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DURHAM Success did not come overnight for Durham-based ProcessMaker, which just raised $45 million from Aldrich Capital Partners in its first outside investment for its open source automated workflow product.

It was a long haul, said CEO Brian Reale in an interview with WRAL TechWire. We took a lot of different paths. Most people dont do that.

The funding is big news in the emerging field of no-code/low-cide that ProcessMaker has helped pioneer.

The promise of no-code platforms is that theyll make software development just as easy as using Word or PowerPoint so that the average business user can move projects forward without the extra cost (in money and time) of an engineering team, notes VentureBeat.

And here comes ProcessMaker.

ProcessMaker is a no-code/low-code open source process automation platform founded during the dotcom boom and bust of 2000 by Bobby Vernon and Reale. The bootstrapped startup had no funding, So the only way to generate forward momentum is to sell, Reale said.

Unfortunately, if you have no funding, you also dont have anything to sell, he noted. So, in addition to working on the product development, the company did consulting to help pay bills. A venture capitalist told me you should never do that, combine consulting with a product company. But if you dont have any funding, I dont see how else you could do itj. Thats exactly what you should do to organically build a business.

The two entrepreneurs failed often during their initial years.

For a time, Reale was in Bolivia, where he had built an earlier company to provide internet service there. Some of his scrappiness was already in evidence because he talked his modem making employer into giving him outdated modems for the service. He said he originally agreed to do the Bolivia project thinking it would be an adventure. It was, he said.

The internet venture eventually sold to a U.S.-based public company. ProcessMaker still maintains offices in La Paz, Boliva and Bogota, Columbia.

Over the years, the entrepreneurs continued to refine and find the focus for their product. in 2008 they launched what is now known as ProcessMaker one of the first open source workflow software solutions in the industry at the time.

The fact that they didnt have a lot of competitors helped them hire and retain employees, Reale said.

Weve run ProcessMaker really lean and scrappy for 20 years. The hard work paid off.

The company grew from zero to 140 global employees, boasts several million open source downloads, and hundreds of customers across 52 countries.

The platform focuses primarily on mid-market banking, higher education, and manufacturing. Customers include community banks, multi-nationals, and more than 150+ universities. In 2020. The company will continue to focus on those verticals, Reale said, as it builds its executive team and sales and marketing with new hires. We expect to go from 30 people in Durham to 50 by the end of the year.

In its mid-market banking vertical ProcessMaker offers an off-the-shelf commercial account opening process that can be deployed by community banks in a couple of weeks. The result, the company says, is that community banks can now deliver to their customers an experience that rivals the digital experience of banks 10 times their size at a fraction of the cost.

During COVID, this meant the banks were able to pivot from in-person commercial account opening to a fully digital experience while still focusing on building relationships with their customers.

In Higher Education, ProcessMaker automates student-facing processes like transfer of credit approvals and grade change processes. At one of the largest public university systems in the US, ProcessMaker reduced the average time for approving transfer credits from 5 months to 19 hours.

Reale said the company relocated to the Triangle for its attractive business atmosphere. We chose the right place, he said.

The company refreshed its product prior to the new funding, so its faster and cleaner, Reale said. So it will be able to use the funds to increase its sales and marketing rather than upgrade its product.

Aldrich Capital Partners Managing Partner, Mirza Baig said in the funding announcement, Aldrich invested in ProcessMaker because it is a highly capital efficient founder-run business that has a respected global brand. ProcessMaker is a market innovator that has proven that it knows how to be profitable and thrive even during a once in a century world-wide pandemic.

She noted that low-code automation of processes is a hot commodity right now.

At ACP, we love low-code process automation and fully expect hundreds of market verticals to be transformed in the next decade, she said.

The global process automation market is expected to reach nearly $17 billion by 2023 with a CAGR of 5.8% according to a recent report.

The investment from Aldrich Capital will allow ProcessMaker to continue to invest in its market-leading digital process automation platform and build out its presence in community banking, higher education, and manufacturing.

Startup profile: ProcessMaker, aiming to automate key business processes (+ video)

See the original post:
'A long haul' from bootstrapping to $45M in funding: The saga of Durham's no-code ProcessMaker - WRAL Tech Wire

Theres a lot of pent-up desire among seniors, and a sense of life running out, said Jeff Galak, a professor at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Tepper School of Business. Theres a theory called mortality salience: When your own mortality is brought to mind, behaviors change. Were going to see upgrades to better cabins on cruise ships, and booking of better hotels.

For travelers in their 60s, 70s and 80s, said Conor Goodwin, corporate marketing manager of Charlestowne Hotels, the ticking of the clock is another strong motivation to book as soon as an inoculation makes it safe.

The 65-plus demographic is losing out on their golden years and theyre understandably eager to get back out there, he said.

The Bristol Hotel in Virginia, which is part of Charlestownes portfolio, saw revenue from travelers over the age of 65 increase 179 percent between Dec. 13 and Jan. 22. The French Quarter Inn, in Charleston, S.C., which is also managed by Charlestowne, saw 11 percent more bookings from people over 65 between Jan. 10 and 28 compared Dec. 22 to Jan 9.

Some older travelers are even opting to finally book those big-ticket dream trips. Fernando Diez, who owns Quasar Expeditions, a luxury cruise operator in the Galpagos Islands, says that in December, when frontline health care workers were among the very first Americans to receive vaccines, he saw a wave of requests for trip information from doctors and nurses.

Since Jan. 1, however, 70 percent of his booking inquiries have come from guests over the age of 65 in previous years, that number was closer to 40 percent. Most inquiries are for travel from June onward.

Most of them say theyve been vaccinated, and theyre comfortable now traveling to a destination like Ecuador and the Galpagos, Mr. Diez said. The vaccination gives them the confidence to travel to a remote spot.

More:
A Different Early-Bird Special: Have Vaccine, Will Travel - The New York Times

Ubi MACs, an agile and futuristic media & communication agency launches today to offer a one-stop solution for media consultation by industry veterans. Ubi MACs is a startup and an Ad agency with the objective to service mid and small capped businesses. With five clients on board already, Ubi MACs is backed up by 7 partner agencies, 23 experts and 9 core team led by 5 founders.

Ubi MACs is founded by stalwarts from the media and marketing industries. Its philosophy and approach rests on the decades of experience and knowledge of the founding partners. The founders of Ubi MACs are:

Speaking at the launch, Mr Avijit Dutt, Founder of Ubi MACs and an advertising veteran, actor, and speaker said, The year 2020 taught us that there's another way to live and make sense of it all. It also showed us ways to increase the hit ratio, while maximizing the rupees power. This is one such innovation that will give the small spender the firepower of an experienced, proven team, without having to spend vast amounts of resources.

Mr. Dutt further added that Ubi MACs aims to be a hard-working solution for small advertisers and start-ups whose advertising needs are significantly different and are not met by big network agencies due to low budget and other structural issues. It is focused more on width and expansion than on maximizing revenues from a set of clients.

Ubi MACs aims to specifically offer to small advertisers and start-ups two kinds of services. Firstly, Media management for accounts who dont have one and charge only for the hours deployed. Here the pre audit of strategy, planning and buying is designed to be done only by veterans, and advertisers will only pay for the hoursdeployed. Secondly, harness consortium agencies for advertisers who also need crafting and execution of plans, to cater to their communication needs.

Mr. Vinit Kumar, Founder of Ubi MACs and who comes with vast experience with big agencies and clients across categories, has a lions share in bringing about this launch and consortium. Mr. Kumar said, Theres a huge surge in the number of start-ups, stacking up to 55K+. Also, we have a fairly large number of advertisers in India about 200K+. However, the smaller advertisers dont get access to expertise, experience or required Ad tech due to low investment levels. Mostly, they get serviced by independent consultants and multiple small agencies. By launching Ubi MACs and creating a consortium of six agencies, our ambition is to be the Ola/Uber for the AdCom industry by offering accessible, affordable yet boldly effective solutions.

The newly found advertising and communication start-up has formed a consortium of seven independent agencies from different domains i.e., Digital Marketing, Broadcast media, Creative and Content. The seven agencies are INK Advertising owned by Pradeep Yadav, Monkey Minds founded by Amit Duggal, Pixel Rush founded by Atul Soni, Bluetickmark founded by Gaurav Dikshit, Pub Com Media founded by Sandeep Dodhaan, Visual Craft owned by Sudeshna Das and Akhiro Interactive.

Heres some of the views shared by partner agencies on Ubi MACs:

Amit Duggal, Monkey Minds: Advertisers have always been scouting for a medium which can give them best ROI be it reach, GRPs or any other metrics. I feel nothing has changed in the current dynamics, we still have to give highest ROI and on digital as a medium specifically. My vision is to give the best ROI to first time advertisers to grow business pan India.

Atul Soni, PixelRush: With the entire national narrative focused towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat, we believe its high time that the same narrative also applies towards the agency ecosystem here. Emphasis should be towards creating successful Indian businesses catering to advertisers needs in the best possible manner devoid of any foreign firm royalty obligations, sinister back hand publisher deals and specific agenda driven performance push. We at PixelRush believe that this step towards creation of a consolidated marketing entity by Vinit under the umbrella Ubi MACs is a step in the right direction and we are honoured to be part of this consortium to deliver disproportionate value to advertisers small as well as big ones in the best possible manner.

Pradeep Yadav, INK Advertising: Consumer dynamics are changing and so does the requirement of advertisers. At this hour, convergence and coherence are required to have effective campaigns. With Ubi MACs, we are capable to solve for any kind of communication requirements a marketer might have.

Ubi MACs will play a critical role for the regional advertisers as small and medium sized businesses are facing a challenge to reach out to their target audiences. With their differentiated approach and one-stop solution, the agency will deliver both impactful and result oriented media campaigns.

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)

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Ubi MACs kickstarts with five clients on board - Exchange4Media

From the New York Times obituary for Walter Bernstein (no relation), a blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter, has this to say about his ties to the Communist Party, USA:

"I didn't join the party until after the war," Mr. Bernstein said, although the events of the '30s, including the Depression, the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism in Europe, made the Communist cause attractive to him. "The Communists," he said, "seemed like they were doing something.".

Mr. Bernstein was considered untouchable both in Hollywood and in the fledgling television industry in New York once his name had appeared in "Red Channels," an anti-Communist tract published in 1950 by the right-wing journal Counterattack.

"I was listed right after Lenny Bernstein," Mr. Bernstein recalled. "There were about eight listings for me, and they were all true." He had indeed written for the leftist New Masses, been a member of the Communist Party and supported Soviet relief, the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War and civil rights.

If I had read this without knowing Bernstein's biography, I would have been led to believe that Bernstein joined the became interested in the Communist Party in the 1930s [he in fact joined the Young Communist League, the Party's youth wing, in 1937] because of despair over the Depression and concern about fascism. He was later punished for having once belonged to the Party, as well as his support for the leftists in Spain and for civil rights.

In fact, Bernstein was a member of the American Communist Party and remained so until 1956. In other words, he remained a[n affiliate and then] member of the Soviet-controlled and overtly pro-Soviet CPUSA through Stalin's pact with Hitler, through the antisemitic post-World War II purges, through the Soviet domination of Eastern Europethrough the point where any reasonable person would have been aware of Stalin's crimes.

[UPDATE from Prof. Harvey Klehr, an expert on American Communism:

Some additional details that reveal both the Times inability to ever get a story about American communists right and Bernstein's own mendacity. Bernstein admitted in his autobiography that he joined the Young Communist League in 1937;claiming he joined the Party after WWII was not entirely honest. And, in the Venona decryptions, there is a 1944 message wherein the New York station of the KGB reported that he had met with "Khan," likely Avrom Landy, an American communist who acted as a liaison with the KGB. Bernstein, whose name is given in plain text- no code name- "welcomed the re-establishment of liaison with him and promised to write a report on his trip by the first of November." The trip was quite probably a journey to Yugoslavia while a correspondent for Yank, during which Bernstein became the first Western newsman to obtain an interview with Josip Tito. In his autobiography Bernstein admitted that the interview was an act of subversion, "against American policy in Yugoslavia." And, he claimed that a Soviet diplomatic official asked him about the trip but he refused to answer his questions. But he admitted speaking to Landry!]

As I've written elsewhere:

When the blacklist was started, Joseph Stalin, one of the great mass murderers in human history, controlled the Soviet Union, a totalitarian, repressive, imperialist nation that was involved in a Cold War with the United States. As we have seen, hardcore CPUSA members were as a rule loyal to this dictatorship and not the United States,and screenwriters were obligated to try to use their positions to promote Communism.

[M]ost of those blacklisted were at least as morally complicit in Stalinist crimes100 as a typical American Nazi of the 1930s and 40s was complicit in Nazi crimes. Communist screenwriters, in particular, "defended the Stalinist regime, accepted the Comintern's policies and about-faces and criticized enemies and allies alike with infuriating selfrighteousness . screen artist reds became apologists for crimes of monstrous dimensions. film Reds in particular never displayed any independence of mind or organization vis-a-vis the Comintern and the Soviet Union." Nor was the screenwriters' Communist activism irrelevant to their jobs, as they actively sought to maximize Communist and pro-Soviet sentiment in films, and minimize the opposite. Screenwriter and leading Communist John Howard Lawson urged his comrades to "get five minutes of Party doctrine into every film, and to place such moments in expensive scenes so that they would not be cut by the producer."

One can certainly debate whether, in the absence of criminal liability, being a Soviet stooge during Stalin's reign merited blacklisting. One cannot argue, however, that Soviet stooges were not Soviet stooges, but that seems to have become the default assertion about blacklisted Hollywood writers among the cultural elite.

[Update: I'm getting feedback that the Hollywood blacklist mostly caught up people with left-wing politics who were not involved in Communism. This is a myth, as discussed here: "According to Ronald Radosh, co-author of Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With The Left (2005), and an expert on American Communism, not only were all of the Hollywood Ten members of the CPUSA at the time they were blacklisted, so were approximately 98 per cent of all of the Hollywood blacklist's targets."]

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (the Jewish media's equivalent of the AP) does the Times one better:

Walter Bernstein, a proudly "secular" Jewish screenwriter best known for his 1960s and '70s dramas and for being blacklisted during the McCarthy era, has died at 101.

Bernstein, born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, called himself a "secular, self-loving Jew of a leftist persuasion," according to the Times.

That persuasion got him labeled as a communist sympathizer in the 1950s, when the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee cracked down on leftist attitudes in Hollywood.

Quite obviously, what got him labeled as a "communist sympathizer" was that he was a member of the Communist Party USA. As for being a self-loving Jew, I can't speak to his later sentiments, but any Jew who continued to support Stalin through his murder of leading Jewish cultural figures and the "Doctors' Plot" isn't at the top of my list for a B'nai B'rith award.

The way domestic pro-Soviet Communism is treated in popular culture, as if it was a figment of the right-wing imagination (as suggested by the term "witch hunts" and Arthur Miller's play on that topic) is bizarre. In addition to the persistent insistence that actual members of the CPUSA like Bernstein were either never Communists or just had a brief dalliance with Communism, we have the consistent attribution of JFK's murder by Lee Harvey Oswald, who by then had graduated from pro-Soviet to pro-Cuban Communism, to vague right-wing forces. We also have the remarkable heroine status of Angela Davis (she stars, for example, in Ibram Kendi's work), despite her long history as a shill for the USSR and East Germany. (She is pictured below with East Germany's dictator Erich Honecker. She remained an active member of the CPUSA until its collapse in 1991.)

Read more here:
The New York Times and American Communism - Reason

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If you asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether Xi was a communist, he wouldnt admit it

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If youre wondering what it would take for the Trudeau administration to get over its crush on Chinese communism, I have no idea. Especially once we learned that despite everything, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is doing its best to pour our industrial secrets into the Politburos pockets via wait for it Huawei. And by despite everything I mean massive evidence of the Chinese Communist Partys hostility to human rights and decency, including putting historys worst mass killer on their banknotes in case anyone was struggling with the concept of brutal communist dictatorship and loving it.

Periodically I get heckled for saying Trudeau administration not Trudeau government. But I cling to the quaint non-Xi Jinping concept of a separation of powers rather than a centrally directed, unified force for social change that can turn on a dime. And Im glad that some within our state apparatus agree.

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David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), recently warned against Beijings strategy for geopolitical advantage on all fronts economic, technological, political and military that uses all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty. Back in November the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) fingered China as a leading cyber-menace. And CSIS and the CSE are part of our government.

So too, unfortunately, is NSERC, which is currently trading our know-how for renminbi. Something major American and British universities now refuse to do, while Australians grow uneasy. Not us, apparently.

My colleague Kelly McParland, quoting Vigneault, asked in exasperation, You have to wonder how often knowledgeable people need to attest that Chinas is a dangerous, predatory and untrustworthy government before the fact of it begins to sink in and action is taken. Instead the Trudeau administration pussyfoots around genocide (whats an exterminated minority between trading partners, plus Uighur is hard to pronounce), plays Olympic dodgeball and flirts with Huawei.

As you may know, I dont believe in conspiracy theories. I think they poison public discourse and am forever trying to explain to people that when someone says stuff you dont agree with and does stuff you dont agree with its because they think stuff you dont agree with. But the Chinese Communist plan for world conquest isnt a plot. Its a plan.

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Chinese officials dont go out of their way to advertise it when trying to wheedle something out of you. But see Document No. 9, a.k.a., the Communiqu on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere, which was issued in 2012 with Chinese President Xi Jinpings backing.

It denounces seven things: constitutional democracy, including separation of powers, elections and an independent judiciary; universal values like Western human rights applying to China; civil society, as in anyone doing anything except through the Communist party; free markets; an independent press; historical nihilism, i.e., criticizing Mao Zedong for being an insane mass murderer; and questioning Chinese-style socialism, i.e., criticizing Xi for being one.

For opposing conspiracy theories I get called many names, including co-conspirator. But not useful idiot. They leave off the useful. Unlike Chinas leaders when it comes to Western politicians who give them a free pass, such as outgoing Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, who recently echoed Document No. 9 Point 3 in a Canada China Business Council video.

Its not our role to go in and tell someone else theyre wrong, he said. Im proud to be a Canadian, but Chinese people are proud to be Chinese. And they have a way of doing things. Lets go learn. And let us grow economic ties. Never mind that they crush Hong Kong and commit mass slaughter. After all, Hitler and Stalin had a way they did things, too. And the Chinese way includes lucrative consultancies and senior advisor posts.

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The Politburo understands all too well that conceited people think arrangements that flatter and favour them represent the universe unfolding as it should. And its easy and comforting to ignore threats. Back in the Cold War, people were forever insisting Leonid Brezhnev or Stalin werent communists. Sure, they claimed to be, and imposed communism aggressively wherever possible. But deep down they wanted peace, power, security or any dang thing you could name except communism. Like our Chinese buds.

Unfortunately, Xi Jinping is as communist as Lenin or Mao. General secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Commanding its immense private army and flying a red flag with five yellow stars. Need I go on?

Apparently so. Because if you asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether Xi was a communist, he wouldnt admit it. He isnt given to answering even innocent questions, let alone awkward ones. And Im not saying they have something on him. Hes a fool on national security, as on economics, our constitutional order and practically anything else you can think of.

Even so, this wilful blindness and misconduct is amazing. If he wont stop it, we must.

National Post

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John Robson: Trudeau's 'wilful blindness' to the evils of Chinese communism - National Post