Nov
05

BookMyShow’s Diversification Hurts Profits - Sramana Mitra

The increasing penetration of Internet and smartphones have given rise to many successful businesses in India. One of them is online entertainment ticketing portal BookMyShow. BookMyShow’s Journey...

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Original author: Sramana_Mitra

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Nov
05

Look Up and Don’t Give Up

This is how I think about my work and my marathon running.

We could all learn a lesson from this baby bear: Look up & don’t give up. pic.twitter.com/nm0McSYeqY

— IM?HIM (@ziyatong) November 3, 2018

My spirit animal is a bear. Generally, I think of myself as a big polar bear, but I’m going to spend the day relating to my little friend. And, when the day is done, I’m going to go run into the woods.

Also published on Medium.

Original author: Brad Feld

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Jun
18

How we’re rebuilding the VC industry

Amazon is setting the bar very high for e-commerce merchants in terms of delivery. Read how the industry is responding. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as...

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Original author: Sramana Mitra

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Nov
05

10 things in tech you need to know today

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are suing a cryptocurrency investor. Thomson Reuters

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.

US President Donald Trump is "looking at" whether Amazon, Facebook, and Google are violating antitrust laws. In an interview with news site Axios, Trump said the $5 billion fine against Google from the European Union made him consider pursuing regulation. Amazon has reportedly zeroed in on Northern Virginia for its second headquarters. The $800 billion company is in advanced talks with Crystal City, a Northern Virginia town just outside of Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reported Saturday. Tesla said the SEC has issued subpoenas on the subject of the company's claims made in 2017 about its Model 3 production. According to The Wall Street Journal, the DOJ is trying to determine if the automaker made projections in 2017 about Model 3 production that it knew it would not be able to achieve. Softbank's profits are booming due to its investments in tech. Bloomberg reports that Softbank's second-quarter profit far outstrips what analysts predicted, as operating profit soared to 706 billion yen ($6.2 billion). Chinese tech giant Tencent will check gamers' age IDs against police databases. The company behind the mobile game "Honour of Kings" announced on Monday that it will start by age-checking 10 of its most popular games, then rolling out the test to all the games is owns. Elon Musk showed off the Boring Company's LA tunnel in a video on Saturday. Musk said that he walked the whole length of the tunnel which he dubbed "disturbingly long." Amazon is reportedly hiring fewer seasonal workers this holiday season, Quartz reports. An analyst told Quartz that the reduction in seasonal staff could be an indication of just how automated Amazon's warehouses have become. The Winklevoss twins are suing a cryptocurrency investor who previously went to prison for helping people buy drugs online. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss say that Charlie Shrem has been spending Bitcoin he owes them, The New York Times reports. The UK government is launching an inquiry into how companies use people's personal data to price holidays, cars, and household goods amid fears that consumers are being ripped off. The research is backed by the UK's competition watchdog, and will focus on "dynamic pricing." Sundar Pichai's 11-year-old son is mining Ethereum on a computer the Google CEO built himself. Pichai said he had to explain to his son how paper money works and why existing banking systems are important.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

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Nov
05

Catching Up On Readings: Gartner Eye on Innovation Award 2018 - Sramana Mitra

This report from Gartner looks at the winners and finalists of the 2018 Gartner Eye on Innovation Award for financial services in Asia Pacific selected during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2018 held...

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Original author: jyotsna popuri

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Nov
05

Trump says his administration is 'looking at' whether Amazon, Facebook and Google are violating antitrust laws (AAPL, GOOGL, AMZN)

President Donald Trump says his administration was "looking at" antitrust proceedings against tech giants Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

In an interview with Axios' Jonathan Swan and Jim VandeHei on the news site's premiere HBO show Sunday night, Trump said the European Union's $5 billion fine against Google made him consider pursuing regulation.

"You look at the European Union, they fined I guess it was Google, billions of dollars, and frankly I don't like that they're doing that because that's an American company," Trump said. "I don't think it's good that they're doing that. But if anybody does that, it should be us doing it."

Swan asked if Trump would direct the Justice Department to look into the company as a monopoly, and Trump responded it was "certainly something we're looking at."

When asked if he would ever break the companies up, Trump said previous administrations had discussed it but the action never materialized.

"But you're in charge now," Swan interjected.

"I am definitely in charge, and we are certainly looking at it," Trump said, before clarifying he was talking about antitrust proceedings for all three companies.

Responsibility for such proceedings would fall to the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.

"That doesn't mean we're doing it, but we're certainly looking at it," Trump said. "I think most people surmised that."

Read more:It's become increasingly clear that Alphabet, Google's parent company, needs new leadership

These comments are the latest in Trump's public aims at the three tech giants, which he previously said could represent a "very antitrust situation."

Though he has called the companies "rigged" and warned Google specifically "better be careful," Trump has in the psat stopped short of commenting on breaking the companies up.

Original author: Ellen Cranley

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Nov
04

12 startups that failed this year and took $1.4 billion in VC funding with them

12 startups that failed in 2018 and took $1.4 billion in funding with them - Business Insider Edition USUKDEAUSFRINITJPMYNLSEPLSGZAES Follow us on: Theranos — blood-testing technology
YouTube/TechCrunch

Year founded: 2003

Valuation: $9 billion

Amount raised: $910 million

Read more about Theranos on PitchBook.

Rethink Robotics — robots for manufacturing industry

Rethink Robotics

Year founded: 2008

Valuation: $291 million

Amount raised: $150 million

Read more about Rethink Robotics on PitchBook.

Shyp — on-demand delivery platform

Shyp

Year founded: 2013

Valuation: $275 million

Amount raised: $62 million

Read more about Shyp on PitchBook.

Apprenda — cloud-based software for developers

Apprenda

Year founded: 2007

Valuation: $90 million

Amount raised: $56 million

Read more about Apprenda on PitchBook.

Airware — drone analytics provider

Airware

Year founded: 2011

Valuation: $59 million

Amount raised: $104 million

Read more about Airware on PitchBook.

Alta Motors — electric motorcycles

Alta Motors

Year founded: 2010

Valuation: Unknown ($55 million in November 2016)

Amount raised: $44 million

Read more about Alta Motors on PitchBook.

Primary Data — automation software platform

Primary Data

Year founded: 2013

Valuation: $52 million

Amount raised: $89 million

Read more about Primary Data on PitchBook.

CareSync — one-stop software for personal health information

Apple App Store/CareSync

Year founded: 2011

Valuation: $46 million

Amount raised: $26 million

Read more about CareSync on PitchBook.

Bluesmart — smart suitcases

Bluesmart

Year founded: 2013

Valuation: $41 million

Amount raised: $30 million

Read more about Bluesmart on PitchBook.

Lantern — smartphone app for therapy

Lantern

Year founded: 2012

Valuation: $37 million

Amount raised: $22 million

Read more about Lantern on PitchBook.

Raden — smart suitcases

Business Insider

Year founded: 2015

Valuation: $12 million

Amount raised: $3.5 million

Read more about Raden on PitchBook.

Fieldbook — spreadsheet-to-database software

Fieldbook/Product Hunt

Year founded: 2013

Valuation: $11 million

Amount raised: $3 million

Read more about Fieldbook on PitchBook.

More: Features Startups Theranos Venture Capital

Learn More About Artificial Intelligence With This Exclusive Research Report

Discover The Future Of Fintech With This Exclusive Slide Deck

Original author: Paige Leskin

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Jun
18

June 25 – 491st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs - Sramana Mitra

Investors are betting big on companies that promise to fundamentally shake up TV advertising, and another startup just snagged a sizable round.

The TV-geared analytics and measurement company Edo has secured $12 million in series A funding, led by Breyer Capital. A handful of advertising players including Brian Sheth and Robert Smith (Vista Equity cofounders) and WGI Group (founded by Jonah Goodhart, Noah Goodhart, and Michael Walrath) also participated in the round.

The actor and filmmaker Edward Norton and Daniel Nadler founded Edo in 2015 to match up granular TV ratings with purchase-intent data through machine learning.

"We had seen that the legacy media companies were getting disrupted by Netflix and Amazon who were using organic data capabilities as significant advantages," Norton said. "At the same time networks were facing the assertion by Google and Facebook that digital advertising was more effective, and none of the legacy measurement players were really helping them challenge that with sophisticated data."

Edo's goal is to amass a huge library of data pulled from TV networks to help determine how likely someone is to buy a product after watching an ad, based on data about how similar ads have performed in the past.

The company claims to have a database with access to 47 million TV airings across 80 categories of advertising and 2,100 brands. Edo's clients include ESPN, Turner, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Lionsgate.

Read more: Ad execs are deeply skeptical that TV measurement will ever catch up to digital — putting comScore and Nielsen on notice and billions on the line

"Our ultimate goal is to be an alternative currency to the way that TV advertising is bought and sold," Edo CEO Kevin Krim said. "We can run very advanced data-science models to develop expected norms of responses," Krim said. In other words, Edo can construct a baseline estimate to compare an ad's performance with.

According to Krim, after marketers run a few dozen airings of an ad, Edo can analyze how that piece of creative compares against its database and can determine whether it is overperforming or underperforming.

Movie marketers run lots of ads without a lot of data behind them

Film studios are an example of an entity that could benefit from measurement like Edo's. Movie marketers spend millions of dollars blasting commercials across multiple networks leading up to a film premiere.

"A Star Is Born" had a massive ad campaign behind it. Warner Bros

According to Krim, a movie marketer can run 4,000 to 6,000 TV ads weeks before a film premieres with dozens of creatives. Edo scores each of those ads to determine which creative and networks are most likely to increase the chance that a person will buy a movie ticket.

"They're a real crucible of invention because they have to deliver millions of consumers [to a movie theater] on a single weekend or their product will be an economic failure," Krim said.

Or take the example of an automaker launching a campaign for an SUV for the first time. Edo can dig through data to understand what types of creative and placements have worked well in the past for other automakers.

The TV measurement industry is rapidly changing

Edo is one of a handful of tech companies eyeing the $70 billion TV industry. As more ad budgets get funneled to digital, marketers are increasingly looking to plug data and technology into their ad buys to serve targeted TV ads and then measure how effective they are in getting people to take an actions like buying something or visiting a website.

Firms like VideoAmp, iSpot, and Simulmedia are also all working to innovate in TV advertising. VideoAmp, for example, uses software to help brands determine how they should divvy up ad budgets between TV and digital. And Simulmedia rolled out a marketplace this week aimed at helping small, digital-first brands buy TV placements through automated software.

For Edo, the company wants to work with both buyers and sellers.

"We've done a ton of research that allows us to give very high-fidelity views into how every creative that a TV marketer has on-air is effective at driving consumers to be more likely to buy the products that are being advertised," Krim said.

Original author: Lauren Johnson

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Jun
18

Implement DevSecOps to transform your business to IT-as-code

Roads in the US need some serious help.

Even though states and the federal government spend over $400 million a year maintaining and building new roads, the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2017 report found that 32% of urban streets and 14% of rural roads were in poor condition. Overall, US roads received a D on the study's report card.

If roads were a pass/fail class in college, they would be failing.

On Tuesday, lvl5 — a company founded by ex-Tesla engineers that's building HD maps for self-driving cars — dug deeper into the problem and published a list of US states ranked by road quality.

The company analyzed over 15 million photographs captured by its iPhone dashcam app, Payver, which pays users — typically Uber or Lyft drivers — up to $0.05 per mile to record their driving using their cell phone. To rank the states, lvl5 measured four distinct areas: road paint fading, pavement cracking, potholes, and surface flatness.

Think your state has the most pothole-stricken pavement in the country?

If you live in Florida, have no fear. According to lvl5, your state has the best road quality around. Hawaii had the second best roads, followed by Washington state in third place. Lvl5's full findings can be found here.

Below, we've listed the 10 states that have it the worst:

Original author: Nick Bastone

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Nov
04

Disney is reportedly developing a Marvel TV series that raises questions about Captain America's fate in 'Avengers 4'

You haven't seen the last of Falcon and Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The two may have vanished at the end of "Avengers: Infinity War" from the Thanos snap, but lets be real: They're coming back. And when they do, they'll reportedly star in a limited series on Disney's upcoming streaming service that is expected to debut late next year.

According to Variety, "Empire" executive producer Malcolm Spellman will write the series featuring Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson/Falcon and Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This isn't the first potential series spinning off of the MCU. Variety reported in September that Disney is developing big-budget Marvel shows starring Tom Hiddleston's Loki, Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, and more.

READ MORE: Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo may have revealed the title of 'Avengers 4' in a censored interview

Just as the Loki and Scarlet Witch shows could raise questions about the future of the MCU, so too does this potential Falcon/Winter Soldier series. In both the comics and MCU, the two are Steve Rogers/Captain America's best friends, so it's intriguing that they would get paired together considering what Captain America's fate could be in next year's "Avengers 4."

Actor Chris Evans recently said goodbye to the role in a heartfelt message on Twitter after the movie wrapped filming, signaling that he is retiring from the franchise.

"Officially wrapped on Avengers 4," he said. "It was an emotional day to say the least. Playing this role over the last 8 years has been an honor. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful."

It fueled further speculation that Captain America will meet his end in "Avengers 4." The character briefly dies in the comics after the "Civil War" comic event, and Barnes takes his place as Captain America. More recently, Wilson took on the role as Captain America in the comics.

A series starring both of them could be a somber one if Captain America does actually die in "Avengers 4," as the two would be reeling from his death and grappling with their roles as superheroes going forward.

Original author: Travis Clark

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Nov
04

Here are the top 5 things Apple announced at its October launch event (AAPL)

Apple held a splashy media event in Brooklyn on Tuesday to unveil its holiday menu of new laptops, iPads and other gadgets. Unlike the big event Apple hosted at its California headquarters in September to show off its new iPhone line-up, Tuesday's event was focused on computing devices designed for working and creating.

Here are some of the most important products that Apple unveiled on Tuesday:

Original author: Nick Bastone

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Nov
04

It took only 4 years for this CEO to build a small cloud-computing startup into a $3.5 billion business — here's how he did it

When Bob Muglia joined enterprise-technology company Snowflake Computing in 2014, the company was a small, 30-person startup that had yet to bring in its first dollar of revenue.

Four years later, Muglia, who became the company's CEO after working nearly two decades at Microsoft, has helped build Snowflake Computing into a multibillion-dollar enterprise with 650 employees and customers like Netflix, Adobe, and DoorDash.

Just last week, the company, which offers a cloud-based database to store software information, announced the closing of a $450 million funding round from investors including Sequoia Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Capital One. Its new valuation? $3.5 billion.

In an interview with Business Insider, Muglia said that Snowflake's success isn't what he would describe as a turnaround story.

"We've always been consistent," he said. "Since the very first day Snowflake was founded, we've been able to ride up a straight line."

The company's steady progression can be attributed largely to its underlying values, which Muglia said were instituted in a collaborative process early on.

"Our values come from our people, not from our founders," he said. "Really, they come from all of us."

In the company's first years, Muglia and Snowflake's founding team encouraged employees to contribute to an ongoing discussion regarding what they believed should be the company's core values.

After much deliberation, Snowflake settled on its primary beliefs: Put customers first, and value integrity.

"Our values are really straightforward," said Muglia. "Companies that have been around for a long time and understand the importance of putting the customer first are building on a solid foundation."

Muglia recalled a moment in recent memory when Snowflake's founding values clashed with its short-term profits. There'd been a error in the company's installment process for a client, and it wasn't clear who's fault it was. Over the course of several months, the error had racked up a growing sum of incremental costs, which now amounted to $350,000.

"There was a big debate over what we should do about that," said Muglia. "Ultimately, we absorbed the costs. We decided to put the customer first. It builds goodwill. Now, this customer is talking about this experience and how Snowflake resolved it."

While not everyone at Snowflake agreed with how the company handled the situation, Muglia said that any disagreements were resolved by referring to the company's fundamental value: put customers first.

In moments like these, Muglia said that it helps to think big picture and have a set of values to fall back on.

"In the end, that customer has the potential to be much a bigger benefit when you absolve these sort of costs short term," he said.

It's the steady adherence to these values that's paved the way for Snowflake's exponential growth, Muglia said.

"But this is only the beginning," said Muglia, who added that the company is considering going public in 2020. "We've had incredible, successful customers, and we're only just starting out."

Original author: Zoë Bernard

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Nov
04

'It's convenient to look the other way': Here's why startups are starting to ask tough questions about where VC money comes from

Since journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside a Saudi Arabian consulate in early October, there's been increased scrutiny surrounding SoftBank's $92 billion Vision Fund which counts Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as its single largest contributor.

This has sparked a debate among tech investors about whether or not the identities of their funds' contributors should be disclosed to the companies they benefit. Typically, venture firms provide limited partner agreements which stipulate that they won't reveal the identity of their investors, who are known as "limited partners" or "LPs." In the majority of agreements, both the names and the size of the endowments the LPs contribute to the venture fund are treated as confidential.

It's unusual that a startup's founders would have a complete understanding of where the money that funded their company comes from, or that they would ask about the identities of a fund's limited partners, even after the checks are written.

On Sunday, prominent venture capitalist Fred Wilson wrote in a blogpost that, in nearly three decades of investing, he could not recall a single time an entrepreneur had asked him to reveal who his fund's limited partners were until last week, when a founder sent him an email which read: "I need to know if any of your LPs include...entities/interests."

Similarly, former Lightspeed general partner John Vrionis, tells Business Insider that in his ten years of investing experience, entrepreneurs seldom, if ever, inquired about where Lightspeed's funding came from. "They never asked," Vrionis said. "Entrepreneurs absolutely never asked who our investors were."

But now, with Softbank's funding causing the tech industry to carefully consider where it gets its money, investors say the conversation is changing.

"I expect to get more emails like this in the coming weeks as the startup and venture community comes to grip with the flood of money from bad actors that has found its way into the startup/tech sector over the last decade," wrote Wilson.

Jyoti Bansal and John Vrionis, who founded the early stage fund Unusual Ventures, say that entrepreneurs should ask their investors hard questions about who their limited partners are. Unusual Ventures

Vrionis, who recently founded a new fund, Unusual Ventures, along with serial entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal, said that he expects the conversation to shift course in the upcoming years.

"Entrepreneurs should absolutely ask where their money is coming from," he said. "They should know who their business is benefitting."

Vrionis's co-founder Jyoti Bansal said he believes that venture funds should provide greater transparency when it comes to disclosing their investors.

"Look at what's happened over the past year," said Bansal. "Look at how the conversation about diversity in venture capital has started. Now, people are saying, 'Let's look at the LPs. Is their money coming from Russian oligarchs that don't align with our values? Let's look for LPs who are aligned with our values.'"

At Unusual Ventures,Vrionis said that they'd made an intentional choice to disclose the identity of their limited partners from the get-go: some of the fund's investors' names are prominently displayed in the firms various conference rooms, and both Bansal and Vrionis said they encourage their entrepreneurs to ask questions about the fund's limited partners.

The best founders are picky when it comes to securing funding, and aren't afraid to ask tough questions, said Vrionis. "People are sanctimonious but hypocritical," said Vrionis. "To say you are mission driven but not to care that there are are human rights violations happening within the country that gave money to the fund that invested in you...Really? It's convenient to look the other way."

He continued: "Silicon valley is probably the biggest wealth creator in the world. As VCs, we work for our LPs, and as entrepreneurs, we are working for our investors. I would want to know who I'm working for: Who are my investors? Do I want to give them part of the biggest share of wealth creation in the world?"

Original author: Zoë Bernard

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May
09

Online mortgage broker Trussle raises £13.6M Series B

42 years after Orson Welles was finally finished with his movie, "The Other Side of the Wind" (which took him 6 years to complete principal photography on), Netflix will release it on its streaming service Friday.

For movie lovers, it's the ultimate "lost movie," a work that the iconic director toiled over until his death on October 5, 1985, but never completed. For Welles fans, it's a glimpse into the evolution of their maestro. He will always be known for making "Citizen Kane," which many still regard as the greatest movie ever made, yet with this movie he proved he could make something as edgy and forward-thinking as the up-and-comers of the era like Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola, and William Friedkin.

But for those who have spent years (and in some cases decades) trying to get Welles' final film to the public, this weekend marks the time they can finally take a giant exhale.

"I'm thrilled to be done," producer Frank Marshall (behind the Indiana Jones and "Jurassic Park" franchises) told Business Insider with a laugh. He was also a production manager on "The Other Side of the Wind" when he was 25.

"It was a long and tortured road, at times," producer Filip Jan Rymsza said looking back. He worked the last nine and a half years trying to settle the copyright issues surrounding the movie.

In many ways, the story of how "The Other Side of the Wind" finally made it to audiences is as epic as Welles' ambitions for the movie itself.

6 years of 'the poor man's process'

In 1970, Welles was back in Los Angeles after living in self-exile in Europe for more than a decade. Sensing the independent film wave that was building in America following the success of Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider," Welles was ready for a comeback, and the project that would bring the auteur back into the zeitgeist would be the strangely titled "The Other Side of the Wind."

It's a tale that feels as if Welles bottled everything that happened to him in the latter half of his life and spilled it into a script — though he always claimed the movie wasn't autobiographical.

You can be the judge.

The movie follows the final day in the life of famed director Jake Hannaford (played by a famed director, John Huston). Celebrating his 70th birthday, Hannaford is trying to get the finishing funds to complete his comeback movie after being in Europe for years. Told mostly using handheld, faux-documentary footage (some in color, some in black-and-white), the bulk of the movie takes place at his birthday party, where Hannaford has brought financiers, critics, filmmakers, and film students to come and see the footage of his movie (which is shot on pristine high-quality film).

Welles cast the party with real film students, real filmmakers (Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, and Paul Mazurksy all appear chatting about the craft), as well as his good friend and fellow filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich in the role of Brooks Otterlake, a rising-star director who owes his career to Hannaford. This very much mirrored the real-life relationship Welles had with Bogdanovich. In fact, during the making of the movie, Bogdanovich went and made "The Last Picture Show," which would give him auteur status like his mentor.

Oja Kodar in "The Other Side of the Wind." Netflix As depicted in Josh Karp's book, "Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Making of the Other Side of the Wind," the six-year process to make "The Other Side of the Wind" was filled with many starts and stops as Welles constantly was looking for enough money to continue shooting. The script was changed almost daily by Welles, location shoots were often done without proper permits (a lot of it was shot at Bogdanovich's home during the years Welles lived there), and scenes were pulled off in low-budget ways.

Read more: This book on iconic filmmaker Orson Welles looks at his infamous final movie

Take, for instance, one of the movie's most memorable scenes: the sex scene inside a car featuring Welles' collaborator and mistress Oja Kodar as the rain is pouring outside.

"It was the poor man's process," Marshall said of the scene, which he was on set for the shooting of. "We were just shaking the car to make it look like it was moving, would walk by with lights so it looked like cars were passing by, and had a garden hose for the rain."

With Welles pinching pennies to get the movie finished, it was impossible to fathom how he'd find the money for post production.

Let's make a deal

For years, Welles was very much like Hannaford, searching for deep pockets to finish his movie. Even when Welles was honored with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1975, a portion of his acceptance speech was him pitching "The Other Side of the Wind."

Sadly, by the time of his death, Welles only had a 40-minute cut of the movie to show for the six years of effort he put into making it. Left behind, along with the cut, were hours of footage, notes on how to shape it all into a feature film, and mass confusion about who really owned it all.

When Welles died in 1985, he left many of his assets to his estranged wife, Paola Mori, and following her death a year later, they were inherited by their daughter, Beatrice Welles. But Welles also left assets, like "The Other Side of the Wind" and other unfinished projects, to Kodar. Then there was a third party who claimed ownership, Mehdi Bushehri, the brother-in-law of the Shah of Iran.

In Welles' search for self financing on "The Other Side of the Wind," which gave him the artistic control he craved, the director found a French-based Iranian group headed by Bushehri. Through years of tension between Welles and Bushehri's company during production, things only got worse when funding became non-existent after the Shah was overthrown in 1979. However, Bushehri continued to have an ownership stake in the movie.

This was the mess Marshall found himself in starting in the 1990s, when he tried to help Bogdanovich and others finish what Welles started. Though there was the 40-minute Welles cut they could show potential investors, most of the movie was locked away in a Paris vault.

(L-R) Frank Marshall, Peter Bogdanovich, and Filip Jan Rymsza. Getty "I kept meeting with financiers — people from Canada, people from Europe, people from Malibu," Marshall said. "They all had an idea of how to do this and the more we talked about it the more riskier it got for them. And then they would not come back."

Then, when it seemed someone could pull it off and get the money needed, the three parties that needed to agree — Beatrice Welles, Oja Kodar, and Mehdi Bushehri — couldn't.

"Everyone wanted the film to be completed," Rymsza said, "they just wanted it done on their own terms. It was a minefield. And if you made an enemy with this group you made an enemy for life, so that was the tricky part."

And as more and more potential financiers went to the wayside, the legend of "The Other Side of the Wind" only grew.

While writing the book, Karp was told stories of footage from the movie having been seen all over the world. The movie's cinematographer, Gary Graver, kept footage of the movie in his refrigerator. Karp even remembers one of the directors who made a cameo in the movie, Paul Mazurksy, telling him that one day at a farmers' market someone walked up to him and whispered, "Hey, you ever seen 'The Other Side of the Wind?'" and that he was given an address and a time to see it.

"The stories were just crazy," Karp said. "There was also stories of this mythical three-hour cut of the movie that people told me they saw that Welles was very close to completing."

However, Karp could never prove that such a print existed. It's just another story that elevated the myth of "The Other Side of the Wind."

Thanks Netflix, now open the vault

What finally led to the vault in Paris being opened so the movie could be completed and released was Netflix.

One of the biggest challenges a potential investor had to take, outside of the cost for the rights all three parties would agree on, was the unknown price tag for competing the movie. Both Marshall and Rymsza said they drew up separate budgets for the cost to complete post production, but without seeing the footage and its condition, they had one hand tied behind their backs.

"I didn't know it would be 100 hours of material," Rymsza said. "I had done a paper inventory and so I knew the amount of film elements but it's difficult to foresee how much material there is and a lot of these factors would drive the cost of post."

Behind the scenes on the set of "The Other Side of the Wind." Netflix Rymsza would not divulge how much his original budget was, only saying it was a "significant price tag" and that they did go over budget to complete the movie.

Netflix announced in August it would give the funds needed to compete the movie (it also greenlit the documentary, "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead," in which director Morgan Neville looks back on the making of the movie).

Along with a score being made for the movie, and special effects done to complete the drive-in movie scenes, there wasn't any sound for three weeks of shooting, so that was a major undertaking. Also, a team of negative cutters had to come in to reconstruct the original negative of the movie, which took months. However, Netflix never wavered in backing the project. "Netflix supported us above and beyond," Marshall said. "They were basically like, 'We know you bought an old house and you're going to have old house problems,' which is exactly what happened. And we would go in and explain what we needed and they would say, 'Okay.'"

So what is the movie really about?

"The Other Side of the Wind" is a fascinating look at a legend trying to get back on top. But is it autobiographical? It's hard to not come to that conclusion after watching the movie, which seems to also explore Welles' complicated relationship with Bogdanovich.

The most compelling moments of the movie are when Hannaford and Otterlake are having conversations about their work and their friendship. And on set, it was more than obvious to those who were there that Welles was putting his relationship with Bogdanovich on screen.

Take, for example, at the end of the movie in the drive-in, when Otterlake is speaking to Hannaford and at one point says to his mentor, "What did I do wrong, Daddy?"

"Huston wasn't there that day for that scene," Marshall recalled. "Peter was playing it to Orson. Orson was also directing him and his direction to Peter for that scene was, 'It's us.'"

Orson Welles. Netflix Bogdanovich didn't just drop everything to be in "The Other Side of the Wind" whenever he was called upon by Welles, or let him live in his home with his then-girlfriend Cybill Shepherd, he also invested money in the movie to keep it going. Welles was grateful, but had a weird way of showing it sometimes, like the time he went on "The Tonight Show" and made fun of Bogdanovich with guest host Burt Reynolds.

But despite all that, Bogdanovich has never faltered in trying to accomplish his mentor's final request: finish "The Other Side of the Wind" if he died.

"Peter became a much more heroic figure to me in just how much he cared about Orson," Karp, who is also a producer on the documentary, said about talking to Bogdanovich for the book. "Welles took a lot from Peter and Peter got a lot from Welles. Welles truly loved him but in a way that probably didn't feel like he was being very appreciated at the time. But Peter is a true believer, and there's a lot to be said about that."

"The Other Side of the Wind" and "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" are both available Friday on Netflix.

Original author: Jason Guerrasio

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Nov
04

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Milos Sochor of Y Soft Ventures (Part 4) - Sramana Mitra

Sramana Mitra: Capital-efficient company building that goes straight into acquisition is a very good model for entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs doing it for the first time. I see no problem at...

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Original author: Sramana Mitra

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Nov
04

The 11 most useful features in iOS 12 (AAPL)

iOS 12 is here.

Apple announced the newest version of its mobile operating system at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and launched the update to the public in September, just days before shipping its new iPhone XS and XS Max.

But if you just updated to iOS 12 — or maybe you bought an iPhone XS, or the new iPhone XR — and you're not sure what's new, where do you start?

Here are the 11 most useful features to check out in iOS 12:

Original author: Dave Smith

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Nov
04

Apple is selling refurbished iPhone 8 smartphones for $500, and it's an amazing deal (AAPL)

Apple is selling refurbished units of the iPhone 8 starting at$500 from its certified used device store — one of the best-kept secrets in tech. That price reflects a $100 discount over the normal $600 starting price tag for an iPhone 8.

At the time of writing, the refurbished iPhone 8 Plus is, unfortunately, not in stock. If you're interested in the iPhone 8 Plus, I'd keep checking Apple's refurbished storefront regularly.

If my experience with buying a refurbished MacBook Pro is anything to go by, Apple's refurbishment process is top-notch, and it's well worth your consideration. It's so good, in fact, that you should consider getting the refurbished iPhone 8 even if you were planning on buying it new, just so you can save yourself $100.

My refurbished MacBook Pro came in flawless physical and working condition, and there was no trace that my MacBook Pro had been used before. It also came with Apple's standard one-year warranty. I can't guarantee that a refurbished iPhone will come in equally great condition, but I at least had a positive experience with the store.

With the iPhone 8, you're not sacrificing that much over newer models, like the iPhone XR or XS. The iPhone 8 still has a great camera, and it runs the same chip as the iPhone X, which hasn't shown any signs of slowing down ever since the new iPhones came out. The main thing you're not getting with an iPhone 8 is the iPhone X-style edge-to-edge screen design, and Face ID facial recognition for unlocking the phone.

The iPhone 8 is also one of your only options to get an iPhone with a smaller 4.7-inch display, as it looks like Apple's flagship iPhone X-style phones are sticking with a minimum 5.8-inch display for the foreseeable future.

And if you're looking for the Apple experience for an even smaller price tag, there are also plenty of refurbished iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus units available, starting at $380 and $480, respectively. The iPhone 7 is still a fantastic phone with a great camera and a similar design as the iPhone 8, if you're not picky about having the latest and greatest.

Original author: Antonio Villas-Boas

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Nov
04

Apple and Google have a long way to go to catch Amazon in the smart speaker race (AMZN, KRX, GOOGL, AAPL)

First Alexa was playing music and turning on the lights. Then she helped you book appointments, put together grocery lists, and try on new clothes. Now she's letting you video chat with friends and family — and soon she'll be able to sense how you're feeling.

Business Insider Intelligence

And she's not alone. In the years since Amazon's 2014 introduction of the Echo, smart speakers have become one of the fastest-growing device segments in the consumer technology market, and other tech giants have been iterating hardware to develop their own flagship devices — most notably the Google Home powered by Google Assistant, the Apple HomePod powered by Siri, and the Galaxy Home powered by Samsung's Bixby.

These tech leaders aren't just releasing devices, either; they're building out entire ecosystems powered by AI, pairing first-party hardware, software, and even third-party apps to advance other business interests. And since smart home device ownership has a snowball effect, winning over customers now likely means locking in more of their business later.

Smart speaker adoption is still relatively low compared to the over-saturated smartphone and tablet markets, so tech companies have plenty of runway to get customers to buy into their distinct smart home visions — but the newcomers have a lot of ground to make up.

Here's how each of the major players is leaning into their strengths in the smart speaker market:

Amazon: The main aim of the Echo is to offer consumers a new means of purchasing goods to reinforce the company's place atop the e-commerce pyramid. Users can speak to Alexa and buy products off Amazon directly through voice, as well as add items to their shopping cart or a list for later review. Google: Google Home devices are primarily meant to act as helpful assistants prompting consumers to use Google's search services more often. This gives the company more data to offer more targeted (read: more expensive) advertising to its voice search users on other platforms. Apple: The iPhone maker is looking to build another revenue stream from hardware sales of its HomePod while countering Google's move into the market. It focuses on the speaker elements of its device, emphasizing how well the device plays music — without elaborating extensively on its smart aspects. Samsung: Though its Bixby-powered Galaxy Home isn't generally available yet, Samsung's first foray into the smart speaker market shows it's looking to challenge the Apple HomePod and the Google Home Max as premium, music-first speakers.

Want to learn more?

The Smart Speaker Report from Business Insider Intelligence looks at the state of the smart speaker market and outlines how each of the major device providers approaches the space. It focuses on the key factors affecting whether or not someone owns one of these devices, as well as why people don't own them.

Finally, the report looks at what consumers are actually doing with their smart speakers — specifically how the devices are used and perceived in e-commerce, digital media, and banking — to help companies determine how well they're publicizing their smart speaker services and capabilities.

Original author: Shelagh Dolan

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Nov
03

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Milos Sochor of Y Soft Ventures (Part 3) - Sramana Mitra

Sramana Mitra: I have a couple of questions on this one. What is the competitive landscape of something like this when you’re investing in something like this in your local geography? Milos Sochor:...

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Original author: Sramana Mitra

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Nov
03

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ravi Mohan of Shasta Ventures (Part 6) - Sramana Mitra

Ravi Mohan: The last company is a company called Analpan. Anaplan is really taking Excel and putting it in the cloud so businesses can plan better and really model any type of business problem. How...

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Original author: Sramana Mitra

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