Let me tell you a secret: You don’t need a massive budget to get value from a trade show.

Skip the ticket; show up anyway.

Tickets can be very expensive, and as a startup founder, I couldn’t justify spending thousands. So I decided to skip the ticket and just go to the same city where the trade show was happening. The best conversations often happen outside the event—in coffee shops, hotel lobbies, and nearby restaurants. Trust me, you don’t need to be inside the venue to make excellent connections.

Do the outreach beforehand.

Before I landed, I did my homework. I contacted people I knew would be attending, set up coffee meetings, and scheduled casual lunches. This took a bit of LinkedIn outreach and some emails, but it paid off. I had meaningful one-on-one conversations, all without the noisy, crowded exhibit floor.

Work in the vicinity of the trade show.

Most trade shows and conferences have an outside zone/seating for coffee and networking. I worked in that area while keeping an eye out for people I wanted to meet for a quick handshake. You never know who you’ll meet; those chance encounters can lead to big opportunities.

Focus on Relationships, Not sales.

Since I wasn’t under the pressure of having a booth or a big-ticket expense to justify, I focused on building real relationships. I wasn’t pushing for sales—I was simply meeting people, getting to know them, and finding ways to follow up later.

Ask your customers if you can represent them.

One creative way to attend trade shows without breaking the bank is by leveraging your existing customer relationships. It’s always worth asking your loyal customers or clients if you can tag along, represent them, or attend the event on their behalf. By doing this, you may gain free or discounted access to the event while still promoting your own brand. Customers attending the trade show might appreciate the additional representation, especially if they can’t send a full team themselves. This also gives you the chance to meet potential partners, prospects, or other companies in their network while staying within budget.

At the end of the trip, my total expenditure was a fraction of what it would’ve cost to attend the trade show officially. Flights, hotel stay, a few coffees, and a couple of lunches, but I still walked away with solid connections—and even potential deals. People want to see you in person, and showing up gives your brand credibility.

Ever feel like your business tools just don’t “talk” to each other? You’re not alone. Most enterprises run on a mix of SaaS apps, on-premise software, and legacy systems. While these tools are essential, getting them to share data is often a nightmare—resulting in silos, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.

This is where integration platform as a service (iPaaS) comes in. Think of iPaaS as the glue that holds all your systems together. It simplifies integrations, connects your apps, and helps you make the most of your data—without needing complex custom coding.

Why do enterprises need iPaaS?

Picture this: your sales team is using Salesforce, your finance team is on QuickBooks, and your e-commerce runs on Shopify. Without proper integration, you’re stuck manually exporting and importing data, risking errors, and wasting valuable time.

iPaaS fixes this problem. It acts as a central hub that connects all these tools. With prebuilt connectors and automation, data flows seamlessly between systems in real time. No manual work. No complicated scripts. Just smooth, automated workflows that save your IT team hours of hassle.

Key benefits of iPaaS for enterprises

1. Save time by automating data transfers
Manual data entry is not only tedious—it’s error-prone. iPaaS automates these tasks, so your data moves between apps accurately and instantly.

2. Cut costs by simplifying integrations
Maintaining custom integrations or outdated middleware can be expensive. iPaaS provides a cloud-based, scalable solution that reduces costs and maintenance headaches.

3. Unlock better insights with unified data
When your data lives in silos, you don’t see the full picture. iPaaS consolidates your data so you can generate more accurate reports, gain deeper insights, and make smarter decisions.

4. Future-proof your tech stack
As your enterprise grows, so does your technology landscape. iPaaS adapts and scales with you, making it easy to add new tools or migrate to better platforms—without disrupting your workflows.

How LINK makes iPaaS even better

At LINK, we’ve taken iPaaS a step further. Our data migration and integration technology has already helped tens of thousands of businesses move to new platforms smoothly. Whether it’s integrations, migrations, or onboarding, our solutions are built to keep your systems connected, efficient, and ready for the future

The bottom line

Disjointed systems slow your business down. With iPaaS, you can connect your apps, automate your workflows, and finally make your data work for you. Enterprises that embrace iPaaS enjoy faster operations, lower costs, and smarter decision-making.

If your business is still stuck with disconnected systems, now’s the time to explore iPaaS solutions like LINK and build a tech stack that works together, seamlessly.

My resolution is to do everything possible at LINK to create a perfect woman’s workplace.

Here’s my list of takeaways and “Must Do’s”:

• Gender diversity is not accidental, which means it needs a thoughtful and persistent effort. Generally, 9 out of 10 applications that we get for engineering roles are from male applicants. To change that, I believe every aspect of the company—from the branding, job postings, to the language we use in all our communication—needs to be welcoming to women. In our recruiting efforts, we keep the search going until we have a big enough pool of female applicants. Women who are already working at LINK are encouraged to bring referrals of female candidates from their network.
• That said, branding, recruiting, and language will not suddenly bring in female employees if the culture/environment are not truly supportive of a woman’s needs. For example, I asked an Air India employee in Stockholm (mother to a 2-year old who was instrumental in making our work trip happen) about how she managed to pull this off with a toddler. She said it was because of the trust and flexibility that her manager consistently placed in her that motivated her to go the extra mile, including how her maternity leave was handled.
  We (and I am sure many other startups) offer a similar level of flexibility, but we have to go deeper and consider if each employee in the organization, without fail, represents those values and is supportive towards female employees on his/her team.

•  It is critical to sensitize the workforce on sexual harassment, acceptable protocols, and etiquette. In India, the POSH law requires companies of all sizes to ensure their employees have undergone the necessary training.  The training is important but not enough – HR together with leadership needs to proactively enforce timely interventions and ensure that every employee knows that their concerns will get heard and addressed.
  There is sufficient evidence that a diverse workforce results in higher productivity and profits. So I am hopeful that the startup founders reading this article will also take steps to make their respective companies more diverse and inclusive.

Sriram Subramanian

In the fast-moving world of restaurants, the right point-of-sale (POS) system can be the difference between smooth service and chaos. A good POS doesn’t just handle payments, it helps you run operations more efficiently, turn tables faster, and deliver a better customer experience.

Here are the top features to look out for:

1. Intuitive user interface
Your POS should be easy to use so your staff can process orders quickly, split checks without hassle, and manage tables efficiently. A clean, intuitive interface also means less training time for new hires and fewer mistakes during busy hours.

2. Customizable menu management
Menus change, whether it’s seasonal specials, new promotions, or price adjustments. Your POS should let you easily update items, descriptions, and pricing on the go. This flexibility keeps your menu fresh and your customers engaged.

3. Integration capabilities
A powerful POS connects seamlessly with your other tools, such as inventory management, accounting software, and online ordering platforms. This saves time, prevents manual errors, and gives you real-time insight into your restaurant’s performance.

4. Tableside ordering and payment
Equip your servers with handheld devices so they can take orders and process payments right at the table. This speeds up service, reduces wait times, and improves overall customer satisfaction.

5. Comprehensive reporting and analytics
A great POS isn’t just about transactions, it’s about understanding your business better. Advanced reporting can help you track sales trends, monitor inventory, control labor costs, and analyze customer behavior. This data is invaluable for making smarter menu and pricing decisions.

Final thoughts

By prioritizing these features, restaurants can improve efficiency, delight guests, and grow profits, all while making life easier for staff.

We hope that our pet policy will help make our workplace more animal-friendly for our employees and their families. The inclusion of pets in the office has the potential to increase happiness, decrease stress, and strengthen bonds among team members, in our opinion. Who among us doesn’t adore a playful puppy wagging its tail or a furry cat snuggled up in a corner, purring away?

How Office Pets Can Relieve Stress

An individual’s general health and output can be significantly improved with the company of a furry pet while working. Pets make people happier, less anxious, and better able to concentrate, which in turn makes for a more pleasant and productive work environment.

Petting an animal, such as a dog or cat, can have a calming effect on your anxiety and stress levels. These mild-mannered friends bring comfort and camaraderie, allowing you to centre yourself and enjoy the here and now. Their ability to love without conditions might provide a welcome break from the stresses of daily life.

Pets as Cultural Ambassadors and Conversation Starters

Pets in the workplace have the potential to greatly enhance teamwork and communication. These furry friends have a knack for making people feel more at ease and bringing everyone together.

Pets in the Workplace: A Unique Employee Perk

For many employees, their furry companions are an integral part of their lives, and the ability to bring them to work can be a significant factor in their job satisfaction and overall well-being. By embracing a pet-friendly culture, companies demonstrate a commitment to their employees’ happiness and work-life balance.

By providing companionship, promoting physical activity, and offering a sense of purpose, pets can significantly contribute to improving mental health and overall quality of life.

Understanding the basics of POS

At its core, a point-of-sale (POS) system is where transactions happen, it records sales, processes payments, and keeps your business running smoothly at checkout.

For enterprises, POS systems go beyond simply ringing up sales. Modern, enterprise-grade POS solutions often include:

• Inventory management tools to track products in real time
• Advanced reporting for actionable business insights
• Integration with accounting, CRM, and e-commerce platforms

This transforms a POS from a simple cash register into a central hub for running the business.

Why enterprises need a robust POS

Small businesses might get by with basic POS systems, but larger companies face more complex challenges:

• Managing multiple locations and syncing sales and inventory data
• Tracking large and diverse inventories
• Generating detailed sales reports that guide strategy
• Integrating with e-commerce platforms and accounting software

The benefits of a modern POS system

A good POS system can completely transform the way an enterprise runs. Here’s how:

1. A unified view of the business – See sales and inventory across all locations in one place.

2. Better inventory control – Maintain ideal stock levels, cut down on waste, and streamline your supply chain.

3. Smarter decisions through data – Identify bestsellers, peak sales times, and the most profitable locations.

4. Improved efficiency – Automate processes, reduce errors, and lower operational costs.

When used well, a POS becomes more than a payment tool — it’s a driver of growth.

Is it time to upgrade your POS?

If your current system struggles to keep up with your growth, doesn’t integrate with your tools, or lacks detailed reporting, it might be time to consider an upgrade.

The right enterprise POS can bring your business the efficiency, insights, and agility it needs to thrive in today’s competitive market.

What’s your take? Has your business outgrown its POS, or is it still doing the job? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Throughout the years, fathers’ roles have changed significantly. Fathers were traditionally viewed as the family’s primary provider of income, acting as the family’s pillar. The expectations and responsibilities of modern fatherhood have been reshaped, nevertheless, by shifting perspectives and cultural changes.

Fathers are now more widely acknowledged as equal partners in raising children, actively contributing to their social, emotional, and intellectual growth. The days of dads being passive participants in the parenting process are long gone. Modern dads are taking a more involved role in raising their children, enjoying the rewards and difficulties of doing so with their spouses.

This evolution has been driven by a number of factors, including changing gender roles, a greater understanding of the importance of paternal involvement, and a desire for closer family ties. Fathers now realize the significant influence their presence and involvement can have on their kids’ development, self-worth, and general well-being.

Technology as a Parenting Tool

For modern fathers, the digital age has brought about a revolutionary shift in their parenting style. With so many tools and resources at their disposal, technology has emerged as a father’s greatest ally, enabling him to interact with his kids in ways never seen before.

Fathers no longer have to rely only on conventional parenting techniques or consult a small number of sources for guidance. They now have access to a wealth of information thanks to the internet and mobile devices, which helps them stay informed and make wise decisions about the growth, health, and general well-being of their children.

Additionally, dads now have more opportunities to strengthen their relationship with their kids through shared digital experiences thanks to technology. Dads can explore, learn, and play alongside their children on engaging platforms offered by interactive apps, educational games, and virtual reality environments. This fosters a stronger bond and understanding between the two parties.

One of the best examples of a contemporary, tech-savvy father embracing the opportunities and difficulties of raising a child in the digital age is Akshay Tomar, QA lead at LINK!. He has embraced technology as a father to improve his relationship with his child and have special moments together.

Using virtual assistants like Alexa is one way Akshay has made use of technology. He often gets his kid involved in things like watching cricket matches on their Alexa device and dancing to Punjabi music videos. These shared experiences help his child develop a love of sports and music while also exposing them to the wonders of technology at a young age.

Akshay thinks that his child’s development has greatly benefited from his increased involvement and presence at home, made possible by remote work opportunities. By spending more time together, Akshay has been able to share his passions, such as playing cricket and football, with his child. Because of his hands-on approach, his child has been able to develop a keen interest in these sports and skills, which has strengthened the bond between father and child.

Furthermore, he admits that technology plays a part in making parenting problems and questions simpler to solve. He understands that having so much information and resources at our disposal can enable parents to make better decisions and better meet the needs of their kids.

For Akshay, adopting the flexibility and work-life balance that technology provides is part of being a father in the modern digital era. He values being able to strike a balance between his work obligations and spending quality time with his child, making enduring memories and strengthening their relationship.

Work-Life Balance in the Digital Age

The digital era has revolutionized the way fathers approach work and family life. With the advent of remote work and flexible schedules, modern dads like Akshay can strike a better balance between their professional responsibilities and their roles as involved parents. Technology has empowered fathers to be more present in their children’s lives, fostering stronger bonds and creating cherished memories.

Akshay’s experience is a testament to this shift. As a QA lead at LINK, he can often work from home, allowing him to witness his child’s milestones and participate in their daily routines. This newfound flexibility enables him to be an active participant in his child’s upbringing, rather than merely a weekend presence.

Embracing the Digital Dad

For modern fathers, a transformative era has begun with the advent of the digital age. With the help of technology, fathers can now better balance work and personal life, connect with their kids through common interests, and use virtual assistants to help with parenting. 

Dads who embrace technology are better able to be involved, attentive, and aware of their kids’ needs. In addition, fathers can now teach their kids digital literacy skills so they are prepared for the future thanks to the digital landscape. Modern fathers can deepen their understanding of their children’s passions, build stronger bonds with them, and nurture their interests by skillfully incorporating technology into their parenting style.

Fathers who fully embrace technology will be in a better position to handle the challenges of contemporary parenting as the world changes. Through the effective use of digital tools and resources, parents can open up new possibilities for learning, connecting, and making enduring memories with their kids.

Controlling cloud infrastructure costs is critical for any company, but especially in the early stages of a startup. As you scale, cloud costs can easily spiral out of control if not properly managed. We learned this lesson early on when our AWS bill unexpectedly jumped 20% one month due to inefficient resource utilization.

After some research, we realized that using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform could help abstract away the underlying cloud provider and allow us to seamlessly transition across AWS, Azure, and GCP. The key benefit was avoiding vendor lock-in – if one provider’s costs increased, we could easily switch to another without rewriting all our infrastructure code.

In this blog, We will walk through how we leveraged Terraform and related tooling to setup easy portability across cloud providers. This has been one of our best return on investment (ROI) decisions, already saving us over $500K in costs while retaining full flexibility to switch providers if needed.

Some key benefits we realized by using Terraform were:

Increased efficiency
Minimized configuration drift
Cost optimization
Collaboration
Reproducibility

Overall, adopting Terraform allowed us to implement IaC principles for provisioning and managing infrastructure efficiently. This increased our agility while reducing risks and costs associated with configuration drift.

Containerization with Kubernetes

By containerizing our application and adopting Kubernetes orchestration, we gain granular control over resource allocation and scalability. Kubernetes’ efficient resource management allows us to pack more workloads onto fewer resources, maximizing utilization and minimizing idle capacity.

Some key benefits we saw from using Kubernetes:

Dynamic resource allocation – We can specify resource requests and limits for each container, and Kubernetes will allocate cluster resources accordingly. This ensures containers get the resources they need without overprovisioning.

Horizontal scaling – We can easily scale our applications up and down by changing the number of pod replicas. Need to handle more users? Simply increase the number of pods.

Optimized hardware utilization – Kubernetes efficiently packs containers onto nodes, maximizing resource utilization. Features like bin packing ensure high density of containers per node.

Automatic bin packing – Kubernetes will automatically schedule containers based on resource requirements and availability, packing them efficiently onto available nodes.

Auto-scaling – Kubernetes allows scaling up or down based on metrics like CPU usage. This ensures we have just enough resources to meet demand.

Service discovery – Containers can easily find and talk to each other using Kubernetes services for discovery. This simplifies things and avoids manual IP address management.

Overall, Kubernetes gave us the flexibility and control we needed to maximize resource efficiency, optimize hardware utilization, and achieve scalability on demand. This in turn minimized idle capacity and helped us reduce infrastructure costs.

Cluster Autoscaler (CA)

The CA takes autoscaling a step further by managing the number of nodes in your Kubernetes cluster. If your cluster is running out of resources due to increased demand, the CA can automatically add new nodes to the cluster. Similarly, if the demand drops and there are unused nodes, the CA can remove them, reducing infrastructure costs.

The key benefits of the CA are:

Improved application availability – By automatically adding nodes when resource constrained, the CA prevents application downtime.

Optimized costs – Only running the number of nodes required to meet demand reduces infrastructure costs.

Automated management – No need for manual intervention to scale the node pool up and down.

The CA allows Kubernetes clusters to automatically scale based on actual resource usage metrics. This ensures high application availability while optimizing infrastructure costs.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)

The HPA is responsible for automatically adjusting the number of pods in a deployment or replica set based on the observed CPU usage or custom metrics. This means that if your application is experiencing a sudden spike in demand, the HPA can scale up the number of pods to handle the increased load. Conversely, if the demand drops, the HPA can scale down the number of pods, reducing resource consumption and cost.

‍The HPA operates by periodically checking the current resource usage against the target resource utilisation. If the observed utilisation deviates from the target, the HPA adjusts the number of replicas accordingly. You can also configure the HPA to scale based on custom metrics, giving you even more control over your application’s scalability.

Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA)

While the HPA focuses on scaling the number of pods, the VPA is all about adjusting the resource limits for individual containers within a pod. This means that if a container is running out of memory or CPU, the VPA can automatically increase the resource limits, allowing the container to continue functioning without disruption.

‍The VPA operates by monitoring the resource usage of containers and comparing it to the current resource limits. If the observed usage is consistently higher or lower than the limits, the VPA recommends new resource limits for the containers. In some cases, the VPA can also automatically apply these recommendations, ensuring your application always has the right amount of resources

Spot Instances: For non-critical workloads and batch processing tasks, we utilized Spot Instances to take advantage of unused capacity at a fraction of the cost. This flexible approach helped us optimize costs while maximizing resource utilization.

KEDA Implementation

The Kubernetes pods were enabled to perform Horizontal Pod Autoscaling (HPA) based on CPU and memory utilization. The customer wanted to scale the Kubernetes pods to meet the requests coming in for deployment. This is similar in requirement to the native AWS auto-scaling behavior dependent on “requests per target group”

• Event-Driven Scaling: It enables automatic scaling of Kubernetes pods based on the number of events in event sources such as message queues (e.g., AWS SQS, Kafka)
• Scaling to Zero: It allows your Kubernetes pods to scale down to zero when there are no incoming events. This capability is crucial for serverless and event-driven architectures, where resources should only be allocated when there’s actual work to be done. Scaling to zero helps save costs and resources during idle periods.

Kubernetes Kustomize

Kubernetes Kustomize allows you to define and manage variations of Kubernetes configurations for different environments, such as development, staging, and production. This flexibility ensures that resources are provisioned appropriately for each environment, avoiding over-provisioning and unnecessary costs.

For example, you can use Kustomize to create customized Kubernetes manifests for your dev, test, and prod environments. The dev manifests may specify less compute resources, while the prod ones provision more resources to handle production workloads.

Kustomize lets you reuse common configuration components across environments while varying environment-specific settings like replica counts, memory/CPU limits, etc. You don’t have to maintain separate YAML files for each environment.

Instead, you can create a common base and overlay customizations for each environment. Kustomize will then generate the final manifests for you by merging the base and overlays.

This approach streamlines configuration management and ensures consistency across environments. By tailoring configurations to the specific needs of each environment, Kustomize helps optimize resource utilization and ultimately contributes to cost management in Kubernetes deployments.

ArgoCD:

ArgoCD indeed plays a significant role in cost optimization within Kubernetes environments. By automating the deployment and management of applications, ArgoCD reduces the reliance on manual intervention, thereby minimizing human errors and the associated costs of troubleshooting and rectifying them. Additionally, ArgoCD facilitates continuous delivery, ensuring that deployments are efficient, reliable, and consistent across different environments. This automation not only saves time but also optimizes resource utilization by enabling faster rollouts and updates. Overall, ArgoCD contributes to cost optimization in Kubernetes deployments by streamlining the deployment process, reducing operational overhead, and improving overall resource efficiency.

Overall, Terraform has been a huge win in terms of flexibility, productivity, and cost management. The key takeaway for readers is to invest time in learning Infrastructure as code practices and tools like Terraform. The long-term benefits are well worth it, especially as complexity and scale increase.