#Marketing Tech Stack

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Navigating B2B Marketing, Customer Success, and Technology with Nitu Sharma

In today's fast-paced B2B landscape, marketers face a complex web of challenges. Successfully navigating these obstacles requires a balance between advanced technology, customer-focused strategies, and a strong go-to-market (GTM) approach. Nitu Sharma, an experienced leader in B2B marketing and customer success, shares her insights into creating seamless strategies that drive business growth while keeping the customer at the center of it all.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the intersection of B2B marketing, customer success, technology, and revenue marketing as outlined by Nitu Sharma. Her approach focuses on the alignment of marketing and customer success efforts to achieve long-term success.

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What Is the Role of B2B Marketing in Customer Success?

B2B marketing is evolving to become more customer-centric. According to Nitu Sharma, a modern B2B marketing strategy should always work in tandem with customer success. "Marketing doesn't stop once a lead is converted," she explains. "Instead, it plays a crucial role in ensuring that customers are supported, satisfied, and primed for long-term success."

Customer success in B2B marketing is about more than just post-sale support. It’s about creating a cohesive experience that keeps customers engaged, informed, and happy throughout their entire journey with your brand. By integrating B2B marketing with customer success strategies, companies can deliver on their promises, ensure high satisfaction, and improve retention rates.

A customer-first approach means listening to feedback, providing valuable content, and continuously nurturing relationships even after the sale is made. Marketing teams need to create materials, tools, and communication strategies that support these efforts to ensure customers feel valued and understood.

How Does Technology Enhance B2B Marketing and Customer Success?

As technology continues to reshape the B2B landscape, marketing teams must leverage new tools to improve both their go-to-market (GTM) strategy and customer success efforts. Technology plays a critical role in enhancing personalization, delivering timely content, and automating processes that were once manual.

Nitu Sharma emphasizes that the right technology stack allows marketing and customer success teams to work more efficiently. "With advancements in AI and automation, we’re now able to predict customer needs before they even arise," she notes. Revenue marketing is increasingly reliant on data-driven insights, and technology makes it possible to capture, analyze, and act on this data.

By using technology, B2B marketers can identify customer pain points early, provide real-time solutions, and tailor their messaging to meet specific needs. This not only improves the customer experience but also increases revenue by driving upsells, renewals, and overall satisfaction. Tools like customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and marketing automation software enable teams to deliver consistent, high-quality service across touchpoints, enhancing both marketing and customer success outcomes.

How Can B2B Marketers Build a Successful Go-to-Market Strategy?

Building an effective go-to-market strategy is key to launching products and services that resonate with your audience. But according to Nitu Sharma, a successful GTM strategy isn’t just about selling—it’s about building relationships and delivering value at every stage of the customer journey.

"The best go-to-market strategies align marketing, sales, and customer success efforts to create a unified customer experience," Sharma explains. B2B companies often have long sales cycles, and a comprehensive GTM strategy ensures that marketing efforts are tailored to each stage of the buying process.

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One of the main components of a strong GTM strategy is understanding your target market deeply. Marketers need to define their ideal customer profiles (ICPs), map out the buyer’s journey, and create campaigns that address specific pain points at the right time. Customer success teams can provide invaluable insights into common customer challenges, which can then be leveraged by the marketing team to craft targeted campaigns.

What Are the Key Elements of Revenue Marketing in a B2B Context?

Revenue marketing is the strategic alignment of marketing efforts directly tied to generating revenue, rather than focusing solely on leads or brand awareness. For Nitu Sharma, this approach to marketing is critical in today’s B2B environment. "Revenue marketing focuses on outcomes, not just activities. It’s about understanding what drives growth and making sure marketing is delivering measurable results."

Sharma suggests that B2B marketers must focus on outcomes that contribute to revenue generation, such as customer retention, lifetime value (LTV), and upsell opportunities. Rather than seeing marketing as a top-of-the-funnel function, it should be viewed as an integral part of the entire customer lifecycle.

To successfully implement revenue marketing, teams need access to comprehensive data that highlights customer behavior, preferences, and interactions with your brand. This data can then inform marketing strategies that directly contribute to closing deals, increasing deal sizes, or retaining high-value customers.

How Do You Measure Success in B2B Marketing and Customer Success?

Measuring success in both B2B marketing and customer success goes beyond simple metrics like leads generated or customer satisfaction scores. Sharma recommends taking a holistic approach that considers long-term business impact. "It's important to look at metrics that align with broader business goals," she explains. "For marketing, that could mean tracking revenue attribution, customer retention, or lifetime value. For customer success, it might mean looking at churn rates or the adoption of specific product features."

By focusing on metrics that are tied to overall business growth, B2B marketers and customer success teams can better understand the impact of their efforts and adjust strategies as needed. Regular data reviews and cross-departmental collaboration ensure that both teams are aligned on goals and working towards common outcomes.

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Conclusion

Navigating the complex world of B2B marketing, customer success, and technology requires a delicate balance of strategy, execution, and innovation. Nitu Sharma’s approach to blending marketing and customer success demonstrates that keeping the customer at the center of your efforts is key to long-term business success.

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A clutter-free workspace gets me in the right mindset to work on a project.

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Hiring Hope Rekindled: E-commerce and Tech Startups to Drive Job Growth in FY25–26

If you've been unemployed for years, sitting on the margins of a fast-changing job market, the latest hiring outlook from India’s e-commerce and tech startup sectors might finally bring a glimmer of hope. According to the latest Employment Outlook Report (EOR) by TeamLease Services, a strong hiring wave is expected in these industries in the first half of FY25–26 (April to September 2025), with 69% of employers planning to expand their workforce.

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The Blueprint to Unleashing Citywide Takeovers for Real Estate Domination with Jason Palliser

Key Takeaways Jason Palliser built a 34-strategy lead generation system that allows investors to dominate their market without a marketing budget. His biggest lesson came from nearly losing tens of thousands on a flip, which he salvaged through lease option strategies and collaboration. His favorite technology is a custom automation tool that follows up with motivated leads and funnels them through specialized landing pages to increase conversion. United States Real Estate Investor Real Estate Investing Success Tampa with Jason Palliser https://youtu.be/h26h-NoBekY Follow and subscribe to Real Estate Investing Success worldwide on your favorite podcast platform. spotify apple amazon iheart pocket castbox overcast pandora United States Real Estate Investor United States Real Estate Investor Inside the Mind of a Real Estate Machine Builder In this explosive episode of Real Estate Investing Success, the spotlight lands on Jason Palliser—a man who doesn’t just play the real estate game. He redesigns the board entirely. Known for his powerful “Two-Day Investment Blueprint,” Jason brings an arsenal of 34 off-market lead strategies that overwhelm the competition and eliminate the need for traditional marketing budgets. He’s not just building a business. He’s crafting a system. One that transforms average investors into takeover artists capable of owning their city—deal after deal, lead after lead. Freedom, Not Fortune, Fuels the Mission Palliser doesn’t chase dollars. He chases freedom. After years in the funding world watching investors live a relaxed, wealth-driven lifestyle while he clocked hours as a banker, he decided to flip the script. His career pivot wasn’t about adding zeros—it was about escaping constraints. And through that shift, he built something few can match. From TV Fame to Tactical Warfare After working with household names like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Flipping Boston, Jason had options. But he chose to walk away from the speaking circuit and tech support madness. Why? To go all in on what works—building complete, tactical investment machines for individual investors ready to scale. The result? His Two-Day Blueprint was born—a real estate battle plan tailored to dominate every niche, from absentee owners to junk removal leads. The Moment It All Nearly Fell Apart Behind the success, there's always a scar. Jason’s most painful stumble came from arrogance—a dangerous overconfidence in his funding access. He believed that because he had the capital, he could fix any flip gone sideways. But one wrong deal taught him a ruthless lesson. He bought a property expecting a hefty return, but as the market cooled, the offers shrank. He rejected a modest profit hoping for a better deal, only to be left holding a losing asset. Payments stacked. Options dwindled. The flip that was supposed to shine became a weight around his neck. And yet, it was through this exact struggle that Palliser discovered the power of lease options. By collaborating with other investors, he salvaged the deal, collected upfront payments, and eventually sold the property at a profit years later. It was a storm, but he navigated through—scarred but stronger. The Tech That Turns Leads Into Contracts Automatically Jason’s favorite technology isn’t flashy—it’s lethal. He’s built a custom system that automatically follows up with motivated leads, tailored to each of his 34 lead sources. Whether it’s a tax-delinquent homeowner or an expired listing, the system delivers the right message at the right time, without delay. This platform doesn’t just follow up. It houses dedicated websites for each type of distressed seller. When a property owner visits a tax-assistance landing page, it’s not just an offer—it’s a strategic ambush. One that converts skepticism into signed contracts. “When a lead shows up, we already know what they need—and we’re ready to solve it instantly.” Not Just Success—Predictable, Sustainable Success

What drives Jason today? Sustainability. He’s not interested in flashy wins or one-time flips. He’s obsessed with building machines that deliver predictable contracts, every single month. That’s what he calls success: knowing the machine will spin and produce, without fail. “Success is waking up with absolute clarity, knowing you’ll close multiple deals monthly—no guesswork, no stress.” Real Estate Reimagined Through Ruthless Precision Jason Palliser doesn’t teach investors to compete, he teaches them to dominate. His strategy isn’t about sending another postcard or dialing more numbers. It’s about flipping the game board, redefining the rules, and walking away with the prize before others even show up. With the tools, the tech, and the tenacity to back it up, Palliser proves that success in real estate isn’t just possible—it’s predictable. For those willing to build the blueprint, the city is theirs for the taking. See more incredible content to ignite your real estate dreams with Real Estate Investing Success—where powerhouse investors reveal the secrets, strategies, and unstoppable drive that’s fueling their path to wealth and ultimate freedom. These stories aren’t just inspiring; they’re the spark that could transform your own journey! United States Real Estate Investor Contact Jason Palliser 2 Day Investment Blueprint United States Real Estate Investor Favorite Technology Jason Palliser’s Favorite Technology Jason’s favorite technology is his custom-built follow-up and lead conversion system. This internal platform does three powerful things: Automated Lead Follow-Up: Every lead from his 34 acquisition channels is immediately followed up with, using tailored messaging for that specific lead type. Niche-Specific Websites: For high-value leads like tax-delinquent owners, his system uses dedicated websites disguised as public assistance programs. This earns trust and triggers inbound contact from motivated sellers. Conversion Without Pressure: Because leads reach out willingly, the sales process feels less like persuasion and more like guidance. “The tech does the heavy lifting,” he explains. “It follows up, nurtures, and converts while I focus on strategy.” It’s not just tech—it’s a silent partner that turns leads into deals with ruthless consistency. Mentioned References Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki REI BlackBook (software) Flipping Boston (TV show) featuring TMIREI guest Dave Seymour United States Real Estate Investor Transcript Welcome successors today. We're talking to Jason Pallister, the creator of the two day investment blueprint, real estate investors plan or blueprint, as you could say, to grow to six and seven figures. Jason, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. Hey, thank you. Happy to be here. All right. So are you ready to talk some real estate investing with me today? Yeah, absolutely hit me with anything you want. I'm ready to roll. Awesome. Awesome Okay, so before we get into the business part of things, how about you tell us a little bit about your personal life? Okay, so Born and raised in st. Louis kind of like you three four years ago said With my wife hey, I've been here 40-something years. I've seen the arch. I know what it looks like Let's move to someplace warm kind of like we talked about before we started today, right? Right right down in st. Pete St. Pete slash Tampa in Florida for the last three and a half years and it's wonderful and there's no state income tax. So That's what we love to do we love travel and We love being active tennis racquetball all the fun stuff. So On the personal side, that's kind of what we do my wife does National Pet Rescue and stuff like that for ASPCA vet tech stuff. And so that's really rewarding. I did my first foster because she Said hey you can do it I was nervous about fostering our first puppy and we did and Then I grew attached to her. So when it came time to somebody else to adopt her I had I had some

real feelings about that so That's what on the personal level it's kind of what we do love travel and Love supporting her taking care of any animal that needs help. Awesome. Awesome. That's good. That's good How many how many animals you got in the house so far? we have two that are we have a 14 year old which is her pride and joy named Monty and little pogo and then we have a Chihuahua who Feels like he's a 150 pound dog, even though he's six pounds. So that's Right now, right, right. Yeah. Yeah, my daughter. She loves loves loves pets. She's yeah, she's crazy about him So Jason you are the creator of the two-day investment blueprint. It is a blueprint that's designed to take investors To grow into a six to seven figure real estate investing business. Tell us a little bit about that and why you created it Oh, yeah, so I've been in this space for 23 years I've been investment banking for 26 specializing private money hard hard money lending and And also getting bank financing for investors strictly strictly work with investors on that. So about three years into that I Realized I would leave a closing as a banker and helping out an investor get funding, right? They would walk out and high-five me and they make 50 grand and I'm leaving the closing as a banker making two grand I'm like, wait a second. I got a degree in finance. This math doesn't work for me so I transitioned to what I call the dark side, which was investing myself for the last 23 years and So what happened is is a bigger companies like rich dad poor dad Flipping Boston TV show stuff like that. They started hiring me for my Funding expertise because I was top 100 in the nation for funding and I knew every investment program There was I could get funding on almost anything. But what quickly transition was they're like, wow, you're doing lots of deals They're like man. What are you doing to get to those deals? and I saw the value and just diving really deep into the marketing side of things like how do I How do I get to all the off-market properties first? So they started asking me to create these programs Centered around the front end of the business which is getting to everything first and From there I created a software called rei black book Some of your listeners may may know what that is. It's a real estate automation tool. It's used by Kiyosaki and some other people that private label it and gurus at private label it around the nation that Listeners would know and I'm so what happened where the blueprint came was that I got tired of speaking for all these places and hey go to Seattle and teach owner financing for the weekend or lead generation and so I canceled about 20 speaking contracts and Sold the software company so I didn't get 300 support emails a day anymore Which is a dream come true between me you and the listeners. Yeah, and so people for years said hey Can you hey that map that you're showing us that organized map where you attack a city 34 ways? so most investors know five or six ways to get an off-market property and we have 34 and the reason for that is that In the course of doing all the speaking and stuff some larger companies like what we call institutional money or hedge fund players Said hey, look, we need 40 homes a month. We need 50 homes a month. We need 4,000 homes in Dallas in 60 months it we heard you the guy that can put together an engine that'll do that Which I just simply called a blueprint It turned into the two-day blueprint because these companies like man in two days you literally lay out the blueprint So that's where the two-day blueprint came from and about five six years ago. I started doing it for individual investors So if you can imagine for years at the TV show stuff people raising their hand or when we go on a break They're like hey come here And you think you could build me that same map and then off-market attack and I said look I'm too busy Speaking doing 10 to 15 deals a month doing private money blah

blah blah And so once I sold all that stuff and canceled those speaking contracts I'm like, hey I will do an official off-market blueprint build out for you and literally attack the city 34 ways all the way down doing Direct mail for free if they do it exactly how we want them to do and be in 30,000 mailboxes Which took me 11 years to figure that out So that's where the two-day blueprint came from is that people are like man over two days You can literally take over a city and not do the same five things like a vacant list a high equity list and let's do some text messaging and and I'm so There's a better way to attack a marketplace So that's what the two-day blueprint came from and we do about nine or ten of those build outs a year, man That's incredible. That's that's awesome. That's I mean, there's no better word to use then awesome That's pretty that's pretty cool, man. I love hearing that and inspection is especially kind of Bringing it into the tech space which a lot of a lot of investors don't really thoroughly think that that's even an option You know, but you you did it. That's that's incredible. I love it. Well here's the people that are listening Antonio I've never wrote a line of code in my life. I'm not some Technical wizard. I just hired the people and said hey, can you make it do this? Which would save me a lot of time and energy. Hey, could you make this part of the? Investment machine, can you create a widget that does this and and pay them to do it and then put it all together that so Anybody can do it. So yeah. Yeah So you may actually have answered this next question. I'm gonna answer it asking anyway What's what's the one word or phrase that comes to mind for the reason you got into real estate investing? That's that's a good question you asked me a really good question So the reason I did is I freedom I saw I saw the freedom that you know I'm I was on the funding side creating freedom for all these investors and they're like, oh, I'm going golfing and this and that oh my gosh, I got I got any more mortgage appointments today And again, I was doing that at a high level and making a pretty good living But their their lifestyle just seems so much more Relaxed and laid-back and they had freedom. So that's when I said, you know, and I I need to dive into this real estate investment sandbox and Once I did I never looked back. It's the it's the best business decision I've ever made What's your favorite part about being a real estate investor? helping homeowners and while also creating a win for The investment side of the business so it's finding a way to be a solution for a homeowner that needs some help An off-market homeowner that has some level of motivation and then getting the back end Win-win, which is depositing a large sum of money or getting a good short-term rental and having Very good cash flow. So That's that's what I love about it Now there's no way that all this time. You've been doing real estate investing that everything's been so perfect and beautiful There's no way okay So what was the time throughout the journey that you've had so far when you felt most unsuccessful oh That's easy so And I in in The the problems arose because of me as a byproduct So I walked around and I would say probably two years into me doing some real estate investing I was just getting some properties and fixing and flipping them. I started doing a couple rentals and Where the most difficult time for me was is that I walked around going? Wow, I I have all the knowledge and all the funding which everybody comes to me for that and everybody wants it So I've got all the money. So I was like man, I can this is great I'm gonna invest and I can do anything because I got the money I got I got access to the money and So I figured I could do any deal and work my way out of it just because I could get funding where most people may struggle with that right but what happened was is My attitude was a little cavalier

about it And so I was like, oh I can get this and do that and move this around and and so what happened was the market started to turn just a little bit not a lot just a little bit and I had a flip and That flip took extra time and in this I'm sure will resonate with most people and if you've been doing it a while You've run into some variation of this It costs a little bit more than I thought and it took a little bit more time When we put it on the market, you know I was all in at 225 and was trying to get 265 out of it The market started getting a little tighter people are making a little bit lower offers I I had an offer like 232 like man, I'm not gonna make seven grand on this I'm gonna I'm gonna reject that offer and just wait market turned a little bit more Then I dropped the sales price ten grand then people are making lower offers and what I had into it So I was just like oh gosh, I'm gonna I'm gonna take my I'm gonna take my first real estate investment black eye here. I could feel it coming right and I'm so What happened? Was the people that I had helped throughout the years get funding where they? Perceived that they were stuck and I helped them out on that side with the funding side I went to a few of them that do lease options and I'm like, what do I do here? I'm like I had an offer on the table That's gone where I could make a little bit of money and I just didn't want to do it But now I'm in a pickle. And so what they did was they showed me how to lease option the property So I had real heartburn. I'm like, wow, I'm gonna I'm gonna probably end up and I was making payments over time So now I'm in a position to where even if I sold it at 230 You know a little bit above what I originally had into it I've already made payments to where I'm gonna lose 5 10 15 grand maybe even 20 grand So they said hey, let's advertise this out. There's a lease with an option to buy so I found a couple ladies who wanted to do a lease with an option to buy and Got some money down fast forward. I release option that property over a seven-year period because I Renewed with the ladies and took some more non-refundable money down They were about 15 grand into it and but ultimately they couldn't get financing I got it. I got one other person in there that was renting it did the same thing at least with an option and Fast forward like seven years. I ended up selling it I want to say for 265 270, but they paid down my note over time So what looked like a world-class punch in the face ended up because I relied on other people's expertise That I had helped through the years ended up coming out a little bit ahead at the at the end But it was that was stressful. That was a stressful. I'd be lying if I didn't say I walk around and it consumed me during the day I got all these other things going on, but that was consuming me because I was like, what am I gonna do with it? Yeah, yeah, that was my worst spot Yeah that's that's what I always say man relationships are almost everything if not everything because if you don't have them you don't know where to Go or don't know where to turn just like you did when something starts going wrong and the lease options That's that's always one of the better options that real estate investing provides. It's pretty cool Yeah, no, it was I'm glad they showed it to me and quite frankly since I know the funding side of things Yeah, like I knew I knew what that person needed to do or clear up to qualify with my banker head on so That that technique had real sex appeal to me when the investors like let's approach it this way Because I knew why that person couldn't buy today. So I put in place. Hey, you need to do these things Ultimately the ladies didn't they had to clear up a couple things and then one of them took a job where they were self-employed So then they had to wait two years all that good stuff, right? But but that's why that that technique had sex appeal to me because I knew what they would need

to do to qualify So do you feel that uh your previous employment doing mortgages and things like that? Do you think that gives you a personal advantage in this industry? Yeah for this reason Countless times over the years people come to me like hey, man I've done some investment deals and now the banks are telling me I got to put more money down and I Wasn't prepared for that. And I'm so I walk around knowing when I'm looking at a property or making an offer I know what I can and can't do on the funding side. I know how much I'm gonna have to put down I know how long it might take for this type of deal to get funding so I can write a I can write a really good contract With the right dates on it and I know how much I'm gonna have to put down and the rug is not getting yanked out From underneath me quite frankly on the banking side That's that's where my business kind of grew because I got to a point where I didn't take on a single client Unless they went through a 22 question checklist and anybody that hears this. I'm happy to send it to you So I built my career on this is a 22 question investment checklist. It's a non-negotiable You have to read this so that you know what credit scores required after five deals that you have financed How much do you have to put down on your fifth deal? Can you do commercial deal on a residential house? So all these things were the people make mistakes. I created a spreadsheet on that. That's that's how I kicked off the Investment funding banking side of my career and that's that's awesome. That's totally vital. That's excellent. I love that Wow Good good job, man You're the insider that everybody needs. You know that Wow cool What one positive goal are you focused on in your REI business today? On the helping people outside just helping people see a clear path to being free and And showing them how to do multiple deals a month without needing a real estate budget that's the number one reason people come to do a two-day blueprint build out what this is, let me show you how we attack a city 34 ways and 18 of those techniques are free. They don't cost anything. We just need to show you how we do it. So For me personally, it's the reason I still do this quite frankly is that showing a showing an investor how to run this like a machine and do multiple contracts a month without needing a budget and seeing them succeed and and Have the freedom that they deserve. That's that's the number one Back-end payoff and result from helping people. That's incredible Currently, what's your favorite technology you use in your business? Um, I would say that We have some tools built that that automatically follow up with a motivated lead. So when we're going through and Having these 34 different Investment leads and sandboxes to play in right those leads need to go somewhere. So we've built Remember, I built a technology company. So we We built some custom stuff that when the leads pour in they're automatically followed up for each type of lead the right way so so for me personally, it's um, just the The follow-up pieces in the in the end it also houses all of our websites for the different Types of leads we get like a tax delinquent person that comes in front of us is behind on their property taxes That's a top two or three lead source because we track every lead source one to thirty four It gets us when I say it's a top ten. You should pay attention because it's one of three metrics if not all three it's fastest conversation to contract Highest level of motivation or highest equity spread and payoff. So delinquent property tax homeowners are Comprised all three of those so it's a very very good lead I always tell people to go after a list of two years behind or more Because the bank they probably don't have a mortgage because the bank would have already foreclosed because I'm a banker I see. Yeah, because they would lose their lien position at a tax sale So now you're going after leads that are

free and clear which means you can do almost any type of back-end strategy so That so we have behind that technology websites in place where they don't get a letter from us saying Hey before you lose your house to tax that let me put cash in your pocket. They get a letter from us saying Hey, we noticed you're behind on your taxes We pull funders together to help pay those delinquent taxes for those who qualify for assistance reference tax assistance code TAC 4 2 4 0 0 1 they desperately want to reach out to us, but they also want to find us online So we have a website built around tax advocacy. So they come to us the right way They don't come to us and say make your local offer because of our technique. So the technology behind that so The follow-up and the technology to have those websites out there so they can find us and want to speak to us as is probably My biggest weapon. Yeah, that's incredible. That's you got everything in place. That's great, man What's the current portfolio look like you have these days? Well right now we have My wife does all of our Airbnb stuff, so she runs all of our cash flowing assets Um, so that's my favorite back-end strategy right now. We do fix and flips. We do wholesales stuff like that, but on the on the buy-and-hold side we do Vacation rentals because you can get two to three times the rent right now. We have 51 houses under contract so We we do 60 to 70 percent wholesale and then we cherry-pick flips and or vacation rental So so in my world on the personal side of of our business that we run. That's what we do So talking about Airbnb that you mentioned, what do you think about? Airbnb arbitrage, what is your opinion on that? I love it. It's the if you perfect that approach then Think about this Airbnb arbitrage if you're not familiar with it folks is where you talk to somebody who owns a property and say hey Can I lease the property from you? And then what you do is you re you release it out to people as a vacation rental, right? And I'm so landlords want to get their Monthly rent right? So the approach on that just to kind of teach everybody here a little bit the approach on that is this But hey, what if I send a some sex appeal versus a regular renter, right? If you're gonna try and approach a homeowner because the benefit is you don't have to buy the house and and furnish it to get It ready to be Rented out as an Airbnb, right? You can just sign a lease agreement put first and last month's rent and spend five or ten grand furnishing it and For 10 12 15 grand you're into a property now that may produce you on the Airbnb side with with bookings 4050 grand a year like literally 300% return on your money in one calendar year, right? But that but you have to approach since you asked me you have to approach the homeowner the right way The homeowners you sign in a lease agreement a year lease agreement and first and last month's rent So some things you can do that that have sex appeal you back. Look I'll sign a three-year lease I'll even pay a hundred dollars more a month than what you wanted to get you better cash flow But I want to release this out. Oh, by the way, I'll handle all the phone calls You don't have to handle phone call about the toilet. You don't have to handle anything with the property I'll do that and I'll furnish it and That's sexy and then you sound look I'll also have you a CH the payment for me every month You'll be directly connected to my bank account. You'll never have to go wonder if the rents coming So those are things that are sexy to the homeowner. You say hey, by the way every time somebody stays there's it There's a million dollar liability policy policy on every stay provided by Airbnb Yeah Property is protected. You don't have to take any headache phone calls You get automatic payments for me and I'll sign a three-year lease agreement at $100 above what you're what you're looking to rent it for I can't I can't even imagine a landlord saying no to that.

I mean, why would they say no to that? Coming in there having a party and kicking a whole million dollar liability policy exactly Anybody scuffs the wall? Fix it and I always tell them to You'll know real-time what your property looks like too because we have after each day we have professional cleaners go in there So we know what the property looks like all the time you rent it out to somebody for a calendar year You don't know if they're gonna put up family pictures all over the wall And then you're gonna have to fill a bunch of holes in the wall and repaint So we know real-time after each day that the properties in good working condition again, all those responsibilities fall on me so that's where you have the conversation and there's some sex appeal in there and you can get into a property really cheap and Reap the benefits if you do Airbnb, so hopefully that'll answer that question for you. Yeah, that was perfect. Perfect So Jason if people want to get in touch with you, how do they go about doing that? If you want to get in touch with me You can go to the number two day blueprint calm to day blueprint calm or you can just shoot me a text message 314 749 37 37 or you just find me on Facebook Jason Palser and shoot me a friend request or a message or whatever I'm happy to I'm happy to help you. I'm happy to talk to you like we can We can help you attack any city you want and bypass Most investors do the same five things when you have 34 It's literally not figuratively literally not a fair fight like we get in front of so many off-market opportunities People can't people can't stop us like what like it like one and again Doing things without a budget just doing it better than everyone else like as an example as a tip for everybody that hears this one of the things that we do out of 34 to grab good deals is we Go to Google type in junk removal st. Louis junk removal, Tampa Jumper junk removal Phoenix and we taught we we compile all the phone numbers for 15 20 junk removal companies and then we call them and create a Ongoing relationship co-op with them. So all we do is remember Cost you nothing to do this We call them on say hey, look you give lots of bids on property to remove junk. You don't win every bid I'd like to create an ongoing relationship with you. I'm Jason with allied property group If you would like to work with us what we'd like to do is every single time say hey I have a friend that would Literally pay cash for this house and you don't have to lift a finger if you're interested Every time you send us a homeowner and we buy the house, I'll give you two grand You don't win every bid but I guarantee you that if we buy the house you get two grand secondly, if we end up buying the house, I Guarantee you get the bid I'll put it in writing. I want to ongoing relationship with you and think about this folks When do you want to talk to a homeowner? Probably the time if they're looking to remove junk because people don't remove junk just for fun They remove junk when something's going to happen that is a motivated lead at the exact moment you want to talk to them so we show you how to do things differently and and I'm willing to bet if you've Been online and done research you're trying to find ways to do get investment deals and get good leads in front of you That you've never heard that before and think about this a lead is now coming to you where they said it's okay for you To call them. They expect your call and it's not hey, let's go to list and send a bunch of text messages And people say make you a little offer are I'm not selling we don't live in that world There's a better way to approach this That's just one way and just one relationship from one junk removal company is easily could get you easily five to ten deals a year coming to you that cost you nothing up front just as an example like Not a fair fight. We teach negotiations on the back end Joke and say it's irresponsible for us to show you how

to suffocate a city 34 ways and then Not teach you what we call a seller waltz on Informant a conversation that flips a difference in price into a contract. So we'll show you 14 different ways. We do that Man, you got you got it. You got all the tools man. You got the tools. You got the weapons. I love it I love it all love it all Since entering into the real estate investing world. What do you feel you're most grateful for? Oh without a doubt the collaboration between investors Like speaking for almost well right at 20 years, I guess in some fashion or form 20 23 years really The relationships that I created with other people where we collaborate and do deals together like it was fun for me I just did a blueprint for a client last month. They're brand new and I said look when you attack 34 ways You're getting for a deals One you didn't know existed to that, you know in the moment, there's no way you can close it. So the cool thing about us teaching people to be what we call blueprint assassins is that you'll get in front of good deals that We know it's your if it's your first go-around that you're not gonna know how to do So as an example, it's the collaboration and one example is we trained a guy named Chad last month He's brand new he uncovered a mobile home park a motivated mobile home park owner said I'm willing to own or finance it So nobody even needs to get a bank loan, which is great, right? Yeah, but he doesn't have the down payment doesn't know what questions asked so I literally put him in touch with my friend Jonathan and and Jonathan's a national authority on mobile home parks and and Has taught for almost every entity in the country on it. I put them together. They're working that deal together. So The most beneficial thing and rewarding thing for me is the collaboration between investors and other people's expertise Man love that incredible. So before I hit you with the last question, I just want to say Thank you very much for being on the show. Yeah, I mean, come on, man You can't give much more value than what you've given. It's it was incredible. So I loved every moment of it awesome, so Finally Jason, what is your definition of real estate investing success? Sustainable predictable, so Success in this sandbox to me is Waking up knowing that what you're doing will produce Investment opportunities for you to keep fix a flip wholesale, whatever you want to do But do it with predictability and that it's a sustainable machine Because I talk to people all the time that schedule calls Directly to my calendar off the two-day blueprint website and like man, just please get me out of my marketing budget, please and Can can you show me how to do this? Like a predictable business and machine, which is when you get hired to average 40 or 50 homes a month for these bigger entities We can't miss a single deal. So over the years out of necessity, we've drilled down to what it looks like to What it looks like to wake up and know with predictability that you're gonna get five six seven eight contracts every single month, right so success to me is having a spinning machine that is sustainable and Gives you predictable results because you know what you're doing with the highest level of clarity Successors. I hope you've enjoyed my quick conversation today And I hope you've gained just a little more insight into achieving your financial freedom and reaching your goals For more real estate investing content like this and a lot more, please visit United States real estate investor comm that's United States real estate Investor comm thanks for listening. And as always stay grateful. Stay successful and be free

[hemantrowdy]

Join Code with TLS – The Best IT Training Institute Near Me for Job-Ready Skills

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[learn24x]

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[technologydevelopers]

Hire Full Stack Developers to manage your ongoing projects

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Provab Technosoft offers a dedicated team of full stack developers with expertise in all major frameworks viz Zend, Laravel, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Symfony among others. These developers also possess strong proficiency in multiple industry verticals and can respond to functional know-how of these industries. Our dedicated fullstack programmers work as an integral part of customer’s product development team and work as full-time staff or ad-hoc basis as per the need.

Provab has a team of 300+ professionals and its dedicated full stack application services team follows the agile methodology to bring the customer idea into reality by deploying web portals, enterprise web applications, intranet systems and custom applications.

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PROVAB’s Full Stack Web Development Services

Full stack developers at PROVAB hold extensive experience in everything from back-end to front-end database and thus deliver best in class solutions to the clients. Our professional full-stack programmers are well-versed in Fullstack to MEAN Stack, Node.js, Angular.JS, Ruby on Rails, ReactJS, Laravel, and others. Our experts have unrivaled experience in the full-stack software development field.

1. Full Stack Application Development

Custom full stack application development gives you greater control over code and implementation. Hire Full Stack developers at PROVAB to set your team.

2. Full Stack ECommerce Development

Trust our experienced full-stack programmers with Fullstack based e-commerce development to build and deploy high-performance online storefronts for any business.

3. Product Development In Full-stack

Outsource your product development from ideation to delivery. Hire Full Stack developers offshore and get your product done under work for hire agreement.

4. Booking Engines In Fullstack

Outsource your booking engine development from ideation to delivery. Hire Full Stack developers offshore and get your booking portal done under work for hire agreement.

Advantage of hiring remote web developers

Lets you hire professionals worldwide at right cost

Hassle-free access to Indian workforce

Time utilization

Cost-saving through optimization resources

Higher retention rates with short, mid-term and long term assignments

There are certain clear advantages of hiring top web & mobile app developers in India, which is now a hub of all leading IT / software companies.  

Flexibility

Nowadays most of the company functions as a R.O.W.E (Result Only Work Environment), but some still have a stronghold on the old fashioned only working apart from any other activities. But if you are looking to hire top talent, try to lose the traditional workplace as much as you can. The great way to pull the attention of new talent to your company is by listing your remote company's flexible work policy in its job description.

Where to look

To source remote app developers who can be right for your company, look for specialized sites that cater to your platform-specific app developers like PHP, JavaScript, .NET. Node.Js, AngularJS. I suggest Linked.in to be the best site where you can find key roles and responsibilities of app and web app developer explained properly. You can also find certification done, as well as its day to day industry update activities to judge its skills.

Setup A Web & App Team in India - 

Seek out their soft skills

Education, experience and technical knowledge is a common thing found in every candidate. Instead, I'll suggest HRs' to look for soft skills i.e., time management, tech-savvy and strong communicator that is necessary to work remotely.

How tools plan a major role to define superior productivity while working remotely

Using online tools such as project management software, collaborative creation tools and more help you to feel comfortable and saves time while communicating with the expert teammates. The alternative saves you time and allows you to majorly concentrate on app development. The software schedules meetings regularly, phone calls and also a creation of work reports. It notifies regular updates on call and progress reports. The software also assigns tasks, and a deadline of it so that it will be meaningful, creative and important to you.

How to optimize the performance of remote app development team in India?

Take Interview: A remote developer is a judge based on how efficiently and timely communication and tasks are handled.

Sign Legal Agreement: Agreement such as NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and other needful as per the client requirements.

Rapid Communication Tools: Remote developers should know how to handle communication software and also project management tools to help clients to see their progress with screen sharing, add tickets, keep track of work, etc.

Define Task for Development Team: Assign a project manager to take a regular look at the project, provide reports and updated regularly.

Work Tracking Software: The software would provide a complete detailed report of the working hours, coding, and time is taken. This will both parties to have an idea on the on-going development.

Manage HR Policy: Usually, HR policy doesn't include timing, leaves, break time, etc.      

Conclusion:

Remote full stack developers have a very good working relationship with various companies across India and also deal with multiple clients at any one time. Years full of professional learning, travel, personal life, and new experience provide them with involved exposure, which gives a clear way to new ideas. It has been seen that remote app programmers are more inspired, passionate and motivated about their work as flexibility plays a vital role in the working environment. Hiring a remote app developer can be a little difficult, but it is also a major step to reduce onboard expenses cost your business.

[feathersofwares]

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Feather Softwares offers internships in various tech fields, including Web Design, Digital Marketing, and Full Stack Programming. Feather Software offers expert Graphic Design services to help you create a strong brand identity and communicate your brand message. We also design user-friendly and easily navigable interfaces that create an enjoyable user experience, increasing engagement. Work with us for interactive designs that increase viewer interaction and boost conversion rates!

[fullstack0000]

Fullstack Devlopers

[varioblogger]

We Work Together

[abhibaj]

The Essential Guide to ABM Tech Stacks for Marketing Excellence

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has emerged as a cornerstone strategy for B2B organizations aiming to engage high-value accounts. But to unlock its full potential, you need the right tools in your arsenal. Enter the ABM Tech Stack—a collection of technologies that enable efficient and personalized account-based marketing campaigns. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to build the ultimate ABM tech stack, delve into essential Account-Based Marketing Tools, and answer key questions about ABM Strategies for driving marketing success.

What Is an ABM Tech Stack, and Why Does It Matter?

An ABM Tech Stack is a tailored suite of software and tools designed to support the execution of account-based marketing initiatives. It includes everything from customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to marketing automation tools, analytics software, and more.

Get full insights@ https://itechseries.com/blog/building-the-ultimate-abm-tech-stack-for-marketing-success/

Why does it matter? The right tech stack allows marketers to:

Personalize campaigns at scale.

Gain deeper insights into target accounts.

Streamline collaboration between sales and marketing.

Optimize campaign performance and ROI.

Without a well-structured ABM tech stack, businesses risk wasting resources on disconnected tools and fragmented processes.

What Are the Essential Components of an ABM Tech Stack?

To build a successful ABM tech stack, focus on the following key components:

1. Account Identification and Targeting Tools

These tools help you identify high-value accounts based on firmographic, technographic, and intent data. Examples include:

ZoomInfo for comprehensive contact and company data.

6sense for predictive analytics and buyer intent insights.

2. Personalization Platforms

Personalization is at the heart of ABM. Tools like Demandbase and Uberflip enable marketers to deliver tailored content and messaging to target accounts, enhancing engagement.

3. Marketing Automation Software

Platforms like Marketo or HubSpot automate email campaigns, social media outreach, and lead nurturing efforts, ensuring efficiency and consistency.

4. CRM and Sales Enablement Tools

Integration between marketing and sales teams is crucial for ABM success. CRMs like Salesforce and sales enablement tools like Outreach foster collaboration and keep teams aligned.

5. Analytics and Reporting Platforms

Measure the success of your ABM campaigns with robust analytics tools such as Google Analytics or Tableau, providing insights into campaign performance and areas for improvement.

Explore the latest marketing and tech insights@ https://itechseries.com/gtm-library/

How Do You Choose the Right Account-Based Marketing Tools?

Define Your Objectives: Before selecting tools, outline your ABM goals. Are you focusing on lead generation, pipeline acceleration, or customer retention? Your objectives will guide your tool selection.

Evaluate Scalability: Ensure that the tools in your ABM tech stack can grow with your business. Scalable solutions save you the hassle of switching platforms as your needs expand.

Prioritize Integration: An ABM tech stack is only as good as its ability to integrate seamlessly. Choose tools that work well together and with your existing systems, like your CRM.

Focus on User Experience: Your team’s ability to effectively use the tools matters. Prioritize user-friendly interfaces and platforms with strong customer support.

Key Tools for Account-Based Marketing

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems

CRMs are essential for managing account details, targeting communications, and personalizing the customer journey. Tools like HubSpot CRM, Salesforce, and Pipedrive help businesses track leads, gather insights, and map decision-makers to accounts.

Account Mapping Tools

Mapping tools like Revegy, Crossbeam, Recotap, and Miro allow for strategic communication planning and visualization of decision-makers within target accounts. By accurately mapping key contacts and relationships, businesses can effectively personalize outreach and tailor engagement strategies for each account.

Data Enrichment Tools

Platforms such as D&B Hoovers, ZoomInfo, and DiscoverOrg provide critical data on target accounts and decision-makers, enriching customer profiles with technology stack details and industry insights.

Predictive Analytics Tools

Predictive analytics tools like SAS, RapidMiner, and Marketo analyze historical data to identify high-potential accounts. These tools provide lead scoring and insights, helping prioritize accounts showing buying signals, and enabling marketers to tailor content and campaigns more effectively.

Sales Enablement Technology

Tools such as Mindtickle, Vidyard, and Highspot support sales teams in engaging target accounts. These B2B marketing tools facilitate personalized marketing campaigns via chat, email, video, and phone, ensuring timely and relevant interactions with key decision-makers.

Marketing Automation Platforms

Platforms like Zoho Marketing Automation, Brevo, TIBCO Platform, and Klaviyo automate outreach and content delivery, ensuring seamless engagement with key accounts. These tools streamline campaign execution, B2B lead generation strategies, and performance analytics, enhancing the alignment of sales and marketing strategies for ABM success.

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Conclusion

Building the ultimate ABM tech stack requires careful planning, thoughtful tool selection, and a clear alignment with your ABM strategy. By investing in the right Account-Based Marketing Tools, you can enhance personalization, drive collaboration, and achieve measurable results. As ABM continues to evolve, having a robust tech stack will be crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Start building yours today and take your ABM Strategies to the next level.

[insignia2023]

Exploring the Best Tech Stack for Your Next Project | Insignia Consultancy

Discover the ideal tech stack for your project and make informed decisions with our comprehensive guide on the latest technologies and frameworks.

[crimethinc]

People have begun demonstrating at Tesla outlets against the agenda of Elon Musk and other tech billionaires who are seeking to consolidate power under Donald Trump.

Some have held signs and chanted outside dealerships. Some have created disruptions inside.

A Tesla dealership in Loveland, Colorado has been vandalized three times in the past three months, with red spray paint across the windshields and broken glass in the lot.

Last year, in Germany, some anarchists blocked the expansion of the Tesla Gigafactory by occupying the adjacent forest; other anarchists used direct action to shut down power supply to the factory.

Musk and his cronies are concentrating power in their hands through the market as well as through the apparatus of the state. In both of those contexts, the cards are stacked against us. They hope we will remain passive as they exploit us and profit at our expense.

But it is a mistake to be passive.

https://crimethinc.com/TeslaGermany

[helioooss]

i was never there

synopsis: yu jumin joins novis corp as it’s head corporate lawyer, but her boss, y/n, remembers her eyes from somewhere else.

w/c: 3k+

warnings: 18+ minors dni!!! stripper by night, lawyer by day karina, swearing

a/n: a short one for the books, this is more a prompt

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the sun had barely crept over the horizon when your sleek aston martin pulled up to the curb of novis corp’s headquarters; the tech conglomerate you had built from scratch. the building, a masterpiece of modern architecture with its reflective glass and sharp geometric lines, it stood as a monument to your success.

as you stepped out of the car, the valet offered a polite bow before retreating and you adjusted your tom ford suit — a deep charcoal grey that sat perfectly on your shoulders, tailored to a level of precision; its silk lining was monogrammed with your initials, a subtle mark of exclusivity.

in your world, every single detail mattered.

as soon as the glass doors opened into the lobby, the atmosphere shifted immediately. the soft murmur of voices hushed to a whisper and employees straightened their postures instinctively as they caught sight of you.

your presence demanded attention, not because you sought it, but because you simply carried an aura of authority. heads bowed as you passed, a wave of respectful acknowledgment rippling through the space.

“good morning, y/n,” someone greeted softly, their voice tinged with awe.

you simply offered a slight nod, your expression unreadable as you stepped into the private lift. the moment the polished steel doors slid shut, the world outside felt momentarily silenced. you allowed yourself a brief glance at your reflection in the mirrored walls, backing a strand of misplaced hair and smoothing down the lapel of your jacket before the lift opened to the top floor.

here, the energy was palpable. this was where the very lifeblood of novis corp flowed, where your senior executives and teams orchestrated the daily operations of the tech giant. the open floor was a hive of activity: assistants juggling tablets and documents, executives murmuring into headsets and a faint hum of urgency in the air.

the moment you stepped out, it was chaos aimed at you.

“miss l/n, the european market data is ready for your review.”

“legal flagged the merger contracts; they need your approval before noon.”

“the board wants confirmation on next quarter’s strategic pivot —”

amidst the shitshow that you specifically called ‘the everyday’, your personal assistant, claire, darted towards you, her heels clicking against the polished wood floor as she clutched a stack of files to her chest whilst her usually composed demeanour was slightly frazzled as she struggled to keep pace with you.

“y/n,” claire began, her voice soft but persistent, “i apologise for the interruption, but felix has been trying to reach you all morning. he said it’s urgent, and i tried to hold him off, but he’s really insistent.”

you glanced at her, stride unbroken whilst offering a faint smile that was more a gesture of reassurance than warmth. “i’ll take care of it, claire. thank you.”

she gave a slight nod, relief evident in her expression, stepping back as you pushed open the heavy oak doors to your private office. the room was a reflection of your meticulous standards: minimalist yet luxurious, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering an unparalleled view of new york city. a sleek, dark wood desk sat in the centre, flanked by leather chairs and a low cabinet housing bottles of vintage scotch.

oh, and the air carried the faintest scent of bergamot, a signature detail you had to have.

as soon as you set your briefcase down, you loosened your tie slightly and sank into your chair. the intercom blinked with pending calls, but you ignored it for now, reaching instead for your personal phone. scrolling through the missed calls, you found felix’s name and with a small sigh, you hit dial.

he answered right after the first ring. “finally!” his voice was a mix of relief and mischief, as it always was when he called you.

“what’s so urgent, felix?” you asked, leaning back in your chair.

“okay, hear me out,” he began, a tell-tale sign that whatever followed would likely test your patience. “there’s this club. super exclusive. like, billionaires-only exclusive. i’m talking black cards, champagne fountains, and the kind of entertainment that makes even the rich blush —“

pinching the bridge of your nose impatiently, you groaned. “just get to the point.”

“well, if you must insist,” he continued, “i need someone to vouch for me. someone who ticks the billionaire box. someone, you know, like you.”

“felix, why on earth would you want to go to a place like that?” you sighed, shaking your head. “everyone will just be as obnoxious as mum.”

“research,” he said, a little too quickly. “and before you ask, yes, it’s legit. i just…need to see it for myself. one night, y/n.“

“research,” you repeated, unimpressed.

“please, my dearest sister,” he pressed. “i promise it’s harmless. just one night, and then i’ll owe you. big time.”

he had always been the rebel — tattoos peeking out from beneath his sleeves, a penchant for bending rules and a charm that got him out of most trouble. he was your stepbrother, younger by five years and despite his antics, you couldn’t help but feel a soft spot for him.

he’d been your constant companion through a tumultuous childhood and for all his recklessness, his loyalty to you was unwavering.

you exhaled deeply. “if this turns into a mess, i swear, felix —”

“it won’t, i swear,” he interrupted eagerly. “you’ll barely even have to do anything. just show up, look rich — which is easy for you and let me in.”

there was a long pause. you weren’t one for foolishness, specially not something as absurd as this, but he had a way of getting under your skin and despite your better judgment, you relented.

“fine,” you mumbled; annoyance evident in your tone. “but this better not blow back on me — the press are already on my ass for not being present enough.”

“you’re the best!” he exclaimed, his relief palpable. “i’ll text you the details.”

shaking your head, you hung up and pressed the intercom button on your desk. “claire,” you began. “i need you to do something for me.”

“that’s my job, y/n,” her voice came through immediately.

“clear my schedule for tonight,” you carefully instructed. “reschedule all appointments and let the rest of the world know i’ll be unavailable after six.”

there was a brief pause from her end. “understood.”

staring out at the sprawling skyline, you heaved out a sigh. this wasn’t your usual scene, but something about it intrigued you nonetheless. tonight promised to be unlike anything you’d done before.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the hum of the limousine was almost soothing as it glided through the city streets, the blacked-out windows shielding you and felix from the world outside. the interior was nothing short of opulent: plush leather seats in a deep oxblood red, a bar stocked with rare whiskies and chilled champagne and soft ambient lighting that cast a warm glow over the polished surfaces.

felix was seated across from you, his legs stretched out casually as he swirled a glass of whiskey he’d poured himself. his usual rebellious flair was subdued tonight, though the faint smirk on his lips betrayed his excitement.

he was dressed sharply, his dark green blazer and crisp black shirt a rare effort on his part. the tattoos that normally peeked from his sleeves were hidden, though you knew they were still there, a reminder of his defiant streak.

you, on the other hand, wore a simple white shirt and blue jeans.

“so,” felix began, his tone light but probing, “how’s the empire going?”

you gave him a sideways glance, your fingers lightly drumming against the armrest. “the empire is fine, felix. novis is on track to secure the venatrix deal by next quarter and the sirocco expansion is finally moving forward.”

“of course it is,” he said with a grin, taking a sip of his drink. “you’ve got the golden touch. everything you touch turns to money.”

“it’s not magic,” you replied, your voice steady. “it’s work. a lot of it.”

he shook his head, leaning forward slightly. “and that’s the problem, y/n. you work too much. when was the last time you actually did something for yourself? and don’t say this counts,” he added, gesturing around the limousine.

you gave him a small, wry smile. “this is for you, not me.”

“exactly my point,” he said, leaning back. “you need to live a little. have some fun. maybe get a girlfriend for once in your life.”

you raised an eyebrow at him. “a girlfriend?”

“yes, a girlfriend,” he said with a chuckle. “you know, someone to share your life with? someone to remind you that there’s more to life than spreadsheets and board meetings?”

you exhaled softly, turning your gaze to the city lights flickering outside the window. “it’s not that simple. i’ve got responsibilities. people rely on me. there’s no room for anything else right now.”

“that’s the excuse you always use,” he said, his tone softer now. “but you’re going to wake up one day and realise you’ve built an empire but never lived your life. is that really what you want?”

his words lingered in the air and for a moment, you simply let them. as the limousine turned down a quieter street, the glow of the city fading into the background, you thought about what he’d said.

was he right? was there something missing in your meticulously crafted life?

before you could dwell on it further, the car slowed to a stop in front of an unassuming black door, illuminated only by a discreet gold plaque that read elysium.

the driver opened your door and the moment you stepped out, you felt the shift in atmosphere. the door was opened from the inside by a tall, sharply dressed man who exuded an air of authority.

“miss l/n, mr. l/n,” he greeted warmly, his deep voice carrying just enough deference to make you feel like royalty. “welcome to elysium. my name is pierre and i’ll personally ensure your evening is nothing short of exceptional.”

“thank you,” you replied, your tone polite but guarded as pierre stepped aside, gesturing for you both to enter.

the interior of the club was breathtaking — sleek and sophisticated, with an undeniable air of exclusivity. red lighting bathed the room, casting a sultry glow over the rich leather furniture and dark wood accents. the faint hum of low music filled the space and the scent of expensive cigars and perfume lingered in the air.

pierre led the way, his posture immaculate. “we’ve limited the floor capacity tonight to ensure you have a comfortable experience. it’s not often we host guests of your calibre.”

your gaze flicked to your brother, whose smirk grew with every step deeper into the club.

“they’re really rolling out the red carpet,” he whispered to you, amusement lacing his tone.

there were silhouettes moving across the far end of the room. they were fluid, deliberate, their movements drawing attention like a magnetic pull.

it wasn’t until you caught the glint of polished metal — a pole, that the realisation struck.

this wasn’t just a private club. it was a strip club.

“i thought you said this was a fucking nightclub,” you muttered in that scolding tone of yours. “or whatever you said it was.”

he laughed at your comment and had deliberately chosen to ignore you, clearly revelling in the attention. as you passed, heads turned subtly, and even the staff seemed to regard you with a mixture of curiosity and respect.

“our girls,” pierre continued as he walked, “are among the finest in the world. each performance is curated to perfection. should you require anything — anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“a dance costs a million for each hour,” felix raised his eyebrows playfully. “i can afford it, you have nothing to worry about.”

i’m going to kill him, you thought.

the corridor opened into a sprawling room bathed in deep red light, the glow casting shadows that danced across the rich leather furniture and polished dark wood accents. chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their crystal facets scattering faint prisms of light though the overall effect was moody and intimate rather than pretentious.

pierre, ever the professional, either didn’t notice or chose to ignore the exchange. “elysium prides itself on discretion and sophistication,” he explained, leading you toward the bar. “our performers are not only the best in the industry but also highly selective about where they work. we cater to an exclusive clientele and tonight, they are all eager to perform for you.”

the words hung in the air and while his tone remained formal, there was no mistaking the double meaning.

this wasn’t just about entertainment — it was about status, yours specifically.

“you’ve truly outdone yourselves,” you said evenly, though your tone betrayed nothing of the thoughts swirling in your mind.

“only the best for our esteemed guests,” he replied, stopping at the bar. “would you care for a drink before you settle in? our bartenders specialise in rare and exclusive cocktails.”

“i’ll take a manhattan,” felix answered, leaning against the bar as if he owned the place.

pierre turned his attention to you. “and for you, miss l/n?”

“call me y/n, please,” you requested, keeping your composure. “i’ll have a glass of champagne for now.”

felix shook his head, whilst pierre only nodded. “don’t worry, pierre, this is a good sign — champagne is telltale of the kind of night she plans to have.”

you gave him a look, one that could silence an entire boardroom, but it only made his grin widen.

as the bartender prepared your drinks, your eyes scanned the room. the performers were elegant, their movements slow and deliberate as they worked the poles or engaged in subtle conversations with other guests. the lighting accentuated every curve, every flick of hair, every step in towering heels.

it was seductive, but there was a sophistication to it.

felix clinked his glass against yours when your drinks arrived, his grin mischievous. “welcome to the real world, y/n. you might even have fun tonight.”

before you could respond, he disappeared into the crowd, leaving you alone with pierre, who gestured towards a hallway deeper into the establishment. “y/n, may i guide you to our private bar? we’ve reserved a section just for you.”

you nodded, offering a faint smile. “lead the way.”

he guided you through a discreet side door, the noise from the main hall fading into a low hum as you stepped into a quieter corridor. the lighting here was softer, the air perfumed with hints of amber and bergamot.

the sound of your shoes against the polished marble floor echoed faintly as you trailed behind him.

then, he stopped at a heavy door, its deep mahogany finish gleaming under the warm light. with a subtle bow, he pushed it open, revealing a private space that was both opulent and refined.

the room was bathed in a soft golden glow, with leather seating in a deep burgundy hue arranged around a bar made out of white marble. a crystal chandelier hung above, its light refracting into subtle rainbows across the room. the air was cooler here, yet tinged with the faintest trace of something warm and intoxicating.

“we’ve taken great care to ensure your comfort,” he gestured for you to step inside. “a selection of our finest performers has been prepared exclusively for this space tonight. as per tradition, all our vvip performers wear masks to preserve their mystique.”

your gaze shifted to the centre of the room, where a single pole stood illuminated by a spotlight. at its base, a woman danced, her movements fluid and hypnotic.

she was dressed in black, the fabric clinging to her graceful frame in ways that accentuated her every curve. a delicate mask adorned her face, its intricate lace design concealing her identity while leaving her eyes and lips visible.

and those eyes…

almond-shaped and lined with the faintest hint of shimmer, their depth was startling. they locked onto yours the moment you entered and for a second, it felt as though the world narrowed to just the two of you.

her lips were no less striking, painted a deep crimson that contrasted beautifully against her glowing skin. they moved subtly as she shifted her expression, curving into a faint smile that was neither coy nor brazen but perfectly balanced between the two.

you moved to one of the leather chairs directly in front of the pole, lowering yourself gracefully into the seat. a glass of something pale and sparkling had already been placed on the table before you — krug, if you had to guess.

she danced as though gravity held no dominion over her, movements slow and deliberate; her body bending and turning with an elegance that seemed almost otherworldly.

her eyes never left yours.

there was no touch, no exchange of words. only the silent conversation carried through her gaze.

you sipped your champagne, the crisp bubbles fizzing faintly on your tongue as you watched her.

“her name is karina,” pierre’s voice broke the silence, soft and almost reverent as he stood to the side. “one of our most gifted performers. she never agrees to private dances, but tonight, she insisted.”

you raised an eyebrow at his comment but said nothing, your eyes still locked with hers.

her lips curved slightly, a small but unmistakable reaction to his words. whether it was amusement or approval, you couldn’t tell.

there was a certain kind of power in her performance, an effortless command of the room that rivalled your own presence in the boardroom. it wasn’t just her beauty — it was the way she carried herself, the silent confidence in her every movement.

for the first time in a long while, you felt captivated.

as the music swelled, she climbed higher up the pole, her body arching and twisting with a grace that seemed to defy logic. the light caught her skin as she spun, casting shadows across her toned figure.

her gaze found yours again as if she had never looked away.

the song ended, the final note hanging in the air as karina stilled, her body poised and elegant as she held your gaze one last time. then, without a word, she stepped back into the shadows, disappearing as swiftly as she had appeared.

you leaned back in your seat, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of your lips.

“she’s…impressive,” you murmured, your voice soft.

“indeed,” he replied, his tone pleased. “shall i have her return for a performance, miss l/n? or would you like to see the next girl?”

you glanced at the glass in your hand, then back at the empty spotlight.

“perhaps,” you said, your tone deliberately nonchalant, though the way your thoughts lingered on those eyes and that smile betrayed you entirely. “i’d like to see karina again.”

he gave a slight bow, his hands clasped neatly in front of him. “i’ll leave you to enjoy the performance, y/n. if you need anything, don’t hesitate to call for me.”

you sent him a faint nod, watching as he quietly slipped out of the room — the air seemed heavier now, charged with something you couldn’t quite name.

the soft spotlight followed her, casting her in a halo of warm light as she emerged out of the shadows. her movements were deliberate, the sway of her hips measured, her body arching with the kind of elegance that felt effortless. the music swelled, a sultry melody that filled the private bar, wrapping itself around you.

the pole became an extension of her, her fingertips grazing it lightly as she spun effortlessly, hair cascading over one shoulder like silk.

pushing yourself up in the leather seat, you cradled the crystal glass in your hand, the crisp bubbles fizzing against your tongue were forgotten.

your attention was fixed solely on her.

her gaze was dark and unrelenting, as though she could see through every wall you’d ever built. it made you feel vulnerable in a way you weren’t used to, yet you couldn’t look away.

for years, your life had been a steady climb to the top. every decision and sacrifice you made — it had all led you to become one of the youngest billionaires in the world; a life of luxury and power, yet moments like this felt foreign to you.

you had never allowed yourself distractions. relationships had always been a distant thought, something you dismissed as incompatible with the weight of your responsibilities. and yet here you were, sitting in the middle of a dark room, utterly captivated by a woman you didn’t know.

as the music deepened, so did her movements. she slid down the pole with precision, her legs extending gracefully before she landed softly on the floor. then, she began to close the distance between you.

you stiffened slightly as she approached, her bare feet making no sound against the polished floor. her every step was a calculated mix of power and allure, head tilting slightly as her eyes burned into yours.

when she reached the edge of your seat, she leaned down, her hands bracing against the armrests on either side of you. the faintest scent of her perfume: something floral with a hint of musk wafted over you.

your breath hitched.

karina’s face was mere inches from yours, her lips curved into a subtle, knowing smile.

she tilted her head, her dark hair spilling over her shoulder and as she leaned closer, her lips brushed against yours — not quite a kiss, but enough to send a jolt through your body.

the touch was light, but it lingered. your hand tightened slightly around the glass, though you made no effort to pull away.

her eyes locked onto yours again, the corner of her lips quirking up ever so slightly. she didn’t move, staying close enough that you could feel the faint warmth of her breath against your skin.

“you’re full of surprises,” she murmured, her voice low and laced with amusement.

“you’re not what i expected,” you replied, your tone steady despite the way your pulse raced.

her smile widened just a fraction, her lips still hovering dangerously close to yours. “and what did you expect, miss l/n?”

you let the question hang in the air, unwilling — or perhaps unable to answer it.

she pulled back slightly, her eyes flickering over your face as if she were committing every detail to memory.

then, with a graceful turn, she returned to the pole, leaving you frozen in your seat, every nerve in your body alive.

but your focus wasn’t on the dance anymore.

it was on her.

the song reached its end, her final spin slow and graceful, her legs extended as she descended to the floor.

when the music ended, she stayed still for a moment, catching her breath, before calling out softly, “cut the music.”

the silence was deafening.

she stood up, reaching for a glass of water placed on the table near the pole. she sipped it slowly, her back turned to you, before setting it down and facing you again.

“you’re y/n l/n,” she said, her voice carrying an easy confidence, as though she were stating an undeniable fact.

you straightened in your seat, your composure returning. “i am indeed, and you’re karina.”

her lips curved into a small smile as she stepped closer, her mask framing her captivating eyes. “so, you’ve heard of me?”

“pierre mentioned your name,” you replied. “and according to him, you never agree to private performances.”

“ah, pierre,” karina chuckled softly, a low and melodic sound that sent another ripple through you. “that’s true, but you’re not exactly a regular guest.”

“why did you agree?” you asked, your voice steadier than you felt.

she tilted her head, her smile deepening. “curiosity.”

“about what?”

her gaze didn’t waver. “about you.”

you raised an eyebrow. “me?”

“it’s not every day the most eligible bachelorette in the world walks into a place like this,” she said, her tone light but pointed. “how could i not be curious?”

her honesty was disarming, and for a moment, you didn’t know how to respond.

“you don’t seem like the type to come here,” she continued, her voice softer now. “i wanted to see what kind of woman you are.”

“and?” you asked, meeting her gaze.

karina smiled again, enigmatic as ever. “i think you’re a woman who knows exactly what she wants, but you haven’t decided if you’re ready to take it.”

her words hung in the air, sharp yet tantalising. you swallowed hard, the weight of her observation pressing against you.

before you could respond, she glanced at the clock on the wall, her expression softening. “unfortunately, my time’s up — but i will see you again, hopefully.”

you watched as she stepped back, her movements as graceful as ever. “thank you.”

she turned back to you, her dark eyes glimmering. “the pleasure was mine, miss l/n.”

“please call me y/n.”

she nodded and then, just like that, she disappeared through the door, leaving you alone with the lingering scent of her perfume and the memory of her lips brushing against yours.

moments later, pierre entered the room, followed by an awestruck felix.

“holy shit,” felix yelled, his wide eyes taking in the space. “this room is insane. do you know how much this costs?”

you raised an eyebrow at him, still feeling the warmth of karina’s presence. “do i want to know?”

“five million dollars. per dance,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

you smiled faintly, your thoughts far from the number. “well, tonight was the most expensive night i’ve ever had then.”

he put an arm around you, ruffling your hair. “told you you’d enjoy it!”

-

the limousine hummed softly as it glided through the quiet streets. deeply in your thoughts, you sat stiffly in your seat, legs crossed, arms folded, the leather cool beneath you.

the night had been…complicated, to say the least.

felix, sitting across from you, looked far too pleased with himself, scrolling through his phone with a self-satisfied smirk that only irritated you further.

“never again,” you said sharply, breaking the silence.

he glanced up, the smirk widening as if he’d been waiting for this. “never again, what?”

“you know exactly what i mean,” you snapped, glaring at him. “you are never taking control of a night out again.”

he raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence. “elysium? come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

“felix,” you said through gritted teeth, “it was a strip club. a strip club. do you have any idea how bad that looks for me? if anyone had taken a photo of me, it could’ve been a PR disaster.”

he laughed, leaning back lazily against the plush seat. “oh please, that place is so exclusive. and anyway, it’s not like you were doing anything scandalous. you sat there, drank champagne and watched a performance. you didn’t even touch anyone. honestly, it was boring.”

you stared at him. “boring? you dragged me to a place where the floor alone costs millions to reserve and you think it’s fine because you had fun?”

“well yeah,” he said casually, shrugging. “and don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy yourself. i saw your face during that dance.”

heat rose to your cheeks and you looked away sharply, your fingers tightening around your arm. “that’s not the point, felix.”

“oh, it absolutely is,” he countered, leaning forward. “look, you’ve spent your entire life building this empire. you’re brilliant at what you do but you don’t live, y/n. you don’t even let yourself breathe. all i did was give you one night to do something out of the ordinary and now you’re acting like the world’s going to end.”

“because it could,” you shot back. “my name, my reputation — it’s all tied to novis. if anything jeopardises that, the fallout would be catastrophic. you don’t understand what’s at stake.”

he tilted his head, his expression softening slightly. “no, i don’t understand,” he said, his voice quieter but still firm. “because unlike you, i actually let myself live every now and then. when was the last time you did something just for yourself, y/n? when was the last time you let yourself feel something that wasn’t tied to work?”

his words hit harder than you wanted to admit. you glanced out the window, the city lights blurring as the limousine sped through the streets. “this isn’t about me,” you muttered, though the defensiveness in your tone betrayed you.

“oh, it’s absolutely about you,” he said with a knowing grin. “come on, admit it. you didn’t hate last night as much as you’re pretending to. i mean, you could’ve walked out anytime, but you didn’t. you stayed.”

you sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. “felix, i can’t afford to have nights like that. my life isn’t like yours.”

“and that’s exactly the problem,” he said, his voice more serious now. “you’re so afraid of messing up, you don’t even let yourself enjoy anything. y/n, you’re one of the most powerful people in the world and you’re scared of living? what’s the point of all this success if you never let yourself have anything?”

you didn’t answer, his words settling uncomfortably in your chest. instead, you stared out the window, your reflection blurred against the city lights. he leaned back, clearly feeling like he’d won the argument, though he said nothing more.

as the limousine approached your building, you sighed deeply, finally breaking the silence. “this doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. no more clubs, felix. ever.”

he laughed softly, shaking his head. “we’ll see.”

as it rolled to a stop, you stepped out without another word, the weight of the conversation lingering as you made your way inside.

you couldn’t stop thinking about the way karina had looked at you — as if she saw right through the walls you had spent years building.

her eyes haunted you, dark and full of secrets you suddenly found yourself wanting to uncover. and for the first time in years, you wondered if there was something, or someone, outside your carefully constructed world worth stepping into the unknown for.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the morning was as chaotic as ever, the hum of novis corp’s top floor vibrating with urgency the moment you stepped out of the private elevator. polished shoes clicked against a mix of wooden and marble floors, assistants and executives alike moved from desk to desk, each with something that required your attention.

“y/n,” the updates for the venatrix deal are ready.”

“legal has flagged the elara contract for revisions.”

“the team needs your approval on the new AI interface by noon!”

normally, you thrived in the controlled storm of your office. today, however, your mind was elsewhere. your focus wasn’t on contracts or product launches — it was on her.

the memory of last night lingered in sharp detail: the intoxicating crimson glow of the club, her sharp gaze, the brush of her lips against yours.

karina had left an imprint you couldn’t shake, no matter how much you tried.

the design meeting was supposed to centre you. the team presented mock-ups for novis’s latest AI interface, a sleek design meant to revolutionise smart tech, but as the lead designer droned on about user functionality, your attention slipped.

their words barely registered. your eyes were on the screen, but your mind was still in elysium. the feel of her perfume in the air, the way her eyes had locked onto yours: daring you to react.

“y/n?” samuel, the lead designer’s voice, broke through your thoughts, ultimately bringing you back to the present.

you blinked, shifting slightly in your seat. “yes?”

“we were asking for your feedback on the gradient colour scheme versus the flat monochrome,” he said, his tone careful.

you glanced at the screen, the options displayed clearly, but for once, the answer didn’t come easily. “the gradient,” you pointed after what seemed like at eternity. “it’s fine.”

a few of the designers exchanged surprised glances. it wasn’t like you to give such a vague response.

when the meeting ended, you stepped into the hallway, only to find giselle waiting for you, leaning casually against the wall with a look of exaggerated curiosity.

“well, that was weird,” she said, falling into step beside you.

“what are you talking about?” you asked, your tone clipped as you navigated through the bustling corridor.

“you,” she replied, waving a hand dramatically. “you’ve been off all morning. normally, you’re snapping necks and giving ted talks in these meetings. today, you were practically sleepwalking. so, spill. what’s going on?”

“nothing,” you said curtly.

she narrowed her eyes, clearly not buying it. “is this a felix thing? what did he do now? start a crypto farm in the middle of montana? buy a haunted house because ‘it looked cool’? or, wait — did he drag you to one of those ridiculous underground poker rings again?”

you gave her a sharp look. “felix has nothing to do with this.”

“so there is something,” she said, her smirk growing. “come on, boss, you can’t keep secrets from me. i’m like the human recourses version of sherlock holmes.”

“giselle,” you warned, stopping in your tracks and fixing her with a pointed glare, “drop it.”

she raised her hands in mock surrender, but her grin didn’t waver. “fine, fine, i’ll drop it; but if you spontaneously combust during the next board meeting, don’t say i didn’t warn you.”

as you started walking again, she called after you, “oh, by the way, your new head corporate lawyer is waiting in your office. yu jimin. punctual, sharp as a blade, and word on the street: dangerously hot. good luck!”

the name sent a jolt through you, stomach twisting as you reached your office doors, the memory of last night rushing back with startling clarity.

when you stepped inside, the first thing you noticed was the figure standing near the window.

she was dressed sharply in a black suit that fit her perfectly, the crisp white shirt beneath it undone just enough to convey confidence without stepping into arrogance. her posture was relaxed, one hand resting lightly on her hip, the other at her side.

her dark hair was pulled back neatly, accentuating the sharp lines of her face. when she turned at the sound of the door, your breath caught.

her eyes met yours, and for a split second, the world tilted.

it was her.

the woman who had unraveled you the night before, the one who had danced with the kind of precision and allure that left you spellbound.

karina.

no, yu jimin.

“miss l/n,” she greeted, her voice smooth, calm, and so painfully familiar. “it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

you forced yourself to nod, gesturing toward the chair across from your desk. “miss yu, please, have a seat. and call me y/n.”

you walked quickly to your desk, avoiding her gaze as you settled into your chair. when you finally looked up, the intensity in her eyes was undeniable.

she sat with perfect posture, her hands resting lightly on her lap, her expression polite but unreadable.

“so,” you began, clearing your throat, “tell me about your experience. what drew you to novis corp?”

her lips curved into a faint smile, one that sent a chill through you.

“my career has largely focused on high-stakes corporate law,” she said smoothly. “mergers, acquisitions, billion-dollar lawsuits — you name it. novis corp stood out to me because of its reputation for innovation and precision. it’s a company that demands excellence; i happen to provide that.”

her tone was professional, poised. but then her eyes glinted, and her smile widened just slightly.

“but if i’m being honest,” she added, “it wasn’t just the company that intrigued me. after last night, the person behind it all captured me.”

your chest tightened, but you forced yourself to maintain a neutral expression.

“i’m not sure what you’re referring to,” you said evenly, though your voice wavered just slightly.

“of course not,” she said, her smile deepening, though she didn’t press further.

the rest of the meeting passed in a blur of questions and answers, though the tension in the room never dissipated. every time her gaze lingered on you, you felt your resolve crack, memories of her dance, her eyes and her lips flashing vividly in your mind.

when it concluded, jimin stood gracefully, smoothing her blazer as she moved toward the door.

just as she reached for the knob, you hesitantly called out, “and miss yu?”

she paused, turning back to face you. “yes?”

you met her gaze, forcing your voice to remain steady. “i was never there.”

her smile returned, slow and knowing, her eyes glinting with something that sent a shiver down your spine. “don’t worry — the only person in that room was karina.”

for the second time in two days, yu jimin had left you completely undone.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the end.

[hemantrowdy]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

The paradox of choice screens

I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

It's official: the DOJ has won its case, and Google is a convicted monopolist. Over the next six months, we're gonna move into the "remedy" phase, where we figure out what the court is going to order Google to do to address its illegal monopoly power:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

That's just the beginning, of course. Even if the court orders some big, muscular remedies, we can expect Google to appeal (they've already said they would) and that could drag out the case for years. But that can be a feature, not a bug: a years-long appeal will see Google on its very best behavior, with massive, attendant culture changes inside the company. A Google that's fighting for its life in the appeals court isn't going to be the kind of company that promotes a guy whose strategy for increasing revenue is to make Google Search deliberately worse, so that you will have to do more searches (and see more ads) to get the info you're seeking:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

It's hard to overstate how much good stuff can emerge from a company that's mired itself in antitrust hell with extended appeals. In 1982, IBM wriggled off the antitrust hook after a 12-year fight that completely transformed the company's approach to business. After more than a decade of being micromanaged by lawyers who wanted to be sure that the company didn't screw up its appeal and anger antitrust enforcers, IBM's executives were totally transformed. When the company made its first PC, it decided to use commodity components (meaning anyone could build a similar PC by buying the same parts), and to buy its OS from an outside vendor called Micros-Soft (meaning competing PCs could use the same OS), and it turned a blind eye to the company that cloned the PC ROM, enabling companies like Dell, Compaq and Gateway to enter the market with "PC clones" that cost less and did more than the official IBM PC:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/ibm-pc-compatible-how-adversarial-interoperability-saved-pcs-monopolization

The big question, of course, is whether the court will order Google to break up, say, by selling off Android, its ad-tech stack, and Chrome. That's a question I'll address on another day. For today, I want to think about how to de-monopolize browsers, the key portal to the internet. The world has two extremely dominant browsers, Safari and Chrome, and each of them are owned by an operating system vendor that pre-installs their own browser on their devices and pre-selects them as the default.

Defaults matter. That's a huge part of Judge Mehta's finding in the Google case, where the court saw evidence from Google's own internal research suggesting that people rarely change defaults, meaning that whatever the gadget does out of the box it will likely do forever. This puts a lie to Google's longstanding defense of its monopoly power: "choice is just a click away." Sure, it's just a click away – a click, you're pretty sure no one is ever going to make.

This means that any remedy to Google's browser dominance is going to involve a lot of wrangling about defaults. That's not a new wrangle, either. For many years, regulators and tech companies have tinkered with "choice screens" that were nominally designed to encourage users to try out different browsers and brake the inertia of the big two browsers that came bundled with OSes.

These choice screens have a mixed record. Google's 2019 Android setup choice screen for the European Mobile Application Distribution Agreement somehow managed to result in the vast majority of users sticking with Chrome. Microsoft had a similar experience in 2010 with BrowserChoice.eu, its response to the EU's 2000s-era antitrust action:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu

Does this mean that choice screens don't work? Maybe. The idea of choice screens comes to us from the "choice architecture" world of "nudging," a technocratic pseudoscience that grew to prominence by offering the promise that regulators could make big changes without having to do any real regulating:

https://verfassungsblog.de/nudging-after-the-replication-crisis/

Nudge research is mired in the "replication crisis" (where foundational research findings turn out to be nonreplicable, due to bad research methodology, sloppy analysis, etc) and nudge researchers keep getting caught committing academic fraud:

https://www.ft.com/content/846cc7a5-12ee-4a44-830e-11ad00f224f9

When the first nudgers were caught committing fraud, more than a decade ago, they were assumed to be outliers in an otherwise honest and exciting field:

https://www.npr.org/2016/10/01/496093672/power-poses-co-author-i-do-not-believe-the-effects-are-real

Today, it's hard to find much to salvage from the field. To the extent the field is taken seriously today, it's often due to its critics repeating the claims of its boosters, a process Lee Vinsel calls "criti-hype":

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

For example, the term "dark patterns" lumps together really sneaky tactics with blunt acts of fraud. When you click an "opt out of cookies" button and get a screen that says "Success!" but which has a tiny little "confirm" button on it that you have to click to actually opt out, that's not a "dark pattern," it's just a scam:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/27/beware-of-the-leopard/#relentless

By ascribing widespread negative effects to subtle psychological manipulation ("dark patterns") rather than obvious and blatant fraud, we inadvertently elevate "nudging" to a real science, rather than a cult led by scammy fake scientists.

All this raises some empirical questions about choice screens: do they work (in the sense of getting people to break away from defaults), and if so, what's the best way to make them work?

This is an area with a pretty good literature, as it turns out, thanks in part due to some natural experiments, like when Russia forced Google to offer choice screens for Android in 2017, but didn't let Google design that screen. The Russian policy produced a significant switch away from Google's own apps to Russian versions, primarily made by Yandex:

https://cepr.org/publications/dp17779

In 2023, Mozilla Research published a detailed study in which 12,000 people from Germany, Spain and Poland set up simulated mobile and desktop devices with different kinds of choice screens, a project spurred on by the EU's Digital Markets Act, which is going to mandate choice screens starting this year:

https://research.mozilla.org/browser-competition/choicescreen/

I'm spending this week reviewing choice screen literature, and I've just read the Mozilla paper, which I found very interesting, albeit limited. The biggest limitation is that the researchers are getting users to simulate setting up a new device and then asking them how satisfied they are with the experience. That's certainly a question worth researching, but a far more important question is "How do users feel about the setup choices they made later, after living with them on the devices they use every day?" Unfortunately, that's a much more expensive and difficult question to answer, and beyond the scope of this paper.

With that limitation in mind, I'm going to break down the paper's findings here and draw some conclusions about what we should be looking for in any kind of choice screen remedy that comes out of the DOJ antitrust victory over Google.

The first thing note is that people report liking choice screens. When users get to choose their browsers, they expect to be happy with that choice; by contrast, users are skeptical that they'll like the default browser the vendor chose for them. Users don't consider choice screens to be burdensome, and adding a choice screen doesn't appreciably increase setup time.

There are some nuances to this. Users like choice screens during device setup but they don't like choice screens that pop up the first time they use a browser. That makes total sense: "choosing a browser" is colorably part of the "setting up your gadget" task. By contrast, the first time you open a browser on a new device, it's probably to get something else done (e.g. look up how to install a piece of software you used on your old device) and being interrupted with a choice screen at that moment is an unwelcome interruption. This is the psychology behind those obnoxious cookie-consent pop-ups that website bombard you with when you first visit them: you've clicked to that website because you need something it has, and being stuck with a privacy opt-out screen at that moment is predictably frustrating (which is why companies do it, and also why the DMA is going to punish companies that do).

The researchers experimented with different kinds of choice screens, varying the number of browsers on offer and the amount of information given on each. Again, users report that they prefer more choices and more information, and indeed, more choice and more info is correlated with choosing indie, non-default browsers, but this effect size is small (<10%), and no matter what kind of choice screen users get, most of them come away from the experience without absorbing any knowledge about indie browsers.

The order in which browsers are presented has a much larger effect than how many browsers or how much detail is present. People say they want lots of choices, but they usually choose one of the first four options. That said, users who get choice screens say it changes which browser they'd choose as a default.

Some of these contradictions appear to stem from users' fuzziness on what "default browser" means. For an OS vendor, "default browser" is the browser that pops up when you click a link in an email or social media. For most users, "default browser" means "the browser pinned to my home screen."

Where does all this leave us? I think it cashes out to this: choice screens will probably make a appreciable, but not massive, difference in browser dominance. They're cheap to implement, have no major downsides, and are easy to monitor. Choice screens might be needed to address Chrome's dominance even if the court orders Google to break off Chrome and stand it up as a separate business (we don't want any browser monopolies, even if they're not owned by a search monopolist!). So yeah, we should probably make a lot of noise to the effect that the court should order a choice screen, as part of a remedy.

That choice screen should be presented during device setup, with the choices presented in random order – with this caveat: Chrome should never appear in the top four choices.

All of that would help address the browser duopoly, even if it doesn't solve it. I would love to see more market-share for Firefox, which is the browser I've used every day for more than a decade, on my laptop and my phone. Of course, Mozilla has a role to play here. The company says it's going to refocus on browser quality, at the expense of the various side-hustles it's tried, which have ranged from uninteresting to catastrophically flawed:

https://www.fastcompany.com/91167564/mozilla-wants-you-to-love-firefox-again

For example, there was the tool to automatically remove your information from scummy data brokers, that they outsourced to a scummy data-broker:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/22/24109116/mozilla-ends-onerep-data-removal-partnership

And there's the "Privacy Preserving Attribution" tracking system that helps advertisers target you with surveillance advertising (in a way that's less invasive than existing techniques). Mozilla rolled this into Firefox on an opt out basis, and made opting out absurdly complicated, suggesting that it knew that it was imposing something on its users that they wouldn't freely choose:

https://blog.privacyguides.org/2024/07/14/mozilla-disappoints-us-yet-again-2/

They've been committing these kinds of unforced errors for more than a decade, seeking some kind of balance between monopolistic web companies and its users' desire to have a browser that protects them from invasive and unfair practices:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/14/firefox-closed-source-drm-video-browser-cory-doctorow

These compromises represent the fallacy that Mozilla's future depends on keeping bullying entertainment companies and Big Tech happy, so it can go on serving its users. At the same time, these compromises have alienated Mozilla's core users, the technical people who were its fiercest evangelists. Those core users are the authority on technical questions for the normies in their life, and they know exactly how cursed it is for Moz to be making these awful compromises.

Moz has hemorrhaged users over the past decade, meaning they have even less leverage over the corporations demanding that they make more compromises. This sets up a doom loop: make a bad compromise, lose users, become more vulnerable to demands for even worse compromises. "This capitulation puts us in a great position to make a stand in some hypothetical future where we don't instantly capitulate again" is a pretty unconvincing proposition.

After the past decade's heartbreaks, seeing Moz under new leadership makes me cautiously hopeful. Like I say, I am dependent on Firefox and want an independent, principled browser vendor that sees their role as producing a "user agent" that is faithful to its users' interests above all else:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet

Of course, Moz depends on Google's payment for default search placement for 90% of its revenue. If Google can't pay for this in the future, the org is going to have to find another source of revenue. Perhaps that will be the EU, or foundations, or users. In any of these cases, the org will find it much easier to raise funds if it is standing up for its users – not compromising on their interests.

Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear RIDA QADRI and me talk about how GIG WORKERS can DISENSHITTIFY their jobs with INTEROPERABILITY, VOTE FOR THIS ONE!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/12/defaults-matter/#make-up-your-mind-already

Image: ICMA Photos (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/icma/3635981474/

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