Steve Wozniak announces tech education platform Woz USteve Wozniak, the Apple co-founder who changed the world alongside Steve Jobs, has today announced the launch of Woz U. According to the release, Woz U will start as an online learning platform focused on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Woz U is based out of Arizona, and hopes to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities across the globe. At launch, the curriculum will center around computer support specialists and software developers, with courses on data science, mobile applications and cybersecurity coming in the future. [ TechCrunch ] Black lawmakers will visit Silicon Valley to press Facebook, Twitter and others to improve their diversityA pair of powerful black lawmakers in the U.S. Congress will visit Silicon Valley next week to push companies like Airbnb, Facebook, Twitter, Lyft and Uber to improve diversity. Beginning Monday, the two Democratic pols — Reps. Barbara Lee and G.K. Butterfield — plan to stress in meetings with those five tech giants and others that their efforts to hire and retain more black engineers and executives just haven’t progressed swiftly enough. In an interview with Recode, Lee said she would also prod Facebook and Twitter to address racist content that has been spread on their platforms, particularly in light of reports that Russian agents — in a bid to stir political unrest in the United States — shared such messages on social media during the 2016 presidential election. [ Re/Code ] In Eric Ries’ new book, he tells companies to turn every unit into a cash-strapped ‘startup’All companies are startups until they aren’t. Many struggle to find their way back, too. It’s not the days of constrained resources or terrible pay or the heart-stopping uncertainty that they’re missing, of course. Instead, the problem is that it’s a lot harder to implement change at an “established” organization, particularly one that’s making money. Yet the smartest companies know change is crucial. As journalist Alan Deutschman wrote a dozen years ago, including in a book of the same title: “Change or die.” [ CrunchBase ] Feeding Kickstarter, Estée Lauder And Google, Refugee Chefs Fuel Catering Startup Eat Offbeat“Eat Offbeat serves authentic meals that are conceived, prepared and delivered by refugees who are resettled here in New York City,” said Manal Kahi from a Columbia University auditorium stage October 6 in Manhattan. Kahi is the CEO and co-founder with her brother Wissam Kahi, of the social enterprise Eat Offbeat. Kahi gave a concise presentation at Columbia University’s 16thannual Social Enterprise Conference, hosted by the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School. Kahi, originally from Lebanon, graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in 2015 and launched Eat Offbeat soon after. [ Forbes ] Winklevoss twins sue marijuana startup investor for defamationTwins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — famous for suing Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole their idea for Facebook — are suing an investor in a marijuana startup for portraying them as deadbeats. Attorney Charles Harder, who helped score a $140 million verdict against Gawker in Hulk Hogan’s invasion of privacy case, is representing the Winklevoss es in a new Manhattan Supreme Court suit against professional investor Todd Steinberg. [ NY Post ] How Lyft's John Zimmer went from sleeping on a couch and eating frozen Trader Joe's meals to running a $7.5 billion companyElon Musk might have another $50 billion company on his hands (TSLA)What It Takes to Build a Company That You Can Sell for $1 Billion, According to a Guy Who Just Did It While Amazon and Microsoft battle in the cloud wars, this startup quietly built a $175 million business by picking up their slackFireside chat: John Collison, co-founder, StripeUber’s Competitive Obsession Led to an UnravelingSo, You Want to Join a StartupBrian Shortsleeve, former MBTA troubleshooter, launches VC firmThese 7 startups have raised $500M+ rounds this yearRed Hat continues steady march toward $5 billion revenue goalApttus Is Working With Goldman Sachs on IPO Plans |