With consumer sentiment continuing a downward trend, falling 14.4% in June according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, many companies are tightening their belts. Inflation is outweighing income growth. How will inflation impact your company’s bottom line and, if you are the tech talent, your cost of living?
Formerly Ann Arbor-based fintech startup Pocketnest, now headquartered in Detroit, has announced recently that the startup is continuing to grow into a successful B2B2C SaaS financial wellness provider, with the following milestones:
Starting your own business is the dream of many. What could be more exciting than owning and running your own business, setting your own schedule, and making tons of money?
a2tech360 week in Ann Arbor continues, with What The Future Holds today to predict the trajectories of tech-related industries that have a foothold in Michigan. Panelists included Dr. Peter Adriaens and Dr. Mingyan Liu of the University of Michigan, Dr. Matthew McMahon from the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen of NASA.
Happy Women’s Equality Day. In honor of this event, we are happy to announce that Ann Arbor security startup Censys has surpassed tech industry benchmarks in total women at the company, as well as women in technical roles. Censys prides themselves on their role helping more women enter the cybersecurity industry.
We’ve seen it repeatedly in recent months: companies are racing to adopt or update e-commerce platforms to keep up with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing buying online. Everything from groceries to steel buying to marketing and networking is now online, and that means demand for online user interfaces, conferencing, e-commerce platforms, and online marketing are at an all-time high. One startup we recently spoke with, Eoxs E-Commerce, was busy disrupting the steel buying industry with online buying platforms, but has since pivoted and expanded their offerings in response to this trend.
2020 Tribeca Film Festival film Picture a Scientist, which examines harassment of women in STEM and the cultural issues that drive attrition in scientific fields, was the focus of today’s roundtable of scientists hosted by Ann Arbor’s ProQuest and Scientific American’s Editor-in-Chief Dr. Laura Helmuth. The main question? Why is women’s attrition from STEM fields still such a resistant issue in the year 2021?
The tech industry is an energizing space to work, but even the most put-upon engineer needs to rest. Everyone is feeling pretty worn out at this stage of the pandemic, as we hit year milestones of shutdowns. How can busy professionals manage the fatigue that comes from longterm crisis? In Ann Arbor, we are profoundly lucky to have a whole host of highly professional martial arts and meditation instructors to call on for just such a question. We thought we’d check in with Sensei Nicklaus Suino for a continuation of a series we’ve run on self-care strategies for busy professionals.
Despite a challenging year, a number of Ann Arbor tech startups are still experiencing rapid growth. First up? Pocketnest, the fintech startup that created a personal financial wellness app to integrate into bank and credit union software to help advise end users on savings and investment decisions while they monitor their finances.
One of the risks of the racial justice movements resulting in calls for widespread change in 2020 was that companies jumping on board to promise change in American society would use the moment for PR and then lapse back into business as usual. But tech companies in particular, along with many in fashion and entrepreneurship, have embraced 2020 as a turning point after which the awareness and support of diversity in the workplace and representation in both media and business will not go back to a misguided sense that ignorance is bliss. Is it naive to think these changes will last without a community effort? Probably, but a large number of people often would like to make a change and only need some direction as to how to help. We checked in with a couple of tech companies to see how their diversity programs are changing, to give you some tips if you’re planning your own diversity and inclusion program.
