The Equal Way IS the American Way

On Wednesday, April 2, at some of the country’s biggest tech campaigns, 39 top executives signed a joint statement urging lawmakers to add protections for LGBT people to existing anti-discrimination legislation.  Some of the industry giants on board with the campaigns are Square CEO Jack Dorsey, eBay CEO John Donahoe and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. The campaign is trailing behind the move of a new law passed in Indiana that allows business owners to refuse to serve LGBT people on religious grounds.  Equal-Opportunity Employment is a fundamental right for most American businesses, and to discriminate against this is to disrespect the integrity of America’s name in the world market.  Businesses who do not offer a professional atmosphere promoting equal opportunities for all individuals simply do not deserve to be a business in this country. 

 Read some of the statements made at the campaigns here

 Co-Working in the Big Apple

Kevin Lawrie, owner of LauncPads in St. George, is making moves to raise the bar of Staten Islands sub-par tech hub.  Finding space in NYC is a task that surprisingly has a huge impediment for small business’s; however, when Lawrie discovered the concept of co-working, he brought it to Staten Island and has been suggesting to those interested in Lawry’s business industry to do the same.  Lawrie’s philosophy of “build it and they will come,” has inspired many industry professionals – from film producers to techies – to use the co-working space daily.  Affordable workspace is the key for igniting the success of small businesses, and for major metropolitan areas, once you nail down this task, business will slowly begin to come to you.  The secret to this philosophy is to invest in people rather than a suave address.

 Check out more of the details behind Kevin Lawrie’s business here

 Private Data Storage is Defining the Future of Tech Business

There is a $36 billion global market for data storage, an industry including everything from raw boxes of hard drives to the software needed to manage it.  Although companies like Amazon have revolutionized renting cloud space, private storage is on a demand surge, and Seattle is investing in the upside. There is a wave of startups settling down in Seattle to grab a piece of this growing industry.  Venture funding for such startups has near tripled in the last five years, to $1.6 billion, according to researcher CB Insights. Growth in technology means growth in intellectual property, which fuels the need for space, especially private space. 

Check out some more insight behind this trend here

Happy Friday everyone!