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Why Startups Are Coming To Latin America

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In 2018, there is probably no other region in the world where there is such an exciting mood for startups like in Latin America. This region has seen an increased level of vibrancy in the startup realm and many initiatives have been started. All this progress comes at the backdrop of massive support by the governments in the area in various ways. Many entrepreneurs from around the world have been attracted to the region as there are endless opportunities presenting themselves every year. While this is the case today, things were not always this way. Latin America was not a very vibrant region a few years ago. The change in attitude has however happened instantaneously and it has had tremendous effects. There are indeed many accelerators that are behind the progress.

Here are some of the leading public accelerators driving the industry in this region.

Start-Up Chile

Chile has always been a leader when it comes to different areas in Latin America. This country was the pioneer of public accelerators in the region and it was indeed a leader in the rest of the world too. With its first accelerator, Start-Up Chile, the country managed to demonstrate to the rest of the world what was possible. The region gained a proper insight from the success of this accelerator and soon enough, various other accelerators started popping up in neighboring countries. The success of Chile also inspired the rest of the world. Taking on Chile’s lead, over 50 other countries created their own accelerators that were fashioned in line with Start-Up Chile. Today, this accelerator is one of the best in the region and in the world. A huge number of successful ventures having been realized in this accelerator and its impact has been felt in many countries across the world.

IncuBAte

Argentina is a relatively huge country in Latin America, both in economic and demographic terms. The country launched IncuBAte amid economic turmoil that has been affecting the country for a couple of decades. The accelerator has gone on to become one of the most successful in the region. This accelerator has been the home of many high-value startups that range from tech companies, financial firms, agricultural startups, forex companies and so on. IncuBAte is not just a startup for Latin America but for the entire globe. Argentina has a great culture that includes supportive laws for foreign investment. The city of Buenos Aires is renowned for its entrepreneurial spirit and this has helped the government make a great proposition for its incubators. The great environment enabled by both the government and the local culture has contributed to the great success of accelerators like IncuBAte.

There is no doubt that Argentina will continue being a top destination for startups.

Parallel18

Puerto Rico might be a small country that is often overlooked when it comes to big business and enterprise, but this has not stopped it from dreaming big. The country has dealt with economic challenges for a long time and the government has looked for various remedies. With its accelerator program, Parallel18, Puerto Rico has not only been able to prove that it has a great environment for startups from all over the world but it has also demonstrated the economic potential for the country. The government has invested heavily in providing funds to encourage investment. There have been many success stories from this Caribbean country. One of the most remarkable startups to start here is Abartys Health. This startup has won many accolades for its ability to boost the health insurance sector. The successful venture has been a great opportunity for the government to promote its startup sector and to also turn around the fortunes for the country. Puerto Rico definitely has its sights set up high as it hopes to reinvigorate the economy through startups.

In Summary

Latin America is not just the ideal place to take a vacation anymore. It is also the best place to take the business too. The many different programs that have been launched in the region to promote investment have been impressive. With governments in the area taking the leading role in creating accelerator programs, the potential is definitely huge for the future. Even though there are some other areas in the developed world that have had the head start when it comes to business innovation, Latin America has joined the party in a massive way. The region is now firmly in contention for the top startup destinations.

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Eco-Business

The Richest People In Crypto Industry

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The advent of cryptocurrencies has heralded many new millionaires and billionaires. Over the last decade, the growth of cryptocurrency has been tremendous and early investors in the industry are reaping big benefits. The cryptocurrency market is currently worth several billion and people have found wealth by being engaged in different parts of the industry. Today, there are many businessmen whose wealth has been chiefly acquired via cryptocurrency investment.

The following are the richest people in crypto industry.

Chris Larsen

Chris Larsen is the co-founder of Ripple. Ripple (XRP) has been a promising platform that brought a lot of vibrancy to the crypto world. This payment protocol oversees currency exchange and it also has a remittance network. Chris Larsen has had a long-standing career in the business world and he has specifically been involved in many tech projects. As a result of his involvement in Ripple, he is now worth over $5 billion as per 2018 estimates.

Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao is the founder and . He has been at the helm of the company since it was first launched and he has overseen its growth over the years. Binance is the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume and it is also among the biggest by revenue as well. Changpeng Zhao has a tech background and he was involved in various other projects before delving into cryptocurrency. As of 2018, he is worth around $1.5 billion.

Joseph Lubin

The Ethereum platform is the most vibrant cryptocurrency platform in 2018. This platform was founded by Joseph Lubin alongside other co-founders. Lubin has a rich history in business and tech and he has been at the center of numerous tech startups. Because of the success of Ethereum, Joseph Lubin is now worth over $1 billion.

Michael Novogratz

Before he ventured into cryptocurrency, Michael Novogratz had been involved in the investment world as a fund manager. He had an illustrious career in this industry long before the advent of cryptocurrency. He later focused his energies on creating the cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital. This venture has earned him fortunes and he is now worth around $1 billion dollars as per 2018 estimates.

Brock Pierce

Brock Pierce alongside his brothers, has been behind the successful venture capital firm Blockchain Capital (BCC). The firm has only been in existence for a short period but it has nevertheless made fortunes for the Pierce brothers. This firm received sufficient venture funding last year after its ICO announcement earlier on in the year. With over $700 million realized in the ICO, the firm had a solid start.

The firm has earned Brock Pierce fortunes and he is now worth around $1 billion by 2018 estimates.

Matthew Roszak

Matthew Roszak is the chairman and co-founder of Bloq. This company specializes in delivering enterprise infrastructure that is used by companies. Its unique application of blockchain to solve organizational problems has made it a pioneer in the area of business innovation. The company provides numerous solutions to companies and it is involved in active innovation. Matthew Roszak has made fortunes of around $1 billion as a result of his involvement with the company.

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Environment

Free Stuff to Help You and Our Environment

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I love this part! Who doesn’t like free stuff? These freebies are excellent little gems that can save you money, make life a little easier and help reduce global warming.

And…I offer all this to you for FREE! Check them out. If a couple of ideas are useful, I’ve done my job! If you’ve got some ideas, tell us! Let’s share them with the world! My goal is to constantly expand this page and the ACTION HEROES page to include everyone’s ideas.

Freebie 1: Fine Print

This freebie is awesome! I do a lot of printing! I love E-Books! It’s a pleasure to take my E-Book and my coffee and lounge in an overstuffed chair. The downside to that moment of paradise is the cost of paper and ink!

Our little freebie savior – Fine Print! This simple shareware program is easy to install. It gives you the option of printing up to four pages of text on one page! A hundred page E-Book is now only twenty-five pages – or thirteen double-sided pages!

Freebie 2: Free Energy Audit

One simple phone call to your electric company can save you money every month! This energy audit:

  • checks air conditioning units and filters
  • checks hot water heaters and thermostats
  • suggests best ideas for insulating your home
  • offers the best ways for using energy-saving devices and appliances
  • checks for air leaks around windows, doors, outlets and switches

All this information for free and it takes about an hour! Not bad!

Freebie 3: Toilet Rebate

If it’s time a say goodbye to ole faithful, a rebate will make saying “Bye” easier. Most home improvement stores offer a full rebate on your purchase of an energy-saver toliet.

Yes, a FREE toilet! Most stores will even install it for you, but you pay for the installation. At Home Depot, they guarantee their installations for one year. I’ll bet most other stores offer the same guarantee.

Freebie 4: Free Trees

Yep! A FREE tree! What better way to curb CO2! More trees mean more CO2 absorbed into the trees and more oxygen released into the air.

Here’s a win-win-win:

  • Free tree or plant, but you pay for the shipping and processing. These are trees, scrubs, plants thrown away by the nurseries – usually still high-quality!
  • Each reserved tree or plant ensures paid work for people with disabilities!
  • Help the planet big time!

Freebie 5: Hybrid Cars Tax Credit

Thinking about buying a new car? The government is offering an incentive to car buyers: reduce your tax bill by going green! Many auto companies are changing their tune and jumping on the fast moving bandwagon. How much are we talking? The lowest tax credit is $650 if you buy a 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid or Saturn Vue Green Line. The most you can get is $2,600 for a Ford Escape Hybrid (2WD).

If you already bought a hybrid, check the list and see if you can qualify for an even higher incentive – upwards $3,100! If you live outside the States, check to see what rebates or incentives your government is offering. If you find out anything, let us know.

Freebie 6: Home Improvement Tax Credit

Thinking about doing some energy-saving home repair? Time for an update? Already did some tinkering?

Here’s some info you can use:

  • Improvements to your windows, doors and insulation can give you up to $500 in tax credit over a three-year period.
  • Consider updating your air conditioning unit, water heater or furnace for credit up to $300.
  • Go Solar and receive up to $2,000 in tax credits! If you�re ready to really make a difference, Uncle Sam will reward you. This includes solar panels, solar water heating systems and using fuel cell power.
  • Also, check your local bank for possible low-interest loans for energy improvements to your home.

Freebie 7: FreeStickers

Polar bears are beautiful animals and are highly sensitive to the changing environment. Warmth in the Artic areas are already creating havoc. As they struggle to addapt, many are suffering. If we continue increasing global warming, polar bears will not survive.

Thanks to the one million plus members of the Natural Resources Defense Council(NRDC), many legal steps have been successful in helping the polar bears. NRDC has won fights in the courts and in Congress. Their goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% before 2020 and 80% reduction by 2050.

These little stickers can make a big impact. They’re great reminders for using energy effeciently. They will also help increase awareness and hopefully increase support to making a difference. Great for teachers looking for ideas to give their students!

Freebie 8: FreeLesson Plans

Speaking of teachers… here are some great ideas to implement in your classroom. This gem offers grade level as well as a brief description of the lesson. You can choose subjects such as air quality, recycling, global warming, etc.

Each lesson has a step-by-step plan and a materials list. They are easy to use and flexible enough to gear it to your students’ needs. Hey Parents and Kids! This is great stuff for you too!

Parents 

  • Looking for some ideas to share with your child about global warming?
  • Want to be more involved in your child’s education?
  • Want to create some activities for your family?

Kids 

  • Need to do a research paper?
  • Need some ideas for a science or social studies project?
  • Want to be more active in your school or community?

Total ESL Resource Page is a great resource. This site is chocked with freebies for teachers, parents and kids!!! This is especially useful for teachers who are sometimes lost for new ideas. Enjoy!!!

Also if you’re looking for some of the coolest, mind-boggling puzzles on the planet, CHECK THIS OUT! The puzzles are cool and new stuff is being added every day.

Freebie 9: Free EBooks

There are many opportunities now to get the word out, but most don’t feel comfortable writing or don’t feel they have much to offer. Everyone has personal experiences and a unique voice that we all can learn from. This 40+page freebie takes that scary writing stuff you learned in school and makes the process easy and kinda fun.

Whenever you’re doing something you’re passonate about, it shows in your writing and the experience is enjoyable and helps more people than you could ever realize.

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Environment

The Importance of Renewable Energy

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Why do we care about green energy? Self-preservation is the most fundamental reason. Whether we are talking about self-preservation as a species or as an individual, survival is the first priority. I recently received a communication requesting signing of a petition informing the Federal Trade Commission of the insidious nature of what they are terming “greenscamming”. Everyone is aware products have cynically been labeled as “green” when they are not. The products or process may be harmful to the environment, but the consumer is lead to believe they are buying environmentally-friendly items.

This speaks to the quite enormous assumption that seems to have been made that our energy grid is our only choice. As people begin to talk about climate change, we are hearing that if we choose a certain type of fossil fuel, it will burn more cleanly.

While this may be true, the process of extraction may multiply harmful effects on climate change.

As this information is broadcast describing certain fossil fuels as being environmentally friendly, families are watching the destruction of their homes and towns due to the climate changes that one could argue are a bygone conclusion. If destruction of the environment isn’t of interest, surely we are all concerned about the day to day impact upon our own family. Each time a storm is forecast, we now live in fear of the grid going out. And yet, we stay plugged into the grid because we are advertised at that it is cheap and convenient.

Indeed, at the moment one most needs the energy, in the face of a deadly storm, is the moment we are most at risk of loosing access to grid power. The cost not only in dollars but violence and destruction of homes and personal property is the reality. Yet, sound-bite advertising, whether from government, an ad agency, or the so-called news reports, tells us the national energy grid is cheap and convenient.

The Importance of Renewable Energy

The responsible family leader will think long and hard before accepting an ad sound-bite as fact. The responsible family leader will inform their elected representatives precisely what is needed by this constituent in order to retain the constituent’s support. The legislation that has enabled the fossil fuel energy to function isn’t an accident. A case in point is exclusion of fracking from the Clean Water Act that allows fossil fuel companies unprecedented privilege to risk our water supply in pursuit of profits for the companies. This is known as the Halliburton Loophole.

So what can the beleaguered citizen to do? And I was just preparing to call the citizen a consumer, but everyone else must be as weary as I am of the new status of human being, soul, citizen, image-of-god, or any other decent description of man and woman—as renamed to consumer to fit into the brave new world of USA-as-corporation.

First, let your legislators know precisely what you think. I’ve heard on national news shows, the broadcasters say more than once, the legislators must take it upon themselves to make unpopular decisions for the constituents because the voters are often childlike! REALLY?? And what are our legislators? Have we looked around lately? Things ain’t going so well. Speak up for your family.

There will never be a better informer than your responsibility to your family. Trust yourself.

Consider using the money you would allocate to purchasing a new car, wonderful wardrobe, night out on the town, or any of thousands of little income drains, to create a long-lasting and durable energy base from which to function. This quite often is solar energy, but can also include wood stoves or pellet stoves for heat. It can include smaller homes that are easier to afford pertaining to energy use, and can also dramatically lower your costs in property taxes and maintenance.

Organize your community to establish a municipal wind energy system. This has been pleasingly successful in towns that have taken the initiative to get off the grid.

Consider car-pooling within your family. This is a wildly efficient way to save money. Though in the beginning the closeness may be irritating, many people come to find that reintegration into family can be fun and feel—well—family-like.

The fundamental inspiration of survival, and we are indeed talking about survival at this point, brings to mind food. We can change our relationship to food that will bring us gentle power, as the Shaker psalm sings

Tis the gift to be simple Tis the gift to be free Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be And when we find ourselves in the place just right Twill be in the valley of love and delight

If our delight becomes so basic we experiment with real food (as compared to fast food or GM food), we will find nourishment that is so inspirational, tasty, and fun, it may inform everything else in our life. Surely we have noticed the modern conveniences cost us dearly. They cost us in loosing freedom of choice of energy generation—they cost us in dedication to a job that may have stopped serving us well—they cost us by determination by others as to what we will buy.

Start With Yourself First

I won’t give up my washing machine. But I have never owned a dryer. It has never made sense to buy an expensive machine to do that which is inevitable. My computer is a delight and I count it as my servant. I’m rethinking my need to maintain a well-manicured lawn and will probably redirect my resources to vegetable and herb growing.

At a point in the future we see as a purchase a generator for when the grid goes down, and we are working toward a solar system. A friend has mentioned he has heard of a complimentary system whereby the solar energy system in the home will interact with an electric car, with the car battery renewing from the system and adding to the system.

This concept, I suspect, is eminently do-able. How many jobs could be generated from the maintenance and installation of this new system? Why aren’t our government researching these ideas? I suspect someone is. I also suspect we are hamstrung by the powers-that-be. A great place to start is survival in a forward-looking way. We can dream impossible dreams and make them real—we are human beings. The fact of being referred to as consumers may already have cowed legions of people into remaining in their stalls.

The truth is something so inspiringly different.

The choices are many and they are not to be made for our families by others. Rather than seeing ourselves as consumers, we can see ourselves as gentle warriors in the work of creating blossoming lifestyle for ourselves and our families.

Securing a green and renewable energy source for your home as a base from which to work is a fabulous start. Inform your legislators and the executive branch as to your requirements, and don’t feel so inclined to be a clog in the wheel of the industries that would grind people into consumers. Keep in mind the excellent term “greenscamming”, and inquire of the FTC as to when they will address this.

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