An 8th continent is being prototyped to collect and recycle plastic from the ocean 🏖
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An 8th continent is being prototyped to collect and recycle plastic from the ocean 🏖
#25 2021 | Sparkmate
Happy Wednesday, and a start to the last month of 2021! 🤯
Before we end the year, we’re running 2 more #firesidechat events next week - and not just in Hong Kong, but also an online one on “How To Kickstart Your Product: Tips on Product Bootstrapping” featuring our collaboration with Paris Techstars Accelerator 💥 More about this below - join us and invite friends or networks who might be interested!
Here’s what we’ve put together for your weekly Spark reads:
💙 NEWS FROM OUR MATESAirwallex introduces global payments, without burning a hole in your wallet 😉
Our mates at Airwallex have been hard at work to get you the best global payment deals and foreign exchange rates (TechCrunch and The Economist approves!) - and they're giving us a neat little offer ;)
Airwallex provides businesses of all sizes multi-currency accounts, cards and a market-leading FX engine that can save you up to 90% of international fees! They also have virtual employee cards that you can create on their platform, so you don't have to waste time on going back and forth waiting for approvals and getting bank deets. Along with that, you can also track company expenses, accept and transfer payments, integrate from Xero, all securely and hassle-free (without the tedious paperwork).
Airwallex is offering us all US$20,000 FX-free introductory offer and priority onboarding. So if you’re looking to grow your business without borders, sign up and grab the deal!
🤸 FUN PRODUCT WE LOVEGet quantitative and qualitative consumer insights in minutes at your fingertips, with Suzy 👥
Understanding your market well is crucial to developing an outstanding product 💬 But whatever industry you’re in, it can change quite often - especially in such a fast-paced technological world we live in today. So, how do you keep track of it all? We discovered Suzy recently and have loved its unique ways of helping with consumer insights!
Suzy is a market research platform that taps into their large consumer database of various demographics and interests, who are incentivized to answer questions to earn rewards in several apps. They are used by the world’s biggest brands, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and more.
Based on your product (or just for curiosity!), you can add a question onto their platform, i.e. “What’s your favorite car brand?” or “What comes to mind when you hear “Smart Things?”. In minutes, Suzy collates all the qualitative and quantitative data back and visualizes them for you - you can ask 200 people a question, and get all 200 answers back in 12 minutes!
💭 TECH FOOD FOR THOUGHTAre your passwords on the 200 most-used in 2021 list? 😬
With security, safe is always better than sorry - no matter if you are working with consumers directly or businesses! And with hacker forums everywhere, you don’t want to be included in their 8.4 billion passwords leaked.
The list includes a range of bad passwords (qwerty) to worse (xxx - yes, people use this!). After our SparkChat with a cyber security ninja, our best advise for you is to use password managers like Dashlane or NordPass, which helps you generate i.e. 16-character passwords with numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, and special symbols.
With this, you won’t need to worry about whether your password includes something personal that could be found out, or whether it’s “strong” enough.
🌱 TECH FOR SUSTAINABILITYAn 8th continent is being prototyped to collect and recycle plastic from the ocean 🏖
Let’s set it straight:
8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the sea every year.
Majority of this plastic ends up in our food and body.
100,000 marine mammals and turtles, and 1 million sea birds are killed by plastic pollution annually.
With these in mind, we are literally killing with the amount of plastic we’re producing and using. Lenka Petráková, a designer in London, studied ocean population in University and has since developed a prototype of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” to solve this.
When operational, the little island can stay connected to the sea bed but remain flexible to move in line with currents. It would also produce its own energy through harvesting facilities, equipped with greenhouses and green living quarters. It’s still early on in the development, but what an amazing idea to push forth!
💥 WHAT’S ON @ SPARKMATEGive the Spark: Events in Hong Kong and Online next week 🥳
As we kickstart yet another event in Hong Kong next week, we noticed our mates from all around the world also deserves a little more love 💙 so we’re launching an online event you can join wherever you are! Check it out and RSVP to join us:
🇭🇰 Managing Fast F&B Growth
Featuring Co-Founder & CEO of Pirata Group, Manuel Palacio
Date: 8th December, Wednesday
Time: 6:30-7:30PM (Hong Kong Time)
Read more and RSVP
🌎 How To Kickstart Your Product: Tips on Product Bootstrapping
Featuring Managing Director of Paris Techstars Accelerator, Raphaele Leyendecker
Date: 9th December, Thursday
Time: 1:00-2:00PM (Central European Time)
Read more and RSVP
Exciting things are happening every day ⚡️ Follow us on social media to stay tuned!