They are shirking business-as-usual models in favor of what Butte native and recent returnee Carole Murphy calls a new paradigm in which profits are no longer considered the only measure of success.
In a brainstorming summit of sorts, 60 entrepreneurs converged on the Thornton Building in Uptown Butte recently for Startup Weekend Butte, a crash course in creating a business.
“When I heard there was a Startup coming to Butte, I couldn’t have been more excited,” said Murphy, a dentist turned fashion-bag designer and seller who had access to a constant array of startup workshops in California.
Marc Nager, who travels the world leading Startups, said the key is changing the culture within the new business model.
Facilitating the Butte Startup, Nager emphasized that becoming a community leader and creating flexible but stable businesses are part of the new paradigm.
“We have an amazing force of volunteers who support startups around the world,” said Nager, Startup Weekend founder and UP Global CEO.
He said he was impressed with Butte’s high-energy mix of young, tech-savvy innovators and traditional, experienced business types who worked together to create eight businesses from scratch in a mind-bending 54 hours.
Ray Rogers of the National Center for Health Care Informatics in Butte mentored the upstarts.
Ts’ Small Potatoes is marketing, advocacy and consulting firm that specializes in working with small-scale and startup food companies.
Murphy said it’s important for creative entrepreneurs to “Create an environment where it’s OK to fail.”
Only 20 percent of startups succeed, but the trick is to try again.
She moved back last February and launched her New Moon Clothing, a bootstrap startup.
“There is a very large network for entrepreneurs in Butte.”
Murphy sees investors investing in other startups that bolster the community as a whole.
“We’ve finally reached a point in our community in which we have viable wealthy investors here in Butte,” said Murphy, referring to angel funds and private grants from consortiums, for example, in Montana.
“We can create our opportunities wherever we are,” added Murphy.
AngelPad is an American seed-stage startup incubator, launched in September 2010 by Thomas Korte with six former Google employees. AngelPad provides mentorship, seed money, and networking at two 10-week courses per year
All the AP 8 companies pitched earlier this afternoon and everyone killed it.
It was so much better than anything that anyone presented just 2 weeks ago.
The sheer progress a startup makes in 12 weeks of AngelPad is nothing short of stunning.
You work like crazy for 12 weeks, make very good friends along the way, gather tons of startup knowledge, and prepare to raise $1M+ in seed money.
In the first week of AngelPad, TKCM tell you they’ll roll up their sleeves and work with everyone.
Monday morning starts early, where they set the course for the week: how many times they will meet with each company, points to focus on, upcoming talks, and more.
Both of them spend at least 30 minutes over the next couple of days in the week with every company, seeking updates on what was accomplished in the previous week, their feedback on how well you did, and what you could focus on this week.
Unlike a few other accelerators, it’s not one-size fits all advice; it’s very personalized to you and specific to your company.
Rest of the week you work with your team on building and taking your company forward.
Occasionally you take repeat meetings with TKCM depending on your company’s needs.
A regular feature through all 12 weeks is TKCM’s regular ass whipping week after week, posing really tough, uncomfortable questions about your business, go-to-market strategy, market size, and what not.
You fly to SF every 3-4 weeks to meet with ‘friends of AngelPad’.
AngelPad also gives you an opportunity to work together and make friends with founders from other amazing companies.
As weeks go by, you’ll come to know these super driven people with very diverse talents who are all available to help you with whatever you want.
Two weeks before demo day, TKCM ask you to stop everything else and just focus on your pitch and presentation.
They’ve mentored over a 100 companies, so they know what works and what doesn’t.
These two weeks are really gruelling and Carine helps you perfect your storytelling and branding; while Thomas is all about numbers, positioning and selling.
Fundraising becomes a full time job and you do it for next 8-10 weeks.
It is super difficult to get inside – more than 2000 companies apply and TKCM personally cherrypick only 12-14 companies based on the application, video and 1:1 interview.
Paydiant brings payments, offers, loyalty and ATM access to merchant and bank mobile apps, using the cloud to make retail smarter, faster and safer.
BAY CITY, MI – It was more than 30 years ago as a student at Bay City All Saints Central High School that entrepreneur Kevin Laracey first became interested in technology.
“It was one of the first places I was exposed to computers and software,” said Laracey, now 50 and the CEO of mobile payments provider Paydiant.
Software-controlled devices fascinated Laracey.
Today, Laracey is a tech-savvy entrepreneur who has founded two companies and reportedly sold them for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Kevin Laracey
PayPal is acquiring Paydiant, a mobile payments provider Laracey co-founded several years ago.
“One of the new big markets that companies like PayPal and others are going after is how to let you as a consumer use your mobile phone to make payments in stores,” Kevin Laracey said.
Laracey grew up in a family of entrepreneurs in Bay County’s Bangor Township, where his mother, Jeanette Laracey, still resides.
When Kevin Laracey thinks about growing up in Bay County, he remembers spending time outdoors with his sister Nancy, brothers Bill and Mel and father Melvin “Bud” Laracey, especially visits to the family farm in Kawkawlin on weekends.
“Our father had his own business and our mother Jeanette came from an entrepreneurial family and was always very supportive of our entrepreneurial endeavors and interests,” Kevin Laracey said.
His father’s business was a house and machinery moving business called Carl J. Laracey & Sons House Moving Co. Bud Laracey died in 2011.
Laracey’s brothers bought and sold old sports cars, a more lucrative endeavor in the days before the Internet, he said.
After graduating from high school, Kevin Laracey went on to earn his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1986.
Several years later, Laracey and his business partner Chris Gardner co-founded Paydiant.
Though he has built a life in the Boston area, Kevin Laracey said he comes back to Bay County to visit his mother at least once a year.
Jeannette Laracey appreciated his credit, but said it was her son that ran with the support she and her husband gave him growing up.
When asked what’s next for him, Kevin Laracey said, “We are going to be focusing 100 percent on helping PayPal achieve its goals and objectives. We are very fortunate to be a part of such an iconic and innovative American company.”
Secret life? Anyway, you could call it that. I didn’t know what name to give this true story that I totally made up. Just to entertain you guys and keep you at the edge of your seats reading, I have made up this awesome true story about Wilson Love, his Secret Life I call it. I saw some great movies like The Secret life of Walter Mitty, The Secret life of an American teenager etc, this isn’t like any of them. Just saying. I know I’m a great host but what can I do? I love you guys. Let us cut to the chase and get down to business. Everyone has a secret and most keep a secret life…
The Secret life of Wilson Love (Episode 1)
It was a cool Monday afternoon, the Primary school had just closed for the day and Wilson took the bus. The bus dropped him off in front of the female hostel and as he alighted the pupils waved goodbye. He waved back with a smile on his face and adjusted his bag. He was dressed up in a nice red and blue checked shirt with a brown chinos trouser, his black shoe complimented his black attaché bag and belt. He stared at the law faculty which was directly opposite the female hostel for a while before walking down towards his own hostel. In the field, right in front of the female hostel, a football match was on and he remembered that the hostel week began that day. He would have continued to his hostel if he hadn’t seen Victor, his colleague and course mate. They were both studying Early Childhood and Primary Education at the prestigious Newton Achebe University and were 300level students.
The Secret Life of Wilson Love…
I know you will be wondering why the school bus had dropped him in his university, well, the school he was posted to for his teaching practice or internship, whichever suits your understanding, was located in the university in fact it belonged to the university.
So, Wilson marched into the field and joined the other spectators to watch Victor play. Funny enough, Wilson’s mind strayed from the match to the pretty ladies skipping and playing in the love garden of the female hostel. He began mocking the girls one after the other and most of the guys watching, shifted their attentions to the ladies. It was as though Wilson had started an outdoor Comedy Central there on the field. In a few minutes all that could be heard were deep sounds of laughter from those who picked Wilson’s show over the football match. Wilson heard a familiar voice behind him and smiled as he turned to see his cousin and roommate, Emeka. He shook his hand and Emeka asked why he hadn’t gone to the hostel, Wilson just gave him a slight punch on his right shoulder and said that he was getting a real good show there. Emeka decided to join in the show before going for his 5pm scheduled basketball match. He took out his phone and began taking pictures of the playing ladies. Weird, right?
Well, it was fun for the guys and they really utilized the moment. The Secret Life of Wilson Love…
Wilson was just making a joke about a guy that was wooing a girl there on the ‘love garden’ and how the girl was blushing all over with her toes drawing circles in the sand, when a pretty girl passed.
Pardon my use of the word ‘pretty‘, he did not actually see her face, just caught a glimpse of her nice curves and sexy butt. He quickly looked away because he had made a decision not to fall for any other girl. He really was into many girls and they all made him happy. (Don’t ask for more details about this, remember it is the Secret Life of Wilson Love so some details are on a need-to-know basis). So, he continued his jokes but in 2 minutes his mind strayed back to the girl that had passed. She actually went towards the volleyball pitch at the other end of the field. One of the guys with him then suggested that they should both go watch those playing volleyball as though he was reading his mind. Wilson agreed immediately, seeing it as an opportunity to view the girl that had his mind jogging to Sokoto. They both excused themselves from the already made outdoor Comedy Central and started towards the volleyball pitch. The Secret Life of Wilson Love…
What you don’t know would not kill you…it is the Secret Life of Wilson Love! Oh! I forgot to mention although it isn’t necessary; Wilson is Ben’s younger brother. Do you remember Ben in Life has its own Regrets? Complicated family y’all. Let’s get back to our secret life.
On getting there, it turned out that some boys were teaching the girls volleyball. They had formed a big circle and were passing the ball around. As if fate had it all planned out the girl that he had earlier seen was a novice in the sport and he couldn’t help but laugh at her. She was so clumsy with the ball but it was actually sexy to him. (Perv!) The way she laughed whenever the ball hits her shoulder or when she wrongly passed the ball, Wilson could not help but laugh out loud. The ball came to where he was and the other guy threw it back. It came a second time and instead of using his right hand to pass it back Wilson used his left and the ball shot straight to the girl’s face. He apologized quickly and the girl just smiled and continued playing. Wilson did not give up he dropped his bag and said,
Some people are just pure novice in this game of volleyball, no matter how you teach them they’ll never learn.
Some of the girls turned and looked at him and he quickly looked the other way.
Nneoma, Nneoma!!!
…called out a female voice from the first floor of the female hostel and as Wilson turned to see who bore the name, he saw the same girl that made him come to the volleyball pitch waving at the girl that called her. “So that is her name”, he thought to himself with a silly grin on his face…
Stay tuned for more on THE SECRET LIFE OF WILSON LOVE. The fun has only just begun…
We all talk about Linda Ikeji and Bella Naija, but does anyone know this dude Bamidele Onibalusi? Bamidele Onibalusi is a Nigerian blogger, freelance writer and the founder of YoungPrePro.com which got rebranded to writersincharge.com. He lost his dad at the age of seven, and his widowed mother had to provide for him and his five siblings.
Blogging
The ambitious Bamidele Onibalusi has always wanted to make money. He wants to have a fulfilled life style being a boss of himself just like his mentor Bill Gates. He discovered blogging on December, 2009 and on the 10th of January 2010, Bamidele Onibalusi, who was 16 years old at that time, heard about the concept of making money online and he schemed out ways to archive that, Bamidele Onibalusi spent 20 hours at a stretch creating his first blog website.
After about three months of working hard online without obtaining any positive result, Bamidele Onibalusi decided to improve himself by reading articles like “How to Make Money Online”. In his quest, he discovered an article by Steve Pavlina. The discovery was a breakthrough; it made him realize how blogging works and also the importance of giving free value without expecting anything.
In his first eight months of blogging, he published not less than 270 guest posts on sites like Business Insider, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger and DailyBlogTips.com, proving his credibility as a writer and becoming a respected voice in the digital space. At some point, he managed to grow his blog by 200 percent in search traffic in six months, by publishing 30 guests’ posts in only one week on smaller blogs. As of 2012, he earned about $5,000 from blogging.
Bamidele Onibalusi has a non-scheduled work routine. He can work for a whole week sometimes and the next week might be spent watching movies.
Usually, I start my day by checking my emails, and I sometimes start the day by writing when I’m on a deadline. I spend an average of 40 hours working in a week, and it can be as much as 80 hours depending on my mood.
Bamidele Onibalusi rebranded his blog, originally called youngprepro.com, which technically stood for Young Upcoming Professional after 2 years. He started writersincharge.com in March 2013 with the sole mission of helping writers to take charge of their careers and be in a position of power in front of their clients.
He published several articles that inspire other writers such as: 30 Websites that Pay You to Contribute an Article and 45+ Websites that will Pay You to Write, these articles earned him 200,000 views and 100,000 views respectively, in four years.
As a blogger in Nigeria, Bamidele Onibalusi faced many challenges initially; his highest challenge was poor electricity supply and poor internet connection, lack of funds, gaining trust from his clients and good marketing strategy. Fortunately, he eventually conquered these challenges over time.
Offline Business
Bamidele Onibalusi is determined to succeed in life, he suffered from ulcer at a point because he was so focused that he neglects to eat. However he does not believe in putting his eggs in one basket. In 2014, he took a break from blogging to start a commercial fish farm on a 1-acre piece of land. He learned the ins and outs of catfish farming, a business that provides another great source of income. He is very passionate about his farm.
Every afternoon after I write, I love to go feed the fishes and spend a few hours there. I just love the process. My goal now is to be the biggest fish farmer in Nigeria, possibly in Africa.
In 2015, he returned to the online world and he now shares his time between his blog and his fish farm. Bamidele Onibalusi’s comeback post is a goldmine for his writers – “110 Websites that Pay You to Contribute an Article, Instantly.” The article took him a week to write it, working 6-8 hours a day.
He has been featured in Forbes, interviewed in Digital Journal, been featured in Millionaire Magazine in Italy and on several popular blogs online.
Bamidele Onibalusi is an entrepreneur who has invested in his own growth and happiness and above all, he is committed to helping others. His advice to writers:
Keep at it; I wrote 270 guest posts before getting my first client. Most of those guest posts were awful, but that didn’t stop me. Perfection isn’t achieved overnight, neither is success. Also, success is a journey, and you’re successful no matter where you are; what matters most is where you will be, and for how long. My final advice is to never give up no matter what.
I learnt a lot doing researches on him and his success story, Bamidele Onibalusi is officially my role model.
JP Morgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in America and one of the world’s major provider of financial services, recently issued its 2014 annual report, in which the firm’s chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon suggests that new competitors are “Looking to compete with banks,” and that his firm is “Keeping an eye on ,” most particularly on Silicon Valley’s startups.
“There are hundreds of startups with a lot of brains and money working on various alternatives to traditional banking.”
As of today, many young companies are looking to offer products and services that are traditionally provided by banks.
Notably, JP Morgan seems to have set sight on the lending business, where startups like P2P lending platform LendingClub, or its equivalent in bitcoin BTCJam and BitLending Club, can provide loans to individuals and small businesses “Very quickly and – these entities believe – effectively by using Big Data to enhance credit underwriting.” JP Morgan CEO Competes Bitcoin
“They are very good at reducing the ‘pain points’ in that they can make loans in minutes, which might take banks weeks. We are going to work hard to make our services as seamless and competitive as theirs. And we also are completely comfortable with partnering where it makes sense.”
Another key area for the bank that is described as “a critical business,” is the payments industry with current competitors like “Bitcoin, merchants building their own networks, PayPal and PayPal look-alikes,” the company further said, JP Morgan CEO Competes Bitcoin.
While Dimon notes that “New competitors always will be emerging,” he believes that it is “Even truer today because of new technologies and large changes in regulations,” and fears “The potential effects of an uneven playing field.”
“The combination of these factors will have a lot of people looking to compete with banks because they have fewer capital and regulatory constraints and fewer legacy systems.”
Overall, JP Morgan had a pretty good year, with a record of US$21.
Despite promising financial results and many successes, the firm claims that “Legal and regulatory costs and future uncertainty regarding legal and regulatory costs,” might have harmed the company’s stock performance during the past five years, JP Morgan CEO Competes Bitcoin.
“While the business franchise has become stronger, I believe that legal and regulatory costs and future uncertainty regarding legal and regulatory costs have hurt our company and the value of our stock and have led to a price/earnings ratio lower than some of our competitors.”
According to the annual report, JP Morgan might face up to US$5.8 billion in losses related to ongoing legal proceedings, that include private, civil litigations and regulatory/government investigations, JP Morgan CEO Competes Bitcoin.
In October 2014, Dimon publicly said that he considered Bitcoin as a competitor, emphasizing that he was ready to compete.
In 2013, the bank patented a digital payment system in bid to rival Bitcoin.
With iOS 8.3 out the door, it was inevitable that Apple would launch its new Apple Seeds iOS 8.4 Beta in developer preview – and now it’s here. The pre-release software ships with a new version of Apple’s native iOS Music app, complete with a brand new design and a reworked version of iTunes radio.
The release notes for the new version of the beta, as noted by 9to5Mac, describe some of the changes, including the ability to customize playlists with images from your library, and a new Artists view that features imagery of musicians while browsing. Using the Albums view now also enables playback of entire records with a single tap, instead of exposing a track list.
Apple’s Music app in iOS 8.4 also reveals recently added music more easily, putting it at the top of the library by default, which is something more akin to what many streaming services offer in their interfaces. iTunes Radio has also been redesigned to put favorites in a more prominent position, and Features offers hand-curated lists as well as those drawn from your listening habits.
The brand new Apple Seeds iOS 8.4 Beta with all-new music app.
A new Mini-Player also now persists across the browsing UI, which is also very much in line with what other streaming apps provide in their own apps, and you can queue up subsequent content using a new “Up Next” management panel, changing order and more. Search is also now available throughout the Music app via a loop icon, and users can begin playing back an iTunes Radio station right from any search.
The changes to the Music app seem to also telegraph the eventual arrival of Apple’s revamped streaming music service. You can already see where a Beat Music-style service could be worked into this changes user experience to provide even more flexibility beyond a user’s own library.
The brand new Apple Seeds iOS 8.4 Beta with all-new music app.
Apple is expected to be planning a new streaming music service offering for unveiling at WWDC, the annual developer even it hosts in June, according to information obtained by TechCrunch, as well as independent reports from 9to5Mac. A service integrated into Apple’s existing native Music app for iOS would definitely be one big way to differentiate its offering from those of third-party competitors like Spotify.
The brand new Apple Seeds iOS 8.4 Beta with all-new music app is dope and exciting. Really brings you closer to your music soul syncing with your heart…just saying though.
Justin Drew Bieber, known mainly as just Justin Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter. His current manager, Scooter Braun first discovered him through his YouTube videos in 2007. Braun was impressed with the videos, and contacted Bieber’s mother Pattie about wanting to work with him. Having convinced Bieber’s mother, Braun arranged for Bieber to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia. Bieber was signed to RBMG, and then to an Island Records recording contract offered by record executive, L.A. Reid.
HIS EARLY LIFE
Justin Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario, at St Joseph’s Hospital, and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. He is the only child of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia “Pattie” Mallette. Bieber’s parents were never married. Pattie raised her son with the help of her mother, Diane, and stepfather, Bruce. His mother is of French-Canadian descent; his paternal great-grandfather was of German ancestry, and his other roots are English and Irish. He has stated that he believes that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry. Damn! He is ethni-versatile.
Through Jeremy, Justin Bieber has two younger half-siblings, Jasmyn (born 2009) and Jaxon (born 2010). Pattie worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Justin as a single mother in low-income housing. Justin Bieber has maintained contact with his father.
Justin Bieber attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School. Growing up, he learned to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” for a local singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber’s popularity on the site grew.
HIS CAREER GENESIS
While searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def, clicked on one of Justin Bieber’s 2007 videos by accident. Impressed, Braun tracked down the theater Bieber was performing in, located Bieber’s school, and finally contacted Mallette, who was reluctant because of Braun’s Judaism. She remembered praying,
God, I gave him to you. You could send me a Christian man, a Christian label! and God, you don’t want this Jewish kid to be Justin’s man, do you?
However, church elders convinced her to let Bieber go with Braun. At 13, Bieber went to Atlanta, Georgia, with Braun to record demo tapes. Justin Bieber began singing for Usher one week later.
Justin Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher. Justin Timberlake was also reportedly in the running to sign Bieber, but lost the bidding war to Usher. Usher then sought assistance in finding a label home for the artist from then manager Chris Hicks, who helped engineer an audition with his contact L.A. Reid of The Island Def Jam Music Group. Reid signed Bieber to Island Records in October 2008 (resulting in a joint venture between RBMG and Island Records) and appointed Hicks as executive Vice-President of Def Jam where he would be able to manage Bieber’s career at the label. Bieber then moved to Atlanta with his mother to pursue further work with Braun and Usher. Braun became Bieber’s manager in 2008.
Justin Bieber’s first single, “One Time”, was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album. The song reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009, and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009, it had success in international markets. The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the US and Gold in Australia and New Zealand. His first release, an extended play entitled My World, was released on November 17, 2009. The album’s second single, “One Less Lonely Girl”, and two promo singles, “Love Me”, and “Favorite Girl”, were released exclusively on the iTunes Store and charted within the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100.
“One Less Lonely Girl” was later also released to radio and peaked within the top fifteen in Canada and the US, being certified Gold in the latter. My World was eventually certified Platinum in the US and Double Platinum in both Canada and the United Kingdom.
Bieber performed Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas” for U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which was broadcast on December 20, 2009, on US television broadcaster TNT. Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of “We Are the World” (a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie) for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake.
THE JUSTIN BIEBER JOURNEY
Justin Bieber released his debut EP, My World, in November 2009. It was certified platinum in the United States. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Bieber released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, in March 2010. It debuted at or near number one in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the single “Baby”, which is also, as of July 2014, the YouTube video with the most dislikes, and the most views on a Vevo platform. He followed up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Bieber released his second studio album Under the Mistletoe in November 2011, when it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Justin Bieber released his third studio album Believe in June 2012. It became his fourth chart topper in the United States, debuting at number-one on the Billboard 200.
Justin Bieber has received numerous industry awards, including both Artist of the Year Awards, at the 2010 American Music Awards, and the 2012 American Music Awards, and was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. With a global fan base, termed as “Beliebers“, and over 60 million followers on Twitter, Bieber was twice named by Forbes magazine as one of the top ten most powerful celebrities in the world, ranking third in both 2011 and 2012, and ranking ninth in 2013. The Justin Bieber Fever has hit millions of fans and still counting. I wanted to envy him but the dude doesn’t have a personal life and that I cannot handle. Godspeed Justin!
HIS PERSONAL LIFE
Justin Bieber identifies himself as a Christian, and has said he believes he has a relationship with Jesus, that he talks to him and that “he’s the reason I’m here”. Bieber reflects his faith in a rap video with Brandon Burke titled #iPledge, in which he “talks candidly about his appreciation for the tenet of forgiveness in the Christian faith.” Regarding sexual abstinence, Bieber told Rolling Stone in 2010:
I don’t think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them.
He added that he does not “believe in abortion” and that it is “like killing a baby”. He described sexual orientation as “everyone’s own decision,” and has contributed to the It Gets Better Project, which aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.
Now residing in the United States on an O-1 visa, Justin Bieber has said he is not interested in obtaining U.S. citizenship and has criticized America’s health care system. Praising Canada as being “the best country in the world”, he cited its health care system as a model example. According to Scooter Braun, Bieber says the Jewish prayer Shema Yisrael before every show he gives. Bieber started dating actress and singer Selena Gomez in December 2010. In January 2013, it was reported that Bieber and Gomez had ended their relationship.
I bet she wishes she is still with him because all iI can say is Justin has really changed into a cute and sexy young man. #nohomo
THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW HE DID
Aside from his career as a musician, Bieber has also ventured into the business world by becoming a venture capitalist and technology investor. Bieber made his first startup investment in 2009. Since then, he has been quietly investing millions of dollars in a dozen small technology startups that include Stamped, Spotify, Shots, and game-for-good company SoJo Studios. He has said that he is not going to invest in something he does not like, as he has to believe in the product. Bieber endorsed Adidas beside Derrick Rose and Venus Williams in 2012.
Justin Bieber supports Pencils of Promise, a charity founded by Adam Braun, the younger brother of Bieber’s manager. The organization builds schools in developing countries, and Bieber became manager for the organization’s campaign in Guatemala. He currently serves as a celebrity spokesman for the organization by running ads for the charity and its campaign “Schools4All”, and promising to visit schools that donate the most funds to the organization. He takes part in the charity’s fund-raising galas and donates parts of the proceeds from his concerts and line of fragrances “Someday” and various merchandising to the charity. Bieber appeared in an animal welfare PSA for PETA encouraging people to volunteer at and adopt from animal shelters instead of buying pets from breeders or pet stores. Bieber himself adopted a papillon named Sam from a shelter.
Our little man is all grown up. The dude that sang ‘Never say Never’ stood by his words and has been climbing since then. At age 20 year old RnB artiste has gone further than his peer and beyond. Justin Bieber is really a genius and I also got the Bieber Fever since the first time I heard his song in 2009. He said 2015 is GAME TIME, so let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait for his next stunning tracks and album.
Chocolate City is one of the biggest and most successful urban record labels in Africa; it is owned and founded by the lawyer, Audu Maikori in 2005 along with Paul Okeugo and Yahaya Maikori. Chocolate city group is the brand name that houses Chocolate city music, Chocolate City Distribution, Chocolate City Events and Chocolate City Media.
Foundation of Chocolate City Music
Chocolate city originally operated as a night club in 1997, in 2001, Audu Maikori founded the Guild of Artistes and Poets (G.A.P) with his business partner Paul Okeugo. The G.A. P was a non-profit arts appreciation society, which held art exhibitions along with collaborations with the French Cultural Centre. G.A.P was focused on the arts, music, poetry and creativity and its vision was to empower and engage youths in something productive.
G.A.P became one of the new age art renaissance movement and it gained membership in Jos, Abuja, and Lagos with a combined membership of over 3000 attendees. Audu Maikori met with a range of artistes through G.A.P, he rendered free legal services to these artistes and these led to the establishment of chocolate city. Jeremiah Gyang; a multitalented instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and producer was the first artists that got signed on the Chocolate City label.
Jeremiah Gyang’s album Na Ba Ka gained good airwaves because of its unique instrumentals, over 4 Million copies of the album was sold and it won numerous awards for the artist as well as the label. Chocolate City discovered and manages several local and international award winning artistes such as Victoria Kimani, M.I and Jesse Jagz.
Awards
Chocolate City has been established as the biggest record label in Africa. It sold over 35 thousand albums since 2005. It won International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award-Global Winner 2007, Record Label of the Year – City People Awards, 2011, Best Music Company” – Effzye Awards, 2011 and African Awards for Entrepreneurship” 2011- Africa Awards.
Chocolate City has grown over the years into the biggest record label, many award winning artistes in Africa and abroad are signed into Chocolate City and they have bagged several awards for themselves and the label.
AddSuite; Google AdSense First Trusted Partner in Africa
After an exceptional year of growth in 2014, digital advertising revenue specialists, AddSuite,, kicked off the first quarter of 2015, with an invitation to become a Google AdSense Certified Partner – the first in Africa.
As a Google AdSense Certified Partner, AddSuite has been granted access to one of the strongest global sources of advertiser demand, which makes excellent money sense for publishers operating across Africa.
Partners are only selected on the basis of meeting rigorous qualification standards, as the purpose behind the partnership is to ensure trust amongst all parties.
For publishers, this means that AddSuite can be relied on to have their best interests at heart, doing its utmost to fill inventory, optimising performance and revenue opportunities.
“AddSuite has shown significant growth in the past 12 months, which is indicative of a growing appetite for brands to communicate with African customers through digital channels. The partnership with Google’s AdSense programme, will hopefully assist in growing the African digital advertising industry faster, and in line with the explosive growth of mobile and digital audiences,” commented Tim Legg, managing director of AddSuite and Group CEO Ole! Media Group.
AddSuite’s offering also includes access to best practice site design and user experience expertise, which publishers and advertisers can tap into to help them maximise their ‘shop windows’.
Perhaps one of the main benefits for publishers is that AddSuite, as an AdSense Certified Partner, can actively manage and optimise campaigns, provide technical support, analyse results and drive revenue, leaving the media partner to focus on its actual core strength of creating content and building audience.
Their offering includes real-time-bidding and programmatic buying and selling of digital ad inventory, managed campaigns and premium sales.
In addition to this, they build private advertising networks.
AddSuite is one of only two global certified Google “Double-Click for Publishers” implementation partners in South Africa.
According to definitions.net, a secret is something that should remain hidden from others (especially information that is not to be passed on). Secrets are often controversial, depending on its content or nature, the group or people keeping the secret, and the motivation for secrecy. Secrecy by government entities is often decried as excessive or in promotion of poor operation; excessive revelation of information on individuals can conflict with virtues of privacy and confidentiality. It is often contrasted with social transperancy…bla bla bla…
I think I just bored you with all these educative words, I’m bored myself. We are talking about the Secret Life of Wilson Love. A secret life is actually a charade or act put up to cover up the real life of an individual. Being incognito…the Secret Life of Wilson Love.
We started this awesome true story of the Secret Life of Wilson Love that I made up and I bet you all wanna know where it is headed. So here is the continuation, sit back and enjoy.
THE SECRET LIFE OF WILSON LOVE (EPISODE 2)
…it was getting dark and he was already tired so he walked up behind the girl and started a conversation.
Hi, what department are you in?
The girl turned and answered,
PAE, 200 level.
Confused, he asked what PAE was and the girl, we now know bears Nneoma, replied him with a smile,
Parasitology and Entomology, what level are you in?
The Secret life of Wilson Love. Wilson answered her saying that he was in his 300level, faculty of education. At that moment, the guys training them decided to call it a day. Nneoma said thanks to them, exchanged pleasantries with the other girls and turned to go back to her hostel. She stopped and looked back at Wilson, then asked him if she had previously asked for his name. He shook his head and replied,
No… I’m Wilson
At this she smiled and moved on. As he was about leaving someone hit him on his back and as he turned round a cute, sexy, tall girl was looking hard at him, she asked him why he was making fun of her and he answered,
I wasn’t dear, I was just trying to encourage you to try harder, okay?
The girl just smiled, nodded her head and walked away.
Someone called out to Nneoma; she turned to answer and was walking backwards while talking with the person. There was a puddle behind her and as she was about stepping into it Wilson caught her and pulled her towards himself. She said thanks and was about crossing over the gutter that was in between the field and the love garden, when he exclaimed, “wait!” She stopped immediately and turned back. (The Secret Life of Wilson Love II) Wilson then asked,
Can I have your phone number?
Wow! exclaimed Nneoma as she looked directly at Wilson with a smile on her face then inquired,
what department are you in?
Wilson told her and she asked him if he stayed in the school hostel? At this he answered no and she asked again if he was sure and he said yes. She then asked for where he resided and he told her that he resided inside the town, off-campus. “Okay”, she said. Then she took his phone and put in her phone number, as she gave it back to him she told him that he shouldn’t call yet because her phone’s battery was dead. He replied that he was going to call her by 9pm after the school generator has been put on.
The Secret Life…
He turned and left without a backward glance feeling good with himself. The other guy with him followed him from behind and questioned him on the event that just happened. He just kept on smiling and told him that the long and short of it all was that he will be calling the girl that night.
The Secret Life of Wilson Love… When Wilson got to his room his roommates noticed a different spark in him. He became so happy and restless that before having his bath he cleaned the whole room and bought drinks for everyone…
The Secret Life of Wilson Love…and we derive pleasure in learning about other people’s lives. STRANGE! I know I’ve been stringing you along with no secret yet so get this – the Secret Life of Wilson Love continues and to join in the unfolding of his secrets you just have to keep reading.
Anyway, that wouldn’t be today because I really got to go have my lunch. I’m famished. Gossiping can be really energy consuming. Remember that I love you all and would be back in a gifi…
As we move into our telemetric future, we will soon be able to mediate our experience in the world through apps. Already we can live the lives of others, vicariously, through Meerkat. We can see photos of the food of others with Instagram. And now, thanks to Visor, we can see how long the line is to order at Shake Shack. We are truly living in an era of spooky action at a distance.
Entrepreneur Jason White founded Visor in order to let users show others what’s happening anywhere in the world. Want to figure out how crowded the club is? Visor it. Need to know if Toys ‘R Us has a particular Lalaloopsy doll (true story)? Visor the doll aisle. They’ve raised $500,000 for the project and bootstrapped through the creation of the app and launch. White said,
Something special is happening when people use the app. They seem to light up like a kid at a magic show and become excited about what’s possible. I personally answered someone in Honk Kong looking to see local weather conditions and asking what he should pack for an upcoming trip to NYC.
Visor Lets You Look Through Folk’s Eyes.
The system is fairly simple: you make a request (“Take a picture of the cupcake place”) and put it out into the world. A message is pushed to users nearby who open the app and take a picture. The picture appears on a map for others to view and you get a notification that your request has been completed. It’s not monetized just yet so all photos are ostensibly free but you can imagine a company paying to send photos of their lines to interested users.
White also sees this Visor as the start of a micro-tasks market – “Grab me a Jamba Juice” – using the app. He’s calling this Streetview 2.0. He said,
But instead of relying on expensive Google drive-by’s, Visor lets you tap into the ~2B people worldwide with camera phones to give you eyesight in real time, by request.
While I doubt anyone will pay for a photo of the deli case at Whole Foods, adding a request – “Okay, please pick up a sandwich for me” – will springboard us into a bright new future of lunch meat on demand.
In light of recent events, I need this app. Spying level activated.
The Michigan Venture Capital Association touted the continued success of venture backing in the state in a new report, but also warned of gaps in available capital down the line as companies continue to develop and have funding needs.
Michigan venture firms are actively supporting these startups, with local investors involved in 97 percent of all startup-funding rounds in 2014.
At the same time, the number of venture capital professionals living, working and investing in Michigan has doubled and the number of investors in angel groups has grown by 45 percent, all positive signs for the health of the current venture capital field, said Maureen Miller Brosnan, executive director of the Michigan Venture Capital Association.
“I think the key here is we’ve spent more than a decade in Michigan building a venture capital community and we’re starting to see it pay off,” said Brosnan.
The nonprofit trade organization is designed to bring together venture capital industry experts in the state of Michigan.
The forecasted gap in funding comes when members of the Michigan Legislature have proposed phasing out Venture Michigan, a venture capital fund investment program formed under the Michigan Early Stage Venture Investment Act of 2003.
Although she said she understands, Brosnan added that ending Venture Michigan might send the wrong message. Michigan Venture Capital
“These house bills send a message that Michigan is backing up on its commitment to venture capital and, most importantly, entrepreneurs,” she said.
David Brophy, founder of the Michigan Capital Growth Symposium, also says cutting off Michigan Venture Capital now is unwise.
“The idea of working for a big car company and having the UAW bargain for you has receded in significance. Now more people are out starting these companies to make a living,” said Brophy, who is also a professor of finance and the director of the Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance out of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Carolyn Cassin, a co-founder and partner of the all-woman angel investing firm Belle Michigan, says one way of improving conditions for venture capital is to cultivate from within, Michigan Venture Capital
“You could find other very wealthy people who have never looked at Michigan and bring them to Michigan. You could find big money, big corporate investors to come here and invest in Michigan,” sad Cassin.
“We should be trying to prove to them and pitch to them the value of these funds being in Michigan. As we do that, more people will be encouraged to start their companies.”
Tuedon Omatsola Morgan is a 41 years old Nigerian athlete that made history as the first Nigerian to run the seven continents twice including Antarctica and recently, the first Nigerian to set foot on the North Pole, and she placed the Nigerian flag on the North Pole, in Alaska. She is a British citizen with Nigerian parents from Delta state, Nigeria.
Personal Life
Tuedon Morgan has been married for 21 years and with 4 boys. She obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Finance with Business Information Technology. She also have two Master’s degree in Business Administration and Education. Tuedon Morgan is currently working with the Ministry of Administrative Development.
Getting Started
She got inspired to become an athlete when she gained weight after having her 4th son, her health deteriorated and her Boss; Tracy Pryce who ran on the treadmill advised her to do something about her weight. She started exercising in January 2008 in order to lose weight, she usually walk then progressed to jogging until you started running on the treadmill. She started running in October 2011. On December 2011, she did a half marathon but did a full marathon in January 2012.
My first years of running were my best years. I ran once a week and would use the gym 5 days a week. I just ran with the club on a Friday and slowly picked up pace and distance. Training for a marathon is like taking on a second full-time job but I wasn’t fazed by the requirements and commitment to putting in the work to making it happen. I would usually do a 10km to 20km a week. Now starting my 4th year of running, a good week for me is running anything up to 90km a week. I have a personal trainer who I see twice a week and we focus on my core and upper body. I need tight abs and a strong core to hold the distances I run.
Tuedon Morgan joined the Doha Bay Running Club and entered the world of long distance running. She ran 32 full marathons in four years.
Challenges
Tuedon Morgon is so determined, she have a slight disability on one of her legs which requires her to wear special running shoes but that does not discourage her. She was in Boston marathon when the Boston Marathon explosion went off in 2015, she said in Bella Naija:
I was very close to the finish line when the explosions went off. If I had run any faster that day I’m sure maybe it would have been a different story. I am grateful to God that I can live to tell the story today. It didn’t stop me at all. A few weeks after that I was at the starting line for a race in South America. Life is all about getting up and making it happen.
Morgan and her four kids
Support
Apart from her family, Tuedon Omatosola gets support from various support groups, she is the founder of a weight loss group called Women Encouraging Women (WEW) to live a healthy life. She is part of the National Black Marathoner Association. Also she own a running page; Tee’s Triple Seven Challenge.
Tuedon Morgan have so much zeal in what she does, she is an extraordinary Nigerian. She could run 6 days and rest one day though she doesn’t run fast which is the frequent mistake of most beginner athletes. And her goal is to run 100 marathons by God’s grace.
Even the touristic V&A Waterfront this week got in on the act, with the news collaborative city workspaces firm OPEN is to open a new co-working space – Workshop17 – in the area.
The city is traditionally thought of as a tourist destination, with over four million arrivals at Cape Town International Airport each year.
The city is working hard to shed this “Weekend city” image, and creating and supporting a startup community in the city is central to this.
Adzuna research reports the city is the country’s top hiring hub for startup and tech firms, with more than 50 per cent of startup jobs advertised in Cape Town.
The excellent local universities, and the assistance offered by the Silicon Cape Initiative help in making the city a popular spot for startups.
Free Wi-Fi spots are common across the city, while a fibre-optic network is also being laid.
The assistance provided by the city goes a step further – it is actually employing startups to come up with solutions to make it a better place to live and work.
This week the City of Cape Town put out its second call to action to local startups this month, announcing it is seeking an evidence-based, high impact and targeted workforce development solution.
The city is looking for a solution for its residents that will deliver effective demand-driven human development and business placements, with any proposed solution enhancing existing interventions.
“Depending on the form of the winning submission to address this challenge, it is expected that the winners will work with the city through knowledge share, a pilot or other demonstration of their winning solution in the city. Alternatively, the solutions shared through this challenge could be used to inform a specification for a formal procurement by the City of Cape Town,” the city said.
Disrupt Africa reported earlier this month the city had called for startups with possible solutions to its urban challenges to assist it in revolutionizing informal trading in the city.
With the support offered by the city to startups, and the opportunities it provides for startups and government to further consolidate their links, Cape Town may yet deservedly earn the title of South Africa’s startups capital.
NEW DELHI: PepperTap, a Gurgaon-based startup that delivers everyday household items through a mobile app, announced on Wednesday that it has mopped up $10 million funding from SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital.
The investment comes a day after Grofers, another hyperlocal grocery delivery service, raised $35 million funding from Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.
Two days ago, Bangalore-based ZopNow that sources products from supermarket chain HyperCity, raised $10 million from Dragoneer Investment Group, Accel Partners, Qual-Comm Ventures and Times Internet.
The idea of buying groceries online finally seems to be taking shape in India, thanks to these mobile first delivery startups, that have figured out cost-effective ways to deliver everything from onions to milk to people in around an hour.
PepperTap that currently operates in Gurgaon and West Delhi, has partnered with selected kirana stores in certain pockets.
A PepperTap employee stationed at the store helps list the store’s products on its app, receives orders, packs the items and hands them over to a delivery man.
“E-commerce is slowly going hyperlocal. This model cuts my need to have a warehouse. The kirana store where I station my guy serves as my fulfillment center and helps me manage inventory in real time,” says Navneet Singh, co-founder of PepperTap.
Next month, the company will start operations in Pune, followed by Banga.
E-tailers such as Amazon India, Flipkart and Snapdeal also have shown interest in this space.
Amazon went ahead and launched Kirana Now in Bangalore through which the company delivers items from local kirana stores by using its own logistics system in two to three hours.
Snapdeal has tied up with premium supermarket chain Godrej Nature’s Basket to deliver gourmet products.
“This is probably one of the final frontiers of e-commerce in India. Food has largely been untouched by e-commerce till now. With new age consumers coming in, this sector will see a lot of buzz,” says Mohit Khattar, MD, Godrej Nature’s Basket.
Stay updated on the go with Times of India News App.
Timothy Donald Cook, popularly known as Tim Cook is an American business executive, and is the CEO of Apple Inc. Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Worldwide Operations—he also served as Executive Vice President (EVP) of Worldwide Sales and Operations—and was Chief Operating Officer (COO) until he was named the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. (Cook had previously served as acting CEO of Apple after Jobs began medical leave in January 2011.) In early 2012, he was awarded compensation of one million shares, vesting in 2016 and 2021, by Apple’s Board of Directors.
Cook also serves on the board of directors of Nike, Inc. and the National Football Foundation.
HIS EARLY LIFE
Tim Cook was born in Mobile, Alabama, United States on the 1st of November, 1960, and grew up in nearby Robertsdale. His father, Donald, was a shipyard worker, and his mother, Geraldine, worked at a pharmacy.
Cook graduated from Robertsdale High School. He earned a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982, and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 1988.
HIS CAREER
Before Apple
After graduating from Auburn University, Cook spent 12 years in IBM’s personal computer business, ultimately serving as the director of North American Fulfillment. Later, he served as COO of the computer reseller division of Intelligent Electronics, and was Vice President for Corporate Materials at Compaq for six months.
Apple
Tim Cook was asked to join Apple by Jobs in 1998. In a commencement speech at Auburn University, Cook said he decided to join Apple after meeting Jobs for the first time:
Any purely rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq’s favor, and the people who knew me best advised me to stay at Compaq… On that day in early 1998 I listened to my intuition, not the left side of my brain or for that matter even the people who knew me best… no more than five minutes into my initial interview with Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple. My intuition already knew that joining Apple was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for the creative genius, and to be on the executive team that could resurrect a great American company.
His first assignment was SVP for Worldwide Operations. In relation to the role, Cook was quoted as saying:
You kind of want to manage it like you’re in the dairy business. If it gets past its freshness date, you have a problem.
Cook closed factories and warehouses, replacing them with contract manufacturers, causing a reduction in the company’s inventory, from months to days. Predicting its importance, his group invested in long-term deals such as advance investment in flash memory from 2005 onwards, guaranteeing stable supply of what became a key iPod nano, then iPhone and iPad component. Competitors at HP, describing their cancelled TouchPad tablet computer, later said that it was made from “cast-off reject iPad parts.” Cook’s actions were credited with keeping costs under control and, combined with the company’s design and marketing savvy, generated huge profits.
In January 2007, Cook was promoted to the position of COO and served as CEO in 2009, while Jobs was away on a leave of absence to manage his health. In January 2011, Apple’s Board of Directors approved a third medical leave of absence requested by Jobs. During that time, Cook was responsible for most of Apple’s day-to-day operations, while Jobs made most major decisions.
His role as CEO
After Jobs resigned as CEO and became chairman of the board, Cook was named CEO of Apple Inc. on August 24, 2011. Six weeks later, on October 5, 2011, Jobs died because of complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer. Forbes contributor Robin Ferracone wrote in September 2011: Jobs and Cook proceeded to forge a strong partnership, and rescued the company from its death spiral, which took it from $11 billion in revenue in 1995 down to less than $6 billion in 1998 … Under their leadership, the company went from its nadir to a remarkable $100 billion today. In April 2012, Time included Cook on its annual “100 Most Influential People in the World” list.
On October 29, 2012, Cook made major changes to the company’s executive team, Scott Forstall resigned as senior vice president of iOS, and became an advisor to Cook until he eventually departed from the company in 2013.
John Browett, who was SVP of retail, was dismissed six months after he commenced at Apple, when he received 100,000 shares worth US$60 million. Forstall’s duties were divided among four other Apple executives: design SVP Jonathan Ive assumed leadership of Apple’s Human Interface team; Craig Federighi became the new head of iOS software engineering; services chief Eddy Cue became responsible for Maps and Siri; and Bob Mansfield, previously SVP of hardware engineering, became the head of a new technology group.
Tim Cook’s executive changes occurred after the third quarter of the fiscal year (Q3), when revenues and profits grew less than predicted. One commentator said that Forstall was forced to step down, as Cook “decided to lance the boil as internal politics and dissent reached a key pitch”. Since becoming CEO, Cook focused upon building a harmonious culture that meant “weeding out people with disagreeable personalities—people Jobs tolerated and even held close, like Forstall”; although, another journalist said that “Apple’s ability to innovate came from tension and disagreement.”
Alongside Google vice-president Vint Cerf and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Cook attended a closed-door summit held by President Obama on August 8, 2013, in regard to government surveillance and the Internet in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA incident.
On February 28, 2014, Cook made headlines when he challenged shareholders to “get out of the stock” if they didn’t share the company’s views on sustainability and climate change.
HIS PERSONAL LIFE
Tim Cook is a fitness enthusiast and enjoys hiking, cycling, and going to the gym.Cook is known for being mostly solitary. He uses an off-campus fitness center for privacy, and very little is publicly known of his personal life: he explained in October 2014 that he has sought to achieve a “basic level of privacy”. He was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996, an incident he said made him “see the world in a different way”. He has since taken part in charity fundraising such as cycle races to raise money for the disease. Tim Cook later told an Auburn alumni magazine that his symptoms came from “lugging a lot of incredibly heavy luggage around”.In 2009, Cook offered a portion of his liver to Jobs, since both share a rare blood type. Jobs responded by yelling,
I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that.
While delivering the 2010 commencement speech at Auburn University, Cook emphasized the importance of intuition during significant decision-making processes in his life, and further explained that preparation and hard work are also necessary to execute upon intuition.
While it had been reported in early 2011 that Tim Cook was gay, he chose to keep his personal life private. He did publicly support the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. In October 2014, the Alabama Academy of Honor inducted Tim Cook, who spoke about his home state’s record of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The Academy of Honor is the highest honor Alabama gives its citizens.
On October 30, 2014, Tim Cook came out as gay in an editorial for Bloomberg Businessweek, stating
I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.
Cook also explained that he has been open about his sexuality “for years” and, while many people at Apple were aware of his sexual orientation, he sought to focus on Apple’s products and customers rather than his personal life. He ended the article by saying,
We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.
As a result, Tim Cook also became the first openly gay CEO on the Fortune 500 list. Tim Cook’s declaration has not changed the perceptions of the investors and customers.
HIS LEADERSHIP STYLE
As Apple Inc. CEO, Tim Cook regularly begins sending emails at 4:30 a.m. and previously held Sunday-night staff meetings by telephone to prepare for the next week. Cook shared the keys to his leadership at Apple in May 2013: people, strategy, and execution; he explained, “If you get those three right the world is a great place.” Under Cook’s leadership, Apple has increased its donations to charity, and in 2013, he hired Lisa Jackson, formerly the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to assist Apple with the development of its renewable energy activities.
HIS FORTUNE
According to Fortune, Cook has Apple stock worth about $120 million and options with a value of $665 million. In March 2015, he said he planned to donate his entire fortune to charity.
Tim Cook and the late Steve Jobs
In the book ‘Becoming Steve Jobs‘, co-authored by Brent Schlender and Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzelli it was stated thatTim Cookoffered a part his liver to save Steve Jobs’ life.
After discovering that he shared the same blood group, Cook went through a set of tests to check whether a part of his liver can be given which ended positively. When Cook met Jobs to share the good news he was furious about it and rejected him even though he was in need of a donor. These were lines from the book on what he said,
He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth, ‘No’, he said. I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that. Somebody that’s selfish, doesn’t reply like that. I mean, here’s a guy, he’s dying, he’s very close to death because of his liver issue, and here’s someone healthy offering a way out. I said, ‘Steve, I’m perfectly healthy, I’ve been checked out. Here’s the medical report. I can do this and I’m not putting myself at risk, I’ll be fine.’ And he doesn’t think about it. It was not, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ It was not, ‘I’ll think about it.’ It was not, ‘Oh, the condition I’m in . . .’ It was, ‘No, I’m not doing that!’ He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them.
Tim Cook is a loving man and filled with compassion, he was and is theright choice for the CEO position at Apple Inc. A man to look up to.
Victoria Kimani is a Kenyan musician and songwriter; she was born in Los Angeles, United States of America.
Early Life
Victoria Kimani grew up in Benin City, Nigeria while her parents were doing missionary work; her parents are pastors and she is the youngest of three kids.
She wanted to be a singer at the age of 9, she enjoyed singing especially gospel, and to her it is a means to express love. Victoria Kimani began to write and perform some of her songs at the age of 16. Music is in her genes, her father was a singer and guitarist. She also sang in the choir at some point. She later became a backup singer to a female Kenyan musician popularly known as Mercy Maya when she relocated to Kenya after high school.
When asked what inspires her music, Victoria Kimani says:
life experiences, both personal and others around me, Love, or the idea of it, Parties, troubles, anything and everything inspire my music.’
Progressing To Stardom
In 2009 she joined a duo called Club Embassy and signed to Los Angeles Laker Ron Artest, they released a mix tape called Diplomatic Immunity hosted by 50 cent’s DJ Whoo Kid, which got over 250,000 downloads and created a lot of Industry buzz. The duo split in 2010 and began working on solo projects.
In 2010, Victoria Kimani performed a cover of Ice Prince’s hit single OLEKU which caught the attention of Chocolate City executives. In 2012, she got signed to Chocolate City Kenya as the first act to be signed on to Chocolate City Kenya.
Since then, she has released several hit singles, her first Single and music video since signing to Africa’s most prestigious and cross over record labels, Chocolate City was called M’TOTO and it is tearing up airwaves and clubs across Africa and the UK. Her Second single and music video Oya feat. MI was the first Kenyan video to be premiered on VEVO. In 2015, she collaborated with Cynthia Morgan and Emma Nyra on a girl power hit single Vex.
Victoria Kimani talked about her parent’s reaction to her kind of music and how she presents herself on an interview with Thisday:
Now my parents are used to it. I’ve been singing for a long time, so by now I think they are used to it. And as long as I am conservative and properly dressed, its fine with them. They won’t want reports from members of their church saying we saw your daughter on television and she was scantily dressed (laughs). And even when they try to complain about my outfits, I just show them a picture of Lady Gaga or Nicki Minaj and I’ll be like mum, ‘am not that bad, see what these people are wearing’.
Over the years, Victoria has travelled between Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and London working with a few top artists and producers including Chris Brown, Diggy Simmons and Timberland among others. The sexy Victoria Kimani is making her mark in the industry
Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie a.k.a Patoranking is a Nigerian songwriter, dancehall and reggae vocalist. He was born on the 27th of May, 1990.
Early Life
Patoranking hails from Ebonyi state, Nigeria; he grew up in Ijegun Egba Satellite Town and later relocated to Ebute Metta. Patoranking attended Citizen Comprehensive College Epe, and later attended Jibril Martin Memorial Grammar School in Iponri. Growing up, he listened to music of the likes of Buju Banton, Bob Marley, Fela, Shakar Demus and P lies.
Career
He was a street jam and carnival dancer, he danced to all kind of music especially ghetto made music and he also appeared in some local musical videos. He switched from dancing to miming and rapping in school with friends in the ghetto going by the name Patorico.
In 2003, Patoranking joined a six man Afro hip hop group known as Da Flavour Squad as the lead vocal. He was the youngest and they performed in a lot of shows within and outside Lagos, he left the group after a while for a solo career. He got nicknamed Patoranking by a Jamaican artist that he met at Alpha Beach in Lagos. The Jamaican loved his music and respected his personality, so he nicknamed him ‘Patoranking’ – ranking means highly respected and Pato was added to form Patoranking.
Patoranking did underground collaborations with artists such as XProject, Konga, Slam and Reggie Rockstone before he got signed to a record deal with K-Solo’s Igberaga Records in 2010, releasing ‘Up in D Club’ under the outfit.
The talented Patoranking, on May 2012; released a single Iya Bisi which featured Qdot and Kbaj. Iya Bisi is a fusion of dancehall and Fuji and was produced by Drumphase.
On September 2013, Patoranking released the video and audio for Alubarika, the song’s reception was good and it increased his fan base, it also showcased his talent and attracted established musicians who wanted to work with him. Alubarika featured Timaya and it means God’s Blessings. Patoranking describes the song as a summary of his life as a musician.
Patoranking ended his affiliation with Dem Mama Records and signed a record deal with Foston Musik. In 2014, he released a hit single under Foston Musik, Girlie O which shot him to the limelight. Later that same year, he did a remix of Girlie O and featured Tiwa Savage; the song won Patoranking several awards including the Next Rated award at the Headies Award 2014.
Awards
Since then, his music career has improved; he has released several songs and also bagged several awards which includes: City People Entertainment Awards- Dancehall/Reggae Act of the year 2014, and Best African Art of the year at the Vodafone Ghana Music Award (VGMA). Patoranking got a multi million naira endorsement deal from merrybet in 2014.
Patoranking’s key musical influences are Buju Banton, Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Lucky Dube, Chaka Demus, Majek Fashek, Blackky, Blackface, Tuface and Marvelous Benjy. He is a sensational upcoming artists that is determined to make it in the industry.
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational banking and financial services holding company, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with “hubquarters” throughout the country.
Banking giant Wells Fargo has more than 100 million square feet of real estate around the globe, so it has a big interest in even seemingly small energy savings.
CEO of Wells Fargo Bank
That’s why it launched an incubator for startups, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Lab, and it’s a backer of Chicago-based Clean Energy Trust’s annual startup competition, held this week.
Among the four companies selected for Wells Fargo’s virtual incubator is three-year-old SmarterShade, launched by a trio of former Notre Dame students.
SmarterShade came up with an energy-saving technology for window shades that uses polarizing films rather than typical “Smart window” solutions that require power or chemical reactions to darken glass.
SmarterShade will work with Wells Fargo and the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., to continue developing its technology for windows in residential and commercial construction.
“We’ve got 100 million square feet of real estate, so we need solutions,” said Ashley Grosh, vice president of environmental affairs at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo.
The incubator is just one of several competitions SmarterShade has won since Will McLeod, Ryan Tatzel and Michael Stacey came up with the business idea for a competition at Notre Dame.
CEO of SmarterShade
Last year the firm won a $50,000 grant funded by McCaffery Interests at the Clean Energy Trust startup competition.
So far SmarterShade has raised about $2 million, much of it from grants and competitions, Stacey said.
“Product-based companies take time and money to develop,” Stacey said.
“The incubator will help us gather the data and establish proof points we need to make sales.”
The Innovation Incubator program is one of several efforts by Wells Fargo that are part of a $100 million philanthropic commitment to the environment.
The financial services company also is one of the institutions that provide $1 million in prize money for the Clean Energy Trust’s annual startup competition.
This year’s Clean Energy Challenge competition was held April 14.
