Author : zebethcontrol

a16z-backed Tellus wants to help people use their savings to become real estate investors • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in a16z, Fintech, real estate, Startups, TellusNo Comments

Crypto is not having a good week, as Bitcoin crashed to under $17,000 — its lowest level in two years. The stock market continues to post declines as layoffs abound. Meanwhile, inflation recently reached a 40-year high. For those looking for a safe place to park their cash and actually earn a decent amount of interest on their savings above the national average APY of just 0.20%, the options are not exactly plentiful. Enter Tellus. The six-year-old fintech startup claims it can offer people yields of 3.85% to 4.5% on their savings balances by using the money to fund certain U.S. single-family-home loans. With mortgage interest rates having more than doubled since a year ago, one might think that this is not the best time to be a digital mortgage lender. But co-founder Rocky Lee believes his company’s unique business model sets it apart from other such lenders in the space. For one, the company has a very niche offering. It targets existing home owners who wish to upgrade to larger homes without selling the homes they live in, which makes it difficult for them to get approved for loans by traditional mortgage lenders. If it sounds complicated, well, it is. Lee breaks it down as such: “The home they [Tellus’ borrowers] buy typically is not the starter home. What they are seeking is called a super jumbo loan, which is designed for people that actually don’t have a ready to use mortgage solution. And we provide that solution for those categories of people.” So where does the savings part come in? Tellus’ interest rates are typically two basis points higher than the standard conforming mortgage. For example, in today’s market if a loan’s rate is 7%, Tellus will charge 9% — a premium because it claims it’s offering to lend money to American single-family-home borrowers “in prime cities” who would otherwise not be able to get such loans. Because it is using its retail customers’ savings deposits to fund these loans at a 3.85% to 4.5% yield, Tellus makes its money on the spread of what it’s paying out in interest versus what it’s charging its borrowers. Its retail customers are able to earn interest on a daily basis, while getting help with things such as budgeting funds and setting financial goals. Tellus says it promotes financial literacy by quizzing users on financial terms, for example, and then rewarding them with higher interest rates. At the same time, the company touts that it is enabling these consumers to invest in real estate in a way they would not have otherwise been able to while having the ability to withdraw their money at any time. While its strategy might sound risky, Lee told ZebethMedia that Tellus utilizes “very strict underwriting criteria” and has not yet seen any defaults because the majority of its borrowers go on to soon after refinance their loans at more favorable terms. Since its 2016 inception, Tellus has lent out more than $80 million with an average loan size of $2 million. It partners with mortgage brokers to find borrowers. And it finds its retail clients via channels such as Instagram, TikTok and Google. Since the company is mobile-first, it focuses on people using a smartphone. Tellus allows anyone in the U.S. to use its savings software. It only lends in California because that’s where it has a lending license and partnerships. Despite a challenging real estate market, the company says it grew its revenue by 55% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of 2022, according to co-founder T Zhu. And earlier this year, it raised $16 million in a seed round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and with participation from All-Stars Investments, Alumni Ventures, Decent Capital, Vectr Ventures, West Arrow and Westwood Ventures. Co-founders of YouTube, Lime and Sereno Group Real Estate also participated in the financing, which followed a $10 million SAFE. The remote-first, Cupertino, California-based startup is emerging from stealth as it seeks to build out its engineering, marketing and product teams, adding to its headcount of 50. It also plans to build upon its recently launched new offering aimed at SMBs.

In his first emails to Twitter staff, Musk talks about ending remote work and battling verified spam • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in elon buys twitter, Elon Musk, remote work, Social, TwitterNo Comments

More than 10 days after taking over Twitter, Elon Musk addressed the company’s employees for the first time in a series of emails. He talked about ending remote work and making the fight against spam a priority. According to a report from Bloomberg, the new CEO asked workers to be ready for “difficult times ahead.” At the same time, he asked them to mandatorily work from the office unless an employee received a personal exemption. The report also said that the employees will have to put in at least 40 hours per week working from the office and these policies are effective immediately. This is not really surprising as, during a Q&A with Twitter staff in June, Musk said only “exceptional” employees would be able to work remotely. Around the same time, he ended the remote work policy for Tesla employees and asked them to spend at least 40 hours a week in the office. During the first few days after taking control of Twitter, Musk fired top executives, tweeted about introducing new verification and subscription plans, and laid off half of the staff. But he just got time to address the remaining employees. All this while, the staff was living in uncertainty about the direction of the company and how their roles would change. The billionaire has set aggressive product deadlines after promising to bring a ton of features through a bunch of tweets. Now deleted tweets from employees suggested that they had to sleep at the office to meet some of these new product deadlines. Earlier this month, Musk also eliminated company-wide rest days that were introduced during the pandemic. In 2020, Twitter was one of the first companies to allow employees to work remotely forever. The Bloomberg report also noted that, in a separate email, Musk asked Twitter staff to make it a priority to battle verified spam, bots and impersonation. After he announced the plans to introduce new verification through a paid program, a bunch of legacy verified accounts changed their profile to imitate Musk. In response, he said that any verified account indulging in impersonation will be banned. On Thursday, the social network debuted its new Twitter Blue program for $8 a month allowing people to buy out verified check marks. Soon after the roll-out, a bunch of accounts started impersonating brands, athletes and officials across the world. In the terms of the new subscription plan, Twitter has specified that new accounts can’t sign up for this offering yet. The company has taken this step to possibly reduce spam. It is also preventing existing verified accounts from changing their display names. “Twitter Blue subscribers will be unable to change their display name after receiving a blue checkmark. We will be implementing a new process soon for any display name changes,” the terms read. So overall, the company has had a messy start to the Musk era with an extremely rough rollout to an ambitious subscription program.

General Atlantic values media tech Amagi at $1.4 billion in new funding • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Amagi, general atlantic, india, Media & Entertainment, StartupsNo Comments

Amagi, which offers cloud broadcast and targeted advertising software to scores of media and entertainment giants, has raised a large new funding round as it looks to expand its tech offerings and invest in AI-powered personalization stack. General Atlantic led a new round of over $100 million, which included about $20 million in secondary buybacks, the New York and Bengaluru-headquartered startup said in a statement. The Series F funding has propelled Amagi’s valuation to $1.4 billion, up from $100 million in March this year. The startup, which has raised about $350 million to date (according to insight firm Tracxn), said it crossed the $100 million annualized recurring revenue (ARR) for the second time in the quarter that ended in September. Amagi’s platform allows its clients to create content that can be monetized and distributed via broadcast TV and streaming TV platforms such as The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus and Pluto TV. The company already supports more than 2,000 channels on its platform across dozens of countries including Australia, Germany and South Korea — markets where it recently expanded. The startup — whose backers include Accel, Norwest Venture Partners, Avataar Ventures, and Premji Invest — told ZebethMedia in an earlier interview that it has simplified its tech stack to a point that even a client without much technology resources can use and scale with it. Amagi said at the time that it had helped customers bring down their operational cost savings by up to 40%, compared to traditional delivery models as ad impressions shot up by up to 10 times. Its clients include NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Network, ABS-CBN, A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, Curiosity Stream, Gannett, Gusto TV and Vice Media. “We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of developing futuristic technology solutions that can help media companies deliver premium personalised content and engaging advertising experiences to their consumers,” said Baskar Subramanian, Co-founder and CEO of Amagi. Amagi plans to deploy the fresh funds to expand its infrastructure offerings and invest in AI-driven personalisation, advertising, and live streaming solutions, it said. “Amagi has demonstrated a consistent ability to anticipate key trends, acting as an early mover in the rise of free ad-supported streaming TV. The company has also championed the use of cloud technology to optimise results for their broadcast and streaming partners globally,” said Shantanu Rastogi, Managing Director and Head of India at General Atlantic, in a statement.

How OVHcloud’s Octave Klaba is building a different cloud computing company • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in cloud, Enterprise, Octave Klaba, OVHcloudNo Comments

When people think about the cloud computing industry, three names come to mind — Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. And yet, smaller cloud companies are still doing well. OVHcloud, a French company that has been around since 1999, is one of them. Of course, cloud computing wasn’t even a thing in 1999. The company has managed to remain relevant after all these years thanks to an opinionated approach to hosting and internet infrastructure. A few days ago, I caught up with Octave Klaba, the company’s founder and chairman. “There is a difference between impossible and unlikely. Maybe we are an unlikely company, but we exist,” he told me. We talked about his long-term vision for OVHcloud, which involves data centers as a service, private 5G networks, satellites and quantum computing. Playing catch-up How do you compete with companies like Amazon and Microsoft when you “only” have 2,800 employees and no side business to finance your cloud division? OVHcloud’s vision could be summed up in two says: leveraging open source as the cornerstone of product innovation, and uncompromised sovereignty. The company’s project of offering data centers as a service is a good example of these two points. “There will be more supermarkets that will use robots. Companies like Auchan or Carrefour will have fulfillment centers that will be robotized. There will be Renault factories with more IoT. There will be airports, container terminals… We will have to bring intelligence and automation to many different places,” Octave Klaba said. And he believes computing resources will have to be closer to the end clients. Companies will decide where their “cloud” is located. He calls that concept “operational sovereignty.” “Today, customers don’t get to choose. They can either opt for our data centers, or for AWS’s data centers that are located I don’t know where,” Klaba said. “Operational sovereignty doesn’t exist today because you don’t get to choose.” We are refactoring our entire data center stack so that data centers can operate autonomously even if they are disconnected Octave Klaba Essentially, OVHcloud wants to be able to provide the best of both worlds. Some clients are looking for the abstraction layer of public cloud infrastructure and the flexibility of on-premise installations. They want to pick their own data center colocation or they want to convert their own data centers into OVHcloud-enabled data centers. With this service, the cloud company brings its own server farms and handles hardware refreshes. It runs its pre-integrated cloud services system on these servers so that it works more or less like your own dedicated OVHcloud data center. And because it’s a service, clients pay a monthly bill. They don’t have to get a loan from their bank to amortize hardware over multiple years. “Some clients have very sensitive and secret data. They want us to operate their data centers without any external connection. Now that’s a challenge,” Klaba said. “So we are refactoring our entire data center stack so that data centers can operate autonomously even if they are disconnected. Everything that is required to run a data center is inside the data center,” Klaba said. And it will eventually be open source. When it’s time to update the software stack, somebody goes to the data center with a NUC mini PC and a USB key. Updates are quickly deployed to all the servers in the data center. “That’s exactly why we became a public company, that’s why I raised €350 million. We are going to open-source our software stack so that you can download and deploy it yourself,” Klaba said. “I want to give it away for free so that you can do my job.” In that case, there would be two main advantages. First, cloud companies keep reinventing the wheel. For instance, all cloud companies offer database-as-a-service products, but they don’t usually share the code behind these services. Everybody keeps developing the same thing over and over again. Second, a strong open-source community is usually more efficient than a private company developing its own proprietary component. OVHcloud wants to be at the center of this community of open-source data center software. “It’s a crazy bet. You only get to make a bet like this once in your life. But we think we are going to succeed,” Klaba told me. Image Credits: OVHcloud Private 5G, satellites and quantum computing When talking about edge computing, Octave Klaba was a bit annoyed about all the hype in the industry. “There’s so much bullshit around edge. So many people talk about edge computing but they don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said. He then gave me an example of what he means by edge computing. Like other cloud computing companies, OVHcloud wants to offer private 5G networks. “There are big warehouses, airports, inland ports, refineries, big factories… They need some sort of connectivity that covers a huge area with low latency and a lot of bandwidth. It has to be secured, easy to deploy and connected to the cloud,” Klaba said. So many people talk about edge computing but they don’t know what they’re talking about Octave Klaba In that industry, OVHcloud competes with traditional telecom companies and manufacturers, but Klaba believes these companies don’t necessarily know how to build something stable, always up-to-date and always online. “Now they have to use Kubernetes and they think: ‘Oh my god, how do I manage Kubernetes,’” he joked. “On the other side, Microsoft, AWS or Google invest a lot in these areas. They are buying companies. They say that they can do everything for you and for free. But then, it’s going to be connected to their infrastructure and they sell you value-added services and charge you for that. That’s an amazing hack,” Klaba said. OVHcloud doesn’t necessarily want to follow the same strategy, but it has developed proofs of concept for private 5G networks. Once again, it’s all about remaining in the race for this market, and for edge computing in general. When it comes to satellites,

Aiphone door entry systems can be ‘easily’ bypassed thanks to NFC bug • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in government, physical security, Security, vulnerabilityNo Comments

A security research firm says it discovered an “easily” exploitable vulnerability in a door entry security system used in government buildings and apartment complexes, but warns that the vulnerability cannot be fixed. Norwegian security company Promon says the bug affects several Aiphone GT models that use NFC technology, often found in contactless credit cards, and allows bad actors to potentially gain access to sensitive facilities by brute-forcing the door entry system’s security code. Door entry systems allow secure access to buildings and residential complexes, but have become increasingly digitized, making them vulnerable to both physical and remote compromise. Aiphone counts both the White House and the U.K. Parliament as customers of the affected systems, according to company brochures seen by ZebethMedia. Promon security researcher Cameron Lowell Palmer said a would-be intruder can use an NFC-capable mobile device to rapidly cycle through every permutation of a four-digit “admin” code used to secure each Aiphone GT door system. Because the system does not limit how many times a code can be tried, Palmer said it takes only minutes to cycle through each of the 10,000 possible four-digit codes used by the door entry system. That code can be punched into the system’s keypad, or transmitted to an NFC tag, allowing bad actors to potentially access restricted areas without having to touch the system at all. In a video shared with ZebethMedia, Palmer built a proof-of concept Android app that allowed him to check every four-digit code on a vulnerable Aiphone door entry system in his test lab. Palmer said the affected Aiphone models do not store logs, allowing a bad actor to bypass the system’s security without leaving a digital trace. Image Credits: Cameron Lowell Palmer / Promon Palmer disclosed the vulnerability to Aiphone in late June 2021. Aiphone told the security company that systems manufactured before December 7, 2021 are affected and cannot be updated, but that systems after this date have a software fix that limits the rate of door entry attempts. It’s not the only bug that Promon discovered in the Aiphone system. Promon also said it discovered that the app used to set up the door entry system offers an unencrypted, plaintext file that contains the administrator code for the system’s back-end portal. Promon said that could allow an intruder to also access the information needed to access restricted areas. Aiphone spokesperson Brad Kemcheff did not respond to requests for comment sent prior to publication. Relatedly, a university student and security researcher earlier this year discovered a “master key” vulnerability in a widely used door entry system built by CBORD, a tech company that provides access control and payment systems to hospitals and university campuses. CBORD fixed the bug after the researcher reported the issue to the company.

Audi, Redwood Materials launch recycling program for consumer electronics • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Audi, Batteries, EV, Redwood Materials, TransportationNo Comments

Audi and battery recycler Redwood Materials are teaming up to collect end-of-life batteries from cell phones, electric toothbrushes and other lithium-ion-powered devices at participating dealerships nationwide. Beginning November, consumers can deposit their laptops, cell phones, e-bikes, e-scooters, electric toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners, power drills and other rechargeable devices at the dealerships. The recycling bins will be available for the “foreseeable future in select dealerships,” a spokeswoman said. The program, which expands upon Redwood’s partnership to recycle Audi and Volkswagen EV batteries, marks the first time the Nevada-based recycler has worked with an automaker to collect household lithium-ion batteries. The batteries and devices collected in the bins will be sent to Redwood’s facility to be repurposed as sustainable, domestic EV batteries. As the largest player in the burgeoning battery recycling industry, Redwood has an opportunity to solve a raw materials shortage that threatens to undercut automakers’ aggressive global EV sales targets. Creating a sustainable, closed-loop domestic battery supply chain can supply the millions of new EVs slated to hit the road over the next few years while meeting guidelines for incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill provides tax credits for EVs whose batteries are constructed with recycled content. About 15 million tons of lithium-ion batteries are expected to retire by 2030, the deadline most automakers have set for phasing out gas-engine vehicles, according to AquaMetals. Redwood projects global demand for lithium-ion batteries to rise sixfold, or by more than 500%, over the next decade.

GitHub teases new Copilot feature that lets developers code with their voice • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Copilot, Enterprise, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, Hey GitHub, Robotics & AINo Comments

GitHub is working on a new tool that will allow developers to code with their voice. Announced at the annual GitHub Universe conference yesterday, the experimental feature works in tandem with Copilot, GitHub’s controversial AI-powered pair-programmer that collaborates with software developers by suggesting functions or lines of code — a bit like Gmail’s Smart Compose. Copilot officially launched for everyone back in June, costing $10 per month or $100 per year after a free 60-day trial. GitHub is serving access to the new voice feature via a waitlist that’s open for interested developers now, but essentially it will allow developers to activate Copilot’s ears via the “Hey, GitHub” wake word. It is limited in scope for the time being, insofar as it only works with Microsoft’s source-code editor VS Code, but it’s apparently working to expand things in the future. According to GitHub, its new voice assistant can understand natural language requests for Copilot to suggest a code snippet, or summarize what a specific section of code does. But even if a developer doesn’t want any code suggestions, it can serve other practical use-cases such as helping them navigate a codebase by saying something like “Hey GitHub, go to line 34,” or even control the IDE by toggling to zen mode. GitHub copilot voice assistant in action Image Credits: GitHub While this is still an early stage experiment developed by an R&D team called GitHub Next, it could have significant ramifications from an accessibility perspective, as it reduces the amount of interaction that’s required with a mouse and keyboard. It’s also not clear whether Copilot is yet able to talk back to a developer, but based on the initial demonstrations GitHub has published, it would appear not. A two-way dialog could be useful though, for example if a developer wants a quick audio summary of what a piece of code does, or if Copilot needs clarification on a specific request the user has made. Elsewhere at GitHub Universe yesterday, the Microsoft-owned company also revealed that it would soon targeting Copilot at the enterprise, with a new plan that allows businesses to buy licenses at a seat level — this will also mean additional admin controls so companies can manage and control their Copilot deployment across the organization.

Twitter blocks new accounts from its $8 verified tier after high-profile fakes abound • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Social, Twitter, twitter blue, twitter verificationNo Comments

The motto over at Twitter is clearly a throwback ‘move fast and break things’ at the moment under new ruler Elon Musk, and the latest thing to break is the just-introduced $8 monthly Twitter Blue tier, which includes a shiny ‘verified’ checkmark indistinguishable from the ones that Twitter used to hand out selectively to high-profile accounts. The social network updated its Twitter Blue info page to note that any accounts freshly created on or after Wednesday, November 9, will not be able to subscribe for now. I should stress that this is ‘as of this writing,’ since the pace of change is such over at Twitter HQ right now that what may be true as I type these words may not be by the time I add the period to the end of this sentence. That’s because Musk has overtly said the company will be doing “lots of dumb things in coming months” with an attitude of rapid iteration based on results. Twitter Blue terms on Nov 10 noting accounts created after Nov 9 can’t sign up for Twitter Blue. One fresh example is the ‘official’ account label, which was a second checkmark that Twitter was providing to organizations including news outlets, as well as high-profile individuals like politicians and influencers who are often imitated for scamming purposes. That program went live on Wednesday and was already nixed just a few hours later. The block on Blue for new accounts appears to be related to what happened immediately once the subscription actually provided the blue check ‘verification’ that Musk had previously provided: People abused it. A number of fake accounts pretending to be celebrities, brands and otherwise influential people immediately cropped up and made audacious, false claims, including a fake LeBron requesting a trade away from the Lakers, a fake Connor McDavid saying he already had been traded from the Oilers to the Islanders, a fake Nintendo account posting a picture of Mario flipping the bird and much, much more. Stopping new accounts from getting the blue check is a temporary solution to preventing some of this kind of impersonation (thought it doesn’t block legacy accounts from doing so, including the many inactive accounts that are out there ripe for takeover or manipulation) but it’s unclear how the company will prevent this kind of thing longer-term. As with everything that happens with Twitter these days, they’ll probably try a bunch of things in public across the platform at large and seed what sticks.

Google is launching cross-platform features to make it easier to follow the FIFA World Cup • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Apps, fifa world cup, Football, Google, SoccerNo Comments

Google is rolling out a bunch of updates across platforms making it easier for fans to follow the FIFA World Cup starting November 20. These include a daily highlights video from TV networks, customized notifications, a dedicated section on Google TV, and a multiplayer game. Just like for any sport, you can search with phrases like “FIFA World Cup” or the “World Cup” and you’ll get the latest scores from the tournament. You can subscribe to tournament notifications by hitting the bell icon. Plus, you can subscribe to individual teams’ alerts under the notification menu. Scores of these world cup soccer matches will also show live stats and win probability graphs. If users want to follow individual matches but don’t want to search every time for updates they can pin scores to the home screen. To do that, they can tap the “Pin live score” option in the score pane for an ongoing upcoming match. Notably, these features are available for other tournaments and sports as well. Image Credits: Google Google has partnered with FIFA+ and official broadcasters including beIN Sports, BBC, ZDF and more to show daily video recaps under the matches section. So if you have missed out on some key moments, you can easily catch up. Image Credits: Google The search giant is soon adding the ability to rate a player based on how users think they will perform in the tournament. They can also compare these scores with other players. Google usually adds a little browser-based game for big events like this and the World Cup is no exception. Once the real-life match is set with line ups, you can choose a team and try and score as many goals as possible in the game. The score of gamers across the world will be added to that team’s total. You will see that score while playing the game as well. Image Credits: Google The company is adding a new label for businesses that will help users discover places that are showing world cup matches. When you search for “Where to watch the world cup near me,” you will see a label saying “Showing the world cup” in the listing for bars and restaurants in Search and Maps. This label will launch just before the world cup and business owners will be able to apply for it at that time. Image Credits: Google YouTube TV subscribers will be able to watch the world cup on FOX and FS1 with gameplay features like real-time highlights, stats, and scores. They can also stream these matches in ultra-high definition if they have subscribed to the 4K Plus add-on. Google TV will show live matches in the “For You” tab and it will add a new row showing world cup content from partners like FIFA+, ITV, Peacock, Telemundo, and ViX. Image Credits: Google

In times of crisis, fintech startups should take the long view instead of hibernating • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Column, EC Column, EC Fintech, Fintech, hiring, Startups, Verified Expert - lawyerNo Comments

Vadym Synegin Contributor Vadym Synegin is a Ukrainian impact entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor in fintech and crypto projects with more than 15 years’ experience as an entrepreneur in Europe and the UAE. More posts by this contributor 5 reasons why Ukraine’s fintech sector is growing despite war The fintech industry is currently facing several macroeconomic problems, including global economic inflation, skyrocketing costs of living, companies reducing their workforce, and a possible recession on the horizon, not to mention the war in Ukraine. All of these factors have caused fintech M&A exits to decline 30% in Q2 2022, the lowest point since Q3 2020. This is not the first time the economic climate has worsened so quickly. But when we look at the industry’s overall performance compared to previous years, the current downturn is not that different. What can founders do to help their companies prosper during this period? Hire high-performing talent The worsening financial climate is causing leading fintech companies to suspend hiring or reduce their workforce to avoid cost overruns. The industry saw 1,619 job cuts in May, compared to 440 in the first four months of the year. Personnel losses have also affected the Ukrainian startup ecosystem. More than one in ten startup employees in the country has had to leave their firms since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, and since then, the number of enterprises with up to five team members has risen, while companies with bigger teams are dwindling. Nearly every founder would agree that layoffs are a hard but necessary decision to make in times of crisis, as payroll spend can be redirected towards growth or maintaining a runway. But if you take the long view and look past the current downturn, it’s likely your startup will have higher chances of survival if you hold on to specialized talent. And sometimes, hiring a new employee can bring in a new perspective that may help you detect problems within your firm. Ukraine has a huge pool of talent, and thousands of specialists are currently searching for an exciting project to join. So instead of battening down the hatches as you face this crisis, consider it an opportunity to strengthen your company with dispersed, high-performing talent. Develop and prove the quality of your product Crises are also times of opportunities — you just need to look carefully to spot a golden egg. Crises give founders a chance to focus on building robust products since times like these usually highlight problems that are in need of a viable, long-term solution, and startups can go heads-down on building rather than focusing on incessant growth. The brutal truth is that tough markets also clean up the hundreds of startups without a solid product cluttering the market. This gives top companies a chance to develop an even more extensive set of products and services. Develop a solid strategy To run a business sustainably, founders must direct business development and manage risk well. That’s why during times of crisis, startups that have focused on developing solid business strategies and products usually emerge to win the market from those that didn’t. I know it’s hard to focus on developing a strategy when there are so many external factors affecting your company. But the fact is that companies that focus on strengthening their business plan and solidifying their strategy have a higher chance of bouncing back and coming out stronger than before compared to those who hibernate. Individuals and businesses thrive in the face of crises by managing their resources, analyzing the situation they’re in, and recognizing potential opportunities regardless of the amount of noise and chaos around them. Tough times allow teams that set big goals to recharge and look at things from a different angle. For instance, you might as yourself: What is the unique proposition of the product? What can we do to make the most out of the current market? What can we do to catapult our product even farther when the market recovers? Despite all the setbacks, founders can excel in business by following three rules during a crisis: strengthen your staff, develop a better product, and work to solidify a business strategy. While these aren’t laws or panaceas for all problems, I’ve found them to be very effective during rough times.