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☆ Cloud software buyers are getting frugal, leading to slower growth at former highfliers
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In 2020, as data analytics software vendor Snowflake was hitting the public market, one of the key stats it was touting to investors was net revenue retention. Snowflake's NRR at the time was 158%, meaning its existing customer base from a year earlier had increased its total spend by 58%. "More pressure on churn (as companies look to reduce point solutions in favor of platforms) and more difficult upsells have pushed net retention down," Ball added. Twilio , which sells cloud-based communications software, reported NRR of 102% in February, with just 5% year-over-year revenue growth. Almost all of Twilio's revenue comes from its division that contains technology for sending text messages and emails.

Persons: Snowflake, Chris Taylor, NRR, Wall, Snowflake's NRR, Aidan Viggiano, Mike Scarpelli, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Frank Slootman Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, Nasdaq, Representatives Locations: Snowflake, U.S, Twilio

☆ It’s never been more expensive to be a Disney fan
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Not only have theme park visits gotten more expensive, but so have Disney’s cruise vacations, souvenirs and the company’s streaming services. Over the summer, Disney quietly raised the prices at two of the adult-exclusive restaurants on board its cruise ships to $135 per person for dinner, a nudge up of $10, according to the Disney Cruise Line Blog. But one thing is certain: being a Disney fan has never been more expensive. Passengers stand on the deck of Disney Dream, a Disney Cruise Lines' ship, as it sails to the Bahamas on August 9, 2021. Joe Skipper/ReutersBrittany Huizinga, an Arizona-based travel agent at Smart Moms Travel, took a two-part trip with her husband and two children during the holiday season: The first four nights were spent at Walt Disney World and the last five nights on a Disney Cruise ship.

Persons: Walt, Gina Lee, ”, “, Disney, Ron DeSantis, Don Munsil, —, That’s, Minnie, Joseph Prezioso, Genie, we’ve, ” Munsil, Joe Skipper, Brittany Huizinga, Bob Iger, Mouse’s, Doug Arthur, “ It’s, Disney’s, Lee Organizations: CNN, Walt Disney World, Disney, Disney Vacation, Magic, Walt Disney, Anadolu Agency, Getty Images Parks, Disney Cruise Lines, Smart, Huber Research Partners, Disney’s ESPN, Fox Corporation, Warner Bros ., . Disney, Wayback Locations: Orlando , Florida, New York, —, Florida, Disneyland, California, Orange County , Florida, Bahamas, Arizona

☆ Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Nvidia, Zoom, Amazon, Bowlero, Lululemon & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bank of America reiterates Lululemon as buy Bank of America said it's standing by its buy rating on the stock heading into earnings next week. Bank of America adds Jazz Pharmaceuticals to the US1 list Bank of America added the pharmaceutical company to its top picks list. "We initiate coverage of The Madison Square Garden Entertainment Co. (MSGE) with a Buy rating and a 12-month price objective (PO) of $41, implying ~30% potential upside." Bank of America initiates Gulfport Energy as buy Bank of America said the energy company is undervalued. Stifel reiterates Bowlero as buy Stifel said it's standing by its buy rating on the bowling company.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Lululemon, LULU, Bernstein, Emerson, Raymond James, Apple, it's, Stifel, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, JEF Organizations: Bank of America, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc, UBS, GXO Logistics, Mobility, RBC, JPMorgan, Emerson, Mizuho, Edison, FOUR, Apple, Nvidia, AppLovin, Garden Entertainment, The, Garden Entertainment Co, Energy, Xcel Energy, Minnesota & Locations: China, The Madison, Minnesota, Minnesota & Colorado

☆ What Covid? The Cheesy Cruise Makes a Big Comeback - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Ezra Dyer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

And a recent AAA survey found that 52 percent of Americans say that compared with before the pandemic, they’re as likely or more likely to consider taking a cruise this year. Which brings us to the other thing that makes American cruises singular: More is always more. My family’s home for four days was once one of the largest passenger ships ever built, some 900 feet long and displacing more than 100,000 tons. While cruises themselves follow the same formula as always, parachuting hedonistic day-trippers into tourist-friendly ports, the post-Covid clientele has changed. Before Covid, the numbers were fairly even, but evidently the blue-state crowd is having a tougher time putting the Diamond Princess out of mind.

Persons: who’s, Taylor Swift, There’s, overstimulation, they’d Organizations: AAA, Cruises, downer, Royal, Republicans Locations: Bahamas

☆ Here are 5 ways ChatGPT helps me make money and complete time-consuming tasks for my business
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Jen Glantz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

When she had her first child, she turned to ChatGPT to help her with time-consuming tasks. This time, I used ChatGPT to help me brainstorm content for static Instagram posts and TikTok videos. I also asked ChatGPT to find the best hashtags to use for content about being a bridesmaid on TikTok. Instead, I used ChatGPT to give me a competitor analysis of the maid-of-honor speech-writing landscape. I asked ChatGPT to write an upsell email pitching my coaching services without using a salesperson's tone of voice.

Persons: Jen Glantz, ChatGPT, I've, who's, you've, haven't, I'd, they've, they're Organizations: Morning, Google, Companies

☆ Amazon's Project Iliad: The juiciest highlights from the FTC's Prime lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Eugene Kim | Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here are the highlights:Amazon called the difficult cancellation process the "Iliad" in reference to Homer's epic poem, as Insider previously reported. The suit describes the Iliad process as "Prime's Four-Page, Six-Click, Fifteen-Option Iliad Cancellation Process" because it takes that many steps to cancel. Amazon has two ways to upsell Amazon Prime to customers: interstitials and non-interstitials. It's equally difficult to cancel Prime on a mobile device, involving an 8-page, 8-click minimum process, the FTC investigation found. Amazon failed to "provide simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges" for the Prime membership.

Persons: Lindsay, Grandinetti, Ghani —, Interstitials, Eugene Kim Organizations: FTC, Amazon, Morning, Amazon Music, Commission, Prime

☆ AI drive-thrus may be good for business. But not for the rest of us
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New AI technology at the drive-thru at a Carl's Jr. location. In real-world situations, reactions to AI drive-thrus are still mixed. “We expect AI to augment the competitive advantages of restaurants with digital culture.”Short-staffed restaurants may see AI as a way to fill in the gaps. “There aren’t enough at-scale examples of voice AI in action, especially in this use case,” to say that people would prefer AI to an employee, said McAllister. By the time those examples exist, AI in drive-thrus may already be the norm.

Persons: CKE, Carl’s Jr, Wendy’s, Joel Angel Juarez, it’s, ” Thomas Kurian, ”, Christina McAllister, Forrester, upsells, Krishna Gupta, Presto, “, Todd Penegor, Penegor, Yong Suk Lee, “ it’s, Brandon Bell, McAllister Organizations: New, New York CNN, Google, USA, Wall Street, Indiana White, Wall Street Journal, Presto Automation, CKE, Presto, Presto Voice, University of Notre Dame, Intouch Locations: New York, White, Wendy’s, Columbus , Ohio, The Republic

☆ The unraveling of fintech darling Vise
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

It was April, and more than two dozen salespeople who worked for the fintech startup Vise had been ordered to a multiday off-site at the W Hoboken hotel in New Jersey to share exhaustive reports on their performance. Even salespeople at bigger, established, top-tier investment-management firms typically wouldn't close $250 million in a year, multiple sales employees said. (K-means clustering is an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm often referred to as a form of AI, Vise's founders said). (Vise's founders disputed this, saying the company received updated financial data only once a day for its portfolio-construction engine.) And to address its "leaky funnel" of overestimating prospective sales, Vise was to stop outreach to new clients while it onboards and upsells to existing clients, the document said.

☆ I was fired from Shopify after the big layoff. I felt disposable and overworked, and I'm much happier now that I'm gone.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jenna Gyimesi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Osuji says he now works in construction because he couldn't find other support work. When you're working an entry-level position as I did, you feel disposable. [Editor's note: A Shopify representative told Insider in a statement that the company's turnover in Shopify Support is "lower than typical contact centers," though they did not disclose the rate.] I work in construction nowSince Shopify, I've been working in construction doing physical labor because I couldn't get other support work. But even though construction work is physically dangerous, my mental health is better: It's way less stressful than working at Shopify.

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