Mike Edelhart of Social Starts walks us through some observations on how COVID-19 has impacted trends from a VC’s perspective.
Business
How Brands Can Lean Into a Direct-to-Consumer Model
The world was moving towards direct-to-consumer anyway, COVID just accelerated it because people got forced into new behaviors. Now that people have had a taste, it’s going to be very hard to “wean them off” of the convenience, price power, and enjoyment of e-commerce buying. It doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to go to stores anymore, it just means that a lot of consumers have added e-commerce into the mix or that e-commerce is now a bigger percentage of their overall activity. Find out what you should be doing to capitalize on this shift.
Bitcoin Does Not Define The Future, It Just Highlights The Start
It has been said that trust is the real flaw of the banking system. Inevitably counterparties must outsource their trust in each other to the bank as an intermediary, and with recent headlines, we can see that consumer confidence in banks is weakening.
How Businesses Should Incorporate Streaming Entertainment in Reopening Strategies
A look at how businesses can transform their TVs from background noise to short-form entertainment that could increase revenue in a Post-COVID-19 world.
Smiling Robots Alleviate Human Anxieties with Expper Technologies
Loneliness and isolation are heightened in the midst of the pandemic. Can robots fill a void? Expper’s founder Karén Khachikyan says the company’s robot Robin changes a kid’s perception of medical treatments, where they will no longer feel isolated, lonely, and scared. The innovator explains how his whimsical four-foot robot employs digital facial expressions to form lasting bonds with its young users.
As the Working Class Struggle, Blockchain and Decentralized Systems Offers a Plausible Solution
Blockchain makes banking and financial services more accessible. Anyone with a mobile phone can create a secure account. With recent data from the World Bank revealing 1.7 billion adults globally have no access to a bank account – but two-thirds of them own a mobile phone, blockchain can fill this void.
All Search Engine Traffic is Not Created Equal
You constantly need to be relearning the new best practices and resetting your campaigns to truly have a maximum return on your search engine marketing investment. Here are some actionable things you need to know about.
Contact Tracing, Machines, And Civil Liberties
Already five regions within New York State have reopened for business, ushering in a new reality of “test, isolate, and trace.” The United States estimates it will hire close to 300,000 people to become contact tracers, identifying potential spreaders of the virus. Governor Cuomo has appointed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to head […]
Why Companies Need to Lean Into E-Commerce Now More Than Ever
In the current environment with how coronavirus is impacting large and small businesses, putting a focus on e-commerce is absolutely essential. I’ve been in the e-commerce world since 1996 (when Wine Library launched an online store) so I’m a huge believer. But at this point, the cat’s out of the bag. I just can’t imagine anybody not […]
Where We Are Investing Now: XR in Health
We have been interested in XR for Health for some time. This year, however, we think the time has come for these technologies to take a great step forward. In the past, we viewed it purely through the lens of other areas of science. Now, in 2020, XR for Health is officially an independent focus area for us.