Datameer

Datameer INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi. Today we are in San Francisco, in the Datameer Office, with Stefan. Stefan, who are you and what do you do?Stefan: I’m Stefan. I’m the founder of Datameer and I have the pleasure and honor to lead this amazing company. We are in the big data analytics space and was considered a hyper-growth company. This is our support space, obviously, very, very roomy here. We’re at this point, 120 people. But, I don’t know, we hire a couple of, three to five, people a week, I guess?Martin: Not too bad.Martin: What is your background? So, what do you do before you started this company?Stefan: I had companies since 1997. And before that, I did a German Abitur.Martin: Wow! Okay. So, directly from school to becoming an entrepreneur.Stefan: Yes.Martin: So did you already start during your school time? Building a newspaper like Richard Branson did?Stefan: Yes, exactly. In fact, I did. I did a whole bunch of things in school, the usual suspects you see at school, governmen t, and those kind of things. I did the school paper. I was always very interested in back then what was considered as new media. During my degree, or Abitur, I actually already wrote a search engine for a local university library. In Germany, you have to do military after school. And being a little bit of digital hippie, I didn’t want to do that. And one way that you get around that in Germany is by founding a company.Martin: Oh, reallyStefan: So when the university library in my home town asked me if I want to continue working for them as a freelancer, I founded the company. Well, guess what? More than 20 years later, I’m still doing the same thing, maybe different people, different size, but I always worked in the data space.Martin: How did you come up with the idea of Datameer?Stefan: Doing high-tech in Germany is very difficult. In fact, I tried that for 10 years before I relocated to Silicon Valley where things work a little bit different as you can imagine. But what that i s very prominent and very active in Europe is the open source scene. So I was a very active contributor to a whole bunch of open source technologies, and one of them was the search engine. Surprise, surprise, that’s my background. And the search engine, called Nutch, eventually spun off the storage in computer framework, called The Hadoop. So I was one of the first three guys that basically started the Nutch and then Hadoop, so to say. And Hadoop very quickly devolved into a very disruptive technology. Today, it’s considered a $20 billion market. But back then, I was sitting in my living room, on my laptop, writing code and thinking, “Oh, this is pretty cool.” So I always building companies, I always worked on really cool technology, mostly open source, and then off spring commercial technology from that. Hadoop turned into a really big market force. So it was logical to build Datameer, what is kind of a BI, business intelligence, data analytics product on top of the next ge neration storage in computer platforms. Hadoop is kind of the new Oracle, so to say. And what we do is we help to integrate data into the system, we make it super simple to analyze and visualize data. And with that, we’re helping companies to have hundreds of millions of dollars return of investment.So five of the seven biggest banks in the world are using our product. All credit card companies, or the top three credit card companies, covering 90 percent of our credit card transactions, that go to our product. In the world, we work with the top three telecommunication companies in the world. We are the biggest German retailer and the top or the second biggest U.S. retailer. So, it’s very interesting to see what difference people can do by looking at data and finding insights.Martin: What are the major differences between starting a company in Germany and starting it or expanding it in the U.S.?Stefan: We still have engineering in Germany. I strongly believe in, that’s sounds m aybe cheesy, in engineers in Germany. I think we have fantastic human resources, in Europe in general. The problems are a little bit, we have a crusty economic environment, right? The major funding of government or private investments go into larger companies. I think, Berlin wakes up a little bit. There’s a need in the start-up scene, but it’s not anywhere close as Silicon Valley. So, our model at Datameer is we had a German company for a while as I described. Then, I went to Silicon Valley and I kept our engineers. And we did good business, right? So, we had Apple as customer, ATT, Verizon, and so on. We did really value here. That made clear to us that what we need is a United States based go-to market strategy. So when we converted our old company into what is Datameer today, our headquarters was in Silicon Valley. We had sales and marketing here, but we kept all engineering in Germany. So, I always joke, “Designed in California, manufactured in Germany.”But the major di fference, to answer the question, is that the U.S. economy is way more open to take risk with new technology. Our first customer was Visa and our second customer was JP Morgan. But 10 years before, I was knocking on any German company and they ask me, “Are you working for Oracle?” “No.” “Are you working for Microsoft?” “No.” “Are you working for IBM?” “No.” “Well, there’s the door.” But here, they see new technology as a unique competitive advantage. At big banks, they have a few million dollars a year, let’s say a million dollars, and they divide it by 10 and they invest $100,000 in 10 crazy new little start-ups and see if they can get a competitive advantage. If the technology is promising, they really partner with those companies. They drive the roadmaps. They really help those to companies to grow. That’s really interesting because as a start-up, you really want to work closely with the market. Developing a product in isolation will never work. You spend two years just in bloat. But partnering with those big companies and see what their problems, how can we solve them, really gives you the chance to build a relevant product for the market. And again, you only get customers that pay you off your bills, and that said, the sales cycles are shorter. People are more open. Germany and Europe, in general, is around three to five years behind any kind of big adoption of new technology. What is interesting though, is that they then buy the distance.So they are not messing around. They don’t try to build themselves, but they really just buy commercial tools. So, I can only highly recommend that to develop your technology in Germany. That will most likely provide you great technology that is very innovative. Then bring it into a market where you have a much lower barrier to entry, and United States is one of them.BUSINESS MODEL OF DATAMEERMartin: Great. Let’s talk about your business model. Can you briefly describe how the busine ss model works? What are the customer segments that you’re serving, can you describe them shortly? And what is really the value proposition that you are offering?Stefan: So, we have a classical enterprise software business model. We have inbound of marketing campaigns that drive leads. Those are then touched by a team that we call Account Development Group. Those qualifying those deals, what you want to ask here is, “Do you really have a budget?” “Do you really have a problem we can solve?” Right? Sometimes, everything looks like a nail if you have a hammer, so you have to be very careful. The biggest mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs are doing is that, “Oh my God, there is this big company, and they are kind of interested,” and they go into a death spiral of engaging someone who has no budget, has no problem that you really can solve. Again, the biggest mistake is qualifying. You need to talk to a hundred people to find the three you really can sell to.Martin: How d o you check that? Are you really asking, what is your budget for this? Or is there some kind of circumventing them and getting some information indirectly?Stefan: Yes. There are plenty of sales books written that will walk you through psychology of sales. Asking frankly is it a good idea. If you find the right person, so-called champion, or a change agent in the organization, that change agent will help you because you have the disruptive technology that solves the problem. If not, you should check your product, right? So if you truly believe you can help someone solve or improve something, then you really need to find the person that believes in you and then you work with that person and say, “Okay. Look, I’m sorry but we’re a small company. We can’t afford to mess around for the next six months. Is there really something? Who do I need to speak with who makes the decision?” Most likely, the guy that brings you in doesn’t have the check book or the decision-making autho rity. So you need either to find the players in the company, most likely, you have to do a map of who’s influencing who. Usually in big companies, what are the political plays? “Oh, it’s this business user over this IT user” “He wants to have this Oracle technology, and he wants to have this new technology,” you have to figure it out, who I have to talk to about those guys to really get in the line. What’s your deadline? If you don’t have a deadline, and it’s not clear what happens if you miss the deadline, most likely, you don’t have a commercial product. Anyhow, so there’s a whole bunch of qualification questions that you have to do. I’m happy to go into more detail. Call me if you want to have advice. I’m happy to tell that entrepreneur.We also have an expensive direct-sales force. That means we have, in the United States, sales representatives. They make $240,000 to $280,000 dollars a year, where 50 percent is base salary, 50 percent is commission-based . In this space, they make between a million to $1.5 million revenue, or bookings, a year. So they have a quota that they have to deliver as well. They have a sales engineer that makes another $220,000, also commission-based. If they don’t sell anything, they don’t make money. They make more if they do. But if not, they make more than everybody else. That’s why engineers don’t like to work in that business, where everybody is a littleMartin: extrovert.Stefan: Yes, extrovert. Then you gauge with that organization with the direct sales force, then move people to multiple steps in the buying process. There’s two things. You need to have a sales process and every customer has a buying process. And you need to understand that buying process and really map this to each other. As a sales organization, you need to know what personas that I have to work with, what are their objections, how do I handle their objections, what is their job, what are their biggest concern, how can I po sition my product, can I address those concerns, all those things. And then usually, you get to area of interest in the organization, you map the organization, you get to know the different players. You go to a process of validation, you need to prove that you can do what you promised, usually it’s called the proof of concept, if you do technology. Then you go to a business justification because you’re most likely asking for a price that seems high for the customer. If not, you have the wrong pricing, right? The perfect pricing is probably that the people pay but complain about it. So, most likely, go to a business justification process and you don’t have to prove, “Okay. Well, if we improve 10 percent of this business process, that saves you a million dollar. So, it’s okay if I ask you a hundred thousand dollars from you. That is a whole bunch of presentations, and a few spreadsheets you deliver to the customer, and then they eventually say yes or no, then you make a deal . Making a deal means you go to 30 or 50 pages of legal documents, especially as you work big companies. Then you close the deal and you charge.It’s interesting enough, for more than 10 years, I always was very blind and thought, “Oh, I just built this great technology and it will sale itself.” “It’s click tool, it’s online, and it’s software as a service.” If you want to build a real company, the process I just described, especially for an enterprise software, obviously for consumers it is different. But in enterprise software, that’s how it works. Putting it on some website and waiting for some people to come, that’s not going to happen.Martin: What are the typical sales lead times?Stefan: In our business, it’ half a year, from first touch to close, and it very much depends on the deal size. So if we make a multimillion dollar deal, it will take more in 12 months. If we do a 100K or less deal, sometimes we compress that to a couple of three months, but then, we are lucky. So on average, it’s for four to six months.Martin: Okay, great. Can you tell us a little bit more about how are you trying to set up the pricing strategy. You said that you are trying first to identify the value that you are creating for customers, and then based on that, it takes some kind of share and put an absolute number on there. But, how did you differentiate you pricing, based on different customer segments?Stefan: What you want to do is you want to number one, what’s the competition charging, right? So that’s the homework you have to do. And number two, you go to the market with a price that’s way too low, right? Because you will start-up, you will only get a few customers, and then what you need to do is build this relationship with the customers and ask them, “What’s the value you get in out of that?” You don’t want to ask that question the day you sold, maybe as well. You want to ask that 3 months later, 6 months later, 12 months later. Then based on that, you can adjust pricing. Pricing is a lot of trial and error. So today, we still do pricing trials. We have certain geographical areas where we change the pricing and see does all sales expand or do they contract, those kind of things. In the last 2 years, we doubled prices four times, just to give you the idea. And you double until you reach the point that your sale cycle slows so much down and you don’t have an adoption and you correct. That’s what you do. You always have a pricelist and you get discounts, right? But it takes some courage in the sales organizations now to really push the pricing too. Sales representatives work a little bit different. If you are on a company scale that I am now, it’s a lot about group psychology stuff I do. It’s a lot about how you motivate people, how they tick, how they work. Sales representatives are always excited about huge big companies and then they give them dramatic discounts because all those companies have professi onal negotiators. Going after the Fortune 500-1,000 isn’t a bad idea as a start-up, and then you can build up. We got lucky, we had a real interesting product that was interesting for a Fortune 100 and that was like all major market segment and we make huge deals there. But historically, my experience is you want to start with high volume, lower-touch model, and maybe you get to skim the top, where you go in there, and you expand the deals. So may want to consider an upsale team, not just the sales team hunters that just hunt for deals, but are also considered farmers, that need to expand the deals. And then a renewal team, and so on. So you get into the door, and then you put on as many user or use cases on the platform that you just sold to them. Anyhow, so there are different strategies around that. Pricing is a tricky one that’s related to strategy. I definitely recommend having low pricing and then working to expand. Lower the barrier to entry to get the logos and then expa nd when it comes.Martin: Okay, great.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Stefan, let’s talk about corporate strategy. What do you think is the competitive advantage of Datameer?Stefan: I believe there are only three different kinds of companies.Company number one is using Moore’s Law. Moores Law is every 18 months hardware capacity doubles to an advantage to optimize processes. That’s the strategy we’re in.The second category is you take out the middle man. Most likely, you get to the infrastructure technology that you can do this. That’s like Uber, where they take out not the cab driver, but actually the cab company in the middle that used to make a lot of money. Or think about the iTunes, think about the music labels in between. And Amazon now with their publishing, they take out the publishing houses, and so on. So that is taking out the middle man and another optimization.And then, there’s Instagram, Facebook, eHarmony, and the Timbers of the World. I’ll leave to you what ki nd of category that is. That’s all around, playing with the most fundamental human needs.So again, we’re kind of in the first category and what we do as a product is we disrupt the way people use to do data analytics. We significantly shorten the time to insight with our product by changing the way you do it. And the way we can do this is we have this new storage and computer platform that could deliver storage in computers at a cost that is ridiculously lower compared to what you had before. So what we can do, if this is by throwing cheap hardware after the process, we are shrinking the time to insights from 12 to 18 months with historical data analytics technology that we have ETL, dataware houses, and API on top, we put this all into one product, and now we have a hundred million dollars ROI in eight weeks and single person in one of the biggest Telcos companies in the United States, for example. Well a very big German Telco had similar ROIs. Also, it was just six weeks in a single person. Tremendous ROIs and very short. If you think about it, the price of hardware is going down, but the price of people is going up. On the other hand, we have lesser time to make decisions, but the complexity of data is going up. This are two catalysts here that really drive our business and that is our strategy, to go after and taking advantage of lower storage of computer and higher price for human beings, more complexity in data, more data, more data sources, more structured and unstructured data, but then again, less time that you have to get insights to all of that. This is kind of the direction that we’re going.Martin: Okay, great.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Stefan, what market trend can you identify in the big data industry?Stefan: It’s really interesting. I personally have been to maybe three kind of hype cycle or Crossing the Chasm technology adoption waves in my life. I had search engines technology, I had the EJB applications server, I’ve worked at JBoss a pplication server as well. So you always see the same thing. How do I get certain majority that enable the next generation of technology platform? And based on that, you can build next generation applications, and on top the next generation solutions. And solutions are usually very use cases or very vertical-focused. So obviously, HP, Dell, and Intel are in the hardware business. In our space, you have Cloudera, MapRs, platform business. Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP as well, they obviously late adapter. And they always have the innovators dilemma. They always have to kill their cash cows in order to get to the next generation. We are on that enterprise application layer.We are the second closest to the checkbook, to the problem, and what helps. Platforms are very quickly commoditized. They sell earlier. So if you have that technology wave, the Clouderas, MapRs, they are getting bigger faster. But if you look over a period of maybe 10-15 years, the application and solution business tha t will make the most money. So we are here and we’re reaching a little bit into solution. Our products, specifically, we work with finance, we work in retail, we work in Telco, and then we have bucket that we call emerging. From the use case perspective, it’s three major areas.It’s customer analytics, where we help people to shorten sales cycles, increase conversion rates in the sales process, understand customer behaviour, identify credit card fraud, kind of in general understanding customers better by bringing multiple data sets together.Or we do operational analytics. This is where Telcos understand who’s my cell tower and makes sense to upgrade the cell tower.And then we have a lot of what we call new data products and services, where people basically selling data or providing a data-driven service. In selling data, I don’t mean personal data specifically. This could be geographical data to do research for natural resources, this can be in general market data, or whate ver. You usually have to pre-process and really package that stuff. Data is like raw oil. Data is the new oil that needs to go the refinery process before you get to the insights that you really can sell.Martin: When you looked into the different industries, can you identify different adoption rates in those industries?Stefan: You always can. This is true for everything. You will always have the concept called crossing the chasm, and you can apply this to different industries because you have industries adopting early on or later on. Finance historically, especially in the area we are, are early adaptors. So the investment banks of the world and the high frequency trader, they will adopt technology as early as they can because it’s a competitive advantage. Next one are Telcos. Telcos also go and adopt technology as early as they can, a little slower moving than finance. Then we have retail because retail right now is under high pressure. When put a whole bunch of categories, event ually you have healthcare, and manufacturing in very late then you usually have those. Of course that’s the big picture. And before you have all these, you have emerging. So, you have gaming companies, mobile app companies, you have Facebooks and Twitters, they will always be on the forefront because that’s their business model. But if you go to a broader market The problem by the way, the reason I am saying the you have the early adaptors, Facebook and Twitters of the World will not buy technology. You can spend 24 months, they will go for open source technology or build it themselves. Depending on their business model, they will adopt technology trends earlirt on but it will be extremely hard to sell to them.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM STEFAN GROSCHUPF In San Francisco, we meet founder and CEO of Datameer, Stefan Groschupf. He shares his story of how Datameer was founded, the current business model, plans for the near future, and some advice for young entrepreneurs.The transcript of the interview is included below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi. Today we are in San Francisco, in the Datameer Office, with Stefan. Stefan, who are you and what do you do?Stefan: I’m Stefan. I’m the founder of Datameer and I have the pleasure and honor to lead this amazing company. We are in the big data analytics space and was considered a hyper-growth company. This is our support space, obviously, very, very roomy here. We’re at this point, 120 people. But, I don’t know, we hire a couple of, three to five, people a week, I guess?Martin: Not too bad.Martin: What is your background? So, what do you do before you started this company?Stefan: I had companies since 1997. And before that, I did a German Abitur.Martin: Wow! Okay. So, directly from school to becoming an entrepreneur.Stefan: Yes.Martin: So did you already start during your school time? Building a newspaper like Richard Branson did?Stefan: Yes, exactly. In fact, I did. I did a whole bunch of things in school, the usual suspects you see at school, government, and those kind of things. I did the school paper. I was always very interested in back then what was considered as new media. During my degree, or Abitur, I actually already wrote a search engine for a local university library. In Germany, you have to do military after school. And being a little bit of digital hippie, I didn’t want to do that. And one way that you get around that in Germany is by founding a company.Martin: Oh, reallyStefan: So when the university library in my home town asked me if I want to continue working for them as a freelancer, I founded the company. Well, guess what? More than 20 years later, I’m still doing the same thing, maybe different people, different size, but I always worked in the data space.Martin: How did you come up with the idea of Datameer?Stefan: Doing high-tech in Germany is very difficult. In fact, I tried that for 10 years before I relocated to Silicon Valley where things work a little bit different as you can imagine. But what that is very prominent and very active in Europe is the open source scene. So I was a very active contributor to a whole bunch of open source technologies, and one of them was the search engine. Surprise, surprise, that’s my background. And the search engine, called Nutch, eventually spun off the storage in computer framework, called The Hadoop. So I was one of the first three guys that basically started the Nutch and then Hadoop, so to say. And Hadoop very quickly devolved into a very disruptive technology. Today, it’s considered a $20 billion market. But back then, I was sitting in my living room, on my laptop, writing code and thinking, “Oh, this is pretty cool.” So I always building companies, I always worked on re ally cool technology, mostly open source, and then off spring commercial technology from that. Hadoop turned into a really big market force. So it was logical to build Datameer, what is kind of a BI, business intelligence, data analytics product on top of the next generation storage in computer platforms. Hadoop is kind of the new Oracle, so to say. And what we do is we help to integrate data into the system, we make it super simple to analyze and visualize data. And with that, we’re helping companies to have hundreds of millions of dollars return of investment.So five of the seven biggest banks in the world are using our product. All credit card companies, or the top three credit card companies, covering 90 percent of our credit card transactions, that go to our product. In the world, we work with the top three telecommunication companies in the world. We are the biggest German retailer and the top or the second biggest U.S. retailer. So, it’s very interesting to see what diffe rence people can do by looking at data and finding insights.Martin: What are the major differences between starting a company in Germany and starting it or expanding it in the U.S.?Stefan: We still have engineering in Germany. I strongly believe in, that’s sounds maybe cheesy, in engineers in Germany. I think we have fantastic human resources, in Europe in general. The problems are a little bit, we have a crusty economic environment, right? The major funding of government or private investments go into larger companies. I think, Berlin wakes up a little bit. There’s a need in the start-up scene, but it’s not anywhere close as Silicon Valley. So, our model at Datameer is we had a German company for a while as I described. Then, I went to Silicon Valley and I kept our engineers. And we did good business, right? So, we had Apple as customer, ATT, Verizon, and so on. We did really value here. That made clear to us that what we need is a United States based go-to market strategy. S o when we converted our old company into what is Datameer today, our headquarters was in Silicon Valley. We had sales and marketing here, but we kept all engineering in Germany. So, I always joke, “Designed in California, manufactured in Germany.”But the major difference, to answer the question, is that the U.S. economy is way more open to take risk with new technology. Our first customer was Visa and our second customer was JP Morgan. But 10 years before, I was knocking on any German company and they ask me, “Are you working for Oracle?” “No.” “Are you working for Microsoft?” “No.” “Are you working for IBM?” “No.” “Well, there’s the door.” But here, they see new technology as a unique competitive advantage. At big banks, they have a few million dollars a year, let’s say a million dollars, and they divide it by 10 and they invest $100,000 in 10 crazy new little start-ups and see if they can get a competitive advantage. If the technology is promisi ng, they really partner with those companies. They drive the roadmaps. They really help those to companies to grow. That’s really interesting because as a start-up, you really want to work closely with the market. Developing a product in isolation will never work. You spend two years just in bloat. But partnering with those big companies and see what their problems, how can we solve them, really gives you the chance to build a relevant product for the market. And again, you only get customers that pay you off your bills, and that said, the sales cycles are shorter. People are more open. Germany and Europe, in general, is around three to five years behind any kind of big adoption of new technology. What is interesting though, is that they then buy the distance.So they are not messing around. They don’t try to build themselves, but they really just buy commercial tools. So, I can only highly recommend that to develop your technology in Germany. That will most likely provide you gr eat technology that is very innovative. Then bring it into a market where you have a much lower barrier to entry, and United States is one of them.BUSINESS MODEL OF DATAMEERMartin: Great. Let’s talk about your business model. Can you briefly describe how the business model works? What are the customer segments that you’re serving, can you describe them shortly? And what is really the value proposition that you are offering?Stefan: So, we have a classical enterprise software business model. We have inbound of marketing campaigns that drive leads. Those are then touched by a team that we call Account Development Group. Those qualifying those deals, what you want to ask here is, “Do you really have a budget?” “Do you really have a problem we can solve?” Right? Sometimes, everything looks like a nail if you have a hammer, so you have to be very careful. The biggest mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs are doing is that, “Oh my God, there is this big company, and they are ki nd of interested,” and they go into a death spiral of engaging someone who has no budget, has no problem that you really can solve. Again, the biggest mistake is qualifying. You need to talk to a hundred people to find the three you really can sell to.Martin: How do you check that? Are you really asking, what is your budget for this? Or is there some kind of circumventing them and getting some information indirectly?Stefan: Yes. There are plenty of sales books written that will walk you through psychology of sales. Asking frankly is it a good idea. If you find the right person, so-called champion, or a change agent in the organization, that change agent will help you because you have the disruptive technology that solves the problem. If not, you should check your product, right? So if you truly believe you can help someone solve or improve something, then you really need to find the person that believes in you and then you work with that person and say, “Okay. Look, I’m sorry but we’re a small company. We can’t afford to mess around for the next six months. Is there really something? Who do I need to speak with who makes the decision?” Most likely, the guy that brings you in doesn’t have the check book or the decision-making authority. So you need either to find the players in the company, most likely, you have to do a map of who’s influencing who. Usually in big companies, what are the political plays? “Oh, it’s this business user over this IT user” “He wants to have this Oracle technology, and he wants to have this new technology,” you have to figure it out, who I have to talk to about those guys to really get in the line. What’s your deadline? If you don’t have a deadline, and it’s not clear what happens if you miss the deadline, most likely, you don’t have a commercial product. Anyhow, so there’s a whole bunch of qualification questions that you have to do. I’m happy to go into more detail. Call me if you want to have advice. I’m happy to tell that entrepreneur.We also have an expensive direct-sales force. That means we have, in the United States, sales representatives. They make $240,000 to $280,000 dollars a year, where 50 percent is base salary, 50 percent is commission-based. In this space, they make between a million to $1.5 million revenue, or bookings, a year. So they have a quota that they have to deliver as well. They have a sales engineer that makes another $220,000, also commission-based. If they don’t sell anything, they don’t make money. They make more if they do. But if not, they make more than everybody else. That’s why engineers don’t like to work in that business, where everybody is a littleMartin: extrovert.Stefan: Yes, extrovert. Then you gauge with that organization with the direct sales force, then move people to multiple steps in the buying process. There’s two things. You need to have a sales process and every customer has a buying process. And you need to under stand that buying process and really map this to each other. As a sales organization, you need to know what personas that I have to work with, what are their objections, how do I handle their objections, what is their job, what are their biggest concern, how can I position my product, can I address those concerns, all those things. And then usually, you get to area of interest in the organization, you map the organization, you get to know the different players. You go to a process of validation, you need to prove that you can do what you promised, usually it’s called the proof of concept, if you do technology. Then you go to a business justification because you’re most likely asking for a price that seems high for the customer. If not, you have the wrong pricing, right? The perfect pricing is probably that the people pay but complain about it. So, most likely, go to a business justification process and you don’t have to prove, “Okay. Well, if we improve 10 percent of this bu siness process, that saves you a million dollar. So, it’s okay if I ask you a hundred thousand dollars from you. That is a whole bunch of presentations, and a few spreadsheets you deliver to the customer, and then they eventually say yes or no, then you make a deal. Making a deal means you go to 30 or 50 pages of legal documents, especially as you work big companies. Then you close the deal and you charge.It’s interesting enough, for more than 10 years, I always was very blind and thought, “Oh, I just built this great technology and it will sale itself.” “It’s click tool, it’s online, and it’s software as a service.” If you want to build a real company, the process I just described, especially for an enterprise software, obviously for consumers it is different. But in enterprise software, that’s how it works. Putting it on some website and waiting for some people to come, that’s not going to happen.Martin: What are the typical sales lead times?Stefan: In our bu siness, it’ half a year, from first touch to close, and it very much depends on the deal size. So if we make a multimillion dollar deal, it will take more in 12 months. If we do a 100K or less deal, sometimes we compress that to a couple of three months, but then, we are lucky. So on average, it’s for four to six months.Martin: Okay, great. Can you tell us a little bit more about how are you trying to set up the pricing strategy. You said that you are trying first to identify the value that you are creating for customers, and then based on that, it takes some kind of share and put an absolute number on there. But, how did you differentiate you pricing, based on different customer segments?Stefan: What you want to do is you want to number one, what’s the competition charging, right? So that’s the homework you have to do. And number two, you go to the market with a price that’s way too low, right? Because you will start-up, you will only get a few customers, and then what yo u need to do is build this relationship with the customers and ask them, “What’s the value you get in out of that?” You don’t want to ask that question the day you sold, maybe as well. You want to ask that 3 months later, 6 months later, 12 months later. Then based on that, you can adjust pricing. Pricing is a lot of trial and error. So today, we still do pricing trials. We have certain geographical areas where we change the pricing and see does all sales expand or do they contract, those kind of things. In the last 2 years, we doubled prices four times, just to give you the idea. And you double until you reach the point that your sale cycle slows so much down and you don’t have an adoption and you correct. That’s what you do. You always have a pricelist and you get discounts, right? But it takes some courage in the sales organizations now to really push the pricing too. Sales representatives work a little bit different. If you are on a company scale that I am now, it’ s a lot about group psychology stuff I do. It’s a lot about how you motivate people, how they tick, how they work. Sales representatives are always excited about huge big companies and then they give them dramatic discounts because all those companies have professional negotiators. Going after the Fortune 500-1,000 isn’t a bad idea as a start-up, and then you can build up. We got lucky, we had a real interesting product that was interesting for a Fortune 100 and that was like all major market segment and we make huge deals there. But historically, my experience is you want to start with high volume, lower-touch model, and maybe you get to skim the top, where you go in there, and you expand the deals. So may want to consider an upsale team, not just the sales team hunters that just hunt for deals, but are also considered farmers, that need to expand the deals. And then a renewal team, and so on. So you get into the door, and then you put on as many user or use cases on the platfo rm that you just sold to them. Anyhow, so there are different strategies around that. Pricing is a tricky one that’s related to strategy. I definitely recommend having low pricing and then working to expand. Lower the barrier to entry to get the logos and then expand when it comes.Martin: Okay, great.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Stefan, let’s talk about corporate strategy. What do you think is the competitive advantage of Datameer?Stefan: I believe there are only three different kinds of companies.Company number one is using Moore’s Law. Moores Law is every 18 months hardware capacity doubles to an advantage to optimize processes. That’s the strategy we’re in.The second category is you take out the middle man. Most likely, you get to the infrastructure technology that you can do this. That’s like Uber, where they take out not the cab driver, but actually the cab company in the middle that used to make a lot of money. Or think about the iTunes, think about the music labels i n between. And Amazon now with their publishing, they take out the publishing houses, and so on. So that is taking out the middle man and another optimization.And then, there’s Instagram, Facebook, eHarmony, and the Timbers of the World. I’ll leave to you what kind of category that is. That’s all around, playing with the most fundamental human needs.So again, we’re kind of in the first category and what we do as a product is we disrupt the way people use to do data analytics. We significantly shorten the time to insight with our product by changing the way you do it. And the way we can do this is we have this new storage and computer platform that could deliver storage in computers at a cost that is ridiculously lower compared to what you had before. So what we can do, if this is by throwing cheap hardware after the process, we are shrinking the time to insights from 12 to 18 months with historical data analytics technology that we have ETL, dataware houses, and API on top, we put this all into one product, and now we have a hundred million dollars ROI in eight weeks and single person in one of the biggest Telcos companies in the United States, for example. Well a very big German Telco had similar ROIs. Also, it was just six weeks in a single person. Tremendous ROIs and very short. If you think about it, the price of hardware is going down, but the price of people is going up. On the other hand, we have lesser time to make decisions, but the complexity of data is going up. This are two catalysts here that really drive our business and that is our strategy, to go after and taking advantage of lower storage of computer and higher price for human beings, more complexity in data, more data, more data sources, more structured and unstructured data, but then again, less time that you have to get insights to all of that. This is kind of the direction that we’re going.Martin: Okay, great.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Stefan, what market trend can you identify in the big data industry?Stefan: It’s really interesting. I personally have been to maybe three kind of hype cycle or Crossing the Chasm technology adoption waves in my life. I had search engines technology, I had the EJB applications server, I’ve worked at JBoss application server as well. So you always see the same thing. How do I get certain majority that enable the next generation of technology platform? And based on that, you can build next generation applications, and on top the next generation solutions. And solutions are usually very use cases or very vertical-focused. So obviously, HP, Dell, and Intel are in the hardware business. In our space, you have Cloudera, MapRs, platform business. Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP as well, they obviously late adapter. And they always have the innovators dilemma. They always have to kill their cash cows in order to get to the next generation. We are on that enterprise application layer.We are the second closest to the checkbook, to the pr oblem, and what helps. Platforms are very quickly commoditized. They sell earlier. So if you have that technology wave, the Clouderas, MapRs, they are getting bigger faster. But if you look over a period of maybe 10-15 years, the application and solution business that will make the most money. So we are here and we’re reaching a little bit into solution. Our products, specifically, we work with finance, we work in retail, we work in Telco, and then we have bucket that we call emerging. From the use case perspective, it’s three major areas.It’s customer analytics, where we help people to shorten sales cycles, increase conversion rates in the sales process, understand customer behaviour, identify credit card fraud, kind of in general understanding customers better by bringing multiple data sets together.Or we do operational analytics. This is where Telcos understand who’s my cell tower and makes sense to upgrade the cell tower.And then we have a lot of what we call new data pr oducts and services, where people basically selling data or providing a data-driven service. In selling data, I don’t mean personal data specifically. This could be geographical data to do research for natural resources, this can be in general market data, or whatever. You usually have to pre-process and really package that stuff. Data is like raw oil. Data is the new oil that needs to go the refinery process before you get to the insights that you really can sell.Martin: When you looked into the different industries, can you identify different adoption rates in those industries?Stefan: You always can. This is true for everything. You will always have the concept called crossing the chasm, and you can apply this to different industries because you have industries adopting early on or later on. Finance historically, especially in the area we are, are early adaptors. So the investment banks of the world and the high frequency trader, they will adopt technology as early as they can b ecause it’s a competitive advantage. Next one are Telcos. Telcos also go and adopt technology as early as they can, a little slower moving than finance. Then we have retail because retail right now is under high pressure. When put a whole bunch of categories, eventually you have healthcare, and manufacturing in very late then you usually have those. Of course that’s the big picture. And before you have all these, you have emerging. So, you have gaming companies, mobile app companies, you have Facebooks and Twitters, they will always be on the forefront because that’s their business model. But if you go to a broader market The problem by the way, the reason I am saying the you have the early adaptors, Facebook and Twitters of the World will not buy technology. You can spend 24 months, they will go for open source technology or build it themselves. Depending on their business model, they will adopt technology trends earlirt on but it will be extremely hard to sell to them.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM STEFAN GROSCHUPFMartin: Imagine your little son comes to you and asked, “Daddy, I want to start a company.” What advice would you give him? “You should do this’” or “You shouldn’t do that’” or “These are the mistakes I’ve done, learn from it.”Stefan: Well, first of all, I’m concerned to think about a little kid. It looks like start-up life make me look old. So if an entrepreneur or someone comes to me and wants advice, the beauty is there is blueprint of all companies and you can really follow that. I’m an engineer by background, and it took me 10 years to learn that just a great product doesn’t sell by itself. You need strong marketing and sales. What is really cool is you can consider, as you do your product engineering process, building marketing and sales can work in the same way. You have release times, you have projects, and milestones. You can absolutely manage marketing and sales in the same way on how you manage your prod uct development team and definitely encourage everybody to look at this way. But I would highly recommend you technical founder to let go, and they have to grow. Every three months you have to grow and you have to let go after technology and just focusing on that, I advise a whole bunch of start-ups. And they always think, “Oh, if we add this feature, then we will just sell better.” No, you just take all your developers and work on your website, work on an online trial, and you help to make it very easy to try the product, then work on you sales process, and then you work on PDFs that help to sell your stuff,” and so on. Don’t just hide because it’s your comfort zone in the development process. I think that’s may be the advice. Don’t hide in your comfort zone but go out and try to really understand and make the other processes work because you will just waste time.And then maybe, another really good advice, “The difference between networking and not working is one le tter. A lot of entrepreneurs think that going to a whole bunch of parties, events, and talk to people will build their business, I know being an entrepreneur is being hip right now, but go back to the basement and work, you know. That’s the only way you will be successful.Martin: The problem with most networking events is that, not all your customers are there.Stefan: Yes. You’re usually wasting time. And the business development or partnerships are all a waste of time until your $50 million company, there is no reason to have any kind of partners from a technology or from (maybe from) a sales perspective in Europe. Maybe if you are around $10 million, it starts to make sense to have sales partners or channel strategy. But before that, you’re just wasting time. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t focus and waste time and stay in their product development comfort zone.Martin: And what would you recommend young entrepreneurs who are currently outside the U.S., especially the Silicon Valley, working the tech product. Do you think they should really move people here so they can raise money here? Plus one of the major requirement is having an Inc., for example. Do you think they should just stay there and just try to focus on their market? As you said before adoption rates can be so much higher.Stefan: Founding an Inc. corporation in Silicon Valley and having an Engineering in Germany worked incredibly well for us because hiring engineering in Silicon Valley doesn’t work anymore. Google or Facebook is hiring everybody. So that’s a very successful model. A lot of people are afraid to do that. If you want to get a venture capital out of Silicon Valley, where 98 percent of our venture capital in the world is. Then you need to make lower barrier to entry for VCs. When you say I am GmbH, they like Gesundheit, they don’t know what that is. They would never invest into that. They have no control. They would want to be in your Board meetings. So then, if you build a company, and you want to build it for the first time, guess what, the next 10 years you will be very poor and you will eat noodles and tomato sauce. You have to have a little bit of that You have to have a very high pain threshold because you will, on a daily basis, experience disappointments. It will be extremely hard. One out of 10 million get a big hit, like Facebook, right away, and building company is extremely hard work. And as you want to make a very low barrier entry for your customers, you need to do that for your investors. You need to present yourself as the business savvy, very self-aware person. You want to go and to say, “I’m not the CEO of the future, but I am the CEO right now, and you tell me if you find a better one and I will be the biggest shareholder because I have the idea. But let’s build a company together.” So that’s the kind of message you want to get the VCs. You want to go find a product for market fit. And again, you want to build a structure that is easy to invest in. If your structure has intellectual property in Germany, and then you have a subsidiary in the United States, that is very difficult to invest in.Martin: Okay. Thank you very much for your time, Stefan.Stefan: Absolutely.Martin: And the next time you are starting to think about starting and growing a company, and you’re a tech savvy founder, try to develop your sales process as you would in the product development cycle. Thank you very much.Stefan: Great.Martin: Thank you very much, Stefan.

What Will Happen To Huawei Phones By

2018 was a complicated year for Chinese phone maker Huawei. In early 2018, FBI Director Chris Wray issued a warning against buying Huawei phones and technologies. The US government suspected that Huawei was spying on the US through its devicessomething that Huawei vehemently denies. Despite this, however, Huawei managed to become the number 2 phone seller, after Samsung. The succeeding events after this triumph, has not gone well for Huawei. Britain has issued a statement that it will grant Huawei limited access to 5G infrastructure bound to roll out in 2021. Australia is more severe in its decision: it will ban the Chinese company completely in its 5G rollout. Facebook has followed suit by not letting Huawei preinstall its apps in their new models.US companies take actionIn May 2019, Google officially cut off Huawei from its apps and services like Gmail and Google Play. Likewise, technical support will no longer be provided. The situation is not as grim for Huawei phone users yet. T he US Commerce Department issued a temporary general license that will allow Huawei to keep its existing networks and continue getting updates. Immediately after the issuance of the temporary general license, Google confirmed that it will keep existing phones and devices up to date and secure. However, models released after will not get the same treatment. So, Huawei phone users do not need to go into panic mode just yet. But this is not a sign to be relaxed about yet because the license issued by the US Commerce Department is only temporaryit will expire on August 19, 2019. Googles next move is not known yet. So, unless Huawei manages to smooth out this wrinkle, there is a chance that Huawei phones will be excluded completely from Googles future updates. While Google apps will likely still be usable, they are bound to crash after a few missed updates.Facebooks move is less drastic than Googles, and not exactly something to be worried about. While Facebook has forbidden Huawei from preinstalling their apps, users can still download these apps later on.The more serious jab at Huawei came from Wi-Fi Alliance and SD Association last May. Wi-Fi Alliance has restricted Huaweis membership, which means that its participation will be greatly limited. For now, while the temporary general license is in effect, Huawei phones will have no trouble accessing wi-fi networks. However, there is no guarantee that this will continue once the temporary general license is lifted.On the other hand, SD Association delisted Huawei from its website. As a consequence, future Huawei phones and laptops will not be able to support SD or Micro SD cards. Experts have noted that this move will cost Huawei the opportunity to shape the future of such technologies.What is in store for users of Huawei?At this point, it is not clear how involved parties will play out the situation. Nevertheless, Huawei ispreparing for either possibility. The Chinese tech giant has recently received the trademark for its own operating system called Hongmeng. Reports say that the OS is not yetready. Huawei is also not keen on launching its own OS, and only plans to launch it should it not be able to use Android as well.The Hongmeng OS is both good news and bad news for Huawei users. Previously,Blackberry and Microsoftphones failed to enter the smartphone market due to its inability to provide apps that the Android OS can. The same issue may hinder Huawei users should Android decide to exclude Huawei as well. On the bright side, Huawei promises to take care of their patrons through security updates and after-sales services.For now, it is too hard to predict the outcome of this phenomenon. Potential and current Huawei users are advised to stay put and wait until more definitive events and decisions take place.Research paper writing service for college studentsThe Huawei ban is a multifaceted event. Not only is it a concern of technology and businessin essence, it is a social issue, one that war rants for research behind it. This may be something that your professors require you to write. If you find yourself not quite the tech-savvy to discuss the repercussions of the issue, fret not. As a ghostwriting service company, we at are ready to help you out. From essay help to general academic help to custom essays, custom term papers, and custom research, we offer a wide variety of writing services to help you get the A+ grade you need. We have a rich roster of writing experts, some of whom possess the knowledge needed to write an excellent research paper, entirely tailored to you. Ready to have the edge? Message us now!

Slavery Racism And Racism Essay - 1134 Words

Slavery: A root to Racism. Slavery and Racism Slavery as described by Oxford dictionaries â€Å"a person who is the legal property of another is forced to obey them† was introduced to America dating back to 17th and 18th centuries. African slaves were first brought to America as a means of cheap labor to work on tobacco plantations and later on the cotton gin. With the constant demand for labor and declining population, the colonists were led to believe that African slaves were the cheapest and efficient way to get their work done. Long working hours, poor living condition and deprived of all rights, regardless of age and gender, African-Americans were subject to manual labor. Then generalized as â€Å"Negros,† people from Africa were sold like ‘goods’ in a flea market. Targeting a specific ethnicity and race, it begs a question: Is slavery the cause of Racism? Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Sack captures the concept of racism in his political cartoon â€Å"The TALK†. While Sack’s cartoon does not target any particular event, the idea of the cartoonist is to reflect the racial discrimination in America. The first thing an audience notices on this cartoon is that title is â€Å"THE TALK† which is capitalized. Next the audience can see two identical rooms where fathers are trying to have â€Å"the talk† with their child. To the room on the left, a ‘white’ father is trying to explain to his son about the birds and the bees, while on the second room; a ‘black’ father is trying to explain the blind justiceShow MoreRelatedSlavery and Racism1509 Words   |  7 PagesCivilization Dr. Carlson November 17, 2011 Slavery and Racism: Are They One in the Same? Aphra Behn was an extremely significant and influential English writer in the 1600s. One of her more famous works, Oroonoko, discusses the issues of slavery and racism in the Americas. Many people believe that slavery and racism go hand in hand. In fact, these two ideologies are awfully different. Slavery is the act of forcing humans to be treated property whereas racism is the belief that discrimination basedRead MoreRacism And Slavery : Black Or The Egg, Slavery Or Racism?993 Words   |  4 Pagesthe chicken or the egg, slavery or racism? The question of whether racism is the root of slavery, or if slavery caused racism is an ongoing debate that throughout history historians has been batting to answer, and have yet to come to an agreement. Some people think that people were made slaves because of prejudice toward the color of their skin, therefore, racism caused slavery; others believe that people saw slaves as inferior to them, and therefore slavery caused racism. Jordanâ€℠¢s â€Å"The Mutual CausationRead MoreSlavery, Racism, And Slavery Essay1779 Words   |  8 PagesSlavery began before racism in North America. To prove this I will provide an analysis of chronological events that displayed acts of slavery and racism. With that being said, Initially I will be delving into the earliest implementations of slavery in North America. That being Jamestown Virginia 1619. Secondly, analysing an extract from 1655, where an African man named Anthony Johnson claimed to own another black individual, John Casor as his property. Subsequently, moving onto Winthrop D JordanRead More Racism Or Slavery Essay953 Words   |  4 Pages Racism or Slavery, which came first? nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Racism or slavery, neither, this essay will document the prejudice against Africans from Europeans that led into slavery and racism. Prejudice issues in a dislike for an individual or group of these individuals. This dislike can simulate from many differences that are shared, religion, culture, system of living (government and social practice), or in some cases looks. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;â€Å"Initially English contact withRead MoreRacism and Slavery in Oronooko1158 Words   |  5 Pageswritten in the perspective of a white colonial woman in the eighteenth century. I found the novella to have a lot of subtle racial undertones despite the fact that during that time it was seen as an anti-slavery novel.(1) There have been debates on whether this novella is pro-slavery or anti-slavery? While reading, I decided that it was neither, but more so a novella from a revolutionist point of view. One of the first things that sticks out is the way in which she described Oroonoko physically.Read MoreDid Slavery Cause Racism?3614 Words   |  15 Pagesï » ¿Did slavery cause racism? Viewpoint: Yes. With the slave trade racism became rigidly defined in custom and law. Viewpoint: No. Slavery followed from racism and reinforced existing perceptions of blacks racial inferiority. Racism both preexisted and survived slavery. The color of Africans skin intrigued, frightened, and repelled Europeans. Exaggerating the physical and mental differences that allegedly separated blacks from whites, European writers conjectured that blacks had descended fromRead MoreRacism and Slavery Essay example1811 Words   |  8 Pages Did race prejudice cause slavery? Or was it the other way round? Winthrop D. Jordan, in his monumental study of white American attitudes to black people from 1550 to 1812, argues that prejudice and slavery may well have been equally cause and effect, dynamically joining hands to hustle the Negro down the road to complete degradation. But we must go deeper than that, if we are to understand the rise of English racism as an ideology, the various roles it has played inRead MoreSlavery and Racism Shown in Huckleberry Finn620 Words   |  3 Pagesvery prominent themes. These themes include racism and slavery, intellectual and moral education, and the hypocrisy of civilized society. The most dominant theme, racism and slavery, is recognized when the main character feels that he is doing the wrong thing in helping a runaway slave. It is also recognized in the passage where the main character talks to a boy who compares a black slave’s worth to two-hundred dollars. Twain used the theme racism and slavery in an attempt to convince southerners toRead MoreRacism And Slavery During The 19th Century2451 Words   |  10 PagesRacism is not just restricted to slavery and blacks, racism can be applied to anyone, and in 19th century England this was a huge problem. The 19th century was a trying time for those who were concerned with the abolition of slavery, those who were opposed to it were greatly concerned about losing their wealth or j ust concerned with the principle of a lower race being free. However those who were opposed to slavery were sick of seeing other humans being treated so poorly and saw it as inhuman.Read MoreEssay about Racism and Slavery Hand in Hand1304 Words   |  6 Pagesliberty to all. This goal, however, is darkened by a contradictory event: racism. Racism against African Americans (Negroes) in America was a by-product of permanent and inhumane enslavement of the black population. This type slavery was built upon the need for the American colonies to achieve economic prosperity and social stability. The slavery prior to these social and economic problems was equal to that of white slavery. Black and white slaves and indentured servants received the same treatments

Homosexuality in Ancient Rome

Although sexual practices are often left out of discussions of history, the fact remains that homosexuality in ancient Rome did exist. However, its not quite as cut and dried as a question of gay versus straight. Instead, its a much more complex cultural perspective, in which the approval—or disapproval—of sexual activity was based upon the social status of the people performing various acts. Did You Know? The ancient Romans didnt have a word for homosexual. Instead, they based their terminology upon the role that the participants played.Because Roman society was so patriarchal, those who took on a submissive role were seen as feminine, and thus looked down upon.Although there is little documentation of female same-sex relationships in Rome, scholars have discovered love spells and letters written from one woman to another. The Roman Patriarchal Society Bettmann Archive / Getty Images The society of ancient Rome was extremely patriarchal. For men, the determination of masculinity was directly tied to how one displayed the Roman concept of virtus. This was one of several ideals that all freeborn Romans tried to follow. Virtus was partly about virtue, but also about self-discipline and the ability to govern oneself and others. To take that a step further, the active role of imperialism and conquest found in ancient Rome was often discussed in terms of sexual metaphor. Because masculinity was predicated on ones ability to conquer, homosexual activity was viewed in terms of domination. A man taking on the perceived dominant, or penetrative, role would fall under far less public scrutiny than a man who was being penetrated, or submissive; to the Romans, the action of being conquered implied that a man was weak and willing to give up his liberty as a free citizen. It also brought into question his sexual integrity as a whole. Elizabeth Cytko writes, Bodily autonomy was one of the regulatory norms of sex which helped define one’s status within society... an elite Roman male demonstrated his status because he was not allowed to be beaten, or penetrated. Interestingly, the Romans didnt have specific words that meant homosexual or heterosexual. It wasnt gender that determined whether a sexual partner was acceptable, but their social status. The Roman censors were a committee of officials who determined where in the social hierarchy someones family belonged, and occasionally removed individuals from the upper ranks of society for sexual misconduct; again, this was based on status rather than gender. In general, same-sex relationships among partners of the appropriate social status were considered normal and acceptable. Freeborn Roman men were permitted, and even expected, to be interested in sex with partners of both genders. Even once married, a Roman man might continue to maintain relationships with partners other than his spouse. However, it was understood that he was only to have sex with prostitutes, slaves, or people who were considered infamia. This was a lower social status assigned by the censors to individuals whose legal and social standing had been formally reduced or removed. This group also included entertainers such as gladiators and actors. An infamis could not provide testimony in legal proceedings, and could be subjected to the same sorts of corporal punishments usually reserved for slaves. Ancient history expert N.S. Gill points out that Instead of todays gender orientation, ancient Roman... sexuality can be dichotomized as passive and active. The socially preferred behavior of a male was active; the passive part aligned with the female. While a free Roman man was permitted to have sex with slaves, prostitutes, and infames, it was only acceptable if he took the dominant, or penetrative role. He was not allowed to have sex with other freeborn Roman men, or the wives or children of other free men. In addition, he couldnt have sex with another mans slave; this is because slaves were property, and sex with someone elses slave required the owners explicit permission. Although not extensively documented, there were homosexual romantic relationships between Roman men. Most scholars agree that same sex relationships between men of the same class existed; however, because there were so many rigid social constructs applied to such relationship, they were kept private. While same-sex marriage was not legally permitted, there are writings that indicate some men did participate in public marriage ceremonies with other men; the emperor Nero did this at least twice, as did the emperor  Elagabalus. In addition, at one point during his ongoing dispute with Mark Antony, Cicero attempted to discredit his opponent by claiming Antony had been given a stola by another man; the stola was the traditional garment worn by married women. Homosexual Relationships in Roman Women UIG via Getty Images / Getty Images There is little information available about same-sex relationships between Roman women. Although they probably happened, the Romans didnt write about it, because to them, sex involved penetration. Its likely that the Romans didnt consider sexual acts between women to actually be sex, unlike the penetrative activities between two men. Interestingly, among Roman women there are a number of sources that indicate not sexual activity but romance. Bernadette Brooten writes in Love Between Women of love spells commissioned by women to attract other women. Scholars agree that these spells provide written evidence that women from the time period were interested in romantic attachments with other women, and that they were comfortable expressing their desires. Brooten says: [The spells] do not reveal the internal dynamics of these womens relationships. Nevertheless, the spells do ... raise intriguing, although ultimately unanswerable, questions about the nature of womens erotic desires. Gender-Bending Deities LordRunar / Getty Images As in other ancient cultures, Roman deities were reflection of the social and cultural mores of the realm of men, and vice versa. Like their neighbors in Greece, Roman mythology does include instances of same-sex relationships between the gods, or between gods and mortal men. The Roman Cupid was often seen as a patron deity of passionate love between two men, and for a long time was associated with male/male lust. The word  erotic  comes from the name of Cupids Greek counterpart, Eros. The goddess Venus was honored by some women as a goddess of female-to-female love. The Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos wrote about her in her guise as Aphrodite. The virgin goddess Diana preferred the company of women, according to legend; she and her companions hunted in the woods, danced with each other, and swore of men completely. In one legend, the god Jupiter presented himself as the princess Callisto, and seduced Diana while in disguise. When King Minos pursued a nymph named Britomaris, she escaped him by jumping into the ocean. Diana rescued Britomaris from the sea, and fell in love with her. Jupiter, much like the Greek Zeus, was the king of all the gods, and regularly had flings with mortals of both genders. He changed his appearance frequently, sometimes appearing male and other times female. In one myth, he fell in love with the beautiful youth Ganymede, and stole him away to Olympus to be his cup-bearer. Sources Brooten, Bernadette J.  Love between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism. University of Chicago Press, 1998.Cytko, Elizabeth.  Of Androgynes and Men: Gender Fluidity in Republican Rome ...University of Alberta, 2017, https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/71cf0e15-5a9b-4256-a37c-085e1c4b6777/view/7c4fe250-eae8-408d-a8e3-858a6070c194/Cytko_Elizabeth_VJ_201705_MA.pdf.Hubbard, Thomas K.  Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2003.  JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp7g1.Schrader, Kyle W.  Virtus in the Roman World: Generality, Specificity, and ...The Gettysburg Historical Journal, 2016, cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article1154contextghj.

effects of tv violence on children Essay - 719 Words

Effects of Television Violence on Children In our society today, it is extremely important to pay attention to what influences children. One of the biggest influences America’s youth may have is the television. It is possible for children to be pulled into the television’s realistic world of violence with sometimes devastating results. The impact of television violence on youth behavior has been an issue for many years. Violent programs on television lead to negative behavior by children and teenagers who watch those programs. â€Å"There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society. The evidence comes from both the laboratory and real-life†¦show more content†¦Thus, children begin to become less bothered by violence in general and less likely to see anything wrong with it. However, television stations and their executives continue to deny TVs contribution to youth violence. â€Å"Violence on television is damaging to children. Forty years of research conclude that repeated exposure to high levels of media violence teaches some children and adolescents to settle interpersonal differences with violence, while teaching many more to be indifferent to this solution† (Levine 3). Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television: Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, more fearful of the world around them, and may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others (A.P.A., par. 2). Many people ask the question, â€Å"What are the long-term effects of violent television watching on children?† Research by Dr. James Cantor might help people better understand, the possible damaging effects television has on young children. Dr. Cantor’s research states, â€Å"Exposure to media violence, particularly that which entails bitter hostilities or the graphic display of injuries, initially induces an intense emotional reaction in viewers. Over time and with repeated exposure, however, many viewers exhibit decreasing emotionalShow MoreRelatedEssay on Effects of TV Violence on Children2966 Words   |  12 Pagesmany government agencies have begun to study the effects of violence on television as a prominent variable in childhood and adolescent aggressiveness. The prevalence of violence in television is rampant. It is as addictive as a drug to the children and adolescents, and is accomplishing two extreme reactions: a desensitization towards pain and suffering in the world, and instilling fear of the world as a dark, cold place. Although violence in all media has become a prominent issue, the focusRead MoreTelevision and Media Violence - Effects of TV Violence on Children2097 Words   |  9 PagesEffects of Television Violence on Children    Television is the mainstream of our culture. Violence on television has been a topic of conflict since before 1950. There have been repeated debates on how to protect children from the harmful effects of violence on television. Television is one form of modern media that influences the everyday lives of people. Televised violence has a major effect on how children perceive the world and how they behave. American television has become the mostRead MoreSocial Learning Theory and The Effect of TV Violence on Children2115 Words   |  9 PagesThe Effect of TV Violence on Children In the United States children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily (Cantor Wilson, 1984, p. 28). Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of todays television programming is violent. Studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may become insensitive to violence. Consequently, they tend to gradually accept violence as aRead MoreInformative Speech Outline, Children and Violence Essay1264 Words   |  6 PagesInformative Speech Outline #2 Topic: Children and TV Violence General Purpose/ Goal: To inform. Specific Goal: I want my audience to know more about TV violence and children’s exposure to it. Thesis Statement: My informative speech is going to inform you about the definition of violence, how the media rates violence, and children’s exposure to media violence. Organizational Pattern: Topical INTRODUCTION I. Mahatma Gandhi said, â€Å"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.† Read MoreThe Effects Of Television Violence On Children Essay1246 Words   |  5 PagesThis guest teaches your children to resolve conflicts through violence. The guest baby sits your kids and teaches them principles you don’t agree with. Does watching violence in TV is harmful for your children? Is it Ok to let the 2 year olds watch TV unsupervised? No says the American replacing baby sitters? Hypothesis: Extensive viewing of television violence causes children to behave in aggressive or harmful ways to others. Children model behavior they see in the media, she wrote in 1993. IfRead More The Effects of Violence in the Media Essay1528 Words   |  7 Pages The Effects of Violence In the Media nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;â€Å"Someone just got shoot on the streets due to the violence in the media.† That is what some people are saying that violence in the media is the cause of that. The controversy of the effects that violence has on people has been going on for a long time. This paper is going to prove both sides of the controversy and let one decide which side is right. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Violence is on the news and on everyday action showsRead MoreMedia Effects On The Media Essay1273 Words   |  6 Pagestelevision (TV), however many experts feel we are constantly affected by the media whether we think we are or not. Theorists believe that too much media exposure can lead to knowledge, attitudes or behavioural changes within a society, this is called ‘media effects’ (Kuehn, â€Å"Media Effects†). These media effects consists of several Paradigms, a Paradigm is described as â€Å"a typical pattern or model† (Kuehn, â€Å"Media Effects†). The Paradigms this essay will consist of are called the ‘New Effects Paradigm’Read MoreEssay about Violence on Television1246 Words   |  5 PagesViolence on Television Today’s society is heavily influenced by television. The violence disrupts a child’s learning process and can alter the moral beliefs that an older person has. Children view more violence on Saturday mornings than any other time. The cartoons aimed at little children influence youngsters to mimic violent acts because their parents do not fully explain the effects of the stunts. It is pathetic that in such a technology based society, such a simple thing as television canRead More violence on tv Essay855 Words   |  4 Pages Violence on TV nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Violence is described in Webster’s dictionary as physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing. Violence on TV has been steadily increasing for the past few years. It’s not very often that you will find a TV show in prime time that doesn’t involve some type of violence. According to Hollywood sex and violence sells. The problem with this is that violent programs on television lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagersRead MoreEssay on Negative Effects of Tv on Family Life1130 Words   |  5 PagesNegative Effects of TV The television has many effects on family life and the individual, causing family bonds to unravel and the individual to become naà ¯ve of their surroundings. The TV keeps one hooked for hours on end, causing family relationships to diminish and personal relationships to weaken. Not only does the TV seem to be a good alternative to conversations and interactions amongst one another, but it also helps to create a gap between the fictional world of TV and reality. Since the

Combination Of Sports And Computers. Technology Has Come

Combination of Sports and Computers Technology has come a long way from the beginning, preferably computers. Think back to computers in the early 2000 s; computers were terrible; it big, slow, and ugly. Computers back then weren t that big globally as it is now, computers now are faster, skinnier, portable, and sexier. Everybody in 2017 has a computer that how much computers have grown; computers is an essential tool to survive nowadays because it keeps you organized and on task on your life chores. Computers have improved and helped out many businesses and people but the biggest business computers helped out is sports. No matter the sport we look at in the world, you will see a computer in it either to collect data or to keep things†¦show more content†¦So this computer helps football players locate an head injury, this is a great way computers are used in football. So basically computers are used in football for a safety test and to prolong players careers because without this computerized test players would be playing with concussions and head trauma which will shorten their career. One of the biggest ways computers are used in football is fantasy football. Fantasy football is a competition in which participants select imaginary teams from among the players in a league and score points according to the actual performance of their players.Fantasy football is run online, and the Fantasy world earns about 70 billion dollars. Fantasy makes the game of football grow worldwide and makes the game even more accessible. People who don t even like football knows the game of fantasy, that s how big and crazy it is. Jack Eiselt wrote an article on computers and football a section of the article had fantasy football here is a glimpse of what he wrote, In 2012, an Artificial Intelligence program was developed that won its way into the 99th percentile of European fantasy football users. The same programming used by IBM s supercomputer to beat the standing Jeopar dy champion was used to evaluate the football statistics provided by ESPN, and it beat 99% of human users. So this computerized game is taking over the United States and world, making the game of footballShow MoreRelatedThe High Tech Industries Have A Revolutionary Approach Towards Technology Essay1124 Words   |  5 Pages1. Introduction Nowadays, the high-tech industries have a revolutionary approach towards technology. 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For example, the average child spends approximately fou r to six hours each day watching television, playing video games, playing on computers, phones, andRead MorePossible Solutions of Computer Lack Problem. Essay examples1058 Words   |  5 Pagesuniversities in Kyrgyzstan. Probably, it is such because it has got good teachers, American style and system of education and it is equipped with really good technologies. Still, as the university expands, more new students come than graduate, less frequently updated and increased in number computers start to become a problem. Right now there are more than one thousand students studying in AUCA, while in the computer laboratories there are over 100 computers available. Not talking about the time of exams, evenRead MoreMy Future in the Field of Computer Science909 Words   |  4 Pagesprofession is construction. I consider my grandfather as my idol as he has instilled a strong, positive attitude in all members of our family. 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History 241 Patricia Minter November 7, 2014 In United States history, there have been few inventions that have completely astonished the whole nation; the personal computer was one of them. The introduction of the IBM Personal Computer in the United States created a novel, profound interest in technology in the 1980s. PC Magazine from February 1982 indicated that technology was slowly improving around that time, but the personal

Jared Loughner Free Essays

Jared Loughner. On January 8, 2011 U. S. We will write a custom essay sample on Jared Loughner or any similar topic only for you Order Now Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with eighteen other people at a public meeting in a grocery store parking lot near Tucson Arizona. Six of the eighteen people shot that day died. This included Arizona District Court Chief Judge John Roll and nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green. Gifford was Holding a meeting called â€Å"Congress on Your Corner† in a Safeway store when she was shot through the head at point blank range. 22-year old Jared Loughner, a tucson man, was arrested at the scene. Federal prosecutors filed five charges against him, including the attempted assassination of a member of Congress and the assassination of a federal judge. Even though Loughner had a history of drug possession charges and had been suspended by his college for disruptive behavior, the motive for the shooting remains unclear. Invoking his right to remain silent , Loughner did not cooperate with authorities. Jared was found to be Incompetent to stand trial based on medical evaluations by a judge. As a young man in high school Loughner seemed ordinary enough. Occasionally he seemed withdrawn, as a normal teen would be, and a bit nerdy. Loughner loved music and played the saxophone well. Sometime around after Loughner dropped out of Mountain View High School, he didn’t seem the same. He began drinking and using drugs including pot and hallucinogens like acid. Neighbors said that Loughner was not hostile toward anyone but he certainly did not warm up to anyone either. He didn’t care what others thought of him. He had his own opinions and out looks on things and wasn’t afraid to share them. Loughner’s friends started noticed a change happening. Loughner started to do strange things. For example he spent months working out so that he could join the army. Then after traveling to the military processing station he told an Army official that he smoked marijuana excessively. Later Loughner passed a drug test, which meant he had not been smoking for at least a couple of weeks. After the Army incident Loughner’s behavior became more erratic. He started having run-ins with Police for drug possession and alcohol and vandalizing street signs. Loughner started to think that the Government was trying to control him and everyone else in the US. He lost his job at quiznos and an animal shelter because he refused to follow instructions. When classes at Pima Community College began, fellow students were frightened by Loughner’s behavior. â€Å"He had this hysterical kind of laugh, laughing to himself,† says Benjamin McGahee, his math professor. McGahee says that Loughner would say nonsensical things about â€Å"denying math. † One student in the back of McGahee’s classroom said she was scared for her life, literally. By now Loughner was clearly developing a mental illness. Many signs suggest he had delusional disorder or schizophrenia. The average age of onset for both illnesses is roughly 20, about when Loughner started showing these symptoms. Loughner Became obsessed with lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a dream state you can enter when you’re half asleep where you are aware that you’re dreaming. Loughner used drugs to keep him from falling into deep sleep which then encourage lucid dreaming. Last year the European Science Foundation reported that lucid dreaming creates distinct patterns of electrical activity in the brain that have similarities to the patterns made by psychotic conditions. Paranoid delusions can happen when lucid dermas are played over and over again when the person awakes. According to his friend Bryce Tierney, Loughner was replaying his lucid dreams in a dream journal. Loughner is being treated at a Missouri prison facility here he has been forcible medicated for about seven months in a bid to try to make him mentally fit to stand trial. Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges from the Shooting in Tucson. Loughner has not been able to stand trill because U. S. District Judge Larry Burns has ruled that he is not mentally fit to stand trial since experts have concluded that Loughner suffers from schizophrenia. JUdge Burns says that Loughner will eventually be ready for trial after he receives more treatment . Loughner’s current stay is set to the end June 7th. Even though it is said that Loughner’s condition is improving, His lawyers ave been fighting the governments efforts to forcible medicate him. Over the summer of 2011 the appeals court temporarily stopped Loughners forced medication, but it resumed when mental health experts concluded that Loughner’s condition was worsening with out the medication. Since his arrest Loughner has shown bizarre behavior. He was forcibly removed from a May 25 Court hearing when Loughner lowered his head inches from the court room table then lifted his head and began a loud, angry rant. But since he has been forcibly medicated his mental condition has improved. Loughner has sat still and expressionless for seven hours in a hearing in September . But the problem is weather a mentally ill person who is considered very dangerous should be medicated. Prosecutes say the decisions is for officials to make but Loughner’s lawyers say its up to the judge. So far prison officials have decided to medicate Loughner. His lawyers say that forcibly medication Loughner is violating his due-process rights. How to cite Jared Loughner, Essay examples