Author: ezhankevich

As the world gradually emerges from the pandemic, the startup ecosystem in Germany is making a strong recovery. Despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic, many startups in Germany have managed to secure significant funding in the first half of 2023.

Let’s take a closer look at the top 5 startups which have recently secured big funding.

Grover – This Berlin-based startup is a subscription-based platform for tech rentals that lets users rent everything from smartphones and laptops to gaming consoles and VR headsets. The startup recently raised $1.2 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund.

Neufund
– Also based in Berlin,a blockchain startup that aims to democratize finance by allowing investors to buy and sell shares directly in startups. The company raised $13.2 million in a funding round led by Future Ventures.

Personio
– Munich-based Personio is a cloud-based human resources management platform that caters to small and medium-sized businesses. The company recently raised $125 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures.

Wefox
– Wefox is a digital insurance platform that connects customers with insurance providers. The Berlin-based startup recently raised $650 million in a funding round led by California-based venture capital firm Tiger Global Management.

Mambu
– Mambu is a cloud-based platform that provides core banking services to financial institutions. The Berlin-based startup recently raised $288 million in a Series F funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

These startups are just a few examples of the innovative and dynamic businesses that are driving Germany’s startup ecosystem. At StoneLabs, we are committed to helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality through custom software product development. With our expertise in building complicated IT startups on demand, we can help businesses like these adapt to changing market conditions and achieve their full potential.

We provide different services to projects on the different state of the development process, so we have a ready-made way of solving any issue:

• Need to get a project up in a short time?
  MVP tips & tricks – https://startup.stone-labs.com/mvp-development
• Need tech-to-business advice on how to get an ideal market fit?
  Product Discovery – https://startup.stone-labs.com/product-discovery
• Need an expert CTO / Product Manager for your team?
  Experts on-demand – https://startup.stone-labs.com/virtual-experts
• Wanna gather feedback from users/investors without any development?
  UI prototype – https://startup.stone-labs.com/ui-prototype
• Want to improve an already created solution or prepare it for growth?
  Solution audit – https://startup.stone-labs.com/solution-audit

To learn more, visit our StoneLabs website at https://startup.stone-labs.com/ and we will help you to create and scale your project!

Great news from the Laravel team – Valet 4.0 is just launched! This new version offers various upgrades and user-friendly features that enhance the overall experience of the platform.

The primary goal of Valet 4 is stability, achieved through the re-architecture of the project’s internals, making it easy to debug and fix. This new version also features all forms of unit and integration tests, making the codebase more manageable.

One of the new features of Valet 4 is the “valet status” command. This command generates a table that shows the “health” of important aspects of the Valet application. This feature is helpful when debugging, and it also returns codes for success or failure that other CLI tools can consume.

Upgrades to ngrok are also included in Valet 4. Users can now install ngrok via Homebrew, allowing them to have one universal version installed and keep it up to date as needed.

The integration of Expose as a share option is another significant feature of Valet 4. Users can run the “valet share-tool expose” command, and if they don’t have Expose installed, Valet will prompt them to install it. Once the Expose token is set up, users can share their sites using the familiar “valet share” command.

The .valetrc file in Valet 4 is more powerful than the previous .valetphprc, making it more configurable. This opens up new options for the future, such as building a plugin system, which is currently in the works.

Stone Labs hopes that Laravel Valet 4 will provide a stable and seamless experience for users. Although the platform is currently only available on macOS, the company remains optimistic about the possibility of making it work on Linux in the future.

Overall, Laravel Valet 4 is an excellent choice for developers seeking an easy-to-use, stable, and efficient local development environment. With its various new features and upgrades, Valet 4 makes it easier for developers to focus on building their applications, making it a valuable tool for complicated IT startups.

Stone Labs is pleased to share the exciting news that Storyblok has received high satisfaction ratings from software engineers in the recently published Jamstack Survey 2022. This survey has become a go-to report for exploring the latest trends in web development and had nearly 7,000 respondents, making it an excellent resource for technical decision-makers.

The report reveals that Storyblok, a Headless CMS, has earned the second-highest satisfaction score among 19 CMS options, on par with Strapi. WordPress still leads in terms of market share but has seen a decline in developer satisfaction. In contrast, Storyblok has received a whopping 9% market share in its first year of tracking in the survey, indicating its growing popularity.

The survey also found that the majority of developers are now working remotely full-time, and over half of them would rather leave their jobs than give up their newfound flexibility. This trend has become more important for developers than higher salaries. Additionally, while the Web3 technologies like Blockchain, NFTs, or Ethereum have garnered much attention, the survey suggests that interest in these technologies may decrease in 2023.

React continues to dominate the market with an impressive 71% market share, with Next.js becoming the framework of choice for half of the developers surveyed. Technical decision-makers can use these findings to stay ahead of the curve and make informed choices about the tools and technologies to use for their upcoming projects.

Stone Labs recommends that anyone involved in planning, developing, or shipping any type of web project check out the Jamstack Survey 2022 results in depth. With these insights, we can continue to provide our clients with the best possible software development solutions.

Artificial intelligence (#AI) is revolutionizing the world in every sector, from healthcare to finance and technology to education. AI has now made its way into the digital marketing world through ChatGPT. It’s an AI-powered chatbot that has the capability of automating conversations with users. It can provide customized responses to users, creating a more personalized and interactive experience.

As a custom software product development company, Stone Labs understands the potential of using AI chatbots for #digitalmarketing. Here we will explore the possible ways of using AI chats for digital marketing agencies, investigate a few #startup examples, digital ads process automation, and how Stone Labs can help automate digital marketing agencies’ work.

Possible Ways of Using AI Chats for Digital Marketing Agencies

• Conversational marketing: ChatGPT chatbots can help digital marketing agencies provide a more conversational approach to their #marketing strategies. Conversational marketing allows agencies to connect with their customers on a personal level, thus increasing customer satisfaction and engagement.
• Lead generation: The chatbots can automate #lead generation by creating customized conversations that lead the customer through the sales funnel
• Customer service: Chatbots can provide 24/7 customer service, answering frequently asked questions in real-time. This improves customer service, which leads to customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Startup Examples
At Stone Labs we believe in the power of startups, and that’s why we have included a few examples of how startups are using #ChatGPT for their digital marketing:

• Clever Messenger: A digital agency that created a #chatbot that assists customers in booking their appointments.
• Lemonade: An insurance startup that used chatbots to process claims and answer customer queries.
• Hello Fresh: A meal kit delivery service that uses chatbots to recommend recipes and meal plans.

Digital Ads Process Automation:

• By integrating ChatGPT chatbots into digital marketing strategies, digital marketing agencies can automate the digital ad process by providing a more personalized experience with customized ads. Chatbots can identify #customer interests through their conversations and deliver tailored ads that are more likely to be clicked.

How Stone Labs Can Help Digital Marketing Agencies to Automate Their Work?
At Stone Labs, we are experts in #software product development and have a team of skilled developers who can help digital marketing agencies automate their work through ChatGPT chatbots. Our team can create customized ChatGPT chatbots that can handle customer inquiries, provide customer service, generate leads, and automate the digital ad process.

We can also integrate ChatGPT chatbots into existing digital marketing strategies, enabling digital marketing agencies to provide a more personalized #experience to their customers, increasing customer satisfaction, and improving engagement.

In conclusion, AI chatbots, specifically ChatGPT, is the latest tool that the digital marketing industry is utilizing to create a more personalized and interactive marketing experience. Stone Labs understands the potential and is ready to integrate ChatGPT chatbots into digital marketing strategies to automate work, generate leads, provide #customerservice, and more. If you’re ready to take your agency to the next level, contact Stone Labs today to learn more.

As technology continues to evolve, so does the way we approach content management. One of the newest trends in the field is HeadlessCMS, a modern approach to managing content that has gained traction among developers and businesses alike. In this article, we will explore the concept of Headless CMS and how Stone Labs uses it in its regular development.

Technical description of Headless CMS

Traditional CMS, such as WordPress or Drupal, consist of a monolithic architecture where the content management system and the presentation layer are tightly coupled. In contrast, Headless CMS separates the content management system from the presentation layer, providing greater flexibility in content delivery.

With Headless CMS, content is stored in a backend database, and the frontend is created separately, typically using a JavaScript framework such as Vue, React or Angular. The content is retrieved through an API and delivered to the frontend, allowing developers to create custom solutions for each channel without being constrained by the limitations of a traditional CMS.

Comparison to classical CMS, advantages, and disadvantages

While traditional CMS has been the go-to solution for managing content for many years, Headless CMS offers several advantages. For one, it provides greater flexibility in content delivery, allowing businesses to deliver content to multiple channels such as websites, mobile apps, or even smart devices. Additionally, Headless CMS provides a better separation of concerns, allowing developers to focus on delivering the best user experience without worrying about the backend infrastructure.

However, Headless CMS also has its disadvantages. Since the frontend is developed separately, it can be more complex to set up and maintain than a traditional CMS. Additionally, since there are no pre-built templates or themes, more development work is required to create the frontend.

Business value of Headless CMS

The business value of Headless CMS lies in its ability to deliver unique digital experiences that align with a brand’s identity. By leveraging the flexibility of Headless CMS, businesses can create immersive and engaging experiences that keep customers coming back. Additionally, Headless CMS can help businesses streamline content management, improve website performance, and deliver personalized experiences to their customers.

Top Headless CMS on the market

There are several Headless CMS options available in the market today. Some of the top choices include:
-Contentful: A cloud-based solution that offers a wide range of content modeling tools and a RESTful API for content delivery
– Strapi: A free and open-source Headless CMS that is highly customizable and offers a user-friendly interface for content creation and management.
-Storyblok: A cloud-based Headless CMS that provides a visual editor for creating and managing content, as well as a GraphQL API for content delivery.

How Stone Labs uses Storyblok in regular development

At Stone Labs, we have found that Storyblok is a great solution for our Headless CMS needs. With its visual editor, we can easily create and manage content without requiring extensive developer support. Additionally, the GraphQL API provides us with a flexible and customizable way to deliver content to our custom frontend solutions.

In conclusion, Headless CMS provides a modern approach to content management that is well-suited to the needs of businesses today. While there are both advantages and disadvantages to using Headless CMS, the benefits of greater flexibility and separation of concerns make it a compelling option for many companies. At Stone Labs, we have found that Storyblok is an excellent Headless CMS solution that helps us deliver high-quality products to our clients.