text:
As a 'Company with a Cause,' Beyond, Payment Provider, Attracts Top Sales Talent
PRINCETON, N.J., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Beyond Inc., a start-up provider of payment processing and other business services, has succeeded in recruiting a large and diverse sales staff in less than three months – thanks in no small part to the innovative philanthropic partnership at the company's heart.
When Beyond launched in May, CEO Robert O. Carr announced that Give Something Back, a non-profit organization that provides mentors and college scholarships to low-income students, would be the beneficiary of his majority shareholder position in the new company.
"That's the reason I chose Beyond over any of the other opportunities," said Crystal Patterson, a team lead based in San Antonio, TX. "Beyond is a company that's on a mission to help young people. I looked at that and thought – I can go and get a job anywhere and make money. It's kind of cool to work for a company where I can make a good living and also do something bigger, helping with what I hold dear to my heart."
In less than three months, Beyond has recruited 200 people, including 120 sales personnel working across the country to provide point-of-sale, payment processing, lending, and integrated HR tools & services to small and mid-size business owners. At a recent company-wide meeting held in Tulsa, OK, Beyond's newly hired sales professionals constantly cited the Give Back partnership as a key driver for themselves and their customers.
"When I tell prospective customers that, in addition to being honest and transparent with them, we're going to put underprivileged kids through college with Give Something back, they are very excited about being part of this," said Eric Thomas, a Tulsa-based veteran salesperson who joined the company as a business advocate (Beyond's term for its sales personnel) in late June.
"We can tell merchants, 'Hey, you can get the products you need at a good price, while helping promising young students to have a chance to go to college and succeed in life.' Why would business owners say no?" added Ray Kim, of Yorba Linda CA, who just joined Beyond as Vice President of Sales after 16 years with Heartland Payment Systems (HPY), which Carr founded in 1997. "I've seen Bob Carr present a million-dollar check to Chapman University in Orange, CA. It's a good feeling to be part of that."
"Beyond is a company with corporate responsibility in its DNA," Carr noted at the company's launch. "Our commitments to our customers and to Give Back are two sides of the same coin. At Beyond, we believe that we succeed when our customers succeed and when our communities succeed. By investing in the minds and futures of smart, capable young people, we are building a well-prepared workforce and contributing to a thriving economy – which creates greater opportunities for our customers and for our company."
"I actually lead with the Give Back connection when I make a sales call," said business advocate Teri Rich, of Nashville, who joined Beyond on June 3 and swiftly became the first person in the company to post $10,000 in sales in a single month. "I'm very glad to inform merchants that they're getting state-of-the-art innovation and service at a very fair price, with Give Something Back as the ultimate benefactor. This is an organization that changes lives."
Rich worked in sales at Heartland for seven years before leaving in 2010 to attend to a family business. When she heard that Carr had formed a new company, her immediate response was, "Count me in."
"For a long time, I've known Bob Carr to be a man of great generosity and huge heart," Rich added. "Where in the world has anybody ever heard of a CEO who gives his full ownership share– which is 50 percent of the company– to a public charity? I just love that!"
Carr – who built Heartland Payment Systems from a $2 million startup to a $4.3 billion enterprise – stresses that Beyond's partnership with Give Back represents only one aspect of its corporate commitment to doing business the right way.
The company underscores its dedication to transparent, customer-first service with the Beyond Promises: Ten principles setting out the company's commitment to fair treatment, plain language (instead of unintelligible fine print) and full disclosure, with no hidden fees and no unexpected surcharges.
To recruit and retain a loyal, professional salesforce, Beyond has created a compensation model that offers portfolio ownership, a full slate of benefits, and uncapped earning potential. In addition, every Beyond employee hired in 2017 will have the opportunity to own part of the company.
"Companies in this sector must work hard to attract the very best employees," Carr said. "Our commitment to our core principles of fairness and transparency and our ongoing partnership with Give Back set us apart from our competitors. Already, we're seeing that Beyond's unique emphasis on doing business the right way is attracting top-quality employees and drawing a loyal and engaged customer base."
Give Back, which Carr founded in 2003, serves students who have faced economic hardship and other adversity, including the incarceration of a parent or placement in the foster care system. So far, Give Something Back has provided more than $35 million in scholarships to more than 1,500 scholars at partner colleges and universities across the country.
Beyond provides the POS, payments, lending, and integrated HR tools and services that small to mid-sized companies need to make their business operations simple, streamlined, and secure. Beyond was founded in 2017 by Robert O. Carr, a prominent businessman and philanthropist whose track record of success reflects his deep belief that "doing the right thing" for customers and employees ultimately produces the best bottom-line results. Carr is the author of two books: Through the Fires: An American Story of Turbulence, Business Triumph and Giving Back and Working Class to College: The Promise and Peril Facing Blue-Collar America.
Texas Humor Enhances Mobile Shopping Experience Through App Powered by Shopgate
Bluefin Payment Systems & UniversityTickets Partner for Point-to-Point Encryption
STRATACACHE Adds Turnkey Field Support To Its Portfolio Of Services
Worldwide Point of Sale Receipt Printer Market: Booming Retail Sector
Urgent Corrective Action Required to Catalyse Debit Card Usage in Malaysian Retail Industry
Pizza Hut Sets Goal Of Hiring Nearly 3,000 Drivers A Month For Rest Of 2017

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa says that the 20th Amendment presented to Parliament by the JVP may not be successful.
The Minister expressed these views addressing media in Colombo yesterday.
Meanwhile, speaking to media in Walasmulla, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera also expressed views regarding the 20th Amendment.
The Minister said that they were yet to discuss it as a party.


Does it count as a fire sale if it's free?
The show was awesome, it lasted 2.5 hours. Spoken and Awake at last put on a great show.
Spoken is always fantastic. Matt Baird rules and has the best musicians play with him.
Spoken was spectacular as always!
First time seeing Spoken. I knew when they started their Pledge for a new album it would be amazing. They delivered last night!


text:
How you can have the best meal of your life on an airplane
A James Beard Award winner
People often joke about how bad airplane food is, but have you ever given thought to why that's the case — and whether it's even true anymore?
Airlines have been seriously stepping up their game lately in the food department, serving up restaurant-quality meals that diners just happen to be eating while they're miles above the ground. Take Delta, for example, which has assembled an impressive culinary team that includes celebrity chefs Michael Chiarello and Michelle Bernstein, as well as master sommelier Andrea Robinson.
The team's newest member is Atlanta-based Linton Hopkins, a James Beard Award winner whose establishments include Restaurant Eugene, Holeman and Finch Public House, and he is the founder of H&F Bread Co. Since winning the Delta gig in 2013, he's been developing meals for travelers in the airline's Delta One cabin on flights from Atlanta to Europe.
BI Studios recently spoke with Hopkins about the small-artisan approach he's bringing to his menus, the factors that make cooking for a plane so challenging, and how eating on a plane can be just like dining in a restaurant — except 30,000 feet in the air.
BI Studios: What was your background before you became a chef with Delta?
Linton Hopkins: I woke up in my 20s after graduating with a degree in pre-med from Emory University, and realized that I could spend the rest of my life cooking and make it my career. I grew up in Atlanta cooking alongside my mother and later in after-school and summer jobs, but it wasn't until I saw a book entitled "Guide to Cooking Schools" that I imagined a career in the professional side of food. I then attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York, followed by stints in New Orleans and Washington, DC, where I met my wife Gina. We then returned to Atlanta a bit more than 11 years ago to open Restaurant Eugene together.
Who are your biggest culinary influences?
LH: First and foremost, my grandfather Eugene, who we named our first restaurant [Restaurant Eugene] after. He cured his own ham, made his own biscuits, and vinaigrette when he made a salad — he didn't believe in bottled vinaigrette. He was a good, from-scratch cook and used the freshest ingredients. It's what I uphold every day both at home and in my restaurants.
Tell us about the competition you entered to become a Delta chef.
It was called the Cabin Pressure Cook-Off, with my friends and colleagues Hugh Acheson, Kelly English, and George Mendes; it was fun. It was presented like the show "Chopped," beginning with the four of us preparing a signature appetizer and presenting it to the judges, who included Christina Grovic from Food & Wine, and key members from Delta and its culinary team, like master sommelier Andrea Robinson, chef Michelle Bernstein, and Mark Maynard-Parisi from the Union Square Hospitality Group. One chef was cut after each stage.
What did you make for the appetizer?
LH: A Georgia peach salad with charred Vidalia onions, crispy bacon, and fresh herb salad. Luckily, the competition was in early August so the peaches and the onions were still perfect. It was like putting Georgia on a plate — it was an expression of summer and who I am as a chef, where I am from.
For the next round, we had to build an entrée that could be reheated. I made a chicken dish with butter beans and fresh tomatoes, and then for the dessert challenge I baked my signature chocolate chip cookie. Improving food on an airplane is not about pyrotechnics of food; it's simply about making a great, comforting chocolate chip cookie and serving it warm.
What's your philosophy in cooking for Delta?
LH: Our philosophy is exactly the same as in our restaurants: from-scratch, seasonal, local, zero additives, and zero preservatives. The ingredients for Delta are sourced from the exact same Southern farmers and artisans that I use at Restaurant Eugene. We've created a way for the small good-food world to participate in big-food solutions and tell the story of these amazing local producers through each menu. Our philosophy is exactly the same as in our restaurants: from-scratch, seasonal, local, zero additives, and zero preservatives.
How did you change the menus when you started?
LH: Since Delta headquarters and I are both in Atlanta, we've had the opportunity to set up a completely new model for the airline's food supply chain. We bake fresh bread every day at H&F Bread Co. and built our commissary kitchen, Eugene Kitchen, to prepare all of our meals for the flights. We also switched the menus to a seasonal rotation. Think tomatoes in summer and butternut squash in winter.
Is there a reheating process on the plane?
LH: Yes, there are ovens on the plane. It's a 325-degree oven — compact and efficient. All food has to be fully cooked and boarded cold, in order to maintain food safety standards. This is why chicken is oftentimes dry. They can't board raw chicken and try to cook it in the air. Flight attendants are there for your safety; they are not there to be chefs. Our strategy was not to change equipment, but to change the quality of the ingredients and preparation.
One dish that's perfect for the plane is chicken pot pie. H&F Bread Co. makes our puff pastry; we use pasture-raised chicken from
White Oak Pastures in South Georgia; we cook the stock, chicken,
vegetables, and sauce at Eugene Kitchen then deliver it all to Gate Gourmet, Delta's catering company, to prepare for the planes. The puff pastry
and creamy filling are loaded on separately, and then the crisp pastry is placed on top right before the dish is served to the guest. It works in that environment; you get crispy and creamy and savory, perfect in fall and winter.
Crab cakes, which are also on the summer menu, work extremely well. We take Chesapeake Bay crabmeat and dress it with house-made mayonnaise, fresh herbs, a lot of bright lemon, and serve it warm with coleslaw. It's delicious.
What food would you never prepare because it just wouldn't work?
LH: Being able to guarantee a steak's temperature is really tough because everyone wants to have a great steak cooked to their liking. It's our job to find a preparation that will work for the environment. We recently partnered with Cuisine Solutions using sous-vide cookery to make dishes like the Herb Crusted Beef on the summer menu. It's made with beef short ribs that have been cooked sous-vide for 72 hours and are still pink in the center. They're tender and eat like beef tenderloin. We've got one year under our belt, so we now know the construct of dishes that will work successfully on a plane.
Can you walk us through the process for testing and developing a menu for Delta?
LH:I always begin with an ingredient list of what is available for a particular season. This list includes fresh vegetables as well as artisans with whom we have developed relationships. I then sit with my culinary leadership team and brainstorm potential dishes utilizing items from that list.
We then present it to Delta's team and together we collaborate on the final menu revisions. It's great because I'll introduce new things like asking a flight attendant to on-board pesto and spoon a dollop of it on a dish just before it's served, and they can tell us whether that will work within the flight attendant's steps of service.
Next, Gate Gourmet helps out with logistics for the menu's service, like sourcing a new nesting cup that holds a sauce perfectly. They go through each step of the pre-service process and do one last taste test with us and Delta's leadership team, who give the final OK for the
Do you ever talk to passengers about the food that they've eaten on a menu you've created for Delta??
LH:?Absolutely. I've worked two flights — the first was from Atlanta to Paris and recently I traveled from Atlanta to Rome. On the first flight, when I came out from behind the curtain in my chef whites to serve the food, one woman was like, "This peach cobbler better be as good as my grandmother's!" She later told me that it was.
There was a moment on both flights where I felt like I wasn't in a plane at all. We were at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic and I felt like I was in a small restaurant. It was really special. There were retirees flying to Paris, there was a young honeymoon couple, and this flight was going to be one part of the lasting memory they will have of the trip. Part of why I love the restaurant business is the memories we help people make. It's no different in the air, and there's no better way to make a memory than with good food and a glass of wine.
When you fly, do you prefer window or aisle?
LH:?I'm a window guy. I love the view.
Do you have a pet peeve when you're flying?
LH:?I prefer people not bring food onto a flight from the airport; it gets messy. I think airlines need to invest in making the food better than what someone can buy prior to boarding. It shows they care about their customers and I like that Delta is committed to doing this. They are generous, open partners who have allowed us to completely rethink how and why we have food on the plane. They are thoughtful; they want to innovate. I think most people would be willing to pay if they knew the food was high quality and was going to taste good. If I was offered a beautiful, fresh turkey and avocado sandwich for $10, I'd buy it.
You're famed for your Holeman and Finch burger. What are the components of a perfect burger?
LH: It's not about one perfect style of burger; it's really about the ingredients. Top quality beef, with just enough salt to release the flavor. Kraft American cheese because it's the best American cheese. When tomatoes are in season, a fresh slice of tomato with raw Vidalia onion — it's like having a tomato-onion salad on top. Avocado and smoky bacon barbecue sauce on occasion.
Ketchup or no ketchup?
LH: I actually like pickles and mustard on my cheeseburgers. Then I dip the burger into the ketchup.


I was three and took my first art class.
Is and always will be Michaël Borremans — at least my first real art love. He completely changed the way I viewed painting.
Women I admire and things I can't afford.
Watercolor and very small brushes.
I listen to music and scour the internet for inspiration.
A strong point of view.
@noemiferst, hands down! She's the sweetest, and even custom-ordered a book-cover painting for her daughter Gigi.
My partner, Krys and I used to work together and one day we were commiserating over not being able to find a leather jacket that was high quality but still within our budget. We set out to design the perfect leather jacket that had a high level of craftsmanship, attention to detail and impeccable fit, offered at a price point currently not available for that level of quality in the market. Vacation evolved organically from there, adding pieces into our first collection that felt like necessary staples in any closet. Every piece is made in New York using the highest quality materials sourced from some of the best mills in the US and Japan.
Classic and comfortable, always some denim.
I feel most connected to vintage references like Jane Birkin, Lauren Hutton, and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. They have such an ease with the way they dress and carry themselves, I always try to emulate that ease.


text:
Q: Issues Pushing to Github (HTTP/SSH) I have two separate issues and solving either of them would be a huge help to me. I'm trying to push some changes I made to my git repo and I can't seem to get it two work.
The first way I've tried to do it is by using the command I'd been doing up until now:
git push

but this would get hung up around 30% of the way through the commit. Following some posts I found online, I've convinced myself that this is a problem with the HTTP connection. I tried using:
git push --verbose --progress

and it always gets stuck at
Pushing to https://github.com/my-account/my-repo.git
Counting objects: 87, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (66/66), done.
POST git-receive-pack (chunked)476.45 MiB | 29.64 MiB/s

I don't have any big files, so I'm not sure what the hang up is.
After looking at some StackOverflow pages, I tried using:
git config http.postBuffer 524288000

which is (I think) supposed to stop it from chunking the data to buffer and allow bigger files to go through, but I got no change.
I then tried updating my version of git (it was at 2.10.something and is now 2.13.1), but that didn't change anything.
Someone suggested using SSH, but I can't seem to get my SSH key to work. I tried using:
git push -v ssh://my-account@github.com/my-repo.git

but I always get the error:
Pushing to ssh://my-account@github.com/my-repo.git
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

So I went to great lengths trying to get this thing working, even going so far as to regenerate my keys and reregister it with my account, making sure to edit the config to make sure it's all working. It's verified; the command
ssh -T git@github.com

returns
Hi my-account! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

but, of course,
git push -v ssh://my-account@github.com/my-repo.git

returns the same error as before, Permission Denied. Any ideas on how to fix either the issue with the SSH verification or with the HTTP buffering problem?

A: Github is using a single user for ssh and the name of the user is part of the path, such as git@github.com:my-account/repo.git.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It's great news for businesses that there are already practical applications of AI, especially for the customer experience.
We spoke with a few ecommerce agencies to get their advice and quick tips on how merchants can be successful during this shopping frenzy.
Happy agents, happy customers, right?
As with any profession, a customer service job can grow in different directions, leading to many new opportunities.
No, that's not a holiday I made up just now.


This is the 20th day of January and the war is four days old. This seems to make me feel that what I do, say, or write is quite frivolous. We do take for granted our busy everyday lives thinking we are safe from bombs, guns, and destruction — but are we? I guess only time will tell that. It has taken time for the honor of Purveyor of the Year to "sink in," and since I have not been beseiged by reporters or flash bulbs, I thought I would interview myself to give you some background on "the crazy herb lady." The fifth of five children, born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, I moved to St.Anthony, Idaho at a young age and graduated from high school there oh so many years ago! Somewhere during this time I went to work in a floral shop and eventually attended and graduated from the Colorado School of Floral Design in Denver.
For most of my young years, I made a point ofsaying "I will never marry a farmer,"but you guessed it —- I married a farmer and moved to Ashton, Idaho where we raised three daughters. After our second was born, I quit work and became one of those "dogooders." I was on school committees, church committees, built a new public library, medical clinic, and saved a historic building from destruction.
All this was well and good, but I was bored so I planted an herb garden! In the fall of '86, our youngest and myself left home and ran away to Salt Lake where she entered her senior year at Hillcrest High School and I went to work, first in a floral shop and then at Landures Produce. Always in the back of my mind was my beautiful herb garden and the desire to introduce the public to the wonderful world of herbs. Landures agreed to let me order more and more and eventually we started packaging for the grocery stores.
The summer of '88, I took over the herbs and cut my time with Landures to part time, but after I fell and broke both arms, I left Landures and increased my herb business to full time.
The rest of the story you know—— I still think of my little herb garden and enjoy working with the chefs garden when time permits. Thanks to all of you my business has grown and keeps me, my husband, and two of my daughters busy. Especially during the winter months, we find a shortage of some herbs and poor quality of others. This has prompted me to search out othersuppliers and growers, which in this country is not an easy task. As you know, Israel is a large part of the winter market, but with the war, getting orders into this country has been difficult. All of these problems have convinced me to send my husband to Central America to investigate the possibility of starting an herb farm.We'll keep you posted on progress with this new and exciting adventure! Again let me say thank you for the honor you bestowed upon me! You are a great group, and I look forward to the future with you.


Where is it? Right next to Wimbledon Park Hall at 170 Arthur Road.
The extensive menu is centered on quality products with all hot meals, pastries and cakes prepared on site.
A full range of coffees, teas and soft drinks area available to have in or take away.


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Q: MySQL inner join with multiple columns Let's say I have the following table called Email, where Id is the primary key:
+----+------------------+
| Id | Email            |
+----+------------------+
| 1  | anne@example.com |
| 2  | cat@example.com  |
| 3  | anne@example.com |
+----+------------------+

I'm trying to delete all occurrences of duplicates except the first. So in this case the desired output would be
+----+------------------+
| Id | Email            |
+----+------------------+
| 1  | anne@example.com |
| 2  | cat@example.com  |
+----+------------------+

After asking a friend, I found this solution works:
DELETE t1 FROM Person t1 INNER JOIN Person t2
Where t1.Email=t2.Email and t1.Id > t2.Id

My question is why does this work? In particular, when t1 inner joins t2 on Email field, how does the program know which row of anne@example.com should be matched with which, since there are multiple occurrences of this value with different Ids?

A: Consider this select statement only filtering by equality among email columns
SELECT t1.*, t2.*
  FROM Person t1
 INNER JOIN Person t2
 WHERE t1.Email=t2.Email
 ORDER BY t1.Id, t2.Id;

returns (1,1), (1,3), (3,1), (3,3) for t1.id and t2.id values respectively for the mail anne@example.com, and only (2,2) for cat@example.com. Then If you consider the other filter AND t1.Id > t2.Id,
SELECT t1.*, t2.*
  FROM Person t1
 INNER JOIN Person t2
 WHERE t1.Email=t2.Email
   AND t1.id > t2.id
 ORDER BY t1.Id, t2.Id;

then you'll only have one tuple (3,1) since t1.id > t2.id is satisfied only for this case of id tuples. If you convert SELECT t1.*, t2.* to DELETE t1 (of course remove ORDER BY part also), then obviously you'll delete id = 3 and left rows with id values 1 and 2, reversely if you replace SELECT t1.*, t2.* with DELETE t2, then you'll have rows with id values 2 and 3.
Demo

A: First, this is more commonly written using aggregation:
DELETE p
    FROM Person p INNER JOIN
         (SELECT p2.email, MIN(p2.id) as min_id
          FROM Person p2
          GROUP BY p2.email
         ) p2
         ON p.email = p2.email and p.id > p2.min_id;

Why does your version work?  Well, it works because of the fact that a join not only matches data but also filters data.
So, the condition
t1.Email = t2.Email and t1.Id > t2.Id

Says that for each record in t1 find matching records in t2 where t1.id > t2.id.  That is, find records in t1 that have a matching record with a smaller id.
All records have this property -- except for one for each email.  That would be the record with the smallest id.
I do not recommend this method for identifying the smallest record, because the join multiplies the number of records.  If one email has five records, then there are up to four matches for one of the records.  MySQL needs to figure out what to do when you say to delete a single record four times.  (It does the right thing, of course, but there is extra work.)
The aggregation method doesn't have any issues like this.

A: You compare two identical tables and check all occurrences where emailaddress of both tables are identical.
if the id is the same, the row is ignored.
If the id is different and it must have an id that is bigger than the id of first occurrence , this row gets deleted.


Sikhula Sonke was honoured to host the first Excite Conference in Khayelitsha on the 3rd and 4th of April this month. We realised that there was an opportunity for Principals to connect with Service Providers in our city, and we were excited to facilitate this connection opportunity.
We also wanted to invest in the Practitioners who serve our children each day and give them tools and time to connect with others, as well as encouragement for all that they do every day for our children!
The venue for both days was Masibabambane Lovelife Youth Center, located in Harare Square, Khayelitsha (opposite the Sikhula Sonke offices).
The day started at 08h00 and concluded at 16h30. This was a great opportunity to connect with representative of all these organisations, and to ask questions, find out ECD practical requirements and network with other principals. Over 50 principals attended, well-hosted by our excellent team of Sikhula Sonke staff.
The following day, we hosted Khayelitsha's ECD practitioners at an exciting day of learning, discussion and workshops. Attendees were given the opportunity to invest in their teaching skills and connect with other teachers and caregivers during the day.
In addition, each of the sixty attendees was given a box of ECD resources to take home, as well as an A3 laminated poster that they could use to help children with learning numbers, writing, understanding emotions and learning about weather and seasons.


text:
Kitces & Carl Ep 52: Are Advisor Websites Being Asked To Do Too Much To Grow The Business?
January 28, 2021 07:02 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast
Executive SummaryShow NotesKitces & Carl Podcast TranscriptWhy You Should Only Ask Your Website To Do ONE Thing [01:52]How To Convert Prospects To Clients By Keeping Your Solution In Front Of Them [12:34]How To Provide Value So That Prospective Clients Will Want To Hear From You [17:31]
Over the past several years, the technological capability for financial advisors to implement dynamic, interactive websites has evolved dramatically. Gone are the days of needing to publish static brochure-style webpages with images of lighthouses, compasses, and winding roads, and instead, advisors are able to publish robust portals that allow them to share content that demonstrates their expertise, provide information about the advisor(s) and their team, communicate directly with those they hope to serve, share the details of their pricing and the value they provide, and (if everything goes to plan) have visitors become a lead or even outright book an appointment. Yet the end result is that the advisor's website becomes a sort of Swiss Army knife… chock full of little tools that can do a lot but don't necessarily work nearly as well as a tool with a singular purpose. Which, in turn, raises the question: Are advisors asking their websites to do too much?
In this our 52nd episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss the one important thing that all advisor websites should do, ways to create awareness and become relevant to a specific audience over time, and why some advisors have unrealistic expectations from their website.
At its core, the key to marketing success as a financial advisor is learning how to solve the specific problems of a specific group of people better than anyone else (rather than trying to be 'everything to everyone', and in the process, not actually being especially relevant to anyone). Because having a clear focus on a clear target market niche clientele allows the advisor to differentiate themselves in a crowded and competitive marketplace, by being able to clearly stand out to the clients they are best able to serve. Which also means moving away from having a website that tries to be everything to every visitor, and instead simply gives a clear statement about who they serve… and an obvious next step for those prospects to actually move forward with the advisor.
Which, in almost every instance, isn't going to be a newly minted client deciding to hand over their life savings. Because, outside of referrals who are doing their last bit of due diligence before reaching out, most visitors to a website simply aren't ready to do business with an advisor upon their first visit.
Instead, by simplifying a website's design and 'just' having a well-defined audience and clear next step, advisors can build a targeted mailing list that they can use to share out relevant and actionable content, so that when someone who's been on that list realizes they have a problem that needs solving, they will remember that the advisor who serves 'people just like them'. In other words, an advisor's website should have one purpose, and that's to gain permission to communicate with a visitor again. And use those subsequent communications to build the trust relationship necessary to actually do business with them whenever they are ready.
Ultimately, the key takeaway is that advisors should shift their mindset around what their websites are meant to do, and recognize that it's extremely rare that a first-time visitor has arrived ready to do business. And that, unless it's clear who the advisor serves and what the next step is, the odds are that all those first-time visitors will also be last-time visitors as well (even if they are exactly who the advisor serves in the first place) unless there's a simple way (and a reason) for them to give their permission (by sharing their email address) to hear from the advisor again. While advisors who can find a way to stay in front of people in the future after they come across the advisor's website once have at least a fighting chance of being top of mind when that one-time visitor eventually needs to actually hire a financial advisor!
Michael Kitces
+ Read More +
Carl Richards
Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner™ and creator of the Sketch Guy column, appearing weekly in the New York Times since 2010.
Carl has also been featured on Marketplace Money, Oprah.com, and Forbes.com. In addition, Carl has become a frequent keynote speaker at financial planning conferences and visual learning events around the world.
Through his simple sketches, Carl makes complex financial concepts easy to understand. His sketches also serve as the foundation for his two books, The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money and The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money (Portfolio/Penguin).
***Editor's Note: Can't get enough of Kitces & Carl? Neither can we, which is why we've released it as a podcast as well! Check it out on all the usual podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Spotify, and Stitcher.
Kitces & Carl Ep 51: Fighting The Fear of Focusing When Trying To Select A Niche
Kitces & Carl Ep 43: Discussing Financial Advice Fees And Value To Help Clients Better Understand The Benefits Of Financial Planning
Why It's Easier To Market To A Financial Advisor Niche
The Society Of Advice
Alt Group
Ramit Sethi - I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Ric Edelman - Edelman Financial Engines
Kitces & Carl Podcast Transcript
Michael: Greetings, Carl.
Carl: Hello, Michael. How are you?
Michael: I'm doing well. How are you?
Carl: Fantastic. Yeah. Things are super good.
Michael: Excellent. Well, I wanted to follow up on our last episode where you had kind of thrown this comment out there that I feel like we have to come back to. You had said, as we were kind of ranting on the problems of having overly broad, overly general websites that aren't specific enough to anybody, to motivate to action, you had made this comment of, "We ask our websites to do too much."
Carl: Yeah.
Michael: And I'm curious to go a little bit deeper on this, what you meant by that. Obviously, I've got a few views of my own around websites and marketing because I kind of live in that world as well. But I am just wondering, where are you going, exactly, with, "We ask our websites to do too much"? What does that mean?
Why You Should Only Ask Your Website To Do ONE Thing [01:52]
Carl: Yeah. So I think of them as these poor beasts of burden, like some sort of donkey that we're just layering...so that we feel like there's so much pressure around if someone shows up, if I say exactly the right word, and then, I have a pop-up, and then I have this, and then I have that, and then we can say 'about', and then we can say 'firm' and 'services' and 'fees', and we can get everything in there.
And I think that's too much. I think we should ask our websites... Now listen; I know I'm wrong about this. I know it's an opinion. I know I'm wrong. Never in doubt, but this is my opinion. I think we should ask our websites to do one thing. I think a financial advisor should ask their website to do one thing, that one thing is to get permission to communicate again. That's it. That's the one thing.
And there's nothing, there is nothing you could say on your website that would get even 15%, not even 10%, probably not even 3% of the people who visit it, to call up and go, "I want to hire you." It's not going to happen in one... Think about what we're asking people to do, like money, talk about money, personal, scary, like all those things.
I think what we could do, what we have a shot at...if we're really clear, a clear statement about who it's for, and a clear call to action, a clear next step. And to me, that next step should be something like "learn more about me". Right?
So it could be, "Download a white paper I've written." I think the easiest one is, "I work with entrepreneurs with a successful exit of over $10 million, and I write something every week that's relevant to their lives. To get to that in your inbox, sign up here." I think getting signed up for a weekly email, and again, an opinion of mine, but it could be...
Don't get hung up on...I know there are people out there that they want to fight about the artifact. It could be your podcast. It could be your YouTube. Any way that you could just communicate again. And so, that to me, and I was struck by this because most of our websites look desperate, like we're throwing everything. "That didn't work. Try this. If that didn't work, try this. That didn't work. Try this."
And I think the most important thing we can do is just get permission to communicate again. So that's what I mean by, "We're asking them to do too much."
Michael: So the idea being if we're trying to close someone off of our website, "You came to my website. You read all the information. You think I'm the most amazing financial planner now, and you can't wait to give me your life savings and want to just click here on that button to get started," like it's just unrealistic. It's not even what we should be trying to do.
The only goal here is, well, in essence, don't assume this is a highly motivated prospect ready to buy who just needs to learn the last few steps of information before they give you their life savings. Assume this is a total stranger, has no idea what to do, and maybe in 6 to 12 months might decide to actually work with you once they warm up to you. So, what can you do to do the first step of a 12-month prospecting process? Not "what can you do for the last step to close them?"
Carl: Yeah. I mean, so a couple of things. Number one, it's never going to happen, and by never, I know I'm exaggerating. But we all know the numbers. Like how many people that visit your website call and go, "I want to become a client. Where do I sign?" I can pretty confidently say 'never', but I might be wrong.
Michael: Well, even the ones where it's right, it's probably because someone referred them to you and they already came in interested, and then they went and looked at your website, the last bits that they wanted, and then reached out to you to work with you. But it's not because they came to your website cold. It's because they came to your website warm.
Carl: Yeah. So, for those people – those few people that do come as a referral – we can accomplish the same thing by just being confident. Of course, there's a little contact information down in the corner. Of course, "Here's how you can get in touch with me." But how confident is it?
If I show up at your website and it says, "I work with this sort of person. To learn more, you can download my white paper I wrote. You can get a copy of my book. You can get my weekly email," whichever one. "You can listen to my podcast", whichever one. I'm trying to be artifact agnostic, so we don't get any fights here. Let me just say this. I'm artifact agnostic. I'm going to use email as the example.
"I work with this sort of person, and every week I write something really valuable. If you're that sort of person, to get that into your inbox, enter your email here." Like, all those words are specific, by the way: "to get that into your inbox". I'm not saying, "Sign up here or give me your email." This isn't a trick. It's like, "I write this thing."
So if you show up and that's what's there, like I could show you examples. There's a great firm in – and I didn't know this stuff was allowed, but it speaks so clearly to me, and so confidently – there's a website called Alt, A-L-T, group.net. Altgroup.net. This is a design and marketing firm in New Zealand. Now I know, "Oh, New Zealand. This works in New Zealand, doesn't work anywhere else." No. They're a design firm that does a bunch of business all over the world, and their website has been like this forever...I mean, I've been looking at it almost every day for five years because I am just so enthralled by it.
If you go there, it's a white page – and it'll be in the show notes – but for those of you listening, it's a blank white page, and in the middle of the white page, it says, "this page intentionally left blank." And in the bottom left-hand corner, it says "Alt Group" with their mailing address, email, and phone number. That's it.
Michael: Like their whole website is not just blank, but literally, a blank white space that says, "this page is intentionally left blank" and some contact information.
Carl: Yes. I love it. Now, you wouldn't want to go that far because you're really... Well, maybe, you would.
Michael: Well, in the world of, "we ask our websites to do too much", that certainly is the opposite end of just having them do nothing.
Carl: This is one of the most successful design firms on the planet. It's a design firm. Where's the portfolio button? Where's the "who we work for"?
Michael: Okay. But is that because they live in a world where they're now so wonderfully established, having been known as the best design firm in the world, that they can get away with this because they're actually just doing word-of-mouth referral marketing at this point?
Carl: They obviously are doing other stuff, obviously, right, or maybe? I mean, somehow, people are learning to go to the website. And then I think I would hire them in a heartbeat because they're that confident.
Let me give you another example that may be even better. Go to Ramit Sethi's website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com. Forget about the name. Forget about the bias you already have against Ramit, maybe, or against a website called "I will teach you to be rich". Just let all that go, and let me tell you, I know Ramit, pretty well, and I know every single element on that website. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars learning.
So you can go there and be pretty confident that somebody spent, well north of a million dollars at this point, on a website that gets things done. And right now, there's a quiz up there, and I'm not suggesting that, but forever there was, "Download a paper I wrote here. Download my free guide. Download chapters of my book." So it's still pretty clean. It's got a couple of social proof logos, like "I show up here, here and here", and a clear call to action and a clear statement of who it's for.
So I just imagine if I had my way, like if I had a magic wand and I could find 1000 of the best financial planners in the world that needed to grow their businesses, and they were really good ones, I would – without hesitancy – I would encourage them to write a white paper or a weekly email. I would take everything off their website, and I would put a clear statement of who it's for and a clear call to action. And the call to action, the only thing we're asking people to do is give me permission to communicate again so that, as a client – a prospective client – I can stalk you a little bit. I can see how you're thinking. I can understand your thoughts.
So that when I have a problem – I'm drawing now, for those of you just listening – imagine two lines coming from opposite corners of a piece of paper. When I have a problem and I become aware that I have a problem, it intersects with me thinking, "Oh, that's right, I've been hearing from Michael for two years. Every week he's been dropping things in about me, an entrepreneur with a successful exit of over $10 million. Every week, I get an email from him."
Because two things have to happen – my last bit of this rant – two things have to happen for somebody to go from prospect to client. They have to know that they need your help. I used to say they have to know that they're sick. And number two, they have to believe you have the medicine. And often, what we think that means is that we should run around telling people they're sick. Nobody likes that, and you don't like doing it.
So all you have to do really is say, "I'm going to play in traffic often enough that when people discover that they're sick, they think of me as the person that has the medicine." And so a better way to say that would be, they have to know they have a problem and they have to believe that you understand the problem. In other words, you have the solution or that you could solve it.
Michael: So if I go down this road or my website doesn't have my fees and my 'about me' and my services and all this other stuff because I'm, in the logical stream, like just drilling down to, "I'm super awesome at entrepreneurs who had $10 million exits and if you want my weekly tips, click here and I'll put them in your inbox." How do we actually make them into a client later? Where do they get all the stuff and information that presumably, at some point, they kind of want to know about before they actually talk to us?
How To Convert Prospects To Clients By Keeping Your Solution In Front Of Them [12:34]
Carl: I know I'm wrong about this, but I've seen people do it, and this is exactly what I would do right now. Because the alternative, to me, is just like blah. It's no fun. So this is what I would do, I would literally say, "I work with this type of person", as specific as possible. "I've written a white paper. You can download it below." Or, "In fact, every week, I send out as little as possible." That's the other thing I would say, "I work really hard to send you less. It'll take you three minutes to read. It comes every Friday. It's about you." Right?
Then, at the bottom, it would have the contact information. Then when somebody is like, "Do I need to know...?" At this point – and I know you and I probably disagree a little bit about this, we don't have time to talk about it here, but we've talked about fees and having fees front and center, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Right? But I don't have any context for that discussion right now. As a prospective client, I don't even know. But if I learn over time that you solved my problem, and assuming your fee is reasonable relative to the problem you're solving, I don't care. It solved my problem.
And, of course, "When am I going to get that information?" "Well, you're going to get the information at the end of the first meeting before you ever decide to be a client because that's how I do business. Here is what it's going to cost you. Take that home. Think about it." But you didn't need to read about it before you had any context for even understanding what that means to your life.
Because if I'm just like every other financial advisor – if I'm just like every other one – who cares what it costs? You're not worth anything if I'm just like every other one, which points us back to our niche problem, right? That's how you become relevant. So, to me, it's too early in the discussion. And I know I'm wrong, and I'm pushing the edge a bit here, but the alternative is to look like everybody else. That's my thinking.
Michael: Well, to me, the distinction isn't necessarily, "I want to look different than everybody else. Since everybody else has all their information on their website, I'm going to be the anti-information thing like Alt Group. I mean, again, I get it once you're actually world-renowned and have lots of word-of-mouth and referrals, I don't feel like a lot of us can, in the individual advisor world, maybe we're not big enough to quite get away with that. But the underlying piece of that is just, let's not kid ourselves, they're not giving us their life savings when they show up on our website.
That's why virtually every firm that's even put a 'robo' thing on their website, like "Click here and you can give me all your money, and you don't even have to talk to me." It doesn't work for anyone. All the advisors put robos on their website. It doesn't work for anyone. I think even Ric Edelman, with the freaking huge platform and presence that he's got, they had put information on because they were one of the early ones that added a robo advisor to their website in addition to their – whatever it is – 100+ human advisors. And I think their numbers were up to like, after three years, Edelman had grown something like $3 to $5 billion, and their robo had done less than $100 million of it. It was like 1% or 2% of their growth.
Even as a huge growth machine with the radio shows and the books and all the stuff in the Edelman marketing machine, it hardly moved the needle because people just aren't showing up on the website being like, "Oh, I can give you my life savings, and I hardly have to talk to you."
Carl: "I've been waiting for you."
Michael: "Awesome." If you assume instead that they're at the other end of that spectrum, "I kind of think maybe I've got some financial planning issues that I need help on, maybe at some point. Not even sure if it's today or if I'm ready, and I'm kind of starting my journey of checking this out. But I'm really not sure who to work with on it, and I've never worked with an advisor before. I'm just trying to figure out who's who and figure out if any of these people really understand me and my problems, so I know if they can help me or not." If you assume someone is that, that early stage and that timid, and they show up on your website.
Carl: Yeah, which is most. That's the only reasonable assumption to make.
Michael: Which is probably most. What's just the smallest first step that you can do? Which I love how you frame it: just get permission to communicate again. My only goal with that person is, "I want some way to stay in front of you so that in 3 or 6 or 12 months, whenever you actually decide to deal with whatever it is that's going on in your life, I'm still top of mind and connected to you because you're not going to remember that website you went to 3, 6, 9, 12 months ago if you only went there once and moved on."
But if I can convince you to give me an email address, so I've got some way to stay in front of you, then maybe I've got a chance when you're actually ready to do business at some point in the future.
How To Provide Value So That Prospective Clients Will Want To Hear From You [17:31]
Carl: Totally. And I think one fine-tuning on that, I think if we get the mindset that, rather than convincing somebody to give them my email address, if I can just make it easy for you to see the reason you would want to, right, like, "Oh, my gosh, this is clear. It's me. It's different." By 'different', I just mean it's relevant rather than non-relevant. It speaks confidence, right? Like it doesn't have to do all this other stuff, and I'm clearly called out. I think, to me, then you're saying, "Let's make it easy on people to understand why we can change their lives, right?" Rather than, "Can I convince them? Can I trick them? Can I put a pop-up? Can I do this? Can I do that?" Let's make it as easy as we can.
I would love, I would love...I almost want to fund them. I'm like, "Look, I'll pay people to put up websites like this." But that's how strongly I feel about it because here's the other thing, and really quickly, as you dive into the niche, right? "I work with entrepreneurs with successful exits over $10 million. I write something each week that is valuable to them, to get it into your inbox, put your email here."
Now, I start doing research with those entrepreneurs. Right? I start interviewing them. I start writing a white paper. I can take snippets of all that research. I can do those research interviews recorded. They could become podcasts. I can take snippets of those podcasts, and I can put them all over the socials, and the snippets say, "If you like this, you would love my weekly letter." Or "If you like this..." and then when I write the white paper, it could say, "If you like this, oh my gosh, you'd love the white paper. To get a free copy, go here." It just becomes this massive engine.
And now, suddenly, your social media work has purpose. We're almost out of time here, but here's the sneaky way, cheap way to test this. Create a landing page. Keep your website the way it is. Do all the things that all the people tell you, right? All those snake oil salespeople that are coming around and telling you how to build a website? Just do those things. Do those things. And then quietly ask them if they would just create a '/name of niche'.
Michael: So 'CarlRichards.com/entrepreneurs'.
Carl: On the '/entrepreneurs' page, build a landing page, a simple, clean landing page, ask for permission to communicate again, have that connected directly to your MailChimp account and start pointing it out and just see how much fun you have. That would be my test.
Michael: But, I think it's a powerful point of just recognizing that A) the number of people who are really actually ready to hire us and do business based on that initial visit to the website is almost none, and, frankly, if they are, you know, they're also likely to reach out to get their questions answered, anyway.
Most people who are coming to your website are not in any way, shape, or form ready to do business yet. They're people who surf the internet. For whatever reason, they're looking for information. They're trying to find out who might be right for them. They're just sorting through their financial future, whatever it is.
If you assume they're not ready to do business yet, your only chance is to make one small connection to stay in front of them. And so, if your website is set up for, "Click here and give me your life savings" or "Click here to get started and work with me," you're probably asking too much. If you've got, "Just enter your email address here to get my tips for people just like you," if it's really for people just like them. You've got a chance.
Carl: It makes me so happy. Even hearing you say that last sentence. You know, "Get my tips for people just like you." If it's really just for like... Yes, please. That's exactly what I'm saying. Please.
Michael: Awesome. Awesome. All right. Well, we'll see if anybody cues up an experiment from this and can let us know in the notes here or reach out to us directly through the podcast if you've got results to share. If it's good, we want to hear it. If it's bad, we want to make fun of Carl.
Carl: Yes, please. Please.
Michael: So either way, let us know how that landing page test works out.
Carl: For sure. Thanks, Michael.
Michael: Awesome. Thank you, Carl.
John J Bloomfield says
Great episode guys, and I am certainly interested in experimenting as we are currently thinking about a pivot strategy.
If you had the choice of landing page for a niche or separate domain/website entirely which would you go with and why? A lot of mixed information out there.
Our main website has been around a long time and that gives it some search authority – and the blog brings a lot of traffic so I don't want to mess with the core too much but I would like to experiment a bit with something – I have done separate website before (years ago) with a free e-book on a specific subject but I didn't nurture the list properly and because it was pretty static I had to use adwords to drive most of the traffic (which is no Biggy if you're getting results) – so I am thinking would a landing page be better – and if I did one should I link it back to the core site or totally isolate it?
Tommy Martin says
Okay, so I have not seen these guys in a year or so. OMG, Michael has aged a day and Carl is looking more and more like like Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) in Iron Man 1. Someone get this guy a cigar.
Kaleb Paddock, CFP® says
I'd respectfully say that my experience has been the opposite in terms of driving new business and "relying" on my website to do a ridiculous amount of 'vetting' and 'attracting' for me. 80%+ of my new business is NOT referrals or family/friends.
Here's the deal, people today will expect that the way you do your website, is the way you run your business and your life.
For example, if you say on a basic, single page website, "We provide clarity and transparency for our clients", and you literally do not clearly show your pricing, investment minimums (if applicable), or what kind of commitment you ask from clients, you are literally NOT being clear or transparent at all. And prospective clients will just move on because that is so glaringly hypocritical. You are essentially screaming that you don't know how to communicate very clearly. Why would someone give you their life savings if you can't communicate well?
Just my 2 cents. 🙂


text:
Sir Brinsley Ford, 1908-1999
Sir Richard Brinsley Ford was a collector, connoisseur, patron and authority on English 18th century art. From 1954 to 1961, he was a Trustee of the National Gallery and for 17 years (from 1972) he was secretary of the Society of Dilettanti. He inherited a distinguished art collection, including major paintings and drawings by Richard Wilson. This he developed further with judicious acquisitions of his own. In his 1951 monograph The Drawings of Richard Wilson, he gave the first comparative assessment of Wilson's drawings and investigated the stylistic distinctions between Wilson and his pupils and imitators. This book is still the only one to treat Wilson's drawings comprehensivity. The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art now houses the Brinsley Ford Archive. The archive contains material concerning British and Irish travellers in Italy in the 18th century, compiled by Sir Brinsley between c.1950 and 1988. Further papers have been added since this time and the archive was edited by John Ingamells for publication by the Paul Mellon Centre as A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, 1997.
Sir Richard Brinsley Ford was a collector, connoisseur, patron and authority on English 18th century art. From 1954 to 1961, he was a Trustee of the National Gallery and for 17 years (from 1972) he was secretary of the Society of Dilettanti.
He inherited a distinguished art collection, including major paintings and drawings by Richard Wilson. This he developed further with judicious acquisitions of his own. In his 1951 monograph The Drawings of Richard Wilson, he gave the first comparative assessment of Wilson's drawings and investigated the stylistic distinctions between Wilson and his pupils and imitators. This book is still the only one to treat Wilson's drawings comprehensivity.
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art now houses the Brinsley Ford Archive. The archive contains material concerning British and Irish travellers in Italy in the 18th century, compiled by Sir Brinsley between c.1950 and 1988. Further papers have been added since this time and the archive was edited by John Ingamells for publication by the Paul Mellon Centre as A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, 1997.
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Trinità dei Monti, Rome, The Courtauld Gallery, London
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) House with a high Portico, Bologna, Private Collection, England
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Landscape with a Tower, Private Collection, England


text:
Surprise! Dodge Challenger convertible planned
Damon Lavrinc
Feb 7th 2008 at 2:59PM
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Dodge Challenger.
During yesterday's unveiling of the Dodge Challenger, Chrysler's Vice Chairman, Jim Press, confirmed what we've already known; that Dodge expects to sell between 20,000 and 30,000 Challengers a year once production goes full-bore. All 6,400 Collectors Edition SRT8 models due to hit dealers this spring have been sold and there's a waiting list for the 2009 models. Naturally, more variants will be available next year with less powerful engines and a convertible version is supposedly in the works.
According to the Freep, Press expounded on the Challenger's virtues, saying that the SRT8 has a higher top speed (170 mph) than BMW's M5. Kind of a misnomer considering that the M5's speed limiter keeps the BMW sedan below 155 mph – unleashed, it has the potential of doing 205 mph. The Freep also quoted Press as saying that the Challenger has more torque than the Porsche 911 Turbo. Ummm... no. The 6.1-liter Hemi V8 produces 420 lb.-ft. of twist compared to the 911 Turbo's 460 lb.-ft. Maybe he was misquoted (he meant or said 911, not Turbo?), since his next line gave us pause. "When you sit inside, it makes you feel younger and richer than you are." Younger? Maybe. Richer? Not quite Mr. Press. We've seen the interior and it's hardly what you'd call luxurious, let alone exciting.
[Source: Detroit Free Press]
Chicago Auto Show
2023 BMW iX


A light-colored roof will not absorb as much heat as a darker colored one and there are many materials to consider for your re-roofing project, from thatch-type dried grass materials to stone, concrete and tile.
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Metal roofs have become a popular choice in many areas and some metal roofing can also be nailed directly to existing roofs, reducing the costs of removing old roofing and excessive clean up. Metal roofs are obviously fire-retardant and are also extremely durable, as well as energy-efficient since the metal roof reflects the heat of the sun. Initial costs of re-roofing with metal will be higher than with other composites, but the metal roof will pay for itself over time with its durability and longevity.
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Hot Mop roofing is a much less expensive option and holds up well if properly applied, but this product has been banned in many urban areas due to the smelly pollutants released into the air when applying the melted asphalt mixture to roofs.
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text:
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): January 13, 2014 (January 11, 2014)
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Charter)
Delaware 000-50743 77-0602661
(State or Other Jurisdiction
of Incorporation)
(Commission
File Number)
(IRS Employer
300 Third Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant's telephone number, including area code: (617) 551-8200
(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report)
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):
¨ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
¨ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))
Item 1.01. Entry Into a Material Definitive Agreement.
On January 11, 2014, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the "Company") entered into a global, strategic collaboration with Genzyme Corporation ("Genzyme"), to discover, develop and commercialize RNA interference ("RNAi") therapeutics as genetic medicines to treat orphan diseases (the "Collaboration"). The Collaboration is governed by a Master Collaboration Agreement, dated January 11, 2014, by and between the Company and Genzyme (including the License Terms appended thereto, the "Master Agreement"), which will become effective upon closing of the Equity Transaction (as defined below) (the "Effective Date") and will supersede and replace the previous collaboration between the Company and Genzyme entered into in October 2012 to develop and commercialize RNAi therapeutics targeting transthyretin ("TTR") for the treatment of transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis ("ATTR").
The Collaboration is structured as an exclusive relationship for the worldwide development and commercialization of RNAi therapeutics in the field of genetic medicines, which includes the Company's current "5x15" and future genetic medicine programs that reach Human Proof-of-Principal (POP) Study Completion (as defined in the Master Agreement) ("Human POP") by the end of 2019 (collectively, "Collaboration Products"), subject to extension to the end of 2021 in various circumstances. The Company retains product rights in North America and Western Europe, while Genzyme obtains exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Collaboration Products in the rest of the world (the "Genzyme Territory"). Genzyme's rights are structured as an opt-in that is triggered upon achievement of Human POP. The Company maintains development control for all programs prior to Genzyme's opt-in and maintains development and commercialization control after Genzyme's opt-in for all programs in its territory.
Upon the Effective Date, Genzyme will opt-in to patisiran (ALN-TTR02), an RNAi therapeutic currently in a Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of ATTR patients with Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy, for the Genzyme Territory, and the Company will retain full product rights in North America and Western Europe. The Company and Genzyme have also agreed to expand their current collaboration on ALN-TTRsc, an RNAi therapeutic currently in a Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of ATTR patients with TTR amyloid cardiomyopathy, where the parties will co-develop and co-promote ALN-TTRsc in North America and Western Europe. The Company will maintain development and commercialization control with ALN-TTRsc and Genzyme will develop and commercialize the product in the Genzyme Territory.
In addition to its regional rights for the Company's current "5x15" programs and the Company's future genetic medicine programs in the Genzyme territory, Genzyme has the right to either (i) co-develop and co-promote ALN-AT3 for the treatment of hemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders in the Company's territory, with the Company maintaining development and commercialization control, or (ii) obtain a global license to ALN-AS1 for the treatment of hepatic porphyrias. Genzyme will exercise this selection right upon Human POP for the ALN-AT3 and ALN-AS1 programs. Finally, Genzyme has obtained the right for a global license to a single, future genetic medicine program that is not one of the currently defined Company "5x15" programs. The Company retains global rights to any RNAi therapeutic genetic medicine program that does not reach Human POP by the end of 2019, subject to certain limited exceptions. Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company retains full rights to all current and future RNAi therapeutic programs outside of the field of genetic medicines, including the right to form new collaborations.
In consideration for the rights granted to Genzyme under the Master Agreement, Genzyme is required to make payments to the Company for each Collaboration Product upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones for each (i) regional (e.g., patisiran) and co-developed/co-promoted (e.g., ALN-TTRsc) Collaboration Product totaling up to $75 million and (ii) global Collaboration Product up to $200 million, and to pay tiered double-digit royalties up to twenty percent for each regional and global Collaboration Product based on annual net sales, if any, of each Collaboration Product by Genzyme, its affiliates and sublicensees. In the case of co-developed/co-promoted Collaboration Products, the parties will share profits equally and Alnylam will book product sales in North America and Western Europe.
Under the Master Agreement, the parties will collaborate in the development of option products, with the Company leading development for all programs prior to Genzyme's opt-in and also leading development and commercialization for all programs in the Company's territory after Genzyme's opt-in. Development costs for Collaboration Products once Genzyme exercises an option (or as of the Effective Date for patisiran and ALN-TTRsc) will be shared between Genzyme and the Company as follows, subject to the provisions of the relevant License Terms: (a) for all regional Collaboration Products, Genzyme shall be responsible for twenty percent of the global development costs, (b) for all co-develop/co-promote Collaboration Products, Genzyme shall be responsible for fifty percent of the global development costs, and (c) for all global Collaboration Products, Genzyme shall be responsible for one hundred percent of global development costs. If Genzyme does not exercise its option to license rights to a particular program, the Company will retain the exclusive right to develop and commercialize such program throughout the world, including the right to sublicense to third parties.
The Collaboration will be governed by an alliance joint steering committee that will be comprised of an equal number of representatives from each party. There will also be additional committees to manage various aspects of each regional, co-developed/co-promoted and global program. The Company and Genzyme intend to enter into supply agreements to provide for supply of Collaboration Products to Genzyme for clinical studies, and, at Genzyme's request, commercial sales. Genzyme also has certain rights to manufacture Collaboration Products. Additionally, Genzyme has certain limited opt-out rights, as specified in the Agreement, upon which products revert fully back to the Company with no further obligations to Genzyme.
In addition, under the Master Agreement, the Company and Genzyme have agreed to enter into exclusive discussions and negotiations regarding a potential collaboration around the delivery of small interfering RNAs ("siRNAs") to the central nervous system ("CNS") with the objective of enabling the discovery of siRNAs for the treatment of CNS disorders.
The Master Agreement (including the License Terms appended thereto) contains certain termination provisions, including for material breach by the other party. Unless terminated earlier pursuant to its terms, the Master Agreement will terminate upon the last to expire of any of the option periods under the Master Agreement or the License Terms appended thereto.
Equity Placement
The Company has agreed to sell to Genzyme 8,766,338 shares of its common stock, par value $.01 per share (the "Common Stock"), for aggregate cash consideration of $700 million, or $79.85 per share of Common Stock, pursuant to the terms of a Stock Purchase Agreement, dated January 11, 2014, by and between Genzyme and the Company (the "Equity Transaction"). This sale does not involve a public offering and is therefore exempt from registration under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). Based on 75,058,054 shares of Common Stock outstanding as of January 11, 2014 (on a pro forma basis), following the Equity Transaction Genzyme will beneficially own approximately 12% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock. The Stock Purchase Agreement contains customary representations, warranties, and covenants of each of the parties thereto. Subject to customary closing conditions, including the expiration or early termination of the applicable pre-merger waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, the Equity Transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2014.
As a condition to the closing of the Equity Transaction, Genzyme will enter into an investor agreement with the Company (the "Investor Agreement"). Under the Investor Agreement, until the earlier of the fifth anniversary of the expiration or earlier termination of the Collaboration and the date on which Genzyme and its affiliates cease to beneficially own at least 5% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock, Genzyme and its affiliates will be bound by certain "standstill" provisions. The standstill provisions include agreements not to acquire more than 30% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock, call stockholder meetings, nominate directors other than those approved by the Company's Board of Directors, subject to certain limited exceptions, or propose or support a proposal to acquire the Company.
Further, Genzyme will agree to vote, and cause its affiliates to vote, all shares of the Company's voting securities they are entitled to vote, up to a maximum of 20% of the Company's outstanding shares of Common Stock, in a manner either as recommended by the Company's Board of Directors or proportionally with the votes cast by other stockholders of the Company, except with respect to certain change of control transactions or liquidation or dissolution of the Company. Until Genzyme owns less than 7.5% of the Company's outstanding shares of Common Stock, subject to Genzyme's limited right to maintain its ownership percentage as described below, if the Company issues Common Stock or securities convertible into or exercisable for Common Stock to a third party that holds at least 30% of the Company's outstanding shares of Common Stock or, in connection with a collaboration or license transaction, to a third party that will initially hold at least the percentage of the Company's outstanding shares of Common Stock represented by the shares purchased by Genzyme at the closing of the Equity Transaction, the Company will offer Genzyme an opportunity to amend the standstill and voting provisions in the Investor Agreement to be consistent with the terms provided to such third party.
Under the Investor Agreement, Genzyme will agree not to dispose of any shares of Common Stock beneficially owned by it immediately after the closing of the Equity Transaction until the earlier of (i) December 31, 2019 (subject to extension by up to two years if Genzyme's option to select additional compounds under the Master Agreement is extended beyond December 31, 2019) and (ii) six months after the expiration or earlier valid termination of the Collaboration, in each case subject to earlier termination in the event certain clinical activities under the Collaboration fail to occur (the "Lock-Up Period"). Following the expiration of the Lock-Up Period, Genzyme will be permitted to sell such shares of Common Stock subject to certain limitations, including volume and manner of sale restrictions. Notwithstanding the foregoing, following the two-year anniversary of the closing of the Equity Transaction, in the event that the market price per share of the Common Stock is at least 100% higher than the market price per share of the Common Stock at closing of the Equity Transaction (in each case based upon a ten-day trailing average), Genzyme may sell up to 25% of its initial shares of Common Stock, subject to certain restrictions on post-Lock-Up Period dispositions as described above.
Under the Investor Agreement, following the Lock-Up Period, Genzyme will have three demand rights to require the Company to conduct a registered underwritten public offering with respect to the shares of Common Stock beneficially owned by Genzyme immediately after the closing of the Equity Transaction. In addition, following the Lock-Up Period, subject to certain conditions, Genzyme will be entitled to participate in registered underwritten public offerings by the Company if other selling stockholders are included in the registration.
The Investor Agreement provides that, until Genzyme owns less than 7.5% of the Company's outstanding shares of Common Stock, subject to Genzyme's limited right to maintain its ownership percentage as described herein, in connection with new issuances of Common Stock, subject to certain exceptions, Genzyme will be entitled to a right of first offer to participate proportionally to maintain its then-current ownership percentage of the Company's Common Stock. If Genzyme is not entitled to a right of first offer with respect to a new issuance, Genzyme will have the opportunity, on a post-transaction basis, to purchase additional shares sufficient to maintain its pre-transaction ownership percentage of the Company's Common Stock (subject to the same 7.5% ownership threshold).
In addition, in the event Genzyme and its affiliates acquire at least 20% or more of the outstanding shares of Common Stock, Genzyme will be entitled to appoint one individual to the Company's Board of Directors. Genzyme will also be entitled to certain information rights, including with respect to financial information in the event Genzyme or its affiliates require such information for its own financial reporting purposes.
The rights and restrictions under the Investor Agreement are subject to termination upon the occurrence of certain events. In connection with the closing of the Equity Transaction, the Company's stockholder rights plan will be amended consistent with the terms of the Investor Agreement.
Item 3.02. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.
The information set forth under the heading "Equity Placement" in Item 1.01 is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.
On January 13, 2014, the Company issued a press release concerning the Collaboration and the Equity Transaction, a copy of which is being furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this Report on Form 8-K. The information in this Item 7.01 and Exhibit 99.1 attached hereto is intended to be furnished and shall not be deemed "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, except as expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.
Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(d) Exhibits.
The following exhibit relating to Item 7.01 shall be deemed to be furnished, and not filed:
No. Document
99.1 Press Release issued by the Company, dated January 13, 2014
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
/s/ Michael P. Mason
Michael P. Mason
Vice President, Finance and Treasurer


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Bright Colors and Bold Patterns!
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Social Security and modern dance.
I had to call the Social Security administration and I was on hold for over two hours. So, I made a beautiful dance for all to enjoy.
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Huzzah! Twas Shakespeare in the Park!
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Nightcap Season 2 aired on POP TV, but I didn't post about it. via GIPHY The great news is that all of season 1 and 2 are airing on Hulu now! Check them out right HERE!
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text:
Q: How to repair applications using 'msiexec /f appname' I want to execute the 'msiexec' command to repair an installed application.
I.e. in the application, I will add a string value into a specified key in the registry.
After old version is installed, I check the registry table, it's ok. The string value is "3.0.0.2". Then I use another installer which is the same as the previous one and it will change the string value into "3.0.0.6" in the registry.
After execution, the value doesn't change!
The problem confused me for several days.
Here is my msiexec command line to repair the application:
msiexec ApplicationName="Mobile" /fvomusa "asset.msi" /L log.txt

How can I execute the msiexec correctly to modify the registry value? I tried several '/f' args composition, such as '/fvmusa', '/f', '/fva' and so on, but to no effect.

A: Here are the possible command lines:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa367575(v=vs.85).aspx
The installer properties list should be last, not before "/fvomusa". Also, try using a public property (no lowercase letters in its name) instead of a private one.


8 July 2010, at 8:42a.m.
INDIA - Godrej Agrovet is predicting a 15 per cent increase in its turnover this fiscal year.
Godrej Agrovet is eyeing to achieve 15 per cent growth in its turnover in the current financial year (2010-11), which stood at Rs 16 billion rupees (INR) during the previous year, reports Top News of India.
B.S. Yadav, the company's managing director, said: "We expect a 15 per cent jump in our topline and 25 per cent in the bottomline. Last year, we had a turnover of over Rs 1,600 crore."
Mr Yadav said that diversified agri-business company, which presently sells animal feeds, ready-to-eat foods and processed poultry products, is looking 'seriously' at diversifying into fresher segments.
He added: "Dairy, micro irrigation, seeds and corn seeds are the avenues we are looking at. At this juncture, I cannot say whether our entry into the market will be through the greenfield mode or acquisitions."
Godrej Agrovet can comfortably lift finance for the planned diversification via debt or internal accruals.
On acquisitions, he said that the company is 'always open' for proposals in the palm oil and animal feed segments.
For organic expansion, the company has earmarked INR500 million as capital expenditure for 2010-11 and a big part of the amount will go towards raising capacities of its animal feeds business by erecting three plants in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Godrej Agrovet is also making investments in its palm oil vertical as part of its capital expenditure for FY-11, according to Top News. Presently, it owns 40,000 hectares under cultivation.


text:
Sainte Jeanne peut désigner :

Saintes chrétiennes
Par ordre chronologique du décès :
 Jeanne la Myrophore (), femme de l'intendant du roi Hérode, guérie par Jésus ; fêtée localement le 27 juin.
 Jeanne d'Arc († 1431), vierge martyre, brûlée sur le bûcher pendant la guerre de Cent Ans, une des trois saintes patronnes de la France ; fêtée le 30 mai ou localement le 11 mai.
 Jeanne Scopelli (°1428 - †1491), carmélite italienne, fondatrice du premier couvent de carmélites en Italie, fêtée le 9 juillet.
 Jeanne de France (°1464 - †1505), ou Jeanne de Valois, reine de France et épouse du roi Louis XII qui la répudia, fonda à Bourges l'Ordre des Annonciades ; fêtée localement le 4 février.
 Jeanne de Lestonnac (°1556 - †1640), épouse, mère, éducatrice, veuve, contemplative, fonda à Bordeaux Compagnie de Marie Notre-Dame ; fêtée localement le 2 février.
 Jeanne de Chantal (°1572 - †1641), Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot, baronne de Rabutin de Chantal, fondatrice de l'Ordre de la Visitation ; fêtée depuis 2003 le 12 août et antérieurement le 21 août puis le 12 décembre.
 Jeanne Delanoue (°1666 - †1736) fonda le premier hospice de la ville de Saumur ; fêtée le 17 août.
 Jeanne-Antide Thouret (°1765 - †1826), religieuse française, fondatrice de l'ordre des « Sœurs de la Charité de Besançon » ; fêtée le 24 août.
 Jeanne-Élisabeth Bichier des Ages (°1773 - †1838) est une religieuse du Poitou, fondatrice de la congrégation des Filles de la Croix ; fêtée le 26 août
 Jeanne Jugan (°1792 - †1879), en religion sœur Marie de la Croix, fondatrice de la congrégation des Petites Sœurs des Pauvres

Bienheureuses catholiques
Par ordre chronologique du décès :
 Jeanne de Bagno  († 1105), bienheureuse, religieuse bénédictine camaldule, originaire de la Toscane ; fêtée le 16 janvier.
 Jeanne d'Aza († vers 1203), bienheureuse, en Vieille-Castille, mère de saint Dominique et du bienheureux Mannès de Guzmán ; fêtée le 8 août.
 Jeanne Véron († 1794), bienheureuse, martyre de la Révolution française ; fêtée le 20 mars.

Théâtre
 Sainte Jeanne, une pièce de théâtre de George Bernard Shaw.

Cinéma
 Sainte Jeanne, un film américain de 1957

Télévision
 Sainte Jeanne, un téléfilm de Claude Loursais de 1956

Marine
 la Sainte Jeanne est un cotre à corne, réplique d'un sloop de bornage d'Erquy.

Références

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We have answered to most questions asked by our members on our FAQ page. We cover all topics from products we offer, the use of your invitations & credit to how you can make an order, receive your products or return your goods. We kept some questions unanswered? Let us know and we will complete our FAQ page to better serve our members.


text:
Q: How many subfields does a field with $2^{36} = 68719476736$ elements have I encounter to this qustion. This is such a big number so I believe there must be some trick to solve it.
But I wonder what property of finite fields should I use. I know that according to Galois correspondence.  The subfields are correspond to divisor of $2^{36}$. Is that correct? So is are there exactly $37$ such subgroups?
Thanks for any help!

A: You may have established that $G \cong \mathbb{Z}/36\mathbb{Z}$ (since you have a finite extension of finite fields).
By the converse of Lagrange's theorem (for cyclic groups), there exists subgroups $H$ which have order dividing the order of the group, namely, $|H| =2,3,4,9,6$. This is all of them (don't forget the trivial ones).
Using the fundamental theorem of Galois theory you should use that bijection you were talking about.


Hey guys hope you are fine. So here is good news for you that PUBG LITE is free to play and firstly launched in Thailand, but now you can download PUBG LITE from our website and can play in your beloved country too.
What is PUBG LITE ?
PUBG LITE is a low spec version of PlayerUnknown's Battleground (PC Variant) which is called PUBG LITE, It was also known as PUBG Project THAI.
This is design for low spec Pc's, now you guys don't need to have expensive Gaming Pc's to play PUBG LITE, but high end Pc's can also play this game for sure.It same same as PC Variant PUBG but you can easily play it on low end PC's.
Now you can enjoy PUBG in your low end potato PC's without, no any graphic problems, now patches required.just download, install and play.The big thing is it is free to play in market.Its gameplay footage is same as PC based PUBG variant.
As you guys can see PC requirements are not that high that you are thing . So now you can download it and play it on your pc too fell free to download it and enjoy with your friends. just click on download button to download it .
If you guys like this article so feel free to share it with your friends. and suggest them to try this PUBG LITE version which is free to play without any problem .


The Hammer has been designed to fit the stock factory full console for '94-'04 Mustangs with the AOD & AODE transmission. It has a full ratchet action mechanism for positive upshifts and downshifts.
When shifting the Mustang Hammer from neutral or reverse to park positions, just lift the trigger and ratchet the shifter forward for each position.


Thank you everyone for your patience while we did the necessary upgrades to our servers. Deletes are operational once again. If you run into any issues, please let us know.
Our scheduled maintenance continues to progress on-schedule and we're looking forward to wrapping it up in the coming days. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
We wanted to pass along an update that our maintenance continues to proceed on-schedule. We thank you for your patience and understanding!
Between June 15th to July 10th we will be undergoing a period of scheduled maintenance to make significant enhancements to our core infrastructure. During this time, our delete API will reject valid requests and return a 202 response. You should expect delete unavailability at any time during this period. All other Keen IO functionality including data storage, collection, and computation will continue to work as expected.
If you are a Pro or Enterprise customer with specific, time-sensitive delete requests that must happen for your organization, please get in touch with your customer success manager.
We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause your organization. This period of scheduled maintenance is an important step for ensuring and improving Keen's long-term reliability and performance. Reliability and uptime is incredibly important to us and we will do our best to lift the delete moratorium as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
This scheduled maintenance affected: Compute API.
Subscribe to updates for Keen IO Delete API Maintenance via email and/or text message. Whenever an update is posted, you'll receive a notification.


text:
Q: how database connection pool impacts performance? I am using .Net 2.0 + SQL Server 2005 Enterprise + VSTS 2008 + C# + ADO.Net to develop ASP.Net Web application. The ASP.Net Web application is database centric/driven. I want to know whether there are any performance reference data about what are the differences of performance when we turn on/off thread pool setting in ADO.Net connecting string setting? Performance I mean both the concurrent connection which could be supported and the execution time of a specific SQL Command executed from ADO.Net client side?
thanks in avdance,
George

A: The performance difference is going to vary widely from application to application, so there is no hard data on what kind of gains you should expect.
The best course of action for you to take it to measure it by doing stress tests on your app with it configured with/without pooling and see how it fairs.
WCAT is one kind of stress tool you can use to load your ASP.NET application.
You can also try a profiler (of which there are many) to monitor your application to see how it performs under the stress.
Some Profilers: ANTS, dotTrace

A: I don't have any performance stats at hand, but maybe a word of warning when using connection pooling: you might end up with too many small pools, instead of one large one.
ADO.NET will create a new connection pool for

*

*each connection string; it is very picky about this, too - if you have two connection strings that are different by even just a single space or something, those are considered two separate connection strings, and will lead to separate connection pools being created

*for each Windows credentials if using the "integrated security" (trusted connection) setting
So if you have a connection string something like
server=MyDBServer;database=MyDatabase;integrated security=SSPI;

one connection pool for each distinguishable user will be created - that's rather counter-intuitive, but that's the way it is (and it cannot be influenced / turned off).
Check out the MSDN docs on ADO.NET connection pooling for details:

When a connection is first opened, a
  connection pool is created based on an
  exact matching algorithm that
  associates the pool with the
  connection string in the connection.
  Each connection pool is associated
  with a distinct connection string.
  When a new connection is opened, if
  the connection string is not an exact
  match to an existing pool, a new pool
  is created. Connections are pooled per
  process, per application domain, per
  connection string and when integrated
security is used, per Windows
identity. Connection strings must also
  be an exact match; keywords supplied
  in a different order for the same
  connection will be pooled separately.

Also, if you have these two connection strings:
server=MyDBServer;database=MyDatabase;user id=tom;pwd=top$secret

and
server=MyDBServer;database=MyDatabase;user id=tom; pwd=top$secret;

those are considered different connection strings, and thus two separate connection pools will be created.
When attempting to measure the effect of connection pooling, this is something to be aware of!
Marc

A: write a small progeam to access the database. open the database connection without close it and loop 100 times.

*

*Monitor the time you need to get the data each time.

*Monitor the sever side connections using 'netstat -a'

*with/without pooling

A: You say 'thread pool', but obviously are talking about connection pool as your title shows.
There is a performance overhead for creating new database connections. It's a resource intensive operation, which is why we have ADO.NET connection pooling. Effectively connections are not closed, but merely returned to the pool where they stay active and can be reused by other parts of the same code base (inside the AppDomain).
One ADO.NET application pool is created PER unique connection string, therefore it is worth noting that when you use Integrated Security, you will lose the benefits of connection pooling as you will effectively have one connection pool per DB authenticated user.


NVUSD collaborates with participating schools, governmental agencies, community organizations, and, if appropriate, the private sector, to provide before- and/or after-school enrichment programs that support the regular education program and provide safe alternatives for students.
All staff who directly supervise students possess appropriate knowledge and experience and receive ongoing training. In addition to academic and enrichment elements, the program may include support services that promote student health and well-being.
Yountville Parks & Rec Dept.