🌸🎶 SPRING FLING 🎶🌼

On Saturday, May 18th, let’s celebrate spring in full bloom. May marks Mental Health Awareness Month and this is our season to blossom and bloom — so go ahead and let your petals down to soak in all that summer life has to offer.

The World Health Organization says mental illness affects 1 in 4 people worldwide.

But research suggests that the special combo of:

🎧 enjoying music,

👯 moving our bodies with the rhythm,

💛and synchronizing said moves with those around us…

aka a DANCE PARTY — uniquely benefits health and happiness.

We call this formula the Daybreaker D.O.S.E. AND we were just published in Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center last month! Check it out here.

Wear florals and green 🌺💚 (official color of mental health month!) — and let’s release our D.O.S.E.

See you on the dance floor. Get tickets

Eric Migicovsky Partner Y Combinator

Eric is a Partner at YC. He founded Pebble Technology (YC W11), which was acquired by Fitbit in 2016. While studying engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2008, Eric began building smartwatches with a group of friends. In April 2012, Eric and his team launched Pebble on Kickstarter, where it became the most successful crowdfunded project in Kickstarter’s history. Pebble sold over 2,000,000 watches.

Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups.

Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups.

The startups move to Silicon Valley for 3 months, during which we work intensively with them to get the company into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day, when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

But YC doesn’t end on Demo Day. We and the YC alumni network continue to help founders for the life of their company, and beyond.

Eric Migicovsky | Innovators Under 35 - MIT Technology Review

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky and Airbnb growth lead Gustaf Alstromer join Y Combinator

This Startup Program Is Harder To Get Into Than Harvard...

The SoMa StrEat Food Park is a culinary carnival and urban playground with a rotating lineup of culinary curiosities that are sure to amaze, delight and astound.

Fill up at SoMa StrEat Food Park

Alexander Mans Co-Founder & CTO

Launching and growing soft- and hardware products since 2007. Focussed on assembling great teams with diverse complementary backgrounds and expert skill levels. Ability to connect and work with entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, marketeers, investors and academics by continuously trying to achieve a deeper understanding of technology, design, research and finance. Besides software, I'm deeply interested in High Temperature Superconductivity as well as AI applications in Aviation...

"Choose a job that you like and you will never have to work a day in your life" - Confucius

Our Mission

FLYR is on a mission to radically transform the way airlines do business. We realize that airlines are approaching a point where they will no longer be shackled to decades-old technology or limited by data, products, and distribution.

We clearly see a future where airlines can unlock the value of their data, sell seats and ancillaries in an unbundled manner, and dynamically price products in real-time, all while considering the individual customer. We’ll get you there.

FLYR raised $8 million to change the way we buy plane tickets

Consider this: airlines need to rethink the travel funnel to sell more

Frank te Pas Senior Product Manager

Overview

At Flexport, we believe a world that does business together is a better one. It’s called global trade. And freight forwarding is the $2 trillion industry that functions as the circulatory system of global trade — without freight forwarding, global trade simply wouldn’t exist.

Problem is, the freight forwarding industry is antiquated, not customer focused, and definitely not tech savvy. We’re changing all that.

FLEXPORT IS THE MODERN FREIGHT FORWARDER.

Only Flexport brings together advanced technology and data analytics, logistics infrastructure, and supply chain expertise to deliver a dramatically better experience. Flexport and the Operating System for Global Trade give businesses what they’ve never had before with their freight forwarders: Deep visibility and control from origin to destination, fast and reliable transit times, and low and predictable supply chain costs.

First to market in 2013 with a purpose-built cloud software and data analytics platform, Flexport today serves more than 10,000 clients in over 100 countries, offering a full range of services, including ocean, air, truck and rail freight, drayage & cartage, warehousing, customs & compliance, financing and insurance — all informed and powered by our software platform.

Flexport has offices in San Francisco (HQ), New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Hong Kong and Shenzhen (and expanding rapidly). We have warehouses in Los Angeles, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shanghai. We’re taking the market by storm:

- Breakout List's Great Companies To Apply For in 2019

- #8 on Inc. 5000, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.

- Inc.’s Best Companies to Work for in 2018

- #13 on LinkedIn’s Top Startups of 2018

- Business Insider’s Top 51 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2018

- Lloyd's Loading List's Freight Forwarder of the Year in 2018

Getting A Grip On The Chaos Of Global Trade

Freight Startup Flexport Hits $3.2 Billion Valuation After $1 Billion Investment Led By SoftBank

An App for Global Trade | Freethink Challengers

Ethan Haigh Program Manager

As Program Coordinator at HAX Growth in San Francisco, Ethan oversees logistics and delivery for the cohort, and assists with portfolio management, recruitment and due diligence on HAX Growth companies.

Ethan has a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Spanish from Boston College. Ethan’s first exposure to the startup world came while he was studying in Buenos Aires, where he held an internship with goodpeople.com. Ethan also worked for the International Institute of Boston, a refugee resettlement agency, where he taught Cultural Orientation and aided recently-arrived refugees in their job search process. After graduating from BC, Ethan participated in a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest in Oregon. He worked in a bilingual elementary school, teaching literacy to students in both Spanish and English.

About HAX

HAX is a venture capital-based program dedicated to accelerating startups with a hardware element. Their program operates across two locations, Shenzhen and San Francisco, giving founders the resources necessary to move with lightning speed.

Teams accepted into the program will start in Shenzhen, where They’ll focus on rapid iteration of prototyping in many forms. This includes physical models, technology iterations, user interaction studies, volumetric studies, marketing messaging, business plans and launch strategies. With the help of their full-time staff, mentors, partners, and startup community, They’ll also work with you on developing a scalable business plan.

After you’ve prototyped in Shenzhen and are ready to take your product to market, you’ll head to San Francisco, where They’ll work with you on business development, fundraising, and growth. This stage emphasizes introductions to corporates, investors, partners and press. It also focuses on helping teams secure their first round of funding, as well as gain first-revenue and partnership traction.

Life Inside A Shenzhen Hardware Accelerator

HAX launches an accelerator program for senior tech

Not a slogan, a promise

Step into any Super Duper Burger, and you’ll notice we’re different. From our famous (free) house-made pickles, to the hand-painted signage, to our cheerful staff, we build our restaurants like we build our burgers—sustainably, locally, and with an unwavering commitment to quality. We work with local designers, sign painters, and artisans because it reduces our carbon footprint, and, frankly, because they’re some of the best in the world.

Explore: superduperburgers.com

Loek Janssen Co-Founder & CTO

Loek is the Co-Founder of Nova Credit, which makes software that lets immigrants share their home-country credit history with financial service providers. Lenders and property managers pay for these international credit reports to acquire new customers. This startup has raised $20 million from VCs like General Catalyst. In 2019 Loek was named Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30.

About

Nova started its journey as a graduate research project at Stanford University in 2015 and has since evolved into the premier cross-border credit reporting agency. Their team comes from all over the world is passionate about empowering consumers to use their data to improve financial access.

Today, Nova is a mission-driven company solving the problem of credit access for immigrants. We've built world-class technology to enable immigrants to transport their credit history around the world. They build integrations with credit databases internationally and allow lenders global access through a single API. In short, we've created the global platform for financial identity mobility so that immigrants never have to start from scratch again. Nova is revolutionizing the way consumers own and share their information and enabling them to access the credit and rentals they deserve.

Nova Credit launching from Y Combinator to give immigrants access to U.S. credit

This Alternative Credit Agency Lets Immigrants Bring Their Credit With Them

Stanford grads raise $20 million for a company that aims to make life cheaper and easier for immigrants

Kane Hsieh Partner

Before joining Root Ventures, Kane was founder and Head of Product at Brilliant Bicycle Co. He has also worked as an early-stage investor at RRE Ventures, a software engineer at Romotive, and a Project Manager at Microsoft. Kane has an AB in Computer Science from Harvard. He tweets at @Kane and @MachinePix

About

Root Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers investment services for companies utilizing hardware, development tools, and data science. It was founded in 2013 by Avidan Ross and is based in California.

Root Ventures Raises $30 Million Fund For Investing In Early-Stage Hardware Startups

Root Ventures, a young SF firm focused on ‘hard tech,’ just closed a much bigger second fund with $76.7 million

Haje Kamps VP Marketing

Bolt is a venture capital firm investing at the intersection of hardware and software. Often writing founders their first check, Bolt focuses on pre-seed, pre-product companies. Portfolio companies build a foundation for success by leveraging Bolt’s engineering team, prototyping environment, and experience building multi-billion dollar companies. Bolt has offices in San Francisco and Boston. More information at www.bolt.io

Bolt Goes Bigger, Raises $80M for Third Early-Stage Hardware Fund

If you have five business models, you don’t have a business model

Servaes Tholen COO & CFO

Servaes Tholen is the Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer at Thumbtack. In this role, he is responsible for the finance, accounting and operations teams. Servaes came to Thumbtack from Elance-oDesk (now Upwork) where he served as CFO and led the finance, accounting, analytics, data science and human resources teams. Prior to Elance-oDesk, he was the CFO of eBay North America, managed a charity lottery in the Netherlands and spent seven years at McKinsey & Company as a strategy consultant. Servaes earned a Master of Science in Applied Physics from the Delft University of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD with a finance specialization. Servaes and his family reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. His personal favorite Thumbtack project completed was hiring a DJ and roulette host for a fundraising event.

This is our story.

Back in 2008, we asked ourselves a simple question that would later become our mission: Why is it still so hard to hire a plumber? Or a piano teacher? Or any local professional?

In the era of instant-everything, it’s crazy that you still have to waste an entire afternoon researching, calling and comparing local pros whenever you need one. So we set out to make it easier. Today, millions of customers use Thumbtack technology to find and hire small businesses across the country.

How did Thumbtack win the on-demand services market?

Thumbtack Becomes Latest Unicorn, Raises $125 Million At $1.25 Billion Valuation

Thumbtack Tries Bridging the Benefits Gap for Gig Workers

Neal Dempsey General Partner

Neal is General Partner at Bay. Neal was named to the Forbes Midas List in 2013 for the outstanding performance of some of the company's portfolio companies. Through cycles of change, Neal's investment approach has remained constant – the best investment is the entrepreneur with passion and perseverance and who understands the art of listening. Passion brings the life and energy required to drive innovation. Perseverance keeps the company going, no matter what obstacles come along. The art of listening will ensure the flow of creativity and resilience needed to weather shifting markets and customer needs. His eye for passion, perseverance and listening has served him well, as evidenced by his investment in industry-changing companies like Guidewire, Eloqua, Enphase, Apigee and Xactly.

Neal balances the stresses of his workload by giving back to the community. In addition to serving on the boards of BoardVantage, Enphase Energy, Ensenda, Guidewire Software, Apigee, Sonatype and Xactly for Bay Partners, he also serves on the Board of EMQ Children and Family Services (a.k.a. Eastfield Ming Quong) and serves as the Fritzky Chair for the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. In addition, Neal's leadership helped establish the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business.

A lover of risk and adventure, Neal has climbed six of the seven tallest summits, sailed around the world, and run countless marathons, including the 2013 Boston Marathon. Neal received his Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Washington.

Neal Dempsey - The DNA

Neal Dempsey on an Endurance Mindset

Do something that scares you…

Austen Allred Co-Founder & CEO

Austen Allred is the co-founder and CEO of Lambda School, a new model of higher education where the school invests in the students rather than the other way around. Lambda School's mission is to find untapped or underutilized talent, and to train that talent for the most in-demand jobs in the world. Founded in 2017, the school provides world-class education and career services to over a thousand students.

Previously, Austen founded Grasswire, an open newsroom that Fortune called "the Wikipedia of news." Born and raised in Springville, UT, Austen now lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.

About

Lambda School is a 9 month, immersive program that gives you the tools and training you need to launch your new career—from the comfort of your own home.

How Lambda School Raised $30M To Expand Its Income-Sharing Tuition Plan For Online Coding Students

This online coding school started in Silicon Valley's hottest startup incubator is completely free for students until they find a job

Hacking The Job Market via Lambda School with Austen Allred

walk·a·bout /ˈwôkəˌbout/

Lisanne van Engelen BSc Student, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Rohan Sinha BSc Student, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, & Computer Science

The University of California was founded in 1868, born out of a vision in the State Constitution of a university that would "contribute even more than California's gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations."

From a group of academic pioneers in 1868 to the Free Speech Movement in 1964, Berkeley is a place where the brightest minds from across the globe come together to explore, ask questions and improve the world.

Jeroen Visjager Lead Principal Engineer, Materials PD

Internationally oriented professional with product development as well as product management experience, interested in strategic roles with focus on business and market development opportunities.

Technical knowledge of engineering thermoplastics (POM, Polyester, PPS, LCP, PCT). Developed expertise in polymer processing (e.g., extrusion, spinning and injection molding), rheology, mechanical and thermal analysis, optical microscopy and x-ray diffraction.

Develop scalable, economically viable processes for the production of natively inspired bio-derived materials with sustainability, performance and market advantages.

Published 12 articles and 6 patents.

Specialties: MSc in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Material Science (Polymer Technology); Six Sigma Green Belt trained (trained).

Way Better Materials For A Way Better World

We are a 21st century company on a quest to apply a biological process as old as existence itself: the evolution and transformation of our world into something better. Inspired by nature. Devoted to science. Explore: boltthreads.com

Clothes From A Petri Dish: $700 Million Bolt Threads May Have Cracked The Code On Spider Silk

What’s that watch band made of? Oh, just cutting-edge lab-grown spider silk

The future of fashion: Bolt Threads

walk·a·bout /ˈwôkəˌbout/

Ronen Kroeze MSc Student Physics, Midas Kwant BSc Student Symbolic Systems, Roelant Kalthof MBA Candidate at Stanford GSB, Lodewijk Gelauff PhD Student, Management Science & Engineering (TBC), Mathias Voges PhD Candidate Bioengineering & Biomedical Engineering, and Sander Tonkens MSc Student Mechanical Engineering.

Stanford University is one of the world's leading research universities. It is known for its entrepreneurial character, drawn from the legacy of its founders, Jane and Leland Stanford, and its relationship to Silicon Valley. Areas of excellence range from the humanities to social sciences to engineering and the sciences. Stanford is located in California's Bay Area, one of the most intellectually dynamic and culturally diverse areas of the nation.

Peter Zaal Senior Research Engineer, Human Systems Integration Division

Laurent Wilkens Machine Learning Intern
Applying deep learning models in automating the search for exoplanets using photometric data of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Mission and Goals

Humans are arguably the most critical element in the safety, reliability, and performance of complex systems. Our highly adaptive problem-solving capabilities create resilient operations across aerospace applications, especially with the advent of increasingly intelligent software and hardware systems. Advances in machine learning, adaptive automation, advanced display technologies, and information accessibility create new challenges for human performance and new opportunities for human-automation teaming.

In aeronautics, humans are the backbone of a national aviation system that must handle growing consumer demands. In space, long-duration exploration missions will require revolutionary changes in the roles of the astronauts and mission controllers to support autonomous operations. For both aeronautics and space, the design of hardware and software systems must address the need for safe, efficient and cost-effective operations, both in-flight and on the ground.

The Human Systems Integration Division is creating and applying a new understanding of how individuals and teams assimilate and act on information in pursuit of goals critical to the success of NASA missions.

Mission Statement

The Human Systems Integration Division enables the development of complex aerospace systems through analysis and modeling of human performance and human-automation interactions.

Ames Research Center Overview

NASA's Ames Research Center, one of ten NASA field centers, is located in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Since 1939, Ames has led NASA in conducting world-class research and development in aeronautics, exploration technology and science aligned with the center's core capabilities.

René Bonvanie Chief Marketing Officer

René Bonvanie has more than 25 years of executive management and marketing experience in enterprise technology. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of Marketing, SaaS, and IT at Serena Software, and was senior vice president of Global Marketing at SAP. Earlier, as CMO at Business Objects, René was responsible for all marketing activity, including corporate communications, field marketing, and product marketing. Prior to that, he served as senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing at VERITAS Software Corporation. In his 10 years as vice president of Product Marketing at Oracle Corporation, he managed the Oracle database product line, had editorial responsibility for Oracle Magazine and Profit Magazine, and co-founded Oracle's developer program, Oracle Technology Network.

About us

We are the global cybersecurity leader, known for always challenging the security status quo. Our mission is to protect our way of life in the digital age by preventing successful cyberattacks. This has given us the privilege of safely enabling tens of thousands of organizations and their customers. Our pioneering Security Operating Platform safeguards your digital transformation with continuous innovation that combines the latest breakthroughs in security, automation, and analytics. By delivering you a true platform and empowering a growing ecosystem of change-makers like us, we provide you highly effective and innovative cybersecurity across clouds, networks, and mobile devices. Across the world, customers love our security and consistently award us the highest loyalty ratings and net promoter scores in the industry.

Palo Alto Networks Builds On Its Vision For Securing The World

What to Expect of Google and Softbank Star Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Network's New CEO

Stef van Grieken Product Manager, Special Projects

THE

MOONSHOT

FACTORY

X is a diverse group of inventors and entrepreneurs who build and launch technologies that aim to improve the lives of millions, even billions, of people. Our goal: 10x impact on the world’s most intractable problems, not just 10% improvement. We approach projects that have the aspiration and riskiness of research with the speed and ambition of a startup.

Inside X, the Moonshot Factory Racing to Build the Next Google

8 of the Coolest Projects to Come Out of X, Google's Moonshot Factory

Marvin Liao Partner

Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, a global Seed Venture Capital Firm & Startup Accelerator based in Silicon Valley. Prior to 500 Startups, he was an executive at Yahoo! for over a decade running P&L for several business units in Asia, Emerging Markets & EMEA region. He also lead online marketing for 2 years at Venture Funded Startup Alibris. In addition, he is a Mentor for several Startup Accelerator programs in Europe, Asia, Israel and the US, helping guide startup teams with their sales, marketing and partner development efforts.

About 500 Startups

500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. We are one of the most active seed stage venture capital firms in the world.

Since our inception in Silicon Valley, 500 Startups has invested in over 2,200 companies via our 4 global funds and 14 thematic funds dedicated to either specific geographic markets or verticals. Our 100+ team members are located in multiple locations worldwide, with 500 Startups’ global portfolio of investments spanning over 74 countries.

Notable portfolio companies include: Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), SendGrid (NASDAQ: SEND), Credit Karma, Grab, Carousell, Udemy, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Talkdesk, Makerbot (acquired by SSYS), Wildfire (acquired by GOOG), and Viki (acquired by Rakuten).

Beyond providing seed capital, 500 further supports startups via its Seed Programs in San Francisco and Mexico City and the Series A Program in multiple locations globally. The Seed Program emphasizes digital marketing, customer acquisition, lean startup practices, and fundraising for pre-Seed companies. The 500 Series A Program delivers growth marketing and investment for post-seed and pre-Series A companies. 500 Startups is also aiming to contribute to the development of thriving innovation ecosystems around the world to better equip startups with tools to succeed by running educational programs for investors as well as partnership programs with corporations and governments around the world.

A look at all the companies participating in 500 Startups’ 24th accelerator program

Located in the heart of San Francisco's North Beach, È Tutto Qua is in a building with a lot of history. Originally built by Amadeo Giannini, founder of Bank of Italy which he later renamed Bank of America, you can still see his "BA" logo in the stonework above the door. Two story high arched windows surround the dining area, giving great views of the neighborhood and people watching from all angles. The upstairs mezzanine is often used for groups and parties. Our atmosphere is fun and friendly. We hope to make everyone feel welcome here.

About North Beach

North Beach, a buzzy neighborhood steeped in Italian heritage, draws locals and tourists to its checked-tablecloth trattorias, coffee shops and retro-flavored bars. The spirit of the Beat Generation can be felt at the storied City Lights bookstore and the memorabilia-filled Vesuvio Cafe bar. In Telegraph Hill the Filbert Steps offer a scenic hike to the iconic Coit Tower, with WPA-era murals and panoramic views.