So far Amy and I have yet to receive a single Christmas/Holiday card. I’d like to blame it on the fact that we moved a few months ago, but I fear that we may not be as popular as I had previously thought. The reason that I can’t blame the move is that we made sure to update our address with the USPS. The most shocking thing about forwarding your mail is how easy it is to do. That’s why it’s interesting that Updater uses USPS change of address as the free part of their freemium model. It’s smart. The New York, NY based company offers a slightly slicker way to do something that you can do quite easily on your own, and then they use that as an opportunity to sell you a product that helps you will all kinds of other change of address issues.
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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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Despite my early fascination/obsession with infomercials, I don’t think that I’ve ever bought something directly from tv. I just can’t do it. Doesn’t feel right. For me there’s some sort of stigma around buying off of tv, but I’m certain that there are plenty of people who have a different opinion. Take for example the 1.2 million customer that buy from ShopHQ. In case you’re not familiar, ShopHQ is an Eden Prairie, MN based company that creates “the ultimate interactive shopping experience by uniting live TV, online and mobile shopping opportunities with social media engagement across a variety of outlets including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.” They used to be known as ShopNBC, and you probably have their channel on your tv (they reach 86 million homes).
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I believe that entrepreneurship is the natural human state; however, today most people choose the security of a more stable work situation. Our society needs more entrepreneurs, but it’s hard to take such a big risk without circumstances that make it a less risky proposition. Since we can’t give everybody rich parents, we need to provide people with information and resources that will increase the likelihood of success in entrepreneurial endeavors. This is what Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center does. They are a San Francisco, CA based non-profit “small business development organization dedicated to helping women and men who traditionally lack access to resources and information to achieve financial self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship.” Every year they help more than 1,500 low-moderate income people in the Bay Area “launch and grow businesses.”
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I went to both a public and a private university, yet I never transferred, and I only got one degree. How did I do this? I went to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. It’s a New York State school even though it’s part of a private university. While it wasn’t always obvious, there were definitely times when I noticed distinct differences between how the public and private sides operated. Public universities and land-grant institutions often have common constraints, and that’s why they work together through the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. It’s a Washington, DC based non-profit “research, policy, and advocacy organization representing 219 public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems, and related organizations.”
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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’m pretty sure that I said this like two weeks ago, but when it comes to advertising, creative and placement are both very important. A terrible ad can sometimes be effective with the right media buys, and a fantastic ad can be effective with almost no placement. However, if you put the two together, you get outsized results. Horizon Media is “the largest independent media services agency in the world.” That “independent” part is important because so many media agencies today are held by large holding companies. New York, NY based Horizon Media’s tagline is “business is personal.” I think that says a lot about how they stand out from other agencies.
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Much of what we do on social media sites is completely frivolous, but we all know how powerful they can be when directed in the right way. Whether it’s raising money, awareness, or a volunteer force, there’s no better medium than the Internet for pushing a specific cause. Causes is a San Francisco, CA based company that wants to be the place that people go to when they want to “discover, support and organize campaigns, fundraisers, and petitions around the issues” that matter to them and their communities.
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I ate a lot on Thanksgiving, and I kept it up through the weekend. I used to be able to do that without feeling any ill effects, but those days are over. I guess it’s time to get back to a healthier lifestyle. Maybe I need to head to the store and buy some natural products. Though I’ll probably just do my typical meat cleanse instead, if I went the natural route, I’d probably be buying from clients of Pure Branding. They are a Northampton, MA based consultancy that “builds leading brands for values-based companies in the natural products industry.” They’re selective about the clients that they take, as they want to ensure that they’re working world changers.
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Skin is the barrier between you and the rest of the world–it’s extremely important both cosmetically and medically. We all have skin issues at some point. It may be as simple as a pimple or as serious as cancer, but more than 100 million Americans are afflicted with some sort of skin disorder. The American Skin Association is a New York, NY based non-profit that brings “patients, families, advocates, physicians and scientists” together to “to defeat melanoma, skin cancer and disease.” If it has to do with the body’s largest organ, the American Skin Association is on top of it.
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I often hear from readers that we cover too many opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unfortunately, I have no control over where the best opportunities pop up. San Francisco’s economy has been booming for a while now, and that makes an already exciting city even more exciting. The San Francisco Foundation is a non-profit that was founded in 1948 “to pull the community together to create pride and unity and improve quality of life” in the Bay Area. Having awarded more than $800 million in grants over the past decade, the Foundation has certainly played a strong role in making San Francisco the place it is today.
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I’m not sure how we ended up here, but Black Friday shopping seems to be the latest extreme sports craze. I’ll spend a little time looking for deals online, but you won’t find me within a few miles of any major retail store. If I somehow got duped into going shopping, I’d totally wear a helmet. It’s better safe than sorry. Easton-Bell Sports, which is based in Van Nuys, CA, is one of the biggest sports helmet companies in the world. Their brands include Giro, Bell, Riddell, Easton, Easton Cycling, and Blackburn. They all come together to help Easton-Bell Sports pursue their goal of being “a leading designer, developer and marketer of sports equipment and accessories that enhance athletic performance and protection.”
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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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Though it was more than a decade ago, I still have very strong memories of the college application process. I knew where I wanted to go, so I didn’t do a lot of research on other options. Back then research meant requesting brochures from any college that you were interested in. There was some information available on the web, but you had to go to each individual school’s site. A lot has changed in how people seek out educational opportunities (and it’s not just about undergraduate admissions anymore). Noodle is a company at the forefront of that change. They’re based in New York, NY, and they are “the first and only life-long education related search company in the world.” What does that mean? They offer “extensive data on over 150,000 schools and hundreds of thousands of education providers.” In other words, they’re taking a much broader view of what an education search is about.
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In 1961 John F. Kennedy initiated the Alliance for Progress, “a 10-year, multibillion-dollar aid program for Latin America.” The goal was to revitalize relations with our neighbors. In 1964 Partners of the Americas was founded “as the people-to-people component of the Alliance for Progress.” It’s a Washington, DC based non-profit that works to “build partnerships that create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life problems.” This is done through a chapter model that encourages countries and states to build north-south partnerships.
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Going to the opera is the ultimate stereotypical thing that male tv characters do to make the women in their lives happy. You almost get the sense that nobody wants to go to the opera–they just want to influence other people’s opinions of them by going. While I’m sure there’s some of that, I’ll bet that most people who go to the opera truly love it. I’ve never been, but I’d like to go at least once. When I do, maybe I’ll go to The Metropolitan Opera in New York, NY. It’s the largest classical music organization in North America, and it’s been around for just over 128 years. The Met’s goal is to be “a vibrant home for the most creative and talented artists, including singers, conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers, and dancers from around the world.”
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We usually think of advertising geniuses as the people who come up with the creative, but the media side (where you show the ad) is often just as or even more important. Everyone has noticed a disastrous ad placement, but how many of us take note when a marketing message appears in the right place at the right time? The people at Crossmedia certainly do. They are a New York, NY based (with offices in LA, Philly, and Germany) “independent channel-driven agency delivering communications planning, media services and international account management.” They offer a variety of services that are built with “an equal mix of business, media and agency performance.”
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I hate to get personal, but raise your hand if you’re wearing underpants! I guess it’s not really all that personal unless you didn’t raise your hand. Most of us wear undergarments on a daily basis because that’s what we’ve always done. There are certainly some comfort and hygiene benefits, but those wily marketers really pulled one over on us when they convinced us that we had to wear clothes under our clothes. I’ll bet that the folks at Jockey International had something to do with it. They’re a Kenosha, WI based company that aims “to satisfy the human need for comfort.” They got their start selling socks to lumberjacks in Michigan in the late 1800s, and they now offer more than 600 styles of underwear and t-shirts (and socks, sportswear, and loungewear too).
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I have quite a few friends who are pursuing careers in the energy efficiency space. It’s a great industry because it allows you to make the world a better place while still working at a for-profit. Water use efficiency doesn’t get the same level of attention, but you can argue that it’s equally important. Clean water is a limited resource that is especially scarce in many areas. Conservation is one of the simplest solutions, and that’s what WaterSmart Software is all about. They are based in San Francisco, CA, and they aim “to help water utilities make it easier for their customers to save water and save money.” I always find it weird that utility companies can grow their businesses by convincing consumers to use less of what they sell, but that’s the way things work these days.
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Local marketing has been all the rage for the past few years. All kinds of startups have popped up to help small business owners use technology to reach more customers. It’s easy to forget that local marketing doesn’t only happen online. Radio and live events are two marketing channels that have been complemented instead of replaced by technology. That’s good news for Townsquare Media, since they’re a Greenwich, CT based “local media and entertainment company that owns and operates radio, digital and live event properties in 66 small to mid-sized markets across the country.” The last part of that sentence is important because it means that they have jobs all across the country. Townsquare Media owns more than 300 radio stations, and that makes them the third largest owner of radio stations in the U.S.
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Yesterday there were terrible storms across the Midwest. In the immediate Chicago area (where I was), it mostly amounted to torrential downpours, wind, and lightning, but in other parts of the state tornadoes leveled entire communities and killed six people. One of the few positives coming out of the situation is that there has been an outpouring of people who want to volunteer as part of the recovery effort. The problem is that right now only trained professionals should be working in the disaster area. A bunch of random volunteers would get in the way and actually hinder relief efforts. So how do we take the positive energy and direct it to the right places? GiveGab might be the answer. They’re an Ithaca, NY based company that has built a “social network for volunteers and volunteer managers.”
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I went to a pre-Thanksgiving party last night. I didn’t eat a crazy amount, but I definitely had my fill of turkey, stuffing, and plenty of other delicious dishes. Over the next month and a half many of us will fight to not overeat, which makes it easy to forget how many people go hungry this time of year (and all times of year for that matter). The numbers are mind-boggling. In the Delaware River valley alone, there are nearly a million people facing hunger on a daily basis. Philabundance is a Philadelphia, PA based organization that holds the “simple belief that no man, woman or child should go hungry.” They do this by providing emergency food and services to people in 9 counties across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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The world of non-profits revolves around money. I know it’s counterintuitive, but only the leanest organizations can operate without significant funds. When you’re a business and you’re using money to make money, you typically have some margin for error. But when you’re trying to use money to do good, every bit of effectiveness makes a difference. That’s why The Center for Effective Philanthropy exists. They are a Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, CA based non-profit that works “to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness – and, as a result, their intended impact.” They are what I like to call a meta-non-profit; an organization that serves other charitable organizations.
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When it comes to search engines, rankings are based on a wide variety of factors. Having content relevant to the query is probably the most important thing, but right after that comes links. Sites and pages with more incoming links (especially from sites and pages that have lots of incoming links) tend to rank better. Wikipedia gets a ton of links from all over the web, and as a result their pages rank well in almost every search result for which they have relevant content. They don’t even have to worry about getting links to rank well, they just do. But lots of smaller sites struggle to reach a wider audience through search engines because acquiring links can be really hard–especially in certain niches. TextLinkBrokers is a Mesa, AZ based company that services the “needs of professional SEM agencies and individuals looking for high quality link development.” In other words, they help site owners get more links.
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Health insurance. Need I say more? You already have your own associations with those words, and they’re probably negative. We all want to be healthy, and when we’re not, we want to know that doing whatever we can to get healthy won’t send us into financial ruin. That was the whole point of health insurance, but it seems that the opposite has happened. There’s a lot that needs to change, but where do we start? How about with insurers themselves. Take New York state for instance. They haven’t had a new commercial health insurer in a decade and a half–or at least they didn’t until Oscar came around. They are a New York, NY based startup that dubs itself “a new kind of health insurance company that is using technology to make insurance simple, intuitive, and human.”
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Have you ever caught someone talking about you behind your back? Whether they’re saying something nice or something mean, it can be pretty awkward. Still, it’s nice to know where you stand with people. For brands it’s a bit different. The awkwardness isn’t as much of a worry, and the information gained from hearing what people have to say can have tremendous business value. The problem is that overhearing a conversation isn’t a reasonable way to compile actionable information. That’s why newBrandAnalytics has developed “a social media monitoring and online reputation management tool that transforms online reviews into operational social intelligence.” The company is based in Washington, DC, and it helps companies pinpoint ways that they “can excel in customer experience management.”
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Today few businesses can afford to ignore online marketing. The baseline has changed, and customers expect to find an online presence. Whether you’re a local restaurant, a consulting firm, or a toy manufacturer, people want to learn about you and interact with you on the web. The problem is that most small and local businesses don’t have the expertise or the resources to make wise investments in social media, SEO, SEM, and other online marketing options. They need affordable automation, and that’s exactly what Signpost offers. They are a New York, NY based company that has moved out of the deals space (just like yesterday’s company) and into offering a “cloud-based platform that makes digital and mobile marketing simple and effective for SMBs.” Without options like Signpost, small businesses would have to hire a full-time person just to run online marketing (I know that you’d prefer that they do that).
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Happy Veterans Day. Thank you to all of our readers who have served in our armed forces. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but it seems that the holiday is getting way more attention this year than in past years. I’ve seen way more tv commercials mentioning Veterans Day, and it seems that a ton of retailers are offering special deals. There are free haircuts, free car washes, and all kinds of free meals available today for those who have served. The only awkward part about all of this is verifying one’s veteran status. Nobody wants to have to ask, but how else do you stop freeloaders from taking advantage of deals just for vets? Military IDs are only for active service members, and any other form of proof might be a bit cumbersome. ID.me is a Washington, DC based company that is trying to make the process of ID verification seamless. They started out as Troop ID (and before that they were TroopSwap, a daily deals site for military) and only focused on verifying veteran/military status, but they realized that verifying any kind of group association would give them access to a much bigger market.
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