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Randi Zuckerberg's Blog, page 8
April 4, 2018
Radio Recap: The Future of Retail
As predicted by futurist Faith Popcorn, the Future of Retail will be what she calls “consutainment,” the integration of ultra-convenience, consumption, and entertainment. Over the last decade, retail sales and jobs have continued to grow despite turbulent economic conditions.
Despite the press on store closings, data shows a net increase in store openings of over 4,000 in 2017 and sales have increased more than 3% per year since 2008. More and more hyper-customized concierge and on-demand services like ultra-fast delivery, digital dressing rooms, and robot customer service are becoming part of the CRM norm.
On International Women’s Day 2018, Silicon Valley Bank and customer relationship manager, Kustomer, hosted a Future of Retail Summit, connecting founders and leaders to exchange actionable insights and forward-thinking strategies around the retail experience. F
rom visions for the future of retail, to how to adapt and anticipate changes to the customer experience, the Future of Retail Summit centered around practical advice and first hand experience with founding and growing a brand within the rapidly changing retail and retail space. Here with me to discuss the Future of Retail is the the VP of Marketing for Kustomer, Alon Waks, and Kie Yano, the CEO and co-founder of Material World.
Alon Waks VP Marketing for Kustomer
Rie Yano CEO & Co-Founder Material World
March 28, 2018
Radio Recap: Disability is Complicated…But It Doesn’t Have to Be!
Today’s episode of Dot Complicated is especially near and dear to my heart because it combines my favorite passion, live theater, with a passion project I built when I worked at a tiny, little company known as Facebook. Facebook Live came to me during an all-night hackathon. It combined my passion— live performance — with people. Little did I know when I first unveiled it to a whopping TWO viewers — my parents — that it eventually would be used by billions of people around the world. And even more amazing, that Facebook Live would be used to open up the airwaves to communities who are usually unable to access radio broadcasts such as this one.
The American School for the Deaf (or ASD) was the first school for the deaf in the country and it’s also the birthplace of American Sign Language (ASL). In April 2017 ASD celebrated their 200th anniversary and in January, ASD partnered NPR affiliate, WNPR, to broadcast an ASL-interpreted radio show through Facebook Live.
Here with me today to discuss how technology is providing access and ability to the Deaf community is Jeff Bravin, the Executive Director of the American School of the Deaf. Also with us is Yonat Burlin the CEO of GalaPrompter, a free app that provides captioning to deaf and hearing-impaired theatergoers.
Jeff is deaf so his interpreter will be speaking on his behalf. Also, for those who are hard of hearing and want to follow along for the show, we are on Facebook Live and live tweeting so follow me @Randi Zuckerberg to join in the conversation. Yay! Technology!
Yonat Burlin
Jeff Bravin
March 21, 2018
Radio Recap: Commercial Real Estate Tech
Commercial real estate technology — otherwise known as CRE tech — is booming. Just over 3 years ago the $15 trillion commercial real estate industry had virtually no software support and was vastly underserved by available technology. Now new tech concepts are popping up left and right, with VC funds having poured over $1 billion into real estate tech startups in seed capital and Series A funding.
Today, there are hundreds of institutionally-backed software and other technology companies built for the specific needs of commercial real estate that are achieving various levels of traction and success. “CRE tech” is used to identify and communicate this period where the commercial real estate industry becomes tech-enabled.
While CRE tech grows and matures in the commercial real estate market, we’re watching a healthy and necessary consolidation phase where resources become focused on the most promising opportunities. Here with me to discuss those opportunities is the co-founder of Onyx Equities, Jonathan Schultz, and CEO of CRETech.com, Michael Beckerman.
March 13, 2018
Radio Recap: Jimmy Nguyen & Craig Steven Wright of nChain
I’ve hosted a few shows relating to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency now and, I swear, each show leaves me with more questions than the last. The last digital currency-themed show I hosted, authors of The Age of Cryptocurrency, Paul Vigna and Michael Casey, joined the show along with Sean Worthington, the founder of the energy-efficient digital currency, CloudCoin.
One of the biggest takeaways from that particular episode was a quote from Michael Casey who said: “One of the challenges is nomenclature. We are in a social zeitgeist of figuring out what some of these things mean. Do you call something that has some of the qualities of a blockchain, a blockchain?”
So what is the blockchain, and what’s the difference between blockchain and distributed ledger? And how will blockchain technologies affect corporations competing in our capitalist system? I decided to ask the experts to help further elaborate on my cryptocurrency lessons (and obsession).
Here with me to discuss the ever-Dot Complicated blockchain are two leading experts in the field, both from the global leader in research and development of blockchain technologies, nChain Group, CEO, Jimmy Nguyen and nChain Chief Scientist, Dr. Craig Wright.
March 7, 2018
Radio Recap: Dominique Ansel + Beyond Meat
Imagine creating something so unbelievable, so incredible, so delicious that it not only trends on Twitter, it changes the way we think of food. Ethan Brown is the founder of Beyond Meat, known best for it’s 6-ounce vegan patty to soon be sold at participating TGI Fridays this year.
Without realizing it, Ethan went from touting the ethical reasons to skip meat to getting tech billionaires Bill Gates and Twitter co-founders to invest.
And then there’s Dominique Ansel, creator and infamous pastry chef perhaps best known for his invention of the Cronut—a croissant-donut hybrid. When the Dominique Ansel Bakery announced the Cronut on May 10th, 2013, the pastry went viral. Three days and over 100,000 hashtags later, the line outside Dominique Ansel was averaging several hundred people per day, and every day since the Cronut sells out mere hours after opening—making it the most virally talked about dessert in history. TIME magazine even named the Cronut one of the 25 Best Inventions of 2013.
So how does one effectively disrupt the food industry—and what’s next? Both Ethan and Dominique were with me on Dot Complicated to tell me how they did it—and perhaps how you can too.
Join Dot Complicated every Wednesday at 12pm ET / 9am PT only on SiriusXM Business Channel 111
February 28, 2018
Radio Recap: Breaking Open the Bot Economy
On January 27th, 2018, The New York Times published ‘The Follower Factory,’ an exposé detailing shady black market firms that allow both celebrities and regular Joes alike to purchase social media followers. Since the publication of this investigation, scores of users have seen their Twitter followers drop— including those of Twitter board member Martha Lane Fox, who lost over 46,000 followers shortly after the piece was published.
Now the proliferation of fake accounts, and the companies who provide these types of services, are facing both federal and state scrutiny from lawmakers. The Federal Trade Commission has been asked to investigate “deceptive and unfair marketing practices” of these companies. The automated computer programs — or bots— purchased pose as real people online and are oftentimes stolen identities. As New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman tweeted, “The internet should be one of the greatest tools for democracy, but it’s increasingly being turned into an opaque, pay-to-play playground.”
Today I sat down to discuss the bot economy with two of the investigative reporters behind the ‘Follower Factory’ piece, Gabriel Dance and Richard Harris of the New York Times.
February 21, 2018
Radio Recap: Zig Ziglar Masterclass with Kevin Harrington + Mark Timm
The late Zig Ziglar was a beloved sales mentor who wrote over 30 inspirational books including, “See You at the Top” and “Secrets of Closing the Sale.” He taught the importance of trust, transparency, and authenticity in sales and believed sales is in everything we do—from running a business to snagging a date to getting your kids to eat their vegetables. He preached the importance of influence from an honest foundation and said that if you can’t sell, you can’t survive. In today’s brand overload, customers are looking for the type of trust Zig talked about, and if customers don’t get it, they have no problem going to social media to publically say so.
Today I spoke about building trust in sales with two people who looked to Zig as a mentor so much so, they’re bringing his approach to sales back in a Masterclass series: Kevin Harrington invented the infomercial is the founder of As Seen on TV and was one of the original four investors on Shark Tank. Mark Timm is the CEO of Ziglar Family, has been the CEO of Cottage Garden, the number one supplier of musical gift products in North America for fifteen years.
Kevin Harrington
Mark Timm
February 14, 2018
Radio Recap: Valentine’s Day with Elie Seidman CEO of Tinder + Executive Matchmaker Sameera Sullivan
Happy Valentine’s Day Dot Complicaters! To add to today’s festivities we’ll be discussing the oh-so complicated business of love. So whether you’re single and looking, happily married, or unattached and loving it, the Valentine’s Day market affects everything from online shopping to online dating. In 2016, Microsoft said the Top 10 most searched businesses relating to Valentine’s Day were Etsy, Olive Garden, Victoria’s Secret, Eddie Bauer, Kay Jewelers and Edible Arrangements.
Just over 50% of US adults celebrated Valentine’s Day last year with 28% of shopping happening online. People spent a staggering $19.7 billion last year on Valentine’s Day—a record high. On average, men spend twice as much as women and the average unmarried American spent $1600 on their dating life.
As for online dating, dating sites and apps were most popular among younger internet users with 30% of U.S. internet users aged 18 to 29. One third of marriages start online. 70% of gay relationships start online and the increase of interracial marriages increased when online dating became more popular in 2004. And as for good old fashioned yenta-ism, a whopping 90% of Millennials say they would find enjoyment in acting as matchmaker for their friends.
Today I sat down to discuss the business of finding love is Elie Seidman, CEO of Tinder and elite matchmaker Sameera Sullivan of Lasting Connections.
Sameera Sullivan
Elie Seidman
February 7, 2018
Radio Recap: Funny as Tech
Put a Tech Ethicist and an Upright Citizens Brigade comedian together and what you come up with is Funny as Tech — a new monthly live show dedicated to the intersection of comedy and tech from creators David Polgar and Joe Leonardo. Together David and Joe have covered issues like tech balance, digital citizenship, tech ethics, and tech etiquette with everyone from futurist comedians to media theorists.
David writes for IBM thinkLeaders, Big Think, Quartz, and Dell on emerging tech issues and is the co-founder of the global Digital Citizenship Summit. Joe Lombardo is a house-team performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and co-host of the New York Ciy Wednesday Night Improv Jam.
January 31, 2018
Radio Recap: Nailbot + Society of Cosmetic Chemists
Technology has officially doubled down on the $445 billion dollar beauty industry with everything from smart mirrors to AR-enabled sites that lets customers try on a product by swiping eyeshadow or lipstick over a selfie.
The global beauty industry is currently enjoying a 5% growth from last year, with over 70% of sales growth driven by younger consumers and social media influencers. Take Lancome Cosmetics who’ve broken out beyond the brick and mortar stores and upped their sales game to Snapchat where one of the 72% of Millennials using the platform can swipe up to buy a Lancome product when they see the ad for it.
82% of women believe that social media is driving beauty trends, and men are in the beauty game too, with a $50 billion industry devoted just to their product needs alone.
Today discussing the growth of the beauty-tech industry is Pree Walia of Preemadonna and the NailBot and Colleen Daddino and Giorgio Dellacqua of The Society of Cosmetic Chemists.
