Let’s be clear about our nation’s plight: At this moment, American voters face a choice between two historically corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent politicians.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
The Ford Model T was once the most popular car on the planet, so you’d think that it would be easy for a novice to operate. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Hard drives offer a lot of capacity but, in today modern computing age, is slow as molasses. When your work, or game, depends on fast access to data, you’ll probably want an SSD instead. However, SSD’s aren’t exactly cheap, sometimes more than twice their HDD counterpart. That’s why Samsung launched the 750 EVO SSD in emerging markets, to answer the … Continue reading
Just when you though OEMs were already settled in their own, single-letter kingdoms, they kick up the dust once again. Sony drops the Z for the X and Lenovo/Motorola drops the X for the Z. While LG has more or less been happy with its G, it has also recently put out an X screen and an X cam. Now … Continue reading
It’s only been a few months since Facebook opened up live video streaming to everyone, but with over a billion daily users the emergence of a massive hit was inevitable. Late last week an odd yet charming video stream of Candace Payne amusing herself…
Nancy left the corporate world in 2010 to create Fingerprint, which is now a 30-person strong company in Silicon Valley creating learn-and-play mobile app networks for brands such as Samsung, Sylvan Learning, Highlights and Corus Entertainment. Named one of the Top 50 Women in Tech in Silicon Valley by Tech.Co, previously Nancy was EVP of Product Innovation & Marketing at LeapFrog where she led the charge around connected learning with the launch of the Learning Path Online, Tag Reader and Leapster Gaming System. A veteran product marketer at LucasArts (VP Global Sales & Marketing) and Hasbro Interactive (VP Marketing), Nancy has launched over 100 games, 11 #1 titles, and over $2 billion in revenue. She holds a BS in Finance and Accounting from Drexel University.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
I was the first working mom in my office at Lotus Development in Philadelphia. I had to learn quickly how to balance, how to prioritize, how to get work done efficiently and well all while keeping the wheels on the bus at home with two little kids. I had a great boss who told me that it didn’t matter how many hours I worked, only that I focused on performance. He said that the only numbers that counted were revenue, not the time card. I’ve followed that advice my whole career in my approach to building a company and team. The focus is only on getting the job done. We instituted a work-from-home friendly policy about a year ago to support this and have been delighted to see the benefits of providing flexibility to a happy, motivated work force.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Fingerprint?
I’ve worked with some iconic and beloved companies in my career like Hasbro, Atari, LeapFrog, and LucasFilm. This has made me think big – as in trying to play in the big leagues with big brands. We had only 8 people at Fingerprint when we did our first deal with Samsung in Asia and we had to convince them that we could deliver and be good partners. This was only possible because of the insight I had from working on the other side of the fence!
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Fingerprint?
Running a start-up is like being on a roller coaster. Exhilarating. Terrifying. Thrilling. Fast. The ups and downs can be pretty intense. Closing our funding – first our Series A led by Corus Entertainment then our Series B led by DreamWorks Animation were big days for our little company. Launching Samsung Kids was a huge accomplishment, made even more gratifying once we began to see how much kids were playing – over 2 hours per day! Partnering with Highlights for Children to develop a completely re-imagined digital magazine and getting written up in USA Today and Bloomberg was pretty exciting. But everyday is a challenge in a start-up. Too many things to do, too few resources, and always thinking about fundraising! Our biggest challenge has been getting enough people resources – primarily engineers to grow as fast as we want to.
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
Build a great support system. Sheryl Sandberg said that choosing the right mate/spouse is the most important career decision you make. I wholeheartedly agree with that, but it’s broader than just a mate. Find mentors, investors, board members, friends, and competitors to surround yourself with. If you’re starting out, spend time finding advisors who know your business, have contacts, understand product, and will talk straight to you. Straight talk is key, especially to yourself. Know that you’re going to have to work very hard and that doing a start-up is not a lifestyle business. It has to become your lifestyle!
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
Surround yourself with people you like and can depend on. Life and work is impossible if you don’t have that.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
See question 5! I am lucky to have an amazing husband who has always been the COO of our home lives. I can depend on him for anything not work related; he’s completely supportive of my business, which frees me up to focus on Fingerprint. I’ve also got a great team of people at work that I trust completely.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
I’m not sure what the biggest issue is, but what concerns me are two things – Income equality (getting paid the same salary as a man doing the same job) and creating a system that lets women confidently have a family without worrying it will damage her career.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
I believe in learning by watching successful people whether at work or at home. I’ve been fortunate to have good bosses to look up throughout my career. I learned how to close a sale from my boss at 3M, how to bring ideas to life at Hasbro, how to think big at LucasFilm, and how to deal with adversity at LeapFrog. Each of these people added building blocks to who I am today.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
Sheryl Sandberg has done a great job motivating young women to think forward and raising awareness within the tech community around the importance of supporting women. Shonda Rimes has created a leading entertainment company on her own terms making TV content that people love – all without answering emails after 8pm. Angela Merkel has been the standout politician in the world. Her leadership with the migrant situation and deft handling of the European crisis is really impressive.
What do you want Fingerprint to accomplish in the next year?
My goals are simple. Make Fingerprint profitable. Launch new products that are commercially successful and surprise / delight kids and their parents. See Fingerprint recognized as a leader in the market!
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
That will usually get any women’s attention! Every woman is looking for the perfect high heel shoe, hot, sexy, goes with their favorite outfit and of course supportive, comfortable and does not hurt. The last three being the most important, lol! But if there was a shoe product that was easy to place in a shoe that would take pressure off the ball of the foot, make the arch feel more supportive and not make the shoe tighter or visible when wearing them that would get the attention of most women. The problem with most shoe accessory products today is that they are too big and bulky, uncomfortable or just doesn’t work that well in their shoes and eventually end up in a bag in their dresser drawer. So women continue to buy shoes that they love and can’t live without hoping they can get through the day or evening without being crippled.
As a podiatrist we are always faced with the questions such as, “how can you make my shoes more comfortable and supportive without telling me you can’t wear those shoes anymore or buy a larger size”. We are also asked “why do I continue to develop these things on my foot” or “why do the balls of my feet burn when I wear my heels”?
They are referring to the painful corns, callouses and blisters found on their toes, back of the heels and ball of the foot. The answers are friction created from your feet moving and sliding in your shoes as well as how steep the pitch of your high heel is. The steeper the pitch or angle of your heel height the greater the downward force on the ball of your foot. The ball of your foot grinds into the floor of the shoe and that will cause of the burning when you walk.
As we know feet come in different sizes and shapes but our favorite dress shoes only come in different sizes and heel heights. The shape of your foot will unfortunately dictate the type of shoe you can wear comfortably. The shape of your foot is predetermined genetically by the bone structure you were born with, that’s right, mom, dad or your grandparents. Depending on how flexible the joints in your foot are will tell the tale of whether you will have flat feet, a normal type arch or a high arch. Combine the two and that is the reason for wide or narrow feet. These are the keys to being able to buy your favorite high heel shoes and wearing them all day and night with or without pain. It is that simple!
Now that I have your attention let’s make those challenging high heels, wearable, comfortable, supportive and pain free! There are arch products and soft insoles available on line that can fit into your heels and make those shoes more comfortable. A soft thin insole placed in your heels will provide instant comfort and cushion for your feet and may be all you need. There are also arch products that are placed in the arch area of your heels which provide instant arch support, take pressure off the ball of the foot, stop the foot from slipping forward, help eliminate pain in the great toe joint and reduce abnormal foot pronation. Use these key words to find products to help make your heels fit better. Instant arches, arch supports for high heels, orthotics for high heels, foot support, foot arch support, arch support inserts, arch support shoes, dress insoles and arch supports for backless heels. You can also go to your local shoe repair shop and ask them to stretch your shoe a tiny bit to see if that helps.
“And she walked happily ever after”®!
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Now you see it, now you don’t. Street artist JR’s latest work has seen him shroud the large pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris with material that, at a glance, makes it look like the structure has disappeared altogether.
Disney has practically quit the so-called “toys to life” market, a niche practically occupied by Disney’s Infinity, Nintendo’s Amiibo, and Activition’s Skylanders. While Activision isn’t throwing in the towel just yet, and Nintendo being its usual quiet self, the game publisher is trying out a new way to bridge digital and physical toys together, sprinkling a dash of augmented reality … Continue reading
You had a lot of questions when we wrote about NASA gearing up to inflate BEAM on the ISS. Does it inflate like a balloon? What if it gets hit by micrometeoroids then? Does it protect against radiation? While there are many things we won’t know for s…
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
