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Ford SUV Sales Deliver Best Start in Company History; Millennial, Women Buyers

Ford SUV Sales Deliver Best Start in Company History; Millennial, Women Buyers
The Ford Explorer is the most popular Ford SUV with millennial buyers ages 25 to 34, according to Ford analysis of the most recent personal new vehicle registrations in the U.S. from IHS Automotive – helping Explorer maintain its status as the best …
Read more on Business Wire (press release)

The tropical island paradise where you can set up a business in an hour
Agriculture and manufacturing make up a sizable chunk of the country's economy. But finance, including banking and business outsourcing, is also on the rise. Medical tourism is gaining in popularity too, with many now choosing the secluded island for …
Read more on CNN International

Indiana businesses see opportunity in Cuba, but obstacles remain
But there are also many hurdles to selling Indiana pork, poultry, soybeans or seed to Cubans, despite President Barack Obama's efforts to re-establish political and business relationships. The GOP-controlled Congress and Gov. Mike Pence aren't inclined …
Read more on Indianapolis Star

IBM's BlueMix new services deliver a combo of DevOps and PaaS to developers …

IBM's BlueMix new services deliver a combo of DevOps and PaaS to developers
ibm-server-racks IBM is in the process of migrating a large part of its software on the SoftLayer cloud so they are accessible in the form of services within a common open architecture. At the IBM Impact 2014 event, IBM is introducing 30 new BlueMix …
Read more on SiliconANGLE (blog)

“You hope everything goes as you plan, but most of the time reality catches up
I can help with a business plan. You hope everything goes as you plan, but most of the time reality catches up and adjustments are required. The learning process helps you assess how close you came to your target and what you could have done …
Read more on FW Business

KarmaKrowd Delivers Four Phase Crowdfunding Consulting Process to Help
"Once campaign managers have a good business plan and crowdfunding profile in place, we allow them to Beta test it on our internal database of KarmaKrowd users to gather instant feedback from insiders. This interactive process allows all users to learn …
Read more on SYS-CON Media (press release)

Check (formerly Pageonce) Partners with Alltel Wireless to Deliver Mobile Bill Payment to Its Customers


Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) June 04, 2013

Today, Check announced a partnership with Alltel Wireless, a subsidiary of Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc., to provide Alltel customers with the ability to pay and track their bills on their smartphone. The service is now available across all smartphones offered by Alltel.

Recognizing the increasingly important role of mobile commerce, Alltel was interested in finding a top-notch solution that would help customers with bill payment and management. Their search ended with Check, the leading mobile bill payment service in the US. Alltel customers can now track everything through one app: Check – Bills & Money.

“Prior to Check, people would suffer through the headache of navigating dozens of websites to pay their bills,” said Guy Goldstein, CEO of Check. “Check simplifies everything into a single mobile app and takes the work out of paying bills.”

“We are excited to help partners, such as Alltel, provide a great mobile bill pay experience to their customers without the cost of building the technology themselves.”

“With the rapid adoption of smartphones, mobile payments is the fast-growing way to pay consumer bills”, said Gwenn Bezard, co-founder and research director of Aite Group. “Billers that provide a simple and convenient way to view and pay bills with a mobile device stand to improve customer satisfaction and increase their opportunities to interact with customers. Alltel’s partnership with Check demonstrates the firm’s understanding of the importance of providing a superior customer experience, and the economic benefits of providing a great mobile bill pay capability.”

Alltel customers can download the Check app for free from the Alltel App Shop, Google Play Store and the iTunes App Store. Features of the Check app include visibility into all transactions and bill details, including access to monthly bill statements in PDF, real-time bill due alerts, and the ability to make and schedule payments.

About Check

Launched in 2008 and now used by 8+ million customers, Check – Bills & Money is a top-rated finance app, winning the Android Editor’s Choice Award 2012, Apple’s Best of the New Year 2013 and named CNNMoney’s “Cadillac of Money Management Apps”. Privately held and based in Palo Alto, California, Check is funded by Morgenthaler Ventures, Pitango Ventures, and Silicon Valley angel investors. For more information, visit http://www.check.me.

About Alltel Wireless

Allied Wireless Communications Corporation (AWCC), doing business as Alltel Wireless, is a wireless telecommunications provider serving customers in six states. Headquartered in Little Rock, AR., AWCC is a subsidiary of Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. For more information, please visit http://www.alltelwireless.com.

Contact

Raksha Varma, raksha(at)check(dot)me







Futurist Jack Uldrich to Deliver Two Presentations at the Million Dollar Round …

Futurist Jack Uldrich to Deliver Two Presentations at the Million Dollar Round
Another goal of Uldrich's, while at MDRT, is to explain how business leaders must let go and—unlearn—many of their assumptions about their fields of insurance and finance, their current business models and customers, in order to grasp the full …
Read more on PR Web (press release)

6 Ways to Save Money for Spring Break
The best cure for the midwinter blues is looking forward to the next fun thing on the horizon, and one of the greatest parts of college is planning for spring break! Although it's only … "It's important to understand what your true needs are, and …
Read more on Huffington Post

Locality Expands Nationally to Deliver Comprehensive Local Services Information to Millions of Consumers in 10,000+ Cities

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November 21, 2013

Locality (formerly Centzy), provider of the most useful, comprehensive search experience for local services, today announced its expansion into more than 10,000 U.S. cities. The company connects millions of consumers with the right local merchants for their needs. Whether it’s finding a stylist who can give great highlights before a big date or identifying the best spa nearby within a consumer’s budget, over 1.5 million people use Locality one or more times each month. Unlike other local search services that provide basic business listings and user reviews, Locality specializes in data that comes directly from merchants, such as their menu of services, pricing, and business hours, generating the most complete results available online covering 60 services in 15 categories.

As Locality continues to aggressively broaden its reach, the company announced that it has raised $ 4.3 million in Series A funding. Matrix Partners led the round and general partner Jared Fliesler has joined the company’s board of directors. Locality will use the funds to build out its platform in an ambitious effort to cover every service at every local business nationwide and develop new ways for consumers to easily connect to local merchants.

Locality’s vision is to build the most comprehensive marketplace for consumers to find, compare, and select local services. With Locality, local merchants are “always open” to answer the most commonly asked questions about their businesses. Locality aims to help merchants extend their reach and build a larger audience of high-intention consumers. Over time, Locality will make it even easier to search and discover new products and services, connecting potential customers with merchants and closing the loop on their purchases.

No One Covers Local Like Locality

Locality takes a radically different approach to local search. It is the only platform to provide a deep and normalized look at entire service categories within a searchable metro. 90% of Locality’s pricing, available services, and hours data is not available anywhere else online. For example, in a recent random sampling of 700 nail salons across the nation, Locality provided operating hours data for twice the number of nail salons as Google.

Locality’s proprietary data collection system ensures that all merchants within a defined area are included in searches and that all listings remain current. The company provides actionable information to millions of potential customers with strong purchase intent — people searching for specific services as part of their daily lives. For example, it’s 7pm and Bob is just finishing his workday. His regular cleaners closed at 5pm, but he really needs to find a next-day wash and fold. Bob can easily search on Locality for a quality, affordable dry cleaner nearby that offers this specific service and is still open. Locality gives consumers the best insight into all of their options.

“Locality does for local services what Kayak does for air travel. We show consumers every service that’s available around them in a way that makes it easy to find the right one for them,” said Jay Shek, co-founder and CEO of Locality. “Whether it’s finding the best yoga class in a new city or searching for a spontaneous mani-pedi near the office, Locality connects consumers to services for everyday life, giving them the power to find services wherever they are, whenever they need information.”

Act Locally, Grow Organically

Locality’s user base is growing rapidly and organically as consumers discover its value. Since its public launch last year, Locality traffic has grown over 10x as consumers use it in big cities and small towns all over the U.S. In fact, 75% of Locality’s traffic comes from outside the nation’s top 10 cities.

“Locality changes expectations of what local search can provide,” said Mr. Fliesler, Matrix general partner and former Square, Google and Slide executive. “Despite the number of companies competing in the local market, no one can do what Locality does and offer consumers this level of detail in local search. The unique and extensible data collection system that the team built allows Locality to scale and enter new markets at an unprecedented rate, and I can’t wait to help Jay and his team design incredible product offerings on that platform.”

“We are fortunate to receive such strong support from Matrix as a firm and from Jared in particular. Jared has great insight into how to build and market successful products in the local space from his time at Square,” added Mr. Shek. “His outstanding, relevant experience makes him the perfect fit to help us turn Locality into the ultimate local marketplace for consumers and merchants.”

To help accelerate growth, Locality is moving its headquarters to San Francisco. The company will maintain a satellite office in New York.

To find out how to join the Locality team in San Francisco or New York, please visit http://www.locality.com/team. To find the right local services for you, go to http://www.locality.com.

About Locality

Founded in 2011, Locality has developed the industry’s most comprehensive local search experience, covering 60 different services available in more than 10,000 cities. Locality’s proprietary data collection system helps consumers find the information they seek to connect with merchants that best meet their needs. The company is funded by Matrix Partners, Lightbank, ffVC, Cowboy Ventures, and Founder Collective. It is based in San Francisco with offices in New York. To learn more, please visit http://www.locality.com.

About Matrix Partners

Matrix Partners is a premier venture capital firm that has generated outstanding returns for more than three decades. By focusing on early-stage investments and emphasizing long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, the firm has delivered several of the industry’s top performing funds of all time. Matrix Partners has offices in Cambridge, MA; Palo Alto, CA; Mumbai, India; and Beijing and Shanghai, China. Matrix Partners has invested in several game-changing, industry-leading businesses such as Apple Computer, Care.com, Gilt Groupe, HubSpot, JBoss, Netezza, Phone.com, Polyvore, Starent Networks, Sycamore Networks, Veritas, Zendesk, and Zong.







Dr. Tomasz Sablinski to Deliver Keynote at 2012 OpenClinica Conference


Waltham, Massachusetts (PRWEB) February 13, 2012

Headlining this years OpenClinica Global Conference is Dr. Tomasz Sablinski, a leading clinical research innovator who is challenging the current model of drug development. Dr. Sablinski will talk about how barriers to delivering new medical treatments via clinical development can be overcome by borrowing from contemporary concepts of transparency, crowd sourcing, and open innovation.

Dr. Sablinskis perspective reflects his 30+ years working as a practicing physician, basic researcher, drug developer, investor, and entrepreneur. During this time, has served as a researcher at Harvard Medical School, a Medical Director at Parexel, VP of Clinical Development at Novartis, and Head of Development and Managing Director at private equity firm Celtic Therapeutics.

According to Dr. Sablinski, The emerging clinical development crisis requires a re-thinking of the entire process. Those organizations flexible enough to adapt by redesigning the way clinical trials are conceived and conducted using advances in communications and telemedicine, along with open innovation principles, will, I believe, prevail in the long run.

Dr. Sablinski believes we are at an inflection point–the persistent poor productivity of existing clinical approaches provides a unique opportunity for bringing much- needed innovation to the clinical trials industry.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Tomasz Sablinski deliver the keynote address at this years OpenClinica conference, said Ben Baumann, Chair of the OpenClinica Conference Committee. His bold ideas will be sure to challenge many of our current assumptions in thought-provoking, even controversial ways. He is not afraid to question the status quo, and seeks to encourage much of the same type of disruptive innovation that OpenClinica strives to bring to clinical research.

More information about the 2012 OpenClinica Conference is available online at https://community.openclinica.com/conference.

About the 2012 OpenClinica Conference