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Flipkart Founders, 10 Years, 233 Flipsters, 207 Startups And $400 Mn In Funding
Uber. Airbnb. LinkedIn. YouTube. Tesla Motors. Yelp. All seemingly large, yet primarily unrelated companies. What you may not know, though, is the uncommon thread connecting all these multi-billion dollar companies – they were all advised, funded, or founded by former PayPal employees, better known in today’s startup terminology as the “PayPal Mafia.” Today, we present a similar tale, of how a class of entrepreneurial legends and an entire ecosystem arose from who was once called India’s glorified bookseller, Flipkart and the various entrepreneurs, investors and startups it sprouted, The Flipkart Mafia.
The Mafia, the Mob, the Syndicate or, like the Italians like to call them, La Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), is the name of a secret, a criminal organisation which evolved in mid-19th century Sicily. Today, it has come to define a group of people wielding substantial (political, military, or economic) power for their own benefit.
Back in 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 Bn and was touted as a “worthwhile investment for eBay.” One of the major reasons for the PayPal deal was eBay’s expedition to hit the $3 Bn revenue mark by 2005. Interestingly, it touched $4.5 Bn in revenues for the year 2005.
Update [March 2018]: Flipkart Plans 4.5 Mn Sq Ft State-Of-The-Art Logistics Park In Bengaluru
But analysts had mixed opinions on the acquisition. “This is good news for eBay, but bad news for PayPal,” opined Gwenn Bezard, an analyst with Celent Communications at that time. According to him, PayPal’s shareholders would have benefited more if the company remained independent. The criticism did not die down with time either as Eric Jackson, a Forbes contributor, termed the deal as “the worst tech decision in the last 10 years.” According to him, PayPal left too much value on the table by selling early.
However, the impact of a particular deal can’t be judged by the deal size or the value founders or investors get, but by how it impacted and helped in revitalising the overall ecosystem around it.
There has been enough written on the non-probabilistic number of prominent modern Goliaths that arose from the ashes of Paypal. There are articles aplenty on the web which talk about how PayPal changed the face of Silicon Valley. However, in the context of India’s nascent ecosystem, it’s much harder to trace the origin stories of today’s entrepreneurs, investors and startups. Today we delve into one such company, the poster boy of India’s startup ecosystem and currently the highest valued Indian tech company, Flipkart and the so-called Flipkart Mafia!
Present Day India
The Indian startup ecosystem is poised to grow 2.2X to reach over 10,500 startups by 2020, according to a report released by NASSCOM in collaboration with Zinnov, last year. India stands third globally, in the number of tech startups it hosts, warding off close competition from Israel and China.
What is fuelling this acceleration is not only rising exposure to the Internet, technology, favourable government policies, foreign funding, but also legacy businesses that are now a decade-old and nurturing entrepreneurship in the country.
What started with the redBus and Burrp Mafia years ago, is now much more widespread. While redBus’ and Burrp’s reach was limited to a certain extent, the current day Indian unicorns are now deep-rooted in most of the active startups in one way or the other.
Reading about redBus and Burrp, I was inspired to cover the Indian Startup Mafia in late 2015 and, with that goal in mind, our team started collating employee data for the Indian Unicorns namely, Flipkart, Ola, InMobi, Quikr, and Snapdeal. But after spending weeks doing research – we weren’t satisfied with the data gathered – no more than 30-40 good startups had spawned from a single startup and the employees too were not evolved enough to act as angels for budding entrepreneurs. As a result, the series was put on hold.
Fast-forward to one year later
I came across this article in an Indian English daily and was awestruck and surprised by how things had progressed. The headline read – Indian unicorns such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Ola have spawned 700 startups…
And that’s how our hunt for the next big Indian Startup Mafia began!
We picked the top 10 Indian companies and began our research. Meanwhile, we also asked people on social media as to which Indian startup has built a network which is as strong as PayPal Mafia and boy, we were flooded with numerous responses.
Redbus, Burrp, Taxiforsure, Flipkart, and Zoho – were the top picks. There is no doubt that the founders and employees of these companies have further strengthened the Indian startup ecosystem, but if we talk about a Mafia as big as Paypal – we needed to look no further than the Indian startup ecosystem’s poster boy, Flipkart, which, incidentally, also completed 10 years of existence this year and managed to raise the largest venture capital round in India’s tech history – a whopping $1.4 Bn in funding and acquired eBay India. And has received in-principle approval from Softbank for a merger with Snapdeal under the leadership of the current CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.
Why Flipkart, You May Ask!
It all started with two former executives of the global ecommerce giant, Amazon – two IIT Delhi 2005 batchmates and Chandigarh natives, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, began an online platform just for selling books in 2007. Starting from the first customer in October 2007, and being in business for 10 years, Flipkart has now become one of the biggest ecommerce marketplaces in India with a registered customer base of over 100 Mn, has more than 80 Mn products across 80+ categories, more than 1 Lakh + registered sellers, having raised over $4.55 Bn in combined funding and is now valued at about $11.2 Bn. These numbers show the trajectory of a company’s humble beginnings to its almost unprecedented success despite devaluations by investor and changes in leadership.
There are over 207 startups that have been founded by ex-employees of Flipkart!
As per our findings, there are over 207 startups that have been founded by ex-employees of Flipkart. But it doesn’t stop there. Our data also shows that there are over 49 Indian startups that have been backed by Flipkart, Flipkart founders, and/or current and ex-employees. Almost three startups are added to the gang every month, taking the Flipkart Mafia’s strength to a massive 250+ startups.
Angel Investor, Ajeet Khurana, says, “The Indian startup “industry” is in its infancy. As a result, it needs its role models. For instance, a couple of years ago, when the angel network “Mumbai Angels” got its first major success – InMobi – everyone wanted to join as a member, and the waiting list was over a year long. In pretty much the same way, Flipkart has acted as a beacon for an entire generation of prospective founders. ‘If these two guys can set up a multi-billion dollar enterprise, then so can I’ became a slogan for everyone out there.”
Ajeet goes on to add that the ones that were influenced the most were the ones who had front row seats to the entire spectacle, namely the Flipkart Mafia. As co-charioteers in the Bansals’ journey, they took positions in what they would like to learn from Flipkart, and what they would like to unlearn. Entire enterprises were created from those lessons. “So, without necessarily intending to, Flipkart has done the Indian startup ecosystem a huge favor, and we should all be grateful for it.”
This kind of entrepreneurial reach is self-evident for a company that has been in business for as long as Flipkart has, employing thousands of people since its launch and which currently boasts a total employee strength of 27,000 – of which 8,000 are full-time employees, along with 19,000 delivery boys and others. This sprawling staff is spread across 300 cities and is vitally important for an emerging economy.
Another probable cause that aided the Flipkart Mafia Myth is the fact that the Flipkart team is full of employees who are IIT and IIM alums. They have played pivotal roles in product management, design, marketing and so on. Their expertise makes them capable of understanding entrepreneurship, hold problem-solving capabilities. All of this together enabled them to fearlessly start their own businesses.
Punit Soni, a former Googler who joined Flipkart in 2015 as Chief Product Officer and left last year to launch his own investor-backed venture – Learning Motors, further elaborates, “I think it’s pretty logical. Flipkart is one of the largest Internet companies to have been established. It has over 30,000 people working at this point in time and it attracts a particular kind of engineers and a particular kind of product person. You know, when they started it was the next generation of companies in the country, in both the kind and the number of people attracted. It has attracted the largest number of people and, hence, you can expect a large number of companies would come out.”
As cited by former Flipster, Mekin Maheshwari who joined the company as Head of Engineering in 2012 and later became Chief People Officer and investor in two startups founded by ex-Flipkart employees – the major push behind so many employees venturing out is the kind of people Flipkart hired as well as what they experienced and learnt at Flipkart.
Similar thoughts were echoed by Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures – an investor in Exotel and Runnr, part of the Flipkart Mafia. He says, “Good ecosystems are built through cycles and we’re barely completing the first full cycle. The pre-2005 startups are the early champions but the pace and frenzy post-2010 is the pacesetter for the next decade. The larger companies or scaled startups are quite obviously the largest playgrounds and training grounds for new startups to emerge. And, so, am not surprised that Flipkart spawned a large number of startups.”
Funders And Founders
A quick overview of the data shows that there are over 233 former Flipsters who are now founders of startups spread across India. And more than 12 current and former employees, besides Flipkart and its co-founders, who are actively investing in Indian startups. Also, the company has acquired/acqui-hired some 11 startups itself, which are now a part of the company (of these WeRead, Mime360, Chakpak and LetsBuy were shut down by the company).
These names include people like Punit Soni who recently founded Learning Motors and is an investor in a number of startups, Mukesh Bansal, the guy behind fashion and lifestyle company Myntra which was acquired by Flipkart, Ankit Nagori who co-founded Curefit along with Mukesh Bansal and raised $15 Mn funding and also an angel in Indian startups. Flipkart gave rise to Shivakumar Ganesan, founder, Exotel, Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, the co-founders of PhonePe which was acquired by Flipkart.
Then there is Ajinkya Malasane, Siddharth Mall and Akshay Lal – the founders of Playment which entered Y Combinator recently, Manish S Sugandhi, founder of GrabOnRent, Amod Malviya and Vaibhav Gupta – who recently co-founded Udaan which secured $10 Mn funding, and Mekin Maheshwari – who has funded more than five startups.
Flipkart is the mecca of startups in India.
As Exotel’s Shivku, who was VP Products and Technology at Flipkart until December 2009, rightly says, “Sachin and Binny are smart people with ambition and determination. The scale of what they’re trying to achieve in India is enough inspiration for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur and follow their dreams. Flipkart is the mecca of startups in India. Yahoo! used to be that place years ago. Flipkart has become that place where you meet other startup enthusiasts that are willing to take risks and venture out to follow their dreams.”
Note: Usually acquired companies are not included as part of the mafia of a particular company, but in a bid to get a 360-degree view, we have taken acquisitions into consideration as well.
Ankit Nagori, who, apart from being a founder himself, has also invested in over six startups including Wooplr, GreedyGame and Blinge states, “If you give creative freedom to people, this is bound to happen. You know, this just shows that people are backing each other up, they have worked together in that entrepreneurial culture. There are so many ideas to pursue and everyone is trying to do that and while some would fail, some succeed, and some would try again and this is exactly what was needed and this is Flipkart’s biggest contribution to the startup ecosystem – giving inspiration to hundreds and thousands of entrepreneurs.”
The Ever Growing Flipkart Mafia: Looking For ‘Audacity’ In Employees And Entrepreneurs
Stating the reasons behind Flipsters going ahead to found companies, Flipkart’s COO Nitin Seth credits the hiring process and the qualities Flipkart looks for when onboarding someone new to the team. He says, “When we look into the profile of a candidate – we look for people who have a very high drive for action, execution, and high customer orientation. We look for a thing that we can call ‘audacity’ – they think they are very entrepreneurial and they are very good problem-solvers.”
He elaborates this by talking about the fact that ecommerce is an industry which requires firsthand problem-solving. So, employees need to have a ‘certain principal cause for per se problem-solving’ instead of having prior experience. “There is a certain DNA of people that we hire and that is a very big reason behind Flipkart’s success and those people are fundamentally entrepreneurs and, therefore, it’s no surprise that so many of them leave to go start their own ventures.”
The culture at Flipkart is not about the hierarchies or levels but it's about the data, doing the right thing for the company!
Nitin goes on to talk about the deep tech and product orientation aspect of the company. “The foundation of Flipkart is very, very deep engineering technology culture and the whole mission of the company is built on how to solve problems using technology. This comes in handy while running a tech startup. And the third is the culture, which is a very open culture – it’s not about the hierarchies or levels but it’s about the data, doing the right thing for the company. It’s not about how senior or old you are, it’s about what is the strength of the argument, logic, and idea. It’s a very open and empowering culture.”
Prior to Flipkart, Seth was the Managing Director and Country Head for Fidelity International in India and was responsible for the company’s offshore operations in India and Tunisia. Before that, he had also worked with McKinsey as Director of McKC, McKinsey’s global knowledge centre in India for eight years. Furthermore, he also founded ActiveKarma Ventures, a technology solutions company, whose primary focus was to leverage the Internet to offer innovative health and lifestyle solutions.
A quick look at the 207 startups founded by former Flipsters shows that most of these companies were formed from mid-2014 to 2016. One of the major reasons for the same can be Flipkart’s $1 Bn fundraise at an unprecedented valuation of about $7 Bn in July 2014 (some reports quoted this valuation as $5 Bn) which brought in a major surge in the funding environment for the startups in the country. As per Mohandas Pai, Infosys former CFO, Flipkart’s initial high valuation too has influenced many to venture out.
In 2014, over 29 companies were founded and the number rose to 82 in 2015. The number witnessed a fall in 2016, with only 59 companies coming out of Flipkart. The golden period was between mid-2015 and mid-2016 – a spike that can be attributed to the launch of Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious Start Up India Action Plan, which led to the launch of numerous startups across the nation.
This push from the government moved #StartupIndia from fringe to mainstream and put India’s nascent startup ecosystem on the global map. The period also saw an upsurge in the number of tech companies and international VC funds entering the Indian market, foreshadowing the golden period of investments that was pouring in across sectors – with the whole ecosystem abuzz with an unprecedented energy and newfound positive sentiment.
During the period starting January 2015 to December 2016, about $13.3 Bn was infused in 1,887 deals across Indian startup ecosystem.
According to Inc42 Datalabs, during the period starting January 2015 to December 2016, about $13.3 Bn was infused in 1,887 deals across Indian startup ecosystem. A majority of this funding was raised during 2015 (January-December) i.e. $8.5 Bn (907 deals) and the remaining $4.7 Bn (908 deals) was raised during 2016 (January-December).
Interestingly, funding data for 2015-2016 suggests that more than half of the total $13.3 Bn i.e. $8.1 Bn was raised from the second half of 2015 to the first half of 2016 – the golden funding period – and might have played an important role in the launch of new startups during that period.
The period also saw a considerable rise in the Seed funding scenario in India, as reported by Inc42 last year. Around $340 Mn was invested across 1047 deals in Seed funding between 2015-2016 (until October 2016) and saw the participation of about 1,200 unique investors. Though, more than 50% of the deals were less than $0.5 mn in ticket size, the role played by seed funders is crucial for a startup – since it’s a very early investment and is meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or is ready for further investments. The rise of Seed funding has also led the way for numerous startups since it supports entrepreneurs and lowers the risk of bootstrapped startups running out of cash from the get go.
Another reason could be government efforts that have been undertaken to improve the ease of doing business by reducing the number of procedures and timeframe of incorporation. The Indian Government has taken numerous steps in this regard – for instance, the fee for incorporation (of the integrated e-Form SPICe /INC-32) has been reduced from INR 2,000 to INR 500. Efforts have also been made to reduce the average time taken for company incorporation along with getting PAN and TAN to 1.1 days.
As per a Mint Report, India is targeting an ambitious 40-notch jump in the World Bank’s Doing Business survey this year. Last year, India’s rank rose to 130 in the survey. According to an output-outcome framework document prepared by the government, India wants to reach number 90 in 2017-18 and rise to number 30 by 2020.
The Flipkart Mafia Founders’ Overview
Further analysis of the 233 Flipsters who were bitten by the entrepreneurial bug reveals that the majority of these former employees had worked at Flipkart for just around a year or even lesser. Our stats shows that about 44% of these founders stuck around in the company for a period of one year, about 8.62% for about three years, and just 7% stayed for more than three years. This can be credited to the high attrition rate witnessed commonly in startups, in general.
Gender Bender – Female Representation Needs To Improve
A quick breakdown of the numbers reveals that only a small fraction of these founders are females i.e. 19, with the remaining 214 being male. Diversity and inclusion is a burning issue in tech startups and Flipkart is no different. As revealed by Flipkart COO, Nitin Seth, “Males comprise 70-80% of the total workforce.” In April 2017, the company, in order to start taking steps towards diversity inclusion, threw open the doors of the CEO’s cabin to a female employee, Padma Pagadala, as part of its Big 10 anniversary celebrations.
But a key reason for the lack of female founders can also be the existing gender gap when it comes to leadership positions in companies, both in the context of India and the world. According to a joint study released by NASSCOM and PricewaterhouseCooper, there is a far lower percentage of women than men in senior management roles. Additionally, as per a report released by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) last year, no more than 14% of Indian businesses establishments are run by women entrepreneurs. The report further stated that there are over 58.5 Mn businesses in India, out of which only 8.05 Mn are managed by a woman, employing over 13.48 Mn people. These businesses range from corner shops to venture-funded startups to full blown corporates.
To give credit where it’s due, Flipkart has been trying to address this gender gap through friendlier policies for woman employees – its new Maternity Benefits Program includes a six-month paid leave for a new mother, flexible working hours post-return, among others. The policy also provides a Maternity Claim of INR 65,000 (Normal) -INR 80,000 (C-Section). As of June 10, 2016, over 50 employees have availed the maternity facility.
The company revealed recently in a blogpost that the percentage of women who resign from the company for maternity or motherhood reasons has also witnessed a decline in the last few years. “At Flipkart, we strive to create a work environment built on meritocracy. The challenge of fostering such a culture is as much about celebrating equality, talent, and diversity, as it is about empowering women with a level playing field at work,” says Ravi Garikipati, Chief Technology Officer at Flipkart.
Senior And Junior Job Profiles: The Qualities That Make Up Flipkart Mafia
The roles these former employees played in the company is spread across different levels – from Directors to Vice Presidents to Managers of a particular category to being Analysts to even Trainees or Interns.
Over 13.79% of these founders were analysts, 10% were software developers and about 9% of these were interns or trainees during their tenure at the company.
Employees who performed the roles of analyst, director and software engineers have a natural predilection to become founders of startups. The KRA (Key Result Areas) of the roles – Analyst & Director – emphasises a complete grasp of nuances of the market and product. This equips them to understand the key to running a successful business. Furthermore, the position of Software Developer essentially enables them with an in-depth understanding of the technologies used to build a scalable product that could address the essential use cases in the ecosystem.
Unsurprisingly, College Pedigree Still Matters
But, the most interesting yet expected data point to be extrapolated from our research was the IIT/IIM tag!
Over 34% of these founders are IITians, about 8% are IIM alums, and 2% are both IIMs and IITs. This number speaks to the current prevailing trend in the ecosystem – that the IITian stereotype still persists in Indian startups. As reported last year by TOI, “Broadly, over the last two years, Flipkart has been hiring 200-250 students combined from IITs and IIMs each year.”
But after Flipkart and a few other startups deferred offer letters of a number of students last year during the so-called funding crunch, there have been some major changes in hiring activities at the campus level of these institutions. The institutes have now become more cautious about inviting startups for hiring and one major development last year was the blacklisting of 31 startups by IITs. Another was Flipkart giving a miss to IIT and IIM placement last year, as it first wanted to absorb the students hired from previous batches.
Experience Beats The College Founder Stereotype
The percentage of founders whose first job was at Flipkart is somewhere around 39%, followed by 20% people who had more than six years of experience before they joined Flipkart. Another interesting fact is, about 90 founders (66%) worked with corporates before or after joining Flipkart, while 24 founders have tasted the work life at both startups and corporates prior to their Flipkart stint, debunking the college founder myth.
On analysing the founder demographics by age, we found that over 87 founders currently lie in the age bracket of 26-30 years, while 82 founders are under the 25 years bracket.
About 127 founders started their companies when they were less than 25 years of age!
Yet another fact that we discovered was – over 127 founders started their companies when they were less than 25 years of age, followed by 60 founders who were between 26-30 when they started. And, just 18% of the founders were over 30 when they launched their startup. As per Flipkart, the current median age of the employees is around 29 years.
A more noteworthy point is that most of the companies are founded by single founders – the number is somewhere around 123, and over 42 companies are founded by a trio, followed by 10 companies founded by four co-founders.
We also found that there are over 41 founders who have founded more than one company and about seven who have founded more than two companies.
Learnings Matter: When Flipsters Reveal What Makes Them Tick
For most of the founders, one of the key learnings or takeaways from the Flipkart experience was the ownership mindset. Shivku of Exotel, says, “Flipkart has a “go-and-grab it” attitude that is necessary for successful entrepreneurs. It drives home the point that success is not guaranteed, we should not sit and wait for success.”
For Aravind Sanka, who joined Flipkart as Management Trainee and later became Supply Chain Finance Business Partner and post his depart co-founded two startups i.e. Rapido and TheKarrier after leaving Flipkart, one of the key learnings for him, apart from understanding customers, was the mindset of taking up initiatives that add value for one’s stakeholders. Yet Another one, “Trust your employees and they will do wonders.”
While, for former Senior Business Analyst at Flipkart, Siddharth Mall, founder of Playment which got into YCombinator this year, the key takeaways from his time at Flipkart was, “The power of hustle. It is incredible how much one can achieve by travelling that extra mile. In fact, that is what separates the winners. And secondly, the importance of being customer focussed. We often forget how important it is to constantly talk to your users, see if you are adding value to their daily lives if the product is really having its intended impact and then iterate and improve.
So when did the entrepreneurial bug really bite these founders?
Data shows that over 97 founders launched their company within one year of leaving Flipkart while over 59 launched after a year and the rest after two years or more.
A Deep Dive Into The Workings Of Flipkart Mafia
A quick look into the markets that these startups are targeting, reveals that the past experience of working in a Consumer Internet company has played a vital role in choosing their next venture.
Over 47.09% of the Flipkart Mafia startups operate in the Consumer Internet space!
Our research also shows that over 47.09% of the Flipkart Mafia startups operate in Consumer Internet space, with about 13% companies in the ecommerce space, followed by 9% and 7% in hyperlocal and logistics, respectively.
To this, Seth opines, “I think these can be because of two things – ecommerce in India is the biggest opportunity this country has to offer entrepreneurs. So if you are an entrepreneur, it’s a very natural space to look at. The second thing is that Flipkart is a pioneer in the space so, as a pioneer, we are exploring and shaping the ecommerce space. Being in Flipkart really gives an employee an outstanding education in how ecommerce is developing, how the industry is getting shaped.”
For Mohandas Pai, “The right exposure helps as they know the business, have insights and can avoid pitfalls. Being insiders they can spot opportunities for startup.”
Similar thoughts were presented by Karthik Reddy of Blume. “There are no rules, there are just probabilities. Consumer Internet disruptions can happen from consumer and customer insights that are very different from businesses. If one adds younger consumers, this is even truer. So, Flipkart would’ve been a great playground for engineers and product managers and business folks to learn these insights and apply them to how customers are changing behaviour and adapting to the Internet.”
He further talks about how probabilities increase dramatically when exposed to the customers’ behaviour – whether in an enterprise or through customers themselves. “It may not be necessary to have learnt that inside Flipkart or a large startup – it could’ve come from a college campus, as we’ve seen from many examples in recent history.”
Funding Overview Of The Flipkart Mafia Startups
Of the total 207 startups, over 55 startups are currently funded – 38 have raised Seed Funding, 7 have gone on to raise Pre-Series A, while 10 of them have raised a Series A round. The startups have raised about $217.8 Mn in combined funding, to date. The remaining 152 startups are bootstrapped or are yet to raise any external funding.
Commenting on the role working for a previous company plays for a founder when s/he goes for funding, Reddy says, “Not necessarily – fundraising is a different skill – it requires mentoring if you haven’t done it before – and each stage of raise needs a skill upgrade. Most founders are over-optimistic about capital raising and the market and the media feeds into that optimism incorrectly. If they’ve been in the position of a co-founder, it may be a little easier the second time around – otherwise, it’s still a tough learning curve. Fundraising is also driven more by personality traits and the ability to sell a vision with a large dose of reality, most times.”
Past experience of a founder does play an important role when it comes to funding!
However, Mohandas Pai is of the view that the past experience of a founder does play an important role when it comes to funding.
The mafia companies have been combinedly backed by about 31 angels and 25 VCs. The companies have also been funded by corporates and angel networks.
The ex-Flipsters are backed by almost all the marquee investors currently active in India including the likes of IDG Ventures, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures among others.
Our research also shows that the maximum number of companies are currently in the initial stages of starting up. These startups employ (or used to employ, in the case of a shutdown or on being acquired) about 5-10 employees i.e. 58%, while 33% employ (or used to employ) about 11-50 employees. Only 9% of these companies employ more than 50 people.
Just like Flipkart, the base of most of these companies is Bengaluru i.e. 59% of all the Flipkart Mafia companies are based in Bengaluru, followed by 15% in Delhi-NCR.
Where The Flipkart Mafia Is Right Now
Of the total number of companies, about eight startups have already been acquired. Significant deals include Flipkart itself acquiring PhonePe, Capillary Technologies acquiring Sellerworx, Indonesia’s Go-Jek acquiring Pianta, Stayglad acquired by Quikr, among others.
While 207 sounds like a huge number, it is to be noted that around 59 of these startups have already shut shop. And, out of these, just 10 startups were funded.
Around 59 of these startups have already shut shop!
Seth defends this failure rate by pointing that a number cannot speak to the value Flipkart and its ecosystem holds. “The core point is commerce and ecommerce companies are still in the early stages. With 2% penetration, if you look at most categories, they are still very decent.” He also adds that there is a process of discovery involved in this and that it is the bigger companies who are making these discoveries – either through employees or employees starting up. “They are experimenting and I am not surprised at all because that is the nature of this company.”
However, one could point out here that the failure rate is much lower than the well-known failure rate of 90% across the startup world and argue that founder experience could have possibly contributed towards this.
A Culture That Matters
“Defining the DNA of a startup’s work culture is a lot like choosing parents for a designer baby. It’s not merely about whose nose or whose eyes it would inherit, but about selecting the core personality traits that would propel it to greatness and then be passed down its flawless bloodline. Flipkart’s early leaders and their decisions defined the Flipkart culture,” reads a recent blog on Flipkart Stories.
For people who have worked at Flipkart in the past and who are still part of the company, the culture at Flipkart is more about freedom, ownership and responsibility. Mekin, who founded Udhyam post his stint at Flipkart, says, “People often shoulder responsibilities much larger than their titles and experience. This freedom and responsibility have nurtured a lot of talent. People become confident of their abilities to create value. Initiative-taking is recognised and rewarded. On Flipkart’s part – it has shared ownership with employees far more than Indian startups still do – so, this two-way ownership street is the core of Flipkart’s culture.” Mekin had joined Flipkart in 2009 as Head of Engineering and then became the Chief People Officer in 2013. He left the company in 2016 to begin his venture.
Another Flipster, Rajeev Tamhankar’s entrepreneurial journey started with INR 1 Lakh raised via crowdfunding, primarily from his colleagues at Flipkart. For him, the culture at Flipkart was somewhat like “Startups in a startup!” He says, “It’s a very upfront culture, a graduate like me got a chance to work on 35 different verticals. The team has been very supportive of fresh ideas. Many companies do not support an employee’s initiative but being at Flipkart was an exception.” He founded TBS Planet Comics and also wrote a book “Get Corporated Before You Get Fired.” Rajeev was Manager at Flipkart during July 2014 to July 2015.
Even former Manager – Digital Marketing at Flipkart Advaith Mohan who founded Wagr, post-leaving Flipkart shares that the heads and bosses he worked with, helped him in figuring out who he should approach startup, in general. “People like PMOs are really approachable and will talk to you even after you quit the company and are really appreciative of that.”
It’s a culture which lets people think big!
Ankit Nagori, who joined Flipkart in 2010, reveals the best thing about Flipkart’s culture for him. “Flipkart has a very strong entrepreneurial culture which lets people experiment and learns from their mistakes. It inspires them to think differently and that’s the reason so many people went on to start up.” To sum it all he says, “It’s a culture which lets people think big.”
Similar thoughts were opined by Aravind Sanka. As per him, Flipkart’s culture is very dynamic and aggressive and they always encourage in changing roles – if anyone wants to explore different skills to what he is doing, there is no resistance. “On a lighter note, though I was one of the important members of my team, when I said “I want to quit to start something”, my manager approved it immediately and also connected me to a few VCs.”
“Flipkart’s culture has been very important in shaping how I think today and what Playment’s culture has become,” says Siddharth. He discloses that they were usually thrown problem statements and not solutions. He recalls, “My manager and I were given the responsibility to start what finally became Flipkart Nearby. We built it from the ground-up – right from understanding the customer needs, to build the team internally, to finally launching. Although, it didn’t take off as we would have liked the whole experience was very critical in shaping my entrepreneurial journey.”
The Flipkart Founders And Funders: Giving Back To The Ecosystem
According to publically available data, there are about 14 current and former Flipsters who are or have been actively investing in startups. This is excluding Flipkart (as a company) and founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. In total, they have invested in about 49 companies.
As an entity, Flipkart has invested in about 8+ startups, till date, and most of these companies have now grown to reach a significant stage. For example, Blackbuck which recently closed a Series C round and has raised $100 Mn in funding to date and Ravi Gururaj founded Qikpod, Nestaway, Cub26 among others.
Speaking of the basic philosophy behind selecting startups for investment, Seth says, “We will look into the complementary edge and our ecommerce proposition, whether it is in the supply chain space or elsewhere.”
As far as Sachin and Binny Bansal are concerned, the duo is investors in Tracxn’s incubator, TracxnLabs, which funds startups as well. The founders have also invested in innovative companies like Pandorum Technologies, Team Indus, SigTuple among others. While Sachin has invested in over 16 companies, Binny has invested in 20.
In an earlier interaction with another news portal, Binny had revealed that, for him, investing in startups is a way of giving back. “I believe startups are going to be engines of change and job growth in India. My goal is to put more than 50% of my wealth into startups.”
While, for Sachin, the main objective is to help other companies with the knowledge they have gained and to keep themselves updated. “Flipkart is not the whole world, there are things happening in healthcare and education that one can learn a lot from and help Flipkart,” he was quoted as saying.
With more than a dozen investments underway, the duo has now formalised their investment process and – for the same – have on-boarded Sailesh Tulshan, founder at Tsai Shen Capital, a multi-family office and investment firm a while ago. Apart from looking for new startups to fund, Tulshan also overlooks future fundraising and growth of Bansal portfolio companies.
Though, usually, both Sachin and Binny co-invest, sometimes only one of them participates in the rounds due to different personal philosophies.
That’s the formal side of investments. Apparently, Binny is also an LP in four funds. One of them is the recently launched AI-focussed pi Ventures’ maiden fund founded by ex-LetsVenture founder Manish Singhal and Vimagino’s co-founder Umakant Soni.
Apart from the two co-founders, some of the active Flipster investors include Mekin Maheshwari (6) and Ankit Nagori (6).
To this, Mekin says, “Given that a lot of Flipkart folks owe their success to the company’s meteoric rise, they are believers of startups – I would expect the angel investment trend to only continue and grow. As Flipkart’s success creates more value for its employees and founders – they will invest a good portion of that in startups.”
For Shivku too, this trend will continue unless the Indian consumer story defaults. He says, “These angels are the first people who have a good understanding of the propensity of the Indian consumer to spend. And I feel they make investments based on this knowledge.”
Although one might argue that the highly inflated salaries might have something to do with the number of Flipster turned angels!
In totality, these Flipkart and Flipster-backed startups have, till date, raised $390.62 Mn in funding. While most of these are currently in Seed stage, about 11 have closed Series A rounds and four have raised more than Series B round of funding.
Additionally, only four startups have closed down and just one has been acquired till date.
Culture Wars: Clash Of The Titans
In 2015, the New York Times did an expose on the global ecommerce giant, Amazon, wherein a harsh light was thrown on the workplace culture and practices of the company that is currently worth $292.6 Bn. Amazon along with China’s Alibaba are the frontrunners in the global ecommerce market.
The story highlighted the fate of the employees who were unfortunate enough to catch Jeff Bezos’ ire or ‘underperform’ in graphic detail. Firings, breakdowns and more were shown as part of the startup norm that was inculcated and encouraged at Amazon. While Amazon’s articles of faith also talk about ‘hiring and developing the best’ and ‘taking ownership’ at work, the story showed a brutal side to the scale hungry and otherwise frugal employer that Amazon is known to be.
Flipkart which, ironically was founded by two ex-Amazonians, has managed to turn the tide on its employee attrition rate. With a transparent evaluation process already in place, Flipkart has maintained a high bar when it comes to rewarding the top performers – the salaries of some of the top employees being just one example. Not only this, the team works closely with underperformers and help them achieve the desired progress in stipulated time period.
Flipkart has been the most important startup to influence the growth of the Indian startup saga!
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams. Flipkart is now ironically battling against the giant itself on its home turf, India. The outcome of this long drawn out war cannot be predicted for certain. But what can be said for certain is that has undoubtedly Flipkart been one of the most important startups to influence the growth of the Indian startup saga and spawned a formidable Mafia that continues to flourish.
To Infinity And Beyond
When we began this story, we spoke of the PayPal Mafia and how it has inexorably affected Silicon Valley – right from the way entrepreneurs did business and the confidence investors showed in their ventures to a lot more. The same can be argued for the homegrown unicorn.
With over $400 Mn in the capital that has been raised by Flipsters so far, there is no doubt on the kind of investor confidence Flipsters get. This again circles back to the core values instilled in Flipkart employee and ties into the lower rate of shutdowns experienced by these founders, as opposed to the 90-10 startup rule. While running a company requires more than handling finances to ensure burn rate is kept in check, in the wake of the Startup India and Digital India’s forward march – these entrepreneurs have also, in a way, helped push the idea of entrepreneurship into the mainstream.
This brings us to the most important legacy a company can leave behind.
JFK famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” In terms of numbers, maybe the Flipkart Mafia is yet to scale the heights achieved by its more illustrious global counterpart in Silicon Valley, but here is what it has, more importantly, achieved – instilling a sense of ownership in starting up and failing, understanding the value of synergy (giving back to those who came after them), and the importance of never giving up – be it in terms of innovation, funding or beating the obvious gender disparity.
The Flipkart Mafia’s impact will go down in the annals and Indian startup history... to infinity and beyond!
With so many of its employees and ex-employees going out into the world, armed with the knowledge of Indian ecommerce and consumer mindset, building companies at scale, strong ownership and problem-solving capabilities, it is no wonder that the company has managed to stand out as a beacon for the Indian startup ecosystem. Whether it began as ‘Our Thing’ or a syndicate of like-minded individuals determined to put their work ex to good use, it cannot be denied – the Flipkart Mafia’s impact will go down in the annals and Indian startup history… to infinity and beyond.
[Credits: Sukriti Thakur for Research, Ankan Das on Analysis, Ujjwal Paul for Illustrations, Anika Sharma for the Interactive Graphic, Aarti Venkatraman & Utkarsh Agarwal for Editing.]


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CES 2014: News and live updates
LIVE UPDATE: THE Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the greatest tech show on Earth and has kicked off. Find out what you'll be coveting this year.
THE Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the greatest tech show on Earth and has kicked off in Las Vegas.
Industry giants, geeks, camera-wielding tech heads and even celebrities will attend the show over the next three days as part of 3,200 exhibitors and 152,000 attendees from over 150 countries.
The show, which began in New York in 1967, has launched the DVD, 3D TV and Microsoft Xbox to name a few so you can expect that products from this year's show will end up in your living room, pocket or car.
It runs from January 7- 10 and we will be covering all the major announcements and action live here so check back regularly for updates.
• PlayStation Now lets you play all your old favourite games
• Sony reveals 4K TVs and a GoPro competitor
• Yahoo trolls tech community
• Intel getting in on the wearable tech action
8 Jan 2014
• The second big appearance from Sony, but this time from the gaming division and a very exciting announcement for PlayStation owners.
• PlayStation Now is a service that will stream a whole back catalogue of PlayStation games straight to PS4, PS3 and PS Vita handheld console. What's more exciting is that the service will also be available on Sony TVs and smartphones. The thought of all our old faves available to rent or buy is a seriously good reason to look at the PS4 over Xbox One.
• While managing to slam most of the tech community with a circus-like keynote speech containing cameos from music stars and the cast of Saturday Night Live the company announced its shift into mobile with a twice-a-day news update that will be an offshoot of its Summly app acquisition.
• Its very own digital magazine, Yahoo Tech, was unveiled (after slamming most tech websites for producing poor content)
• A revitalised online advertising platform to take on Google will rollout.
7 JAN 2014
Don't be fooled that the software company would deliver a dry presentation. They wowed the crowd with plenty of cool new gadgets and innovative tech including bigging-up the wearable tech sector.
• Intel CEO Brian Krzanich demonstrated some wearable tech prototypes like the smart earbuds that can monitor your heart. The 'buds biometric abilities can measure the wearer's calories burned and heart rate.
• The McAfee antivirus brand name will be phased out and changed to Intel Security as they wish to distance itself from the controversial John McAfee who founded the software
• We've seen that most wearable tech is bulky, geeky and an excuse to make fun of someone but that could change as Inel has partnered with fashion's industry leaders to develop decent-looking smart wristwear.
• A smart watch was unveiled to compete with the likes of Pebble and Samsung's Galaxy Gear, but what sets this apart is that it can work independently and won't need to be tethered to mobile phones
• A personal assistant to rival Siri was announced. It's called Jarvis (Iron Man, anyone?) lives in a headset and will always be 'listening'.
• It's 4K crazy over at Sony with a flood of Ultra HD devices being revealed.
• A new range of 4K TVs ranging in size from 65-85 inches come with a heap of different ways to stream 4K content. Don't know what 4K is? Find out tech's most confusing jargon
• Soccer fans will also be happy to hear that Sony is supplying 4K cameras to film the FIFA World Cup so you can see very blade of grass on the pitch.
• A 4K handheld video camera perfect for amateur filmmakers was presented. Comes with a not-so-bad price tag of around $2,000.
• It announced a GoPro competitor that even comes with a dog mounting accessory so you can see what your best pal gets up to.
• Sony has shrunk its flagship Xperia Z1 down to the 4.3-inch Xperia Z1 Compact, keeping all the powerful specs from its big brother without the massive footprint. The Xperia X1 Compact is waterproof and comes with a 20-megapixel camera.
• Sony also showed off a head mounted display that offer a screen equivalent to 750-inches. Despite looking like bulky glasses Sony says this is "the most immersive display possible".
• Samsung has announced its 2014 line-up of TVs, headlined by a bendable 85-inch Ultra High Definition unit that lets you curve the screen at a press of the button. This Transformer like function seemed fitting, as Transformers director Michael Bay came on stage to present it before having his epic meltdown. There was also a mention of an integrated gaming platform into the TVs, allowing you to play games without a console.
• Hollywood director Michael Bay has stormed off stage halfway through a Samsung keynote speech. Bay was brought out to show off the new line of Samsung's snazzy Ultra HD TVs but after only a minute he suddenly froze, stopped talking and spun on the spot in a bizarre breakdown caused by the teleprompter failing. It was more cringe-worthy than watching Transformers 3.
• Samsung has beaten its rival Apple to market again, releasing a giant 12.2 inch tablet with a redesigned interface aimed at people who dismiss tablets as unsuitable as a productivity tool.
• The German car giant is never one to miss a party, particularly when other motoring manufacturers are getting in on the act. It unveiled some amazing car tech including a new driver assistance feature known as ActiveAssist that automatically corrects your steering in the wet.
• Hate finding parking spaces? Well, BMW's latest cars will do that for you, searching for empty spots and even parking itself with no input needed from the driver.
• If you find traffic a pain, too, BMW also has that covered with an improved version of its Traffic Jam Assistant that controls the speed and steering when you're stuck in a jam.
• It was announced that BMW is releasing a special app for the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch that would work with its i3 electric car. Users can check vital signs of the car such as range and also adjust the air conditioning through the watch.
6 JAN 2014
Google's big announcement from CES was a new partnership it has formed; the Open Automotive alliance. Partnering with General Motors (Holden), Hyundai, Audi, Kia, Honda and chip maker nVidia, the companies are all accelerating the integration of Android into the car and trying to make it a lot "smarter".
Toshiba has announced a heap of cheap Chromebooks that promise to deliver all your basic computer needs at a bargain price. What sets these apart from the usual devices is that they're the first Chromebooks to actually have a premium feel to them, taking away from the usual cheap plastic feel associated with Chromebooks. Powered by Intel's Celeron processor with 2GB of RAM, prices start from $299, so look out for them in the coming months.
Yep, Toyota is at this year's show, showcasing its latest in-car technology with the coolest being the new hydrogen fuel cell technology which it promises will be launching next year. These cars will use the same electric engine as the Toyota Prius but swap the petrol one out for the new Hydrogen power plant. There's not too many hydrogen refill stations around at the moment, but Toyota hopes the benefits of a 480km driving range, water vapour emissions and the fact that your car can power your house with hydrogen for an entire week if needed outweigh the negatives. Pretty cool stuff.

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UPDATE: After heavily hinting at it, on Wednesday the L.A. County Department of Public Health officially announced that it’ll no longer require masks indoors.
As the county makes its move into a lower tier of the CDC’s risk assessment, Angelenos will no longer need to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status (with the except of public transit and healthcare settings, where masks are still federally mandated). The new order will take effect Friday, March 4 (though not in schools until March 11), at which point masks will not be required but will be strongly recommended (unless a business specifically chooses to require masks).
Public health’s new order will also drop vaccine check requirements at indoor bars, outdoor mega events and theme parks in L.A. County. However, the City of L.A.’s wider-reaching vax check policy at many indoor venues still remains in place—though a motion has been introduced to roll that back.
Our original story from February 23 appears below.
Even though California ditched its indoor mask mandate last week, the L.A. County Department of Public Health decided to keep its own ordinance in place—and projected it would remain until late March. But now, L.A. County has decided to ease some of those rules much sooner than initially expected.
Starting Friday, February 25, any indoor business in L.A. County—including restaurants, bars, offices, movies theaters and gyms—can choose to make masks optional for fully vaccinated patrons as long as the venue is checking vaccination status at the door.
However, Long Beach and Pasadena, which both operate their own health departments, will roll out even less restrictive orders that more closely align with the state’s rules: As long as a business allows it, fully vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear masks in most indoor settings.
As for the rest of L.A., Public Health’s new order, which goes into effect Friday at 12:01am, means that most venues in L.A. can now opt to go maskless. Of course, you can still choose to wear a mask indoors if you’d like, and individual businesses can still choose to require them. As a quick refresher: In greater L.A. County, indoor bars and mega events are the only spots that require Covid-19 vaccination verification, but the City of Los Angeles has a stricter mandate that targets many more indoor establishments, including restaurants, theaters, gyms and salons. On the other hand, unless your local supermarket starts checking vax statuses at the door, it’s likely that you’ll technically still need to wear a mask at most retail establishments until the rest of the mask mandate is lifted, likely in late March.
The new order outlines two main scenarios, one in which vaccinated customers can go maskless and another in which customers and employees can remove their masks. In both cases, all customers five and older must show proof of vaccination. As for unvaccinated individuals, they’ll need to provide a recent negative PCR or antigen test, but they’ll be required to keep their masks on except when eating or drinking.


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Twenty-five is a magic number in the solar industry. Why? Because it is the number of years that most crystalline silicon solar panel manufacturers warranty the power output of their panels. But what happens next? Although the panels can still technically generate power beyond this point, their power output begins to decrease significantly.
As the industry continues to grow over the coming decades, and today’s solar modules approach the end of their useful lives, we will find ourselves with a serious solar trash problem.
A new report from GlobalData delves into a hidden side of the solar industry that will emerge as a result of this problem over the next 15 years–solar module recycling. According to the firm’s report, end-of-life PV modules are expected to generate approximately 24,855 tons of waste in 2025. By 2035, the amount is expected to increase to 1,161,173 tons.
As one might expect, there are significant financial opportunities in this sector. In 2025, a PV module is expected to generate $0.58 per watt in recycled value, increasing to $1.21 per watt in 2035. The major factors driving this trend are the rise in solar panel installations from 2000 to 2010, an expected increase in recycling rates, and a rise in the market price of solar module materials, like glass and aluminum.
Overall, the total value of recycled crystalline modules is expected to increase from $122 million in 2025 to $12.9 billion by 2035.
The emergence of solar module recycling is just part of a growing market for electronic waste, or e-waste. A recent study by Pike Research found that the amount of total e-waste generated worldwide is expected to double to 1,465 million cubic feet by 2025. Today, the vast majority of e-waste that doesn’t go to the landfill ends up in developing countries, where it is processed with little consideration for human or environmental health.
One organization that is working to ensure that the solar industry does not go down the same road as the electronics industry when it comes to recycling is the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC). SVTC believes that solar manufacturers can ensure that PV is a truly sustainable energy resource by reducing the use of toxic chemicals in PV, developing responsible recycling systems, and protecting workers at every stage of the global PV supply chain.
The organization’s annual Solar Score Card [PDF] ranks solar manufacturers according to standards of product recycling, worker health and safety, chemical use and life-cycle analysis and company disclosure statements. In 2011, the top-ranking manufacturers were SolarWorld, Trina Solar, First Solar, REC and Abound Solar.


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Staples buys Medical Arts as point of differentiation – Brief Article
FRAMINGHAM, MASS. — The quest for growth in the office supplies segment of retailing has prompted Staples to acquire a company called Medical Arts Press that last year sold $168 million worth of office supplies to doctors, dentists and veterinarians.
Staples agreed to pay $385 million to acquire the 52-year-old, Minneapolis-based company as away to tap into a $13 billion segment of a North American office supplies market that Staples executives contend is worth $254 billion. Medical Arts will operate under Staples’ direct-mail Quill subsidiary a company Staples acquired in May 1998.
“Medical Arts Press serves the single most important vertical market,” Staples chairman Tom Stemberg told attendees at a CIBC World Markets conference held the day after the acquisition was announced.
The acquisition comes as Staples and its two main office superstore rivals, Office Depot and OfficeMax, face an increasingly challenging environment in which to produce growth. Economic weakness of the past year, combined with increased head-to-head competition among the three chains, made sales growth difficult to achieve. In addition, new store expansion opportunities, while generally thought to still exist, have grown increasingly limited and led to sweeping strategic changes.
From Staples’ perspective, it has slowed store expansion and focused on increasing the productivity of existing units, while positioning itself for growth in other areas, such as European operations and delivered products. The Medical Arts Press acquisition is a perfect example of the latter.
Although the acquisition won’t do much to increase Staples’ sales and profits in the short term, it strengthens a segment of the company’s business that already is its best-performing, enjoys the highest rate of profitability and has the greatest potential for future growth. Staples’ North American delivery business, which includes its Quill subsidiary and online efforts, increased sales last year by 8.2% to slightly more than $3 billion, while profits doubled to $205 million.
“We do not have any problems with the strategic fit of the acquisition. It fits with the company’s Quill brand,” according to UBS Warburg analyst Aram Rubinson.
The acquisition is expected to add a penny or two to Staples earnings per share next year, according to the company’s estimates.
By comparison, Staples’ North American retail business, which operated 1,261 stores at the end of the most recent fiscal year, suffered a profitability setback last year. Sales dipped to about $6.9 billion, while profits declined 25% to $321 million.
Staples aims to fix the profitability problem by redesigning its entire store base and opening fewer, smaller-format stores going forward. During 2001, five stores were remodeled and 76 stores were opened in an easier-to-shop and less-expensive-to-operate “Dover” format. This year, most of the 95 new stores planned for North America will be in the “Dover” format and another 125 will be remodeled to that design.
“Virtually the entire chain within the next three years will have the Dover look and hopefully the Dover sales productivity,” Steinberg said.
The company’s third business segment, European operations, consists of 175 stores in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal and delivered products businesses in Germany and the United Kingdom. The European unit has improved its performance, but continued to lose money last year. Staples reported a $6.5 million loss on European sales of $796 million last year compared with a loss of $24.3 million on sales of $717 million the year before. Nineteen new stores were opened in Europe last year and another 20 are planned for this year.
Staples’ three-pronged growth strategy of North American retail operations, European operations and a North American delivered products business gives the company plenty of room to expand in a global office products market valued at $400 billion. For the time being, though, as the acquisition of Medical Arts Press illustrates, the business that is the most attractive right now is the delivery of office supplies to customers in the United States and Canada.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group


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HARRISONBURG, VA. — Farmer Focus said that some of its products were Halal-certified through ISWA, except for the Toasted Lager Half Bird.
The company said the Halal-certified products are available in select retailers and online retailers like Crowd Cow. The products are also available for industrial and foodservice channels in various cuts and packaging options.
“We are excited to see our partners embrace a growing and diverse population requesting Halal-certified chicken products,” said Kathryn Tuttle, chief commercial officer at Farmer Focus. “As consumers become more conscientious about their food, health, and the environment, Halal-certified foods are taking center stage.”
Farmer Focus stated that the Halal food product category is expecting a compound annual growth rate in the United States of 5.6% (CAGR) by 2032.
Halal foods must not contain pork, alcohol, intoxicants, harmful ingredients, unsanitary elements, and poisons.
Farmer Focus said their products are Halal certified, but it is up to the retailers to choose which certifications are included on the pricing label.
“As consumers plan their meals throughout Ramadan, Halal-certified Farmer Focus Organic Chicken makes meal preparation easy, especially with our pre-seasoned line of products,” said Sean McLendon, vice president of research and development at Farmer Focus. “With Farmer Focus, consumers don’t have to choose between Halal, humane, or organic; they can have all the attributes important to them to create recipes to enjoy during Ramadan.”


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An elusive group of women have been caught on surveillance tape distracting a store owner to steal a purse. A group of five women have pulled the same act twice in their area to steal a purse from either the store owner or an employee. These five women come in and try to confuse and rush the person at the counter then rush to a bathroom saying it is an emergency. While the person at the counter is still trying to handle the other four women, the one goes to the back to steal something of value and stuff it in a large bag.
Surveillance video has been revealed of two locations these women have attempted their well oiled operation. In the latest video, the woman stealing the purse was caught wearing rubber gloves. These women know what they are doing and do it well, except they forget about the surveillance cameras. Police have another video from a shop across the street that shows the car they drove off in. The surveillance video can be viewed by clicking the captured video below.


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Dutch Shocked by Challenges of Shifting to Electric Cars
"Although a number of European countries and a few American states are aggressively promoting the use of electric vehicles to reduce planet-warming emissions and pollution, the Netherlands provides perhaps the ultimate feasibility test," reports Elisabeth Rosenthal. "If electric vehicles catch on anywhere, it should be here: a small country — about 100 miles east to west — with gas prices of about $8.50 a gallon and a long tradition of environmental activism."
"To encourage electric driving, the country is developing a rapidly expanding national grid of charging stations in cities and along highways; and Amsterdam offers owners of electric vehicles free street parking and charging. With hefty tax breaks, promotional leases and cheaper operating costs, the vehicles offer driving costs no more than those of conventional cars, some analysts say."
"And yet, experiments with the cars in the Netherlands and Denmark also underscore the challenges facing this new technology. Sales have been lower than politicians and automakers hoped, representing under 1 percent of new vehicles, even here. 'It seems that the industry has not convinced consumers that they can do this,' [Peder Jensen, a transportation expert at the European Environment Agency said]. 'If they fail over the next few years, I think investors will pull out, and that will be a problem.'”


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A day before Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition came out, I was hopeful that the re-release would do right by the original version and keep its vision intact. Unfortunately, developer Nightdive Studios fell short of this goal, as players found a whole host of bugs and framerate and upscaling issues that severely dampened the overall experience. Considering the game’s long development time, many want to know how the final product turned out so poorly. Thankfully, Nightdive recently offered some insight into the rocky development process behind the shoddy launch of Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition.
This news came courtesy of a PCGamesN interview with Larry Kuperman, Nightdive’s director of business development, and Dimitris Giannakis, the lead producer on Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. According to Kuperman, the game’s development ended up plagued by a “perfect storm” of factors, which included a lack of QA staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Kuperman’s push to have the title come out for Blade Runner’s 40th anniversary. To further complicate matters, Giannakis took time off to move, with Kuperman stating had Giannakis seen the state of the project, he could have spoken out and delayed the game’s launch further.
Those weren’t the only problems
Additionally, both Kuperman and Giannakis noted that the developers lacked the source code of the original version, making it more difficult to faithfully recreate its assets. The game’s heavy emphasis on RNG, which made testing inherently more complicated, also contributed to the title’s unfortunate launch state.
Both individuals stated that Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition will receive another patch to follow up on the one that dropped on July 4, over 10 days after the game’s launch. The list of remaining issues reported by players is still quite extensive, so it remains to be seen whether or not Nightdive can fully make up for the game’s subpar release.
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The company says that due to the increase in member dairy farmers’ milk production (up 11.9%), basic dairy products such as milk powder, foil cheese and butter were produced that had to be sold below cost.
On the positive side, there was volume growth in infant nutrition in China and South-East Asia, dairy-based beverages in South-East Asia and Eastern Europe, and ingredients.
The milk price for member dairy farmers decreased to €30.24 ($33.69) per 100kg of milk, compared to €36.68 ($40.86) in the first half of 2015.
September milk price up
Two days prior to releasing its first-half financial results, FrieslandCampina announced its guaranteed price for raw milk for September 2016 at €26.25 ($29.24) per 100kg of milk, an increase of €1.25 ($1.39) compared to August.
The guaranteed price applies to 100kg of milk with a protein content of 3.47%, a fat content of 4.41%, and a lactose content of 4.51%, and is exclusive of VAT. The amounts shown apply to an average supply of 600,000kg of milk annually.
Higher milk production goes into basic products
Over the first half-year of 2016, 5.488bn kilograms of milk were supplied, a 583m kilogram increase compared to the same period last year.
Roelof Joosten, CEO of Royal FrieslandCampina, said that due to increased milk production, the company had to process significantly higher volumes of milk into basic dairy products that could not be sold at a profit in the market.
Revenue down as volume goes up
Revenue decreased by 2.2% to €5.522bn ($6.15bn).
Joosten said that FrieslandCampina is doing well with sales of added value products, including infant nutrition, ingredients for infant nutrition, and condensed milk, with 2.3% growth in volume.
Lower operating profit
The company’s operating profit decreased from €314m ($350m) in the first half of 2015 to €255m ($284m) in the first six months of 2016.
The company noted that sales increased in volume, however, margins were at a lower level than in the first half year of 2015.
Due to the high milk supply and the lagging demand, basic products were mostly sold under cost. Direct sales of raw milk in the spot market also showed a loss.
FrieslandCampina says that in the second half of 2016, worldwide milk supply is expected to decrease compared to the first half.
The company says it expects demand for dairy products will only show a modest increase over the second half year of 2016.
It cites factors such as limited purchasing power in oil-exporting countries, political instability in many nations, the limited demand for dairy materials in China, and Russia continuing to block EU dairy products.
Uncertainty over regulations
The effect of the European Commission’s measures to reduce EU milk production is unclear, the company says. It adds that the impact of possible voluntary restriction of production of cooperatives or producer associations is also unknown at present.
Also, the Netherlands is expected to impose measures to reduce phosphate production in cattle farms to fall below the level of July 2, 2015, and FrieslandCampina says that it does not know if this will lead to a further reduction in milk production in the rest of 2016.
The company has said that it “does not express any concrete outlooks relating to the results of the entire year 2016.”


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Exercise is a touchy subject in your humble blogger’s home these days. Every day, my boyfriend tries to lead by example, doing innumerable squats, pushups, and planks throughout the day, looking up at me hopefully. Is today the day I get on the ground with him, his hopeful eyes seem to ask (spoiler: no, today is not the day).
Honestly, I don’t have it in me right now to care about exercising and I know I’m not alone. Many people have fallen out of their exercise routines, forced out of their gyms, frightened to run in crowds, and frankly lacking the emotional and physical energy in these draining times. But it won’t be like this forever.
TrendSource’s recent market research survey, as we shall see, indicates that a large portion of people will be hot to trot when lockdowns cease, eager to get back into shape, but not necessarily in the ways the industry hopes. Today we are going to look at the exercise industry as regulations and guidelines begin to shift on the state and federal level. How will Americans feel about fitness in the post-coronavirus world, which types of fitness facilities will thrive and which will fail, and how will gyms navigate continued social distancing regulations?
The Quarantine-15, Lawsuits, and Cancellations, AKA: The First Two Months of the Pandemic Have Been Rough
It was obvious before we said it and even more so after, but we will say it again: People are eating more unhealthy food, working out less, and gaining weight. We’ve already exhaustively covered the eating habits end of this, writing junk food's explosion across the country. So if you missed last week’s blog, go check that out real quick, we’ll still be here when you get back.
The coronavirus lockdown weight gain is a cliché at this point, so we should not be surprised that it already has an unofficial name, the quarantine-15, and that there are already countless prescriptive posts advising how to avoid them. And it’s not just in the United States or the western world, it seems these eating shifts are truly universal.
So yeah, as we’ve said before, our diets have taken a hit under lockdown. That goes a long way in explaining how 34.4% of respondents to TrendSource’s recent survey indicated they had put on weight since going into lockdown. But there is also the exercise side of the health and fitness coin, and shelter-in-place orders have forced gyms to shut their doors. With consumers not able to access the services their membership fees pay for, many have looked to cancel to varying results.
Indeed, gyms across the country are facing lawsuits from disgruntled members who continued to be charged membership fees despite closures and who found it obstructively difficult to cancel their memberships. Of course, this is nothing new--like cable companies, gyms have earned a reputation for making it extremely easy to join but darn near impossible to cancel. Anybody remember that Friends bit about this? But this is different, this isn’t just about the retention tricks companies deploy.
Let’s pause and give operators the benefit of the doubt and assume that, with staffing cuts and operations fractured, it is likely that many customer service skeleton crews simply cannot keep up with the surge in cancellation requests. This has been a problem for many brands--they simply do not have the labor power to handle an influx of requests.
But let’s also entertain the possibility that local operators, particularly those of franchised national chains, hoped to stop the bleeding and played the short game, trying to keep members locked in for what they hoped would be a brief disruption. Considering the vast spaces these gyms occupy and that, whether open or closed, they rack up significant overhead charges, it is easy to understand this instinct, misguided as it may have been.
But now, after a rough couple of months, gyms are preparing to reopen in certain locations and the industry’s future is starting to take shape.
The Fitness Boom to Come?
Typically, January is the exercise industry’s boom time--with new year’s resolutions and last year’s mistakes fresh on their minds, consumers start gym memberships en masse in the early part of the year. Whether they actually follow through, well, that’s their business.
But the holidays and their attendant resolutions may have come early this year. Though these have not been happy times, our lockdown, particularly as it relates to our health and fitness patterns, has been a lot like the holiday season. So says Professor Anne-Maire Minihane, who observed, “The best I could equate [the lockdown] to is what happens to us during holiday periods, when we kind of throw caution to the wind and think: ‘It's holiday time.'"
It’s like our cheat day has turned into an entire cheating season, but it’s one that we know will soon end. As one person told the BBC about his eating habits, "Half of me doesn't really care how I look at the moment, it's all about surviving through this terrible period. Then when it's all over we can get back to working out.”
TrendSource’s recent market research survey takes this from anecdotal to statistically significant. Of the respondents who say they have gained weight under lockdown (34.43% of the total sample) a whopping 89.9% say they will take action to return to their normal weight when stay-at-home orders are lifted.
Gyms in the Age of Coronavirus: What the Market Research Says
But what will a post-pandemic exercise market look like?
Over the last decade, gyms and fitness centers have been going through their own version of bulking season with Americans spending over $320 billion on memberships in the nation’s 30,000+ gyms in 2017. Since 2008, gyms have tripled their square footage footprint, building into devalued retail spaces like at a staggering rate, becoming anchors for many distressed malls.
At the same time, all-encompassing gym chains like 24-Hour Fitness have been losing members (especially millennials) to small, specialized studios. For younger generations, these studios are trendier, more Instagram-friendly, and more fun.
As millennial spending power has climbed, niche boutique gyms have sprung up across the country, places like SoulCycle, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Equinox offering hyper-specific services and equipment, and oftentimes charging crazy membership and/or class fees. Barry’s and SoulCycle both charge around $35 per class, while Equinox’s monthly fees are between $150 and $500.
These expenses will no doubt be harder for people to rationalize during an economic downturn, as will attendance writ large as people worry about the chances of infection. Both of these facts make it tough for these smaller operations, which like independent restaurants, will see their capacity shrunk down: There are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many people who can fit in a barre or jazz-ercise class (Fosse Fists!). And unfortunately, there is no such thing as curbside pickup in the exercise industry.
And then there’s the likely chance that many people are learning how to work out at home and in the streets, replacing treadmills with jogging trails and bench presses with a pullup bar. In fact, TrendSource’s recent survey suggests this is highly likely.
Only 22% of respondents seeking to lose weight after lockdowns are lifted indicated they will return to their pre-coronavirus gym. Compare that to 62.9% who plan to take up running and walking to lose weight and 28.5% who will more aggressively pursue outdoor workouts, and you begin to wonder how much the fitness industry market stands to shrink as people try to shrink their waste lines.
Health and Safety Market Research: The Logistics and Practicalities of Reopening
These concerns aside, gyms still must figure out how and when to reopen, what rules to enforce, and what types of messaging to deploy. This, obviously, requires health and safety market research.
In terms of practicality and consumer perception, this will be a difficult task. According to 2006 study by the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, 63% of gym equipment is contaminated with viruses, especially rhinoviruses. Gyms need to clean up their act, in terms of consumer perception and quite literally as well. It would be devastating for a reopened gym to be outed as a vector in a renewed coronavirus surge.
To guard against that worst-case scenario, and a whole array of other less deadly ones, gyms are, at this very moment, trying to figure out operational logistics.
Before filing for bankruptcy early this week, Gold’s Gym offered some insight about how a post-pandemic gym might function. First, it is important to note that reopenings will be a patchwork of city, county, state, and federal dictates. For example, while gyms are to be among the first wave of reopened businesses in the federal government's timetable, they, like hair and nail salons, are part California’s third stage, only permitted to open after restaurants and retail spaces have already had their turn.
That’s why Gold’s Gym CEO, Adam Zeitsiff was cautious about offering any national, comprehensive timetable: "We're thankful they'd put [gyms] in Phase One, but that doesn't mean anything until the local states and local governments approve things and get rid of their stay-at-home orders and allow people to go back to the gyms. So we're going to look at it locale by locale."
Amid this confusion, Gold’s recently announced their (aspirational) multi-stage plan, with the first stage seeing strength and cardio areas reopening. More so than exercise classes and other gym services, the strength and cardio areas are easiest to control social distancing, both by limiting capacity, and closing certain machines/racks to use, keeping a safe distance between members.
Next, Gold’s plans to reopen exercise classes like spin and step, again with newly limited caps on attendance. Finally, Gold’s hopes to reopen entirely, including locker rooms and other densely-shared spaces.
Gold’s also volunteered that they would be rewriting membership contracts to ask them to agree to adhere to best practices. Obviously, this will make for some uncomfortable situations, particularly for staff members who must admonish members for not following the rules. As Zeitsiff noted, "We're role-playing conversations that we never thought we'd have to have. ‘I apologize for interrupting you, but you're not six feet apart from this person,' or those kinds of things."
The post lockdown period will be one of adjustment as people figure out how to balance safety with freedom and desire. Things like outdoor classes in public spaces seem possible now, when the weather is at the friendliest it will be all year, but the summer will make outdoor activity less practical and people will have to find ways to get back into their routines even if their routines are not what they used to be.
That day will come. But until then, I have pushups to avoid.


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Last week, Apple unveiled the successor of the original HomePod. With a few new tricks, the second generation of smart speakers plans to bring back a fuller sound with heavier bass and new computational audio tricks. That said, users might wonder if Apple is working on the next version of the HomePod mini – which, apparently, the company is not.
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter, the journalist says Apple is not “actively working” on a new iteration of the HomePod mini.
After the debut of a new full-sized HomePod, many users started asking about an update to the mini model. But at this point, I don’t believe that Apple is actively working on such as product. The latest HomePod doesn’t include any major new functions that aren’t already in the $99 mini, so there isn’t an obvious reason to update the model.
Sure, it would be nice to get more colors, a cheaper price, and better sound and microphones, but the real improvements probably need to be made on the back end — with Siri and app integration.
That said, Gurman does not believe Apple is working on new hardware. Instead, the company could – or should – be working on new software features to improve Siri and how the Home app works. For example, the new Home architecture first available with iOS 16.2 caused a lot of issues for several users.
In addition, apart from the bigger size, the new HomePod 2 does not bring new features compared to the HomePod mini. Both will feature the U1 chip and have temperature and humidity sensors.
It’s important to say that Apple might be focusing now on a low-end iPad to become people’s smart hub and an Amazon Echo competitor that will be a HomePod-iPad hybrid device.


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2Checkout Hosts CommerceNOW 2019, the Largest Online Event on Digital Commerce
ATLANTA, May 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2Checkout, the leading all-in-one monetization platform for global businesses, will be hosting CommerceNOW 19, an online event that will provide insights from some of the greatest minds in eCommerce, digital marketing, conversion rate optimization, customer experience, and other key areas. The event takes place on June 19 and 20, 2019 and attendees may participate from anywhere in the world.
The event will include exclusive strategies, tips, tricks, and tools to use when growing eCommerce businesses, straight from the experts. Learn from presentations and interactive Q&A with SaaS business coach Dan Martell; Alexa Hubley, Marketing Manager at CXL Institute; Kirsty Traill, VP Customer at Hootsuite; Kate Adams, Senior Director of Demand Generation at Drift, and many more. The two-day event will be hosted by Erich Litch, 2Checkout’s President and Chief Operating Officer.
“Riding on the success of the previous editions, this year’s CommerceNOW event features new speakers who will bring a fresh perspective on everything digital commerce, with focused, tangible tips that the audience can take away and apply immediately in their online businesses,” said Alexandra Marcu, VP of Marketing at 2Checkout. “We are pleased with the well-rounded agenda that touches on so many aspects of digital commerce. In addition, the online format provides businesses from around the world the opportunity to learn and advance their digital commerce operations,” said Alexandra Marcu, VP of Marketing at 2Checkout.
Alex Birkett, Growth Marketing at HubSpot and a speaker at the previous edition of CommerceNOW, shared, “Presenting at CommerceNOW was a great experience. It was organized perfectly, with a diverse and rich lineup of speakers and topics.”
Visit the event’s page for a complete list of speakers, the agenda, and to register. All registrants will receive free access to the live event as well as to on-demand recordings of each session and presentation slides following the event.
About 2Checkout2Checkout is the leading all-in-one monetization platform for global businesses. It was built to help clients drive sales growth across channels and increase market share by simplifying the complexities of modern commerce like global payments, subscription billing, merchandising, taxes, compliance, and risk, so they stay focused on innovating their products and delivering exceptional customer experiences.Get more information at www.2checkout.com
Media Contact:Delia Ene, 2CheckoutEmail: email@example.com Tel: +31 20 890 8080 ext.: 4654


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(CNN) – Weight Watchers will be free for teens this summer.
On Wednesday, the company announced one of its goals is to help 10 million people adopt healthy habits.
Part of that plan is to offer free membership over the summer to teenagers 13-to-17-years old to “help the development of healthy habits at a critical life stage.”
The company also says it plans to remove all artificial ingredients from products that carry the weight watchers brand.
Stake owner, Oprah Winfrey, said in a statement released by weight watchers:
“I am inspired to be part of this purpose-driven mission as we deepen and expand our own connection to communities, making wellness accessible to everyone.”


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In part to allow a new commercial business to open in Perimeter Mall, Dunwoody City Council on June 22 changed its zoning code to allow more space for businesses offering massages.
The change means the majority of 18 existing massage establishments in Dunwoody, such as the Atlanta School of Massage, now officially are allowed under the city’s zoning ordinance. Those that didn’t conform with city zoning rules were “grandfathered in” as existing prior to the regulations and were allowed to continue operating.
The proposed change came about after the owners of The Woodhouse Day Spa applied for a permit to open in Perimeter Mall, which was not zoned to allow massage.
Woodhouse Day Spa owners David and Khyshan Perlman, who are Dunwoody residents, said they want to have their flagship location in Dunwoody. They already have 40 locations in the United States. They plan to open 200 more, they said.
The Perlmans plan to invest in a 6,000-square-foot space in the mall. “We will be investing upwards of seven figures in build-out and equipment,” David Perlman said.
“We as the owners will be onsite often to make sure the high standards we set are being upheld,” Khyshan Perlman added.
Councilwoman Lynn Deutsch said she welcomes The Woodhouse Day Spa to Dunwoody, but she’s concerned about unintended consequences in defining massage businesses similarly to day spa businesses that offer personal improvement services such as manicures and facials.
“There are day spas, and there are massage parlors, and they are really, really, really not the same thing in general,” Deutsch said to council June 8. “There is an acknowledgement that massage parlors and strip clubs are an integral part of the sex trafficking industry in this county.”
City staff members say regulations—not zoning—help control illegitimate businesses that offer massage. Reclassifying massage as a “personal improvement service” rather than an adult service facility does nothing to change the fact that a masseuse must hold a state license, Community Development Director Steve Foote said.
Massage providers also must undergo a full police background check, said Officer Tim Fecht, who speaks for the Dunwoody Police.
Foote said many businesses in Dunwoody offered massage but did not comply with the city’s zoning so a wording change seemed warranted to make those businesses legal, he said.
Deutsch, the sole council member to vote against the change, said she worried businesses “that only offer one service” might choose Dunwoody over nearby cities, such as Chamblee, which allows massage businesses only in industrial areas of the city. Dunwoody’s change would allow massage businesses in office areas as well, she said.
She also said if some of the “less than pristine” massage business owners go out of business, those businesses don’t need to be replaced.
“We have areas in Dunwoody that are not upscale and are transitional at best,” she said.
Other communities regulate massage businesses in different ways.
Sharon Kraun, a spokeswoman for Sandy Springs, said Sandy Springs differentiates between businesses offering facials and complementary neck or arm massage for manicure clients and businesses that charge for full-body massage or offer massage as a separate product.
Sandy Springs and Atlanta allow massage parlors in areas zoned for commercial or mixed use.
City Solicitor Bill Riley said Dunwoody doesn’t have the population to support illegitimate massage businesses. “I think what we have for enforcement is effective here,” he said.
Assistant City Attorney Lenny Felgin said he doesn’t see a problem. Many illegal businesses in Doraville and Johns Creek have been shut down in part because of the ordinance Dunwoody already adopted, he said.“Our licensing ordinances and code enforcement are the tools that we have—and they’re very good tools—to find out administratively and judiciously the massage or spa establishments that are not legitimate,” Felgin said.


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Credit card breach at Mandarin Oriental Hote Group
In response to questions from KrebsOnSecurity, upscale hotel chain Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group confirmed that its hotels have been affected by a credit card breach. Reached for comment about reports from financial industry sources about a pattern of fraudulent charges on customer cards that had all recently been used at Mandarin hotels, the company confirmed it is investigating a breach.
7701 Las Colinas Blvd., Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063


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Schiphol, Netherlands — Cargill, Inc. has unveiled The Protect Our Planet plan, which provides a framework for achieving complete cocoa bean traceability and includes a commitment of no further conversion of any forest land in Ghana and Ivory Coast of cocoa production, according to the supplier.
The company is working to completely eliminate deforestation from its supply chain by 2030. The plan also expands these forest efforts to growing regions in Brazil, Indonesia and Cameroon.
“We recognize there is considerable urgency to address climate and deforestation challenges. This means engaging in programs to stop deforestation in the countries from which we source cocoa,” says Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate President Harold Poelma. “We have made important first steps but there is more to be done and we believe that this action plan is how we will reach our goal.”
To achieve its goals, Cargill’s Protect Our Planet plan consists of five points:
- Supply Chain Transparency: The supplier is working to map its entire cocoa supply chain using GPS and polygon farm mapping to identify the exact locations of farms and accurately assess farm sizes. Additionally, traceability technology is being further implemented so cocoa beans can be tracked back to individual farmers. The company reports it has used this method in Ghana and has achieved complete traceability from farm to factory.
- Extend Cocoa Promise: Cargill is incorporating its environmental protection plans into its Cocoa Promise sustainability program. This includes expanding existing programs related to growing more cocoa on less land.
- Engage Suppliers: To manage the risk of deforestation across its supply chain as well as indirect supply chains, the company is raising standards for its third-party suppliers.
- Collaboration: To achieve sustainability in cocoa, Cargill is working with other stakeholders, suppliers and chocolate makers. For example, during 2017 Cargill signed the Cocoa & Forest Initiative alongside 34 other cocoa and chocolate companies.
- Report, Sharing: The supplier is committed to annual reports, which are disseminated to all stakeholders and share what the company is learning through its programs.


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Want to love your robotic team-mates but don’t know how? Respawn’s looking into it.
Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall is out now and garnering rave reviews but the game isn’t without its complaints. One of the bigger issues still carries over from the beta, namely the AI soldiers and robotic Spectres that fight alongside the player.
So what’s the problem? Apparently, there isn’t much use to the process of hacking Spectres and making them fight for you. It’s incredibly subjective though – one player on Respawn’s official forums outlined a way to use the Spectres to sneak up on an opponent.
The developer responded that, “We are looking into making the spectre hacking better.” So whatever criticisms remain from not being able to effectively hack or utilize the robots will apparently be addressed soon enough.
Titanfall is currently available on Xbox One and PC, and will launch on March 25th/28th for Xbox 360 courtesy Bluepoint Games. How are you finding the game thus far? Let us know in the comments.


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Updated on July 18, 2019.
Facebook sends information about long-term investment, the company plans to launch cryptocurrency In the near future
Arena details the new deal on Facebook in the latest statement.
According to a new report, Facebook is negotiating with financial institutions about the Libra project.
The list includes MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc., PayPay Holdings.
Inc and Uber Technologies Inc.
In addition to the above companies, there are other companies
Facebook cryptocurrency Stripe Inc., Booking.com and
Mercadoliber Inc. also has many companies.
According to the report, about $ 10,000 is being discussed between the cryptocurrency company and Facebook.
Facebook users plan to create their own cryptocurrency
Until December last year. Company, Company
Cryptocurrencies spend money on Facebook and others
Physical installations like ATMs attract more passengers
Stories like Crystalcurrency and Winner
In this case, users will be charged with displaying a cryptocurrency transaction. facebook
Cryptocurrency works on ShareApp and messages.
Remember that it doesnt matter that you cannot rely on the information above. Facebook is expected to post this.
cryptocurrency on June 18.
So please wait until you get all the information about Facebook cryptocurrency.


text: Ok, we were primed for the official launch of the PlayStation Phone, also known as the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Sadly, that wasn't shown off at the Japanese Sony event. However, we did get something equally as interesting - the Sony PlayStation Suite.Yes, not a single PlayStation Phone, but the possibly of lots of different PlayStation Phones. According to Engadget, it's a cross-platform framework or store that will eventually be stuffed with PlayStation games for both tablets and mobile phones. Initially, that will amount to an emulator for existing PSOne games, with an Android game store to follow later in the year. Not just Android either, with the Suite said to be 'hardware neutral', which opens up the possibility of PlayStation for all. Well, hardware limitations permitting. More on that later.Rather than just being another free-for-all app store, the PlayStation gaming store is said to have quality assurance scheme and licensing called 'PlayStation Certified'. That's intended to get the big boys involved and create an exclusive club. Here's hoping that it doesn't also drive down creativity, as some of the best games on the Apple app store haven't come from the big gaming houses. Just a thought Sony.When it does open for business, Android owners will need a minimum of Android 2.3, which means a minority now, probably not so later in the year. Oh yes, that PlayStation Phone? That's an Android 2.3 device, complete with flip-out gamepad for playing those games. It's likely to be launching at next month's MWC event, when we'll probably see both handset and platform working in tandem for the first time. We can't wait.