Friday, December 17, 2010

Steve, Mark and Jim: Who Made 2010’s Nice List

The holiday season is upon us and 2010 is wrapping up. As we look back on the year, it is evident that 2010 was a big year for technology. So who were the top contenders this year? Who managed to make techies “Nice List?”
  • Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, took the tablet market by storm, introducing the ever so powerful iPad in January 2010 and landing it on everyone’s 2010 wish list. In just four months, the iPad achieved $ 1 billion in sales. Couple that with the iPhone 4 release, generating $ 3.25 billion in sales between April and June and I think it’s safe to say Jobs belongs on the list.
  • Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, reached 500 million active users on Facebook at the same time “The Social Network”, a story based on Zuckerberg’s success, took the box office by storm. In one month, users collectively spend over 700 billion minutes on Facebook, making the 2010 social networking market at the tips of Zuckerberg’s fingers.
  • Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, introduced the ever so powerful Playbook in the later half 2010, setting its release for early 2011. Consumers are oozing with anticipation for an iPad rival and developers are working hard to create competing applications, kicking 2011 off with Playbook fever.
  • Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon, an increasingly popular coupon/discount site, has generated immense success in a very limited amount of time. Groupon has added approximately 30 cities a month in 35 countries, accumulating over 40 million subscribers. In addition, Mason just turned down a $6 billion dollar offer from Google making him one of the most courageous business men of 2010.
  • Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar Mobile, has become one of Toronto’s newest hometown heroes. His company has created a partnership with Microsoft to launch 500 applications for the Windows Phone 7 operating system through to 2011. Over 7 million people in more than 100 countries are using applications powered by Polar Mobile’s SMART platform, making Polar a leader in the industry.
  • Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, a mobile service that encourages people to explore the cities in which they live, is somebody to watch out for in 2011. In 2005, Crowley had his first mobile social service acquired by Google. His new venture, Foursquare, has a team of 16 employees but has over 760,000 users checking in – making them a small but mighty force.
How can 2011 compete with a year where the iPad and Playbook became common words in our everyday conversations and Mark Zuckerberg became a global icon? Where do we go from here? Who else do you think belongs on 2010’s “Nice List?”? Better yet, who will make 2011’s “Nice List”? Let us know your thoughts! We here at Stafflink, hope you made the “nice list” this year and wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Related Articles:
Welcome to Toronto, Silicon Valley North
Top 10 IT Skills in Demand in 2010
The Job Market Longtail

Written by: Michelle De Rubeis, Technical Recruiter, StaffLink Solutions Ltd.
Website: http://www.stafflink.ca/
Email: michelle@stafflink.ca
Twitter: Twitter.com/stafflink1
LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/mmderubeis

Friday, December 3, 2010

Ho Ho TO!

Happy Holidays! StaffLink is proud to be a sponsor of HoHoTO, a Toronto fundraising event for the Daily Food Bank. HoHoTO is about getting together to decrease poverty and hunger amongst the citizens of Toronto. Not to get all glum and earnest on you but HoHoTO is about helping feed people:
  • In Toronto, people just like you made more than a million visits to food banks last year.
  • Food bank use is growing – up 15% nationally in 2010 over 2009.
  • More than 34% of the people relying on food banks in the GTA are children
  • The median monthly household income in Toronto is only $1,000.
Hunger in the GTA is caused by a lack of money not a lack of food. And that’s why HoHoTO was created — to help the Daily Bread Food Bank with desperately needed funds.

The first HoHoTO event was created two years ago through Twitter where it was conceived, organized and sold out within nine days. HoHoTO has recognized by Queen Raina of Jordan and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in this 48 second video:



To purchase tickets or make a donation go to http://www.hohoto.ca/. Tickets will sell out quickly!

Enjoy the holidays! I'll be smiling and enjoying time with family. I wish you and your families a restful and joyous holiday season.

Tim Collins