Founding Moments: Keith Gordon & 1871’s Black Founder Directory

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“Part of being an entrepreneur is learning how to solve those itches, that voice in your head every single day. For me, that voice in my head was telling me to open a computer shop, despite the odds.”

Keith Gordon started his entrepreneurial journey at 15, when he joined an After School Matters high school program that taught him to take apart computers and put them back together. As Keith tells it, he started his first business “on accident” when people began handing him their computers to fix, launching a life-long pursuit to learn and grow. 

Today Keith is the founder of We Love Code, a full-stack, product development agency that works with non-technical teams and entrepreneurs to build, maintain and upgrade websites. Keith is also an active member and mentor in the 1871 community, where he is leading the effort to create the Black Founder Directory—a centralized and searchable listing that will allow potential customers, partners, and investors to more easily support and work with our members. 

We’re thrilled to announce that the Black Founder Directory is now live! It has been long overdue for Chicago to have a way to find Black entrepreneurs running companies, and we are proud to unveil it during Black History Month as a testament to the work that needs to be done. 

“We’re incredibly lucky to have Keith as a member of our 1871 community,” said Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871. “He’s a talented entrepreneur, an innovative technologist, and most of all a wonderful, caring person. I’m proud that we’ve had the opportunity to partner with Keith as a contractor on the Black Founder Directory and thankful for his leadership and devotion to making Chicago tech a more inclusive space.”

So what’s Keith’s secret for success when following that itch to learn? 

“I’m not afraid to go outside my comfort zone every day,” he said, “and that’s what makes this thing called entrepreneurship so fun.”

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Founding Moments

“Founding Moments” is 1871’s early-stage member series that spotlights our members, their journey, and the moments that made them. 

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1871 and Catapult join forces to drive collective acceleration for experienced, early stage founders.

CHICAGO (February 17th) — 1871 and Catapult Chicago are excited to announce today that they have entered into a binding agreement pursuant to which Catapult’s intellectual property assets and programs will be acquired by and integrated into 1871. 

Founded in 2012, 1871 and Catapult share a similar history, mission, and vision of driving economic growth in Chicago and across the region by supporting entrepreneurs building extraordinary businesses. As long-time, dedicated partners in the city’s tech community, many successful start-ups have participated in the programming of both organizations. Unified by the goal of increasing the probability of success for businesses and shortening the time frame to reach that success, this integration will elevate the experience for all members, alumni, and partners. 

As a result of today’s announcement, members of both organizations will join together under the 1871 name. Catapult members will have the opportunity to benefit from 1871’s resources and scale. Additionally, 1871 will incorporate Catapult’s peer-selected and community-driven structure into the “Grow” stage of its PYROS program, which will be renamed “Catapult.” This structure will emphasize peer-to-peer interactions, introducing a tight-knit community where experienced, early stage members can support one another as they scale their businesses.  

“Catapult has long served as an important partner in the Chicago tech community. Their unique model of peer-selection and founder-focused programming will be a welcome addition to our 1871 community and our world-class offerings,” said Larry Eppley, Chairman of 1871 and Managing Partner of Sheppard Mullin’s Chicago office. “1871 is proud to be joining forces with Catapult and carrying on its legacy as we continue to inspire, equip and support our members.”

Catapult’s capabilities will strengthen 1871’s holistic approach to the founder experience by creating greater opportunities to deliver targeted resources, experiences, and connections. In February 2020, 1871 added the growth-stage programming of the Illinois Technology Association (ITA), and today’s agreement further adds to this momentum by building a new and necessary bridge between early stage businesses and growth-stage companies. 

“Both nonprofit organizations launched around the same time, playing a central role in growing and shaping Chicago’s startup community. By coming together with 1871, Catapult’s membership, both current and alumni, will act as a force multiplier for 1871’s well-established, diverse, and extensive ecosystem. We anticipate the enhanced access to experienced other founders and increased number of educational opportunities offered by strategic partners will elevate and expedite our startups’ growth trajectory exponentially,” says Josh Berman, Catapult Board Member and Executive Director.

Guided by the ethos that a diverse and supportive community of peers can create collective success, Catapult has fostered a well-known legacy of spurring growth in the Chicago tech sector. Together, its members have raised more than $410 million in funding during the organization’s nine years of operation. 1871 is proud to carry on the Catapult model of cross-company collaboration and amplify its members’ reach and resonance across a wider network. 

“Catapult was founded by founders for founders. Our goal has always been to provide a supportive and accessible environment for innovative startups to grow and learn from each other. Integrating Catapult’s community into 1871 is an extremely exciting next step for the organization,” added Ryan Leavitt, Catapult Founder and Board President. “The effects of COVID-19 require a new way for founders to build and nurture relationships. I am confident the coming together of our two leading organizations will serve our Catapult Community and the greater startup universe in extraordinary ways.” 

“Organizations such as Catapult and the work they do for early stage businesses are what make Chicago one of the best places to build a business,” said Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871. “Following the power of “and” is an important aspect of our vision, so we firmly believe that through this acquisition and integration, we can better serve members throughout every stage of their development and expand our collective reach in Chicago, Illinois, and across the Midwest.”

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About 1871

1871 is Chicago’s technology hub and the #1 ranked private business incubator in the world. It exists to inspire, equip, and support early stage, growth scalers and innovators in building extraordinary businesses. 1871 is home to ~450 technology startups, ~400+ growth stage companies, and ~1,500 members, and is supported by an entire ecosystem focused on accelerating their growth and creating jobs in the Chicagoland area. The member experience includes virtual and in person access to workshops, events, mentorship, and more. The nonprofit organization has 350 mentors available to its members, alongside access to more than 100 partner corporations, universities, education programs, accelerators, venture funds and others. Since its inception in 2012, more than 650 alumni companies are currently still active, have created over 11,000 jobs, and have raised more than $1.65 billion in follow-on capital.

About Catapult Chicago

Designed for a flexible work environment, Catapult’s boutique setting goes beyond our Class A+ office to initiate powerful connections and sleeves-rolled-up programming for start-up founders and their leadership teams. Our unique peer-to-peer membership pitch program ensures a diverse and supportive group of high-growth companies function like a board of advisors. Established in 2012, our companies have scaled raising ~ $410 million in capital. 

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The Illinois Angel Investment Tax Credit Program encourages investment in innovative, early-stage companies to help obtain the working capital needed to further the growth of their company in Illinois. Investors in companies that are certified as Qualified New Business Ventures (QNBVs) can receive a state tax credit equal to 25% of their investment (up to $2 million). 

A total of $10 million in Angel Investment tax credits are allocated in CY 2019, 2020 and 2021. Credits will be released by quarter, on a first-come first-served basis. Once tax incentive credits for a particular quarter are exhausted, no further credits can be allocated until the subsequent quarter. The allocation schedule can be found here. 

***We have recently launched a webinar series to learn more about this program.***

If you are a startup and interested in this program, find webinars here. 

If you are an investor and interested in this program, find webinars here. 

Find the full article here

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How do our utilities partners ensure that key IT systems will remain functional during extreme weather events such as thunderstorms, hurricanes and winter blizzards? The answer: by performing Seasonal Readiness Testing.

The Seasonal Readiness Test (SRT) is an integrated end-to-end performance test of select storm-critical applications and interfaces, such as Outage Management (OMS), Mobile Workforce Management (MWFM), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems, for the purpose of verifying operational readiness ahead of summer and winter storm seasons. Such performance testing is crucial for assessing the health of an integrated application environment and its ability to handle high volume outages during a storm.

Olenick leads Seasonal Readiness Performance Testing using simulated system loads that span a range of storm levels from very small to extreme. Under these various system loads, we verify that applications do not fail, that queries complete in a reasonable amount of time, and that response times of user actions are realistic.  We have also recently introduced a rapid and pronounced storm profile to simulate customer traffic under worst-case conditions.

Olenick has been on the front line of this high-priority performance testing initiative with our Utilities partners for several years, including leading the first-ever company-wide SRT for a large U.S. based multi-Operating Company (OPCO) Investor Owned Utility (IOU).

Specific Test Scenarios for the SRT include:

Inbound outage reports, status inquiries and events

  • From customer interaction channels (Web, Mobile, CSR, IVR, and Text Messaging)
  • From the distribution network

Operational Procedures

  • Dispatchers
  • Crews
  • Storm Operations Roles
  • Management

Olenick led two first-of-their-kind SRT tests for a major utility in 2019. In May 2019 the Olenick team led the execution of our client’s first end-to-end Seasonal Readiness Test, encompassing twenty-six (26) connected applications across four of the utility’s Operating Companies. Olenick orchestrated the test, created and ran automation, and was responsible for compiling, analyzing, and reporting results.

This work has continued into our current project leading our client’s bi-annual Seasonal Readiness Test, which now covers thirty-nine (39) integrated and fully connected Storm Management, Communication, and Restoration applications. Work continues in support of multiple Operating Companies.

Olenick’s repeatable testing process facilitates multiple test runs each year and covers comprehensive SRT services including test development, planning, execution and reporting for the storm performance tests, as well as project management and automation.

Some of Olenick’s SRT best practices include:

  • SRT Target Loads (Minor Storm, Major Storm, Mega Storm) are based on the number of customer outages during actual storms experienced by each OpCo dating back to 2003.
  • Where possible, we replay actual outages from the peak hours of previous storms.
  • We leverage application architectural diagrams that depict key system connections and data flows to architect the test automation and identify monitoring points.

To read the full article, click here.

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Chicago, February 2, 2021 – Centro (www.centro.net), a global provider of advertising technology, announced a free and expanded virtual curriculum for digital advertising—available through its Centro Certified learning programs. Centro Certified’s Essentials is a series of self-guided classes for mastering key elements of digital advertising. The series launched in 2020, with nearly 1000 professionals meeting certification for Digital Media Essentials. Newly available are Search Essentials and Social Media Essentials, with additional courses for Programmatic 2.0, TV Buying, Data, and more, to be released in 2021. To register for all Essentials courses, visit: https://www.centro.net/institute/certified.

Centro Certified is an AdExchanger Awards 2020 finalist for Best Education Program. It offers subject matter expertise, collaborative group discussion, and relevant coursework at no cost. Essentials courses cover the basics of ad industry subject matter and educate on ad buying platforms, media strategy, campaign optimization and more. It is designed for junior professionals and advertising veterans alike, who are newcomers to digital ad fields.

“Centro will bring our knowledge to learners wherever they are. The tenet for Centro Certified Essentials is to create accessibility within the digital advertising field for any growth-minded professional,” said Ryan Manchee, VP of media innovations and technology at Centro. “Free educational resources available virtually, from any location at any time, is an important foundation for our industry’s advancement and has been a part of Centro since our founding two decades ago.”

Centro Certified programs meet the needs of all learners, remote and in-office, to deliver robust understanding of digital markets. Other tiers of Certified courses offer advanced instruction for Centro’s clients and partners, via virtual summits, live training events and on-demand video tutorials, with certifications in foundational knowledge, advanced strategies, and new business development. Once participants complete the coursework and pass a comprehensive test, they receive digital badges to verify their mastery and officially become ‘Centro Certified’.

Centro Certified is a component of Centro Institute, a set of resources encompassing educational programs, content and events. Its content range from current industry trends, to fundamental knowledge and advanced best practices. Other offerings within Centro Institute include workshops, webinars, leadership forums and podcasts. More than 13,000 professionals participated in these events collectively, over the last year.

Centro’s expertise via multiple channels of digital advertising is being honed through the development of its flagship technology for marketers—Basis. Basis is the industry’s most comprehensive, automated, and intelligent digital media platform, and is the only software solution of its kind to consolidate digital operations across programmatic, direct, connected TV (CTV), search, and social campaigns.

To learn more, visit: https://www.centro.net/institute. Agencies and marketers interested in attending any of the programs can email institute@centro.net.

About Centro

Centro (https://www.centro.net) is a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising organizations. Its technology platform, Basis, is the first of its kind SaaS advertising solution unifying programmatic and direct media buying, along with workflow automation, cross-channel campaign planning, universal reporting and business intelligence. It boosts media, team and business performance by enabling advertisers to plan, buy and analyze real-time bidding (RTB), direct, advanced TV, search and social campaigns in a single platform. Headquartered in Chicago with 44 offices covering North America, South America and Europe, Centro has received numerous accolades for its commitment to employees and workplace culture.

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Originally posted here.

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At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time-consuming. To make that easier, we’ve compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!

IAB 2021 Marketplace Outlook [:09]

The IAB’s final impact study of 2020 showcases that buyers are optimistic about 2021 and expect a 6% overall increase in their 2021 budget (versus estimated actual spend in 2020). However, they have concerns about: 1) Preparing for a cookie-less future / loss of identifiers, 2) the need for 1st party data, and 3) cross-platform measurement solutions.

This Year, Next Year: Global 2020 End-of-Year Forecast Report from GroupM [:09]

Despite the grim realities of a global economy that will be the worst since the Great Depression, advertising weathered the storm relatively well and will end up at declining by “only” 5.8% on an underlying basis (excluding-U.S. political advertising).

This annual report examines the eight largest markets—the U.S., China, Japan, the U.K., Germany, France, South Korea and Canada, and predicts that the global advertising market for 2021 will see 12.3% growth.

8 Marketing Trends to Watch For in 2021 as Aftereffects of a Volatile Year Linger [:14]

While 2020 is *finally* over, it’s set to be another volatile year for marketers. One item which remains top priority is first-party data. As cookies and mainstay methods of in-app tracking change, developing the personal connection with consumers will become essential. While there is no shortage of options in picking partners, there will be fresh new opportunities with companies like TikTok, Walmart, Target, Walgreens and Kroger.

The Jig Is Up : The End of the Identity Workaround [:04]

Just because there are workarounds to online ad restrictions doesn’t mean they should be taken. Both Google and Apple are weeding them out in the name of customer privacy. Most post-cookie solutions have been in other forms of ID-based tracking like device fingerprinting. The biggest risk in pursuing some of the alternatives that have come out are the potential reputational and ethical risks that come along with it.

2020 Was All About Digital Identity – And Expect the Same in 2021 [:03]

With 2021–and massive change–on the horizon for digital identity, there’s a lot of scrambling, with some marketers proactively preparing for the changes, others putting together plans, and some still trying to piece together what is changing and how it may impact their advertising.

What’s the Fate of Location Intelligence in 2021? [:03]

Now that we’ve said goodbye to the dumpster fire that was 2020, it’s time to project what’s to come in the newly arrived year of 2021. Rather than rattle off a list of projected happenings, Street Fight zeroes in on one area that’s central to their coverage: location data.

The Year in TV: A Major Shift to Streaming [:07]

2020 was nothing short of transformational. Major media companies had to adapt to overcome huge problems from a content development and distribution standpoint across the board, including the elimination of sports, the shutdown of production, and originals being pushed back.

Those that were able to adapt successfully saw massive gains in streaming due to more at-home media consumption, solid growth in ad-funded video on demand (AVOD) as consumers looked to cut or minimize extra costs, and an acceleration of innovations with tech integrations.

Global OTT Subs To Grow 65%, to 1.9B, by End of 2025 [:01]

Growth will be driven mainly by broadcasters’ turning to streaming services to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other online video giants. Streaming services need to keep their offerings competitive to retain subscribers.

In-game Advertising Is on the Up — Here’s How it Can Support Your Brand [:04]

Video games have become an important stage for players to keep in touch, interact, and celebrate creativity. While games have always had a social element, today’s leading titles are emerging as the “third place,”or a social environment that people turn to outside of home and work, and a great place to consider exposing consumers to brands.

How Does the eCommerce Experience in China Differ from the West? [:08]

Home to the world’s largest ecommerce market, two of the world’s largest online retailers (JD.com and Alibaba), and more than 900 million internet users, marketing and selling in China is a tantalizing prospect for any western ecommerce company.

But the ecommerce landscape in China, while it has its similarities to the west, is also a distinctive one, with a different set of consumer expectations, different trends, and different interactions with brands. Understanding these differences is the first step towards building a successful strategy for the Chinese market, and for learning what trends could shift west and impact advertising.

Originally posted here.

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International Technological University (ITU) To Pay Settlement for False Claims Allegations to Student Visa Fraud

The International Technological University (ITU) has agreed to settle allegations related to student visa fraud. ITU will pay the United States $1.17 Million under the qui tam (whistle blower) provisions of the False Claim Act.

ITU is a non-profit educational institution located in Santa Clara, California. The organization participates in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program which is a component within the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). HSI certifies educational outlets that focus on enrolling non-immigrant students to qualify for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. For individuals to qualify for a visa under the Program, a foreign national must first apply and be admitted to an approved U.S. educational institution. Then, they can submit a visa application to the Department of State.

This investigation is based on allegations between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2015 that ITU did not comply with federal immigration laws regarding student visas. The investigation was brought by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The allegations claim ITU had knowingly submitted false forms for foreign nationals hoping to qualify for a student visa. As a result, ITU allegedly deprived the United States of visa application fees.

If you have questions regarding the Student and Exchange Visitor Program or any visa related concerns, contact us at ILBSG to get the right advice. Our experienced attorneys work to understand your specific needs, providing expertise guidance for any circumstance.

Originally posted here.

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January 21, 2021 Chicago, IL: Steadfast, a leader for over 20 years in complex cloud consulting, engineering and managed hosting is proud to announce a partnership with NAKA, a minority-owned IT services and consulting provider, that will combine the strengths of NAKA’s assessment and consulting capabilities with the reliability, security and performance of Steadfast Simplicity Cloud Services.

Two Strong IT Companies Come Together to Provide a Deep Evaluation and Blueprint for Performance Hosting and Support

This combination is a true game-changer for businesses looking to modernize and better control their technology.

NAKA dives deep into assessing and strategically approaching an organization’s network infrastructure and virtual assets. This allows companies to truly understand the depth of their IT environments, including vulnerabilities that can affect balance, growth and operational cohesiveness. With a thorough understanding of client environments, NAKA will work with Steadfast cloud engineers and their 20+ year of infrastructure expertise, to design and deploy custom cloud solutions that meet immediate needs and positions clients for continued growth.

The blending of these organizations combines a thorough needs assessment and corresponding cloud solution that is custom-built to those exact needs for the greatest reliability, security, and performance, without the unnecessary and costly resources typically baked into common cloud offerings.

“There is an overwhelming number of name-brand cloud suppliers in the market and trying to choose a provider to help make that move into the cloud can be a scary decision”, states Tim Monner, Steadfast VP Marketing and Business Development. “Our approach is clear. Understand our customers’ unique needs and build for their success. This partnership with NAKA will directly help us both better understand the specific opportunities that customers can take advantage of and how to achieve them.”

NAKA CEO Anil Jagtiani states, “While assessing your IT infrastructure, NAKA’s Center of Excellence (CoE) team evaluate process, performance and security to provide insights into your organization’s infrastructure that helps make decisions on improving operational efficiency along with security posture. Our experts provide detailed analysis of your environment along with an intuitive roadmap for innovation and growth for organization of all sizes. However, our differentiator is customer experience that’s beyond compare with standard solutions, supported by unparalleled experts”.

Interested in Learning More?

If you would like to engage NAKA and Steadfast about a possible cloud assessment or cloud services consultation, please submit a request and one of our team members will reach out to schedule an initial discussion.

About Steadfast

We make IT work, so you can take care of business. Specialists in Cloud Consulting, Engineering and Hosting for over 20 years, Steadfast offers customized services at all stages of design and deployment to maintenance and expansion planning. As an extension of your team, Steadfast will ease technology constraints, making your life easier so you can Strengthen Your Focus on your core business. www.steadfast.net

About NAKA

NAKA, a minority-owned company, headquartered in Hauppauge, NY, is a leading North American IT solutions provider focused on Assessments, Cybersecurity, Managed Services, Strategic Consulting, Staffing Services, and Cloud Enablement. We deliver this technology expertise through a full life cycle model of professional, managed and support services. www.nakatech.com

Contact Steadfast

Tim Monner
VP, Marketing and Business Development
+1.888.281.9449
tim.monner@steadfast.net  

Contact NAKA

Dan Bergschneider
Director of Business Development
+1.773.507.2337 call or text
drb@nakatech.com

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Kossl’s Experience in Large Scale M&A and Funding Builds on Centro’s 2020 Business Momentum; Centro Promotes Executives in Technology Infrastructure, Product, Operations and Data Privacy

Chicago, Jan. 19, 2021 — Centro (www.centro.net), a global provider of advertising technology, announced the appointment of Clayton Kossl as chief financial officer (CFO). By adding a finance leader who has guided companies to large scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and funding transactions, Centro is capitalizing on its business momentum from the past year. Additionally, joining the company’s board of directors is Christian Hendricks, who had led McClatchy’s digital business through two decades and is currently the president of the Local Media Consortium (LMC). Centro also promoted Michael Freiman to chief technology officer (CTO), Hiten Mistry to chief product officer (CPO), Matt Sauls to technology division General Manager and Igor Fey to SVP of data privacy and security.

“Centro’s most successful year, to date, was powered by the explosive growth of Basis, our comprehensive workflow automation and trading platform. Shifting to hyper-growth has propelled us as a landing spot for premier talent in the larger robotic process automation software and media industry,” said Shawn Riegsecker, CEO and Founder of Centro. “Both Clayton Kossl and Christian Hendricks have vast experience guiding organizations as they scale and open new markets, which complements the leadership strength and product that Michael Freiman, Hiten Mistry, Matt Sauls and Igor Fey have driven for Centro.”

Kossl brings a wealth of experience raising capital and stewarding M&A. He was recently CFO of Paintzen, a technology business acquired by PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG). Prior to Paintzen, Kossl served on the finance and strategy team at ZocDoc, a healthcare technology business, where he helped raise capital at a multibillion-dollar valuation. He has served as an advisor, outside CFO, and board member for several businesses and has helped achieve successful outcomes including ZipDrug’s sale to Anthem, Inc. (NYSE: ANTM), and MyClean’s sale to Surge Private Equity.

Hendricks is a recognized figure in the media industry known as a catalyst and provocateur for change and innovation. He is president of the Local Media Consortium, which is made up of more than 80 media companies that include more than 3,300 different outlets. He is also the managing partner at Extol Digital, a management consulting firm providing businesses with growth and execution strategies. Hendricks spent 20+ years leading McClatchy’s digital business units.

Centro’s accelerated growth in the market is being powered by its technology, Basis. Basis is the industry’s most comprehensive, automated, and intelligent digital media platform—and is the only software solution of its kind to consolidate digital operations across programmatic, direct, connected TV (CTV), search, and social campaigns.

Centro is promoting team members playing sizable roles in the development of Basis to continue its rapid innovation and expansion:

  • Freiman (CTO) leads the engineering and big data teams; he drives the security and stability of Centro’s overall technology infrastructure, and crystalizes the insights, intelligence and analysis drawn from its systems.
  • Mistry (CPO) leads the product vision of Basis, having orchestrated its formation by integrating Centro’s media workflow automation software with the SiteScout programmatic advertising platform acquired in 2013.
  • Sauls (GM, Technology Division), co-founder of SiteScout, now oversees cross-functional teams for business operations, RTB ops, and technology partnerships to identify growth opportunities in the market.
  • Fey (SVP, data privacy and security) leads QA and production operations; he establishes data privacy and security protocols and protections across all aspects of Centro’s business to ensure it meets protocol and security standards.

About Centro

Centro (https://www.centro.net) is a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising organizations. Its technology platform, Basis, is the first of its kind SaaS advertising solution unifying programmatic and direct media buying, along with workflow automation, cross-channel campaign planning, universal reporting and business intelligence. It boosts media, team and business performance by enabling advertisers to plan, buy and analyze real-time bidding (RTB), direct, advanced TV, search and social campaigns in a single platform. Headquartered in Chicago with 44 offices covering North America, South America and Europe, Centro has received numerous accolades for its commitment to employees and workplace culture.

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Originally posted here.

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1871’s launches BLK•Tech in partnership with Verizon, an accelerator for Black entrepreneurs in the tech industry starting on February 2, 2021. 

CHICAGO (January 20, 2021) – 1871 is excited to announce the launch of BLK•Tech, a new accelerator group and programming initiative devoted to building Black-led startups in the tech sector that complements their core PYROS curriculum. BLK•Tech in partnership with Verizon, and other founding sponsors such as William Blair, is set to become the latest evolution in 1871’s ongoing mission to foster the next generation of Black entrepreneurs throughout the Midwest and will begin virtually on February 2, 2021. 

1871’s newest launch will work to directly address the needs of Black entrepreneurs in the community and the numerous and unique challenges they face when building a business. BLK•Tech builds upon 1871’s core programming by providing peer-learning, dedicated one-on-one mentorship from fellow Black tech and civic leaders, and exclusive programming designed to increase access to a new world of opportunities for founders. 

“At 1871, our community of engaged founders, growth-scalers, and innovators come from all backgrounds and corners of Chicagoland and beyond. Together, we share a commitment to building a stronger and more equitable tech environment for everyone,” said Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871. “BLK•Tech is both the latest step in our ongoing commitment to being allies in inclusive innovation and the result of various meetings, listening sessions, and conversations with our steering committee of Black founders about the support they need to tackle the unique challenges they face. We’re excited to work with our partners to make this program a reality and to welcome what I hope will be the first of many successful cohorts of Black-led startups.”

1871 is proud to align its services with organizations that are also invested in enhancing critical business pathways for Black entrepreneurs. 

“As part of our larger Citizen Verizon responsible business plan, we’re proud to partner with 1871 and other organizations that connect diverse technology entrepreneurs with crucial resources to develop innovative solutions and advance their businesses,” said Carrie Hughes, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Verizon.

Other founding sponsors of the program include William Blair, among others. “William Blair and its employees have a long history of being engaged in the communities where we live and work, and we are excited to support BLK•Tech. This is a prime opportunity to step up and apply our financial industry expertise to help accelerate entrepreneurs, and foster more diverse businesses and workplaces,” said James O’Connor, managing director, head of Venture Capital at William Blair.

About BLK•Tech

BLK•Tech is designed for Black founders that are either at the ideation or build phase of their business. The program will run for a total of 12 weeks in conjunction with PYROS, and will culminate in an annual demo day showcase.  

Led by a dedicated program manager and entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR), the program is made up of four main parts:

  • Shareouts offer an intimate and confidential space for participants to ask questions, discuss highs and lows from the week, and seek advice. 
  • Leadership development workshops are facilitated by industry experts and entrepreneurial support organizations (ESO), and will feature pertinent topics such as confronting representation syndrome, racism in tech, tackling tough conversations, and more. 
  • Rountables provide founders a chance to discuss openly with a rotating keynote speaker or full panel of successful Black business leaders. 
  • EIR office hours are a reserved time for participants to speak one-on-one with the entrepreneur-in-residence. 

BLK•Tech is one of the accelerator groups in 1871’s PYROS program, a tailored curriculum that offers educational programming and mentorship to members building, launching, and scaling their businesses. PYROS, which was first introduced in 2019, redefined the startup experience through a format that empowers founders at any stage to build out and scale their innovative ideas. BLK•Tech builds on the success of long term programs WISTEM and LatinX, which support women and LatinX founders in the 1871 community. 

The first cohort of BLK•Tech will begin on February 2, 2021 and conclude on April 20, 2020, with subsequent cohorts thereafter, averaging from at least 1 – 2 per year depending on the rotation of 1871’s accelerator programs listed above. Those interested in signing up for BLK•Tech can apply for an 1871 membership to join today.

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About Verizon

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed on June 30, 2000 and is celebrating its 20th year as one of the world’s leading providers of technology, communications, information and entertainment products and services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $131.9 billion in 2019. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.

About 1871

1871 is Chicago’s technology hub and the #1 ranked private business incubator in the world. It exists to inspire, equip, and support founders, growth scalers and innovators in building extraordinary businesses. 1871 is home to ~450 technology startups, ~400+ growth stage companies, and ~1,500 members, and is supported by an entire ecosystem focused on accelerating their growth and creating jobs in the Chicagoland area. The member experience includes virtual and in person access to workshops, events, mentorship, and more. The nonprofit organization has 350 mentors available to its members, alongside access to more than 100 partner corporations, universities, education programs, accelerators, venture funds and others. Since its inception in 2012, more than 650 alumni companies are currently still active, have created over 11,000 jobs, and have raised more than $1.65 billion in follow-on capital.

BLKTech_Logo_With_Verizon

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NIH and PhysIQ Complete Initial Phase of COVID-19 Digital Biomarker Development; Pen Contract for Phase II

CHICAGO, IL – The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), exercised their option to enter Phase II of a multi-phase contract to continue physIQ’s development of an AI-based COVID-19 digital biomarker to address the rapid decompensation of high-risk COVID-19 patients. This exercise of Phase II by the NIH brings the total contract to $6.6 million.

In just 10 weeks, physIQ successfully enrolled and monitored 400 high-risk COVID-19 patients in Phase I of the DeCODe study. “The adoption of and enrollment in the platform by both patients and healthcare providers has been overwhelmingly positive. I believe this speaks to the demand for this type of program, as well as the ease of use and value to the both patient and provider,” said Karen Larimer PhD, ACNP-BC, study PI and physIQ’s Director of Clinical Development.

The DeCODe project, which is in collaboration with University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UI Health), aimed to develop an early warning system allowing providers to intervene when a COVID-19 patient who is clinically surveilled from home begins to worsen. Rather than relying on periodic point measurements, such as temperature and pulse oximetry that are known to be lagging or insensitive indicators of COVID-19 decompensation, continuous multi-parameter vital signs and physiological features were used to establish a targeted biomarker, or COVID-19 Decompensation Index (CDI), for worsening COVID-19.

“Using Phase I data, we developed and tested a preliminary digital biomarker using state of the art machine learning algorithms that take advantage of our extensive library of wearable biosensor analytics as inputs,” said Stephan Wegerich, physIQ’s Chief Science Officer. “Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate performance levels that far exceeded our target performance criterion.  We are looking forward to further validation in Phase II.”

Phase II begins January 2021 where 1,200 patients will be enrolled to validate the digital biomarker. During the validation phase, physIQ will continue to enroll ambulatory participants who are confirmed COVID-19 positive and evaluate the ability for the digital biomarker to predict decompensation severity remote from the hospital.

The study is designed to capture data from a large, diverse population to investigate the digital biomarker’s overall performance, as well as to identify any differences that may exist among subgroups based on age, sex/gender and racial/ethnic characteristics. Preliminary analysis has demonstrated that nearly half of the participants are Latinx and at least one third are Black. With this diverse representation of study participants, it may be possible to better understand how COVID-19 infection specifically impacts these populations.

“UI Health serves some of the most vulnerable, underserved communities in Illinois. These are the communities that COVID-19 has hit the hardest,” stated UI Health Chief Medical Officer, Terry Vanden Hoek MD. “We need to have a deep understanding of how and why COVID-19 is impacting people of color so dramatically. Then we’ll use this data to improve care everywhere.”

This biomarker will build on physIQ’s prior FDA-cleared, AI-based Multivariate Change IndexTM (MCI) that has amassed more than 2 million hours of physiologic data, supporting development of this targeted digital biomarker for COVID-19. This will enable new research and further insight into using digital health to advance the public health response.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. 75N91020C00040.

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About physIQ

PhysIQ is the leader in digital medicine, dedicated to generating unprecedented health insight using continuous wearable biosensor data and advanced analytics.  Its enterprise-ready cloud platform continuously collects and processes data from any wearable biosensor using a deep portfolio of FDA-cleared analytics.  The company has published one of the most rigorous clinical studies to date in digital medicine and are pioneers in developing, validating, and achieving regulatory approval of Artificial Intelligence-based analytics.  With applications in both healthcare and clinical trial support, physIQ is transforming continuous physiological data into insight for health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies.

For more information, please visit www.physIQ.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Originally posted here.

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“Leadership, at its core, in my view, is about being personal.” President Joe Biden

It is this very quality that President Biden possesses that gives millions of immigrants across the country hope and faith that better days might just be ahead of them. Immigration was a core topic during Biden’s election campaign, and he has indicated that he intends to make immigration one of his top priorities during his term as President. The question remains: what will that look like for the millions of immigrants who are waiting with bated breath and for the business community, who rely on immigrant workers for their high skills and specialized knowledge?

Biden has announced that he would nominate Alejandro Mayorkas for the position of Director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Mayorkas, a Cuban-born lawyer and one of the architects of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] program, was previously the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, during the Obama administration. He would be the first Latino and first immigrant to hold this position – something that is being hailed as a historic moment. As Biden has noted – he is looking to Mayorkas as someone who “….. will play a critical role in fixing our broken immigration system and understands that living up to our values and protecting our nation’s security aren’t mutually exclusive — and under his leadership, they’ll go hand-in-hand.”

Biden’s nominations for key Immigration Agency positions and White House Staff appear to be intentional and almost always ties into his narrative of securing America’s values as a Nation of Immigrants. This is further reflected in his pick of Tyler Moran as Special Assistant to the President for Immigration for the Domestic Policy Council and of Esther Olavarria as the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Immigration. Tyler Moran previously served in the Domestic Policy Council [DPC] in the Obama-Biden White House and had worked on the DACA program while Esther Olavarria, born in Cuba and emigrated to the United States in 1962 with her family, has also worked at the Immigration Hub, the Center for American Progress and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Biden’s first 100 days:

Biden’s vision for immigration reform under his administration has been led by a desire to “safeguard our security, provide a fair and just system that helps to grow and enhance our economy, and secure our cherished values.’” As per Biden’s campaign, he has indicated that his priorities within the first 100 days of his administration would include:

  • Reversal of the Public Charge regulation: This regulation requires foreign nationals to disclose their financial history, including whether they have used public benefits in the past. This new regulation allows USCIS officers to take such factors into account in a “totality of circumstances” test in determining the granting of certain immigration benefits. Biden has expressed that this policy “undermines America’s character as land of opportunity that is open and welcoming to all, not just the wealthy.”
  • Protection of Dreamers: The Obama-Biden administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 to protect “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, obeyed the law once here, and stayed in school or enlisted in the military. Under the Trump administration, DACA had been terminated and there continues to be legal action in the courts against this ruling. Biden has mentioned that he intends to reinstate DACA and explore options to provide the Dreamers and their parents a roadmap to citizenship through legislative immigration reform.
  • Review of Temporary Protected Status [TPS] rescissions, explore path to citizenship through legislation: Biden has indicated that he intends to order an immediate review of the Trump administration’s rescission of TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders.
  • Rescission of Executive Order 13769, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.
  • Streamline naturalization process: The Biden campaign has indicated it intends to improve the current naturalization process by “addressing the application backlog by prioritizing the adjudication workstream and ensuring applications are processed quickly and rejecting the imposition of unreasonable fees.” 

Long-term employment-based priorities:

The President had maintained throughout his campaign – and in more recent times – that he envisions a modern immigration system – one that  attracts the “best and the brightest” talents to the U.S. and in turn incentivizes foreign talent to seek out employment in the U.S. President Biden has also indicated he would like to bring about changes and reverse some of the Trump administration’s executive orders to bring about an ease for employers to employ foreign talent and continue to leverage the “best and the brightest” applicants that come to the U.S. Some of the changes that the Biden administration has indicated that they will focus on are:

  • High-skill nonimmigrant reforms
  • Wage-based allocation process for H-1B
  • Prevent “crowding out” of high-skilled workers by entry-level workers
  • Support legislation to eliminate per-country Employment based Green Card quotas
  • Support legislation to increase EB IV quota
  • Temporary quota reductions during periods of high U.S. unemployment
  • Quota exemption for recent U.S. STEM Ph.D. graduates
  • Support new visa category to allow cities and countries to petition for higher levels of immigrants to increase economic growth
  •  H-2B reforms and streamlining
  • Strengthening employer compliance and enforcement

There are many open questions that remain; specifically, the Biden administration has not explicitly provided any indication of its plans for such immigration issues as:

  • Presidential proclamations on H/L/J [non immigration visa categories] visa issuance, immigrant visa applicant health insurance, and COVID-19 travel restrictions
  • H-1B cap number allocation
  • H-1B eligibility criteria
  • L-1 visa policy
  • F-1 admission periods, practical training
  • B-1 business visitor policy
  • EB-5 investor visa policy

The reality is that as President Biden assumes the office of the President of the United States of America, he will be faced with several challenges – all of them competing for his attention and immediate action. It is expected that Biden’s first priority will be COVID-19 and stabilizing the economy. Amid all of this, from an immigration perspective, it is important to temper our expectations from the incoming administration as to what it will be able to achieve in its first 100 days. Since his election, Biden has urged a sense of patience while his administration begins the long process of undoing some of the current administration’s policies. He has indicated that this will take time and he would like his administration to “get it right,” instead of causing more chaos.

As Bruna Bouhid, communications director of United We Dream, the first and largest immigrant youth-led organization stated – “There’s so much energy on what we can do in a Biden-Harris administration.” This was further echoed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association [AILA] President Jennifer Minear in her statements post-election – “AILA stands ready to offer solutions that will help undo the previous administration’s harmful immigration policies and to work toward a better future for all of us.”  It appears that with the incoming Biden-Harris administration, there has been a renewed vigor and faith within the immigration and business community. The expectation appears to be one of stability, predictability and accountability, together with reinstating a sense of respect for immigrants throughout the country.

Originally posted on https://www.fragomen.com/.

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Are You at Risk? 

While you are working from home, it’s important to stay current with the latest online security tips. Hackers know that there is a lack of communication between employees working from home, so they will use every tactic they can to gain access to your company’s information. Here are a few online security tips you should know to stay safe.

Stop Ignoring That Software Update

That software update pop-up always appears right when we are in the middle of something. Often, users ignore their software updates for months. The problem with this is software updates are designed to keep your computer current with the latest safety and processing features. So next time, take a minute to update that software. Better updated than hacked! 

Defend Enemy Lines 

You can’t talk about online security tips without discussing anti-virus and firewall. Installing anti-virus software and a firewall is a cruel step in protecting your data and devices. Think of these as a filter. They are limiting the number of viruses and scams that you encounter. We all have human error so limiting the amount of spam we have to detect is key.

Consider Password Management Tools 

Remembering multiple, intricate passwords can be difficult. If you find yourself concerned about your ability to keep track of your passwords, consider using a password management tool as part of your cybersecurity program.  

Password management tools such as LastPass can help you create, access, and manage strong passwords across several accounts and devices simultaneously. Entrusting your password protection to an outside source may be intimidating but doing so will ultimately lessen the appeal of reusing passwords and, in the long run, will enhance your protection.  

Working from Home Securely 

One of the biggest online security tips to note is staying informed. Enroll in phishing training, keep your systems running with the latest updates, and know how to protect your devices from bad actors. Everything stems from putting in the time and research on how to stay safe online, whether you are working back in the office or from your living room.

For more IT news, blogs, and industry insights throughout the week, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Original article: https://empist.com/online-security-tips-for-working-from-home/

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Amazon is always improving, but it’s no secret that the platform still lags behind other digital advertising giants when it comes to offering insights in a simple, user-friendly format.Doesn’t mean this info doesn’t exist, but it can be difficult to find and even more difficult to finesse into something worthy of presentation.

With all its day-to-day metrics such as Sales, Spend, ACoS, NTB, it’s easy to get lost and lose sight of some of the high-level metrics your boss, direct reports, or clients want. After all, how often have you come to a meeting prepared with a full table of ACoS data only to be stumped by the question, “What products are performing best in the ads?” or, “How much are we spending on this product?” 

Again, this information is available on Amazon, it just is hard to put into a simple report. Fortunately, with some time spent upfront with the steps in this guide (and the use of a few free tools), the whole process can be fairly quick.

Step 1: Pull an Advertised Product Report

You can find the report by logging into the Amazon advertising console, going to “Reports,” “Create Report,” and then clicking on “Advertised Product.” For the purposes of this article, we’ll use a Professional Seller account. 

Once you’ve selected the report, you can set the time frame as well as the Time unit (either Summary, which will aggregate the product data over your selected Report period, or Daily, which will segment the product data by day — this can be a very large report if you have a large number of SKUs and cover a long Report period).

This can be a tedious process if you’re doing it every week — especially if there are other Amazon reports you need to pull and/or you manage other accounts. Fortunately, Amazon makes it a bit easier for you by offering the option to automatically have the report delivered to your email address (it doesn’t need to be your account login; it can be emailed to anyone).

For that, simply select the “Recurring” option under “Schedule,” set your frequency and preferred delivery day, and then select an appropriate End date — this is when the report will cease to regularly pull. If you are running recurring reports, be sure to take note of your End date, because you may want to extend the recurrence period!

When configuring the report, it’s usually best to pull data at least a week (and preferably two weeks) in arrears — so if you’re pulling a report on the 25th, the latest data you’ll want to pull should be the 18th (and preferably the 11th). The reason is that revenue data for Amazon tends to have a good deal of latency — ad data such as clicks, spend, impressions and so on are fairly reliable in real time, but revenue (and in turn ACoS) are almost never real time. The nice thing is that you’re almost always in for a pleasant surprise each time you log in, with revenue increasing and ACoS decreasing, but the bad thing is if something is wrong with a campaign, it can take some time for you to notice.

Either way, always account for the lag time when pulling your reports.

We typically schedule ours to pull on a weekly basis, a week or two in arrears, and looking back over the last 30 days. That leads to pasting over a lot of data, but it’s going to be more accurate.

In terms of the report itself, whether the data is broken down by day, week, or month is entirely up to you, but if you’re following along with this guide, we recommend breaking the data down by month…

To read the full article, you can find it here.

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Relativity Acquires VerQu, a Data Management Software Company

Together with VerQu, Relativity’s SaaS platform will transform how organizations handle collaboration and chat data, and connect directly to archives

CHICAGO and RARITAN, NJ – January 6, 2021 – Relativity, a global legal and compliance technology company, today announced that it has acquired VerQu, a data management software company that helps organizations migrate and capture communication data for record retention and compliance purposes. The integration of VerQu into Relativity’s SaaS products will transform how organizations handle collaboration and chat data, and massively accelerate the ability to collect, analyze, monitor and review all types of unstructured data seamlessly and securely.

“It’s imperative that the legal and compliance industries stay ahead of and evolve with the changing nature of work in organizations globally,” said Mike Gamson, CEO at Relativity. “Enterprise communications will continue to shift rapidly and scale from traditional channels like email toward chat and collaboration platforms. That’s why Relativity is committed to investing in technology that connects directly to native cloud data sources for surveillance and e-discovery workflows, evolving the data paradigm from documents to include conversations.”

Relativity will welcome VerQu’s team that includes top-level engineers and project managers who have a deep knowledge and understanding of data management and the ever-changing information technology landscape. Founded in 2013, VerQu has successfully served domestic and global organizations ranging from small and medium sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

“Since 2013, VerQu has worked to create a data management and migration service to provide a best-in-class customer experience that anticipates our clients’ future needs. Joining Relativity is a natural next step to evolve how our products ingest data and combine that with a platform that enables users to analyze and act on that data natively,” said Frank Perrone, Managing Director at VerQu. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can all do in e-discovery and surveillance when we integrate the power of our teams and technologies.”

In 2020 alone, there were 115M daily average users worldwide using Microsoft Teams and 12M+ users on Slack – where the daily average messages per user per day increased by 20% in 2020. With the nature of work becoming more collaborative across enterprise technology platforms, this data cannot continue to be analyzed like email as teams can lose valuable context and metadata unique to those platforms.

In conjunction with the Relativity integration, VerQu will still offer its current products – Phoenix, Hydra and Hive – and customers will continue to access the products and customer service that they rely on while also having the opportunity to leverage Relativity’s resources.

Once integrated, Relativity’s SaaS platform users will have the ability to:

  • Treat collaboration data like conversations: By leveraging Relativity Short Message Format for more sources rather than treating the data like an email, users will be able to review, monitor, analyze and produce data types in its native format. Users will no longer lose the richness of communication and collaboration data, enabling better use of artificial intelligence to get results more quickly and reduce false positives.
  • Integrate with cloud data sources directly: Cloud-to-cloud integration enables a more secure, efficient and less costly collection process. More than 30 cloud data sources for RelativityOne Collect and Relativity Trace will be available for seamless ingestion into the platform, with accelerated innovation times for emerging data sources.
  • Directly access archives: Direct access to archives like Proofpoint, enables Relativity to easily pull content from a regulated organization’s system of record proactively or reactively. Instead of a multi-step process that requires search, export, migrate, process and upload Relativity can immediately ingest content stored in the archive to RelativityOne for e-discovery or surveillance.

“In addition to the technology this acquisition will bring to market, I’m thrilled to welcome the very talented VerQu team to Relativity,” said Gamson. “With their team joining us, we will not only strengthen our company culture, but strengthen our leadership in data collections of all types.” 

About Relativity 
At Relativity, we make software to help users organize data, discover the truth, and act on it. Our platform is used by more than 13,000 organizations around the world to manage large volumes of data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations, and compliance operations with SaaS platform RelativityOne and Relativity Trace. Relativity has users in 48+ countries from organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, and 199 of the Am Law 200. Relativity has been named one of Chicago’s Top Workplaces by the Chicago Tribune for 10 consecutive years. Please contact Relativity at sales@relativity.com or visit http://www.relativity.com for more information. 

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Many software applications are architected into three logical layers: the User Interface (UI), the Business Logic, and the Data Layer.

A very popular implementation of this architecture is called the Model-View-Controller pattern. A tester should be able to work with tools and concepts that are specific to each layer. When a tester can help pinpoint which layer an error is occurring in, its beneficial to the whole development team. This blog will be focusing on the data layer and the importance of SQL skills for testers and will walk through some common scenarios for testers and work through a solution.

Let’s get started with the first scenario:

Tester Level: Junior

Scenario:

Users of a website can either be a super user or regular user. The UI for super users has a lot more functionality represented with more visible menus and menu items. Tester Terry needs to be able to switch her User account back and forth from regular user to super user in order to work through different test cases in the test plan.

Architect Andrew explains to Tester Terry how to change a user’s rights in the database:

“Just update the integer value in column Level in table User_Rights for the row where the value in column Rights equals Administration. The integer should be set to 1 for regular user or 2 for super user. And by the way, there is foreign key in this table from the Users table so make sure you only change the admin rights for yourself!”

Terry responds, “No problem dude” and goes back to her desk – with 100% confidence that she can accomplish the task because she had just finished a basic SQL tutorial.

Resolution:

Terry needs to write and execute a set of SQL statements to make this happen. She will probably end up running this SQL many times during the project. What tools and SQL concepts will she use?

The tool needed to write and execute SQL statements against a SQL database is called a SQL administration client. There are many varieties of SQL clients to choose from but typically they will use the same tool the database developers use. I typically use Microsoft’s SQL Management Studio since many of our applications use Microsoft SQL Server as the database. Just google “SQL administration clients” to see a ton of other tools available.

Tester Terry will need some additional info from the database team to be able run SQL against the database such as the server name or IP address, the database name, a database username, and its password.

From parsing what Architect Andrew said, Tester Terry knows the following SQL concepts will be involved in a solution: tables, column, integer, primary and foreign keys, selects, updates, where clauses, and joins. (BTW, there are many online tutorials to learn and practice these concepts.)

It’s always wise to do some discovery work by examining the column names and rows in the tables you will be working with. Execute a few select statements with top which will limit the number rows displayed if there are lots of rows in the table. Use an * to see all columns.

Select top 30 * from Users
Select top 10 * from User_Rights

Before writing your SQL, I like to advise people to think about the logical steps needed to accomplish the task and write a quick plan in pseudocode (English fragments). It then becomes easy to convert it to SQL commands.

  1. Find the row that represents you in the User table and get its primary key.
  2. Use that primary key in step 1 to find the correct row in the User_Rights table. Don’t forget to make sure it’s also the “administration” rights row.
  3. For that row, change the value in the “Level” column to 1 or 2.

Always write update and delete SQL as just select statements first to make sure you are grabbing the correct row to process.

Let’s start converting the plan to SQL. Column names are in [].

  1. Select [primaryKey] from Users where [lastName]=’Hakimian’ and [firstName]=’Daniel’
  2. Select [level] from User_Rights where [rights]=’Administration’ and [fkUser]=Users.primaryKey
  3. Update User_Rights set [level]= 2

If a where clause has a comparison of column values from two different table, it’s an indicator that you can combine your select as one SQL statement using a join.

select

[level]

from

User_Rights left join Users on User_Rights.fkUser = User.primaryKey

where

User_Rights.[rights]=’Administration’ and User.[lastName]=’Hakimian’ and User.[firstName]=’Daniel’

Execute the select SQL a few times and when you are confident that it works correctly, convert it to SQL update statement.

update

User_Rights

set

[level] = 2

from

User_Rights left join Users on User_Rights.[fkUser] = User.[primaryKey]

where

User_Rights.[rights]=’Administration’ and User.[lastName]=’Hakimian’ and User.[firstName]=’Daniel’

This is one of many possible solutions to write the update in SQL. Whichever option you choose, I recommend you create and stick to a solid process that you can use to write simple to more complex SQL.

  1. Create a quick logical plan
  2. Write and test your SQL snippets as select statements prior to using them in updates and deletes
  3. Optimize your SQL statements
  4. Save your final working SQL in a file so you can reuse it throughout the project.

Now Tester Terry will be able to quickly switch her own user account back and forth from regular user to super user as needed during the rest of the project!

Part 2 in this series will hone in on a scenario a Senior Tester might see during a project.

Part 3 covers a scenario for a Senior Development Engineer in Test.

Original article posted here.

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The shift to remote work makes these “next 10” cities hotbeds for remote developers

Breaking out of the traditional tech hubs like the Bay Area, New York, and Seattle to hire remote developers isn’t a new idea. Distributed engineering teams can deliver financial savings by hiring in lower-cost markets, and DEI opportunities by tapping into more diverse populations.

But for years, organizations have hesitated to embrace remote work, pointing to productivity and collaboration tradeoffs. That all changed in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way the world works. Now, as more organizations consider making the shift to remote work permanent, many engineering leaders are turning to remote developer hiring as a core growth strategy for 2021.

There are tons of great resources out there for remote developer hiring. Active communities like Power to Fly and Flex Jobs are a great place to start, but technical recruiters also rely heavily on local industry associations and job boards. So Karat compiled our list of the next 10 hubs for remote developer hiring based on candidate performance across over 75,000 technical interviews.

Methodology

Karat technical interviews assess for specific technical competencies. Our Interview Engineers make observations about candidates’ project discussions, coding performance, computer science knowledge, system design, cloud architectures, and other relevant skills based on the hour-long interview.

While different companies have the ability to set the hiring bar at a level that makes sense to them, we also have a default set of scoring tiers, of which the top two (“Invite To Next Round,” and “Fast Track”) indicate that the candidates have successfully passed their interview and will most likely be moving forward in the hiring process.

Unsurprisingly, the three established tech hubs–Bay Area, New York, and Seattle–have the highest percentages of candidates pass the Karat interview (i.e. score in the top two tiers). Decades of tech-talent concentration around these hubs has created strong developer pipelines.  But the next 10 cities aren’t far behind, and each has unique opportunities for developer hiring.

Karat’s next 10 cities for hiring remote developers

Here are the ten best performing big cities outside of the traditional tech hubs based on the percentage of candidates who pass Karat’s technical interviews.

  1. Pittsburgh, PA: 39% interview pass rate
  2. Houston, TX: 36%
  3. Denver, CO: 36%
  4. Los Angeles, CA: 36%
  5. Atlanta, GA: 35%
  6. Austin, TX: 31%
  7. San Diego, CA: 28%
  8. Boston, MA: 24%
  9. Dallas, TX: 23%
  10. Chicago, IL: 22%

*Note, this study looks at big cities with a significant number of engineering candidates, and Raleigh, NC fell just shy of our threshold. But if we expand to the full Research Triangle of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, the region would have a 31% pass rate, ranking alongside Austin, TX for 6th place on our list.

Pittsburgh tops the remote developer hiring list

Pittsburgh has a lot going for it. It’s been a few years since the city stole the spotlight from Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher. The Steelers are in first place. The Penguins have been to the playoffs for 14-consecutive seasons. The cost of living is significantly below the national average. And, Pittsburgh is also the top-performing city outside of the traditional tech hubs in Karat interviews, with 39% of all candidates successfully landing in our top two scoring tiers.

While Pittsburgh’s roots may be in the steel industry, the city boasts a great developer pipeline with both Carnegie Mellon (#1) and University of Pittsburgh (#49) ranking in the top 50 computer science programs according to US News.

Furthermore, according to Indeed.com, there are less than 800 “software engineer” job postings within 50 miles of the city making it a much less competitive market for employers. By comparison, there are over 10,000 openings around the Bay Area.

It’s no wonder Microsoft and Google have opened up engineering centers there. The great editorial team over at GeekWire did an expose on Pittsburgh a couple of years ago, and the city’s Karat performance has only continued to improve from there!

Pittsburgh recruiting resources

Hiring remote developers in diverse cities like Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago can boost DEI

Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago all rank amongst America’s most diverse cities, and also fall into our Next 10 remote developer hiring list.

Furthermore, each city has unique areas of software engineering expertise that are worth tapping into.

  • Houston has benefitted from the rise of tech and automation across the oil and gas industry and also is home to Rice University.
  • Los Angeles is experiencing a boom in tech development around entertainment and streaming services, and the UCLA/USC rivalry hasn’t prevented both from ranking as top 20 CS schools.
  • Chicago’s tech sector has continued to see strong growth throughout the pandemic this year and is becoming a regional hub for engineering hiring for companies across the Mid West.

Remote developer hiring resources in America’s most diverse cities

Remote engineering or bust

2020 has brought a lot of change, but the shift to remote work is going to be one of the most significant and lasting transformations. People who work from home are more productive (unless schools are currently closed, in which case, we’re sorry). They are taking fewer sick days, and tend to spend the time they save by not commuting working.

Forward-looking companies are already planning for this in their 2021 staffing plans and the ones who don’t will be forced to compete with an increasing number of employers for talent in their own backyards.

We’re at an inflection point, and the companies that don’t adapt and innovate the way they think about technical talent are going to be left behind.

For more information on remote developer hiring and remote interviews, download the full remote developer hiring infographic, or reach out to the Karat team for a free consultation or demo.

Original article here

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