"We want to make Dubai the first blockchain-powered government in the world by 2020. It's disruptive for existing systems, but will help us prepare for the future." - Aisha Bin Bishr (Director General @ Smart Dubai) // A City To Be Built On Blockchain
"Top Chinese firms differ from Western peers. They try to do everything, from cloud computing to payments. They can achieve level of market domination that'd attract close attention in US. And their success can be rapid & massive as state-dominated economy inefficient." // China's Internet Giants
"More people watch gaming videos & streams than HBO, Netflix, ESPN & Hulu combined." // Gaming Video Content Report
Chinese & European space agencies collaborating on Moon Village. China's Didi raising $5.5B (largest funding round ever) @ $50B val. Alphabet's Waymo piloting free self-driving program in Phoenix. Cloudera IPO 22% pop. Wikipedia blocked in Turkey. Tesla doubling # of superchargers w/ massive solar stations. Google Project Owl to help fight fake news. Uber to test flying cars in 3 yrs. Orange Is New Black leaked by hackers. Desktop & mobile ad revenue surpassed TV for 1st time. Basic income pilot in Ontario. Twitter-Bloomberg partnership. And 130,000-yr-old Mastodon dug up in San Diego!
NEW THINGS ==> Echo Look By Amazon (Hands-free camera w/ style assistant). PatentShield By Google (Helping startups fight patent litigation in return for equity). IMAX VR (Room-scale VR arcade experience).
As y'all know, my New Years Resolution is to get to know GarysGuide members & subscribers better :) So shoot me an email & introduce yourself!
ANNOUNCING ==> Michelson Runway Accelerator (World's 1st accelerator dedicated to supporting EdTech innovators in higher education & career training; $50,000 equity investment via SAFE agreement popularized by Y Combinator; 200 startup alums; With Michelson 20MM Foundation & Runway incubator); apply by May 18.
ANNOUNCING ==> e-Trade For All (Digital residency platform to make starting a company easier for entrepreneurs in developing nations; In partnership w/ United Nations & Estonia's eResidency program w/ Alibaba founder Jack Ma as advisor).
ANNOUNCING ==> Make In LA Accelerator (Helping startups avoid costly pitfalls associated w/ hardware production; 4 month comprehensive concept-to-market program; $75,000 Funding; 7% Equity; With support of NEO Tech & Hexlab); apply by May 14.
ANNOUNCING ==> Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards 2017 (Honoring creative work @ intersection of design, business & innovation; 13 categories; Judges from Amazon, Google, Adobe, Kickstarter, Wolff Olins, Gensler; Winners featured @ Fast Company Festival); apply by May 04.
ANNOUNCING ==> Inc. 5000 (Honoring fastest growing companies in US; Alums incl. Chobani, GoPro, Zappos, Microsoft); apply by May 01.
DON'T MISS! ==> May 09 Dashbot Super Bot Conference w/ Alex Ferrara (Bessemer Ventures), Amir Shevat (Dir., Slack), Andrew Pinzler (Innovation Labs Head, NBC TODAY Show), Courtney Nelson (Bertelsmann Investments), Dmitrii Dumik (Founder, Chatfuel), Drew Lesicko (AOL Alpha), Ellen Huet (Bloomberg), Greg Leuch (Product Head, Poncho); 2 FREE Passes ($399 each)!
DON'T MISS! ==> May 23 Digital Hollywood (LA) w/ Beau Avril (Product Commercialization Head, Google), Michael Palmer (GM, Hollywood Reporter), Steven Jaffe (Producer, Star Trek VI), Shannon Flynn (Dir., Nickelodeon), Albhy Galuten (VP, Sony), Sara Poorsattar (Dir. VR, Vimeo), Steven Haft (Producer, Dead Poets Society), Arno Hartholt (Dir., USC); 3 FREE Passes ($635 each)!
DON'T MISS! ==> May 04 Leveraging Machine Learning To Cope w/ Affordability In SF (FREE) w/ Nela Richardson (Chief Economist, Redfin). May 04 SPRING PLAY: Game Expo feat. Age of Rivals, Audio Sky, BlitzKeep, Cosmoteer, Labyrinth, Hop Star, Light Stealer; 10 FREE Passes!
DON'T MISS! ==> May 05 Lightning Talks: Impact-driven A.I. Applications (FREE) w/ Janardhan Shetty (Data Scientist, Salesforce), Sara Hooker (Data Scientist, Udemy), Sravya Tirukkovalur (VP Apache Sentry, Apache Software Foundation).
DON'T MISS! ==> May 01 Accelerating Alternative Connectivity (FREE) w/ Paul Hainsworth (CEO, Open Garden), Jameson Buffmire (Analyst, Orange Labs Silicon Valley), John Heltmann (Partner, Kelly Drye), David Witkowski (Exec Director, Wireless Joint Venture Silicon Valley).
DON'T MISS! ==> Nov 07 Empire Startups Fintech Conference (Showcasing Silicon Valley Fintech at its best; Topics incl. big data solving big problems for underserved, AI disrupting service, venture flow outside US; Hot startup demos).
DON'T MISS! ==> May 02 DocuSign Momentum Hackathon ($2500 grand prize). May 03 UX In VR (Oculus, Unity). May 06 AngelHack Global Hackathon Series. Thru May 06 Small Business Week. May 11 500 Startups Demo Day Batch 20. Jun 05 Apple WWDC.
May 01 Vision VR/AR Summit w/ John Riccitiello (CEO, Unity), Rachel Franklin (Head of Social VR, Facebook), Richard Dawkins (Evolutionary Biologist & Author), Brandon Bray (HoloLens @ Microsoft), Nathan Martz (Daydream @ Google), NFL Films; 5 FREE Passes ($300 each)!
May 02 Collision Conf + JazzFest (New Orleans) w/ founders Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Jessica Alba (Honest Co), Miguel McKelvey (WeWork), Chris Sacca (Lowercase Capital & SharkTank), Alan Boehme (CTO, Coca-Cola), Neal Mohan (CPO, YouTube); 2 FREE Passes ($978)!
May 01 Startup Idea To IPO w/ John Mackey (Founder/CEO, Whole Foods and Author, The Whole Foods Diet). May 02 Build The Future By Predicting It: Super-forecasting Comes To Silicon Valley (FREE) w/ Danny Hernandez (Data Scientist, Twitch).
May 03 Women in Tech Talks w/ Maira Benjamin (Dir. Engg, Pandora), Nisha Baxi (Platform Mktg, Facebook), Irina Tagintseva (S/w Enggr, Gap), Sanjeevani Bhardwaj (S/w Enggr, Salesforce), Anne Diaz, (Lead Experience, Airbnb), Sepideh Nasiri (Women In Diversity Advocate).
May 10 Sheworx100 Summit w/ Nicole Quinn (Partner, Lightspeed Ventures), Vanessa Larco (Partner, NEA New Enterprise Associates), Sara Deshpande (Partner, Maven Ventures), Justin Kan (Founder, Zero-F & Twitch), Katie Roof (Sr Writer, TechCrunch); 5 FREE Passes ($185 each)!
May 10 LA Games Conference (LA) w/ Ali Nazar (Gaming Strategy Head, Facebook), Chris Heatherly (EVP Games, NBC Universal), Dan Brody (VP Biz Dev, Tencent), Bill Young (Partnerships Head, Twitch), Jamil Moledina (Games Lead, Google Play), Derek Douglas (Video Games Head, CAA), Lina Chen (CEO, Nix Hydra), Isabel Gan (Corp Dev Head, Mattel China); 3 FREE Passes ($409 each)!
DEADLINES! ==> May 01 MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award ($250K prize for responsible, ethical disobedience benefitting society by challenging norms, rules, laws; In areas of scientific research, civil rights, freedom of speech, human rights, freedom to innovate; Award ceremony Jul 21).
Mo' Deadlines ==> Parallel18 Accelerator (@ Puerto Rico; 34 startups; Looking for a few mentors; Flown to Puerto Rico for 5 day stay betn April & July).
Mo' Deadlines ==> Unsettled: Bali (30 days co-working retreat in paradise; Jun 03 - Jul 02; Stunning private villa within a short distance of Ubud @ Bali, Indonesia).
CONGRATS! ==> Baiju, Vlad & Robinhood​ (stock trading app) raised $110M. OverOps (software analytics) raised $30M. Nick, Matthew, Chris & Domino Data Lab (enterprise data science platform) raised $27M. Two Pore Guys (molecule biosensor) raised $24.5M.
Mo' Congrats! ==> Ben & Twistlock (cloud container security) raised $17M. Steve, Yobie, Marten & Token.io (secure payments) raised $15.7M. Deborah & Evidation Health (healthcare digital tools) raised $10M.
Mo' Congrats! ==> Babak & TapClicks (marketing tech) raised $3M. Circle Pharma (biotech) raised $2M. Sundeep, Sahil & Patch Homes (home equity financing platform) raised $1M.
RECENTLY READ ==> A.I. Chip Race, Unmeasurable Things, Whatsapp Story, China Learnings, Self-driving Roadmap, New Moats, HotelTonight, Musk @ TED, Training Bots, Detecting Fake News, Traffic Engg, American Kingpin, The Whale, Skyfaring and Bourdain Travel Tips!
WHO'S HIRING ==> Analyst at Eniac Ventures, VP Biz Dev at Unity 3D, Creative Director at StitchFix, Security Enggr at Helix, Education Mgr at Stripe, Curbed Intern at Vox, Social Impact Experiences Lead at Airbnb, University Recruiter at Airbnb, Big Data Enngr at Pubmatic, Tech Reporter at BuzzFeed, Customer Service Head at AltSchool, Mktg at Instacart, Brand Studio Producer at Dropbox, Social Media at Docusign, Office Mgr at App Annie, & many more!
Now watch Kingsman: Golden Circle, Alien:Covenant The Crossing, Cars 3 Preview and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (premiering May 05)!
Until next week :)
Gary
(aka "The Guy with the Red Tie")
Word on the Streets: "Chick from #California said: @GarysGuide is Best Source for #AngelInvestors, #Startups, #Entrepreneurs, #Geeks, #SocialMedia." - @NYCTaxiCabTales
Thanks, @NYCTaxiCabTales!
Click here to view all upcoming events this week
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Kitty Hawk Flyer (funded by Google CEO Larry Page) is an ultralight, all-electric aircraft that flies over water & one can learn to fly in minutes w/o a pilot's license. Nice, yo!
Elon Musk (in a TED talk last wk) detailed how his Boring Company would build an underground transit n/w w/ cars traveling on rails thru criss-crossing tunnels @ 130 mph.
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge (spanning the Pearl River Delta) will be 31 miles long, will be longest sea crossing in the world & nearing completion by end of the year.
NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams (who spent 534 days in space; more than any other American) shared images from recent trip to International Space Station.
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