What is Crunchbase and its goal?
By financen | December 10, 2013 - 6:13 pm - Posted in Others

Entrepreneurs who want to start a new company can sometimes find the experience daunting. Many entrepreneurs may experience anxiety over the entire process and feel alone in their experience. That is not true as many of the world’s top entrepreneurs have invested time, money, and sweat into their projects as much as any other entrepreneur has. One can learn more about how the world’s entrepreneurs started out through Crunchbase.

What is Crunchbase?

Crunchbase is a user-generated database of the top technology firms and entrepreneurs in the world. With Crunchbase, anyone can find out the company details and the lives of entrepreneurs within IT and computer science. In addition, users with good knowledge of the companies and of the entrepreneurs can edit each entry. This allows a democratic atmosphere in Crunchbase where ideas and opinions concerned companies and entrepreneurs can flourish.

What is the Goal of Crunchbase

Crunchbase wants to be a service to any investor or entrepreneur who wants to learn how other successful entrepreneurs, investors, or companies succeeded with their business. Each entry can give detail information about a person’s work history, education, and notable actions while working at companies. Company profiles can give a detailed history of the business and how the business grew over the years.

Example

One entry that can serve as an example of how Crunchbase works is for the entrepreneur Charles Phillips. The entry on Phillips includes social media contact information, like his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, where he went to school and what he studied, and the current and former companies he either served as a board member of or worked in some capacity for. So, for example, one can see that Phillips attended Hampton University for his MBA in finance in 1986 and New York Law School for his JD in 1993. Crunchbase also lists Phillips serves as the board member of the American Museum of Natural History, the United States Air Force Endowment, the Phillips Charitable Organizations, Viacom, Jazz at the Lincoln Center, and the New York Law School. It also shows he is the current CEO and BOD of Infor and that he was the former president and board member of the Oracle Corporation. Crunchbase entries will have a history of Phillips’ milestones, allowing users to see his newsworthy history. For example, on December 12, 2010, the Phillips entry showed that he became the CEO and BOD of Infor. There is also a section for media, like pictures and videos. Most importantly, however, is a summary about who Phillips is, his life story, and what he has professionally done in the IT sector. Users who edit Crunchbase entries can also place their sources for the entry so everyone can see where this information came from.

Why Crunchbase Is Helpful

First and foremost, in the age of the internet, Crunchbase helps provide public information on all notable investors, entrepreneurs, and companies in the IT and computer sector. This serves as public knowledge that can help researchers or interested professionals learn more about a company or person. Secondly, if an entrepreneur is down-on-their-luck and lacks a firm belief in themselves, researching the life story about another investor or entrepreneur and seeing how far they had to go to reach where they are now can be life-affirming. Try Crunchbase today to find out about all the top firms and people in IT and computer science.

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Debt settlement strategies – Hidden tips for success
By financen | December 9, 2013 - 4:52 pm - Posted in Debt, Debt settlement program

Debt collectors are tough, seasoned professionals and they are well trained in collecting consumer debts. When you are getting regular collection calls from the different debt collectors, you need to be well prepared on how to tackle the situation and negotiate with them for a settlement amount. These collectors are talking with many people on a daily basis and they are used to hear the common reasons given by other debts, so you need to give a very convincing logic while you initiate negotiations with them.

Debt-Settlement

Debt-Settlement

Before starting your negotiations with the debt collectors, you need to study your sources of income, savings and the amount of your debt and how much of it can you afford to repay. Also you need to look at your current expenses and see which bills are most unavoidable and needs to be paid, while allocating the amount for repayment. You can go through your credit report provided by the credit bureaus and check for any inaccuracies or outdated information. Incorrect information on your credit report will hurt your credit scores, so get it fixed at your earliest. You should be aware about your rights as a debtor by going through the debt collection fair practices act. It will make you as an informed consumer, and if any collection agency is violating the federal or state laws, you can take immediate actions against them using the laws as your legal weapon against them.

When you start a negotiation with a creditor, start with the lowest amount and then you can increase it, as and when required. You can start with a settlement offer of 40% of your original debt, and explain them about your situation why you had fallen behind in your payments in the past and other things that forced you to get into a situation like this in the present. Do not give out your personal information like your place of work, name and address of your bank and your banking details. While talking with these people, stay calm and focused and be polite during your conversations.

It is a good idea to tell the creditors that you are recording the conversations for future proof. This will keep them in the best of their behavior. You must maintain a creditor call log and put details about every person you speak with from that company with date and time. During the negotiation process, you can ask the creditor to remove any negative information reported by them to the credit bureaus and insist them to do a fair reporting on your credit report.

Once the settlement amount is finalized, you must ask for the settlement proposal in writing with details on the new amount agreed on, new terms of the repayment, as well as any other terms agreed by both of you. Keep the information in your file for future records. Do not make any sort of payment until you have proof of the settlement offer in writing.

Debt settlement is a legitimate alternative to filing bankruptcy. If anyone is going through serious financial hardship and has overwhelming debts on their heads, it is time to get professional help.

Helpful Articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_settlement

http://www.usa.gov/topics/consumer/scams-fraud/money/debt-settlement-scams.shtml

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