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seanmeverett · 7 years

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Why These 100 Mission-Driven Companies Will Win [Part 2 of 2]

Discover something new that might improve your own life

I. Setting the Stage

In Part 1, we covered a small selection of mission-driven companies across beverages, food, shelter, apparel, and services, including business, banking, money, insurance and the real-world.

Their teams and their products take a different approach to the world which results in not just differentiation for their brands in consumer’s minds, but also in what we believe is bigger financial upside.

Big things have small beginnings, indeed.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

~Winston Churchill

VII. Hardware

Samsung: What started as a focus in TVs and appliances has moved onto the cutting edge of consumer tech with novel VR experiences. They’ve been on a tear lately. I live near their flagship experential store in the Meatpacking area of Manhattan, which had a line around the block over the weekend with a matte black truck out front. Say what you will about the industrial design battle with Apple, but one thing they definitely do better is experiential. Apple doesn’t do a lick of it and it’s where the consumer branding world is headed.

Awair: You know that invisible thing you can’t live without? The thing you don’t ever notice until it’s gone? Yah, we’re talking about the air we breath. It’s kind of important and stuff. This team built a cool wooden box that analyzes the quality of the air across 5 dimensions, gives you a score and recommendations for fixing it. Bonus points for working in tandem with Nest, Awair.

Remarkable: It’s a tablet that’s meant to feel like paper. Whether you’re reading, sketching or taking notes, the point is paper. And yes, it does come with a hardware pencil. That’s why they, and we, call it reMarkable.

Google Hardware: They spend the most marketing effort with their hardware products, as you might expect, since the search engine markets itself at this point. If you’re looking for VR, Nest, and inexpensive Chromebooks, this is where Google really shines, as well as with their scalable services.

Mevo: A beautifully done hardware product, Mevo by Livestream gives you a full production studio in your pocket. It works in tandem with your mobile phone so you can pan, zoom, and record live events straight to your website and, get this, Facebook Live. Nice work, y’all.

Insta 360: If you want to record 360-degree video so people can put themselves in your Virtual Reality shoes, then you’re going to need a camera. Insta360 is a leader in the space, with a Nano version that descretely slips into your pocket and clips onto the top of your iPhone or an Air version for your Android phone. Whatever you phone you choose, this might be the right choice when it’s Go Time.

Mayfield Robotics: Humanizing Tech is something we can get behind, especially when it means adding positive human behaviors to a little friendly home robot called Kuri. Mayfield Robotics made this little guy to be your home videographer, capturing your favorite moments you would have lost otherwise, and even has a touch sensor on its head to respond to human touch as well as your voice.

VIII. Software

Mailchimp: Likely one of the best known email marketing platforms in the world, used by everyone from startups to large companies alike. MailChimp, is where we always start when we’re thinking of creating a new email list and sending out easy, mobile responsive campaigns. They’ve been around a long time and continue to grow like crazy.

Wordpress: Did you know that 25% of all websites on the internet are built on top of the WordPress CMS? Twenty…five…percent. That’s insane. There are billions of websites in the world. That means at least a billion are built on this thing. That’s an install base the size of all iPhones ever sold. If that isn’t enough of a recommendation, I don’t know what is. Strike that. I just went to their site. It’s right on the homepage. Twenty…eight…percent.

Slack: Ah, the good ole email killer. If you’re not careful you might end up being a part of a hundred different Slack channels just like most of us. The pings might drive you crazy if you’re on a dev team, but by now you’ve turned those off. Just clearing the unreads can become a full-time job. But they solved a big problem of what to use for chatting at work when most of us were still scraping by with Campfire. It feels much more personal than email and have to say I love and use the product regularly. Go get you some.

Evernote: It’s been a heck of a product for years. It’s been my notebook of choice across many life moments and businesses, both successful and failed. I counted recently and have thousands of notes. I write down everything, nearly word for word in conference calls so I understand the subtleties from meetings years ago. Evernote’s been the single most valuable tool for my brain, aside from my MacBook, over the course of my career. 18 thumbs. Way up.

Livestream: As mentioned in the Mevo blurb above, Livestream is a killer product with a killer team located in Brooklyn NY. I’ve been to their offices. Video is hard. Real hard. I know, I fixed and rebuilt a VOD and Live streaming platform over 4 years. But these guys and girls make it look easy. From production equipment to live landing pages, to syndication to the social networks. It’s free to start, and easy to scale. Awe inspiring.

FreshBooks: This roundup wouldn’t be complete without some accounting software. And boy if FreshBooks isn’t one of the longtime leaders. Invoices, expenses, time tracking, payments, projects, and the list goes on. Why hire an accountant when you’ve got something this great? Just don’t call them an auditor ;)

Virtual Assistants

X.ai: There’s a few different ways to start an AI startup. But they all have one thing in common: they need lots of examples in order to be as accurate as possible. In this case, the folks at x.ai are using the pervasive meeting-scheduling-over-email problem as a way to teach it human language. Secretary is one of the first jobs AI will replace. I’ve used the product multiple times, it’s pretty great and works like a charm. Give it the ole college try, if you fancy.

Clara: It’s another virtual assistant, only this one was founded by a Forbes 30 Under 30 female. The tech world doesn’t have to be completely filled with dudes. My favorite part of Clara’s website? That they use the movie Contact’s Ellie Arroway to explain how their email scheduling assistant works.

Data

PitchBook: If you’re in the business of startups, M&A, VC or Private Equity long enough, you’ll come across PitchBook’s data. They send out a newsletter about the happenings of recent deals as well as quarterly trends updates on how much deal flow is happening. Their social teams are excellent as well, as I find I’m often conversing with their accounts across Twitter and Medium.

CBInsights: Focused mostly on the startup and tech worlds, CB Insights has one of the greatest newsletters of all time. It comes standard with snark, epic fails, and relevant news to keep our industry humming along. And with a daily sign off of “I love you”, it should keep you happy whilst reading through their great fundamental industry analyses.

Mattermark: They’re all about building target customer lists. Founded by one of the great ones who gets a lot of respect in the industry, Mattermark wants you to focus on the companies and employees who matter most. If coffee’s for closers, then you need the good Glengarry leads to use your BD and sales time wisely. This team can help you out.

VR/AR

8i.com: Probably my most favorite opening homepage lines of all time, 8i “mixes realities with holograms”. I mean, c’mon guys if that doesn’t get you excited, then you’re already asleep. Check out their homepage to see a demo video or download their mobile app to add holograms to your everyday life. Totally tubular, dood.

Magic Leap: No AR list would be complete without this 800-pound gorilla. They’ve raised a boat load of money from the who’s who of Valley VCs and are working to get the first consumer headset that throws holograms into your real-world environment. If they can execute against the vision, this puppy will be big.

IX. Transportation

Rideshare

Uber: If you’re reading this, it’s highly likely that you know of Uber. Though, there are still some people who haven’t. So for the king (or queen, if you’re feeling nasty) of ridesharing, Uber started the on demand trend and has been growing like a weed, making it one of the most valuable and fastest-growing startups in history. If you can find them a consistent source of drivers, you will be in their good graces forever. They have a supply problem, not a demand one. They’ll get it.

Lyft: If you’d like a little more personality whilst you ride than the black and white, why not try a little hot magenta on for size? Lyft, which used to be characterized by the pink mustache on the front of their cars, has since toned it down a bit and is having a bit of a resurgence after a few recent leadership stumbles at Uber. Kudos for the big branding.

Waze: Wouldn’t it be nice if your maps app told you where cops were catching people for speeding so you could slow down, or how to reroute yourself to get around traffic jams, all while it’s happening in real time? Waze is the first and pretty much only social mapping app out there. My former colleagues in an entire office in Atlanta used this app to deal with the horrendous traffic there. Hard to argue with that kind of pervasive benefit.

Ride

Toyota: They invented the Toyota Production System (TPS), which increased the quality of car manufacturing to an unprecendented level decades ago. It was so good, in fact, that they now teach it in business schools everywhere about using a constant improvement culture. You see the same thing happening in software businesses today. But don’t forget, Toyota invented it, not tech.

Tesla: The vision of an all-electric car, a giant touch screen to control everything (no other buttons), that drives itself to your exact location and picks you up. Only Elon Musk has the type of entrepreneurial grit to take on the auto manufacturing industry and actually pull it off. Besides, naming your series of cars, S 3 X means that Tesla Motors comes with a little marketing magic as well.

Fun

Boosted Boards: An electric skateboard that I see all over the place on the streets of NYC. Going 12 miles on a single charge means you can do your daily commute in Manhattan without running out of battery. It can take you up a 25% grade hill, goes up to 22mph (dear lord!), and has a little hand-held remote control. This thing is just plain rad.

OneWheel: Maybe two wheels are too archaic for you. If so, why not reduce your “footprint” to a single wheel. Wait…what? A single wheel? Yes, a single wheel with a board on either side for you to ride in futuristic style. Just don’t call it a hoverboard. The wheel looks like a small car tire, which means you can go far off the concrete streets. Because where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

X. Travel

Locations

AirBnb: Want to live like a local, or hotels all full, or maybe you just need a place for a few weeks or a month? Airbnb is the new friend you’ve been waiting for. You might be a little scared if you’ve never rented or subletted to someone else before, but I can tell you from experience that most people are incredibly genuine and trustworthy. We have yet to have any sort of trust issue or problem.

Hyatt: Here’s what we love about Hyatt. At the top of their homepage right now is a message calling for donations to the Red Cross to help Hurricane Harvey victims. It’s not just about a hotel with them. It’s about a home. Their brand feels safe and comforting. A hard thing to pull off, but kudos to the team.

Starwood: They own almost every major hotel brand you’ve heard of, which is pretty crazy to wrap your mind around. Here’s a few: Ritz-Carlton, Marriot, Townplace, Fairfield, Residence Inn, Courtyard, Aloft, The W Hotel, St Regis, SPG, and Sheraton. If you’ve ever stayed in a hotel, it’s highly likely you’ve stayed with Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Movement & Booking

Upside Travel: A cool approach to getting from here to there, Upside Travel lets you book your work travel in a package deal to save some coin. Flight + Hotel + Uber.

Hawaiian Airlines: A vacation of dreams, of windy roads, beaches to mountaintops and ten different climates in between, Hawaii is one of those trips on many of our bucket lists. And if you want to really live the life, make sure you travel the official airline of the island. Right now, a roundtrip from North America starts at only $357. We’ll give that a “wow”.

Ride Share Air

Surf Air: Pay a monthly fee and get unlimited flights around the west coast of America from San Diego, Palm Springs, Monterrey, Carlsbad, Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley, LA, SF, etc. From what we can tell, the price starts at around $1000 per month. If you’re paying more than that, you might end up saving both time and money. Just open the app and book.

Jet Smarter: This is one of the bigger on demand flight services. Their instagram marketing is pretty killer. It is a bit more expensive than others but it also goes more places. If you’re spending $25K per year doing business travel, you might actually save your company money if you choose to fly this kind of private airline. Jay-Z is an investor, so if you want to live like HOV, throw your diamonds in the sky.

Net Jets: This group extends the private jet model to fractional ownership, 15/30/60 hour jet cards, and a global destination base across the US and Europe.

Miscellaneous

Away: It’s a luggage brand with a personality. They come with stickers, even a Despicable Me Minions version. Described as thoughtful luggage for modern travel, it even comes with simple naming like “Carry-on” and “The Bigger Carry-on” — you know exactly what you’re going to get.

Yeti: What some people may consider a boring business, the founders at Yeti decided they needed a more durable cooler for their fishing and camping trips. It then extended into branded team coolers for tailgates and now into other products like duffel bags. Sturdy enough to sit on, it really does the job.

XI. Entertainment

Video

HBO: The content king for decades, HBO is synonymous with the highest quality entertainment on TV. With their recent introduction of streaming services like HBO Go and HBO Now, you can get your favorite Game of Thrones-style shows on the go or on your mobile apps for a small monthly fee. For that, we say, already subscribed. Just keep those Vice News a-coming!

Netflix: All the movies and TV shows you can watch for less than $10 per month? The original DVD movie service and leader in the online video wars, what can you say about Netflix that hasn’t already been said. We’re faithful subscribers and will continue to be. 100 million other people can’t be wrong.

Amazon Prime: For a small monthly fee you get unlimited free shipping, all the movies, TV shows, music, and books you can consume. Add in photo saving and podcasts, and you’ve got one of the best designed and most valuable subscription products in the technology universe. Their originals are coming too, which means they’ve got a few more tricks up their sleeve than the recent purchase of Whole Foods. Amazon is taking over the whole technological world, it seems.

Books

Holtzbrinck Publishing Group/Macmillan: It’s a publishing institution whose core values center on sharing knowledge and wisdom. With brands like Scientific American and Nature, their dedication to science is hard to understate. We love this organization.

Hachette Book Group: One of the biggest global book publishers, Hachette Book Group pushes out 900 adult books (including 50 to 100 digital only titles), 250 for young readers, and 400 audio books in one single year.

HarperCollins: They’ve been around for over 200 years with operations in 18 countries. In books, a strong foundational history counts for something. In fact, it’s almost everything. Their fiction authors are legendary: Mark Twain, Martin Luther King, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, H.G. Wells, Agatha Christie, amongst many others.

Penguin Books: What started in 1939 as the vision of a book that cost as little as a pack of cigarettes has now grown into a vast collection of both fiction and non-fiction books across a variety of topics.

Random House: 70,000 digital and 15,000 print books published every year makes Penguin Random House one of the most prolific publishers in all of writing.

Simon & Schuster: From Stephen Colbert and Enemy of the State to Stephen King’s It and Anna Kendrick’s personal actress biography, the range of books published by Simon & Schuster is vast and varied.

XII. Work & Home Tech

AltWork: A standing, sitting, lounging desk contraption that maintains correct posture in four different positions, this company’s product is aimed at helping keep your body healthy while you work at a computer screen all day.

Eero: A tiny home Wi-Fi system that just works. You plug it in and forget about it. Put a few around your home to boost the signal to different rooms. It’s a simple router, so you don’t need a degree from DeVry to understand how it works.

Felix Gray: Staring at our computer and phone screens all day can hurt our eyes. There’s an old 20/20/20 rule where every 20 minutes you’re supposed to look at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds. To help with eye strain and fatigue, the folks at Felix Gray have special lenses worn by employees at some of the biggest, baddest tech companies in the world.

Pilot Pens: Finding the right writing instrument can be tricky. You want one with good ink flow that doesn’t stain the page or break and get on your hands or clothes. You want one that doesn’t cost a lot so it doesn’t matter that Bob from accounting stole it. That’s where Pilot comes in. Inexpensive, good, consistent.

Sonic Internet: Want blazing fast speeds with a better internet/phone bundle and a more human customer service? This team has what you need for gigabit fiber internet and unlimited calling.

Casper: A mattress startup that’s growing like absolutely crazy. People love their product, posting unboxing videos to YouTube because of the creative packaging. They’ve got deals to sell their mattresses in big box retailers now but got their start going Direct to Consumer over the internet. It’s a trend that will continue and this large founding team executed beautifully.

— Sean Everett

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