TUESDAY, July 1, 2008

Featured in the July/August issue of Fast Company

Innovation of Olympic Proportions, pg. 78
As Olympic athletes gather for the Games in Beijing this August, many of them will be wearing shoes built like suspension bridges; using softball bats made of aerospace carbon; or wearing swimsuits that literally shrink the swimmer. The July/August issue of Fast Company peeks inside the secret labs at Adidas, Nike and Speedo, and reveals the products helping Olympic athletes go higher, faster, stronger. Fast Company also reports that Nike's Flywire HyperDunk basketball shoes-which utilize a space-age fiber called Vectran-could also change the shoe business. They are not constructed like traditional shoes but "printed out" via embroidery machines. As Paul Hochman writes, "There have been rumors that the new technique is so inexpensive it could allow Nike to return some of its manufacturing to the United States from China." That would be an ironic and unexpected outcome for the Beijing Olympics. Fast Company Contributing Writer Paul Hochman is available to discuss the 18 hot new products that will give the U.S. an edge up on the competition.

TUESDAY, June 24, 2008

Featured in the July 2008 Issue of Inc. Magazine

Cover story: How to Launch a Successful Start-Up, pg. 89
First-time entrepreneurs only have an 18% chance of succeeding, while entrepreneurs who succeeded in a prior venture have a 30% chance of succeeding in their next venture. As such, the July issue of Inc. lends a hand to five young entrepreneurs by pairing them with an acclaimed entrepreneur in their field, to get candid feedback on their business plans and sage advice for the future. Among the companies featured are vegan bakery BabyCakes NYC which hopes to expand through franchising, and KickStartr.com, an online community launching this summer that aims to pair musicians and artists with patrons online. Inc. Reporter Ryan McCarthy is available to discuss the four companies profiled, discuss their growing pains, and the advice the Inc. experts provided.

THURSDAY, May 29, 2008

Featured in the June 2008 Issue of Inc. Magazine

COVER STORY: The Most Innovative Small Company in America, pg. 88.
A t-shirt company hardly sounds innovative but Threadless is no ordinary company. Threadless is a next-generation retailer that allows its customers to design the t-shirts it sells and then asks them to vote on which ones they like best. It prints and sells the designs that win. By skillfully tapping into the power of social networks, the company has turned consumers into designers and marketers - and very enthusiastic shoppers. The company was founded by college dropouts and yet has won accolades from experts on innovation from MIT and Harvard. It has been growing like gangbusters because, by virtue of its unique model, it never produces a flop.

THURSDAY, May 29, 2008

Featured in the June issue of Fast Company

Cover Story: Microsoft's Desperate Quest for Cool, pg. 64
Microsoft's problematic reputation has suffered a series of devastating blows recently, from its bungled Yahoo bid to Apple's biting "Mac vs. PC" campaign. So the software giant has turned to ad-industry renegade Alex Bogusky-who helped make Burger King, VW and Orville Redenbacher hip-to overhaul its brand personality. But can even the Steve Jobs of the ad world pull off such a stunt for the House of Vista?

THURSDAY, May 01, 2008

Featured in the May issue of Fast Company

Cover Story: Ning's Infinite Ambition, pg. 76.
Ning isn't just a site where users can build their own social networks - it's a model of how to create a perpetual growth machine. Netscape creator Marc Andreesen and ex-Goldman tech analyst Gina Bianchini have tapped into the secret power that fuels Facebook, eBay, Google, Twitter, Digg, Flickr and more. The result is not simply a target-rich environment for advertisers, but a self-perpetuating "viral loop" that's turning Ning into a model of what the Web can do for business.