easyJet and Founders Factory grant funding to start-ups
easyJet and Founders Factory have announced the first two travel start-ups selected for their Travel Tech accelerator programme.
In October 2016, easyJet announced a strategic investment into Founders Factory, the corporate backed incubator and accelerator founded by Brent Hoberman and Henry Lane Fox.
The first two startups being announced for the accelerator programme are:
The global airport app is designed for frequent travellers.
FLIO comes complete with maps, shopping deals, airport tips and departure information to help passengers navigate the airport and make their journey less stressful.
Founded by Stephan Uhrenbacher (founder Qype), Brian Collie (ex BAA plc and lastminute.com), Andy Watson (early Spotify), and currently working with 900 airports, FLIO aims to become the single app solution for every airport in the world.
Each trip gives you somewhere to go and the cheapest flight to get there, somewhere to stay and something to do.
James Millett, Director of Digital & Marketing easyJet, said: “We’re delighted to announce the first companies in our Founders Factory initiative and welcome both FLIO and LuckyTrip into the easyJet portfolio.
“Our five-year commitment to Founders Factory is all about putting disruptive thinking right at the heart of our digital activities to continue making things easier for customers at all stages of their journey with us.
We look forward to working with the FLIO and LuckyTrip teams.”
3 Legal Decisions Every Founder Must Face
3 Legal Decisions Every Founder Must Face.
Disclosed documents revealed that a third founder, Reggie Brown, had been pushed out of the company during its first few months.
We discussed three distinct and pressing legal decisions that every founder must consider.
“You form a company in order to protect your personal assets,” explained Laretto.
By forming an entity, you can generally shield your personal assets from those liabilities.” There is considerable debate regarding the best structure for your startup.
According to Laretto, one core consideration is: “Do you want to be the next Facebook — and thus have a pressing need for significant capital?
“First off, the concept of equity ownership should be clearly documented from inception.
I also advise founders that, when allocating equity, they should consider roles on a go-forward basis, rather than focusing on what a founder has done to-date.” Founders should include vesting clauses.
Scaling your team: Know how to abide by labor laws and protect your product.
The law clearly favors protecting employees.” In terms of protecting the company’s intangible assets, “every employee should be equipped with a non-disclosure agreement and a basic proprietary rights agreement that transfers, without a doubt, all intellectual property to the company.
Gift Ideas for Your High-Tech Valentine
Gift Ideas for Your High-Tech Valentine.
A high-tech Valentine’s Day gift might seem unromantic to some, but not to you and your significant other.
After all, you use technology to keep in touch all the time, whether you’re Skyping from opposite ends of the country or texting from the other room.
There are times when it can have a less-than-desired effect on your relationship (put the phone away at that Valentine’s Day dinner, please), but it can also bring you closer.
You don’t even have to use a couples-centric app.
Yes, those exist.
There’s Couple for long-distance lovers or those who just want to share their day and send a thumbkiss from time to time.
There’s a raft of apps designed to bring you closer, but with Valentine’s Day nearly here what you really need is one that suggests what to buy.
Don’t give in to flowers and chocolate.
We found a few tech-inspired things we wouldn’t mind getting and might just give this Valentine’s Day.
An Open Letter from an Entrepreneur Dad to His Kids on How to Find Success
An Open Letter from an Entrepreneur Dad to His Kids on How to Find Success.
I’ve spent a lifetime as an entrepreneur, starting a company in high school and spending every day of the next 30 years building, funding and mentoring many startups.
But without a doubt the most rewarding — and challenging — startup of my life has been my family and the young women they are becoming.
But I do hope they’re learning to be entrepreneurial in their world view, because it will make them better at whatever life’s work they choose, and it will make them better people.
I think these lessons matter regardless of what path you take in life.
Failure is just prelude, an experience from which you learn and become better, and that scar is really a badge proving you’re capable of trying again.
I was lucky to grow up surrounded by some great people who cared about my future, who helped me discover the journey my life would take.
Build a team that makes you better.
You can’t make it through business — or life — by yourself.
Great entrepreneurs — and I think the most successful people in all walks of life — have grit.
Do You ‘Netflix Cheat’? You’re Not Alone.
So you’re bingeing on The Walking Dead with your spouse and they fall asleep.
The survey, conducted by SurveyMonkey in December, reveals that 46 percent of couples who stream together around the world have “Netflix cheated,” aka watched a show ahead of their significant other.
The survey also revealed that once you’ve Netflix cheated, it’s hard to stop: 81 percent of cheaters are repeat offenders and 44 percent have cheated more than three times. “In a binge-watching world where it’s easy to say ‘just one more,’ Netflix cheating has quickly become the new normal,” Netflix wrote in its announcement.
So what shows are people cheating with?
While Netflix found that “no show is off limits,” the “top cheating temptations” are The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, American Horror Story, House of Cards, Orange is The New Black, Narcos and Stranger Things.
Netflix said 25 percent of cheating happens when one partner falls asleep, but 53 percent some say “sleep cheating” doesn’t count.
Meanwhile, Netflix cheating has become more socially acceptable over time with 46 percent saying its “not bad at all.”
For more on the phenomenon, check out the infographic below.
More from PCMag Angela Moscaritolo
This Startup Plans to Authenticate the Entire Internet
Enough with fake news: a startup launching this week called Authenticated Reality wants to be the ultimate source for finding out what’s real and what’s fake online.
It’s essentially a sandboxed layer that lives on top of every webpage its users visit, allowing them to authenticate stories they believe are real by placing their digital signature on them for other users to see.
Users will access the New Internet layer through a browser plugin or via an app for iOS (Android is coming soon).
In addition to labeling web pages as authentic, users will also be able to rate and comment on them. “Our company has created a place where every user is personally responsible for their actions through a system of checks and balances in order to put an end to unreliable information and false identities online,” Authenticated Reality CEO Darin Andersen said in a statement.
It’s a lofty goal, and one whose accomplishment depends almost exclusively on the character of the customers that the company is able to attract.
To weed out people who themselves might be inclined to write fake news or incendiary comments, Authenticated Reality has come up with a verification system that requires users to submit their driver’s license information to prove that they are who they say they are.
Addressing fake news with a closed network of verified commenters might make the web a more trustworthy place for Authenticated Reality’s users, but it is a markedly different approach from the recent high-profile efforts in the media and tech world to combat the problem.
Instead of the public verifying the news themselves, they’ll send suspicious stories, photos and other content to real journalists who will use an arsenal of analytics tools to validate them.
More from PCMag Tom Brant
10 Software Products Helping Small Businesses Achieve 10x Growth in 2017
10 Software Products Helping Small Businesses Achieve 10x Growth in 2017.
Running a small business takes a great deal of time.
Over the past six months, I’ve been working to automate a lot of insignificant tasks.
These are the tasks that don’t make me money but are crucial to my business running and growing the way that it should.
Here are a few of the top software selections I’ve found for helping grow my business and automating tasks I never thought was possible.
Salesforce gives professionals the support they need to manage their calls and follow-ups, helping them identify leads and provide better customer service.
Bitdefender Protecting against security breaches is crucial.
Insightly has helped me personally to automate a lot of my customer relationships.
The result is that booking your meetings becomes automated.
Many businesses focus on SEO to ensure they show up as one of the answers to those questions, but they don’t put much effort into the customer journey.
5 Actions You Can Take to Increase Your Happiness Quotient
5 Actions You Can Take to Increase Your Happiness Quotient.
It means different things to different people.
However, we all want happiness.
Check your thoughts Negative thoughts lead to negative feelings.
All this negativity robs you of energy that you could be focusing on more positive aspects of your life, steals valuable time, and clogs up creative avenues.
Create a gratitude journal Oprah Winfrey said “For years I’ve been advocating the power and pleasure of being grateful,” and kept a gratitude journal into which she wrote five things for which she was grateful each day.
This simple act not only makes someone else’s day, it brightens yours as well.
In a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies researchers discovered that people were happier when remembering a time they bought something for someone else.
Start by taking a 30-minute walk three times a week.
Volunteer Focus on others and less on yourself.
3 Tips to Transform Setbacks Into Success
When you’re flying an airplane, one of the first lessons you learn is that overreacting on the yoke will cause more problems than good.
If you hydroplane or hit ice, the worst thing you can do is freak out and jerk the wheel in the opposite direction.
Staying calm is still the right reaction.
When things are tough or you’re facing a difficult problem, sometimes it is best to take a deep breath, collect yourself and go along with where the challenge is taking you, before you make any decisions.
If you freak out and overreact to a setback, you’ll often overcorrect and make things worse.
Know you’re in good company The best in the world faced all manner of setbacks before success.
Richard Branson has never let a setback get in the way of trying something he wants to do in business or in life.
If he had been bitter about the soda, maybe we wouldn’t be enjoying our incredible Virgin flights around the world.
A business funding setback making you feel upset?
Setbacks may mean you have to start over on a project, or even that you have to admit defeat on a business idea, but never give up your enthusiasm.
Focus on People to Drive Your Success
Focus on People to Drive Your Success.
When your business is in trouble, this is the guy you need.
Tim Gentry develops people to motivate his own success.
As an Ironman competitor, he exemplifies strengthening the body as a way to maintain a powerful mind, something he believes many business people neglect to their detriment.
His suggestion: Keep it simple and do just one thing every day.
Watch for more tried and true methods to persevere and thrive; Gentry shares some gems on this week’s podcast.
Lessons: 1.
To revive someone who is lagging, put them in charge of others.
Write down all the great things that are happening in your life and read them when you need inspiration.
Click here to become a part of this growing video network.
18 Destructive Habits Holding You Back from Success
We either build good habits that support us as we move toward our goals or bad ones that undermine our ability to achieve and succeed.
One thing is for certain: it’s going to be difficult to reach your dreams if you are living with a slew of bad habits.
Here are 18 destructive habits that may be holding you back from your ultimate success.
If you’re so busy working hard and taking life seriously, you’re probably missing out on everything else.
But when your attention is pulled in a million directions, it’s hard to focus your thoughts.
If you are living a distracted life, your goals are being sidelined.
Stop feeding your distractions and stifling your achievements.
If you constantly engage in negative self-talk or putting others down, you are only inviting negativity into your life.
After all, stepping outside your comfort zone means taking a leap of faith and inviting the possibility of failure.
Those who question and listen with an open mind will have a better insight into what is going on in the world around them.
The week that was: Genesis Colors gets Sebi nod for IPO; clouds over NSE issue sours mood
The week that was: Genesis Colors gets Sebi nod for IPO; clouds over NSE issue sours mood.
NEW DELHI: It was a buzzing week for the capital market with Avenue Supermarts (owned by DMart) hogging the limelight on reports that its initial public offering (IPO) would be floated in the next few weeks.
Sebi’s clearance to the IPO of Genesis Colors, the holding company of fashion brand Satya Paul, filing of draft papers by drug maker Eric Lifesciences and Au financiers, and further delays to clearance of NSE’s IPO too made headlines last week.
Radhakishan Damani-promoted Avenue Supermarts was in news amid reports that India’s most profitable retailer both online and offline was expecting a valuation of Rs 18,000 crore when it gets listed.
This was much higher than the earlier Street expectation of Rs 7,000 crore, ET reported.
At Rs 18,000 crore, Avenue Supermarts will be valued at 40 times its expected FY18 earnings, the ET report said.
Genesis Colors received the capital markets regulator’s approval to make Rs 500 crore initial public offering.
Eric Lifesciences has also filed draft papers with the market regulator as the existing promoters intend to offload 28,875,000 equity shares via offer for sale (OFS).
Listing will also provide a public market for the equity shares in India,” the company said in its draft prospectus.
The price was fixed at Rs 55 per equity share and the stock will be listed on the SME Platform of National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).
A state that pays software devs’ tax bills? Here’s how Latvia is aiming to lure startups
A state that pays software devs’ tax bills?
Read More At the end of last year, Latvia’s parliament passed a new law and tax regime, aimed at turning the country into a more attractive base for startups and at luring investors to the country.
Secondly, for more highly qualified employees with a PhD or Master’s degree, or more than five years’ experience, there’s a new tax regime where all social and personal taxes are covered by the state, and these employees receive full social benefits.
Obviously, there are a few rules that startups have to follow to qualify for the tax support: the company has to be less than five years old, and its revenue can’t exceed €200,000 ($212,430) during its first two years, and €1m ($1.06m) in the first five years since its incorporation.
Local startup entrepreneur Janis Krums believes that the new law will indeed increase the number of new startups in the country significantly. “[It will help] the very early-stage startups first.
Now he is running a business network startup called Opportunity, which he founded in 2013.
A good program has been started by Accenture, helping bring IT into school education.
The Riga Technical University robotics club is world class.
Krums cites the examples of TechHub, Miit, and Startup Wiseguys, a startup accelerator founded in 2012 in Estonia and expanded to Latvia last year, which just finished with a class of eight startups.
Tejas Networks files IPO papers with Sebi
Tejas Networks files IPO papers with Sebi.
Tejas Networks, maker of optical networking products, has filed draft papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to raise fund through an initial public offering.
The IPO comprises fresh issue of shares worth Rs 450 crore and an offer for sale of 1.27 crore scrips by shareholders, according to draft red herring prospectus.
Shareholders who would sell stake in the initial public offer (IPO) include Cascade Capital Management Mauritius, Intel Capital (Cayman) Corporation, India Industrial Growth Fund Ltd and Sandstone Private Investments.
Also, the company plans to raise about Rs 150 crore by selling 60 lakh shares ahead of the IPO.
If the pre-IPO placement is completed, the company would reduce the IPO size.
Proceeds of the issue would be used for capital expenditure towards payment of salaries and wages of research and development team, working capital requirement and general corporate purposes.
“In addition, our company expects to achieve the benefits of listing of the equity shares on the stock exchanges which, we believe, will result in the enhancement of our company’s brand and creation of a public market for our equity shares,” Tejas Networks said.
Tejas Networks is optical networking products company.
You May Also Want To Watch: It caters to telecommunications operators, internet service providers, utilities, defence and government entities in over 60 countries.
Changes to equity crowdfunding Bill ‘cosmetic’ and ‘locks out’ startups: Labor
Changes to equity crowdfunding Bill ‘cosmetic’ and ‘locks out’ startups: Labor.
The proposed Corporations Amendment (Crowd-Sourced Funding) Bill has been described by the Australian Labor Party as “cosmetic” and “continuing to lock out startups and small businesses”, according to a report by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee (ELC).
Startups and small businesses that decide to become public companies to take advantage of the new crowdsourced equity funding framework will be granted an exemption from certain corporate governance and reporting obligations for up to five years. “The failure to review alternate small business friendly models after this length of time is inexplicable,” said TMeffect, angel investment group.
Sunny Yu, COO of VentureCrowd, told ZDNet that the public company requirement is “unnecessary and creates significant burden and uncertainty for startup businesses” who could benefit from the equity crowdfunding model. “The government itself has acknowledged the need to extend the regime to proprietary companies, which make up 99 percent of all registered companies in Australia, but we don’t know how long this is going to take and until that happens it is just going to create further uncertainty for businesses,” Yu said. “Designing such a company form will ensure Australia does not fall behind the rest of the world, and will promote a different type of entrepreneurship.
VentureCrowd has successfully crowdfunded AU$20 million to date using this model,” Yu said. “While it’s positive to finally see some movement on these laws with the Senate Committee’s report and recommendation, we need to be careful that the right approach is being taken and that the laws are effective to help startup businesses and achieve its objective of ultimately unlocking productivity and innovation in Australia.”
The new crowdsourced equity funding framework will come into effect six months from the date the Bill receives royal assent.
3 Financing Keys for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
3 Financing Keys for Aspiring Entrepreneurs.
For companies in the scientific and technological sector, in particular, The Engine aims to put innovation ahead of profits by providing support to young companies with transformative potential.
The company has a history of favoring growth and has spent years creating significant asset value, but not earning a profit.
Okay, not every startup is an Amazon.
Out with the old: financing fundamentals for 2017 The truth is, even if traditional banks can’t be bothered to help, alternative funding options for startups exist.
Today, it’s about focusing on developing a minimum viable product and continuing to iterate in parallel with building your company and securing the necessary financing.
Entrepreneurs who spend years developing an idea often find the market has left them behind.
Build — and pay for — only what’s needed to develop and deliver the minimum viable product.
At the start, be especially mindful of cultivating relationships.
Generating market excitement and feedback through effective delivery of a minimum viable product can do more to create investor interest than any plan or proposal.
JPMorgan’s head IPO banker on what to expect in 2017
JPMorgan’s head of global equity capital markets, Liz Myers, can name a bunch of reasons 2017 could see a strong rebound in initial-public-offering activity around the world. “We’re seeing quite a sentiment reversal in the IPO market this year, particularly in the US, where January marked the best start to the year since 2014,” Myers said.
She expects to see a more active market in 2017. “Follow-on offerings also tend to increase in number and size when valuations trend positively post-IPO.”
Healthcare, industrials, and tech Though only nine deals priced in January, the breadth of sectors they fell under was a positive sign, Myers said.
Exploration-and-production companies in particular are seeing enthusiasm, especially oil-field services companies.
In financials, for example, it’s valuation.
But issuers who have formerly raised capital in the private markets are now able to do so at attractive valuations in the public markets, too. “We have seen six equity offerings price in Latin America this year raising just over $3 billion,” she said.
JPMorgan was on four of those deals.
Blockchain Firms Aim For Hedge Funds, But is There a Better Target?
Blockchain Firms Aim For Hedge Funds, But is There a Better Target?.
The following article originally appeared in CoinDesk Weekly, a custom-curated newsletter delivered every Sunday, exclusively to our subscribers.
At least that’s the message conveyed in a report CoinDesk published last week on Melonport.
Most seem to regard the hedge fund industry as their target.
And the assets currently available, with their ‘alternative’ structures and relatively high risk profiles, seem to be right up a hedge fund manager’s alley: digitized representations of real-world assets, cryptocurrencies with no tangible value, digital ‘coins’ promising a share in future dividends, tokens granting holders access to a service, derivatives based on any of the above.
Yet while the proposals may make sense, it’s unlikely that this new type of hedge fund management will make a dent in its target sector.
Where the blockchain asset management startups will make a difference is in another field entirely: venture capital.
Some have invested in digital token hedge funds, but that’s not the same as vetting and backing blockchain startups.
VC angle If the blockchain businesses working in the fund management space are able to launch solid platforms that make it easy to set up and manage a portfolio of digital assets, we could well see venture capital firms setting up their own ICO funds.
In summary, the hedge fund industry will probably end up being supported by the blockchain.