Global VC funding increased, funding to women entrepreneurs decreased, it’s business as usual in tech!
If you’ve read the title, you’ve read the TL;DR — that’s it! But to get deeper into the gender realities here, read on.
Crunchbase hit me with some news one day that I thought was interesting — global VC funding increased in 2020. It wasn’t that surprising given that the markets flew high and there was more money available to invest. Yet, in the middle of a pandemic, this is exciting news for founders on the surface!
Then, there was more news.
So, there it was — no need to be alarmed, it is business as usual in tech, we…
2020 saw the battle for short videos intensify; 2021 will determine the emerging winners and trends!
The area of short videos has seen a number of TikTok clones, including Instagram Reels, Spotlight, and more. Then there is Rizzle, which brings a fresh perspective with Rizzle Series, their short vertical series.
In October 2013, Snapchat launched Stories, forever changing how we thought about videos. What were once premeditated, longer, primarily shot with professional cameras, and in horizontal format, became short, vertical, spontaneously shot on phones, and in-the-moment.
Even though Stories opened up the world of short, vertical videos, it was not until Musical.ly and subsequently, TikTok, that the term “short videos” as we know it now came…
It’s Official. The Rizzlian Cult Is As Strong as the K-Pop Cult. And They Just Proved It on Twitter!
Rizzlians went on a Tweetstorm to get the attention of VCs and it was the best show of love an app has ever received!
Every now and then, there comes an app that captures the imagination of its users in such a strong way that it becomes a key part of people’s lives in a positive way. When we set out to build Rizzle, that’s what we had in mind. And today, I’m happy to report that we have built exactly that.
Rizzle delivers on the “Real People. Real Talk.” motto by encouraging discussions on the platform with no filters and no keyboard warriors.
On July 13th, 2020, hundreds of Rizzle creators from around the world flooded Twitter with #FundRizzle #VentureCapital to put out…
After decades of using social networks built by white Americans, America has a new favorite that is ‘Made in China’.
In 2015, there was a social network that captured the imagination of teens using popular music tracks. “OMG, Selena Gomez invited me to a duet!”, cried thousands of middle schoolers who went on to obsessively show off their dance moves and lip syncing skills on this app called musical.ly.
Despite the anxiety from a portion of the adult community around the platform being a haven for pedophiles, its popularity among teenagers soared. Instagram was mildly worried about the growing popularity of musical.ly, but it was still comfortably ahead in terms of overall usage.
As ByteDance bought musical.ly, integrated it into…
Empathy brings equality. Trust and love bring empathy. Stories build trust and spread love. Let’s tell our stories.
It is a dark time in America. 2020 has shown that we still have a lot of progress to bring. We’re still so behind that many of us don’t even understand equality.
This post is not about equality or the lack of it. That is another post for another time. I’ve written about equality before and I’ll write about it again.
This post is about the Million Voices Project.
#ThisIsMe is a project to bring a million voices together to show that we are all human, albeit with different backgrounds and stories.
At Rizzle, we are creating a playlist to…
We have an emotional intelligence crisis in America
When I watched Bohemian Rhapsody, one specific line caught my attention so strongly that I made a mental note to write about it. It was when Freddie referred to Americans as “puritans in public, perverts in private”. It represents a certain sad truth about the American society.
“Puritans in public, perverts in private” from Bohemian Rhapsody represents a side of America that must be discussed to advance the emotional quotient of the country at large.
“Mommy, will you stop? I know… ad hominem… I’m not supposed to say things that attack a person. Ideas can be attacked, but people should…
Research shows an average of 7 hours for every 1–5 minutes of video uploaded to YouTube!
Whatever type of YouTuber you are, you know that creating a YouTube video takes time, dedication, and persistent effort. We delved into the depths of what it takes to create a YouTube video through a Rizzle prompt and some Reddit research. This article summarizes our findings.
Sources
We used two primary sources to study the process of creating a YouTube video. Other sources that were secondary are not reported here.
- Rizzle responses to the prompt “How long does it take for you to make a YouTube video?”
- A Reddit thread on “How long does it take you to create one video?”
Types Of YouTubers
…
A journey of self discovery and growth unlike any other!
Precisely after four years, I will be writing myself a paycheck this month, thanks to our Series A raise. The thought makes me tear up. It will be significantly lower than my last paycheck and it will be lower than any paycheck I’ve received in the last decade or perhaps even longer. But, no paycheck has ever meant more to me than this one.
This entrepreneurship took me on a journey of self discovery unlike any other before. And I’m at a point of no return.
1. I’m tougher than I thought
Persistence has always been my virtue and I don’t usually take ‘no’ for an…
The current situation does not bode well for a Democrat takeover in 2020. It is time to learn necessary lessons from the right.
It’s February 2019 and we already have an impressive list of democrats running for President in 2020. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro, John Delaney, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, and Pete Buttigieg. Other potential high profile candidates include Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Amy Klobuchar.
Without a doubt, that is a mind blowing lineup! It demonstrates the strength of these men and women to stand up for what they believe in and fight to bring our democracy back to where it belongs.
But, there is one crucial problem.
…
Capitalism and misunderstood economics led to fascism, destroying freedom.
In 2018, we saw more women, and women of color in particular, getting elected to Congress than ever before in the history of America. That’s progress. It suggests there is hope. But, unfortunately, any progressive movement needs enough strength to stop America’s free fall to the dark ages and generate momentum to pull the nation forward, back to the definition of the free world.
A subpar understanding of economics and history has led to the collapse of freedom and a surge in fascist (nationalist) beliefs.
Fascism finds a place when imbalances run high in society. This is exactly what has…
Vidya Narayanan
Building Rizzle (rizzle.tv), the future of video! In past life (@Google, @Qualcomm), I built stuff that you’ve likely used!
