Tag: Design

I’ve said this many times: the products we see on the market are rarely visionary leaps. Most of the time, they are mirrors. They reflect people’s habits, shortcuts, fears, and small daily behaviours. Design follows behaviour. Always has. Think about it. You probably know at least one person who already uses ChatGPT for health-related questions. Not occasionally. Regularly. As a second opinion. As a place to test concerns before saying them out loud. Sometimes even as a therapist, a confidant, or a space where embarrassment does not exist. When habits become consistent, companies stop observing and start building. At that…

The AI industry has become adept at measuring itself. Benchmarks improve, model scores rise, and every new release arrives with a list of metrics meant to signal progress. And yet, somewhere between the lab and real life, something keeps slipping. Which model actually feels better to use? Which answers would a human trust? Which system would you put in front of customers, employees, or citizens and feel comfortable standing behind it? That gap is where LMArena has quietly built its business, and why investors just put $150 million behind it at a $1.7 billion valuation, in a Series A round.…

For years, the tech industry equated success with scale. Bigger stages, larger crowds, more logos, more panels, more noise. Five thousand people became ten thousand. Ten thousand became the goal. Somewhere along the way, that stopped making sense. Founders and executives didn’t announce a boycott. They simply stopped showing up. What we see today is not a rejection of events, but a correction in how people who actually run companies choose to spend their time. The shift is subtle, but consistent. Fewer large conferences. More small, curated gatherings. More closed rooms. More dinners. More tables of twelve. Big tech events…

Five stars used to mean something. People still read reviews before buying software. They just don’t trust them the way they used to. And no, this isn’t about fake reviews or obvious scams. Those are easy to spot. The real problem is more uncomfortable. The review economy didn’t collapse. It slowly drifted away from its original purpose. User reviews began as authentic buyer guidance, but they’ve morphed into strategic assets for businesses. Scroll through any app store or e-commerce site: everything is “top-rated” and lavished with praise. If every product gleams with a 4.8/5 rating, those stars start to lose…

2025 was the year technology stopped being tomorrow’s promise and became today’s anchor. What began as a surge in generative AI and platform innovation two years prior crystallized this year into concrete shifts in how people work, governing bodies legislate, and markets invest. Across continents and industries, the arc of technology bent toward practical impact, regulatory reality, and economic weight! At the heart of the year’s story was artificial intelligence’s jump from novelty to infrastructure. LLMs and multimodal models moved beyond demos into everyday workflows, influencing how documents are written, campaigns are conceived, products designed, and code generated. Enterprises that…

My name is Alexandru Stan, and this article continues the dialogue I began following the acquisition of TNW. Following the recent transaction, TNW Spaces remains with the Financial Times, while we continue the mission of the website, the events, and the global community. We already have a dedicated team at tekpon operating the platform, events, and community initiatives. Our objective is to expand and strengthen the team as TNW accelerates its next chapter. TNW is already a global media platform with millions of readers. We’re not starting over. We are building forward. Why TNW matters today Technology is entering a…

Most engineering leaders cannot answer the one question their CFO is about to ask: “Can you prove this AI spend is changing outcomes, not just activity?” Every December, roadmaps get locked, budgets get approved, and board decks are polished until everything looks precise and under control. Underneath, many CTOs and VPs are still working with partial visibility. They have a feel for their teams, but not a reliable view of how work moves through the system, how AI is really changing delivery, or where time and money actually go. For a while, that was survivable. Experience, pattern recognition, and cheap…

Not long ago, like many of you, I read what I feared might be The Next Web’s final article. In late September, TNW’s co-founder announced that the tech conference and news site would be winding down, no more events, no new stories. It felt like the end of an era; the news hit hard! Yet, just a few weeks ago, a twist arrived: the tech platform Tekpon acquired 100% of TNW’s media and events brand from the Financial Times, ensuring that this nearly two-decade legacy will continue to thrive. While, myself, trying to read people’s opinions on this topic, I…This story continues at

When OpenAI announced its new shopping search capabilities, I took the news with a grain of salt (perhaps the whole shaker). For the past decade, we have watched the slow evolution of traditional search engines. What began as tools for pure information discovery gradually morphed into ecosystems dominated by SEO-optimized content and sponsored results. My initial fear with ChatGPT’s update was simple: Are we seeing the beginning of a similar shift? Is the purity of the “reasoning engine” being diluted by the necessity of commerce? After testing the new shopping integration, the results suggest that we are at a pivotal…

Tekpon has acquired 100% of the TNW media and events brands, which cover and convene the European technology ecosystem, from the FT. The transaction is Tekpon’s largest investment in media and events so far. It broadens the company’s reach across SaaS and AI and strengthens its role in the global innovation landscape. TNW’s brand and editorial standards will be maintained, while its events and digital platforms will be integrated into Tekpon’s wider strategy. The FT will continue to own and operate TNW Spaces, Amsterdam’s dynamic tech hub, offering private offices and coworking spaces that support a thriving community of startups,…