Thibault Mathieu’s Latest Blog Post

Have you ever experienced Airbnb? Airbnb is a relatively new website that allows you to search for places to stay while on a business trip, vacation, etc. It gives you a more at home feeling as opposed to the general hotel because well in fact, you are renting out someones home. Some people have multiple homes for their own reasons and in order to utilize their properties, will look to rent out the home they are currently not staying at. Airbnb connects those looking to rent out their properties and those looking for a place to stay for a few days, week, or even month. Now enters EatWith.

EatWith serves as a platform similar to Airbnb but for a dining experience. EatWith wants to connect those who can cook with those looking to eat a new meal. The ultimate experience is to engage in conversation over a meal while meeting new people. There certainly isn’t anything like this on the market which makes the idea very intriguing.

Founded in 2012 by Guy Michlin and Shemer Schwarz, Guy and Shemer aim to bring back the old, “have your neighbor over for dinner” aspect that todays world now seemingly lacks. Obviously there needs to be some sort of catch in order for people to want to open their doors to guests. By participating in this website, hosts are able to make a little extra cash as well as meet new people. There is a strict guidelines in order for a host to be made available on the website. After all, you don’t want to pay for just anyones home and anyones cooking, it has to be worth your money. Only about 4% of the host applicants are admitted to showcase their cooking and home on the website. The company does have quite the reach as it has more than 500 hosts in 160 cities and 30 countries across the globe.

The company now sits at 18 employees and has recently moved their office from Tel Aviv to San Francisco. To help expand business, EatWith has raised $8 million in funding led by Greylock Partners. Ultimately, EatWith looks to become the Airbnb of the dining experience. As it stands, it looks like they are well on their way.

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Thibault Mathieu’s Latest Blog Post

Samsung shook the technology industry on Wednesday with the release of the Galaxy Note 4. Samsung released the two different versions of the phone in Berlin, New York, and Beijing. The standard Note 4 is an upgraded version of the last model with improvements to the camera, screen, battery, and stylus. The other version, the Note Edge, has an interesting modification to it. The screen runs lengthwise along one side of the phone and is narrow and curved. The engineering behind this screen is so you can receive notifications along the side of the screen so a video is not interrupted. It can also turn into an alarm clock display when the screen is turned off. No pricing information was released, but you can expect the Note 4 to go on sale in October whereas the Edge will be available for purchase later this year.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Samsung has also release another interesting accessory for your phone, oculus virtual reality. The virtual reality headset turns Note 4s into 3D virtual reality machines. Virtual reality has been a hot topic of late as other companies like Sony and Facebook have prototypes in the works as well. You can demo these headsets in select stores in Chicago, New York, and other cities this week.

Samsung will be in tough competition with Apple in the coming months. Apple is set to launch the iPhone 6 and iWatch next week on September 9th and then release the products for sale on the 19h. The battle began on Wednesday when Samsung released its products and Apple’s stock took a near 5% nose dive that day falling under $100 a share. Jabs have been thrown. Samsung invited 2 musicians from the band, Maroon 5, to a New York release event and they enthusiastically said they would be holding an iPhone burning party after the event. Only time will tell who stands to do better in these next couple of competitive months.

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