It seems that geek culture has finally become mainstream. Maybe it’s the fact that engineers are in high demand at companies like Facebook, Apple, and Google. Or maybe it’s the upsurge in popularity of sites like Reddit. Or maybe it’s shows like The Big Bang Theory. I don’t really know, but for the first time in my lifetime, it’s good to be a geek. So good, in fact, that many of the “popular” kids are now claiming geek status. Whether you’re a true geek or a poser geek, you need geek gear, and ThinkGeek is the place to go for that. They’re a Fairfax, VA based company that started with the “simple idea to create and sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged.”
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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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I used to watch a show called BattleBots. It was a competition between teams that built robots designed to kill each other. I particularly enjoyed the robotic violence, but I could still enjoy watching friendlier robotic competition. That’s what FIRST promotes. They’re a Manchester, NH based non-profit that uses robotics and other forms of technology to “to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.” FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” and it was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen–the guy who invented the Segway along with quite a few other amazing things.
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My first bike was red and had a banana seat. My second bike was a black and grey Huffy that was far cooler in the eyes of a 7 year old boy. After that I won a green “mud slinger” in a raffle. It was even cooler, but it still wasn’t a real bike because it only had one speed. I got my first real bike in 5th grade. It was a green Trek Antelope 800 with 18 speeds. I loved it and rode it all the time for the first few years I owned it. I eventually stopped riding and haven’t owned a bike since, but I still have a strong positive association with Trek. The company is based in Waterloo, WI and has been pursuing a mission to “build the best bikes in the world” since they were founded in 1976.
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I live in a sixteen unit condo/apartment building. The unit that I rent is pretty nice, but the building’s common areas are kind of gross. It seems that the condo association is reluctant to invest in upkeep (and that’s why I’d never buy a unit in this building). Luckily for Bright Power not all associations are like mine. Bright Power is a New York, NY based company that “provides practical energy management and solar energy solutions that save building owners energy, money and time,” and they specialize in multifamily residential buildings just like mine. By focusing on buildings instead of individual homeowners, they’re able to have a bigger impact while at the same time making it more likely that an investment in their solutions will make sense.
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When my wedding invitations went out, they didn’t have just regular stamps. We had special stamps made with our initials on them to give the envelopes a little extra flair. (Yes, I know it’s ridiculous.) You can get nearly anything customized these days, but postage is pretty surprising considering that the USPS is a federal agency. Whether you want your own version of postage, a t-shirt, a wall decal, or playing cards, you should consider Zazzle. They’re the company we used, and they’re a Redwood City, CA based company that allows you to “create amazing custom products with artwork you choose, and prices you’ll love.”
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I used to be perfectly happy to shop at a regular grocery store–I even got annoyed by the fancier stores. As I’ve gotten more yuppified, that has completely changed (it’s actually because I’ve learned to cook). Now I go to Whole Foods for produce and local specialty stores for meat and fish, but most people still do all of their shopping at a single grocery store. These are the kinds of people that big brands want to reach with marketing messages. MyWebGrocer is a Winooski, VT based company that makes that happen. They provide “leading-edge eCommerce and eMarketing solutions to the grocery and consumer packaged goods industries” including solutions like “website design, specialty modules for websites, hosting, sophisticated email strategies and consulting services.”
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Over the weekend I wrote about how important parental involvement is for our education system. I might have been wrong. Today I learned that parents are completely replaceable–and by robots nonetheless. When I first came across 4moms, I thought it might be a later April Fool’s joke, but they’re a totally for real Pittsburgh, PA based company that is “dedicated to finding innovative solutions that make parenting tasks easier and more enjoyable for families all over the globe.” That’s a nice way of saying that they’re building a future in which parents are obsolete. Ok, I’ve completely overplayed the robots thing, but it’s really cool to see how 4moms has used to technology to overcome some of the more frustrating parts of parenting young children.
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When I played baseball in high school, my teammates and I all hated having to “keep the book.” Not only did it mean that you probably weren’t playing, but it also meant that you had to pay 100% attention while you were sitting on the bench. I have to think that keeping the book it a little more fun now that it’s done on tablets and smartphones. GameChanger Media is a New York, NY based company that is bringing high end scorekeeping and stat keeping technology to amateur sports. Not only do they make it ridiculously easy to record everything that happens in a game, but they also allow you to livestream those stats to any fan with an Internet connection (parents must love this!). When the action is over, GameChanger automatically tabulate and displays all kinds of important stats.
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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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I went to a funeral for a friend’s relative yesterday. It was lovely service in memory of a long, full life; however, the only thing that identified the service as being in 2013 and not 1995 (or 1972 even) was that the minister did all of his readings from an iPad. There isn’t a lot of innovation in the funeral industry. I thought online obituaries and guest books were the state of art, but I learned today that Platinum Innovation Group is a Detroit, MI based company that is bringing new ideas to the industry. They’re also working in “the areas of telehealth, telemedicine, health and beauty, film industry, real estate, and genealogy.” They do this by operating “a diverse set of businesses that are powered by innovation and change.” I also found the company using the brand Hello Innovation, so I’m not sure what that’s about. Maybe they’re in the process of rebranding or something.
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My wedding invitations were mailed yesterday. If I had my way, they would have been delivered digitally, but that’s a battle that I quickly lost. I guess most people like the fanciness of a paper invitation. We’ll never be able to recreate the experience of opening an envelope online, but we’re getting closer. Paperless Post is a company that is leading the charge. They’re based in New York, NY, and they’ve built a platform that “modernizes the tradition of correspondence and helps you create cards and invitations that reflect an individual aesthetic.” They realized that most online invitations chose convenience at the cost of design. Paperless Post wants to allow you to put as much thought and effort into your online invitation or card as my fiancée and her mom put into our wedding invitations (multiple hour long meetings–I wish I was kidding).
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I was way ahead on the flash sales and members only shopping thing. I did a writeup on Gilt Groupe almost five years ago just as the business model was catching on. While there isn’t nearly as much excitement about the space as there used to be, it’s still a great way to sell stuff (time constraints and sales both have amazing psychological effects on people). And that’s why I think it’s worth taking a look at Rue La La. They’re a Boston, MA and New York, NY based company that curates “Boutiques filled with the best of the best in women’s and men’s fashion, home, travel, kids, and more.” Each sale lasts 48 hours and is limited to members only (though becoming a member is about as easy as signing up).
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About 10 years ago I walked into a random McDonald’s in upstate New York and was shocked to see that the menus were on flat screen TVs. I’d never seen that before, and this was the last place I would have expected to see it (I’m pretty sure this was a test McDonald’s or something). Today digital displays are cheap and everywhere, as they provide an easy way to communicate messages that might change over time or require interactivity. At least it’s supposed to be easy, but technology often gets in the way of itself. Industry Weapon is a Pittsburgh, PA based company that offers a platform called CommandCenterHD that makes controlling digital media simple by centralizing and organizing it.
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This morning I was about to buy something but changed my mind because the checkout process was too annoying. While I probably shouldn’t be so lazy, that should never happen. E-commerce software is a solved problem. Why would a retailer invest in building their own proprietary site when they can license it from a provider like Demandware? They’re a Burlington, MA based company that offers an “enterprise-class cloud commerce platform” that powers “more than 150 retail brands across more than 575 sites around the globe.” If you regularly buy stuff online, you’ve almost certainly come into contact with Demandware’s platform. You probably had no idea, and that’s just how Demandware wants it.
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Most college kitchens are filled with decades old hand-me-down tools (at least mine was). They’re not the best, but they get the job done. That used to be the way that all kitchen tools were. OXO changed that in 1989 with the launch of their Good Grips brand. Their focus on design helped take kitchen tools from a commodity to a product where brand matters and grow from startup to acquisition. A lot of the credit for the success has to be attributed to Oxo’s working with Smart Design, “an award-winning design and innovation consulting firm with offices in New York, San Francisco and Barcelona.” Smart Design has been around since 1980, and in that time they’ve worked “with companies of all sizes and across diverse industries to create human-centered design solutions that delight customers and help companies achieve their business goals.”
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What if I told you that the Reebok Pump, the Swiffer, and the portable ascender (it’s straight out of Batman) were all designed by the same company? You’d probably assume that there’s some giant holding company that owns Reebok, Procter and Gamble, and Atlas Devices. That’s not true. Continuum is the company in question, and they certainly don’t own any of those three companies. They’re a Boston, MA based “global innovation and design consultancy” that helps “organizations drive business innovation through the design of products, services and experiences that become part of the fabric of people’s lives.” Continuum has been at it for 30 years, and they’ve worked with some of the world’s biggest brands (PepsiCo, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and Nestle in addition to the ones that I’ve already mentioned) to improve business outcomes through design.
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I’m the first person to admit that I’m not the best about energy efficiency. I may turn off the lights when I leave the house, but I still drive an SUV and use incandescent bulbs. I need someone to make it easy for me, and luckily more and more utilities are starting to do that. It’s a little odd that a company that sells you something wants you to use less, but that’s what’s happening. One of the best ways for utility companies to help their customers reduce energy consumption is through web-based software. It would be silly for every utility company to create their own custom software, which is why EnergySavvy exists. They’re a Seattle, WA based company that provides utilities with software that enables them “to engage with their customers, keep track of their data and optimize their operations.”
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Job searching and looking for love can be similarly painful. There’s the fear of rejection, the lack of useful feedback, and the constant pressure to make something happen from family and friends. While there’s no holiday that makes being unemployed feel like being alone on Valentine’s Day, there are plenty of day to day reminders that you need to get a job (hopefully these e-mails are a positive reminder). I think that one of the reasons that people struggle to find both love and jobs is that they try to do it alone. What if you had a few friends to help you along the way? That’s what Grouper is proposing. They’re a New York, NY based dating startup/social club “that sets up drinks between 2 groups of friends.” They don’t even use the word “dating” on their homepage, and I think that’s a brilliant branding decision–it’s all about meeting new people. I’m especially fond of Grouper because they’re running with the fish theme.
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Yesterday was a big news day with the State of the Union address and the culmination of the Dormer drama. For online news outlets that means pageviews, and pageviews equal revenue. Unfortunately for journalists, they aren’t supposed to create the news (except through investigative journalism), but they’re still pushed to drive more ad revenue without jumping the “Chinese wall” between advertising and editorial. To do that, you need to know what readers are most likely to respond to. Visual Revenue is a New York, NY based company that helps editorial teams figure out what that is and react to it in real time. They do this through a “predictive analytics platform that makes human editors the most powerful force in today’s data-driven newsrooms.”
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When I was a junior in college, I broke my wrist. It was actually a lucky break because it healed completely… and my pathetic inability to cut my own food attracted a lovely lady whom I’ll soon be marrying. Still, the medical care that I received was abysmal. It started when the orthopedist told me that he didn’t remember if he could cast me before sending me for a CAT scan (that’s your job dude), but the most frustrating part was when I went to get follow up X-rays to see if the fracture was healed. I ensured at least four times that they were sending the X-rays to my doctor at home who I felt was more qualified to look at them. After waiting a few weeks for my doctor to get back to me, I followed up and he told me that the hospital never sent the x-rays (they just put them in a file). I called the hospital, and they told me that I had to drive over to sign a release so that they could send them to my doctor. Face meet palm. A lot of people’s frustrations with the healthcare system can be solved with technology, and that’s exactly what Practice Fusion is doing. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that provides “a free, web-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) application to physicians.”
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Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, there was a car alarm going off for at least half an hour. I don’t know if it stopped or I fell asleep first, but I’m now convinced that car alarms cost society more in annoyance than they benefit it through prevented thefts. Why can’t there be a theft deterrent that creates positive externalities? Oh, wait, there is. It’s called LoJack. They’re a Canton, MA based company that offers “recovery systems for cars, trucks, motorcycles, equipment, cargo, and laptops.” LoJack is based on radio transmitters that are activated when something is reported stolen (I assumed they used GPS, but here’s how it works). Police are able to find the frequency through special hardware, and recover it (and hopefully arrest the thieves at the same time). LoJack not only helps customers get their things back, but it also increases the overall risk of stealing stuff–that makes us all better off, even if we don’t use LoJack.
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Have you ever wondered where merchandise goes when you return it to a retailer? If it’s unopened, it probably goes right back on the floor, but most stores won’t risk restocking goods that are no longer pristinely packaged. Instead they send it off to a warehouse to be tested, repackaged, and sold off in bulk. But how do you sell a pallet of returned merchandise? You use Liquidity Services Inc. (here’s a video explaining how it works). They’re a Washington, D.C. based company that enables “businesses and government agencies to manage, value, redeploy, and sell excess inventory and surplus assets using the world’s most transparent, innovative, and effective online marketplaces and integrated services.” Put a little more simply, they help clients sell stuff that is typically hard to sell. Returned merchandise is just a small part of the business.
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I’m often asked how I’m able to consistently find interesting companies to cover. It’s all about what I call the always looking approach. If you open your eyes, you start to realize that your life is full of cues that can lead you to interesting employers. One of my favorite exercises is to walk around downtown Chicago and look at all of the billboards and signs. There’s always something new and interesting. But what about the company that makes the the signs? That’s Watchfire. They’re a Danville, IL based company that got its start as ” Time-O-Matic, an industry leader in innovations like the Time and Temperature signs that became landmarks at banks and downtown corner stores across the nation.” Now they’re in the business of LED signs of all shapes and sizes. A lot of people think that they’re not affected by outdoor advertising. I can almost guarantee that’s not true. One of Watchfire’s big products is the Price Watcher sign for gas stations. You can’t tell me that you don’t pick a gas station based on the prices shown on those signs!
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A few weeks ago I was reminded of how annoying car ownership can be. I got a flat. Luckily I was parked on my street and they weren’t doing street cleaning that day. I called AAA to have them help put on my spare, but it ended up that the spare was rusted in place on the bottom of the car. Then I had to call a tow truck to take the car to a tire shop where I spent $500 on new tires. Overall it wasn’t too bad (I wasn’t stuck on the side of the road in a bad neighborhood or anything), but the experience reminded me that there’s a price for all of those times that having a car is super convenient. Getaround is a San Francisco, CA based company that changes the car ownership equation. They offer a platform for peer-to-peer car sharing that allows car owners to earn money by renting out their cars and the carless to enjoy the convenience of owning a car when they need it.
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Give Postmates a try. Use this link to get a free delivery.
I didn’t make any progress on gift buying yesterday, which means that my online shopping options are getting pretty slim. I’m either going to have to pay for expedited shipping or step foot in a retail store. If I lived in San Francisco, CA, I’d have a hybrid option. Postmates is a company that offers “a revolutionary same day urban logistics & delivery platform.” Yesterday we talked about how Quiet Logistics has enabled e-commerce upstarts to compete with Amazon in terms of fulfillment. Postmates is doing that for local retailers. If it can be purchased in your city (legally of course), you can probably have Postmates deliver it to your door for a price starting at $6.99.
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I’ve learned firsthand that running a very small business in a single country in a single language can get extremely complicated. Trying to operate across many countries, cultures, and languages must be insane. But for many companies the allure of growth through international expansion is impossible to pass up. It’s often impractical or impossible to build a team that can do everything required to operate internationally, which is why TransPerfect exists. They’re a New York, NY based company with 70 offices across 5 continents that provides “a full range of language and business services including translation, interpretation, website globalization, subtitling/voiceovers, multicultural marketing, diversity and inclusion consulting, deposition services, and litigation support to multinational companies.”
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I hear the word “crowdsourcing” come up a lot, but it’s usually by people who don’t really know exactly what it means or how to do it. They’ll often say things like “Oh, we’ll just crowdsource it.” Ok, you do that! I have things that I’d love to crowdsource, but I can’t figure out how to manage such a project without making it more work than just doing the task myself. Maybe CrowdFlower is the answer. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that allows you to “instantly hire millions of people to collect, filter, and enhance your data.” We’re at a point where technology can do a lot of heavy lifting, but sometimes a human of average intelligence is far better at solving a problem than even the most powerful computer.
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Maybe I’m making this up, but when I was in middle school, I’m pretty sure that Sam Goody had a list on one of their walls with all of the new CDs that were coming out soon. That list, recommendations from friends, listening to the radio, and watching MTV were how I discovered new music. It worked, but it was risky. Sometimes you’d end up buying an absolutely terrible CD like Pras’ Ghetto Supastar, the album not the song. Today it’s completely different. You can listen before you buy (or keep listening and never buy), and you can get recommendations based on real data. Whether you’re using Spotify, Vevo, MTV, or iheartradio to find or consume music, you’re actually benefiting from The Echo Nest and their big data approach to music. They’re a Somerville, MA based company, and they “provide the largest repository of dynamic music data in the world – over a trillion data points on over 30 million songs — to help application developers build smarter music apps.”
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I finally had to turn my heat on. I made it through October, but November got me. I like being comfortable, so I don’t worry about keeping the thermostat at 62 or buying energy efficient bulbs. When you don’t spend all that much on energy, it’s not worth putting a lot of effort into reducing your energy consumption. But for large companies and institutions, energy costs can become a huge expense–and that’s when investing in energy efficiency really becomes worthwhile. EnerNOC is a Boston, MA based company that wants “to make energy management as integral as accounting to the operation of every organization.” A few readers have landed jobs at EnerNOC recently, so I thought it would be worth a looking at a company that helps its clients “use energy more intelligently, pay less for it, and generate cash flow that benefits the bottom line through [a] complete suite of technology-enabled energy management solutions.”
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