5 Reasons a Commercial Locksmith Can Come in Handy

If you’re in charge of running a commercial business, you’d know how important it is to secure the premises. Even though you can get a state-of-the-art security system with cameras and motion detectors everywhere, the only thing that’s going to keep intruders out, and your staff safely, is going to be the right locks. The right locks, also need to be functioning properly for them to secure your commercial business properly. That’s why you need to have the number of a professional locksmith handy at all times!

Below are 5 reasons why having a commercial locksmith like Locksmith Rochester NY on speed dial might come in handy for your business!

Your  Main Locks Are Broken
The main locks of your commercial space are your main line of defense against intruders. If they’re broken, there’s nothing standing in their way and they’ll easily be able to gain access to your space! A locksmith will be able to come and check the extent of damage that your lock has. If it’s not a lot, and the lock seems repairable, they’ll repair it for you right away! If it’s too damaged, you’ll need to get the lock replaced, which the locksmith can easily do too! The quicker you get the lock fixed, the faster you can restore the security of your business!

You’ve Been Locked Out!
If you’ve lost your keys, and have found yourself locked out, there are only two ways you’re going to get back in. You’re either going to have to look really hard to find the keys, or call a locksmith to come and unlock the door for you! Once they have done that, they can also rekey the lock and you’ll be able to get multiple spare keys made. That way, if you ever lose your keys again, you will already have a backup that you can use to get back in without a problem!

Your lock keeps getting jammed
With time and wear and tear, locks tend to malfunction from time to time. This tends to happen a lot sooner in commercial spaces because the doors are constantly being used. Pair that with the fact that dust and debris can make it inside the locks too and it is very likely that you’ll end up with locks that are constantly getting jammed! This is risky because although most of the time you might be able to wiggle the door open, there could come a day where your lock jams with you and your staff inside. This is why it’s better to get a malfunctioning lock checked as soon as it acts up for the first time. A reliable locksmith will be able to clean up the lock and make sure it’s in perfect working order so you never have to worry about getting locked in!

There’s Something Wrong With the Cabinet Locks
One of the most important things in a commercial space or an office is the cabinets. Whether you’re using the cabinets to store files, or other valuable equipment or supplies, you’re going to need the locks to function seamlessly. If you’re having trouble with your cabinet locks, it’s best to leave them alone and have a professional commercial locksmith come and take a look at them to restore them to working order.

You Need to Upgrade Security
If your commercial office is in an area that’s not the safest, or you’ve recently experienced a break-in, you’ll need to upgrade your security, and the best way to do that is by upgrading your locks. Have a commercial locksmith come and take a look at your doors, windows, and existing locks. They’ll be able to tell you if you need a security upgrade and install all the upgrades for you!

3 Tech Upgrades That Will Raise Your Property Value

If you’re looking to make some good money off of the sale of your home now that the housing market is exploding, you might as well take advantage of this as much as possible by doing what you can to improve your property value above what it already is. One great way to do this is to install some desired tech into the home. But not all tech will bring a great return on your investment.

To help you in figuring this out and getting the most out of your investment, here are three tech upgrades that will raise your property value. 

Build In A Smart Assistant

The team at SafeWise.com shares that one of the most wanted tech upgrades that buyers desire in a house is to have a voice activated assistant.

Because so many people use smart assistants through their phone on a daily basis, having this as part of their home just makes sense. A smart assistant can help you with things like making lists, researching, calling people from your contact list, reminding you of things, and so much more. So if there’s one tech upgrade that will be a huge perk to many people who are currently looking to buy a home, a voice activated smart assistant is it.  

Update Your HVAC With A Smart Thermostat

Tech is arguably put to best use when it makes your life easier and saves you money. And this is just what you can come to expect by installing a smart thermostat to control your HVAC system.

Not only can you tout the savings that any potential buyer might be able to gain from purchasing a home with a smart thermostat, but you can also share how much more energy efficient their home will be by using this system. If you so choose, Valerie Kalfrin, a contributor to HomeLight.com, shares that your smart thermostat can adjust your energy usage based on how prices for energy are changing. With this feature, you can save a lot of energy that would likely cost you more than you may be used to. 

Secure The Property With A Video Doorbell

While buyers can do a lot of research about a neighborhood before they move in, they can’t really be certain about how safe they’ll feel in this new home until they’re living there. 

To help put their minds at ease and sell them on a more convenient lifestyle, RealtyTimes.com suggests installing a video doorbell on your home before putting it on the market. This can serve to make potential buyers feel safer in the home immediately upon buying it and can be a selling point for security whether they’re in the home or away for whatever reason. 

If you’re wanting to update and upgrade your home with some sought-after tech before putting it up for sale, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you choose which tech to include.

3 Pieces Of Tech You Shouldn’t Forgo With Your Next New Car

While all you really need for your car to run is an engine, having the latest tech in your car can make the whole driving experience more enjoyable and more comfortable. So if you’ve been driving a car that doesn’t have some of the best tech available on the market today, you may want to look into some of these things as you prepare to get a new car in the future.

To help you with this, here are three pieces of tech you shouldn’t forgo with your next new car

Improved Safety Features

The safety features available on many newer vehicles can help you feel much more secure when you’re behind the wheel. Things that used to cause accidents due to human error can now drastically be mitigated thanks to the safety features included in more modern vehicles.

According to Matt Bubbers, a contributor to The Globe And Mail, features like automatic emergency braking, blind-spot warning, and adaptive cruise control can all give you an extra line of protection when you’re out on the road. And while it might take some time to get used to these features, by having them on and running while you’re driving, you should be able to become a more safe and conscientious driver. 

Larger Screens On The Dashboard

While it’s best not to look away from the road at all when you’re driving, sometimes you have to check things like your speed, your navigation, and any notifications your vehicle might be giving you about its operation. So when something like this happens, it’s good to be able to clearly see the information you need as quickly as possible.

To assist you with this, Keith Barry, a contributor to Consumer Reports, shares that many newer vehicles are adding tech in the form of larger screens on the dashboard. This makes it much easier to check on what’s going on with your car and get your eyes back to the road so that you’re minimally distracted. 

Voice-Activated Assistant

Just as taking your eyes off of the road can be dangerous, taking your hands off the steering wheel can be dangerous, too. Luckily, the new tech of voice-activated assistants make it so you can take care of whatever business you have without lifting a finger.

Eric Griffith and Alex Colon, contributors to PCMag.com, share that while many newer cars are coming equipped with voice-activated assistants, you can also add this to your current vehicle the same way you add a virtual assistant in your home. With this feature, you can take care of things like making calls, listening to texts and emails, creating lists, searching online, and much more. 

If you’re wanting your new car to feel like a big leap forward for you as far as technology goes, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how this can happen for you.

4 Most Commonly Needed Services from an Automotive Locksmith

Do you often ponder what are the four exact reasons why you would ever need an automotive locksmith? Well, if you can’t come up with an answer, we are here to provide you with the right ones.

If you’re skeptical about learning how an automotive locksmith can help you other than resolving your car lockout situation, here are the 4 most commonly needed services from automotive locksmiths. 

Fixing Car Transponders

Do you know that many of the modern cars are now technologically built which means that they don’t have the traditional locks but are manned with a computer based lock. In fact, their ignition switches have chips which are commonly called transponders.

These chips allow keys to communicate with the car. If an owner wants to unlock their vehicle or start up the engine, only the authorized key can transpond to its command. What if your car transponder suddenly stops working or you lose your key somewhere? 

Now you can either take the car back to the dealership which you possibly won’t be able to do because you lost the car keys! However, you can always call your local locksmith in Chicago just in case, if you’re living in Chicago. If you’re located in any other part of the United States, you can contact a local locksmith

Fixing Damaged Door Locks

Locks are sophisticated mechanisms and when you get into a vehicle accident, locks are the first thing which succumbs to failure. Whether your lock stops working just because your vehicle ran into an accident or some burglar tried to break into your vehicle, if it is damaged, it is damaged.

You can’t possibly do much about it rather than calling a locksmith. No matter what wear and tear your vehicle lock’s been through, an automobile locksmith have the perfect tools to fix your damaged vehicle door lock 

A damaged door lock will never operate with the provided key or the remote fob. So either way, an automobile locksmith can ensure that your car door lock gets fixed and starts working. 

Programming Car Key Fob

Car remotes are the absolute best things to unlock/lock a vehicle from a distance. They can also be used to reboot the vehicle from a distance. So just in case, if your car key fob stops working all of a sudden, you may find yourself in a pickle.

If a car key fob suddenly stops working, it’s either because the chipset of your car key remote must’ve fried or your car key battery may have become dead. So when that happens it is more likely that you’re in need of an automotive locksmith who can come to your aid in a phone call. 

Just in case, if you ever break your car key fob or lose it all of a sudden, then a locksmith can help you with that. Locksmiths can replace your existing car key fob with a new one. They can also reprogram your car key fob, change the batteries, replace the chip and do a lot more so your car can work again. 

And Lastly, the Infamous Lockout Situation

Yes, the very last option on my list is the infamous car lockout situation. Perhaps, here is the single most common reason why people all across the United States reach out to an automotive locksmith.

And believe it or not, it is more likely one of the above three situations. Just in case, if you’ve lost your car keys or locked yourself inside the car or you were unable to enter your vehicle, an automotive locksmith is your best bet. All you ever have to do is call the locksmith and they will come to your aid. 

So there you go, here are the 4 most commonly needed services that you may expect from a locksmith. Are you in search of a professional locksmith to help you with your lock problem? Best you make the call. 

How Technology Has Made this World a Global Village

We all have read that the world has become a global village, but not many of us really know what it actually means. The world was called a global village because people are connected to each other in villages. They know everyone and everything that happens in the village. One’s happiness is everyone’s happiness and one’s grief is everyone’s grief. If you don’t think the world is a global village, think about the 9/11 and Beirut explosion when everyone around the world stood in grief with these nations. This article has discussed some new ways compared to the old ways and how technology has created a global village. 

Communication is Faster than Ever

The importance of communication was realized after technology showed us how it should be. There was a time when people had to travel miles to send a piece of information. It had to be a human who would take letters and then walk or ride for days and months to reach the destination. For this reason, communication was not only slow and ineffective but also very expensive. Today, you can just call anyone on Skype and have a video chat for as long as you want and that too free of cost. It doesn’t even matter where you live as technology has spread to all corners of the world. 

Money Transfer is No Longer a Problem

Sending money was more difficult than communicating with someone who lives far away. There weren’t many job opportunities in every town, so people had to leave their homes and go to other cities and countries to earn a living. Like this was not a challenge enough, they would have to work for months before going back home to give them enough money to keep running the house until the next visit. You can’t just trust anyone with your money. However, today everyone knows how to receive money transfers within minutes. There are so many banks and other services that sending or receiving money is easier and cheaper than ever. 

No Distance is Too Long

There is no distance that would take more than a few hours to reach in the twenty-first century. People had to travel for weeks and months when migrating from one country to another. All thanks to advancements in technology, there are fast trains and airplanes that would take you overseas in the fastest time and reasonable amount. Traveling is not only fast but also comfortable enough that you won’t even feel like you just traveled thousands of miles. 

You Get Latest and Credible Information

Knowledge of power and people really lacked it in old times. Today, you get all kinds of information you need on the internet within seconds. It doesn’t even cost you anything, and that information always comes from a credible source. There are search engines like Google that look for the most relevant and accurate information for the queries you search. You can even like social media pages or follow a few blogs to stay up to date with news and other things you like.

3 Technologies Improving the Transportation Business

Transportation businesses are in exciting times, as technology is making transportation safer, faster and more efficient. And when your business is delivering packages, supplies or goods, it’s even more important that technology is incorporated to lower accident risks and keep inventory safe.

Businesses are starting to incorporate the following technologies into their businesses to improve safety:

1. Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is the future of driving, and it connects vehicles through networks. Vast networks, in the future, will be able to impact our daily driving. Some of these technologies are already making transportation safer, and this is done through:

  • Route planning. The ability for GPS systems to determine the best route is helping many transportation businesses already. Google Maps, for example, is able to indicate when traffic is slow or accidents have occurred on a desired route. Head-up displays are also being offered to help direct drivers along routes.
  • Accident prevention. Sensors are being incorporated into vehicles, sensing danger and potential collisions to react to them. For example, vehicles can override the vehicle’s controls, stopping the vehicle if it detects an imminent collision. Lane change sensors are also identifying objects in a vehicle’s blind spot, allowing for safer lane changes and merging.

Collision detection systems, in 2009, were found to provide a 7% reduction in accidents for basic forward-collision warnings and a 14% to 15% reduction when automatic braking was provided.

Eventually, the Internet of Things will have vehicles that “talk” to each other, offering predictive measures to avoid accidents. A vehicle, operating in front of another may be able to alert vehicles around it that it needs to stop abruptly, causing all of the vehicles around it to react as needed to prevent a collision.

2. SmartDrive

SmartDrive is a distracted driving database with over 200 million risky driving events logged. The sensor is able to help businesses understand the behaviors of their drivers. Distracted driving killed 3,477 people and injured 391,000 in 2015, and SmartDrive is able to help dispatchers and drivers:

  • Identify risks
  • Identify hazards

How? The sensors use video and compare it to incidents within the database. Real-time data and alerts are provided to fleet managers so that they can take the appropriate actions in an attempt to stop an accident from occurring.

SmartDrive provides you, the business owner, with an insight into the driving habits of your workforce when you’re not around to watch over their every move.

3. Predictive Maintenance

Large-scale transportation businesses are starting to incorporate what is called “predictive maintenance analytics” into their fleets. IBM released a paper on the topic. Predictive maintenance is able to:

  • Reduce downtime
  • Anticipate service interruptions
  • Improve the quality of the maintenance performed
  • Enhance safety
  • Increase productivity

On the large-scale, preventative maintenance has been used on Italy’s railway operator Trenitalia. The railway moves 2 million passengers a day, and using predictive and dynamic maintenance models has helped decrease service and maintenance costs by 8% to 10%. Availability and reliability also increased.

While predictive maintenance may be a costly addition to a small transportation business, it’s an addition that can save large-scale transportation businesses a significant amount of money in maintenance and repair costs.

How New Technology by LifeWave Can Help Activate Stem Cells

It seems information about stem cells is everywhere these days. That’s with good reason since these unique cells hold remarkable potential for improving health and wellness as scientific understanding of them increases. However, even as understanding in the scientific community changes, there is still plenty of work to be done in educating everyday people in this exciting area of research. To help with this, we looked to the work being undertaken by LifeWave, a leading health and wellness company with innovative research directed at stem cells. Information on that work, coupled with a general overview of stem cell research, is a great first step to understanding this growing field.

Stem cell primer

Let’s start with a basic question — what are stem cells? Stem cells are cells that exist in every human body that have the unique ability to create other specialized cells with specific functions. Stem cells are highly dependent on their environmental context, along with other factors, to determine what type of cells they can form. For instance, a stem cell might divide to create a liver cell in one context, whereas that same stem cell might be able to form a heart cell in another context. The ability for stem cells to create such a wide variety of new cells, called daughter cells, is much of the reason for why they have become a focus of so much scientific research of late.

The daughter cells that are produced by stem cells have also become a focus of research since they can be used for so many different functions. Oftentimes these cells can become stem cells of their own, a process known as self-renewal. When these cells do become more specialized, the process is known as differentiation. The body’s ability to differentiate to create specialized cells is a key part of the growth we all undergo as humans. It’s also a major contributor to health and wellness. Due to this fact, the ability to harness stem cells and their ability to differentiate is seen by many as a key path towards improving wellbeing for large portions of the population.

Adult cells

When discussing stem cells, people often have a few misconceptions that prevent a full and in-depth understanding of this area of study. A key misunderstanding that has persisted for some time is that all stem cells are embryonic in nature. It is true that stem cells play a critical role in even the earliest stages of development, however, these cells are still present in our bodies throughout our adult years. In fact, most adult tissues have stem cells present within them to varying degrees. These cells help aid the body in regrowth and regeneration throughout our lives and play a key role in how we age.

Of course, like other parts of our body, these cells often become less effective as we get older. This can be seen in a variety of ways such as a typically reduced ability to recover from injury and illness as we reach advanced age. This has provoked plenty of research into our ability to help delay or reduce the aging process through the use of stem cell therapies. While some of these therapies are promising, most are still a-ways off from being utilized on a large scale.

Phototherapy patches

The newest product created by LifeWave, however, has shown a remarkable ability to take advantage of the health and wellness-promoting characteristics of stem cells. Known as the X39 patch, this newly patented product comes from the line of phototherapy patches that have helped propel the company to its status as a leader in the field of health and wellness. The technology utilizes reflected wavelengths of light to promote changes at the cellular level.

The concept of using light to create changes in the body is part of a long tradition of understanding how it can be used to promote health and wellness. Even before the scientific method was established, cultures understood the importance of sunshine in keeping a person fit and ready to deal with the difficulties of daily life. Modern science has underscored this idea. In fact, many conditions these days are treated through the use of light therapies such as exposure to ultraviolet, infrared, or natural light.

Stem cell activation

One of the key innovations that LifeWave has developed in connection with the X39 patch is the idea that we don’t need to transplant new stem cells into the body to benefit from the field’s potential. Though it’s true that these cells decline in their ability to promote health and wellness as they age, there are ways of slowing and perhaps even reversing that effect. The new patches from the company are one such method designed to achieve that goal. With the benefit of many clinical studies and decades of development, these patches have been shown to achieve a number of remarkable health and wellness outcomes.

Perhaps most impressive amongst these is the ability of the patches to improve energy and vitality to levels that many users haven’t seen since their youth. The patches have also been shown to provide pain relief, increased mental clarity, improved exercise recovery, and more. This is all accomplished by activating existing stem cells in the body to perform more effectively and efficiently. Through this process, these cells can return to a healthier, more youthful state of functioning and can better help people combat many of the deleterious effects of aging. In this way, the technology allows users to capitalize on much of the promise of stem cell research without resorting to costly and potentially dangerous procedures.

Stem cells have become a topic of much discussion of late. This is especially true as scientists delve further into research that uncovers a host of potential benefits from these unique cells. However, while the field is generally known by many, misconceptions of work in this area have served to confuse many people about their true potential. The above overview of this area of study along with a look at offerings from LifeWave should serve as a useful guide for those interested in this work. For more information on the field, look to LifeWave, the health and wellness company, and monitor its emerging research as it continues to be released.

With Help from Technology, Freight Hub Group Streamlines Offerings

Like many parts of the economy, the field of third-party logistics has undergone significant changes in recent history. One of the key drivers of these changes has been technology and the ways in which it can allow customers unprecedented access to information and customization. To explain the impact this is having in greater detail, we turned to the case of Freight Hub Group. Founded by CEO Luis Lopez, the South Florida company is a great example of how the industry’s leaders are changing the scope of how we ship and store goods locally and nationwide.

About the founder

To better understand Freight Hub Group as a company, it is first useful to understand the story of Luis Lopez, the mind behind its operations. The CEO was first introduced to the logistics industry through an unlikely avenue — his passion for golf. While playing the sport in high school, he crossed paths with some of the notable people operating in Miami’s logistics industry at that time. From those contacts, he landed a job in the field and promptly began a self-motivated education that introduced him to some of the fundamental concepts of the work.

That education touched on a range of items, such as storage techniques and shipment requirements, however, one of the main areas that caught the eye of the future entrepreneur was the way in which the shipment of hazardous materials was handled. Even at that early age, he recognized that there was an opportunity to be found in making this process work better for customers. Years later, when he went into business for himself, the first company he founded focused on making the shipment and storage of hazardous materials more accessible to customers. One of the ways in which he accomplished this was to offer same-day pick-up, bringing a flexibility to his work that remains a calling card of his businesses to this day.

Company principles

That spirit of customer-centric service eventually led the entrepreneur to found Freight Hub Group. The company was conceived of to offer a full range of third-party logistics services to customers around the Miami area. This not only includes previous focuses like the pick-up, storage, and delivery of hazardous materials but also works to provide advanced shipping and storage solutions for a range of goods.

This breadth of service offerings is largely accomplished through the large-scale adoption of technologies designed to improve business effectiveness and empower customers in a variety of fashions. When it comes to storage, this use of technology manifests through fully-equipped storage yards that can accommodate a wide range of goods for varying lengths of time. State-of-the-art tools are available for oversized loads in order to improve the company’s ability to handle shipments of unique weights and sizes. A full contingent of security equipment operates 24/7 to protect goods and provide customers with peace of mind. Together with extensive indoor and outdoor space, these pieces of technology offer a complete suite of storage options for customers of many different needs.

TruckHub Service

One of the standout pieces of technology that has helped Freight Hub Group define itself as a notable company in its field is its proprietary logistics management platform. This software was created under the direction of Luis Lopez after testing out existing products to see what he could use to improve his customers’ experiences. Though he tested plenty of applications during that search, he was unable to find one that met the long line of features he wanted to provide to his customers. Rather than settle for less, he decided to create his own software.

That software would eventually develop into what is now known as TruckHub and has become a cornerstone for the company’s shipping operations. The all-in-one transportation management system allows dispatchers, shippers, and drivers to seamlessly connect and provides customers with up-to-date information on the status of their deliveries. The easy to use platform features GPS live tracking, user-friendly dashboards, on-board communication, access to analytics, and more. The flexibility offered by the platform speaks to the very core of the company’s goals, which has long-pursued the ability to offer its services to customers on-demand to better meet their changing needs.

Subdivisions

To help organize the company’s vast array of services, it has subdivided its operations into four main components — Dray Hub, WHSE Hub, FTL Hub, and LTL Hub. Together, these subdivisions allow the company to better concentrate its resources on the specific needs of individual customers, while still offering a range of flexible options under one umbrella. This approach again uses the power of technology, via web-based individualized quotes, to provide customers with the ability to best meet their own needs.

The company’s storage subdivisions focus on drayage and warehousing to ensure that goods are properly cared for. Based near both the Port of Miami and Port Everglades, the company offers easy and flexible options to accommodate a large number of drayage needs. Warehousing options provide short-term and long-term solutions that can also accommodate goods requiring special attention such as liquor, pharmaceuticals, and hazardous materials. Delivery options are similarly diverse and include a wide range of trailer sizes to provide the most efficient deliveries possible. Refrigerated trailers and specially licensed drivers again allow the company to accommodate a variety of goods including perishables, liquor, and certain chemicals.

While the logistics industry has long been a necessary fixture of the world’s economy, it has undergone a number of significant changes in recent years to better account for the changing face of technology. These technological shifts have shown up in a variety of areas such as shipment capacity, warehouse security, and more flexible pick-up and delivery abilities. The above overview of Freight Hub Group, under the leadership of Luis Lopez, helps to show this shift in action. This is perhaps best exemplified by the ways in which the company’s TruckHub software empowers customers and connects delivery personnel to each other. To learn more about this still-changing field, look to the company for more information about its ongoing technological initiatives.

How Shasta Ventures Helps Encourage Tech Innovation

Venture capital firms have provided the fuel behind the modern technological explosion. The backing of these firms can grant a host of benefits to entrepreneurs, including funding, go-to-market support, institutional experience, and more. But not all of these firms are created equal. To get a sense of how a prominent firm can truly encourage innovation and the development of new ideas in tech, we turned to the case of Shasta Ventures, a prominent venture capital firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Company background

Shasta Ventures, founded in 2004, is one of the leading early-stage venture capital firms working in tech today. Under the guidance of Managing Directors Jason Pressman and Ravi Mohan, Shasta has worked with more than 100 startups focusing on enterprise software and technologies. Mohan, one of the firm’s co-founders, has a keen interest in SaaS applications, data and analytics, and infrastructure, and has served as a key advisor many of the entrepreneurs that the firm supports. 

In his role as the firm’s other Managing Director, Pressman draws upon his professional operational experience. Known as a company builder, he made his mark as the leader in charge of launching Walmart.com in 2000 and selling it back to the company five years later. Today, it is one of the largest online retail businesses. That experience helped develop his understanding of the work required to scale fast-growing businesses while improving operations through the use of software. In his present role, he often acts as an advocate and counselor to entrepreneurs who are seeking to grow their businesses at scale.

Policy of support

Through the influence of its leadership team, the company is known in the tech community for its strong partnerships with entrepreneurs. Their business style is evident in the small number of companies the firm partners with each year — typically about ten — and allows the firm’s partners to give each entrepreneur a level of attention that is most conducive to a favorable outlook. The approach prioritizes patience, grit and long-term success, empowering entrepreneurs to grow their companies at a rate that makes organic sense.

In the pursuit of these partnerships, the venture capital firm seeks out entrepreneurs who are brilliant and driven by what they do. An entrepreneur’s track record of strong iteration is a priority. Shasta Ventures believes that driven professionals who are pragmatic and able to iterate are best at adapting to the demands and realities of ever-changing markets and customer needs. This is of paramount importance in a world where the realities of daily life are continually shifting and businesses are on constant alert for the ways in which they must adapt.

Portfolio examples 

To better understand the work of Shasta Ventures, which focuses on enterprise software, let’s take a look at two notable companies in its portfolio. The first brand we’ll highlight is AppSheet, which has made headlines of late for its recent acquisition by Google. The startup, founded in 2014, helps businesses build data-based apps without the need for large development teams. The company already serves thousands of customers including Solvay, American Electric Power, and Boom Technology. To date, companies have used the service for a range of needs including inventory management and customer relationship management. Its broad existing customer base includes companies in fields such as manufacturing, scientific research, and construction.

Another standout from the company’s portfolio is Zuora, which offers software that helps any company create a cloud-based subscription business. The platform offers a number of SaaS applications to help companies manage different aspects of their recurring revenue streams, including billing, quotes, and orders. The Zuora Marketplace offers companies a chance to browse prebuilt apps configured to be of use for a number of needs specific to role, industry, and geography. With a majority of consumers in many parts of the world demanding new consumption models based on the subscription economy, the need for the types of services offered by Zuora has never been greater, a recurring theme of the companies reflected in the venture capital firm’s portfolio.

Power of products

The two examples above form only a piece of the firm’s experience and expertise but help to illustrate a key part of what motivates the team. With the state of the economy ever-evolving to keep pace with consumer needs and desires, new approaches to business are of consistent importance. This deep understanding of the fabric of modern society is a driving force for the company’s passion to seek out entrepreneurs creating the next wave of powerful tech innovation in the workplace. This commitment to development not only helps support entrepreneurs in bringing their unique ideas to market, but it also helps contribute to the vibrancy of the economy and its ability to act as a force for positive change.

That concept has helped technology alter much about life in the modern world and the way that change is delivered to the everyday person in the workplace. This high bar is not just an aspiration, it also helps to serve as a metric for evaluating startups and their creations. To determine whether a product truly meets its standard for excellence, the firm looks to a few key factors. Can the product serve a single purpose exceptionally well, create an outstanding user experience, and have a lasting impact? Potential products that demonstrate these characteristics are candidates for the company’s exclusive portfolio and are poised to help contribute to its extensive legacy.

By looking to the above overview, one can begin to understand the traits that help set Shasta Ventures apart from its competitors in the field of tech and elsewhere. From the experience and passion of its leadership team to the relentless search for products that can improve our everyday quality of work-life, Shasta is willing to work hard to promote excellence. In light of past successes, and with many of its exciting startups already making breakthroughs, those interested in software innovation would do well to monitor the firm’s moves as it develops into the future.

Work of Jonathan Cornelissen Shows Impact of Education

Education is a key part of what makes any economy function. As the population grows, jobs become increasingly specialized, requiring new and unique kinds of training to maximize effectiveness. One area in which this has become especially relevant is in the field of data science. To further explore this topic, we looked to the work of Jonathan Cornelissen, who has dedicated a large portion of his life to helping improve educational resources in the field. Read on for a look at this work and how these types of educational efforts fuel the modern workforce.

Company Creation

Much of the work of Cornelissen stems from his efforts to create DataCamp, an online resource aimed at educating people on issues related to data science, such as specific programming languages. The founder came up with the idea when he was pursuing his doctorate in econometrics. During that time, he was required to learn the programming language R, which he found difficult. Once he was teaching courses of his own, he saw that his students had similar difficulties with the programming language, so he sought out additional resources to make it easier for them to engage in their studies.

To his surprise, there weren’t any effective and engaging tools at the time for students looking to increase their understanding in this area. For that reason, the data scientist decided to build just such a tool that could help students grasp some of the more difficult aspects of the field. After developing the prototype with a small team, he partnered with existing educational platforms, such as those offered by universities, to provide access to the software. The results were immediate and encouraging, as students found the tools useful for furthering their abilities. Since that small beginning, the company has expanded to assist millions of additional students.

Education and Opportunity

The ability to build on one’s existing skill set, such as through the company’s offerings, provides learners with increased access to opportunity. This is one of the clearest ways that education can improve quality of life, since that opportunity can improve one’s job satisfaction, earnings, and general happiness in a work environment. When these aspects of a person’s professional life are maximized, they tend to perform better and make more impactful contributions.

These benefits have effects outside the workplace as well, with plenty of studies pointing to the profound effects that our experiences in employment can have on other aspects of our lives. One way that this manifests is through our social interactions. Many studies have drawn a connection between a person’s general happiness and their willingness to engage in social activities. Since education can increase a person’s happiness through professional opportunity, it also has an effect on a person’s ability to engage socially and connect to friends. This principle extends to all other areas of life as well, such as satisfaction with family and romantic partners. The ways that education improves one’s happiness at work can have sizable impacts on nearly every aspect of life.

Data Science

The educational work by the company founder is especially impactful when you consider the ways that the field of data science is expanding to touch many areas of modern life. This is evident in the nomenclature that we use to describe this period in history. While the recent past has been dubbed by many as the “Information Age,” many have taken to labeling the present period as the “Data Age.” This can be attributed to the many ways that data availability has increased starkly with the continued maturation of the internet and related technologies.

As a result of this increase in data availability, businesses and other organizations can now focus on data science in a manner that was never before possible. New data collection and analysis methods are illuminating paths toward increased efficiency and even entirely new methods of operation. While these changes are fueled by the general increase in data availability, they are equally driven by the ability of employees to work with the data at hand. In other words, without educational efforts to increase data literacy, the effect of new data flowing into organizations would be severely limited.

Expanding Effect

Due to the widespread need for data fluency, the data scientist’s company has seen its reach grow steadily over the years since its inception. This stands as a testament to the priority that people are placing on data and the need for individuals to fill more and more roles in the field. While the early days of the company saw it partnering with educational institutions based on the strength of its initial prototype, its current work is largely based on its independent platform that draws learners from all walks of life.

These students sign up with the company to learn basic data concepts and programming languages related to statistics and data analysis. With these tools, they can go back into the workforce and increase their ability to contribute to their organization’s goals. With that in mind, the company’s effect on the greater workforce has been expanding precipitously over the years. Now, as one of the go-to organizations for those seeking to improve data fluency, it contributes a sizable amount of talent and expertise to the overall economy.

From the above analysis, it’s clear that education is intricately connected to the viability of any economy. Without the ability for individuals to learn new skills, the potential for an economy to grow and change is extremely limited. This is relevant to the work of Cornelissen, as the economy once again makes a profound shift in focus. With the emergence of advanced data collection and analysis techniques, the work that the data scientist has done in creating new learning methods in the field is invaluable. For those interested in data science or the effect that a singular idea can have on others, the founder’s work makes for an interesting area of study.