Innovation Insider - November 26th, 2024

We’re at that part of the movie. The part where a banana and some duct-tape can sell for 6.2 million dollars. Yes, actually. In a world where inflation pinches wallets and housing markets remain out of reach for many, a banana—yes, a fruit with a shelf life shorter than a long weekend—has somehow fetched $6.2 million at auction.

It’s a banana duct-taped to a wall. Originally sold in 2019 for $120,000 to $150,000, the piece has sparked discussions about the value and meaning of contemporary art. Sun views the artwork as a bridge between art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community, highlighting its cultural significance. Who needs Picasso or Monet when you can have potassium with adhesive flair.

He plans to eat the banana as part of a unique artistic experience, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of the piece. This acquisition underscores the ongoing conversation about the intersection of art, value, and digital culture.

Forget Michelangelo’s David or the Mona Lisa. The modern masterpiece is a compostable snack that leaves behind only duct tape residue and existential questions.

Thanks for reading Innovation Insider - Presented by DoneStreet! Subscribe for free to receive new posts weekly.

Let’s jump into this week’s highlights.

News

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed that Google divest its Chrome browser to address antitrust concerns and reduce its dominance in the search and advertising markets. This recommendation is part of broader measures aimed at dismantling Google's monopolistic practices, which also include the potential separation of the Android operating system and the prohibition of exclusive contracts that set Google as the default search engine on various platforms.

In 2024, the defense technology sector experienced unprecedented growth, with startups securing record-breaking venture capital investments. These substantial investments reflect a growing reliance on advanced technology in defense systems, heightened global conflicts, and anticipated increases in the U.S. Department of Defense's budget.

Anthropic, an AI startup, has secured an additional $4 billion investment from Amazon, bringing Amazon's total investment in the company to $8 billion. This funding will be provided in phases, with the initial $1.3 billion already allocated. As part of the agreement, Anthropic will designate Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider, utilizing AWS's Trainium and Inferentia chips for training and deploying its AI models.

Nvidia's recent financial disclosures reveal that three major customers, referred to as Customers A, B, and C, each contributed between $10 billion and $11 billion in revenue over the first nine months of the fiscal year ending in late October. Collectively, these customers accounted for more than a third of Nvidia's total revenue during this period.

Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a battery-free, wireless biosensor in the form of a "smart necklace" that monitors glucose levels through sweat. This device detects glucose excreted from the skin during exercise, offering a non-invasive method for tracking blood sugar levels. The technology holds promise for continuous health monitoring, potentially aiding individuals with diabetes and those interested in real-time health data.

Why More Entrepreneurs Should Aspire To Stay Self-Funded. The advantages of bootstrapping over venture capital (VC) funding. Bootstrapped companies often achieve successful exits, and bootstrapping allows entrepreneurs to maintain control, avoid dilution, and build sustainable businesses without the pressures of external investors.

Microsoft has announced plans to introduce a new feature in Teams called "Interpreter," enabling users to clone their voices for real-time speech-to-speech translation during meetings. Set to launch in early 2025, this tool will support up to nine languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. The feature aims to provide a more personal and engaging experience by simulating the user's speaking voice in different languages.

Developer Profiles of the Week

Italo is a fullstack JavaScript engineer who is talented with React and NodeJS. He also has some experience with PHP and React Native. Italo has experience with AWS and CI/CD. Italo has contributed to numerous professional and open source projects. Italo lives in Brazil.

Gustavo is a Mexican fullstack engineer with a slight preference for the frontend. He has participated in many interested projects and has experience with React and Angular. He has experience with several frameworks including ExpressJS and NestJS.

Please email us at hiring@donestreet.com to learn more about these talented developers and how you can bring them onto your team.

Engineering and Security

Large Language Models (LLMs) face significant limitations in software development, including a lack of true understanding, error-prone outputs, and potential security risks. While they can assist with coding tasks, their inability to handle complex, large-scale projects consistently highlights their role as supplementary tools rather than replacements for skilled developers.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) enhances security by controlling and monitoring access to critical systems and data. Key use cases include enforcing least privilege, just-in-time access, managing third-party and service accounts, securing remote access, and automating password management. PAM also integrates with SIEM systems, aids in compliance, and simplifies audits, making it essential for mitigating internal and external threats.

Atlassian has introduced AI agents, Autodev and Autoreview, to enhance the software development process. Autodev analyzes Jira issues to generate technical plans, which developers can adjust before proceeding. It can also generate code and submit pull requests. Autoreview assists in code reviews by inspecting changes, offering suggestions, and helping fix issues before final approval and merging.

Google's AI-enhanced fuzzing tool, OSS-Fuzz, has identified 26 vulnerabilities across various open-source projects, including a medium-severity flaw in the OpenSSL cryptographic library.

David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Ruby on Rails, is advocating for a return to simpler web development practices. He emphasizes the importance of designing programming languages with a "human-first" approach, especially in the era of generative AI. DHH believes that frameworks like Ruby on Rails, which prioritize developer joy and efficiency, are crucial for maintaining human relevance in programming.

HR Notices

Accenture and ETS have partnered to develop a comprehensive talent management solution focused on skills-based job readiness. The collaboration aims to provide organizations with reliable methods to assess and match job skills, facilitating effective talent sourcing, management, and upskilling.

Eightfold AI's 2024 Talent Survey reveals 82% of HR leaders feel misaligned with their organizations' business strategies. Key findings include low employee engagement (28%) and limited career advancement clarity (22%)

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to reduce its global workforce by 4%, affecting approximately 1,040 employees, to focus on AI and data center products.

Enphase Energy, the solar technology company, announced layoffs of 500 employees representing 17% of its global workforce. The layoffs are due to challenges in the solar and battery industries.

Funding

Spectro Cloud, a company specializing in Kubernetes management solutions, has secured $75 million in a Series C funding round. Spectro Cloud offers a platform that enables enterprises to manage Kubernetes deployments across on-premises, multicloud, and edge environments. Unlike some competitors, Spectro Cloud allows customers to use their preferred Kubernetes distributions, providing flexibility tailored to specific use cases

Kong Inc., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, has secured $175 million in Series E financing. The company's unified API platform enables organizations to build AI applications faster while ensuring centralized API security, governance, and visibility across all services. The funding will fuel efforts to help organizations leverage Kong's unified API platform to manage, secure, and observe both internal and external APIs.

Aquaria, a New York-based startup, has secured $112 million in funding to develop scalable solutions that extract water directly from the atmosphere. This is aimed to help address the global water crisis affecting over 2 billion people.

Four Growers, a Pittsburgh-based agtech startup, has developed autonomous robots to address labor shortages in greenhouse farming. These robots use stereo cameras to identify and harvest ripe produce, starting with tomatoes and soon expanding to cucumbers. The company has raised $15 million in venture funding, including a recent $9 million Series A round led by Basset Capital.

Acquisitions / Mergers

Wiz, a prominent cloud security company, has acquired Dazz, a specialist in security remediation and risk management. The cash-and-share deal is valued at $450 million. This acquisition aims to enhance Wiz's capabilities in cloud security, particularly in remediation and posture management—areas where Dazz has established leadership.

Resource of the week

Sovereign Computing. Start9 offers solutions for individuals and organizations to regain control over their digital lives through sovereign computing. Their primary product, StartOS, is a Linux-based operating system designed to simplify the process of running personal servers. With StartOS, users can discover, install, configure, and manage a variety of open-source software without relying on third parties.

Book Recommendation of the Week

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan emphasizes the power of focus in achieving success. The book advocates for prioritizing one task at a time, which they argue leads to greater productivity and results. The central idea in the book revolves around asking yourself a powerful question: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

This Day in History

Archaeologists enter tomb of King Tut in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. On November 26th, 1922, British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen’s tomb in more than 3,000 years.

We hope you have found value in this newsletter. If you have not yet subscribed, please hit the subscribe button and let us know what types of content you’d like to see more of in the future.

DoneStreet - Building Teams That Build Success. Hire with confidence through DoneStreet.

Thanks for reading Innovation Insider - Presented by DoneStreet! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and updates.