Happy Independence Day! (And Happy Birthday Mom!) Today we’re celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Though I’m sure you’re showing your patriotism, chances are that your celebration includes some combination of barbecuing, beach, beer, baseball, and blowing stuff up. The Daughters of the American Revolution take the Fourth of July a little more seriously. They’re a “non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children.” They restrict membership to women “who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution,” so they also happen to be “one of the most inclusive genealogical societies in the country” with 165,000 members. I’ve seen the DAR march in my town’s Memorial Day parade, but their work goes far beyond making public appearances.
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Chances are that housing is and will be your biggest expense for most of your life. It’s one of our most basic needs, so it makes sense that we spend a lot on it. Unfortunately, housing markets don’t react quickly to changes in demand, so we often have situations where housing becomes unaffordable for many who wish to live in an area. This may be ok when it’s some posh area of town, but what about when people who have lived and worked in area for years can no longer keep up with the real estate prices? Enterprise Community Partners is a Columbia, MD based non-profit that addresses these problems by creating “opportunity for low- and moderate-income people through fit, affordable housing and diverse, thriving communities.” They want to help people living in poverty “move up and out,” and they do this by helping to develop “a diverse mix of affordable and market housing options, access to jobs and social supports, and a strong commitment to the environment and civic participation.”
I used to listen to a lot more music. In fact, my first website was music related (I won’t go into any more detail because it’s embarrassing). I guess I got a bad taste in my mouth from the shutdown of all of the file sharing websites. As new services have popped up that make it easy to listen to music for free, I’ve started to listen again. One of those services is Pandora, which uses The Music Genome Project to deliver users a radio station that is tailored to their individual tastes. It’s a simple idea, but a huge technical challenge. Not only does Oakland, CA based Pandora have to deliver different music to every user—and all at the same time—but they also have to be able to predict what kind of music you’re going to like based on songs that you tell them that you like. They do the hard part, and all you have to do is click a thumbs up or a thumbs down when they start playing a song for you.
Auctions are huge online. You probably know all about eBay, but did you know that Google’s advertising platform (the one that makes them almost all of their money) is also run by an auction model? If you want to advertise on a specific keyword’s search results, you make a bid, and if your bid is the highest (with some kinks thrown in to ensure quality advertisers), then your ad gets shown. What’s really interesting is that our financial markets are also based on an auction system. This means that innovations in the financial markets can also have relevance to the online advertising markets. That’s what Sunnyvale, CA based Efficient Frontier has figured out and built their business on. Their “performance optimization platform harnesses the power of advanced modeling to optimize campaigns and forecast the impact of changing tactics.” Efficient Frontier handles over $900 million in search engine marketing spending for their clients every year, which makes them a world leader.
Believe it or not, I started thinking about retirement right after I graduated college. No, I didn’t win the lottery or have a big entrepreneurial success. I started investing and contributing to my IRA. It was a good way to stay productive and get ready to be an adult. If you start thinking about retirement in your early or mid 20s, you’re likely going to be in great shape 40 years down the line. Unfortunately, many people don’t plan that far ahead, so they end up needing help much later in life—and often they don’t have access to good advice once they realize that they need it. Financial Engines is trying to change that. It all started with Bill Sharpe, who won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. By combining “Bill’s pioneering investment methodology with proprietary technology” Fiancial Engines is able “to provide all investors with cost-effective, expert advice and management—the kind previously available only to the world’s largest institutional investors.” Financial Engines, which is based in Palo Alto, CA with offices in Boston, MA and Phoenix, AZ, partners with both retirement plan providers and large employers to offer their services and change the way that people get retirement help.
I never thought that I’d live in a major city, yet somehow I ended up in downtown Chicago. It may not be near any trout streams, and an occasional gang fight might break out while I’m playing volleyball at the beach, but I’m actually enjoying Chicago. Cities are filled with opportunities, and with so many opportunities come quite a few challenges. Cities can attack those challenges on their own, but often it’s better if they work together. That’s why the National League of Cities exists (I wonder if there’s an American League of Cities…). They are “the country’s oldest, largest and most represented organization serving municipal governments.” They’re based in Washington, DC and they work to represent their members in a number of ways including “advocating for cities and towns, promoting cities and towns, providing programs and services, keeping leaders informed, strengthening leadership skills, recognizing municipal achievements, partnering with state leagues, and providing opportunities for involvement and networking.” It makes sense that our cities should be working together, and the National League of Cities facilitates that cooperation.
I remember selling wrapping paper at my Dad’s office to support my elementary school. I’m sure his employees felt pressured to buy from me so I could win some stupid prize. What a terrible way to raise funds for a school or non-profit—it’s such an intrusion. But what if there was a great way to give money to great causes while at work that wasn’t quite so pushy? There is, and it’s called EarthShare. They’re a Bethesda, MD based non-profit that helps other environmental conservation focused non-profits raise money. They do this by giving employees (at any company that participates) the choice to have funds automatically deducted from their paychecks and donated to either specific member charities or a general EarthShare fund that is distributed amongst all of EarthShare’s member charities.
When I came across an internship posting for Bling Nation, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I didn’t know if it would be something like Cash4Gold or an online store for pricey hip hop accessories, but it turns out that Bling Nation is something far more reasonable despite their flashy name. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that is building an alternate payment platform for in-store purchases. Instead of using cash or credit card, they want you to swipe a tag that is affixed to your mobile phone. It makes sense. Credit card purchases where you sign the receipt seem outdated, and merchants are getting fed up with the processing fees that they have to pay for credit card transactions. PayPal has been the de facto online payment standard for a long time (even though a lot of people hate them), but they do nothing for in-person purchases beyond offering a credit card that links to your account. It seems to me that it’s inevitable that our mobile phones will replace our wallets in the future, but I wonder whether a Bling Nation sticker on the back of the phone will be the way in which we do it.
Bling Bling
So Bling Nation has an odd name and an odd approach to alternate payment processing; however, they have something like $33 million in venture capital funding. Mobile payment platforms are going to be the future, and Bling Nation is positioning itself to be a player in that market. Interestingly enough, they’re building their platform by starting in tiny markets. Instead of attacking New York City or San Fracisco, they’re focusing on a couple of small towns in Colorado. People can get a Bling Nation account going through their local banks, and then they can use their accounts at local merchants who have been outfitted to accept Bling Nation payments. It’s the opposite of how most companies launch, but I like it—it’s an interesting marketing strategy. If you’re intrigued by it, you might want to check out internships at Bling Nation. Right now they’re looking for a Summer Marketing Intern. There’s no word on whether it’s paid or not, but you can apply here.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
- BlingNation.com
- Internships at Bling Nation
- About Bling Nation
- Bling Nation’s Executive Team
- Bling Nation News
- Bling Nation’s Blog
Would you use Bling Nation?
Location. Location. Location. You know how important it is. Chances are that one of the major drivers in your internship search is location. It’s even more important for businesses, yet they rarely manage their locations as effectively as they manage everything else. There are all kinds of sophisticated software platforms to manage customer relationships, products, human resources, and plenty of other things, but what about managing the places where they do business? That’s what Accruent is all about. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company that develops software to help businesses “analyze [their] real estate and facilities portfolios and implement actions to cut costs and drive performance improvements.” It may not sound like the most exciting stuff on the face of it, but when you realize that Accruent helps clients manage “over 1 billion square feet of commercial space, for which they pay over $100 billion in rent annually,” you start to realize how interesting what Accruent does actually is.
International relations is becoming more and more important. There is just too much to gain from cooperation across borders for us not to put a lot of effort in developing international relationships. That’s why Bridging Nations exists. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that uses education to build bridges between nations through education. Their target audience is “leaders in government, business, and the non-profit sector,” and the organization’s message is focused on “promoting an informed, multifaceted forum of exchange.” The end goal is to promote policies that create mutual benefit for people across nations. By bringing together economics, leadership, and technology, Bridging Nations thinks that they can build relationships that will make everyone better off.
Guys, need some great fitting pants to wear to an interview? Check out Bonobos! They make the best pants that I’ve ever worn (I have something like 12 pairs) and they’ll give you $50 off your first order. Just e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com, and I’ll send you the coupon code.
We’ve seen an explosion of startups that help small businesses reach new customers. There are Yext, Groupon, Yelp, and, of course, Google all serving this market in one way or another. But what about smaller, personal businesses? How do dog walkers, personal trainers, tutors, and handymen grow their businesses without relying solely on word of mouth? SkillSlate is one option. It’s a New York City based startup that helps individual service providers connect with customers. When you’re hiring someone to walk your dog or fix your door hinge, you want to know that they’re trustworthy. SkillSlate lets you check these people out and see what other customers are saying about them. It’s just like what Yelp does for restaurants.
Guys, need some great fitting pants to wear to an interview? Check out Bonobos! They make the best pants that I’ve ever worn (I have something like 12 pairs) and they’ll give you $50 off your first order. Just e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com, and I’ll send you the coupon code.
Occasionally I’ll realize that I’ve covered a company on One Day, One Job, but that I haven’t let all of the current students know about the company’s internships. That’s the case with Eventbrite, a San Francisco based events management company. Odds are that you’ve used Eventbrite to register for some sort of event or even to put one on yourself. They make ticketing and registration stupid simple. Seriously, any idiot can put on an event with Eventbrite. If you’re putting on a free event, they’ll let you do everything for free. And if you’re charging for an event, Eventbrite will take a 2.5% cut. With over 14 million tickets sold to date, it’s quite clear that Eventbrite isn’t just some startup without a revenue model. They’re already generating revenue and delivering an awesome product experience.
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I’ve been thinking about nuclear energy for a couple of reasons lately. One is that big oil spill that we have in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s put more momentum behind the alternative energy movement, and nuclear should be one of the options that we consider. The second reason is far more interesting (at least to me). It’s the fact that bananas are radioactive because they contain potassium-40. There are other foods that are even more radioactive like brazil nuts, but bananas are special because scientists often measure radiation in a banana equivalent doses, or the radioactive exposure that you would get from eating a banana. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t risks with nuclear energy, but they’re much smaller than most of us think—even a nuclear accident may expose an individual to less radiation than a banana. Since I had all of this on my mind, I figured that we’d take a look at AREVA, a French company that is a leader in “solutions for nuclear energy and renewable energies.”
Do you know what’s an awesome thing to do after you graduate? Travel. Do you know what isn’t an awesome thing to tell employers that you’ve been doing since you graduated? Traveling. Think about it from the interviewer’s perspective for a minute. You’ve been in a job for three years, and you just got a promotion. You’re interviewing new grads to fill your old job. You get 10 days of vacation a year (after another promotion you’ll get 15). You use 4 to visit your parents during the holidays. You have to take 3 days for various weddings throughout the year. You use one for a sick day, and that leaves you with 2 glorious days to actually do what you want. Now some spoiled brat is telling you about he or she spent three months on a beach in Thailand after graduation. This isn’t as big of a deal when you’re still in school and looking for internships, but keep this in mind for the future—getting hired is all about making people like you, and making them jealous isn’t helpful. Luckily, there are some employers who don’t have a problem with travel. Take NileGuide for example. They’re a San Francisco based startup (with a lot of funding) that “helps travelers discover and connect to the most satisfying and relevant travel experiences.”
Time for a little Sunday morning history lesson. Who remembers the Marshall Plan from history class? It was a plan for rebuilding Western Europe after World War II that was named for Secretary of State George Marshall. In the four years that the plan was active, the U.S. gave $13 billion in aid to a number of European countries. You can get the full rundown on Wikipedia, but those are the basics. This may have been a goodwill gesture, but it was also self-serving. By financing much of Europe’s reconstruction, the US was able to influence the direction that these European governments were taking. That’s important when you’ve just fought a war to oust fascists who were able to gain control due to a power vacuum created by an insufficient resolution to a previous war. Of course, the Marshall Plan didn’t prevent the Cold War, but it did create a much more favorable situation for the U.S. It also helped Germany recover more quickly, and for that they thanked us with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, “a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance.” It was a gift of of DM 150 million, and it now lives on as a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that “is dedicated to the promotion of greater understanding and common action between Europe and the United States.”
Now that we’re done celebrating a hockey victory here in Chicago, it’s time for World Cup fever. I’ve never been a huge fan of soccer—probably because it’s not the most suitable sport for someone who was both chubby and asthmatic growing up—but even I can get into the World Cup. If there’s any sport that bridges all cultures, it has to be soccer. And that means that it’s particularly well suited to international non-profit work. That explains Grassroot Soccer, a Norwich, VT based non-profit that was started by former professional soccer players to help fight HIV in Africa. They do this by training “African soccer stars, coaches, teachers, and peer educators in the world’s most HIV-affected countries to deliver an interactive HIV prevention and life skills curriculum to youth.” They’re especially focused on using the excitement surrounding the 2010 World Cup to increase engagement with their programs.
I was out last night with some friends when a bus with a police escort came roaring down the street. I quickly realized that it was the Blackhawks, so we started cheering as Jonathan Toews stuck his head out of the back of a police car and showed his appreciation for our appreciation. We thought that was pretty cool and continued on our way. As I kept walking, I looked down the street and saw that the bus had stopped and that I could now see the Stanley Cup raised over the head of one of the Blackhawks players who got out of the bus. I ran down the street and snapped this picture.
Chicago has been partying since the Blackhawks won, and there’s no trophy more suited to partying that then Stanley Cup (I mean guys drink champagne out of it). The story of the Stanley cup is actually really interesting, and you can find it all on Wikipedia. The Hockey Hall of Fame, which is based in Toronto, Ontario, is the keeper of the cup, and they could provide some pretty cool internship opportunities (if they actually offer them-they do list volunteer positions). We’re not getting a lot done here today in Chicago (it’s essentially a holiday) with a parade and the start of the World Cup, so I’m going to leave it to you to see if an internship at the Hockey Hall of Fame is a real possibility, but if that doesn’t work out, you can also check out internships with NHL teams. I may be a bandwagon fan (and a late one at that), but you can’t not get excited when the Stanley Cup is being paraded around town.
If you’re not already a Groupon member, here’s an invitation link.
In February of 2009, when I had only been in Chicago a few months, I got invited to an event for Chicago tech startups hosted by a local incubator named midVentures. I felt awkward when I walked in because I didn’t know a single person, but I quickly got to meeting people. One of the people I talked to was named Andrew Mason. He started a collective action site called The Point that allows you to put up money for big ideas with the qualification that you only have to pay if a certain threshold is met. That way you can put up money to build a collapsible dome over Chicago for the winter, but not have to worry about shelling out the cash unless the project is actually going to happen. At that point Andrew was working on an offshoot of The Point called Groupon. In some ways it was much like One Day, One Job. Instead of offering its readers a new job every day, it offered a deal. It was growing really fast, and he and I both knew that he was on to something pretty neat, but I don’t think either of us appreciated how big it could be at the time. Now, a year later, Groupon is valued at over $1 billion dollars. That would be nine zeroes if you ignored the fact that their actual valuation is around $1,350,000,000 (only 7 zeroes, ha!). The company is growing at an insane rate, and they always seem to be hiring. I’ve pinged Andrew and one of his recruiters a couple of times to let me know when they have positions to feature, but I get so many requests on Groupon that I’m just going to pull the trigger (even if they don’t seem to be too big on interns).
I was flipping through the June issue of Fast Company to take a look at their list of The 100 Most Creative People in Business (Lady Gaga is #1) because I figured it would probably lead me towards some new companies to feature. Oddly enough, the profile in magazine that caught my attention first wasn’t even from the list. It was a short profile of Geoff Vuleta, the CEO of New York City based Fahrenheit 212. He’s building a new type of consulting firm—one where IDEO meets McKinsey. He thinks that most innovation firms ignore the fact that the products and ideas that they create need to make money, and he thinks that traditional consulting firms rarely have ideas good enough to serve the markets that they so easily identify. Fahrenheit 212 focuses on helping major companies find new areas for growth—areas that will provide in excess of $100 million in new revenue. But what might be the most unique thing about Fahrenheit 212 is their business model. They only get paid if their ideas work, as they “put up to two thirds of [their] fees at risk, subject to hitting agreed commercial milestones on the initiative.”
I have my big annual fishing trip coming up next week, which means that I’m starting to go through my mental gear checklist. One thing that I’ve been looking for is some sort of pack to carry all of my stuff when I’m on the river. I used to use a vest, but it’s no longer doing the job. In my search for a perfect pack, I came across a company called Recycled Waders that makes gear out of old waders (waterproof boots that go up to your chest to keep you dry while standing in the water). I’m pretty sure they’re too small to have any internship opportunities right now, but luckily I found a company (from a reader e-mail) that takes a similar approach, but with a much larger audience. They’re called TerraCycle (based in Trenton, NJ), and they turn trash into stuff. You can get an insulated cooler made out of Skittles bags. Or a kite made out of Oreo wrappers. Or a tote bag made of Capri Sun pouches. It’s all about making “affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials.”
I’m not on a government transparency kick or anything, although I’m not one to to put much trust in those who govern. It just happens that both non-profits that I’m looking at this weekend are focused on helping the public be better informed about what their leaders are actually doing. Today we’re going to look at the Washington, DC based Sunlight Foundation, which is an organization that “uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable.” It used to be that the major media outlets controlled most of the information that flowed out of our government. Sometimes they’d do a good job of reporting, but they need to maintain relationships with government officials if they want the stories to keep coming. Now we live with technology that allows anyone to reach a massive audience. It’s slowly changing the way that government works, and the Sunlight Foundation is pushing to make that happen more quickly.
We’re in an election year, and it’s a key one (is it ever not?). If you’re not already sick of political ads, you better get ready to be bombarded with misinformation. Politicians spend a huge amount of money trying to convince you that they’ll fix all of our society’s problems (and that their opponents are evil and hate children—seriously I saw an ad in Illinois that said that), yet the facts about every politician are out there and easy to find. A big part of the reason why is Project Vote Smart, a non-profit organization based on a ranch in Philipsburg, Montana. According to Wikipedia Project Vote Smart was founded in 1992 by “40 national leaders, including Barry Goldwater, John McCain, former U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.” PVS calls itself “The Voter’s Self-Defense System,” as it operates with the goal of collecting and distributing information about U.S. political candidates in a non-partisan way. They want voters to be able to make informed decisions based on personal values, regardless of what they may be, not political hyperbole.
I love featuring startups here. They offer so many exciting internship opportunities for college students, and they’re often representative of the future of our economy. The problem with startups is that they often have trouble generating enough profits to grow quickly in their early and middle stages. That’s why I usually make it a point to mention how much funding a given startup has—so you’ll know that the company is financially sound enough to actually pay your paycheck (if they aren’t taking advantage of unpaid interns, of course). The amount of funding a company has can only tell you so much, but if an investor is willing to put up millions of dollars for some equity in the company, at least you know that you’re not the only one putting a lot of trust in the company’s future. Typically these investors are venture capital funds like Boston, MA based OpenView Venture Partners. They are “an expansion stage venture capital fund, with a focus on high-growth software, internet, and technology-enabled companies.” Expansion stage means that they typically make moderate sized investments (think $4 million to $11 million) in companies that have already established themselves as viable businesses (but need outside money to speed up growth).