If there is any skill that is necessary across all kinds of jobs, its the ability communicate effectively. While communication is a skill that can definitely be taught and developed, it’s much easier to nurture when you’re using the right tools. That’s why work communication tools have always been a big business. Some of the latest trends have been in the form of project management and online chat tools. But what about tools for people who work in jobs that might require something like a walkie-talkie? Cell phones and text messaging might have changed those jobs a little bit, but there’s more room for technology. That’s why Lua was founded in 2010. They’re a New York, NY based company that is focused on “empowering mobile workforces by giving them access to the people and information they need to get the job done from the field or the office.”
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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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I don’t watch a lot of YouTube, but I go on occasional binges. Most of the people who are “YouTube famous” annoy the heck out of me, but I do have one favorite. It’s The Food Reviewer… he does “reviews on the YouTube… you never knew such a cool dude…” I have no idea why I enjoy watching a high school kid review packaged snack foods, but I do. Anyway, YouTube stars like The Food Reviewer (not sure if he’s a star yet with 17k followers) should do everything they can to capitalize on their fame. That’s where Victorious comes in. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based startup that is “motivated by the challenge of powering and uniting the world’s most creative communities.” In other words, they help digital stars build their own platforms so that they can make the most of the attention that they receive.
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For most of us social media is a time waster. It’s mindless entertainment that fills in gaps in our days. But for some people it’s a job. For them the mobile app just won’t do. They need power tools to manage all of their social media accounts, and that’s exactly what Sprout Social offers. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that offers “a management and egnagement platform for social business.” Sprout Social’s software offers all of the tools that one might need to engage with customers, publish content, and analyze the effectiveness of social marketing. This kind of platform is a must have for any company that takes social seriously.
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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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Who doesn’t love a good t-shirt? For me it’s all about comfort. That’s why I generally pick solid colored tees made out of high quality fabrics. For others it’s more about expression–you want your shirt to say something about who you are. If what you’re saying about yourself with your shirt is that you have a good sense of humor, then BustedTees mint be the place for you to shop. They are a New York, NY based company that was started by the same team as CollegeHumor. They started in 2004 because they wanted “people to have fun, laugh, look good, feel comfortable, get good jobs, get sweaty dancing and go home with someone who also did those things.” It’s amazing what something as simple as a t-shirt can do for people.
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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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One cool thing about art is that anyone can create it. You don’t have to be a profession or even have any training. And even if you don’t create, you can still enjoy other people’s art. The only problem is that sometimes the arts community can get a little stuffy and exclusive. It goes against everything that the arts are about, but it happens. That’s why ArtStream was started. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit “whose mission is to create artistic opportunities for individuals in communities traditionally under-served by the arts.” That includes “persons with disabilities, seniors, people with short or long term illnesses and their families or caregivers, immigrants, veterans, people who are grieving, and students and teachers.”
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Chances are that most of your communications with employers at this point are your submitting applications and their not responding. If you’re lucky, you may get a rejection letter… or even an invitation for an interview. Eventually it will get better and your communications will lead to the acceptance of a job offer. From there it will get boring–stuff like health insurance enrollment and reminders to clean up after yourself in the communal kitchen. While employee communications are often mundane, they’re an extremely important part of running a business. GuideSpark is a Menlo Park, CA based company that has built a “robust employee communications platform” that “allows HR executives to toss out the stacks of pamphlets and eliminate time-consuming seminars, and offers a new way to educate employees on complex HR topics like benefits, health care reform, and compensation programs.”
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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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I’m an outdoorsy guy who is stuck in a city that is at least a couple hours away from most of the things that I want to do. As a result I spend a lot of time visiting what my wife calls “fishing websites” (that’s exactly what they are). One upstart that caters to guys like me is Huckberry. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that “is like your favorite store, your grandpa’s favorite store, and your favorite magazine all rolled into one.” It’s pretty much the intersection of yuppie and outdoorsy with a tiny bit of hipster here and there. It’s for “dudes in the middle”–the kind of guys who go camping one weekend and to a black tie wedding the next weekend.
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Yesterday we took a look at an online marketing company. Today we’re going to do the same. While today’s company offers many of the same services, the difference is that they tend to work with larger, national clients. This may seem like a small distinction, but the level of competition can make it seem like a different business. WPromote is an El Segundo, CA based company that calls itself “the country’s leading Online Marketing firm, delivering incredible results for [its] Search Engine Optimization, PPC Management and Social Media clients.” That’s big talk, but they must be living up to it if companies like Toyota, Ford, TOMS, Tumi, and Southern New Hampshire University are hiring them to do their online marketing.
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While we often think that willpower is the only thing holding us back from a healthy lifestyle, that’s not really true. Most of us have no idea what healthy really means, and we’re also terrible at estimating the health impact of our actions. That “three mile run” that you took might have only been 1.7 miles, and the 650 calorie dinner might have been more like 1,100 calories. How can we get better at measuring the impact of our daily decisions? Technology! That’s why companies like Noom are getting a lot of attention. Noom is based in New York, NY, and they an NYC based company that makes healthy living easy by using “cutting-edge technology to accurately monitor your progress and provide expert advice and analysis to keep you on track.”
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I had 20/12 vision up until Junior year of high school. Then it all fell apart and I couldn’t read the blackboard. I was in denial for a while, but it became quite obvious that I… I needed glasses. Although glasses certainly weren’t cool at the time, I was more concerned with having to wear something on my face all of the time. That’s why I opted for contacts. Today it seems that people who don’t even need vision correction are wearing glasses, and that is making a lot of fashion brands want to enter the eyewear category. eponym is a company that allows them to do that quickly and easily. They are based in Brooklyn, NY, and they “help the world’s most exciting brands create and distribute their own eyewear.”
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Having a personal chef would be pretty life changing. Not only would it make healthy eating much easier, but it would also free up a ton of time. Unfortunately, most of us can’t afford to employ a chef full-time. So how can regular people get the personal chef experience? Kitchensurfing is a New York, NY based company that matches “up chefs and people who need a cook at high and low price points and for a variety of types of engagements, from cooking lessons for the kids to fried chicken parties to 10-course anniversary dinners.” Almost anyone can afford a personal chef when it’s only for one night.
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We live in a 3D world, but we’ve often been constrained by two-dimensional mediums. For a long time it was pencil and paper, but then it became computers. They brought the hope of real 3D capabilities, but it took a long time for technology to get to the point that working in 3D became realistic. Believe it or not, Spatial got its start in 1986 when they released “ACIS, the first commercially available 3D modeling kernel.” Since then the Broomfield, CO based company has become “the leading provider of 3D components for technical application development across a broad range of industries.”
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I have a soft spot for Detroit, the entire state of Michigan, and Vernor’s Ginger Ale. My Dad’s entire family is from the Detroit area (including a former mayor going way back), but now I only have one Great Aunt still living there. The city has obviously seen better times, but I’m hoping that it will find its way again. So is Team Detroit. It’s an ad agency that in 2006 brought together parts of five legendary agencies that were under the same ownership (JWT, Y&R, Ogilvy, Wunderman, and Mindshare) and already working with Ford. Oddly enough, Team Detroit is actually based in Dearborn, MI, but I don’t think that should take away any street creed. They’ve been winning new clients and getting lots of accolades, so it sounds like they’re a winning team.
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The last time that Amy and I reserved a rental car, they didn’t have a car for us when we showed up. It was straight out of Seinfeld’s The Car Reservation, except the agent didn’t even try to help us. We ended up having to spend $250 on an Uber to get us to the wedding on time. I wish I could say that it’s the last time that I’ll ever use a rental car company, but it won’t be. However, I am tempted to try something new like RelayRides. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that connects “vehicle owners whose cars would otherwise be idle with people who need a car.” It’s a model that makes sense, even if it feels a little uncomfortable at first.
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One of the most amazing things about the surge in popularity of crowdfunding is that it has allowed many businesses to get off the ground with zero inventory. Instead of having to guess at how many of something you should make, they can pre-sell the product and it deliver it at some undetermined date in the future. While this is totally awesome for those who are able to take advantage of it, the large majority of businesses still have to hold inventory if they ever want to sell anything. The goal is to get “the right product in the right place at the right time at the right price,” but that often doesn’t go as planned. Optoro offers a fix. They are a Washington, DC based company that “unleashes hidden revenue for retailers and creates value for shoppers” by helping businesses with “reverse logistics.”
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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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This morning I got to do something pretty cool. A friend who is doing research on trout in the Au Sable River invited me to go electrofishing with him. What does that mean? We put electrified probes in the water, stun fish, and then net them. What’s the point? To surgically implant telemetry devices that allow the fish to be tracked so that my friend can write a thesis on their behavior. All of the tracking gear that he uses is produced by Advanced Telemetry Systems. They are an Isanti, MN based company that aims “to provide researchers and managers in ecology and biology with animal tracking and monitoring products of the highest quality and reliability.”
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Events are inherently social. A lot of time who is going to be there matters more than what is going on. Yet all of our major social networks are about showing off what we’ve already done. If we’re going to broadcast our lives, it might make sense to let other people in on the fun. Fever is a New York, NY and Madrid, Spain based startup social network that is “changing the way people make plans.” Their idea is to take event discovery away from the calendar and make it all about the people.
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Fashion trends are fascinating. I generally dress the same way that my parents dressed me when I was four, but I understand the urge to get ahead of the latest styles. Some people just have a sense for fashion and can pull it off on their own, but most need help. That’s why the fashion media is so big. The Internet is only making fashion move faster, and that means that the media has to be faster too. StyleCaster Media Group is a New York, NY based company that aims “to bring style to the people, empowering millions of readers to discover and share their style through inspiring features, expert tips, and innovative resources.”
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Think about all of the e-mail lists that you’re subscribed to. Now think about how many of those e-mails you delete, mark as spam, or totally ignore. Every one of those senders includes you when they brag about the size of their lists, but you’re pretty much worth nothing to them (you may even have negative value). Businesses that do e-mail right know that keeping your lists manicured is a smart business decision. Unfortunately, that’s a lot easier said then done, which is why company that are serious about e-mail use FreshAddress. They’re a Newton, MA based company that helps “companies that depend on email to drive revenue by building, updating, segmenting, and cleaning their email lists.”
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I don’t listen to talk radio very often, but on long drives when I get bored of music, I switch over to the AM band. If it’s on, I’ll listen to Dave Ramsey. He’s “an American financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker” who is mainly focused on helping people get out of debt and stop paying the “stupid tax.” His company is called The Lampo Group (but they smartly use the DaveRamsey branding when it comes to posting jobs), and it’s based in Brentwood, TN. The Lampo Group’s mission is to provide “biblically based, common-sense education and empowerment that gives HOPE to everyone in every walk of life.”
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If you need to make a decision about something that you don’t know a lot about, your best bet is to consult an expert. That’s why friends usually come to me for all of their meat related questions. Since text messaging a buddy won’t always get you the right answer–especially in the business world–there need to be other ways to find expertise fast. AlphaSights is a New York, NY based company that provides “today’s investors, deal-makers and corporate strategists with access to the knowledge they need to succeed.” Unlike consulting firms, they don’t actually provide the knowledge. Instead they play the role of “knowledge brokers.”
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I’m pretty bummed that we’re going to have to wait almost a full year for a new episode of Mad Men now. If you need your fix, you’re going to have to take a look inside a real advertising agency. Today we’re going to do that for you, and the focus is going to be Mason Zimbler, an Austin, TX based “integrated agency rooted in the digital space.” They’re owned by a bigger company called Harte Hanks, but they seem to operate mostly on their own by combining “a love of creative” with a “desire for results.” They have quite a roster of big name clients, so they must be very good at finding that balance.
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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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I always enjoy when two people with moderately funny last names decide to get married. There’s always the question of will they combine their names with a hyphen? The best potential that I’ve ever heard of was Weiner-Butt, but the couple sadly did not decide to hyphenate. These funny combos can also be created by business partners. Imagine that a guy with a not very funny last name of Wong and a guy with a pretty funny last name of Doody decided to start an ad agency. They could try to invent some random brand name that doesn’t say much about who they are, or they could smash their identities together and start WONGDOODY (the company logo is equally smashed together). The agency is based in Seattle, WA and “is the most awarded independent advertising agency on the West Coast.” They’re relatively small, but they’re doing some serious work.
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