The 2012 Digital 100: The Complete List 1-100. Forget Apple, Forget Facebook: Here's The One Company That Actually Terrifies Google Execs. E-Commerce: Will Amazon Take Over the World? From their strongholds on the American West Coast, companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon have used the Great Recession as an opportunity to think big, invest and take the world by storm with their products and services.
All four of these firms’ success is obviously and irrevocably linked to technology. But one of these companies — Amazon — is a tech company that is firmly rooted in the age-old industry of retail, in the quotidian business of getting the products from the people who make them to the people who want them. And because of this — and Amazon’s ceaseless innovation — it is perhaps the most disruptive company of the four, and it’s poised to integrate itself in Americans’ lives in ways that no other company is capable of. Amazon is already a behemoth of American business.
It’s the 56th largest company in America by market capitalization. (MORE: The Amazon Store of My Dreams) Whogotfunded.com to track VC start-up deals - Start Ups - Start-Ups. New Info2Innovate web-based directory for SMEs - Irish Innovation News Siliconrepublic.com. In the Ordinary, Silicon Valley Is Finding the Next Big Thing. Harry Campbell Square’s tie-up with Starbucks may be this year’s most important venture capital deal.
The deal not only has the potential to change the way people pay for coffee and everything else, it also shows how small innovation applied to everyday tasks may be the next new thing for venture capital. Call it the rise of the ordinary innovators. Under the deal announced last week, Square, the mobile payments device start-up, will process debit and credit card transactions for the coffee shop chain, whose customers will be able to use Square’s payment mobile phone app at participating stores.
As part of the deal, Starbucks will invest $25 million in Square and Starbucks’s chief executive, Howard Schultz, will join the Square board. It may sound boring, but the mobile payment sector is hot. Many of these companies aim to process all transactions, but Square’s business model is built on a basic premise: pushing payment devices to businesses that have had difficulty using credit cards. Glassdoor reveals top 25 companies for work-life balance (infographic) - Careers - Careers.
Want a healthy work-life balance?
Then consider a career with MITRE, North Highland, Agilent Technologies, SAS Institute or CareerBuilder, online social jobs and career community Glassdoor has revealed in its second annual report based on employee feedback. Glassdoor’s list of top companies for work-life balance is based on the response of 385,000 employees in an online company review survey. Three of the top 5 companies on the list - SAS Institute, CareerBuilder, and Agilent Technologies – are technology companies, with a total of 12 tech-focused firms on the list. “In today’s highly connected world, striving for work-life balance can feel virtually impossible given greater access to our jobs around the clock,” said Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor career and workplace expert.
“Companies that make sincere efforts to recognise employees’ lives outside of the office will often see the payoff when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent.” Tina Costanza. Start Ups - Start-Ups. Tech start-up of the week: Camba.tv - Start Ups - Start-Ups. Marco Herbst and Vinnie Quinn, the team that brought Nixers.com to the world before it was acquired by the Denis O’Brien-owned Saongroup.com, are back in the start-up game with Camba.tv, a new cloud video service that could disrupt the CCTV security business as we know it.
Camba.tv plans to make video surveillance available to everyone, from the private homeowner and small business owner to large businesses and governments. All users need is a suitable wireless camera and a subscription to the service and they can have anywhere they choose monitored and the data is stored in the cloud, unlike hard drives and video tapes in standard CCTV systems. If the cameras pick up an intruder the user is automatically sent email or SMS messages with a link to the clip, which can then be forwarded on to police authorities as most police officers today carry smartphones. Users can then access footage in the cloud at any time by logging in and retrieving the videos as evidence. Tech start-up of the week: StartupStay.com - Start Ups - Start-Ups. StartupStay.com, a new global community for entrepreneurs who travel, is our tech start-up of the week.
The duo behind the venture are Facundo Villaveiran and Fred Caballero and they are both operating the start-up out of their respective Dublin and London bases. I bumped into Villaveiran, who is based at the Guinness Enterprise Centre, at the recent Dublin Beta start-up event where he spoke all about StartupStay.com, which just launched in June and operates solely as a web-browsing app at the minute. Villaveiran, who has been living in Ireland for the past eight years, already set up another venture with Caballero in Dublin four years ago - Channelship, a web agency.
Plus they also set up Bloggertone, a website for businesses to interact with each other, back in 2009. The site rebranded as Tweak Your Biz in March.