It’s easy to take electricity for granted. When we plug something in, it usually works. If it doesn’t, the problem probably isn’t with the outlet (though I have had that happen). Our electric system has been around for well over a century, which is why it’s so reliable. However, keeping it up to date still requires a lot of innovation. That’s where Utilidata comes in. They’re a Providence, RI based company that delivers “value to utilities and large energy users by improving operational decisions through the use of new data extraction and digital processing techniques.” We all know that measurement is usually the first step in improvement, and that’s why Utilidata is all about using data to optimize energy efficiencies.
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It’s never been easier to start a business with no capital at all. It’s also never been easier to raise millions of dollars for an idea. But what about the businesses that fall somewhere in-between? Whether you’re opening a restaurant, salon, dental office, or auto shop, you’re probably going to need outside financing. There are plenty of options, but a lot of them are very unfriendly to the business owner. The Business Backer is a Cincinnati, OH based company that “is helping small business owners flourish and grow by re-inventing relationship-based lending for the 21st century.” The company is built on the idea of True Relationship Financing, which a unique underwriting process that evaluates risk and customizes a deal in a way that is very different from most other financial institutions.
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While the residential real estate market is often driven by emotion and hype (as the season premier of Million Dollar Listing L.A. reminded me), that’s not nearly as true when it comes to commercial real estate. The market for commercial properties is much more data driven, but getting your hands on the right data to make decisions can be very difficult. That’s why CompStak was started. They’re a New York, NY based company that aims to “create transparency in commercial real estate by gathering information that is hard to find, difficult to compile or otherwise unavailable.” How do they do this? By offering a place to buy and sell lease comparable data.
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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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We live in a world of data. Everything from the prices on financial markets to our weights can be measured and tracked very easily. Even an average person can use easily accessible online tools to fake being a “data scientist.” But what about data that isn’t obviously data? I’m talking about stuff that isn’t neatly sorted into rows and columns–the kind of stuff that you’d have to painstakingly tabulate by hand. We now have technology that can do the hard work for us, and one of the companies behind such technology is ListenLogic. They are a Conshohocken, PA based company that extracts “insights from unstructured big data to drive business outcomes.” Their “big data” technology allows clients to act on information that they never before could have acted on.
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My favorite vacations when I was growing up were our annual trips to Nantucket. While it’s an awesome island and I had a lot of fiends there, there was something else that made the vacations special. We rented a house. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it makes a vacation more relaxing. You may not have someone who makes your bed every morning, but there’s something really nice about having a place that feels like home while you’re on vacation. Back then we found our rental through an agent, but today it’s much easier to just go online and use a site like Tripping. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that has build “the world’s largest search engine for vacation and short-term rentals.” They tap into other sites’ inventories and let you compare properties easily.
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If you’ve watched The Office at all, you know that the office supply industry is not only mind-numbingly boring, but it’s also dying a slow, painful death. And if you pay attention to the news, you know that Detroit is a dying city with nothing good going on. So what if I told you that there is an office supply startup based in Detroit, MI that is anything but boring and growing rapidly? Their name is Chalkfly, and they provide “the supplies you need to do your best work.” There are a lot of narratives working against Chalkfly, but they’re just narratives. Results are what matter, and Chalkfly already claims brands like Foursquare, Moosejaw and Etsy as clients.
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I come up with a lot of business ideas. More often than not I find that someone is already doing it–and usually I’m fine with that. It’s cool to see someone putting the idea to the test since I can’t try most of the ideas that I come up with. A lot of my ideas center around a thesis that more and more people will forgo traditional jobs and instead make a living (or at least supplement their incomes) by reaching new markets through the Internet. Vayable is a company based on this thesis. They are a San Francisco, CA and New York, NY based company that offers “a home for anyone looking to experience honest, local culture through experiences created and hosted by passionate local Insiders.”
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Whenever someone wants to videoconference with me, I tell them that I prefer a plain old phone call. I don’t get a lot of value from seeing them face to face, and I work from home, which means there’s a decent chance that I look like a slob when I”m taking a call. However, in more corporate environments videoconferencing is supposed to be an immersive experience that replicates a real in-person meeting. Lifesize is a company that is constantly working to offer that kind of experience. They are based in Austin, TX, and they “set out to make video conferencing truly universal.” When Skype of FaceTime isn’t enough, Lifesize offers a professional level tool that is still accessible.
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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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If you’ve been looking for a job for any amount of time, you’ve probably interacted with dozens of applicant tracking systems. In case you’re not aware, they’re the software that companies use to post jobs and… track applicants. A lot of them suck for the end user (you), but a few offer pretty good experiences. One of the better ones is The Resumator. They’re a Pittsburgh, PA and San Francisco, CA based company that helps “great people build great companies” by bringing “talented professionals and compelling companies together.”
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As I mentioned earlier in the week, media and advertising are all about demographics. Unless you have the targeting capabilities of a Facebook or Google, it’s almost always better to build your properties targeted at a specific group. For SheKnows it’s all about women. They are a Scottsdale, AZ based company that has built a “women’s lifestyle media platform” that “allows brands to distribute authentic content and integrated advertising at scale.” What kind of scale? 40 million unique visitors per month. That’s a lot.
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Most media businesses are about advertising, and most advertising is about demographics. That’s why a lot of media companies focus on owning a portfolio of properties that cater to similar demographics. For Radio One the focus is on targeting African-American and urban consumers. The company is headquartered in Lanham, MD, but they have stations and offices all across the country. If your music tastes are similar to mine, there’s a good chance that you are familiar with one of Radio One’s properties.
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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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Events are inherently social. A lot of time who is going to be there matters more than what is going on. Yet all of our major social networks are about showing off what we’ve already done. If we’re going to broadcast our lives, it might make sense to let other people in on the fun. Fever is a New York, NY and Madrid, Spain based startup social network that is “changing the way people make plans.” Their idea is to take event discovery away from the calendar and make it all about the people.
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You can do almost anything with someone else’s money–build a house, buy a car, go to school, shop ’til you drop, start a business, etc. Sometimes it’s a good idea, and sometimes it’s a really bad idea. One of the smartest times to borrow money is for upfront business expenses that will pay back over time. This is the kind of lending that Balboa Capital does. They’re an Irvine, CA based company that “has been providing equipment leasing and working capital loans to US businesses for over two decades.” They are in the business of keeping other businesses in business.
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Think about all of the e-mail lists that you’re subscribed to. Now think about how many of those e-mails you delete, mark as spam, or totally ignore. Every one of those senders includes you when they brag about the size of their lists, but you’re pretty much worth nothing to them (you may even have negative value). Businesses that do e-mail right know that keeping your lists manicured is a smart business decision. Unfortunately, that’s a lot easier said then done, which is why company that are serious about e-mail use FreshAddress. They’re a Newton, MA based company that helps “companies that depend on email to drive revenue by building, updating, segmenting, and cleaning their email lists.”
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I live in the third biggest city in the country, yet I often feel like there’s nothing to do. Part of that is because most of the things that I like to do are outdoorsy and Chicago isn’t the best city for people like me, but most of it is because I’m not aware of all the cool things happening around me. There seem to be a million startups that have tried to solve this problem, and none have really succeeded yet. Maybe UpOut will change that. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that “is changing how locals discover unique events in their city.” They do this by pulling in event calendars from a variety of sources and curating the list to only show the most interesting ones.
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I haven’t updated my business cards in years; in fact, I’m not sure that I’ve given anyone a business card in at least a year. I do most of my business online, so it makes sense that I don’t use a lot of paper products. More and more people are moving in my direction, so if you are going to use printed materials, they need to pop–they need to be able to compete with the interactivity of a website. MOO is an East Providence, RI based company that loves to print. They’ve even invented a word to describe what they do: “printfinity.” It’s a technology that they’ve developed that allows you to “print a different photo or design on every Business Card, Sticker or Postcard in a pack.”
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I’m not sure that I’d call myself brand conscious as much as I’d call myself brand loyal. With clothing I try to find a brand that matches my personal style and fits well. For a while Vince had some great sweaters that I really liked, so I bought two more after my first and kept an eye on the brand. I never ended up buying anything else from the New York, NY based company, but they seem to have grown a lot in popularity over the past few years. They started out in Los Angeles in 2002 with “a highly-edited collection of women’s knits and cashmere sweaters,” but today they offer a “collection of iconic essentials that women and men would want to wear every day.”
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What if I told you that there was a product that could increase your personal privacy, reduce your heating and cooling costs, and make your home much more stylish? You might think that I was talking about some sort of new home automation/security system, but I’m really talking about blinds. You know… shades, drapes, curtains, window treatments. You can buy all of them from Blinds.com, a Houston, TX based company that is “the world’s largest online window covering store.” In fact, they’re twice as big as their closest competitor.
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It’s hard to feel any sympathy for software developers. They’re one of the most employable groups of people on Earth, and they can apply their skills to almost anything they want. However, they’re working in the technology industry which is defined by constant change. A piece of software that used to need to run on a single platform is now expected to work on all kinds of devices. Xamarin is the answer for developers who want their software to work for as many people as possible. The San Francisco, CA based company allows developers to write “apps entirely in C#, sharing the same code on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.” Why do something four different ways when you can do it once?
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When online video really started taking off, a ton of companies went to work figuring out how to monetize all of the new content. Most were focused on advertising, and they generally seemed to converge on the pre-roll ad as the most effective (and possibly most annoying) format. For every type of media, advertisers will try to find a way to use it to get their messages noticed; however, images seem to have been largely ignored even though they’re a huge part of the Internet. Sure, a lot of companies have put ads alongside images, but Luminate is putting them in the actual images. The Mountain View, CA based company has had a lot of success with this format considering that they are “serving more than 180 million users and over 6 billion image views each month.”
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When I was a kid, receiving a package was a big deal because there was probably something good inside. Today we seem to get a few packages a week–and they’re usually something like paper towels or dog food from Amazon. I have Prime, so almost everything arrives on time. And when it doesn’t, it usually not a big deal (except for Grandma’s Christmas present arriving late last year). It’s a much bigger deal for the companies who are paying a lot of money to ensure that their shipments arrive on time. A late package from UPS or FedEx is often eligible for a refund, but actually getting refunds on all of your late packages is a job in itself. That’s where 71lbs steps in. They are a Fort Lauderdale, FL based startup “with a ‘set-and-forget’ system that allows our customers to easily and automatically collect late-shipment refunds owed to them via the FedEx & UPS money-back-guarantee.”
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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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Have you ever thought that you accidentally liked something on Facebook because a post suddenly showed up in your feed from a site that you recently visited? It’s creepy, right? It’s called retargeting, and it’s amazingly effective. For at least the last few years, advertisers have been tracking your movement around the web and showing you ads based on where you’ve visited. Taking to Facebook was the obvious next step, and that’s the specialty of Triggit. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “enables advertisers and agencies to build, run, measure, and optimize retargeting-driven display campaigns from a single platform.”
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We’ve all had a time when we wanted to break our computers, tablets, or phones. In reality we’re often directing our anger in the wrong place. It’s usually the software, not the hardware, that is causing the problem. Even though the quality of software seem to continue to get better, we keep spending a bigger percentage of our time interacting with electronic devices. Every developer can aspire to make better software, and SmartBear is a company that helps them do that. They’re based in Beverly, MA, and they make “tools to help you manage the quality of your desktop, web, mobile, and api-based applications.” It may seem a little meta but SmartBear develops software for software developers–and I’ll bet that they use their software to develop software for software developers.
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Travel decisions are almost always open to outside influence. If you know where you’re going, you may need help figuring out how to get there or what to do once you get there. If you don’t know where you want to go, the possibilities are truly endless. That’s why marketers love the travel market (it helps that travelers are often exceedingly willing to spend money to travel). Just like in every other industry, marketers in the travel space are getting much more sophisticated. Sojern is a San Francisco, CA based company that is leading that trend. They have developed a “robust audience engagement platform [that] is powered by machine-learning technology, enhanced programmatic buying (real-time bidding), and data insights.” The goal is to engage travelers and affect their decision-making process, and it seems to be working.
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It’s Tax Day! I’ve always done my own taxes, but Amy has always worked with an accountant. Since we’re filing jointly this year, we went with the accountant–and he saved us a good amount of money. Doing my own taxes was easy because I have a pretty solid system for tracking all of my business’ financial transactions (and I have a pretty simple business). When things get a little more complicated, software is usually the answer, but most software is built for individuals or huge businesses. inDinero is a San Francisco, CA based company that fills the middle ground. They are a virtual back office, which means that they’ll “take care of your accounting, file your corporate tax returns, and manage your payroll.” It’s exactly what I would want if my company was a little bigger.
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