Whenever I get a new Facebook friend, he or she usually tells me that I have way too many pictures of me fishing. Since I let go nearly all of the fish that I catch, I love snapping a quick picture before the release—it gives me bragging material. That’s why I consider it important to have a fishing buddy who also knows how to take a decent photo. The problem is that I still spend a lot of time fishing alone, and trying to take a self-picture with a fish in the other hand is extremely awkward. Luckily I discovered the Gorillapod
One of the books that I’ve been reading lately is SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
Do you have a secret? An embarrassing story? Maybe you have a real problem (like not having an internship) or a health issue. It could just be something that you’re passionate about. If you have experiences that you want to share or you want to read about the experiences of other people, then Experience Project is the site for you. It’s a free web site that allows people across the world to share their experiences. It all started when Armen Berjikly, Experience Project’s founder, was inspired by a friend to build a support community for multiple sclerosis patients. It was so successful that Armen decided to expand the project so that it could serve everyone—it’s now “the first social network based upon who you are and not who you know.” The company is based in San Francisco, and according to their data and the data on Compete.com, they’re doing some pretty serious traffic. Continue reading about Experience Project…
We’re officially in the Christmas season, and that means lots of good things. One thing that isn’t so good is all of the spending that comes with buying people gifts (whether you enjoy the consumerist aspects of the holidays or not). It feels great to be generous, but only until you look at your credit card statement at the end of the month. Cutting back on gifts or making your own is one idea, but it’s a lot easier said than done. Your best bet is probably to find some other ways to save money so that you can buy everyone what you want to buy them. A great way to do that is BillShrink. They’re a Redwood City, CA based startup that offers “a free, personalized savings tool that helps you save money on your everyday bills.” If you can cut your cell phone, credit card, and gas bills, then you’ll be able to buy me (or someone you actually know) more gifts. Continue reading about BillShrink…
A couple of days ago the blogosphere exploded (pun intended) with news about bomb proof wallpaper. The story originally came from Popular Science with a video of a wrecking ball trying to knock down a brick wall that has been reinforced with the X-Flex Blast Protection System (the video is included below). I always love news stories like this one, because it puts the spotlight on a company that you never would have otherwise. In this case it’s Berry Plastics, an Evansville, IN based plastics company. Their products range from agricultural films to plastic bottles and from drink cups to trash bags. There’s a good chance that you have dozens of items in your house/dorm/apartment that were manufactured by Berry Plastics—you just don’t know it because most people don’t care who manufactured their shampoo bottles. Continue reading about Berry Plastics…
I think that e-mail is still the king of social media. We have all of these fancy social networking accounts, but they all send their notifications to our inboxes. If you want someone’s attention, e-mail is the way to go (assuming your message doesn’t look like spam). Heck, you’re probably reading this in your e-mail. That’s why e-mail marketing continues to be a rapidly growing industry. Over on One Day, One Job we’ve already taken a look at jobs with Constant Contact, Aweber, and e-Dialog, and now we’re going to look at an industrial strength e-mail marketing company, ExactTarget. They’re based in Indianapolis, and since 2000 they’ve been focused on “providing the most powerful on-demand software for email communications and finding the best and brightest marketers on the planet to revolutionize the way people think about email.” Continue reading about ExactTarget…
Before my fishing trip to Canada last week, I ordered a couple of books from Amazon for some pleasure reading. One of those books was Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
What’s good? Depending on your mindset right now, that question could have a lot of different answers; however, today we’re talking about GOOD, a company and integrated media platform that makes “a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn.” They’re relatively new on the scene, and they’re breaking a lot of rules when it comes to how to run a media company. For instance, instead of keeping your subscription fees, they’ll donate them to the non-profit of your choice. Since magazines don’t actually make money on subscription fees, they think this is better for business. They’re well known for their “unique editorial perspective,” but they’re even better known for their “fresh visual aesthetic.” I first came across their website GOOD.is to see some of their amazingly gorgeous (and informative) infographics. Continue reading about GOOD…
A child’s first sign of teenage (pre-teenage?) rebellion often begins at the radio dial. The parent’s up-to-this-point unchallenged decision of what to listen to while in the car is called into question, and all hell breaks loose. If there are multiple kids in the family (or even just in the car), the negotiation can quickly becom more heated than a multi-lateral peace process in a war-torn nation. The parent will fight hard to maintain his or her right to National Public Radio, but the kid will persist in his or her challenge to hear something that feeds a suddenly “eclectic” taste in music. Often the parents cede this battle in hopes of winning in the future (bad idea!), which results in the parent’s driving the kids around the mini-van listening to rap music that would be a lot more offensive if the parent knew what some of the words meant. Eventually the rebellious tykes will grow up and realize that they too want to be more cultured, and they slowly, but surely come around to listening to NPR. Or maybe some kids just never speak up. They like NPR from the start. Maybe those are the ones who end up taking internships at NPR. Continue reading about National Public Radio…
Not too long ago, the only unmanned aerial vehicles were planes flown by women (yuck, yuck, yuck). Now we live in a world where planes can fly themselves. Sometimes I like to consider myself high-tech for running a business on the web, then I think about the companies that design, develop, and produce autonomous aircraft and realize that I’m not high-tech at all. Bingen, Washington’s Insitu is one of those companies. They build UAVs that have amazing reconnaissance, communications relay, and geophysical surveying capabilities. Most of their work has been with the military so far, but Insitu is operating in an infant industry with an amazing potential for growth. In fact, from 2004-2007 Insitu’s revenue grew by 1,702.4% to $50 million annually. This performance put them on Inc. Magazine’s List of the 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2006 and 2007. Insitu CEO Steve Sliwa was also named CEO of the Year for 2007 by Seattle Business Monthly. Insitu is clearly comfortable with taking off. Continue reading about Insitu…
I’ve done it. I’ve found the most ridiculous looking corporate website on the web. It has an animated moving background and multiple bouncing balloon/blimp logos that make it look like it’s straight out of the Imagination Land episode of South Park. It may be a little hokey, but it works for Niles, IL (right outside of Chicago) based The Bradford Group because they’re in the collectibles industry. Their customers aren’t concerned with flash and edginess, they’re all about sentimentality. When you’ve been doing direct marketing of collector plates, music boxes, and all kinds of commemorative items for 36 years, you probably know your audience. So, even though The Bradford Group’s web design leaves me laughing out loud, I’m not going to sell them short based on my taste as a non-collector. (And if you totally disagree with me and love the design, you can make it your computer’s background.) Continue reading about The Bradford Group…
I love Apple products, and I have for almost 20 years. My first computer was an Apple IIe, and now One Day, One Internship, One Day, One Job, and Found Your Career are all run from a MacBook Pro and an iPhone (ok, we have a server that is not a Mac). I’m constantly amazed by the innovation that comes out of Apple, and I’m probably unreasonable about how much I prefer Apple products. I mean, I sit in front of my computer and watch live blog updates whenever they’re making product announcements. In my mind there’s no cooler company than Apple, so it’s surprising that it took me this long to feature their internships. Continue reading about Apple…
Not only is it Friday, but it’s also a Snow Day here in Chicago! Judging from the map on The Weather Channel, there’s a good chance that you’re enjoying a Snow Day too. My favorite thing to do when school was cancelled was to go sledding, and I haven’t outgrown it yet. If downtown Chicago had a single decent hill, I’d be there as soon as I finish writing this. Of course, I’d have to stop and buy a sled first. In college it’s easy – you just “borrow” a tray from the dining hall, and that’s your sled for the winter, but when you’re an adult you need to take things a little more seriously. That’s why Hammerhead Sleds exists. They make sleds for big kids. Actually, that’s an understatement. They make the most bad ass sleds that I have ever seen. These sleds aren’t cheap, though. They run $349, but they sure look worth it. Continue reading about Hammerhead Sleds…
Periodically the news is riddled with stories about how the airlines are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Lately the focus of doom and gloom commentary has shifted to finance and insurance companies, but that doesn’t mean that the airlines are doing any better. There’s one company that is seemingly never in the conversation about struggling airlines – Southwest Airlines. If you’ve ever flown Southwest, you probably know why. They do things differently, and it makes flyers happy. Even though it seems like almost no one can succeed flying commercial routes, Southwest continues to impress. Air travel isn’t going anywhere – it’s too important to us, so forget about all the bad things that you hear about the airline industry, and start thinking about an internship at Southwest Airlines. Continue reading about Southwest Airlines…
Do you have an iPhone yet? Maybe that’s an obnoxious question, but it’s getting less and less obnoxious as software developers continue to push out amazing applications. The iPhone is adding serious productivity tools in addition to the obvious entertainment capabilities in “the best iPod that Apple has ever made.” We may even be reaching the point where you can call an iPhone purchase a capital investment without cracking a smile. Apple is largely responsible for the iPhone’s success to this point, but it’s the 3rd party software developers who are taking the iPhone’s popularity to the next level. Pinch Media is a company that helps these iPhone developers grow their businesses. They’re doing so through analytics and advertising software that they’ve created for iPhone developers, but Pinch Media is also sitting down with developers and helping them determine when advertising makes sense, and when it doesn’t. Pinch Media’s business is all about helping other people make the most out of what they do best – the development of great iPhone applications. Continue reading about Pinch Media…
Say that you need to ship something – a mini donkey for instance (this is a real example). UPS, the USPS, DHL, and Fedex don’t ship donkeys. With uShip all you need to do is list that you need to ship a mini donkey, receive bids, select a winning bid, and ship that donkey where it needs to go. You don’t need to worry about your prized donkey, because you can check the shipper’s feedback and see that he has shipped all kind of livestock to all kinds of places, and every time his customers have been happy. It’s pretty simple, huh? A lot easier than bringing the donkey into your local post office only to find out that even mini donkeys are too big to ship. uShip calls themselves “the online shipping marketplace” and they back it up with their raving fans. Continue reading about uShip…
Rue 21 is all about fashionable clothing at a reasonable price. They sell both men’s and women’s wares in their stores, which stretch across 41 states. As of now they’re strictly a brick and mortar operation, although it looks like they might be moving towards an online store at some point. Rue21 appears to have a significant internship program, but getting details on it has been a bit difficult. Here’s what we’ve found out. Continue reading about Rue21…
Red wagon. Need I say more? I bet you are already picturing Dennis the Menace pulling his Radio Flyer wagon behind his little red bike. Or maybe you’re thinking about your village’s 4th of July parade where all the kids decorate their bikes and pull wagons behind them with their younger siblings in them (ok maybe that’s just my memory). Almost everyone has some childhood memory associated with Radio Flyer. What’s yours? If for some reason wagon rides and Radio Flyer weren’t part of your childhood, check out this video. Continue reading about Radio Flyer…
Sometimes stories are too good not to repeat. “The Birth of a Shoe Company” as told by Kenneth Cole is one of them.
Twenty years ago, I wanted to open a shoe company with limited money. From experience I knew one had to get in quickly because so often new companies run out of cash flow before they get the chance to conduct business. I also knew it was easier to get credit from factories in Europe who needed the business than from American banks that didn’t. So I lined up the factories, went to Europe, designed a collection of shoes, and returned to the states to sell them.
At the time, a shoe company had two options. You could get a room at the Hilton and become 1 of about 1100 shoe companies selling their goods. This didn’t provide the identity or image I felt necessary for a new company, and it cost a lot more money than I had to spend. The other way was to do what the big companies do and get a fancy showroom in Midtown Manhattan not far from the Hilton. More identity, much more money too.
I had an idea. Continue reading about Kenneth Cole…
“Many Burton employees will snag freshies first thing in the morning before coming in to work during the winter.” Being non “riders,” we’re don’t know a whole lot about snowboarding, but we can be pretty sure that interns at Burton’s Burlington, VT office probably won’t have this luxury. It’s not that Burton doesn’t care about their interns, it’s just that “freshies” are kind of hard to snag in the heat of the summer. That’s ok, though, because Vermont is beautiful in the Summer and offers plenty of other outdoor opportunities for when you’re not helping Burton at the world’s first snowboard factory. Continue reading about Burton…
