Admit it! You’ve used the Internet to self-diagnose a medical problem, and you probably used WebMD. For some of you it was to convince yourself that you’re not going to die tomorrow, and for some of you it was probably the opposite. It’s great having access to so much information, but it’s kind of dangerous when you a) can’t verify its accuracy and b) have no idea how to use it properly. Running to the doctor for every little issue is ridiculous, so there needs to be a better way to get medical information online. Luckily my little sister (who is awesome because she went to art school and then decided she wanted to go to med school, so she’s doing a postbac now) let me know about HealthTap. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that provides “free online and mobile answers from thousands of the best physicians in the U.S.” It’s kind of like Yahoo! Answers for medicine, but the people responding to your questions aren’t complete morons.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
community management,
copywriting,
design,
editorial,
engineering,
health care,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
medicine,
mobile,
operations,
product management,
research,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
user experience,
web development,
writing
There’s no doubt that Japanese companies have been and continue to be leaders in the gaming industry. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony are some of the names that you’re most likely to recognize, but it’s very clear that the old guard of gaming is facing stiff competition from upstarts like Zynga and ngmoco that are focusing on mobile and social gaming. While Japan has historically been big on console gaming, they’re not missing out on this trend. GREE is a Japanese that is fervently entering the U.S. market in order to grow a business that generated $1.7 billion in revenue last year. GREE is unique in that their U.S. based branding has been more about hiring than games. They’ve opened a San Francisco, CA office that they’re promoting heavily with billboards, referral bonuses, and even Google AdWords campaigns. They also acquired a company called OpenFeint to speed along the growth.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
arts,
bilingual,
business development,
California,
community management,
copywriting,
design,
game design,
graphic design,
human resources,
information technology,
international,
Internships,
Japan,
marketing,
mobile,
operations,
paid,
product management,
recruiting,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
strategy,
video games,
web development,
wrting
Because I’m a tech savvy kind of guy, I often get asked a lot of computer and Internet related questions. One of the most common questions that I get is: “How do I see how much traffic a website gets?” This is useful information whether you want to check to see if a startup is really as popular as they claim or if you want to size a market, but it’s not easy information to come by. The best answer is get the login and password to the site’s Google Analytics account. Considering that’s difficult and likely illegal, your next best bet is to you use some of the competitive research tools that are available. The free ones include Alexa, Compete, Quantcast, and Google Trends for Websites. Unfortunately, none of these are particularly reliable or accurate, and they’re especially bad for sites that get less than hundreds of thousands of visitors a month. The gold standard for this kind of information is offered comScore, but it comes with a hefty subscription fee. The Reston, VA calls itself “a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence,” so paying those fees will get you a lot more than just traffic estimates for websites.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
analytics,
California,
data,
engineering,
Illinois,
Internships,
market research,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
product management,
research,
software development,
Virginia,
Washington,
web development
I’ve made a point of being more active in Cornell’s entrepreneurship community, so I like to think that I do a good job of keeping tabs on which other companies have been started by fellow alums. That’s why I was shocked to learn that the #2 online retailer of home furnishings and housewares was not only a company that I’d never heard of before, but a company founded by two Cornell grads. It’s called Wayfair–they’re based in Boston, MA and did $500 million in sales last year. The reason I hadn’t heard of them is that they were known as CSN Stores until last year (they were founded in 2002). CSN Stores was focused on building out 200+ product specific properties with generic domain names like Bedroomfurniture.com, Cookware.com, AirHockeyTables.com, and AllBarstools.com. Last year they decided to get serious about branding and started pulling all of their sites into the Wayfair brand.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
analytics,
brand management,
buyer,
customer service,
data,
design,
e-commerce,
e-mail,
engineering,
furniture,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
merchandising,
online marketing,
paid,
product management,
public relations,
sales,
software development,
style,
web development
In case you missed our e-mail from last week, Kembrel loved the response from our post about them so they’re offering a free VIP card (usually 20 bucks) to all ODOI readers and $5 in store credit. Sign up here.
On Monday we took a look at Vertive, a company that builds internet properties to help people save money. Today we’re going to look at a company with a similar model of building and buying websites, but a much broader approach. Internet Brands is based in El Segundo, CA and started as CarsDirect.com in 1998. It was a successful brand for them, but in 2005 they realized that the platform they had built could be applied to other verticals. Now Internet Brands operates more than 100 websites that reach over a billion visitors every year. Amazingly, they’ve been able to generate almost all of this traffic organically (without buying advertising). This is all because of the platform that they’ve developed and the ability to share resources across brands. Internet Brands is a case study of how economies of scale can work on the web.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
advertising,
analyst,
automotive,
blogging,
California,
cars,
community management,
data,
design,
e-commerce,
editing,
editorial,
finance,
gardening,
health care,
human resources,
Internships,
law,
marketing,
mobile,
online marketing,
paid,
personal finance,
product management,
project management,
quality assurance,
recruiting,
sales,
seo,
software development,
style,
systems administration,
travel,
user experience,
virtual,
web development,
writing
I’ve been a devoted Apple fanboy since 1990, yet I didn’t watch the liveblogs for their Education Event yesterday. It’s hard to get excited about digital textbooks when you never intend to read a textbook again, but I have to say that I’m looking forward to seeing how much technology will change the ways that future generations learn. Apple pushed a lot of people forward yesterday, but there’s a lot more to education than the content. Communication between teachers and students is essential, and technology can play an amazing role in this relationship. Coursekit is a New York, NY based company that offers “instructors and students amazingly designed tools to manage their courses – calendaring, file management” while making “it unbelievably easy to interact with one another.” It may kill a lot of your excuses for why you didn’t do your homework, but I think that the benefits are pretty obvious.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
communications,
community management,
design,
education,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
paid,
product development,
product management,
social media,
software development,
user experience,
web development
It often seems that I don’t hear about cool events until after they’ve happened. I’ll spend a Friday night reorganizing my fishing closet, and on Saturday I’ll realize that there’s something really fun that I missed out on. I’m sure you’ve faced the same problem. But how do you keep up with what’s going on in your city? Flavorpill is one answer. They provide an online culture guide, and they will send you personalized e-mails that cover both events and news. I first heard about Flavorpill because one of their writers was interviewing me (the story ended up being published elsewhere), but I think they were a bit more news focused then. They say that they cover “cultural events, art, books, music, and world news,” though it seems that Flavorpill, which is headquartered in New York, NY, now leans very strongly towards the events side.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advertising,
arts,
blogging,
California,
design,
editorial,
events,
Florida,
international,
Internships,
marketing,
Nevada,
New York,
online marketing,
product management,
sales,
social media,
software development,
Texas,
united kingdom,
Washington,
web development,
writing
Apparently wearing glasses is cool again, especially if they’re what used to be considered dorky. I don’t get it. I’m a contact lens kind of guy. I wear my glasses right after I wake up and before I go to bed, but other than that I relish in the fact that we’ve developed tiny pieces of plastic that can make us see perfectly. You’d think technological breakthroughs like contact lenses and Lasik would be bad news for a businesses that was founded in 1949 to distribute fashionable eyewear, but you’d be wrong. ClearVision Optical was started by a Navy veteran to “serve the independent optometrist community” in Long Island, and it has grown into a “global enterprise, serving optical professionals throughout the U.S. and in 40 countries around the globe.” The Hauppauge, New York based company has been able to grow like this because of its devotion to strong customer service that is centered around helping clients build stronger practices.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
design,
eyewear,
fashion,
graphic design,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
operations,
paid,
product development,
product management
Some of you have been receiving our e-mails hours or even days after they were originally sent. It’s a problem with our e-mail provider, and I think it’s finally fixed. I hope it hasn’t been too annoying.
I couldn’t find a job after I graduated, so I created my own job helping other grads find jobs. It’s kind of a ridiculous story, but it seems to have worked out. It feels a little weird for me to cover companies that are also in the job search space, but how can I not tell you about a company that was just named the #1 Small Business to Work For? Snagajob is based in Glen Allen, VA, and they were founded in 1999 by Shawn Boyer when he realized that there were no good websites for finding hourly jobs while trying to help a friend find an internship. Shawn started out by building a simple job board, but the business has continued to grow as they have found new ways to serve both employers and job seekers.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
customer service,
Internships,
paid,
product management,
recruiting,
sales,
Virginia
It’s moving day for me. I’m staying in the same neighborhood, but I still had to pack up my entire apartment and load it into a moving truck. It was kind of a pain, but hiring good movers is one of the best investments you can make. If only I had a travel vest from SCOTTEVEST–I could have stuffed everything in there, walked down the street, and done it all myself. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you really can fit a ton of stuff in SCOTTEVEST products. The company is based in Ketchum, ID and was started by Scott Jordan to create gadget-holding alternatives for man-purses–or even worse, fanny packs. It all started with vests, but now SCOTTEVEST offers a wide line of clothing that makes traveling with lots of stuff easy.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
apparel,
design,
e-commerce,
fashion,
graphic design,
Idaho,
Internships,
Manufacturing,
product management,
production,
public relations,
software development,
sourcing,
video,
web development
We all know how a bill becomes a law thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, but I bet most of you have no idea how an ad gets displayed (even though you see thousands of ads a day). I must admit that I don’t know all of the ins and outs of the process, but I do know that linking up the right advertisers with the right publishers is probably the most important and difficult part. It’s essential to get the right messages in front of the right audiences. This is what Ad/Media Planners/Buyers do. Traffiq is a New York, NY based company that makes interaction between Media Planners and publishers seamless. Traffiq’s platform streamlines “the media planning and buying process by providing a comprehensive suite of tools that enable speedy negotiations for all deal points, centralized ad operations including trafficking, tracking and optimization, reconciliation and billing.” In other words, Traffiq handles every point of communication between publishers and advertisers.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
buyer,
interactive media,
Internships,
media,
media planner,
New York,
planner,
product management,
software development,
web development
I can’t tell you how much money I’ve saved by being a savvy shopper. Doing something as simple as Googling for coupon codes or looking up discount programs has saved me money time after time. I’m by no means fanatical about this stuff (and I try to avoid buying stuff just because it’s on sale), but there are a ton of people who get really excited about finding deals. Many of them flock to online communities for deal sharing like Fatwallet, Slickdeals, and Savings.com. Whether you’re looking for a specific deal or just want to see what bargains are available right now, Los Angeles, CA based Savings.com offers that kind of information. You may wonder how a site that is focused on serving people who self-identify as being cheap makes money, but there’s no question that doesn’t seem to be a problem for Savings.com considering that they made the Inc. 5000 with 2,077% three-year growth to $19.9 million in revenue.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
affiliate marketing,
California,
e-commerce,
Internships,
marketing,
online marketing,
product management,
public relations,
sem,
software development,
web development
I realize that a lot of you are looking for something specific. You’re want a certain type of internship at a certain type of company in a certain type of industry in a certain geographic location. I know that on most days the company that I write about won’t check all of your boxes. Instead of closing out the e-mail when you see something that doesn’t fit your criteria, use our daily write ups as a jumping off point–something to get you thinking in new directions in your internship search. For instance, last week I wrote about Author Solutions. In doing research on them, I came across a few of their competitors. One that stood out was Lulu (not to be confused with lululemon). They’re a Raleigh, NC based company that has built an open publishing platform “that empowers more creators to sell more content to more readers more profitably than ever before.” It’s different from AuthorHouse in that Lulu doesn’t charge any upfront fees–they only get a cut when you make sales.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advertising,
analyst,
books,
customer service,
design,
ecommerce,
engineering,
human resources,
information technology,
marketing,
North Carolina,
product management,
project management,
publishing,
sales,
software development,
user experience,
web development
Want to be part of the One Day, One Job/Internship team? Here’s your chance!
I started cooking in my second year at college. The dining halls were fine for Freshman year, but after I moved off campus I decided that I had to learn to feed myself. My mini-Weber grill was my go to, but it eventually got cold enough (Ithaca…) that I had to move into the kitchen. My roommate bought some kitchen set from Wal-Mart, and it was about as low quality as you could get. The tools sufficed, but they were pretty terrible. Now I’m not advocating spending a ton on kitchen tools, but it makes sense to use tools that have a quality design. That’s what OXO is all about. They New York, NY based company is best known for their wide variety of kitchen tools, but they offer a pretty wide range of consumer products from staplers to pruning shears to ice cream scoops.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
consumer products,
design,
Internships,
New York,
product development,
product management,
research
Sometimes during your internship search a company name will keep popping up. You’ll ignore them because of assumptions that you’ve already made about them. Eventually you’ll give them a look, and you’ll realize that you didn’t know as much as you thought about them. That’s kind of how I’ve been with Morningstar. I knew of them well before I started this site. I have a friend who worked for them. They’re headquartered here in Chicago, IL, and they’re big supporters of the local startup and technology scene. They’re one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, and I’ve even had multiple people tell me to write about them. I guess it’s time to take a closer look at Morningstar, which is “a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.” They serve all investors from individuals to financial advisors to institutions, and they do so with a wide range of products that includes services, software, online publications, and print publications.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
consulting,
data,
design,
finance,
human resources,
Illinois,
information technology,
interactive media,
international,
Internships,
investment,
leadership development,
media,
operations,
paid,
Pennsylvania,
product consultant,
product management,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
research,
rotation program,
security,
software development,
web development
Volunteering is a great thing to do while you’re in college. It’s an opportunity to do good while building valuable skills and putting yourself to work doing something other than studying (which is really helpful when you start looking for a job). Obviously volunteering isn’t only for people who have time on their hands, yet many non-profit organizations treat it like it is. Why would you have a top notch software developer running around picking up trash when he or she could be fixing a few bugs on the organization’s website? Why have a brilliant investment banker building a house when he or she could be managing the organization’s endowment? If the volunteers want time away from work and would prefer to do something different, that’s totally cool. But what if they want to offer pro bono services? Where do they find organizations who can make the best use of their time? Catchafire is a New York, NY based B-Corp (a for-profit company with a social mission–we actually featured internships with B Corporation) that aims to fix this problem. They want to “make it easy for every professional to use their skills for good, and to make it easy for every nonprofit and social enterprise to access and effectively use pro bono as a way to build capacity within their organization.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
consulting,
esign,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
paid,
product development,
product management,
sales,
social entrepreneurship,
social venture,
software development,
user experience,
web development
Usually I try to tell you about internships at cool startups before they get big, but I missed the boat with Foursquare, which is based in New York, NY. I guess I was too busy checking in everywhere to remember to look at their internships. For a while I was really into the location-based social network. I used it to run into friends who were nearby, get free stuff from restaurants, and even meet some new people. Eventually, though, I got sick of telling my Foursquare friends and Twitter followers where I was no matter how boring the place might be. But for old time’s sake I’ll tell you where I am right now. I’m at Cool Beans in Bellefonte, PA. They don’t have any Foursquare specials, but they have free wi-fi and a nice atmosphere, which is exactly what I was looking for in a pitstop as I drive from Connecticut back to Chicago today. I doubt my check-in today will lead to my meeting someone interesting, but you never know.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
community management,
Internships,
local,
marketing,
mobile,
New York,
paid,
product management,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
web development
These days it’s hard to find an advertisement where a brand isn’t encouraging you to Like them on Facebook or Follow them on Twitter. (And since I mentioned it, you should Like Us, Follow Me, and Join our LinkedIn Group.) I’m still not convinced that it’s a better idea to send traffic to your presence on someone else’s site than it is to send people to your own site, but everybody is doing it. And if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right. Involver is a company that “provides marketers with everything they need to create rich experiences across the social web.” They’re based in San Francisco, CA, but they’re adding offices rapidly. So far they also have locations in New York, NY; Austin, TX; Los Angeles, CA; and Chicago, IL. To put it more simply, Involver has built a platform on top of the major social media platforms. By using Involver, you can more simply craft an exceptional user experience within the framework of sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
California,
design,
engineering,
finance,
human resources,
Illinois,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
operations,
paid,
product management,
sales,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
Texas,
user experience,
web development
Have you ever heard of a company or industry that wants you to use less of their product? Doesn’t really make sense, does it? It does if you’re in the power industry, at least to some extent. Some of the biggest proponents of energy efficiency are the utilities themselves. The reason for this is decoupling, or the “disassociation of a utility’s profits from its sales of the energy commodity.” It’s a tactic used by many states to create positive incentives for energy companies to be more green. Still, promoting energy efficiency to consumers is no easy task. That’s where OPOWER comes in. They’re based in Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA, and they use “cutting edge behavioral science and patent-pending data analytics” to enable “utilities to connect with their customers in a highly targeted fashion, motivating reductions in energy use, increased program participation and overall customer satisfaction.” It’s all about helping consumers make better informed decisions (which usually are also better decisions for the environment).
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
analytics,
business development,
California,
customer service,
design,
energy,
engineering,
environmental,
green,
Internships,
marketing,
policy,
product management,
sales,
software development,
sustainability,
user experience,
Virginia,
Washington DC,
web development
When the phone was relegated to only the home and office (and phone booths), it wasn’t a big deal to hold it against your head. If you really used the phone a lot, you might get a headset or one of those rubber things that makes it easier to hold the phone between your ear and shoulder. Now that we take our phones everywhere, holding your phone becomes a big pain in the butt (or hand). It makes your hand cold in winter, and it’s a risk while driving. I’m completely happy with my iPhone headphones, but some people just can’t be tied down like that. That’s why Jawbone has been so successful. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that creates “products and services for the mobile lifestyle unparalleled in their innovation, ease-of-use and sophistication of design.” They’re best know for their bluetooth headsets, but they also make wireless speakers/speakerphones and develop some mobile apps.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
design,
engineering,
Internships,
mobile,
product development,
product management,
telecommunications
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone but an oil executive who isn’t excited at the prospect of electric cars. Yet, the only ones that I’ve seen on the road are from Tesla Motors, and those are few and far between. The problem is two-fold. First, the technology is just getting to the point where it’s actually reasonable to have an electric car as your everyday automobile. Second, the infrastructure for charging electric cars away from home is nearly non-existent. Better Place is a Palo Alto, CA based company that is working to change this. They “build and operate the infrastructure and systems to optimize energy access and use” for electric vehicles, so that they can achieve their mission of “accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation.” They have a long road ahead of them, but they’ve already made a big impact.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
automotive,
California,
cars,
energy,
green,
Internships,
marketing,
product development,
product management,
research,
strategy,
sustainability,
training,
transportation
I’m a fly fisherman, so I occasionally get frustrated with living in downtown Chicago. There just aren’t many opportunities to go fishing without a decent drive, and winter seems to last forever (it’s supposed to be spring now, and it’s not). To get through the coldest months I’ll often visit fishing stores, look at websites, and read through catalogs. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get me through the winter. Cabela’s is a company that gets a lot of people through the winter. The company is based in Sidney, NE, and they’re the “largest mail-order, retail and Internet outdoor outfitter in the world.” It all started in 1961 with a tiny classified ad that Dick Cabela placed in a newspaper because he wanted to sell some fishing flies that he purchased while visiting Chicago for a furniture show (since Nebraska is even less of a fly fishing destination than Chicago is). Despite a lackluster response to the original ad, Dick Cabela kept trying. The company grew organically, and now Cabela’s is dominating three major retail channels. The truly amazing part of the story is that Cabela’s has been able to maintain their commitment to customer service throughout all of the growth. I’m not a big customer (I try to support local shops), but I have quite a few friends who are extremely loyal Cabela’s customers because of the quality of products and service.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
analyst,
apparel,
banking,
compliance,
conservation,
customer service,
e-commerce,
human resources,
Internships,
inventory control,
marketing,
merchandising,
Nebraska,
operations,
outdoors,
planning,
product development,
product management,
research,
retail,
social media,
sports,
strategy
Big day today–not only is it St. Paddy’s Day (in the past we’ve looked at General Mills, Shamrock Foods, and Luck Stones) but it’s also the first day of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. What ties those two celebrations together (besides being excuses for drinking during the day)? Shoes! It’s a little-known fact that all leprechauns are shoemakers, and we know that all basketball players love a good pair of kicks. That’s why we’re going to take a look at Wolverine World Wide, a multi-brand shoe company based in Rockford, MI. Their brands include Bates, Cat Footwear, Chaco, Cushe, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Hush Puppies, HyTest, Merrell, Patagonia Footwear, Sebago, Track ‘n Trail, and Wolverine, almost all of which are targeted towards rugged, outdoorsy customer bases. Most of the brands don’t offer great footwear for playing basketball, but they have plenty of shoes for leprechauns that wants to cause mischief and trek to and from the end of the rainbow.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
apparel,
auditing,
design,
editing,
finance,
footwear,
holiday,
human resources,
information technology,
marketing,
Michigan,
product development,
product management,
retail,
sales
Ever curious about the business behind One Day, One Job and One Day, One Internship? Read this interview I did with The Startup Foundry.
I never took an Accounting class, but I do run a business, so I need some knowledge of keeping the books. I may have never learned the formal definition of “accounts receivable,” but I certainly know it in practice. Right now there are 7 businesses that owe me money for advertising. That’s an asset worth something, but it’s not quite as valuable as actually having the money in the bank. Luckily, running this business is cheap, so cash flow is never an issue. For many other types of businesses, cash is vital. The month or two that they give debtors to pay invoices can be extremely costly (in terms of risk and the time-value of money) because it limits the businesses’ ability to make short-term investments like buying products wholesale to sell retail, paying for advertising, or making payroll. The Receivables Exchange is a New Orleans, LA (headquarters) and New York, NY based company that fixes this problem. They allow business to auction off their accounts receivable for cash. Businesses obviously have to pay a premium for the cash that they get, but it allows them to make short-term investments that should be far more valuable than the fees they pay to the buyers of their accounts receivable.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
administrative,
business development,
customer service,
finance,
human resources,
information technology,
Internships,
investment,
Louisiana,
marketing,
New York,
operations,
paid,
product management,
sales,
software development
The Washington Media Scholars Program Case Competition opens today! Get all of the details here.
Now, I haven’t heard of any internship seekers who use flashcards for interviews, but I’m sure there are some out there. I haven’t touched a flashcard since I stopped taking French, and that was a long time ago. I don’t miss them at all. It’s probably because my French teachers forced me to write hundreds of flashcards for homework. If I could have found a way to use a computer to automate the process, I would have. But those teachers wanted to see a handwritten flashcard. Today’s students probably don’t feel my pain. That’s because you can make all of your flashcards online, share them with friends, and use them on your smartphone thanks to Quizlet. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that aims to “creatively harness technology to provide powerful, free learning capabilities to hundreds of millions of people.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
California,
design,
education,
engineering,
Internships,
marketing,
operations,
product development,
product evangelism,
product management,
software development,
user experience,
web development
Today is One Day, One Job’s 3rd Anniversary! We’re celebrating by launching a Success Stories section. If you have a success story or just want to send along some feedback, e-mail me today at willy@onedayonejob.com.
It’s been fun running through the Inc. 500 in search of companies with internship opportunities, but the time has come to move on. I’m sure that I’ll eventually revisit a number of the companies that seemed cool but didn’t appear to have the right opportunities when I looked at them; however, we’re going to give this “series” a fitting finish by looking at #500 AtTask. They’re an Orem, UT based company that “develops project and portfolio management software that increases efficiency for businesses of all sizes.” They’ve seen 604% growth over the past three years, which puts them at $19 million in revenue for last year. Online collaboration is a huge and growing area, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see AtTask continue to put up exceptional growth rates.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
customer service,
design,
events,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
paid,
product management,
project management,
sales,
software development,
technical support,
user experience,
Utah,
web development
Usually when a company has a weird name and no website of their own, you start to think that they may be some kind of internship scam. Not having a home page for you company is a big warning sign; however, I’m not too worried about Quidsi. They’re a Jersey City, NJ company that made it to the Inc. 500 with 1535% three-year growth to $182.5 million in annual revenue. That’s two orders of magnitude great than most of the other Inc. 500 companies we’ve looked at. As far as I can tell, it’s all coming from two businesses—Diapers.com and Soap.com. Both are retail sites that allow you to buy household goods easily online. Although I’m sure there are a lot of other reasons for their success, you have to think that Quidsi has truly reaped the benefits of owning some top notch domain names.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
consumer products,
copywriting,
customer service,
design,
e-commerce,
e-mail,
Internships,
marketing,
merchandising,
New Jersey,
product management,
retail,
seo,
software development,
user experience,
web development
As I’ve been ripping through the Inc. 500 in search of awesome, fast growing companies that are hiring new or recent grads, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of companies with similar business models. Insurance is big. So is credit card processing. Recruiting is surprisingly robust, and so is SEO/Online/Affiliate Marketing. Another area that is extremely hot is cloud storage. Two weeks ago we looked at ShareFile, and today we’re going to look at Palo Alto, CA based Box.net. They have similar offerings that allow business to simply and securely share files. Although ShareFile has been growing a little faster, Box.net has seen 1,822.3% three-year growth and actually has higher annual revenues at $5.1 million. The other difference is that it seems that ShareFile focuses more on the exchange of files, while Box.net seems to put a bigger emphasis on offering a full content management system.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
California,
engineering,
finance,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
operations,
product management,
sales,
software development,
web development
My family is in Colorado Springs this week, and we’re staying at an amazing ranch on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday we went back to civilization for the first time, and we decided to visit Cripple Creek—an old mining town that was home to “the last great Colorado gold rush” and more than half a billion dollars in gold ore. Unfortunately gold mining can only last so long, and Cripple Creek eventually became a ghost town. In 1991 voters legalized gambling in Cripple Creek, and the city was reinvigorated, albeit with most of the storefronts inhabited with gaming establishments. Our visit was interrupted by a massive hail storm, so we waited in the car until it let up a bit and ran into the first restaurant we could find. Turns out that it was a restaurant inside of a casino, and we had to walk past a bunch of slots and other machines to get a bite to eat. Of course, I couldn’t make it past the Game King video poker machine without playing, and luckily I came away from “lunch” 90 bucks richer. That gave me the idea to take a look at IGT (International Game Technology), the Reno, NV based gaming company that designs and manufactures the Game King machine among many other casino machines.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
arts,
business development,
casino,
customer service,
design,
engineering,
human resources,
information technology,
Internships,
law,
Manufacturing,
marketing,
Nevada,
operations,
paid,
product management,
sales,
software development,
strategy,
training,
video games
This morning I sent out the following tweet: “I entered the Bonobos/Tucker Blair Wardrobe Giveaway! for a chance to win 5 pants/5 belts/5 polos: http://wfi.re/1sy9s.” (By the way, you can follow me @willyf.)I usually get annoyed when I see tweets like that, but every person who enters through my link gives me another entry, and I want to win. I also wanted to take it as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Wildfire Interactive. They are a Palo Alto, CA based company that has built an amazing web-based software platform to enable “interactive promotions for brand marketing.” For a very affordable price, you can use Wildfire to run sweepstakes, contests, give-aways, incentive-based surveys, and more. I’ve struggled putting together online contests in the past, and Wildfire is exactly the kind of app that would have made my life a lot easier. They’re like a self-service, web 2.0 Don Jagoda Associates (and they shouldn’t be confused with WeTheCitizens which renamed itself to Wildfire Platform).
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
California,
customer service,
design,
engineering,
Internships,
marketing,
product management,
promotions,
sales,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
user experience,
web development