who they are.
Whether Nirvana decides to release new music remains to be seen. What’s clear, however, is that last week’s performance has left the world with a desire for more. Watch Sirvana’s scorching rendition of “Helter Skelter” below.
For more about the intersection of rock n' roll and business follow me on the top of this page or on Twitter, Facebook, or Google.
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28f33c8182403330cb0eab8000a1e9c5
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2013/11/19/why-the-life-of-beatles-manager-brian-epstein-is-the-perfect-parable-for-professional-success/
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Why The Life Of Beatles Manager Brian Epstein Is The Perfect Parable For Professional Success
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Why The Life Of Beatles Manager Brian Epstein Is The Perfect Parable For Professional Success
In early 1967 Beatles manager Brian Epstein was about to board a plane from New York to London when he had a strong feeling the plane was going to crash. His escalating drug habit and nonstop work regime had pushed him to the edge of sanity. As he boarded the plane, certain of his impending death, he passed a note to Nat Weiss, the Beatles’ legal representative in the U.S., that read, “Brown paper jackets for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” His life was flashing before his eyes, yet his final words aimed to protect the Beatles from the possibility of getting sued for the controversial album jacket, which features photographs of famous people, at that point without their permission. “Even on the brink of a nervous breakdown,” wrote Johnny Rogan in Starmakers and Svengalis, “his devotion to the Fab Four was all-consuming.”
As can be seen in the new the graphic novel The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story by Broadway producer Vivek Tiwary, Epstein’s love for the Beatles was the secret behind his incredible accomplishments with them. Although The Fifth Beatle is a graphic novel, beautifully illustrated by Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker, its real power is as a primer for personal and professional success. “I really think that the heart of the Brian Epstein story is that it’s worthwhile to chase your dreams,” Tiwary told me. “No matter how crazy they may seem, no matter how many people may laugh at you, if you believe and you persevere and you fight for it, you can make your dreams come true.”
Tiwary became interested in Brian Epstein more than twenty years ago as a business student at Wharton. “I wanted to be an entertainment entrepreneur. Thinking that Brian and the Beatles were the team that wrote and then re-wrote the roles of the pop music business I thought I should study the life of Brian Epstein. I wanted to find out, how did he get the band a record deal when no one wanted to sign them? How did he come up with the suits and the haircuts? How did he convince Ed Sullivan to book them when a British band had never made an impact in the States? That’s what I wanted as a young business student.”
Tiwary also had another reason to take an interest in the Beatles manager. “Brian was gay and Jewish and from Liverpool, which in the 1960s were three significant obstacles. It was against the law to be gay. So in a lot of ways Brian was the ultimate outsider.” As an ethnic Indian making his way in the entertainment industry, Tiwary related to that outsider status. “With the exception of Bollywood, which is a very specific thing that I don’t do, you just don’t see people of my ethnicity doing what I do.”
The list of things Tiwary has done is impressive: he was one of the executive producers of Green Day’s American Idiot, A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean Combs (Puff Daddy), and The Addams Family, and he will soon bring Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill to the stage. His Broadway productions have garnered 25 Tony awards.
With each idea, people told Tiwary he was crazy, that punk music did not belong on a Broadway stage, that African American kids don’t go to Broadway. “That’s not very different from, ‘Pop musicians do not belong in Carnegie Hall,’” said Tiwary, “which is what everybody told Brian Epstein and Sid Bernstein when they brought the Beatles." Like Epstein, Tiwary’s outsider status allowed him to look at Broadway with fresh eyes and re-imagine the possibilities of what it could offer. “I love breaking boundaries down,” he said. “If you find a piece of art that’s good enough then it doesn’t need to be pigeon-holed. It doesn’t need to be just for kids or just for punks or just high art.”
Epstein dedication to the Beatles made him a great manager, but it also sowed the seeds of his downfall. This is where The Fifth Beatle is most illuminating. “The biggest cautionary aspect of Brian’s story is the need to make time for yourself and for your family and I think that’s something that Brian did very poorly,” said Tiwary. “He didn’t make enough time for himself and for the love that was around him and that’s something I try to not do. I try to make sure that no matter how hard I work, no matter how hard I get wrapped up in things, that I make time for my family. I put my kids to sleep virtually every night. I feel that Brian would not have done that.”
While the Beatles thrived, Epstein languished. As the excerpted pages from The Fifth Beatle show, although the band members loved him, they had no idea he was lonely and depressed. “Brian shielded them from his problems,” said Tiwary. “This is where it gets tricky because that was part of Brian’s job: to shield them from his problems. You need to be the strong face of business to your clients. However, you also need to let them know what you’re going through so they appreciate what you do for them. They really loved him and I think he didn’t let them in enough.”
A recent study in the Academy of Management Journal speaks to the costs of managerial giving. The study, conducted at the head office of a recruiting agency, found that when managers supported their subordinates by talking to them about their personal problems, listening and expressing concern, they saw this support as going above and beyond their managerial role. But the employees saw the helping as just part of the manager’s job. They took it for granted and didn’t feel the need to show gratitude or reciprocate by offering support in return. As a result, managers felt disappointed and burnt out. One middle manager quoted in the study said, “Managing people is a thankless job. I know how well thank you goes down, but you very rarely get it for yourself.” The study, like Epstein’s story, brings to light the psychological costs of giving to others without getting your own needs met.
Epstein died in 1967, as he predicted, though not in the manner he expected. His death of an accidental drug overdose upset the delicate balance that enabled the Beatles to thrive. Although he had the vision to imagine the impossible – four ruffians from Liverpool becoming bigger stars than Elvis – and make it possible, he was not able to make his success sustainable. He did not take care of himself. And that’s why Epstein’s story is so relevant: it shows that achieving your dream is just the beginning. The real challenge is sustaining it.
For more about the intersection of rock n' roll and business follow me on the top of this page or on Twitter, Facebook, or Google.
The Fifth Beatle graphic novel trailer:
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c073b32f9275773b5ebd56ac016e7858
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/03/27/how-deloitte-engages-their-creative-employees-through-rock-n-roll/
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How Deloitte Engages Their Creative Employees Through Rock N' Roll
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How Deloitte Engages Their Creative Employees Through Rock N' Roll
Wearing a button-down shirt with your Certified Public Accountant certificate hanging on the wall behind you doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t rock out. At least at Deloitte Toronto, where, late on a Wednesday evening you could be practicing your smokin’ guitar solo in preparation for a performance in front of thousands of fellow accountant-lovers-of-music.
The Deloitte League of Rock is a corporate engagement program that runs like a company sports league. “The company doesn’t do anything except for show up, plug in, play,” told me Terry Moshenberg, co-founder of League of Rock, which runs Deloitte’s program. The League of Rock takes care of everything from providing the facilities to practice, professional musicians to coach the players, equipment to plug into, and a social media campaign to promote their shows. And like a golf or baseball tournament, at the end of the ten-week program all of the bands come together to play a big concert.
The KPMG band The Write-Offs at the Big 4 Battle of the Bands. Photo by Topher Stott
The idea came to Moshenberg when he observed a pattern among empty nesters of going back to jamming in their basements. “They were able to pursue some creative outlets that they probably shoved under the couch for their kids and to get their families off and running.” He teamed up with Topher Stott, a veteran drummer, and together they developed the concept of a corporate rock league that would engage employees by enabling them to make music and perform in front of audiences. They hire veteran musicians to coach bands, such as Jim McCarty, a founding drummer of the Yardbirds, Earl Slick, who played guitar for John Lennon and David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels who collaborated with The Cure and Eric Schenkman of the Spin Doctors.
The idea is to engage the creative class in the organization, which is often hidden, especially because so many corporate engagement programs are sports-focused. “This is first and foremost about engaging our talent and particularly to include a group of our people who wouldn’t necessarily resonate with some of the other things that we do in our business to engage our talent,” told me Mark Whitmore, managing partner for Deloitte in Toronto. “There’s still a big chunk of our profession which is orientated around sports. You know, ‘Please take clients out for golf, please join the firm’s hockey team, please join the beach volleyball team.’ We don’t have a platform that is oriented towards the arts and that reaches a very different group.”
According to Stott, the program gives creative employees more than a voice. “We’ve built rock stars within that organization. We’re taking people who traditionally wouldn’t necessarily be celebrated in their office because they’re not athletic and getting them up on the stage playing for 2,000 people.”
At the end of the ten weeks, the bands play for an internal crowd of Deloitte employees. Fans “vote” for their favorite bands through contributions to United Way. The winning band then participates in The Big 4 Battle of the Bands, where bands from the big accounting firms—Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC—compete to raise money for United Way for a crowd of up to 2000 people.
In the four years it has been running the League of Rock, Deloitte has raised $100,000 for United Way.
Despite the competitive element, the focus of the program is collaboration. “Within our system, everyone is very supportive,” said Stott. “It’s a hyper-collaborative truly inclusive experience that brings people together,” added Moshenberg. Employees do not need to be accomplished musicians to participate. If they cannot play, they can be roadies or managers for the bands. Those who are talented and experienced musicians are dispersed among the various bands. “This allows people to connect across the firm in a very different way,” said Whitmore. “Because we’re a big firm. In Toronto we have 3,000 people. Having teams come together in different ways creates a stronger firm.”
At last year’s concert, Whitman himself picked up a bass and played a version of U2’s “With or Without You.”
Deloitte managing partner Mark Whitmore playing bass. Photo by Cory Meli
For more about the intersection of rock n' roll and business follow me on the top of this page or on Twitter, Facebook, or Google.
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d1b227a15100f6230b41eb78ced008b7
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/06/13/when-compassion-and-profit-go-together-the-case-of-alice-coopers-manager-shep-gordon/
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When Compassion And Profit Go Together: The Case Of Alice Cooper's Manager Shep Gordon
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When Compassion And Profit Go Together: The Case Of Alice Cooper's Manager Shep Gordon
“The three most important things a manager does,” says longtime Alice Cooper manager Shep Gordon in a new documentary “is (1) get the money, (2) always remember to get the money, and (3) never forget to always remember to get the money.” Gordon’s focus on “The Money” is not surprising given the enormous financial success of many of his clients, who included Alice Cooper, Teddy Pendergrass, Anne Murray, Luther Vandross, Blondie and Raquel Welch, as well as celebrity chefs Roger Vergé, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme.
What is perhaps more surprising, and what makes the title of the documentary noteworthy, is that Shep Gordon was a kind and compassionate human being. “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon” was directed by Mike Myers and includes interviews with Gordon himself as well as numerous clients and friends who have been touched by his incredible generosity and menschness.
The movie makes a convincing case that Shep Gordon infused his business dealings with compassion and generosity. “What’s really important for me,” he says, “is to do compassionate business.” This is why he took upon himself to put the business affairs of Groucho Marx in order, pro bono. Or why he took on chefs as clients, even though at their highest earning potential they were making the same amount of money in a year that one of his successful rock stars was making a night.
His venture into managing chefs came out of a friendship with Roger Vergé, the three-Michelin rated chef of Le Moulin des Mougins in Cannes. Gordon discovered that Vergé was regularly forbidden from eating at venues where he would be a guest chef because he was considered “the help.” He was paid poorly, despite the $2500 a plate price tag. Wolfgang Puck confided to Gordon that the same held for other chefs. “The only place they made money was cooking in a building,” notes Gordon. “Nobody had a clear path how to monetize their talent and expand it.”
Though he got into the chef business for reasons of compassion, he didn’t leave his business hat at the door. He put his experience, acumen and creativity to use, securing product and licensing deals for his clients and utilizing the potential of the then-nascent Food Network to make them wealthy. In fact, Emeril Lagasse, whose net worth is estimated at about $50 million, credits Gordon with single-handedly inventing the construct of a “celebrity chef.”
According to Shirli Kopelman, faculty director of business practice at the Center for Positive Organizations at The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and author of Negotiating Genuinely: Being Yourself in Business, the combination of compassion and strategic focus is what enables great negotiators to create value.
“The biggest problem people have when they negotiate is that they are either genuinely compassionate or they are strategic,” Kopelman told me. “It takes great negotiators to do them both. What naturally happens is that we develop more to be one type of negotiator than the other. When you ask people to think about themselves in a particular setting, they will see they are either focused on the money or focused on compassion.”
According to Kopelman, when people take on a work role, they put up a wall between that role and other aspects of their self. “So they think the role of the manager is just to be a business person without the part of their personality that’s about compassion,” she said. “When you can integrate your roles and integrate those different parts of you then you’re able to do both at work and outside of work.”
When people integrate their various personal and professional roles—agent, manager, chef, son, friend, music lover—they can create more value because they are more creative. They have access to a broader repertoire of knowledge and ideas. The combination of various aspects of the self can spark new patterns of thoughts, feelings, and perspectives.
Shep Godron was an innovative and creative manager. He came up with many of Alice Cooper’s outlandish stunts, including staging a breakdown of a truck in London’s busy Piccadilly Circus displaying a huge nude photo of the singer with a python hiding his private parts. Gordon was also the one who brought the doomed chicken to Alice Cooper’s show at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in 1969, turning the show into one of history’s most notorious publicity stunts. Gordon had the brilliant, if slightly impractical, idea to wrap the “School’s Out” LP in panties. For client Teddy Pendergrass, Gordon conceived of concerts for women only and gave female fans teddy bear lollipops to enjoy during the show.
According to Kopelman, artists and innovators are particularly vulnerable to leaving money on the table by not being strategic enough. “The kind of people who are good at building community or having innovative ideas for a startup don’t necessarily have the skills to be strategic and make their idea work financially,” Kopelman said. “The trap for a lot of people when they’re focused on building and being creative is that they forget to collect value they’ve created. You can’t just build, you have to be focused on how much value you just created and how much of that are you getting.”
According to Gordon, “There aren’t winners and losers, only winners.” That elusive win-win approach comes from bringing both strategy and compassion into his work life. But if you are a win-win kind of person, don’t forget to also “get the money.”
For more about the intersection of rock n' roll and business hit "follow" on the top of this page.
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64aa97ae696b4df380aadfb2e3a38018
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/07/17/what-rockers-can-teach-entrepreneurs/
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What Rockers Can Teach Entrepreneurs
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What Rockers Can Teach Entrepreneurs
“I was constantly walking into crowds where no one had never heard of me and I needed to leave them 100 percent convinced.” Is that a Silicon Valley entrepreneur talking? Actually it’s rapper G-Eazy, reflecting on his journey on the eve of his entry to the Billboard chart with his new album, These Things Happen. “It was also hustling and connecting and making an impression.”
Embarking on a career in popular music is in many ways like starting a business. You develop a brand, a distinct identity in the marketplace, and try to get people excited about it. What can entrepreneurs learn from musicians about getting a new business off the ground?
The 10-Year Journey to Overnight Success
Any musician you’ve ever heard of has worked countless hours to master his or her instrument and has endured humiliation after humiliation in the form of small and apathetic audiences, discouraging label executives, and dismissive incumbents. It takes hard work, commitment and determination to succeed as a musician.
The same goes for people who want to start a business. Entrepreneurs can get impatient when all they hear about are overnight successes and young self-made billionaires. Overnight success stories make for good headlines. But they are misleading.
In both music and entrepreneurship you need to commit fully and decisively, and then stick it out through the long haul. You have to be willing to make personal sacrifices, and you have to be persistent in your pursuit of excellence.
When I interviewed super-producer Rick Rubin for an article about meditation, I asked him why so many musicians meditate. He told me meditation is good for musicians because it reinforces the lifestyle of consistent practice and discipline. People tend to focus on the inspiration aspects of the arts (and the inspiration aspect of entrepreneurship). What we don’t see is the tedious disciplined practice involved in translating that inspiration into a success in the marketplace.
Persistence means overcoming the deeply personal pain of failures. We all know that you need to fail to learn. But what rockers can teach entrepreneurs is that failing is like mourning the death of a loved one. Your business, like your art, is your baby. You are personally attached to it. You love it. It is part of who you are and its success is tied into your feelings of self-worth. How must Robin Thicke feel around now that his deeply personal album about his failed relationship with his wife sold only 530 copies in the UK in its first week? That’s how entrepreneurs feel every time they fail.
Musicians have been told their entire career that their babies are ugly, stupid, and boring. Jimi Hendrix was kicked out of every band he played in until he started his own. Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. It just means that it’s part of the deal.
The same goes in business. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz was passionate about his vision of bringing Italian coffee bar culture to the US. He approached 242 investors. 217 said, “No.” That’s 217 times that his baby was insulted. Then he couldn’t show a profit for three years. That’s rock star persistence.
Creative Adaptability
Charles Darwin said that it is not the strongest or the most intelligent who survive, but those who can best manage change.
Rockers are masters of change, flexibility, and adaptability. Madonna, one of the only women in popular music to have a consistently successful career into her fifties, has done it by constantly changing and adapting. She didn’t lose her brand of empowered sexuality, but she changed with the times. In fact, she sometimes changed ahead of the times. Now making her thirteenth album, she’s getting today’s hottest producers to give her their most exciting tracks.
When U2 transitioned from their signature sound, epitomized on The Joshua Tree, to the dark electronic sound of Achtung Baby, they proved that they were agile. Likewise, Radiohead transitioned away from guitar-based songs after their hit album OK Computer to a more electronic sound for its follow-up, Kid A. It wasn’t easy to make the changes, but it paid off. Achtung Baby was a commercial smash for U2, selling 18 million copies, while Radiohead's Kid A topped the Billboard chart, won the Grammy award for best alternative album, and went platinum.
Any team should be wary of abandoning its core strength to superficially adopt a trend. But that wasn’t the case with U2 and Radiohead. What they were doing was growing together. They were able to interrupt their habits of thought and their habits of action. They were innovating.
It’s not the strongest or most intelligent that survives but the one that is most adaptable to change. Startups need to keep changing if they are going to hold their customers’ interest, adapt to changing market, and outperform competitors.
Everyone is a Rapper
In both music and entrepreneurship you need powers of persuasion. You need to get people excited about what you’re doing so that they can give you money to keep doing it. You need to rap.
The original meaning of the word rap was talking. But it was more than that. It was your ability to talk smoothly, to talk yourself out of trouble, to use talking to get your way. It was a smart way of talking, a way of talking that impressed other people. Rapping was selling. That’s why rappers are such good entrepreneurs.
When rap started, there was no institutional support for the genre. So rappers learned salesmanship. Rap culture was about proving you were better than the rest. It was about distinguishing yourself and your originality above the crowd.
Startups need to do that. Just like rappers, they need to convince people that they are better and bolder than the rest. That they can rise to any challenge and circumstances. Entrepreneurs can learn from rappers that stepping up to the mic with confidence can go a long way.
Entrepreneurs can also learn from rockers to make an emotional connection to their audience through body language and stories. As I’ve written before, you can learn techniques that will strengthen the effectiveness of your communication.
But most importantly, rockers teach entrepreneurs the importance of finding your unique voice and expressing it. As an artist, you have to differentiate yourself from others. Doing well in business requires the same thing. To stand out, you need to put yourself on the line and express yourself with confidence and passion.
Nurture the Team
A startup company I once interviewed faced a situation where one partner wanted the company to always be small enough to all fit in an elevator. But the other partner wanted world domination. One wanted to be Zuckerburg, the other wanted to be Zingerman’s. It collapsed. Another company had a partner who didn’t feel like he got a fare share of the equity split. So he split, right as they were about to be approved for a grant on which he was the primary investigator. The grant fell through.
Partners are a major source of uncertainty. They are also the most important factor for your startup’s success. What can we learn from rockers about minimizing partner risk? Invest in the connection with your partners.
In 1995 Anthony Kiedis, singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was in rehab for heroin addiction. He was the singer of one of the biggest bands in the world, with a new album coming out and a tour to embark on. His band mates needed Kiedis to do his job.
Part of the rehab center’s recovery process was to invite friends and family for a group session. Flea, The Chili Peppers’ bassist, showed up. When the group session began, the therapist asked Flea, “How does it make you feel when Anthony’s out there using drugs and you have no idea where he is or if he’s ever going to come back?” Kiedis cringed in his seat. He figured Flea was going to rant about how mad he is that Kiedis is ruining all of their hard work. And he would be right.
But Flea burst into tears. “I’m afraid he’s going to die on me,” he sobbed. “I don’t want him to die.” Flea cared about Kiedis as more than a means to an end.
Truly great bands such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers treat each other like family. That’s where their resilience comes from. Flea wasn’t happy about what Kiedis’s behavior was doing for the band. But first and foremost he was worried about him as his friend.
The same goes for startups. Other people are not just there to get the work done. They are not disposable parts. If they are, the team will have zero resilience for when times get tough. Without a strong relational fabric, the team will collapse at the first bump in the road.
Why does caring matter so much? Because it brings out the best in others. It facilitates others by giving them the support they need so that they can contribute at their highest level. It also creates a safe environment for making mistakes and experimenting.
Caring comes with playfulness, which helps with burnout and also opens up the team’s resources and creativity. And caring increases loyalty. When band members look out for each other, they build a reservoir of goodwill that they tap into when times get tough.
Rock stars may not be eager for us to see them as business people. They want us to see them as loose and intuitive. They sell youth, and they need to represent. But if we look beyond the myth at the work that goes into their success, we can learn valuable lessons for how to start and grow all kinds of successful businesses.
For more about the intersection of rock n' roll and business hit "follow" on the top of this page.
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46119ee3ba3fb3462b20532047fee40b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/10/16/rock-stars-techniques-for-giving-better-presentations/
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Rock Stars Techniques For Giving Better Presentations
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Rock Stars Techniques For Giving Better Presentations
What can we learn from rock stars about how to improve our own presentations? This was the topic of a talk I attended as part of Chicago Ideas Week by Brian Burkhart, president and “Chief Word Guy” at Square Planet, where he coaches business people to become better presenters and communicators.
He started, as did many things, with Bob Dylan. He played “Like A Rolling Stone” and mercilessly pointed out that Dylan, in fact, has a terrible voice. But he grabs us with the words. “Once upon a time you dressed so fine, you threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall,” You thought they were all kiddin’ you.” The song is magnetizing because of the words Dylan sings, not so much the quality of their presentation. With rock as with anything else, the content is the most important part of your presentation. All the bonus stuff—the animated slides, the videos, the jokes—can’t compensate for lack of compelling content.
What’s more, your content should stand out from what other people are saying. You have to take a stance and differentiate yourself from what’s out there. “You don’t need to like Marilyn Manson to know what he’s all about,” Burkhart told me. “That’s the part that people forget when it comes to presentations. They try to be everything to everyone, but you can’t. The goal of a presentation is to change someone’s beliefs or behaviors. If you don’t take a stance, if you’re too vanilla, you can’t change other people’s behavior. ”
Marilyn Manson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As a presenter in the business world, you may not want to shock people the way Marilyn Manson does, but you do want to be memorable. Rock stars use production elements like lighting to shape the emotional effect of their presentations. As a corporate speaker you may be able to do that to some extent, but mostly you communicate emotions through your personality, your passion, and stories from your life. On that front, Burkhart made three recommendations.
First, be authentic. Don’t try to be funny if you’re not. Don’t pretend to be a bigger company than you are. Don’t pretend to be more knowledgeable than you are. And don’t pretend that you want to be there if you don’t. Audiences can sniff out a fraud in 30 seconds.
Second, be confident. At an M.I.A. show in Chicago this May, the line to the women’s bathroom was longer than usual for a rap show. In it, the ladies were gushing: “She has so much swagger! I wish I could have some of that.” Confidence is attractive. Burkhart gave the example of Frank Sinatra, who was a physically unimposing high-school dropout. But through his self-confidence, he made the most of his talents as a musician, actor and businessman.
You can’t fake confidence, so it’s best rely on your expertise, practice and preparation. Burkhart told me that some business people work on their presentations on the airplane the night before or don’t prepare at all. “That’s exactly the opposite of what an amazing rock band would do.” Rock stars spend weeks working out the details of their shows and rehearsing to get everything just right.
Finally, be likeable. Most rock stars make an effort to be relatable, friendly, and open. It helps them build their relationship with audiences. Of course some adopt a more punk attitude. From Johnny Rotten to Kanye West, we hold a special place in our hearts for celebrities who break free of the constraints of likeability. But as a public speaker, you’re better off taking the route of Taylor Swift than Courtney Love.
Rock stars really wow us when they simplify. A few years ago I saw Paul Simon perform at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont IL. He had a full band, video projection and a light show. But for his first encore he walked on the stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a spotlight. He sang “The Sounds of Silence” the way he had intended it to sound when he composed it. It was the highlight of the show. When I saw Sinead O’Connor in Chicago last November, she did an a cappella version of “I am Stretched on Your Grave.” A lady, a voice, and a soul. It was stunning. Some of the best business talks I’ve seen have been simple. No slides, no videos, no New Yorker cartoons, no fancy infographics. But they had a meaningful message that resonated with me and was all the more memorable for the lack of frills.
Finally, rock stars go for broke. Rock stars understand that they need to give a great show each and every time they get on the stage. “Business people somehow believe that if they didn’t sleep well or had a bad flight, they can be off their game,” Burkhart said. “That’s wrong. When you’re trying to present, when you trying to influence people, when you’re trying to change behavior, you better bring it. You get one shot to get it right and you’ve got to go for it. ”
After a good rock show, people talk. They buy the t-shirts, they share on social media. Presentations are the same. “If you do a good presentation, people talk about it afterwards.” Burkhart said, “It will lift you and your career. If you do a lousy job, then boy it’s a missed opportunity.”
To illustrate this point, Burkhart showed a video of Queen performing “We Are the Champions” at Live Aid in 1985. As you can see below, Freddy Mercury holds nothing back. He goes all in. In the business world, we don’t normally present our full self. But rock stars make their work personal. Which is why rock stars can make for very effective business speakers.
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9c5602b86e0835977109bfbaf099ef1e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/11/29/how-the-band-ok-go-are-making-it-up-as-they-go-along/
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How The Band OK Go Are Making It Up As They Go Along
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How The Band OK Go Are Making It Up As They Go Along
“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.” That’s Michelangelo describing his creative process. Many of us buy that description at face value. Before it is ever created, the finished artistic work is fully realized, if not literally in the stone then in the creator’s head.
We entertain the same myth with respect to scientific discovery, assuming that the process proceeds the way it’s written up in the final paper. The scientist identifies a gap in the literature, makes prudent predictions based on previous research, tests them using the most appropriate methodology, and advances our knowledge through the findings.
And in business we are encouraged as leaders to define our goals or values, translate them into a concrete strategy and operationalize the strategy as particular short-term goals. We then evaluate our effectiveness according to whether we attained those goals.
It doesn’t work that way. As astrophysicist Mario Livio writes in his book Brilliant Blunders, the process of scientific discovery is full of fits and starts, dead ends, and outright mistakes. Some of the biggest scientific discoveries were surprises or detours from initial explorations. It’s a messy process re-imagined neater in the telling.
In business, often we don’t realize what our values were until we look back at the decisions we made and the outcomes they produced. As Karl Weick wrote in his classic book Sensemaking in Organizations, “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” Sense is often made retrospectively. Leaders act first. Then they examine the actions they’ve taken and weave a plausible narrative in which those actions make sense.
Art too often involves creation through action rather than through planning.
OK Go is a band whose career was built through the popularity of their highly synchronized videos involving complex choreographed and coordinated sequences. Their video for “Here it Goes Again,” known as the “treadmill video,” was a single take of the band doing an elaborately choreographed routine on eight treadmills. The video for “The Writing’s On the Wall” walks the viewer though a series of optical illusions. Most recently, in the video for “I Won’t Let You Down,” the band collaborates with 2300 dancers to do a complex dance number, again in a single take.
Damian Kulash. Photo credit: Joey Tobin
OK Go’s videos are so synchronized, they look as if they had been storyboarded for months. Not so. According to lead singer Damian Kulash, it is much more a process of trial and error and discovery. “We come up with an idea that we think is pretty good,” he told me, “and then we just start playing with it with the people we will be collaborating with. Within a month of screwing around with that idea, it's becomes something pretty different.” Although the process is not always efficient in terms of time and money, it works for them. “The reason this comes naturally to us is because it's a much more common way to make things when you're writing music. You pick up a guitar and try it.”
Instead of starting with a final outcome and figuring out the best way to get there, the band picks a direction to head off in. “Care and planning is important but can only be attained by doing,” Kulash said. “After we’ve taken ten steps in that direction, we reassess. What's the most interesting direction to be in? And if it's directly back the way we came, then it was probably a bad idea to start with.”
One of the band’s mottos is “Cut twice, measure once,” meaning that they do first and figure out what it was they did after they see the result. “Just go do the damn thing and figure out what you're doing,” Kulash said. “Keep your materials cheap and your ideas flexible and try what you want to do. Because if you're going to make an object, by the time that object exists, even if you just have a cardboard version of it, you will have a much better idea about what it is and what could be better about it.”
Their newest venture into discovering by doing is to release an album as DNA. It began as a casual conversation about recent advances in encoding information in DNA and turned into a collaboration with Sri Kosuri, a biochemist at U.C.L.A., to represent the band’s fourth studio album, Hungry Ghosts, as the As, Cs, Ts, and Gs of DNA. “DNA is the best data storage system that evolution has ever come up with,” said Kulash.
“Creativity is stuck in boxes of 20th century origin. We tend to think of musicians as doing one thing, and filmmakers as doing another, and journalists as doing a third, and computer programmers doing a fourth because in 1950 or 1980 or even in 2000, a musician made a very particular type of physical object that was completely unlike the physical object that a filmmaker made or a journalist made or a computer programmer made,” Kulash said. “Now all of us make the same thing. We all make ones and zeroes. And while obviously we all know the difference between hearing something and seeing something, the boundaries between these different categories have become really unstable. For us, we see that as a huge creative opportunity.”
The band has ventured in other non-musical directions before. Lead guitarist Andy Ross is founder and lead programmer for Space Inch, a startup behind gaming apps like Make it Rain and Say the Same Thing.
OK Go's minimal-planning approach echoes the Lean Startup methodology that is gaining momentum in the technology startup community, advocating the iterative development of products in collaboration with early customers rather than through extensive investment in a preconceived fully developed product idea.
For OK Go, expanding their activity to science and technology is a natural extension of their curiosity and drive to discovery.
“I visited NASA's very large vehicle assembly building and it made me realize that there is a thing beyond art and science that encompasses both of them,” said Kulash. “It’s this raw, insane humanism, like someone being crazy enough to say ‘I can put a man on the moon.’ That's not science anymore, that's just insane dreaming.”
OK Go has always collaborated with other creative people, and they are excited by the potential that technology offers of more interdisciplinary collaboration. “Where we wind up getting the most interesting ideas is by collaborating with people who are really good at what they do but asking them to look at it sideways somehow,” he said. “And that's why the DNA science doesn't feel totally arbitrary. It feels like it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for our artistic gesture, which we all think is interesting.”
The rest is a process of figuring out.
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62fd72384c13f062ab6b573514293897
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/12/16/aerosmiths-joe-perry-on-creativity-team-tensions-and-why-he-dresses-up-for-work/?utm_content=buffer0541c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Aerosmith's Joe Perry On Creativity, Team Tensions And Why He Dresses Up For Work
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Aerosmith's Joe Perry On Creativity, Team Tensions And Why He Dresses Up For Work
When Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry goes downstairs to his state-of-the-art home recording studio, he gets dressed up in full rock star regalia. “If I don't put on some rock & roll clothes before I go down there, I'm not as creative,” he told me. “I have to get my head in that place where I'm imagining I’m on stage and then I just kind of let it rip.”
He has other ways to get himself into a creative state of mind. He’ll listen to old blues or some of his favorite rock & roll. He’ll even play guitar while watching sports on television. All he needs is some kind of recording device—nowadays it’s an iPhone—and a pad of paper for jotting down ideas for lyrics. “That image of a guitar player laying on the couch watching TV is actually true,” he said.
The goal, he says, is to occupy the conscious mind so that it doesn’t get in the way of his creativity. "It's usually because you're not paying attention to what you're doing,” he said. "Your creativity is taking off on its own."
Joe Perry. Photo credit: Ross Halfin
In the early days of Aerosmith, Perry and lead singer Steven Tyler used to write by talking about non-music topics while they played. Tyler, a drummer by training, would play the drums while Perry played guitar, and the whole time, “We'd be yakking about whatever is going on that day,” Perry said. “And I'd find myself playing things that I hadn't played before. So we always had tape running because inevitably, as I'd be playing, things would come out.”
Back then, drugs were another way to sidestep conscious interference. It was, according to Perry, a shortcut to the creative subconscious. When he first sobered up, Perry worried that getting off drugs would hurt his creativity. But now reflecting back on decades of sobriety, he doesn’t think that getting off drugs made him less creative—it just made him figure out other, less self-destructive ways to get to that place. “Some of the best stuff that I've done I did in the '80s and '90s and even now. I’ve gotten better technically. I have a larger palette to work with,” he said. Most recently, Perry released a Four-Song Christmas EP, Joe Perry’s Merry Christmas.
One thing he and the rest of the band learned was to change up their writing process to shake them out of routines and comfort zones. This became especially relevant as the band matured to prevent settling into a mindless routine. They’d go into the studio and say, “Let’s write a song that's got a country vibe to it” or “Disco is happening, let's write a song that has that beat.” They would go in and break their own rules. At some point they also brought outside songwriters to “help move the creative landscape,” according to Perry. “All you have to do is tilt it a few degrees and all of a sudden you're learning from somebody who is a songwriter and they may throw in a word or two, and that's enough and to change the whole thing.”
What does hurt creativity, according to Perry, is what in the Aerosmith camp they call the “Red Light Blues”: the debilitating effect of the pressure to give a perfect performance as soon as the recording light goes on in the studio. “When the red recording light went on, that meant you had to be playing at your best and maybe creating even more—when you're playing a solo adding something more to it rather than just playing the same riff over and over again.”
Perry found that the focus on giving a good performance actually lead to worse result in the studio. His experience is consistent with research in the field of education, which finds that students do better when they focus on learning rather than results, maybe because doing so frees them up to take risks.
In Aerosmith, Tyler was the one urging his band mates to create hits, putting on the pressure of performance early in the writing process, according to Perry. This made for a tough dynamic that Perry discusses at length in his new memoir, Rocks. “The temptation to want to come from that place is really strong once you've made it,” Perry writes. “You really have to sit back and figure out ways to disengage your desire to write a hit from your creativity.”
The pressure to put on a great performance on stage every night can also hurt in-the-moment creativity, which Perry sees as essential to a great Aerosmith show. “What I like about rock concerts and bands like Aerosmith is that you go out there and there are certain things that you plan, obviously the majority of the fans want to hear pretty much what's on the record,” he said, “but there's got to be a certain amount of spontaneity to make the energy more dynamic so the show turns into an interaction between the fans and the band.”
Tyler, on the other hand, is a perfectionist who wants consistency night after night, says Perry. He wants to rehearse each and every detail so that audiences at different stops on the tour all get the same high-quality show. “We knew that we each had those opposing views right from the start,” says Perry. “When he first saw my band play, he realized what that's what was missing from the band he had been in. And vice versa.”
The tensions in Aerosmith between spontaneity and perfectionism, improvising versus rehearsing, working to be successful versus working in an open of a state, focusing on the outcome versus focusing on the process are tensions faced by many work teams across diverse occupations and industries. They are healthy tensions that are best managed rather than avoided. Research suggests that creative teams do better to maintain competing tensions, keeping both kinds of motives at play in a complex negotiation, than to simplify and let one set of motives dominate.
For the most part, Aerosmith, the second-highest selling American rock band of all time, has been able to do just that. They have successfully managed these tensions to sustain their career, tumultuous as the ride may have been, for almost 45 years, with the same five musicians. Perry says the way the band has managed these tensions has led to the unique Aerosmith sound. And he says that the focus on delivering a great live show keeps the band on the same page. “We're all there to help support the song and that's the main thing,” he said. “That philosophy has stuck with us through all of the years, through all of the changes, from punk to the disco years to the hair band years, the MTV era, all of that stuff. The one touchstone that has stayed the same has been that we're going to have to get up on stage and play these songs live.”
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3538e0fd02d6368112f5d2c0f9aec92a
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthgotian/2021/02/02/is-that-the-best-solution-think-again-says-adam-grant/
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Is That The Best Solution? ‘Think Again’ Says Adam Grant
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Is That The Best Solution? ‘Think Again’ Says Adam Grant
To be successful, says Adam Grant, we need to unlock and discover with open curiosity what we don't ... [+] know. Photo courtesy of Dr. Adam Grant
Several years into my career, a senior faculty member and I had a conversation that led me to one of those ‘a-ha’ moments. “Just because something is written in a textbook, it is not necessarily true. It is only the author’s version of the truth,” she told me. I was stunned. That one statement contradicted everything I learned throughout my educational and professional career. I let that statement marinate in my head for a while. Before long, I realized that my colleague was correct. I began rethinking everything I learned and reexamined the basis for that truth. In his latest book, Think Again, organizational psychologist and Wharton professor Dr. Adam Grant looks into this very issue. He suggests that success rests in the power of knowing what we don’t know and being released from our tunnel vision.
Dr. Adam Grant’s work has always fascinated me. Backed by research, it always challenged my assumptions and made me look at ideas in new ways. In his latest book, Grant examines how we cling to our beliefs, instincts, and habits and at what cost. He boldly considers the idea of how things might improve if we keep an open mind.
His research uncovers some truths that many have pondered. Some of my favorites include:
The higher your IQ score, the more likely you are to fall for stereotypes. Grant explains that those with a higher IQ are faster at recognizing patterns. He suggests that the smarter you are, the more you might struggle to update your beliefs. Those who are intellectually curious and open to new ideas are more successful. People who score lower on emotional intelligence (EQ) tests are more likely to overestimate their skills and dismiss their EQ scores as inaccurate or irrelevant.
The book’s early pages suggest that when we ponder and speak, we often do so with the mindset of three different professions; that of preachers, prosecutors, and politicians. Each has its own identity. The preacher is what we become when we believe our beliefs are endangered. We start to deliver heartfelt lectures to defend and advocate our principles. We become a prosecutor when we see faults in other people’s thinking and work to prove them wrong. When we wish to be liked and seek approval from those around us, we turn into a politician. Grant warns that we are too focused on preaching that we are right, prosecuting those we feel are wrong, and politicking to gain approval. All this does not leave room to examine our beliefs and that which we hold to be true.
Grant suggests that to be successful, we must embody the fourth profession and think like scientists. “Treat your strategy as a hypothesis and your product as an experiment,” says Grant. This way of thinking values humility over pride, questioning over conviction and openness, and curiosity over closure. Instead of starting with the answers, lead with questions, and see where the inquiry leads.
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Dr. Adam Grant's new book, Think Again, pushes the reader to have the curiosity of a scientist. Photo courtesy of Dr. Adam Grant
The book offers several strategies to become more flexible with our opinions and consider our thoughts and feelings as a rough draft:
Surround yourself with people who will challenge your opinion, not just support it. This new circle of influence will remove any blinders you have in your thought process. Base your identity on your values, not your opinions. This practice leaves you open to considering the most effective way to achieve them. Consider how your beliefs might change based on your culture, religion, age, or ethnicity.
Adam Grant’s latest book pushes us to reconsider, rethink, reevaluate and reimagine our beliefs, thoughts, and identities and get to the core of why we believe what we do, why it is so important to us, and why we are steadfast to hold on to those ideas and beliefs. The ideas expressed throughout the book are learnable skills and can be implemented in the home, workplace, and friend group. It teaches us to stop digging our heels and doubling down and consider other people’s points of view so that we may grow our own. Once again, Adam Grant succeeded in turning our very way of thinking upside down as he pushes us to examine the obvious.
One of my great professors in graduate school, Dr. Stephen Brookfield, told me once, “It’s not a disagreement, it’s discourse. That’s how you learn.” He was right.
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97814acb1cfdf4bf82dc1765f8b2e8c5
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthgotian/2021/03/02/adding-value-how-to-get-your-ideas-noticed/
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Adding Value: How To Get Your Ideas Noticed
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Adding Value: How To Get Your Ideas Noticed
There is a methodical process to ensure your ideas are heard and valued. getty
You have a good idea. Make that a great idea. You bring up your vision at the next Zoom staff meeting, but nobody seems interested. You may be thinking that people just do not want things to improve; their bar of excellence and productivity is too low. It is them, not you.
The Art of Alignment, a new book by Patty Beach, teaches people how to get teams to get behind an ... [+] idea. Scribe Media
What if you could get people to pay attention and get excited about what you are suggesting? What if you could rally your colleagues behind your concept so that they not only support it but embrace it and want to be its champion? In her new book, The Art of Alignment, Patty Beach offers a step-by-step guide to getting your team on the same page, excited about the change, and moving forward as one.
According to Beach, getting people aligned around an idea has four simple steps. But before you get to them, you need to create a sense of what she calls SHUVA - Making sure your team is
Seen, Heard, Understood, Valued, and Appreciated.
Seen
Make those who feel invisible seen by noticing their gifts, talents, and personal struggles. Try inviting them to co-create with you. Be sure to look into their eyes as you speak with them. To test yourself, see if you can recall the color of their eyes.
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Heard
Ensure all voices have the opportunity to be heard. Do not interrupt people and make sure others do not either. Good listening improves the overall quality of what is shared in the group. Just as a band performs better with an engaged crowd, people in groups are the same.
Understood
It is essential to understand what the other person is saying, and the speaker needs to feel you understand their message. Confirm this by summarizing, “So what I am understanding is… Did I get that right?”
Valued
Most people will only listen to points to which they agree or disagree. Beach encourages us to show value by “listening to learn.” Push yourself to be curious.
Appreciated
People need to hear that you appreciate their hard work. How are you expressing your appreciation? Do you send an email, a gift, or a hand-written note? Public acknowledgment is essential. Consider expressing gratitude in a group email or on social media.
With this firm foundation, you are now ready to tackle the four steps of alignment:
Propose - Present your idea as simply as possible. Probe - Gather feedback using 4 of the 5 Cs described below. Re-Propose - Integrate feedback and create a second version of your proposal. Close - Finalize the idea, document it, and distribute it to stakeholders.
If you want to succeed, Beach recommends approaching feedback in a structured way which includes 5C’s:
Clarification - Clear up any confusion by asking open-ended questions, not those which will elicit yes/no answers. Compliments - Encourage people to compliment the merits of the proposal. It creates goodwill, which is needed for the more challenging work ahead. Concerns - This is not judgmental; instead, it encourages people to approach their feedback with a caring frame of mind. Use open-ended questions such as “What risks should we consider?” Changes - What changes would you make to address the concerns? Develop a new proposal that integrates all previous feedback. Commitment - Test people’s commitment to the new proposal and see if it has legs.
Patty Beach, developed the SHUVA method to ensure your team is seen, heard, understood, valued and ... [+] appreciated. Lisa Siciliano Dog Daze Photo
When do people fail or get stuck? “When they don’t follow the 5 Cs in order,” shares Beach. “It makes no sense to compliment or express concerns about a proposal you didn’t understand in the first place. This is why clarifications should always come first,” Beach explains. “Once a proposal is understood, compliments should always come before concerns. When every proposal gets complimented, we create a foundation of psychological safety needed for concerns to be brought up and avoid the typical feeding frenzy faced by most ideas. Changes that build on concerns give us a path to resolution. If we ask for commitment before the other 4 Cs, it can feel empty like a rubber stamp,” Beach points out.
To move forward, we must be innovative, creative and not be afraid to try new things. Getting people aligned around an idea is the only way to see something through to fruition.
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017373998546993f76cb865ab1e78a81
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthgotian/2021/03/23/why-you-only-need-to-meet-40-of-requirements-in-job-descriptions/
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Why You Only Need To Meet 40% Of Requirements In Job Descriptions
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Why You Only Need To Meet 40% Of Requirements In Job Descriptions
You might be unknowingly sabotaging your job search. getty
At some point, you will need to polish up your resume and start to look for a job. Alternatively, maybe you have been in your position for a while and realize it is time to seek a new challenge. Thanks to the internet, job search strategies are completely reimagined. What worked for you on your last job search may no longer be relevant.
ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace that utilizes artificial intelligence to
Ian Siegel, the CEO of ZipRecruiter shares tips on how to accelerate your job search and stand out. Ashley Randall
match applicants with jobs, was launched in 2010. To date, they helped over 1.8 million companies find job candidates. Each month, over 25 million people visit their site. At any time, they might have nine million job openings listed. In the new book Get Hired Now!, Ian Siegel, the co-founder, and CEO of ZipRecruiter, unveils how to accelerate the hiring practice and stand out amongst applicants. This book is extremely relevant as we consider the future of work.
These are essential lessons as few of us learned how to find a job in our formal or informal education. These are important lessons for new graduates and seasoned employees who are not familiar with the more current job search process, including robots, social media, and virtual interviews.
Your Resume
A shocking reality is that 75% of resumes are never read by humans. Your resume is fed to an Applicant Tracking System, a software that looks for key terms and experiences to see if your application aligns with what the company is seeking. Your goal is to develop a resume that gets past the robots and into the hands of a human.
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It’s Not What You Know. It’s Who You Know
At least 70% of jobs are not even posted, and as many as 80% of jobs are filled through networking. You, therefore, have no choice but to work diligently to build and engage with your network. It is your more dormant ties, those you do not know as well, have a shared history or see regularly, who will be the most helpful.
In-person or online, there are plenty of ways to network without feeling awkward. Start with your preferred social networks and connect with everyone you can. Go beyond your immediate friends and family. Invitations to connect should be sent to extended family members, fellow alumni, and acquaintances. Siegel also recommends reaching out to current employees of companies you previously worked in, even if you never met. Do not forget to connect with members from clubs, organizations, and places of worship. As I previously wrote for Forbes, there are strategic ways to initiate conversations with people you do not know well.
Timing is Everything
Siegel recommends applying within the first two days after a job is posted. You would be considered against a smaller group, so your ability to stand out improves dramatically. Do not worry if you do not fit all of the criteria listed in the job posting. Siegel calls them a “wish list” and encourages applicants to apply to roles where they meet as few as 40% of the requirements.
Once your resume is noticed, there will be multiple rounds of interviews, a job offer, a
This new book by ZipRecruiter CEO, Ian Siegel, uncovers the truth about how to get noticed and ... [+] hired. Wiley
negotiation, and multiple rounds of communication. Get Hired Now! walks you through the process, gives your scripts, tips, and valuable guidance. It will help you break the unconscious habits that might be sabotaging your success.
“People are making unconscious judgments about your warmth, competencies, and ability to be hired within seconds,” said Siegel. Here are his favorite tips for overcoming bias in the hiring practice:
Wear something that makes you comfortable and causes you to sit or stand taller. You will appear happier, more relaxed, and confident. Smile and look your interviewer in the eye. Say the interviewer’s name. It makes them feel seen and heard. People love talking about themselves, so find a way to get your interviewer to do the majority of the speaking. Before you answer the traditional “Tell me about yourself” question, remember, they already have your resume in front of them. Lead with a response of “Before I answer that, I just want to say how excited I am to be here. It must be so wonderful to work at such a great company.” Make sure the conversation is like a pingpong game, with a natural back and forth conversational cadence.
Whether a new graduate, seasoned employee, veteran, or parent returning to the workforce, there is something in this book you will likely find helpful. You do not need to read the book cover to cover. Instead, review the chapters that are most relevant to your current situation.
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92a58b2b8f6efff4d9d2f2caddfa611e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthumoh/2019/03/13/diversity-in-tech-how-one-vc-firm-is-partnering-with-historically-black-colleges-to-address-the-pipeline-issue/
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Diversity In Tech: How One VC Firm Is Partnering With Historically Black Colleges To Address The Pipeline Issue
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Diversity In Tech: How One VC Firm Is Partnering With Historically Black Colleges To Address The Pipeline Issue
Rearview shot of a group of students standing in a line on graduation day Getty
Recruitment efforts at top tech firms have traditionally targeted students at elite colleges and Ivy League universities, leading to a predominantly white, male workforce. Because of that, companies have missed out on top talent from the 101 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which produce a growing number of science and tech professionals.
Unusual Ventures, a seed-stage investment firm, aims to change this with its new Unusual Interns program. Launching this summer, the program is designed to increase the number of black students working in technical internships by connecting students from HBCUs with high-growth Silicon Valley startups.
There have been many promises to improve the racial makeup of Silicon Valley’s workforce, but the tech sector’s latest diversity reports remain underwhelming. Black Americans represent less than 5% of the employees at most tech companies, according to the State of Black America 2018 report. By contrast, at least half the workforce at those companies is white.
Tech’s lack of diversity is often called a pipeline problem, but Silicon Valley’s passive attitude toward diverse recruitment is really to blame, says Megan Holston-Alexander, a senior associate at Unusual Ventures who helped create the internship program.
“HBCU students are severely under-recruited,” she says. “VCs and companies will say, ‘Well, if the pitch deck of a black woman founder makes it to my desk, I’ll take a look at it.’”
A very different scenario occurs at schools like Stanford and at Ivy League institutions, where recruiters woo students with giveaways, dinners and coffee meet-ups. “It’s a totally different experience, and so our goal with this program is to be very active in that outreach, because the engineers are there,” says Holston-Alexander. “You just have to put the same amount of effort toward getting them.”
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As the very first step in the initiative, 10 computer science students from a group of handpicked HBCUs—including Howard University, Hampton University and Alabama A&M University—will participate in 10- to 12-week internships. They will be matched with tech companies like Zola, DataStax, zScaler and Harness, with the possibility of full-time employment after completing the internship.
The interns will also have access to a six-week online course, hosted by computer science academy Lambda School, where they will sharpen their skills in some of the latest tech areas of expertise, including full-stack engineering, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
To better prepare students for permanent jobs, the program will bring guest speakers from leading tech companies to offer insight into possible career paths and hold professional and personal development sessions.
Next summer, Unusual plans to enroll up to 50 interns and partner with additional HBCUs. The firm’s goal is to eventually expand the internship to a semester program whereby students receive college credit.
Yvette Clayton, director of career development services at Alabama A&M University, says the opportunities this program presents to students will be life-changing. “Actually getting to see a startup build its way up is just eye-opening,” she says. At her school’s College of Engineering, Technology, and Physical Sciences, more than 42% of the 1,000 students are women, and it’s the largest producer of African-American STEM graduates in the state.
Holston-Alexander, who graduated from Clark Atlanta University, an HBCU, says that early exposure to Silicon Valley and its cultural norms will not only be invaluable for black students, who otherwise wouldn’t have any such level of access, but will also be good for the companies, exposing them to the technical aptitudes of HBCU students. “They can see that these kids are talented and the diverse perspectives they bring,” says Unusual Ventures cofounder John Vrionis.
In recent years, big-name tech companies like Google, Adobe and Spotify have increasingly sought out relationships with HBCUs. While their efforts are commendable, says Vrionis, established companies don’t provide students with as many opportunities to troubleshoot problems and build new startup ventures from the ground up.
But as part of the Unusual Interns program, participants will have a unique chance to learn and contribute to the daily function and output of fast-growing companies, strengthening their entrepreneurial muscles. “The only way to learn all of this is by doing,” says Vrionis, “and VCs have front-row access to the next generation of disruptive companies.”
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5bde921e70f6e2a27234a8959b4b064e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthumoh/2020/03/28/goldman-sachs-turns-its-sights-to-black-and-latinx-founders-with-new-entrepreneurship-program/?sh=4d7719bb2779
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Goldman Sachs Turns Its Sights On Black And Latinx Founders With New Entrepreneurship Program
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Goldman Sachs Turns Its Sights On Black And Latinx Founders With New Entrepreneurship Program
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Goldman Sachs is placing its bets on startups with diverse founders.
The investment bank announced its inaugural black and Latinx entrepreneur cohort, part of Launch With GS, its $500 million commitment to allocate capital to companies with diverse leadership.
Less than 3% of venture dollars went to female-led companies in 2019. For black and Latinx founders, that number dropped to 1%. Combining both factors, less than 1% of funding was directed to black or Latinx women-founded companies.
“That seems like a real misallocation of capital,” says Jemma Wolfe, head of Launch With GS. “So for us [Goldman Sachs], this is clearly an investment opportunity.”
The entrepreneur cohort program is a customized, 8-week virtual workshop with access too specialists across Goldman Sachs’ investment banking and research teams, curriculum on various subjects, such as market predictions, branded marketing, and legal expertise, as well as Goldman Sachs’ sprawling network of Fortune 500 companies, leading startup advisers and executives within the venture ecosystem.
Selected applicants will also collaborate closely with the program’s external advisory council, featuring the likes of Jennifer Hyman, CEO and cofounder of Rent the Runway, and Jewel Burks Solomon, head of Google for Startups in the U.S. and a 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
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“Goldman is just one organization. We can’t do it along and we shouldn’t do it alone. There are a lot of incredible VCs and investors who are focused on this space and we really wanted to tap into the strength of that community and the work that everyone is doing,” Wolfe says.
At the culmination of the program, attendees will participate in an invite-only investor showcase, with attendees ranging from Goldman Sachs’ private clients to institutional clients, family offices and other venture firms.
“Whether or not these companies are looking for capital, we think it's really important for them to be able to start building those relationships with investors early,” says Wolfe. “Even when thinking about our investing business, we always tell entrepreneurs that the time to get to know us is 12 months before you might actually need to engage. Really build those relationships over time.”
To be eligible, applicants but must own and operate a fintech, enterprise software, consumer or healthcare company based in the U.S. and have a 2020 projected annual run-rate revenue of at least $1 million.
This diversity initiative comes just one month after Goldman Sachs’ CEO, David Solomon, announced that the firm will no longer carry out IPOs for companies without at least one diverse board candidate. Since the start of Launch With GS, nearly two years ago, the company has invested $230 million globally.
“Our thesis is that if you invest in businesses with diverse management teams, they will outperform their peers,” Wolfe says. “But our long-term goal is for initiatives like Launch With GS to not exist anymore because the way people access capital, the way entrepreneurs are evaluated and the way investors think about their portfolio has become a more diverse and equal process that’s deeply embedded.”
Applications for the black and Latinx entrepreneurs cohort close on April 17, 2020.
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9a2e7580733a7c4b563e30c60a6ce2cf
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2012/09/11/why-i-left-private-equity-and-started-a-crowdfunding-site/
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Why I left Private Equity...And Started A Crowdfunding Site
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Why I left Private Equity...And Started A Crowdfunding Site
San Francisco Skyline (Photo credit: El Frito)
If you had told me in June, 2011 that I would leave private equity to start an equity-based crowdfunding site, I would have laughed. At that time, I had just been promoted to Director at Encore Consumer Capital, a leading consumer-focused private equity firm, and, most importantly, I had never heard of equity-based crowdfunding.
After spending close to seven years at Encore and TSG Consumer Partners focused on private- equity investing in lower middle-market consumer products companies, I noticed a huge void in the marketplace. There were no institutional investors for small consumer brands. Almost every week, two or three consumer entrepreneurs would call me, looking to raise capital. For companies with revenues under $10 Million, there was nothing we, or any of the other funds I knew, could do. Because of this, each conversation ended the same way, with me turning them down without being able to give them another source to turn to, as they were too small for institutional equity and did not have sufficient assets to raise debt.
The turning point for me came when I spoke on a panel at a consumer trade show, the HBA Global Expo in June of 2011, where the topic was how to finance a small consumer brand. I sat there for an hour as the experts on the panel (myself included) could not come up with any viable financing options for the consumer entrepreneurs in the audience other than credit card debt. Think about leading a shampoo brand with two million dollars in revenue that has national distribution, a business that’s growing at 50% a year but has to take on credit card debt to finance the business. If you can’t imagine it, then you likely work for a tech company in San Francisco, because those are the only types of companies that don’t struggle to raise money. In consumer and retail, which is 20% of the economy but only 4% of angel funding, this is the reality.
At the same time, Rory Eakin, my co-founder of CircleUp, and a long-time public and private investor, saw that investors were becoming disenchanted with the public markets. Individual investors, no differently than large endowments, want diversification. For our parents, diversification meant stocks mixed with bonds, and maybe some real estate. But today, diversification means alternative assets like private companies. Together, we realized there was demand on both sides of the marketplace. Small consumer companies were frustrated by the inefficiency in the fundraising process and investors were hungry for alternative assets that could generate alpha. And given that angel investments in consumer companies generate an average return of 3.6x invested capital over 4.4 years (according to Kaufmann Foundation data), we realized that an aggregation platform that connected great sub-$10 million consumer companies with investors could solve a huge market inefficiency. The problem of solving that inefficiency, and helping millions of investors and entrepreneurs, was intimidating. And exciting. We made one of the biggest decisions of our lives- we quit our jobs and started an equity-based crowdfunding site, CircleUp (www.circleup.com).
As we began exploring online marketplaces, we quickly concluded that to succeed long-term, we would need to build a trustworthy marketplace; we knew that if this new marketplace were to succeed investors and entrepreneurs alike would need to trust it. And for them to them to trust it, they would need to understand it; and for them to understand it, it would need transparency.
So this is what we did. We took months to find the leading legal expert on crowdfunding to help us navigate regulatory hurdles. We also spent hundreds of hours going through broker-dealer registration so we could credibly and legally process securities transactions on CircleUp. While we continue through that process, we partnered with WR Hambrecht, a well-respected broker dealer with a long tradition of leadership in democratizing access for investment opportunities.
But while we had all our ducks in a row legally, we believed our platform, CircleUp, would need to provide value beyond capital to investors and entrepreneurs to become their investing marketplace of choice. The best investment platforms I’ve seen, including my former private equity firms, bring more to the table than just money. Here, we needed to add value to both investors and entrepreneurs.
For investors, we created a proprietary partnership with SPINS, the leading source of retail sell-thru data in the natural products industry. Now we can give third-party data to verify sales trends to our investors– for free. We found partners to run background checks, provide free samples of our products and offer a variety of other services for investors. For entrepreneurs, we recruited literally thousands of great consumer investors to be part of CircleUp and formed partnerships with leading consumer companies like General Mills, which can serve as a great exit option for many consumer companies.
We officially launched in April, 2012, and since then have raised equity for many small consumer companies. The investor demand has blown away even our expectations (and, admittedly, at times has resulted in great challenges). We have far surpassed our goals but we have a very long way to go. Walking away from a promising career in private equity wasn’t easy, but seeing the excitement from both entrepreneurs and investors around what we are building has absolutely made it worth it.
This post is the first in what will be a regular blog I will be writing on Forbes.com, where I will discuss issues facing investors in small, private companies. There are a host of publications out there for investors in the public markets, but very few that do a good job addressing issues like, “How do I evaluate a private investment?”, or, “What do strategic acquirers look for when acquiring a high-growth consumer brand?” I will address these issues, and more, in this space, and if there are any particular issues you want addressed, please let me know.
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b4be96de27086584672b904813be127a
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2012/10/16/4-signs-a-company-is-not-a-good-candidate-for-equity-crowdfunding/
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4 Signs A Company Is NOT A Good Candidate For Equity Crowdfunding
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4 Signs A Company Is NOT A Good Candidate For Equity Crowdfunding
iPhone 5 (Photo credit: methodshop.com)
In a letter addressed to NYTechMeetup, President Obama mentioned crowdfunding as one of the tools available to grow the tech startup industry. As the CEO and co-founder of CircleUp, the largest equity-based crowdfunding site in the U.S., my views on the merits of crowdfunding are no secret. However, I disagree with the assertion that crowdfunding is a good way to grow tech startups—crowdfunding is an amazing vehicle to make inefficient capital markets more efficient for some companies; however, there are many types of companies that are not good candidates to raise money via crowdfunding. Below are four signs that a company is NOT a good candidate for crowdfunding:
1. The company is a tech company. One of crowdfunding’s greatest benefits is that it makes capital markets in inefficient industries more efficient. Tech is definitely not one of those industries. Tech companies have an existing wealth of resources to get in front of potential investors: demo days, incubators, well respected publications like TechCrunch, and most importantly ample angel and venture capitalist money that is earmarked for investments in the tech space. Over 70% of the $28 billion of venture capital financing in 2011 went to businesses in the tech or life sciences spaces. In short, venture capital financing is what you get if you’re a tech company worthy of investment. If a tech company can’t get traction through one of these well-established channels, the most likely reason is that they simply don’t have a viable business plan. And crowdfunding won’t change that. Think about this- if you’re investing in an e-commerce business or a social media company through a crowdfunding site, don’t you think those companies approached Sand Hill Road first? They should have. And their failure to generate interest on Sand Hill Road should provide some pause. One might reasonably ask–if you see a tech company seeking crowdfunding–what didn’t the hundreds of venture capital firms in the country like about it?
2. The company will need multiple rounds of financing. While I was a private equity investor, under-capitalization of a company was always a major concern. If there is insufficient capital to invest in sales and marketing resources, hard assets, or finance working capital, a company can’t prosper regardless of the strength of its business plan. The JOBS Act prohibits companies from raising more than $1 million per year via crowdfunding. It also imposes limits on how much individual investors can invest in a calendar year. Accordingly, if a company needs to raise Series B, C, D and E rounds, it is probably best for the company to work with institutional investors or angels with very deep pockets who have the ability to support future growth rounds.
3. The company is built on Intellectual Property, not brand. Intellectual Property (“IP”) can take many forms- the code that goes behind LinkedIn’s algorithms or, as we have seen recently, the way an Apple’s iPhone 5 operates. For companies where IP is critical, and can be ripped off, crowdfunding is not a good solution. Its just too public and the risk is too great. While all entrepreneurs (myself included) are worried about being copied, in some industries that just isn’t as relevant.
Here is an example. In consumer, the most important asset by far is the brand. I’ve looked at hundreds of pet food companies in my investing career- its an attractive category with terrific tailwinds behind it. Often products for competing companies are actually made by the same manufacturers (“co-packers”). When I decided to approach and then invest in a one pet food company in particular (in 2009), I did it because of their brand. Since then the business has done phenomenally well, and will likely have a great exit, even after other companies have directly ripped off their product. An established brand very difficult to displace. Annie’s wasn’t the only company to think of making natural foods, but they created a brand that stood out and couldn’t be copied.
4. The company is difficult to understand. One of the great benefits of crowdfunding is the crowd itself—entrepreneurs have access to the knowledge of 20 or 30 (or more) different investors, each of whom will bring unique perspectives on the company and its business. A good example the Boston Beer Company (makers of Sam Adams)- when they raised money they wanted their passionate consumers to invest because they knew that would help the brand. Same with Ben & Jerry’s (now part of Unilever). However, if the business is a 3D printing company that relies on highly technical product development, it will be much tougher for the crowd to first understand the opportunity itself and then to be value-add investors. What makes a business harder to understand? There is no perfect list but certainly companies that are pre-revenue are harder to diligence, as are those in complicated industries.
Want a good example of a company that shouldn’t raise money on a crowdfunding site? Mine (when we raised our $1.5M seed round). It was a new industry (crowdfunding), we couldn’t point to historical financials for CircleUp (thus not much to dig into), and the regulatory landscape was complicated. In addition we had ample sources of funding through traditional channels (Silicon Valley) and the company was built on some significant IP. This framework isn’t universal but it does give companies and investors some guidance on what types of opportunities make sense for an equity-based crowdfunding site.
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f8e45dff31aad9149f1754ad920570ef
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2012/11/27/americas-1-problem-is-jobs-not-debt/
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America's #1 Problem is Jobs, Not Debt
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America's #1 Problem is Jobs, Not Debt
While President Obama, Governor Romney and countless other Republicans, Democrats and talking heads alike don’t agree on who/what caused our national debt to exceed $16,000,000,000,000, many of them agree that the national debt is the #1 problem facing the United States today. While I could not agree more that our national debt is a huge issue, and will grow into an even bigger issue in the future with unfunded social security + Medicare liabilities totaling $30 trillion or so on our balance sheet, national debt is not our #1 problem today. America’s #1 problem today is creating new jobs.
Let’s first discuss why our debt level today, while alarming, is not a problem that needs to be solved immediately. At the end of Q2 2012, our public debt stood at 101.7% of GDP, almost double the long-term average of 50% or so (though total indebtedness of the federal government + states + consumers stood at 3.29x GDP, the lowest level since 2006 indicating consumers are in fact deleveraging their personal balance sheets). However, there is a critical thing to consider beneath the 12 zeros of our national debt: we are paying a blended interest rate of 2.56% on all the U.S.’s interest baring debt. Moreover, yesterday, yields on 10-year Treasury bills stood at 1.66%, near record lows, indicating the market’s favorable assessment of the U.S.’s creditworthiness. What this all means is that the U.S., in the near term, can continue to borrow money to finance our “operations” at all-time low interest rates—effectively “free money”. Generally, a country’s debt burden is considered unsustainable when interest payments exceed 6 or 7% of GDP (see Europe). In the U.S., this figure stood at 1.5% in 2011. To give some historical context to this 1.5%, from 1988 – 2000, spanning the end of Reagan through the Clinton economic boom years, interest as a percent of GDP never dipped below 2%, and for most of the 1990s economic boom, it exceeded 3%, a level we would not reach at our current pace until 2016.
So what does this all mean? It means that the U.S. can continue to finance its operations by borrowing almost zero-cost money today and likely for the foreseeable future (where do you think capital will flight to if the Euro breaks up?). Our national debt will continue to edge up, but interest payments, the actual piece of the debt that affects the budget, will continue to be de minimis and thus we can continue to roll over maturing debt and keep these payments well below the danger zone. Eventually, interest rates will rise and we will have to address the debt problem (though rising interest rates allow us to buy back our debt at a discount, reducing the debt), as long-term debt can hamper jobs growth, but today we need to address our jobs problem.
So why is creating jobs the most important issue our country faces today? As Bill Gross, founder of investment management firm PIMCO notes, “Washington hassles over debt ceilings instead of job creation in the mistaken belief that a balanced budget will produce a balanced economy. It will not.” Gross’ argument is that our rising debt levels are merely a symptom of a larger problem—lack of consumption and investment, which is driven in large part by America losing jobs from globalization and automation. Sure, the unemployment rate has ticked down from 10% in 2009 to under 8% today, but this masks our real jobs problem. Of the over 13 million people who were unemployed at the end of August, 40% were without a job for over six months according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 29% were without a job for more than a year, near the all-time high. Statistics show that regardless of education level, the longer someone is unemployed for, the tougher it is for them to find a job and when they do, it will likely be for a lower salary than their previous job. In fact, median household incomes today stand at 1996 levels.
This all matters because the U.S. cannot cut its way back to economic prosperity; we need to grow our way there and consumption has always been the growth engine of the U.S. economy. However, with the number of people unemployed and in poverty at such high levels, and wages stagnant to declining, people do not have the ability to consume to drive our economy, nor are they paying taxes that help reduce our debt that so many people are concerned about.
So how does all of this concern us at CircleUp? As I mentioned, we believe sustainable job growth is the key to our long-term economic prosperity and debt reduction. According to a 2010 Kauffman Foundation study, since 1977, new and small businesses have been responsible for all net job growth in the U.S., thus creating government policies to nurture start-ups and small businesses is critical for sustainable job growth. The JOBS Act, which, among other things, legalized equity-based crowdfunding, is a great start, but not enough to create all the jobs we need. Things like providing angel investors with federal tax credits for their investments, using government funds to train workers not for entry-level jobs but for managerial positions and allowing small businesses to defer taxes on earnings marked for reinvestment (Inc. Magazine’s Bo Burlingame has a great discussion on these and other job creation policies here) would be a great start to addressing the U.S.’s #1 economic problem today: creating jobs to provide sustainable economic growth. Debt is certainly a major long-term problem, but if we don’t start creating jobs soon, our country will face much more dire problems.
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c0b1b9af02ebbdcce265adb2b8e4771d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2013/03/01/the-disruptive-power-of-equity-crowdfunding/
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The Disruptive Power of Equity Crowdfunding
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The Disruptive Power of Equity Crowdfunding
Online marketplaces have already eliminated so much inefficiency in our world. Dating (OK Cupid, Match.com), restaurant reservations (OpenTable), buying most physical goods (eBay) and countless other marketplaces serve both sides of the marketplaces (i.e. buyers and sellers) and provide value- typically making it more efficient to transact (or date!). Other marketplaces are eliminating inefficiency we didn’t even know existed. Uber and other taxi utilization apps are bringing efficiency to the $10 billion taxi market. That market is dwarfed by the size of the market for individual equity investments in private companies, which is $50 billion per year.
The market for individual equity investments into private companies, or “angel market” is huge but has few participants–less than 10% of accredited investors make private investments. Why? Because the cost to participate in this market is just too high. It takes months to network into a deal and then investors are typically required to invest a minimum of $25,000.
Crowdfunding has the potential to dwarf the most disruptive marketplaces. By lowering the cost to participate in the market, crowdfunding will expand participation in the market. Sourcing good deal flow is a full time job for those in the investment community, so how is someone with a day job supposed to source great deals if they cannot spend their waking hours building relationships with intermediaries and companies? In the old world, they couldn’t. Additionally, minimum investment sizes of $25,000 to $50,000 spook all but the wealthiest investors. Enter equity crowdfunding, which we at CircleUp believe will turn the antiquated traditional angel investing model on its head.
Today CircleUp and other sites can curate high quality deal flow sourced via industry relationships that span decades (at CircleUp, we only accept 2% of companies that apply). In addition, equity crowdfunding sites streamline the investment process and sometimes allow check sizes as low as $1,000. Why is that good for investors? 1) It allows you to more easily evaluate deals and 2) you can now achieve the necessary diversification in this high-risk asset class that offline might have required you invest $200K across 8 deals. In addition, investors have access to more deals. Instead of picking 1 investment from the limited options angel investors see now, your opportunity set increases and you can pick multiple investments across the hundreds (or thousands) that are available on curated platforms. As we’ve seen in our early days of CircleUp, by lowering the cost for investors to participate in private investing, we are expanding participation in the market. Clayton Christensen, renowned Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma (and investor in CircleUp), noted:
I would say that for now the areas where [crowdfunding] has the most opportunity to disrupt is by taking root in these underserved areas that traditional financiers have traditionally found unattractive. This is a classic entry point for disruption–expand participation in the market by lowering cost at the low end of the market, where incumbents don't see profit opportunities.
Finance is one of the last major marketplaces to be largely free from disruption. Every conceivable market from retail (Amazon, eBay) to music (iTunes) to sports tickets (StubHub) to dining (OpenTable) has been subject to massive disruption at lightning quick speed over the last decade. However, despite contributing mightily to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, finance has largely avoided the kind of industry-altering disruption that dramatically lowers participation barriers. Angel investing still relies on an old-boys network and closed-door conversations. Crowdfunding is great for early stage non-tech companies, especially in industries like consumer products where institutional investors are scarce. Potentially, crowdfunding give these companies the ability to raise money more efficiently, saving their most valuable resource—the entrepreneur’s time—which would otherwise be spent conducting 12+ months of investor meetings. Not only is this time lost for the entrepreneur; it is time lost for the business itself.
No marketplace can be successful without adding value to both sides- and Crowdfunding may be a solution for thoughtful investors that understand that private investments are an illiquid, high-risk asset class. At a time when returns on five year Treasuries are below 1%, home values are still depressed and equity markets are incredibly tough to predict due to the Fed’s intervention vis-à-vis quantitative easing, investors need other asset classes to park their money where they can potentially earn strong risk-adjusted returns. While crowdfunding is risky as all early-stage investing, angel investments in sectors like consumer have performed well historically (as I wrote last week, the Kaufmann Foundation notes the average return on angel investments in investments is 3.6x an investor’s capital over 4.4 years).
On top of its benefits to investors and companies, crowdfunding provides the broader societal benefit of job creation—if companies can raise money quicker and easier, they can use this capital to invest in hiring, which is critical given the nation’s lackluster progress on trimming the unemployment rate. All told, if equity crowdfunding lives up to just a fraction of its potential, the finance markets will experience a level of disruption that almost no other industry has ever experienced.
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e7721905915906941ad47ca5bbde5002
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2013/03/16/happy-first-birthday-jobs-act/
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Happy First Birthday JOBS Act
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Happy First Birthday JOBS Act
It’s hard to believe that it was almost one year ago (April 5,2012 to be precise) that President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law. At the time, Obama noted, “Because of this bill, start-ups and small business will now have access to a big, new pool of potential investors—namely, the American people. For the first time, ordinary Americans will be able to go online and invest in entrepreneurs that they believe in.” Equally hard to believe for me personally is that it’s been almost one year since we launched CircleUp, which has quickly grown into one of the largest equity-based consumer products crowdfunding websites in the US.
However, while the one year anniversary of the JOBS Act is upon us, the law’s key provisions, namely Title II (general solicitation) and Title III (equity crowdfunding for unaccredited investors) are still not written. As a quick refresher, the general solicitation provision will allow companies raising money to broadly advertise their raise to customers, consumers, suppliers, etc. Unaccredited equity-based crowdfunding will allow investors making less than $200,000 per year to invest a limited amount of money into private companies in exchange for equity.
With unemployment still well above 7%, we recognize the urgency of implementation of the JOBS Act; it will provide a much needed boon to the U.S. economy by giving early stage companies access to capital. We are also fervent believers that the financial services industry needs disruption. The primary technology still used in most private company capital raises is email and Microsoft Excel. Fundraising usually takes the lion’s share of an entrepreneur’s’ attention for 6-12 months at a time when her company needs her attention the most.
Imagine if all travel were still booked through travel agents and Expedia, Hotwire, Priceline, etc. did not exist. Imagine if you still needed to lug around the Yellow Pages to look up a phone number, or carry around a book of maps in your car to get directions. Financial services are stuck in the “Yellow Pages” age of technology.
While the SEC has been sharply criticized for moving slowly to implement Title II and III (implementation of equity crowdfunding was supposed to have been completed by 12/31/2012), we at CircleUp support the SEC taking a measured approach to implementing the most disruptive innovation that financial services has seen in decades. Rules need to be created to protect both companies and investors. Some crowdfunding portals contend that free market principles should rule the day, and the floodgates of crowdfunding should be thrown open with no restrictions. We strongly disagree with this approach, and you need to look no further than the 2008 financial crisis to see why financial markets need rules in place to govern actors and their incentives.
The key question then is what type of rules should the SEC be crafting? The first set of rules that should be created is one that protects small investors without harming the efficiency/risk-return tradeoff of crowdfunding. Rules to force transparency—such as mandating that crowdfunding portals have online forums and open dialogue among investors in their communities—and rules that require background checks on entrepreneurs raising capital as well as the financial/legal standing of their companies are a must. In addition to protecting investors, the SEC’s rules must protect the companies that are crowdfunding. Crowdfunding portals should be required to register with FINRA as broker-dealers, just as if a third-party was facilitating a fundraise in the offline world.
While the world awaits the proposed rules for Title III, the more important delay is in enacting the already proposed rules for Title II, general solicitation. Today, companies that are raising capital are not able to inform even their most passionate supporters. Instead, they must turn to private networks of known Angel investors. The result is not only an inefficient process – but an unfair system that enables entrenched networks of established investors to get all the best deal flow. This can, and should, change when Title II of the Jobs Act comes into effect.
Many critics, including Steven Rattner in the NY Times recently, have written about the potential unintended consequences of the lifting on the ban on advertising. Hedge funds and other pooled investment vehicles will be able to market themselves – potentially leading less sophisticated investors into investments that are not suitable for them. Moreover, it is hard to see the direct connection between a public market long/short fund raising more capital and new jobs for small businesses.
I propose a new solution – have a staged lifting on the ban for general solicitation. At first, allow only small businesses, those companies with less than $50M in revenue that are seeking growth capital directly from investors, to advertise. (This is self-serving for CircleUp and equity crowdfunding) This rulemaking would clearly follow Congressional intent – and goals for helping the 28M small businesses that are responsible for over 60M jobs most directly, while avoiding the less meritorious claims of pooled investment vehicles like hedge funds. The small business investment market is small relative to the broader pooled investment market, presenting less risk for regulators in making a dramatic change. As the market absorbs this change, required by the JOBS Act, regulators can then study the impact and make any necessary adjustments prior to the broader loosening of the restrictions for all Regulation D, 506 offerings. Lets not forget that private investments are illiquid and high-risk, whether done offline or through a crowdfunding platform. Because of that, platforms should be required to register with FINRA as broker dealers, or partner with one. In addition, platforms must provide the necessary information (i.e. background checks) and transparency (through forums, etc) investors need to make thoughtful decisions.
Equity crowdfunding is the most disruptive thing to happen to the financial services industry in a very long time. While the SEC has been slow to implement crowdfunding for unaccredited investors, we fully support the SEC taking a deliberate approach to rule crafting. Rules need to balance protections for companies and investors. At the same time, these rules should recognize and facilitate the enormous potential of the crowd to inject capital and knowledge into early stage companies across America.
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552d0a35e7a2348b98582f97ff2bcb65
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2013/09/23/how-general-solicitation-will-change-private-equity-and-venture-capital-forever/
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How General Solicitation Will Change Private Equity And Venture Capital Forever
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How General Solicitation Will Change Private Equity And Venture Capital Forever
Today, for the first time, private companies can efficiently share news of their offerings around the globe. This change, part of the implementation of the Jobs Act of 2012, is welcome news for both investors and issuers. While you may hear many crowdfunding sites today talking about the transformative power of this change, I wanted to be a bit more specific about how it can help investors.
According to public filings from SEC.gov, in 2012 there were over 30,000 Reg D offerings. Collectively, they raised $1.3 trillion. About $1.1 trillion is related to financial services and pooled investment funds- i.e. hedge funds, private equity funds and similar groups raising money. The remainder spans industries from agriculture to telecom. All 30,000 of those offerings took place in a ‘silent’ offering, with no mention of the capital raise in public. The result was both inefficient, and costly for inves
tors and the issuers.
A market with limited information flow rewards intermediaries who control access to information. Today, those intermediaries are largely fund managers, who stand between investors (limited partners) and the high growth businesses that are creating value. These venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds have private networks and ‘proprietary deal flow’ that can help find attractive investment opportunities. The reason for the proprietary deal flow is that until now issuers (companies) have not been able to advertise these deals. As a result, they needed the VC and PE funds to help investors find them. Today, given the Jobs Act of 2012, growing businesses in need of funds, and investors looking for them, have an alternative. Welcome, crowdfunding.
Let’s walk through the economics for a second. Say a fund invests $1M in a company and five years later sells that stake for $10M, earning a very healthy 10x return. The investment earned $9M, right? Well, because of the standard 2/20 fees, only $7.1M gets returned to the investor In short, the investor has ‘paid’ a total of $1.9M to the fund for the privilege of access to that investment (not even counting all sorts of other fees and expenses that funds typically push onto LPs for additional operating expenses).
Of course, fund managers do a lot more than just source good deals. Investment funds are fundamentally bundled products. The fund manager is selling some combination of three things: access to good investment opportunities, unique insight on which companies to invest in, and value-add services to their portfolio companies once they make an investment. These three services are packaged together, and sold as a unified product – the investment fund. Historically, that product has been very expensive
As I have mentioned before, the internet is a powerful tool to unbundle offline business models that unnecessarily extract value from end users (see travel agencies, music labels, newspapers, cable operators). Today’s change will help to bring similar innovation to financial services.
With more information available to investors, not only on deal flow, but on performance of other investors, potential LPs will be empowered to make their own decisions. Transparent markets can help investors identify opportunities more easily, or even shop around different fund opportunities more readily. (Most funds utilize the same Reg D 506 exemption for their own fundraising. They too can raise publicly from today).
Let me be clear, this is not the end of the fund structure. If a specific fund manager does have unique insight on which companies to invest in, she will be well compensated (just as great content-producers continue to get paid in music and TV). Similarly, business advisors and Board members who can add value to growing companies will rightly be paid for such services.
However, today is a landmark day for the investment industry because it will accelerate the time when fund managers will no longer be able to bundle all of these disparate services into one package, a fund, and be able to charge 2/20 for that collective service. LPs will distintermediate funds that are not providing commensurate value for those fees, allowing investors to avoid these massive costs when investing in high growth businesses.
More information and more choice, enabled by this rule change, is a starting point. The next challenge is for the marketplace to innovate by providing tools to educate and protect investors. Private investments remain a very risky, illiquid asset class suitable only for certain investors. The new rule doesn’t change who can invest, but it does change the landscape and balance of power between issuers, intermediaries, and investors, opening up new possibilities for all three roles.
We at CircleUp are excited to be a part of this transformation. The lift in the general solicitation ban will help companies, though we do agree with Fred Wilson from Union Square that some of the restrictions could be difficult for entrepreneurs. We also know it will help investors, for all of the reasons detailed above and more. Transparency, on both sides, is a good thing and will allow investors to pick from a wider range of options- as opposed to just those private opportunities they happen to stumble across in their existing networks.
We have been working hard to debut a new interface today, featuring several companies that are taking advantage of the ability to communicate their offering more widely. This is just the start for us. We will continue to build a platform that makes it ever easier for companies and investors to find each other and come together.
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a0b5b7baee645f94be060462c55de7e3
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2013/10/28/what-is-general-solicitation-and-why-it-matters-to-you/
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What Is General Solicitation, And Why Does It Matter To You?
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What Is General Solicitation, And Why Does It Matter To You?
On September 23, 2013, over one year after President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law to make securities regulations friendlier to small businesses, the ban on General Solicitation is officially gone. General Solicitation is the act of marketing a capital raise publicly (basically advertising) and had been banned since 1933 because the SEC feared hucksters would con people into investing in time machines and Nigerian oil scams. While the ban has prevented the insidious use of advertising to scam funds, it has also handcuffed legitimate companies and ideas from leveraging the efficiency of today’s communication networks to raise capital, such as the 2009 effort by a pair of LA lawyers to raise money to buy venerable beer brand PBR.
So what will change with the removal of the ban? Well, for one, if you are raising $1 million for your small furniture business, you can now advertise this offering on Facebook, in an email to your customers, on your blog, etc. The ban’s removal doesn’t change who can invest in private securities offerings though—this is still limited to accredit investors only. However, there are still a myriad of challenges for companies seeking to actually use General Solicitation and Union Square Ventures founder Fred Wilson does a great job outlining them in his blog (disclosure: USV is an investor in CircleUp). These problems include onerous filing requirements for small, often under resourced companies seeking to raise money and harsh punishments for those that run afoul of the letter of the law.
Problems aside, General Solicitation has the potential to make a profound impact on some companies and investors. Below is some advice on how entrepreneurs and investors can navigate the opportunities and challenges of General Solicitation.
For Entrepreneurs
Not All Companies Will Benefit From Advertising. The most common misconception about the ban’s removal is that all companies will benefit from being able to publicly advertise their fundraising efforts. However, communicating with the masses is only useful if the masses understand your business. If you are raising money for an innovative popcorn company that makes tangible products anyone can try and form an opinion about, then communicating with the masses makes sense. However, if you are a biotech company developing new stem cell technology or a cloud computing company, chances are a tiny fraction of the population will understand your business, and thus advertising to the masses will likely be an inefficient use of time and resources. Only Accredited Investors Can Invest. Even though you can now advertise to everyone, only accredited investors (individuals making more than $200,000 or whose net worth excluding primary residence exceeds $1 million) can invest in your offering, and the onus is on you (or the broker dealer you work with) to take steps to verify that they’re accredited. Work With Intermediaries You Trust. There are a host of complexities and red tape around the use of General Solicitation, so it is critical that entrepreneurs consult lawyers, broker dealers and other advisors who know the rules cold; otherwise, running afoul of them can lead to severe penalties, including a one year ban on raising capital under Rule 506, which exempts private companies from having to register their offerings.
For Investors
“Invest in What You Know”. This principle of the great investor Peter Lynch applies to investors considering putting their hard earned cash in private companies. If you aren’t an engineer, or have deep backgrounds understanding the key drivers in a tech company, don’t invest in a company claiming to have a better search algorithm than Google. There are platforms that are today selling secondary stock in large private tech companies like Dropbox or Pinterest. Lets think about that for a second- you cant see financials, you cant dig into their technology in a meaningful way and you have no access to the management team. How would anyone in that situation know if the company is worth $2B, $20B or $200B. If you don’t know why valuation is critical, you shouldn’t be investing into private companies. With small consumer and retail companies, investors (i.e. those on CircleUp) can understand the product, often look at historical financials and talk with the management. Peter Lynch’s mantra is one reason why I think consumer and re tail companies will benefit the most from this regulatory change and the resulting advertising.
Be Cautious. Investments in private companies are risky. Very risky. While they can produce staggering returns when successful, these investments are very illiquid and have incredible volatility—you need to be prepared for your investment to be worth nothing. If you are going to invest in private companies, you should decide upfront how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to such investments and then spread this amount over at least 5-7 companies, as diversification is critical when dealing with such volatile return profiles. Work With Intermediaries You Trust. This advice is the same as it is for entrepreneurs. For investors who plan to turn to crowdfunding portals to find deal flow, it is critical to identify the most reputable ones, as these will have the highest quality investors and, in turn, the best companies. Make sure the platform is a registered broker dealer, or partnered with one. At CircleUp, the equity crowdfunding site where I am CEO, we pride ourselves on having some of the best consumer investors in the world and only accept a small percentage of companies that apply to the platform.
This change marks an incredibly exciting leap forward for small businesses and investors alike. General solicitation, when used right, will offer a new level of transparency and democratization to finance by giving investors more choices and allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital more efficiently so they can get back to their day job of building their business. However, all participants need to be careful on how they use/rely on advertising efforts. There will be hiccups along the way, but I believe the ban’s removal will be a win-win for investors and entrepreneurs.
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60aad033c2f363848448f850be6a615a
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2013/12/27/4-marketplaces-we-love-in-2014/
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The Top Four Marketplaces of 2014
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The Top Four Marketplaces of 2014
I love marketplaces. Great marketplaces provide immense value to at least two sides (buyers and sellers). They also demonstrate network effects – and get stronger as they get larger. They are also tend to be high margin – which may lead to outrageously high valuations. Show us a marketplace that aggregates supply and demand of a good or service in a more efficient way and we’ll celebrate it all day long. Our equity crowdfunding platform, Circleup, aggregates the supply and demand of investor capital and early stage private companies more efficiently. While there are a host of marketplaces out there that work, below are the four marketplaces that impressed us the most in 2013.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Poshmark. Almost every woman has clothing, shoes, purses, or accessories in her closet that have been gathering dust for a few years. If she wants to sell these items, traditional options included a physical consignment store or eBay, where she could post the article of clothing on a platform that serves as a secondary market for every consumer good under the sun. Poshmark, however, “mobilizes” a woman’s closet, allowing her to snap a photo and upload items she wants to sell in less than five minutes. It also generates a prepaid shipping label when a buyer purchases the item. Sellers are able to create their own “closets”, which are seller-specific stores where buyers who like a particular seller’s style can browse her entire collection of goods for sale. Engagement on Poshmark has been astounding: 70% of buyers are also sellers, and users engage for an average of 25 minutes daily across seven individual shopping occasions. —astounding rates. Poshmark represents what we like to categorize as a next generation marketplace: It wasn’t the first web-based marketplace to sell secondary clothing, but it makes the process more efficient and consumer-friendly, which has put the social marketplace on track to grow revenue 1000% in 2013.
DogVacay. Every dog owner knows the feeling—you’re leaving for vacation tomorrow, and the friend who you were going to leave Fido with suddenly comes down with the flu. DogVacay solves this problem. It is the Airbnb for dogs; It offers pet parents personalized dog-sitting by sitters whom they have background-checked and individually vetted. Furthermore, in an era where over $50 billion is spent annually on pets and an estimated one-third of dogs have anxiety, DogVacay offers a cheaper and less stressful accommodation for dogs versus traditional dog kennels that can be overwhelming for many an anxiety-ridden pet. I’ve invested in multiple dog related consumer product businesses in my career, including Radio Systems (PetSafe) and Zuke’s- it is a phenomenal industry. Similar to Poshmark, there are certainly other virtual marketplaces such as Craigslist that can connect supply-and-demand for dog-sitting services. The difference is that DogVacay does so with a higher level of curation.
Science Exchange. Airbnb proved there is a huge market for connecting an owner’s expensive, underutilized assets (homes in the case of Airbnb) whose incremental cost for the marginal usage is almost nothing. While many consumers are familiar with Airbnb, far fewer are probably familiar with Science Exchange, the Airbnb (see a theme here?) for expensive research equipment. Here’s the gist: The equipment on which the scientific research is conducted and the researchers who conduct the experiments are very expensive assets, despite the fact they are often sitting “idle”. The researcher in Des Moines, for example, may not know about the lab in Baton Rouge that owns the equipment necessary to run her experiment. Science Exchange is a more efficient way to connect supply-and-demand of research services, and because of the premium nature of the good and services being sold, the average transaction fetches $3,000, far greater than consumer-facing marketplaces.
StyleSeat. On average, hair stylists book appointments for only 70% of their available time, and given the (relatively) high fixed cost, low variable costs, nature of the hair styling business, that 30% of unused time is profit lost. StyleSeat was created to reduce the 30% of unused time, serving as an OpenTable for beauty professionals: stylists post their profile, specialties and appointment times online and users can sign up for open slots based on criteria they set and recommendations from their social network. This allows stylists to focus on their core competency, i.e., helping people look their best. It also helps users avoid the nerve-racking process of cold-calling salons to find an available appointment and wondering—If a stylist is available at the last minute—If they have made the right choice
While the first generation of great virtual marketplaces—eBay, Amazon, Craigslist—takes a “kitchen sink” approach to aggregating supply and demand for goods and services, today’s great marketplaces focus on aggregating supply and demand in specific verticals using the fewest clicks possible on both sides of the transaction. Wherever there are big dollars at stake and underutilized assets with no marginal cost of incremental usage, there is an opportunity for a new marketplace to thrive.
In December 2012 I wrote another post about marketplaces I thought would do well in 2013. Think I missed some? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
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d9e6bc3b41a4c38b1de6804517af2353
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2015/08/09/25-most-innovative-consumer-and-retail-brands-for-2015/
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25 Innovative Consumer And Retail Brands For 2015
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25 Innovative Consumer And Retail Brands For 2015
Innovation and disruption in consumer and retail is exploding. Ignited by the maturation of Millennial consumers—who are voting with their wallet and opting for new and authentic brands—emerging brands are re-imagining nearly every consumer category, and sometimes creating entirely new ones. Investors are seeing the strong returns that these long-term trends are generating; and retailers are taking notice, placing greater emphasis on emerging brands.
While we often hear about innovations in technology — amplified at times to deafening levels by a large ever-more-growing crowd of startup blogs, podcasts, pundits, and TV shows—we hear far less about the innovations taking place in consumer industries. Why is this? Consumer and retail accounts for more than 20% of the U.S. economy — touching nearly every aspect of our lives, influencing what we eat, wear, and increasingly, reflecting what we believe.
Innovation, and the young, emerging brands driving it, are rarely celebrated, even when they perform exceptionally well and help to change lives. I want to change that — and celebrate the incredible innovation that is coming out of consumer and retail.
Who are these innovative companies?
For the third consecutive year, CircleUp scoured the country to find, select, and celebrate twenty five of the most innovative consumer and retail companies. These companies are defying convention, revitalizing stale consumer industries and inventing new ones, and changing the way we live our lives—from what we eat, to what we wear, to what we do.
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The Selection Process
We started with an open call for nominations. In an effort to capture the consumer’s pulse we posed a simple question: What brand are you most fanatical about? Thousands of consumers tuned in to submit their votes via Twitter (#CircleUp25), Facebook and email. We also received nominations from a wide variety of experts — C-level executives at publicly traded consumer companies and national retailers, reporters at top-tier consumer/retail trade publications, angel investors, and investment firm professionals. Ultimately, 345 unique companies were nominated. (You can see the full list of nominations here.)
We then asked consumer and retail entrepreneurs to select the 25 winners. We distributed the 2015 CircleUp25 nominees to notable consumer entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs, coming from myriad categories and geographies, and asked them to vote on the company they were most excited about. Over 150 individuals submitted nearly 800 votes.
These entrepreneurs are masters of their respective categories — and have collectively built businesses worth billions of dollars. We believe overlaying the crowd’s votes with their deep experience and expertise is the best way to surface the most innovative and exciting consumer companies around.
The Winners
Without further ado, I’m thrilled to present the 2015 CircleUp25 winners (in no particular order)!
Disclaimer: While a tremendous number of innovative companies have raised growth capital on CircleUp we excluded these companies from eligibility to avoid any bias or conflict of interest.
Gallery: 25 Top Innovative Consumer And Retail Brands For 2015 26 images View gallery
4Moms | Pittsburgh, PA
Why? For incorporating robotic technology into easy-to-use baby products, including a baby seat that bounces and sways like human parents. What they've built. 4Moms reports revenues of approximately $50 million annually and growing fast. Their products are available online as well in retailers such as Toy R' Us, Nordstrom, and Buy Buy Baby. Who did it? Cofounders Rob Daley and Henry Thorne saw a need to bring technology innovation to juvenile products, so they mixed robotics with design and started 4moms. Big Investors. Castanea, a top-tier consumer investment firm.
SkinnyPop Popcorn (Amplify Snack Brands) | Skokie, IL
Why? For pioneering ultra-fresh “better-for-you” popcorn. What they've built. Started in 2010, the big distributors turned down SkinnyPop in its early days. Fast forward to today and the company is now doing $59 million in EBITDA in a single year. Their ready-to-eat popcorn is sold in thousands of stores nationwide and is carried by supermarkets such as Costco, Kroger, and Whole Foods Market. Who did it? Pam Netzky and Andy Friedman founded SkinnyPop in 2010. Faced with the inability to raise funding in 2011, the two focused on distribution and rapidly became the market leader for “better for you” popcorn. Billion dollar IPO. Amplify Snack Brands, parent company of Skinnypop, went public on August 5, 2015 on the New York Stock Exchange, raising more than $250 million at a valuation over $1.2 billion. Nominations and judging occurred before the IPO was announced, so we decided to keep them on the list because of the immense support they got from other entrepreneurs.
SoulCycle | New York City, NY
Why? For commingling motivational coaching and upbeat music for an intense workout. What they've built. Since its inception in 2006, SoulCycle has opened 41 studios throughout the US. They put an emphasis on the customer experience from the moment they step in the door. Who did it? Cofounders Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice met in New York City and were tired of workouts that felt like work. Big Investors. Allen Cutler. SoulCycle filed for an IPO in late July, after they had been nominated for CircleUp25.
Shinola (Bedrock Manufacturing Co.) | Detroit, MI
Why? For making American luxury goods. In Detroit. What they've built. Shinola manufactures in Motor City a wide variety of luxury goods, from $1,000 watches to $2,000 bicycles to $125 dog leashes. The “underdog” narrative has resonated with consumers, as reflected by $80 million in sales over its first 18 months of production. Find me the tech company that has done that in the first 18 months. Shinola products are available at its namesake retail stores, fashion retailers, and online. Who did it? Tom Kartsotis wanted to produce luxury watches and other goods, so he bought the rights to Shinola, a former shoe polish company, and started manufacturing in Detroit. A seasoned entrepreneur, Tom previously founded Fossil Group. Big Investors. Dan Gilbert's Rock Ventures and the Troy-based Kresge Foundation.
Stumptown | Portland, OR
Why? For being on the forefront of the specialty coffee movement, including pioneering innovations with cold brew. What they've built. Although Stumptown started with modest beginnings in Portland, it now has locations in Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles. It generates approximately $40 million in annual revenue from their cafes, bottled coffee and online sales. Who did it? Founded by Duane Sorenson in 1999, who quit his job as head roaster of another coffee company to do it his way. Big Investors. TSG Consumer Partners, LLC.
The Honest Company | Santa Monica, CA
Why? For creating effective, nontoxic, and socially responsible infant and household products. What they've built. The Honest Company launched in 2012 and scaled remarkably to $150 million in sales by 2014. Their products are now available in Whole Foods, Costco, Target, Buy Buy Baby, and Nordstrom. Who did it? Started by actress and mother Jessica Alba, who is known to dive deeply into the product innovation process. Her cofounder includes Brian Lee, a serial entrepreneur who also started LegalZoom. Big Investors. $122 million raised through General Catalyst Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, and Wellington Management.
Tough Mudder | Brooklyn, NY
Why? For showing us that you can build teamwork and community around a grueling 10-12 mile obstacle courses featuring electroshock, fire, and, of course, lots of mud. What they've built. Over 2 million people have participated in these formidable events. Who did it? Founded in 2010 by Will Dean, a Harvard Business School grad, and Guy Livingstone, a Stanford Graduate School of Business grad. The very first race drew more than 4500 participants, which which blew away their expectations. Are you tough enough? World’s Toughest Mudder pits select contenders in a continuous 24-hour obstacle course. Previous winners have gone as far as 95 miles.
Boll & Branch | Chatham, NJ
Why? For revolutionizing the bedding and linens industry, while working to combat human trafficking. What they've built. Boll and Branch develops organic, fair-trade, and direct-to-consumer bedding. A portion of their revenue is dedicated to Not For Sale, a anti-human-trafficking organization. Who did it? Founders Missy and Scott Tannen set out to make luxury linens with a transparent, fair, and simple way of buying them. To make a great product, they recognized that they needed to use organic cotton, to pay their employees a fair wage, and to keep kids out of the factory and in school. Big Investors. Hammerstone Capital.
Tender Greens | Culver City, CA
Why? For providing farm-to-table dishes at accessible prices in a fast, casual setting. What they've built. With 22 locations in California, Tender Greens has grown quickly. Average sales per restaurant exceeds $3 million annually. Who did it? Founded by Erik Oberholtzer, David Dressler, and Matt Lyman who grew weary of their "corporate" restaurant jobs in Santa Monica in 2002. Big Investors. ACG and high-profile NYC restaurateur Danny Meyer.
Dang Foods | Berkeley, CA
Why? For creating GMO-free coconut chips that have generated a feverish following among foodies and non-foodies alike. What they've built. Dang offers 5 flavors of coconut chips, from Salted Caramel to Original. Their chips are available in over 6,000 stores across the U.S., including Safeway and Whole Foods. Revenues are expected to double in 2015 to $8 million. Who did it? An engineer by training, Vincent Kitirattragarn spent months perfecting the recipe for coconut chips, which he needed for his mother's Thai lettuce wraps. He got so addicted snacking on the coconut chips that he called his brother in Thailand and the two scoured the country for suppliers to get the family business off the ground. Dang! That’s some hustle. Founder Kitirattragarn snuck Dang samples in a backpack into Fancy Foods, a major trade show. The guerilla tactic worked. In 2014, his products won “The Best Snack Award” at the same show.
Ringly | New York City, NY
Why? For combining technology and high fashion to help us stay connected in a discreet and stylish way. What they've built. Ringly started with a bang by selling over 1,000 rings in their first 24 hours of business. They are now working to create new additions to their jewelry collection and to develop partnerships with different fashion brands. Who did it? Cofounder Christina Mercando was solving her own problem of missing important calls because she kept her phone in her purse. The former eBay product manager teamed up with Logan Munro and other engineers from Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon to develop a stylish solution in June 2013. Big Investors. Raised $5.1 million in Series A funding. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Silas Capital and First Round Capital.
Harry's | New York City, NY
Why? For manufacturing and direct sales of quality razor blades at a reasonable prices. What they've built. Harry's bought a German factory that produces razors, a notoriously difficult production process with deep trade secrets. This vertical integration allows Harry's to cut out the middleman and develop direct relation feedback loops with customers, while providing a dramatically lower price. Who did it? Founded by Jeff Raider (cofounder of Warby Parker), because he was fed up with paying $25 for razors. Big Investors. $75.6 million Series C funding round led by Wellington Management and Thrive Capital. Raised a total of $287.1 million. Valued at $750 million.
Epic Provisions | Austin, TX
Why? For creating savory protein bars made from high-quality meats — and nuts and fruits— for the active lifestyle. What they've built. Flavors include Bison Bacon Cranberry and Chicken Sriracha. Currently sold in hundreds of specialty retailers, including Whole Foods and REI. Who did it? Cofounders Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest noticed that there was "no conveniently packaged nutrient dense animal protein," so they set out to make the EPIC bar. Maxed-out nutrition: Both founders were actually vegetarian until they started Epic. They realized that grass-fed meats contained what they needed to compete as world-class triathletes.
Barry's Bootcamp | Los Angeles, CA
Why? For combining bootcamp-style workouts in a club-like atmosphere with lights and hip-hop music. What they've built. Barry's has grown rapidly, with 14 locations in the U.S. and 4 overseas. It is also popular among celebrities, some of whom are known to drop in as guest instructors. Who did it? Founded by fitness instructor Barry Jay, who grew a devoted audience that pays $20 to $30 per session to be pushed hard and barked at. Star struck. Kim Kardashian and Katie Holmes are devotees of Barry’s hour-long sessions that are known to burn up to 1000 calories.
Blue Apron | New York City, NY
Why? For awakening the chefs in all of us by delivering farm-fresh ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes to our doors. What they've built. Only 3 years young, Blue Apron already ships over 3 million meals every month. Who did it? Founded by Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas, and Matt Wadiak in 2012, when they were buying, packaging and shipping ingredients themselves out of the proverbial "garage" (it was a kitchen). Big Investors. $193 million in 4 rounds, including Fidelity investments.
Teatulia | Denver, CO
Why? For bringing us organic tea, while operating a social cooperative tea garden in Bangladesh--one of the largest in the world. A certified B-Corporation, Teatulia’s mission is to improve the health, education, and overall welfare of citizens in Bangladesh. What they've built. Teatulia offers various black teas, green teas, oolong teas, herbal teas, and white teas from Northern Bangladesh. Their teas are available online and in grocery retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Who did it? Cofounders Kazi Anis Ahmed and Linda Appel Lipsius partnered up to make great tea and rebuild local ecosystems in Bangladesh. International relations. Teatulia is the first to import tea from Bangladesh into the U.S.
Ipsy | San Mateo, CA
Why? For inspiring women around the world by enabling them to express their own unique beauty through its monthly personalized makeup subscriptions ("glambags"), and its thriving online beauty community. What they've built. It currently boasts more than 1 million monthly “glambag” subscribers and recently crossed the $150 million revenue milestone. Who did it? YouTube sensation Michelle Phan conceptualized the monthly glambag in 2011 as a way to share her favorite products with women around the world, and more importantly, create a platform for home and beauty conversations and content. Big Investors. 500 Startups & Crosscut Ventures.
Smashburger | Denver, CO
Why? For being one of the fastest-growing "better burger" joints, and doing it with a local twist. What they've built. Smashburger generates revenues over $250 million from over 300 locations in 32 states and 5 countries. They’re know for actually smashing beef patties to order (to achieve a better sear) and offer craft beers local to the region. Who did it? Founded by Tom Ryan, who launched McDonald’s Dollar Menu during his career as their Chief Marketing Officer. Big Investors. Consumer Capital Partners and Golub Capital. Fastest growing ever. Smashburger opened its 200th location in just 6 years, making it the fastest growing quick-serve restaurant ever.
Casper | New York, NY
Why? For creating a direct-to-consumer bed that conforms to your body and doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. What they've built. Casper weds latex and memory foam to create “cloud-like” mattresses. Eliminating retail costs and innovative shipping techniques allow them to set affordable prices for their mattresses, which is a notoriously non-transparent industry. Who did it? Founders Philip Krim, Jeff Chapin, and Gabriel Flateman found the mattress-buying experience uncomfortable, inconvenient, and expensive, so they set out to change it. They generated $1 million in sales in their first month. Big Investors. $70 million across 3 rounds, including Institutional Venture Partners.
Quest Nutrition | El Segundo, CA
Why? For making nutrition products that taste so good, they’ve developed a cultish following. What they've built. Quest has expanded its product line to include protein bars, powders, cravings (protein-rich peanut butter cups), chips and pasta. GNC crowned Quest with "Protein Bar of the Year" in both 2012 and 2013. Since opening in 2010, Quest has grown its revenue from $143,853 to $82.6 million in 2014. Who did it? Founders Tom Bilyeu, Ron Penna and Mike Osborn wanted to make a protein bar that people actually wanted to eat, so they started experimenting and arrived at a product that was not only healthy but delicious, too. Big Investors. VMG Partners.
MeUndies | Culver City, CA
Why? For developing a convenient and affordable way to get high-quality undies. What they've built. MeUndies provides a subscription underwear service, with stylish and “outrageously comfy” selections. The subscription is month-to-month, and their skivvies will only cost around $16 each. Who did it? Founder and chairman Jonathan Shokrian was tired of over-priced underwear and uncomfortable shopping experiences, so he founded MeUndies, cut out the middleman and dramatically reduced the price. Big Investors. Winklevoss Capital.
Exo | New York City, NY
Why? For creating nutrition bars that harness the power of crickets, a highly sustainable source of complete protein. What they've built. Every Exo bar contains 40 crickets and comes in 4 flavors. Their products are available for sale online as well as in grocery retailers throughout the United States. Who did it? Gabi Lewis and roommate Greg Sewitz started Exo while at Brown University. Lewis's obsession with nutrition and Sewitz's interest in entomophagy (eating insects) led them to experiment with crickets, and they never looked back. Big Investors. $1.2 million from Collaborative Fund.
Bai Brands | Hamilton, NJ
Why? For creating a antioxidant rich drink from coffee fruit -- that’s the outer part of the fruit that produces coffee beans. What they've built. Bai’s flavored waters are low-calorie and antioxidant rich. Products are distributed in Target, Safeway and others. Sales in 2015 are expected to reach far greater than $100 million. Who did it? Founder Ben Weiss was inspired by the coffee fruit, an anti-oxidant rich plant which is typically relegated to farming compost after the coffee bean is harvested. Big Investors. Dr Pepper Snapple Group acquired a minority stake in 2015 at a $500 million valuation, joining other investors who have given the company $45 million in funding, including veteran beverage industry executive and angel investor Ken Sadowsky.
Full Sail Brewery | Hood River, OR
Why? For pioneering a microbrewery that had been employee owned since 1999. Craft beers drive about 15% of the $100 billion U.S. beer industry, a share that has increased over time. What they've built. Full Sail produced about 115,000 barrels in 2014, making it the 25th largest craft brewery in the country. Who did it? Founders Irene Firmat and James Emmerson were inspired to open Full Sailing Brewery, because of their affinity for good brews and their desire to create a company "where people mattered." They were among the first to create a employee-owned brewery. Committed to employees. In an almost unanimous vote in March 2015, Full Sail employees decided to sell the company to investors including Encore Consumer Capital.
noosa | Bellvue, CO
Why? For bucking the Greek yogurt trend and bringing us yoghurt like no other. What they've built. noosa is based on a secret recipe that renders the yoghurt ultra-creamy. Founded in early 2010, the company is already on track to make over $100 million in revenue in 2015. Who did it? Co-founder Koel Thomae fell in love with a yoghurt she tasted in Australia. She partnered with Robert Graves, a 4th generation dairy farmer in Colorado, to make this velvety yoghurt here in the U.S. Big Investors. Advent International Talk about local. The founders convinced a local dairy producer to build a yoghurt factory right on their farm to ensure quality and freshness.
Shout Outs
There were a select few companies that clearly stood out as getting amazing support online. These three brands received the CircleUp25 Fans’ Choice Award:
Daily Harvest has created an easy and delicious way for us to get our "daily dose" of fruits and vegetables with pre-portioned, unprocessed, and nutrient-packed smoothie ingredients that are delivered directly to our doorsteps. Founded by Rachel Drori. Beautycounter is helping create new health standards in the personal-care industry and specializes in safe, effective, and beautiful products for the skin and body. Founded by Gregg Renfrew. DRINKMaple harnesses the nutritional power of the maple tree by producing pure, nutrient-rich maple water—proving that “Mother Nature is the best chemist.” Founded by Kate Weiler and Jeff Rose.
While we excluded companies that have worked with CircleUp from being named a finalist, several still garnered strong support from their fans, including Three Twins (organic ice cream), SoapBox Soaps (socially conscious household products) and Happy Tree (raw organic maple water).
Finally, this is the third year for CircleUp25. Previous winners include Sahale Snacks (2013 Winner, acquired in 2014) Krave Jerky (2013 Winner, acquired in 2015), Shake Shack (2014 Winner, IPO in 2015) and Blue Buffalo (2014 Winner, IPO in 2015).
You can see the full list of previous CircleUp25 winners from 2013 and 2014.
Correction: A previous version of this post contained dated metrics for Dang, Quest, and Blue Apron. They have been updated. Dang chips are available in over 6,000 stores, not 4,000, and revenues are expected to be $8M in 2015, not $6M. Quest’s revenues in 2014 were $82.6 million, not $250 million.Blue Apron is now shipping more than 3 million meals a month, not 1 million.
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04aae15f488cdca820c25e17dd03cf08
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2015/09/11/the-rise-of-corporate-venture-capital-as-it-booms-in-tech-consumer-giants-should-follow-suit/
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The Rise Of Corporate Venture Capital: As It Booms In Tech, Consumer Giants Should Follow Suit
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The Rise Of Corporate Venture Capital: As It Booms In Tech, Consumer Giants Should Follow Suit
Corporate venture capital is booming. While concerns over venture capital markets becoming irrationally exuberant abound, large corporations show no signs of tempering their venture investing activities. In the first quarter of this year, venture capital funds funded and operated by corporations accounted for nearly 17% of total venture capital dollars invested, more than double its share five years ago. In aggregate, corporate venture groups invested $5.4 billion across 775 deals in 2014.
The emergence of corporate VC has been particularly fierce in technology. Google , Dell , AMD Microsoft , Salesforce, Intel , Qualcomm , and Workday all have corporate venture groups. Earlier this year Twitter announced its own venture arm, Twitter Ventures, making its first investment into the developers of a new open-source mobile operating system, Cyanogen. No longer is the question which big tech companies have venture arms, it’s which do not?
Tech companies get it. They’re using a portion of their profits to explore the universe for promising innovations. It’s a strategy that allows them to test ideas at immense scale — Google Ventures, for instance, the largest corporate venture investor in the world has invested in more than 300 startups— and discover synergies with their existing businesses (Disclosure: GV invested into CircleUp).
While corporate venture investing is thriving in tech and biotech, and even the energy sector, it’s lagging in consumer. Corporate venture investing made up 18.6% of total venture investments in the computers and peripherals sector, 13.7% in biotech and more than 10% in five other industries in 2014. In consumer and retail, however, the innovation dollars didn’t flow: venture investing accounted for just 5.4% of all VC funding in consumer products and services and 3.2% in retail and distribution, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report that includes data from Thomson Reuters.
What’s happening here?
Search is Google’s Snickers bar. It’s the cash cow of the business. And Google is channeling this cash into future innovations, whether it means sponsoring that innovation internally or externally (through its venture arm) to keep the cow well fed. Consumer and retail companies, on the other hand, are using their cash cows to fund marketing and promotions, not innovations. This may lift near-term sales. And may be a viable strategy for a few quarterly earnings cycles, a few years even. But for the next decade? Five decades?
In fact, we don’t even have to prognosticate about the future. The corrosion of big brands, due to their anemic long-term investment, has already begun — and is accelerating. Between 2008 and 2013, large brand’s lost 19% of the yogurt market, 7% of the coffee market, and 3% of the bath and shower market to small upstarts. In effect: the consumer is changing; they are not.
Consumers see this every day all across the country. Think about the specific brands from your youth and how they have changed… or not.
McDonald’s is selling and marketing the exact same Big Mac burger since 1967. Is it any wonder consumers (and investors) have flocked to Shakeshack, and created a $2B company in less than ten years. Take a look at two commercials from the snack product Slim Jim, here and here. One was made 20 years ago, the other last year; same product, same packaging, same marketing. Any wonder why there was space for Krave Jerky to come into the market and sell to Hershey’s for 300M in less than 5 years? Here are Heinz commercials from 1979, 1987 and last year, which all use the same product, packaging and even an identical joke, our ketchup pours slow and is difficult to use! Not to pick only on these companies—it’s an industry-wide problem. Twix has been making the same candy bar for more than 30 years (watch that video – recognize the candy bar snapping in half?). The list of products that haven’t innovated in decades goes on and on.
Can you imagine Apple marketing the same iPhone to consumers forty years from now? Of course not.
Have a look at what passes for innovation in consumer and retail: Little Caesars doesn’t have a website where you can place an order. Instead, under the webpage that it calls Leading Through Innovation, the company boasts that it “broke the status quo by making pizzas ready when customers walk in, with no need to call ahead or wait in line.”
The question is why do we expect less from consumer brands. With more choice today than ever before, it’s clear that consumers want more innovation. If the old line consumer companies can’t deliver, either through internal venture groups or early acquisitions, then they risk being left behind. (Remember Lycos? Great Super Bowl ad for its search engine in 1999 - before Google even existed.)
In the end, the very innovation that gives birth to the young and growing consumer product companies of today is the same innovation that can extend the lives of our greatest brands. The question brands is not whether to invest in innovation, but how.
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58b1d5e7eccb0461e4af4a2272e36a19
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2017/03/21/elderly-and-disabled-assistive-technology-market-to-surpass-26-billion-by-2024/
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Elderly And Disabled Assistive Technology Market To Surpass $26 Billion By 2024
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Elderly And Disabled Assistive Technology Market To Surpass $26 Billion By 2024
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. 70 million people need a wheelchair. Another 360 million people globally have moderate to profound hearing loss. Globally, more than 1 billion people need one or more assistive products.
The global elderly and disabled assistive devices market was valued at $14 billion in 2015 and is expected to surpass $26 billion by 2024, according to Coherent Market Insights. It is a sizable market with an incredibly diverse set of needs. Many products have to be customized which is why 3D printing is an ideal way to study and solve some of it.
Photo from MatterHackers Envision the Future Design Challenge Photo from MatterHackers Envision the Future Design Challenge
MatterHackers, one of the largest 3D printing retailers in the U.S., wants to put a big dent in those numbers by encouraging inspiring, low-cost or free, assistive device models that people can 3D print or build from some other material. Officially, the “Envision The Future Design Challenge” is to create educational tactile models and assistive devices for the blind and visually impaired.
WHO defines assistive technology as any product that helps maintain or improve an individual function. Hearing aids, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, prostheses, pill organizers, and memory aids are all examples of assistive devices or products. You do not have to go far in 3D printing circles to find solutions or at least potential ideas to solve these sorts of problems or issues -- and I have written about many of them -- from custom insoles (orthotics) to hearing aids to haptic feedback in a glove (one of my very first posts over 5 years ago).
With an aging global population and a rise in noncommunicable diseases, more than 2 billion people will need at least 1 assistive product by 2050, with many older people needing 2 or more, according to a WHO assistive device fact sheet.
Last year, MatterHackers, enablingthefuture.org, and Pinshape partnered the company sponsored a design challenge aimed for assistive devices for people living without full use of their hands. Over 200 designs were submitted and are available for free at www.matterhackers.com/withinreach. I wrote about one of the successful devices in another post last year (not on Forbes) that helped a person who had Dupuytren’s contracture, which affects the hands by drawing the fingers inward, making it hard to grip everyday items. The Within Reach design challenge yielded a number of solutions for that and other ailments.
One of the more famous assistive device designs, not part of the MatterHackers design challenge, comes from the e-NABLE Community: the “Iron Man” video tells the story of Robert Downey Jr. giving an Ironman prosthetic hand to a child. Awesome video. That design was developed by the UCF Armory (University of Central Florida), led by Albert Manero, the Limbitless Arm was e-NABLE’s first myoelectric design. The Limbitless Arm is licensed under the Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial license. Success stories like these inspire more people to realize how accessible 3D technology is making incremental and exponential improvements possible -- that you might have an idea that could change the world for you or someone else.
Click Next to get to Page 2 -- for some additional resources and information about the design challenge prizes.
Given that so many people have a need for assistive devices and products across a wide range; 3D printing is one of the best ways to approach the problems. If you look at an organization like Enabling The Future, that crowdsources the making of 3D printable prosthetic hands, a design challenge can provide new ideas and solutions that might not otherwise make it to market. Plus, it spreads the word and inspires more people, design-minded people, to consider how they might approach this massive market need and opportunity.
Additional resources:
Briefly, because everyone wants to know about prizes when there's a challenge like the Envision The Future Design Challenge, there are two categories: Youth (under 18) and Adults (18 and over). Each category will have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners with prizes sponsored by LulzBot and MatterHackers. Youth grand prize is a Lulzbot Mini 3D Printer (don’t let the name fool you; it is a decent size printer). Adult grand prize is a Lulzbot TAZ 6 (larger print area than the Mini). Both grand prize categories also come with a MatterControl Touch T10 - 10.6" Standalone 3D Printer Controller – basically a tablet you can use to run a printer without needing a full computer. The challenge runs from March 20, 2017 through May 8, 2017 and the full details are here.
WHO fact sheet on Assistive Technology
Coherent Market Insights produced the Elderly and Disabled Assistive Devices - Evolving from Luxury to Necessity report; a summary is available here.
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f0f1ad004ed01bcdde6fd5b265829167
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2018/06/20/small-business-credit-card-trends-and-their-future/?sh=7a161c0d7822
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Small Business Credit Card Trends And Their Future
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Small Business Credit Card Trends And Their Future
UPDATE: Thanks to some questions about small businesses accepting credit cards I added a new post on the best Mobile Credit Card Reader devices -- such as Square, PayPal Here, and Intuit's QuickBooks GoPayment.
A few short years ago, business credit cards were less than four percent of the total number of credit cards in existence. However, those cards did account for $430 billion, or about 1 in every 6 dollars spent via general purpose (or consumer-oriented) cards. Even if there are fewer small businesses with credit cards, they are spending far more than the average consumer.
Local Small Business 360 Photo _Classic Cycles Bainbridge TJ McCue on Forbes
In their 2018 Outlook: Credit, Brian Riley at Mercator Advisory Group, highlights that credit card issuers will target four segments: The $500 billion small business credit card segment is one. You can download the PDF here.
How Small Business Owners Use Credit Cards
With a market segment as big as $500B, it seemed worth taking a look at how small business owners obtain and use their credit cards. According to CreditCards.com, here are some additional statistics:
Of businesses that seek credit, 31 percent applied for a credit card and 86 percent sought a loan or line of credit. Not surprisingly, approval rates are highest for companies with higher revenue and more employees. About 67 percent of small-business owners currently have a business credit card, but only 24 percent use it as the primary method of business spending. As of December 2017, 31 percent of business owners said they used credit cards to meet their capital needs in the past 12 months. Just 29 percent of small-business owners who have a credit card use the rewards to pay a business expense. And just 1 in 10 use rewards to help their business' bottom line.
Business Credit Card Vs Personal Credit Card
While it would seem logical for a company to have a business credit card, the perks and terms do not always appear as advantageous as personal cards. This article at Fundera spells out the differences between business credit cards and personal credit cards. Though I have a business credit card that I use almost exclusively for work, reading this article made me wonder if I should shift back to a personal card. For instance, some of the consumer protection laws are way stronger and while some business card issuers extend the benefits to business owners, not all do. Read the fine print.
Are Plastic Credit Cards Going Away? The Rise Of Digital Payments
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman recently noted that he believes credit cards will be largely obsolete in 20 years. (Hat tip to Business Insider’s Jaime Toplin.) That’s a long way into the future, but I would have to agree. The digital wallet crashed onto the scene only in the last few years. Though Paypal’s been around nearly two decades, the idea of using a computer to pay for your morning cup of coffee didn’t truly exist until the smartphone was released (some would say it still hasn’t been). Here’s a timeline of the big mobile payment methods:
Starbucks Card / Mobile App (2011 and made $26 million in the first year) Apple Pay (October 2014) Samsung Pay (August 2015) Google Pay (Sep 2015 as Android Pay, Oct 2017 as Google Pay)
In 2017, Apple Pay doubled its users, and in June 2017, the Starbucks App (which is the most popular payment app), was used to make 30% of the total purchases of that month. However, despite growth, the mobile wallet remains a miniscule part of the overall credit card landscape, and, at least for a while, won’t be the go-to payment method. Read CardRatings.com Les Masterson’s 5 Credit Card Trends For 2018.
Speaking of Starbucks, Kimberly Palmer from NerdWallet, and also a Forbes contributor, shared how existing big brands are starting to offer their own premium credit cards: 5 Credit Card Trends To Look Out For In 2018.
Whether you believe that digital payments will surpass physical credit cards in 20 years or in five, or not at all, the small business credit card segment is growing and healthy. If you service this industry, there are growth opportunities. If you are a business owner, use the above resources to track down your best business credit card options. Some of the sites listed provide comparison tables and details to help you decide which business credit card (or personal) will meet your needs and your budget.
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298be6daf8e5c8834e1e68035dbc2866
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2018/08/31/57-million-u-s-workers-are-part-of-the-gig-economy/?sh=643523627118
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57 Million U.S. Workers Are Part Of The Gig Economy
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57 Million U.S. Workers Are Part Of The Gig Economy
More than one third (36 percent) of U.S. workers are in the gig economy, which works out to a very large number of approximately 57 million people.
With the rise of Uber, Lyft, Etsy, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Freelancer.com, Ebay, and others, more and more workers are doing part-time work, side hustles, as they are often called, and are joining the “Gig Economy” as it is more formally known. Essentially, for many, it is when you are between full-time jobs or cannot find a new job after a layoff, or just need more flexibility than a traditional job can provide. So, you go freelance and string together jobs on a short-term, contract basis.
Technology is a big enabler of this mode of freelance work – with a smartphone and one of those ubiquitous unlimited data plans (or a good Starbucks or indie café with fast wifi and a power outlet) – you can work from just about anywhere. I count myself in this category as I have been self-employed for most of my adult life. Whether you will make enough to provide a living wage is another story. Many do, but quite a few do not. My post is aimed at the entrepreneurial thinker looking for ideas, not to enter the debate on how the gig economy needs to change (and I do not disagree on that point, but am aiming to provide resources and ideas to get people started who want to pursue a side hustle or more).
Steve King, owner of Emergent Research, and creator of the Small Business Labs blog, is one of the top researchers and reporters on the gig economy, particularly how the co-working phenomenon has supported it. He has done major projects for Intuit, MBO Partners, and many other big firms to uncover how the freelancer or independent worker is making his or her way.
If you are studying the idea of joining the gig economy as a side hustle, or as a startup, here are just a few of Steve King’s recent posts that I have read and that are summarized here in today’s post:
Gallup Says 36% Of U.S. Workers are in the Gig Economy - Small Business Labs Independent Workers Have Higher Satisfaction Levels than Traditional Job Holders 189 Coworking Spaces Opening in August - Small Business Labs According to LinkedIn, Most SMBs Use Freelancers - Small Business Labs MBO Partners’ 8th Annual State of Independence Report (excellent read, lots of data)
The above 36 percent gig economy statistic comes from a Gallup poll. They estimate “that 29% of all workers in the U.S. have an alternative work arrangement as their primary job. This includes a quarter of all full-time workers (24%) and half of all part-time workers (49%). Including multiple job holders, 36% have a gig work arrangement in some capacity."
There are two types of gig workers. There are “independent” and “contingent” workers, the former being people who are truly their own “boss”, and the latter being the group that work for another company just like a regular employee might, minus the security and all the other benefits that come with being a full-fledged employee.
But even the “contingent” workers seem to be happier than standard workers. Gallup found some additional interesting facts:
Almost 60 percent of independent gig workers strongly agreed that they had flexibility, while 38 percent of contingent gig workers said the same the thing. Only 27 percent of regular workers strongly agreed they had the flexibility 47 percent of independent gig workers said they really liked their hours, while only 34 percent of contingent gig workers and regular workers said the hours were really good for them.
However, things aren’t always best for gig workers and many experts point that out. Though gig workers get many “lifestyle benefits” they fall far behind on “traditional benefits” and in the “paid timely and accurately” category. As you might expect, regular workers (those who are employed full time) strongly agreed they get paid on time (82 percent), but less than 70 percent of gig workers strongly agreed with that statement.
Loneliness is another issue and part of why co-working is on the rise, or why you cannot ever find a seat at your local café. Working away from other people can make you feel lonely and depressed which is extremely unhealthy and slows down employee productivity. This had led to the rise of “coworking” where independent employees “work alone together” in a shared office space. While the average cost to use one of these facilities is about $350 per month, prices can spike way higher. Regardless of the high price, according to the Harvard Business Review, employees are still quite satisfied and think the cost is worth it.
77% of respondents stated that they thought the price they paid was fair, while 17% said they actually felt the price they paid was a bargain 90% of respondents reported either being highly satisfied or satisfied with their coworking space Only 4% of respondents said that they likely won’t stay members once two years have elapsed
That said, there are some that have very affordable options that are under $100 a month for light-level use of a facility, but you usually find those in a smaller city, not in a big metro.
The idea that independent gig workers are getting their money’s worth seems to hold water. Gig workers have stated that coworking environments have helped them to expand their social network and that they are happier and less lonely.
89% of respondents report that they are happier since joining a coworking space 79% said coworking has expanded their social network 87% of respondents stated that they meet other members for social reasons, with 54% saying they socialize with other members after work and/or on weekends
Since loneliness can be as dangerous as smoking and obesity, coworking spaces are providing a valuable service. In our age of social media and technology replacing human interaction, the fact that many are moving toward more social interaction shows that many are realizing that they need to be more involved and connected to others, in real life, not just digital life.
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51927778ff08d35ea979e50e5b8a9a17
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2018/10/31/dji-drones-are-helping-marketers-stay-creative/
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DJI Drones Are Helping Marketers Stay Creative: Mavic Air Flights
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DJI Drones Are Helping Marketers Stay Creative: Mavic Air Flights
DJI Mavic Air Drone Photo of Farm Kitchen Photo by TJ McCue
Drones, aerial vehicles controlled by a human with a remote control, are increasing in popularity. There are Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations that mandate what you can and cannot do as a hobbyist and there are more rules if you are doing anything commercial. But businesses and entrepreneurs are finding more and more ways to use them for commercial purposes.
The general population mostly sees drones a hobbyist phenomenon, but there is much more to it. Just a few of the advanced uses are in the bullet list below, then I would like to focus on the marketing aspect by way of a recent project I completed.
Agriculture: crop surveys or inspecting livestock Underwater inspections House or building inspections – roofers are just one example, but construction sites use them to monitor and document work progress (commercial and residential) Industrial inspections – again, on buildings, but also could be commercial sites with windmills or solar panels or oil pipelines. Rescue, Fire, or Police work – there are some amazing stories of how a rescue team has found a lost child or adult hiker in a remote area. Marketing purposes for real estate agents, wedding photographers, and a host of other business purposes.
While there are a number of drone manufacturers, DJI is the 800-pound gorilla controlling about 80 percent of the marketplace. Just about every aspect of their drones is second-to-none, but the two functions that stand out the most are the amazing gimbal (camera stabilizer) and the true ease-of-use software they have built. As a beginner, you can easily launch and fly a DJI drone. If you are an expert, there are advanced settings, also.
I have had the opportunity over the last couple of months to test out a loaner unit of the DJI Mavic Air. As most of my readers here know, I test out a lot of gear. But in all my years as a reviewer, there have been few items that I have been truly sad to return to the manufacturer when the loan period is over. The DJI Mavic Air is one of them I will shed tears over returning. The only bright side is the company promised to let me test out the Mavic 2 at some point in the future.
My company occasionally does video and photography work for local and regional businesses. I often do 360 degree photos to help people with their Google Maps profiles as the photospheres are particularly popular with consumers searching for information.
Because I am not a “licensed” drone pilot, and because it is a loaner unit, I was not going to charge any of my customers for drone footage. I did think it would be a great way to pay it forward and give some extra value to area business owners, however, so when I went out on a 360 project shoot a few weeks ago, I packed up the Mavic Air and took it along.
I visited the Farm Kitchen in Poulsbo, Washington and it was the perfect place to do some creative marketing work with the drone. It is a large property that hosts weddings, runs a wholesale / ecommerce bakery, and has a commercial kitchen for other food entrepreneurs in the area. Farm Kitchen is a rustic, yet elegant event and food-crafting space located on an 18-acre organic farm near Seattle.
After shooting the 360 photos, I flew a variety of what DJI calls “QuickShots.” These are largely pre-set options, six different QuickShots — Rocket, Dronie, Circle, Helix, Asteroid, and Boomerang. You simply get the drone in the air and then tap one of the options. I did a couple of Dronies, then the Asteroid, and then tested out the Boomerang.
There was one particular shot that the owners wanted to capture of a special tent used during weddings – it is a big tent and standard video and photo work was not capturing it. I flew the drone in under the tent and moved it slowly around the perimeter creating a wonderful sense of the space (used the slow-mo video setting). Because their 18-acre property is hard to capture in regular video or photos, a drone is the perfect way to give a sense of the place like no other method.
The Mavic Air also has a slow-motion option which I found is excellent because it creates this super smooth video footage even when you do not have to fly the drone at high speeds or capture something that is moving at high speed (which is often when people use it).
Overall, I believe drones will grow more for marketing professionals to create those one-of-a-kind shots or solve a problem from a new angle that is not so easy to access.
Last year, DJI shared some early 2017 Black Friday deals with us and we hope to do another post with specials like that this 2018 holiday shopping season. Stay tuned.
*
Features from the DJI website with some minor comments and modifications:
3-Axis Gimbal Camera The Mavic Air is the most portable DJI drone to house a 3-axis mechanical gimbal, with dampeners to help create even steadier shots. 32 MP Sphere Panoramas In addition to Horizontal, Vertical, and 180° panoramas, the Mavic Air stitches 25 photos together in just eight seconds to create crystal-clear 32 MP Sphere panoramas. 4K 100 Mbps Video The Mavic Air shoots video at an incredible 4K 30 fps, recording at 100 Mbps. Slow-Motion Video With support for recording 1080p 120 fps slow-motion video, the Mavic Air captures all your epic high-speed adventures. 8 GB Internal Storage Foldable Design Foldable Remote Controller with detachable control sticks store inside the remote controller to pack more comfortably on the go. ActiveTrack follows targets even when they're running, jumping, or cycling. SmartCapture offers a new and interactive way of controlling the Mavic Air by hand. Launch and control the drone with hand gestures, then take photos or videos however you like. 21 minute flight time
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db7015fccba1c69a5e0d84c449541a39
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/02/28/how-do-teens-spend-their-time-with-technology-plus-best-parental-control-apps/
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How Do Teens Spend Their Time With Technology Plus Best Parental Control Apps
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How Do Teens Spend Their Time With Technology Plus Best Parental Control Apps
It will come as no surprise that teenagers today spend their time differently than a decade ago. The common answer will be that teens devote all their hours awake looking at a screen. While this may be partly true, a recent Pew Research Center analysis shows that teens are “devoting more time to sleep and homework, and less time to paid work and socializing.”
The study summary, by Gretchen Livingston, a senior researcher focusing on fertility and family demographics at Pew Research Center, also studied the differences between teen boys and teen girls for areas such as leisure, grooming, homework, housework and errands. You can read it here: The way U.S. teens spend their time is changing, but differences between boys and girls persist. A few of the key points include:
Teens spend an average of 16 minutes more per day doing homework than they did around 2005. Overall, teens (ages 15 to 17) spend an hour a day, on average, doing homework during the school year, up from 44 minutes a day about a decade ago and 30 minutes in the mid-1990s. Teens are getting more shut-eye; clocking an average of over nine and a half hours of sleep a night , an increase of 22 minutes compared with teens a decade ago and almost an hour more than those in the mid-1990s. Most got more sleep on weekends. Teens playing sports has held steady at around 45 minutes per day. Teens find five and a half hours for leisure each day (5 hours, 44 minutes) And, here’s the number I know many of you are looking for: “The biggest chunk of teens’ daily leisure time is spent on screens: 3 hours and 4 minutes on average. This figure, which can include time spent gaming, surfing the web, watching videos and watching TV, has held steady over the past decade. Click through to the full post (linked above) to read how they spend their weekend time. NOTE: This number held steady, not increase – that surprised me. Always go to the data.
Persistent Gender Differences Remain In How Teens Use Their Time
Teen boys spend an average of about six hours a day in leisure time; girls only spend five hours a day. This data point is because boys are spending about an hour (58 minutes) more a day than girls engaged in screen time. Boys also spend more time playing sports: 59 minutes versus 33 minutes for girls. – Pew Research Center Study
Again, read Gretchen Livingston’s full post here for more gender differences.
How Do I Manage Screen Time?
So, if teens spend a significant portion of time on screens, how can you manage that, or control it. Well, naturally, there is an app for that, or a bunch of apps and devices. As I have done before, I turned to my favorite screen time expert, Dr. Delaney Ruston, Documentary Filmmaker & Primary Care Physician, who created the well-known documentary – SCREENAGERS: Growing Up In The Digital Age. Our family went to see it and it changed how we address screen use for the entire family.
The documentary is a terrific film, but what marks Delaney as my favorite screen expert, is her Tech Talk Tuesday newsletter. Each week she sends research she has curated, tips for managing various parts of teen life, and how to regularly talk about screen time. Learn more about how to decrease struggles around screen time. You can sign up here: Tech Talk Tuesdays.
In that newsletter, I learned about the best parenting apps for managing (or controlling) screen time. I prefer the idea of managing versus controlling and I think she would agree, but it is a way that exasperated parents search for screen time control.
Here are a few of hers and I will start with mine: I use the Google Wifi router with its easy to use app that lets me control which device is on or off, when it goes on or off, and so forth. It is usually sold as a three pack (because it works as a wireless mesh), but you can order just one, too.
Most of the apps listed below will do some version of the following: Set limits on overall time, set limits on specific apps, set “downtimes,” tracking how much you use your phone (good for any age). Hardware devices, such as wifi routers, now have “pause the internet buttons,” individual content filters for each family member, limits on social media, device scheduling (when it is on or off).
Apple’s own Screen Time built into the hardware on iOS 12 for iPhones and iPads (Cost: Free) OurPact (Free version or premium for $4.99 per month) Moment (Free version or Pro for $3.99 per month) Pocket Points (Cost: Free) (reward based app that is great for students) Bark Social Media, email, and text monitoring More listed in the above mentioned post.
Hardware:
Circle with Disney (Cost: $99) Google Wifi Check with your cell phone carriers for apps that can help you monitor and control device usage.
While teenage screen usage has increased, there are also many positive signs that teens are making good choices. Build a positive foundation with some of the above resources and your teen will thank you later, and hopefully now, too.
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50ea290eca40355b0ebcc0fbc32b79e7
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/03/20/how-to-get-free-instagram-followers-and-more-likes/?sh=4388ccba2389
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How To Get Free Instagram Followers And More Likes
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How To Get Free Instagram Followers And More Likes
According to some marketing pundits, increasing your Instagram follower count is the holy grail. There is a lot of noise about how to get free Instagram followers, more likes, more shares, more engagement. A new report from Mention and HubSpot looked at more than 48 million Instagram posts and has some good advice.
Working together. Positive male and female bloggers are making new video content for their popular... [+] blog. Couple. Social Media. Blog. Content Getty
After analyzing more than 48 million Instagram posts and 306,278 of the top users, HubSpot and Mention observed trends about Instagram engagement rates, hashtags, and other insights that matter to both brands and marketers. Here's a bit of what they found:
Video posts receive more than 2x more comments than other types of posts. This is not surprising, of course, given all the attention on video, live streaming, and real-time stories. Tagging more than 5 users in a post does not increase engagement rates. For all you crazy taggers out there, stop. 80 percent of major brands consider the Instagram engagement rate (again, engagement on whatever social media platform you’re using) to be the top key performance indicator (KPI) of a campaign. (See below for what that means exactly.)
There are many posts and programs and apps with 10 step programs or 12 ways to reach people and get them to follow you on Instagram, depending on which day of the week you research this topic. Follow the data is my mantra. Fortunately, there are lots of real data scientists out there who can inform this idea to get free followers (and I highlight free because you truly do not want to pay for followers -- that’s bad karma). By the way, I’m loving the Mention blog. It is loaded with Instagram Marketing advice worth reading. Download link at end of post.
Based on the data, I pulled out four main steps to succeed at Instagram. I use this phrase lightly about steps because I know that how you define success is up to you -- getting new (free) Instagram followers is important if you have very few. Increasing engagement, aka comments, likes, conversation, shares, is important if you have a base of followers and want to build awareness of your brand. Again, although you will find apps that advertise that they can get you many free followers, be wary.
Step 1. Add Video on Instagram
Post more video content if that’s your thing. If it is not, try to splice in some video in addition to your standard (but amazingly beautiful) photos and use the carousel. But the Mention/HubSpot report clearly shows video is outperforming just about everything else (not just on Instagram).
Step 2. Sprinkle Lightly with the Hashtags on Instagram
Be super smart with hashtags. Don’t go crazy with them in terms of volume, but be thoughtful and strategic. The data shows that more than a few doesn’t really move the engagement needle, so to speak. There’s a definitely correlation: More hashtags leads to less engagement.
Pick relative hashtags for your greatest Instagram success.
Step 3. Tagging Instagram Users - See Above on Hashtags
Some of the hashtag advice and data applies here, but they have a detailed section on tagging that is worth studying. More tags does not equal more likes or followers necessarily.
Step 4. Building Community and Engagement
“If you’re finding it harder to increase your Instagram followers, the report says you are not alone. Competition has increased on the platform so consider it the new norm. It’s far more valuable having a smaller, more engaged community than millions of followers who don’t interact with your content.” --Mention / HubSpot Instagram Report 2019
46.6 percent of Instagram users have fewer than 1,000 followers
According to the report: “They (this group of 46.6 percent) make up the largest segment of users. A further 33.5% of users have between 1,000-10,000 followers. This segment of users and the ones with 1,000 followers or less, make up the majority of total Instagram users.”
This leads into the final section on Micro-Influencer Marketing which is that micro-influencers make up 2.7% of total Instagram users. By now you’ve probably heard of these influential individuals with smaller communities. Micro-influencers typically have between 50,000-100,000 followers. That's still a large number for many brands.
What is Instagram Engagement, Exactly?
Direct from the report: “Simply put, engagement is the number of interactions a user has with your content. This usually comes in the form of likes and comments. However, as Instagram has evolved and launched new products such as Stories and IGTV, engagement now can also mean the number of views, shares, and direct messages.”
The Mention report is one of the absolute best I have seen for explaining what to do on Instagram (and it could easily apply to other social media platforms) in order to gain new followers. Now, to be very clear, as well-known Gary Vee (Vaynerchuck) would say, it is not all about the numbers. It is about engagement, relationship, and far more than simple follower count. But, as another data scientist, Alan Timothy, founder of i-Snapshot (as sales management tool that has analyzed a ton of sales data) often says, “Quality is found in the Quantity. You need both.”
In order to get free Instagram followers, you have to be real. And that takes a lot of time. As a business owner or marketing executive, you often don’t have a lot of time, so it is tempting to go looking for shortcuts. Ethical shortcuts, for sure, but things to save you time and remove repetitive tasks from your day. Even though I highlight some of the main ways, based on data, to grow your Instagram account, the reality is you have to dig in and be more human, be present, and really engage. It is not rocket science as the HubSpot and Mention folks prove, but there’s data to back up this common sense approach of simply being real with your customers.
****
Here is the download page on HubSpot. After filling in a bit of form data, you can download the report.
The report promises and delivers on:
How to calculate your Instagram engagement rate The types of content you should be posting The latest Instagram data to inform your social strategy When to tag Instagram users to increase your reach Creating Instagram ads that build a following How micro-influencers can grow your business
If you need way more advice, there are some excellent resources here on Forbes. Here are a few of my favorites:
This was an Editor’s Pick in 2018: Want More Instagram Followers? Here Are 12 Proven And Successful Organic Strategies Jayson DeMers nails it here with 50 Free Ways To Increase Your Instagram Followers (Even though it is a few years old, there are tons of good, tactical tips.) If you are just getting started building a personal brand, then read this one from Elaine Pofeldt: How To Build A Personal Brand Without Being Annoying
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b451f3e46beb3735421175cd29b81b21
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/04/05/when-you-see-price-comparison-app-results-you-might-be-shocked/?sh=8ff8f15386da
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These Useful Shopping Apps Will Save You Money
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These Useful Shopping Apps Will Save You Money
Consumers have always been willing to connect to brands. Occasionally, connecting is centered on what a brand stands for, but often, or perhaps all the time, it is about price. In a recent poll of 4,500 global shoppers by Episerver, they found 87 percent (most of us) are now comparing retailer pricing with Amazon pricing prior to making a purchase.
UPDATE: If you are a Costco shopper (or one in the making), you will want to check out my latest How To Shop Costco Membership-Free.
Tweet This: 4,500 global shoppers found that most (87%) are now comparing retailer pricing with Amazon pricing.
Technology, that is, apps and web tools have made it easier than ever to do that. I’ll share some additional data points from Episerver after the app list. Apps I have included in this list: Honey, Shopular, Walmart, Amazon, Krazy Coupon Lady, Coupons.com, and RetailMeNot.
Shopping App Honey Chrome Extension TJ McCue Screenshot Honey Extension by TJ McCue
On the web, there’s Honey. It is a free browser extension that automatically finds and applies coupon codes at checkout for over 30,000 shopping sites. The extension is supported on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge.
Can I use Honey on Amazon?
I thought you might ask that question -- why, yes, you can use Honey on Amazon and I’m installing it right now myself! In fact, it does a Best-Price Detection step first. It looks at an item’s Price History. The best part is what they call “Droplist” -- a money-saving feature that lets you watch items for price drops and notifying you when they do. You can read more at Join Honey. If you have trouble finding the extension, here’s the Chrome page. You can check out the Safari extension here.
Which Shopping Apps Rank In Top 10 Are No Surprise
The Amazon Shopping app is usually number one in the Apple and Google app stores. Walmart is usually in the top 10, often in the top 5, in terms of rating. Surprisingly, Amazon has a lower rating for its app, but far more people using it, so it keeps it #1 rank.
The best thing about the Walmart app is that gives you some nice perks, such as express returns so you can start the process in the app and wait less, theoretically, in store when you return an item. If you’ve ever wondered where in the store an item might be, the app can help you find the right aisle, way faster than finding a clerk these days.
Shopular Mobile Coupon and Deals Shopping App Image Courtesy Shopular
Tweet This: Here are my top picks for Android and iOS Shopping Apps: Shopular, Krazy Coupon Lady, RetailMeNot, Coupons.com, as well as Amazon and Walmart store apps.
A well-rounded and rated shopping app, as it covers more retailers and is not a store-specific app, is Shopular. Available on both iOS and Android. Krazy Coupon Lady (iOS, Android) RetailMeNot (iOS and Android) Coupons.com website is frustrating because it keeps scrolling coupons, Tumblr-style, so you can never get to the link at the bottom of the page for their mobile app links, but they have them on both iOS and Android. Search on your respective app store.
The shocking part of all these app results is that you could have been saving money practically every store visit. These apps work to help you save in-store as well as online. Why pay more? Start downloading coupons and special offers now.
* * * * *
Coupon Shopping Survey Data
Let’s get to the data from two top online shopping data firms.
Valassis polled more than 1,000 US consumers; they found that nearly all (92%) of consumers using coupons and discounts and nearly half using them "always/very often". Younger consumers are also using coupons with nearly one-third (30%) of Millennials noting the nearly always use coupons. Paper coupons are still used more (91% use paper coupons) compared to digital (75%). More data from the Valassis report can be found here.
Episerver finds that comparison pricing is on the rise among shoppers. Their poll of 4,500 global shoppers found that most (87%) are now comparing retailer pricing with Amazon pricing prior to making a purchase. Just over three-quarters (80%) of frequent online shoppers say they "often or always" use Amazon to compare pricing.
Researchers further found that more than half (60%) of shoppers say they prefer sites like Amazon because of their pricing options, slightly more than those that prefer sites like Amazon because of their selection (58%). More data from the Episerver report can be found here.
Hat tip to Kristina Knight at BizReport for her piece: Tech keeping consumers connected.
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e5e49ca84c1d88593bf91a8c9c3013f8
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/04/12/iphone-videos-done-right-will-make-you-look-like-a-big-budget-producer/
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Valuable iPhone Video Tips And Tricks You Need To Know
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Valuable iPhone Video Tips And Tricks You Need To Know
With the clarity and high-quality camera lens that most iPhones have, expensive camera equipment is no longer a barrier to incredible video creation. As we explored in the today’s earlier post, Here's How To Make Your iPhone Camera Even Better, two popular apps can enhance the iPhone’s excellent camera for still photographs.
My previous post mentioned that I had a conversation with a company that sees a lot of iPhone video work. Michael Burns, Chief Revenue Officer at Aventri, an event management software company, sent me numerous tips and steps to getting solid video results (he had info on editing software which I’ve covered elsewhere and will cover again separately). The company has assisted over 25,000 event professionals in planning, executing, and measuring their events, so they get to see a lot of folks trying to capture good photos and videos.
Tweet This: Spectacular iPhone XS Video Holds Up Against $10,000 Cinema Camera
Michael sent me info about just how well the iPhone XS is holding up in some pro circles. Filmmaker Ed Gregory (this link is to an article at 9TO5Mac.com on his project) actually compared a $10,000 cinema camera footage to the iPhone XS footage and was shocked as to how similar they turned out.
Ed Gregory goes into tremendous detail, the pros and cons of the iPhone XS, and if you love producing video on your iPhone you will want to check out his site and this post: iPhone XS vs CINEMA Camera – Can you spot the Difference? That’s Ed’s video above.
While there are plenty of apps for video editing, many of the important aspects of quality iPhone video rests in the hardware -- external lens, tripod, lighting, gimbal stabilizer, and microphone. Ed gives a list of his gear in the description.
To further increase video quality, here are ideas and tips that Michael shared with me:
Get Stable - Stay Focused
Hold your phone horizontally in landscape mode, place your camera on something stable or better yet, get a tripod to stabilize your footage or an external lens to expand the quality of your footage. Here is Amazon’s list of Best Seller Cell Phone Lens Attachments (no affiliate links). You can also stabilize with the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 which I mentioned in a video 101 post last year (DJI sent me a loaner to test out).
Be Conscious of Lighting
Invest in a white photo umbrella lighting kit (you can get them for as low as $30 on Amazon) that will help you control the amount and direction of the light.
Use a Quality Microphone
Burns recommended investing in an affordable microphone to ensure quality sound, like PowerDeWise or ZealSound Broadcast microphone, both under $35.
Both large brands and popular influencers have found video to be in high demand. It can be tricky, though, for many of us to create a video that wows our audience while producing on a low budget. With the iPhone XS, it is relatively inexpensive and effective to create compelling, exciting videos. Ed's comparison video shows it is possible to create high quality from a small device like the iPhone.
If you've created a powerful, amazing video with your iPhone, @ me on social as I'd love to see it. Click my name in the bio and it opens up all of my connection links.
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f4fbba9e55c2a17285c15e14703f4084
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/04/24/how-to-write-more-words-effectively-in-less-time/
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Voice Typing Can Help You Write More Effectively In Less Time
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Voice Typing Can Help You Write More Effectively In Less Time
The average person types between 35 and 40 words per minute, but that same person can likely speak at 100 to 130 words per minute. Writing is clearly not as effective as speaking in terms of raw output. The computer industry has spent a lot of time refining keyboards instead of enhancing voice recognition software, until recently.
In this Jan. 18, 2017 photo, a roadside professional typist works near Delhi's stock exchange market... [+] in New Delhi, India. India still has a few thousand remaining professional typists. There are a handful of typewriter repairmen and stores selling spare parts. There are typing schools that, at least occasionally, are jammed with students. But even in this country, one of the last places in the world where the typewriter remains a part of everyday life, the end is, finally, coming. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dragon by Nuance is arguably the best voice dictation on the market, however, it is expensive. Years ago, I did a product review of it and found it to be unbelievably good. If you are in the medical, legal, or a few other professions, it can be worth the cost. The consumer version is around $150.
Google Chrome Voice Typing Vs Windows 10 Speech (or Voice) Recognition
For this post, I am looking at two free tools. I was going to review them separately but found that one was superior for my needs: Google Chrome Voice Typing. I do appreciate Windows 10 Speech Recognition, but only for certain tasks.
For my work, capturing ideas in digital form, Google Voice Typing worked almost without flaw. The only downside is it works only in Google Docs using Google Chrome. That can be a pretty big downside, I'll admit. So I use it mostly when I have to get a lot of info down on "paper." I wrote most of this post using it. I used it with a noisy fan nearby and with a fairly old microphone.
Google Chrome Voice Typing
You can get to the Voice Typing feature by opening up the Tools menu. Then just select it. It will bring up a little microphone and you click it to start dictating. You may have to do some microphone setup which is often under System Preferences on a Mac, or the Control Panel on a PC. There's a little question mark in the lower right of the microphone button (the one that pops up on your screen) that offers a host of info on doing all the setup (see screenshot below marked with step one and step two). Hands down, or should I say hands off, Google Chrome Voice Typing is more accurate (and thus faster) for getting words into a document.
Google Voice Typing setup Screenshot Google Voice Typing by TJ McCue
Windows 10 Speech Recognition
In the Windows search bar, type Speech Recognition and it opens up the control panel where you can start the setup process. Windows 10 does an excellent job of helping you get it all working. All of these programs work best with a microphone, but you can get by with the internal mic that is on most computers. Worst case, use your mobile phone headphones with the little mic attached.
Windows 10 Speech Recognition Setup Screenshot by TJ McCue
Windows 10 Speech Recognition worked best at helping me move around from one program to the next, to open or close programs, to navigate. It worked marginally (with and without that noisy fan of mine) at dictation accuracy. It worked best in Microsoft Word (not surprising), but it also worked in Google Docs.
Both voice functions needed a mouse click to get the microphone going, although there could be some special settings to improve that.
Overall, I found that this short test convincing enough that I plan to do far more voice dictation in the near and long term. I was bummed that having a Google Doc open in the Firefox browser did not allow the voice typing tool to work. Again, only in Chrome. But Windows 10 Speech Recognition did work in Firefox. Mostly, if you find yourself tired of typing for health reasons or plain old efficiency's sake, give these voice typing tools a try. They are free and fast and fun to use. Plus, they only take a few minutes to set up. No elaborate voice training needed (although it is said that can improve accuracy in both).
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4f19bd830964e3a5ca78361cab1d6586
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/05/10/11-reliable-apps-to-help-small-business-owners-save-money/?sh=22805982595c
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11 Reliable Apps To Help Small Business Owners Save Money
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11 Reliable Apps To Help Small Business Owners Save Money
Each year, America celebrates the nation’s small businesses with National Small Business Week. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) takes the opportunity to recognize the 30.2 million small businesses in our country. According to the SBA, more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.
Tweet This: More than half of Americans either own or work for a small biz and create about 2 of 3 new jobs in the U.S. each year.
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR VISA - Visa awarded $60,000 to four teams of developers who created solutions... [+] to help small businesses recover from disasters at the Small Business Week Hackathon at In3 on Sunday, May 5, 2019 in Washington. (Joy Asico/AP Images for Visa) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Recently, I wrote about How To Shop Costco Membership-Free and also shared a list of Useful Shopping Apps To Save You Money, aimed at consumers mostly. In honor of National Small Business Week, I researched some of the best apps to help our friendly neighborhood small business owner save some money, (but many of these work for consumers, too). Many of these apps have free versions, some offer trials, or are paid apps.
Ebates gives cash back at over 2,000 websites and businesses. As a small business owner, you may not be purchasing in massive bulk quantities yet, but you may be placing enough individual orders that coupons and rebates can be helpful to your bottom line.
If you are purchasing in bulk, and don’t have time for Costco or another big box store, then try Boxed.
Do you have a lot of recurring subscription services? Then test out Trim. These folks can help you analyze all types of your recurring expenses.
Earny: If the purchase price drops after you have purchased, this app refunds the difference.
Keeping track of expenses, for yourself or employees, can be a headache. Okay, it is a headache. I have used Shoeboxed (loved it) and Expensify. Snap a photo, upload the receipt.
Tweet This: Here are 11 Reliable Apps To Help #SmallBusiness Owners Save Money (consumers can use many of them).
If you just want to scan and digitize receipts and other documents, ScannerPro (for iPhone and iPad users) is highly rated. For Android, CamScanner is amazing.
For budgets and bills, try Mint. This consumer-focused app owned by Intuit, offers a terrific service that can work for solopreneurs. Of course, the company’s flagship product, QuickBooks Online is well-regarded and in heavy use by many business owners. Their Simple Start program starts at $10/month. My business friend, Michelle Mangen, who is an expert in QuickBooks offers a free ebook of bookkeeping tips for small business owners that’s worth reading.
Scheduling employees is a task that takes a lot of time -- try When I Work. This app and service is free for up to 75 employees and can help you get everyone scheduled. Let’s your team swap shifts and see available openings.
The SBA hosts a variety of events through this week and today has a NSBW Twitter Chat today:
“Join SBA (@SBAgov) and industry experts for the National Small Business Week Twitter Chat on Friday, May 10 at 12pm ET on how to start and grow a small business. We’ll be sharing tips and tricks to help you along your business journey. Join the conversation with #SmallBusinessWeek.” If you miss it, just search out that hashtag and you can find most of the tips.
Thanks to all of the small business owners who are growing ventures, hiring people, and making a difference in their communities. If you have an app that you love and that saves you money, ups your productivity, let me know. I’d love to check it out.
Oh, and here's one non-app for small business owners who are navigating how to build a personal brand as they grow their business -- a new book by well-known small biz expert, Ramon Ray, The Celebrity CEO: How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive by Building a Community and a Strong Personal Brand.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/06/20/how-does-a-vpn-work/?sh=4abeac2d70cd
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How Does A VPN Work?
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How Does A VPN Work?
This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
Having a VPN (or virtual private network) to protect your privacy is wise. But how does a VPN do it?... [+] (photo: Getty) Getty
In my previous “What Is A VPN” post, I outlined that a virtual private network (VPN) encrypts and protects your identity, location, and data. It isn’t bulletproof, but A VPN provides a way to reduce the tracking of your web activities. So far, I have looked at market leaders such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN, but Pure VPN and SpiderVPN are two that I have added to my research list.
Here's how VPNs work and how they protect you:
VPNs disguise your actual IP address and location. The network service scrambles your data in a process known as encryption. The VPN service puts your internet data into capsule, of sorts, to send it through a private tunnel to the website you requested.
In order to understand how a VPN works, let’s cover a few basics and quick history lesson about the internet.
The internet was designed to send packets of information (data) as efficiently as possible. The core idea involved moving data on top of what’s known as the Internet Protocol (IP), a set of rules that govern how packets move from one place to another.
In those early days of connecting computer servers over long distances, users simply wanted to make sure data would keep flowing. If one network node failed, the information packet would move to another one. Security of data was not the primary concern - getting it from point A to point B was, and still is, the main focus.
This means the internet is still, by design, largely insecure. Many services still send your information without any security measures at all. Just one common example: if you are checking your bank or credit card information from that local cafe or your local library, it might not be that safe. Once you are inside the bank website or app, on its secure server, you are mostly safe, but getting to and from that server, your information is vulnerable and unsafe.
The MDN Web Docs site, formerly known as the Mozilla Developer Network (the fine folks who bring you the Firefox browser), have an excellent, simple breakdown of How the Web works:
“For now, let's imagine that the web is a road. On one end of the road is the client, which is like your house. On the other end of the road is the server, which is a shop you want to buy something from... When you type a web address into your browser (for our analogy that's like walking to the shop).”
I like this analogy to explain how public your internet requests really are—people can see you walking from your house to the shop unless you use a VPN, which is like going to the shop at night wearing sunglasses and a dark coat via back alleys.
So, the VPN encrypts those request packets at the originating point (your home), hiding not only the data, but also the information about your originating IP address (again, your home). The VPN software on your end then sends those packets to VPN server at some destination point, decrypting that information. Then it sends them over the public internet to the website server. The information comes back through that same process. Expanding the Mozilla analogy, it is like you hire a person to go to and from that store for you, wearing the dark coat and sunglasses.
Why use a VPN? Here is a simple breakdown of the steps:
All of your internet traffic, these requests for website information, move securely from your location to the VPN. Your computer appears to have the IP address of the VPN server, masking your identity and location, as you make this request to any website. When your data reaches the VPN server, it exits onto the public internet. Even if someone managed to grab this data on its way from point A to point B, it would be very difficult to trace the data back to you, because it looks like it came from the VPN server.
Many readers will have some familiarity with VPNs through their employers, who also know that the internet is not that safe. Corporations have historically used them to grant employees remote access to the corporate server. A VPN would give you access to the software and company resources while you were not in the office. You can now affordably do the same thing to access your home network while traveling locally or internationally or simply whenever you connect to the internet. Many people think that the “private browser” tab on Google Chrome or Firefox will shield all of their activity. It will not.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/06/20/how-to-get-a-vpn/
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How To Get A VPN
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How To Get A VPN
This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
A VPN offers security while browsing the internet, but which version is right for you? (photo:... [+] Getty) Getty
Many internet users, 91% of adults polled, agree or strongly agree that “consumers have lost control of how personal information is collected and used by companies,” according to a 2016 study by the Pew Research Center. In a separate, older study, some 86% of internet users have already taken steps online to minimize the visibility of their digital footprints. Many say they would like to do more or are unaware of tools they could use, which is why I always recommend getting a VPN, or a virtual private network.
But how do you get a VPN? There are three main options. Two of these are relatively easy. The other is not as simple, but possible for those with some technical know-how.
Free VPN Services
You get what you pay for—meaning that free is not as good as paid. But there are many good, free services on the internet. Lots of them. I will not try to create a list, but like other free services often you trade your data for convenience or your time (meaning the service saves you time in some way). That is not 100% true, but often it is, as I have been pointing out in some of the resource posts mentioned in this series.
I have found several trustworthy, free VPN services I will be comparing shortly. Most of them offer a free level with paid plans that give you faster access, more devices per plan or better security options.
In this category, ProtonVPN, from the makers of the very secure ProtonMail, have a free level plan that is worth a serious look.
2. Paid VPN Services
I lean toward the paid providers and have quite a few I am reviewing in future posts. Here are a few of the categories I have been researching and testing:
Best VPN for Windows Best VPN for Android Best VPN for iPhone Best VPN for Gaming Best VPN for PC Major provider comparisons
3. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) VPN
This is the most technically challenging option, but if you have some tech-savvy or are willing to follow tutorials and how-to posts, most likely you can do it. It does not always save you much money, but it does give you some degree of control over various parts of the VPN process and settings. Romain Dillet has written about Algo, a free, do-it-yourself VPN from the Trail of Bits company. It is probably one of the best options I have seen. Since I am not planning to review or compare many of the DIY options, here is the link to his TechCrunch post: How I made my own VPN server in 15 minutes.
Overall, these are the three main ways to go about getting a virtual private network. You can rely on a free plan, pay a monthly fee, or download open source software and install on a cloud server (paying a monthly fee) or home server or router (one-time fee). As discussed, a future without having some sort of self-managed VPN is increasingly fraught with risk. Your privacy and data security is something you will want to add to your internet usage and costs.
If you do not plan to do it yourself and feel the free path is just not for you, then check out Express VPN as well as Pure VPN.
Additional Internet Privacy Resources
It is not always possible to change ISPs or pay for a VPN, but there are other good privacy choices. Take a look at the free and well-rated tool from the rockstars at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called Privacy Badger. While free, the foundation does encourage and accept donations to support its Privacy Badger work.
According to the EFF FAQ: “Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web. If an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger automatically blocks that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser. To the advertiser, it’s like you suddenly disappeared.”
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/06/20/is-a-vpn-worth-it/
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Is A VPN Worth It?
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Is A VPN Worth It?
This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
A VPN offers users an extra layer of privacy, but there are other virtues to using one. (photo:... [+] Getty) Getty
The reality around internet privacy is that there is no perfect shield or protection. A VPN will not cover your every need for privacy and security while browsing or using the internet, but it is one way to start securing your time on the internet and reclaiming access to your personal data. The internet is still a wild frontier where your explorations put you at risk. But a VPN will lower that risk.
There are so many solid VPN providers, but three of the market leaders are NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PureVPN. Each offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can test with assurance.
Even with everything I have written in this VPN series, I have had conversations with a handful of friends about if a VPN is really worth it. Most of them have felt that, yes, it is worth it. Some of them have told me they go about it differently using the TOR browser for additional privacy and anonymity, but my experience with TOR is my high-speed connection drops to barely breathing. Both are worth a look if you find that a VPN is not worth it for you.
Here are two main reasons why I believe it is worth it to sign up with a VPN service:
Your privacy matters.
If nothing else, getting started with a VPN starts you thinking about how insecure and valuable your data is to others. If you read only a few of the posts in this series, and the related links, you will discover that the large tech companies, among others, have been selling your data. Anything you can do, that I can do, to reduce that data transfer improves our digital well-being.
At the very least, a VPN will help to cut down your ISP (internet service provider) snooping on you. In addition, many people report that accessing their bank or other websites from public Wi-Fi locations (hotels, cafés, airports) are when they get hacked.
It is important to note that a VPN will not secure your information once you start sharing it if that website or business is breached. For instance, a VPN will not keep your information from being shared if Facebook, or your bank, or your credit card company, is breached by hackers. It is equally critical that you decide how you will share information with any business.
It is not that hard or expensive to set up a VPN service.
It is true that your security is only as good as the actual service you install or purchase (rent, really, since it is a monthly service fee). As I pointed out in an earlier VPN story, there are free services. While I have often agreed with many others who say “you get what you pay for,” there are high-quality free VPN services that can help you secure your internet travels. Do they improve when you pay? Quite often, yes. But if spending an extra $100 to $200 per year for a VPN is breaking your bank, then embrace and use the free services. Add to that some of the ideas that additional privacy links suggest at the end of this post.
Over time, I believe we will have to be more vigilant in managing our personal, private data. The government and public and private companies are not likely to do the heavy lifting. Some of the very people making those decisions do not truly understand what they are doing or the impacts their decisions will have on our future. So take your future into your own hands and ask yourself if a VPN is worth it.
I think you will find the answer is yes.
Resources If You Are Still Unsure If A VPN Is Worth It:
Again, a VPN will not make you completely anonymous. If that’s what you are after, research and visit the Tor Project. This excellent service is of the Firefox browser with privacy issues fixed. They invented what’s known as “onion routing” (think: layers) to give internet users as much privacy as possible. The core idea was to route traffic through multiple servers and encrypt it each step of the way.
If your main concern about using a VPN is to increase your security against government surveillance, I would strongly encourage you to dig in on the PrivacyTools.io website. They discuss a number of issues around where servers are based, country-specific data and tips, and a host of other security topics.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/07/03/best-iphone-vpns/
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Best iPhone VPNs
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Best iPhone VPNs
This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products and experiences we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
The best VPN for iOS should also work with Android devices. Getty
When it comes to security and protecting your data, Apple ranks high. However, while iOS may have a reputation for being more secure, cybercriminals and hackers often target (and breach) iPhones and iPads. Having a virtual private network (VPN) dedicated to iPhone or iPad is worth the investment as a way to increase your security on the internet.
I have been reviewing a variety of top-level VPN providers in the past few weeks and evaluating why you should get a VPN in the first place. Many of the best VPNs for Windows or PC—including NordVPN and TunnelBear—already support for iOs devices as well as for the Mac OS. Here are some of the best VPNs for iPhones and iPads:
TunnelBear is a top choice for iOS users—with 4.6 rating on the App Store and almost 28,000 reviews. This is one of the simplest VPNs to setup and maintain, so if you want something you do not need a manual for, TunnelBear may be your best choice. The fee is $60 per year.
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CyberGhost is a new addition in my research and I have found it has a good privacy policy, including a no logs feature for storing personal data. It also has a terrific price of $2.75 per month when you commit to three years, so $99 total with an impressive 45-day money-back guarantee.
MORE FOR YOUGoogle Issues Quality Warning For Millions Of Google Photos UsersApple’s Massive iPhone 13 Upgrades Suddenly ‘Confirmed’ In New LeaksRecord-Breaking New Smartphone Tech Outguns Samsung Galaxy And Apple iPhone
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For gamers, VyprVPN is considered to be one of the fastest VPNs. It also has excellent apps, including for the iPhone. The fee for Vypr is $80 yearly with only a short three-day trial. VyperVPN is based in Switzerland and my Benefits Of A VPN post explains the important features you want in a Virtual Privacy Network.
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NordVPN is one of the most popular VPNs for Windows, MacOS, Linux—and iOS apps. It also has one of the best reputations in the industry and pricing to match: if you subscribe for three years, the cost is $2.99 per month (or $107.55 for the year). I like that the app lets you browse servers using a map. You can also connect up to six devices with a single account.
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The Express VPN offers a 12-month plan for $12.95 per month, but that drops to $99.95 per year if paid annually. This is one of the more expensive options on this list, but Express VPN is one of the best reputations and service ratings. A single ExpressVPN subscription comes with easy-to-use apps for every device you own. Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, routers, and more. It comes with the industry standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
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Private Internet Access (PIA) is another big player in terms of reputation and pricing. PIA offers a two-year special of $3.11 per month (with three months free), or $83.87 for two years. Their iOS app is straightforward after you login—pick a server and you are in their secure VPN tunnel to your destination website.
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IPVanish is one of the faster VPN services I have reviewed. Its VPN server footprint of 1,300 VPN servers across 75 locations is part of how it maintains those speed ratings. IPVanish offers unlimited bandwidth on 10 simultaneous connections on multiple devices. The paid plan is $6.49 per month (or $77.99 annually) with a seven-day money-back guarantee.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/07/10/review-expressvpn-vs-nordvpn/
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Review: ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN
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Review: ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN
This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
Stay safe and protect your data with a VPN. Getty
In the world of virtual private networks (VPN), ExpressVPN and NordVPN are two of the biggest competitors slugging it out to keep your internet activity safe.
You cannot lose with either one, but here’s how to decide which VPN is ideal for you. Start by looking at the two most important criteria—speed and price. Then explore other vital features such as a No-Logs policy and supported platforms.
VPN Speed
Almost more than price, anyone who has considered a VPN asks if their internet speed will be slowed down by using a VPN. The answer depends on a variety of factors, but in general, for most of those I have evaluated your internet speed is rarely an issue. In my speed test review, both NordVPN and ExpressVPN are in the list of “top five fastest VPN providers,” with NordVPN often coming out ahead, but only slightly.
The number of servers that a VPN provider has, as well as the number of countries in which those servers reside, will impact speed. NordVPN has almost 6,000 servers in more than 60 countries. ExpressVPN has 3,000-plus VPN servers in 94 countries. When you look at the full list of servers and countries for each of these providers, you will see that some VPN protocols are in one country but not another, so that could impact your decision as well (for both speed and security).
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VPN Price
Both services offer a 30-day guarantee, so you are safe to try either NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
At press time, the most popular NordVPN package is available when you subscribe for three years—$2.99 per month, billed annually at $107.55. That price rivals most one-year subscriptions at other VPN services.
Express VPN drops its standard $12.95 per month to $8.32 per month when paid annually for $99.95. Again, while higher, your location and access to its servers may make them the best for your needs.
No-Log Policy and Privacy
As I pointed out in the Benefits Of A VPN post, a No-Log Policy is critical to your internet safety. It is tough to figure out who actually does what they say—as in keeping no record of your internet traffic. A VPN is not a perfect solution: No service can truly protect your every move online. However, unless you are intentionally breaking the law, you are going to be safer with a VPN than without.
Again, both of these providers maintain no-log policies for traffic. NordVPN edges slightly ahead of ExpressVPN because it keeps no connection logs (date you connect, plus server used) whereas ExpressVPN does. This is a super-fine point for only the most privacy-minded. For most users, it is a wash in my opinion. You are still pretty hard to track at either VPN.
Supported Platforms
Both providers have a robust list of operating systems/platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS (iPhone and iPad apps), Android, Linux and Router.
Bottom Line
Overall, NordVPN wins on lowest price, but ExpressVPN may have a server or VPN protocol that serves your privacy needs. Each app offers a simple, elegant interface. I like that ExpressVPN just connects to the closest, best location automatically. NordVPN connected slightly faster to what its calls a “smart location.” Both offered the ability to tweak the settings and manually change VPN protocols, and turn a “kill switch” on or off, which is vital.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/07/11/best-vpn-services/
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Best VPN Services
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Best VPN Services
This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
Protect your internet privacy with a VPN or virtual private network. photo: Getty Getty
Each year, Mary Meeker—the renowned venture capitalist from Bond Capital, known for her Internet Trends Report—reveals the most vital topics businesspeople need to know about. Halfway through Meeker’s presentation this year, she noted there is concern around security and privacy. In the first quarter-year alone, 87% of global web traffic was encrypted (compared to 53% in 2016).
As consumers seek more privacy, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), which do that encryption, will be one of the ways consumers use to keep their online communication safe and secure. Here is a list of some of the more reliable VPNs that I have found in this series.
Even though I have mentioned some of the best VPN services in other posts in this series, I have yet to mention Norton’s VPN service, which starts at $4.99 a month for one device. (It jumps to $7.99 for up to five devices.)
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NordVPN is regularly at the top of many Best VPN lists because of a large feature set as well as probably the best pricing available. They have a “no logs” policy (which is standard for most of my selections as it is an important criterion, in my book). It allows you to connect up to six devices at the same time. Plus, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. In order to get the best price you have to subscribe for three years, but that price for 36 months rivals most one-year subscriptions at other VPN services ($2.99 per month, billed annually for a total of $107.55).
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Another top “no logs” provider is Express VPN , which offers a 12-month plan for $12.95 per month, but drops to $99.95 per year if paid annually. Express VPN provides a robust feature set, including the well-known kill switch that terminates your connection if a breach or disconnect occurs during your internet session through their service. I wrote about the kill switch in the Benefits of a VPN post. A single ExpressVPN subscription comes with easy-to-use apps for every device you own—Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, routers and more. Industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
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PureVPN has been around for a long time and has terrific ratings (as do many of the others here) on Trustpilot, an online review and rating site. Most reviewers comment on the excellent customer service in addition to the full feature set for VPN services. Regular pricing is only $3.33 per month (paid annually). Not to be beaten by competitors, PureVPN has a 31-day satisfaction guarantee.
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TunnelBear VPN is a rarity on this list, offering a free plan. As with other VPN services, the longer you subscribe the better the pricing. TunnelBear’s one-year plan is $4.99 per month but must be paid annually, at $59.88 a year. They have unlimited data for five connected devices. Based out of Toronto, the company uses industry-standard OpenVPN protocol on Windows, Mac, and Android devices. In 2018, TunnelBear was acquired by industry cybersecurity giant, McAfee, so that’s a signal for their reliability going forward.
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IPVanish is often reported to be one of the fastest VPNs on the market. With more than 1,300 VPN servers in 75 locations, it has a healthy footprint to provide that speed. Like other VPNs recommended here, it has a zero-traffic-log policy and offers unlimited bandwidth on ten simultaneous connections on multiple devices (apps for all devices). IPVanish only offers a 7-day money-back guarantee compared to others’ 30- or 31-day offers. (The paid plan is $6.49 per month or $77.99 annually.)
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Clearly, Fastest VPN is seeking to be the world leader in lowest prices (outside of free VPN services). Its prices are quite low if you opt for a five-year subscription—for a total $49.95 for 60 months. Most of the industry-standard features are included, with up to ten different devices allowed simultaneously.
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ProtonVPN is on its way to becoming a major player in the VPN space. It offers a free plan with limited access, but the paid plans are affordable and competitive. A basic plan starts at $4 per month.
And as Mary Meeker would no doubt tell you, you can’t put too high a price on internet security.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/07/28/looking-for-a-side-hustle-or-freelance-gig-check-out-these-sites/
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Looking For A Side Hustle Or Freelance Gig? Check Out These Sites
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Looking For A Side Hustle Or Freelance Gig? Check Out These Sites
Last summer, I wrote about how 57 Million U.S. Workers Are Part Of The Gig Economy. That is a lot of the U.S. employee base basically doing a side hustle of some sort, a part time or maybe even full time gig or project as a freelancer. I think that is a big deal. It says a lot about our entrepreneurial energy, about our economy, about a number of things, but I find it amazing all the way around.
CARDIFF, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 21: A Uber Eats worker rides a bike through the city centre on May 21, ... [+] 2019 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images) Getty Images
In that post, I cited Steve King and how the gig economy is booming. Steve is the owner of Emergent Research, and creator of the Small Business Labs blog, and is one of the top researchers and reporters on the gig economy. If you are studying the idea of joining the gig economy as a side hustle, or as a startup, I link to a few of his posts on the subject in the 57 Million Workers post.
More than one third (36 percent) of U.S. workers are in the gig economy, which works out to a very large number of approximately 57 million people. TJ McCue
A side hustle or freelance gig, for many, is when you are between full-time jobs or cannot find a new job after a layoff, or just need more flexibility than a traditional job can provide. So, you go freelance and string together jobs on a short-term, contract basis. Some people do it to supplement a full time income.
I went back to Steve to ask him for some recommendations on sites that help you find a freelance gig or side hustle. He gave me the first five on the list below and I added a few more that are popular, plus a few additional resources on Forbes.
MORE FROMFORBES ADVISORBudgeting On A Variable Income In The Gig EconomyByRebecca LakecontributorWhat You Can Learn From The Most Lucrative Side HustlesByKristin StollerForbes Staff
Moonlighting.com: Has a wide range of categories, see below. Their mobile app is quite good. Feels almost like a combination of Upwork and Fiverr. Here are their eight main categories with some examples:
Home and Handyman: Plumbers, Landscapers, Painters Tech and Web: Graphic Design, Web Development, and Social Media Experts Family: Cleaners, Tutors, Childcare, House Sitting, Dog Walking Transportation: Drivers, Movers, Mobile Mechanics Business Services: Accountants, Data Entry Events: Photographers, Event Planners, Caterers, DJs Artisan: Artists, Creative Writers, and Interior Designers Health and Fitness: Personal Trainers and Caregivers
Wonolo: On-demand staffing with 300,000-plus pre-screened workers. Wide range of categories. They hire hourly workers for events, retail, and warehousing, among others. Gig Walk: This company is used mostly by retailers and brands to check out their channels and products. The workers (gig walkers) often use their mobile phones to take pictures (retail displays, pricing, etc.). They have a network of 1.5 million Gig Walkers. Thumbtack: I’d say this one is Craigslist merged Fiverr or Upwork. The site says you can “find local professionals for pretty much anything.” Rover: This looks like a great service for urban dwellers and busy professionals. If you want to be a dog walker or sitter, this site might help you jumpstart your local business. Site states: “Book trusted sitters and dog walkers who'll treat your pets like family.”
Of course, some of the heavy hitters include Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, Freelancer, and one of my favorites, FlexJobs (they vet each listing, so you know it either allows remote or part time work, among other criteria you can select). LinkedIn lets you sort by temp or contract work, but I haven’t been impressed by their search results.
Some of the Forbes and other resources I mentioned:
Pretty much anything Elaine Pofeldt writes here is inspiring and helpful. Lots of ideas for solopreneurs. She is the author of The Million-Dollar, One Person Business, that looks “at how everyday Americans are breaking $1 million in revenue in businesses with no employees besides the owners” according to her bio. I read her book recently and loved it. Chloe Brooks on Medium has a great article on 10 Unconventional Ways to Find Freelance Gigs in which she lists a few terrific freelancer newsletters that are worth the read alone. How To Start A Business on Forbes. This interesting piece by Aliza Licht profiles a number of people who have started side gigs: How To Start A Side Hustle: The New Must-Have Career Accessory.
If you have been thinking about starting a side hustle of some sort, whether part time or full time, this list of services and resources can help you focus in on your core area or niche. Let me know if there's a service you have used that I should include in a future post.
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852f8776c94e4f85a81228745b838457
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/09/27/print-books-versus-ebooks-which-do-you-prefer/?sh=446f8ee223e2
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Print Books Versus Ebooks: Which Do You Prefer?
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Print Books Versus Ebooks: Which Do You Prefer?
Ebooks and audiobooks have been growing in popularity for years, despite calls from traditional print book lovers that they are an abomination. That’s a bit of sarcasm as I often hear from my friends and family that “only print” can satisfy their need for proper reading. One must feel the paper.
However, the wonderful folks at the Pew Research Center published a very timely bit of research this week as I started a post about an Ebook reader that I like, Libby, by Overdrive. The Pew post: One-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks (link at end). In it, Andrew Perrin shares:
“Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats, and the use of audiobooks is on the rise. Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. adults (72%) say they have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8-Feb. 7, 2019. Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 65% of adults saying they had read a print book in the year before the survey.”
Have You Met Libby? This Ebook Reader Is Awesome
So, let’s get to the practical part of this post: You need an ebook reader app or an audiobook player. I highly recommend Libby, from OverDrive, because it works with over 43,000 libraries and schools in 75 countries. It is arguably the largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks and other digital media (outside of Amazon, I’d guess). You can add multiple library card accounts to it, including your high school or college accounts, as well as public libraries.
Screenshot of Libby Library App Forbes TJ McCue main page Libby from Overdrive
Of course, there are many other popular ebook reader apps that you probably have already installed. Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, and Apple Books. But I would suggest that Libby is one to use to save yourself some money, but more so, to support the great library system we have here in the USA. It works well, is rated highly (#4 in the iOS App Store with over 550,000 reviews for a total 4.8 rating; it also has an Editor’s Choice rating on Google Play).
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Libby can also send your library-borrowed ebooks to your Kindle app, just in case you cannot manage to download another app. You can use it in different browsers if you are logged into your public library directly (this may depend on options your local library configures for its patrons).
Libby Library App Forbes TJ McCue dash Libby
There is also a Windows 10 app that works decently well. You can see in the screenshot above that I borrowed Austin Kleon’s book: Steal like an Artist. I had his newest book, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, on hold, but couldn’t wait for the library waitlist so I bought it on Amazon (no affiliate link). Totally worth buying. I see that as part of what libraries make possible - taste and see, then decide that you want it in your digital collection forever. Samples don’t quite give you enough.
NOTE: Hang tight for my post on another great extension to save you money on ebooks. I’ll update this post shortly with the link. I realized that I did not reload this Firefox extension when I shifted to Windows 10 (there’s one for Chrome, too).
37 percent say they only read print books
I will close with acknowledging my rabid, paper-loving fam and friends are right. Paper is potentially a more satisfying way to experience a book. But my position: it is heavy and cumbersome to carry. The Pew research explains that relatively few Americans only consume digital books to the exclusion of print. While the subheading about 37 percent of Americans say they read only print books does not surprise me, I would like to suggest we, as print and digital readers combined, help fix the saddest statistic in this study: that approximately one quarter of Americans haven’t read a book in any format in the past year. That statistic alone, if fixed or improved, would certainly change the world.
You can read the full Pew Research post: One-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks.
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f5b569e3c707a6238d6058621fe29a1b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/02/28/how-to-wireless-print-from-your-iphone-ipad-or-android-smartphone/
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How To Wireless Print From Your iPhone, iPad Or Android Smartphone
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How To Wireless Print From Your iPhone, iPad Or Android Smartphone
The person standing at the counter is a bit frantic. He is trying to explain to the clerk that his USB stick will not work in the copier and he has to print this document right now. Standing there, the clerk seems to be at a loss for how to help the customer. The tension builds.
Man sending a photo to wireless printer. Cloud print concept Getty
I am standing behind this customer waiting to ask my own question for a bulk print job. The person in front of me is holding a smartphone, so I interrupt and ask if he can simply email the file to the retailer’s copy center address. Yes, of course, says the clerk.
Smartphones can do an amazing array of tasks. We all know that, but when our traditional method of doing something gets flipped upside down it can stump us. Even some of the younger generation look at me oddly when I ask if they ever print from their phones: “What’s print?”
Here are the best apps and methods to get started with wireless printing from your phone
In testing different apps, I have found that the major printer manufacturers have done a good job of making both iOS and Android-capable apps that can get the task done easily. HP, Epson, Brother, Canon, Xerox and many others have custom apps to connect with their machines.
Wireless Printer Apps on Google Play store includes all the major manufacturers with their own in-house printer apps (which also let you order ink, of course). I have used both the HP Print Service Plugin (top rated one) and the Brother iPrint&Scan and even though it can sometimes take a bit of fiddling with both the wireless network and the app’s permissions on the network, they work great. I have installed and tried the Google Cloud Print app a few times and not found it as easy, but it could be my older printers.
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HP Smart on the Apple App Store is the top-rated productivity app for wireless printing (varies between #16 and #21 over the last few looks), but has over a million reviews for a total 4.8 rating. No other printer apps in the top 25. Since HP dominates the desktop inkjet and laser printer world, there’s a good chance you own one. If not,
All that said, Apple does have its own AirPrint that promises no new apps to download or drivers to configure. I didn’t have my Apple device to test with, so I’ll take their word. You can read about AirPrint here and scroll through the crazy l-o-n-g list of compatible printers here or just trust that they have your back unless you bought your printer before iOS even existed, in that case, time to upgrade.
Just in case you do not have a printer, no problem - the big box retailer copy centers have you covered. I have not seen regular printers at Walmart, but their photo centers allow you to print from your phone (see below).
Staples offers an instruction page that includes Google Cloud Print and AirPrint.
Office Depot / Office Max has instructions for using their centers that includes, like FedEx, how to email your documents/files to them.
FedEx Print and Go (Copies, too) options including how to email, which I have always found very useful and fast. It is done before you get there. They also have their Print It app for iOS and Android.
Walmart uses the Mailpix app (good reviews on both iOS and Android) which lets you print at Walmart, but also at CVS pharmacy, Target, Walgreens and DUANE reade drugstores. If you have an online Walmart account, you can upload your photos to the store directly from your computer or smartphone with their app.
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8e5cc706122d171ee4560df7f2e2c52b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/13/5-essential-coronavirus-work-from-home-tech-tips/?ss=5g
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5 Essential Coronavirus Work From Home Tech Tips
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5 Essential Coronavirus Work From Home Tech Tips
Working from home used to seem like the dream way to get your work done. Until you had to do it. Then you wondered what was in the fridge, if the postal mail arrived yet, or one of a dozen other easy distractions to make up for the solitude. Well, that reality is now being forced upon many of the world’s workers in ways that were not expected or wanted.
A man from a company based in North Brabant is working from home and watching and advised from the ... [+] company, during the Coronavirus crisis in The Netherlands, on March 13th, 2020. (Photo by Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images
How do you turn remote work into a productivity boon and more pleasant experience?
Most companies consider this to be a temporary situation, although there are pundits claiming that this will kick off a more permanent and steady work from home trend. I am not so sure. There’s plenty of reasons why many people want to work from an office, with other people, despite the commute times and human challenges. We are social beings. Most of us, anyway.
Some of the basics based on years of personal experience as well as advice I have received over the years, some tech-ish, some human-ish:
Get dressed. Working in your pajamas sounds cool, but you will feel a bit lazy and too relaxed. Plus, if you start a work call and hit the video button by mistake, well… Carve out a dedicated work area, even if it is temporary during this Coronavirus situation. A separate workspace is healthy as well as keeping to your regular work routine, even though you are not in the office. Plus, it lets you close the door and leave work behind. Replicate your office work tech as much as possible. If you work with two screens, haul them home for this time. If you don’t have two screens, why not? Since you might not have an ergonomic desk and chair setup at home, plan to take more physical breaks to get up, stretch, move around. Avoid the fridge, though. Keep your normal coffee break and lunch time, but avoid distractions. Get noise-cancelling headphones if you need to listen in to a conference call and your kid is running around. Or read about Krisp below. Or, get good and fast with that mute button. By the way, unfair or not, I am presuming you have high-speed, reliable internet.
Okay, to the five solid tech options:
Video Calls with Zoom
On the tech front, video calls can make a remote work day feel more connected. Accounts are free for the basic plan, if your company does not already have a corporate one. Zoom is amazing and, well, I would recommend another if there was a better one. Some folks still swear by Skype and some even claim FaceTime can be a great alternative. Zoom is packed with features and is fast with clear audio and video. Record the calls so participants who cannot attend can listen in later.
Collaboration with Slack
Lots of telecommuters, remote work types tell me they like Slack, which brings together messaging, and a single place for files, attachments. I’m not a fan personally, but if your company does not already use it, then you can create a free level plan and invite people into it. Think of it as the replacement for email, except you still have email, plus Slack.
Google Docs and Sheets
My preferred method these days may appear a bit clunky, but I use Google Docs or Sheets and let people collaborate. There is a chat feature (which is not that elegant, frankly). There are add-on tools, like Voice Typing that I wrote about last year, but Zapier has an excellent, long list of helpful add-ons. If you haven’t heard of Zapier, read this: Zapier Is The Web Service That Will Make Your Productivity Soar.
WordPress P2
Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, built and has a free, group collaborative space called P2. It’s free and can be hosted on Wordpress or self-hosted (meaning you have your own blog hosted, say, at Bluehost, and you want to collaborate with others — you can download the theme and install it).
Try Krisp If You Do Not Have Noise-cancelling Headphones
Hat tip to Matt from WordPress for the shoutout about the Krisp app that lets you mute background noise during calls. Free for 60 minutes free per week. If you use Krisp for iOS, Apple users get 240 minutes free per week. What? Platform discrimination, in my view.
You can listen and speak without noise. I have not wrapped my head around how it works yet, but the site states: “World’s Best Innovative Noise Cancellation Technology Powered by Deep Neural Network.” They promise they will not store or send any of your calls; it is all processed on your machine.
Two non-tech resources:
Time has this excellent piece on how the tech is not enough to quell the human spirit that needs contact. Hint: Even introverts need human connections. Read: The Coronavirus Is Making Us See That It's Hard to Make Remote Work Actually Work.
Fast Company created a practical guide to the human side of remote work: How to set up remote teams during coronavirus.
Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus
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c5494e233692a63be942b7fbebeccc1b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/05/29/the-best-grammar-checker-may-help-you-get-promoted/?sh=55310bc9163d
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The Best Grammar Checker May Help You Get Promoted
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The Best Grammar Checker May Help You Get Promoted
Text with errors Always Check For Spelling Mistakes typed on vintage typewriter with copy space. Getty
Clear communication is often mentioned as a path to career advancement, writing, in particular. Teachers, not only those of the English language but in most subjects, will advise students to improve their writing. Most computer and mobile users have spellcheck running to pick up simple mistakes. Catching grammatical mistakes is not as easy to do.
Last October, I wrote about two writing tools that can help you find the perfect word (OneLook and Related Words). Both excellent tools, but neither of them helps you with grammar and the other parts of writing that can leave you stumped. However, the king of writing assistants, outside of having a teacher or professor by your side, is Grammarly. The web-based tool is practically everywhere, for businesses, students, and for any professional looking to up her or his game.
According to a recent Forbes post, the company is trying to serve nonprofits during COVID-19: Exclusive: Grammarly Is Giving Nonprofits Its Writing Tools For Free Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic. The company is in its eleventh year with over 20 million daily users. They provided a free one-week media trial to its premium level for me to take a deeper look. I can see where it would be useful to pay for the premium-level service, but the free plan is quite robust and helpful if you do not want to upgrade. You can get it for just about every operating system, every browser, and on mobile.
I tested out their relatively new “Tone Detector” feature within Gmail — the tool tells you if your tone is friendly, or formal, or optimistic, among others, so it is rather handy and tells you if you are putting out an unintended vibe before hitting send. The best part? It is part of the free plan.
Here are several other cool features beyond some of the basic writing tips you get with Grammarly.
Goal-setting: This free feature is powerful and something I started to appreciate after I started using the service. Writing varies by the audience, as well as by formality level, so you can adjust these (as below). You can also select the tone you want in this area. If you go to the Grammarly site, login, you will then come to the dashboard that allows you to upload a Word document (or cut and paste from another program). It will then bring up this screen you see below to tailor the writing advice. I could not find how to do this from a Google Doc but that portion appears to be in beta. You could cut and paste here or save the Google Doc as a Word file, however, then upload it). Other goal options are premium level only, however, but the basic ones are excellent writing aids.
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Grammarly Set Goals screenshot TJ McCue Grammarly Set Goals Screenshot TJ McCue
Synonyms on mobile: Grammarly Keyboard for mobile is far better than I expected. I am a fan of the swipe functionality, so I didn’t think it would have it, but it did. That’s a big plus. Added to that is a terrific synonym suggestion tool as you type out a text or email.
The next two features are Premium level only, but one of the reasons that business and education users sign up — plagiarism checks and an advanced feature for consistency.
Plagiarism checker: Duplicating text we’ve seen on the internet or social media can happen to the best of us. Grammarly’s plagiarism checker can detect plagiarism from billions of web pages (as well as from ProQuest’s academic databases) and highlight passages that might require citations. Consistency: Keeping your spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and acronym usage consistent can make your writing look more professional and polished.
Overall, Grammarly is one of the top online writing assistants and grammar checkers because they continue to innovate beyond a web page where you can enter text and get some basic feedback. There is nothing wrong with those tools - but the funny thing is they are ad-based websites and guess which advertisement shows alongside the web-based grammar checkers? Grammarly. Enough said, I mean, written.
By the way, that helping you get promoted part in the headline? Back in 2013, Grammarly did its own small study of LinkedIn profiles and found fewer grammar mistakes often meant higher positions. Fewer grammar errors correlate with more promotions. You can read about it here on Forbes: Grammar Influences Your Income.
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eb90832c769e89d0d5dd6a9c28785d1d
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/12/31/lock-down-your-phone-the-new-york-times-privacy-project-revelations/?sh=5612aab42bd6
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Lock Down Your Smartphone: The New York Times ‘Privacy Project’ Revelations
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Lock Down Your Smartphone: The New York Times ‘Privacy Project’ Revelations
There is no privacy, no security, no practical way to be entirely “untrackable,” except to disconnect completely from your mobile phone and web use. In a bombshell study and detailed post, The New York Times team, Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel, uncovered how location tracking leaves every single one of us incredibly vulnerable “people from nearly every neighborhood and block, whether they live in mobile homes in Alexandria, Va., or luxury towers in Manhattan.”
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 29: A man checks his cell phone as he waits in line to enter the U.S. ... [+] Supreme Court to view a hearing November 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Carpenter v. United States today on whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment by collecting a criminal suspect's cellphone location and movement data without a warrant. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Getty Images
There are some options to protect yourself, of course, but each of them takes awareness, effort, and repeated effort because the tech companies responsible for protecting our privacy are not necessarily doing a great job. What can you do to increase your location security? Here are a few ideas:
Get a VPN. I have reviewed a bunch of the best services and they can help, but not eliminate your risks. If you take only one step, a VPN can be a great start. Some of the best keep tabs on your apps to keep them from revealing your location among other data points.
For the iOS / iPhone readers here are some steps from Forbes contributor Davey Winder reported on how even the Apple iPhone is spying on you: Your iPhone Is Spying On You — Here's How To Stop It.
If you use an Android smartphone, go to Settings, Biometrics and Security (depending on your latest operating system and phone), scroll down to Privacy and you should see a Location button that lets you toggle it off or on. You would think that a master switch would cover it, but not true. Just below that is an “App Permissions” item, then Location, and you will see dozens of apps that have access to your location data, by default. You have to go one-by-one to clean up your location profile.
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Get a more secure pocket: What is a Faraday Cage?
Your mobile carrier logically knows where you are because it keeps you connected between cell phone towers. This makes sense, but in my mind, they do not need to know my exact route. I can make my cell phone available to the tower as I see fit — and do so in bursts, by using a signal blocking bag known as a Faraday Cage or Bag. The Times piece points out: “Telecom companies were recently caught selling that data to companies that then resold it to bounty hunters, who used it to find phones in real time. The telecom companies have since pledged to stop selling the data, but they still collect it.”
Managing settings and permissions can be a drag. I have been researching simple ways to secure your privacy with wearable items. The idea of a cell phone signal jamming pocket, sleeve, or bag intrigues me. The well-known maker supply site, Adafruit, sells the signal blocking material with instructions on how to make a cell phone blocking pocket.
Or you can buy one of these elegant bags from Silent Pocket or this super inexpensive plastic bag that looks pretty durable from United States Plastic Corporation (no affiliate links).
One more step to lock down your location: Opt out of Advertising (Ad) Personalization
Apple and Google both have options. Within general Settings on an Android phone, choose Google option in the menu, then Ads. You can opt out by clicking the button. For Apple, Settings, Privacy, then Advertising option at the bottom of the screen.
The writers end with a quiet, somber call to action: Congress needs to act.
“The companies profiting from our every move can’t be expected to voluntarily limit their practices. Congress has to step in to protect Americans’ needs as consumers and rights as citizens.
“Until then, one thing is certain: We are living in the world’s most advanced surveillance system. This system wasn’t created deliberately. It was built through the interplay of technological advance and the profit motive. It was built to make money. The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself.”
The lengthy and in-depth study called The Privacy Project is here: Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy. Naturally, they link over to a second post filled with a few helpful tips: Freaked Out? 3 Steps to Protect Your Phone.
If you have been sleeping about your own online security, your mobile phone security, let’s make 2020 the year you wake up, the year I wake up, and seek privacy changes that protect each of us. Again, these steps and tips will not always cover everything about securing your location, but it is a strong start. Let me know if you have any other tips or ideas for stopping or minimizing location tracking.
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11979ff25044b534c81206ae5d020d69
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/12/31/yikes-here-is-what-happens-when-you-respond-to-spam-emails-plus-five-tips/
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Yikes! Here Is What Happens When You Respond to Spam Emails, Plus Five Tips
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Yikes! Here Is What Happens When You Respond to Spam Emails, Plus Five Tips
Spam is tasty if you buy it from Hormel Foods, but otherwise it is junk email and a hassle. Whether you use Hotmail, Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo Mail or some other lesser-known web-based email provider, you likely face messages in your inbox that you did not want. Some of these emails are crafty and seek to get you to respond resulting in bad consequences. I share five tips for protecting yourself in 2020 from these bad actors.
(GERMANY OUT) E-Mails im E-Mailaccount mit Spams (Photo by Wodicka/ullstein bild via Getty Images) Getty
First, you give the scammer/spammer sender notice that the email made it all the way to your inbox, and not a spam folder. This is known as “phishing” and can have multiple consequences - from helping them to keep trying to confuse you.
In the Pay The Ransom Or Else post mentioned below, I shared: “Using a security program, such as, Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, Avast, or EmsiSoft, is one of the best ways to protect yourself from malware and other security viruses. Again, ransomware as a type of malware, can be devastating to an individual or corporate entity (any entity). It often spreads through phishing emails (where someone sends you a provocative message trying to get you to respond and reveal personal information) or you visit an infected website.”
Some of my 2019 Forbes posts about email and cybersecurity.
Lock Down Your Smartphone (just finished this today) Email Is Under Threat (includes info on Edison Mail) Here Is An Awesome Way To Stop Robocalls And Spam Calls: Truecaller Pay The Ransom Or Else - Two Free Ransomware Tools Can Save You
Second, and this is even more critical, the spam email leads you to an impressive copycat website so that you feel confident you are entering private information into what you think is your bank's website or some other service with your username, password, or personal information. Anything you enter, from the above information to credit card details, account numbers, are now in the spammer’s possession. The goal of these emails is to trick you into thinking that your bank sent the request when in fact it is the spammer.
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Third, just as often as phishing, a spammer is sending an attachment that contains a link to a virus or spyware that lets the bad guy (or gal) record your typing and send your information to the hacker. In addition, these people are also scraping your contacts so they gain more emails to target, thus why some of these efforts result in your friends and family asking if you sent them a virus.
These cybersecurity posts and tips can wear you down, so I thought I would share this TED Talk (above) from writer and comedian James Veitch, which is funny. However, it is not what you should do. Replying to spammers just opens more doors into your computer and digital life. So please do not reply to spam.
What To Do To Protect Yourself From Spam Emails?
You probably already have a good antivirus program. If not, do it today. Here is the list again: Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, Avast, or EmsiSoft. I love this step: Click the Report SPAM button available in almost all web-based email services today. If not, you can do it with Outlook or Apple’s Mail, too. Train that spam filter to recognize the bad stuff because it does still miss some. If you are totally fed up and feel your email provider or program is not enough, look into a service like Email by Edison (listed above in the post on Email Is Under Threat), Cleanfox (or the iPhone version here). Do not forget that some of the emails you choose to subscribe to can sometimes look like spam. Google Gmail reminds you that you can “unsubscribe” first when you click Report Spam, that keeps you from penalizing a company from which you actually wanted to receive information. Last, you can create “burner email addresses” by starting a new account on another service, but I do not recommend that. With this idea, you simply start new accounts to use when requesting info from others. It is already tough enough to keep up with the volume of emails and adding more accounts is just one more thing to maintain. Gmail lets you create unique emails that you can later filter out or delete. I will look into doing a post on that in 2020.
May you have a spam-free new year and decade.
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a63aaa85bc68a719d2c2fff1593f9907
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjwalker/2011/03/02/powerpoint-is-not-a-teleprompter/
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PowerPoint Is NOT a TelePrompTer
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PowerPoint Is NOT a TelePrompTer
Image via Wikipedia
One of the biggest misconceptions about PowerPoint is that it can and should be used as a TelePrompTer for a speaker. A TelePrompTer is a machine that newscasters use to read their scripts while looking into the camera. The TelePrompTer projects the text in front of the newscaster so that it is easily seen by the anchor, but is invisible to the viewers. Politicians also use Teleprompters. To the audience in front of the politician, the only thing visible is a clear piece of glass. But if you are standing directly in front of the Teleprompter, where the politician is standing, you can see all of the words to your speech scrolling across the glass.
There is one big, huge, gigantic difference between a TelePrompTer and a PowerPoint slide however. If you are using a TelePrompTer, your audience doesn't see the text of your speech anywhere. They have to focus on you. If you are comfortable with your words and have practiced often enough, your audience won't even know you are using a TelePrompTer. But with a PowerPoint slide, if you are reading words off of a slide, your audience can also see the words and read the words.
Now, the audience no longer needs you. Why? Because they can read silently faster than you can read aloud. You are no longer the star of the show. Instead, you are now a clumsy oaf who is just getting in the way.
A speech is a performance, like it or not. The whole trick to delivering a great performance is to not let your audience see the mechanics of your performance. If you let them see words on a PowerPoint slide, you are revealing the whole architecture of your presentation. You have taken all of the mystery out of your presentation.
This is a problem for you the speaker because you have now been reduced to the status of boring hack who is insulting the audience by reading to them, as if you were assuming your audience does not know how to read.
Think of how powerful and commanding the Wizard of Oz was to Dorothy and her gang when all they could do was focus on his image and his powerful voice. But once the wizard was revealed as the little old man behind the curtain pushing around a bunch of buttons and knobs, the image was destroyed. The mystique was removed, the power nearly destroyed.
The second your audience sees you reading words from a PowerPoint slide, you become nothing more than a little man pushing knobs around trying to fool people.
Don't let this happen to you.
When you put words up on a PowerPoint slide, the words are for you. They are tools to make your life easier as a speaker. Unfortunately, your audience doesn't care about you; they care about themselves. When you put words up on a slide and project them to your audience, you are also projecting the message that you don't care about your audience, you only care about yourself. This is not a message that will ingratiate you with an audience.
You need to use your PowerPoint slides exclusively for images for your audience that will enhance their understanding and memory of your key message points. Unfortunately, there is nothing memorable or more understandable about putting a bunch of words on a screen.
So am I saying that you now have to memorize your entire speech? No, that would be too time-consuming and counter-productive.
Am I suggesting you go out and rent an expensive Teleprompter machine for thousands of dollars before every presentation you give? No, that isn't practical either.
Instead, we here at Media Training Worldwide have devised a much more high tech, sophisticated, and state-of-the-art solution for your notes and speech outlines.
After years of laboratory research, we came up with an invention we like to call..A Piece of Paper!
That's right, a simple piece of paper-that's all you need. There is nothing wrong with using notes as a speaker. Your notes with your outline and your words are for you only. There is no reason whatsoever to let anyone else see them. As long as you can see them, then they are serving there purpose. Paper is cheap, handy, portable, replaceable, changeable, and you can cut it into any size or shape you want. Therefore, it is unlikely you can come up with anything better than a single sheet of paper.
Feel free to steal my invention; I won't sue you.
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2177ac44d0ff05552c36dc4b7386b496
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjwalker/2012/01/26/controlled-message-versus-editorial-land-grab-media-training/
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Controlled message versus editorial land grab -media training
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Controlled message versus editorial land grab -media training
Image via Wikipedia
Before every media interview, you must decide what your goal is. The vast majority of the time most people are better off focusing on a specific, 3-part message. However, they may be times when you are a part of a larger trend or news-related story where you don’t really have a specific message you care about. In these situations, you may have the following goals:
You simply want to come across as an intelligent industry expert. You want to be seen as someone who has provocative and innovative ideas. You want to solidify your reputation in the eyes of the reporter as someone who is a reliable interviewee. You want to get quotes in the story to build your name ID. You want to get better placements for your quotes than your competitors get. You want to give the reporter so many great quotes that you squeeze your competitors entirely out of the story.
For example, when a reporter calls me to ask my opinion on an Oil executive’s PR blunders or to rate the President’s Oval Office speech to the world, it is obvious the story isn’t about me. The reporter may or may not use me as a source and it is unlikely to matter a great deal to the reporter’s career. The chances of me getting multiple positive messages promoting my latest book or my company are slim. However, my chances of getting interesting and relevant quotes about the issue and that portray me in a positive light are very high. And the chances of me giving a quote that could be damaging to my career are extraordinarily low. In this case, my worst night mare is not getting quoted and seeing one of my competitors quoted.
So in this case, I adapt a completely different media strategy. In these situations, I don’t focus on a simple, three part message; Instead, I am going for a complete editorial real estate grab. I am trying to cover as many interesting insights and sound bites as possible. I’m trying to create to oratorical equivalent of the Bellagio Dinner Buffet in Las Vegas. I want the reporter to be so overwhelmed with the choices of juicy sound bites I deliver that the/she is too stuffed and tired to even call another source.
The key to this is being able to intellectualize your answers while thinking and at the same time re-processing your answers into colorful sound bites. It’s helpful to think in terms of the gut and raw emotions—it’s impossible not to speak in sound bites in this situation. I have internalized the 10 key sound bite speech patterns so it is easy for me to turn in on and off at will. You may want to keep a simple list of the 10 elements in front of you.
A word of warning is needed here: this is not for beginners. If you aren’t careful you can get yourself in a whole lot of trouble here by saying something foolish that can stain your reputation. Don’t try this at home kids! Make sure you have done more than a hundred interviews the old fashioned way before you attempt the editorial real estate land grab. But if you do decide to go for it, then go all the way: turn your mouth into one big sound bite spigot and make sure the reporter has every single media morsel he she could dream of.
For more information on media and presentation training please visit http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com, http://www.mediatrainingworkshop.com and continue reading http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/blog for news and analysis to help you communicate more effectively.
Visit Daily National.com for more news and analysis http://dailynational.com
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29334cb8b3d26c210c69077fa8ea6b7e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2019/08/01/reimagining-restaurants-how-next-gen-networks-will-fuel-next-level-customer-experiences/
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Reimagining Restaurants: How Next-Gen Networks Will Fuel Next-Level Customer Experiences
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Reimagining Restaurants: How Next-Gen Networks Will Fuel Next-Level Customer Experiences
As the digital era fuels major industry shifts and changes consumer experiences, the way restaurants operate and serve their customers could transform too. And with next-gen networks spurring even more innovation, restaurants may be rethinking how to engage—and feed—their patrons.
Restaurants don’t need to be big to take advantage of software that helps boost sales, improve customer service and make more informed managerial decisions. Getty
In the not-so-distant future, hungry customers pulling up to drive-thrus may be able to access interactive experiences and augmented reality (AR)-driven content on their smartphones before ordering. Immersive menus and customized displays are merely possibilities today, but could be a regular aspect of restaurant-going in the future.
According to industry expert Aaron Allen, founder and chief strategist at global restaurant consultancy Aaron Allen & Associates, that transformation is already underway. He predicts that the food industry is on the precipice of yet another technology-driven industrial revolution. “The fifth [industrial revolution] is going to happen faster than any of the previous ones,” he says.
And one of the main drivers behind this imminent transformation is the high speed and low latency offered by the next generation of mobile networks.
“We’re going to see IoT, automation and analytics in a completely different way,” he says. “Restaurants will also leverage robotics, facial recognition and biometrics, which will have an impact on labor management, inventory management, voice ordering and many other restaurant and food services use cases.” That list continues with potential advancements like restaurants using 3D printing, conducting remote repairs and more.
Restaurants: Act Fast
Restaurants shouldn’t wait to get moving on the latest tools and trends. While many of these technologies aren’t incorporated in companies’ operations or offerings today, Allen warns against a wait-and-see approach. He noted that, for many restaurants, tech adoption is slow—estimating it’s taken about 10 years for companies to build a social media presence in the industry. That pace might not cut it in today’s landscape.
“What will happen in the next five years will be a lot more transformative than the last 10,” he says. “It means that hundreds of billions of dollars in consumer spend and tens of billions of dollars in industry investment are migrating quite quickly to new channels, new categories, new formats. It will dramatically change the landscape of consumer foodservice globally.”
Some businesses are making moves. Allen says some restaurant CEOs are being “retired” due to a lack of confidence in their tech literacy. Understanding emerging trends and determining how to best leverage new tools are crucial items on the to-do list for any C-suite executive, whether in restaurants or not.
To that end, here are some technologies and trends—some available and others just emerging—to keep an eye on as transformation sweeps restaurants and other businesses in food services.
Dining—Jetsons Style
Innovations like beacon technology and narrowcasting deliver content to precise locations and customers. Using beacon technology—still in its infancy—a restaurant could recognize your vehicle as soon as you cross the property line.
“It takes a photograph of your license plate, and if you’ve got preprogrammed orders, you can access a different lane that allows you to bypass those that don’t know what they want,” Allen explains. “There’s a big profit bump just by shaving seconds off drive-thru orders.” Leaders in the space are catching on, with one industry giant already testing and investing heavily in similar tools.
In addition, features of narrowcasting technology are utilized today. Think digital menu boards that display menus tailored to the weather: soup when it’s cold or ice cream when it’s hot, for instance.
“Narrowcasting allows you to be your own broadcast company, but instead of broadcasting it out to everybody, you’re just narrowcasting it into your own locations,” Allen says. “You could put any program you want through it, even training. You can also use real-time pricing, so the pricing changes based on demand.”
While still emerging, biometrics and facial technology could also have relevant application for restaurants—recognizing customers or employees who enter the business in order to better serve or support them. And according to Allen, the market may soon see new wearable technology (similar to smart glasses) capable of assessing customers’ moods.
Through mood recognition, restaurants could boost customer service by customizing interactions and service based on how guests feel.
A special contact lens being developed would allow restaurant managers to see color indicators—green, yellow and red—next to each table so they can see what diners might be feeling. Restaurants could then use the information to adjust service levels, Allen says. "That’s pretty high tech, but it could be available within a three- to five-year window,” he says.
Finally, robotics is predicted to play a prominent role in restaurants, helping to tackle everything from mixing drinks to creating meals on demand to even delivering meals via busy urban sidewalks.
Competitive Advantage Through Faster Adoption
Allen suggests the foodservice industry is traditionally slow to adopt emerging technology, citing restaurants that still rely on Excel for schedules and analytics. Those antiquated methodologies need to go, he says, and advised that while restaurants don’t necessarily need to think like tech companies, it’s still beneficial to recognize that they share the same consumer. Restaurants don’t need to be big to take advantage of software that helps boost sales, improve customer service and make more informed managerial decisions.
“If you don’t start to speed up the cycle times, but your competitors do, you’ll end up losing market share,” he says. “That shift has started to happen and is pushing the reluctance of a slow-moving industry.”
Even so, transformation is taking shape, with next-gen mobile networks playing a prominent role in the fascinating innovations set to change both restaurant-goers’ experiences and business outcomes. “When you look where 5G will end up taking us, it’s a whole other world for the retail and restaurant space,” Allen adds.
To learn more about 5G mobile networks and how T-Mobile for Business is empowering businesses to innovate, check out t-mobile.com/business/trends-and-insights.
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075f2d5544111235fc54065c51358905
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2019/08/01/with-tomorrows-mobile-network-a-fruitful-forecast-for-farmers/?via=indexdotco
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With Tomorrow’s Mobile Network, A Fruitful Forecast For Farmers
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With Tomorrow’s Mobile Network, A Fruitful Forecast For Farmers
In the age of Internet of Things (IoT), farmers face a bright forecast for integrating emerging tech into their businesses. While agriculture may appear slower than other industries to evolve, many farmers are embracing innovations—from wearables for cows to artificial intelligence (AI)-based machine learning algorithms for insights on weather patterns, crop yield, soil health and more.
Tomorrow’s mobile networks could clear the way for more farmers to innovate, regardless of location. Getty
However, a big hurdle stands in the way for technology-savvy farmers: accessibility. Farms in rural areas outside of high-speed network range struggle to use the IoT platforms available for agriculture. A promising prediction? Tomorrow’s mobile networks could clear the way for more farmers to innovate, regardless of location.
According to John Kelly, chief innovation officer at the Ohio bioscience incubator BioEnterprise, higher-speed mobile networks will benefit all kinds of farmers, even those who already enjoy robust internet connectivity.
“We’re looking at all sorts of different technologies,” he says. “Whether it’s a dairy, poultry, swine or grain farm, or a greenhouse, they all can use these types of IoT technologies.”
Kelly cites a sensor technology that identifies soil type and measures moisture and consistency. “It allows for much more accurate use of fertilizers,” he explains. “In some areas, you may not need fertilizers, where others might need a little more.”
And as sensors and other cutting-edge advancements provide richer data, Kelly shares that farmers could see more possibilities for real-time insights and optimization in their businesses: “You’re being very precise in what you’re prescribing to the field.” Sensors and more accurate data could lead to increased efficiency for crop growth, higher returns for farmers and even substantial environmental benefits by preventing fertilizer overuse.
Tracking Cows With Robots
Not only can this data benefit farmers, but also it can strengthen the entire agriculture ecosystem. Dairy products manufacturers, for example, could track progress throughout the entire supply chain. Starting at the farm with the cows, individual batches of milk could be tracked as they get to the factory and then are produced into different cheeses, which are then monitored as they’re distributed to different wholesalers.
How to take the first steps toward cultivating these richer databases in modern farms? Robotics is a starting point. In dairy farms, for instance, deploying robots helps farmers collect a wealth of data to inform growth, monitoring, production and more.
One robotics company developing these high-tech solutions is Iowa-based Lely—where automated systems prioritize flexibility, cost control and efficiency for dairy farmers. “The cows all have transponders,” Kelly explains. “With those transponders, the robot will keep track of feed, milking, housing and health. It’s a real labor-saver for the dairy farm.” This may be capital intensive now, but Kelly predicts that incorporating similar innovations into the farming process could eventually pay off in efficiency gains.
Agricultural robotics may not require mobile networks today, according to Kelly, but a broader farming transformation is dependent on a connectivity boost from next-gen networks. Higher speeds could make for a more seamless farm-to-fork workflow, benefiting stakeholders including suppliers, transportation companies, veterinarians and retailers.
“The farmer will know exactly where an animal is in the production scheme and what its circumstances are,” he says. “This not only provides for a better quality product but can help in the instance of a recall. The opportunities are immense.”
In worst-case scenarios, such as a recall of produce following an outbreak of E. coli, businesses will be able to remove only the specific batches in distribution that may have been affected rather than all products, says Mike Katz, executive vice president of T-Mobile for Business. “This is just one use case, but one that will go from vision to reality very quickly with 5G,” he says.
A New Generation Of Farmers
The 5G era will support IoT use cases in two big ways: scale and connectivity, adds Katz.
“By having a network that can handle hundreds or thousands of IoT connections without fear of congestion, the data coming off sensors could be used in a more real-time fashion,” he says.
For farmers eager to innovate, Kelly stresses that the evolving agriculture industry benefits from practical application and demonstration when it comes to emerging tech. “[Before adopting], you have to make sure it works,” he says. And this testing phase can lead to smarter business decisions. “So if a new technology comes along that isn’t affordable or doesn’t improve efficiency or some circumstance of the farm,” Kelly says, “it won’t be adopted.”
Kelly believes that the success of farming in 2020 and beyond also requires entrepreneurial farmers who are ready to adapt and eager to use data in precision agriculture. For those farmers, shares Kelly, the possibilities are game-changing. “Technology is going to play a bigger role than anyone ever imagined,” he says.
To learn more about 5G mobile networks and how T-Mobile for Business is empowering businesses to innovate, check out t-mobile.com/business/trends-and-insights.
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eebca84a471ded5c9295b532a11d8c94
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2020/04/01/lessons-from-a-pandemic-we-need-distance-learning-at-the-front-of-the-class/
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Lessons From A Pandemic: We Need Distance Learning At The Front Of The Class
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Lessons From A Pandemic: We Need Distance Learning At The Front Of The Class
With governors shuttering public schools across the country in an attempt to stave off the worst impacts of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), a massive experiment in online learning is taking place right now.
Stocksy
Naturally, this is a very unsettling time for students, educators, and their parents as school administrators work to set up distance learning programs by moving classrooms fully online. For many school districts in underprivileged and rural areas, this will be particularly challenging. Even though broadband Internet access via Wi-Fi is present in 99 percent of U.S. schools today, oftentimes students don’t have similar access at home.
The good news? The U.S. Department of Education, realizing the scope of the issue, waived the traditional approval process for schools that need to set up distance learning programs in a hurry. This will eliminate a lot of red tape so educators can focus on doing what's best for their communities—without having to clear all of their actions through Washington D.C.—which could dramatically speed up the implementation of these programs. The importance of this action cannot be overstated given that, as I write this, at least 123,000 schools in 46 states are closed or are scheduled to close, affecting at least 54.8 million students for the foreseeable future.
While many school districts in America already have some type of distance learning program in place, as a former teacher and district administrator myself, I know most school districts weren’t ready to deploy the 100% remote learning environments students need today. These are truly challenging times, which is why it’s imperative for administrators to reach out to distance learning software providers to ensure every student who needs these programs can access them. And since many of these distance learning providers are cloud-based, it’ll likely be easier to expand their offerings quickly to accommodate even a very large influx of new students that are not already enrolled in these programs.
Speaking of preparedness, many of these distance learning programs already have Common Core content built-in to support literacy, math, science, etc., as well as test prep. Plus, many of these programs can be tailored to individual students’ needs and abilities—helping ensure advanced students don’t become bored and less advanced students don’t fall behind. Educators using these programs may be able to pick up from where they are in the school year without having to start over or spend significant time redesigning these programs to fit their current needs.
Another positive sign is the number of private sector companies giving back—including offers to educators and students. For eligible schools and districts with disadvantaged students who don’t have high-speed Internet at home, T-Mobile has stepped-up to offer connectivity solutions via the EmpowerED® 2.0 program. This program started long before the current pandemic, and we’re working harder than ever to ensure that every American K-12 student can access distance learning from home.
In fact, now that our merger with Sprint is complete, T-Mobile will double down to eradicate the homework gap through a $10 billion commitment to deliver free Internet access via hotspots and other reduced-cost devices to 10 million households over the next five years.
Our goal is simple: To empower the next generation of learners by building a bridge across the digital divide.
In the coming days and weeks, as we work through the impacts of COVID-19, I truly hope the lessons learned don’t go to waste. Current events illustrate more than ever the need to focus attention on a national conversation about the digital divide and how to resolve it. The problem isn’t new and shouldn’t be surprising: Too many young people do not have Internet access and it’s holding them back from reaching their full potential. These young people are our future. Without them, we will lose the cutting-edge innovators, scientists, educators, leaders, and artists that will propel America and the world into a future bright with possibility.
There’s no shortage of vision. With the rollout of nationwide 5G finally taking place in the U.S. and cloud-based distance learning programs readily available, we have an amazing opportunity to tackle this problem head-on and close the gap during a time when it matters most. But it will take a village of educators and school administrators, families, government agencies, and companies to make distance learning viable and accessible for American students. Virus or no virus, we need to make every effort to embrace this unique time and opportunity to move our education system into the 21st century.
To help students and educators today, ask your teams and your technology vendors how they’re supporting schools impacted by COVID-19, or check out the EmpowerED® 2.0 program to learn if schools in your community can apply.
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76ccf44cc5fd64ebe5ad6c83fd316a79
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2020/07/09/how-one-business-vision-for-mobile-contained-care-could-become-the-future-of-disaster-relief/
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How One Business’ Vision For Mobile, Contained Care Could Become The Future Of Disaster Relief
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How One Business’ Vision For Mobile, Contained Care Could Become The Future Of Disaster Relief
Five years before the COVID-19 pandemic gave the world a sucker punch, a small business in Utah had the foresight and ingenuity to start preparing for this exact situation.
HHI Corporation (HHI), a family-owned, 150-employee construction and manufacturing business based in Ogden, Utah, has a 49-year history working with the military and other government agencies. Their focus? Developing containment chambers to safely confine both chemical and biological agents.
HHI Corporation
Working on these types of products for the government helped HHI realize that it wasn’t a matter of if, but when, help would be needed when an infectious disease or another disaster presented itself. With no other self-sustaining biocontainment units on the market, they began developing and presenting ideas for 100% sustainable systems to various groups. Unfortunately, back in 2015, no one gave them much thought.
“We’ve been thinking about it for the past five years and proposing it to people, but nobody had interest,” said Cliff Hokanson, Executive Vice President at HHI. “Emergency management groups were not ‘gung-ho’ about this, because they said, ‘We’ll never need this’ and now today, it’s a need.”
Answering the Call in a Crisis
When the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States began to accelerate, the team at HHI grew concerned. “We saw people renovating hospitals, hotel rooms, and convention centers to handle the patient overflow while trying to keep others separated from COVID patients. When you're renovating a building and putting up plastic walls, or tents, there is no true biocontainment in that kind of situation,” says Devin Brown, Communications Manager at HHI.
Then the unthinkable happened to a member of the HHI employee family. “One of our workers’ moms went in for surgery. She was recovering fine but then she got COVID-19 and six days later she died,” says Hokanson. This spurred HHI into action. “People are sewing masks. We don’t know how to sew. We build things. This is our contribution.”
The company looked at how they might contribute on a larger scale, ultimately leading to construction of the first-of-its-kind Mobile Triage Unit (MTU). “The MTU is designed to combat COVID-19 and other infectious diseases and provide emergency medical response during disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes,” says Brown. “It can provide additional hospital beds for large events or be set up in remote or rural areas where there is limited access to healthcare facilities. It can also be used to isolate infectious diseases from the hospital, keep ICU beds free for patients in critical condition, and promote the continuation of elective procedures free from possible infection.”
Realizing the urgency due to COVID-19, HHI went into overdrive. Using their experience from designing similar systems and chemical/biomedical containment projects for the military, they modified their previous designs and built the first MTU in nine weeks.
Forgoing Millions for the Common Good
Then, one morning in March 2020, as the pandemic continued to intensify, Hokanson came to the office and called an emergency meeting. “Cliff told the team that he had a dream in which HHI had been able to maintain our projects and keep employees on the payroll during the pandemic. He said that we should give away the first Mobile Triage Unit for free,” says Brown. The team went to local media in Utah to get the word out, inviting hospitals and any organization with a strong case for the MTU to submit their request. It would be challenging to choose which hospital would receive the first $2.5 million unit for free. This caught the attention of several organizations around the world.
“Cliff told the team...that we should give away the first Mobile Triage Unit for free.” Devin Brown, Communications Manager, HHI Corp
Aaron Epstein, President of Global Surgical and Medical Support Group (GSMSG)—a 501(c)(3) organization comprised of military and ex-military doctors and nurses—heard about the MTU. GSMSG is no stranger to medical emergencies. Their group travels wherever needed to provide mobile medical support for civilians during natural disasters, or in instances of infectious diseases, such as Ebola and COVID-19.
“When I heard about the HHI MTU, I reached out to my contacts at Jackson Health System—one of the nation’s largest public health systems, in southern Florida—to see if they could use one of the units,” says Epstein. “They said ‘Absolutely!’ The second a COVID patient is identified, you must evacuate all other patients in a hospital or ER. This triage unit would allow patients to be moved outside the hospital to be treated immediately without disrupting the ER.”
“Not only is Jackson Health System overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, that area sees a lot of impact from natural disasters such as hurricanes, which impacts Florida and surrounding states, as well as the Caribbean Islands and Central America. An MTU for this region would have enduring value far past COVID-19. The ability to deploy a containerized medical facility that is up and running within hours of it arriving is a game changer,” said Brown.
The ability to serve southern Florida-area hospitals during COVID-19, plus the long-term value of assisting the region during disaster situations, made awarding the unit to GSMSG to benefit the Jackson Health System an easy choice. “With over 17,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Miami-Dade County alone, it was apparent there was an urgent need to assist this region. We truly believe this is the best system to assist medical professionals in this fight and to provide additional resources for future use,” says Regina Hokanson, President at HHI.
Welcome to Miami
Starting in early summer 2020, HHI and GSMSG will be working directly with Jackson Health System to install the MTU at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. It will then be utilized by the hospital to support the 2.7 million citizens of Miami-Dade County. And because it is a “mobile” unit, if other disasters should arise in other areas, they can pick it up and re-locate it wherever it’s needed most.
“Jackson Health System is so grateful to HHI Corporation and [GSMSG] for their generous donation of this innovative Mobile Triage Unit. This system will be essential in treating COVID-19 outpatients and will help us manage patients dealing with other infectious diseases and other emergency responses in the future.” Carlos A. Migoya, President and CEO, Jackson Health System
HHI is currently searching for more organizations around the world they can talk to about the MTU and how it can help in situations of infectious diseases, natural disasters, military front-line efforts, or other humanitarian scenarios in need of a facility. At the end of the day, HHI knows the MTU has uses far beyond the pandemic and they are working hard to support what’s next.
To learn more about what T-Mobile for Business customers are doing to innovate and thrive in times of adversity, visit T-Mobile for Business Trends and Insights.
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5beac299c2116a2cabba4009e3b2ac8e
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2020/10/05/evolving-your-small-business-5-benefits-of-5g/?sh=4ef6f6e56c78
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Evolving Your Small Business: 5 Benefits Of 5G
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Evolving Your Small Business: 5 Benefits Of 5G
5G isn’t just about a future with faster data speeds—it’s about faster business.
With the deployment of any new generation of wireless technology like 5G, the benefits will grow over time as networks expand availability and technology advances.
In order to stay ahead of the curve, businesses of all sizes—even small to medium-sized companies—need to understand the opportunities that 5G presents, especially as creative entrepreneurs begin developing innovative ways to use 5G for business and leverage its capabilities.
The very existence of 5G provides a huge opportunity for innovative ideas, new products, and services, and transformed business models. Here are just five of the ways that businesses can use 5G to improve how they do business and serve customers.
1. It can make your people more productive
5G not only has the potential to create whole new ways to work, but it may even make evolving your small business easier. With it, devices can gain powerful, low-latency connections to the cloud, so the devices themselves may not have to do as much computing. This would make it possible to use devices that are essentially a screen and a battery with a high-bandwidth connection to the cloud.
Your business could equip employees with low-power devices running powerful analytics to deliver premium services or use augmented reality to streamline warehouse management and operations.
With higher speeds and lower latency, spotty conference calls with flickering network connections will become a thing of the past. High-quality video calls, on the go, will be conducted easily. Impromptu conference calls and collaboration work can be done virtually anywhere. You and your employees can be more productive every minute of the workday.
2. It can make your sales channels more productive
Giving your salespeople a higher-bandwidth connection to the office and to customers will enhance their ability to sell. They might use augmented or virtual reality to provide more immersive experiences for customers.
On the employee training side, one benefit of 5G for business is that these new ways of communicating make it possible to train people in exciting new ways. Augmented reality, for example, enhances on-the-job training by providing the ongoing input employees need to do the job better as they start out in a new position.
Technicians can use the live feed that an augmented reality application provides to view contextual diagrams and other external assistance as they learn to work on new and different machinery.
The business cases for virtual and augmented reality continue to grow, but they will only be possible with a technology that can guarantee high-definition content, at a high frame rate, without perceptible delay. 5G will deliver that, and do it wirelessly, so even the most sophisticated virtual reality headsets will be truly mobile.
3. It can transform your customer experience
5G is designed to be dramatically faster than 4G. A video download that takes minutes with 4G would take just seconds with 5G. This kind of performance can be harnessed to transform the experience you provide to your customers.
That means media files will one day stream rapidly with virtually no lag time. In meetings, advanced capabilities such as virtual reality could become the norm for presentations. Immersive augmented and virtual reality experiences could show customers and others your new product, enabling them to view it virtually, from any angle. Or you might leverage your customers’ smart home environment to develop new services and applications that make full use of all the data that surrounds them.
Retailers could enhance their ability to let customers try on the latest styles, virtually. Customers could walk through your manufacturing processes without being on-site. Some of these things are being done already, but 5G for business will make them better and more available to any company with a creative, customer-focused idea—and might even make growing your small business easier.
4. It can connect everything
The Internet of Things (IoT) enables businesses to use new data and devices to accomplish more—whether it’s automating the alerts to HVAC technicians when systems need maintenance, or tracking every item shipped from a warehouse in real time.
5G was designed to one day support an IoT that isn’t just collecting data and sending alerts but automating actions in response to that data. An agricultural operation could, for instance, one day use low-power sensors to track the health of their crops and trigger automated actions—such as calibrating irrigation or fertilization—based on specific conditions.
From efficiently managing production remotely, monitoring warehouse inventories, and speeding deliveries to customers, 5G-powered IoT will one day help small businesses and large organizations solve problems.
5. It can create new business opportunities
New technology always drives new ideas. We are already seeing this happen in healthcare with connected physical monitors that can handle ever-increasing volumes of data and leverage artificial intelligence to identify the early stages of illness. Or the ability to add a sense of touch or feel to technology, which will one day enable remote surgery and other skilled remote work.
5G opens the door to new business models that you can create and new products and services you can offer. The ability to collect more data, more quickly, and put it to work for your business and your customers is one of benefits of 5G for businesses of every size—and may even be the genesis for a transformation of your business model.
T-Mobile provides businesses like yours with America’s largest 5G network offering more coverage than the other guys combined. We’re so confident you’ll love it, you can test drive our network free for 30 days with our No-Risk Network Trial.
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78fd81b36c85732bd97ee474af7ef005
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2020/12/18/the-growing-importance-of-upgrading-to-5g-devices/
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The Growing Importance Of Upgrading To 5G Devices
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The Growing Importance Of Upgrading To 5G Devices
Businesses have been hearing about the promise of 5G for some time now: "5G will be faster than 4G. It will change the way business is done. When 5G arrives, it will be a game changer." You get the idea. Now that's it's here, it's time for businesses to embrace the future and upgrade to 5G.
Most of the major carriers have rolled out 5G service to one degree or another. And the best part is that a lot of plans don’t charge extra to get it. This makes 5G just as affordable as today's current cell service gold standard, 4G LTE. And there’s a growing portfolio of 5G devices with a variety of features and price points—making 5G capability a draw for those looking to upgrade now.
Accessing the improved speeds and greater bandwidth that 5G provides requires a 5G compatible device (smartphone, tablet, hotspot or other hardware). In the beginning of 2020, securing one of these devices was a little harder to do because most major phone brands were just beginning to roll out their 5G line-up. Another issue with these early phones was they could be limited to just one or two of the available types of 5G service tiers (low-band, mid-band or high-band). Today's phones have fewer restrictions. And most 5G phone models can make use of different types of signals, allowing for the perfect combination of wide coverage and fast speeds in three different speed zones: fast, faster, and fastest.
Fast service (on average two times, or 100 percent, faster download speeds than 4G LTE) is provided by "low-band" 5G. Low-band signals travel long distances, but the bandwidth it can deliver is lower which translates to relatively slower speeds. But it is available almost everywhere you find a 4G LTE connection.
Faster 5G is made up of signals in the "mid-band" range. While not as widely available today as low-band, it is catching up quickly. After T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint and its extensive mid-band spectrum, T-Mobile has made a huge leap forward on mid-band rollouts. The company now offers mid-band 5G coverage to more than 410 cities and towns across the U.S. That’s 2x more coverage than AT&T and 3.5x more than Verizon.
The fastest 5G is "high-band," also commonly referred to as “millimeter wave” (mmWave). Contrary to what you might hear, mmWave 5G is not yet widely available, focusing mostly on sports venues and a few patches in urban areas. Because of the blazing speeds and near zero latency it promises, mmWave garners most of the press attention. But for the moment, the low- and mid-band spectrum make up the lion’s share of 5G coverage.
Most of today's 5G-ready phones support all three bands. If a 5G phone you are looking at does not work with all three bands, it's probably best to find one that does.
The business benefits of upgrading to 5G now
The speed and latency gains already available will give employees more options in terms of what they can do and where they can do it. For SMBs looking to improve the mobile experience of their on-site employees, work-from-home staff, and field personnel, the relative lack of mmWave should not be a deterrent.
Take video conferencing calls, for example. As good as these services have become since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, trying to conduct or join one of these calls via 4G LTE smartphone can sometimes be a frustrating experience. Logging in, even using low-band 5G, can be a marked improvement and mid-band can be even better.
Transferring large data files or watching video today via 4G LTE can also be a frustrating experience—not so with 5G. In fact, most mobile interactions your employees experience will be improved by switching to 5G. It is faster and more capable than 4G LTE. For instance, within the low-band spectrum alone, you can experience 2x faster speeds with 5G than with LTE.
According to a recent T-Mobile survey of small business owners, 5G was ranked as the most important feature for their next phone purchases—ahead of screen quality and battery life (1). This marks a turning point for the next generation of technology. In fact, 89 percent of respondents cited getting 5G on their next phone as extremely or very important.
These more capable devices will increase productivity by reducing downtime while improving the overall quality and volume of work. Employees will also benefit from something everyone needs today—less frustration. The truth is there are few things more irritating and mind-numbing than waiting. Spending money on technology that reduces stress is a valuable investment. Also, if employees are waiting, they're not working, and productivity suffers.
Price is no longer a barrier
Another good reason to switch is price. Since many 5G phones are now comparable to 4G LTE phones in cost, this makes them a good investment that future proofs one of the main tools in your technology tool kit. Since its inception in 2000, 4G LTE has gone through multiple capability updates. With each of these, only the latest generation phones were able to utilize the new capabilities. So, unless you and your teams have the latest, greatest 4G LTE phones, you are relying on less-than-optimal technology.
Given that the most SMBs refresh their phones every two or three years, now is a particularly good time to take advantage of the performance upgrade 5G represents. Even though the price of most feature-rich phones with the best cameras and most memory hover around the $1,000 mark, an entry level device from a big name maker like Apple, Samsung, Google, or OnePlus may only set you back about $500 (or less in some cases) before trade-in allowances. And with all the fantastic offers in market today, your chances of finding a more affordable 5G phone are even greater.
These latest generation phones offer better performance, more durability (e.g. Apple's latest iPhone 12 with 5G can withstand 19 feet of water for half an hour) improved battery life, better screens, and fast charging capabilities—all features that fit nicely on the pros side of a pros and cons list.
As more consumers and businesses move to 5G, services and innovation will follow. History provides a guide on what to expect. The first generation of cell phones simply carried voice calls. Then 2G allowed for texting to emerge. 3G brought with it the mobile web and 4G LTE gave mobile users access to streaming video and the app ecosystem that has come to define these devices.
5G promises even greater feature and functionality gains. Given 5G handsets are here now and every phone going forward will be 5G capable, a similar innovation curve will happen. And with mobile internet devices outnumbering people on the planet, integrated vendor ecosystems (app stores, streaming services, productivity tools, etc.) supporting these platforms, new products, and services will likely roll out at much faster pace than in the past.
And, finally, there is the employee "Yay!" factor. Employees love perks. As the tumultuous 2020 turns into 2021, what better time than now to give your teams a little pick me up? It's been a tough year for everyone, but things are looking up.
So, if it doesn't cost you more, you get more capable equipment for the same price as 4G LTE, and it helps increase employee productivity what are you waiting for? The time is now to upgrade to 5G.
T-Mobile is the 5G network leader with the widest coverage of any carrier covering more than 80 percent of Americans, providing 3.5x more coverage than Verizon, and 2x more than AT&T. Come check out T-Mobile’s 5G coverage or call one of our 5G Business Experts at 1-833-245-3150 and let us help you move up to the 5G experience today.
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7bd5bf7283ec89ef7375353b5cdee922
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2021/02/01/iot-how-its-making-small-businesses-more-efficient/?sh=46744fc6225c
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IoT: How It’s Making Small Businesses More Efficient
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IoT: How It’s Making Small Businesses More Efficient
The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest topics in business today – and whether you own a small business or a medium-sized company, it's something you'll need to understand sooner rather than later. And while the concept may seem overly complicated and somewhat nebulous, like most problems, when you break it down into a few fundamental elements, it becomes easier to understand.
shutterstock
What is IoT?
In general, IoT has one goal: to connect all the physical places and things in the world to the internet. By doing so, it will help companies of all sizes improve their systems and processes, increase efficiencies, and even open the door to new products, services, and business models.
How does IoT work?
Those “things” connecting to the internet fall into three general categories:
Things that collect and send information Things that receive and act on information Things that do both
Collect and send - In this category, you’ll find things like sensor equipment that can detect temperature, motion, light, air quality, moisture, or other environmental conditions. Sensors like this could report refrigerator temperatures in a commercial kitchen, motion sensors in a fleet operation, or even moisture levels in a storage location where the connected things require a certain humidity range. Receive and act - Collect-and-send sensors forward their information to the receive-and-act things, which are usually built into a monitoring and analytics system that lets designated humans know a specific action needs to be taken. In the commercial kitchen, for instance, if the refrigerator's collect-and-send sensor identifies a problem with temperature, the receive-and-act sensor would make the assigned person aware of the issue. This way, even if they're not in the kitchen, the person who received the alert can act quickly to help mitigate losses and ensure compliance with any local food safety regulations. Collect, send, receive and act - Those things that both collect information and act on it involve a more comprehensive form of IoT, allowing the system to adjust itself appropriately and minimize human intervention. An example might be an agricultural operation, with sensors that collect information about soil moisture and, when needed, automatically turn on the irrigation system. Going even further, a system such as this could be fed weather prediction information, so it “knows” that because rain is coming it won’t be necessary to irrigate immediately, despite a less-than-ideal soil moisture.
The benefits of IoT
While there are many small and medium-sized businesses ready to embrace IoT, others aren't quite sure where they stand – and that's OK. Because the value of new technology isn't always immediately apparent, or within budget, it can help to see others' successes with it before adopting it yourself. To date, just a few of the benefits that businesses owners have seen with IoT include:
Operational efficiency - Because sensors can provide 24/7 monitoring, companies can track performance and key metrics and make sure their equipment is functioning properly. Not only that, but the moment something is amiss, businesses can perform repairs or maintenance and minimize major disruptions caused by serious equipment problems. Improve safety - Simply by using the data available from the sensors, IoT can help you detect and reduce threats to your business caused by temperature fluctuation, power loss, water intrusion, and other potentially damaging events. In addition, if you use sensors on doors, windows and other possible entrances, IoT sensors can also alert you to intrusions due to unauthorized access. Cost savings - Saving money is usually at the top of every business owner's list—and IoT may help. By allowing you to monitor power consumption more carefully, for instance, you can find new ways to save energy. And by reducing or eliminating some of the need for human intervention, you can give your staff more time to focus on higher-priority projects.
Real-world examples
These days, businesses in virtually every industry have seen the positive impact of IoT. So, whether you're still undecided or have already started down the path with IoT, here are a few examples that can help you understand why, and how, IoT can add value to your business:
Fleet operators can use IoT sensors to track and monitor vehicles, how fast they’re going, scheduled and actual arrival times, and identify when preventive maintenance is needed. IoT can also help streamline regulatory compliance with electronic logging and reporting. A distribution or fulfillment center could use connected, sensor-equipped robots and drones to take inventory and map it to exact locations. Or sensors on equipment such as forklifts could detect the location of equipment or people, essentially seeing around corners and creating a safer workplace. A large car dealership could outfit each vehicle with sensors, monitoring their location and status in real time to help keep track of inventory and where their vehicles are in the event a salesperson needs one for a test drive. In a parking garage, sensors in each spot or video-fed analytics could provide real-time information on open spots, as well as whether the vehicles in the garage are authorized to be there, and whether each vehicle’s fees were paid properly upon leaving. A smart factory could use production line sensor monitors that notify management if there is a problem, or that communicate directly with robots to automatically adjust the assembly line in response to real-time needs. In office buildings, sensor-based locks could be remotely activated or de-activated, aiding with overall security—especially in crisis situations.
These are just a few of the current and potential uses for IoT. As the technology grows and is adopted even further, industries will undoubtedly develop their own efficiency-enhancing, cost-reducing applications for the technology. But there's no need to wait. Today’s networks handle IoT solutions readily, and with the launch of powerful 5G and LoRa (Long Range) networks, even the most demanding IoT use case is handled with ease.
To hear more about how IoT can help make your business more efficient, give your T-Mobile for Business expert a call at 877-754-6367.
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3331a37538c68c4d39d69e6cadc27fb6
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/06/28/wining-and-dining-within-bordeauxs-new-city-of-wine/
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Wining And Dining Within Bordeaux's New City Of Wine
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Wining And Dining Within Bordeaux's New City Of Wine
In southwest France, the city of Bordeaux’s sparkling new Cité du Vin—City of Wine—opened doors on the first day of June. Visitors now stream into this visually impressive $92 million structure shaped like a high-tech haute couture boot. Eight years in the making, it includes 19 permanent multi-sensory exhibits (and a 250-seat Thomas Jefferson Auditorium—so named because the third president of the U.S. enjoyed a tipple of Haut-Brion, Lafite, and other Bordeaux wines during his five-day visit to Bordeaux in 1787).
What do locals think of wine and food within La Cité?
People visit La Cite du Vin (Photo credit: Mehdi Fedouach/AFP/Getty Images)
To test the merits of Le 7 – Restaurant Panoramique, located on the seventh floor of La Cité, I traveled with a trio of Bordeaux residents and professional wine and food experts: a South African restaurateur who has owned restaurants in Spain, London, and Bordeaux, a female Côtes-de-Bourg winemaker/winery owner whose family has produced Bordeaux red and whites since 1698 and a German artist who displayed works in Spain, France and South Africa before switching gears and becoming director of a French restaurant.
We invested in $54 season tickets, which allow unlimited visits during one year, rather than $23 day passes. After entering the spacious lobby, we explored a few mesmerizing, multi-sensory exhibits on the second floor of La Cité—donning cutting edge headsets programmed in any of eight languages to guide our self-tours. This included sitting before an 180-degree wraparound screen blasting animation of a rollicking ship touring through history. Characters told of ancient wine routes—Bordeaux to Boston, Amsterdam to India and Madeira to Philadelphia.
We then zoomed by elevator to the seventh floor to enjoy a two-hour, two-bottle lunch—de-rigueur for a Bordeaux city excursion.
The new restaurant suffers from understandable minor “teething” problems: reservations I made the day before had evaporated. However, to compensate, a French waitress speaking impeccable English—having lived in London—redressed this error by whisking us off to a table on the circular outdoor porch with splendid views of the Garonne River and cityscape.
Planning and constructing La Cité du Vin was an eight-year process (photo credit: T. Mullen)
This sight elicited immediate comparisons to London—because of ample construction cranes within sight (“A sign of prosperity,” our South African friend declared), as well as the new Pont Jacques Chabon-Delmas lift bridge (longest in Europe)—which raises its deck to let cruise ships float below and into the city.
What makes this restaurant special? “It’s the quality of food, the overall finesse, the location and the staff,” Ophélie Clairet, the maître d’hôtel, said. We were about to find out for ourselves.
Seated and settled, I ordered a veal carpaccio with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and arugula. This came with a cream-dolloped oyster on the half-shell planted dead center. The ladies ordered foie gras and breadfruit garnished with berries, as well as a spring roll swollen with duck meat and vegetables. Our restaurant owner ordered an “American egg” cooked at low temperature and served with grilled pork and spinach. He took three bites, sipped his wine and declared, “Nine out of ten,” while the artist/restaurant director called her foie gras “excellent.”
For the main course, two of us chose grilled sturgeon with a dose of local caviar from the Gironde estuary. This was served on kidney and butter beans topped with a wild ‘cèpe’ (porcini) mushroom, as well as slivers of beetroot, carrot, and radish. I nibbled a sliver of carrot and lit up at the favorable taste explosion. The ladies chose filets of pan-fried maigre fish served with asparagus, morel mushrooms, and cress.
Restaurant Le 7 can accommodate 100 diners (photo credit: T. Mullen)
Our restaurateur wasted no words. “Brilliant,” he said. “Good fusion of flavors, well-sourced ingredients.” The German artist labeled her meal “perfect,” while the winery owner called her food “great” before she pointed toward chef Nicolas Lascombes who hovered nearby. She then whispered about his reputation for scrutinizing how ingredients are sourced and foods prepared.
We were given an electronic tablet wine list—in French and English—that cataloged 426 wines from 24 countries, divided by world regions. Though I considered this excellent, the device flummoxed some companions (“People over sixty require paper; I like the sound of paper,” our restaurant owner announced, while the winery owner said she preferred wines classified not only by style but by varietal). Toying with the tablet I explored the range of geographical origins and prices available—from a $22 Tunisian Sidi Brahim Merlot, to a French Pétrus 2006—selling for somewhat north of $2,200 per bottle.
Our restaurant owner remarked that the wine prices were fair. The winemaker agreed, saying that asking several hundred dollars for a bottle of Château Mouton Rothschild 2004 was still, in polite English, a “nice price for a restaurant.”
We ordered two bottles for lunch, each priced reasonably. We started with a white 2014 Domaine Germain Père & Fils Saint-Romain with the delicious nut and butter taste of a Burgundian Chardonnay. We then moved on to a red Bordeaux Second Growth—a Sarget de Gruaud Larose 2012, which was good, not great, being round and balanced but lacking memorable brilliance.
A region of almost seven square miles of the City of Bordeaux is classified as a UNESCO World... [+] Heritage Site (photo credit: T. Mullen)
On departing, we tallied up highs and lows of the experience. The artist was displeased that white wine was served at room temperature and that the first bottle we ordered—a Chablis—was unavailable. She found the sound of nearby city construction less than serene from our perch on the porch, but considered the interior décor exemplary, and complimented the lighting, ceiling, bar and even choice of wine carafes. The others agreed that the highs outweighed any lows, that food and wine were excellent, prices decent and service appears to be evolving in a positive direction.
We ascended one flight to the eighth-floor wine bar, intriguingly decorated with dangling bottle lamps. Admission to La Cité includes a glass of wine here. Bottles are marked with flags of nations from where they hail. We tasted a Swiss Château de Châtagneréaz Mont-sur-Rolle, a Domaine Bersan Burgundian Aligoté (“Smells like a hay barn,” our winemaker said. “But in the mouth, delightful”), and a South African Spencer Bay Namaqua Pinotage.
The overall experience provided by visiting La Cité indicates a positive twist in the road for Bordeaux’s future. With the opening next year of a new high-speed train that will shave travel time between Paris and Bordeaux to less than two hours, and annual events such as the Bordeaux Wine Festival, La Cité du Vin will become an anchor attraction within this vibrant city where a traditional regard for food and wine now fuses with a vision of welcoming visitors from throughout the world. On one point we all agreed: we plan to visit La Cité again in the coming months.
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64bf26f2fee21e35a61520418b0113c5
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/07/11/sir-elton-john-to-rock-italys-barolo-wine-country/
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Sir Elton John To Rock Italy's Barolo Wine Country
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Sir Elton John To Rock Italy's Barolo Wine Country
British singer and musician Sir Elton John (photo credit: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images)
Pricey and tannic Barolo wine—known as the King of Wines, and Wine for Kings—is about to be rocked by a king of, well, rock.
For a century and a half, the hilly Italian enclave of Barolo at the base of the Italian Alps has produced a back straightening tannic wine that makes drinkers gasp if they don’t know what’s coming. On July 15th the rocket man who stung us with emotion when he played a eulogy “Goodbye England’s Rose” at the funeral for Princess Diana will arrive. He'll have to croon some magic to trump the emotional foreplay his audience will get from drinking bottles of Barolo in these hills between Genoa and Turin cities.
The musician’s schedule is aggressive: after successive nights of playing in Aix-les-Bains and Albi in France, he’ll bop eastward to play Porto in Portugal for one night before flying northwest again to play at the Piazza Colbert in hilly Barolo. This small city includes two castles, fewer than a thousand residents and neighboring sloped fields producing Nebbiolo grapes for the Barolo and Barbaresco wines that collectors snap up for dozens and hundreds of dollars per bottle.
The rapid pace of this tour is nothing new for a musician who has played more than 4,000 concerts while selling a quarter-billion records. His one night show in Barolo forms part of a tour that moves across Europe in July, over to London and the U.S. in September and October, then returns to Europe in November and December—inclusive of Sweden, Latvia, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as Northern Ireland and Zurich.
Italy is shaped like a partially rotated ‘T’ and Barolo sits within the upper left horizontal bar—legacy of the 10th-century feudal king Berengar who granted a local lord permission to construct a defensive structure against invading Saracens. The countryside is dotted with hillsides that are in turn dotted with castles—crafted to protect nobles during the medieval ages, when music was played on cornets and flutes, and when wine might be colored black or green and was often considered medicinal.
I visited Barolo years ago to meet the convivial winemaker Flavio Fennochio at the Marchesi di Barolo winery. He lined up a vertical tasting of Barolo wines to instruct me in the niceties of drinking rare, fermented pleasure. The beauty of this wine derives from the complexity of underlying limestone, a remnant of a sea that once covered this land. Sea creatures died and fell to the ocean floor, their calcareous bodies contributing to the strata that today provides robust flavor to exquisite local wines made from Nebbiolo grapes.
Vineyards in the region of Barolo, Italy (photo source: Shutterstock)
The food here at least matches the quality of wines: soft cheeses, chocolate, and truffles as well as wild boar (best cooked in Barolo wine). It is also worth trying the sweet and sparkling white Moscato d’Asti wine, served best with nougat made from local hazelnuts.
When we spoke years ago about creating Barolo wine, Flavio's words also summarized parallels between great music and fine wine: “You have to impress. To do something people remember.”
Barolo is not like an easy drinking rosé. It’s a serious red, for what we presume will be seriously good music. The musician's latest album titled Wonderful Crazy Night, came out earlier this year. I look forward to meeting friends in Milan and bopping down to Barolo for, well, a wonderful crazy night. As well as at least one bottle of scrumptious Barolo.
That, Sir Elton, will be your competition.
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7b2c3b1bd96e1833324939eba9ba30b6
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/07/26/the-passing-of-denis-dubourdieu-a-titan-in-the-world-of-wine/
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The Passing Of Denis Dubourdieu, A Titan In The World Of Wine
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The Passing Of Denis Dubourdieu, A Titan In The World Of Wine
Renowned winemaker, wine consultant, and wine researcher Denis Dubourdieu has died in Bordeaux after a prolonged illness. Named as the Decanter Magazine Man of the Year this past June, and awarded Knight of the Legion of Honor in March this year, Dubourdieu was General Director of the Institute of Vine and Wine Science at the University of Bordeaux in France. He helped re-shape modern appreciations of how the production of good wine relies not only on grapes and technical techniques but on how land is managed.
Denis Dubourdieu (photo credit: Mehdi Fedouach/AFP/Getty Images)
Influential wine critic and wine writer Robert Parker, who once referred to Dubourdieu as “the famous professor from Bordeaux,” spoke about him as belonging to a group of the more renowned wine consultants in the world. “Anything associated with their names,” he once told Food and Wine magazine, “is of undeniably high, high quality.”
At the age of seventeen Dubourdieu had to decide on a career. He moved to Montpellier and studied economics. Though he fell in love with the blue skies and coastal villages of the Mediterranean, he was preoccupied about deciding what to do next. He realized he did not have much specialized knowledge, but respected his general groundings in biology, chemistry, and agronomy. He also knew that he loved to work hard. Perhaps, he thought, being associated with horses would let him live and work in the countryside. Then—according to Gilles Berdin in his book Conversations Over a Bottle [Elytis 2012; Bordeaux]—Dubourdieu realized that both horsemanship and winemaking shared similarities: each involved searching for balance and power. He was soon accepted to the Institute of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux and delved into the world of wines.
He and his wife Florence built a vineyard that combines their names—Clos Floridène—in the 1980s south of the city of Bordeaux at Pujols sur Ciron. This became one of several vineyards Dubourdieu would own and manage during his life. When interviewed by Berdin for his book, Dubourdieu shared his love for wines by speaking about them as living beings, incapable of being divorced from emotion. “When one speaks about one’s own wines, like when one speaks about one’s children or one’s loved ones, there is always a lack of objectivity,” he said.
Though a man of Bordeaux, he was not hesitant to appreciate the value of different wines from varying geographies around the world, and openly praised them. He called Burgundies the best dry white wines in the world and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wines as totally unique, having tastes found nowhere else on the planet.
He became a family man who sailed on the Bay of Biscay each summer with his wife and children, and spent years during his forties and fifties riding a horse through the woods of the Gironde region with his dog—an Irish setter—always delighted to spot a wild boar or red deer in the morning light. He remained a man who respected the earth: on 300 acres of his own vinelands, he allowed no weed killers to be used. He called himself a curious skeptic gifted with intuition. Ever the scientist, he considered biodynamic preparations designed to be sprayed on vines as sounding intriguing, but needing more scientific analysis before he would fully embrace any.
Dubourdieu described how the creativity of any period influences consequent periods, yet acknowledged that some trends are special: the musician Bach, he commented, remains fascinating today because of his power and precision. Dubourdieu also claimed that great wines are part of “all the great and beautiful achievements that cannot be produced in a repetitive manner.” So, too, Monsieur Dubourdieu—winemaker, family man, educator, horseman, carrier of the torch of excellence—is incapable of being reproduced exactly. His creativity, however, will influence future generations of curious and hard-working winemakers determined to produce the best possible quality wines they possibly can, wherever they may live on earth.
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f79016a2d2c36c0d03823750dd6ed688
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/08/17/enjoy-a-five-star-countryside-evening-between-bordeaux-and-cognac/
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Enjoy A Five Star Countryside Evening Between Bordeaux and Cognac
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Enjoy A Five Star Countryside Evening Between Bordeaux and Cognac
Peaceful morning at Château de Mirambeau (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
If you want to wind down after too much hot travel and wine tasting in southwest France, try pulling into the shaded, peaceful acres of freshly renovated Château de Mirambeau and check in for a night. Perhaps a few.
Located between the wine and brandy cities of Bordeaux and Cognac, this five-star countryside hotel sits on 20 acres of quiet greenery.
Usually open from March to November each year, Château de Mirambeau stayed closed in 2015 for renovations. It's now open again with 18 additional rooms, 3,000 square feet of spa space (including an indoor pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and massage rooms), an improved outdoor pool, pebbled walkways and upgrades in electronics, media and security systems.
“Visitors choose Mirambeau because we’re in the countryside and are a fairytale château,” said Arnaud Morandi, the Director. “We have 40 rooms now, at the limit of a small luxury hotel.”
The rooms are ornate and deeply comfortable. Bedrooms include wooden floors, silk wallpapers, marble bathroom surfaces and lion’s paw bathtubs. The theme reflects the turreted towers and garden fountains outdoors—that of a past royal era, a fortress hidden from time. The grounds include tennis courts, a stone chapel and a bamboo forest and sit above the town of Mirambeau, with its own cafés and a boulangerie in the shadow of a striking cathedral.
The makeup of who wants to enjoy this countryside experience is changing.
“More than 50% of our clientele are foreigners. Mostly British, some Americans, a lot of Spanish because we’re on the route to the north,” Morandi said. New types of clientele include inquisitive Russians eager to visit wine chateaux, as well as young English speaking Asian couples without guides who, “try to visit something besides Paris, Avignon, the Côte d’Azur or Champagne.” French visitors typically spend two nights at Mirambeau, while foreigners spend three, though these overall stays increase during the high season of July and August.
Proximity to wine and cognac country is the main draw, but the château's own history is compelling. The structure is seven stories tall. Because of topography, three stories are partially subterranean and partly exposed to the outdoors. These include impressive narrow vaulted passageways—the stone foundations of an 11th-century castle (which King Henry III of England visited) that was partly destroyed by sieges and arson during the Middle Ages. The remains became a focal battle point during the 100 Years War in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The stone château above ground was rebuilt in the 17th century, donated as a military hospital during the First World War and occupied by German forces in the Second World War. It was later bought and sold by an American hotelier and began its current trajectory 11 years ago as a member of the Relais & Châteaux boutique hotel chain.
The overall impression of the grounds is one of peaceful easiness. The wide lawns, high trees, and bird songs could no doubt suck away residual tensions guests may have absorbed in the city or from hustling through wine châteaux tasting rooms.
The management atmosphere is colloquial. Director Morandi knows all clerical and cleaning staff by name, speaks to them with respectful familiarity, and greets new and return visitors with genuine enthusiasm. When I visited, an English couple with two children had arrived at 10 a.m., before check in time. They were seated on comfortable sofas while a room was rapidly prepared. A half hour later they were lounging poolside in swimwear, fully checked-in and obviously enjoying vacation.
Bedrooms have different color schemes (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
Mirambeau straddles close to the border separating the administrative Department of Charente-Maritime from the Gironde to the south. This countryside includes fields of sunflowers, cornstalks and three grapes that produce cognac: Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, and Colombard. “The culture of the Mirambeau area is that of cognac and pineau,” Morandi said. (Pineau des Charentes, a popular local aperitif, is a blend of cognac and grape juice.) “People here can experience both Bordeaux wines and cognac. We’re in the middle—50 minutes each way. Visitors to Cognac city can visit Hennessy and Remy Martin where special dinners are professionally organized.”
Meals at Mirambeau are prepared by a chef with experience from throughout the world (including more than a dozen years in the Antilles). Not only does he produce excellent cuisine, but Morandi said, is a "nice person," lacking the fiery temperament often associated with perfectionists working long hours to produce exquisite dishes. The wine list is unique rather than completely star-studded and includes a wide range of French bottles (including Corsican whites, four selections of Burgundy's Puligny-Montrachet, a 1990 Château Ausone from Saint Émilion, Faugères from Languedoc, as well as intriguing non-French bottles, including several German Rieslings, varieties of Hungarian Tokaji and a relatively pricey Lebanese red).
We walked through labyrinthine hallways and into rooms, from where we looked out at sprawling green acres, fountains and the swimming pool. “Usually, hotels have what in French is called a bibliothèque. A library,” Morandi said. “Here, we have a cognacthèque, with a special lounge.” After dinner, guests sit in deep leather armchairs surrounded by the aroma of wood paneling and drink from a selection of 23 cognacs or an equal number of magnac and whisky varieties. They can twirl a snifter before stepping to the outside porch to enjoy a hefty Montecristo.
The main structure of Château de Mirambeau was constructed in the 17th century (photo credit: Tom... [+] Mullen)
This countryside stop affords an exclusive dose of luxury in a private locale. Visitors can relax without seeing or hearing the highway, though it’s only minutes away “We’re like a retreat, not a resort,” Morandi added. Sometimes it’s a pleasure to get lost in time.
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10a9b0b6176f619f3cf23e433ed5197b
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/09/05/why-this-is-the-best-bread-in-france/
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Why This Is The Best Bread In France
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Why This Is The Best Bread In France
'Best baguette of Paris' contest (Photo credit: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images)
[This post has been updated. Pauline Teixeira was originally identified as Director; she is Management Assistant. Monsieur Yann Foricher is Director.]
You would like to find the source of what may be the best bread in France? Ditch the GPS and strap in for a road trip through a one-lane-two-way tunnel deep in the woods past misleading signs on a rural road that eventually putters out and vanishes. Be persistent: you will find a flour mill inside a forest on the back side of nowhere.
“Bonjour,” Pauline Teixeira, Management Assistant, greeted me with disarming charm as I stepped into her office at Moulin du Courneau.
Before discussing this mill, it’s instructive to examine the quality of a French baguette. According to a September 1993 French decree, which basically re-visited laws from 1905, 1919, 1984 and 1989, ‘traditional French bread’ must be made only from good quality water, salt, a rising agent and wheat flour which contains no more than 2.8% (in total weight) of bean, soya or malted wheat flours. That means only four ingredients are allowed. There are no additives and only minimal wheat adulterants are permitted. (This means the bread may be stale six hours after you buy it; you would prefer a three-week-old loaf that—somehow—remains springy?)
Comparing French and U.S. baguettes may be instructive, though is largely irrelevant due to demographics, a diminished work-week and the law mentioned above. Bakeries—boulangeries—are ubiquitous throughout France (there are three within a 10-minute walk of where I live) and can be easily accessed for buying loaves (usually produced at least twice daily). In contrast, the vehicle-dominant, dispersed population and ramped-up-work-ethic characteristics of the U.S. means, in general, fewer nearby bakeries, and less free time for shopping. That means people generally prefer bread that lasts for days—not hours—which requires additives. Consider this a purity/practicality balance.
The quality of a French loaf is increased by some, though not all, reputable artisanal bakeries that employ extended fermentation times. When yeast ferments in order to make bread rise it produces alcohol, which provides flavors and aromas. More fermentation time generally increases the taste of bread.
A great loaf, therefore, depends on wheat, flour, and baker. The first two elements can often be controlled by the mill.
“The selection of wheat is important for quality,” Pauline told me in the cool temperature of her office. “We source the best wheat from this region by searching for the best quality.”
This hidden mill in the forest forms part of a selective network of French mills and distribution centers operated by the Foricher family. Originally from Brittany, the family has been milling wheat for seven generations. Foricher joined forces with independent miller Monsieur Lamouroux in the town of Laruscade in southwest France (an hour and a half north of Bordeaux city) to operate Moulin du Courneau. Their internal policies are to use 100% French wheat that is certified absent of insecticides and controlled for quality between the fields where it grows and the mill where it is ground. They abide by the French Ministry of Agriculture ‘red label’ standard that indicates superior quality—controlled for lacking additives and adulterants (such as the adding of soy or bean flours). Foricher has started or annexed mills in the Loire Valley, as well as in northeast and northwest France.
The Courneau mill where Pauline works has four full time and two part-time staff who produce flour for bakeries in the cities of Bordeaux in France, Barcelona in Spain, as well as in Portugal.
“I’ve been here since 2013. Slowly we grow the business,” Pauline said. The results are evident. “This month we began supplying another nine bakeries.”
Pauline Teixeira - Director of Moulin du Courneau, displays a recent award (photo credit: Tom... [+] Mullen)
Their most popular flour is Red Label T65 for bread, followed by Red Label T45 (“For the patisserie to make the best cakes,” Pauline explained). Breads in the U.S. are categorized according to their percentage of protein (an ‘all purpose’ bread flour includes 12% to 13% protein), whereas the French burn a sample of flour and count the remaining ash to determine the percentage of included bran (T65 indicates that 0.65% remains as ash after burning). Basically ‘heavier’ flours include more protein, which means more gluten, which means more bubble gum like ability to hold air bubbles—better for thick and crusty yeast-rising breads. Be wary, however. High protein percentages contain additional bran, which eventually cuts against gluten and reduces elasticity. You may need to ‘blend’ high and low protein flours if you want to pull a loaf from the oven which balances crustiness with internal lightness.
Just as local climate and soils form terroir that impacts the eventual taste of wine, characteristics of bread flour depends on local conditions from where wheat is produced. The range varies throughout France, as it does within the U.S. and every other country. Flours can be reduced to general types (high, medium, and low protein) but the individual taste often depends on non-quantifiable local conditions. To produce excellent bread, however, it helps to have high-quality fresh flour.
We walked to the warehouse where I selected three sacks of flour, each 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in weight – two for bread and one for pastries. By the time I had opened the trunk of the car, Pauline had already hoisted these sacks over in her arms. Her action exemplified how close the mill staff are to their work: each bag of flour is filled by hand and all expiration dates are handwritten on every bag.
In the future, Pauline explained, they will purchase machinery to put flour into bags as well as an oven to test bread qualities on site. Her enthusiasm was obvious. “When I arrived here I knew nothing,” she said. “But there’s always something to do. Really, this is truly work to be passionate about.”
Wheat that is well controlled for quality (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
The third element of a great loaf is the baker. At the annual Bread Festival in Paris this year (held in May in the forecourt of Notre Dame cathedral) the two bakers who won and placed for the best traditional French baguette both used flours from Foricher (the bakeries are located in the cities of Brest and Neuvy-Pailloux).
To find out what specific techniques they used, I contacted the producer of the baguette judged best in France: Ludovic Beaumont from La Fournée à Brest (the city is in northwest France). Ludovic divulged secrets to producing a great loaf: using red label flour without additives, unprocessed salt, a natural rising agent (yeast), a long kneading time at a slow speed (“to maintain beautiful colors and all the flavors”), long fermentation/resting time (18 hours), “delicate shaping," and baking in a hot oven (510 degrees Fahrenheit).
“This produces a baguette with a thin and crispy crust with good aromas of wheat and hazelnuts,” he told me.
Which may itself be a reason for considering a journey to northwest France.
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18c599b55ed52aa45792e70a4ab0f618
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/09/30/the-lone-winery-of-californias-elite-laguna-beach/
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The Lone Winery Of California's Elite Laguna Beach
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The Lone Winery Of California's Elite Laguna Beach
In the early 1900's, the enclave of Laguna Beach in southern California caught a reputation as an artists’ colony on a beautiful coastline. Within decades, Hollywood’s elite started to maintain homes there. These included Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Peter Ustinov and Mickey Rooney. Judy Garland filmed A Star is Born at Laguna Beach in 1954.
Pacific Ocean coastline at Laguna Beach, California (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
Author and adventurer Richard Halliburton rented a cottage in Laguna Beach, where he rode horses and marveled at ocean views before building his own hillside house there in 1938. Nicknamed Hangover House because of the endless parties, the structure supposedly inspired Heller House in Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead. Author John Steinbeck and his wife also lived in Laguna Beach when he wrote the book that propelled his initial success—Tortilla Flat.
In the past decade more frequent visitors to Laguna Beach have included tennis players Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, as well as singer and comedian Bette Midler.
Today Laguna Beach is home to over 23,000 residents who live along seven miles of coastline dotted with rocky coves and small beaches. This waterfront is protected by a marine reserve as well as a conservation area, and the quality of ocean water is generally pristine due to rigid controls regarding effluent and water runoff. Dolphins and whales can often be seen cruising close to shore.
Though Laguna maintains a beach-casual atmosphere, the growth of renown and visitors increased the need for luxury accommodation. This included the magnificently landscaped Montage Laguna Beach Resort—the most expensive hotel in California—which recently sold for $360 million.
This gorgeous and relaxed location is removed from vineyards, yet includes a single outlet producing its own wine—Laguna Canyon Winery.
Marlowe Huber and his brother Darren built the winery in 2003 after moving south from Canada's British Columbia, where they had operated two wineries. Their reasons for moving included weather and grapes. “California is famous for its vineyards and wine quality. The more I travel abroad, the more I love California wines even more,” Marlowe Huber said.
Rather than purchasing locally, the brothers import grapes from northern California. “In this winery we buy grapes from Napa and Sonoma. We crush grapes at the vineyards, ship them here, then press, ferment, barrel age, blend and bottle on site. We’re the first urban winery in Orange County,” he said. “We brought the vineyards to the people."
Their largest challenge while starting up the business was discovering that the Orange County Public Health Department had no category for wineries. The brothers helped create one. Their winery is along the eastern entrance to the city. “This is a terrific location,” Huber explained. “There are fifty to a hundred thousand cars a day going by on Laguna Canyon Road.”
“We make a lot of styles—fruit forward, medium-body, tannic and dry. We’re now making five whites and 15 reds, two sparkling wines and a couple of dessert wines,” he said while filling our glasses with a blend of Pinot Noir and Petit Verdot. “People ask, why do you make so many blends? Invariably I’ll say—well there’s a reason Bordeaux wine is so successful: it’s a blend.”
Marlowe Huber, co-owner of Laguna Canyon Winery (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
The winery is expanding. Reasons include the fact that 90% of visitors purchase wine to take away, and the winery hosts live music parties on the first Friday of each month—which spread its reputation. The winery also has an in-house chef who trained at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York, then gained experience while working at Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons hotels.
“We’ll hold three, four, five course winemaker dinners," Huber explained. We have an event called the 'wine blending experience,' where customers make their own unique personal blends out of wine taken from French oak barrels, cork it, put on a capsule, and make their own label. It’s been a huge hit.”
We next sampled a balanced 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon with tastes of smoke and blackberries. Marlowe sounded confident that this was one of the best Cabernets the winery had yet produced. While enjoying, I asked about the beautiful wooden wine shelves behind him.
“My dad built houses when I was growing up on a horse and cattle ranch in Canada. I called him up. Told him I’d be opening this winery in eight months. Asked if he could build cabinets for the winery, then gave him measurements. Thirteen days later he walked in. The truck he parked outside included an entire wall unit of shelves, a counter, a tasting bar and retail cabinets. He built it all in 10 days, then drove it here in three. He was my hero. And he loved our wine.”
In his book Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck wrote: “Two gallons is a great deal of wine.”
Heeding advice from this renowned previous resident, I decided to purchase slightly less before departing the sunny shores of beautiful Laguna Beach.
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591467ee70c8296fcfb459493b21b490
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/11/21/why-loire-valley-wines-will-ramp-up-in-popularity/
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Why Loire Valley Wines Will Ramp Up In Popularity
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Why Loire Valley Wines Will Ramp Up In Popularity
Muscadet vineyards of the Landron domain, near Nantes (photo credit: Jean-Sebastien Evrard/AFP/Getty... [+] Images)
[An earlier version of this article erroneously referred to the grape Sauvignon Gris as Pinot Gris.]
There have been a few recent, notable changes to wines from central and western France. For three reasons—price, quality and increased marketing—the prominence of these wines is poised to soar.
The Loire River valley (pronounced lu-WAAR) is dappled with vineyards within three regions along its 600-mile long east to west course. The simplified view is that the east produces Sauvignon Blanc; the middle grows the rhyming grapes of Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc, and the coastal west churns out high volume Muscadet—a vigorous though historically unexciting white wine that matches well with seafood.
Yet the Loire produces wines from multiple other grapes, and production is moving in wider and deeper directions.
Recent changes include producers more fearlessly marketing wines that include lesser-known grape varieties (providing 'width' to the wine scene), while focusing on increasing quality in wines previously considered pedestrian (providing 'depth' to the drinking experience), especially Muscadet (including several biodynamic versions). Some of these wines now sizzle with surprise.
In the city of Nantes, along the western reach of the Loire, I sampled a range of sommelier-recommended wines, almost half of which happened to be biodynamic. Of those bio bottles—more than three quarters were excellent.
A husband and wife sommelier couple—Cécile and Emeric Chambon—own and run La Comédie Des Vins near Graslin square in Nantes. Inside this two room wine bar, staff cut hunks from a wheel of cheese, generate ribbons of prosciuto from a meat slicer on the bar and will empty a can of sardines on a plate to accompany white wines. Cécile poured a glass of excellent Muscadet (made from the Melon de Bourgogne Grape).
“The people of Nantes are ambassadors of the Muscadet appellation,” she explained. "Muscadet is dry, with plenty of fruit. Very colorful taste. It also has the best price to quality ratio of any biodynamic wine in France.”
She later served a second biodynamic Muscadet (also memorable and excellent), followed by a delicious sample of a 100% biodynamic Gamay (the same grape used to produce Beaujolais), and then a Cabernet Franc/Merlot blend.
Later that evening, at dinner in La Raffinerie restaurant on rue Fouré, the recommended wines to pair with a scallop/oyster carpaccio and roasted turbot fish included 100% Sauvignon Gris, followed by a glass of 100% Malbec—hardly the usual fare for visitors to the Loire. Traditionally, Gamay, Merlot and Malbec have not been heavily marketed varieties from this region, though these wines were surprisingly good (though not as stellar as the glasses of Muscadet). The sommeliers' enthusiastic recommendation of these wines reflects how the Loire is looking outward, and ready to market wines not typically associated with this valley.
Passage Pommeraye shopping center in Nantes (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
The seven wines below (of which five are biodynamic) are of good to excellent quality, and in an affordable price range ($15 to $30). Using a proprietary algorithm to score each wine for value—combining subjective tastings with objective prices—each bottle is ranked as being of good, excellent or superlative value.
Muscadet Monnières-Saint Fiacre. 2010. Vincent Caillé. [Excellent Value]
This 12% alcohol biodynamic wine from the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine appellation, aged in oak, is soft on the nose with a scent of pears, green apples and a hint of nuts; the taste is crisply acidic, with a bit of butterscotch.
Jérôme Bretaudeau Muscadet. 2015. [Superlative Value]
This 12% alcohol biodynamic wine from the Sèvre et Maine appellation is produced from 8 hectares of Melon de Bourgogne grapes. The scent is of Chardonnay, and the taste of lemon and cream—round and full in the mouth.
Simplement Gamay. 2015. Domaine La Paonnerie. [Good Value.]
This 12% alcohol biodynamic wine is produced between the cities of Nantes and Angers using Gamay grapes. On the nose: thistles, grass and acorns, while in the mouth it tastes of raspberry and black cherries. This has a full and deep taste of bright fruit—good with lamb and mint sauce, or barbecue. The semi-bitter edge resembles that of Cabernet Franc.
Fié Gris. 2014. Eric Chevalier. [Excellent Value.]
This 14% Sauvignon Gris is similar to a Muscadet, though fruitier. It tastes of cotton candy followed by a syrup of grapefruit and lemon.
‘Les Varennes’ Chenin Blanc. 2014. Les Roches Sèches. [Good Value.]
This wine from Anjou (the region around the city of Angers) is made from hand-harvested grapes and is aged in large oak barrels. The taste: as though you are chomping into a liquid green apple on a winter day.
Amphibolite Muscadet. 2015. Domaine Landron. [Good Value.]
This also comes from the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine appellation. This biodynamic wine includes a hit of citrus on the nose—grapefruit, lemon and orange—and in the mouth has pleasant acidity and chalky crispness.
Pierre Précieuse. 2014. Alexandre Bain. [Good Value.]
This 13% alcohol biodynamic, non-filtered, wine is made from hand-harvested 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes and is aged in oak. It’s a stunner: on the nose—scents of diesel and mangos; in the mouth it tastes of tangerines and honey.
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ae7aaa6bbe9914ef3bb0a9009321ea92
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/11/29/how-a-michelin-star-lunch-can-be-an-affordable-vacation-alternative/
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How A Michelin-Star Lunch Can Be An Affordable Vacation Alternative
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How A Michelin-Star Lunch Can Be An Affordable Vacation Alternative
In the northwest French region of Brittany, the stately stone Château Richeux hotel faces the English Channel waters to the north. Built almost a century ago—on grounds of what was an 11th-century structure—the hotel has stunning views of the sea, and of ancient Mont Saint-Michel abbey to the east.
Château Richeux and Le Coquillage Restaurant in Brittany (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
For an excellent lunch there, between the towns of Cancale and Le Mont Saint-Michel, phone ahead to the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant Le Coquillage (‘the shell’), and ask for a window table with a garden and sea view. When you enter there are ample ‘bonjours’ from courteous staff, and the clientele in the cozy and warm environment are diverse—businessmen wearing ties drinking white Burgundy as they eat steaming mussels, Asian families on vacation, and locals wearing t-shirts. On entering, I was steered to a sitting room with deep leather couches and large windows. From there I ordered a glass of local white wine from Anjou, a 2014 Chenin Blanc.
I soon moved to the dining room, where paintings line wood paneled walls—including scenes of rowboats, steamships and sailboats from past eras. Inspecting the menu and wine list, I decided on the simplest ‘Marin’ menu. Before the appetizer was served I was given an amuse-bouche of single-bite nibbles in three small shells, each filled with different seafood and vegetables, including cucumber and saffron. Then came a wicker basket with two types of dark, crusty brown bread freshly baked in house, served with two butters—one regular and one with Mexican pepper. The staff were polite, attentive and appeared genuinely happy—mirroring their upbeat management.
The appetizer of six oysters on a bed of seaweed nicely matched a glass of Muscadet, a local white wine that pairs well with seafood. The main dish was a slab of freshly caught line fish with boiled potatoes and cabbage from the restaurant garden—simple and delicious. With this I ordered another Loire Valley white wine, an excellent hand harvested biodynamic 2014 Sauvignon Blanc from Alexandre Bain called Pierre Précieuse (‘the precious stone,’ referring to gravel below vines).
Before dessert, I paid extra for a tray of blue cheese served with fig jam, as well as slices of Normandy camembert cheese paired with local cider jelly.
Dessert was mille-feuille pastry, served with quince coulis and Moroccan saffron. After this came a cup of black coffee, enjoyed back in the sitting room. Finally, it was time for a walk in the misty garden to peek at gray waves below.
Disregarding wine, coffee (or any drinks) and cheese, the fixed price (including taxes and tips) for three courses (including nibbles before appetizers and bread) was 35 Euros ($37.10). That is about $5 more than I would pay at a well known Asian takeaway in Austin, Texas (with 8.25% sales tax and no tip) for shrimp pad Thai, a large helping of green beans and a shortcake; it's less than the cost of eating at a nationally known chain restaurant in Denver, Colorado (7.65% sales tax and 17% tip) for a lunch of minestrone soup with breadsticks, shrimp scampi and cake for dessert.
Of course, it's difficult to make objective comparisons: possible discounts are not included, the location of this Michelin restaurant is not within a city, the speed of service is not considered, and depending on currency fluctuations, any pricing comparison could be rendered invalid within days. The point is that when planning a vacation, you may find the price of excellent quality food in a memorable setting to be reasonable if you take time to look around and stay open to heading slightly off the more traveled routes.
Restaurant garden before the English Channel (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
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4aadda755e1a7e389e9d25d354bd7278
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2016/12/20/new-lascaux-center-in-france-recreates-ancient-art/
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New Lascaux Center In France Recreates Ancient Art
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New Lascaux Center In France Recreates Ancient Art
Entrance to the new International Center for Cave Art, Lascaux (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
In September of 1940, a teenage apprentice mechanic named Marcel Ravidat was out walking in the Dordogne region of France. He discovered a hole in the earth. Four days later he and three teenage friends returned, armed with knives and torches to widen the hole and slither inside.
They were astounded by what they saw in this cave complex. The walls included 20,000-year-old paintings and engravings of animals that appeared to move under torchlight. Since then these images have mesmerized the world.
The Second World War and Marcel’s adventurous spirit led him to join the French Resistance, while the cave art grew famous in the meantime. Eventually impacted by the breath of thousands of visitors, as well as an installed air-conditioning system, the cave was closed to visitors in 1963 to protect the cave paintings.
Part of Lascaux famed cave drawings in southwest France (photo credit: AP Photo/Pierre Andrieu,... [+] Pool)
Two decades later, a two-room replica of aspects of the cave was opened nearby. Millions continued to visit.
Last week an impressive replica of the famed caves of Lascaux was unveiled again when French President François Hollande toured a $62 million new center opened only a half-mile from the original cave—at the base of forested hills in Montignac. This new International Center for Cave Art (also known as Lascaux 4) is a testimony to coordination between historians, scientists, architects, engineers, designers and artists. Designed by Norwegian lead architects Snøhetta (selected from 80 international companies that bid for the project) and associate English architects Duncan Lewis as well as museum designers Casson Mann, it recreates the womb of Lascaux’s interior caves and accompanying art.
Funded by French and European cash, the project began six years ago with studies and designs. According to the newspaper Sud Ouest, it then took three years to pour more than 10,000 tons of concrete and for 30 artists to recreate—with accuracy faithful to the millimeter—hundreds of images of cave paintings on artificial walls. The 550-foot long multi-sensory complex with seven different zones—impressively engineered and aesthetically engaging—is located on a 16-acre site.
Groups of 32 visitors enter at a time. Each person is issued a tablet with headphones programmed in their native language. A group may include not only tourists and curious academics but also large numbers of French children—polite and beguiled by the entire experience. Visitors move from an impressively large glass walled entrance foyer to an outer balcony (a reason to dress appropriately in winter) where a guide explains how climate and geography have changed in this valley compared to millennia ago. They next move into a room where a quick animation shows lions tearing across a reindeer-packed landscape, followed by a more modern scene of four schoolboys discovering the cave.
Visitors then step through a sliding door into a dark passageway that is the ‘grotte’—the replication of the Lascaux caves. The layout is designed so that as people move from room to room—cave to cave—they may experience Lascaux as the four teenage explorers first did, as well as the original pre-literate painters who once toiled inside.
To replicate the environment of the original cave, the temperature is controlled at 55 degrees Fahrenheit and visitors feel a subtle blast of humidity on entering. Lighting dims to near darkness and reverberating acoustics resemble those inside an actual cave. The original cave walls have been topographically replicated. As you proceed, illumination grows ahead while it dims behind, providing a sense of how the actual space appeared 1000 generations ago when the original paintings, sculptures and geometric images were illuminated by firelight.
Exhibition hallway inside center (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
The first room is the oval shaped Hall of Bulls—55 feet long and 20 feet wide. The resemblance to the interior of a stone cave is so authentic that you may expect to hear moisture dripping, or be able to touch moss. The ceiling is filled with images of bulls and stags. There are bold lines and rich maroon colors, filigrees of antlers, bold black horns and delicately rendered thin legs.
The next long chamber is shaped like an elongated, inverted pear and includes images of ochre red and mustard yellow horses, marching ibex and bison pierced by arrows. The long gallery—or apse—includes hundreds more images, some painted over engravings while others are superimposed with geometric figures—dots, crosses, quadrangles. Some renderings include multiple heads or manes to give an impression of motion.
After leaving the artificial caves, visitors can watch a three-dimensional movie that highlights the mysteries of Lascaux (why are there no images of the sun, moon, or vegetation?) as well as enigmas associated with similar cave imagery throughout the world. These questions retain relevance and are as compelling as the ancient art: what was the purpose of such animal art, often overlain with abstract lines and squares?
Another massive room in the complex, the interpretation room, highlights individual segments of cave imagery (with large panels hanging, aesthetically, from the ceiling) while another room includes an interactive electronic catalog of artworks—pre-literate to modern—with similar themes to those at Lascaux.
Interactive Gallery (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
After hours spent wandering, visitors return to the foyer which sells books in several languages—whether about the history of mammoths or paintings by Picasso—while a bustling café serves chicken and vegetable wraps and ample French wine.
This center is partially intended to recreate a sense of moving through the original caves. The result is impressive and memorable. For more than fifty years the ability to view Lascaux’s Paleolithic art in a context faithful to where it was originally rendered has been off-limits to visitors. That era, now, has ended.
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eba675afc26aeb3aa416f37a21489fe5
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/01/16/ditch-the-guidebook-to-visit-san-sebastian-in-spain/
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Ditch the Guidebook To Visit San Sebastián In Spain
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Ditch the Guidebook To Visit San Sebastián In Spain
San Sebastián at dawn (photo credit: Shutterstock)
In contrast to many narrow and curving city alleys, the unexpected openness of San Sebastián’s bay front is a beautiful surprise. This northern Spanish city (also known as Donostia in the local Basque language) faces the Bay of Biscay near the geographical hinge where the east-west top of Spain intersects the north-south western coast of France—about midway between neighboring coastal cities of Bilbao and Biarritz.
This port city was dappled with a history of wars, invasion and razing until the nineteenth century when it transformed to a resort town. Vacationing luminaries included Queen Isabel and the courtesan/espionage agent Mata Hari.
To plan a visit, read about the flavor of what to expect—the food, history, geography and cocktails, and if possible ply friends who have visited for what they recommend. Select a few highlights, pinpoint them on a map and choose a route. A decent strategy is to follow waterlines while moving generally east to west.
Begin along the Urmea River at Hotel Maria Cristina, a five-star, Belle Époque era hotel named after, and opened more than a century ago, by the then queen of Spain. Whether you stay there or not, you can nip in for a coffee or cocktail or breakfast at the Salon Ibaia, peruse the collection of regional coffee table art and geography books lining more than one wall and consider taking a class in Basque cuisine at their cooking school.
Next, pace north to curl around Monte Urgul peninsula beside speed walkers and locals with debonair scarves and stylish hats who stop in groups to banter in the street. The west side of the peninsula has an excellent view of La Concha Beach and Santa Clara Island. It also includes both a naval museum and aquarium. This city takes pride in its maritime heritage: manhole covers are stamped with a logo of an ancient galleon and some hotel bars are named after famed ships. Both the museum and aquarium highlight the whaling economy of past centuries (the last whale was locally harpooned in 1901) and include scale models of ancient rigged vessels. A tunnel running below aquarium glass lets you walk inches away from careening sharks.
The waterline then passes near Portaletas Gate. One peek inside at the old town may incite you to enter. To get a feel for the local culinary culture, begin with appetizers at any of dozens of bars serving tapas (known locally as ‘pintxos’ – ‘peen-cho,’ meaning skewer or toothpick). Enjoy a glass of Rioja red or Albariño white wine and stand to munch a plate of mushrooms sautéed in garlic, baby squid croquettes, or acorn-fed pata negra ham to rev up your taste buds.
There are several Michelin starred and recommended restaurants in the city. In old town, consider scooting downstairs and into Bodegón Alejandro where a symphony of women greet visitors with ‘hola’ and ‘buenas!’ inside an unpretentious room with 20 tables. A typical tasting menu includes hearty broth, spider crab salad with cauliflower cream, grilled hake with citrus vinaigrette, steak and potato soufflé and a dessert of caramelized French toast. For less than an additional $20 you can match these dishes with five generously poured wines. These include vintages made from the local Hondarribi Zuri grape, as well as at least one Rioja. Don’t rush—expect an hour and a half to eat (not including pintxos).
After a wine induced nap at your hotel, resume your waterside trail along La Concha Beach. Walk on the sand or along the wide foot and cycle paths in this pedestrian friendly city where even the vehicle tunnel that exits downtown is paralleled by a tunnel for those on foot.
Near the west end of the bay a road ascends southwest and leads toward Monte Igeldo, which includes a superb view of La Concha bay and the waves moving inward in precise, concentric semicircles.
Looking across La Concha Bay toward Monte Igeldo (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
Along this same road is Rekondo Restaurant, a half-century old institution begun by Txomin Rekondo. Having decided that he would never cut it as a professional bullfighter like his brother, he began serving food and collecting wine instead. Some pleasures in Rekondo happen during the meal, while others come afterward. The bright-lit dining room with purple and orange tulips on white linen tabletops has the feel of a home interior. Diners include a diverse mix of locals and visitors: Dutch physicians toasting Riedel wine glasses, a Spanish family reuniting, young couples praising their grilled deer with apricot confiture but scratching heads at the hardbound 255 page wine list.
After dinner, stop at the bar for a glass of patxaran (‘pach-aron’)—a Basque ruby colored liqueur made from wild blackthorn tree berries, sometimes with cinnamon and coffee added.
“You want to visit our wine cellar?” asked Lourdes Rekondo, the owner’s charmingly extroverted daughter. Downstairs we paced through three rooms with 100,000 bottles—one a private collection, and two rooms with wines available to customers—one with whites, the other reds. A sizable cabinet included nothing but a collection of French Château d’Yquem Sauternes white wine—including a bottle from 1933. Other shelves included a bottle of 1904 Tondonia, several Riojas from the 1920’s, a 1927 Château Margaux and an 1880 Marques de Riscal. This wine collection is a draw for visitors to the city. A week earlier British author and wine aficionado Ken Follet stopped in with friends to enjoy the food and bottles from the cellar.
Marques de Riscal wines from 1880 and 1881 (photo credit: Tom Mullen)
The private cellar includes a collection of wines from Bordeaux’s Château Mouton Rothschild. Since 1945, a different artist has been commissioned each year to paint what becomes the label; artists have included David Hockney, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.
“We had a couple from New York eat here, and we showed them the wine cellar,” Lourdes said. “We had all the vintages of Rothschild here, except 1947. I explained that my father was trying to get the wine it but it was not possible. It was a bad year. The next year the same couple returned. They brought us a 1947 Rothschild.”
This story resonates with the convivial character of San Sebastian, an attractive coastal city appreciative of good food and wine, and welcoming to a diverse stream of visitors. This is a city to return to.
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718c48ffb1bb26700e1ca1fd13318a09
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/01/23/gruet-french-quality-bubbles-from-the-american-desert/
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Gruet: French Quality Bubbles From The American Desert
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Gruet: French Quality Bubbles From The American Desert
Gruet Winery in New Mexico (photo credit: Precept Wine/Gruet)
Turn back time to 1952, when in the city of Bethon, France, a 21-year-old man named Gilbert Gruet and his wife Danielle followed their dream of establishing the Champagne producing label of Gruet et Fils.
Thirty-one years later, together with their children, they visited the southwestern U.S. state of New Mexico. The state was sparsely populated and little known to residents of major east and west coast cities (the 1970’s television series of ‘McCloud’ included a sheriff from New Mexico working in New York City; the popular incongruity of his bolo tie, cowboy hat, horse riding antics and easygoing attitude in the city kept the show airing for seven seasons). During this trip the Gruets learned that the state has the longest wine-making traditions in the U.S.—some three centuries old. Curious and convinced they had discovered a slice of elusive New Mexican magic, the couple purchased a small vineyard. Soon their children Laurent and Nathalie moved to the U.S. and, using the traditional méthode champenoise technique, began producing sparkling wine exclusively from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes.
Laurent has remained the winemaker at Gruet Winery since 1987 (now based in the city of Albuquerque). Within the past three decades their annual production has jumped a hundred fold. Last year Wine Spectator Magazine ranked their Brut as one of the year’s top 100 value wines, Bon Appétit praised it as a ‘crisp, dry, elegant sparkler’ and Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine mentioned merits of their sparkling rosé. (Two years ago Gruet was purchased by Precept Wine of Seattle, Washington.)
Laurent Gruet spoke about his craft.
Laurent: “I was born in Bethon in Champagne in 1965 and grew up there. Worked with my dad four years, then moved to New Mexico at age 20. We decided to make sparkling wine. People thought we were crazy. It doesn’t matter where you are, whether in California or New Mexico or whatever state, the wine speaks for itself. I brought my knowledge from Champagne and tried to mix it up with New Mexico—as far as the climate and the soil go—to try to make the best wine possible, the closest to being a Champagne.
“We sold Gruet step by step to restaurants. Eventually, we showed my wine in New York, and now all the sommeliers like it. They like the price. And Gruet grew. From 2000 cases we went to 200,000 thirty years later, but with the same conviction that quality is number one. Fifteen years ago we were chosen as the best sparkling wine in America. Had to go to London and get the trophy.
“The goal was to grow very well in America, and after that go to exports. During the next decade exports are going to be big for us. We didn’t explore the export business enough before because we didn’t have enough wine. Asia? That market is going to explode, and also South America. Brazil is one of the biggest importers of French Champagne. So we have many options. Export in the next ten years is going to be big growth for Gruet.
“I’ve brought my wines to the Champagne region of France many times. Three times I brought some Blanc de Blanc vintage there and we had a blind tasting with winemakers. Of course they love their wine. But here were 13 Champagnes with one Gruet in there. One time my wine came second, the other time it came third out of all these grand crus. For me it was the best award ever. For Wine Spectator and Robert Parker to praise the wine is great. But deep down, when I show my wine to people from Champagne who are professional and have the wine showing top of the list? I’m pretty excited. Price-wise, the number one Champagne costs five times that of Gruet.
“Gruet is still a baby—30 years old. That’s nothing in wine years. I hope to live long, because I love what I do.”
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ba439af35fccfe4fb1ec906c4f5b73f6
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/03/07/san-sebastians-renown-for-great-food-keeps-growing/
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San Sebastián's Renown For Great Food Keeps Growing
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San Sebastián's Renown For Great Food Keeps Growing
Sunset in San Sebastián/Donostia (Photo credit: Shutterstock)
In Hemingway’s book The Sun Also Rises, set in the 1920’s, the city of San Sebastián in northern Spain’s Basque country is associated with romantic intrigue, long afternoons at the beach and cafes that serve lemon juice with shaved ice followed by double whiskies with soda. There were ample streets where it stayed cool and shady, even on the hottest days.
Much remains the same in this city that is also named Donostia in the Basque language. Add an international film festival as well as a renowned and dynamic food scene, and you will understand the perennial popularity of this coastal urban beauty.
Competition for good dining can be acute here, with San Sebastián having nine Michelin starred restaurants, one of the highest per capita concentrations in the world. There are also excellent off the grid bar/restaurant combinations serving fresh and inventive food within casual settings.
Bar at Topa Sukaldería, with kitchen behind IXOgrupo
The latest gastronomic entry to the city is Topa Sukaldería, a bar/restaurant where Basque and Latin American cuisines are combined in a lively setting. The colorful food and upbeat atmosphere are intended to celebrate life, as well as to respect past and future cuisines of Basque people who emigrated west. Landing in Latin America, these people were known as 'Vizcainos,' and worked as fishermen and farmers.
Years in design and preparation, this wood and concrete venue is slightly edgy and spacious—with ample room between high and low tables. The architect and designer (Iñigo Gómez de Segura and Luis García Alemany) spent months conceptualizing this imagined space before hitting the streets of San Sebastián, seeking a location for unleashing their design. They discovered the shuttered remnants of what had been a linen store on Agirre Miramon Kalea street in the Gros district, close to canal waters across from the renowned Hôtel María Cristina.
Local artisans provided interior details, including a mural by a renowned painter Judas Arrieta that highlights Basque and Latin American pride (such as the sport jai-alai). Ceramic bowls and plates were custom crafted by a Basque artisan and a city musician selected a playlist that includes tunes from Basque terrain as well as from the Americas.
The dishes are modestly priced and include the traditional local specialty of ‘begihaundi’—Basque squid in ink, but prepared with mole sauce using a recipe from Mexico. There is Argentinian ossobucco with kalimotxo (a wine/cola sangria), fried merlu fish with a green pumpkinseed sauce, and txoripan de txistorra, a Basque name for an Argentinian crusty sandwich, in this case filled with a local fast-cured sausage. Both corn and millet tortillas are served because of the history of their mutual interchange between continents. While eating, enjoy local or imported cocktails such as Mexican micheladas or Peruvian pisco sours, or wines from Chile or Rioja.
“We thought, how would a Basque person living in, say, Peru for 20 years cook there? The basis would be the cooking from where they came from, even unconsciously,” said Ane Muñoz, responsible for coordinating graphics and communications for the restaurant.
The lunchtime variety of diners inside this bright and frenetic setting is wide: businessmen in suits slicing cilantro infused beef, an elegant woman wearing large hoop earrings quaffing a big bolt of red wine after shopping, a young couple rocking their baby while sipping glasses of Ayala champagne—a bubbly with Basque roots.
The coast off San Sebastián been a food source for millennia Tom Mullen
This pine-planked, concrete-columned, high-ceilinged space is communal and festive. It is also casual. The seriously tattooed server with a ponytail wears a suave blue beret, not as a uniform—but because he wants to. The head chef Jessica Lorigo—a compact whirl of energy from Buffalo, New York—is not barking caustic commands but is methodically focused on her work, such as generating fresh tortillas. The ship’s rigging of service—the timbers and hawsers of cooks and staff—functions synchronously each time a fresh gale of more diners blows through the door. The location—with its garage door opening—is on a street without other restaurants, providing a hint of mystery. The kitchen is open and visible from the dining room and street. “It’s important that people can watch the action in the kitchen, to feel connected,” Muñoz explained.
A few minutes walk away, another bar/restaurant revolves around a more traditional history of signature appetizers created within the city.
Visitors to San Sebastián often become ambulatory diners when they move from bar to bar, quaffing a beer and eating a pintxo (pronounced ‘pincho’). These small dishes are similar to tapas, but decidedly different in specific ways. Whereas tapas are free, you pay for pintxos. They are not simple bar nibbles included with the price of a drink—such as bowls of olives, chunks of cheese or charcuterie—but creatively crafted snacks, each skewered with a toothpick to be devoured in two or three bites.
The origins of pintxos is not lost in time or coated in myth. They are a modern invention. According to the book Famous Pintxos of Donostia – San Sebastián by award winning food journalist Josema Aspeitia, the first was created decades ago by an inventive or somewhat bored customer named Joaquín Aranburu in a city bar named Casa Vallés. He threaded three ingredients onto a toothpick: an olive, pickled green chili peppers and a salted anchovy. He first called this invention a ‘Gilda,’ in honor of the 1946 movie starring Rita Hayworth. Apparently her presence in the film—whether seductively dancing before Glenn Ford or sitting on a bar strumming a guitar in the early morning hours—was considered, much like a pintxo, to be hot and saucy (extremely hot, in fact: the fourth ever detonated atomic bomb was nicknamed Gilda, and had a photograph of Hayworth pasted to one side).
Mashed potato croquettes with coriander Nubia Regalado/Hidalgo 56
Unobtrusive yet significant is the pintxos bar/restaurant named Hidalgo 56. This is a reincarnation of an earlier bar named Hidalgo, owned decades ago by the parents of the present owner (and pintxos guru)—Juan Mari Humada Hidalgo. His parents owned a bar/restaurant for forty years, and as a boy he would look on in awe as his mother covered their 36 foot (11 meter) long bar with pintxos for sale. Juan Mari became the chef of this 12-table restaurant, which in 1993 earned a Michelin star. Today he and his wife, Nubia Regalado, own a six-table restaurant that still serves some of the same clients who frequented his parents’ establishment three decades ago. Juan Mari collects frequent awards for his work (he was voted as best pintxos chef in the region last year, and his works are featured in the Famous Pintxos book mentioned above). He takes pride in having been featured on a Malaysian television show about cooking, and that his son Sergio became the chef of Michelin starred Via Veneto Restaurant in Barcelona.
The nibbles here includes pigeon meat, mussels, tuna with anchovies, cabbage covered oxtail, pata negra ham, multiple cheeses and smoked Idiazabal cheesecake—topped with sliced strawberries.
“There are three secrets to making a good pintxo,” Juan Mari explained. “It must be easy to make, have excellent taste—filled with flavors, and also be elegant.”
Hemingway would likely be pleased to feast in this city today. Although double whiskies with soda are not listed on these menus, there will be ample lemon juice with ice during the warming months to come.
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a2980e931e42d7a8124f081c512648e9
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/04/17/chateau-angelus-part-i-owner-hubert-de-bouard-de-laforest-speaks/
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Château Angélus - Part I: Owner Hubert De Boüard De Laforest Speaks
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Château Angélus - Part I: Owner Hubert De Boüard De Laforest Speaks
Château Angélus in Saint-Émilion of Bordeaux Credit: Château Angélus - Deepix
In fifteenth century Europe, Pope Callistus III declared that church bells ring each morning, noon and night in thanks for the defeat of invading Turkish forces. This ringing was eventually called the Angelus. Today, wine production facilities at Château Angélus within Bordeaux's Saint-Émilion wine appellation are surrounded by three churches from where this daily bell clanging can still be heard.
First classified as a Grand Cru Classé in 1954, the rank of Château Angélus—a Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend—was promoted to the higher “A” category in 2012.
During en primeur tastings earlier this month I sat with Château Angélus owner Hubert de Boüard de Laforest to learn about the success of their wine and the character of their 2016 vintage.
Hubert de Boüard de Laforest:
“You know in Bordeaux when you are in one basket, it is difficult to move to another basket. But step-by-step, we had this information from the world that Angélus was one of the best. We heard from the public, from the consumers and also from the journalists everywhere in the world: the position of Angélus had moved to something exceptional.
“The power of Angélus is not only one thing. Especially during the last 35 years it’s quality, which is important when consistent. When I organized tastings after 20 years as a winemaker, and then after 25 years, and then 30 years—with journalists in New York, in Tokyo, in London or in Paris, everyone said, ‘this is Angélus with the soul.’ Because more and more it was consistent. Of course vintages are different because weather conditions are different. It’s one of the top ten or fifteen wines in Bordeaux. The first thing is to have the quality, as well as the connaissance [knowledge] of the wine regions and also the market. The second thing is the family behind Angélus, the family that works in the vineyard, the family that has been in Saint-Émilion for more than 200 years. And people love that this is a good story.
“I did my study with Émile Peynaud at Bordeaux university. I am an oenologist, the person behind the quality of the wine and the vineyard. I consider myself as a farmer. I was born in a small house just 200 meters from here and I grew up in the vineyard. Had the roots on my shoes. People like that: the quality and the story. And then the name Angélus is easy. It’s one of the first brands in Bordeaux. Even if people never taste one bottle of Angélus, they know Angélus. It’s like the boutique Hermès. Some never go inside because they don’t have the money for that. But they know and they dream. This is really a brand.
“Another point is very important. Like Paul Bocuse when he talks about the savoir-faire, and the faire savoir—I was one of the first on the right bank to travel everywhere in the world: US, China, everywhere. I said this is great quality wine, this is from a family, this is a brand. Now, a lot of people do that. I did that 30 years ago. I was one of the 10 people from Bordeaux and the first maybe from the right bank. Of course, I followed people such as [winemaker] Jean-Michel Cazes. But on the right bank I was more or less alone doing that. When you are alone, of course, people know you more than others, and the umbrella of the family name is more important.
Hubert de Boüard de Laforest Credit: Tom Mullen
“The 2016 vintage? We give a name to the vintage. This one we say it’s le rayonnant [radiance]. We got some rain at the end of June, but then it was a very dry season. Was not very warm. July was very sunny, little bit cold. August warmer of course. September, October, sunny days but cool nights. When it’s too warm the fruits disappear and it turns sometimes a little bit like prunes or jam. But 2016 was very fresh. More fruits, more acidity, but with good ripeness and very, very ripe seeds. When I was in Bordeaux university, Peynaud talked to the students and said, ‘maybe you will have two or three vintages in your life when you can use the seeds. And you will be happy.’ Because the seeds’ polyphenols are very interesting. They are more stable than skins; they are nutty, spicy and very fresh. This year we used a long maceration. We used the seeds, which were completely brown, black. We analyzed the wine and had about 10 to 15 percent of tannins from the seeds. Very elegant. If I have to sum up the vintage: lot of energy, freshness with preservation of fruits. Amazing.
“When you talk with people from Burgundy, people from the Rhone Valley, they all say more and more—our consumers want wine with a bit less alcohol, with more fruits, with less extraction and with elegance and finesse. This is really the new goal for us, to make wine that is very fresh and with great energy.
"The new generation, Stéphanie my daughter and Thierry my nephew, are the eighth generation. They are very good to manage the property but in the vineyard they don’t have the experience. I think for the next 10 to 15 years the focus will be for me to share, step by step, the vineyard techniques I received from university and my father.
“For the vineyard, for the cellar, for the vinification, I am the guy who knows the DNA of Angélus. The secret is that we are together in the vineyard. Step by step. I say—taste: it’s not just the sugar that’s important; it’s the balance, the freshness.
“For me the challenge is to secure and give the floor to the new generation. We are really farmers for generations. But nobody can believe the price of the land now is so high. I was born here and the feeling is strong that we must secure this for the new generation.
“Of course the region changed because people are not the same. Maybe sometime fresh air is good for us. But when some people arrived here there was a big change. If you are not strong enough—you are finished. We bought a new hotel restaurant in the city—Logis de la Cadène. Stéphanie is in charge. We have many things to do. We have to be out and to do more. I’m optimistic if we do that. I think the mutual interest is to make Angélus and the family business bigger. With the goal to be the best.”
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/05/15/rothschild-and-alvarez-families-are-launching-a-new-winery-in-rioja/
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Rothschild And Álvarez Families Are Launching A New Winery In Rioja
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Rothschild And Álvarez Families Are Launching A New Winery In Rioja
Bodegas Edmond de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia in Rioja, Spain Credit: Edmond de Rothschild Heritage
In mid-June a new winery building, or bodega, will open in Rioja in northern Spain and house the production of Macán wines. This official opening marks a milestone after a decade and a half of focused collaboration between two renowned winemaking families. The first step in creating Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia took seven years, when more than 100 hectares of vines were discreetly purchased from 70 owners.
This coordinated feat was brokered by a group of Madrid lawyers and orchestrated by Baroness Ariane de Rothschild—who presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Executive Committee in Geneva, and Pablo Álvarez—CEO of Vega Sicilia wines.
The foremost consideration in this project is to produce high quality wines.
“Pablo and I discussed where we should do this and decided most definitely Rioja,” Baroness Rothschild said. “He felt very strongly about the quality of the soil and the potential to create a new, very upscale wine. We thought it was a very interesting challenge to deliver yet another highly prestigious wine, starting from scratch. We are working on quality, not volume.”
Vines were selected according to specific criteria: they should grow in calcareous soils and be at least 35 years old. Optimal vines and a location for the new bodega were eventually selected northwest of the city of Logroño at the southern base of the Sierra de Cantabria peaks.
While vines were still being purchased, a temporary winemaking facility was rented and the first vintage was produced in 2009. At that time the wine name still had to be finalized. Many potential names were screened out as being too difficult to pronounce in languages other than Spanish. Finally, from the nickname of the local people in the town of San Vicente de la Sonsierra came Macán—simple to pronounce and inextricably grounded in the local culture.
“It was very important to be very connected to this region,” Baroness Rothschild said.
In this misty land of hilltop castles and low-fissured valleys the bodega is located at 2,100 feet (650 meters) above sea level in the higher vineyard reaches of Rioja. Because the terrain is close to protected natural lands, incorporated environmental measures include a lack of fencing (to allow the passage of wildlife), restrictions on light and sound and the exclusive use of indigenous vegetation for winery landscaping.
Hills of Rioja wine country Credit: Edmond de Rothschild Heritage
Two rounds of architectural competitions took place before the final design of the facility was selected. Construction took just over two years.
Project collaboration worked well because of shared values and vision. “You can have the best plans on earth,” Baroness Rothschild explained. “But if, on the people basis, you don’t get along—it’s very complicated.” Born in El Salvador and partially raised in Colombia, she speaks fluent Spanish (and four other languages) and is endeared to Latin culture. She and Álvarez both understand the need for maintaining a long-range vision, as well as disciplined focus.
“I think our common values are the long term view. Family values. Quality. The patience to produce something good rather than earn money right away. Respecting clients first,” she said.
Considering the process of making excellent wine, Álvarez added: “There are no secrets. Our new projects need seven years from the moment we begin. We try to make the best wine possible. It’s very easy to say, not so easy to do. It’s also important to maintain the personality of the wine’s region. If all the wines are the same, it’s very boring.”
Álvarez purchased Vega Sicilia wine estate on the Duero River 35 years ago, when it was over a century old. He has established other wineries in Spain as well as in Hungary. Lightheartedly, he has declared his eventual aspiration for Macán to rival the renowned Château Lafite-Rothschild wines of Bordeaux.
The combined cost of vines and the new winery was $34 million. The functional building is situated below impressive craggy peaks. The facility’s northernmost structure, closest to France, represents the Rothschild family while the southernmost building represents the Álvarez family. The third structure in the middle forms, metaphorically, the union between both. A permanent staff of 11 maintain the cellar, vines and administration of the bodega. During harvest that number will increase to 60 or more. Although architecturally impressive from the exterior, the bodega’s primary function is production, not eno-tourism.
“The first rule of this building is to produce wine,” Baroness Rothschild explained. “We did not think that creating an amazing architectural building would really contribute to the business of the wine.” According to winemaker Ganzalo Iturriaga, one reason the location was chosen is so that most grapes can be delivered within 20 minutes of being picked.
Energetically curious and experimental, Iturriaga varies yeasts, grape sorting techniques and the grain of oak barrels to optimize quality. To improve quality, no herbicides are used on vines, yields per hectare are relatively low and winery processes are gravity fed.
Aerial view of Bodegas Edmond de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia in Rioja, Spain Credit: Edmond de Rothschild Heritage
The winery now produces two wines—Macán and the second label Macán Clásico. Both are made from Tempranillo grapes and aged primarily in French oak barrels (between 12 and 18 months), followed by aging in bottles. Future wines may possibly be blended with Graciano grapes. Whites could also be produced, depending—according to Iturriaga—on the quality and aging potential of permitted white grape varieties, such as Viura.
“We want to go slowly, smoothly to produce elegant, great wines,” Iturriaga said. Yet the year 2013 was challenging for Rioja winemakers. “2013 was a complicated year,” he explained. “There was a lot of rain during harvest.”
Despite these problems, Macán delivers. The taste of this wine is beautifully satisfying, balanced and full, develops within minutes in the glass, includes red fruit and earth and has a long finish. The second label, Macan Clásico, aged 12 months in oak, includes violets, herbs and caramel on the nose and is light and easy to drink. Production of both wines is limited. Less than 99,000 bottles of the 2013 were produced, of which 60% were exported to 60 countries—primarily the United States, Switzerland and Mexico. Expect the price to increase in future years as the wines become more recognized.
“Expensive wines are not always the best wines,” Álvarez said. “First it’s necessary to show that the quality of our wines is great.”
Baroness Rothschild’s favorite wine is a ’59 Château Lafite-Rothschild, while she also appreciates wine from Château Cheval Blanc as well as many Burgundies. And Macán? She favors this not only for taste, but because producing it has been a labor of love.
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c0d0baa805b9adf664bc279efa589608
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/06/08/vinexpo-bordeaux-is-a-wine-and-spirit-wonderland/
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Vinexpo Bordeaux Is A Wine And Spirit Wonderland
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Vinexpo Bordeaux Is A Wine And Spirit Wonderland
Japanese whiskies featured at Vinexpo 2015 Credit: Tom Mullen
For the first six months of every second year, whispers circulate around the wine community of Bordeaux—will you be going to Vinexpo? Winemakers and merchants begin preparing for this sizable professional event weeks and sometimes months in advance. This year Vinexpo Bordeaux kicks off on the 18th of June and lasts through the 21st.
Close to 50,000 visitors from 150 countries will mingle, swirl, taste, dine, attend conferences and swap business cards within 15 covered acres (6 hectares) where more than 2,300 exhibitors—many in custom, sumptuous booths—will be available to answer questions and let visitors sample their wares.
Whether you want to sample 18 different wines from Serbia, listen to the Alibaba Group explain how big data is transforming wine business opportunities, learn from Napa Valley winemakers about their ‘environmental sustainability’ program or have a copy of a book titled Le Vin Snob signed by its author—these four days at Vinexpo include a wide and eclectic range of topics and workshops to keep visitors relentlessly engaged.
"This is a well-known, prestigious gathering," said Natalia Pinho, a co-owner of Cave Tsallin in Switzerland which produces 24 wines from approximately 75 acres (30 hectares) of vines. "We make good wine and we want to present them in the best light in Bordeaux."
"Vinexpo is an opportunity to meet customers in one place to taste wines, share prices, and discuss future visits," said Bordeaux wine producer Valérie Eymas. "We do this through networks with other producers as well as at social events and [after-event] evening parties."
There are plenty of tasting opportunities for wine and spirits. You can attend one titled ‘The Irish Spirits Renaissance’ or ‘Northern France in a Time of Climate Change’ or sample wines from four selected female winemakers from four continents. There are pairings of port with chocolate, as well as pourings of Argentinian white wines. You can taste Italian sparklers or a new vodka from Siberia. At noon some will attend a German Riesling picnic by an outdoor lake, or for dinner taste Spanish wine and tapas while watching a flamenco trio at the nearby new Cité du Vin wine museum. Visitors hungry for information can listen to a conference on how to navigate French customs for wine exports, or hear how the shape of a glass impacts the taste of your wine.
Pouring Turkish wine at a Vinexpo stand (credit: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP/Getty Images)
Additions to this year’s event include a special exhibit space titled WOW—or World of Organic Wines. This includes 200 producers providing tastings and conferences related to organic and biodynamic wines, and features a restaurant serving 100% organic food. This year will also host Spain as the 'country of honor,' recognizing its international importance as the third largest wine exporter in the world.
Regardless of conferences, presentations and master classes, a prevalent focus is on developing business. "The reason for coming to Vinexpo is to get familiar with European markets," said Rati Akhvlediani, export manager for Giuaani Wines based in the city of Tbilisi in the nation of Georgia. "We also want to introduce and promote Georgian wines, and are expecting people interested in buying our wines, and better retailing it within Europe." Akhvlediani is part of a group of more than 10 wine and spirit dealers from Georgia visiting for the first time. They will also host at an invitation-only event titled 'the cradle of wine,' referring to their land's 8,000 year tradition of winemaking.
Wine consultant Jemma Roberts uses Vinexpo as a means to meet producers Credit: Tom Mullen
If you plan to attend as a visitor, get online to identify conferences and tastings that interest you, then form a tentative itinerary. Having some structure before entering this wine and spirit wonderland may keep you from being overwhelmed. Keep the floor plan you are given at the entrance handy in case you become lost in this deep sea of lavish, varied exhibits. Make sure your cell phone is charged in order to coordinate with companions on where to meet, eat and taste, and consider downloading the Vinexpo 2017 app.
Affordable accommodation will be scarce within Bordeaux city during these days, so if you have not already booked, consider staying at a hotel, chambre d’hôte, or combination guest house/wine château within a 30 to 45 minute drive away in the countryside (not only in the Médoc to the north, but across the Gironde estuary to the east—within the ‘right bank’ region of Bordeaux). To avoid driving after drinking take advantage of free shuttles from the Parc des Expositions to Bordeaux city center, to the airport or train station, or take the tram directly into the city. Alternately, arrange a vehicle and driver, a taxi or Uber cab.
If this is your first visit to Bordeaux, take at least an extra day to explore this ancient and convivial city—with its re-developed waterfront, Cité du Vin wine museum, impressive spires and architecture, excellent wine bars and restaurants and winding back alleys.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/06/26/a-powerful-debut-for-uruguays-icon-wine/
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A Powerful Debut For Uruguay's Icon Wine
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A Powerful Debut For Uruguay's Icon Wine
Bodega Garzón in Uruguay aspires to produce internationally recognized wines Credit: Tom Mullen
How to showcase an icon wine? First, bring together the wealthiest visionary of Argentina, a world celebrated Patagonian chef and a renowned Italian born wine consultant. Next, uncork several magnums of the 2015 vintage on the tranquil grounds of a Bordeaux château.
Billionaire Argentinian Alejandro Bulgheroni owns multiple wineries, including Renwood in California, Château Suau in Bordeaux, a few in Tuscany (including Dievole) as well as in Argentina (Argento, Bodega Vistalba) and a new venture in Patagonia that will be the southernmost winery in the world.
Bulgheroni recently flew into France for a rendezvous with winemaker Alberto Antonini and chef Francis Mallmann for a convivial, low-key debut of his new icon wine Balasto from Bodega Garzón. Balasto features Uruguay’s signature grape, Tannat, blended with Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Marselan. The taste is a luxurious dose of oak, smoke and blackberries and lacks astringency often associated with Tannat. During a recent week of Vinexpo market in Bordeaux, chef Mallmann (a 'culinary ambassador' for Garzón) paired this wine with fresh grilled flavors from the southern hemisphere: rib eye on the bone with chimichurri, hung chicken with gremolata, and pit-cooked butternut squash.
The definition of an ‘icon wine’ can be nebulous, but denotes a high quality, limited production wine that strives to represent the best qualities of at least one predominant grape from a specific region. Crafting such a wine hinges on having access to optimal vineyards.
“Ten years ago Mr. Bulgheroni asked me to go and see his property in Garzón, to see if it was a very good place to grow grapes,” winemaker Antonini said when we recently spoke in France.
Born west of Florence near the Italian town of Vinci, Antonini shares a similar situation to that of a predecessor from the same town—Leonardo da Vinci. Generous sponsors bestowed both men with the ability to combine their technical and artistic acumen to produce works of quality.
As an aspiring winemaker, Antonini first traveled to South America 22 years ago, where he was later introduced to Bulgheroni. When asked to visit the potential future vineyard at Garzón, Antonini agreed.
“I asked to dig soil pits, and to obtain information about the climate," he explained. "When I first got there I had a very, very positive feeling with the place because of the granite soils and biodiversity. Plus I liked the synergies with the Atlantic Ocean, where you have a very healthy, cool clean breeze that helps the vineyards to be refreshed from the summer heat."
Antonini considered the raw data in light of his experience.
"You always need information—the chemistry in the soil, the climate, rainfall, humidity, sunlight intensity," he added. "But the last word comes from your feeling with the place. When Mr. Bulgheroni asked me, ‘do you think it’s a good place to go?’ I said, ‘It’s an excellent place.’ I was thinking he was planting three hectares [eight acres] to make 5,000 bottles for his friends. Afterwards, he said, ‘Why don’t we start with 200 hectares [540 acres]?’
Balasto wine from Bodega Garzón Tom Mullen
“He is a big thinker, a visionary man,” Antonini continued. “He can afford to develop super projects, but loves quality. He says quality, sooner or later, is always going to succeed.”
One desire in developing these vineyards was to retain the original topography. “We didn’t want to bulldoze everything and remove hills and make a huge vineyard," Antonini explained. "Since the environment was so good and exciting, we wanted just to graft the vineyard over the place, not to be invasive.”
The vines were placed in more than a thousand separate lots. Although more expensive to develop and manage, this arrangement allows for better controlling the quality of juice as well as for fine-tuning blends.
"The average size of a vineyards at Garzón is less than one hectare (2.5 acres)," Antonini said. "Like Burgundy."
The dominant red grape is Tannat, while the predominant white is Albariño. Tannat has been successfully cultivated in Uruguay for more than 130 years, while the home of Albariño is Galicia in Spain—which also includes granitic soils and an Atlantic climate.
“Balasto is the name of the mother rock,” Antonini explained, referring to the two billion year old basement rock under the region. “In Spanish there is a saying that if you have to explain something, it becomes complicated. So—Garzón is named after the village, and Balasto is named after the soil.”
Many vineyards first planted in Uruguay in the 19th century were near the capital city of Montevideo, where immigrants arrived and settled. However, mediocre drainage in parts of that environment can keep soils muddy, adversely impacting tannins. Wet soils also encourage vegetal growth on vines, which can drain energy and nutrients that could otherwise pack more concentrated flavor into grapes.
“Tannat is a grape that has a lot of tannins, lot of flavors, lot of structure,” Antonini said. “So it requires good maturation of polyphenols, or else they may be a little rustic, rough and astringent. Since we are in quite a rainy environment, the drainage of soil is key.”
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Bodega Garzón is situated three hours east of Montevideo by car, where the average annual rainfall is between 45 and 60 inches (1200 and 1500 millimeters).
“Garzón has well drained soil, allowing Tannat to have good maturation and providing beautiful freshness, energy and vitality to the fruit,” he added.
This combination of drainage and ocean breezes (which can help prevent mold) produces premium Tannat grapes.
"I believe it’s really a very, very good wine. It doesn’t have just texture and concentration, it has a lot of layers of complexity—spices, beautiful elegance."
The vineyards are now almost a decade old.
"Just a baby," Antonini said. “Like human beings, vineyards get better over time,” he added, laughing. “Older vines get more balanced and grow better fruit. If we’ve achieved such a great level of quality already, over the next few years, the grapes will be even better.”
Over the next years, interest in Uruguayan wines may also be poised to ascend.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/09/20/bordeaux-harvest-kicks-off-with-crimson-robes-and-a-feast/
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Bordeaux Harvest Kicks Off With Crimson Robes And A Feast
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Bordeaux Harvest Kicks Off With Crimson Robes And A Feast
Mass at the collegiate church of Saint-Emilion (Credit: Mehdi Fedouach/AFP/Getty Images)
Take more than a thousand years of history and a crimson-robed group of individuals dedicated to maintaining the reputation of stellar wines. Throw in a mass in a beautiful vaulted church followed by a three-hour lunch with ten excellent local wines and you have the annual Ban des Vendanges ceremony. This kicks off the annual grape harvest for Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux.
The harvest is now underway in much of Bordeaux wine country, despite the deadly frost earlier this year that knocked out—for some vineyards—over 50% of their grapes. This annual full-day event within the small and ancient city (population: less than 2,000) is a colorful, sumptuous and photogenic celebration.
Twelve hundred and fifty years ago, while the Franks were capturing what is now the city of Bordeaux and devastating the Aquitaine region, a monk named Émilion died in what became the small medieval stone city that is now named after him. Originally from Brittany, he chose to move south and live in seclusion in a cave near the Dordogne River on which a massive church now stands. In time a village sprouted around the site.
Four centuries later, and decades after the English gained control of the region, the brother of Richard the Lionheart, King John Lackland of England (also the son of famed Eleanor of Aquitaine) provided local administrative powers to eight parishes of the jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion, which became known as the Jurade, or brotherhood of wine. The year was 1199. One stipulation for this freedom was that England was given the first rights to their wine. The freedom this arrangement afforded provided the Jurade with incentive to maintain rigorous quality control over vintages. Smashing barrels of poor quality juice was not only tolerated, but encouraged.
The activities of the Jurade have not gone uninterrupted.
“During the French revolution, they had their heads cut off,” said Jean-Bernard Grenié, as we sat together inside the garden of the Salle de Dominicains for lunch. “But after the Second World War," he continued, "the Jurade was formed again.”
Grenié is a partial owner of Château Angelus, which has been family owned and run for more than two centuries. Angelus produces Premier Grand Cru Classé A wines, and the family actively participates in promoting art and cultural events throughout Bordeaux.
The Ban des Vendanges is a celebration of harvest, a thanksgiving for the grapes that keep the economy vibrant. It begins with a church service that is followed by the induction of dozens of new members.
Pipe band outside the church in Saint-Émilion Credit: Tom Mullen
Illuminated under warm light and rich colors inside the church, Jurade members wear red and white robes and sit beneath ornate stain glass windows and candelabras. There are six levels of membership within the Jurade, and today the 3,000 members from throughout the world are considered ambassadors of wine—be they an American dentist, a Shanghai sommelier, a Dutch wine club owner, an Australian academic or a Manchester wine aficionado. These individuals have established tasting clubs, researched wine or promoted the world of grapes for years. Others are renowned contributors to international culture, sport and history.
Originally established as a local movement to ensure quality control, the Jurade also now enhances international marketing by spreading the name (and fame) of Saint-Émilion wines, with chapters set up in several international locations that include Oxford, New York, Hong Kong and, yes, even the U.S. state of Texas.
During the initiation of new members, speakers blasted music—a meld between Gregorian chant and the Rocky Balboa theme—that amplified the event's ceremonial energy. When the Jurade stepped outside, a costumed pipe and drum band continued rolling the music. Cameras clicked and high-heeled visitors stumbled on cobblestone alleys within this hilly city.
Village of Saint-Émilion with Jurade on tower in upper right Credit: Tom Mullen
The harvest lunch is a feast as well as a venue to develop business contacts. While eating Breton langoustines in celery ravioli together with a salad of truffles, morel mushrooms with green asparagus, I spoke with a Swedish photographer assembling books for vineyards, and then to a wine magazine editor. We drank wines from local chateaux that included Ripeau, Figeac, Laniote, Mangot, Angelus and Valandraud (and several others) before finishing lunch with Fougeru cheese followed by raspberries and passion fruit.
After lunch the Jurade paced downward to the base of the village and ascended the Tour du Roi (King’s Tower). They stood on top and looked out at vineyards that, for at least eight centuries, have defined the identity and commercial bloodstream of Saint-Émilion.
The event is a juicy reminder of tight historic ties between people and agriculture in southwest France. It is also a reminder to locals that—despite the bounty or bane of harvest conditions, despite frost or hail—there is always time to celebrate food, family and community.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/09/26/24-zesty-hours-in-the-powerhouse-of-poitiers/
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24 Zesty Hours In The Powerhouse Of Poitiers
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24 Zesty Hours In The Powerhouse Of Poitiers
15th century Hôtel Fumé was constructed by a wealthy family of magistrates Tom Mullen
Located an hour and a half by train from Paris or Bordeaux, the city of Poitiers is ideal for an overnight trip.
With a population of less than 100,000, this city is associated with battles that shaped the future of Europe.
In 732 invaders who had swept across North Africa and crossed the straits of Gibraltar to Europe punched northward—eager to capture the entire continent. About a dozen miles north of Poitiers these Saracens fought the Frankish army of Charles (‘The Hammer’) Martel and were defeated. This halted their northern aspirations (though many spent a few more centuries in Provence).
In 1356, an English army led by Edward, the Black Prince, was less than half the size of opposing French forces when they battled three miles south of Poitiers. The English were victorious, likely a partial result of their wielding long bows with skilled accuracy and choosing a strategic fighting position. This significant battle of the 100 Years War spurned the determination of the French for future victories.
The city of Poitiers remains drenched with historical intrigue.
Regardless your mode of transport, after arriving at about noon, check into a hotel before meandering to Rue Victor Hugo, a central point to begin exploring. This wide boulevard includes the stately Préfecture at one end and the government administrative building (Hôtel de Ville) at the other—both architecturally impressive.
From the east end of Victor Hugo turn right and aim down twisting Rue Carnot, then select a restaurant (with a porch, depending on the weather) to enjoy lunch for an extended hour.
I sat at Le Comptoir à Moustaches and ordered a Brandade de Morue (a crispy cod cake topped with a baby tomato and flanked by arugula) with a glass of Domaine Eric Louis Ménetou-Salon white wine (a Loire Sauvignon Blanc). Impeccably mannered students at an adjacent table appeared dressed for a fashion shoot and ate their hamburgers with knives and forks.
Place de la Liberté Tom Mullen
The blend of modernity mixed with the memory of medieval glory makes Poitiers an attractive haven for students. Five centuries ago bells were added to the millennium aged Saint-Porchaire church to chime university hours. Students remain plentiful today and provide an upbeat, vibrant energy that makes the city somewhat less staid than Bordeaux, less frenetic than Paris and with more of a homogenous sense of city pride than Marseilles.
After lunch, stroll for hours to explore this pedestrian friendly city. Street posts include maps with lists of walking times to the nearest points of interest.
There is ample shopping along Rue Leon Gambetta—for bagels or Belgian chocolates, jewelry or jackets, heels or jeans. Within spacious Place Alphonse-Lepetit is the columned palace—Palais de Justice—the center of ancient power when mid-twelfth century rulers Eleanor of Aquitaine and her husband—English King Henri Plantagenêt—ruled local dukes across a swath of what is now western France.
Leaving Rue du Palais for Rue des Vieilles Boucheries (the road of ancient butcheries), you may want to nip into Claude Lafond pastry and chocolate store. When you walk outside again, step back and regard the crisscrossed wooden beams forming the structure's exterior (as well as that of several houses along nearby Rue de la Chaine). This attractive ‘Pain de Bois’ architecture used in the 17th and 18th centuries was so popular and effective that despite a royal edict banning wood for construction in the city, the use of this technique was never halted.
Stop at Place de la Liberté, sit on a bench and eye a scaled down version of the Statue of Liberty.
Here the roads turn steeper (a reminder that the city is perched on a hill) and the environment grows grittier. Unless you have a burning desire to see the Tour du Cordier (which looks like a squat stone cork located—without signage—within a traffic roundabout), maneuver east to the Jardin des Plantes, a small park showcasing vibrant flowers from all over the world.
Next, head south toward the Cathedral Saint-Pierre.
Eleanor of Aquitaine and her husband Henri initiated work on this massive cathedral soon after their marriage, and supposedly donated a stain glass window which is still on the east wall (which includes their images).
Rocinante Wine Bar in Poitiers Tom Mullen
After being awed by the church's inner dimensions, exit to view and visit the blunt Merovingian architecture of nearby Baptistère Saint-Jean and to see the colorful eight-century old frescoes inside.
Next, enter the sizable Musée Saint-Croix to view Roman artifacts, medieval art and a multicolored dragon sculpture from 1677 that appears to be a modern work by Tim Burton. There is also an early 17th century painting showing the city, compact and poised above the curling River Clain. Small though it was, Poitiers once formed a strategic outpost for medieval rulers in this part of Europe.
Ask at your hotel reception (or check an eatery app) to decide where to go for dinner. For a pre-dinner drink I selected Rocinante wine bar on Grand’Rue. Proprietress Renée del Porto, from Barcelona, took a minute from shaving slices of ham and serving customers to speak. A resident of Poitiers for 14 years, she opened the bar/restaurant a year ago. Her secret to drawing in customers is familiarity with all things local—including particular tastes.
“It’s important to know this town. It’s small. A secret. The people here know very clearly what food they want and do not want. “
Giggling couples nursed glasses of wine in the warmly lit space and ordered tapas or soup ladled from a large tureen.
Renée poured glasses of Les 5 Éléments 2015 red Loire valley wine from Domaine de L’R, as well as a biodynamic Violetta from Mas Foulaquier from the Pic saint-Loup region of Languedoc—a blend of Grenache, Carignan, Syrah and Merlot.
For dinner I selected a small restaurant—Le Clain D’oeil—that opened only four months ago. Owner and chef Julien Rojas, with a French father and Spanish mother, told of his background.
“I’m from Paris. I learned cooking in Australia and on the island of Réunion. I also cooked in London for two years.”
Though sparse on customers and basic with regards to setting (paper placements and bullfighting music) his egg and leek casserole (oeuf cocotte aux poireaux) was a fiery affirmation that selecting this offbeat restaurant was an excellent move. Coated by toasted pumpkin seeds, this hearty dish was a bold, salty and unrestrained kickoff to Friday night dining. Like ancient Poitiers centuries ago, this dish was small and packed with power. It went beautifully with a glass of red Loire Valley wine—a 2014 Les Coteaux Chinon from Domaine Jalousie.
The top contenders for the main course included a steak coated with shredded shallot sauce as well as parsley potatoes, or salmon tartare with influences from Reunion—coriander, pineapples and dill. I chose beef. The contrast of the hot steak to the strip of icy cold vegetables—tomatoes, zucchini, and asparagus—was itself a taste excursion.
After dinner and wine, sleep well. In the morning sit at the Place Charles de Gaulle and order coffee. Then wander to the boisterous outdoor market outside the bulky but beautiful Notre Dame church (open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings). There I bought ‘katmer’ flatbread filled with cheese and parsley before securing a park bench for 'countryside dining' before catching the high speed TGV train to depart.
Twenty-four hours in Poitiers can re-ignite anyone's appreciation that exploring the present is sometimes best accomplished by examining the past.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2017/12/07/this-technology-is-transforming-a-quiet-italian-wine-region-into-a-destination-jewel/
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This Technology Is Transforming A Quiet Italian Wine Region Into A Destination Jewel
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This Technology Is Transforming A Quiet Italian Wine Region Into A Destination Jewel
The rolling hills of Abruzzo, Italy (Credit: Shutterstock)
Earlier this year, the 16 member Wine Consortium of Abruzzo in Italy realized that a hindrance to local wine tourism came from winemakers themselves. Many were so focused on viticulture and fermentation that they ignored promoting their own regional mountain and coastal landscape as a destination for visitors.
Another challenge came when visitors asked consortium members where to visit. Recommending one destination in favor of another could be regarded as biased by local business owners.
Abruzzo coastline and Adriatic Sea (Credit: Shutterstock)
A third problem related to directions. Negotiating twisted coastal roads while wrestling a large and unwieldy map over a dashboard does not make for an ideal excursion. Visitors want a breezy and scenic vacation, not a logistical scavenge hunt.
Because the focus of the consortium is to assure the quality of local wines as well as to promote the region, they realized they needed to take action.
Consortium president Valentino di Campli and other members decided to scrap traditional marketing tactics and instead to develop a mobile telephone application (app).
The group mapped out 10 recommended driving routes within Abruzzo. Each, ideally, requires about two days to cover, and all intersect cultural, historical and scenic hotspots. They agreed that for each waypoint along any route, icons could be clicked on the app in order to identify wine bars and restaurants within a selected radius from each point—whether 6, 15, 30 or 45 miles (20, 25, 50 or 75 kilometers) away.
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A local developer then created a straightforward app, called Percorsi (Journeys) that displays photos, summarizes attractions and navigates to targeted destinations using global positioning satellites (GPS).
Launched in October in Italian, the app is now also available in English.
The 'Percorsi' app will guide you through the Abruzzo region Credit: Consorzio Tutela Vini d'Abruzzo
The proximity of Abruzzo to the city of Rome makes the region ideal for a two or three day excursion. Although roughly half the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey (or the country of Slovenia), the region’s population of under 1.5 million is only half that of Rome.
The drive from Rome to coastal Abruzzo is a two hour zip along well engineered blacktop through long tunnels, over gaping valleys and past ancient villages clutching mountainsides—stone dwellings clustered to fend off medieval invaders. Serrated gray walls of Apennine peaks are a visual stunner, and this combination of mountains and coastal bays makes Abruzzo a peaceful and calming slice of rural Italy.
The Abruzzo coastline—where hills meet fishing villages Credit: Tom Mullen
The 35 mile (57 kilometer) long stretch of Adriatic shore between Ortona and San Salvo cities is called the 'trabocchi coast' (trabocchi are ancient wooden fishing structures built over water; most have been transformed into restaurants). With coastal erosion, barefoot teenagers, peninsular views, stunning and clear sea waters, narrow beach lanes and casual fishermen, this yet untrammeled region could be Malibu or Ventura in California decades ago. The twisty coastal strip is home to laid back locals still warmly receptive to visitors.
Rich and diverse local foods include scrumptious ricotto cheeses, olive oils, ample fish, prosciutto, lasagna-like timballo pasta as well as a distinctive three peaked pastry known as 'sise delle monache.'
Local Abruzzo pastries known as 'sise delle monache' Credit: Tom Mullen
“This region is not known,” said Valentina Di Camillo of Tenuta I Fauri winery. She joined the wine consortium earlier this year as the only female member. “Our big, beautiful territory offers culture and countryside but is undiscovered. We want to improve gastronomic tourism and build up identity. This is just the beginning. This app is a simple instrument to use on your cell phone that shows local beauty.”
Dino Pepe, the agricultural assessor for the wine consortium, added, “It’s a strategic project to communicate about our wine, food and the natural environment. It provides an opportunity to expose our territory, to market the region to the world. Obviously wine is important to the economy, so we promote that.”
The 10 recommended driving routes on the online percorsi app (a paper map is also available) include trails with names such as Origins of Abruzzo—History and Culture; Chieti—The City of Art; Exploring Vibrata Valley; Between Science and Nature, and Discovering the Trabocchi Coast, which we shall now explore.
When the app is opened there are two starting choices. You can select an existing route (that’s us) or create your own, based on a selection of preferences: sea, mountains, adventure hiking, relaxation, culture and nature (try that more adventurous option when you visit).
Castello Aragonese in Ortona, Abruzzo, Italy Credit: Tom Mullen
Wanting only a day trip, we’ll select a few destinations listed in sequence on the app. First, click and check photos to help decide where to go. Next, read brief summary paragraphs. Finally, switch to GPS mode, mount your camera on the dashboard and fire up the ignition.
Beginning at the spacious and breezy Hotel Spa Villa Maria, our one-way day trip will total 50 miles (81 kilometers).
First stop: the Aragonese Castle in the town of Ortona. The app’s photos show a splendid fortification aimed toward a cobalt sea.
Ortona is a lanky town with swirling and twisted streets. The castle is a hunk of well proportioned architecture, a symmetrical and primfully landscaped affair perched on cleanly trimmed grass. The app provides condensed history: built in 1492 for defending against Venetians, this transformed to a residence for nobility in the 17th century. During the Battle of Ortona in the Second World War, the walls were pummeled by German bombs and blasted by American grenades. A few years later the structure was hammered by a mudslide. No wonder it deserved recent renovations.
From the base of these brown walls, look outward and downward toward the massive modern harbor to see a statue of Saint Thomas—patron saint of the city, for whom a two day boat parade and feast is held each May.
Walk from this castle to the Abruzzo regional wine store (Enoteca Regionale d’Abruzzo) on a sloping stone street. The interior is lined with hefty wooden shelves stocked with local vintages. The predominant red grape of the region is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo while most whites are made using Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Buy a bottle (why not two?) and stash them in your car for a picnic the next day.
Trabocco in Abruzzo. Credit: Shutterstock
The app displays the next stop: Punta Turchino trabocco. However, we’ll stop at another one of these nearby fishing structures—Trabocco Pesce Palombo—because we can pull in for lunch. Begin with a glass of local bubbly spumante bianco, such as Carmine Festa Metodo Classico. Next, select the special that includes oil, garlic, tomato, green peppers, chili, shellfish and six other kinds of freshly caught fish—perhaps sea bass or red mullet during winter, or cuttlefish and anchovies in spring.
After a long lunch, drive to the Abbey of San Giovanni in the commune of Fossacesia. Marvel at this structure and carvings that appear intact and fresh, even though they were completed in 1204—the same year that crusaders sacked Constantinople. Downstairs, rub your palms against the cool and ancient white columns made from marble mined within the nearby Maielli Mountains.
Before visiting the hillside city of Vasto, click on the app’s ‘nearby wine bar’ icon, then navigate to Fontefico. Sit outdoors in the country and sample local ricotta cheese as well as white wines made from Pecorino grapes—precise, creamy, and tasting of grapefruit and nectarines.
Sample both prosciutto and ventricina vastese—a local slice of pork with added spices that may include rosemary, orange peel, fennel seeds, garlic and white pepper. Sip a glass of 2014 red Cocca di Casa Montepulciano d’Abruzzo—a balanced mouthful of cherry and cocoa. “We call the wine Daddy’s little girl,” said co-owner Nicola Altieri, explaining the family's affection for this beauty.
Abruzzo wines are generally reasonably priced Credit: Tom Mullen
Back in the vehicle, navigate up switchbacks to the hilly city of Vasto. This is an unexpected jewel, a haven of 40,000 residents with a small but vibrantly attractive center. From Palazzo d’Avalos stroll along Corso de Parma to Piazza Diomede and then to adjacent Piazza Gabriele Rossetti—a somewhat circular gathering point with stone benches near turrets, flagpoles, a fountain and cafés: this is signature rural Italy, but with a healthy modern vibe.
(The app is your starting point. If you want a personal tour, consider contacting a professional guide to take you to specific locales and provide more in-depth information.)
Next, descend to Michelin star Restaurant Al Metrò in San Salvo for dinner. While slicing up red mullet, down a glass of Vigneto di Popoli Trebbiano wine from the Valle Reale winery—a tangy and acidic opener to appetizers. Or try a glass of Yare white Pecorino wine from Il Feuduccio, richly tasting of lemongrass with a long, dynamic finish.
For main course consider risotto with calamari and green beans—matched with a glass of another Pecorino white from Torre dei Beati—a refreshing blast of lemons and mandarins, or a Pasetti Rosato rosé—a 100% Montelpuciano d'Abruzzo which is smoke and pineapple on the nose and candy in the mouth. An alternate rosé, always a balanced winner, is a Villa Gemma from Masciarelli.
Dessert? Biscuit sorbet, together with a glass of Gesmino Muscat. On the nose this includes Christmas clementines, lemon rind, strawberries and mushrooms.
Finally, a digestif. Ask for the exquisite clonal Muscat made by only three local wineries from the rare variety of Muscatello di Castiglione e Casauria grapes, grown only in the Pescara valley.
Before leaving the restaurant to your hotel (no more driving after wine), toast to Abruzzo: to wine, food, culture, natural beauty and robust ancient architecture. And, of course, technology.
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