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April 29, 2024 |
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Itâs Monday, and itâs great to see you, friend. Letâs kick the week off with some techy trivia. The average startup founderâs age is 42. But for the most successful tech companies â weâre talking the top 0.1% of revenue â the average age is a little different. Are the most successful tech companies founded by someone older or younger than 42? (Hey, you have 50â50 odds today!) Answerâs at the very end. đ Welcome aboard the Komando tech news rocket! No algorithms here. I handpick every single item in these newsletters so no cloud is left unexplored in cyberspace. Letâs blast off! â Kim đ«Â First-time reader? Sign up here. (Itâs free!) IN THIS ISSUE
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TODAYâS TOP STORY6 small-business freebiesSavvy small-business owners and team managers, this oneâs for you. It seems like every business software platform Iâve used takes five months and at least $50,000 to get up and running. So, thatâs why I found some tech tools that can help you out today. Oh, and theyâre all free! Grow your salesđ Boost your web traffic: Most SEO and keyword tools are pricey, but Neil Patelâs UberSuggest has a free tier so you can get more people to your website without spending a dime. Youâll see keyword volume, your keyword competitors and even seasonal trends.
đ Get help with social media: Use ChatGPT. Yeah, there are specialized tools for social, but this is the best Iâve found. You can use it to generate captions for individual posts or come up with campaign ideas based on content from your website or blog.
đ Test-drive something flashier: If youâre skeptical about going all in on a larger solution, software platforms like NetSuite* let you test-drive it for six months before you buy. One of my radio listeners increased their profits by 17% in about two months!
Scale your teamđ Train new hires: Try Scribe. It uses talk-to-text to turn your existing processes into step-by-step guides. Onboarding new folks is a pain, and documenting your processes saves a ton of time. Plus, it reduces your risk of losing historical know-how if an âAâ player leaves your company.
⥠Automate daily tasks: Zapierâs basic automation platform is free and can help you cut down on mindless data entry. It also helps your different systems âtalkâ to each other, even if they donât have built-in integrations. You donât have to know any code, either. Super handy.
đ Get help: If youâre having trouble finding good talent, you need a bigger applicant pool. Posting your job on LinkedIn* lets you tap into the largest network of job-seekers in the world. I have an exclusive link to post a job opening for free.
Three bonus freebies
Feel empowered yet? Forward this newsletter to a small-biz friend to save them some time and money, too! |
DEALS OF THE DAYLook whatâs up my sleeveItâs too risky to toss your expensive laptop into your bag and call it a day. A sleeve keeps it scratch- and crack-free. I found three steals. đĄ Pro tip: To check your laptop size, on a Mac, click on the Apple logo in the top left of your screen, then About this Mac > More and scroll down to Display. In Windows, click on the Start menu, then Settings > System > Display > Advanced.
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WEB WATERCOOLERđȘŠ To die for: Watch out for ambiguous-sounding Facebook posts, like, âIt wonât be the same without himâ or âI canât believe he is gone.â Thatâs a big, red flag your connectionâs account got hacked and the scammerâs setting you (and other connected friends and family) up to steal account creds â or money. Not a scratch: In January, an iPhone was sucked out of a Boeing 737 midflight and found on the ground completely intact, despite falling 16,000 feet. Howâd that happen? As it turns out, an iPhoneâs max freefall speed (WSJ, paywall link) is about 60 mph due to air resistance and gravity. Plus, it landed in a forest, not a hard tile floor. đ New battery safety feature: In 2020, one-and-a-half-year-old Reese Hamsmith swallowed a coin-shaped button battery and died. Her parents pressured Energizer to make a change â now, these batteries taste awful and dye your mouth bright blue when mixed with spit. Keep an eye on your kiddos; these batteries are in everything from watches to remote controls. Appleâs AI play: On May 7, Apple will announce (Bloomberg, paywall link) its first truly AI device: An OLED iPad Pro powered by their own M4 chip. This smart move sets up Apple to be all in on AI, just in time for its June developers conference. This fall, the new iPhones will have AI baked in, too. Hopefully, they fire Siri. âïž Mind your drone business: Michelle Reyes captured a video showing a âflying cylinderâ whizzing by after she took off from LaGuardia Airport near New York City. UFO experts arenât sure what it is, and some folks are saying itâs a bug. Looks like a drone to me. But having a drone that close to an aircraft is very scary. Rising car thefts: With just a smartphone app or a $25 Bluetooth signal finder, clever criminals can scan your car for valuable tech. The signals from turned-on devices tell them which vehicles will deliver the biggest paydays. Keep your electronics with you, folks â or at least turn them off. âȘ Need an ark? I Noah guy: Catholic âpriestâ Fr. Justin hit the web sporting a collar and gray beard to bring more people into the faith. He gave out sacraments and absolved sins ⊠and said it was OK to baptize babies with Gatorade. Yeah, he was âdefrockedâ as AI. These days, Justinâs still giving bizarre advice ⊠but as a regular olâ layperson. đ I did the math: My average rating for this newsletter is 4.88 out of 5 with over 240,000 positive reviews. (Thank you!) Share your unique referral link towards the bottom of this email with family and friends to win great prizes, including $1,000 in cash. Btw, if you want to sign up your HOA, social group, classroom or school, let me know, because thereâs a better way than using your referral link. |
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TECH LIFE UPGRADESr/Update: Reddit has been crappy to navigate on mobile for, well, forever. Not anymore. The latest app update makes it easier to get to the comments (what most of us use Reddit for anyway), watch videos and add your two cents. Night vision: Blue light tells your brain to wake up. You can switch your iPhone to warmer red hues for bedtime â and it looks neat, too. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Turn on Color Filters, then choose Color Tint, and move Intensity and Hue all the way to the right. For your eyes only: Quickly hide message previews popping up on your Android lock screen. This is an âAâ and âBâ conversation, so âCâ yourself out, snoopers! From Settings, tap Display > Lock Screen > Privacy. Space out: On your Mac, click a file, then hit the spacebar. Youâll be able to view it without opening the Preview app. Handy little timesaver! đș Smart TVs and your PC: A Montreal woman experienced issues with her Windows PC like vanishing taskbars and unresponsive display settings. The culprit? Her Hisense 50Q8G TV was overloading the âDevice Association Framework.â Have the same TV? Take it off your PCâs network. Or get yourself a nice Samsung. |
Your ISP sees everything you do onlineThe only way to keep it your business do that is with a VPN. A virtual private network encrypts your data and hides your IP address, giving you an extra layer of protection from snoops, advertisers and Big Tech companies looking to profit off you. Some VPNs slow your connection or, worse, track your internet activity and compromise your security. Not ExpressVPN. Plus, you can connect in just one click from a Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, iPad, you name it. đš Deal alert: Get an extra THREE months free since you subscribe to my newsletter. |
BY THE NUMBERS75 years old Thatâs whatâs now considered âoldâ â at least, according to a survey of 14,000 people. âOldâ used to be around age 71. Yeah, weâre well past the days of 55 being considered a âsenior citizen.â Lemme tell ya, 45 is the new 30, folks! $7,500 instant discount On a new EV. A new tax change means you donât have to wait months and months for the credit â it now comes directly off the sticker price (paywall link). Hereâs a list of cars that qualify. 16 out of 30 Top podcasts are available as videos, too. Two years ago, only seven were. Weâre totally with it: You can watch Kim Komando Today as a video! |
WHAT THE TECH?Spoiler: Rose lets go after she sees who Jackâs been DMing. |
UNTIL NEXT TIME âŠThe answer: Older! The average age of the most successful startup founders is 45, three years older than the average age for startup founders. And yeah, OK, Steve Jobs founded Apple at age 21 â but he was 52 when he launched the iPhone. đ Speaking of age ⊠What did the aging 007 agent say to his pharmacist? âBond. Gold Bond.â Are you following me on social yet? Iâm always posting behind-the-scenes clips and news updates â like my cornea transplant with no more stitches! Check out a pic on Instagram here. But wait! Thereâs more: Iâm on YouTube, Facebook and X, too. Iâll be back at you tomorrow morning with the best newsletter in the USA! â Kim |