Consuming content has never been easier. I used to travel with a backpack full of books and magazines. Now it’s all on my iPad (though my laptop, Kindle, and phone are also useful–and the combined weight of all is still less than a lot of books). For most of us the problem is organizing and prioritizing the content that we actually want to consume. I still haven’t found a way to do this that works for me, but I know a lot of people use Flipboard. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that offers a “single place to discover, collect and share the news you care about.” Their app is definitely socially powered, but it’s done in a way that filters out a lot of the noise that might show up on your Facebook feed for example.
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You can buy clothes in a lot of places. Where you buy typically depends on whether you’re looking for a good price, convenience, or your favorite brands. Then you have to decide whether you’d rather shop online or in person. If you’re brand focused and like shopping online, you may want to check out REVOLVE. The company is based in Cerritos, CA and is the “virtual home for an unrivaled collection of the world’s most coveted brands.” REVOLVE offers both men’s and women’s clothing, though the focus definitely seems to be on women’s lines.
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Raise your hand if you’ve come to the realization that college didn’t prepare you for the job market. I see a lot of hands. I’m not knocking college, but the skills that I’ve developed from starting a business are way more marketable than the ones that I developed in the classroom. So what do you do if you realize that you don’t have what employers want (or you want to start your own business)? You can hustle and develop the skills on your own, or you can speed up the process by enrolling at General Assembly. They are a New York, NY based company that is “creating a global community of individuals empowered to pursue work they love, by offering full-time immersive programs, long-form courses, and classes and workshops on the most relevant skills of the 21st century.”
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Do any of you remember Flip cameras? They were all the rage for a few years, and then they got completely crushed by smartphones. Who would buy a standalone consumer level point and shoot or video camera when you already have something that offers comparable quality in your pocket? The only good reason that I can think of is that you’re worried you might destroy your phone. That’s where GoPro came in. They’re a San Mateo, CA based company that has built a huge business by offering “the world’s most versatile camera.” While other manufacturers were killing each other with battles over megapixels and size, GoPro was focusing on a niche market of users who wanted to be able to take their cameras on adventures. It turned out that it was a really big niche.
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I’ve always been an animal lover, but it’s turned up a few notches since Garçon came into my life. It’s amazing how much happiness a pet can bring to people, and it’s amazing what a good home can do for a pet. Unfortunately, 3-4 million animals are euthanized every year in the U.S. Found Animals is a Los Angeles, CA based nonprofit that is dedicated to changing this. The organization’s goal is to “find the big ideas that advance the safety of animals in our homes, our shelters, and everywhere in between.”
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One day I hope to have a business that makes real products. There’s something extremely alluring about designing and selling something tangible. Even though it may seem like every new company is operating entirely online, there actually has never been a better time to build physical products. Not only is it easier than ever to connect with manufacturers, but prototyping has been revolutionized with 3D printing. There’s still a barrier to entry in that it’s expensive and time consuming to get into 3D printing, and that’s why you can go to a studio like FATHOM in Oakland, CA which uses its “expertise in 3D printing and additive manufacturing to help customers innovate faster and more efficiently.”
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I don’t go to the theater very often, but when I do I usually enjoy it. There’s something pretty cool about seeing someone become a completely different character right before your eyes. As we spend more and more time looking at screens of all sizes, it’s important to remember our “theatrical traditions.” That’s what American Conservatory Theater is all about. They are a San Francisco, CA based non-profit that “embraces its responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent the rich theatrical traditions that are our collective legacy, while exploring new artistic forms and new communities.”
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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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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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Last week we talked about brand experiences. They can happen at any scale, but typically bigger brands want to create bigger experiences. The battle for mindshare is only getting fiercer, and that means companies are going all out to get people to pay attention to them. TV, radio, and online are great channels, but it’s hard to beat in person. That’s exactly what Sparks specializes in. They are a Philadelphia, PA based agency that “creates dyanmic brand experiences anywhere in the world a customer engages with your brand.” They’re operating at the highest level and working with the biggest brands–names like Google, LG, the New York Times, Motorola, Dropbox, and HP.
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Last year I got married at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I’ve never been much of a plant person, but it was truly a perfect setting. I’m just amazed that they can grow such a diverse array of beautiful plants in this climate–especially with the winter we’re having this year. If I was opening such a garden, I’d want to do so in a more moderate climate like San Francisco’s. John McLaren was the landscape gardener who was Golden Gate Park’s superintendent for 56 years. He picked a place for a future botanical garden that had “a variety of soil and exposure, sloping, dry and sunny hillsides, sheltered spots and rich, low or marshy land.” The San Francisco Botanical Garden finally got the necessary funding in 1926, and in 1954 the Strybing Arboretum Society was founded to support the garden and its programs. Today the organization is known as the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, and it supports “55 acres of both landscaped gardens and open spaces, showcasing over 8,000 different kinds of plants from around the world.”
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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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When I think about my personal impact on the environment, I think about driving, flying, heating my home, what I eat, and other similar things. Clothing doesn’t typically come to mind, but the production and transportation of clothing can have significant negative impacts on the environment. Reformation is trying to reduce the impact. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based “environmentally sustainable fashion brand that repurposes vintage and surplus
materials to create a chic, limited edition collection.” The way that they operate is completely different from most other fashion brands, but it’s working.
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On my last day of vacation I got blasted in the face with a volleyball. It didn’t break my sunglasses, but it really hurt. My nose is still sore, but it only left a tiny red mark across the bridge of my nose. I wouldn’t have minded a black eye, but I know some people care a bit more about how their faces look. They’re more likely than I am to purchase products from Benefit Cosmetics, a company that got its start when twin sisters moved to San Francisco, CA and opened a beauty boutique. One of their first products, Benetint, was developed to help an exotic dancer “enhance her nipples.” That’s certainly one of the more interesting stories I’ve heard about how a company got its start.
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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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Yesterday I was telling you about all of the wildlife that I’ve seen during my vacation in Aruba. While there have many interesting fish, birds, and reptiles near the beach, I haven’t seen any marine mammals. Luckily, I have a few more days to watch for dolphins and whales since United canceled my flight and might have left me “stuck” here until Wednesday, but I doubt I’ll see any because they’re not very common here. Marine mammals are far more common in places like California’s Bay Area. That is why The Marine Mammal Center is located in Sausalito, CA. They are a non-profit “veterinary research hospital and educational center dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of ill and injured marine mammals – primarily elephant seals, harbor seals, and California sea lions.” They’ve been at in for nearly 40 years and have rescued or treated close to 20,000 animals.
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Job seekers see way more terrible stock photos than the average person. Whether you’re on a corporate careers site or a career advice blog, you’ve probably seen way too many images of perfectly “diverse” groups of people in ugly suits shaking hands and looking all business-like. I have no idea why people think it’s a good idea to use these photographs, but they do. Real brands need real photographs for their marketing materials, and that requires hiring professionals like Industrial Color. They are a Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, and Miami, FL based company that offers “digital still and video capture, post-production, color and video editing services, high-speed file transfer, online image management, archive and file storage.” It’s everything that big-time clients need to get the perfect image or video for delivering a specific message.
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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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Weather matters. We make all kinds of decisions based on what’s happening outside, and they often affect how we spend money. I’m in Aruba right now, so it’s pretty much guaranteed to be mid 80s, partly cloudy, and windy. My New Year’s plans are set, but if I was back in Chicago, the 15-degree high might keep me from doing something that I’d do if it was 20 degrees warmer. Skymosity realizes this, which is why the San Rafael, CA based company has developed a weather marketing platform that “transforms big weather data into actionable wins for marketers.” While many marketers use seasonal weather changes as part of their campaigns, very few are reacting to the weather as it happens.
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There’s no question that social media is important for businesses of all kinds, but it’s a relatively new channel that offers an uncertain return on investment. Most of my investment in social media marketing has been a flop, but I know that plenty of other brands have had major success. Companies that are investing in social need to do so wisely, and that often means getting professional help. Optimal “is the leading social advertising and analytics platform, with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, Chicago, and London.” They started in 2008 when social really began to take off, and since then “have managed and optimized over 100 billion impressions for advertisers and agencies.”
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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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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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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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I believe that entrepreneurship is the natural human state; however, today most people choose the security of a more stable work situation. Our society needs more entrepreneurs, but it’s hard to take such a big risk without circumstances that make it a less risky proposition. Since we can’t give everybody rich parents, we need to provide people with information and resources that will increase the likelihood of success in entrepreneurial endeavors. This is what Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center does. They are a San Francisco, CA based non-profit “small business development organization dedicated to helping women and men who traditionally lack access to resources and information to achieve financial self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship.” Every year they help more than 1,500 low-moderate income people in the Bay Area “launch and grow businesses.”
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