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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While I think the education part of college is generally overrated in importance by most people, there’s a part of the college experience that I think is underrated: dorm life. Being thrown into a completely new living situation with people who are a lot like you, but also very different from you is an amazing opportunity to learn and grow. What if we had similar opportunities but at different life stages? That’s what Krash is about. They are a Boston, MA based company that offers a “way for founders, entrepreneurs and innovators to rapidly build the supportive personal and professional networks they need to be successful.” They do this by offering immersive co-living experiences in Boston, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC.
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Online marketing seems to keep getting more complex. Now that every big brand is throwing money at every marketing platform they can, it’s getting a lot harder to drive results. What used to be something that a lot of companies could do themselves now requires an agency. One such agency is OneIMS. They’re a Skokie, IL based company that offers “everything from services like branding and web design to online marketing strategies like SEO and PPC.” Their clients range from small local business to national brands with e-commerce companies falling somewhere in the middle.
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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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I haven’t worked in a real office since my internships during college, but that office had a great cafeteria. The food was always pretty good, and the view was spectacular. The chef also made really great cookies in the afternoons. A lot of companies aren’t big enough to have a cafeteria, but they still want to offer in-house food options for their employees. That can be a huge hassle, but not with Cater2.me. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “was founded with the goal of connecting inspired kitchens with the masses.” A lot of companies have complicated systems for ordering food in. Cater2.me does all of the administrative stuff so that employees stay well fed and productive.
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Think back to all of your years of school. Your teachers created a lot of content that helped you learn, but they also got a lot from educational publishers–textbooks, worksheets, tests, and more. Developing that content can be a painstaking process, so a lot of the times the publishers look outside for help. Since 1982 they’ve been turning to Quarasan, a Chicago, IL based “full service conceptual developer of content for publishers of educational materials and products.” They say that they cover the Pre-K-16 market, which, I think, means that they also develop materials for undergrad.
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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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The key to effective marketing and advertising is distilling a brand, product, or service into a simple message that the target customers can relate to. For some products that’s really easy, but there are plenty of markets where it gets really complicated–like healthcare and life sciences. If you’re a business in one of those industries, you can’t hire just any advertising agency. You need people who understand science but still excel at marketing… the kind of people who work at HDMZ. HDMZ is a Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA based healthcare and life science marketing agency. They’ve been around since 1936, but they’ve kept up with the times by excelling at understanding their clients’ businesses.
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Over the past 7 years, I’ve heard from a lot of frustrated college grads who can’t find jobs. Some of the most frustrated have been international students. They came to the U.S. to get an education, and they’d love to stay here and put that education to use. Unfortunately, the current laws make that extremely difficult. Right now we have a system that is both unfair and economically damaging. We can do better, and FWD.us is a San Francisco, CA based non-profit lobbying organization that wants to make that happen as soon as possible. It was “started by key leaders in the tech community to promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy—including comprehensive immigration reform and education reform.”
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You’ve probably looked at thousands of ads already today, but chances are that you haven’t thought about how they got in front of you. Behind all of those ads is a group of people who made a complicated set of decisions to get that specific message to you in a specific place at a specific time. Managing those kinds of decisions at scale is really hard. Centro makes it easier. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that works “to improve the lives of those working in the advertising industry by building media management software that helps marketers engage with audiences across all digital channels in the most successful manner possible.” The goal is put all of the options in one place so that advertisers can make the best decisions for themselves or for clients.
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The average supermarket is a pretty uninspiring place. It’s filled mostly with packaged, processed foods, and even the good stuff around the perimeter isn’t all that attractive. That’s why more and more specialty and gourmet grocery stores are popping up across the country. Here in Chicago we’re seeing a lot of Whole Foods and Mariano’s locations pop up, but we also got a special treat with an Eataly outpost. They are a New York, NY and Chicago, IL based gourmet Italian marketplace inspired by the famous chef Mario Batali. Their motto is: “We cook what we sell, and we sell what we cook.” It’s still a grocery store, but it’s also way more than that. Eataly is the kind of place that treats food how it should be treated.
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If you’ve ever had a job that involved working on a computer, you’ve probably done something that you weren’t supposed to on the computer at some point. Maybe it was as simple as checking Facebook or printing a personal document. Chances are that your boss wouldn’t have cared even if he or she was looking over your shoulder; however, there are some times where a company needs to look back and see exactly what an employee (or former employee) was doing on a computer or network. That’s where Forensicon can help. They’re a Chicago, IL based “firm specializing in computer forensics analysis and consulting within the areas of Internal Investigations, Trade Secrets Misappropriation, Employment Litigation and Hacker Investigations.”
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When we talk about healthcare, we talk about doctors, hospitals, biotech companies, insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and even the government. We often forget that we’re the most important part of the equation. While there are plenty of situations where we need outside help from the parties mentioned above to ensure our health, individuals need to be empowered “to take more active roles in their care.” That’s exactly what Emmi Solutions does. They’re a Chicago, IL based healthcare communications company that has developed “interactive solutions to achieve meaningful business and clinical outcomes.” Chances are that you can think of a time when poor communication resulted in your having a worse health outcome. (Here’s mine: Stomach bug for a week. Doctor runs tests to see if antibiotics will help. Takes a week to tell me they will. Take antibiotics and get better next day.)
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A few days ago we looked at a company called Groundspeak that uses GPS data to “to make everyone an explorer and to put an adventure in every location.” There are lots of other ways to use location data, and an obvious one is advertising. It used to be that you knew an ad would target a specific locale because it was on a billboard or a local radio station. Today it’s possible to advertise to people all over the planet with a few mouse clicks, but what if you want use where they are to your advantage? xAd is a New York, NY based company that allows advertisers to pinpoint “target audiences at pivotal moments during the consumer’s decision-making journey.” It’s a kind of targeting that seems to get far less attention than it should.
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When a group of people or businesses have a shared interest, they often form an association. Even in extremely competitive markets, it can make sense to come together and work towards common goals. As a result, there’s an association for nearly every possible interest. The problem with associations is that they can be hard to manage–administration can drain a lot of resources. Why should every association build its own management structure when that can be outsourced? Kellen Company is “an employee-owned professional services company serving associations, companies and foundations” with offices in Atlanta, GA; New York, NY; Denver, CO; Chicago, IL; and Washington, D.C. They provide essential services so that associations can focus on the important stuff.
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I’m pretty obsessed with my dog. I never thought I’d be like this, but I’m really careful about who I let take care of him. It’s so easy for an inexperienced dog handler to mess up his training or get into a dangerous situation. We haven’t needed a dog walker because I work from home, but if we did use one, I’d want one who will be responsible and keep up our training (walks are a key time for training). Worthee is a Chicago, IL based company that can help me find this kind of person. They aim to deliver “reliable, trustworthy, best-in-class service day in and day out, 24x7x365” for clients and their dogs. A year ago I would have thought that it was overkill to have a professionally trained dog walker, but now I’m not so sure.
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Living in a city can be hard when you love nature and the outdoors, but there’s usually a way to get a fix. Here in Chicago we have Lake Michigan and Forest Preserves. The forest preserves are run by the county government and they exist “to acquire, restore and manage lands for the purpose of protecting and preserving public open space.” In Cook County that amounts to more than 68,000 acres (11% of the county’s land mass) that get about 40 million visits every year. Friends of the Forest Preserves is a Chicago, IL based non-profit that was started when a group of people saw the forest preserves being mismanaged and organized “to rescue these treasured lands, knowing that to maintain their vast rewards and ensure they’re here for all of us to enjoy, we’d have to work just as hard as the visionary citizens who protected them more than a century ago.”
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I am an outdoorsman. I fish, I hunt, and try to spend as much time in the wilderness as I can. Ok, that’s not completely true. I tend to stay in hotels/motels on my fishing trips, but I know a lot of people prefer to camp on those kinds of trips. It always seemed to me like a lot of work and equipment for a little more time outdoors; however, for many camping is the main event. In my mind that means sleeping in a tent, but I guess it can also mean sleeping in an RV. The people who prefer the latter definition are likely customers of Camping World. The Bowling Green, KY based company is “the camping and recreational vehicle enthusiast’s one-stop-shop for everything they need to enjoy living in and traveling in their RV.” Camping may be in the name, but it seems to be all about the RV lifestyle.
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When I was a little kid, I’d visit construction sites with my dad, the architect. I absolutely loved it, but at some point I lost interest in the construction industry. For me building things online seemed more interesting than building homes and offices. If you disagree, you might want to check out Hanley Wood. They are based in Washington, DC, and they are “the premier media, event, information and strategic marketing services company serving the residential and commercial design and construction industries.” For nearly 40 years they have been the go to source for “builders, remodelers, residential and commercial architects, multifamily and public-works executives, and materials dealers and distributors.”
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We all have at least one friend who has a brilliant idea for an app or website, but no way of building it. They think that if they can just find some geek to develop it for “equity,” they’ll be instant millionaires. Building a digital business isn’t even close to that easy, and marketing/business talent is just as important as tech talent. Most people who want to start a company on the web need to either figure out how to do it themselves or pay a lot of money (not equity) to get someone to build it for them. Even then, most agencies are designed to help clients later in the game. That’s not true with Digital Intent. They’re a Chicago, IL based business that helps “clients identify products customers will pay for, design compelling user experiences to make customers happy, and rapidly build high performance products that scale.”
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While it has become increasingly apparent that graduating college isn’t close to enough to get you a job these days, we also know that not having gone to or graduated college makes finding a good job so much harder. If young people are going to succeed in life, they need to start with success in high school and college. Bottom Line is a Boston, MA, Worcester, MA and New York, NY based non-profit (they also are working in Chicago) that “has helped thousands of low-income and first-generation students stay in college and earn their degrees.” The organization was founded in 1997 and now reaches more than 3,000 students every year.
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I pretty much shut down if I have to deal with paper documents. Luckily, in my line of business, almost everything happens online. While at one time I thought it might be a good idea for me to pursue law as a career option, I’m really glad I didn’t. Dealing with all of those documents–even if they were digitized–would drive me nuts. The good news for lawyers that kCura makes things a little more manageable. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that “develops web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.” The software is called Relativity, and it’s a web-based app that makes managing evidence way easier.
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There’s no question that social media is important for businesses of all kinds, but it’s a relatively new channel that offers an uncertain return on investment. Most of my investment in social media marketing has been a flop, but I know that plenty of other brands have had major success. Companies that are investing in social need to do so wisely, and that often means getting professional help. Optimal “is the leading social advertising and analytics platform, with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, Chicago, and London.” They started in 2008 when social really began to take off, and since then “have managed and optimized over 100 billion impressions for advertisers and agencies.”
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When I was in college, I could get delicious food delivered for really cheap. It wasn’t usually all that healthy, but it always hit the spot. Now that I live in Chicago, I can barely get a good non-deep dish pizza delivered for under $30 (a decent Chinese meal ends up over $60 for two of us). The situations is only worse if I want real food. While my standards have probably increased quite a bit, I still think that the state of food delivery–especially in big cities–is pretty sad. Why can’t I get something healthy, tasty, and reasonably priced brought to me in a reasonable amount of time? That’s exactly what Munchery offers. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that offers wholesome dinners prepared by top chefs delivered to your door. Instead of searching for a restaurant to order from, you just pick the meal that you want.
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Lately when I talk to new parents, I like to compare what they’re going through to what I’m going through with my puppy. I know that it’s a completely ridiculous comparison, but I enjoy the fact that it makes them a bit uncomfortable. We all know that parenting is one of life’s biggest yet most rewarding challenges. Today’s parents are lucky that there are all kinds of resources to help them do a better job (that’s true for puppy owners too!). One is CafeMom, a New York, NY based digital media company for moms that reaches more than 20 million users every month. Their properties include CafeMom.com, MamásLatinas.com, TheStir.com, and TheProwl.com. The goal is to bring “moms together by hosting hundreds of communities that reflect moms’ personalities, passions and needs.”
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I barely eat turkey during most of the year, but I take the protein very seriously on Thanksgiving. If you cook it right, it’s pretty awesome. But if you aren’t careful, you end up with a dry, flavorless waste of a bird’s life. This year I’m experimenting with a turchetta, but I have no idea how it’s going to turn out. If you prefer to play it safer with your meat products, you may want to check out Hillshire Brands. They are the Chicago, IL based company behind brands like Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Jimmy Dean, Sara Lee, and quite a few others. They’re also one of the top turkey producers in the U.S. (which is the top turkey producing country) according to this list.
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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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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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