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Entrepreneur Justin Strong – The Inspiring Story of a Charismatic Marketing Mogul

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Who has not pondered their own existence and purpose in this world? Allow us to rewind two decades to a young man who was experiencing just that sort of internal debate. Enter Justin Strong, the protagonist in this story, young and full of that youthful ambition. Mr. Strong does not have a rag to riches story, he has something much more valuable and relatable. He has carved out his own life, on his own terms and found something the majority of us are searching for..and that is a deep and profound sense of purpose.

Early Years:

Mr. Strong was destined to be an outlier. The type of child that would find pretty rocks on the ground to sell to strangers and shovel his neighbor’s snow for coins. As is the case with most ambitious souls they do not thrive in stifling environments that build someone else’s dream and delay (or forego) their own. In his early teens, his friends were playing video games and flying kites while Justin was already hard at work with his driveway sealing company. Mr. Strong had to live up to his name, as is the case with all self-made men, he had to sacrifice early on to achieve what he truly desired. Freedom. The entrepreneurial spirit within refused to work for someone else.

Paternal Influence & Crisis:

One advantage that Justin leveraged was a father who worked for himself and supported him in his contrarian path. Mr. Strong Senior operated his own heating and cooling company that Justin eventually converted into his current business buffet consisting of JP Strong Enterprises Inc, J Strong Real Estate Holdings, Strong Bros General Contracting, Seaway Construction & Management, and more recently the pandemic insulated Social Giveaways.

Growing up in the middle class, rural Canada it isn’t customary to worry about your basic needs. Justin is extremely grateful for being born Canadian with loving parents and attests a large amount of his success to the foundation they laid. When your thoughts of the future keep you up at night and the concept of settling becomes a catalyst for depression. This is the existential crisis that has driven Justin to scale multiple million-dollar companies at the ripe age of 32.

Dealing with Fear & Failure:

There is no path that does not have ups and downs. Justin at 25 had already tasted success and decided to start a telecommunications company, in Saudi Arabia. Operating in a foreign country that adheres to Sharia law is a big undertaking by any standard. He brought over four workers, three Canadian, one American, his expenses, contracts, time zone differences, and overall logistics became problematic. Suffice it to say he was forced to shut down shop and reevaluate his trajectory. This loss serves Justin as a reminder that taking chances is necessary and the failure does not define you. It is important to allow the universe to humble you and provide a much-needed perspective. With no risk comes no reward, with no failure there is no lesson, Justin is a strong purveyor of this ideology (pun most definitely intended).

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Wiz will pay $450 million to acquire Cloud Remediation Startup Dazz

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Wiz revealed on Thursday that it will buy channel-focused company Dazz in an agreement to add cloud remediation capabilities to the vendor’s cloud and AI security platform.

With features like application security posture management and continuous threat and exposure management, Dazz provides a remediation-focused cloud security platform.

Jared Phipps, a seasoned cybersecurity industry executive who most recently worked for SentinelOne, was hired by Dazz in February as its CRO as the business sought to expand its collaboration with channel partners. Presidio, situated in New York, has been one of the key partners.

Dazz said in July that it has raised a $50 million round of funding, increasing its total funding since its 2021 launch to $110 million.

Dazz provides a “industry-leading remediation engine,” according to a post published on Thursday by Wiz Co-Founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport, which will allow Wiz to “empower security teams to correlate data from multiple sources and manage application risks in one unified platform.”

This is Wiz’s third purchase overall and its second acquisition of 2024 after the company’s April acquisition of cloud detection and response provider Gem Security.

Wiz, a four-year-old startup, reported in May that it had raised $1 billion in new capital at a $12 billion valuation, citing its continued strong development in the cloud and AI security areas. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) for the business reportedly increased from $350 million earlier this year to above $500 million.

After making a number of management additions aimed at facilitating quicker partner-driven growth, Rappaport stated in February that Wiz would prioritize its channel operations moving ahead.

I“In cybersecurity partners are super, super important in the success of a company. So we’ve always [seen that] this has huge potential for us to tap into. I think there is so much more we can do,” he stated at the time.

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ProRata, an AI startup, Teams up with UK Publishers after reportedly Hitting $130 Million in Valuation

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A number of well-known British media outlets have joined ProRata, an AI firm that claims to compensate publishers for the usage of their work, in its expanding network of partnerships.

The Los Angeles-based firm announced on Wednesday that it has signed licensing deals with publishers such as Sky News, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail’s publisher, DMG Media.

In a recent Series A funding round, ProRata raised $25 million from investors such as the Mayfield Fund, Prime Movers Lab, and Revolution Ventures.

“ProRata’s founder and CEO Bill Gross said his firm’s AI technology is the only one that pledges to credit and compensate creators, while providing users with accurate search results.

“We have had hundreds of content owners and media companies reach out to us from around the world who are interested in piloting our technology. Stealing and scraping content is not a sustainable path forward,” he continued.

Similar alliances have previously been formed by ProRata with the German publisher Axel Springer, the Atlantic, Fortune, Time, and Universal Music Group (UMG).

Media firms are offered reasonable compensation by ProRata for the use of their content. The startup’s in-house technology may determine the proper amount of pay by evaluating the worth of the information used to create responses from an AI platform. This would make it possible to pay copyright holders for their work on a per-use basis.

Gross had previously said that AI platforms have been using “shoplifted, plagiarized content,” which fosters an atmosphere in which “disinformation thrives and creators get nothing.”

Gross is recognized for having created the pay-per-click model of internet search monetization with his business, GoTo.com, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2003.

In a recent blog post, Tige Savage, a cofounder of Revolution, stated that Bill Gross is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in monetization techniques.

“He’s attracted a world-class tech team led by AI luminary Tarek Najm to implement the vision and an accomplished business team, including Annelies Jansen and Jonas Lee to drive content and AI partnerships,” Savage continued.

The unpaid use of copyrighted materials by OpenAI and other tech companies to train their AI systems has led to litigation from media companies and other content creators.

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Film Bazaar Unveils an Interactive Cinema App from an Indian Tech Startup

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Arjun Nittoor, the founder of the Indian technology firm Vireza, disclosed at Film Bazaar that the company is creating a new mobile application that would transform the experience of watching movies in theaters by enabling viewers to engage with the films in real time.

The technology, which was created wholly in-house at the company’s research and development department in Bengaluru, allows viewers to use their smartphones to vote on important plot points during the movie. To keep up with the current screening, patrons download an app before entering the theater and scan a QR code at their seat.

“The film industry is one of the few sectors where the audience experience has seen minimal technological disruption in theatres,” Nittoor stated. “While screen and sound quality have advanced and 3D has been partially adopted, the viewing experience has largely remained the same for decades.”

The screen automatically brightens to show voting options and dims again when choices are made. The system uses discreet phone notifications to encourage audience participation around every ten minutes.

In 2026, Vireza intends to introduce the technology with a full-length interactive movie that will be produced in both English and South Indian for international distribution. The business is presently in the development stage and will shortly start doing multiplex chain trial screenings.

CtrlMovie’s prior success in the interactive film industry was mentioned by Nittoor. CtrlMovie is well-known for “Traces of Responsibility” and “Late Shift.”

In order to overcome the difficulties in cinematography, editing, shot composition, and writing that plagued previous attempts at the format, the firm has spent five years creating what Nittoor refers to as “a new science of filmmaking” that is especially tailored for interactive cinema.

“Despite the proliferation of viewing devices, big-ticket films continue to draw massive crowds to theatres, with box office numbers higher than ever,”  Nittoor stated. “This demand underscores the potential for a meaningful technology shift that could draw audiences out of their homes and into cinemas.”

Other Asian businesses are likewise investigating audience-driven narrative in motion pictures. In February of the following year, Japan’s King Records intends to release “Hypnosis Mic – Division Rap Battle,” an animated interactive film.

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