First home solar pavement installed on a driveway | Inhabitat

May 1, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Solar tiles aren’t just for roofs anymore. Platio, a Budapest, Hungary-based tech company, has just installed the first solar pavement for use on a residential driveway.

“Roofs are not the only surfaces that can be used for solar energy production,” said Platio co-founder and engineer Imre Sziszák. “Paved areas absorb solar radiation all day long as well. The walkable solar panels of Platio can utilize this new source of clean energy.”

The system consists of interlocking units called Platio solar pavers. Each paver is made from 400 recycled PET plastic bottles for a product more durable than concrete, according to the company’s product video. Pavement can be installed in sizes of 10 to 30 square meters and is suitable for driveways, terraces, balconies and patios.

5 Benefits of Strategic Partnerships | business.com

May 1, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Strategic partnerships have mutual benefits and can lead to long-term profits.

Strategic partnerships occur when two businesses combine forces to expand their brand reach.
Co-branding opportunities add value to your company, increase brand awareness and create brand trust.
Successful strategic partnerships include Spotify and Google, Sherwin-Williams and Pottery Barn, and McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.

3 Signs it’s Time for You to Change Your Brand Packaging | The Startup Magazine

April 30, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Your packaging is arguably the most important part of the product. The packaging is the key to selling the product in the final stage of the sales funnel, and it protects the product on the shelf and in the customer’s home. It can also easily cause the product to be lost in the crowd, or you to lose the sale if you haven’t kept up with the times. This is why you should always consider whether your packaging is up to par, and whether it could use a redesign. Here are three signs that it is time for you to change your brand packaging.

The Boss: Male investors didn’t get my billion-dollar idea | BBC News

April 30, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to Katrina Lake, founder of online fashion business Stitch Fix.

For the first six years running Stitch Fix, Katrina Lake wasn’t comfortable with being labeled a female business leader.

“I didn’t join the women in business clubs, and I just never thought of myself as a quote-unquote feminist,” she says.

How Entrepreneurship Can Help Millennials Build Wealth and Cut Student Debt | Inc.com

April 29, 2020April 28, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s a favored tradition amongst well-established generations to look at younger generations with contempt. People love to tease millennials — calling them lazy, entitled, and self-involved — but research by Boston Consulting Group shows that these stereotypes are unfounded.

Yes, there are generational differences — driven largely by technology and social trends — but millennials as a whole are ambitious and idealistic. Not only do they want to “make the world a better place,” but a new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that millennials work significantly more hours and have higher levels of education than previous generations.

Considering that education costs have risen 65 percent and food costs have increased 26 percent since 1996, it’s clear that the struggle is real. Many millennials live in survival mode, trying to keep up with basic expenses.

How to Make Better Coffee at Home | WIRED

April 28, 2020April 27, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

MANY OF US are sheltering in place, which probably means forgoing that morning trip to the coffee shop. Fear not though, it’s possible to make coffeehouse-quality coffee in your own kitchen.

Engineering a better cup of coffee isn’t difficult. But first you need to figure out what “better” means to you. There is no single right cup of coffee, there’s just the best version of what you love. Do you love your coffee rich and dark—thick enough to stand a spoon in, as my grandfather used to say? Or do you prefer something brighter, more of a medium roast that doesn’t overwhelm you with bitterness? Or perhaps you prefer a light coffee with some cream and sugar.

6 Strategies You Need to Run Your Company Through Uncertainty | Entrepreneur

April 28, 2020April 27, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Well, I didn’t expect this to happen — and I’m guessing you didn’t either. If you’re a small-business owner, you need a plan more than ever. These are the strategies I’m relying on as a small-business owner to help me lead through this extremely uncertain time.

1. Time

You need to give yourself a little time to process the impact this coronavirus will have and the challenges and opportunities that it has created for you, your business, your family and others. Most of us will be a little dazed for a while. Unfortunately, just because some of us have more time on our hands doesn’t mean we’ll spend it productively. Right now, I’m mostly focusing on taking a deep breath.

Jaunt’s ROSA gyrodyne: The first eVTOL air taxi that actually looks safe | New Atlas

April 27, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

This eVTOL air taxi design looks like a weird helicopter/plane hybrid, but it’s the safest of all the eVTOL designs we’ve ever seen, and it has another killer advantage in that it requires no special certification. That’s huge news in the emerging 3D commuting market, because it could make this thing much, much cheaper to get off the ground.

To understand why this thing is such a great idea, let’s recap two of the main hurdles that every other eVTOL designer is facing: safety and certification. The safety issue seems huge to us, although many of the eVTOL manufacturers we speak to don’t seem to see it as insurmountable. In a total failure scenario, all eVTOLs designed around multiple small rotors have a bit of an issue: they’ll simply plummet to the ground.

Polaroid Now | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

April 23, 2020April 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In an age where instant photography means whipping out a smartphone and immediately sharing the digital image with friends online, a boxy camera that produces self-developing prints seems like a huge backward step. But that’s exactly what instant film cameras provide, and a revamped Polaroid has announced a new model called the Now.

The Polaroid Corporation was founded by Edwin Land in 1937, a company that originally sold polarized sunglasses. But Land went on to develop a “magic camera” that produced instant prints, which was described in a 1973 issue of Popular Science as “perhaps the most fiendishly clever invention in the history of photography.”

Oil prices may be at all-time lows, but it’s still worth buying an electric car | Mashable

April 23, 2020April 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For the first time in 34 years, the price of a barrel of oil has dropped to historic lows — below $0 somehow, confusingly — but that shouldn’t erode efforts to go electric, especially for any future car purchases.

Sure, because of coronavirus social-distancing measures in most cities and states, roads are largely empty, cars are parked, most flights are canceled, and the buses and trains that are still running barely have passengers. Even auto insurance companies are recognizing how little we’re moving and offering discounts.