San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation Partners with Ziggi’s Coffee
Neel Achary business
San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation Partners with Ziggi’s Coffee

San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation Partners with Ziggi’s Coffee
To Bring National Brand to Tribal Community in First Tribal Partnership

SAN DIEGO – March 3, 2023 – As part of their charter this year, the San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation (SPEDC) is focused on creating new partnerships and supporting their community through economic development. In line with their goals, SPEDC has entered into a new partnership with Ziggi’s Coffee, to bring it into the tribal community as the brand’s first tribal partnership. This will ensure more expansion and economic sufficiency for the tribe, as well as pave the way for future partnerships with like-minded businesses and brands.

Located at 31269 Valley Center Road, Valley Center, CA 92082, in the community of Valley Center, construction for Ziggi’s Coffee drive-thru will begin in June 2023, with an anticipated opening date of fall 2023. Ziggi’s Coffee is a national brand that offers breakfast and lunch and serves the finest roasted coffee paired with handcrafted drinks and other great-tasting menu items. This drive-thru location will be the brand’s first location in Indian County, which is significant to the tribal community, thanks to the support from SPEDC.

SPEDC was created to pursue economic development activities on behalf of the tribal government and members in order to develop and sustain the tribe’s long-term strategy and growth, while preserving traditions and paving the way for future generations. This strategy has enabled SPEDC to launch groundbreaking projects, form new partnerships with different businesses, support its surrounding school districts and its community and look for new opportunities, such as this partnership, to grow and thrive.

“We didn’t want to partner with just any coffee company,” said President and CEO of SPEDC, Hellyaachwehay Quisquis.“We wanted to find a partner that fit in and believes in our values and mission to build on the next seven generations of our tribe. I was pleased to find that Ziggi’s Coffee and SPEDC share the same values of integrating family and community.”

Before their partnership became official, SPEDC was looking to partner with a brand who shared similar family-like customs and values. After SPEDC representatives traveled to Colorado, where Ziggi’s headquarters is located, SPEDC decided to move forward in their decision to form a partnership, which at that point, was a natural fit. Both SPEDC and Ziggi’s Coffee are committed to making a positive difference in the local communities that they serve and are family, or generationally, focused.

“We are so excited about the franchise agreement with the San Pasqual Tribe (San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation),” said Justin Livingston, VP of Franchise Development at Ziggi’s Coffee. “This is the first Tribal agreement for Ziggi’s Coffee and hopefully the first of many. Ziggi’s worked with the great folks at the SPEDC to help navigate this new area of tribal relationships. By bringing Ziggi’s into this community, we hope to expand that model and work with the many amazing and diverse tribes across the country to create a mutual benefit for all involved and bring the Ziggi’s community focused brand to these already tight-knit communities.”

SPEDC plans to continue to lead the way into new partnerships across the U.S. which allows tribes to partner with national brands. To learn more about SPEDC, please visit https://SanPasqualEDC.com/. For media inquiries, contact Bianca Kasawdish at bianca@teaminnovision.com.

About San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation (SPEDC)
The San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation is a wholly owned entity of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, established under Tribal law to pursue economic development activities on behalf of the tribe, its members and is charged with developing and implementing the tribe’s long-term strategy of sustainable economic self-sufficiency. The mission of the San Pasqual Economic Development Corporation is to create a strong foundation based on a cornerstone of truth, integrity, and dedication.

Their vision at SPEDC reflects the wisdom that has been passed down from generation to generation to preserve and safeguard their culture and traditions by creating a long-term economic development structure ensuring the prosperity of the next seven generations of the tribe. For more information, please visit http://www.sanpasqualbandofmissionindians.org/departments/edc.

Dreamscape Media to Produce and Distribute 5 New Audiobooks of Popular Marvel Entertainment Novels
Neel Achary business
Dreamscape Media to Produce and Distribute 5 New Audiobooks of Popular Marvel Entertainment Novels
HOLLAND, OH (March 3, 2023) Dreamscape Media, an award-winning independent publisher of audiobooks, announced a new multi‐book agreement with Marvel Entertainment. Dreamscape will produce and distribute five new Marvel titles. The first, which will be released on April 18, 2023, is an adaptation of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: ANNIHILATION by Brendan Deneen. Other titles to follow will include CAPTAIN MARVEL: SHADOW CODE by Gilly Segal, and other adaptations of famous Marvel comics story arcs, including SECRET INVASION adapted by Paul Cornell and LOKI: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY adapted by Katherine Locke.
“We are excited to continue our strong publishing relationship with Marvel Entertainment,” says Sean McManus, president and publisher of Dreamscape Media. “Our past collaboration has seen much success, both commercially and critically.”
Numerous Marvel audiobooks feature award-winning narrators, and Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda was awarded Audiofile Magazine’s prestigious Earphones Award for its outstanding narrative voice and style.
Dreamscape will continue to offer a diverse catalog of over 100 Marvel audiobook titles, including audiobooks associated with Spider-Man, X-Men, and Avengers. The Marvel audiobooks will be available everywhere audiobooks are sold including Audible, Apple Books, Chirp, Audiobooks.com and many other audiobook resellers, including via Spotify, who recently launched audiobooks on their platform. Additionally, these audiobooks can also be found through libraries on digital platforms such as hoopla and Overdrive.
trackd Secures $3.35MM Seed Funding to Bring its Novel Approach to Vulnerability Remediation to the Enterprise Security Market
Neel Achary business
trackd Secures $3.35MM Seed Funding to Bring its Novel Approach to Vulnerability Remediation to the Enterprise Security Market

Reston, VA, February 28th, 2023 – trackd, the cybersecurity start-up automating vulnerability remediation without the fear of disruption, announced today it is emerging from stealth-mode behind $3.35MM in seed funding, and will bring its unprecedented approach to the cybersecurity community in 2023. trackd’s unified vulnerability and patch management platform leverages the collective experience of security and IT teams to automate vulnerability remediation without fear of disruption, the leading reason given by operators for slow patching. trackd’s seed round was led by Flybridge, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, SaaS Ventures, and Expa.

“Innovation in vulnerability management has been scarce over the past decade, and trackd is blowing up that narrative with a solution that we believe can have a material impact on remediation timeframes,” noted Geoff Gilton SVP, Technology at Service Credit Union, an early adopter and design partner. “We’re excited to be part of the process to bring this technology to the infosec community.”

As all software is written by humans, errors are inevitable. When these errors enable threat actors to gain access to sensitive or protected systems or data, they’re considered vulnerabilities. The errors are fixed by installing an updated version of the software with the error corrected, or a patch. Applying patches in a timely manner is critical to the overall cyber risk of an organization, but patching is easier said than done, primarily due to resource constraints driven by a fear of disruption, or the applied patch breaking essential network functionality.

“The dirty little secret in the vulnerability remediation community is that fear of disruption due to patching is largely a psychological remnant of the early days when patching broke things frequently, and, at times, catastrophically,” added Mike Starr, CEO and Founder of trackd. “Times have changed, and only a very small percentage of patches cause disruption, but that perception and fear is difficult to overcome, so trackd’s one-of-a-kind patching experience data at the heart of our platform is built to overcome what is, fundamentally, a human nature challenge.”

trackd’s patch management platform records the experience of all patches applied by its users, anonymizes that data, and makes it available in real-time to all other users. Thus, if a patch is disruptive, that information is now available to other vulnerability remediation teams applying the same patch, enabling them to plan accordingly. Conversely, if a patch is applied multiple times with no evidence of disruption, practitioners can leverage auto-patching to speed remediation with little to no impact on their finite resources.

“Until now, vulnerability remediation teams have been flying blind, and forced to make patching strategy decisions based on gut feel or, effectively, a dice roll,” added Stel Valavanis, CEO of onShore Security, another of trackd’s several early adopters. “trackd is providing the real-world, real-time patch experience data that not only simply doesn’t exist today, but will be invaluable to remediation teams starved for resources and under constant pressure to reduce their organizations’ vulnerability risk. We can’t wait to deploy this new solution.”

trackd was founded and is led by Mike Starr, an ex-NSA engineer and experienced startup leader, and comprises a team of experienced systems developers, security practitioners, and machine learning engineers.

“Mike has assembled a deeply technical team representing highly relevant, varied backgrounds — including founding open-source contributors and U.S. defense specialists,” said Isabelle Phelps, Partner at Lerer Hippeau. “trackd’s seasoned team is well-positioned to bring the visibility and automation sorely needed in the vulnerability management space.”

trackd is currently recruiting beta customers, and interested enterprises can join that program at trackd.com.

“Of all our investment criteria, perhaps the most influential and rarest to find is a founder with unique domain expertise that has developed a truly original and innovative solution,” offered Chip Hazard, General Partner at Flybridge, the lead investor in the seed round. “We saw that immediately in trackd’s approach to re-thinking the staid vulnerability remediation technology landscape. There is no more effective way for an organization to reduce its cyber risk than to patch vulnerabilities quickly, and trackd is making that easier-said-than-done prescription a practical reality.”

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About trackd

trackd is delivering a modern patch management platform with a twist. In addition to a robust suite of conventional patch management functionality from vulnerability correlation to one-click fixes, trackd collects patching experience data from patches applied using the platform, then anonymizes that data and shares it with all other users. The trackd platform unifies vulnerability and patch management and provides insight into how patches have affected systems previously, helping operators identify which patches might be disruptive when applied in their environment, and which are safe to designate for auto-patching.

Top 2023 Trends in the American Workforce
Neel Achary business
Top 2023 Trends in the American Workforce

YOUNGER WORKERS ARE HUNGRY FOR IN-PERSON COLLABORATION. Based on the survey results, America is largely split on their preferred working location, with 21.9% of Americans preferring work that is fully remote, 30.1% seeking work that is hybrid, and nearly half of Americans – 48.1% – reporting they’d prefer to be fully in-person for work. After nearly three years of remote work rollercoasters, companies continue to reconsider and reevaluate what is best for their organization. The age groups most eager to return to working in an office are 18-24-year-olds (48.5%) and 25-34-year-olds (51.4%). Those who wish to continue fully remote work is the workforce made up of 55+ year-olds (25.1%).

The study findings and trends come from Snappy.com and Unwrapped: Snappy’s 2023 Workforce Study, which explores employee satisfaction, workplace motivation, and how moments of gratitude and tokens of appreciation, such as gifting, can improve employee engagement, and increase retention and overall job satisfaction.

top motivators at work

DID QUIET QUITTING AND THE GREAT RESIGNATION REALLY HAPPEN ON SUCH A GRAND SCALE? WORKPLACE BUZZWORDS DON’T REFLECT REALITY FOR THE MASSES.

2022’s “viral” HR moments such as “The Great Resignation,” “Quiet Quitting,” and “Act Your Wage” may have been largely blown out of proportion on social media based on the report, as 3 out of 4 Americans (74.4%) report they did not actually participate in or take much notice of any of these trends.

Among Americans who did report taking part in these 2022 moments of workplace renaissance, 10.1% of Americans surveyed report they participated in “Quiet Quitting,” 10.4% share they partook in “The Great Resignation,” and 18.9% reveal they participated in “Act Your Wage”.

Employee Appreciation Day

The most active participants of “The Great Resignation” included men (60%) ages 35 – 44 (34.4%). When it came to “Act Your Wage,” men (52.7%) ages 25 – 34 (31.2%) were the most engaged participants. And for those who took part in “Quiet Quitting,” the movement was primarily made up of men (56.8%) ages 35 – 44 (32.9%).

When it comes to viral trends that can impact the workforce, it’s important to check in with teams and individuals on a micro level. Leadership can offer anonymous pulse surveys to gather data on the current company atmosphere and morale, proactively uncovering opportunities to address any points of friction before they escalate. Managers and executives should proactively create opportunities and forums for employees to share feedback and give input on the business on a regular basis. Making gratitude and appreciation a cornerstone of company culture can go a long way in creating a work environment that offers stability, high morale, and reassurance for team members at every level.

FRIENDSHIPS IN THE WORKPLACE MATTER.

The professional and personal relationships cultivated in work environments make a big difference in performance and job satisfaction, as well as overall mental well-being. Gaining acceptance and having a sense of belonging among peers, managers, and leadership alike all help to create and foster a positive work culture.

According to Snappy’s report, 9 in 10 Americans (89.6%) report they have at least one good friend at their office, with nearly 7 in 10 (68.1%) reporting they have 3 or more friends in their workplace. It’s important to also consider that 10.4% of Americans active in today’s workforce report they do not have a single friend in their office. With fully-remote work still accounting for 17% of Americans’ working locations, and hybrid work accounting for 24.1%, it’s critical for organizations to implement opportunities for socialization and cross-functional collaboration to drive conversations and help coworkers bond beyond their day-to-day functions.

GRATITUDE AND RECOGNITION GO A LONG WAY IN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION.

As humans, we have an innate need to achieve, and to have those efforts and accomplishments recognized. While the majority of American workers (80.5%) report they feel their contributions at work are recognized, 1 in 5 (19.5%) Americans feel they are not recognized for their contributions. When asked about their top motivators at work, 1 in 10 Americans (11%) report that recognition for their contributions is the most important motivator.

1 in 5 people (20.4%) in the American workforce shared that they very rarely or never feel appreciated at work. The people whom workers are most eager to seek appreciation and recognition from include their direct manager or supervisor (47.7%), their company CEO (17%), their peers (16.5%), and team members they directly manage (14%).

The majority of America (90.3%) can agree: they believe a company should recognize employee contributions with tokens of appreciation, such as gifts. Gifting can leave a big impact and lasting impression on employees, with nearly 9 in 10 (86.2%) reporting they “believe gifts and tokens of appreciation motivate my colleagues and team members.” And while 83.9% of employees share that receiving a gift on their work anniversary would make them feel appreciated and valued, only 47.6% of American workers report ever having received a work anniversary gift from an employer. According to Snappy’s 2022 Holiday Gift Report, 54.1% of employees reported they are more likely to stay at their current job longer if they received a meaningful holiday gift from their employer. But gifting and tokens of appreciation can go beyond the season of giving; 78.2% of Americans share that a birthday gift from their company would make them feel appreciated and valued.

EMPLOYEES SEEK MOMENTS OF JOY AND APPRECIATION YEAR-ROUND.

While the holiday season is always popular for gifting, acknowledgment of contributions and taking time to celebrate employees throughout the year are equally important. Employee Appreciation Day occurs annually on the first Friday in March. This holiday, though only celebrated by 37.1% of companies, is a moment for employers across all industries to take time to emphasize gratitude and recognition of their employees. The majority of employees across America (74.2%) wish their companies celebrated the holiday.

Acknowledging and celebrating employees can be done in a snap – the most desired way the American workforce wants their employers to share appreciation and recognize them is by sending them a gift (28.2%). Other tactics employers can implement for employee appreciation include treating them to lunch (26.5%), giving an award or shout-out in recognition of work they’ve recently completed (21.9%), sharing a thoughtful note (14.1%), or sending branded swag with a company logo on it (9.3%).

Employees are a company’s greatest asset. Don’t let an opportunity for recognition and honoring contributions pass by.