Chief Merchandising Officers have one of the hardest jobs in all of retail. Responsible for managing the majority of all cash that goes in and out of the business, chief merchandising officers, or chief merchants, have to make crucial decisions when negotiating with vendors and evaluating new products, as well as about seasonal inventory, pricing …

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These days there’s no shortage of additions to the C-suite. Creative job titles abound, and roles that didn’t exist a decade ago like chief experience officer or chief digital officer are becoming more common. The choice to add these positions to the decision-making table reflects the core value of these functions. Companies are realizing that …

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It’s no secret that retailers and CPGs have an enormous amount of data at their disposal. The question that is on every executive’s mind, however, is how to properly harness that data, and leverage it to drive informed and valuable business decision making. Knowing that big data is something that retail executives are thinking a lot …

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Have you heard of the Collision Conference? If you haven’t and you live in Toronto, and love tech, then you must be hiding under a rock because it’s kinda a big deal. For those of you who haven’t heard of Collision, it was coined the fastest growing tech conference in North America by Forbes, and …

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Everyone knows the feeling of guilt that comes from throwing away food from the home refrigerator that just never got eaten for one reason or another. After all, consumer food waste is a major problem in the United States. Piling up to nearly a quarter of all total municipal solid waste, more food reaches our nation’s …

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It’s not news that the state of retail is changing. The constraints inhibiting some retailers from keeping up with market disruptors like Amazon and Walmart are creating a tipping point in terms of leveraging AI to automate everything from inventory to promotional marketing. We hear a lot about AI, but it’s not always clear what …

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According to a recent report, 70% of all litter in the sea is plastic. While consumers’ plastic consumption is a clear culprit, grocery stores are also adding to this predicament with inventory overstock and shrink. When unsold grocery stock reaches its sell-by or expiration date, store managers must dispose of the waste. For example, in …

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For many of us, the most appealing factor about online shopping is the convenience. We’ve been able to purchase goods online and have them delivered to our homes for quite some time. As a result, there’s a certain level of experience we’ve come to expect. Now that we’re seeing many grocery retailers offer online ordering …

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Rubikloud HQ transformed into a luxurious event space to host the first event in our new Toronto office on August 16th. Tony van Marken, businessman and adventurer extraordinaire (who also happens to be one of Rubikloud’s investors from OTEAF), joined the Rubikrew, along with a few external partners, to share stories from his adventures climbing …

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The “retail apocalypse” and “the death of brick and mortar” are common phrases echoed in the industry as pressure mounts for enterprise retailers scrambling to compete with the likes of Amazon. As one of the FANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google), Amazon has passed the tipping point in its ability to collect trainable proprietary …

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It’s been an exciting 2018 and it’s only February! Today we announced that Rubikloud is adding 60 jobs in our Toronto office following our successful Series B round secured in early January, raising $37m USD. In our last blog post, I outlined our 3 major goals for the year: 1) Accelerate practical AI adoption for …

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Today we announced that Rubikloud has raised $37m USD in our Series B investment round. We are thrilled to have Intel Capital as the lead investor for this round, alongside investments from iNovia Capital and OTEAF. All three of these new investors, and our existing investors (Horizons Ventures and Access Industries), share in our vision …

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We are super excited to be chosen to host a workshop titled Workshop on Big Data & Data Science in Retail at the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), a top-tier research conference in data mining. The workshop will bring together academic researchers and industry professionals from all over the world to present and …

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Retailers may be tempted to focus solely on the challenges they face due to the rapid rise of Amazon into a dominant leadership position. This would be very short sighted of them. The impact to their businesses from the digitization of consumer shopping behaviour and a growing culture of bargain hunters are not to be …

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As the modern consumer becomes a multi-channel shopper, the modern retailer has been forced to follow suit. Mobile commerce or “m-commerce” is now a crucial point-of-sale for a retailer hoping to cover the entire consumer shopping experience. Machine learning systems have been expanding to mobile in many ways, but none that provide large-scale results like …

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Most of us remember childhood bedtime stories or amusing renditions of a night out with friends. These stories have helped shape who we are, and they reinforce our existing relationships. By telling stories of their own, startup businesses can create lasting impressions and personalized experiences to drive an impactful brand experience. In the highly competitive …

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An Open Letter to the Ontario Tech Community: I have been torn recently. The Ontario tech community – specifically the Toronto and KW corridor – has been getting a lot of well-deserved global press. See the CBC’s article about building our very own “Silicon Valley North”. The issue is that every time I read an article, …

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Yesterday we publicly announced our largest retail partnership to date. We are honoured and excited to partner with A.S Watson as their preferred vendor for a global roll out of machine learning applications. Over the past year, we have worked diligently with various leaders in the A.S Watson Group and have been impressed with how …

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We’re used to associating Google with the best. The cutting edge. However, this dominance has yet to assert itself  in the race to dominate cloud computing. A race currently being led by Amazon Web Services. In constructing the most valuable company ever, Google has amassed an unparalleled cloud stack, appealing to end users and developers alike. …

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Black Friday hasn’t always been a Canadian tradition, in fact only 8 years ago Canadian’s were still quietly judging Americans for their alarming behaviour only hours after celebrations of giving thanks. But, with the Canadian retail market slowly on the decline and our dollar often following suit retailers felt the need to keep sales north …

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Machine learning is a scary word for some retailers. Maybe they fear super-powered robots bent on taking over the world, but more likely they are nervous to place so much trust in artificial intelligence or new technology. While change can be frightening, machine learning is the best way for businesses to gain powerful marketing insights …

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If you’re only using big data to target consumers based on demographics or purchase history, you’re making a mistake that will cost your company a significant amount of revenue. Big data can provide retailers with a wealth of highly personalized information about their customers, informing meaningful customer interactions. But most retailers are only using the …

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In the last few weeks, I have been asked by colleagues, customers, and a few industry analysts to comment on the continued trend towards the use of cloud computing. In the last few months, we have seen AWS growing at 58% in the second quarter of 2016 as compared to the same period last year. …

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It has been a while since I’ve written an article and my goal is to change that over the next few months. I was inspired to write this series while on a plane coming back from an investor road show. It hit me that the world of retail, which we live in, is misunderstood by …

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I am not making a bold prediction today. I am exploring the possible future of retail as consumers embrace a digital and mobile first shopping experience and even lifestyle. As I ride into work in an Uber, I order my Ritual with two taps, grab a cup of coffee, walk over to my local breakfast …

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As our lives become more reliant on digital platforms, marketing, and advertising necessary to support these “free” platforms becomes an ever increasing nuisance. There is over 198 million ad blocking users globally (https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/ad-blocking-report/). How do marketers and advertisers continue to make their messages relevant and timely without knowing what each individual wants to hear about …

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Why shop online when you can take a brief trip to California’s Yosemite National Park or the Moab desert in Utah and trek the landscapes while shopping for a windbreaker? What sounds like a dream vacation was in fact a campaign hosted by the outdoor equipment retailer, North Face. The in-store experience was limited to …

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Imagine walking into a store and never having to pull out your wallet, or fumble around for cash. Imagine the ability to use your own identity as a form of payment. Sound like a scene from the Minority Report? To some, definitely. For others, like Google, it’s their latest project. It’s appropriately called ‘Hands Free’ …

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The beauty industry is one where personalization and experimentation can come together and flourish. This is why it comes as no surprise that beauty retailing in the US is evolving, as consumers are turning towards mobile technology while shopping for their favourite products. New research reveals that 45 percent of beauty consumers prefer to consult …

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Retailers share one commonality no matter what industry or product they sell : they’re always looking for ways to increase revenue and optimize customer experience. Accurately predicting what to sell each customer and at what price is a difficult task, but a necessity when it comes to keeping customers happy. The tricky part is effectively …

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Can you recall the last time you walked past a Jacob, Smart Set or Mexx retailer while shopping in Canada? Do you even remember the brands? October 2014, November 2014 and December 2014 respectively are the dates when each company announced that store closures were beginning to happen. Although Smartset is disappearing under the Reitman’s …

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At the beginning of 2015, it seemed that store closure may be upon us, but by September there was hope for luxury brands in Canada. Now in 2016, purely digital companies are opening physical shops. Crazy, right? We’ve entered a time where in order to be successful, online retailers cannot solely exist online.  Well known …

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I’m sorry but the Chartered Accountant in me couldn’t resist the terrible accounting joke.  Rubikloud has decided to move out of our first office here at 111 Richmond (www.oneeleven.com) – Canada’s first community for data driven start-ups.  We were one of the first start-ups to join this community and have recently decided to move into …

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Let me begin by apologizing for my lack of posts the past few months. In my defense, things have been incredibly busy and Laura has done an excellent job of creating relevant and valuable content. December is going to be the Rubikloud “data run” month. Our entire team (including myself) will be halting new product …

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Personalization is evolving. What used to be as simple as including a name in an email, or wishing the subscriber a “Happy Birthday”, will no longer be enough to meet consumer demands. With Big Data technology, enterprises can create a seamless experience for users across all touch points. Innovative startups are using machine learning and …

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Walking into a grocery store today, is a lot different than ten years ago. Although some things like the milk being located at the back and a 1-12 item express lane, may never change, today’s stores are innovating. Technology in POS systems, loyalty programs, store layouts, and smarter and more helpful associates, are creating a …

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Asking for an e-mail at checkout, or trying to convince shoppers to buy-in to your loyalty program by saying they can save 25%, might be doing more harm than good. Why? Consumers want to know what’s in it for them and what benefits they’re going to receive. Loyalty programs that are not delivering to their …

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The holidays can be a time when shoppers make one purchase and disappear forever, or if the retailer is lucky, the buyer will return next year. Even though the holidays are considered the most wonderful time of the year retailers can look to January as their magical season. The new year is a fresh start …

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Tis the season for giving back and what better way to warm up the city during this cold front than a clothing drive? We have teamed up with startups across the city to collect housewares, small electronics, toys, and, of course, warm clothes, for the Oasis Clothing Bank. Unlike large corporations with large budgets, Oasis …

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It is without a doubt that the startup ecosystem in Canada is thriving. In 2013, three Canadian locations placed in the top 20 most active cities for startup growth- Toronto 8th, Vancouver 9th, and Waterloo 16th.

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In the upcoming weeks, Canadians will be making their way to the election polls. While most voters are concerned with common issues like health care, the environment, child care and retirement, there is another matter that deserves attention. Employing 2.2 million, the most Canadians of any sector, the retail industry impacts communities and is a …

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It’s time to share the amazing work and progress the Rubikloud team made on our platform! Check out our new video here. Today Rubikloud is launching an end-to-end retail intelligence platform, named RUDI, that will transform the retail landscape forever. No longer will multi-channel retailers need expensive long-term multi-year Big Data projects. No longer will …

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At the beginning of 2015, things were looking less than promising for the Canadian retail landscape. An array of stores had shut down, and Target’s massive Canadian experiment had been a massive failure. But with the holiday season just around the corner, retail in Canada is looking more promising than ever with a number of …

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What does $2.5 Billion dollars buy you these days? The Pan Am games are over and there is an unsettling feeling across Toronto and Southern Ontario about the outrageous price tag. We all know this money could have been spent fixing the Gardiner, extending the Subway or tackling a host of other city wide issues, …

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Are offline and online retail channels different from each other? Both channels aim to optimize the customer experience, drive traffic & frequency, increase basket sizes and improve sales & margin. Yes, the goals of each channel are the same, but the access to data in the e-commerce world is a major difference. It ultimately improves …

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How valuable is your data? We have all reached the general consensus that consumer data is valuable, that is why we continue to see innovative ways for retailers to capitalize on it like beacons and elaborate customer loyalty programs. But consumers should start to question how much value the retailers are getting out of their …

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I entered the world of retail in the early 1990s and have worked my way up from the sales floor to the head office. Throughout that time, technological advancements have changed retail significantly. Interestingly enough, the following 5 principles have remained constant and don’t show any signs of changing. 1. Customers Are Number one: Twenty-five …

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Start-ups often ignore Asia until much later on in their life cycle. I don’t necessarily agree with this strategy. When you are in an industry that is undefined and rapidly changing such as big data, the geography you target matters less than the industry or vertical. This article is our chance to share some real-life …

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Some events can be pulled together last minute with only a few days of frantic turn around. Locations can change and guest speakers can back out, but the show will go on. Conferences on the other hand need to be meticulously executed, with no details overlooked. The long-term preparation is easily the most difficult factor …

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Last week at Rubikloud we released version 1 of our RUDI platform…

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Everyone is talking about Shopify and Hootsuite, the elusive unicorns of our Canadian startup community. A “unicorn” in the tech industry refers to a startup company with a valuation of close to, or over $1 billion dollars.

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We have raised our Series A and are doubling the size of our team. Excuse my cliché but we need to cross the infamous chasm. We need to build a great technology company and we need to execute while watching over our shoulders for threats at every corner.

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You can enter anything you want into a google search bar, and now for the first time ever, you can physically enter into a google store. They’ve joined the likes of Microsoft and Apple having opened their first brick and mortar store last week in Currys PC World in the UK. If consumers didn’t need the …

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 It’s no secret that there is something serious going on in the Canadian retail industry and the winds of change don’t particularly seem positive. It didn’t feel like too long ago that Sears regretfully informed Canadians of major cutbacks and the iconic Eaton Centre store prepared for shutdown. Now in the last few months Canadians …

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Today marks a critical day for Rubikloud. We just announced the closing of a $7 million Series A round led by some very strategic and critical funding partners across the world. We’re thrilled to be working with such a great group of investors and entrepreneurs! I’m proud of our team for everything we have accomplished …

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  Retail Intelligence Platform Rubikloud Raises $7M in Series A Funding to  Support Global Demand Funding round enables Rubikloud to capitalize on opportunities in North America and Asia   Toronto, Ontario – January 19, 2015 – Rubikloud Technologies Inc. (@Rubikloud) announced today that it has raised $7 million in an oversubscribed Series A financing round, …

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2014 was the year for “Rubikloud Labs.” I use the word labs because we were iterating and trying many different things with our retail customers and partners. Some of it we scrapped and some of it we have productized. We have been so fortunate to work with such large retailers, it truly helped us shape a …

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I’ve never given too much thought to the keyboard I use, my laptop came with one that for obvious reasons seemed like the natural choice. It wasn’t until I started working at Rubikloud did I notice the variety of keyboard possibilities. Large and small, quiet and loud, number pads or not, keyboards evidently come in …

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Neil Laing is our Director of UI/UX and has seen the transformation that took companies from marketing magazines to websites, and mailing lists to email campaigns. He knows a lot about user-experience and creating brands, and he’s seen the obstacles technology has had to overcome to get us to where we are today. When Laing entered …

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In my last post I touched on the strong support system and available resources for our blooming startup communities in Canada. The rock-solid foundation we offer entrepreneurs is an easy competition to enter with Silicon Valley. Talent attraction however, is not. In recent years losing top talent to the USA has been a serious concern …

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Silicon Valley may be the first place that comes to mind when you think of tech startups, but when considering resources, financial support, and a welcoming atmosphere, Canada has been steadily putting itself on the map. The startup communities in cities such as Vancouver, Waterloo, Toronto,  Calgary and Montreal have proven to be a sought after …

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I think we can all agree costumes that require effort, intelligence and some technical know-how are more interesting than the average ‘sexy nurse’ costume you pick-up at the nearest pop-up shop. For all you nerds out there, here are some of the coolest technically advanced DIY Halloween costumes. You won’t find fish-nets or crop tops …

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Security has always been a factor when considering things like digital wallets and mobile payments. With the increased number of financial fraud cases, it is hard to know who to trust with your digital currency. Many believe that if you are going to put your faith in anyone, it’s safe to trust Osama Bedier, former …

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Omnichannel refers to the omniscient retail experience. In other words, it is the multichannel approach  to convenience and customer satisfaction. Retailers have been talking about its impending actuality for  years now, but we have yet to see many of them master its basic principles. The benefits of omnichannel for both retailers and consumers are obvious. …

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Due to the natural competition we see between China and North America it is easy to debate the significance and power of Alibaba/JD.com and Amazon/eBay. In my previous article I discussed China and its ever-growing respect as the worlds new eCommerce leader. Today I want to delve deeper into the commonalities and variations we see …

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The largest IPO in history is certainly something to brag about, but Alibaba is bringing some much-needed  attention to eCommerce in China as a whole. Year over year China experiences exponential growth in their  eCommerce market, and although the growth rate of internet users has slowed down, the online shopping  population has continued to grow …

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                                Bitcoin may seem like the elusive internet currency that isn’t quite relevant yet, but Bitcoin is steadily making its way into mainstream consumerism. Bitcoin is a decentralized virtual currency that allows anyone with an internet-connected device to instantly send or …

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A digital wallet (or e-wallet) is exactly as it sounds. It is a blanket term for a range of technologies that are changing the way we pay for things. The days of inconvenient swiping and PIN entry are over. We are well on our way to a world where a mere “tap” is all that …

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Designing, building and marketing a product in the startup world is a very different process than that of a mature business. There are similarities, but the approach has to deviate from the norm for a  startup to succeed. Yes, a larger company can implement agile methodologies, short-term sprints and goal oriented product roadmaps, but startup …

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By the mid-2000’s every retailer was accepting that mobile shopping or “m-commerce” was transforming consumerism. Both online and offline stores had reasons to fear the change but also just as many reasons to embrace it. Seemingly the greater fear was with brick-and-mortar stores as they wondered if they would eventually become obsolete. The added convenience …

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I sat down with Dan (our product guy) last week to talk about iBeacon and how it’s a game changer for offline retailers.iBeacon and similar emerging technologies have the potential to take offline retailers into the digital age. iBeacon is Apple’s trademarked “indoor proximity system”. It uses Bluetooth Low-energy (BLE) technology to pull location-based information …

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It’s been a year and a half since I started Rubikloud with Dan and Frank. As we gear up for probably the biggest push in our company’s history (product, customers, team), I wanted to share a few important lessons I have learned as a start-up CEO: 1) Spend 30% of your time focused on hiring. …

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  Over the past few years, innovations in technologies have changed the way retailers do business. With each innovation, retailers have to scramble to adhere to the ever-changing landscape or fear being left behind. We’ve seen things like social media force the highest standard for customer experience.  Now a displeased customer won’t be asking to …

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Why do online retailers accept 2% conversion rates as “good enough?” How do large offline retailers properly understand their customers across multiple channels and actually innovate their way out of this retail war? How can they increase their conversion rates without spending millions more on paid search alone? This endless cycle of invest $100 in …

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This past January we set out to find the perfect cloud provider for our platform. In previous months we had been provided services from Amazon, and then eventually through the BizSpark program we were given a credit that allowed us to explore other options. With that credit we decided to go the Microsoft route and …

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We are pleased to announce that today Rubikloud officially made its way on to Joyent’s Partner Page. We are proudly dawning the top row spot under the “Data” column! Check it out at – http://www.joyent.com/partners Joyent is steadily becoming one of the major players in Cloud Infrastructure, and we are thrilled to be a part …

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For those of you who have been following Rubikloud we have always taken a pretty low key and “stealthy” approach towards our marketing and content. This was for a variety of reasons (busy working on product market fit, working with early customers, hiring, etc etc). While we are still heads down focused on product and …

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Last week I spent three days in the Valley as part of The C100’s 48 hours in the valley program. Normally when I’m in the valley, I’m either fund raising or working with customers. It was refreshing to  spend a few days absorbing the energy of fellow entrepreneurs and “relaxing” through sessions. This is a …

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Preamble:  Over the past month, we have been working really hard on our core messaging. Big Data and Analytics is a space with lots of buzzwords and we want to simplify that. Businesses don’t care about buzzwords. This is obviously an iterative process, but we’re getting closer. Post: It’s been a crazy week so far. …

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Let me begin by apologizing for the two month “MIA.” There really is no excuse, and our team is going to become better at producing regular content. Connecting with our target audiences is an important value for Rubikloud, so please consider this the official “re-launch” of our blog. So what have we been doing over …

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Rubikloud is hiring right now, but not just for normal engineers- for early employees. I was having a conversation last week with one of our angel investors and a good friend who’s had a front row seat to the creation of some of the most successful tech companies in the world (i.e Facebook, Palantir, etc). …

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Today we announced our seed round (see the details below). This post is our first chance to publicly talk about the round. I’m generally a direct guy, so this post will be no different. Rubikloud has always been very fortunate in two areas: We have co-founders who have worked together before and know each other …

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Over the weekend, I finally saw what a hackathon is all about. I observed the MaRS HackingHealth hackathon in Toronto on Saturday and watched in the full glory programmers and health professionals come up with inventive solutions to the inefficiencies of the health care system. It was a well organized event where participants used Sparkboard …

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Hello world and welcome to our blog! If you’re wondering why there are two welcome posts – this blog is being maintained by the two technical co-founders of Rubikloud Technologies. This blog will be where my colleague (Dan Theirl), and I (Frank Thomas) will document our thoughts and experiences as we navigate the world of …

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Hello Everyone, Thank you so much for visiting Rubikloud’s Official Blog.  You will never guess what I discovered yesterday.. we have the capacity to process over a 1 million events per second through our real-time engine and this is just the beginning as we begin the process of scaling our infrastructure.  Amazing how distributed computing …

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