It’s easy to take electricity for granted. When we plug something in, it usually works. If it doesn’t, the problem probably isn’t with the outlet (though I have had that happen). Our electric system has been around for well over a century, which is why it’s so reliable. However, keeping it up to date still requires a lot of innovation. That’s where Utilidata comes in. They’re a Providence, RI based company that delivers “value to utilities and large energy users by improving operational decisions through the use of new data extraction and digital processing techniques.” We all know that measurement is usually the first step in improvement, and that’s why Utilidata is all about using data to optimize energy efficiencies.
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While the United States may not hold the patent on freedom, I’m pretty sure that we hold the trademark. Freedom and liberty are a huge part of our national identity, though a nation, almost by definition, imposes limits on freedom. That’s generally where political differences arise from–how much and what types of freedom should be limited? The people at The Institute for Humane Studies would probably say not much and not many. They are an Arlington, VA based organization (housed at George Mason University) that “advances a freer society by discovering and facilitating the development of talented, productive students, scholars, and other intellectuals who share an interest in liberty.”
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While the residential real estate market is often driven by emotion and hype (as the season premier of Million Dollar Listing L.A. reminded me), that’s not nearly as true when it comes to commercial real estate. The market for commercial properties is much more data driven, but getting your hands on the right data to make decisions can be very difficult. That’s why CompStak was started. They’re a New York, NY based company that aims to “create transparency in commercial real estate by gathering information that is hard to find, difficult to compile or otherwise unavailable.” How do they do this? By offering a place to buy and sell lease comparable data.
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Being the CEO–even of a tiny business like mine–is hard. You have to either be aware of everything that is happening or trust other people to be aware of everything that is happening. Even if you have a team that you can trust, you want to be able to keep tabs on them in the most efficient way possible. That’s what Domo is all about. They’re an American Fork, UT based company that “transforms the way executives manage their business and drives value from the tens of billions of dollars that’s been spent on traditional business intelligence systems.” They pull all of the important data from every important source and put it in one intuitive platform.
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When I think about potential new websites that I’d build, I usually look for underserved niches–gaps to fill. There are so many companies building large generalist sites that you really need to do something different to have a chance at building a real business. At least that’s my take. Emerge Media has a completely different philosophy. They are a Chicago, IL based company that is “taking on the essential roots of everyday tasks and breathing real life into the technology behind them.” They’ve been launching new sites in broad niches with a lot of competition. It seems crazy to me, but it might just work.
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We live in a world of data. Everything from the prices on financial markets to our weights can be measured and tracked very easily. Even an average person can use easily accessible online tools to fake being a “data scientist.” But what about data that isn’t obviously data? I’m talking about stuff that isn’t neatly sorted into rows and columns–the kind of stuff that you’d have to painstakingly tabulate by hand. We now have technology that can do the hard work for us, and one of the companies behind such technology is ListenLogic. They are a Conshohocken, PA based company that extracts “insights from unstructured big data to drive business outcomes.” Their “big data” technology allows clients to act on information that they never before could have acted on.
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My favorite vacations when I was growing up were our annual trips to Nantucket. While it’s an awesome island and I had a lot of fiends there, there was something else that made the vacations special. We rented a house. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it makes a vacation more relaxing. You may not have someone who makes your bed every morning, but there’s something really nice about having a place that feels like home while you’re on vacation. Back then we found our rental through an agent, but today it’s much easier to just go online and use a site like Tripping. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that has build “the world’s largest search engine for vacation and short-term rentals.” They tap into other sites’ inventories and let you compare properties easily.
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If you’ve watched The Office at all, you know that the office supply industry is not only mind-numbingly boring, but it’s also dying a slow, painful death. And if you pay attention to the news, you know that Detroit is a dying city with nothing good going on. So what if I told you that there is an office supply startup based in Detroit, MI that is anything but boring and growing rapidly? Their name is Chalkfly, and they provide “the supplies you need to do your best work.” There are a lot of narratives working against Chalkfly, but they’re just narratives. Results are what matter, and Chalkfly already claims brands like Foursquare, Moosejaw and Etsy as clients.
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When you get into the corporate world, one thing that will blow your mind is how much companies spend on employee travel. It often seems stupid, and a lot of times companies realize that travel expenses are a huge cost center. What if you could incentivize and reward employees to help your company reduce travel spending. That’s what Rocketrip does. They’re a New York, NY based company that aims “to enlist employees as engaged partners in managing corporate travel costs.” How does this work? Employees get points for activities that save their company money. They can redeem these points for rewards. It’s pretty simple.
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There are a lot of people who want to do good in the world, but few have the resources to do it on a large scale. That’s why development and grant writing are such big parts of running a non-profit. Unfortunately, those two activities don’t often direct fund where they’ll be most effectively used. That’s why Dr. Ted Caplow started a non-profit called the Whole New World Foundation that works “to crowd-source the most promising solutions to important challenges” by offering cash prizes. The Miami, FL based organization branded this contest as Children’s Prize and gave $1 million to a Pakistani doctor who said he would be able to save 165 lives with the money.
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Pretty much everybody in the business world has heard the saying “if it matters, measure it.” But what happens when you’re measuring so many different things that you stop paying attention? It’d be a lot easier if you could look at every important data point in one view–a dashboard. That’s exactly what SumAll offers for people who do business online. They’re a New York, NY based company that allows “you to see all your information in one place and provide you visibility into the past, present, and future.” It would be a lot harder to drive a car if you had twelve different dashboards for each important data point. The same can be said for running a business, which is why SumAll pull everything into one place.
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The Internet has made travel so much easier. Not only can you fully research all of your options, but you can use sites like Expedia and Airbnb to find affordable places to stay all over the world. Additionally, you have social networks like Facebook that allow you to stay connected with friends who might have a spare bedroom or couch in a city that you’re visiting. Before all of these options, there were hostels. Hostelling International USA is the Silver Spring, MD based American affiliate of Hostelling International, and they’re “a non-profit membership organization that has been serving young travelers for 79 years strong.” They have a network of more than 50 locations that each offer “a unique and local stay experience” with “inexpensive, safe, clean and fun accommodations.”
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If an experience is described as being transactional, you’d think that the parties involved are acting without emotion. Yet when we buy stuff, we go through a range of emotions. It may be frustration at having to spend money, anger at poor customer service, or euphoria from finally buying that thing that you saved up for. Companies want to know what their customers are feeling, and Kanjoya is a company that lets them do that. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and they transform “emotional insights into remarkable customer experiences” by analyzing unstructured data in real time. By linking emotion to behavior, Kanjoya is able help their clients drive better outcomes.
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I’m not sure if travel is any more popular today than it used to be, but it sure seems like it from looking at what my Facebook friends are up to. Travel is a massive industry because it’s both a leisure activity and a business activity, and that also makes it a very complex industry. People who work in travel need to keep up with the latest news and trends, so they often turn to Northstar Travel Media. They’re a Secaucus, NJ based “business information and marketing solutions provider to the $300 billion U.S. travel, tourism and meetings industries.” It started in 1939 with Hotel & Travel Index, and today Northstar Travel Media reaches more than 1.7 million monthly unique visitors online and 1.1 million people through subscriptions.
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I’m the kind of person who thinks that businesses are the solution to most of the world’s problems, but I realize that businesses also create their own set of new problems. This is especially true when businesses get beyond a certain size, and our governments only seem to exacerbate these problems. I’m not sure what the answer is, but SumOfUs thinks it begins with “a new world-wide movement for a better global economy.” They’re a New York, NY based non-profit that is starting a “member-driven movement” to put people before profits. What does that mean? It means speaking out when large corporations are behaving badly.
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Think about your favorite small business. If you like it enough for it to be your favorite, they’re probably doing a lot of things right–but chances are that they still face a lot of serious challenges. Unfortunately, they’re small, and that means that there are a lot of factors that they have little control over. That’s why many small business owners have banded together to start Small Business Majority, a San Francisco, CA based “national small business organization, founded and run by small business owners to focus on solving the biggest problems facing small businesses today.” They have offices in thirteen cities across the U.S. that are working to “bringthe voices of small business to the public policy table.”
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I wrote a lot of research papers in college, which means that I spent a lot of time poring over academic journals, research papers, and even primary sources. While there is something kind of fun about digging to find facts to support your thesis, I can’t say that I miss it. But I’m sure that there are plenty of you would absolutely love it if you could spend all day searching for sources on ProQuest. In case you’re not familiar with them, they’re an Ann Arbor, MI based company that “is committed to empowering researchers and librarians around the world.” They do this through a variety of products and services that will help you find the information that you need. When Google can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s a decent chance that ProQuest can.
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The Yankees are in Chicago for a full week! I went to the game last night at Wrigley (and I’m going again today), but the Yankees lost, and we got soaked by a thunderstorm as we left the stadium. I was also annoyed because I tried to buy tickets off of StubHub a few hours before the game but couldn’t. They used to stop selling two hours before the game but have since changed that to six hours. I was still able to get tickets at well below face value, but I had to do it at the stadium at the last minute. The policy change was forced by Major League Baseball and its teams to try to prop up ticket resale values for season ticket holders, and it’s completely unfriendly to fans. That’s what happens when the “disrupter” gets co-opted by the big boys. Now it’s time to look for a new disrupter, and it might just be TiqIQ. They are based in New York, NY, and they aim “to make buying event tickets more transparent, efficient, and simpler.”
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What if I told you that there was a product that could increase your personal privacy, reduce your heating and cooling costs, and make your home much more stylish? You might think that I was talking about some sort of new home automation/security system, but I’m really talking about blinds. You know… shades, drapes, curtains, window treatments. You can buy all of them from Blinds.com, a Houston, TX based company that is “the world’s largest online window covering store.” In fact, they’re twice as big as their closest competitor.
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When online video really started taking off, a ton of companies went to work figuring out how to monetize all of the new content. Most were focused on advertising, and they generally seemed to converge on the pre-roll ad as the most effective (and possibly most annoying) format. For every type of media, advertisers will try to find a way to use it to get their messages noticed; however, images seem to have been largely ignored even though they’re a huge part of the Internet. Sure, a lot of companies have put ads alongside images, but Luminate is putting them in the actual images. The Mountain View, CA based company has had a lot of success with this format considering that they are “serving more than 180 million users and over 6 billion image views each month.”
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Chances are that you’ve been to a few McDonald’s restaurants in your life. You’ve probably noticed that most are generally the same, but occasionally you visit one that is exceptionally nice or exceptionally dumpy. A big reason for the variance is that 80% of the locations are franchises. Franchising is a great business model when it works, but it can present some pretty tough business problems. Square Root is an Austin, TX based company that solves many of these problems. They have developed “a single platform to improve operations and performance throughout franchise networks.” It’s designed to give employees and managers “the insight, focus, and confidence to work on the right things and drive your business forward.”
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Have you ever thought that you accidentally liked something on Facebook because a post suddenly showed up in your feed from a site that you recently visited? It’s creepy, right? It’s called retargeting, and it’s amazingly effective. For at least the last few years, advertisers have been tracking your movement around the web and showing you ads based on where you’ve visited. Taking to Facebook was the obvious next step, and that’s the specialty of Triggit. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “enables advertisers and agencies to build, run, measure, and optimize retargeting-driven display campaigns from a single platform.”
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Amy and I have spent 30+ hours in the car over the last week. We listened to the radio, we listened to Spotify, we listened to two Yankees games (one via the MLB At Bat App and one on the radio), we talked, and we listened to a book on tape. After a few hours of one, we’d get bored and switch it up. Maybe we should have “stitched it up.” Stitcher is a San Francisco, CA based company with an app of the same name that lets you access “over 20,000+ radio shows and podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, Android or PC–anytime, anywhere.” The focus is on news, sports, talk, and entertainment, so it’s kind of like Pandora for non-music audio.
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Travel decisions are almost always open to outside influence. If you know where you’re going, you may need help figuring out how to get there or what to do once you get there. If you don’t know where you want to go, the possibilities are truly endless. That’s why marketers love the travel market (it helps that travelers are often exceedingly willing to spend money to travel). Just like in every other industry, marketers in the travel space are getting much more sophisticated. Sojern is a San Francisco, CA based company that is leading that trend. They have developed a “robust audience engagement platform [that] is powered by machine-learning technology, enhanced programmatic buying (real-time bidding), and data insights.” The goal is to engage travelers and affect their decision-making process, and it seems to be working.
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When you finish reading this, what are you going to do next? You’ll likely read something else–an e-mail, another article, or maybe a Facebook status. That’s why I should have suggestions for related content at the bottom of every company profile (why don’t I?). You’ve seen this model on other sites. There are related articles recommended for you. What you may not have noticed is that some of those recommendations are ads. nrelate is a New York, NY based company behind many of these ads. They help “Publishers give their readers an easy way to find more great content from within their site or from around the web, while Marketers get their content in front of highly engaged readers.”
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Every time that Amy and I move (four times over the last six years), we say that we’re going to do a great job setting up our new place. When we move to the next place, we end up repacking the framed pictures that we never got around to hanging on the wall. Interior design isn’t our strongpoint. Next time we move, we’ll have to use Houzz for inspiration. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that offers “a collaborative platform for home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners and home professionals together in a uniquely visual community.” It’s kind of like Pinterest, but only for home design and decor.
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Consuming content has never been easier. I used to travel with a backpack full of books and magazines. Now it’s all on my iPad (though my laptop, Kindle, and phone are also useful–and the combined weight of all is still less than a lot of books). For most of us the problem is organizing and prioritizing the content that we actually want to consume. I still haven’t found a way to do this that works for me, but I know a lot of people use Flipboard. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that offers a “single place to discover, collect and share the news you care about.” Their app is definitely socially powered, but it’s done in a way that filters out a lot of the noise that might show up on your Facebook feed for example.
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You can buy clothes in a lot of places. Where you buy typically depends on whether you’re looking for a good price, convenience, or your favorite brands. Then you have to decide whether you’d rather shop online or in person. If you’re brand focused and like shopping online, you may want to check out REVOLVE. The company is based in Cerritos, CA and is the “virtual home for an unrivaled collection of the world’s most coveted brands.” REVOLVE offers both men’s and women’s clothing, though the focus definitely seems to be on women’s lines.
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Do any of you remember Flip cameras? They were all the rage for a few years, and then they got completely crushed by smartphones. Who would buy a standalone consumer level point and shoot or video camera when you already have something that offers comparable quality in your pocket? The only good reason that I can think of is that you’re worried you might destroy your phone. That’s where GoPro came in. They’re a San Mateo, CA based company that has built a huge business by offering “the world’s most versatile camera.” While other manufacturers were killing each other with battles over megapixels and size, GoPro was focusing on a niche market of users who wanted to be able to take their cameras on adventures. It turned out that it was a really big niche.
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The original idea behind employer funded health insurance was that it was supposed to improve productivity by keeping employees healthy. That’s still generally the point, but today it seems that health insurance is mostly about fixing problems after they happen instead of prevention. Corporate wellness programs are the answer for employers who want to keep employees healthy (and lower insurance costs). Limeade is a Bellevue, WA based company that is aiming to “measurably improve well-being in the world through happy, healthy, high-performing workforces.” How do they do this? By offering software that makes rolling out a wellness program a snap for employers.
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