Every entrepreneur wonders: “Will my startup sink or swim?” When Felix Brandon and his wife Jordan Lloyd Bookey launched Zoobean, a startup focused on children’s reading, they found themselves swimming in rough waters early on. A few months after launch, the founders were invited to pitch their business on the TV show Shark Tank.

What felt like a sinking moment turned into more than a lifeline for the fledgling business — it entirely transformed their business model. In the year that followed the Shark Tank episode, Zoobean went from a consumer subscription service to an enterprise reading program platform loved by millions of readers of all ages.

Reading Log

From the mouths of babes to the...


The Xplenty (Integrate.io) platform allows organizations to integrate, process, and prepare data for analytics in the cloud. Xplenty is also available as a Heroku Add-on. Abe Dearmer is the company's COO.


Often, innovation sparks innovation in unforeseen ways. In the early 1950’s, television brought the world an entirely new experience that not only changed people’s daily lives, but also created a unique platform for national culture. One of the most beloved and enduring traditions that emerged on this new national stage was the telethon. A combination of “television” and “marathon,” a telethon is a broadcast fundraising event that lasts for several hours or days and features...


The need for speed takes on a new meaning in the face of a pandemic. With millions of lives at stake, everyone in the healthcare ecosystem, from medical facilities to laboratories to equipment manufacturers, races to do their part to help curb the spread.

With the coronavirus, the world put widespread diagnostic testing at the core of its pandemic response playbook. However, testing is only effective if the test results are accurate — a false negative could not only endanger the individual, but also their entire community.

Third-party quality assurance providers play a vital role in testing the tests. They make sure that test equipment and processes adhere to the highest standards. One...


Celebrating 25 Years of JavaScript

life , Node.js Language Owner

25 years of JavaScript

JavaScript turns 25 years old today. While it’s made an impact on my career as a developer, it has also impacted many developers like me and users around the world. To commemorate our favorite language, we’ve collected 25 landmark events that have shaped the path of what the JavaScript ecosystem looks like today.

1995

1) JavaScript is created

In 1995, Brendan Eich, a developer at Netscape, known for their Netscape browser, was tasked with building a client-side scripting language that paired well with Java. While it may not be the language that you know and love today, JavaScript was written in 10 days with features we still use today, such as first-class functions.

1997

2)...


For many of us, changing jobs seems like the best way to grow professionally or advance our careers. Not so for Edd Morgan, Senior Director of Engineering at BiggerPockets. During his first year in college, he became the startup’s first employee. Twelve years later, Edd reflects on his unusually stable career path and how he’s helped to grow the company into a thriving business with two million users.

It all started with a part-time job

In 2008, Edd began studying computer science at the University of Bournemouth in the U.K. Like many college students, he needed to find a way to make money for rent and living expenses. Edd came across a job posting from a startup that needed some...


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