In a recent episode of The Prof G Show, Scott Galloway interviews Sridhar Ramaswamy, the CEO and cofounder of Neeva, an all-new, subscription-based search engine that aims to be a competitor to Google for search.

Taking on Google seems like a gargantuan task, but Ramaswamy makes a compelling case for Neeva in this interview. It helps of course that Galloway is a fan of the concept and the company as he’s said many times on his show and also on Pivot. But Galloway is a good interviewer and he does a nice job in this episode of asking the tough questions.

Ramaswamy explains how Neeva will be an ad-free, private search engine, differentiating itself in the search market from Google which has become a slave to ad revenue, thus diluting the quality if the search results and user experience. Neeva will be subscription based, and thus obsessively focused on the needs of the consumer according to Ramaswamy. He should know as he spent fifteen and a half years at Google, and many members of his team at Neeva are Google alumni. By not being a slave to ads, Neeva can avoid tracking every consumer action, and instead just focus on data that improves the search results.

It has been reported that Neeva will charge between $5 and $10 per month for the service.

Take a listen to the podcast episode. Ramaswamy comes across as a formidable leader who can make this work.

Businesses large and small need to take advantage of cloud computing, primarily because competitors will be gaining an advantage if your company ignores this reality.

For small businesses, cloud apps can dramatically improve your capabilities regarding all sorts of internal functions. SaaS software can provide enterprise-level tools for businesses of any size. The same applies to larger businesses, but issue such as using data become even more important with large businesses.

This article offers some excellent strategies to help businesses leverage the power of cloud computing. It explains how “the first step in developing a cloud strategy is to change how you think about cloud technology:”

The biggest barrier we see that keeps small and mid-sized businesses from taking advantage of the cloud comes from the top: business owners, presidents, or CEOs. Business leaders will often delegate any IT-related decisions to their IT team. The problem with this approach is that the decision to adopt a cloud strategy is primarily a business strategy, not an IT strategy.

Business owners need to understand that the cloud offers a competitive advantage. Also, your IT Manager does not think like you. He or she thinks about functionality and tasks. It’s your job to think about the business, and that will likely rewquire taking things out of their hands and using third-party software and apps on the cloud.

Check out the article and start thinking about what strategy works for you and your business.

With everyone stuck at home, any business that aims to replace brick and mortar activity with electronic transactions has a change to gobble up new busness.

That’s certainly the case with the fintech business area, as more people look to manage money electronically and avoid going to the bank. And we’re seeing more activity in that area as companies like Paypal and Venmo see a surge in new sign-ups.

Deal activity is picking up in the fintech space as smaller startups that had great promise are being scooped up by the big boys. This M&A activity is expected to accelerate as the market starts to feel the impact of the Coronavirus. We will see the big players such as Paypal, the banks, Visa and Mastercard will be leading the way:

A surge in deals began just as the contagion was spreading. In January Visa announced it would pay $5.3 billion to purchase San Francisco’s Plaid, a tech platform connecting bank accounts to apps, and in February Intuit said it would pay $7.1 billion for Credit Karma. The coronavirus pandemic—and the business disruptions it is causing—will quicken the pace of transactions over the next year. Already, Motif, a 10-year old stock investing fintech backed by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan that was once valued at $440 million, announced that it would shutter and sell its tech and intellectual property to Charles Schwab. Some like Motif and On Deck will end up in shotgun weddings, but others will find happy marriages of convenience.

Let’s see how this plays out.

If you want to use Photoshop CC, you have to purchase a monthly or yearly subscription. The days of the perpetual license are ending at Adobe, and that has left many customers furious, as these letters to the NYT reviewer make clear.

I have mixed feelings on this. I don’t have a huge problem with Adobe’s strategy, but I think they’re pricing it too high. The same goes for Dreamweaver. David Pogue points out that GIMP is a free competitor to Photoshop, and while Adobe will make out big in the short run, perhaps by pricing it too high they risk losing serious market share over time.

We’ll see how it plays out.