Startup Summit presented the Learn and Network Night at WeWork One City Plaza in Durham featuring the smart and talented, Grace Ueng, CEO of Savvy Growth. Check out this video interview sharing highlight on Savvy Growth and advice tips on success during the startup and entrepreneurship phase!

​Bunker Labs Raleigh started the year right with a great business networking and brews event at K4Connect. A group of veterans, IoT professionals, and entrepreneurship leaders gathered to discuss what's new in IoT, how fast the industry is growing, how it impacts the future, and what role veterans play in this space. Jessica Harris and Marjorie K. Eastman moderated an all-star panel with CEO Scott Moody from host K4Connect, Mike Prorock of mesur.io, Tom Snyder of RIOT, and Andrew Goldsmith of ProAxion. Here is a recap of some key wisdom points shared:

• Internet of Things is all about a world that is fully connected. Machines communicating with machines. The key is to think about the Internet of "Useful" Things. Whatever your "connected to the internet thing" is must help people in a meaningful way and give them sustainable value.
• Remember the "Value Proposition". Must create value. Not just internet of things, but be mindful of the bigger system play and how you work well with the bigger picture. Care about who you are helping and how you touch their life. Be a purpose driven company. Don't just be a convenience IoT product like a "nice to have", be a true meaningful significant product that makes a big difference.
• Anyone can tell a story, but it is the tech that tells the real story. When a tech innovation provides an awesome wow experience and loved that message will shine and grow regardless what the press says. Real tech cuts through the clutter. Focus on a great special tech experience that moves people and the story of your special offering will be told.
• IoT helps convert the analog physical world into a digital world that opens up new ways to solve problems with new solutions. Focus on your unique play in this totally open and free spirited arena.
• Must have a thirst for knowledge and be connected to emotion. Know your technological responsibility and how you fuse knowledge and emotion to add value.
• When the product is free, you are the product. Be mindful of this and what this means to you and your customers.
• Data scientists are in super demand and the thought process the data scientist discipline teaches is critical to the success of IoT companies. Find these people and scoop them up.
• Be careful of becoming data rich and knowledge poor. Need to find what is useful and applicable from the data collected. Practical insights from data that you can apply to your life and business is the holy grail.
• Have vision to solve problems people don't even know they have right now. If you just do what customers say you will sometimes be wrong and late. This is not a good combo so have a strong well thought out vision and keep your ear close to the pulse of what is happening in the world.
• Remember this important motto: Don't chase the data. Chase the mission.
• People want to be connected and happier when they are connected and then ultimately healthier from this connectivity. All good. A lot has to be done to make this connectivity easy,enjoyable, and valuable to people so focus on this mission.
• Advice on building a good company = Mission first, people always. Hire smart. Look for really well rounded people and they can figure things out.
• Future trends. Who ever can do things the slickest most efficient way possible will win. Whoever can cost effectively do computation at the sensor level at the edge without having to go to the cloud and incur the latency from that process will be the big winners.
• IoT provides huge opportunity to create and do things never before possible. Who would have thought that when the smartphone was created that ride sharing with companies like Lyft would be invented and transform the taxi industry. Look for big creative opportunities in IoT to innovative and innovative rapidly. With IoT you can evoke transformational change.

​A special thanks to K4Connect for hosting the January's Bunker Brews event and Bunker Labs for making this event possible.

At CES this year the leaders in digital entertainment, Creative Labs, introduced breakthrough products that further demonstrates their domination in audio with the introduction of Super X-Fi. The new products CREATIVE SXFI AMP and CREATIVE SXFI AIR headphones featuring this new innovative tech will delight your ears with amazing sound like nothing you heard before or imagined was possible. As they say, "Experience Magical Audio Reality"... Check out this CES interview with the articulate product marketing leader Ryan Schlieper. To learn more check out Creative.com.
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Happy to share TechAndWisdom.com interview of leading entrepreneur, executive, and podcast producer of "I Love Data Centers" Sean Patrick Tario. Enjoy this interview at the Open Spectrum event in downtown Raleigh, NC. A special thanks to Sean for interview and opportunity to be part of their monthly events!