Special Leave Of Absence Application - New York City College Of: Fill & Download for Free

So to answer this question I kind of have to tell my personal story a bit.After high school I started college at a local state university with a plan to complete an English degree and go on to get a Masters in Library Science, eventually hoping to work in an academic library setting. But then when I got to academia the rose-colored glasses came off and I found it wasn’t an environment that I likely wanted a career in. Not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, I took a leave of absence to avoid spending time and money on something that didn’t feel purposeful.I should add, the state university I had been at was not highly competitive, and I picked it to beclose to home. But I decided that I wanted to be very far from home instead, I had always wanted to visit Central and South America and applied to a gap year program that would make it possible for me to achieve this goal. LeapYear is college accredited, which was important because this made it affordable for me through student loans. For one full academic year I was living and learning in California, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, and Bolivia. I built soft skills, language skills, professional capacity, awesome relationships, and more of a sense of direction through this experience. I also built some Earthship structures with an awesome non-profit. For three months I was on a solo internship with a Bolivian non-profit that runs rural libraries and urban literacy programming. While I had an overwhelmingly positive experience, I also learned that I probably didn’t want to make a career in the Latin American non-profit sector. However, I fell in love with experiential learning and when the year was over could not help but take another gap year and start thinking about how I could be involved with expanding these kinds of educational opportunities for young people.As a student at Lagom Landing Gap Year, a residential trades training program located in my home region of Western New York, I continued building life skills and really embraced the freedom to pursue my passions. The program allowed me to explore the trades and agriculture, education and psychology, creative writing and sustainability, everything I was curious about. The program also deliberately exposed me to many different professions and allowed me to build a valuable knowledge base of career options and a small professional network. I took on a couple of internships during the year, one in New York City and another at a local state college where I helped a mentor of mine who was an Arts Professor teaching a sculpture class on Sustainable Structures. For me it was hilarious to be taking a gap year and simultaneously interning in a capacity that gave me authority over my college-going peers. But more than that, it was hugely important that I wound up back on that college campus, as I wound up meeting some people that made me want to stick around.After this gap year I applied to go back to college as a transfer student, this time to the much more competitive school where I had interned. I had done so much over the past two to know more about what impact I wanted to have on the world, and wrote my application essay about my gap year experiences and desire to expand experiential education. I got into the college, and more than that they wound up giving me a $5,000 grant to do creative work locally in the education sector. I completed my B.A. in Psychology and went on to get a Masters in Education from The University of Pennsylvania, where I was again happy to have my progressive educational ideals largely embraced and (in fact) supported by research!So this has been a really long-winded way to say: universities love students who take gap years, provided that you make good use of your time. A gap year can be an incredible opportunity to grow personally and become a more competitive college applicant because it allows one to come in with more life experience than a high school senior, making them more purposeful in their academic pursuits and more prepared for the challenge. This has not just been my experience, it’s what a lot of college admissions people have been saying in recent years. Look at Harvard’s admissions website, which encourages accepted student to defer enrollment for a year off to “pursue a special project or activity, work, or spend time in another meaningful way.”Whatever you decide; it’s your path to create and your life to build and I wish you the best in the exciting process!

Pah. Your life isn't ruined. I was a pretty terrible student in early high school -- not because I didn't understand the material, but because (like you) I lacked motivation and was stubborn about not wanting to do things I viewed as trivial (like homework). In my last two years, when I began to actually be able to take classes I liked (like AP Environmental Science), I began to do a whole lot better. Not good enough, unfortunately, to outweigh the years prior and I graduated from high school as an overall C student.Around the same time that I started to care about grades was around the same time I decided that I wanted nothing in the world more than to go to the University of Chicago for college. U Chicago is one of the most challenging universities to get into (8.4% acceptance rate), so it shouldn't have been a surprise when I wasn't accepted. But for 16-year-old me, it was -- and I was devastated. (I even saved the rejection letter, and still have it, to this day.) My life was ruined.I did get into two other great schools -- one of which gave me a full ride. I went grudgingly. And at that school, I fell back into old patterns -- cramming for exams the night before, doing the reading in the shuttle on the way to class, starting homework an hour before it was due, etc. Worked great for my freshman year, not so much for the next two. And, brilliantly, it was in my junior year that I realized I wanted to go to graduate school. I had a 2.65 GPA at the time. Ahhhh, I thought -- I've ruined my life again. Luckily, some very patient and generous advisors stepped in to help me get more research experience, take extra classes to improve my grades, identify special programs and good advisors, and when I graduated, I had a 3.01 GPA (That's barely a B) and not an ounce to spare. I desperately wanted to go to Duke. Duke said no. My life was ruined. I got into two graduate schools anyway.Then I went away to graduate school 2300 km away: far from home, far from friends, far from anything I'd ever known. I was miserable. All my friends were yakking it up in fancy east coast cities -- New York, D.C., Miami -- and here I was, slaving away for peanuts in a place I hated. I was depressed, and isolated, my advisor was on a 2-year sabbatical, and I was alone. I managed to land myself on academic probation in my second semester, and I felt trapped. I couldn't quit, and go home in shame, but I couldn't stay there, either. This was a mistake, I thought constantly. My life is ruined.This time, I decided to rebuild my own ruins, and so I buckled down, improved my grades, created my own thesis topic, found my own funding, and by the time I graduated I had a 3.25 GPA. Not great, but not the worst. Fair to middling, with room to grow. I wanted to get out of there, but by then I knew I loved learning, I loved my research, and I wanted to finish my Ph.D. (I don't like quitting). I applied to two schools for Ph.D. programs. I got accepted to both of them. I chose Colorado State. Things started looking up. Ah, I said, now I've fixed my life.I got to Colorado and I hated it. I felt more isolated than ever, more lonely, more apart from the world. I began to detach from friends and even family. I spent 14 - 15 hours working so that I wouldn't have to face the ennui and misery of feeling so completely alone. I created a frighteningly precise schedule (7 am - 11pm, scheduled in 15 minute increments) so that I wouldn't have to think or make decisions or have time to face my feelings. I drank a lot. I cried when I was in my car and no one could see me. I flirted with self-harm. This is the only time in my life where my mother (as she tells me now) was actually frightened for me. But I stuck it out -- I was determined not to quit, and certain that there was no more luck left in life for me: if I messed this one up, I really would have ruined my life forever. I refused to let that happen. I managed to earn a 4.0 GPA, create a fantastic research plan, and land a consulting gig that paid me extraordinarily well -- so well that I bought myself a nice SUV to celebrate. Ah, I said, now I've fixed my life. Everything's coming up Alexa!Then my advisor came in to the university one day and told us all that he'd quit. And there it was again: My life was ruined. I left the university (you can read more about that if you're inclined: How risky is it to work under an Assistant Professor for a Ph.D. in USA? What happens to you if he/she is denied tenure?), went back to DC, where I first struggled to find a job (very demoralizing), then finally found one that required about an hour of driving to reach; to avoid terrible traffic, I had to leave home every morning at 5 am. But I had a job, and I had a plan. Ah, I said, now I've fixed things.I started making career strides again, but overworrying about my situation got me so depressed and stressed that I actually had a Stress-Induced Absence Seizure while driving and totaled my car on the highway (and to this day, I thank God that I and everyone else involved walked away from that wreck unharmed). How was I going to get to work now? My life was ruined.Luckily, it was right about the time that my position was ending anyway, and I landed a job in the city, where I could commute by train. I started at my new job and loved it -- middle of the city, fun coworkers, interesting projects. There was opportunity for advancement, and I could have worked to become permanent staff. Ah, I said, now I've fixed things.But the course of true love ne'er did run smooth, and bit by bit, I started to regret not finishing my Ph.D. (I hate quitting. And I hate being told what I can't do.) So I went to my boss and talked to him about it. This was the first time I'd done this; every change I'd made earlier in life had been in the midst of trauma or crisis, so I'd never been able to be honest and transparent with the people around me. But I went to my boss and told him what I wanted; what I was planning to do (re-apply for PhD programs), where I wanted to go (Duke), and what I wanted my life to be like (I wanted his job in ten years). I was certain I'd probably ruined my life again -- how could he not fire me after that? But my boss is awesome, so he backed my application, told me that he was an alum of the institution in question, wrote me a reference letter, and even helped me land a job in my new town.I applied for PhD programs, very conscientious of the fact that I'd made so many terrible, awful, hideous mistakes (editor's note: not really. that's kind of the moral here), and no one would ever want me. I remembered -- keenly -- every time my life had been ruined, and I still felt sure that it was still ruined. I applied to seven programs, interviewed at six, and was accepted to five. Duke said yes. Duke said yes eagerly. Duke said yes eagerly and offered me the best possible graduate research project I could have ever hoped for. I was confused, but ecstatic.Because how could good things be happening to me? Why would anyone want to work with me? I'm a life-ruiner, remember? I made not one, not two, but five awful mistakes! I was a slovenly failure and a warning to all....except I wasn't.I was an obsessive perfectionist, a youthful idiot, and an incredibly driven and resilient kid who was too close to the mirror to see her own reflection.Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has realizations too late. Everyone plays catch-up sometimes. Everyone fails.What ruins your life is not the error, or the crisis, or the change. That is your life. That's the stuff that character and experience are made of.You are lucky now. You are in the process of becoming, and who knows how glorious your tomorrow might be?You might get the very thing you dreamed of at the beginning, and along the way, so many invaluable experiences to mark the path.But you have time, you have so much so much time, and so many more mistakes and changes and crises to live through. This is life, and you are growing, and we here at Quora are all lucky to be witnessing this moment of transformation.Your life is not ruined. Your life is just beginning.

There are 174 Unicorn Startups according to Fortune.[1] I will give a brief rundown of each one and then show which ones will be the biggest and which will fail.Most people have used Uber before. Uber is a way to better transport yourself around. It provides an app and then allows drivers to use their own cars to go and pick people up. Uber has potential to take over the taxi and limousine business. However, Uber is facing a lot of problems. They can't handle some of the regulation by states and local cities and this is endangering their market. Also, Uber is facing a lot of tough competition. So, Uber may be big, but it won't be a huge company and will always be in perpetual competitionXiaomi is a smartphone manufacturing company. It is the largest smartphone manufacture in China[2] and the third largest in the world.[3] This is huge for Xiaomi. China is a huge market and they are conquering it. Xiaomi does this by creating high quality, well designed products at a low price that on occasion have mimicked similar Apple type products. Due to all of this, Xiaomi has the potential to be one of the biggest companies on this list, definitely much bigger than Uber.AirBnB is a new entry into the hotel services industry. I basically offers a service, much like Uber with taxi drivers, that rent out your house to incoming visitors at an affordable price. You can then make money off of this rental. It is a really good alternative to a Hotel or Bed and Breakfast, plus has been met with little to no regulatory issues. This makes AirBnB a promising startup for most who want to save money on lodging.Palantir Technologies is a SaS company that specializes in data analysis and data integration. It is perfect for data scientists to collect information on their company. Since they aren't planning to go public and are one of the best companies that provide these services, Palantir will probably be huge.Didi Chuxing is a service very similar to Uber, for China. It is back by Alibaba and Tencent. This is why Uber isn't going to be as big because of all of the competition it faces, especially abroad. Didi Chuxing is also only in China, so due to a lack of external growth, Didi won't be that big.Snapchat is the new Twitter.[4] It is becoming immensely popular with under 25 and is starting to branch out to other age ranges. Snapchat is going to be huge and will have a huge grasp on the social media market with its unconventional means. If you don't have a Snapchat, all of a sudden, you are behind, so Snapchat will be huge.China Internet Plus is the ISP for the Chinese State. They provide internet to almost everyone. Due to this, it really isn't a company, just a company used to provide China's Internet Plus initiative.Flipkart is another company that is capitalizing on a huge market: India. It is an e-commerce site and has its own technology product line. Flipkart will be pretty big, similar to Alibaba, due to its capitalization of the Indian market, however it won't be huge like Amazon.SpaceX is very interesting. It is a startup led by Elon Musk whose goal is to eventually send people to Mars. SpaceX has formulated a cheap, reusable way to get to space over and over again. They have already received huge contracts from NASA and while there are competitors who are trying to catch up, no one is close. SpaceX will be pretty big, mainly due to government contracts, and will be prevalent for many years to come.Pintrest is a new way to showcase what you are doing. While it was very popular previously, it has started falling to the wayside. I would expect to see a dip in Pinterest soon and it won't be too popular for a while.Dropbox was huge when it started. It has basically created a cloud revolution. However, it will fail. There is just too much competition out there for Dropbox, with Google, Apple, and Microsoft all getting in on the cloud game. There isn't room for Dropbox anymore, and it is failing. It has already closed down Mailbox and Carousel[5] and I just don't see how it can stay afloat for much longer.Lufax has the potential to be big, but won't be too big. It is conquering China, but with China's sad economic state recently, I don't think it is a good company to be interested in. It will stay stagnant for many years, not growing or failing.WeWork could be huge. Startups are popping up all over the United States. The American Dream has been reinvigorated into our people. All of these startups are going to need workspace, and WeWork figures out how to provide it. If startups continue increasing, so will WeWork. It has just raised a new round valuing the company at $16 billion,[6] so this is likely to be a big company.Theranos is in trouble. While it does blood testing, we do not know if it is reliable. [7] Due to its recent scandals, it will fail. There is just too much uncertainty around it to be able to stay open and in the clear.Spotify is going to do better than originally thought. Apple Music was supposed to be a Spotify killer[8] and that is not going to happen. Spotify has gotten support from teenagers and millennials, mainly by being able to provide their music for free. This is a huge advantage for Spotify, and while they have a lot of competition, they are in charge. So, Spotify has the potential to be huge, especially if they can capitalize on other markets.DJI is a Chines company that creates some of the best drones out there. They have a bit of competition from the likes of Parrot, but DJI is the leader in this industry. Drones are the future, and DJI is ahead of the curve. Because of this, DJI will probably be huge.Zhong An is another Alibaba backed company. It is in-charge of Chinese Property Insurance. Insurance is a big and reliable industry, so it will probably be fine, but it will lack the explosive that a tech company would. So, it may be big due to the Chinese market, but we won't here about it at all in the United States.Intarsia Therapeutics is a biomedical company. This has the definite potential to be huge due to all of their work with cures for certain diseases. This has a lot of potential money available, which gives them the likelihood of being big.Lyft is another Uber competitor. It works fairly the same, but has the same problems. It won't be huge, just due to all of the competition and regulatory issues, however they will probably reach $25-50 billion.Coupang is a Korean based e-commerce site and the world fastest growing.[9] E-comerce sites have been getting big, however there is a lot of competition. Coupang won't be able to grow outside of the Chines market, which is bad for them.OlaCabs is again another ride sharing service. However, this works with the existing cab market and is only in India. India is a huge market, so it will get quite large due to its monopoly, however since it cannot conquer other markets it will be roughly the same size of Uber.Snapdeals is an online marketplace for India. It is another Alibaba backed company that focusses on the India market. However, it will not be huge by any stretch of the imagination. it will not fail either though.Stemcentrx is another biomedical company with the overall goal to fine a cure to cancer. This is a daunting task, but one that has the potential to make a ton of money. If they do it, they will be one of the biggest healthcare companies in the world. However, otherwise it may just be a bust. Still, the technology and innovation that will come out of this company will probably create large amounts of revenue.Stripe is an online payment processing company. Quora using it for their Knowledge Prizes.[10] This company has huge potential. It focussing on security and preventing fraud and makes it easy to integrate into other sites. This is huge as online payments are the future, and if Stripe can start conquering the market, especially with startups, they could make a lot of money.Zenefits is an HR SaS company. This is great, because good HR software is lacking, however Zenefits has faced many controversies recently, including laying off 17% of their workforce[11] and their CEO leaving.[12] Because of this, there is a lot of uncertainty with Zenefits. I would suggest staying clear of them for awhile. They may become big, but they could easily fair too.Social Finance is the leader in student loans and mortgages. This is a big deal right now. There are more and more people worrying about how to pay for college. This could be huge. However, the United States is thinking about providing free or reduced price public college. This could very easily lessen the potential size of Social Finance. It will depend which policies get implemented. However, right now Social Finance could be huge if they conquer this area and are trustworthy among potential students.Vice Media is a very forward thinking media site. I have watched some of their content and it is different; not traditional media. It has been invested in by A&E, which brought us some very popular shows like Duck Dynasty. However, Vice is still a media organization. These are starting to fade by the wayside. Due to this, it will not become big whatsoever.Tanium is an IT company. IT and security is vital to the expansion of technology, especially in the workplace. Tanium can provide a great way for small and large businesses to get access to IT services. This is huge. However. there are plenty of other companies that do this too, especially by region. Tanium won't fail, but it won't be huge either.Shenzhou Zuche is another transportation company in China. It is even more competition for ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Due to this, it will not be that big, the same as their competitors.Credit Karma allows people to get their credit score extremely easily. In a world where getting a loan is very valuable, knowing your credit score is important. Credit Karma has made it easy and affordable to get a credit score. This is hugely important to almost everyone, which will make them quite large in size.Global Fashion Group is an e-commerce site who's goal is to be the #1 online fashion destination.[13] Fashion and technology have never been together, though they are intertwined. Apple has started to change that, and people are catching up. The world of online fashion could be huge, as there is a demand for that, however I do not feel that people will go online for their fashion needs. So, while this one will get bigger, it won't be huge.Jawbone is a wearable technology company. I truly believe that wearables are the future. However, there are really big companies in this space including Apple, Google, Samsung, and even FitBit. Wearables are important, but there is a lot of competition out there. Jawbone could easily take them on, but I don't see a huge differentiating factor between them and the big players. Because of that, I do not feel that they could be a big company. However, again I do not feel like they will fail.Meizu is another smartphone manufacturer. Their smartphones are okay, but are only in the Top 10 of sellers in China. There are a lot more players who create much better device for relatively the same price, most notably Xiaomi and to a lesser degree Apple. Due to this steep competition, I do not see how Meizu can stay sustainable in its market. It will probably fail.CloudFlare is a Content Delivery Network and sponsors many domain names. This was a big business when domain names were selling like hot cakes, but now it is dying out. That, coupled with a few security hacks[14] and you have some trouble. CloudFlare will still be collecting money from royalties of domains, but otherwise it isn't worth it. This company will probably fail in the next 5-10 years.Delivery Hero is the OrderAhead, Postmates, and Waiter of central and eastern Europe. It works in relatively the same way, where you order online and then they deliver it your location. Then, the restaurant is charged a slight fee. Online food delivery has been thought as the future of delivery,[15] though there are some problems, most notably if small, mom-and-pop restaurants will actually suffer this commission from these services. It may work in some areas, but won't in others. That being said, Delivery Hero still has unfettered access to Europe's delivery market and has very little competition. A delivery service has the potential to work really well in Europe, much more so than the United States, and for that reason, Delivery Hero will probably be huge.Machine Zone is a gaming company and it is going to be huge. Machine Zone is the creator of Game of War: Fire Age (that's right, the one with Kate Upton in the commercial) which is the one of the highest grossing games of 2014[16] and 2015. Game of War: Fire Age is a freemium game. The revenue stream for these is proven, just look at SuperCell and King Digital, both of which are worth a lot of money. Due to the already large success of their current game, the success of similar games, and the probability of Machine Zone creating even more popular games, it wis going to be absolutely huge and a great investment.Bloom Energy is a company that creates alternative energy storage solutions. Alternative energy is the future. We cannot rely on fossil fuels forever. Bloom Energy offers products that can easily be installed for corporations and make them much more sustainable. Their main product is the Bloom Energy Server, which stores and produces energy for large, corporate buildings in sustainable fuel cells. Their customers include Walmart, Staples, AT&T, Adobe, Coca-Cola, Ebay, Google, Bank of America, and FedEx.[17] Due to their substantive list of customers and the need for clean, reliable energy in the future, Bloom Energy will be huge. They are the future of corporate energy.DocuSign allows you to easily sign documents electronically. In a digital world, this is very important. However, many companies have already been implementing this into their products, most notably Adobe. If DocuSign can't integrate into other companies' products, they will fail.Ele.me is a food delivery company for China. Again, it works a lot like Delivery Hero, but for the Chinese Market. This could prove to be huge as no one else is in this area. It is more proof of how China is evolving into a more online-offline scenario. Due to its increasing popularity, it will probably be pretty big.Fanatics is another E-commerce clothing store, but this one focusses on sports apparel. This is a huge market and other than league sites, is one of the few to specialize in sports apparel. They offer all types of apparel from all of the major leagues. There are some really big fans out there, and that makes me believe that Fanatics will be huge. However, their founders are thoroughly subpar and could cause a lot of damage to the site. This means that Fanatics is going to be somewhere in the middle.Legendary Entertainment is a film company. They have sponsored many big blockbusters including The Hangover, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and Straight Outta Compton. This proves that this company can do some amazing work. Cinematography is a huge industry. Being able to consistently create good movies and Legendary has is an amazing feat and could shoot it way up in the production companies called to make certain movies. Because of their amazing success record, Legendary will be a big company.Moderna Therapeutics is another biotechnology company, this one specializing in mRNA. This allows them to work with "drug modalities, including vaccines (both for infectious diseases and personalized cancer vaccines), intracellular/transmembrane proteins, intratumoral expression, and secreted antibodies and proteins."[18] That is a lot of different medical solutions. While there have been a lot of different biotech companies, they are all focussing on different things. Also, the medical industry is huge, leaving a lot of room for multiple players. I feel that it is highly likely that Moderna Therapeutics will strike it rich and become really, really big.Sogou is a search engine for China. While search engines can make a lot of money off of ads, there are a lot of competitors for them, even in China. For this reason, Sogou will fail.Vancl is an e-commerce site that specializes in apparel. While they are mainly in China (actually the industry leader there), they ship to over 80 countries. It was also thought that they will have a multi-billion dollar IPO in the NASDAQ by 2014,[19] but that has yet to happen. Vancl seems to be falling behind, and for e-commerce sites this is bad. Due to this, it is likely that Vancl will fail.Wish is yet another e-commerce site. Again, due to competition it won't be getting too far.HelloFresh is a bit of competition for Delivery Hero. It is based in roughly the same areas, just a bit smaller. It has the same advantages as Delivery Hero, but offers a more healthy choice and lifestyle. However, this has a much smaller market and so will probably not be too big.Slack needs no introduction. A ton of people use it, especially for business communication. There is nothing truly like it. It will be huge just due to the mass adoption by so many business users.Powa has already lost. They have filed for bankruptcy.[20]Garena Online is an online game provider, much like Steam. While Steam is the go to, Garena could become the next big thing. However, it does face some steep competition. Due to this, I don't see Garena going anywhere in the near future.InMobi is a mobile advertising company. They are in charge of all of those ads you see in your favorite apps. This is a huge business and they have some great backing from the likes of SoftBank (owners of Sprint) and a few other angels. This is a huge business as apps are the future. The best way to make money off of apps is ads and freemium offerings. InMobi is filling one of those holes. Their only competition comes from Google, which could easily be surmountable in this case.Klarna is a mobile payment company. However, they make it much easier to use and only require an email address. It is a lot like a credit card tied to your email address and everything is done online. This is differentiating from many other mobile payment companies, which gives Klarna an edge.Meitu is an image processing app. While it is popular and does a good job, it doesn't have a sustainable business model, making me feel that it will fail.Mozido is yet another mobile payment company. It does a lot of the same things that Square does, without the hardware. However, to steep competition, it won't be big.Adyen is yet another mobile payment company! This one allows businesses to accept payments from anywhere, which is a cool distinguishing factor. This might help it move up in people's minds.Houzz is a home design app and website. It helps you find and plan out home designs and renovations. It is incredibly useful and very helpful, mainly for average people. This is a huge advantage and will cause Houzz to become pretty large.AppDynamics helps app developers build a sustainable app with manageable performance and helps build the IT infrastructure needed to host the cloud servers these apps need. This is a huge need for app and game developers. This is great, however, they have faced some controversy. If they are able to resolve this, they will be huge, however otherwise they will probably fail.Avant is a company that gives out loans to people. While this is very profitable, it isn't very sustainable and the model has come over scrutiny recently. I advise to steer clear of avant as they will be very fluctuant.Blue Apron is a food service company, however instead of delivering prepared meals, they prepare the ingredients and you cook it. This allows it to be fresher and lets you get the feeling of cooking without the hassle of getting the ingredients and preparing them. This allows food to be a lot healthier and saves time. Blue Apron does a great job and very popular among its user base. They will be pretty big, especially if they can figure out how to lower the price.Domo is a business data company. They make it simple and secure, without requiring an existing IT infrastructure. It is thought of as one of the best places to work in Utah and has a long list of high profile customers[21] Because of all of this support they will be pretty huge.GitHub offers open source software help build better software, especially in terms of graphical design. It hosts source code and is the largest in the world. This is huge. In a world where coding controls almost everything, GitHub controls it. This could prove to be very valuable and will probably make GitHub huge. However, their new CEO is running the company into the ground, which could lead GitHub to fail, and easily.Instacart is a service that helps grab and deliver your groceries. This is a huge convince factor and could be huge. However, outside of Silicon Valley, I don't think you will be able to justify the extra cost. I may be wrong, but Instacart will probably fail in the end.Magic Leap is an augmented reality company that is focussing on making goggles similar to Microsoft's HoloLens. It is fairly well known that VR and AR are the future, however we need devices that work. Microsoft is coming out with the HoloLens, however it is always delayed. I cannot wait for Magic Leap's contribution to this. They could definitely be very huge.NantHealth is a healthcare company working on health services. Unfortunately, two companies, Cerner and Epic, already control this area, so NantHealth will probably fail.Nutanix provides computing power to companies through nodes and other servers. This is huge. Companies, especially small ones, can't afford super computers, yet sometimes need their services. Nutanix provides this for them. Due to the need, Nutanix will probably be big.SurveyMonkey is one of the go-tos for surveys. However, there are a lot of other alternatives like Google Forms. While SurveyMonkey may be more popular, they won't be ganging as much traction. I feel that they will fail in the next 5 years.Trendy Group is yet another e-commerce site, this one specializing in jewelry. Unfortunately, most people do not go online to buy jewelry, so it will fail.Prosper Marketplace is a crowdfunding site. Unfortunately, Kickstarter, Patreon, and Indigogo have basically taken over this area, so I feel it will fail.Avito.ru is a site that allows you to post classified ads. It is mainly in Russia. I do not see the market here, so I feel that it will fail.One97 Communications is the biggest internet company in India[22] and is yet another e-commerce site. It may have most of the market, but it won't be big.ZocDoc makes it easy and simple to schedule appointments with doctors. This makes an cumbersome situation a lot easier. This could be really, really big, but it seems to not be receiving a lot of traction. If more doctors adopt it, it will succeed, but until then it is more likely to fail.Mogujie is a social networking site based on fashion. It has even made inroads in the western market, outside of its base of China. In addition to fashion, it has been allowing you to buy product from inside the network itself. This has the potential to be big, but I don't see the market for fashion based social media.The Honest Company is a company that supports all natural, healthy consumer goods. This usually resonates well with people, however it has come under controversy. Its sunscreen has caused burns and its laundry detergent has a chemical the company said it would never use. This seems fairly dishonest, contrary to the name. Due to this, even if they IPO, I feel that Honest Company will fail, or at least greatly plummet.Yidao Yongche is yet another ride-hailing service in China. We know where this goes. It is probably going to fail.AppNexus is a competitor to InMobi. It provides advertisements for applications. While there is now competition, the market should be big enough for the both of them. They both do pretty well.BlaBlaCar is a ride-sharing service, but this one specializes in long distance travel. It is based mainly in Europe, but has a few locations in the Americas. While BlaBlaCar faces competition, its differentiation may be enough to save itself from total failure.GrabTaxi is a service that works with existing taxi networks to provide rides in South Eastern Asia. Taxis are vital to this region and GrabTaxi helps organize them and find you the perfect ride. This small differentiating factor should be enough for it to win out.Lakala is basically an online ATM for Asia. You put money in online and then can use it to pay online and get money from ATMs in 30,000+ stores across the region. It is an interesting idea in concept, but I don't exactly know how this would work.MongoDB is data based document software. It uses new technology in database languages to implement data into documents faster. However, because of this, it has many limitations and cannot be used with foreign languages. It will fail.Skyscanner is a global search engine that searches the internet for the best prices on flights, cars rentals, and hotels. This has some similarities to other services, and do to the completion, I do not think it will fair well.WePiao is China's version of Fandango. It allows you to purchase tickets online for different events, mostly movies. They own 30% of the market share in this large, competitive field.[23] Because of their dominance, I truly feel that this will be a huge gain for WePiao and they will probably be huge.Apttus helps you get quote-to-cash payments fast and efficiently. Apttus has been extremely smart and efficient with their work. Because of this, they will probably gain market share well.Blippar is working with AR. They are allowing people to take pictures of objects they have partners with, and bringing these objects into real life and the virtual world. They then suggest new content with Machine Learning. This is something that hasn't been done before and is future thinking. It will be pretty big.BuzzFeed will be a lot like Vice. They provide unique media over the internet. This resonates well with the younger population. BuzzFeed is our go-to for news. Due to this, it will do really well and be huge.GuaHao is a mobile medical service provider. It is supported by the state and the world leader in this space. Due to its originality, it will be fairly large.InsideSales helps companies learn how to effectively market and sell their product. They produce promising results. It could be large due to its uniqueness.IronSource creates SDKs that help companies better allow customers to download software form their site in a faster, ore efficient way. IronSource makes its money off running ads on the service. This could really go either way, but I don't think it will be huge."Koudai Shopping is intelligent mobile shopping software which recommends targeted products according to user’s personal style."[24] This gives it more or less the same fate as other e-commerce sites.Mu Sigma does data analytics for over 125 Fortune 500 companies.[25] This will probably make it quite large of a company.MuleSoft creates integration tools for connecting applications, APIs, and cloud based services. It has only run into minor controversy. It could be big.Oscar Health Insurance sell insurance in select areas. It will do fine, but it won't be big because it is an insurance company. It is likely to fail with all of the healthcare reform we have recently had.Oxford Nanopore sells nanopore sequencing for the direct analysis of single molecules and cells. it could be a real breakthrough in analyzation tools, making it likely that they will be big.Tango is video messaging/callign software made especially for Android, even though it is compatible across platforms. Personally, this company will fail do the competition from device manufacturers like Apple's FaceTime and Google's Hangouts.Cloudera provides training and support for companies wanting to deploy Apache Hadoop-based software. While this is needed, it isn't going to be huge.Deem is another e-commerce site, but his one tries to connect businesses and customers better driving lower prices. It is a good idea in theory, but will face the fate of all other e-commerce sites.Jasper Technologies, an IoT company, succeeded as it was recently acquired by Cisco.[26]Jet is yet another e-commerce site that has actually gained some popularity in the United States. However, it hasn't really been able to distinguish itself from Amazon, and you won't save a lot, or any, money by using it.[27] This of course means that its fate is worse than most other e-commerce sites; it will definitely fail.FanDuel is leading the charge for daily fantasy sports along with competitor DraftKings. This is actually a fairly profitable business and could make a lot of money. Unfortunately, it has come under scrutiny for actually being gambling instead of fantasy sports. This has happened all ready in one of their biggest markets, New York, where they have been forced to shut down.[28] This will eventually cause FanDuel and DraftKings to die instead of being really big.Lazada Group is another e-commerce site (how many of them are there?) that is trying to capitalize on Amazon's absence in Southeast Asia. Either way, you know what happens to e-commerce on this list."Medallia provides Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) software and services to hospitality, retail, financial services, high-tech, and business-to-business (B2B) companies in the United States and internationally."[29] It appears to be having steady growth, so I would project that it will be a big company.Thumbtack provides customer service for small business. This is important to be a functioning small to mid sized business. This could really be very large if conquered correctly.Auction.com is a way to sell real estate online. A marketplace like this doesn't exist yet, so this company will become quite large as it makes it way easier to buy and sell houses.Auto1 Group is another freaking e-commerce site for selling cars. They seem like a really good site and support all types of cars, so this could be bigger than most other e-comemrce sites. But still, it's an commerce site.Automattic is pretty well known. They are the creators of WordPress, which is a fairly well known website creation tool. They also have a lot of other products in the pipeline. The unfortunate thing is WordPress is old, so Automattic will probably end up failing.CureVac is another biotechnology company that is working with mRNA. CureVac has worked with Johnson & Johnson, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the International AIDS Vaccination Institution. This is a good start for a biotech company. Again, biotech is the future, so there is plenty of room for CureVac.DraftKings is FanDuel's main competitor. There is plenty of room for both of them, their industry is huge. However, they both face controversy, which will cause them to fail.Eventbrite helps people create, organize, and market events throughout the world. This is huge help for anyone who wants to host a large event and make money. However, there are sites that do this. Eventbrite may be able to sneak through however, and be unique enough to go big. This one is all up to chance.Evernote used to be very promising. It was a new way to take and save electronic notes. It had many other apps that were going to help it grow. However, it has had many incidents of data loss and security breach. All of this, plus the lack of a definite revenue stream, has put Evernote in a lot of trouble.[30] Due to all of this, Evernote will fail.Infinidat is a cloud based enterprise storage solutions company. They will help a company convert to the cloud and store all of their data there. They are heavily backed by investors, so Infinidat will become huge as it is one of the few companies helping others transfer to the future.NJOY is the world leader in E-Cigarettes. This is a huge emerging market that has emerged after people have tried to avoid or wean off of regular cigarettes. This market has exploded into a competitive industry. However, with the impending legalization of marijuana and the threat of action against electronic cigarettes, this market will be dying out. I think NJOY is going to fail.Okta is a company that is focussing on making corporate and personal IT and cloud bases as secure as possible. With all of the latest cloud leaks, this is a top priority and a huge market. Okta has huge potential and the only thing that will disarm it is a scandal.Sprinklr helps companies and businesses market themselves and their company on Social Media. In this day in age, success is measured by your social media success (at least for a consumer product). The services offered by Sprinklr are vital to a companies success, and that is going to make Sprinklr more successful too.Warby Parker is an eyeglasses business that sells mainly online. Fashionable eyewear has become really popular and is the thing to wear if you wear glasses. Selling the products online makes it even better. The thing about fashion however is that it is expensive. While eyewear will be around for a while, it will eventually phase our due to new technology. Again, it being online helps, but in the next 20 years it will probably go out of business. Prior to that, it won't have much substantial growth.Actifio is another IT company, but this company specializes with stopping the duplication of data, so if you have a server where data is consistently copied, Actifio is your company. This specialization will keep it in business, but competition will keep it in check. It won't get super huge.Docker helps deploy open-source software that helps with applications that are in software containers. This seems like a very important, but niche case of use. Due to that, it won't be huge, but it won't fail.Gusto is a former Y-Combinator company which provides payroll, healthcare, and other HR metrics. It has been called some of the best business software for small businesses .[31] This is very important. Small businesses need a way to keep track of their HR duties, and this makes it 100x easier. This company will be around as long as entrepreneurial spirit is.MediaMath is a marketing company that buys unused ad space on websites. Because of this, they can run ads for really cheap and in many weird, efficient places. This is good from a profits perspective. However, online advertising is starting to die out, especially with the implementation of ad free zones and free use of ad blockers. Because of this, unless ads have some tricks up their sleeves, MediaMath will go out of business in the next 10 years.Nextdoor is an interesting social network that is attempting to get neighborhoods to be more social with each other. Some of my neighbors have tried implementing a group for it. It isn't to bad actually, and quite nice. Social media is the communication of the future, but it is good to keep up with what is going on in your immediate community. Nextdoor is trying to do that, and I commend them for it. While they are taken a little bit to gain true traction, I could see them becoming a social media juggernaut in the near future, especially if they can partner up with local small businesses in different cities.Proteus Digital Health tries to fill the void between the patient and the doctor. The patient can not track what they do everyday and when they go in to get checked on by a doctor, the doctor has all of the information in front of him and can make an even better decision. Also, if a patient is injured and can't get into an appointment, the doctor can offsite diagnose him. It works even better with long term illnesses. Because of this, Proteus is going to be big: it is the future of healthcare.Shopclues is yet another e-commerce site headquartered in India, the market's 35th entrant. It will go the route of the other e-commerce sites."Uptake serves to optimize performance, reduce asset failures and enhance safety."[32] This, coupled with its numerous awards, is a positive outlook for the company."Anaplan is a cloud-based business modeling and planning platform for sales, operations and finance. At the core of his technology is a single hub where the business user, and not IT, can build, deploy, maintain, and share models."[33]This is very good for Anaplan, who is taking on the big companies that have dominated this space for years. They have done a ton of innovating and received multiple awards. Overall, Anaplan is going to last awhile and be really big as a SaS.23andMe is a biotechnology company that focusses on looking at the genetics and cromosones of parents and predicting health affects of the children and on later generations. It is a good predicting factor. Again, as there are so many things in biotechnology and biotech is going to be super popular, this company will be huge."58 Daojia provides online information and access to high-quality offline services such as cleaning, moving, babysitting and beauty care."[34] While this is technically an e-commerce site, it offers different services than most and so will not suffer the same fate. This company offers services that are needed, and I feel that it will be very big.Adaptive Biotechnologies is another biotech company that is focussing on something else. They are the pioneers in immunosequencing which will "drive groundbreaking research in cancer and other immune-mediated diseases."[35] Again, biotechnology is the future and without these companies pioneering these advancements the future wouldn't exist.Aiwujiwu is a Chinese real estate commerce site. It helps sell real estate in China. This could be big, but it won't but that huge; very stagnant.Alteryx's "products are used for data blending and advanced data analytics. Alteryx has a stated goal of enabling advanced analytics to be performed by non-specialists."[36] This is another data analytic tool, but if it can distinguish itself, Alteryx will be fine, otherwise it will fail.AppDirect helps you build a cloud service market where you can buy and sell cloud services that meet your needs. It is not only for businesses, but for consumers as well. AppDirect also helps you manage the selling and fees of your cloud services within the application. This is a great idea and will be pretty big. Cloud services are going to be huge and we need a way to manage their transaction. This is the way to do it.Apus Group develops an Android Launcher that is used by over 500 million people worldwide. Their primary base is in India. They make money off of ads through a partnership with InMobi. While Android is very popular right now, I feel that Google will be locking it down more in the future and everyone will be running a more stock version of Android, so Apus Group will probably fail.Avast Software makes antivirus software for your computer. On my PC's, I use Avast. It is very reliable and more secure than the competitors. Everyone hates their antivirus software, and I feel Avast can change that perception. Avast will probably be pretty big, especially if they can gain more attention from typical Norton and McAfee users.BeiBei is an additional Chinese e-commerce site, this one selling primarily baby products. This may be enough of a differentiation, but I feel that it won't get too big just due to competition. Also, competitors sell baby products among other things, so it is unlikely that people would go to BeiBei instead.You may remember the company that did the TedTalk on 3D printing while back. Well, he was from our next company, Carbon3D. Carbon3D is trying to revolutionize the 3D printing industry by using a different process. Instead of layer, Carbon3D uses electrons and makes each piece uniquely. Not only it this fast, but it is stronger and opens up the possibility for more materials to be huge. 3D printing is going to be vital to our increased usage of STEM in our future, so this is a huge step forward. Carbon 3D will be very big.China Rapid Finance is an online lender for China. However, there are a lot of other competitors in this space. This methods are also in a gray market, so while legal, they aren't ideal according to the government. There is a just a lot of uncertainty around this, so I am going to say it will fail.Coupa Software is a company that offers cloud-based financials for small and mid-sized businesses. Their goal is to help you save money. I think this is very promising, however there are some bigger players in this space. Coupa needs to get themselves out there are recognized more, which can be a daunting task. If they do this, they will be fine. Otherwise, they may fail.Datto specializes in data backup and recovery through the cloud, mainly for natural disasters. This is all fine and good, except there are plenty of other companies that do the same, or where you can do similar things. Also, they have come under fire for not being super secure and held some of Hillary Clinton's private emails. For these reasons, I think there is a possibility of failure here.Decolar is a South America travel concolomorate. They grab all the information about hotels, flights, and car rentals for travel to and from South America. They won't fail due to them being the main company in the area, but they won't grow much either due to the competition in other regions."Fanli is a Chinese online shopping site that facilitates third party purchases of varous customers."[37] This is another e-commerce site, and will face the same fate.Farfetch is fashion company that works to stock products from over 400 independent boutiques. They work mainly in bespoke.[38] This could make it a success due to the true originality here, however the market again for online fashion doesn't seem to be too high. Most people will buy it in person. I'll say this company stays stagnant.Funding Circle is another crowdfunding site, but this one allows you to give directly to the small or medium size business. They have processed over £1 billion in loans.[39] This is a unique way of doing it. Also, they have shown growth very well. For those reason, this is a partially big, but it won't be huge, just due to the market it is in.Home24 is an e-commerce site, but one that is very different and may save itself from the dreaded fate of its brethren. Home24 specializes in furniture and will sell a variety of furniture from local businesses online. They are mainly in Europe but will be expanding to South America soon. This incredible uniqueness will save this company and it will be moderately large.Hootsuite helps you manage your online brand across many social media platforms. You can now post in one place and it will go out to all of the major social media providers. This is a lifesaver for anyone who is marketing their business online. Due to the incredible utility, it will probably be quite large in size.Illumio is another data driven company based in the cloud. They work specifically with being as secure as possible. While there is a lot of competition out there, there is going to be a lot of data in the world, so Illumio should be fine.Iwjw is another real estate company in China. While there is a market for it, there is a lot of competition, so one of these companies has to fail. It is probably Iwjw.Jiuxian is another Chinese e-commerce site with the focus on importing high quality wine. China is the world's largest wine market,[40] so this is no surprise. While it is an e-commerce site, it is sweeping the floor with wine in such a large market. China is trying to transfer to the internet. So, I think Jiuxian will be a moderate success. It won't be huge however because it cannot diversify.JustFab is another fashion e-comemrce site. I have mentioned too many of these, so it is highly unlikely that this one will be a success.Kabam is creating a gaming empire. They have multiple multiplayer freemium game applications, a social network, and other gaming sites. A lot of its games have been moderately popular. If Kabam gets a game that is super popular however, they will become huge, until then, they will just stay in the moderate category.Kabbage lends money to small businesses as working capital. They give out over $1 billion a year and have been called on of the most promising companies.[41] They have a large number of backers and I have even heard a few of their commercials. They will probably be moderately big at least due to all of the capital they have grown.Kik Interactive is an instant messaging service and is known for preserving anonymity. Kik has had a few controversies, however, they haven't been too damaging. Kik is very unique in their work, and for that reason I feel they will get pretty big.Lamabang is another Chinese company that creates products for mothers. We already basically had one of these, so it will face the same e-commerce fate.MarkLogic develops an enterprise nSQL database. Organizations really like it because it is incredibly flexible. MarkLogic also runs mission critical data for many high profile customers. Because of MarkLogic's flexibility and reliability, I say they will be moderately big.Mia is another baby and maternity based e-commerce site in China. Again, same fate.Miaopai is the Chinese version of Vine, allowing you to shoot, edit, and share 10 second videos. This has been hugely popular in the US, and should be the same in China, so I think it will be big.Panshi is Chinese online and mobile advertising company. There is still plenty of room for Panshi, but ads may be going away, so there is a bit of uncertainty around this one. It will probably only get moderately big.Pluralsight is an online education company that offers instructional videos to software developers, IT managers, and creative professionals through its website. There are a few alternatives, like lynda.com, but otherwise this is still a huge, needy market. I will say Pluralsight will be very successful in teaching the next generation of engineers and IT professionals, putting it in the moderate to highly big category.Qualtrics is a professional data collection company that uses software. They have been highly successful, getting their data published many times in research journals. Qualtrics is going to be big as it is the leader in this type of data collection.Quickr is a community site. Basically, it is made for commerce (a lot like Craigslist) but also for communicating with your other community members. This could be highly valuable, especially in an area as population dense as India. Because of this, Quickr will be successful and not fail.Razer is a new consumer electronics company, focussing on gamers. They release mouses, laptops, keyboards, and other gaming products. Their products are usually of high quality and performance and have caught the eye of many professional gamers. Razer will be at least moderately successful."Red Ventures acquires customers for providers of home insurance, consumer, business, automotive, remodeling, financial and educational services. These service providers include DirecTV, ADT Security Services, and HughesNet."[42] This area doesn't have a lot of growth, so it will most likely stay stagnant. The likelihood that it will fail however is slim.Rong360 helps provide loans and personal finance to the Chinese. The difference is, instead of doing the loan themselves, they connect with banks. Banks will almost always be giving out loans and letting them handle it reduces the risk on Rong360, making it more likely they will be successful.Shanghai Lian Shang Network Technologies is a security company that must do its job well because I can't find anything about them on the internet. So, I can't make a guess if they will be a success or a failure.Shazam offers music and television identification services and then integrates its product with them. While companies like Apple have tried implementing this into their software, it hasn't done as well as Shazam by itself. Also, its continued integrations help make it money. Shazam has caught the attention of many, and will probably be big. The only thing that will stifle it is a company like Apple taking it over.SimpliVity is another IT company that focusses on appliance servers. This should be enough to make it big, but there is also plenty of other IT competition.Souq is another e-commerce site in the Arab world. While there is less competition there, it is still a normal e-commerce site. This one is likely to fail.TransferWise is a company that allows you to transfer currency between two parties over international borders without having to worry about currency exchange. This can be a huge hassle and annoyance. Now it is avoidable. This is especially useful in Europe where the countries are closer together. TransferWise definitely has huge potential.Tujia is an e-commerce site that focuses on tourism. This is a bit better, and may cause Tujia to serve the wrath of most e-commerce sites.TutorGroup helps you learn through different instructional videos. While there are sites like this, TutorGroup helps you learn different languages, mainly Chinese and English. Once it expands to others, this could be a huge benefit and it definitely has the potential to be huge."Twilio allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages using its web service APIs. Twilio's services are accessed over HTTP and are billed based on usage."[43] As of February 2015, Twilio had 500,000 developers using the service.[44] These are signs of huge growth and potential revenue. This makes me feel that Twilio will be big.Udacity is another professional learning site, but this focusses on all aspects of learning. Each class costs money, but it is taught by a professional in the field and has proven results. However, these costs can be high. If Udacity could lower the costs, I think they would be much more successful, but for now they have a potential for success.Vox Media is a huge media conglomerate. They own The Verge and RE/code, some of the most highly respected tech blogs in the business. These sites are making great content and shooting Vox Media up in the rankings. I expect them to be very successful."Womai is a Business-to-Customer healthy food shopping website in China. It insists on providing customers with convenient shopping ways and purchase healthy food."[45] Something like this doesn't exist in China yet and so this will probably provide a relief for many consumers, which is huge.Yellow Mobile is trying to connect people's lives together in South Korea. It is very innovative and is made up of over 60 other companies. However, the market isn't huge, so I don't think this will be a blockbuster unicorn for now.Zeta Interactive uses all of the data we get in the mobile, tech based world and applies it to marketing. Even if mobile ads fade away, there will always be marketing of some fashion. Zeta Interactive tells companies how to make the best decisions for these ads and applies their data to it. This is huge and will make this company very prominent as a business services provider.Zomato Media is your one stop shop for finding out information about a restaurant. They hold information for over 1.4 million restaurants in 26 countries. This is great for anyone who is wanting to discover a new restaurant and needs the extra push. Due to this, Zomato is very promising.Zscaler is a company that provides security for absolutely everything enterprise: IT, IoT, servers, the cloud, anti-virus. They have it all. There is a lot of competition, but it is a big market. Zscaler won't be huge, but it definitely has potential.So, as you can see a lot of what made a company more likely to be huge is its uniqueness. There are a lot of e-commerce sites and ride-hailing services that just cannot differentiate themselves. This is a really long list of startups, yet a lot of them haven't fully matured yet. Some can easily grow, many are going to fail. Because of that, there is a lot of middle ground. So, I am only going to list the biggest winners and losers of the Unicorn list below. If you want to see the reason, look at the list above.Winners (Companies that will be huge, or at least much bigger than they are):XiaomiAirBnBSnapchatSpaceXWeWorkDJISocial FinanceAll of the Biomedical CompaniesStripeCreditKarmaMachine ZoneBloom EnergyLegendary EntertianmentSlackHouzzBlue ApronMu SigmaGustoUptakeMedallinaOktaNextdoorProteus Digital HealthAnaplanAppDirectAvast SoftwareCarbon3DKabbageKik InterativeMarkLogicMiaopaiPluralsightPanshiQualtricsTwilioRazerZeta InteractiveFailures/Big Losers (Companies that will fail or not live up to their original potential):All ride-hailing/sharing services, especially Uber an Lift.PintrestDropboxThernaosZenefitsMeizuCloudFlareDocuSignSogouVanclPowaMeituAll E-Commerce SitesNantHealthSurveyMonkeyTrendy GroupProsper MarketplaceAvito . ruZocDocMogoDBThe Honest CompanyTangoFanDuelDraftKingsAutomatticEvernoteNJOYApus GroupDattoIwjwOverall, it is pretty even on both ends. If you want to create a startup that is going to win, you must be different form everyone else. That is why a lot of companies failed, there was just too much competition.Footnotes[1] The Unicorn List 2016[2] The China Smartphone Market Picks Up Slightly in 2014Q4, IDC Reports[3] Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Increase 25.2% in the Third Quarter with Heightened Competition and Growth Beyond Samsung and Apple, Says IDC[4] Brian Blood's answer to Is Snapchat the new Twitter?[5] In Retrenchment, Dropbox Closes Down Mailbox and Carousel Photo Services[6] WeWork Targets Asia as Valuation Hits $16 Billion [7] Theranos, a Blood Testing Start-Up, Defends Its Accuracy[8] Apple Music Is More Than Just A Spotify Killer, It Could End Music Labels Too[9] Coupang to focus on customer satisfaction in 2012[10] Richard Henry's answer to How does Quora use, store, and retain user information collected for the knowledge prize payouts?[11] Zenefits lays off 250 employees[12] Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad resigns, COO David Sacks takes over[13] Global Fashion Group - WE ARE BRINGING FASHION ONLINE - WORLDWIDE[14] The 4chan breach: How hackers got a password through voicemail - Macleans.ca[15] What is the future of food delivery?[16] Newest Hit-Game Maker Machine Zone Nears $3 Billion Valuation[17] Bloom Energy Server[18] Our Pipeline[19] VANCL: China's internet apparel giant[20] Former U.K. Tech Darling Powa Goes Bankrupt -[21] Customers | Domo[22] All About One97 Communications Limited that you Wish to Know[23] Gewara, Wepiao Agree To Merge, Challenge Maoyan's Leading Position[24] Koudai | CrunchBase[25] Mu Sigma Lands Big Money for Big Data[26] Cisco to pay $1.4 billion for Internet of Things firm Jasper[27] If Jet Wants to Beat Amazon, It Needs More Than Low Prices[28] FanDuel, DraftKings shut down daily fantasy in NY[29] Medallia[30] The inside story of how $1 billion Evernote went from Silicon Valley darling to deep trouble[31] The best back-office software for small businesses[32] Uptake (business)[33] Anaplan[34] 58 Daojia | CrunchBase[35] Adaptive Biotechnologies[36] Alteryx[37] Fanli | CrunchBase[38] Farfetch[39] https://www.fundingcircle.com/statistics[40] China becomes biggest market for red wine, with 1.86bn bottles sold in 2013[41] America's Most Promising Companies[42] Red Ventures[43] Twilio[44] Twilio Positions Itself for an IPO After Logging $100M Revenue Run Rate[45] Womai | CrunchBase