Tag: business brokerages

The principal value of a business broker is to act as a buffer between the buyer and the seller

Break out your computers. Rebuilding post-pandemic requires more than hammers and bulldozers

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As we start to emerge from the pandemic, it’s tempting to daydream about all the ways our lives will go back to normal. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Too many lives were lost. Too many businesses were disrupted or bankrupted. Too many aspects of the infrastructure that we take for granted every day, and which were already weak, have been fundamentally transformed or even destroyed by the impact of COVID-19. What we need to focus on is rebuilding that infrastructure. I’m not talking about bridges, roads, and power plants (although we certainly need to focus on physical infrastructure too). I’m talking about the basic foundation of trust, communication, and interaction in our modern world. I’m talking about code. Online overnight A year ago companies had to reconfigure overnight for a socially-distanced reality that requires connecting in new ways. OK, maybe it took three nights. But it was either that, or shutting down — quite possibly forever. Retailers, including big name-brand chains , got crushed if they weren’t prepared for a rapid transition to digital. In the midst of the crisis, businesses didn’t have the luxury of gradually plotting out and implementing a long-term strategy. They had to restructure their business-critical communications — immediately. Retailers who thought they had years to fend off Amazon suddenly had hours to figure out how to become delivery-only. Bankruptcy filings for businesses with $50M or more in assets soared 194% . Schools who had dabbled with technology found themselves 100% online over a weekend, while 93% of U.S. Read More …

This smart ring lets you remote-control Zoom and PowerPoint

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In the age of remote work, a smart ring for productivity such as the Genki Wave seems like a clever idea. Instead of making you search for the right keyboard shortcuts to unmute yourself on Zoom or turn your laptop’s volume down, the Genki Wave for Work  ($149, with a launch price of $99) lets you wear those same shortcut buttons and more right on your index finger. And since you’re not working in an actual office, no one’s going to judge you for wearing an unashamedly dorky accessory. [Photo: courtesy of Genki] But the more I used the Genki Wave myself, the more disappointed I became by all the things it wouldn’t let me do. While the idea of wearable computer shortcut buttons has some promise, Genki’s approach doesn’t live up to its potential yet. Not your typical ring The Genki Wave is technically not a new product. It debuted last year as a wearable MIDI controller for musicians, the kind you’d use to quickly trigger a drum fill or dial down the volume. But during the pandemic, Genki Instruments saw a chance to pivot to a broader audience by using the Wave to help people deal with an onslaught of Zoom calls and remote PowerPoint presentations. To that end, the ring is decidedly utilitarian, with one half containing its eight-hour battery and electronics, and the other half comprised of a Velcro loop. You wear the ring on your index finger, and the chunkier half is supposed to stick out to the side, letting you easily press its three rubberized buttons with your thumb. The Wave uses Bluetooth to connect with your computer, and it has a companion app to control what its buttons do. Despite its bulk, I found the Wave to be fairly comfortable. I wore it loosely enough to pull on or off without undoing the Velcro strap, and at one point I forgot that I was still wearing it after getting up from my computer. [Photo: courtesy of Genki] Out of the box, the ring is most helpful for video calls in apps such as Zoom or Google Meet. Read More …

5 things people are getting wrong about NFTs

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NFTs (nonfungible tokens) are having a moment right now. Tons of digital collectibles have been traded, including Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot , which raked in $1.05 million for just one recent pack of basketball videos, and Everydays: The First 5000 Days , a digital image by artist Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple), which sold for $69.3 million at high-end auction house Christie’s. NFT transactions tripled in 2020, reaching more than $250 million, according to the Non-Fungible Tokens 2020 Yearly Report from NonFungible and L’Atelier. And they show no sign of slowing in 2021. But the big money currently being thrown around for single pieces leads to overall misconceptions about the cost and value of NFTs and their place in the market. Read More …

Robinhood makes Wall Street feel like a game to win—not a place where you can lose your savings

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Wall Street has long been likened to a casino . Robinhood, an investment app that just filed plans for an initial public offering , makes the comparison more apt than ever . That’s because the power of the casino is the way it makes people feel like gambling their money away is a game. Casinos are full of mood lighting , fun noises, and other sensory details that reward gamblers when they place coins in slots. Similarly, Robinhood’s slick and easy-to-use app resembles a thrill-inducing video game rather than a sober investment tool. The color palette of red and green is associated with mood, with green having a calming effect and red increasing arousal, anger, and negative emotions . Picking stocks can seem like a fun lottery of scratching off the winning ticket; celebratory confetti drops from the top of the screen for the new users’ first three investments. But just as people can lose a lot of money gambling at the casino, the same thing can happen when you trade stocks and bonds—sometimes with disastrous consequences, such as last year when a Robinhood user died by suicide after mistakenly believing that he’d lost $750,000. I study how people behave inside game worlds and design classroom games . Using gamelike features to influence real-life actions can be beneficial, such as when a health app uses rewards and rankings to encourage people to move more or eat healthier food. But there’s a dark side too, and so-called gamification can lead people to forget the real-world consequences of their decisions. Games explained Generally speaking, games—whether played on a board, among children or with a computer— are voluntary activities that are structured by rules and involve players competing to overcome challenges that carry no risk outside of their virtual world. Read More …

Republicans have a new line of attack against the social media giants

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In past Congressional hearings about the content moderation practices of big tech companies, Republican lawmakers have been fixated on complaints that Silicon Valley censors conservative viewpoints, a claim that studies have revealed to be false . But a very different GOP showed up Thursday to question the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter in a hearing on misinformation in front of the joint subcommittees of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Republicans questioned the witnesses on a far wider variety of issues, many of which aligned with the interests of Democrats. This certainly wasn’t apparent from the get-go. Ranking minority member Robert Latta of Ohio read this from his opening remarks: “We are all aware of Big Tech’s ever increasing censorship of conservative voices and their commitment to serve the radical progressive agenda by influencing a generation of children by either shutting down or cancelling any news, books, or even toys that aren’t considered woke.” But it soon became apparent that other Republicans were interested in moving on from this well-worn non-starter. Instead, a new theme emerged to connect many of the Republicans’ comments and questions: that Big Tech companies’ services are harmful to families Read More …