Meg Cabot: A True Author Outline Essay

Ever experienced a book where you simply need to crush it against the divider? Tired of perusing unsurprising sappy story lines? Well at that point, you’re in karma! Regardless of the state of mind you’re in, Meggin Patricia Cabot, otherwise called Meg Cabot, will take you on an excursion past your most out of control creative mind from the absolute first second you start perusing the primary page of one of her books. Actually, she’ll associate with brain and soul in the numerous classifications she composes, making you need to go to the closest library and look at another. Meg Cabot was conceived on February 1, 1967, in Bloomington, Indiana. She was a functioning peruser from an early age, from the start eating up comic books and sci-fi at the neighborhood library. In numerous meetings, Cabot asserts that she discovered her way to the library throughout the mid year months since she was searching for cooling. While chilling in the library, Cabot before long found great writing, for example, To Kill a Mockingbird, by southern author Harper Lee, and Jane Eyre, composed by English writer Charlotte Bronte(Henning). Jane Eyre, the narrative of the sentiment between a man and his daughter’s babysitter, specifically, lastingly affected youthful Cabot. As she clarified in a 2004 meeting with Christina Nunez, â€Å"It acquainted me with the universe of sentiment, which I have never left. † notwithstanding perusing, Cabot was additionally fixated on princesses and the conviction that a ‘Prince Charming’ was out there for everybody. â€Å"I was a conventional Disney-princess worshipper,† she told Trudy Wyss of Borders. â€Å"You know, I had the Snow White birthday cake when I was six, and drew Cinderella unendingly on my scratch pads. Cabot read about princesses (her preferred fantasy being Beauty and the Beast ) and fantasized about being a genuine princess, regularly disclosing to her mother and father that her ‘real’ guardians, the ruler and sovereign, would show up one day in Indiana to discover her. In 1977, in the wake of seeing the celebrity Wars, the ten-year-old’s fixation for eminence developed higher than ever. â€Å"I got fixated on Princess Leia,† Cabot clarified, â€Å"its one thing to be â€Å"I am living confirmation that it is conceivable to benefit from being a secondary school crack. † Princess of a realm; it is very another to be princess of a whole planet! It’s no big surprise she made a genuine accomplishment with the Princess arrangement. Achievement, be that as it may, doesn't come for the time being. With around a thousand dismissal letters, Meg had the option to polish off a novel that would bloom her vocation. The motivation for Princess originated from an occasion that occurred in Cabot’s own life. After her dad passed on her mom started dating her daughter’s previous craftsmanship educator. Cabot was shocked to such an extent that she started keeping a journal. She extended the journal sections into an anecdote about a ninth-grader named Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, otherwise called Mia, whose mother is dating her vari able based math instructor. Cabot additionally visited her old secondary school journals to add genuine teenager voice to her character, an awkward, bashful rookie being raised by her single parent in Greenwich Village space in New York City. How does that relate for the title Princess? Well notwithstanding confronting the hardships of high school life, Mia’s world is flipped around when she finds that her dad is really the sovereign of a small European nation called Genovia and that she is next to acquire the seat. Out of nowhere Mia is a big name, and her stresses over young men goes to an interruption for princess exercises, protectors, and battling off the paparazzi(TeenReads). Furthermore, subsequent to polishing seven books off of Mia’s life, Cabot made the significant movie The Princess Diaries featuring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Which later earned itself a spin-off. Cabot started to keep in touch with her own accounts in light of the fact that, as she asserted in an Onion Street online meeting, there was literally nothing else to do. â€Å"That was back in the prior days link and VCRs were opular, so there truly was nothing to do except for compose accounts of our own. â€Å" Furthermore, Cabot composed for the secondary school paper and kept nitty gritty diaries that end up being phenomenal when composing Princess Diaries. She was likewise dynamic in after-school exercises, including ensemble, theater, and the craftsmanship club. Despite the fact that she delighted recorded as a hard copy Cabot never anticipated turning into an expert creator. Rather, she longed for being an entertainer or a veterinarian. Shockingly, she failed polynomial math and did rather ineffectively on the math part of her SATs. As a component of confirmations prerequisites most colleges require an understudy to take SAT assessments; they are isolated into two sectionsâ€verbal and math reasoningâ€and help survey what an understudy has realized all through their secondary school years. ) Following graduation from secondary school, Cabot chose to consider workmanship at the University of Indiana, where she could go to educational cost free since her dad was an educator. In 1991, with a lone wolf of expressive arts degree in the palm of her hand, the craftsman moved to New York City to seek after a profession as an artist. Rather, she found work as a first year recruit residence aide director at New York University(Nunez). It was not actually her fantasy work, however there were periods when work was moderate, which gave her a lot of leisure time to come back to her initial love: composing. Getting a move on, Cabot discharged Insatiable in 2010. Presently, this book may end up being more the grown-up peruser, none-the-less, it is suggested. Tired of those sappy-wail vampire romantic tales? Well then simply grade me a F. Unquenchable is the primary vampire/paranormal story Meg expounds on. With numerous purposes of perspectives, Meg Cabot leaves the peruser confused by expounding on an adoration triangle between Meena Harper, the baffled fiery girl, Lucien Antonescu, the rich awful kid, and Alaric Wulf, a vampire-tracker. From the outset, the main idea at the top of the priority list may be, â€Å"another Twilight story†. Luckily, it isn't. Being the story spoiler that I am, Cabot completes the novel not by an upbeat closure, however a fairly cheerful one. She doesn’t expound on an overpoweringly appealing vampire who wins the young lady (however Lucien is). Goodness no! On the opposite, Cabot retells Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with a contort. The vampire doesn’t get the young lady; making this book ‘a must read’. With that, creator Meg Cabot has become a one-lady showcasing sensation, a publisher’s dream since she can deliver books with astonishing recurrence. She is additionally an assorted essayist who has discovered equivalent achievement in a huge number of types, including recorded romance(Avalon High, Lady of Skye, Abandon, and so forth , ), youthful grown-up fiction(Mediator, All-American Girl, Ready or Not? , Princess Diaries, 1800-R-U-There? and so forth), and contemporary grown-up fiction(Insatiable, Portrait of My Heart, Queen of Babble, and so forth ). It appears like, Cabot knows precisely what we need to peruse; ethics, sentiment, satire, the paranormal, and so on. She knows precisely how to contact your heart and make you wish that you were the fundamental character in the story. With this stated, Meggin Patricia Cabot has composed more than 67 books in a timeframe of 1998 till present day. So at whatever point you’re in the state of mind to peruse, you realize you can generally depend on Meg Cabot to remove you from your little shell, and onto an undertaking.

Definition and Examples of Hypocoristic Names

Definition and Examples of Hypocoristic Names A hypocorism is aâ pet name, nickname,â or affectionate nickname - regularly an abbreviated type of a word or name. Modifier: hypocoristic. It gets from the Greek word importance to utilize youngster talk. Robert Kennedy takes note of that numerous hypocorisms are ​monosyllabic or disyllabic, with the subsequent syllable bearing no pressure (The Oxford Handbook of the Word, 2015). Models and Observations Mikey, Mikey, please. Our folks are concerned. Its dinnertime. Why dont we go home?(Chunk to his companion Michael Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, 1985)Oh, Slothy. I may have been terrible. I may have kept you tied up in that room, yet it was for your own good.(Mama Fratelli to her child Lotney Sloth Fratelli in The Goonies, 1985)If you call your granddaughter Toots, you are being hypocoristic.(Roy Blount, Jr., Alphabet Juice. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)Now, youngsters, I need you to reveal to me your names once more, and I need you to talk similarly as unmistakably as Mary Chapman did. Also, I need you to talk your genuine names. You should not say your child names, for example, Jimmie, for James; Lizzie, for Elizabeth; Johnny, for John. The principal line, stand!(Teacher in The National Music Teacher by Luther Whiting Mason, 1894)Born a slave on March 15, 1843, on the Gray manor in Noxubee County, Mississippi, the newborn child was given a slave name, Richard Gray. Around the mano r, however, the managers called him Dick, short for Richard.(Juan Williams and Quinton Dixie, This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience. William Morrow, 2003) Kitsy, she energizes, as shes attempting to show a parakeet to request a saltine. Its short for Katherine Isabelle. My grandma is Itsy, short for Isabelle, my mom is Bitsy, short for Elizabeth Isabelle, and my little girl is Mitsy, short for Madeleine Isabelle. Isnt that just adorable?(Wade Rouse, Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler: A Memoir. Congruity Books, 2007) Hypocoristic Forms of First Names in the Modern English Period Most first names of any money had perceived hypocoristic structures. A few names pulled in just a couple of primary structures; others had a few; and there was extension for a reasonable level of free imaginativeness. In the main classification, and all dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth hundreds of years, were: Di (Diana); Frank and Fanny (Frances); Jim (James); Joe (Joseph); Nell (Helen); and Tony (Anthony). Different names pulled in a bigger number of hypocoristic structures, mostly in light of the fact that they were ordinary person names . . .. Models are Aggie, Nessa, Nesta (Scots) and Nest (Welsh) for Agnes; Doll, Dora, Dodee, Dot and Dolly (present day) for Dorothy or Dorothea; Mey, Peg, Maggie (Scots), Margery, Maisie, May and Madge for Margaret; or more all the numerous names getting from Elizabeth. These incorporate Bess, Bessie, Beth, Betsy, Eliza, Elsie, Lisa (present day), Lizbeth, Lizbie, Tetty, and Tissy. It will be noticed that these are young ladies names, a nd they appear to have been unquestionably progressively inclined to hypocoristic arrangements in the post-medieval period than young men names. Some hypocoristic structures became free names, as Elsie, Fanny and Margery. (Stephen Wilson, The Means of Naming: A Social and Cultural History of Personal Naming in Western Europe. UCL Press, 1998) Hypocoristics in Australian English The utilization of hypocoristics for normal things and formal people, places or things is an outstanding element of the discourse of numerous Australians. Every so often there are sets. At times one structure, generally a/I/structure, is viewed as babytalk: [Roswitha] Dabke (1976) notes goody/goodoh, kiddy/kiddo, and think about jarmies-PJs/night wear, and kanga (babytalk)- roo/kangaroo. Be that as it may, once in a while unique hypocoristics have various meanings, with the/o/structure bound to indicate an individual: herp reptile, herpo herpetologist; chockie chocolate, chocko chocolate trooper (Army hold); sickie wiped out leave, sicko mentally debilitated individual; plazzo plastic nappy, plakky plastic (descriptive word). In any case, frequently there are no unmistakable contrasts: smooth milko/milkman, commy-commo/socialist, weirdy-weirdo/strange individual, garbie-garbo/junk jockey, kindie-kinder/kindergarten; bottlie-bottlo/bottle dealer, sammie-sandie-sangie-sanger-sambo/sandwich, preggie-preggo-preggers/pregnant, Proddo-Proddy/Protestant, expert prozzo-prostie-prozzie/prostitute. Speakers who utilize more than one hypocoristic may dole out to them the implications proposed by [Anna] Wierzbicka. Be that as it may, if a speaker utilizes just one of the conceivable hypocoristics, for them the hypocoristic may have a general importance of casualness, and not the proposed fine-grained contrasts. This remaining parts to be investigated. (Jane Simpson, Hypocoristics in Australian English. A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool, ed. by Bernd Kortmann et al. Mouton de Gruyter, 2004)

5-Pen Pc Technology Essay

P-ISM is a â€Å"Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package†. This innovation is an innovation of five device bundle which has five capacities: 1. Pen-style mobile phone give penmanship information input work. 2. Virtual Keyboard. 3. Minimized size Projector. 4. Camera Scanner. 5. Individual ID key with cashless pass work. These five devices speak with one another by the utilization of short-run remote innovation. This innovation utilizes the phone capacity to set up an association with the web . Bluetooth is widely utilized on the grounds that this innovation grants to transmit data(like melodies, records, photographs, telephone numbers and so forth.) or develop associations without wires. This is exceptionally successful in light of the fact that we can ready to interface at anyplace and at whenever without having wires. They are utilized at the recurrence band of 2.4 GHz ISM (in spite of the fact that they utilize distinctive access systems). Blue tooth system is utilized for trading signal status data between two gadgets. This strategies have been built up that don't require correspondence between the two gadgets, (for example, Blue tooth’s Adaptive Frequency Hopping), the most proficient and thorough answer for the most major issues can be cultivated by silicon merchants. They can actualize data trade capacities inside the structures of the Bluetooth. Driven Projector: The LED Projector replaces screen which extends on the screen. The size of the projector is of A4 size. It has the estimated goals limit of 1024 X 768. Subsequently it gives greater clearness and great picture. Virtual Keyboard: Virtual Laser Keyboard (VLK)is another device for PC clients which replaces the hardwareâ€keyboard. It through laser bar onto the work area or onto the level surface where you can locate the full-size entirely working QWERTY course of action console which associates with the PC just as to other handheld devices(PDA’s , tablet PC’s and so on.). Advanced Camera: Its working resembles the webcam, you can do video recording, video conferencing with it. It can interface with different gadgets and in view of its little size you can convey it in your pocket. It has 360 degree visual specialized gadget. Battery: Typically the workstations and different gadgets accompanies the battery life of 4 hours , 6 hours and so forth yet this little gadget has the battery life of 6+(i.e. 6 days) and for ordinary utilize its battery labor for about fourteen days. Creator:- Ms. Deepti Gupta September 20, 2012 http://www.blog.gurukpo.com/5-pen-pc-innovation 5 Pen PC Technology Documentation Free Download P-ISM (â€Å"Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package†), which is only the new disclosure, which is under creating, stage by NEC Corporation. 5 Pen PC Technology is a device bundle including five capacities: a pen-style wireless with a penmanship information input work, virtual console, an exceptionally little projector, camera scanner, and individual ID key with cashless pass work. 5 Pen PC Technology are associated with each other through short-run remote innovation. The entire set is additionally associated with the Internet through the phone work. This individual contraption in a moderate pen style empowers a definitive pervasive figuring. Truth be told, nobody anticipates a lot of action on 802.11n establishments until the center of 2008. â€Å"Rolling out 802.11n would mean a major redesign for clients who as of now have full Wi-Fi inclusion, and would be an intricate extra to existing wired systems, for the individuals who haven’t. Bluetooth is generally utilized in light of the fact that we can ready to move information or make associations without wires. 5 Pen PC Technology is exceptionally powerful in light of the fact that we can ready to associate at whatever point we need without having wires. 5 Pen PC Technology are utilized at the recurrence band of 2.4 GHz ISM (in spite of the fact that they utilize distinctive access components). Blue tooth instrument is utilized for trading signal status data between two gadgets. 5 Pen PC Technology methods have been built up that don't require correspondence between the two gadgets, (for example, Blue tooth’s Adaptive Frequency Hopping), the most proficient and far reaching answer for the most major issues can be cultivated by silicon sellers. They can execute data trade capacities inside the structures of the Blue tooth. The circuit outline for the 802.11B/G is given beneath. It is only additionally kind of Blue tooth. Utilizing this availability we can likewise interface it with the web and can get to it anyplace on the planet. Driven Projector: The job of screen is taken by LED Projector which extends on the screen. The size of the projector is of A4 size. It has the estimated goals limit of 1024 X 768. Consequently it is gives greater clearness and great picture. Virtual Keyboard: The Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB) is the ULTIMATE new device for PC clients. The VKB radiates laser on to the work area where it would appear that the console having QWERTY course of action of keys i.e., it utilizes a laser pillar to create a full-size totally working laser console that easily interfaces with of PC and Most of the handheld gadgets (PDA’s, tablet PC’s). The I-Tech laser console acts precisely like some other â€Å"ordinary† console: Highlights of virtual consoles are: 1.VKB settings can be changed by Sound:  2.Controllable Virtual Keyboard audio effects (key snaps) 3.Connection: Connection to the suitable Laptop/PC port 4.Intensity: Intensity of the anticipated Virtual Keyboard  5.Timeouts: composed breaks to moderate the Virtual Keyboard’s battery life 6.Sensitivity: flexible affectability of the Virtual Keyboard 7.Auto-rehash: Allows the VKB to naturally rehash a key dependent on recommended parameters. Battery: The most significant part in the compact kind of PC is its battery. Typically batteries must be little in size and work for longer time. It accompanies a battery life of 6+. For typical use it tends to be utilized for 2 weeks.This ‘pen kind of instrument’ produces both the screen just as the console on any level surfaces from where you can complete capacities you would ordinarily do on your work station. REFERENCE:- 2012/07/5 http://college help.blogspot.com Posted by Mahesh

Bulimia nervosa essays

Bulimia nervosa papers In todays American culture, dietary issues are very normal. Numerous individuals accept that dietary issues have arrived at pestilence levels. By and large dietary problems lead to genuine and perilous ailments. Additionally, dietary problems frequently lead to physical and psychosocial bleakness in juvenile young ladies or young ladies. There are three distinct characterizations of dietary problems: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and the atypical dietary problems. Bulimia nervosa is a substantially more typical dietary problem then anorexia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa is a mental dietary problem, which is portrayed by scenes of voraciously consuming food followed by cleansing or taking purgatives. Bulimia turned into an unmistakable dietary problem when it was set up during the 1980s (1). Most bulimics look ordinary, and are not underweight. Generally bulimia is caused in individuals who have an overvaluation of body shape and weight. A few triggers for bulimia are uncontrolled yearning and stress. Gorging and cleansing is normally done stealthily, however bulimics regularly show flags that can be distinguished. Contradicted to anorexia, bulimia by and large happens further down the road. Youthful grown-ups are increasingly powerless to bulimia then young people. Around five percent of more established teenagers and youthful grown-up females are bulimic. The proportion is 29:1 of females to guys who have bulimia. A perspective that doesn't add to the odds of bulimia is social class. Bulimic rich individuals just as the less lucky bulimics are in equivalent extents. Be that as it may, there are frequently increasingly white bulimics at that point dark bulimics. Notwithstanding ethnic foundation, common area additionally is a contributing element. Bulimia is frequently a bigger issue in transcendently western social orders (3). There are numerous indications and cautioning signs that somebody can be bulimic. A portion of the unobtrusive notice signs are male pattern baldness, indicating veins in the eyes, and practicing urgently. Another significant sign is... <!

Man Vs Woman Essays - Sexual Acts, Human Sexuality,

Man Vs Woman Ladies versus Man Physical, mental, and explicitly ladies and men are unique. Truly the most perceived distinction between the two sexies is that men have a penis and ladies have a vagina. Most men likewise have littler bosom. Men additionally have distinctive body structures than ladies. Ladies have huge hips so as to conceive an offspring and men have one less rib then ladies, yet ladies cannot whine about this since they gave that rib to us. People additionally have distinctive facial highlights. Alongside appearing to be unique people think diverse as well. This makes them diverse mentally. The mental contrasts start at an early age. Young men are bound to play with trucks and young ladies are bound to play with dolls. Some state this is chauvinist child rearing. For instance, guardians will give a young man a truck before they will give him a doll or they will give their daughter a doll before they will give her a truck. This isn't correct. Researchers have discovered that if a young lady has a d ecision between playing with a doll and playing with a truck, the young lady will in all likelihood play with the truck. What's more, if a kid has a decision between playing with a truck or with a doll he is no doubt going to pick the truck. Obviously there are special cases to this standard, there are a few situations where either the male or female kid likes to play with the inverse toys. For instance a young lady may play with truck while a young man will play with a doll. The expression for having both female and male qualities, as expressed in the model, is bisexuality or all the more usually called boyish girl or tom young lady. Another contrast between the two genders is that guys are increasingly forceful. At the point when they play they like to make GI Joes beat each other up or they like to wrestle. Young men need to be warriors. Studies have indicated that females arent this forceful. At the point when young ladies play they are progressively worried about what the dolls are doing, and how the others that they are playing with are feeling. As it were young men simply need to play while young ladies need to recognize what you are thinking and how you feel. Ladies are conceived nurturers they likewise notice more subtleties then men. Men appear to not think about subtleties. For instance, my significant other doesnt read the directions on the best way to assemble anything until he has, fruitlessly, attempted to assemble everything end of the week. Men likewise wont request bearings until they have driven past similar service station multiple times and, after its all said and done if there is a ladies in the vehicle she goes in and requests the headings, however this is the thing that makes men so adorable and clever. Men wont request headings and ladies will since they impart in various manners. There are numerous sexual orientation contrasts with regards to correspondence. Ladies are progressively gifted at perusing nonverbal signals, for example, n on-verbal communication. Specialists have discovered that ladies are almost certain than men to ask about upsetting circumstances that someone else is in, and to utilize ameliorating messages that recognize the sentiments of that individual. At the point when men get together with other men they are bound to discuss vehicles or sports than their hair or what they did that day. Though, ladies would prefer to discuss their inclination or their thought process than of sports or vehicles. It is additionally demonstrated that men interfere with more than ladies do. Analysts likewise discovered that ladies conversing with ladies are bound to tell their private concern than men conversing with men, however in the event that a man is conversing with a lady that he is convertible with, he is fit for being similarly as self-revealing as a lady would be. This is he will started to discuss his sentiments or his private issue. In spite of the fact that ladies and men convey so distinctively they see one another, more often than not. People are the main species that impart the manner in which we do. Alongside appearing to be unique, thinking extraordinary and afterward correspondence various guys and females are likewise unique when

mbrace

mbrace INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi. Today we are in  Berlin  with mbrace. Jan, who are you and what do you do?Jan: Hi. Welcome. My name is Jan, Im the co-founder of mbrace, responsible for marketing and growth. The company kicked off last summer. We are building social discovery apps and we have a team of 16 people now and we are looking forward to expand.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Jan: Before I joined mbrace as a co-founder, I work for HitFox for 2 years. It is a local incubator where I also met my co-founders Ruben and Lukas. HitFox basically, initially was a group on for games model and then evolved into a game focused incubator for high tech companies.Ruben and Lukas worked in one of the portfolio companies for browser games and I was responsible for mobile. Just before I came back to  Berlin, I lived in  San Francisco  for about a year to build an office for AppLift which is their portfolio company.Martin: What did you do in the Silicon Valley and what are the m ajor differences between Berlins entrepreneurs and the startup ecosystem in the  Silicon Valley startup system?Jan: Silicon Valley  in itself, first of all was an  enlightening  experience. You meet vast amount of inspiring  and really passionate people. The biggest distinction I found was that people are more experienced in setting up companies, like from very junior beginning of their 20s to older people that have been through several iteration of setting up a company. Either failing after a year or actually have some other the big plans. So people are much more experienced, theyve learnt more lessons, they know how to take struggles and know how to take pitfalls and downfalls, and just more experienced in setting up companies.In general, Silicon Valley and  San Francisco  in particular is an amazing place to go and spend time as I think for every founder. And the amount of passion you take, the amount of speed get, the amount of execution knowledge you get, in particular in the l ocally strong industry for mobile and tech, fintech, software as a service, mobile payment.It was just fascinating and this is always fun, if you walked down the street and basically look at the door signs and you know basically  every single company that you read about on tech launching event before. So it was a very high density. Even if you go to a bar and talk to anybody, theres a chance that he/she works for Facebook, Google or just be setting up their own companies. If you like, everybody there is just craving for fun ideas and setting up a company.Martin: So was it easy to get in touch with the people?Jan: Very easy. I found also much easier than in  Berlin. People are just more interested in general and also much more open to network. They, I think part of the reason they are not afraid to share ideas or to share secrets and how each other out. They just know that good ideas are not really worth anything, or tell how to grow a company is not really worth anything.While the G ermans here in Berlin, people are a little bit more enclosed and a little bit shy to tell everything they know and basically help each other out. Thats probably one of the things that will come also when  Berlin goes  for more iterations of companies.And the network to talk to relevant people in  San Francisco  is much denser, so there are thousands of angels, hundreds of VCs. So there would be 500 people  relevant  for you, if you are in a very niche market. Just software as a service for whatever game company or business, but for that you would already have like 50 angels who do nothing else but this, and probably 2 VCs to do nothing else but this. So its very dense. Very interesting.BUSINESS MODELMartin: Lets talk about the business model of mbrace. How does it work and did you already change it? And what are your future plans in terms of iteration?Jan: So the initial idea to start mbrace last year was really to build an innovative, very unique social discovery application. To ma tch how its happening in real life, to build a better way software supported to meet new, interesting people. But it turned out to be a very complex to start, so we start to kick off with a dating focus product, mbrace 1.0.So we had the first basic concept ready in June, July last year, formed the company in August and the beta version live in October to show the working proof of concept, the concept we have is working. So a very simple product, just a simple HTML5 based and working across all platforms. With that proof of concept we were able to raise a 7 digit in rounds in December from three local VCs. Then apps live around February, March, and its catering to 6 countries.Now with all these learnings we make, to understand how the users flow, how do they receive the app, what is the stance we take to find a product market fit,  the critical challenges in growing an app. Growing from traction to growth, so the different stages.We now believe that we are ready to take the next ste p with the initial area, we have to really build a mobile support, mobile helper, and youre on the phone youre connected with the relevant people around you to get the benefit out of it.Martin: And how is the current matching process working of people with several interests and what make this change in the future?Jan: As now since it tends towards dating, we make it as simple as possible to break ice between 2 people. So there are several factors going into the algorithm is location, age, common interests, common friends, common events you went to, etc., etc. And then you have this mutual interest, so if I show interest in you and you show interest in me, and we have a match and we can start chatting in the app.We introduced the second ice breaker, which is a challenge. Basically that the local guy can post to me, so Okay if you want to talk to me, tell me a secret, make me laugh, tell me a joke in different language, what would you cook for me in our first meeting, tell me about th e most experienced travel or trip you did. So its a bit more, not just like spray and pray, and its like every girl that I see around, but really if Im interested I put a little bit more effort.First theres the ice breaker, and second already tells you a little bit more about the other person, so what type of answer she has. So it was very successful.  The feature was very well perceived, since it adds more personal level to the new interaction of somebody new. This is also learning that now will be taken to the new social discovery app. So thinking a lot about the question, like what is it called common interest or common denominator or the core contact that would make sense to connect these 2 people.There are some apps of course, a lot of apps with social discovery. The most social discovery apps are dating apps because it sells better, but you should be careful. But if you look at  app  highlight for example, which is a bit similar to our vision and mission. They would just say: Hey, as Jan is working downstairs, hes working in startup, I think we should meet, which is nice, instead of knowing nothing about him. I believe, that really still doesnt have enough context for me to really go down and meet somebody.So we try to make it to the next step and really establishes common excuses, common denominator, that really make sense for both parties involved to meet each other.Martin: How do you feed in the data? Is it the users that is entering all the data, I was there. How do you connect all the space or sources for getting a common data set?Jan: There are several sources, of course. You have to rely on what the users want to give us and thats normal. We still use also Facebook login, since its very convenient for the users and it gives us a good basic data set to know basically who you are and what you like.And then the context as location data and a data that we have from several sources. So the event you went to we use from APIs. We build a lot on  iBeacon  infrastructure that we know whos currently where. So we just try to add several sources that would enrich users experience for you.Martin: Is it true that you currently mainly rely on Facebook data for creating your algorithm?Jan: Yes, we do it on purpose. Because it make sense for the dating focused apps, just to avoid spam. I mean, most dating social discovery app will spam profiles, partly on purpose because they need contents. But we decided that the quality of the user base and the authenticity of user base is critical to a long term success. And Facebook is the easiest way to do this. So when we introduce it, its basically on Facebook, the first its convenient for its users, but for us, we can checked how many friends that he/she has, if they really exist, etc.Martin: When you go from the dating app to a more social discovery app, what is the current revenue model and how might it change?Jan: Since we all came from mobile games, so marketing mobile games are the most competit ive category for 2 years. So, we basically know all sorts of different ways to monetize the app. We specifically took on the VC money, so we have enough time to build and grow first, and then introduce the monetization model later on.In general, and we have all sorts of options available and one of the most number one would be freemium. So we look for really power users or for involving external parties, you can have all the function for free but if you want to have them better, more extreme, more frequent experience, you should pay for small features. And we can involve external parties, event organizers or companies that might be interested to incorporate with us. And there are several successful tests we did to monetize.Advertising is the least priority. We think that is sponsored user experience that is currently not a truly native ad format that people would use in the app. But we shifted or we place the focus on what iteration and need to monetize after we get the first tracti on for the new product or towards the end of this year.We will test. And in the end, we test everything. So we A/B test the product, design, features, communications and every test monetization, to see which base to seek best by its user. Its the only way to really go bottom up and understand what the users accept and we optimize it for us to make enough to cover all cost. But its not how it used to be a year ago, where we can just basically force them to pay or show ads in the app if it  doesnt  want it  and then go. Theres much competition.Martin: Jan, you are the Chief Marketing Officer here at mbrace. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you acquire customer especially as you currently only focus on 6 countries?Jan: So one of the critical disciplines we have to master is how to overcome the cold start, which is a chicken egg problem. If we can get enough users, we can get enough users to have a great new users experience in the app, so we have to overcome the network effe cts.Partly we do that by a variety of channels, we can basically switch on and off and scale depending on the usage. We have so, we did a lot of performance based advertising where we basically agree on fixed  CPI  and the use of Facebook, Twitter or affiliate networks and media buyer to give us traffic of a certain category in a certain location, which is basically an on and off switch to scale. And the long term, we have build and significant traction in-house through social media digital content marketing.So really getting in front of the user base, potential user base and convince them that we have a really cool product and communicate the added value we have through app and through content marketing we do. The third is a very local event marketing as well. Especially where we launch hub by hub,  Berlin,  Munich,  Hamburg,  Singapore,  Amsterdam, etc etc.And we host events, we partnered with local companies. For example in  Germany  its Red Bull, where we really stage events in the target audience to try basically to get lots of signups  in a short amount of time.Whenever we see traction basically, then we switch on with the performance marketing as to support traction and make sure that we have enough installs and signups for certain period of time until we hit a percentage benchmark, say 25 22 % of the target audience is in the app, and from there normally  the app loads okay. So its a step by step process and we have basically a mix of 6 to 7 channels, and we basically see whats working and then we switch on and off.Martin: Okay. In the current version of mbrace, you use this kind of virality because its invite only. What have been your major learnings about how to increase virality?Jan: Increasing virality is critical and I think for any mobile apps. We have to find features that basically trigger the users to really wanting to invite friends. So, the app itself has to add more value whenever you have friends or the people in the app that you know.Thi s is critical for K-factor, that is how we measure virality. In one of the first steps, we did that and to get the initial traction was the exclusiveness or the invite only. And that is also part that again, we want to have a super high quality user base.So that the user can decide: Hey, this makes sense, I would like to meet it person, yes or no. And it was just important  if you have so many signups that you cant really  distinguish. If you involve external parties to do acquisition for you, they will always be a lot of spam, a lot of good users that would just basically destroy the user experience. So the exclusiveness or the invite only was the mix of hey, I can invite my friends and also the strongest way to keep people having high quality.Martin: So what you recommend everybody to ask community to start with this approach?Jan: No. I think cant be said that way. Its one interesting tool and that you can use but its also one of many tools that just have to make sense for the use case. For us, we tested it and it made sense, it worked great, and gaining growth first but for other community it wouldnt make sense at all. It depends.It depends on also what’s your strongest denominator in the community. If the community is based on general content, then that wouldnt make sense to basically limit the exclusiveness of the users. Then it would make more sense to limit maybe who can post or who can contribute contents.A bit like what Medium did for example in the first month. Everybody could read and join Medium, but only handful of people could post on product. And in the community everybody can join, as long as you cant do damage, it doesnt really make sense to limit who can join. So right now they have like 50 60 people who post product ideas and soon it probably open up to market.But in our case, in social discovery app, where the focus is on people, the people are of course also the content. So what you see in the app is the people, so there was a part to e ducate  very-very high quality, and therefore it make sense to ask you to introduce exclusive only.Martin: Understood.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: In terms of corporate strategy, competitors like Lovoo or Tinder. How do you plan to be unique in this kind of market?Jan: Uniqueness I think derives from added value. Tinder and Lovoo, we dont see as competitors. They are strong in their market niche for dating and for hookups which we believe is one interesting segment of a market to meet new people but we believe there is much-much more.Even if we only look at the dating value chain: there are some people who are happy to use dating apps; there are like 80% of all singles who dont want dating apps; and theyre like most of the people who already have a partner who would still like to meet people. These hookups or dating apps only cover the tip of the iceberg.We always see it as a comparison to real life. I mean how many people would go to a single party. People go to a party of course to meet new people, but most people I know wouldnt go to a single party. And we believe that 100% focus dating apps more like single parties in real life and we want to go for the segment that really the way you meet and interact with new people in real life, out of contents, out of added values, through social and recommendations or through your social friendship. That can also be done better or with more fun.Martin: As currently, you mostly depended on Facebook data, how do you plan to diversify this data sources so you dont risk your business model?Jan: Its a step-by-step approach. At the beginning, theres a risk of Facebook is also very German-centric and all other countries we didnt really have any issue at all, people who are asking for us to implement a Facebook login. So the dependence on Facebook data is more the first step to create traction and afterwards well have our own data source, also think about own ways to aggregate the data, of course. But to build that already at t he beginning would just add more complexity and would make us slower to get the traction.Martin: Understood. So you would plan to build your own data source not adding other data sources?Jan: Yes, I think in the end you have to. At least as a stock and then depending on whats the users want, user preferences, you can feed in more data sources. Right now we see a lot of from people who like to integrate Instagram or Twitter or any other social networks that would tell something about them thats interesting. That would just be just added step-by-step. In the end, we will always try to be as close as possible to our users, so we set a certain concept that has to be done for the concept to work. But then what we would add or take out or try is basically based on the users feedback.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Lets understand the market development. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of social discovery apps and also in terms of user sizes, market sizes and maybe even try to seg ment it?Jan: I think it is important to make distinction between social discovery and dating, because most dating apps call themselves social discovery apps.For looking at the dating market is a strong segment in meeting new people of course, it was a big shift from very annoying and old fashion websites 2 3 years ago, shifting to mobile. As the location based information become apparent on the smartphones, people will use it when they have a smartphone 24/7 and to see who is around. Location of course is very important if you would like to meet somebody, I like to meet somebody for a coffee.So that basically was a trigger to shift a lot of people from the very serious like 70 page questionnaire, 50€ a month web dating portals into the more casual. Very similar to what happened in gaming as well. So the gaming, browser games were basically very stiff and then through the mobile device, having it 24/7 added value for the mobile platform. Then basically it moved into mainstream tha ts more casual, which is the same as dating.But this is not our focus. We focus on social discovery and social discovery that are only a handful of true apps who try to tackle what we are doing. So we add a significant value to your real life not replacing your real life, not replacing what you do in your life but just making it better or making it more fun to meet new people.Sonar was one, but they failed. Some have been struggling, so a lot of these apps have been founded for 4, 5, 6 years  ago. But back then, you didnt have the data and you need to add the unique user experience. So there are more concepts coming out now to really foster context based information, context based interaction between people in a certain location. And just because now especially with iOS 8, we have a lot of locations and context data about the user that really add value to whats happening in your real life.So market size is for, so again for the first part of the dating are going heavily: 2-digits de pending on the country and the platform. But the shift is very strong especially with apps like Tinder, making it very mainstream, especially for people who are skeptics before just giving it a try. Its a bit hype, its down a bit now or but at least its like have to wait for more people, for more apps to come into this niche and pick up where Tinder  left off.It was just interesting, social discovery in  Germany,  its a new topic. Like the word itself or the decline itself is still new and most people still link it to dating. In other countries,  US  for example, we had a lot of tech coverage, its very innovative, very interesting concepts.So basically both segments grow on a 2 digit level per year. Especially in the very young emerging markets  Eastern Europe,  Brazil, Asia,  China,  India,  South East Asia. Thats really a lot.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS In Berlin, we interviewed Jan Tillmann, the co-founder and CMO of mbrace.Mbrace is a social discovery app which matches people by their interest in order to bring them together. Jan talks about the business model of mbrace, its corporate strategy and market development, and shares several advices for first time entrepreneurs.Transcript of the interview is provided below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi. Today we are in  Berlin  with mbrace. Jan, who are you and what do you do?Jan: Hi. Welcome. My name is Jan, Im the co-founder of mbrace, responsible for marketing and growth. The company kicked off last summer. We are building social discovery apps and we have a team of 16 people now and we are looking forward to expand.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Jan: Before I joined mbrace as a co-founder, I work for HitFox for 2 years. It is a local incubator where I also met my co-founders Ruben and Lukas. HitFox basically, initially was a group on for games model and then evolve d into a game focused incubator for high tech companies.Ruben and Lukas worked in one of the portfolio companies for browser games and I was responsible for mobile. Just before I came back to  Berlin, I lived in  San Francisco  for about a year to build an office for AppLift which is their portfolio company.Martin: What did you do in the Silicon Valley and what are the major differences between Berlins entrepreneurs and the startup ecosystem in the  Silicon Valley startup system?Jan: Silicon Valley  in itself, first of all was an  enlightening  experience. You meet vast amount of inspiring  and really passionate people. The biggest distinction I found was that people are more experienced in setting up companies, like from very junior beginning of their 20s to older people that have been through several iteration of setting up a company. Either failing after a year or actually have some other the big plans. So people are much more experienced, theyve learnt more lessons, they know ho w to take struggles and know how to take pitfalls and downfalls, and just more experienced in setting up companies.In general, Silicon Valley and  San Francisco  in particular is an amazing place to go and spend time as I think for every founder. And the amount of passion you take, the amount of speed get, the amount of execution knowledge you get, in particular in the locally strong industry for mobile and tech, fintech, software as a service, mobile payment.It was just fascinating and this is always fun, if you walked down the street and basically look at the door signs and you know basically  every single company that you read about on tech launching event before. So it was a very high density. Even if you go to a bar and talk to anybody, theres a chance that he/she works for Facebook, Google or just be setting up their own companies. If you like, everybody there is just craving for fun ideas and setting up a company.Martin: So was it easy to get in touch with the people?Jan: Ver y easy. I found also much easier than in  Berlin. People are just more interested in general and also much more open to network. They, I think part of the reason they are not afraid to share ideas or to share secrets and how each other out. They just know that good ideas are not really worth anything, or tell how to grow a company is not really worth anything.While the Germans here in Berlin, people are a little bit more enclosed and a little bit shy to tell everything they know and basically help each other out. Thats probably one of the things that will come also when  Berlin goes  for more iterations of companies.And the network to talk to relevant people in  San Francisco  is much denser, so there are thousands of angels, hundreds of VCs. So there would be 500 people  relevant  for you, if you are in a very niche market. Just software as a service for whatever game company or business, but for that you would already have like 50 angels who do nothing else but this, and probably 2 VCs to do nothing else but this. So its very dense. Very interesting.BUSINESS MODELMartin: Lets talk about the business model of mbrace. How does it work and did you already change it? And what are your future plans in terms of iteration?Jan: So the initial idea to start mbrace last year was really to build an innovative, very unique social discovery application. To match how its happening in real life, to build a better way software supported to meet new, interesting people. But it turned out to be a very complex to start, so we start to kick off with a dating focus product, mbrace 1.0.So we had the first basic concept ready in June, July last year, formed the company in August and the beta version live in October to show the working proof of concept, the concept we have is working. So a very simple product, just a simple HTML5 based and working across all platforms. With that proof of concept we were able to raise a 7 digit in rounds in December from three local VCs. Then apps l ive around February, March, and its catering to 6 countries.Now with all these learnings we make, to understand how the users flow, how do they receive the app, what is the stance we take to find a product market fit,  the critical challenges in growing an app. Growing from traction to growth, so the different stages.We now believe that we are ready to take the next step with the initial area, we have to really build a mobile support, mobile helper, and youre on the phone youre connected with the relevant people around you to get the benefit out of it.Martin: And how is the current matching process working of people with several interests and what make this change in the future?Jan: As now since it tends towards dating, we make it as simple as possible to break ice between 2 people. So there are several factors going into the algorithm is location, age, common interests, common friends, common events you went to, etc., etc. And then you have this mutual interest, so if I show inter est in you and you show interest in me, and we have a match and we can start chatting in the app.We introduced the second ice breaker, which is a challenge. Basically that the local guy can post to me, so Okay if you want to talk to me, tell me a secret, make me laugh, tell me a joke in different language, what would you cook for me in our first meeting, tell me about the most experienced travel or trip you did. So its a bit more, not just like spray and pray, and its like every girl that I see around, but really if Im interested I put a little bit more effort.First theres the ice breaker, and second already tells you a little bit more about the other person, so what type of answer she has. So it was very successful.  The feature was very well perceived, since it adds more personal level to the new interaction of somebody new. This is also learning that now will be taken to the new social discovery app. So thinking a lot about the question, like what is it called common interest or common denominator or the core contact that would make sense to connect these 2 people.There are some apps of course, a lot of apps with social discovery. The most social discovery apps are dating apps because it sells better, but you should be careful. But if you look at  app  highlight for example, which is a bit similar to our vision and mission. They would just say: Hey, as Jan is working downstairs, hes working in startup, I think we should meet, which is nice, instead of knowing nothing about him. I believe, that really still doesnt have enough context for me to really go down and meet somebody.So we try to make it to the next step and really establishes common excuses, common denominator, that really make sense for both parties involved to meet each other.Martin: How do you feed in the data? Is it the users that is entering all the data, I was there. How do you connect all the space or sources for getting a common data set?Jan: There are several sources, of course. You have t o rely on what the users want to give us and thats normal. We still use also Facebook login, since its very convenient for the users and it gives us a good basic data set to know basically who you are and what you like.And then the context as location data and a data that we have from several sources. So the event you went to we use from APIs. We build a lot on  iBeacon  infrastructure that we know whos currently where. So we just try to add several sources that would enrich users experience for you.Martin: Is it true that you currently mainly rely on Facebook data for creating your algorithm?Jan: Yes, we do it on purpose. Because it make sense for the dating focused apps, just to avoid spam. I mean, most dating social discovery app will spam profiles, partly on purpose because they need contents. But we decided that the quality of the user base and the authenticity of user base is critical to a long term success. And Facebook is the easiest way to do this. So when we introduce it, its basically on Facebook, the first its convenient for its users, but for us, we can checked how many friends that he/she has, if they really exist, etc.Martin: When you go from the dating app to a more social discovery app, what is the current revenue model and how might it change?Jan: Since we all came from mobile games, so marketing mobile games are the most competitive category for 2 years. So, we basically know all sorts of different ways to monetize the app. We specifically took on the VC money, so we have enough time to build and grow first, and then introduce the monetization model later on.In general, and we have all sorts of options available and one of the most number one would be freemium. So we look for really power users or for involving external parties, you can have all the function for free but if you want to have them better, more extreme, more frequent experience, you should pay for small features. And we can involve external parties, event organizers or companie s that might be interested to incorporate with us. And there are several successful tests we did to monetize.Advertising is the least priority. We think that is sponsored user experience that is currently not a truly native ad format that people would use in the app. But we shifted or we place the focus on what iteration and need to monetize after we get the first traction for the new product or towards the end of this year.We will test. And in the end, we test everything. So we A/B test the product, design, features, communications and every test monetization, to see which base to seek best by its user. Its the only way to really go bottom up and understand what the users accept and we optimize it for us to make enough to cover all cost. But its not how it used to be a year ago, where we can just basically force them to pay or show ads in the app if it  doesnt  want it  and then go. Theres much competition.Martin: Jan, you are the Chief Marketing Officer here at mbrace. Can you tel l us a little bit more about how you acquire customer especially as you currently only focus on 6 countries?Jan: So one of the critical disciplines we have to master is how to overcome the cold start, which is a chicken egg problem. If we can get enough users, we can get enough users to have a great new users experience in the app, so we have to overcome the network effects.Partly we do that by a variety of channels, we can basically switch on and off and scale depending on the usage. We have so, we did a lot of performance based advertising where we basically agree on fixed  CPI  and the use of Facebook, Twitter or affiliate networks and media buyer to give us traffic of a certain category in a certain location, which is basically an on and off switch to scale. And the long term, we have build and significant traction in-house through social media digital content marketing.So really getting in front of the user base, potential user base and convince them that we have a really cool product and communicate the added value we have through app and through content marketing we do. The third is a very local event marketing as well. Especially where we launch hub by hub,  Berlin,  Munich,  Hamburg,  Singapore,  Amsterdam, etc etc.And we host events, we partnered with local companies. For example in  Germany  its Red Bull, where we really stage events in the target audience to try basically to get lots of signups  in a short amount of time.Whenever we see traction basically, then we switch on with the performance marketing as to support traction and make sure that we have enough installs and signups for certain period of time until we hit a percentage benchmark, say 25 22 % of the target audience is in the app, and from there normally  the app loads okay. So its a step by step process and we have basically a mix of 6 to 7 channels, and we basically see whats working and then we switch on and off.Martin: Okay. In the current version of mbrace, you use this kind of vi rality because its invite only. What have been your major learnings about how to increase virality?Jan: Increasing virality is critical and I think for any mobile apps. We have to find features that basically trigger the users to really wanting to invite friends. So, the app itself has to add more value whenever you have friends or the people in the app that you know.This is critical for K-factor, that is how we measure virality. In one of the first steps, we did that and to get the initial traction was the exclusiveness or the invite only. And that is also part that again, we want to have a super high quality user base.So that the user can decide: Hey, this makes sense, I would like to meet it person, yes or no. And it was just important  if you have so many signups that you cant really  distinguish. If you involve external parties to do acquisition for you, they will always be a lot of spam, a lot of good users that would just basically destroy the user experience. So the exclusiv eness or the invite only was the mix of hey, I can invite my friends and also the strongest way to keep people having high quality.Martin: So what you recommend everybody to ask community to start with this approach?Jan: No. I think cant be said that way. Its one interesting tool and that you can use but its also one of many tools that just have to make sense for the use case. For us, we tested it and it made sense, it worked great, and gaining growth first but for other community it wouldnt make sense at all. It depends.It depends on also what’s your strongest denominator in the community. If the community is based on general content, then that wouldnt make sense to basically limit the exclusiveness of the users. Then it would make more sense to limit maybe who can post or who can contribute contents.A bit like what Medium did for example in the first month. Everybody could read and join Medium, but only handful of people could post on product. And in the community everybody can join, as long as you cant do damage, it doesnt really make sense to limit who can join. So right now they have like 50 60 people who post product ideas and soon it probably open up to market.But in our case, in social discovery app, where the focus is on people, the people are of course also the content. So what you see in the app is the people, so there was a part to educate  very-very high quality, and therefore it make sense to ask you to introduce exclusive only.Martin: Understood.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: In terms of corporate strategy, competitors like Lovoo or Tinder. How do you plan to be unique in this kind of market?Jan: Uniqueness I think derives from added value. Tinder and Lovoo, we dont see as competitors. They are strong in their market niche for dating and for hookups which we believe is one interesting segment of a market to meet new people but we believe there is much-much more.Even if we only look at the dating value chain: there are some people who are happy to use dating apps; there are like 80% of all singles who dont want dating apps; and theyre like most of the people who already have a partner who would still like to meet people. These hookups or dating apps only cover the tip of the iceberg.We always see it as a comparison to real life. I mean how many people would go to a single party. People go to a party of course to meet new people, but most people I know wouldnt go to a single party. And we believe that 100% focus dating apps more like single parties in real life and we want to go for the segment that really the way you meet and interact with new people in real life, out of contents, out of added values, through social and recommendations or through your social friendship. That can also be done better or with more fun.Martin: As currently, you mostly depended on Facebook data, how do you plan to diversify this data sources so you dont risk your business model?Jan: Its a step-by-step approach. At the beginning, theres a risk of Facebook is also very German-centric and all other countries we didnt really have any issue at all, people who are asking for us to implement a Facebook login. So the dependence on Facebook data is more the first step to create traction and afterwards well have our own data source, also think about own ways to aggregate the data, of course. But to build that already at the beginning would just add more complexity and would make us slower to get the traction.Martin: Understood. So you would plan to build your own data source not adding other data sources?Jan: Yes, I think in the end you have to. At least as a stock and then depending on whats the users want, user preferences, you can feed in more data sources. Right now we see a lot of from people who like to integrate Instagram or Twitter or any other social networks that would tell something about them thats interesting. That would just be just added step-by-step. In the end, we will always try to be as close as possible to our use rs, so we set a certain concept that has to be done for the concept to work. But then what we would add or take out or try is basically based on the users feedback.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Lets understand the market development. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of social discovery apps and also in terms of user sizes, market sizes and maybe even try to segment it?Jan: I think it is important to make distinction between social discovery and dating, because most dating apps call themselves social discovery apps.For looking at the dating market is a strong segment in meeting new people of course, it was a big shift from very annoying and old fashion websites 2 3 years ago, shifting to mobile. As the location based information become apparent on the smartphones, people will use it when they have a smartphone 24/7 and to see who is around. Location of course is very important if you would like to meet somebody, I like to meet somebody for a coffee.So that basically was a trigger to shift a lot of people from the very serious like 70 page questionnaire, 50€ a month web dating portals into the more casual. Very similar to what happened in gaming as well. So the gaming, browser games were basically very stiff and then through the mobile device, having it 24/7 added value for the mobile platform. Then basically it moved into mainstream thats more casual, which is the same as dating.But this is not our focus. We focus on social discovery and social discovery that are only a handful of true apps who try to tackle what we are doing. So we add a significant value to your real life not replacing your real life, not replacing what you do in your life but just making it better or making it more fun to meet new people.Sonar was one, but they failed. Some have been struggling, so a lot of these apps have been founded for 4, 5, 6 years  ago. But back then, you didnt have the data and you need to add the unique user experience. So there are more concepts coming out now to really foster context based information, context based interaction between people in a certain location. And just because now especially with iOS 8, we have a lot of locations and context data about the user that really add value to whats happening in your real life.So market size is for, so again for the first part of the dating are going heavily: 2-digits depending on the country and the platform. But the shift is very strong especially with apps like Tinder, making it very mainstream, especially for people who are skeptics before just giving it a try. Its a bit hype, its down a bit now or but at least its like have to wait for more people, for more apps to come into this niche and pick up where Tinder  left off.It was just interesting, social discovery in  Germany,  its a new topic. Like the word itself or the decline itself is still new and most people still link it to dating. In other countries,  US  for example, we had a lot of tech coverage, its very innovative, ve ry interesting concepts.So basically both segments grow on a 2 digit level per year. Especially in the very young emerging markets  Eastern Europe,  Brazil, Asia,  China,  India,  South East Asia. Thats really a lot.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURSMartin: So we always try to teach people a little bit of what they shouldnt do when they start a company, and what they should do. What had been your major learnings over the last years and also from the time that you work at HitFox for example?Jan: I think, HitFox was an incredible time and I probably have no idea right now how much I learnt.  So if you knew, if you havent set up your own company yet, it really pays off to work with super smart founders for a year or two. The amount of lessons you learnt is just incredible.So basically 2 years ago, I made a decision, I set up a company now and just learn everything myself, or do I still work with an incubator with very smart founders. Some people prefer to set up their own company, but for me, Im very happy that I did the other way and learnt a lot from great people.The HitFox is a very rapid execution driven company, so very smart business model, the concept you just go out and execute.And the part two to go out and get market feedback is super important.  And there is tendency as  a founder to lock yourself in, because youve read so much, youve talked so much, there are so many ideas, you lock yourself in the meeting room, you write all the walls and basically come out with a golden bullet, where you think this is the best concept. But as soon as you talked to the first 5 people, you feel it doesnt make sense. Users dont want it, its perfect in my head but it doesnt make sense on paper or life at all.  So this is going out part and starting to execute is very important.And then build a team who has this passion for startups and entrepreneurship, who can then also iterate and basically navigate the challenge along the way.But the going out parts and really focusing on the e xecution is very important. And that focus, I think is something that people learn, what really important, what is important right now in the step from experienced founders whos just been there, setting up one or two companies, ideally also failed one or two. That was a great experience at HitFox.Specifically at mbrace, we were to build our own  B2C app. We helped to market most successful  B2C  apps  before, but then building your own is really a different story. Very interesting, very challenging, and we decided after, as a first concept we also did basically top down. We locked ourselves in, we make the concepts that we are going to take real life risk. It worked goods and greats but it didnt go crazy, because we always cater for a lot of people but not for all of them. Thats why now we switch on to make a more bottom up, so it means lean startup methodology that we basically derive from and hypothesis that we tested every week.We believe that this feature and the app would lead to this outcome. And only if its answered yes by all the people we want to answer yes, and its done in the app. So, its a different approach, it takes a bit longer, but you basically make sure that all of the team is constantly testing on the street, talking to people, to our talent group and getting feedback.There was, I think, especially need of close product market fit. And the environment where it has to be the best fit is definitely  B2C app the competition is so dense. If you look at your smartphone, you probably have 80 90 apps installed, but you only use 10. Out of these 10, already 5 are used by Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, maybe Twitter and maybe two more. So basically in the end you only compete for 5 or 6 spots on the smartphones against all mobile games, all productivity apps, all other social discovery apps, or media apps, or use apps. Its a very fierce competition. So you don’t only compete against your close competitor. So also do what you do, but you also compe te against all other companies who want to get under thumb screen and thats why the product market fit needs to be perfect.Martin: Okay. Thank you very much.Jan: Youre welcome!

Definition And Uses Of Short Selling Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Short selling is generally understood to be the market practice of selling a financial instrument that the seller does not own at the time of the transaction [1]. To begin with, the seller, anticipating a fall in the price of an underlying security, borrows that particular security from a security broker at a lending fee. He then sells it on to a market participant at the market price in the initial period. Next, the seller has to be able to return the borrowed securities to the broker at the time they are due. To do so, he buys the relevant number of securities at the market price in the second period and returns them to the broker. The key rationale of short selling transactions lies in the expectation of falling prices and the decision of the short seller to try to benefit from the expected price development. If the price of the security has fallen, then the short selling transaction turns a profit, leaving the short seller with net earnings equal to the price at the time of short selling the securities minus the price of the securities when covering his short position minus the fees he paid for borrowing the securities in the meantime. As an example: The short seller borrows 3000 Vodafone shares at a price of 150, selling at an overall price of pound;4500 on the open market. The price of the security falls to 130 over the next fortnight. The seller then buys the shares back on the open market for an overall value of pound;3900 and returns them to the broker. The rationality pays off and the short seller makes a net profit of pound;600 (excluding transaction costs and financing fees). The maximum profit a short seller can achieve from a short transaction is equal to the value of the asset sold short minus fees. In the extreme event of the market price of the asset falling to zero, the short seller can theoretically cover his transaction at zero cost, leaving him with the initial revenue from selling the asset minus the lending fees. The potential loss that the short seller risks, however, can be infinite. In case the market price of the asset sold short rises against the short sellers expectations, the costs of covering his short position rise in line, theoretically without limit. However, losses are usually contained as, in the event of rising prices, the short seller will be asked by the broker to either cover his position by buying the shorted asset, or to provide additional financing in order to meet the margin requirement for the security. The market risk is particularly high in case of a short squeeze. A short squeeze is a situation where the market price of an asset rises sharply as demand for the asset significantly exceeds its supply on the market, especially as a result of intense short sale covering. While short sellers expect market prices of an asset to fall, an actual increase in the price puts the short seller under pressure to cover their short position so as to minimise the loss on their short contracts. Also, short sellers may receive margin calls by their brokers. As short sellers seek to cover their positions they need to buy the underlying asset which causes its price to rise even further. This, in turn, may result in further waves of margin calls, asset purchases, and price rises. A memorable instance of a short squeeze occurred in October 2008 when the rush of short sellers to cover their positions led to the share price of car manufacturer Volkswagen AG to increase by more than 500% within only two trading days. The rise in the share price illustrates the severe impact short squeezes can have on market prices. WHY SELL SHORT? Given the risk profile of short selling strategies i.e. the expectation of revenues from falling asset prices, limited profits, and virtually unlimited risks of loss short selling is usually not pursued as an investment, but rather as a hedging instrument. Two motivations can be recognized: Hedging of an existing exposure: An investor owns an asset whose market price he expects to fall, and he decides to hedge against that risk. Examples of this include: A strategic equity stake in a company which the investors wishes to hold on to despite the expected loss in market value. Equity or other securities positions held by institutional investors such as insurance or fund companies which hold the assets as part of a defined portfolio, and may not be in a position to sell securities as portfolio strategies or compliance with regulatory portfolio allocation rules may discourage such disinvestments at short notice. Producers of agricultural products or commodities find it useful to offset expected losses from falling prices in their businesses. In all three examples, short selling can be an important and economically sensible instrument for compensating potential losses from asset price declines. Benefiting from market trends: Speculative motivations are the second objective for engaging in short selling strategies. Investors expecting the price of an asset to decline may choose to benefit from their assessment by short selling an asset to a counterparty who expects the opposite market development and is ready to enter a transaction on the basis of that expectation. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SHORT SELLING Pros Short-selling activity accounts for approximately 25% of the total market turnover according to Diether et al (2009). This reflects the direct contribution of short selling to market turnover. However, short selling also generates additional trading indirectly, as liquidity brings about more liquidity. Additionally, short selling improves market efficiency and helps attract more trading as follows: Short-selling activity helps price discovery. For instance, it reflects negative information to the market, which in turn generates more trading interest and hence increased trading in the overall market. Short selling also facilitates professional investors such as hedge funds, which may adopt certain strategies involving short-selling, i.e. the long/short strategy. Short selling contributes to trading in the derivatives market which can in turn contribute to cash market activity. It is commonly used by market makers of stock options and stock futures to hedge their market-making positions. All these effects are considered to add to the efficiency of financial markets. Cons There are many disagreements and general detestation of short-selling; some say that it even reduces market efficiency. Reasons include: Amongst the principal costs, short selling can aid price manipulation as short sellers can expand the supply of shares, temporarily depressing prices and profiting from the fall. Moreover, naked short selling can result in failures to deliver, which create phantom stocks, diluting ownership rights, destroying shareholder value and threatening market integrity (SEC, 2008). Short selling can be used in a possible attack on a large institutions stock price, undermining confidence in its solvency and threatening the financial system as a whole (the run on Sterling by George Soros is a prime example).