Your Tech Story

Jayshri

Jayshri is an Electronics Engineer, but her passion towards writing made her to be in this field. Apart from content writing, she loves reading, writing and surfing on various topics. In her free time, she likes to watch TV series and news. Sherlock Holmes is her all time favorite show. Jayshri loves cooking various Indian-western dishes.

taxify

Taxify- The best transportation platform that enabled cash-free rides for the first time in the world

Leave a Comment / start-up, Tech Story / By

The bolt which is previously known as Taxify is today a well-known transportation platform in Estonia. With its miscellaneous service, Taxify is working in over 35 countries and 150+ cities. The service ranges from food delivery, ride-hailing, micro-mobility, etc. It is set up in 2013, while in a short period the firm acquired more than 30 million customers all over the world. Also, Bolt gave an excellent platform for 1 million+ drivers to find the rides easily. Under the guidance of Markus Villig, the firm expanded its business in many countries. Includes, Australia, Europe, North America, and West Asia.

What is Taxify?

Taxify is Europe based start-up that provides an excellent transportation platform. The company is later on renamed as Bolt. Ride-hailing, food delivery, and micro-mobility are its well-known services. As well, the company’s Bolt app-enabled to get rides with just a few clicks on smartphones. Presently, the app runs on almost all OS including, iOS, Android, and Windows.

In fact, the best thing about this app and other services of Bolt, customer safety is on top. All the drivers get the licenses after a complete background check. However, to call a ride is as easy as safe with the Bolt app. The user has to put all details like dropping point, destination, and then can request a ride. After confirmation from the driver, the ride is all set to go.

Glimpse to Founder’s Life- Markus Villig

In London, at the time when people afraid to take Uber ride, Markus set up Taxify. A transportation platform that turned out as a trustworthy platform. When Villig was 19, he aimed to develop the best platform for taxis in Estonia, and Tallinn. And so, he did it with setting up Taxify in 2013. Under his policies, the business of the firm grew rapidly and it acquired many customers. Today, it is a billion-dollar firm providing employment to more than 1 Lakh drivers. As well, it acquired over 5 Million satisfied customers.

He is presently CEO of the company, who is well known as one of the youngest CEOs of Europe. Forbes included Markus’s name on the list of 30 under 30 in the category of Youngest Tech CEO in Europe.

The Backstory of Foundation

At the age of 12, a normal adult is dreamt of having fun and enjoying life. While Markus Villig who is the founder of Taxify dreamed to set up the tech start-up. Following his dream, he plunged into entrepreneurship when he was just 19 years old kid. At that time, Villig was studying at the University of Tartu as a computer science student. But he left the college after completing one semester and focus on his company. In 2013, when he set up the company, he took a loan of €5,000 from his parents.

The vision behind the formation of Taxify was to avail the platform for Riga and Tallinn taxi drivers. Earlier, Villig’s parents helped him in the company work. They handled customer support by themselves. However, Markus hired one developer so that the business can be explored further.  With all efforts, finally, the service was launched in 2013.

Exploring The Business

Taxify a European start-up started by 19 years old Markus, turn out like a billion-dollar company in just six years. In a few years, the company also started the service in London. Earlier, it acquired a local taxi company in London and offered the operating license. But unfortunately, it had to shut down the service in London.

However, the strong determination and clear vision of Markus helped to raised the business despite all odds. Soon the company applied for a new license and re-launched the service in London.

After that, Taxify explored the service in another part of the country including Lisbon, and Paris. In 2018, the firm expanded its business into Dockless Electric Scooters by launching them into Paris. It was the first time for the company to launch under a brand name called ‘Bolt’. Also, it was the time when Taxify rise as a first-ever platform that integrates these with ride-hailing service. Yet, the best part was all these can operate with a single app.

Taxify jumped into other businesses

As of 2019, Taxify announced two services. One of them is the Bolt Food delivery service and another is the Green Plan. The first service, Bolt Food has launched in Tallinn and thereafter explored in another part of Europe. However, the Green Plan deals with reducing adverse effects on the environment due to the transportation industry. Especially, focusing on offsetting the contribution to the CO2 emission caused due to Bolt transportation service.

Achievements of Taxify

The company named many honors since its foundation. It launched the transportation app that became the first such app in the world which enabled cash-free rides. As well, it was the second company in South Africa to launch a travel app. Also, Taxify enabled the first platform that integrated other services with ride-hailing platform.

As of 2020, the firm was ranked third in the FT 1000. It honored as Europe’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2020 as per the Financial Times.

CrowdSPRING

CROWDSPRING – THIS IS HOW ROSS AND MIKE BUILT THE VIRTUAL PLATFORM FOR DESIGN SOLUTIONS

Leave a Comment / Founder, start-up, Tech Story / By

The design solution has become the fastest growing and the trendiest business ideas in today’s time. There are various sites, apps and even companies available for this. But it was not trendy back in the days. In 2007, Ross Kimbarovsky and Michael Samson founded CrowdSpring, a design solution company and it was officially launched in 2008. They noticed the problems with the design & graphics industry and how individual designers find it difficult to get clients. This was basically a waste of creativity and that’s why the idea of Crowdspring came into his mind. Also, small businesses always struggle to create their unique identities.

Crowdspring – A new perspective on creativity

Ross and Michael started CrowdSpring, a virtual platform to find the best design solutions with the motive of helping small businesses and start-ups to create their own identity by extending service of creating logos, designing the products and sites and naming their brands. Their motto was very clear that ‘creativity knows no border’ which means no matter how small or unconventional the business is, Crowdspring is ready to help with all the kinds of design solutions.

To protect the intellectual property of the companies they received while designing process, Crowdspring signs a legal contract. Another feature of Crowdspring is, they help non-profits NGOs with free design projects to enhance their visibility and empower them to help the unprivileged.

This is how Crowdspring works

If you have a design project and need sourcing from Crowdspring, you need to state a creative brief and your requirements. You get the options as per your budget. You get many options as the designers and freelancers submit their samples to you as per your specifications. The final choice is yours. At the end of the project, the best designer gets the agreed price and you get your designs. While doing this, both parties signed a legal contract. So that they can protect intellectual rights.

How Ross and Michael built Crowdspring together despite being from different backgrounds?

Ross and Mike came from totally different backgrounds. Ross is born in Kiev, Ukraine who initially studied law from the Illinois College of law from 1992-95 and then completed his political science and philosophy degree from Northwestern University from 1999 to 2002.

Currently, Ross Kimbarovsky is the CEO of the company. Before starting Crowdspring, he was a successful lawyer, but his evergreen dream was to start his own tech company. He observed that the market at that time was in dire need of good designs and that’s how Crowdspring emerged. After starting the Crowdspring, his desire to build different business models was still unfulfilled hence he started start-up foundry in 2014 where he helps different start-ups to grow.

Education

Mike came from a totally different field. He completed his MBA from North-western University – Kellogg school of management. With impressive Emmy Award nomination for producing and production management and holding a place with the Director’s Guild of America. He worked for 22 years at IMDb.

The Backstory of Foundation

Both, Mike and Ross were dealing with the same problem before starting the Crowdspring. Mike was finding a way to subcontract video post-production work to India because of India’s very fewer labor costs with the use of the same software as that of the US. Ross was having a problem with the procedure and money involved in getting his company’s website redesigned.

In the beginning, they engaged them in the research. They came across a bunch of Malaysian students who participated in print design competitions. They were impressed. Looking at this, Mike realized that the problem of Graphic design was substantial, and very few people were to solve this. Then they wanted to build something which gives the design solutions.

Bottom Line

The start wasn’t easy, and it was clear that companies with less revenue face problems with hiring a designer or staff to create logos and graphics which make their companies stand out. Now Crowdspring has almost 220000 creatives from around 195 countries. Overall, Crowdspring has helped more than 60000 entrepreneurs, start-ups and agencies with unique and affordable solutions. Not only this, but Crowdspring has given the opportunity and monetary rewards to many talented designers, printers, and freelancers.

twitter

Twitter Updates Its Safety Policy Amid The Coronavirus Outbreak

Leave a Comment / News, Social media, Tech News / By

In this era of the internet and the fastest growing social platforms, it is very easy to reach people and communities. But at the same time, it has also become easy to spread false news and rumors. Currently, novel coronavirus is spreading in a very fast manner and so are the rumors and false news. This fake news may turn lethal for those who believe them.  To control the spread of any misinformation and the ongoing pandemic COVID-19 outbreak, twitter has taken extra precautions to wipe out tweets from twitter which are false and may cause chaos among people. It is mostly using auto flagging and machine learning for the same.

On March 18, Twitter updated its safety policy which allows them to restrict the tweets which may put people at higher risk of spreading COVID-19. The new safety policy bans tweets related to fake and nonsense corona treatments, various prevention techniques that are not given by any health authorities. Also, Twitter is banning the misinformation by the people who have fake accounts and pretending to health experts on this microblogging site. Twitter has twitted from its official account that its new safety policy requires people to delete tweets related to all the above-mentioned points.

Misleading tweets will stay hidden

If a user tries to violate this policy, he/she will be notified via email to remove that tweet or put an appeal. In this entire notice period for the user, the misinforming tweet will stay in hidden mode to keep people away from any kind of a half-truth. Twitter has specifically outlined that if any tweet says that social distancing is ineffective, that will be removed immediately. This platform is going to require users to remove misinforming tweets claiming to follow dangerous things like intaking bleach, cow-urine or visiting any temple to stay away from corona, (even if it is as a meme) as it may prove harmful if people take this into another context.

If twitter observes any activity on twitter that asks people to do against what health authorities like WHO has suggested, such tweets will be banned. If someone tweets saying that “Go out and have fun at the local bar”, it will be debarred immediately. A few politicians and public figures already faced a lot of criticism by netizens for giving wrong messages to their fan base and followers.

Panic tweets also restricted

Another kind of tweet that is not allowed is, which cause panic amongst people. For example, a few people pretending to doctors tweeted that “A wet cough is definitely Cancelled out chances of having corona but if you have a dry cough, you are corona positive”. Another example is “One sneeze means coronavirus”, etc. Such tweets may lead to panic attacks.

Twitter is also banning tweets that attack a particular race, nationality, and community. For example, “Eating at Chinese restaurant causes coronavirus outbreak” or “Black people cannot be affected by coronavirus” or “Coronavirus outbreak cannot affect Hindus” etc. Such tweets will not fly on this platform.

Twitter to delete misleading tweets automatically

Though Twitter has prepared a set of stringent rules for its platform, it will be difficult to enforce where people have less awareness about this pandemic. To overcome this, Twitter has put a content severity triage system to automatically delete content with the highest damage and risk. Using this, the tweets will be flagged by themselves. Previously, Twitter announced that it will rely mostly on the automation and machine learning part for sensitive content removal, but later it admitted that it can cause mistakes in a few cases such as relevant hashtags and images.

People need to support to fight against coronavirus outbreak

Usually, we never see such an aggressive approach by social media platforms, but right now the world is in the need of care. It’s a global health emergency where the economy, people and their physical, as well as mental health, is at risk. Any misinformation may lead to the spread of this virus which can cause another emergency of lack of resources. It is all over the news that, keeping the spread of coronavirus in mind, it is observed that the number of doctors, nurses, and specialists are being transferred to affected areas to facilitate the care. So, one lethal misinformation can cause a lot of trouble. So, stay rightly informed and follow authentic sources for all the precaution adversaries.

Jio is combining its digital capabilities with Microsoft Teams, the unified communication and collaboration hub for teamwork in Office 365, to enable individuals, students, educational and healthcare institutions to continue their professional lives while still practicing social distancing,” the statement said.

The company said it will use the Jio platform for healthcare and learning from home. Jio will provide basic JioFiber broadband connectivity, wherever it is geographically feasible, without any service charges, for this period. For all existing JioFiber subscribers, Jio will provide double data across all plans.

Acquia

Dries Buytaert and Tom Erickson journey to set up Acquia

Leave a Comment / start-up, Tech Story / By

Acquia enabled the Drupal-open source platform, on which one can build, run, as well, optimize sites. It is a software service firm set up by Dries Buytaert and J. Batson. The founder established the platform considering providing enterprise products, and services. Also, to provide technical support especially to Drupal. Currently, Michael Sullivan is serving as the CEO of the firm. Acquia, set up in 2007 has marked the name as the fastest-growing private tech firm of North America by 2013. As well, it was among the DELOITTE’s fastest 500 in 2014.

About Acquia

It is one of the leading software firms that enabled the best Drupal platform. In 2007, Dries set up the firm with his partner. Currently, it is providing miscellaneous software service. Also, it is helping some of the world’s leading brands succeed, including Twitter, Mercedes Benz, Warner Music Group, and Stanford University. More than 4,000 organizations are using Acquia’s solutions for content, community, and commerce.

Glimpse to founders Life- Dries Buytaert

He attended Ghent University, Belgium to study computer science. Earlier, Dries worked as Linux-WLAN FAQ maintainer from 1999 to 2000. Presently, he is a well-known software programmer, who is recognized as one of the lead developers of the Drupal content administration platform.

The Backstory of Acquia Foundation

As a well-experienced software programmer, he always wanted to develop a feasible platform for Drupal. With his partner Jay Batson, the idea came into reality after setting up Acquia in December 2007. A software company that enabled products and services as well, technical support for Drupal. As Red hat is important for Linux similarly, Acquia is for Drupal. In a short duration, the firm assists to re-launch Whitehouse.gov on Drupal in 2009.

Dries Buytaert’s other contributions

Apart from being a co-founder, he served as a CTO of the company. In 2008, he launched a service called Mollom. It is especially for stopping website spams. So that sites can keep clean as well, content quality will maintain high. Nowadays, this service is a spam filter as well, a CAPTCHA server.

Awards and Recognition

BusinessWeek selected him as a Young Entrepreneurs of Tech in 2008. Also, Dries named as one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35, worldwide by MIT Technology Review TR35.

Tom Erickson- Former CEO

He is a founding director of the company, who worked with co-founders to develop the company’s open-source commercialization model. Also, he assisted to recruit the early team members during 2008. In 2009, he joined Acquia as CEO. Before that, he served as a Chief product officer, managing the sale of Tele Atlas to TomTom. During his tenure as a CEO, he guided the firm to exponential growth depends on the fanatical commitment to the customers. At Acquia, he leads the unique blending of open source, enterprise software, and digital agency.

Personal life

He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison for studying electrical and computer engineering. After that, he began a career in the technical field. Tom worked in many countries including England, Australia, and France, where he spent almost 14 years of his career. Apart from Acquia, he also was the Systinet’s CEO.

Michael Sullivan- Present CEO

He succeeded T. Erickson and became the Chief Executive Officer of a firm in 2017. Also, he is SVP and General Manager, SaaS and Information Management at Micro Focus. Michael also worked as a VP & General Manager, HP Software, Autonomy Protect at HP Autonomy. Furthermore, he is the founder and former President of Steelpoint technologies Inc. Sullivan attended Bentley University for his graduation. Currently, he is serving at Acquia. Under his guidance, the company continues the miscellaneous software products and services on the Drupal platform.

Awards and Recognition of Acquia

In 2012, Acquia was ranked 8 on the Inc. 500 list, 1st software company and 8th company in Boston. Also, Inc. Magazine named it in a 500 fastest-growing private companies list. It also names as fastest-growing private tech firm of North America by 2013. As well, it was among the DELOITTE’s fastest 500 in 2014. Apart from that, it has famous at the industry level after Gartner Magic Quadrant honored it as a Leader for Web Content Administration in 2014. Further, also honored as a Strong Performer in 2015 in Web Content Management.

tesla model y

Regardless of coronavirus outbreaks Tesla to deliver its Model Y in the US?

Leave a Comment / Founder, Tech News / By

Highlights

Tesla Model Y deliveries begin in the US though WHO declared coronavirus outbreaks as a global emergency.

Just before one year, the company unveiled an electric SUV as well, Tesla announced the unveiling of Model Y at that time.

First Tesla model Y delivery ahead of the original schedule

The coronavirus outbreak is declared as a global emergency. After China, many countries including Italy, Australia, and now even India is fighting with the coronavirus. Also, many other countries becoming wrapped up in the grips of coronavirus pandemic. In such a situation, Tesla has officially begun the deliveries of the first Model Y to US customers. To share this information, Tesla tweeted a video yesterday. It shows the small electric SUV going through the production process also, being tested on a different part of the world. As well, the company shared a link to the order page. Some Tesla focused YouTubers including Teslanomics’ Ben Sullins spotted the first deliveries of Tesla Model Y.

Tesla Model Y could be an even bigger hit?

The company’s Model Y, first unveiled last year in the month of March is the fifth all-electric car to go into production. As per the report, the small SUV is built on the same technology platform as Model 3 Sedan. In fact, two cars shared about 75% parts. But there are few main differences like a motorized full hatch door at the rear, extra headroom. Also, having an optional small third row with two shotgun-style seats. However, Model 3 has proved to be a huge success for Tesla. Now Tesla Model Y is on its way.

The CEO Elon Musk said he believes the Model Y could potentially be an even bigger hit given the growing preference in the US (and, increasingly, the world) for the increased ride height, size, and functionality of SUVs.

Tesla Model Y configuration

New Model Y comes in two key configurations. However, both of them are all-wheel drive. The Long Range version of Tesla Model Y starts at $52,990 and offers 316 miles of range. As well, it can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.8 seconds. Also, Tesla is selling a Performance version that starts at $60,990. This performance version can travel 315 miles on a full battery, as well go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. Moreover, to order Tesla Model Y, different options are available for each version. For example, Autopilot, advanced driver assistance package, various wheel covers, and paint colors. As per the report, in early 2021, the standard range version can be expected to enter production.

Will Coronavirus outbreaks affect the Model Y deliveries?

During Model Y unveiling, Tesla already announced that the shipping of Electric SUV will in Fall 2020. But the year 2019 was fairly successful for the company, and Tesla announced in January that it was able to get a vehicle into production faster than predicted. Now, the company begins the Model Y deliveries in the US, but the question is whether the coronavirus outbreaks would affect the deliveries. As we can see, the deadly virus affected many sectors and had a huge impact on new car sales in China. Ad well, it started to freeze up the economy of the US too. Because as a preventive measure, citizens isolate themselves so the spread can be a break. Also, many leading automobile companies like Hyundai and Ford started rolling out great recession era programs. Thus, trying to keep sales from completely catering. As well, it delays a customer’s first car payment for weeks or even months. Especially, if customers are jobless or affected by coronavirus outbreaks.

We cannot say what kind of impact the coronavirus will have on Tesla Model Y deliveries. Not only this model, but it’s unclear about sales of any other models of the company. Regardless of all this, Tesla announced to release first-quarter figures in the first week of April.

Does Tesla taking special care to stop Covid-19 spread?

It’s unclear about what the company is doing for the workforce in US factories that are located at three different locations. Though, the recently leaked memo clear that the company is restricting international travel and asking employees to seek medical advice if they feel Coronavirus symptoms.

But Tesla not shared any information if it’s taking preventive measures to limit the spread of coronavirus during these deliveries. Also, no such information mentioned about other car deliveries of the company. Coronavirus outbreaks are at its peak, while the Model Y deliveries of the company begin in the US. While Tesla has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Verbling

Verbling: More Than A Language Learning Platform, Helping To Break Different Culture’s Stereotypes

Leave a Comment / Product, Tech Story / By

There are many online learning platforms are available, some of them are paid while some of the platforms do not cost a penny. But Verbling stands different from each of them because of its unique platform. On the Verbling platform, one can trade the linguistic skills of the language they know with others who know the language you want to learn through video chat. In fact, this all is free! This amazing idea behind setting up the platform makes it unique. It is set up by Fred Wulff, Jake Jolis, and Mikael Bernstein. After several struggles and lots of hard work they finally designed the platform as per their ideas.

As a matter of fact, the Verbling founders spent two days to decide the perfect name for their platform. In end, they come up with the name Verbling, the combination of two words Verbal and Linguistic. Presently, Verbling enables the best online learning platform that pairs learners with language tutors via video chat, for free.

About Verbling

It is an online language learning platform, known for allowing individuals to connect with language teachers through video chat. The company aims to address the problem of the language barrier, which is one of the biggest problems in international business. Yes, emails, video conference, and chat obviously made it easier to communicate over long distances. But still, not all international colleagues understand each other’s language. Here, Verbling plays an important role. Initially, only six English-Spanish exchanges were available on the platform. However, the founder’s keen dedication enabled other languages on the Verbling platform.

The Backstory of Foundation

In 2011, Jake Jolis, Fred Wulff, and M. Bernstein set up the online language learning platform known as Verbling. Initially, it started as a Verbling Friends, a simple video chat platform for people who are eager to learn new languages. For that, they design a video chat platform where users can learn each other’s language through chat. However, in a short duration, Verbling raised 1-million-dollar funding and shifted the headquarter to San Francisco. Thereafter, the company added nine more languages and finally launched online Verbling classes in 2013.

Exploration of Verbling

The firm raised series A funding of 2.7 Million dollars in 2015 so that expanding technology to more platforms. Other than that, Verbling offered free lessons in Swedish during the Syrian Civil War to help Syrian refugees. In 2016, Verbling took a new step and launched a platform for the corporate world to help their employees in learning new languages. For that, the company tied up with Inditex and Volkswagen Group. Thereafter, it launched iOS and Android apps in 2017, on this platform more than 2000 teachers are there to help in learning new languages. Moreover, 60 languages are available on the Verbling virtual language learning platform.

How does it work?

First of all, the person who wants to learn a language on Verbling platform, he/she needs to sign up. After that, a video chat will be aligned with the person who knows the language of the learner. Basically, the whole set up is work on allowing a person to learn your language for five to ten minutes and thereafter, the same service is provided to the other person on the chat. The best part about Verbling, one can share cultures to help to break stereotypes associated with it.

Founders in Limelight

Fred Wulff

A former software engineer at Google, Fred Wulff shared great contributions in the formation of Verbling. Before that, he worked for many other companies like Hillary for America, Causes, and Dropbox, where he served in the Engineering field. Fred has experienced in App Engine, focusing on MapReduce support, distributed systems work, API design, and operational work, etc. He also established Rodeo in 2012.

Wulff attended Stanford University for studying bachelor’s and masters in computer science. During his study, he also did an internship at Google, Mobile Evolution, and Texas State University.

Verbling CEO and Co-founder-Jake Jolis

He is present CEO at Verbling. Jake is known for helping early-stage founders reach their next milestone. He has an optimistic view of determining whether a start-up achieves greatness or taps out pre-maturely. Previously, he was one of the partners at Matrix Partners. Also, he served as a Dray Alliance and Smartcat’s board member. Coming to his education, he studied at Stanford University.

Bottom Line

No one can have thought that the languages can be traded until Verbling made it possible. The dedication and new idea of founders set a brand-new example for entrepreneurs. In fact, the founders also showed the world that you need not have an office to run your business. Because they are working on their platform from the place they are living in. No such offices are there for the company. Today, many learners find a Verbling easy and fun platform to learn the new language.