While having the baby boomers leave the workforce should be a good thing for our generation in terms of employment outcomes, the mass retirement will likely bring new challenges. As people age they not only head more healthcare, but they also need more care in general. Sometimes that can be provided by families, but sometimes it needs to be done by professionals. Relias Learning is a Cary, NC based company that educates those professionals by offering “online training to senior care, health and human services, corrections, and intellectual and developmental disabilities organizations.”
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There are generally two ways to market to people. You can build your own audience, or you can rent somebody else’s audience. That’s why a lot of companies are built around building audiences to rent to other businesses. FierceMarkets is a perfect example. They are a Washington, DC based company that specializes in business-to-business media, publications, and marketing. The end goal is to “connect companies with the right audience and ensure each campaign generates the highest possible return on investment.”
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A few years ago I got a lot of free stuff from Bonobos and Gilt Groupe by referring people. It was certainly out of self interest, but it’s hard not to refer a product or service that you love when they’re giving both referrers and referees free stuff. Referral marketing is tremendously effective, but it can be hard to implement a system that works. Extole is a San Francisco, CA based company that specializes in helping “brands acquire new customers at scale by rewarding existing customers.” Why build out your own software to reward customer referrals when you can use Extole’s platform instead?
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When I was a little kid, I’d visit construction sites with my dad, the architect. I absolutely loved it, but at some point I lost interest in the construction industry. For me building things online seemed more interesting than building homes and offices. If you disagree, you might want to check out Hanley Wood. They are based in Washington, DC, and they are “the premier media, event, information and strategic marketing services company serving the residential and commercial design and construction industries.” For nearly 40 years they have been the go to source for “builders, remodelers, residential and commercial architects, multifamily and public-works executives, and materials dealers and distributors.”
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We all have at least one friend who has a brilliant idea for an app or website, but no way of building it. They think that if they can just find some geek to develop it for “equity,” they’ll be instant millionaires. Building a digital business isn’t even close to that easy, and marketing/business talent is just as important as tech talent. Most people who want to start a company on the web need to either figure out how to do it themselves or pay a lot of money (not equity) to get someone to build it for them. Even then, most agencies are designed to help clients later in the game. That’s not true with Digital Intent. They’re a Chicago, IL based business that helps “clients identify products customers will pay for, design compelling user experiences to make customers happy, and rapidly build high performance products that scale.”
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I tolerate living in Chicago because my wife is from here, the summers are awesome, and the food is exceptional. Unfortunately, it’s not the best place for someone like me who loves spending time in the wilderness. That means I spend a lot of time in Northern Michigan, which is five hours away. It would be nice if I could discover some recreation options that are a little closer. That’s exactly what AllTrails offers. They’re a San Francisco, CA based startup that has built “the leading digital network focused on outdoor enthusiasts, providing 1 million people monthly with the information and tools to discover top destinations near them.”
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About two months ago an organization that I’m a member of organized a letter writing campaign to prevent permits from being issued to allow fracking in an environmentally sensitive and recreationally (and economically) important area. The group is fly fishing focused, so it’s not the most tech savvy bunch. But we were able to spread the word quickly enough to get what we were asking for. Social media makes action like this much easier, but it can be hard to organize. Amicus is a New York, NY based company that turns a “nonprofit’s supporters into fundraisers and advocates.” They claim they can triple the effectiveness of outreach and fundraising efforts.
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One of the best things about the Internet is that it allows creative people to find a market for their work. What used to be a hobby for someone can now be a living. The problem is that creating isn’t enough–you have to learn how to run a business too. Gumroad is a company that makes that part easier. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and they “help millions of creators earn their livings in an interesting, authentic way.” Gumroad’s platform takes all of the complications out of selling digital goods online. Whether it’s a book, music, a video, or something else, Gumroad will help you with marketing, accepting payments, and offering secured downloads.
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Have you ever sat around and waited for a phone call? It sucks. Believe it or not, there are a lot of businesses in which you sit around and wait for customers to call you. A plumber is a great example, but there are much more sophisticated businesses that have the same problem. They can invest in marketing that drives more calls, but why do that when you can invest online and track every step of the conversion/sales process? Because people who pick up the phone are often much better leads than people who inquire online. That’s why Invoca is bringing online analytics to phone calls. They are based in Santa Barbara, CA, and their “inbound call marketing tools empower you to generate better leads, higher conversions, smarter spends and greater revenue.”
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The health and wellness industry is massive, and it just seems to keep growing. There are a lot of really smart business people who are playing a big part in the growth, but there are also a ton of people in the industry who would rather not concern themselves with businessy stuff. The kind of people who open yoga studios, salons, and spas usually aren’t in it for the money–they just want to make a living pursuing their passions. Unfortunately, running a business usually requires… running a business. MINDBODY is a San Luis Obispo, CA based company that believes that “small business owners deserve the time to do what they love.” Pursuing that belief has made them “the largest cloud-based software provider in the health, wellness and beauty industries.”
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Job searching comes with a lot of repetitive tasks. Imagine if you had the technical skills to automate the most annoying ones. You could focus on doing stuff that makes you more employable instead of wasting hours on mindless repetition. There are certainly some smart engineering types who build their own systems to automate their lives, but what about the rest of us? We can use IFTTT (If This Then That). They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that lets you “put the Internet to work for you.” The service plugs in to all of your favorite sites, so it’s not like you’re starting a new workflow from scratch.
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At this time last year, Amy and I were in the thick of wedding planning. Part of me is relieved that it’s in the past (because the wedding was awesome), but I also kind of miss it. We were lucky to have an amazing wedding planner who proposed great ideas and narrowed down the early decisions for us to make them manageable. Before we got to that point, though, we had to do our “homework.” That meant looking through all kinds of books and magazines to mark what we liked and what we didn’t like. It was a bit old fashioned, but it worked. Loverly is a New York, NY based company that brings that process online. It’s “a one-stop-shop for wedding planning where brides and grooms find ideas, people to hire and things to buy.”
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Now that we’re all walking around with HD video cameras in our pockets, it’s hard not to amass a huge collections of digital media. We might share some of the highlights on our favorite social media sites, but most of it just sits idle and waits for us to take another look when we’re stuck in a place with no cell service and no Wi-Fi. We can do more with our media, and that’s what Animoto is all about. They’re a New York, NY based company that helps regular people make and share extraordinary videos of anything imaginable.
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Remember when the only way to interact with a brand was to call the 1-800 number on the side of their packaging? If you complained they might send you some free product or a coupon, but it would probably take 8-72 weeks to arrive. Technology is bringing brands and their audiences closer and closer together. This is generally a good thing, but only if the brands do it right. Mass Relevance aims “to inspire brands to involve their audience.” The Austin, TX based company does this by offering a platform and products that “help your brand become an integrated part of your customers’ lives, anywhere they are.”
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I pretty much shut down if I have to deal with paper documents. Luckily, in my line of business, almost everything happens online. While at one time I thought it might be a good idea for me to pursue law as a career option, I’m really glad I didn’t. Dealing with all of those documents–even if they were digitized–would drive me nuts. The good news for lawyers that kCura makes things a little more manageable. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that “develops web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.” The software is called Relativity, and it’s a web-based app that makes managing evidence way easier.
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Until today I’d never looked up the meaning of my last name. I always knew that Franzen was Swedish because my dad’s dad’s parents were both Swedes, but I never knew that it actually means French man. Other than owning a French breed of dog, parlaying a tiny bit of Français, and enjoying French food, I haven’t really lived up to the name. Todd Snyder has lived up to his surname. It means “one who makes outer garments” in Dutch. His eponymous Todd Snyder brand is a New York, NY based men’s fashion line that is inspired “by Savile Row craftsmanship, military tailoring, and a distinct New York sensibility.” I’ll guess that Todd Snyder’s Iowa roots have also had an influence on the company.
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There’s no doubt that health and fitness are the most popular categories for New Year’s resolutions, but many people also want to improve themselves in the areas of education, finance, and careers. It seems easy at first–if you make better decisions, you’ll be better–but good decision making can be really hard. Tree.com is a company that aims to be the place “where good decisions start.” The Charlotte, NC based company operates a portfolio of brands and businesses that can help you whether you’re “buying or selling a home, financing a new car, sending a child to college or shopping around for a new credit card.”
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I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to experience the coldest weather of my life last night, but it’s pretty good to be “stranded” on a tropical island. Since I work from home, I used to get through cold snaps by not leaving the house for extended periods of time. Now that I have a dog and no yard, that would be… messy. Shockingly, if you were more and better clothing, you can stay pretty warm in even the coldest temperatures. Less shockingly, quite a few of the companies that make awesome cold weather gear are based in Canada. We don’t usually cover opportunities outside the U.S., but we’re making an exception for Arc’teryx. They are based in Vancouver, BC, and they merge their “unrivaled designs with the best quality, highest performing materials and assemble them in the most innovative and most durable manner for the intended use.” In other words, they make high performance for extreme situations–whether it’s climbing a mountain or walking your dog on the coldest day of your life.
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There are a lot of advertising and marketing agencies out there. Some are huge and part of even huger conglomerates, and others are small and independent. They all have different strengths, weaknesses, and specialities, but in the end they all share a common goal: to drive attention towards brands with the hope of getting them to take a specific action (usually buying something). Hiebing is on the smaller side. They are a Madison, WI based integrated marketing and advertising agency “with a keen focus on the target market and the cartwheeling curiosity of a bright-eyed first grader.” Hiebing has been around for 30 years, is employee owned (~50 employees), and does about $50 million in billings annually.
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Happy 2014! While New Year’s resolutions are probably one of the worst ways to make a positive change in your life, people continue to set themselves up for failure by assuming that a change of calendar will give them all of the motivation that they need to accomplish a goal. The first few weeks are pretty easy, but how do you keep it up when the new year isn’t all that new anymore? You need other sources of motivation. If your resolutions are fitness based Fitocracy might be the answer. They’re a New York, NY based company that aims “to make fitness a more fun, more addictive experience.” They do this with the power of social networks and gamification.
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My New Year’s Eve has been the same for the past 9 years. I’ve never celebrated in a big city, but from what I hear, it’s awesome… until you realize it’s 2 AM, 12 degrees, and you’re a long way from your nice warm bed. You made the smart decision to leave your car at home, but now what? Everybody in the city is trying to get home at the same time, and every cab that drives seems to be full. You’ll probably die of hypothermia before you can hail a cab, so you might as well use an app to find a ride. Uber can get you a black car or a cab, but their “surge pricing” will make it hurt. If there’s a time to try Lyft, it’s tonight (though Lyft has its own surge pricing called “Prime Time Tips”). They are a San Francisco, CA based company that offers “on-demand ridesharing” in nearly 20 cities across the country. They call it “your friend with a car.”
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Merry Christmas Eve! Tonight my family will go to the candlelight service at the church I grew up in. It’s the only church that has ever felt like home to me. I’m not exactly sure how my parents started going there, but I’ll guess that it had something to do with the fact that it was about 150 yards from our house. Finding a great place of worship isn’t always so easy. I church-hopped in college, and never really found one that felt right for me. FaithStreet might have helped. Whether you’re looking for a local Christmas Eve service or a place to worship for the rest of your life, the New York, NY based company can help you find the right faith community. The founders asked, “Why is it so hard to find a church?” And instead of admitting defeat, they decided to do something about it.
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I got my wife an Airport Express for Christmas. I’m not the typical male idiot portrayed on many American sitcoms–it was a good gift idea. The whole point was that I could hook up our wireless network to the fifteen-year-old wired speaker system that came with our apartment. The speakers were working when I started (I had the radio playing in all of the rooms), but after three hours of frustration, I ended up with the music from my iPhone playing in one room, and no music whatsoever in any of the other rooms. I’m going to have to find a way to fix this, and I think Sonos might be the answer. They are a Santa Barbara, CA and Cambridge, MA based company that set out in 2002 “to reinvent home audio for the digital age.” Their products certainly look a lot better than the circa 1997 sound system that my landlord left behind.
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Personalized shopping used to mean that you were buying something with a monogram, but today that word is being used more and more often to mean buying items that are recommended specifically for you. I love Amazon’s recommendations engine, but I think that it could be a lot better (and I’d like to see other merchants adopt similar technology). Lela must be paying attention. They’re a New York, NY based company with a mission “to improve consumers’ online experience by helping businesses deliver a new level of personalized engagement.” From what I can tell, Lela is using their technology on their own property (Lela.com) while also offering it to other publishers and merchants.
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Despite moving in 5 months ago, I still haven’t put up most of the framed pictures and art that we have in our apartment. It’s a ridiculously easy task, but for some reason it’s always the last thing that I want to do. In other words, don’t give us art for Christmas! However, if you have friends or family who know exactly where to put every new piece on their walls, then you may want to buy them a gift from Art.com. The company is based in Emeryville, CA, and it “is a leading authority in wall décor and the world’s largest online retailer of posters, prints, and framed art.” Every single person has his or her own taste in art, and Art.com allows each of them to find the kinds of pieces that appeal to them.
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Yesterday I received close to ten packages. It’s that time of year! I can barely look out the window without seeing a UPS, FedEx, or USPS truck on my street. The only problem is that it’s getting to the point where Amazon is the only company I trust to still ship me stuff on time. So many online merchants have terrible shipping experiences, and there’s no way I’ll trust them to get me what I ordered when they say they will. Hopefully that will soon change with the help of EasyPost. They’re a San Francisco, CA based startup that “is changing the way shipping works and helping a lot of people” at the same time. By “tying together disparate data sources and APIs” they’ve been able to create “a scalable shipping API for developers everywhere.”
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When Amy and I were looking for a new place, we had a lot of trouble sifting through real estate listings. Between the junk, spam, and properties that were of no interest to us, it was really hard to zero in on the kind of places that appealed to us. Working with a real estate agent helped us narrow things down, but the software that they used to show us listings was pretty terrible. One trick that I figured out for searching mainstream sites like Zillow and Redfin was to use very specific, high-end keywords (I bet you could adapt this to job searching). It’s almost as if the people who built RealScout had my exact experience. They’re a Sunnyvale, CA based company that “leverages over 500 datapoints to make home search more personal for clients and more efficient for Realtors.” By focusing on the little things, they help people look at the right kind of properties.
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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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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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