Just about three years ago I was working on writing a book (never finished, and I’m glad that I didn’t). I wasn’t making much progress, so I decided that I needed a change of location. I went to some random coffee shop, checked in on Foursquare, and somehow stumbled upon a group of people who were “coworking.” The group is called Jelly Chicago, and I’ve been getting out of the house and coworking with them once a week ever since. It’s a social media success story, as is Loudpixel, a company started by two people I met at Jelly. Loudpixel is a Lansing, MI based (they moved there a couple years ago) “digital consultancy that works with companies and brands to deliver unbiased social media monitoring, measurement and insights research.”
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I’m really into fly fishing. So beyond going fishing as often as I can, I like to keep up with what’s going on in the industry. One of the latest trends is that a lot of the manufacturers are starting to sell direct to consumer over the Internet. The independent retailers who have helped these brands grow are not happy. Their toes are getting stepped on big time. This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to the fly fishing industry–it’s happening all over the place. So how does a branded manufacturer grow its business through e-commerce without losing the trust of its retailers? Shopatron is the answer. They’re a San Luis Obispo, CA based company that offers a “retail-integrated eCommerce solution for branded manufacturers, distributors and multi-channel retailers.” What does that mean? The manufacturer still sells their products online, but fulfillment is done by the retailers who can ship the product or offer it for in-store pickup.
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Before I discovered Bonobos, I used to actually buy clothes in retail stores. I guess you could say my style was preppy (and probably still is) considering the fact that I haven’t owned a pair of jeans since 7th grade. Back when I was still buying clothes in stores, J. Crew was the definition of preppy (barring Brooks Brothers of course), so that’s where I shopped. They seem to be making their image more “hipster” these days, but I’ll guess that’s based more on a change in fashion than a change in their target demographics. Anyway, J. Crew is a New York, NY based company that started with a catalog in 1983 and opened their first store in 1989. They’ve grown into an amazingly recognizable brand, and recently they’ve started growing another brand called Madewell.
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It used to be that brands communicated, and you listened. There was always the 1-800 number on the back of the product for you to share your thoughts, but I’ll bet that .1% of consumer made 99.9% of those calls. Today communications is like one of those place where six highways come together and people are merging all over the place. Brands can no longer control the conversation–they can only hope to guide and influence it. WCG is a San Francisco, CA based “independent strategic communications firm” that is embracing “the positive future of communications.” The company also has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Austin, Los Angeles and London, and they specialize in “branding, design, digital, interactive, social media, traditional marketing, corporate and product public relations, media relations, investor and advocacy relations, clinical trial recruitment, location based marketing, and grassroots direct-to-patient consumer campaigns.”
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Over the course of your life there will be a few financial decisions that will have an oversized impact on your personal wealth. Not buying coffee from Starbucks or turning the thermostat down two degrees will have a small fraction of the impact. You absolutely have to get the big decisions right. But how do you know what the right decisions are? SmartAsset is a New York, NY based company that provides “all the information and analysis you need to make the best possible financial decisions.” In my opinion, they’re not quite there yet, as they’re still in beta. But they have started with home buying which is definitely a high impact decision.
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I’m dying for the sixth season of Mad Men to start. There’s no date set yet, but the season should premiere in about three months. One thing that I find funny about the show is that they make it look like everything that happened in advertising in the 50s and 60s happened in New York City. Oddly enough, the Don Draper character is partially based on a guy named Draper Daniels, who was “the creative head of the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, IL.” Leo Burnett was a huge name then (the company was founded in 1935, and it still is). Their client list is about as high end as you’ll ever see with names like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Altria (those first three kind of scare me from a health/social responsibility standpoint, but they’re still impressive names) General Motors, Kellogg’s, Hallmark, Nintendo, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, and Fiat.
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A few months ago my cleaning lady brought a printed out picture with her to work. It was a pair of headphones that her grandchild in Poland wanted for Christmas. She explained to me in broken English that the headphones were very expensive in Poland and much cheaper here. She wanted to know where to buy them. When I told her that I could order them on Amazon for what would amount to nearly four house cleanings for her, she decided that her grandchild would have to appreciate a less expensive gift. In case it isn’t obvious, the headphones on the print out were from Beats by Dr. Dre, a Santa Monica, CA based company that “provides a premium sound experience at every touch point of the consumer’s life.” In only six years Dr. Dre has built an iconic brand (one that Polish kids tell their grandmothers in America about) in a market where most people used to use whatever came free with their CD or MP3 players. (I’m still perfectly happy with my Apple earbuds.)
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I buy almost all of my electronics directly from Apple or on Amazon. They have pretty much everything that I ever need, but there’s plenty of stuff that they don’t carry. Whether you’re looking for computer parts, digital cameras, TVs, or a display, Newegg probably has it. They’re a City of Industry, CA based “e-retailer committed to becoming the most loved and trusted marketplace on the web by offering superior shopping experience, rapid delivery, and stellar customer service.” Newegg is way too big to call a niche player, but they certainly cater to the geekier crowd. If you want to build your own computer, they’re the place to buy components. Not only do they have a huge selection of products, but they’ve also built a community of reviewers who can provide in-depth information on their experiences with products they’ve purchased.
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Merry Christmas! I’ve already opened my presents, as I’m about to get on a flight to somewhere warm. In past years I’ve tied in the Christmas theme by writing about employers like NORAD (they track Santa), WowWee (toys), JAKKS Pacific (toys), Caribou Coffee (reindeer), Casey Trees (Christmas trees), Elf on the Shelf (Santa’s little helpers), The Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas (not really an employer), Claxton Fruit Cake (the ultimate regfitable gift), National Christmas Tree Association (Christmas trees again), and Toys for Tots (presents). Somehow over the past 5 Christmases I’ve overlooked Christmas Tree Shops. They’re a group of retail stores that are all Christmas, all year, and always at a discount. They say they’re based out of Yarmouth Port, MA, but all of their jobs appear to be in Union, NJ. Christmas Tree Shops is actually owned by Bed Bath and Beyond, but they seem to operate at least somewhat independently. The company’s website is kind of sparse, but you can learn everything you need to know on their Careers page. They even appear to offer internships.
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I’ve you’ve ever played on a team that watches game film, you know that what you think you did, what your coach thinks you did, and what you actually did are often three completely different things. The film can’t lie, but absorbing the facts of the film without letting your biases creep in is extremely difficult. If only there were a way to turn game footage into stats. Krossover does that and a lot more. They’re a New York, NY based company that is aiming to “disrupt the current sports content, analytics and technology landscape.” Their platform allows coaches to upload raw video and “get back searchable film, box scores, visualizations, and more.”
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I hear the word “crowdsourcing” come up a lot, but it’s usually by people who don’t really know exactly what it means or how to do it. They’ll often say things like “Oh, we’ll just crowdsource it.” Ok, you do that! I have things that I’d love to crowdsource, but I can’t figure out how to manage such a project without making it more work than just doing the task myself. Maybe CrowdFlower is the answer. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that allows you to “instantly hire millions of people to collect, filter, and enhance your data.” We’re at a point where technology can do a lot of heavy lifting, but sometimes a human of average intelligence is far better at solving a problem than even the most powerful computer.
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While I built this site to help college students internships at interesting companies, I’ve heard from a few people who use it very differently. One of the most surprising uses was from someone in Corporate Development at a pretty big company–she was using the daily e-mails to source potential acquisitions (though I don’t think any have actually happened). I think that’s pretty cool, but there are certainly better places to find deals. AxialMarket is one of them. They’re a New York, NY based company that “is revolutionizing the capital formation process for private companies.” In other words, they’ve built a marketplace where private companies can find partners for “M&A, capital raises, and debt financings.”
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One of the hardest parts about starting a business is finding product-market fit (in other words developing a product or service that customers will pay for). It’s usually a big mistake to invest in a product without having validated the market. This is true whether you’re a first time entrepreneur or one of the biggest companies in the world. Affinnova typically works with the latter. They’re a Waltham, MA based “high-growth software and services company that enables innovative organizations to drive better ideas to market faster.” Affinnova has developed a technology platform that helps their clients do everything from generate new concepts to testing them with potential customers. This isn’t your typical market research company–Affinnova’s solutions are based on an algorithm that “mimics evolutionary principles to create a survival-of-the-fittest vetting process.”
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Maybe I’m making this up, but when I was in middle school, I’m pretty sure that Sam Goody had a list on one of their walls with all of the new CDs that were coming out soon. That list, recommendations from friends, listening to the radio, and watching MTV were how I discovered new music. It worked, but it was risky. Sometimes you’d end up buying an absolutely terrible CD like Pras’ Ghetto Supastar, the album not the song. Today it’s completely different. You can listen before you buy (or keep listening and never buy), and you can get recommendations based on real data. Whether you’re using Spotify, Vevo, MTV, or iheartradio to find or consume music, you’re actually benefiting from The Echo Nest and their big data approach to music. They’re a Somerville, MA based company, and they “provide the largest repository of dynamic music data in the world – over a trillion data points on over 30 million songs — to help application developers build smarter music apps.”
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I used to get excited about Black Friday, but never to the point that I’d actually join the crowds at the retail stores. I’d much rather search for deals online (though I barely do that anymore). While Cyber Monday used to be when e-commerce sites slashed their prices, it now seems that most of them have jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon. The nice thing about shopping online is that it’s really easy to see how good of a deal you’re actually getting. Shopzilla is a Los Angeles, CA based company that helps online shoppers do exactly that. They run a number of destination websites that “help shoppers shop and sellers sell.” Their network of sites reaches more than 40 million shoppers every month and helps them learn about more than 100 million products from thousands of retailers.
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I’ve written profiles of nearly 500 non-profit organizations with internships. I’ve seen all kinds of organizations, but I always find it hard to evaluate how effective they are. Data isn’t nearly as prevalent in the non-profit world as it is in business (though that’s changing), so it’s hard to get a sense of which organizations are doing the most with their dollars. Luckily, there’s an independent third party that evaluates non-profits called Charity Navigator. They’re based in Glen Rock, NJ, and you’re probably familiar with them if you’ve ever spent much time on non-profits’ websites. Charity Navigator seems to have become the gold standard for determining which charities are most suitable to donate to.
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I finally had to turn my heat on. I made it through October, but November got me. I like being comfortable, so I don’t worry about keeping the thermostat at 62 or buying energy efficient bulbs. When you don’t spend all that much on energy, it’s not worth putting a lot of effort into reducing your energy consumption. But for large companies and institutions, energy costs can become a huge expense–and that’s when investing in energy efficiency really becomes worthwhile. EnerNOC is a Boston, MA based company that wants “to make energy management as integral as accounting to the operation of every organization.” A few readers have landed jobs at EnerNOC recently, so I thought it would be worth a looking at a company that helps its clients “use energy more intelligently, pay less for it, and generate cash flow that benefits the bottom line through [a] complete suite of technology-enabled energy management solutions.”
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Two competing marketing campaigns that combined for more a billion dollars in ad spend just came to an end (and the result was maintenance of the status quo). Some would say that any money spent on advertising is wasted, but as someone who makes a living off of advertising, I disagree strongly. I’ll take a wager that the folks at Direct Agents are on my side. Direct Agents is a New York, NY based “digital marketing agency specializing in performance-based digital solutions including lead generation, email marketing, search engine marketing and Facebook advertising.” They must be doing a good job, as they’ve more than doubled their revenue since 2007 (to $34.3 million).
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A lot of people bounce their business or product ideas off of me. It’s fun, but it can also be frustrating because most people can’t see the obvious holes in their thinking. The one thing that I push everybody to do is to validate their ideas. That means talking to customers and getting them to either tell you what they think or, preferably, to actually commit to buying your product. Validation isn’t an easy process whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a billion dollar brand. Finding potential customers and getting them to give honest feedback is almost never easy. Qualvu is a Lakewood, CO based company that solves this problem (I found out about them from a reader who landed a job with them). They connect “you with your truth, anywhere, at any time, through the power of web and mobile video.” In other words, they’ve developed an online platform that makes the focus group way more flexible, powerful, and affordable.
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I hear from a lot of you that you want a career that makes the world a better place, but I know that some of you just want to make money (even if you’re afraid to admit it). If one were to design a business to generate profits as efficiently as possible, it would probably look a lot like a proprietary trading firm. A prop firm is one that doesn’t have any outside investors, so it can focus entirely on generating profits for itself without the worry that investors might want to pull their money out. Belvedere Trading is one of these firms (others that we’ve featured include Wolverine Trading and Jump Trading). They’re based in Chicago, IL, and they’ve been specializing “in equity index and commodity derivatives” since 2002. Basically, they find inefficiencies in the market, and profit from them through superior strategy and technology.
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I have about six lightbulbs out in my house that are in impossible to reach places. If one more goes out, I’m going to have to break out the ladder and risk my life for the sake of lighting. Since I don’t own the place, I’m probably not going to invest in a more expensive energy-efficent bulb that takes years to pay itself off. But if I did own a place, that would probably be the best decision, which is why TCP is worth taking a look at it–energy efficient lightning is a huge growth industry. The Aurora, OH based company (their world headquarters is in Cham, Switzerland) calls itself “the home of lighting innovation.” They “offer one of the largest selections of ENERGY STAR-approved products” and “distribute them throughout North America and abroad.”
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I am not a coffee drinker–never have been and never will be. I can’t even stand the smell of it, so it’s hard for me to comprehend how so many people want to start their mornings off with it. I’m either wrong or it’s the best marketing success in the world, but coffee is a massive industry–somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion annually just in the U.S. One of the more interesting success stories in the business is Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. They’re a Waterbury, VT based company that was founded in 1981 as a small coffee shop. Instead of sticking with that model and following the Starbucks path, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters went another direction. They decided to focus on helping other people make good coffee.
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One trend that I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of companies popping up that look like digital marketing agencies, but they don’t take on clients. Instead of building out Sales and Account Management teams, these companies focus on building income generating products for themselves. That’s exactly what Restoration Media does. They’re a Tustin, CA based company with a team of “marketers, designers, developers, and project managers” that “turn great ideas into successful brands.” The company made the Inc. 5000 this year with 63% three-year growth to $4 million in revenue. Those numbers aren’t as eye popping as some of the other companies that we featured from the list, but they’re still impressive.
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I constantly get asked where I find all of the companies that I write about. The short answer is everywhere. But one of my favorite sources is you. You may be running short on ideas right now (that’s why you signed up for my e-mails), but things will change. You’ll get an internship, and hopefully you’ll report back where. That’s what one reader did, which is why I know about Ampush. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that helps “advertisers leverage the scale and precision of the Facebook media platform to develop and engage their customer graph.” Facebook’s advertising options are amazingly powerful, but only if you know how to use them. I’ve toyed with buying ads, and it has never been ROI positive for me. Ampush combines knowhow with technology to helps make sure that their investment in Facebook advertising is worthwhile.
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One mistake that most college students make is that they focus too much on sexy industries and companies during their internship search. There’s no doubt that following your interests can lead to really good things, but there are so many “boring” industries and businesses that can provide amazing learning opportunities while being surprisingly interesting. Advantage Business Media certainly falls into this category. They’re a Rockaway, NJ based “digital business-to-business information company” that “has successfully transitioned itself from a print-centric publishing company into digital-centric media organization.” B2B is a space that many young people are barely aware of, but it’s absolutely massive.
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At this time last year I was still playing beach volleyball. This year I’ve already worn gloves. There’s no doubt about it–it’s soup weather. While I’m not really a soup guy, I’m sure a lot of you are excited about this development. It’s nearly impossible to think about soup without thinking about Campbell’s. They have one of the most recognizable brands in the world, but somewhat surprisingly the Campbell Soup Company brand goes well beyond soup. The Camden, NJ based company call itself “the world’s leading maker and marketer of soup,” but they also own brands like Prego, Pace, Pepperidge Farms, Swanson, and V8. In addition to those, they have some major European and Asia Pacific brands. When you add them all up, you get a company that generates over $7 billion in annual revenue.
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I have a lot of shoes for a guy, but nearly every pair has a unique, functional purpose. I may double up in a few key areas, but I only look to buy new shoes when I have a specific need. I’m not one of those people who is constantly looking for an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes, but I know that there are lot of those types out there–and they tend to be female. ShoeDazzle is a Santa Monica, CA based company that was built to feed the addiction without draining your pocketbook. ShoeDazzle’s “Chief Fashion Stylist” is Kim Kardashian, which is great because the kind of person who dots her i’s with hearts is the kind of person you want helping you pick out shoes.
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The walk from my first apartment in Chicago to my gym used to take me by an office building that had a handful of below ground offices with windows at street level. Nearly every time I walked by, I would see the same guy sitting at his desk playing Solitaire on his computer. I eventually developed a sad story in my head about this guy’s life–his wife left him, he hates his job but has nowhere to go but his office, and Solitaire is his only joy in life. I’m sure it was wildly inaccurate, but I’ll never know. The office is now unoccupied, and my walk to the gym doesn’t go by there anymore anyway. But let’s be honest, everybody can enjoy a little mindless gaming. It’s not something that we’d want to do in full view of everyone else like this guy, but it’s a great way to kill some time or take a break. Arkadium is a New York, NY based company that develops “casual, mobile, social, and Windows 8 games.” If only the guy knew about all of his options beyond Windows Solitaire.
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Google is an absolutely amazing company. They’re working on everything from information organization to e-mail to self-driving cars, but from a financial standpoint they’re kind of a one trick pony. 96% of their revenue comes from advertising, and the majority of that comes from search advertising. It’s not really a problem–it just shows what an amazingly dominant business model search advertising is. Unfortunately for the rest of the market, Google owns most of the world’s search advertising inventory. Yahoo! comes in at a distant second. And then there’s adMarketplace, a New York, NY based company that “delivers data-driven performance to the Internet’s leading marketers through the only search syndication platform that adjusts bids by both keyword and traffic source.”
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Search Engine Optimization is one of the most valuable things that I’ve learned from running One Day One Job. Search (namely Google) is how people find stuff, and what they find often determines where they spend money. There are very few businesses these days that can afford to completely ignore SEO. And that’s why the Inc. 500 is littered with fast-growing SEO companies. The problem is that a lot of the companies out there seem sketchy at best. I can’t tell you to consider working at a company that does SEO when I can see from their site that they have no idea what they’re doing (or even worse that what they do could be harmful). In SEO and online marketing, quality matters. That’s why I was excited to come across some opportunities at BlueGlass in Tampa, FL. They’re aiming to “change the way companies market themselves online with extraordinary strategies, service and software powered by the best minds in digital marketing,” and I have no doubt that they’ll do it.
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