Whenever I buy electronics, outdoors gear, or kitchen equipment, I do a ton of research. I want to ensure that I am buying the best that I can afford. It’s easy to spend hours on this stuff if you’re not careful. While that can be a form of entertainment for some people, it’s a lot of time to spend on something that might only cost a few hundred bucks. What if you had someone to read all of the reviews and even test the products for you? That’s what The Wirecutter does. It’s “a list of the best electronics and gadgetry, each pick chosen mindfully and in accordance with many hours of research, interviews with the world’s most knowledgeable experts and testing, all backing up smart opinion.” While lots of other sites are constantly churning out new content to get more eyeballs, The Wirecutter just wants to give you all of the facts that you need to make the best purchasing decision.
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I’m an outdoorsy guy who is stuck in a city that is at least a couple hours away from most of the things that I want to do. As a result I spend a lot of time visiting what my wife calls “fishing websites” (that’s exactly what they are). One upstart that caters to guys like me is Huckberry. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that “is like your favorite store, your grandpa’s favorite store, and your favorite magazine all rolled into one.” It’s pretty much the intersection of yuppie and outdoorsy with a tiny bit of hipster here and there. It’s for “dudes in the middle”–the kind of guys who go camping one weekend and to a black tie wedding the next weekend.
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While we often think that willpower is the only thing holding us back from a healthy lifestyle, that’s not really true. Most of us have no idea what healthy really means, and we’re also terrible at estimating the health impact of our actions. That “three mile run” that you took might have only been 1.7 miles, and the 650 calorie dinner might have been more like 1,100 calories. How can we get better at measuring the impact of our daily decisions? Technology! That’s why companies like Noom are getting a lot of attention. Noom is based in New York, NY, and they an NYC based company that makes healthy living easy by using “cutting-edge technology to accurately monitor your progress and provide expert advice and analysis to keep you on track.”
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I’m not sure if travel is any more popular today than it used to be, but it sure seems like it from looking at what my Facebook friends are up to. Travel is a massive industry because it’s both a leisure activity and a business activity, and that also makes it a very complex industry. People who work in travel need to keep up with the latest news and trends, so they often turn to Northstar Travel Media. They’re a Secaucus, NJ based “business information and marketing solutions provider to the $300 billion U.S. travel, tourism and meetings industries.” It started in 1939 with Hotel & Travel Index, and today Northstar Travel Media reaches more than 1.7 million monthly unique visitors online and 1.1 million people through subscriptions.
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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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New York City is the ultimate place to go shopping, but it can be extremely intimidating. Not only is hard to know where to go to find what you want (or get a deal), but a lot of the higher end stores can have attitude. If you want to take shopping in NYC seriously, you need professional help. That’s what Fashion Update offers. They’re a New York, NY based company that offers tours that will help you “find designer name merchandise for less than a fraction of the retail cost.” There’s also, apparently, a magazine with the same name that helps you track down bargains and an attached PR firm called In Your Face PR. To me the fashion tours are the most interesting business.
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Fashion trends are fascinating. I generally dress the same way that my parents dressed me when I was four, but I understand the urge to get ahead of the latest styles. Some people just have a sense for fashion and can pull it off on their own, but most need help. That’s why the fashion media is so big. The Internet is only making fashion move faster, and that means that the media has to be faster too. StyleCaster Media Group is a New York, NY based company that aims “to bring style to the people, empowering millions of readers to discover and share their style through inspiring features, expert tips, and innovative resources.”
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A lot of people like to listen to something while they’re working, studying, driving, or exercising. I’m not one of these people, but when I do listen to something, I prefer to be a passive listener. That’s why I like the radio. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of crap on the radio. The Internet is full of great “radio” stations, but discovery can be a pain. TuneIn is a Palo Alto, CA based company that “enables people to discover, follow, and listen to what’s most important to them — from sports, to news, to music, to talk.” They offer access to more than 100,000 live radio stations and 4 million podcasts. They have 50 million users, which seems pretty big considering that I hadn’t heard of them before.
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Have you ever seen an article in the middle of the day explaining that a stock’s price was rising on specific news and then seen essentially the same article in the evening saying that the same piece of news caused the price to fall? There are rare occasions when it actually works out that way, but often it’s just lazy journalism. The truth is that it can be pretty hard to explain why a stock’s price moves up or down; however, we all know that specific products can have a huge impact on how a business performs. That’s why Trefis has developed a set of tools that “helps you understand how a company’s products impact its stock price.” The Boston, MA based company “was founded by MIT Engineers and former Wall Street analysts who realized that most people do not understand the seemingly familiar companies around them.”
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Amy and I have spent 30+ hours in the car over the last week. We listened to the radio, we listened to Spotify, we listened to two Yankees games (one via the MLB At Bat App and one on the radio), we talked, and we listened to a book on tape. After a few hours of one, we’d get bored and switch it up. Maybe we should have “stitched it up.” Stitcher is a San Francisco, CA based company with an app of the same name that lets you access “over 20,000+ radio shows and podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, Android or PC–anytime, anywhere.” The focus is on news, sports, talk, and entertainment, so it’s kind of like Pandora for non-music audio.
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It almost seems that a person’s comfort with buying something online has an inverse relationship with the item’s size. Books, digital goods (size = 0), and clothing are no brainers these days, but people still seem to prefer an in-person experience when it comes to furniture, cars, and homes. I guess it could be based on cost too. Either way, some things are easier to sell online than others. Home furnishings, decor, and outdoor furniture fall somewhere in the middle, but online will win eventually. Hayneedle is definitely pushing for it. They are an Omaha, NE based company that “has become one of the nation’s largest online retailers, offering more than 3,000 brands and nearly 2 million products for the home.” It all started with Hammocks.com, and they just kept adding niches.
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Health is all about information. There was a time when we didn’t know how unhealthy smoking was. Now we do. Many people will live longer, healthier lives because of this knowledge. Any tool that can help both doctors and patients make more informed decisions is immensely valuable. Healthline is a San Francisco, CA based company that has built “the largest, most clinically accurate classification of health information available on the web.” They offer this resource both to consumers in the form of Healthline.com and to brands in a variety of solutions.
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If you’ve watched as much Seinfeld as I have, you’re familiar with Lloyd Braun. He’s the guy who George Costanza’s mother wants George to be more like. Anyway, the real Lloyd Braun was Larry David’s lawyer and manager. I’m not sure how similar he is to the tv character, but let’s hope it’s not very. Anyway, the real Lloyd Braun moved away from the legal side and started a company called BermanBraun. The company recently rebranded as Whalerock Industries, but it’s still “a media company for the 21st century, one where the best and brightest minds come together to create world-class content, spanning all mediums and screens.” They’re based in Santa Monica, CA, and they’re behind some brand that you may be familiar with–for instance they’re managing Moviefone for AOL.
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Every time that Amy and I move (four times over the last six years), we say that we’re going to do a great job setting up our new place. When we move to the next place, we end up repacking the framed pictures that we never got around to hanging on the wall. Interior design isn’t our strongpoint. Next time we move, we’ll have to use Houzz for inspiration. They’re a Palo Alto, CA based company that offers “a collaborative platform for home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners and home professionals together in a uniquely visual community.” It’s kind of like Pinterest, but only for home design and decor.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Do you know what I do when I’m bored at a holiday party? I eat Christmas cookies. Luckily, I haven’t been to many holiday parties this year. The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is a really easy time to let yourself go. You’re going to get back on the wagon at the beginning of the New Year, so why not enjoy life a little more than usual? There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the holidays, but letting go of important things like health (or your job search) is only going to make it harder for you to succeed when you decide it’s time to get serious. Why not enjoy life in a healthy, productive way? That’s what Well+Good is about. They’re a New York, NY based company/website that was started by two journalist “to answer all the questions [their] friends, friends of friends, and perfect strangers wanted to know about health, beauty, fitness, and well-being, as soon as they found out what [they] did for a living.” Their content is about enjoying life without letting go.
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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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I cook a lot, but with Thanksgiving only a few weeks away, it’s time to make sure my skills are as sharp as my knives (doesn’t that sound like a promo for some silly cooking show?). Most of my culinary skills are semi-self-taught. Television, cookbooks, and lots of dinners out have exposed me to all kinds of new concepts, but the Internet is where I go to get the definitive answer on how to cook what I want to cook. Often all it takes is a Google search to find what I’m looking for, but sometimes I want to get new ideas. My go to is Serious Eats, but today I found a new site with a similar approach. The company is called Food52, and it’s a New York, NY based online community that brings “cooks together from all over to exchange recipes and ideas and to support each other in the kitchen.” (Side note: Food52 and Serious Eats are celebrating the the one-in-70,000-ish-years holiday of Thanksgivukkah with a cook off.) In their first few years they’ve been able to reach millions of people and get them talking about food, which is no small feat.
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InvestmentNews is our sponsor this week, and they would like to tell you about their NextGen Virtual Career Fair on November 8th. It’s an awesome opportunity for students and interns to network and find finance jobs on the spot.
I haven’t seen snow yet, but I did experience some sort of frozen precipitation while I was in Michigan over the weekend. It’s hard enough to accept that summer is over and that the shorts need to be put away, but it’s really difficult to come to terms with the fact that winter is coming (especially when you live in Chicago). It’s even worse because almost everything that I love to do is better with good weather (fishing, playing beach volleyball, grilling, walking the dog). Yet for some people it’s almost the opposite. These are the type of people who buy gear from Black Diamond Equipment, a Salt Lake City, UT based company that is “all about climbing and skiing.” In fact, Black Diamond Equipment makes it possible for people to enjoy weather that might otherwise keep you stuck indoors with a bad case of the shack nasties.
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It sounds stupid to say, but it feels like science is making a resurgence in popularity. It’s hard not to notice when your friends keep liking Facebook posts from “I [expletive] love science.” Science always has been and always will be exceptionally important to the human race, but its popularity seems to vary quite a bit over time. The Society for Science & the Public is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education.” They realize that science isn’t just for scientists and that keeping the average person engaged with the study of science can have big payoffs.
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Nearly every tv show that we watch is sponsored by a number of companies, yet we never would think to thank the sponsors. The same can be said for websites. It’s pretty rude of us, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we be more grateful for all of the things that we get in exchange for a little bit of attention? Maybe we should, but we’re not going to be. The one exception is events. When a corporate sponsor puts on an event, I feel that I owe them something. That’s probably why Mirrorball believes that “if you want to move the needle, then first, you need to move your consumer.” Mirrorball is a New York, NY based consumer engagement agency “that connects brands and people through a fusion of social media and live experience.” Experiences are engaging, and if you can create them win the right way, you can reach people with messages that they might ignore in other settings.
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If you use Facebook, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ve seen a friend post a story from Upworthy. The company’s goal is to get their content to go viral, and they’re really good at it. The difference between them and companies like CollegeHumor and Spartz Media is that Upworthy tries to focus on stuff that is both awesome and meaningful. Let’s be honest; most viral content is silly and mindless. Viewing it often makes you feel stupider (especially when you consider the way it’s displayed with ads and slideshows engineered to pillage every bit of attention they can get from you). Upworthy (which isn’t really based in any single location) calls itself “a mission-driven media company.” The goal is “to encourage that debate by curating great pieces of content that represent different sides.”
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While yesterday’s organization’s name was a play on Rhodes Scholar, Road Scholar has no affiliation with The University of Oxford. Today’s company does. The Oxford University Press is not only a department of the University, but it is also “the world’s largest university press with the widest global presence.” You can trace its origins all the way back to 1478; however, their U.S. presence only dates to 1896. Oxford University Press now has two offices stateside–one in New York, NY, and the other in Cary, NC (there other offices all around the world). They both play a big part in furthering “the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.”
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I think that live sports is just about the only thing keeping broadcast television alive. I’m waiting for the day when DVRs aren’t even necessary because everything is always on-demand. Unfortunately, it’s still going to be a while because the media behemoths have a lot to lose and a strong enough market position to put up a huge fight. We’ll get there eventually, but it will happen faster if upstarts like Bedrocket Media Ventures start to see a little success. They are a New York, NY based company that “is leading a revolution in creating networks and programming that people love, delivered through the cloud.” While they may be trying to beat the establishment, they’re getting a little help in the form of $15 million of venture capital investment.
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