Taking the decision to start your own venture is never easy. But once you overcome your initial hesitation and take the plunge, your life will take a turn for the better. Here are our 5 tips for every aspiring entrepreneur to keep in mind as they embark on this journey.

As you might have heard, we have just recently found our way into the Silicon Valley of India, a.k.a. Bangalore! Following our first foray into India this month, we thought there was no better time to touch upon the hottest topics in the realm of FinTech in the country. 

Looking for a job after graduation? With more and more students graduating every year, employers have a huge choice when it comes to selecting the most highly skilled and qualified candidates. Therefore it is imperative to gain an edge and beat the competition to get your dream first job. We list out 5 things employers are on the look-out for when hiring graduates.

Hackathons aren't all about  glasses, geeks, pocket-protectors, and Red Bull, although such stereotypes may turn off many from entering them...

A web framework is a collection of packages or modules which allow developers to write web applications or services quickly, without getting into the details of network protocols or network socket programming. Web frameworks encapsulate what developers have learned over the past 20 years while programming sites and applications for the web. Frameworks make it easier to reuse code for common HTTP operations and structure the projects so that other developers can quickly build the projects with the knowledge of the same framework.

Below we interview Liz, a fullstack engineer, and coding bootcamp grad.  Liz works at fintech company Fabric, where she is one of four bootcamp graduates on their nine-person engineering team! Below, Liz shares her experience and provides career tips and insight including regarding employer perception of bootcamp grads and salary negotiations.

Don't have FOMO.  Check out our Singapore FinTech Festival coverage:

We were honored to partner with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on their first week-long global Singapore FinTech Festival in November which coincided with our Singapore campus opening.  The Festival attracted more than 11,000 from all over the world.

No, we did not learn his presidential preferences (although that was a pressing topic). Vikram Pandit, the former CEO of Citigroup Inc. was a guest speaker at the Economist’s Finance Disrupted (#FinanceDisrupted) conference recently in New York City put on by Economist Events (great job Stephanie and Maria)  The theme, “Collaborate or Die,” featured fireside chats with leading FinTech experts on topics such as blockchain, financial inclusion, insurance and more. The Economist news desk Editor-In-Chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, chatted with Pandit in the late afternoon. In attempts to make this coverage “hot off the press” before the conference ends (!)

Here are some quick interesting bits we learned:

• Vikram still takes taxis (revealed during discussion of the different business models of Uber vs. taxi medallions)
• And, maybe older than we think (guess it’s those genes): He still remembers when Mosaic (?!) was around (sharing this while making the point that FinTech is in early stages)
• He loves Singapore (the moderator brought this up after he mentioned the country 3x) Why? Government policy towards regulation (Byte Academy loves Singapore too :)
• He does not like picking banking partners: Moderator: “Who you would pick as a partner with if you were back in banking?” Vikram: “Thank G-d I don’t have to make that decision.”

Overall Vikram was a diplomat avoiding the moderator’s attempts to extract a true opinion (for instance, he avoided her question “does the US suck with regulation?")

Stay tuned for a more extensive follow-up on the Economist’s FinTech Disrupted conference…