Venture capital has a diversity problem . BLCK VC , a new organization founded by Storm Ventures associate Frederik Groce and NEA associate Sydney Sykes to connect, engage and advance black venture capitalists, is ready for a new era in the industry. Their mission: Turn 200 black investors into 400 black investors by 2024. “We think of ourselves as an organization formed by black VCs for blacks VCs to increase the representation of black investors,” Sykes told TechCrunch. “You can look around and say well ‘I know five black VCs,’ but you can also say this firm does not have a single black VC, they may not even have a single underrepresented minority … We want to make firms reckon with the fact that there is a racial diversity problem; there is a lack of black VCs and every firm should really care about it.” BLCK VC has been at work since the beginning of 2018, building and expanding a network of black investors in the San Francisco area, Los Angeles and New York. They seek to provide a...
Netflix’s internal hackathons have consistently produced fun and often silly hacks, from that “Netflixtendo” hack a few years ago that let you run Netflix on the original NES to the more recent “audiobook mode” that turned Netflix series into old school radio shows by way of Audio Descriptions. This year’s hackathon doesn’t disappoint either, with new hacks that are both as goofy and interesting as in years past, including a AR and Face ID-powered hack that lets you navigate Netflix with just your eyes, another designed for “Sharknado” fans, and more.
“Jump to Shark” lets viewers skip right to the good parts of the so-bad-it’s-good “Sharknado,” so they can watch the bloody action sequences with sharks, instead of having to sit through the movie’s actual plot. It’s pretty great, as the video shows.
The AR hack, Eye Nav, is fairly impressive, too.
The hack uses Apple’s ARKit and the technology that enables Face ID for tracking eye position and facial expressions. It tracks your eye position to move a pointer around the screen, then measures the time spent on the same area to trigger a “tap.”
If you want to dismiss a screen, you can just stick your tongue out.
While the resulting hack is definitely fun, there are also implications for accessibility use cases in the future.
The hack was produced in 24 hours, so it may not be stable enough for real-world use, but it’s definitely an interesting idea.
A third hack doesn’t involve Netflix, but rather the productivity software Slack, used by Netflix employees.
“LunchBot” connects coworkers who are too busy to go to lunch, by inviting them to eat lunch together – virtually, while in a Slack chat. The app also checks everyone’s calendars to make sure they’re free.
Other hacks this year included those for product improvements, enhancements to its internal tools, and some that were just for fun. A few of these were showcased in its Hackday 2018 video, such as a map for locating studio production resources, an ‘easy login’ system, and a version of Animoji using Netflix characters.
But the larger goal of Netflix’s hackathon, as you can probably tell, isn’t necessarily about creating features that will later be productized (although, c’mon…Jump to Shark!), but they sometimes serve as inspiration for features further down the road, the company says.
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