Startup Companies That Create the Next Great Wave

Stripe, SpaceX, Coinbase, Slack, AirBnb – what do these startups have in common? Industry insiders believe they are set to increase in value the most over the next ten years. Other startup companies on the list include Palantir, WeWerk, Uber, Lyft and Pinterest. These startup companies are some of the biggest names in the industry already, but investors are excited about the 2019 IPOs for these companies, with an emphasis on Uber, Slack and Palantir. Expect these companies to go public in 2019 and prepare accordingly. Uber has had their ups and downs in the media over the last few years, however, they enjoyed a stable 2018, which probably led to increased confidence in their offerings.

This information was gathered by First Round, who surveyed over 529 startup founders  in order to collect data on the state of startups today. The survey included some surprising findings. For example, the age bias in tech is real and having a real effect on the startup economy. 37 percent of founders believe that investors are biased based on age and 89 percent believe that older employees are judged based on their age in the tech industry as a whole. According to the survey, ageism starts at 46 years old.

Prejudice still exists in forms other than ageism. 28 percent of survey participants saw discrimination based on gender and 26 percent agreed bias based on race is still rampant in the industry. Startup investors can gain an edge if they are savvy enough to work to overcome the inherent biases that exist against these founders.

Pivoting to another finding in the study – a full 70 percent of founders say that messaging tools increase company productivity and 98 percent of founders use these services themselves.. Slack and Yammer are both startups themselves that are widely used within the startup community. If you want your startup to succeed, messaging tools are key for streamlined employee communication.

First Round also attempted to answer the question, “where will the next round of founders come from?” Many of these founders believe they will come from employees of Uber, Slack, Stripe, Amazon and Airbnb.

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, is currently making waves with his personal life. However, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ AMZN) is also in the news this week. Yesterday, AWS announced that they are opening an infrastructure region in Italy. They are looking at an early 2020 date. This is AWS’s sixth region in Europe. The company already has outposts in France, Germany, Ireland, the UK and Sweden.

Andy Jassy, the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon Web Services has this to say about the new infrastructure region, “ “For thousands of years, Italians have been the architects of some of the most innovative and groundbreaking technical and artistic feats…We’ve been amazed with how Italian companies have invented on top of AWS thus far, but believe an AWS Region in Italy makes it even easier for Italian companies and government organizations to reinvent and evolve customer and citizen experiences for many decades to come.”

While the founders in the aforementioned study are looking at Uber for the next wave of founders. AWS believes that talent in Italy is at the forefront of the next great wave of entrepreneurship and has released a statement reiterating their commitment to developing talent in the region through a variety of programs. Focusing on IT and cloud computing, Italian students at participating schools, including Politecnico di Milano, Università di Bologna, Università di Bolzano, Università degli Studi di Milano, Università di Napoli Parthenope, Università La Sapienza di Roma, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, and Università di Salerno, will have the opportunity to become experts in the field.

Business Wire – Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced it will open an infrastructure region in Italy in early 2020. The AWS Europe (Milan) Region will comprise of three Availability Zones and will be AWS’s sixth region in Europe, joining existing regions in France, Germany, Ireland, the UK, and Sweden (launching in late 2018). Currently, AWS provides 57 Availability Zones across 19 geographic regions globally, with another 12 Availability Zones across four regions coming online between the end of 2018 and the first half of 2020 in Bahrain, Hong Kong SAR, South Africa, and Sweden.

“For thousands of years, Italians have been the architects of some of the most innovative and groundbreaking technical and artistic feats,” said Andy Jassy, Chief Executive Officer, Amazon Web Services. “We’ve been amazed with how Italian companies have invented on top of AWS thus far, but believe an AWS Region in Italy makes it even easier for Italian companies and government organizations to reinvent and evolve customer and citizen experiences for many decades to come.”

The addition of the AWS Europe (Milan) Region will enable organizations to provide lower latency to end users in Italy. Local AWS customers with data residency requirements will be able to store their content in the country, with the assurance that they retain complete control over the location of their data, while customers building applications that comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have access to another secure AWS infrastructure region in the European Union (EU) that meets the highest levels of security, compliance, and data protection.

Additionally, Italian organizations from startups to enterprise and the public sector will have infrastructure in their country to leverage advanced technologies such as analytics, artificial Intelligence, database, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, mobile services, serverless, and more to drive innovation.

AWS is continuing to invest in the upskilling of local developers, students, and the next generation of IT leaders in Italy with a number of programs. For Italian students, the AWS Educate program provides access to AWS services and content designed to build knowledge and skills in cloud computing. Dozens of Italian universities and business schools already participating in the program include Politecnico di Milano, Università di Bologna, Università di Bolzano, Università degli Studi di Milano, Università di Napoli Parthenope, Università La Sapienza di Roma, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, and Università di Salerno. Another program for higher education institutes is AWS Academy, which provides AWS-authorized courses for students to acquire in-demand cloud computing skills. In Italy, major institutions taking part include Politecnico di Bari and Università La Sapienza di Roma. AWS also offers a full range of training and certification programs to help those interested in the latest cloud computing technologies, best practices, and architectures to advance their technical skills and further support Italian organizations in their digital transformation.