I may be a dog person (this is my puppy Garçon), but I love big cats. They are the ultimate land-based predators, which is why I hope to one day see a mountain lion in the wild (from the safety of a car though). The problem with big cats is that there is one predator higher up in the food chain: us. Whether it’s protecting livestock, killing them for their fur, or infringing on their habitat, humans have had a severely negative impact on populations of big cats across the world. It’s time to make up for an ugly past, and that’s why Panthera exists. They are a New York, NY based non-profit that “is the world’s leading conservation organization devoted exclusively to the protection of wild cats.” Panthera got its started in 2006, and since then has been working to protect 37 species of wild cats.
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Who watched the season finale of Million Dollar Listing New York last night? I did. I love that show, even though it seems to be more about petty squabbling than actually selling real estate. My biggest takeaway from the show is that selling a property is all about generating interest and getting people in the door to see it. If a realtor can do that, they’ll sell properties. However, most agents can’t throw open bar parties with half dressed models to attract attention–that kind of marketing only makes sense with multi-million dollar properties and six figure commissions. The average realtor needs a more affordable, simpler way to market properties. That’s exactly what BoomTown offers. They’re a Charleston, SC based software company that “has generated millions of leads for real estate teams.” 4,329,036 leads to be exact. They do this by offering “a complete online system that leads more Internet home buyers to [an agent’s] virtual door, then gives real estate agents proven tools to turn clicks into closings.”
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Being “domestic” isn’t something that a lot of young people aim for these days. The word often denotes a negative connotation, which is why you might find it odd that a career-minded woman who used to work at Google has made a made a name for herself by embracing domesticity. Brit Morin is often called “Silicon Valley’s Martha Stewart,” and she just raised more than $6 million live up to that comparison. Brit is the founder of Brit + Co., a San Francisco, CA based “online platform and e-commerce company that inspires and enables the digital generation to make.” Domestic skills are important, and Brit + Co. is bringing them back in style with the power of the web.
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Sales is all about relationships. Whether you’re trying to convince someone to make a one time purchase or enter a ten-year contract, you need to build a certain level of trust and empathy (the level is much higher in the latter case). Sometimes it only takes one conversation, but it often takes many more. A sales person has to be organized to ensure that his or her communications are continuously moving towards a sale. The tools for doing that used to be a rolodex and a notebook, but that has obviously changed. What hasn’t changed is the need for mobility in a customer relationship management system, and that’s exactly what Base CRM offers. They are a Chicago, IL based company that “is paving the way by building the next generation of CRM software.” They realized that most competing software is a burden (not a useful tool) for salespeople, so they decided to build something that people would actually want to use.
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Have you ever looked up a doctor online? When you type the name into Google, you’re often inundated with useless results (kind of like when you’re job searching). There are “reviews” that aren’t really reviews, and “information” pages that don’t offer any useful information. While most doctors prefer to focus on medicine over marketing, the truth is that a successful practice requires a continuous flow of new and returning patients. The Internet will continue to play a larger role in how people find doctors, and Treatspace wants to ensure that patients accurate, helpful information. That’s why the Pittsburgh, PA based company is focused on putting “facts online that connect providers, patients, and health professionals.”
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I’m getting married tomorrow! Amy and I are extremely excited to share such a special event with so many friends and family, but we’re both a little nervous… about the weather. There are thunderstorms in the forecast, and I have a bad history with lightning. Whether it rains or not, the wedding will go on, it will be great, and people will take lots of pictures. We have a great photographer who will capture many of the special moments, but our friends and family will do their best to supplement him and his crew. We decided against using an app to collect photos from friends, but we definitely considered it. Wedding Party is a Palo Alto, CA based company that offers an app that allows you to “capture all the amazing photos from your wedding.”
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I hate cheese. I’m not sure when it started, but almost any cheese other than mozzarella completely grosses me out. Although it may be partly psychological now, it’s mostly a smell/taste thing. I swear everybody except me loves cheese–though people start to see my side of things when the stinkier varieties come out. As a result of my peculiarity, it’s a bit uncomfortable for me to write about Sartori, a Plymouth, WI based “fourth-generation family owned and operated” cheese company. How can I encourage you to go work for a company that produces products that I find so offensive? I guess it just shows how committed I am to helping you start a great career.
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I’m getting married a week from today, which is why Amy and I went to three dance lessons last week. We’re not looking to do anything special. We’re just making a last ditch effort to be merely below average when 200+ people watch our first dance. The standards for dancing ability are a bit different for Youth America Grand Prix, which is a New York, NY based non-profit that runs “the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition.” Every year they put up more than $250,000 in scholarships so that some of the world’s most talented young dancers can get the training that they need to pursue a professional career. The competition was started in 1999 by two Bolshoi Ballet dancers, and has gained momentum ever since.
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I find marketing extremely interesting because the tactics change rapidly, while the basic principles never do. If I was hiring an agency, I’d want a team that brings together the old and the new, even though I often have a strong urge to go with whatever’s new. Adpearance is a Portland, OR based digital marketing agency that crafts “campaigns that launch from the solid foundations of traditional marketing, but with the added benefit of statistical analysis.” They’ve taken the best of both worlds and combined them into a complete offering that is focused on the most important thing: client ROI.
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Some of you (though probably not most of you) should quit your internship search and start a business. It’s what I did, and I can’t imagine having done anything else. That’s why I’ve spent hundreds of hours talking with and helping aspiring entrepreneurs. Yesterday I came across a Quora answer by Noah Kagan that I wish they had all read before I talked to them. It explains why most people who hold off on pursuing their dream of starting a business are doing so for the wrong reasons. There’s a movement called The Lean Startup that preaches a similar philosophy–starting a company doesn’t need to be expensive and you don’t even need a brilliant idea. Lean Startup Machine is a New York, NY based company that is spreading the philosophy not only to new entrepreneurs but also to people working in more corporate positions.
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In my day… Macs and PCs used completely different file formats. Writing a paper on my Mac (I was one of the few back then) and printing it on one of my school’s PCs was always a risky proposition. If I didn’t convert the file properly, I might end up with no homework and a really lame excuse for my teacher. We’re well past those days, yet many people still struggle with PDFs and other files. A simple request to sign a form and send it back can lead me down a half hour process of trying to find any way possible to avoid buying a new ink cartridge for my printer. Next time I’m going to try Nitro. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that builds “easy-to-use products that help people work smarter with digital documents.” Whether it’s for personal use or for a corporation with thousands of employees, Nitro offers a simple, affordable solution.
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The Internet is essentially endless in terms of opportunities to find cool and interesting stuff, yet I often find myself visiting the same sites repeatedly. There is no excuse to be bored when you’re surfing the web, but it happens to all of us. Discovery still isn’t easy as it should be, and that’s why “curation” has been a big buzzword in the startup world over the past few years. Fancy “is the place to discover, collect and buy from a crowd-curated catalog of amazing goods, wonderful places and great stores.” They’re based in New York, NY, and when you land on the home page you might think that they’re just a blog, but they’re actually a company with more than $40 million in venture capital funding.
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One thing that surprises me about today’s crop of college graduates is that as a whole they seem far less willing to move for a job than one would expect (though this blog post says that’s changing). I think the biggest thing holding young people back is that you often have to move to a new city to even have a chance at landing a job there. That’s a big risk to take when you have no money. Things change as you gain more experience and become more valuable to employers. If you do really well, they’ll often try to convince you to move for them. Many will offer relocation bonuses, but only top executives typically get concierge-level relocation assistance. UrbanBound is trying to change that. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that offers “a web-based platform that helps companies offer a comprehensive transition system to their newly hired and transferring employees.” UrbanBound enables employees to plan their entire relocation in one place, and that’s a big deal when we’re talking about such a significant life change.
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One of my favorite tools for company research is CrunchBase. While it isn’t typically all that detailed, it’s a great way to get a quick overview of many privately held companies–especially startups. Just the information on investment rounds is insanely valuable to me, but it’s far more valuable to entrepreneurs seeking capital and venture investors. They need to know what’s going on in their industry, and CrunchBase doesn’t go deep enough. There’s a site called ChubbyBrain that tried to build a similar, but deeper database, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out. However, that team is now behind a company called CB Insights, which is based in New York, NY and “helps you track the world’s most promising private companies, their investors, their acquirers and the industries they compete in.”
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Lately it seems like we’ve looking at companies with previously trendy business models. We did the subscription gift box (Glossybox), the flash sale site (Rue La La), and now we’re doing the daily e-mail (obviously my favorite model). What usually happens when a business model gets hot is that a ton of copycats come along and quickly oversaturate the market. Most of them eventually fail, and people see that as evidence that the original business model was unsustainable. It’s really just that most people who copy other business aren’t very good at running businesses. PureWow is a lot like DailyCandy or even Thrillist (they even have the same backers), but they’ve chosen a distinctly different market. The New York, NY based company realized that most women-focused online content was made for the under 30 crowd, so they decided to change that.
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We live in a strange time. The stats tell us that investing in higher education is one of the best investments that an individual can make, yet so many young people are saddled by student loans and under or unemployment. Something is going to have to change, and I’m not sure what it will be. American Student Assistance is an organization that will likely play a role in the change. They’re a Boston, MA based “private nonprofit whose public purpose mission is to empower students and alumni to successfully manage and repay their college loan debt.” ASA was founded in 1956 as the Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation and has served as a loan guarantor for much of its history. That ended in 2008 with a change in Federal law, but it hasn’t stopped American Student Assistance from offering SALT, its “innovative financial literacy and default prevention program.”
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I used to be on top of all of the latest web technologies. When a new social network or tool came out, I’d figure out how to use it and add it to my repertoire. I can’t keep up any more–there are just too many cloud-based services out there. While you’ll never be able to master all of these technologies, you can get up to speed in about a minute thanks to Grovo. They’re a New York, NY based company that “produces one-minute video lessons covering every change to the world’s most popular websites, mobile apps and online tools.” Grovo’s content is updated in real-time, so when Facebook announces a new feature or a long awaited new iPhone app is released, they’re on it almost immediately. So far they already have more than 3,000 videos covering more than 100 web products.
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This morning I read an article called Lawmakers Gone Wild in Chicago magazine. It’s about how many Illinois politicians are using their campaign funds as a tax free slush fund for personal expenses. The abuses are rampant, but only the most egregious offenders are prosecuted (and it’s often by the federal government). Much of the research for the article came from the Better Government Association, a Chicago, IL based non-profit that “works for integrity, transparency, and accountability in government by exposing corruption and inefficiency; identifying and advocating effective public policy; and engaging and mobilizing the electorate to achieve authentic and responsible reform.” Considering that the BGA has been around since 1923, you really have to wonder how bad things would be if they never existed.
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Yesterday I heard that Y Combinator is funding its first non-profit. It’s pretty cool to see a for-profit incubator dipping its toes into the non-profit world, but there have been non-profit incubators around for a long time. One of them is Earth Island Institute. They’re a Berkeley, CA based organization that acts as a “hub for grassroots campaigns dedicated to conserving, preserving, and restoring the ecosystems on which our civilization depends.” So far they have incubated over 100 startup environmental projects and helped them get off the ground by providing administrative and financial resources that are essential for early stage non-profits.
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The United States’ foreign policy these days seems to have a pretty heavy focus on countries that are about as far away as geographically possible. Our relationships with China, India, and much of the Middle East tend to get more attention (especially in the press) than our relationships with our closest neighbors. Technology has made the world a much smaller place, but it’s still important to keep an eye on our own backyard. That’s what Inter-American Dialogue does. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “the leading U.S. center for policy analysis, exchange, and communication on issues in Western Hemisphere affairs.”
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Over the course of your life there will be a few financial decisions that will have an oversized impact on your personal wealth. Not buying coffee from Starbucks or turning the thermostat down two degrees will have a small fraction of the impact. You absolutely have to get the big decisions right. But how do you know what the right decisions are? SmartAsset is a New York, NY based company that provides “all the information and analysis you need to make the best possible financial decisions.” In my opinion, they’re not quite there yet, as they’re still in beta. But they have started with home buying which is definitely a high impact decision.
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You’ve probably noticed that more and more celebrities are using their fame to launch businesses. This makes a ton of sense. Getting exposure for a new business is extremely difficult for regular people, but celebrities have a built-in PR machine. If what kind of shoes you wore is newsworthy, then the fact that you started a business (or even just lent your name to it) is going to get attention. Even a non-A-lister like Giuliana Rancic (E! News host, reality star and author) can have a distinct advantage whether she’s opening a restaurant in my neighborhood (RPM Italian) or launching a media site called FabFitFun (the name sounds like someone’s New Year’s Resolution). Today we’re going to focus on the latter, which is a Los Angeles, CA based company that offers “free daily emails filled with the latest and greatest in beauty, fitness, diet and wellness.”
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I can’t remember the last time that I went on a real scavenger hunt–it’s been too long. There’s something really fun about the combination of physical and mental activity. The problem is that a scavenger hunt is only fun if someone else sets it up for you. Occasionally there will be citywide events that challenge teams to trek across the city hunting for clues, but those can be kind of overwhelming and they don’t happen all that often. What if you and your friends want to do a scavenger hunt right now? You can try Stray Boots. They’re a New York, NY based company that offers scavenger hunts and interactive walking tours of a variety of cities through your mobile phone. It sounds like a pretty cool way to explore a city whether you live there or are just visiting.
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There’s about a 70% chance that you found us through Google. That’s by design. I’ve learned that search is by far the best way to reach job seekers, so I’ve invested a ton of time, money, and effort into my SEO strategy. So far I’ve done it mostly on my own (with the help of a few awesome interns), but if I ever get to the point where I need to hire an agency, I’ll look for one that is aligned with the people in the industry whom I trust. SEER Interactive definitely clears that hurdle (I’ve even heard their Founder called “quite brilliant” by one of the best in the industry). SEER Interactive is a Philadelphia, PA based online marketing agency that specializes in SEO, SEM, Analytics, and Conversion Optimization. I actually decided to take a closer look at SEER after I got a link request e-mail that they sent out for one of their clients. (Honestly, I think the the request could have been better, but it stood out from most of the crap I get.)
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I grew up in a house next to a post office. This was the ultimate location for a lemonade stand. From 11 AM to about 1:30 PM people would take their lunch breaks and stop by to pick up their mail. They couldn’t resist my cute face and amazing pitch for a nice, cold glass of lemonade. I raked it in, and I hoarded my earnings (and never paid my parents for ingredients). My intent wasn’t nearly as noble as Alex Scott, a 4-year-old who “announced that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer” in 2000. At the time she was in the middle of a fight against neuroblastoma, and she wanted to do everything that she could to help other kids facing a similar struggle. That lemonade stand grew into a movement called Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which is now a Wynnewood, PA based non-profit. Alex passed away in 2004 at the age of 8 having raised over $1 million to cure pediatric cancers. That’s an amazing accomplishment that becomes even more amazing when you see what her lemonade stand has grown into.
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I’m going to a wedding this weekend. I’ll wear the same black Bonobos suit that I wear to every wedding. All I have to think about is what tie to wear. I’d never even consider buying a new outfit for a wedding other than my own or one I’m in. But it’s not an uncommon thing for a lot of women to wear a different dress to every wedding they go to. That can get expensive, unless you choose to Rent The Runway. Rent The Runway is a New York, NY based “community designed to fill the needs of women who know and love high fashion, who want to look glamorous for all their nights out, and experiment with new brands without the anxiety of investing in piece after piece.” (Use this link to try it for $20 off.) The company was started by two women (Jenn and Jenny) who met at Harvard Business School, and it’s taken off since as the “Netflix for fashion.”
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I don’t hide the fact that I’m skeptical of social media marketing. I was an early adopter, and it never really paid off for me. Still, I see tons of major brands investing heavily in social. They’re not stupid, so whether they’re hedging or actually getting a good return, social media marketing is going to keep growing. Since it’s such a new field, it’s a great industry for young people to make a name for themselves. That’s exactly what Aseem Badshah has done. When he was 16 he started a site called ThinkEssay.com “where students could post their schoolwork – such as essays, term papers, class notes, lab reports, and presentations – to provide inspiration and resources for other students.” That’s how he got his social media street cred. After he graduated from the University of Washington in 2010 he started Uptown Treehouse, a Bellevue, WA based (but they appear to be growing a team in Los Angeles) “full service marketing agency that helps brands meet their goals by leveraging social media to connect with current and potential customers.”
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I’ll fess up to it… I watch Storage Wars. How can you not enjoy a show where people make exorbitant bids for other people’s junk and then find out whether they won big or overpaid? Isn’t part of the American Dream finding treasure in someone else’s trash? I don’t know where they get the valuations on some of this stuff, but who cares if the “value” of all of the world’s antiques and collectibles is greater than the total amount of money in the world? (I’m making this up, but I’m convinced it’s true.) If you really want to make money from storage units, you’re better off owning them–or helping their owners market them. That’s what SpareFoot. They’re an Austin, TX based company that “has the largest inventory of storage units on the web” and allows you to “search by location, price, unit size and amenities.”
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I don’t know if being a nerd has ever been cooler than it is now. As technology becomes more approachable, so do the people who make it. It’s even come to the point where kids who are anything but nerds are self-identifying as nerds by posting pictures of themselves wearing glasses on Instagram. They can call themselves whatever they want, but real nerds make stuff. That’s exactly what the nerds at The Nerdery do. The Nerdery is a Bloomington, MN based company (they also have an office in Chicago, IL) that partners “with creative minds and big thinkers to engineer and build award-winning interactive projects.” They’ve also managed to win a few awards for themselves including being named to the Inc. 5000 for five years in a row. This year they only came in at #1,041 with 305% three-year growth to $26.2 million in revenue. That’s ridiculously impressive.
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There are some websites that I never intentionally visit, but I always end up visiting anyway. Links to their articles just pop up all over the place–Facebook, Twitter, Google, and even e-mails from friends. Business Insider is one of those sites. I’m not typically a huge fan of their content (maybe because they published an “article” that was derived completely from comments on our post about Bridgewater Associates), but they’re certainly prolific. They cover a wide range of verticals, which makes them a good source for students who want to stay current on news and events in a particular industry. Business Insider is based in New York, NY and was founded in 2007, and since then they’ve been able to drive a ton of traffic. That traffic has helped put Business Insider at #354 on the Inc. 500 with 1,055% three-year growth and $7.7 million in revenue.
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