The following is a compilation of 12 “dos and don’ts” for how innovators should pitch and partner with a new class of technology venture investors who balance market realism with optimism in driving a vision with substance.
Early-stage venture capital requires a team effort to find product-market fit and accelerate revenue growth.
DON’T give upLike many activities in the startup world, success finds those who have grit, courage, persistence, durability, and adaptability.
Venture capital often finds nonconsensus and nonobvious deals, but the process may take hundreds of meetings before the first yes.
Almost every company is better serviced by not raising venture capital and instead relying on profitable growth and other sources of capital.
It’s an opportunity to take advantage of the brief Sunday morning news lull before the deluge kicks into full effect Monday.
Tomorrow is, after all, when Samsung will host its CES 2024 press conference along with other big names like Sony and LG.
“In&Out Flip is a technology that can provide a new alternative for consumers who prefer bar-shaped smartphones due to the thickness of foldable products,” the company said in a release.
As for testing the tech, Samsung apparently utilized the device in temperatures ranging from -4-degrees up to 140-degrees Fahrenheit.
The technology appears on the Rollable Flex, as well as the Flex Hybrid, the latter of which combines it with a sliding display.
If you follow the world of robotic exoskeletons with any frequency, you’re no doubt aware of the two primary categories.
The latter category is often the domain of soft robotic exoskeletons – those with fabric parts designed to be more of a day-to-day assistive accessory.
In the case of people with Parkinson’s disease, “freezing” is a frequent issue that impacts the ability to walk, while increasing the likelihood of falls.
New research from a joint team from Harvard and Boston University, published in Nature Medicine, demonstrates how soft robotic exoskeletons can address the issue.
Without any special training, the patient was able to walk without any freezing indoors and with only occasional episodes outdoors.
At the end of 2022, like many, I made some predictions about what 2023 would bring to the technology investing ecosystem.
AI and data continue to dominate the funding landscape.
U.S. VC deals fall from $275 billion in 2022 to $200 billion in 2023, and sustain at about $200-$220 billion next year.
Valuations will remain relatively steady, except for AI businesses, which will command a premium of about 10-15% to the market.
While VC deals fell dramatically between 2022 and 2023, 2024 won’t see as sharp of a decline.
The first is when your friends won’t stop talking about it.
The second is when your friends want you to stop talking about it.
But in the last decade or so, blockchain-based technology has managed to not go away.
All that in hand, I think that 2024 is going be a good year for blockchain-based products and services, but not because I expect that 2021-era venture enthusiasm to rear its head again.
Bullish 2024 signals for cryptoFully anticipating texts from friends who are crypto-negative in response to this story, I think it’s important to write down here that I do not hold any material crypto assets.
It’s all a distant memory for tech companies looking to assert themselves as leading innovators for the coming year.
In spite of the aforementioned ongoing health issues, I’m actually kind of looking forward to this CES.
Speaking of robotics (as I often am), CES has been dipping its toes in those waters for a few years now.
Over the past several years, LG has made the strategic decision to announce its biggest products ahead of CES.
Bookmark our CES 2024 page for the latest.
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has revealed its first electric car, a sharp-looking sedan called the SU7.
It’s the same pitch Faraday Future’s founder originally gave many years ago when promoting his original electric vehicle project in China, a part of his tech conglomerate at the time.
There are quite literal versions of this in Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto, which mirror a phone’s software on the in-car screen.
Volkswagen tried to build up its own powerhouse in-car software team but has struggled mightily.
Tesla has developed a robust in-car software experience for its vehicles, though it has resisted CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of maintaining control of its screens.
Product design makes innovation less daunting and increases chances for success because it is a multidisciplinary process with structures and frameworks to catalyze innovation.
Before discussing the nontraditional ways technologists participate in product innovation, let’s conceptually examine innovation and product design.
A progressive role for technologistsTechnologists play a strategic role in product innovation and should bring a metaphysical perspective in addition to being punctilious.
Product innovation is experimental and should not always be expected to yield productive results.
Technologists add value to the product design process by sharing their expertise on a technology’s characteristics.
Tesla’s fix for its Autopilot recall of more than 2 million vehicles is being called “insufficient” by Consumer Reports, following preliminary tests.
While the testing isn’t comprehensive, it shows questions remain unanswered about Tesla’s approach to driver monitoring — the tech at the heart of the recall.
It focused heavily on the Autosteer feature, which is designed to keep a car centered in a lane on controlled-access highways, even around curves.
But NHTSA said in documents released last week that it viewed those checks as “insufficient to prevent misuse.”Tesla does not restrict the use of Autosteer to controlled-access highways, though.
“None of this is very prescriptive or explicit in terms of what it is they’re going to [change],” Funkhouser says.
With the FTC’s increasing focus on the misuse of biometric surveillance, Rite Aid fell firmly in the government agency’s crosshairs.
And companies such as Clearview AI, meanwhile, have been hit with lawsuits and fines around the world for major data privacy breaches around facial recognition technology.
The FTC’s latest findings regarding Rite Aid also shines a light on inherent biases in AI systems.
Additionally, the FTC said that Rite Aid failed to test or measure the accuracy or their facial recognition system prior to, or after, deployment.
“The allegations relate to a facial recognition technology pilot program the Company deployed in a limited number of stores,” Rite Aid said in its statement.
