What You Need to Know Today: November 13
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
Two cable companies are betting on virtual reality. “What makes NextVR attractive as an investment is that it already has experience streaming major events in virtual reality. In the past month, it was CNN’s key VR partner for streaming the first Democratic debate, and NextVR technology also powered Turner Sport’s VR broadcast of an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans,” says Fortune. Find out what two major cable companies want in on VR.
Airbnb introduces ‘smart pricing.’ Yesterday, Airbnb held a conference in Paris where the company unveiled some new tools for Airbnb hosts. The most discussed tool was Airbnb’s new ‘smart pricing’ feature. Think Uber surge pricing, but for Airbnb rentals. The company claims that when hosts set their prices within 5 percent of the suggested price range (set by Airbnb), their bookings increase by four times. So instead of having to manually set prices everyday, as this range fluctuates, Airbnb wants to set prices for you. Cue customer outrage.
CAREER
This guy built a $2 billion company and now drives an Uber. In University I worked as a server at a banquet hall. Every few months I would hear my manager telling the owner about an event she attended at one of the competing halls in our city. She’d say things like, “I noticed the servers tackled one table at a time in pairs during dinner service. Meals came out a lot faster,” or “Dessert was served after speeches. No one ate. It was bad.” Every savvy business owner knows they should be buying, and trying, their competitors best- and worst-selling products. But few actually do. Paul English, former CTO and co-founder of Kayak is not driving an Uber because he enjoys it, he’s driving an Uber because he wants to experiencethe one thing every Uber driver has to feel.
How to blow $100,000 saving money. Are you entrepreneur A) or entrepreneur B)? Both entrepreneurs started with nothing, they spent only the bare minimum to build their businesses to where they were generating monthly revenue. Entrepreneur A) decides to start spending some of this new revenue on A/B testing and analytics software to augment his business. Entrepreneur B) decides to continue saving by bootstrapping these augmentations. He spends his weekends building A/B testing software, and asks his team to build an analytics program. Entrepreneur A) makes the better choice. Here’s why. Note: There are times when you should NOT invest in your business (most people make this mistake). Skip to the last section to find out.
LIFESTYLE
5 years ago this millennial was living in a shelter with her kids. Now she’s accepting the Robin Hood Hero award for her work with Coalition for the Homeless. Jessie Garcia’s story reminds us to give back. Read her story here on Human’s of New York, then watch this short speech Garcia gave after accepting the Robin Hood Hero award.
Missy Elliott dropped her first single in 3 years. She’s still got it.
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#NOWYOUKNOW
“Jimmy Burke has a big score at the airport coming up, and you’re invited to go.”
On Thursday, mobster Vincent Asaro was acquitted of charges he helped plan the legendary 1978 Lufthansa heist retold in Goodfellas. Something you probably don’t know about Goodfellas is the famous “funny” scene [explicit language] with Joe Pesci actually happened IRL: While working in a restaurant, a young Pesci apparently told a mobster that he was funny — a compliment that was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response. Pesci relayed the anecdote to Scorsese, who decided to include it in the film. Scorsese didn’t include the scene in the shooting script so that Pesci and Liotta’s interactions would elicit genuinely surprised reactions from the supporting cast.
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