1. Product Hunt: [https://www.producthunt.com/ ]

An awesome community, Product Hunt is an excellent place to collect up-to-date news about products and apps. In the year 2013, Ryan Hoover created this prosperous and supportive community directly related to the tech industry. Definitely opt for Product Hunt and get your latest apps or products featured.

• Expect genuine feedback on your latest apps or products.
• You will positively get to know the constructive help related to the issues in your apps.
• Downside: your app announcement could get buried. If you make it to the front page, you get tons of attention. If you’re on page two, you’re in the middle of nowhere.

2. BetaList: [https://betalist.com/ ]

This is one of the highest operational platforms for obtaining pre-launch signups. Your startup project or a new app gets distributed to a very large base of reviewers.

• Excellent for technology-based startups or apps
• Gives the entire lists of latest and trending startups and allows early beta access to a few
• They mainly concentrate on private beta startups that are ready to launch

This is an excellent way to get connected to those passionate people who might possibly show some positivity to your to-be-launched product.

3. Hacker News – Y Combinator: [https://news.ycombinator.com/ ]

Hacker News is created and run by Paul Graham and Y Combinator (launched in 2005, it is an American startup accelerator; responsible to launch more than 2000 companies) is a unique social news website concentrating on Entrepreneurship and Computer Science startup incubators!

• Their tag line is anything and everything that satisfies individuals intelligent inquisitiveness
• News site with technology connected topics
• Entrepreneurs who share their experience during creating their apps, products, etc.

4. CrunchBase [https://www.crunchbase.com/ ]

It was originally founded by Michael Arrington, in the year 2007 is a robust collection of data related to the industry information – right from current industry trends, acquisitions, mergers, etc. Today, CrunchBase comes under the TechCrunch portfolio and is in full control of maintaining the CrunchBase database.

• A unique platform to find concrete data about most of the renowned public and private limited companies.
• The information like funding, core investors, mergers & acquisitions, founders, top management details, etc.

5. Betabound [https://www.betabound.com/ ]

A fully dedicated website for beta testing opportunities on the internet for your products that are in their beginning stage! Once you are confident, you can just announce your beta products and search for the initial adopters.

• Main focus is on Computer and Electronic Products
• Betabound also focuses on beta testing of Apps, Software, Websites and Games

6. The Museum Of Modern Betas (MoMB): [http://momb.socio-kybernetics.net/ ]

As the name is interesting so is the list as quoted by the founders – Highly awaited apps in the web world, which are not publicly released. Even if it looks a little thin when you go there, it’s worth checking out. MoMB is fully devoted to collecting most of the web-based applications that are offering a beta invitation.

7. PreApps [https://www.preapps.com/ ]

• PreApps has successfully helped various startups, first-time launchers, or novice apps in the past 9+ years.
• The Main aim is to successfully release the app that is matching its business goal i.e. the final users.
• Helps in launching your app successfully, systemically get excellent downloads and users with a perfect marketing strategy.

PreApps concentrate mainly on different types of apps on various platforms like Android, Windows, or iOS

8. Startup Tracker: [https://startuptracker.io/ ]

Founded by Jeremiah Smith, Startup Tracker does not list any kind of startup or prelaunch apps. But its main feature is you can get an in-depth knowledge of the latest and new startups. Hence we thought of including this website detail, which will be helpful.

• You can connect to abreast your knowledge of the upcoming and latest competing apps or startups.
• You can just highlight any business name and get the complete information on the status of that startup.
• Its unique “Discover” feature will not let your app go out of sight

9. Startup Genome: [ http://StartupGenome.com ]

Founded by JF Gauthier, Startup Genome is the global leader voice in ecosystem development. The list includes public-private partnerships and more than 100 governments in more than 35 countries across the globe.

The main motto is to enhance startup ecosystem performance by providing local leaders an absolute clarity, to gain momentum and strategy to direct their actions.

Their entire team is the perfect group of data scientists, policy experts, community builders, and entrepreneurs, throughout the globe.

10. Start-up Lithuania: [http://www.startuplithuania.lt/]

Lithuania provides the best possible conditions to get your business running at a very rapid pace. As it is, Lithuania has an excellent startup environment with very simplified Startup Visa rules. Its strategic location is blended with sturdy logistics support and different international markets

* We have a few new products under development. Shh!– don’t tell anyone!

The post 10 Product Discovery Sites appeared first on Shawn DeWolfe Consulting.

Everyone talks about shifting to digital, but so often it’s nothing more than talk. Just like anything else, it’s not enough for something to be a good idea for people to do it; they usually need something to push them into making the change. While COVID-19 has forced a lot of people to shift to online and remote work, the pandemic didn’t create the benefits of joining the digital economy. They existed long before people started self-isolating and will continue long afterwards.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of shifting to digital is that it’s asynchronous. Think of it as the difference between a text and a phone call. Phone calls only work when both people are available at the same time, but you can send a text on your schedule and let the other person respond on theirs.

How Shifting to Digital Benefits Your Clients

You can’t make a major change to your business unless you can get your clients’ buy in, and that means showing how shifting to digital helps them. Obviously, the digital shift is perfect for serving clients in the age of social distancing. They can order securely online and have the article waiting for them when they’re ready to pick up. That’s one advantage, but not the biggest–the biggest advantage of digital service is that it lets you serve customers on their schedule rather than yours.

A good website is always open so your clients can order products and services when they want to rather than having to wait for you to open up. They can also get email records of every transaction so that it’s easy for them to see where their money is going.

How Shifting to Digital Benefits You

The best changes are good for everyone, and shifting to digital is no exception. It not only helps your customers by making you more available to them, but it also helps you. By decoupling the order and fulfilment steps it lets you take orders for products that are on their way and then fulfill the customer’s entire order once you have everything in stock. That saves you money by making order fulfilment more efficient.

Digital also makes it easier to work on customer follow-up and retention as you have their email address and can use that to contact them. Communications and tracking are so much easier in the digital realm than they are with brick and mortar businesses.

Publicity

As a final boost, you can also often entice customers to post about their experiences with your product on social media such as Pinterest or Instagram. Having customers show off your product line can give you a kind of viral publicity that no amount of money can buy.

We do digital deployments, getting small businesses online. We’re not alone. Design Rush has a list of eCommerce web design companies that offer these services. To connect with us, Reach out, online, to SDC to start your migration today!

The post Why You Should Shift to Digital Now appeared first on Shawn DeWolfe Consulting.

COVID-19 is virulent. It may not be a matter of if someone gets it as much as when someone gets it. The game now is to use social distancing to diminish the speed of the spread. If this continues to be a spread of a moderate speed, health care will not be overwhelmed. Workplaces will have absenteeism but the 4% drop in worker productivity could be spread out instead of hitting in a crippling cluster. Social distancing is the enemy of productivity: businesses need their stores full of customers, their theatres full of ticket holders, and their workplaces fully staffed. If those elements become impossible, businesses need to adapt or die.

Some strategies for using technology to cope:

• Open an online store. Shift from personal shopping and in-person visits to parcel delivery. There are many ways to make an online store affordable – even prosperous.
• If you’re running a food service, shift from restaurant dining to delivery. The delivery services can be pricey, so consider how to take online food orders and satisfy them with your own delivery person.
• If your business or your location has a special ambiance, use webcams to broadcast the visual / audio element of the same experience. Youtube offers streaming services to pipe out a continuous feed of webcam footage to the world. Failing that, shoot videos of your special place and post them – it would be like a video postcard. Some museums offer virtual tours.
• Replace in-person meetings with Zoom and Skype. They are confidential. They allow videos, audio, screen sharing and group meetings. People may need to get their “webcam game” upped, but it allows for face-to-face without being in each other’s cough-zone.
• Publish help and how-tos via Youtube or Loom. You likely know about Youtube, but Loom is awesome for anyone trying to share knowledge. In response to COVID-19, Loom just halved their rates. (I got a 1-year Pro plan today for $48USD/year.) It’s a massive tool for sharing information with clients and contacts.
• Find safe DIY projects to keep boredom to a minimum and mitigate shortages. With employee illnesses due to increase, there will be supply chain issues. While hand sanitizer is gone from our shelves, see below for a recipe for how to make some from more common ingredients that are still on the shelves.
• Evangelize telecommuting. Share the word of remote tools like Skype, Zoom, Google Docs, etc. Telecommuting offers so many benefits to our communities and bumps up our own quality of life. It may now also literally save our lives. If your employer or client resists telecommuting, talk up the virtues. If they reject telecommuting, consider not working with them.
• Allow employees to work flexible hours. Families are going to see their kids staying home from shuttered schools. If they can have the 9-3 to manage kids, see if they use other hours of the day to carry out for you. While not ideal, 6-day 6-hours/day schedule would create almost the same productivity and leave employees free to manage their non-work priorities.
• Relax employment perks. Vacations are sometimes a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ affair. I think few people are getting on planes or cruise ships this year. Some employers are banking and bumping employee vacation time to let people take time off when getaways are viable. If getaways are dashed, let your staff work and bank their time off for next year.
• Share your COVID-19 strategy. If your strategy could benefit other employers, share how it’s implemented to make it easier for them to reproduce. On that note, if any of these tips help: share them. Attribution would be welcome, but it’s more important we get a big body of knowledge out there for winning strategies on how to survive this and keep our businesses afloat.

DIY Hand Sanitizer

Tools

• Measuring cup
• Measuring spoons
• Whisk
• Empty spray bottles (for WHO formulation)
• Empty lotion or sanitizer containers (for gel formulation)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of 99% isopropyl alcohol
• 1 tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• 1 teaspoon of 98% glycerin
• ¼ cup, 1 tablespoon, and 1 teaspoon (or 85 milliliters) of sterile distilled or boiled cold water

Here’s the WHO article on hand-sanitizer.

(two weeks lost out of 52)
Image from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/covid-19-coronavirus-sars-cov-2-4908690/

The post Diminish The Impact Of COVID-19 For Business, Employees and Customers Through Technology appeared first on Shawn DeWolfe Consulting.