By Sara Isenberg
Founder, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Santa Cruz Tech Beat
August 12, 2018 — Santa Cruz, CA
I’m stuck at the Boston airport returning home after a lovely summer vacation. Here are some of the highlights from the last two weeks. (I may continue to add news to this article as I dig out, so check back.)
I Heart Jane, headquartered in Santa Cruz California, raised two million dollars from friends and family and opened for business on April 20 of 2017. It now serves 250 retailers in 10 state markets. Rosenfeld is currently raising $5-7 million from private investors. Read now.
Looker, a leading data platform company, today announced JOIN 2018, the three-day conference dedicated to learning from and collaborating with some of the brightest minds in data who are driving the smarter use of data across every industry. Read now.
Not too long ago, female-focused coworking was a whisper from the fringes of the coworking movement. Now it’s a quickly-growing niche of the workspace industry, with new models and spaces popping up regularly around the world. What’s behind the rise of these spaces? Why do they appeal to women? And how do they fit into a movement rooted in inclusivity? Read now.
ZiKa LIU posts the video. Watch now.
The City of Salinas launched an Open Data Portal, at cityofsalinas.org/data. The City’s goals for this new web tool are to create a more transparent government, make valuable data accessible to all, including innovators and entrepreneurs, and give residents greater insight into how government decisions are made. The portal will present information in forms that are easy to understand, such as visuals and stories, and will require no technical skills to use. Read now.
The road to the seat of California’s burgeoning “AgTech” sector starts on the drive down Highway 101 from Silicon Valley to Salinas, where modern office landscape morphs into a panorama of lettuce heads, strawberries and broccoli.The Salinas Valley, which includes Salinas and four neighboring municipalities, is known for its agriculture industry, a $9 billion industry where 80% of the country’s leafy greens are grown. More recently though, the Salinas Valley has become a base for AgTech (agriculture and food focused technology), a fast-growing sector that attracted $1.5 billion across 160 deals in investment last year alone. Read now.
Looker, a leading data platform company, today announced that Five Guys JV – premium burger chain – has implemented Looker to deliver an enhanced customer experience, increase operational efficiency and drive improved sustainability across the business. Looker has opened up access to data across its business from sales, operations and business planning to warehouse management, speeding up access to insights and informed decision-making. Read now.
YaDoggie, the dog food and wellness startup founded by Yahoo’s former VP of Mobile, has teamed up with kitchen appliance maker Instant Pot to launch its fresh dog food product. Called YaDoggie Fresh, it’s “human-grade” fresh dog food that is specifically designed to be cooked in an Instant Pot. The fresh product, which comes in turkey and salmon, takes 20 minutes to cook using the Instant Pot. YaDoggie says the formulas were designed by a licensed veterinary nutritionist and are 100 percent grain free. The product starts shipping October 1. Read now.
I’m the Founder and CTO of a company called PayStand. PayStand is a B2B digital payment network. What Venmo does for consumers, we do for commercial transactions. We believe that there is a huge transformation that’s going on in the commercial side of financial services. We’re bringing about change in three clear ways. We call it no paper, no fees, and no monopoly. Read now.
SupplyShift recently released their SupplyShift Essentials solutions that allow companies to quickly align responsible procurement strategies with best practices in their industry. Each Essentials solution comes complete with ready-to-send assessments, built-in scoring methodologies, and pre-built analytics dashboards, all designed to streamline progress toward a company’s specific goals for supply chain responsibility and risk management. Read now.
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Tagged Coworking, Coworking With Iris, Jane Tech, Looker, PayStand, SupplyShift, YaDoggie
