DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Goldman Sachs created an A.I.-powered social media startup for corporate use
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Now Doctor is hustling to grow his client base beyond the confines of Goldman, whose employees have used Louisa for the past two and a half years. "Think of Louisa as an A.I.-powered LinkedIn on steroids," Doctor, 42, said this week in an interview. Louisa was part of the inaugural class of Goldman's incubator program, which encourages employees with startup ideas to develop them in-house. Rohan Doctor, CEO and founder of Louisa Source: Goldman SachsThere has to be a better way, thought Doctor. The company's name originally referred to Louisa Goldman Sachs, the youngest daughter of Marcus Goldman and wife of Samuel Sachs.

☆ Opinion | The Dramatic, Comic, Tragic, True-Life Story Behind the Death of DVD.com
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Pamela Paul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Or I can allow for serendipity — movies appear in my mailbox that I barely remember adding in the first place. During the service’s glory days, you could easily sort movies by country of origin and display them in chronological order. This was well before streaming led the company to spin off DVD.com like a discarded training bra, a source of shame to what had become an entertainment behemoth. There is a cost to clinging to products and services as they shuffle off into obsolescence. It mutters out movie dialogue reluctantly, barely exceeding the swooshing sounds of the elliptical treads.

☆ Real-estate investor Anne Curry has built a 311-unit portfolio since obtaining her first rental property in 1997. She shares the no-money-down strategy she used to scale up— and how she eventually wor
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Anne Curry started her real-estate investing journey in 1997. She laid out for Insider in detail the method she used to scale up, starting with hard-money lenders. By the time they were ready to move out, the property had just about doubled in value to $124,000, Curry said. According to property tax documents viewed by Insider, she now owns a 59-unit property, a 30-unit property, an 14-unit property, and two 12-unit properties, as well as several smaller multifamily properties. Curry said the property was a good deal because big commercial real-estate investing firms weren't interested because it was considered affordable housing.

☆ Wing It or Plan It: Do Travelers Without Itineraries Have Better Vacations?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Emilia Petrarca | Margot Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MAP IT Travel can be free-wheeling or fanatically arranged. For the recurring series That’s Debatable, we take on a contentious issue of the day and present two spirited arguments—one in favor and the other emphatically opposed. TRAVELERS OFTEN fall into two camps: those who plan ahead and those who go with the flow. The former group relishes the research; the latter loves the serendipity of a laissez-faire approach. Here, two writers with opposing views hash out whether to lock in a game plan or let fate intervene.

[1/5] People hold up special edition newspapers, reporting Japan's victory at the World Baseball Classic final, as others queue to try to get them, in Tokyo, Japan, March 22, 2023. REUTERS/Kato IsseiTOKYO, March 22 (Reuters) - With cherry blossoms reaching full bloom in Tokyo, Japanese sports fans erupted in jubilation on Wednesday after their countrymen defeated Team USA to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC). "Nihon yusho," or "Japan victory," was the No. Japan pitchers set a WBC record for strikeouts throughout the series, according to Fox Sports. With sublime serendipity, Japan's victory comes as Tokyo cherry blossoms reached their zenith, bathing the city's parks and streets in pink and white.

☆ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's bet big on A.I. is paying off as his core technology powers ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Katie Tarasov | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

As the engine behind large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Nvidia is finally reaping rewards for its early investment in AI. Nvidia counts on China for about one-quarter of its revenue, including sales of its popular AI chip, the A100. Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang shows CNBC's Katie Tarasov a Hopper H100 SXM module in Santa Clara, CA, on February 9, 2023. Nvidia founders Curtis Priem, Jensen Huang and Chris Malachowsky pose at the company's Santa Clara, California, headquarters in 2020. "We invented this new way of doing computer graphics, ray tracing, basically simulating the pathways of light and simulate everything with generative AI.

☆ A Simple Trick Helped Me Cut Back on Screen Time, Break My Phone Addiction
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

To try and break my habit, I decided to slow down my phone experience with a new app called One Sec. Plus, studies have shown that things like app limits that merely measure your screen time won't break compulsive habits. Sandy Gould, a senior computer-science lecturer at Cardiff University, has researched ways to curb our compulsive phone tendencies. Frederik Riedel, the German-based developer of the app, told me that creating better boundaries was the motivation behind the development of the app. I can attest to that figure: One Sec has nearly halved my compulsive Twitter use.

☆ Hundreds of flexitarians are flocking to this vegan burger upstart. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Plant-based burger chain Next Level Burger is backed by Whole Foods. He'd given up red meat in 2010, after his mother died of cancer at 56. Both became early backers of de Gruyter's brand, Next Level Burger, which has grown to nine restaurants in six states. Following a $20 million raise last fall, Next Level Burger opened its 10th location and second restaurant in Seattle in late January. Next Level Burger patties are made of quinoa and mushrooms.

☆ A Balloon Pops D.C.’s Myth Bubble
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For those who couldn’t figure out why I devoted four columns to the Pentagon UFO debate, this is why. It became clear that, whether from serendipity or design, national security agencies were using UFOs to hide something they didn’t want us to see. That something, it has slowly dribbled out since last May, was Chinese surveillance in U.S. airspace. Suspected Chinese drones have been a sometimes daily presence in U.S. military training sites going back perhaps a decade or more. We learn now of multiple balloon incursions too.

☆ Sundance Movies: Brett Kavanaugh and Steph Curry Docs, "Cat Person"
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Alison Brower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Sundance Film Festival was back in person for the first time since 2020. In five days I saw eight films, and while I'm not a critic, I can affirm that not one of them was a clunker. Asked about the film's aspect ratio in an audience Q&A, Jalali said, "It was prettier that way." The bulk of the films I saw were more commercial, and four of them centered on relationships. And then there was "Cat Person," based on a 2017 New Yorker story about dating by Kristen Roupenian.

☆ The Sundance Film Festival stirs buzz, draws A-list stars, and screens movies that get you talking, but it can't hide the crisis facing independent filmmakers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Alison Brower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Sundance Film Festival was back in person for the first time since 2020. A-list stars like Anne Hathaway and Jason Momoa were present to promote their buzzy films. It was impossible not to feel optimistic about the state of independent film at the opening weekend of the Sundance Film Festival. In five days I saw eight films, and while I'm not a critic, I can affirm that not one of them was a clunker. At an event like Sundance, even amid some hand-wringing over the future, the excitement is contagious.

☆ I left Manhattan for LA. It's easier to make friends, my cost of living is lower, and I'm so much happier here.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Daniel Zahler | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

I got the full New York City experienceI lived in Manhattan for 12 years. In 2015, I decided to sublet my West Village pad and spend the winter in Santa Monica. Santa Monica is one of the priciest areas of California, but it's still cheaper than Manhattan. Today I'm paying $3,000 a month for a spacious apartment in the heart of Santa Monica with amazing views of mountains and palm trees. New York City is unrivaled in its energy and diversity and is the major league of cities — truly world-class.

☆ In leaked memo one day after Dow Jones layoffs, News Corp CEO urges 'full compliance' with back-to-office schedule for Wall Street Journal, New York Post staffers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson sends staff memo about the importance of in-person collaboration. The news comes a day after layoffs at News Corp unit Dow Jones that affected less than 2% of staff. The CEO flagged that he'd be asking business leads to consult with managers to "ensure full compliance with in-office work schedules," which "will evolve in the coming weeks," he wrote. The Wall Street Journal's in-office staffing situation in New York is currently being monitored by the company, according to two sources. The spontaneity and serendipity of a dynamic office environment are crucial in creating and in iterating, so in-office attendance is vital to our future success.

☆ This oil and gas VC upended his career to start a plant-based burger chain. Now, he's raised $20 million to open new restaurants with plans to steal market share from McDonald's.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Next Level Burger, which makes plant-based burgers, was cofounded in 2014 by Matt de Gruyter. Next Level Burger plans to triple in size and steal share from McDonald's, de Gruyter said. In his quest to align his career with this diet, he quit his job and launched a restaurant serving plant-based burgers in 2014. Both became early backers of de Gruyter's brand, Next Level Burger, which has grown to nine restaurants in six states. The restaurant chain announced a $20 million raise on Tuesday, led by Payne and his wife, Nicole Brodeur.

☆ Twitch streamers want to be the political pundits for the next generation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Morgan Sung | Morgan Sung Is A Trends Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

I think politics is boring or controversial. —Hasan Piker, Twitch streamerThe news and politics genre, while growing, remains dwarfed by the gaming content that dominates Twitch. Discouraged by the conflicting messaging around Covid safety, she “picked up a health communication certification” and started streaming about public health. And then I sneak that public health in so it kind of gets their gears turning and they’re coming back for more,” she said. And you’re never going to establish that when you’re constantly fighting.”People are increasingly turning to social media for news.

☆ These 15 people are shaping the office of the future, designing meeting pods, hologram calls, and buildings that actually make workers healthier
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

These 15 power players are just a handful of the people designing workplaces to balance productivity, interaction, and employee well-being through indoor-air-quality monitoring systems, building amenities, holographic meeting spaces, and more. AftershipCities like Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Raleigh, North Carolina, began offering business-relocation incentives during the pandemic to boost their workforces and help increase occupancy in office buildings. Room's office suite includes a phone booth, a meeting room, an open meeting room, and a focus room. Room also makes a soundproof meeting room that fits two people, a more open meeting booth, and a focus room designed for quiet concentration. "The future of office work needs to be guided by a new, genuine form of flexibility in which the work, not the workers themselves, become even more malleable," Petersen writes.

☆ India stops journalist from flying to U.S. to receive Pulitzer Prize
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI — A Pulitzer Prize-winning Kashmiri photojournalist said Wednesday that Indian immigration authorities prevented her from flying to the United States to receive the award even though she had a valid visa and ticket. Sanna Irshad Mattoo was scheduled to fly to New York on Monday to receive the Pulitzer Prize but was blocked by officials at New Delhi’s airport, she said. Saqib Majeed / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP fileMattoo was working on assignment for Reuters, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for coverage of the Covid-19 crisis in India. Journalists have long braved threats in the restive region as the Indian government seeks to tighten control over the media. Their situation has grown worse since India revoked the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019, with dozens arrested, interrogated and investigated under harsh anti-terror laws.

☆ Now might be 'as good a time as you've had in a decade' to build a company from scratch, says famed investor Bill Gurley
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Venture capitalist Bill Gurley talked about the environment for startups on a McKinsey podcast. Gurley said now might be as good a time as any in the past decade to build a company from scratch. The environment of the past five years was "really crazy" to start a company, Gurley said. In the macro environment, Gurley said events like Russia's war in Ukraine and Chinese escalations in Taiwan "are not things that start-ups can impact or control." So while they may "add anxiety," Gurley said they're not things that will "have any real impact" on startups.

☆ The sales pitch a high-tech coffee startup used to raise $1.6 million and increase sales
▼ + stars: | 2021-02-08 | by ( Larissa Zimberoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Voga Coffee has raised $1.6 million to fund its mission to get into coffee shops around the world. Unfortunately, the industry has taken quite a hit, with one research firm reporting the pandemic wiped out a quarter of coffee shop's sales in 2020. For the first time in nine years, the total number of coffee shops in the US is on the decline, according to Bloomberg. Its invention, called Ground Control, is a high-tech batch brewer that aims to produce a more consistently delicious cup of coffee. Adopting the technology, the company argues, would allow cafés to brew coffee at a faster clip and charge a higher price for a top-notch brew.

☆ (foto, video) 15 vinuri din Moldova care i-au plăcut cel mai mult unui wine travel blogger din SUA
▼ + stars: | 2021-01-13 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +6 min

(foto, video) 15 vinuri din Moldova care i-au plăcut cel mai mult unui wine travel blogger din SUAMatthew Horkey este wine travel blogger (persoană care călătorește în jurul lumii cu scopul de a descoperi vinuri noi) din Michigan, SUA. Acesta a scris pe blogul său că, timp de o săptămână, a gustat câteva sute de vinuri și a vizitat peste douăzeci de pivnițe. Mileștii Mici, Codru este un amestec de Cabernet Sauvignon și Merlot maturat în stejar timp de zece ani. Are nuanțe de fructe tropicale coapte, iaurt și note de biscuiți cu bule fine. Există note de mure, piper, și mahon (Mahonul este o specie de arbori din regiunea tropicală a Americii, numit și acaju).

Persons: SUA Matthew Horkey, Matthew, Bloggerul, Negru Împărat, Carpe Diem, Diem, bacon, Vinăria, Viorica, Asconi, Mimi, Château, Saperavi, Mihai Sava, Mihai, Merlot, Blanc, . Gogu, Gogu Organizations: Château Purcari Locations: Moldova, SUA, Michigan, Macedonia de Nord, Iugoslavia, Bad, Boys, Cricova, Muscat, Saperavi, Mileștii, Codru, Sălcuța, Cuvée, Purcari, Bru, Blanc, Serendipity, Americii

Search resuls for: "Serendipity"

20 mentions found