Month: September 2019

Virtual Skinny: Goin’ to Space

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on in Uncategorized 0 Comment

9.29.2019

Good to Know:  Turns out crying at work is more common than you might think. Monster, Inc’s survey says 8 out of 10 people cry at work, which ultimately surfaces “key” issues that can be discussed, hashed out, and lead to “positive change at work.”

THE SKINNY

When You Need to Check Up on Your Credit … San Francisco-based food delivery service DoorDash let us know that it’s been breached because of an unauthorized third party service. 

What’d They Get?  Information like “names, email addresses, delivery addresses, order history, phone numbers … and drivers’ license numbers of 100,000 delivery people”. Oh, and the last four digits of credit card numbers. 

What’s the Damage? If you signed up for DoorDash after April 5, 2018, then you’re in the clear. As for the 4.9 million other users affected? DoorDash says it’s got ya’ll covered. 

Take Action! What to do next? Here are five things you can do if you’ve been caught up in the latest breach.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 

When Something’s Happening … You may have heard – U.S. Speaker of the House of Reps Nancy Pelosi announced that she and the Democrats are officially kicking off an impeachment inquiry. Something about Trump allegedly directing Ukraine’s president to work with the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Yes – it’s a whole thing. Looks like people on the Interwebs just want updates and aren’t interested in arguing about it. 

When You’re a Motherf*cking Starboy Starship … Elon Musk thinks space travel can be just like air travel. This past weekend, he unveiled Starship – the critical piece that Musk says will have humans boarding flights to space next year. NASA supports Musk and Starship. The U.S. space agency wants Musk to figure out “how to land vehicles on the lunar surface and help develop a system for refueling rockets in space.”

When You’re Speaking Of … Elon Musk says people should study engineering since that occupation won’t be as impacted in an AI world. Meanwhile Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai says no new friends laws to govern AI. Pope Francis warns tech that “increased reliance on robotics for the sake of profits risked depriving people of the dignity of labor.”

THE STREETS ARE TALKING … 

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is out … and his people are following suit.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said no bueno to Twitter at the last minute. Why? Too much “nastiness.” 

Tech entrepreneur Angela Benton’s Streamlytics, an L.A. based startup focused on data around what content people are watching across streaming platforms, just got a new partner – actress and creator Issa Rae. 

REAL LIFE STUFF … 

Americans have got recession on the mind. Their savings are up now more than they have been since 2012. We’re talking being up 8.2% in the first half of this year. Investor Mark Cuban has 7 money and career tips to get young peeps through the pending recession. 

Calling all introverts! Apparently pretending to be an extrovert makes you happier – and more money. 

If you’re a woman, being “nice” at work won’t allow you to make money moves. 

Interested in computer science, public policy, and the public interest jobs? Check out Ben Green’s new jobs list.

LinkedIn wants users to expand their networking circles. 

FEEDING THE MIND … 

Oprah’s Book Club is back and partnering up with Apple to connect readers worldwide. First up? “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Spread the Word and Hit Us Up!

Wishing you a happy and productive week!  Tell your friends about us. We’d love for them to sign up and join the community!  Also, got feedback for us? Is there something you want to see but aren’t? Let us know! Drop a note at virtualskinnynews@gmail.com. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Virtual Skinny: Global Rise Against Climate Change

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on in Internet & Tech, Newsletter 0 Comment

9.22.2019

Good to Know: “Kindness not only helps, it also spreads, especially when it’s made visible. Make your empathy loud, so it has a chance to inspire others.”  –  Jamil Zaki on how to put empathy to good use at work. 

THE SKINNY

When It’s Time for A Change … Andela, an outsourcing startup focused on training entry-level African developers to later outsource their technical talent, announced that it is letting go of 400 junior engineers across three of its four campuses in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria.  Entry-level developers in Rwanda are safe on account of the government helping to offset Andela’s costs. 

But, Why? Andela founder Jeremy Johnson says it comes down to what the market wants. Andela’s clients comprise 200+ companies around the globe that vie for African developers. Turns out, they prefer senior engineers. Andela’s VP of Global Operations Seni Sulyman adds that competition from U.S. developer boot camps and training programs for junior developers played a huge role in the decision. What the market wants, the market gets. 

When You Plan to Forge Ahead … Andela says it’ll generate $50M in revenue this year. With changes to its business model, it plans to hire 700 senior developers across the continent by 2020. Some folks are wondering how? Speculation is that it’ll likely poach senior developers from “the usual suspects” – Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya. 

When There’s a Silver Lining … The Twitterverse blew up with this announcement, but folks in the African tech ecosystem quickly saw the upside. Now, local businesses can benefit from local talent that was previously outsourced. 

Take Action! Have open developer roles (remote or in country)? Or, know someone who does? Join the conversation and hook it up! 

Sept. 18 tweet from Paga founder Tayo Oviosu inviting recently laid off Andela engineers to apply to positions
Sept. 18 tweet from Moe asking Andela female engineers to reach out for job opportunities.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 

When You Believe the Children are Our Future … And so do they. On September 20, 2019, 5,000 youth-led groups in 156 countries (including in African countries that have already experienced things like water shortages due to climate change) protested climate change with 16 year old Greta Thunberg spearheading the movement. Young people walked out of school. Tech employees from Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Google joined the party. Big deal for Amazon. Why? It’s the first time in the company’s 25-year history that employees have walked out for an issue. They’ve got three demands for the online retailer – (1) commit to zero carbon emissions by 2038, (2) stop selling it’s cloud computing service Amazon Web Services to oil and gas companies, and (3) stop supporting politicians that are climate change deniers. An estimated 4 million people around the globe participated in the strike. Want to get involved?

Take Action! The global strike isn’t just a moment but a movement. September 23, 2019 marks kicks off the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit.

Earth Alliance Instagram Post on how you can join the Global #ClimateStrike.

When You’re Taking Things Seriously … Facebook’s not taking any chances. It suspended tens of thousands of apps from its platform all in the name of protecting user data and limiting the volume of information third party developers can request from its community. 

When You’ve Got Privacy on the Brain … Startups are crossing over into clinical research territory by focusing on clinical brain-computer interfaces that help folks with things like using prosthetics and re-learning how to control their limbs. Folks are concerned with this cross-over on account of the potential for commercialization of neural data. There’s currently no U.S. laws or regulations that stop companies from swapping brain data. 

THE STREETS ARE TALKING … 

AirBnB employees are ready to cash in, and they let their leadership know what’s up. Following this, AirBnB caved and said it’s ready to go public. Postmates wants in too. WeWork was planning on it, but things got messy.

Speaking of selling … Wearable device company FitBit’s ready to consider potential buyers, and Alphabet (aka Google’s parent company) is interested. 

PlayVS, a high school e-sports competition company, just raised $50 million. It plans to double its 41-person head count, offer more competitions, and possibly venture into amateur sports. 

Snap and media companies just started talking. The camera company’s thinking a dedicated tab for breaking news. 

Indian taxi company Ola, with 45% of the market, seems to be the fave in its home country over Uber (35%). 

Another Indian startup is 7-month old Digi-Prex uses WhatsApp to deliver medication to patients with chronic diseases. 

Nigerian founder Prosper Otemuyiwa along with his co-founders Nadayar Enegesi and Slim introduced us to Eden – “a marketplace connecting homeowners and high-quality service providers.”

The super app model like China’s WeChat and AliPay could work in Latin America thanks to its almost 650 million population. Don’t forget that similarities in culture, language, and religion are helpful factors. Colombian on-demand delivery Rappi could be ready for primetime. 

CAREER CORNER

“What do you value today? Be specific.” – Tammarrian Rogers, Snap’s Director of Engineering – QA on what to ask yourself before making your next career move at NextPlay’s first ever LA event.

SPREAD THE WORD & HIT US UP!

Wishing you a happy and productive week! Tell your friends about us. We’d love for them to sign up and join the community!  Also, got feedback for us? Is there something you want to see but aren’t? Let us know! Drop a note at virtualskinnynews@gmail.com. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Virtual Skinny: Hey Stranger

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on in Uncategorized 0 Comment

9.15.2019

Good to Know:  It’s been a minute since our last newsletter. Where have we been? In full transparency, life got in the way. But as they say, onwards and upwards. Moving forward, we’ll be in your inbox once a week on Sundays. And this time, we want to hear from you! More details on how you can reach out to us below. 

The Skinny 

When Money, Power And …  Competition Is Not the Key to Life … Or is it? On Friday, September 13, U.S. lawmakers made it clear that they’re not letting up on big tech companies. Looking at you Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. They want to see these companies’ receipts. You know, to make sure that these big companies aren’t violating antitrust laws. In other words, lawmakers are investigating whether these companies are causing harm to consumers by either stomping out the competition or not even letting them play in the first place. 

When They Don’t Trust It … This request for receipts – including documents and internal executive comms – follows the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s July 2019 hearing with mid-level execs showing up to make their case. These companies say they’re doing right by the law. Other expert witnesses like Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu and Yale economic professor Fiona Scott Morton beg to differ. Morton says users have no choice but to give their privacy and be subjected to ads since there are no other alternatives. 

When “the More” Doesn’t Necessarily Mean “the Merrier” …It’s not just the U.S. Congress that’s looking into this issue. You can also count the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Justice. While almost all 50 U.S. state attorney generals are looking into Facebook and Google’s market dominance, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into Amazon and Apple’s iPhone deal where Apple agreed to let Amazon sells its phone directly on the online marketplace. The FTC’s chatting even chatting with third party sellers to figure out how this deal impacted their business. Lastly, throw the European Union to the list. The EU’s former antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager turned EU “digital czar” is eyeing potentially broadening rules on how companies collect and use data. Phew! What a time … 

What Else is Going On? 

The Jig is up … Potentially on gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash etc. Recently, California passed a bill – aka Assembly Bill 5 – to provide protect workers and provide clarity on when a worker is considered  contractor v. employee. Share economy workers being classified means benefits like health care, minimum wage and paid time off.   The law extends to contractors outside of the sharing economy and has the support of California Governor Gavin Newsom. He needs to officially sign off before it becomes law. With that said, Uber doesn’t plan to go out like that. The company says it’s going to keep on keeping on classifying its drivers as contractors and not employees. Why? Uber says its drivers aren’t part of its “core business” – a key aspect of the bill – since it’s a tech platform. Hmmmm ok … 

The Streets Are Talking … 

MoviePass said “Imma head out.” It’s shutting down for now. 

Security company Cloudflare showed up for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares were expected to go for $15 each but reached $19.53 before landing at $17.90 to close out its debut. 

1 billion downloads. 150 markets in the world. 75 languages. Video-app Tik Tok owned by Chinese startup ByteDance is blowing up not only in China but across the rest of the world. It’s coming for the necks of other content platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and Snapchat.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee surprised everyone when he announced that he’d “randomly select 10 families and give them a total of $120,000 over the next year as part of a pilot program for his universal basic income plan.” 

France and Germany said nah to  Libra – a cryptocurrency backed several entities including Facebook. Not a shocker given that Facebook is constantly under fire. 

Spread the Word and Hit Us Up!

Tell your friends about us! We’d love for them to sign up and join the party!  Also, got feedback for us? Is there something you want to see but aren’t? Let us know! Drop a note at virtualskinnynews@gmail.com. Can’t wait to hear from you!