I’m pretty sure that I said this like two weeks ago, but when it comes to advertising, creative and placement are both very important. A terrible ad can sometimes be effective with the right media buys, and a fantastic ad can be effective with almost no placement. However, if you put the two together, you get outsized results. Horizon Media is “the largest independent media services agency in the world.” That “independent” part is important because so many media agencies today are held by large holding companies. New York, NY based Horizon Media’s tagline is “business is personal.” I think that says a lot about how they stand out from other agencies.
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Much of what we do on social media sites is completely frivolous, but we all know how powerful they can be when directed in the right way. Whether it’s raising money, awareness, or a volunteer force, there’s no better medium than the Internet for pushing a specific cause. Causes is a San Francisco, CA based company that wants to be the place that people go to when they want to “discover, support and organize campaigns, fundraisers, and petitions around the issues” that matter to them and their communities.
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I often hear from readers that we cover too many opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unfortunately, I have no control over where the best opportunities pop up. San Francisco’s economy has been booming for a while now, and that makes an already exciting city even more exciting. The San Francisco Foundation is a non-profit that was founded in 1948 “to pull the community together to create pride and unity and improve quality of life” in the Bay Area. Having awarded more than $800 million in grants over the past decade, the Foundation has certainly played a strong role in making San Francisco the place it is today.
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public health
I’m not sure how we ended up here, but Black Friday shopping seems to be the latest extreme sports craze. I’ll spend a little time looking for deals online, but you won’t find me within a few miles of any major retail store. If I somehow got duped into going shopping, I’d totally wear a helmet. It’s better safe than sorry. Easton-Bell Sports, which is based in Van Nuys, CA, is one of the biggest sports helmet companies in the world. Their brands include Giro, Bell, Riddell, Easton, Easton Cycling, and Blackburn. They all come together to help Easton-Bell Sports pursue their goal of being “a leading designer, developer and marketer of sports equipment and accessories that enhance athletic performance and protection.”
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safety,
sports
I went grocery shopping yesterday at Whole Foods. Usually at 2 PM on a weekday, it’s a ghost town, but not during Thanksgiving week. I actually like grocery shopping, so it was fun to be a part of the madness, but I know a lot of people who hate it. Some use services like Fresh Direct or Peapod. I tried the latter once, but it feels like your groceries were picked out by a robot. That won’t cut it if you’re buying meat or produce. Instacart offers a different kind of grocery delivery service. They are a San Francisco, CA based startup that offers personal grocery shopping in a growing number of markets (Chicago and Bay Area right now), and sometimes they can get you your groceries within an hour.
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I’m really excited for Thanksgiving, even though I don’t get to go back home this year. I love having the opportunity to cook new stuff for a big group of people, and I think that meals at a big table are almost always fun. If you agree, you might be interested in Dinner Lab. It’s a New Orleans, LA based “membership-based social dining experiment that unites undiscovered chefs with adventurous diners who are looking for something different from the traditional restaurant experience.” They’re already in Austin, Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, DC, and Atlanta, and it looks like the expansion will continue.
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Washington DC
We usually think of advertising geniuses as the people who come up with the creative, but the media side (where you show the ad) is often just as or even more important. Everyone has noticed a disastrous ad placement, but how many of us take note when a marketing message appears in the right place at the right time? The people at Crossmedia certainly do. They are a New York, NY based (with offices in LA, Philly, and Germany) “independent channel-driven agency delivering communications planning, media services and international account management.” They offer a variety of services that are built with “an equal mix of business, media and agency performance.”
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Pennsylvania
I have quite a few friends who are pursuing careers in the energy efficiency space. It’s a great industry because it allows you to make the world a better place while still working at a for-profit. Water use efficiency doesn’t get the same level of attention, but you can argue that it’s equally important. Clean water is a limited resource that is especially scarce in many areas. Conservation is one of the simplest solutions, and that’s what WaterSmart Software is all about. They are based in San Francisco, CA, and they aim “to help water utilities make it easier for their customers to save water and save money.” I always find it weird that utility companies can grow their businesses by convincing consumers to use less of what they sell, but that’s the way things work these days.
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The world of non-profits revolves around money. I know it’s counterintuitive, but only the leanest organizations can operate without significant funds. When you’re a business and you’re using money to make money, you typically have some margin for error. But when you’re trying to use money to do good, every bit of effectiveness makes a difference. That’s why The Center for Effective Philanthropy exists. They are a Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, CA based non-profit that works “to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness – and, as a result, their intended impact.” They are what I like to call a meta-non-profit; an organization that serves other charitable organizations.
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I mentioned earlier in the week in the post about Museum Hack that I can sometimes get a little bored at museums. That’s not true at kids’ museums. I’m not sure what is says about my maturity level, but when I was in college, Amy and I would get really excited to take her sister (15 years younger) to the local science/children’s museum. She loved it, but I think we loved it even more. Next time we go to the West Coast, we might have to visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum. It’s a Sausalito, CA based museum that “is designed to ignite creative thinking in children.” What makes it sound even more awesome than other children’s museums that I’ve been to is that they put their 7.5 acres of natural space to use as part of the experience.
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Over the past six months baby blue bikes have been popping up all over Chicago. As a driver, they’re a bit scary because many of the riders seem unsure of themselves on two wheels, but it’s an overall good thing for the city. The bikes are part of the Divvy Bikes bike sharing system. The program seems to be a huge success so far, and I’m hearing the same thing about similar programs in other cities. The company behind Divvy, CitiBike, Bay Area BikeShare, Capital Bikeshare, and quite a few others is Alta Bicycle Share. They are based in Portland, OR and have offices in San Francisco, Columbus, Chicago, Brooklyn, Chattanooga, Boston, Washington, DC, and Melbourne, Australia. They’ve been able to launch programs in such major cities because they ” provide solutions for all aspects of bike share, from location assessment and business modeling to system maintenance and expansion.”
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In the world of advertising and marketing, creative seems to get all of the credit. We idolize the people who came up with the idea for a memorable campaign, but we don’t think of all the work that led to that idea. Whether you’re developing products, communications, strategy, or anything else that relates to your customers, you have to start with research. That’s where Kelton comes in. They are a New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA based consulting firm that is “passionate about listening to your customers and translating their stories into innovative solutions.” They start with research, then build a strategy, and use that to create design.
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When I was a kid trick-or-treating was a failure if I didn’t reach double digits. I’m not talking about pieces of candy. I’m talking pounds. I laughed at the kids with the jack-o-lantern candy basket. Amateurs. Any real kid would use a backpack, an oversized pillowcase, or–better yet–both. There’s nothing better than getting home, pouring all your candy on the floor, and looking at the majesty of it all. It’s hard to recreate that feeling as an adult, but I kind of get it when I walk into Dylan’s Candy Bar. They are a New York, NY based retailer (with stores in Miami Beach and LA as well) that has merged “the worlds of art, fashion and pop culture with candy” to build “the world’s largest confectionary emporium and lifestyle brand.” Oddly enough, they don’t seem to dedicate much attention to Halloween, but I guess you don’t have to when your brand is all candy all the time.
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Tonight is Mischief Night (also known as Devil’s Night). As a kid I was always a little afraid on October 30th, but I had a dream of becoming a vigilante and catching all of the mischief makers. Luckily, there weren’t many mischief makers in my neighborhood. At worst they would TP some trees and shaving cream some windows. I don’t know from personal experience, but as I understand it, lower quality shaving cream is better for mischief. You want that airy, foamy stuff if you’re spraying it on someone’s windows, but you want almost the exact opposite if you’re shaving your face (or so I’m told, I haven’t shaved with a razor in many years). Lately there has been a movement towards higher quality shaving products… and towards subscription models. We already took a look at Harry’s, and today we’re going to check out Dollar Shave Club. They’re based in Venice, CA, and they are “a rocketing men’s lifestyle brand and e-commerce company on a mission to change the way men address their shaving and grooming needs.”
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Early in the wedding planning process I proposed that we try to do as much online as possible. I quickly lost that battle, and I must say that our custom designed paper goods turned out amazingly well. I’m just glad that I wasn’t paying for them. If only there was a way to get beautiful, custom designed paper goods for a reasonable price. That’s exactly what Minted offers. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that aims “to find exceptional artists and designers all over the world and bring their work to consumers who appreciate great design.” They were early to the crowdsourcing model in 2008, and since then they’ve grown into a place where consumers can find great designers and great designers can get exposure that will help them build their careers.
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InvestmentNews is our sponsor this week, and they would like to tell you about their NextGen Virtual Career Fair on November 8th. It’s an awesome opportunity for students and interns to network and find finance jobs on the spot.
When we featured Duraflame, I thought they’d be the only company that I’d write about with an office on a boat (excluding companies that use boats as parts of their businesses, of course). Today’s company really made a name for itself when they turned a retired ferryboat into a floating workshop on the San Francisco Bay (they now have offices all over the world). That move certainly helped build the Landor brand, which is kind of funny, since that’s what they do for clients–they “help the world’s best brands stand up, stand out, and stand for something.” Many of their clients already have massive brand awareness, so Landor is tasked with making the most of that brand equity.
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Ohio,
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Two weeks ago it was my birthday. Amy wanted us to do something fun and new in Chicago, so she surprised me with trapeze lessons. Unfortunately, she forgot that I have an elbow injury that would make doing such things a bit painful. We called the place to see if they could give us a credit for future lessons, and they were able to. While I certainly didn’t want to mess up my elbow more, I have to admit that the idea of soaring through the air scares me a little bit. Maybe if I had been exposed to acrobatics at an early age through a program like AcroSports, I would have had a better attitude about trying trapeze lessons. They are a San Francisco, CA based “non-profit organization whose mission is to teach and develop the physical, performing, and circus arts.” They’ve been at it for two decades now serving their “community in a safe, positive environment, offering activities that encourage teamwork and build strengths and self-esteem, and enhancing life’s experience.”
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Garçon went on his first hunt yesterday (he still needs to grow into his tracking collar). A friend of mine took us along with his well-experienced dog to try to find some grouse and woodcock. The search was unsuccessful, but Garçon loved running through the woods and learning to use his nose. He’s more of an upland dog, but I hope at some point we’ll be able to hunt ducks together too–because I love ducks. Many of you are probably asking, “If you love ducks so much, why would you want to shoot them?” The simple answer is because they’re delicious, but the more complicated answer is that the people who utilize a resource are often the ones who care for it the most. Without an organization like Ducks Unlimited, our waterfowl population wouldn’t be close to what they are today. The Memphis, TN based non-profit has become “the world’s leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation” because a small group of hunters were worried about the loss of wetlands habitat and what it would do to the ducks.
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I’m not much of a gamer, but occasionally I get wrapped up in a mindless iPhone game. It starts as a little diversion while waiting for something, and before I know it, I’m staying up past my bedtime playing. The addiction usually lasts a few weeks, and then I forget about it and get my life back… until I discover a new game. I haven’t tried any games from Pocket Gems, and I don’t intend to… I never intend to. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “develops free-to-play mobile games that are ridiculously fun.” While their games may be pretty simple, Pocket Gems takes them very seriously. That’s why their dual mission is to “build the world’s best mobile engineering team” and “become a global leader in the mobile entertainment industry.”
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video games,
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I can’t walk down the street in Chicago without seeing a new salon or day spa. And just as quickly as they pop up, they seem to disappear. There’s no doubt that these kinds of businesses can make a killing if executed properly, but it’s become obvious to me that a lot of people have no idea how to run a salon. While I’m sure some completely mess up their economics, my guess is that most failed salons had trouble attracting customers. Salon Success Strategies is a Roseville, CA based company that can help. They’re a “full service marketing agency specializing in salons, day spas, and medical spas.” The company was started by successful salon and spa owners who saw an opportunity to share their knowledge by offering services and training.
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About a year ago I woke up to a loud chirp. It wasn’t a bird (though we did have two birds fly down our chimney in two days around the same time). It was the smoke alarm. This wasn’t the “OH MY GOD THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE” alarm. It was the “let’s wake you up in the middle of the night so that you can change the battery” alarm. I ignored it… until it went off again five minutes later… and again… and again. So I’m in my underwear standing on a chair trying to disable this thing. It’s 3 AM and the smoke alarm is just out of my reach. I am at the point where I’ll do anything to go back to sleep, and there’s a baseball bat in the nearby closet…. and then I’m finally able to disable the alarm. I understand that smoke alarms with dead batteries can’t save lives, but there has to be a better way (especially considering that climbing on a chair when you’re sleep-deprived is pretty dangerous). Nest agrees. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that “takes the unloved products in your home and makes simple, beautiful, thoughtful things.” Their first product was a thermostat, and now they’ve just announced a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm.
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A couple months ago I was raving to you about our web host WP Engine. While I’m still generally happy with them, they had a pretty big screw up a couple weeks ago. I worked with their support team, and we were able to find a resolution (though it took much longer than I would have hoped). All of the communications ran through Zendesk, which is “beautifully simple customer service software.” It’s basically a platform for managing all of the back and forth that is typically a part of delivering good customer service. Zendesk is based in San Francisco, CA, though they were originally founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007 (they made the move in 2009).
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I like skiing (even if I’ve only done it twice), but I like fishing, volleyball, walking my dog, and staying out of the hospital more. I can’t get over the fear that I’ll injure myself skiing and keep myself from doing all of the things that I truly love to do. I’m sure for a lot of skiers, they have the opposite apprehension (like my buddy Jason who used a ski trip to describe Quality Events in our Job Search Prep course). The only other bad thing about skiing is that once you get over the fear of injury, you have to get over the price of lift tickets. Or you did. Liftopia is a San Francisco, CA based company that aims to “help skiers and snowboarders get out on the slopes more often, and help alpine resorts generate incremental revenue.”
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A few years ago infographics totally blew up. Outlets like USA Today have been using them forever, but everyone in the content business jumped on the bandwagon seemingly at once. Why? Because infographics are tailor made for social media. They deliver a lot of information in a short amount of time, and that makes them super shareable with crowds who tend towards a shorter attention span. Column Five is a company that was in the right place at the right time. They are a Newport Beach, CA based infographic design, social PR, and content strategy agency that landed at #291 on the Inc. 5000 with 1,504% three-year growth to $5.3 million in revenue. It helps when your client list includes the World Bank, GE, and Harvard.
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The technology of the 90s and early 2000s was durable. Most devices were built like tanks because a few extra ounces (or pounds) here and there don’t really matter when many of the components are already so heavy. Today size and weight are main selling points for most types of electronics. The only problem is that today’s devices seem far more susceptible to breaking. It’s a tradeoff, but it sucks to be on the losing end when you drop your three-day old $600 phone on the grass and the screen shatters. Manufacturers and third parties have started offering all kinds of repair services, but they’re still expensive. Why can’t you just do it yourself?
With the help of iFixit you can. They are a San Luis Obispo, CA based company that wants “to show the world how to fix every thing.” They seem to be having some success with that, as they landed on the Inc. 5000 with 223% three-year growth to $9.8 million in revenue.
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There’s nothing like a live event, but we often can’t be where we want to be. The Internet has made things a little easier. Today video, audio, or commentary from any event can be shared all across the world as it’s happening. It took a while to get to the point where it’s reliable, but we’re mostly there. Livestream is a New York, NY based company that has played a big part in moving us forward when it comes to streaming live content. They offer “event owners a complete set of hardware and software tools to share their events with a growing community online.” This has led them to #750 on the Inc. 5000 with 613% three-year growth to $18.9 million in revenue.
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When you get engaged, everybody tells you how much fun registry shopping is. I’m still waiting for the fun part. Just kidding. The fun part was doing our Amazon Registry, which had all of the cool kitchen gadgets that I wanted. When someone bought us something on that, I got really excited. I was a little bit less excited about our registries at Simon Pearce, Bloomingdale’s, and Restoration Hardware. I’m very grateful to everyone who bought us a gift from those registries, but a blowtorch is way better than a water pitcher in my book. Now let’s go back to that last place we registered: Restoration Hardware. That ended up being our least popular registry (in terms of % completed), which is surprising when you consider that the Corte Madera, CA “home furnishings retailer” made the Inc. 5000 with 91% three-year growth to $1.2 billion in revenue. While that growth rate is lower than what we’re accustomed to, we can make an excuse for a company that passed the billion dollar mark (and is no longer eligible for the list now that they have IPOed).
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When I was a freshman at Cornell, my dorm had these awesome vending machines from Cornell Dining. Instead of soda, candy bars, and chips, you could get apples (grown on campus), milk (from cows that live on campus), and sandwiches. We had the other kind of vending machines too, but who wants to eat a candy bar when you can get a fresh apple? Ok, maybe that’s not the right question to ask, but vending machine food is usually the lowest common denominator. It may offer a quick fix to your hunger problem, but it’s not really a solution. HUMAN Healthy Vending is changing that. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based company whose “1,000 state-of-the-art machines serve healthy items to thousands of people everyday in 40 States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.” Maybe I was wrong about people wanting candy bars instead of apples considering that HUMAN Healthy Vending landed at #168 on the Inc. 5000 with 2,378% three-year growth to %9.2 million in annual revenue.
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We moved to a tree lined street recently, and I love it. I can walk out my door on a 90 degree day, and it still doesn’t feel oppressively hot. My car is nice and cool when I get in (though it tends to get covered in bird poop), and if it rains, it has to rain pretty hard to actually get me wet. Soon the leaves will fall off and it will get colder, and then the sun will shine through the branches and keep things a little warmer. Trees make living in a city way better. That’s the premise behind Canopy, a Palo Alto, CA based “environmental nonprofit that engages the community in the growth and care of our urban forest.” While they only focus on Palo Alto and it surrounding communities, they’re making a big difference through the power of trees.
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botany,
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I’ve mentioned before that I love watching Million Dollar Listing on Bravo. In the latest episode, one of the realtors is working with an extremely “motivated” couple who are itching to burn a few million dollars on a house, yet the agent can’t find anything on the market that meets their specifications. This is the kind of problem that agents want (the agent ends up finding them a house and getting the commission). Non-serious buyers and sellers can cost agents a ton of money, so any way to figure out which clients are ready to act is extremely valuable. That’s exactly what Zurple offers. They’re a Carlsbad, CA based company that builds software focused “on one thing — starting conversations between Realtors and leads that culminate in closed transactions.” They came in at #33 on the Inc. 5000 with 7,112% three-year growth to $7.7 million in annual revenue.
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