Author Archives: sam_plecic

Today’s cities are living entities. They develop, grow and become more complex over time. Yet, many of their most pressing issues, such as the need for utility improvements and monitoring crime, remain the same. Like never before, city officials have the capabilities to implement analytics technology. But surveillance will be at the heart of smart cities.

These technologies will help with a myriad of everyday city demands, in addition to more intricate challenges pertaining to security, healthcare, mobility, energy and economic development.

We need accurate insights into cities like never before.

With more than half of the world’s population residing in cities, this need for smarter and more accurate insights into their everyday workings is monumental. City management officials could learn much from leaders like Cisco, Amazon and Google. These companies have made it their business to not just collect data, but  utilize it to improve livelihoods an

Getting a startup off the ground isn’t easy. Instead of focusing solely on your baby, as in the actual product or service that you’re selling, you’ll also have to deal with administrative headaches. Managing your startup finances is one of these necessary evils. Here’s everythng you need to kow about finances for your startup.

As a business owner, you’re going to have to get involved with the financial side of things. There are no two ways about it. Here’s what you need to know to steer your company’s finances in the right direction.

Manage Your Finances 

Entrepreneurs will generally do everything except manage their finances properly. Making money is obviously a major concern and often a big driver in starting the business, but actually taking care of the day to day finances tends to take a backseat. And that’s a recipe for disaster. 

Managing your finances should be one of your top priorities. No “We need to foc

In the past decade or so, there has been a drastic shift in the way society consumes information, mainly due to the boom in smartphones and tablets. Many companies didn’t realize the potential of digital marketing and how it would affect everyday life. In days past, companies created templated and static websites with simplified box layouts and different colored backgrounds.

When companies update those websites, they often are faced with complete overhauls — costly in terms of time, money, and workforce power. In a recent survey of companies taking on website redesigns, 80% admitted that their websites overhauls would probably take more than a year to complete.

As information technology has evolved, the old method of designing and redesigning traditional websites has become inefficient. Thanks to an emphasis on IoT and integrated data, sites must be responsive in more ways than one.

In the current market, your brand’s website needs to be pictur

The world has changed. You can crash and burn or you can get the right tools and information now and change your life, your business and the lives of your employees.

In this episode of How to CEO, I welcome Han Jin, the co-founder, and CEO of Lucid.

Han Jin and his partner created Lucid in 2015. Their company produces software and artificial intelligence. I invited Han Jin to talk about the various characteristics and skills that a CEO should have. Being a founder and CEO are two very different things and Han Jin helps us to differentiate both roles. He also shares his experiences and the challenges that he has faced switching back and forth between both of these vary complex roles over the past two and a half years.

Han Jin tells me at Lucid, “we have created software and artificial intelligence to capture 3D on mobile devices, or any device that has cameras.”

Every year we work toward becoming better CEO’s and building a better company and product.

Pitch decks are underestimated and overestimated. Some founders dismiss the deck as pure “show” and cobble together a few slides for their venture capital (VC) audience. But I suspect that most founders spend tens of hours perfecting their deck. I worry that their efforts are concentrated in the right place but on the wrong problems.

Pitch decks are powerful because they reflect on your brand and style. They can give life to your argument and supporting stories, but they cannot close the deal without you, the presenter. 

To get this three-part series on pitch decks rolling, let’s cover the purpose of a pitch, what it has to answer, and where it can go wrong. Let’s also identify some problems that are worth concentrating on.

Presenter v. Presentation

There’s a difference between the presenter, who does the heavy lifting in a pitch, and the deck, which supports the presenter. In a strong pitch, I find that fo