<ul><li>Dating has seen a phenomenal change during the <keyword id="43587" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="pandemic">pandemic</keyword> and dating apps like <keyword id="228306" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="OkCupid">OkCupid</keyword> are helping simplify meeting and building deep connections with people online.</li><li>We chat with <keyword id="3448882" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anukool-Kumar">Anukool Kumar</keyword>, <keyword id="267929" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing-director">Marketing Director</keyword>, OkCupid India on the pandemic's impact on its business and how it is making sure its platform is able to evolve with the changing needs of its users. </li></ul> The year 2020 had a profound impact on all our lives. As we were restricted to our homes, there was a transformation in the way we live our lives, buy, consume, watch, or even interact with people. With almost no physical contact with friends, families, technology came to our rescue. Businesses had to pivot quickly to stay relevant. For dating apps, the game is all in helping build human connections. So when people were socially distanced, the challenge was to do find new ways of building that connect. Again, technology came to the rescue. We saw many platforms introduce new features that enhanced overall experience for people using these apps. Virtual dates became an acceptable way of dating. It also brought a lot of first-time users to these platforms. For dating app OkCupid, the past one and a half years has been all about innovating and making it easier for people to connect on their platform and make the most of the experience. Last year, the platform rolled out its mobile app redesign globally called Stacks which is a new matching system that consolidates multiple discovery methods into one, making it even easier to find the type of person users are looking for. We caught up with Anukool Kumar, <keyword id="6354839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing">Marketing</keyword> Director, OkCupid India to understand the kind of impact the pandemic has had on the platform, the strategies it used to keep its users at its core and its future in India. Excerpts: Q) How have the last 1.5 years been for OkCupid as a brand? How did the pandemic impact your business? In 2018, OkCupid was brought to India in response to a growing number of women looking for a serious relationship on their terms. The last few years have been so exciting for us as we’ve seen women discovering their independence and extending that security to choosing relationships that see them as more than just a horoscope or radius of a roti. The same holds for men in India who are seeking a partnership instead of traditional Indian gender roles in a marriage. The pandemic then created two major changes that affected the business of dating apps and OkCupid in particular. First, with fewer avenues to meet people we saw a surge in the number of first-time users on OkCupid with more women than ever before actively opening conversations. The second was a change in mindset-with time on their hands to introspect on the sort of relationship they’re looking for, single millennials ended conversations missing a spark faster while engaging in old school courtship online blurring the lines of IRL and online romance. What this meant for us as OkCupid is that there were more moments of serendipity on our platform impacting business (currently and in the future) positively while making a tangible difference in the social fabric of India. Q) Dating also evolved in these last 13-14 months. How have you as a platform been able to keep up with these changing times and evolving consumer needs? OkCupid has always been a platform that empowers users to find their kind of love based on shared interests, quirks and beliefs. With over 3000 questions at the heart of the product and more topical questions added in a timely manner, we ensure relevant subjects that matter most to millennial Indians are addressed by the app. In 2021, a lot of the focus has been on expressing one’s intent to get the vaccine and match with someone who believes in the same science; we've seen a 763% increase in mentions of the vaccine on OkCupid India's bios since March 2021. Hence to make it easier for our users to find a potential match who believes in the benefit of getting vaccinated, we introduced the ‘I’m vaccinated’ badge and stack as an endeavour to help people make informed decisions, especially in their search for love. Last year, we had also rolled out our biggest mobile app redesign globally called ‘Stacks’ which is a new matching system that consolidates multiple discovery methods into one, making it even easier to find the type of person you’re looking for. The new Stacks discovery experience shows matches in a focused, thoughtful way, and gives OkCupid daters the choice and control over who they could match with through a series of new categories including ‘online’ (to match with people who are online), ‘recommended’ (a stack of OkCupid’s top recommendations based on preferences), ‘nearby’, ‘match %’, etc. One of the key examples of this was the release of our first-ever global Climate Change Advocate Profile Badge and Stack in the weeks leading up to World Earth Day 2021, which was inspired by dating millennials on OkCupid who are passionate about climate change and believe in being advocates of the same. Q) Have there been any interesting trends you have witnessed on the platform since the pandemic? Dating has seen a phenomenal change during the pandemic with millennials increasingly taking their time to get to know each other, discovering love through long, profound conversations and digitally shared experiences. The quest for love has continued to increase, mirroring the need for human connection. We witnessed more and more millennials investing their time in forming stronger emotional bonds with their potential matches online before making plans to meet them in real life. There were also higher engagements with a potential partner, where the intentions are clear of wanting love by expressing exactly what they want in a relationship, also leading to higher unmatches that didn’t have any spark. The best parts of “courtship” or slow dating, is now the norm and it's proving to be a far more fulfilling connection. In fact, 85% of users on OkCupid believe it’s important to develop an emotional connection before a physical one, so the switch to virtual dates has allowed these emotional connections to thrive. Q) What kind of growth have you witnessed? Was there increased traction during the months of lockdown? What is your current user base? At OkCupid, we have a growing consumer base of millions of Indian users, as we continue to help millennials find love. The onset of the pandemic resulted in an increased number of conversations on OkCupid as millennials look for more serious and meaningful relationships. Globally, there’s been an overall 30% increase in messages sent on OkCupid each day since 2020. In India, we witnessed a 26% increase in conversations with over 91% of millennials still looking to date virtually and find love. We also noticed that during the lockdown millennials were not restricting their intention to find love within a certain pincode and expanded the distance to match with their potential partner. In fact, those who removed geographical restrictions continue to see 10% higher likes. Q) The last few years has seen the coming in of a lot of dating apps. How have you been able to differentiate yourself in space? OkCupid was founded in 2004 by Harvard mathematicians who believed in the power of questions to lead you to meaningful connections. The app is built around an algorithm that uses answers to over 3000 questions to introduce daters to people on the same wavelength - their kind of person. We make sure the algorithm makes connections based on the answers and preferences shared by the users and these are further contextualised by location, gender identity, and cultural realities. Over the last 15 years the questions that form the heart of the app have constantly evolved to serve daters looking for love. No other app tries to learn about your personality and preferences as much as OkCupid does, and our sophisticated algorithm makes the most relevant matches for users based on deeper things, like beliefs and interests, instead of just a photo and other parameters such as location. For that same reason, we have an intentionally long sign-up process of answering relevant questions to contextualize potential matches better. The algorithm considers your responses to questions, your preferences, interests and hobbies, and your profile to find the people you’re compatible with. This is the inimitable core of OkCupid and the reason why the app has led thousands of people to find their kind of love. OkCupid was also the first dating app that gave users the choice to use their preferred pronouns or create one to add to their profile along with 20 sexual orientations, 22 gender options and over 60 identities thus making it truly inclusive. Q) Give us a sense of your marketing journey so far... From a marketing POV, what is your current area of focus? Going ahead, what will be your broad marketing strategy? Is Digital your biggest spend? At OkCupid, the focus is towards creating a superior product for our Indian users to find love on their terms and our marketing efforts are directly correlated with that purpose. One of the biggest challenges the pandemic has caused is the hit that traditional media has taken. On the other hand, it has been an opportunity for digital media to grow. Digital content consumption is at an all-time high, which has led us to completely revamp our overall marketing strategy towards platforms that hold our audience’s attention. Our digital-first approach is not limited only to social media, but covers all platforms like YouTube or even podcasts. Our aim is to put our brand narrative out there - be it on a video streaming platform like Hotstar, or a music streaming platform like Spotify, or working with influencers to speak to our users on the app and connect with our target audience. The core of our strategy is to keep reinforcing the brand narrative of finding one’s own kind of love- across platforms and keeping our messaging consistent in all the engagement that we do. Q) Where will OkCupid's next phase of growth come from? From a marketing perspective, we are witnessing more and more people engaging in conversations around the kind of love they want. From an industry perspective, the pandemic has heightened digital content consumption and social media has managed to garner a lot of user engagement in the past year. Hence, our strategy is to keep reinforcing the brand narrative of finding one’s own kind of love across platforms and keeping our messaging consistent in all the engagement that we do. We will continue with our ‘Love Is’ campaign over the years to come, and continue to introduce features and questions on the app that make it more relevant to daters today. Q) Has there been an increase in your user base from smaller cities or do users from metros still make a majority of your users? At OkCupid, the bulk of our users in India belong to the age group of 25-35 years. These users are from metropolitan cities as well as Tier 2 and 3 cities. Q) How are you making the platform more inclusive? Since its inception OkCupid has been exclusively inclusive, respecting and celebrating every individual find their kind of love without fear of judgement. It was the first dating app to give users the choice to use their preferred pronoun or create one to add to their profile and expand gender and orientation options for users with over 20 sexual orientations and 22 gender options. This led to almost 2 million straight and queer users proudly displaying their pronouns on their dating profiles worldwide and find a meaningful match for themselves in an authentic way. In its endeavour to provide an inclusive experience for all daters, this Pride Month, OkCupid also made a global announcement to release over 60 identities for users to choose from an array of options like Bear, Bottom, Butch, Femme, Hard Femme, High Femme, Otter, Boi, Versatile, etc, to allow members of the LGBTQ+ community the option to signal who they are, how they identify and what they want in a partner. These identities were developed in consultation with staff and community experts, including the Human Rights Campaign, which is thelargest LGBTQ rights organization. This app development reinforces OkCupid’s message of ‘Find Your Kind Of Love’, and reminds people looking for love to never compromise. Q) What is your vision for OkCupid in India? Our vision is simple- remind single millennials that they deserve the love they seek and will find it. We live in a world that is filled with disappointment and despite the growing number of people seeking love there is also a growing sentiment that love doesn’t exist- not the romantic love that takes your feelings, beliefs and values into consideration. At OkCupid, we care about our users and are committed to helping users find their kind of love. For us, it’s all about giving our daters the value they look for and expect from the world on our platform. The pandemic has made us more careful of where we invest our emotions and time, and daters are no different. The fact that daters are coming on the app and actually finding love and the OkCupid love stories of all ages and types are a testament to this.

How OkCupid is evolving with the changing needs of its users

<ul><li>With most countries opting for partial or complete lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, many LGBTQIA+ youth now risk being in isolation within hostile environments with unsupportive family members or co-habitants, leading to a rise in mental health concerns, such as anxiety, emotional stress, and depression.</li><li>Instagram has amplified LGBTQIA+ voices around the world by empowering queer content creators and organizations, and by creating opportunities for self-representation and leadership for underserved communities.</li></ul>In celebration and support of the LGBTQIA+ community during this month of Pride, Instagram today launched a host of new features and a well-being guide, in collaboration with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thequeermuslimproject/">@thequeermuslimproject</a>, a community that advocates for equal rights for the queer community, to help them get through these tough times. Pride is celebrated each year to recognize the impact the LGBTQIA+ community has in the world. This year, while the COVID-19 pandemic ensues, physical conventions will be impacted. Additionally, the community has also faced mental health and emotional wellbeing challenges. In the words of Tara Bedi, Public Policy and Community Outreach Manager, Instagram, India, “We understand the challenges and diversity of emotions that the LGBTQIA+ community faces everyday, and want our platforms to be safe spaces for them to express themselves. Especially during COVID-19, we want to help the community celebrate virtually, find support online, and stay connected with the people they love. We are thankful for the partnership with @thequeermuslimproject for their insights that helped make the well-being guide and hope everyone shows support with our newly released features.” The <keyword id="9389657" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="queer-muslim-project">Queer Muslim Project</keyword> has used visual art and storytelling to promote sex-positive, affirming and intersectional representations of the communities. <keyword id="3137929" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rafiul-Alom-Rahman">Rafiul Alom Rahman</keyword>, founder of @thequeermuslimproject, said, “The pandemic has created mental health challenges for the youth at large, but doubly so for the queer community due to the stigmas attached with their identity. Expressing themselves, but being safe online is the need of the hour and so we are excited to collaborate with Instagram, for this <keyword id="9389656" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="wellbeing-guide">wellbeing guide</keyword>.” The Well-being guide focuses on how to handle negativity and challenges in the current social media landscape. This guide will provide resources to young LGBTQIA+ people experiencing anxiety or feeling especially isolated or alone. It features inputs from creators and communities - Veer Mishra, Gaysi Family, Under25, Solidarity Foundation, Sandy Saha, Ya_All, and illustrations from Sonaksha Iyenger; highlighting their advice on staying positive and managing their online presence. Guidance from this resource will be shared via roundtable discussions with the community, in partnership with @thequeermuslimproject. The guide can be accessed from <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/12hTiT9SJcNYyTgJAUgVBTjHmXzQUc2hx/view?usp=sharing">here.</a> New features from Instagram: <ul><li>Rainbow hashtags in Feed - We partnered with GLAAD to identify prominent, popular, and important hashtags used throughout the LGBTQIA+ community. When used in a Feed post, these hashtags will be displayed in a rainbow gradient. Some examples include #lgbtq, #bornperfect, #equalitymatters, #accelerateacceptance, or #pride2020 </li><li>Rainbow Stories rings - We extended the rainbow gradient experience across both Feed and Stories with the Story ring. When used in a story, the GLAAD-identified hashtags will turn your Story ring rainbow gradient while the Story is live for 24 hours. This will roll out in a few days. </li><li>Updated Stickers - In partnership with Instagram creators, we’ve expanded our Pride sticker pack to include new stickers that highlight the LGBTQIA+ community. </li><li>Pride-themed AR Effect - For the first time ever, Instagram will be releasing a new Pride-themed AR effect including 12 LGBTQIA+ flag gradients that celebrate identities across the gender and sexuality spectrums. This initiative is the first of many to help honor the ever evolving LGBTQIA+ community. </li></ul>

Pride Month: Instagram launches features and well-being guide for the queer community and those battling with mental issues

<ul><li><keyword id="7777762" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="stuti-khandwala">Stuti Khandwala</keyword> got an admission at Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), US for research program in 2019. </li><li>Khandwala made it to the merit list of entrance examinations like JEE Mains, NEET, AIIMS MBBS and JIPMER MBBS. </li><li>She topped Rajasthan Board Class XII examination with 98.8% marks in science subjects.</li></ul>A girl from Gujarat, Stuti Khandwala who cleared four competitive exams including medical and engineering entrances, has caught the attention of <keyword id="50375" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Massachusetts-Institute-of-Technology">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</keyword> (MIT). The premier engineering institute in the US has her extended 90% scholarship to Khandwala. She has opted for research in bio-engineering, <a href="https://www.thequint.com/neon/stuti-khandwala-cracks-neet-jimper-mains-aiims-and-gets-selected-in-mit">The Quint reported</a>. Khandwala, hailing from Surat <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/education/girl-who-cracked-aiims-neet-jipmer-jee-main-skips-engineering-and-medicine-to-go-to-mit-2056002">cracked</a> and crawled up in the merit list of the Joint Entrance Examination(JEE) Mains for engineering, NEET 2019, AIIMS MBBS 2019 and JIPMER MBBS 2019. The 18 year old girl studied at <keyword id="3411086" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="allen-career-institute-kota">Allen Career Institute Kota</keyword>, which has become a hub for students who want to crack competitive exams. Unlike most students from India, Khandwala has chosen research instead of professional courses like medicine and engineering. The multi-talented girl had opportunities to become either as she got 1086 rank in JEE Mains, and secured tenth position in AIIMS MBBS 2019 examination. Khandwala was also the top ranker in Rajasthan board Class XII examination, and scored <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/kota-girl-cracks-all-major-competitive-exams-in-india-thats-not-all-she-got-through-mit-too-2193805.html">98.8% marks</a> in science subjects. She attributes her success to her parents, who are doctors by profession, and her teachers from Kota. MIT was recently ranked the second best university, globally, according to the QS University Rankings 2020. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/6-million-indians-will-be-in-the-gig-economy-within-two-years-thats-nearly-twice-the-current-size/articleshow/69854133.cms">6 million Indians will be in the gig economy within two years -- that's nearly twice the current size</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india-introduces-scholarships-for-indian-expatriates-to-pursue-higher-education/articleshow/69686277.cms">Scholarships for Indian students in 66 countries to pursue higher education</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sexual-harassment-at-educational-institutions-a-challenge-for-indias-lgbtq-community-finds-unesco-report/articleshow/69723003.cms">Sexual harassment at educational institutions a challenge for India's LGBTQ community, finds UNESCO report</a>

MIT welcomes the Indian genius Stuti Khandwala, who cracked 4 of the country's toughest exams, with 90% scholarship

<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, FileIn this Nov. 17, 2010 file photo, then-Rep.-elect Joe Walsh, R-Ill., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington.</div></div></div></h2><h2>Who is Joe Walsh?</h2>Current job: Conservative talk radio host.Age: 57Family: Walsh has been married twice. He is currently married to Helene Walsh, who served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2018 to 2019. Walsh has three children and two step-children. Hometown: North Barrington, Illinois Political party: RepublicanPrevious jobs: Congressman, history teacher, political consultant.<h2>Could Joe Walsh win the Republican nomination?</h2>Walsh is running against President Donald Trump and former <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-bill-weld-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-5">Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld</a> for the Republican nomination for president. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the reality is that Walsh is probably not going to be the Republican nominee for the presidency in 2020. As leader of the Republican Party a candidate like Trump has considerable home-field advantage when it comes to orchestrating the primary process, and the presidency offers unparalleled awareness numbers that Walsh and his rival Weld will not share.Nevertheless, Trump would be remiss to simply dismiss this duo of competitors out of hand. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/42-percent-republicans-could-back-gop-trump-primary-challenger-poll-2019-4">Insider conducted a national SurveyMonkey Audience poll in late April</a> that asked Republicans "What best describes your view about the prospects for a Republican primary in 2020?"Among respondents who identified as at least slightly conservative, 13% said, "I would absolutely support a qualified candidate who challenged President Trump in the Republican primary," 11% said, "I would probably support a qualified Republican candidate who challenged President Trump in the primary," and 18% said, "I support the president, however I am open to other qualified Republican primary challengers."Potentially, Walsh or Weld could tap into that 42%. More likely, neither will be able to leverage that into a winning constituency.<h2>What are Joe Walsh's policy positions?</h2><ul><li>On healthcare:<ul><li>Walsh is a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare," and supports repealing the law in favor of a free market system.</li><li>In 2013, Walsh <a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130110/chicago/joe-walsh-suggests-breaking-law-fight-obamacare-chicago/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested breaking the law</a> and to "engage in civil disobedience" to defy Obamacare in Chicago.</li><li>While in Congress, Walsh supported several bills that aimed to either repeal Obamacare in its entirety or to strip key aspects of the law.</li><li>After he was sworn in, Walsh said he would not accept congressional healthcare benefits because it went against his opposition to government-sponsored healthcare.</li></ul></li><li>On immigration: <ul><li>Walsh has long said that immigration is a key issue that he and his listeners care about.</li><li><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-joe-walsh-thinks-about-immigration-climate-change-and-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Speaking to PBS Newshour's Judy Woodruff</a> in August, Walsh said he would end the Trump administration policy of separating migrant children from their families at the southern border.</li><li>Walsh also said he would be "tougher" on people who try to illegally enter the US, but added that he would allocate more resources toward dealing with asylum cases because those represent legal border crossings. "It's our responsibility to hear those claims," he said.</li></ul></li><li>On climate change:<ul><li>Walsh previously said the science behind climate change is "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101120021006/http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/loser-bean-i-didnt-underestimate-walsh.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not definitive</a>" and that the US's economic interests should precede any discussion on combatting climate change.</li><li>But last month, Walsh criticized Trump for skipping a key G7 meeting about addressing climate change. Walsh told Woodruff he believes human activity impacts climate change.</li><li>He also criticized the Republican Party for its relative lack of action on the matter, telling Woodruff, "The Republican Party has to acknowledge it's a problem. This president won't." </li></ul></li><li>On campaign finance/election reform:<ul><li>Walsh has not spoken publicly about his views on campaign finance and election reform.</li></ul></li><li>On abortion: <ul><li>When he first ran for Congress in 1996, Walsh campaigned on a more liberal platform and said he was in favor of abortion rights. </li><li>But in 2010, when he ran for a congressional seat as part of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement, Walsh came out firmly against abortion.</li><li>In October 2012, Walsh ignited controversy when he said abortion is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/19/republican-joe-walsh-abortion-absolutely-unneccesary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">never medically necessary</a> to save the life of the mother and therefore, such an exception should not exist in abortion laws.</li></ul></li><li>On LGBTQ rights:<ul><li>Walsh said he is a strong supporter of "<a href="https://votesmart.org/public-statement/484693/issue-position-family-issues#.XV6pRMopCfA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traditional marriage</a>" and believes "a marriage can only exist between one man and one woman."</li><li>While he was in Congress, Walsh <a href="https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/116545/joe-walsh/76/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity#.XV6pFMopCfA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> to prevent federal funds from being used in ways that would counteract the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).</li><li>Walsh has <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-walsh-lgbt-community-terrorists_n_4868614" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> LGBTQ activists "constitutional terrorists" and <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/walshfreedom/status/1007666743760834560" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once said</a> that a "transgender 'man' is a woman."</li><li>He also said Christian vendors <a href="https://twitter.com/walshfreedom/status/892136755058667521?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">should be allowed</a> to turn away LGBTQ customers.</li></ul></li><li>On education: <ul><li>Walsh's congressional campaign website said he advocated for "market-based solutions to education reform and urban poverty."</li><li>He also ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a privately-funded program in Chicago that gave scholarships to low-income students to help them attend private high schools.</li><li>He's also raised money for the American Education Reform Council and the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation, both of which advocate for school choice.</li><li>Walsh is <a href="https://twitter.com/walshfreedom/status/526537624698507264" target="_blank" rel="noopener">staunchly opposed to Common Core</a>.</li></ul></li><li>On guns:<ul><li>When he ran for Congress in 1996, Walsh said he was in favor of gun control. But when he ran as a Republican in 2010, Walsh came out in strong support of the Second Amendment.</li><li>He <a href="https://www.ontheissues.org/IL/Joe_Walsh_Gun_Control.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-sponsored</a> the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act, which would have loosened restrictions on interstate gun purchases.</li><li>In 2018, Walsh <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/27/that-time-joe-walsh-was-duped-into-promoting-arming-small-children/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy show, "Who Is America?" that he supported a program that would arm children from ages 4 to 12. He later denied he said that, but video footage showed Walsh repeatedly endorsed the program.</li><li>Walsh supports arming school employees to prevent school shootings, and ending gun-free zones in schools and military bases.</li></ul></li><li>On criminal justice reform:<ul><li>Walsh said he <a href="https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1031657668006608898" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supports</a> reforming the criminal justice system but has not detailed any specifics on how he would do it.</li></ul></li><li>On trade:<ul><li>Walsh supports a free trade system and came out strongly against Trump's trade war with China and his decision to raise tariffs.</li><li>Walsh has also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/opinion/joe-walsh-trump-primary.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Trump is "clueless" on trade.</li></ul></li><li>On foreign policy: <ul><li>Walsh holds strong pro-Israel views. He opposes a "two-state solution" and called the idea "insanity."</li><li>He's advocated for Israel to annex Palestinian territory and for Palestinians to have "limited voting power" in the Jewish state.</li><li>Walsh also once said that American Jews tend to skew liberal and side with Palestine instead of Israel.</li><li>Walsh has endorsed far-right leaders around the globe, including France's Marine Le Pen, who is notorious for her Islamophobic views.</li><li>He's also a strong supporter of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, whom he once referred to as being "kind of like a Tea Party free market guy in India, which I found very appealing."</li></ul></li><li>On taxes:<ul><li>Walsh is in favor of extending the Bush era tax cuts and abolishing the estate tax.</li><li>He also favors cutting the capital gains tax and the corporate tax rate.</li></ul></li><li>On jobs and the economy: <ul><li>Walsh said while he was in Congress that the reluctance of small businesses to hire and an uncertainty on tax policy was what led to joblessness.</li><li>He's sharply criticized the Occupy movement - which was prominent in 2011 and 2012 - as being made up of "generally spoiled, pampered, unfocused, clueless young people and a smattering of other people who don't understand this country and are advocating anti-American solutions."</li><li>Walsh also said that anyone who would "advocate socialist solutions to certain problems in this country ... they don't understand this country."</li></ul></li></ul><h2>What are Joe Walsh's political successes?</h2><ul><li>Walsh won a congressional seat in 2010 after an uphill battle facing off against a six-person Republican primary field.</li><li>He's garnered strong support from younger Republicans because of his opposition to the Republican establishment.</li></ul><h2>How much money has Joe Walsh raised?</h2>Walsh announced his primary challenge against Trump late last month, so there isn't enough publicly available information on his fundraising. This page will be updated when his campaign releases its numbers for this quarter.<h2>Could Walsh beat the Democratic nominee?</h2>A situation in which Walsh bests sitting president Trump in the primary would doubtless reveal a political talent heretofore invisible in the former congressman. Were he to pull that off, a Democratic contender would certainly have cause for concern. Still, this possibility is fairly remote. <h2>Read more of our stories on Joe Walsh:</h2><ul class="read-more-links"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-walsh-gop-primary-challenge-could-hurt-trump-2020-election-2019-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-analytics-position="3">Trump will likely survive his primary challenge from Joe Walsh - but history suggests that it could hurt him in the general election</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-walsh-addresses-inflammatory-tweets-save-gop-from-trump-2019-8" data-analytics-position="4">Joe Walsh wants to beat Trump and save the Republican party. But he still defends calling Haiti a 's---hole country.'</a><a data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link"></a><a data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link"></a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-walsh-george-kellyanne-conway-2020-campaign-2019-8" data-analytics-position="9">Joe Walsh reportedly wants to troll Trump by recruiting George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, to work on his 2020 campaign</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-walsh-2020-run-against-trump-2019-8" data-analytics-position="12">Tea Party firebrand and former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh announces he's running against Trump in the 2020 Republican primary</a></li></ul> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/megyn-kelly-details-sexually-harassed-roger-ailes-fox-news-2017-11">Megyn Kelly details how she was allegedly sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, then advised to 'just steer clear of him'</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Joe Walsh is running for president in 2020. Here's everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword> has released its latest global transparency report, saying it removed almost 105 million videos in the first half of 2020 for policy violations.</li><li>These included videos depicting nudity, or that endangered minors, among other policy breaches.</li><li>Business Insider also learned that TikTok conducted an internal investigation following the spread of a video showing a man's death by <keyword id="6356238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="suicide">suicide</keyword>.</li><li>TikTok says it wants to work with other Big Tech firms on a 'hashbank' of graphic content to prevent it spreading across platforms.</li></ul>TikTok removed nearly 105 million videos for violating its rules in the first half of 2020, the company's latest transparency report reveals.The number is <a href="https://twitter.com/stokel/status/1281199468629671938">double what the app removed in the final six months of 2019</a>, but still accounts for less than one percent of the videos posted on the app — indicating the growth of the platform in the last year worldwide.Like YouTube, which recently admitted its computer-driven video moderation system was producing too many false positives, TikTok "relied more heavily on technology" to monitor, flag and remove videos during the coronavirus pandemic.Nearly 97% of the videos were removed proactively by TikTok, with 90.32% of them removed before receiving any views. Three in 10 of the offending videos were removed for containing adult nudity or sexual activities — a higher proportion than the previous six months — while a further 22.3% endangered the safety of minors.Not included in the latest transparency report was the video of a 33-year-old man, Ronnie McNutt, dying by suicide, which spread across the app earlier this month. TikTok users <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-suicide-video-algorithm-2020-9?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">rushed to warn each other</a> about the content of the video to try and prevent its spread.Business Insider has exclusively learned the outcome of an internal investigation into how the video went viral on the platform.The video was first posted to the app shortly after McNutt's death was livestreamed on Facebook at the end of August, with a small number of videos receiving a limited number of views.On the night of September 6, TikTok saw a massive spike in the number of videos showing McNutt's death posted on the app — the result of an organized campaign believed to be planned on the dark web. The attackers are also believed to have launched similar attacks on other platforms."This is an industry-wide challenge, which is why we have proposed to peers across the industry that we work together on creating a 'hashbank' for such violent, graphic content and warn each other when such content is discovered so that we can all better protect our users, no matter the app they use," said Theo Bertram, TikTok's director of government relations and public policy for Europe, who prefaced his comments by offering his deepest sympathies to the family and friends of McNutt.To respond to the issue, TikTok's US interim chief executive Vanessa Pappas,today sent a letter to the heads of nine tech giants proposing a memorandum of understanding "that will allow us to quickly notify one another of such content."Business Insider understands more than 10,000 versions of the video were posted to TikTok in a short period of time — far fewer than the 1.5 million versions of a video depicting the mass murder of Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, that was spread widely on Facebook.TikTok banned the accounts that posted versions of the video, many of which signed up specifically to upload it.The idea that this was a "shallow but broad" attack, where many videos with a low number of views are posted to try and gain maximum exposure without tipping off the app's monitoring system, chimes with the thinking of a source with knowledge of ByteDance's moderation policies. They spoke in the immediate aftermath of the attack."If multiple accounts upload different edited versions of the video, it's hard to deal with," the person explained in early September. "A large number of videos with a small number of views accumulate a larger number of views."Those trying to repost the video used a number of tools, including TikTok's filters and splicing tools, to bypass the app's algorithmic detection of the video.Business Insider understands from the same person that videos are added to a deduplication library, which cross-checks videos posted to the app, removing matches.At the same time, Business Insider understands many of the videos were viewed after users actively sought out the footage through the app's search tool and by clicking on specific profiles, rather than being served the video through TikTok's For You page.This was an indication that some users actively wanted to find the footage after hearing about it, or that those wanting to disseminate the video knew that engagement with the video was more likely to surface the app to a wider number of users."Following an internal review, we found evidence of a coordinated effort by bad actors to spread this video across the internet and platforms, including TikTok," said Bertram."We detected and removed these clips for violating our policies against content that displays, praises, glorifies, or promotes suicide. We also took swift action including by banning accounts that were uploading this content."In response to the spread of the suicide video, Business Insider understands TikTok has changed the triggers for its machine learning moderation algorithm, as well as changing processes.According to TikTok's transparency report, more than 37 million videos were removed in India, from which the app is currently banned after a late June decision by the government to bar access to apps of Chinese origin.India also had far and away the most requests for removals of content due to legal reasons, with 79% of the 1,206 requests acceded to.In the US, where TikTok has faced a month of legal and political wrangling over the app's future, 9.8 million videos were removed for violating the app's terms. There, 290 legal requests to remove content were received, of which 85% were deemed legitimate.TikTok does not operate in China. Rather, its parent firm ByteDance operates a similar app called Douyin, so TikTok did not receive any requests for removal of content from China.The app also received requests from governments across the globe to remove content in accordance with local laws. Here, Russia dominated, with 296 pieces of content removed or receiving restricted access across 259 separate accounts.TikTok has recently been criticised for moderating its content to local norms, with the result that <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2254122-tiktok-is-censoring-videos-with-lgbtq-hashtags-in-russian-and-arabic/">some LGBTQ+ friendly hashtags</a> in languages like Russian were effectively shadowbanned on the app.More than 10,600 pieces of copyrighted content were flagged for removal, and nine in 10 were taken down by TikTok – nearly 10 times the number of notices received in the second half of 2019.

TikTok removed nearly 105 million videos for nudity and other policy violations in the first half of 2020

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Steve Jennings/GettyZuckerberg cares about your perception of his social network</div></div></div>Facebook cares about whether you think it cares about you.Alongside the typical list of acronyms tracked by internet companies - MAUs, DAUs, ARPUs - Facebook also obsesses over "CAUs."The metric tracks how much people think Facebook "Cares About Us" and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made increasing it a big priority over the last two years, <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-facebooks-campaign-to-convince-you-it-cares?token=bbfc30020fd8d03f485067e174cfa7921842ddda">The Information's Cory Weinberg and Amir Efrati report.</a>In the same way that the social network regularly surveys its users about <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-surveys-for-viral-stories-2015-12">whether they like the stories its algorithms surface,</a> it also routinely questions people about their perception of it overall. For example, Facebook saw a boost in CAU when it deployed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-safety-check-tool-paris-terror-attacks-2015-11">Safety Checks after the Paris attacks</a>, while the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral, or months when it lessens its News Feed ad load. CAU has sunk, however, as LGBTQ members have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-changes-to-real-name-policy-2015-12">criticized its "real name policy"</a> and as <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/india-telco-authority-facebook-may-have-overstated-support-for-free-basics-by-9-1m-people/">a net neutrality debate rages in India</a> around Facebook's Internet.org Free Basics program. Alongside CAU, the company also measures whether its users see it as innovative and as a force for good, and sources tell The Information that Zuckerberg takes the metric into account when evaluating product and revenue decisions. Although employees reportedly debate whether the company occasionally goes too far in its quest to boost CAU - like through the relatively twee "Have a good day!" messages you may have noticed bannered across your News Feed - the metric-obsession is working:Surveys from the American Customer Satisfaction Index show that Facebook has made major gains since being the lowest marked social media company in 2012. We reached out to Facebook about the CAU metric and will update this post if we hear anyting back. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-youre-compromising-identity-facebook-2015-11">This is how you're compromising your identity on Facebook</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="gxa2U0eTpa2t5hAm0jGd83lTgXNjw1EY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Facebook obsessively tracks whether you think it 'cares' about you

Murray Close/NetflixTina Desai and Purab Kohli on "Sense8."As a model turned Bollywood star, Tina Desai has built a huge fan base. But her current role on Netflix's "Sense8" - with its sensual scenes, challenging love predicament, and complicated science-fiction plot - had the Indian actress worried if her fans would take the ride with her."It was something that took me time to adjust to, as well. I think I'm still adjusting," Desai recently told Business Insider when asked about how her fans reacted to the Netflix show's racier elements and positive outlook on LGBTQ lifestyles. "It's hugely different from what I grew up with and what I've grown up exposed to."Cocreated by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski ("The Matrix") and J. Michael Straczynski ("Thor"), "Sense8" returns for its second season on Friday. Desai plays Kala, one of a small cluster of individuals from all over the world who share a mental connection that allows them to tap into one another's thoughts and skills, and basically experience life together as well as survive being hunted down by a mysterious organization.Beyond the sex scenes on the show, Desai wondered if her Indian fans would watch a show that's so entrenched in the sci-fi genre."I did not expect people to watch it in India," she said, "simply because it's the kind of genre that I thought people would not like because we like fantastical cinema in India, we like escapist cinema. And so while this show is fantastical, it just seems too out there."I feel very proud," Desai continued. "I think each time I step out of the house, there's at least one person who comes up to me and talks to me about the show. And I actually sometimes go on to question them about it, because I wonder if they just say that to me or if they really mean it."Netflix"Sense8" stars Tina Desai and Max Riemelt.As "out there" as "Sense8" may be, Desai believes that Kala's conflict between her choice to marry Rajan (Purab Kohli), who seems perfect for her, and her ongoing love affair with fellow cluster member Wolfgang (Max Riemelt) is something her fans can relate to."I think it's a very common phenomenon," she said. "A lot of people just go the arranged-marriage way because a lot of our family, our parents have married that way and they're happy, so why not we do the same thing? It's surprising that it's still in existence. But I will say that an equal number of marriages by choice also happen - and that's exactly what Kala's dilemma is."As nothing is simple in "Sense8," Kala's marriage isn't arranged, but it is one that looked good on paper and she went ahead with it. But Wolfgang certainly makes Kala wonder if she should have held out for love."I think it would've even been much easier if she didn't have that problem in her mind," Desai said.Originally, Desai said the show did have Kala falling in love with her fiance, in addition to him being a good match for her. But Desai said they scrapped the love part in the end. After all, what would be the fun in that? Fans of the couple can expect the situation for Kala and Wolfgang to get very complicated on the second season - and Rajan shouldn't be counted out quite yet."There's more trouble this time," Desai said, laughing. "I'm actually rooting for the other guy. I was quite surprised if I might say. And I'm actually quite taken in by the impact, so I'm hoping that the friction continues because my God is it impactful."Watch a trailer for the second season of "Sense8" below: <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sense8-netflix-trailer-wachowskis-2015-5">The trailer for the Wachowskis' mind-bending new Netflix series 'Sense8' has a lot of 'Matrix' in it</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

'Sense8' star Tina Desai says she 'still adjusting' to the show's sexual themes

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Courtesy of Greg PoulinPictured, from left to right, are Billy McGrath, Dylan Blatt, Gregory Poulin, Hemant Verma, and Niko Lalos, the founders and early employees of Goodly.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/y-combinator">Y Combinator</a> is a startup accelerator that's launched successful companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox.</li><li>Goodly is a new startup that helps companies offering to pay down their employees' student debt. They were part of Y Combinator's summer 2018 batch.</li><li>Here's Goodly's successful application to Y Combinator.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.</a></li></ul>Greg Poulin and Hemant Verma left their jobs in April 2018 to start their own company.At the time, they both worked at Rippling, a service that provides businesses with easy onboarding tools. They weren't especially worried about striking out on their own, Poulin said, because they felt they'd stumbled onto a huge opportunity.Their idea was to build a startup that helped companies pay down part of their employees' student loans. Employers would make matching contributions the same way they would for employees' 401(k) retirement plans.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goodly-a-y-combinator-startup-wants-to-help-employees-repay-student-debt-2018-11">The issue was personal</a> for both Poulin and Verma. While Poulin was a student at Dartmouth, he borrowed $80,000 in student loans. Meanwhile, Verma was still paying off debts from his own education in India.The founders submitted an application for Y Combinator - the startup accelerator that's launched the likes of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-y-combinator-application-from-2007-by-drew-houston-2018-3">Dropbox</a>, Airbnb, and Stripe (as well as Rippling). Y Combinator is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-into-y-combinator-2018-11">notoriously selective</a>, accepting less than 5% of the founders that come its way.Goodly was accepted into Y Combinator's summer 2018 batch, meaning the company received a $150,000 seed investment in exchange for giving up a small amount of equity.In March 2019, Goodly <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190327005503/en/Goodly-Announces-1.3M-Seed-Funding-Student-Loan">closed a $1.3 million round</a> of seed funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-y-combinator-partner-founder-side-projects-2018-10">A former Y Combinator partner realized the most successful founders don't always look good on paper - there's a much more reliable sign they're destined for greatness</a>Here's their original application to Y Combinator.(Note: This is an unedited copy of the application, though we've redacted phone numbers and email addresses. The parentheticals throughout are instructions found on the application.)COMPANYCompany name:GoodlyCompany url, if any:https://www.goodlyapp.com/If you have a demo, what's the url? For non-software, demo can be a video.(Please don't password protect it; just use an obscure url.)https://youtu.be/wYeR55ccjwEDescribe your company in 50 characters or less.Student Loan Repayment as an Employee Benefit What is your company going to make?Goodly makes it easy for employers to offer student loan repayment benefits. Our platform allows employers to make monthly payments directly to employees' student debt. Similar to a 401k to pay down student loans. Offering student loan benefits as an incentive for recruiting and retaining top employees and to foster diversity and inclusion has become increasingly essential for employers. Student loan benefits rank as one of the most desirable employee benefits for millennial and gen z employees. When we looked at existing options, it was clear that the market does not have a great solution for employers that want to offer student loan benefits. Current options are difficult to implement, expensive, and have limited resources for employees. Goodly will: Benefits administrator: implement plans, enroll employees, verify student loans, and facilitate payments.Improve workplace diversity: - Women hold two-thirds (66%) of all student loan debt - Black and Latinx Americans have 31% higher student loan debt - LGBTQ community holds significantly higher debt on averageWhich category best applies to your company?B2BIs this application in response to a YC <a href="http://email.email.ycombinator.com/c/eJwVjcuqwyAURb8mDkVP1daBg076G5ej0UTwEcwpoX9_DWzYDzas1SkFSbPsNCYQYRXSY_hTIinwQmhpPCYlQJqoFiVyozgaFl4xF7a7p34pixqs0aANJKtlTDYYeCRlTYysuJ3oWB7vBT5T13XxX-jV54bUB59xriOdfKda2HDbiFsfP1750b8lt8ncbtb9ZOTwOEoOSLm3c9YThHzd_vU1E8X1Hz56QkY">RFS</a>?YesIf yes, which one?DiversityWhere do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?(List as City A, Country A / City B, Country B.)San Francisco, USA / San Francisco, USACONTACTEmail address of the founder who is filling out this application:[Redacted]Phone number(s):[Redacted]FOUNDERSFounders<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Screenshot/Goodly</div></div></div>Please enter the url of a 1 minute unlisted (not private) YouTube video introducing the founders. (Follow the Video Guidelines.)https://youtu.be/wvI8fei2nvAPlease tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible.Last winter, we were curious about what it would take to build a decentralized social network and hacked together Peppy, a block-chain alternative to Twitter as an experiment. How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person?Greg and Hemant have known each other for well over a year, and met when they started working as early hires at Rippling YC W17 out of Parker Conrad's unfinished basement in the Mission. PROGRESSHow far along are you?We're building our MVP. Over a two week period we met with 40 thought leaders in the HR/benefits space, including startup founders, tech CEOs, VC's on the boards of HR/benefits companies, and HR and people operations employees in our target market to guide our product development. We started sales outreach for our alpha last Friday, by end of day Monday we had five alpha customers. How long have each of you been working on this? Have you been part-time or full-time? Please explain.We quit our jobs at Rippling four weeks ago to work on this full-time. Which of the following best describes your progress?PrototypeHow many active users or customers do you have? If you have some particularly valuable customers, who are they?We have five alpha customers that we're onboarding this week. Do you have revenue? NoAnything else you would like us to know regarding your revenue or growth rate?We're preparing to launch our beta and plan to have revenue soon.How much money do you spend per month? 500How much money does your company have in the bank now? 0How long is your runway?(e.g. 5 months)We're bootstrapped, but have received investment offers, including from the CEO of Postmates. We have enough savings to go a year without funding or revenue, but we hope to get revenue soon.If you've applied previously with the same idea, how much progress have you made since the last time you applied? Anything change?This is our first time applying :)If you have already participated or committed to participate in an incubator, "accelerator" or "pre-accelerator" program, please tell us about it.Nope.IDEAWhy did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you're making?We picked this idea for three reasons: Idea: Goodly came from Greg's personal experience with student loans. After Greg's father passed away unexpectedly due to a heart attack, he had to borrow $80k in student loans to pay for his education at Dartmouth. After moving to Silicon Valley to work for a startup, he saw the war for talent and how challenging it is for tech companies to hire a diverse workforce. Need: - 44 million Americans hold $1.5 trillion in student loan debt (300% increase since 2006) - 70% of Americans graduate from college with debt - Average borrower owes $37,127 - 22 years (average time to payoff) - 1 in 4 student loan borrowers are in default - 37% have missed at least one payment 49% of millennials prefer student loan benefits to a 401k and 53% would consider a salary cut to have this benefit. 86% of employees said they'd stay with a company for at least 5 years if their employer helped pay down their student loans. Goodly bridges the gap between the demand for this benefit from employees and the cost and complexity of administering student loan benefits for employers. Domain expertise: Hemant and Greg gained deep domain expertise building and selling HR/benefits software at Rippling. They started working together a week apart, before Rippling launched or had customers, and helped build the company from the ground up. Hemant built over 100 of Rippling's integrations. During YC W17, Greg worked with Parker to develop and execute Rippling's go to market and first sales strategy. Greg had a 75% close rate selling Rippling's HR/benefits software. What's new about what you're making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn't exist yet (or they don't know about it)?The implementation process for employee benefits solutions on the market today can be needlessly complex and expensive. Many HR/benefits solutions are cumbersome and cost prohibitive for many employers to offer. Goodly can be implemented in 10 minutes and is flexible enough to fit any budget with no setup or annual fees. Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most?Gradii, Tuition, Student Loan Genius, Peanut Butter We fear large financial institutions with significant resources and existing partnerships.What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get?A focus on employees (not just employers) as end users: Many employee benefit vendors are focused on developing relationships with employers, Goodly is building a highly differentiated brand that is employee centric. Goodly will provide all of the tools needed for employees with student debt manage and pay off their student loans, allowing Goodly to become a trusted resource for employees and employers. How do or will you make money? How much could you make?(We realize you can't know precisely, but give your best estimate.)Starting with a bottom up approach, our initial target market will be startups with 1 to 500 employees. Our immediate source of revenue will be a SaaS-based pricing model of $6/month for each employee that participates with no setup costs or annual fees. 44 million Americans have student debt, charging $6/month x 12 months would produce $3.16 billion in ARR. The total U.S. student loan market is $1.5 trillion (larger than all consumer credit cards and auto loans) and growing by $2,726 per second.Bipartisan legislation in Congress would make up to $5,250 a year in employer contributions for student loan repayment tax-free. The bill has 118 co-sponsors as of April 17, 2018. How will you get users? If your idea is the type that faces a chicken-and-egg problem in the sense that it won't be attractive to users till it has a lot of users (e.g. a marketplace, a dating site, an ad network), how will you overcome that?Bottom-up approach targeting other startups as beta users and rapidly expanding to target professional services companies (law firms, consultants/MBAs, medical/dental) to gain a foothold in the market and then expand to other sectors. - Working through personal networks to gain traction with beta users - Connecting with startups in major tech hubs - Education/Awareness: seminars/workshops for employees on how to manage student loans - Online distribution to employers - White papers/case studies - Gaining traction in the press/media EQUITYHave you incorporated, or formed any legal entity (like an LLC) yet?YesWhat kind of entity and in what state or country was the entity formed?(e.g. Delaware C Corp)Delaware C Corp.Please describe the breakdown of the equity ownership in percentages among the founders, employees and any other stockholders.50/50 List any investments your company has received. Include the name of the investor, the amount invested, the premoney valuation / valuation cap, and the type of security sold (convertible notes, safes or stock).We're bootstrapping, but have received investment offers. Please provide any other relevant information about the structure or formation of the company.We formed the company using Gust Launch. Goodly's incorporation documents were reviewed by Mike Sullivan (a partner and head of the Corporate Group at Orrick serving as a mentor to Greg).LEGALAre any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? If so, please explain.NopeWho writes code, or does other technical work on your product? Was any of it done by a non-founder? Please explain.Hemant writes the code and technical work. Is there anything else we should know about your company?(Pending lawsuits, cofounders who have left, etc.)Nope OTHERSIf you had any other ideas you considered applying with, please list them. One may be something we've been waiting for. Often when we fund people it's to do something they list here and not in the main application.Marketplace for job applicants to find open roles at companies that offer the benefits that matter most to them. Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)Recent college grads in the Bay Area without student loan debt will spend 12 years saving for a home. Recent college grads with debt will spend 27 years to do the same. CURIOUSWhat convinced you to apply to Y Combinator?The first thing Parker said when Greg told him what we're building was "Apply to YC!" We want to rapidly accelerate our growth and saw first-hand the value YC provides to early stage companies during our time working at YC companies, including at Rippling W17 and Optimizely W10. Many of our friends and colleagues are YC founders and pushed us to apply for the S18 batch, including: Parker Conrad Rippling W17 and Zenefits W13, Ryan Jackson MicroEval S12 and Paid S14, Jeff LaBarge Tule S14, Marta Jamrozik VanGo W17, and Zack Brown Haiku W18.How did you hear about Y Combinator?Reading PG's essay's over the years and being early employees at YC companies. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kylie-jenner-kardashian-youngest-self-made-billionaire-forbes-net-worth-fortune-2019-3">Kylie Jenner is the 'youngest self-made billionaire' and the wealthiest member of her family. Here's how she makes and spends her fortune.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "LGBTQ challenges in india" and got 8 results

How OkCupid is evolving with the changing needs of its users

Samarpita Banerjee

Pride Month: Instagram launches features and well-being guide for the queer community and those battling with mental issues

BI India Partner

MIT welcomes the Indian genius Stuti Khandwala, who cracked 4 of the country's toughest exams, with 90% scholarship

Prerna Sindwani

Joe Walsh is running for president in 2020. Here's everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.

Sonam Sheth

TikTok removed nearly 105 million videos for nudity and other policy violations in the first half of 2020

Chris Stokel-Walker

Facebook obsessively tracks whether you think it 'cares' about you

JILLIAN D'ONFRO

'Sense8' star Tina Desai says she 'still adjusting' to the show's sexual themes

Jethro Nededog

Read the application form that got a company with $0 in the bank into the selective startup accelerator that launched Airbnb and Dropbox

Shana Lebowitz