DryMerge is an organization founded by two friends who’ve known one another since elementary school, raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Yale University dropout Edward Frazer and University of Wisconsin graduate Samuel Brashears founded the corporate in 2023 and still run it today.

According to a press release, the corporate’s product streamlines user processes while saving time. “We founded DryMerge about a year ago with the idea that we could use AI to automate API integrations for developers. This year, our vision became much bigger—we realized we wanted to automate repetitive work for everyone, not just API integrations for developers,” Frazer wrote.

Frazer continued, “Work automation makes people’s jobs 10 times more enjoyable. Thousands of DryMerge users save hours every day by automating CRM data entry, support requests, targeted outbound calls, web research, and more. We think what our users do is amazing, and we spend almost all of our time helping them save more time.”

According to a press release, the corporate has received funding from Y Combinator, Garage Capital, Goodwater Capital, Ritual Capital, and Breakpoint Capital. It has also received angel investments from Umur Cubuku of Citus Data, JJ Fiegelman of Way Up, Kulveer Taggar of Zeus, and Nate Matherson of Positional, amongst others.

According to At first, the couple was unsure about their enterprisefuture. It took them a while to work out the best way to construct a product that may be useful to many users.

“…I’m a fairly young founder—I dropped out of Yale to build a company, and my co-founder Sam just graduated from the University of Wisconsin,” Frazer wrote on his LinkedIn page. His early confidence in what they were working on could border on arrogance, until he modified after receiving feedback.

Frazer continued: “I knew very little about how people worked, what problems they had, and how to solve them—and importantly, I didn’t care—I figured it was enough to build some cool technology and watch users come out of nowhere.”

Frazer concluded, “It wasn’t until halfway through that we realized that ‘cool tech’ was a useless value proposition—we had to talk to over 100 people from different segments like customer success, support, other founders, etc. before we had a solid picture of what people’s actual workflows looked like, and only then did we start building something valuable.”

The couple was also recent participants of the thirty eighth Demo Da Y Combinatory. In its blog post concerning the event, Y Combinator guarantees to speculate in each company it selects to participate in the YC Winter 2024 Batch for the corporate’s entire life. Out of greater than 27,000 applications, only 260 corporations were chosen, making its acceptance rate of lower than 1% one in every of the corporate’s most selective metrics. Y Combinator is increasingly specializing in corporations that leverage AI to facilitate practical applications of AI technologies and huge language models, which perfectly describes DryMerge’s mission and purpose.

According to , when their product works, users have a much easier time. While there are occasional mistakes, resembling the platform misunderstanding a user’s command or request, the platform still has potential. However, it’s one in every of the newest entries in an increasingly crowded platform-as-a-service integration market that’s currently expected to achieve $2.7 billion in market share by the tip of 2024.

However, Frazer is confident that he’ll have the option to realize a foothold in the market, regardless that his current user base is around 2,000.

“Our users range from online fashion retailers to school administrators to asset managers—the vast majority of whom have never touched a single line of code,” Frazer said. “They use us to save hours a day on tasks ranging from customer service automation to data entry to customer relationship management.”

Frazer continued, “We believe there is a huge opportunity for enterprise in simplifying automation and delivering easy-to-use tools that empower non-technical people.”

Starbucks North America CEO Michael Conway, who was appointed to the position in April after the corporate struggled with weak demand for its pricey coffee drinks in addition to ongoing customer boycotts over its ties to Israel and treatment of the coffee chain’s employees, he retired.

According to , Conway will remain with Starbucks North America in an advisory role through the top of 2024. Previously, as the corporate’s group president, Conway oversaw Starbucks’ international and channel growth.

In July, then-Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan indirectly pointed on the role the boycott of Israel’s bombing of Gaza played, saying through the company’s quarterly earnings conference call: “Headwinds continue in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, parts of Europe where there are widespread misconceptions about our brand.”

Though Vox’s Starbucks December 2023 Issues Analysis did circuitously blame the coffee chain’s problems on boycotts, but they can’t be completely ruled out as one in every of many aspects chargeable for the corporate’s lack of $1$1 billion market value.

But some experts, like Allison Horton, head of analytics at Memo, say Starbucks’ troubles stem from a rather more pervasive problem: customers aren’t concerned with its products.

“Last year’s success for Red Cup Day was likely due in part to heightened awareness of the event — as evidenced by increased public engagement with news about the promotion,” Horton said. “We don’t see news readership data indicating that this year’s decline is strictly correlated with labor strikes or boycotts, but rather due to lower consumer awareness and general interest.”

As for Conway, Starbucks opted not to rent a successor, as a substitute naming Sara Trilling, president of Starbucks North America, to move up retail operations for the North American market. According to , Conway’s retirement is one other change at Starbucks after Brian Niccol, former CEO of Chipotle, was appointed as the brand new CEO of Starbucks.

In an open letter, Niccol turned his attention to changing the culture at Starbucks.

“We are committed to elevating the in-store experience — ensuring that our spaces reflect the sights, smells and sounds that define Starbucks,” Niccol wrote.

Niccol added: “Our stores shall be lingering spaces with comfortable seating, thoughtful design and a transparent distinction between grab-and-go and dine-in options.

Niccol also said he desires to “spend time in our stores and support centers, meet with key partners and suppliers, and work with our team to take those critical first steps.” He also believes the Starbucks experience needs an update, saying that visiting a Starbucks within the U.S. “can feel transactional, the menu can feel overwhelming, the product is inconsistent, the wait is too long, or the handover is too hectic. These moments are opportunities for us to do better.”

Brooklyn-born billionaire JAY-Z officially entered the sports betting industry with the grand opening of the primary Fanatics Sportsbook at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City.

The “Hard Knock Life” announcer cut the ribbon while his partner in the enterprise, Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin, was there together with Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King and Ocean Casino Resort CEO Bill Callahan at the Sept. 15 event.

According to , immediately after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, 15-time PGA golfer Justin Thomas was the primary person to place bet at the venue. He placed a $100 bet on his alma mater, the Crimson Tide, to win the NCAA football championship.

Although the ribbon-cutting ceremony only recently took place, the 1,100-square-meter facility has been open since September 5.

announced that Quavo, Jalen Rose, Dez Bryant and Ryan Clark Also attended.

JAY-Z has greater plans for the betting industry.

Two years ago, JAY-Z and his group Roc Nation joined SL Green and Caesars Entertainment announce they try to open a brand new, state-of-the-art gaming facility at 1515 Broadway in Times Square, New York City. Roc Nation has taken out promoting in several distinguished New York publications, including , , and in an open letter addressing “conflicting parties” attempting to “spread disinformation” about their casino plans.

A trio of independent corporations imagine the property, which will likely be called Caesars Palace Times Square, cause seven million recent visitors to Times Square. Native New Yorkers and tourists will bring billions of dollars in economic advantages to Broadway and surrounding businesses.

No public decision has yet been made regarding opening a casino in the town center.