Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Betabrand’s Building A Business On Balderdash And Memes
Betabrand's techies are beating fashionistas at their own game. Memes are helping build this e-commerce business one web-friendly, gimmicky item of apparel at a time.
How many memes of dudes mugging for the camera clad in star-spangled trousers does it take to net $2 million in sales? Chris Lindland isn’t sure, but as founder of the online men’s clothier , he’s determined to figure it out, one forwarded user-submitted photo at a time. Sales are expected to top $2 million this year.
For the past year Lindland (who has no background in apparel, retail, or fashion design) has been cultivating a growing cadre of devoted customers to an e-commerce business that started with just one pair of pants. But they’re not your dad’s no-iron Dockers--Cordarounds are designed to have the corduroy fabric run horizontally.
Lindland didn’t stop there. He and an old college buddy, Anthony Jaffe, peddled the pants with comedic copy including a (pseudo-scientific) promise of unparalleled ventilation. "Unlike vertical corduroy, which produces friction that can heat your crotch to uncomfortable, even dangerous levels, Cordarounds’ horizontal wales mesh evenly, lowering the average wearer’s crotch heat index (CHI) by up to 22%."
Sweaty balls (heyo, ) notwithstanding, guys started buying. Lindland’s no stranger to comedic writing--he once sold a cartoon series to Spike TV. He also recognized the need to continue dishing drollery to keep the customers clicking. In a playful spirit of one-upmanship, Lindland tells Fast Company, the two friends push out an e-newsletter that’s “99 percent fiction and 1 percent fashion,” two times a week.
Lindland says once sites such as Daily Candy debuted, fashion--like food, wine, and sports--was released from clutches of industry elites. “If you look at fashion and fashion marketing through the lens of the Internet, you end up taking a different approach,” he says. The idea is to turn fashion forward into "fashion forwarded."
Betabrand’s tongue-in-cheek copy for items such as Disco Hoodies (made with doubloons salvaged from a sunken Spanish galleon!) or Glutton Pants (sporting a trio of buttons appropriately labeled Piglet, Sow, and Boar to accommodate waistline expansion during feeding time) fed enthusiasts' furor to discover fun new products. "We are an imminently bloggable brand,” Lindland says. “We really think hard about each product for the sake of getting bloggers to write about us because we don’t have Ralph Lauren’s marketing budget."
So far, bloggy, viral marketing is working. Stephen Colbert was sporting Betabrand’s star-spangled pants during his Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C. Regis and Kelly wore Caperons on their talk show. And Bridesmaids director Paul Feig endorsed the (ahem) Vagisoft blanket. "According to our mail provider our open rate is astounding at 40 percent" while the average for e-commerce brands hovers somewhere in the teens, he says.
The groundswell of retail purchases influenced by bloggers and friends was not lost on Lindland, either.
In May, Betabrand debuted a feature on the site dubbed Model Citizen. That premise arose out of a problem, Lindland explains. Though plenty of sites ran photo contests, he thought it wouldn’t be cool to reject most of the submissions on the basis that they weren’t great shots. Because Betabrand’s back-end architecture could support any number of images on the site without a major cost to store them, Lindland invited everyone to submit photos. Contributors are issued a URL that would make their photo appear to be the lead model shot on the homepage.
The response was immediate. Since test-launching Model Citizen in May, more than 1,000 customer images have premiered on Betabrand.com, each inviting an average of 20 Facebook friends to take a look.
If he’d paid for this on Facebook it would have cost $22,340, assuming an average CPC rate of $1, asserts Lindland. Instead the small investment brought nearly that much in revenue this summer as 1 in 10 Model Citizen photos generates a trackable order from a new customer.
Now that Model Citizen is officially out of beta, Lindland has to get back to designing and debuting new products. "Our business is [built to have] brand new ideas nonstop, then track see what sells through and build web community around that product," he explains.
Lindland doubts he could have made Betabrand’s projected $2 million in sales this year if he simply sold the world's finest wool sweaters. "Why would someone forward on a link to that, when there are so many great cat videos to send to your friends?" he quips. Instead he’s ready to launch a line made of black sheep's wool. "There's a web-friendly gimmick that every black sheep of the family needs to know about. You hook the masses on memes, then offer 'em up other fine things they can buy."
China May Become World’s Biggest CO2 Emitter By 2017
China is no longer a developing nation, at least in terms of CO2 emissions. The country has graduated to "developed" status, according to a new report claiming that the country could meet or surpass U.S. CO2 levels by 2017. The , written by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, claims that the combination of China's carbon-heavy industries and rapidly increasing infrastructure are responsible for the growth.
The report, which is based on results from the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), explains: "Due to its rapid economic
development, per capita emissions in China are quickly approaching
levels common in the industrialised countries. If the current trends in emissions by China and the industrialised
countries including the US would continue for another seven years, China
will overtake the US by 2017 as highest per capita emitter among the 25
largest emitting countries."
If China's CO2 levels do meet U.S. levels in the coming years, the country may find its status as the leader of developed countries jeopardized in future climate negotiations. Because it doesn't make much sense for a country that will have higher emissions levels than the U.K. by the end of next year to be put in the same category as India, which still only emits 1.5 tons of CO2 per capita (China already emits 4.96 tons, and the U.S. emits 19.34 tons).
Even if China does surpass the U.S. in emissions, it's possible that the country's CO2 output may stabilize around 2050 and eventually start to decline. As David Fridley, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently to Fast Company, "You can only
build so many roads and railroads, and households can only own so many TVs and
refrigerators." But by 2050, the climate change damage may already be done.
[Image: Flickr user ]
Reach Ariel Schwartz via or email.
Apple’s NDA Disclosed: Why You Won’t See The iPhone 5 Until Tim Cook’s Ready
An insider offers new details about the ironclad security around Apple prototypes: private jets, windowless rooms, amorphous storage cases padlocked to tables whose wood grain signatures are photographed--and much more.
We're just days away from event, and for the past few weeks (er, months rather), the rumor mill has kicked into high gear. But most stories on Apple's latest game changer derive from speculation or shoddy secondhand sources, or, most enticing, glamour shots of the .
Compare that to Amazon, whose tablet was pretty much unveiled by the media before CEO Jeff Bezos even took the stage Wednesday. Not in Apple's world, where the company springs fewer leaks than a military grade catheter. Steve Jobs of both Apple's business and marketing strategy: The more the public is kept in the dark, feeding off the seemingly limitless Apple-rumor blogs and rags, the more consumers are likely to lust after Apple's gizmos. With rare exception (say, a prototype lost in a bar) does a new product come to new light before Jobs's on-stage announcements--we can safely assume the same will remain true throughout the Tim Cook era. Just how does Apple keep such a tight lid on all of its unreleased products?
Fast Company spoke to an executive who was one of the first people outside of Apple to gain access to a first-gen iPad before the tablet had ever been unveiled. The exec declined to turn over Apple's infamous non-disclosure agreement (NDA), considering it too much of a business risk. And while a few details of the NDA , the executive provided us with a much clearer and very telling picture of the great lengths Apple will go through to make sure you never see the iPhone 5 before Tim Cook wants you to see it.
First off, Apple would only allow a select few from this executive's company to know the company was in possession of an iPad--not even the company's CEO knew. The select few included a few developers, and Apple required a list of their names and Social Security numbers. These employees were of course forbidden to talk about the device--to tell anyone what it looked like or that the company had the device on hand.
To further safeguard this process, Apple required the device be kept in a window-less or blacked-out room, which had to be fitted with a new lock that only two keys could open. Apple held on to one key; the executive to the other.
The iPad itself was then flown out to the company via private plane. Once it arrived, even the revealed product was encased in a clunky outer shell--the company exec describes it to me as a "black plastic" case, which made it moot to snap any photos of the device. What's more, Apple also padlocked the case to a desk within the room. Apple then took pictures of the device padlocked to the desk, making sure to capture the table's wood grain. That way if any pictures did leak, Apple could trace the images back to the particular desk and wood grain they were taken on, and thus trace the leaks to the company in its possession.
The executive said it was incredibly difficult to design an app for a product that couldn't be shown to or tested with customers--to design an app for a product that had never really been seen by anyone outside Apple in its natural form and shape. But he added that no other company could likely get away with such secrecy.
"Only Apple," the executive joked.
[Image: Flickr user ]
TechStars CEO David Cohen On Giving Startups A $100,000 Shot In The Arm (Or A Kick In The Pants)
In our Fast Talk series, innovators and entrepreneurs answer questions about making good products and breaking bad news. David Cohen, founder and CEO of the prestigious accelerator TechStars, discusses his approach to telling entrepreneurs they didn't make the cut, or worse...
The pioneering technology accelerator TechStars did something for its own business rather than the fledgling companies in its program last week, raising $24 million in venture funding (bringing their total to $34 million) from some 75 venture funds and angel investors. Of course, TechStars plans to use that money to give $100,000 of additional seed finance to every single startup admitted to one of its programs in 2012 and beyond.
The funding could make the accelerator even more competitive than it is today from an admissions perspective. The pool of entrepreneurs vying for one of 60 spots in this prestigious franchise--currently operating in Boulder, Boston, New York, and Seattle--faces a 99% likelihood of rejection, reports David Cohen, CEO and founder of TechStars (in image above, left with David Tisch, right).
But it’s a small world, after all, especially in the tech startup scene. Here, collaboration is the new competition; survivors can only attract talent with a positive rep; and venture investors and angels do deals in syndicates, increasingly.
So how does TechStars break bad news--either to applicants, enrolled entrepreneurs in trouble, or even investors angling for a piece of the action--without making rejections feel like a slight?
Here’s what works, according to David Cohen…
FAST COMPANY: Can you explain how TechStars measure its progress as an incubator? What are you aiming to achieve?
DAVID COHEN: Ultimately, we measure ourselves on the success of our investments. We've already returned our 2007 and 2008 vintage funds in full to our investors, and have strong remaining upside. So we know the model works, and we think it's getting better every year. In the end, we're investors, and we should be measured that way.
Success is really hard to measure in a one-year timeframe. But there have been plenty of companies that have come out of TechStars [recently] that have raised large venture rounds, or become really interesting businesses.
We don't like to measure success by raising money though, and some of our most interesting companies have been heavily bootstrapped. It's an indication of interesting stuff, though.
[which creates real time panoramic views of the world] bootstrapped for a while, became very profitable, and then raised $7 million. raised $5.75 million [for its email infrastructure in the cloud business and technology] and is doing fantastically well. [which helps publishers optimize and distribute their content to tablet device users] raised $6 million after completing the NYC program earlier this year. They also have a deal to power all WordPress.com tablet views, now. [a social media loyalty and rewards venture] raised $7.5 million from our early 2011 class.
In terms of stats, the average TechStars company now raises more than $1 million post-program. Seven of the first 20 and eight of the first 30 companies have now been acquired by the likes of Jive, WordPress, and AOL, too.
Why--when it's getting more economical to start and run a business--do TechStars companies need a $100,000 convertible note up front?
Sure, it's economical... but living on $18,000 for three months, then surviving for another two or three months while you wait for a financing event to come together can be pretty rough, especially when you factor in a temporary move. The companies can't hire at all [given these circumstances].
We noticed that most of them were running around trying to raise a small amount of money during the program, causing them to become less focused. We think $100,000 seed financing is exactly the right amount to offer companies going through TechStars.
What makes entrepreneurs want to get into TechStars above other programs?
Geography is certainly part of it--we're [operating] in fantastic markets. But I think it's the community approach; we're supported by more than 75 venture funds and angels. As you can see, our new funding round comes from a wide national syndicate. That's unique--and it means you have many high quality people and funds vested in your success if you get into TechStars.
It's also the mentorship--our mentors are the best of the best, and they engage deeply with our companies. I also think our alumni are spreading the word--they've loved their experiences.
Lots of incubators or accelerators are trying to do what you do.How can you stay dominant in this crowded space? Is it all about offering more money to businesses that make the cut?
Like anything, I think it's having a quality product. Our product is helping our companies. We're giving them unfair advantages. We're building their network. We're providing the best access to funding as efficiently as possible. We're also focused on quality over quantity.
We fund about 10 companies at a time, and put all of our energy into them. Quality and a great product matters, in startups, and in accelerators…
How does a CEO get into TechStars, now? Are there new tests to pass with this funding?
Nothing changes with the funding. We will continue to vet companies on the big five things [we always have]-- team, team, team, market, idea in that order.
How do you deal with breaking bad news to people within the tight-knit community of startups, investors, and tech talent?
We try to be direct and explain the reasons behind such decisions.
Ninety-nine percent of applicants don't make it in. We point them towards other opportunities, and try to answer each and every email. We sort of pride ourselves on this.
Our goal is to be honest and direct with them. Often it's not that they suck, it's that we had other stuff we were more interested in--but when they have issues, we just try to point those out directly. We may, of course, be wrong.
As for investors, they're used to competition for great opportunities. We tell them that they have to add value--it's really simple. Companies typically select investors that they think add the most value.
What do you tell an entrepreneur whose team, tech, or business model isn't really working?
Again, we can be direct with them. If you watch the that’s now airing on Bloomberg TV, you'll see these "pivots," and you'll see us being direct about them. We stress that it's their company, and we're behind any decision they make. But we're direct and even aggressive with our feedback.
We encourage [TechStars] mentors to be the same. They have to take a Socratic approach. We encourage them to share their opinions very directly. Patterns emerge quickly.
Who do you think is really good at breaking bad news in business?
I don’t know. But it's never as bad as you envision it. It's like ripping off a Band-Aid. I think entrepreneurs really appreciate directness and honesty, coupled with empathy. That's the approach that I try to take, and that I encourage our team to take generally.
What do you personally do to prepare to “rip off the Band-Aid,” as you say?
I don't prepare much--I just go in and deliver the news. I've found that when I'm direct people almost always appreciate it. I've had to deal with entrepreneurs who did something really wrong, and I had to disassociate with them. In those rare cases, most of them have learned from it.
Basically, I don't tolerate dishonesty or things that are clearly immoral. Life is too short, and I have enough stuff to do with straightforward people.
In the rare cases where I've had to cut a company loose, I just tell them why and wish them luck, and hope they learn something from it. I don't spend more mental energy on it than I have to, and I try very hard not to hold a grudge or try to negatively affect them either. It's just done for me.
[Image courtesy of: ]
A Solar-Powered Alternative To Insecticides
Organic farmers have a wealth of alternatives to synthetic insecticides--biological pest control, row covers, and even natural insecticides. A company called has a different alternative: a solar-powered system that attracts, disorients, and ultimately kills insects.
The system is incredibly effective, if AgriSolar is to be believed. The company claims that it can kill 85% to 90% of all harmful insects on an organic farm. The secret is AgriSolar's lightbulb, which "is designed with certain color spectrum that attracts significantly more bugs," according to CFO Arnold Tinter. Here's how the system works: Solar panels power up the lightbulb, which turns on at dusk when insects start coming out. The insects are attracted to the bulb (from a 20-acre radius), become disoriented, and then eventually fall into a water-filled collection bin.
"Structurally, there's not much to it," says Tinter. That doesn't mean it's cheap, however; most large, two-bulb units run between $1,000 and $1,200. This is, according to Tinter, comparable to the cost of chemical insecticides.
AgriSolar's units have already been deployed widely in China, where there are at least 100,000 systems in over 20 provinces (in Guangdong, for example, there are 22 units being tested on rice, vegetable, lychee, dragon eye, banana, sugercane, orange, flowers, and tea tree crops). The solar-powered units are also currently being tested in the U.S. and Europe. If they work as well as AgriSolar claims, we imagine that they will quickly become popular.
[Image courtesy of AgriSolar]
Reach Ariel Schwartz via or email.
4 Reasons Why The Smart Grid Has Failed To Take Off
Since performing research for my book, (written with Hunter Lovins) a few years ago, I have become increasingly convinced that the smart grid has the potential to be one of the "holy grails" in the clean tech revolution. I believe that the smart grid can be the enabling technology that allows all kinds of other low-carbon innovations to flourish.
The smart grid will give industrial, commercial, and residential consumers real-time access to energy consumption and costs, which will lead to demand side reductions (i.e. energy efficiency). It also promises to support distributed, renewable energies from rooftop solar panels to electric vehicles (EVs). Combined with smart homes, the latter could even be used to power a consumer's home for a few days in the case of power outages, which could be in frequency, volume, and duration with help from smart grids.
With corporate behemoths like GE, Cisco, and IBM as well as hundreds (if not thousands) of tech startups already in this space, why hasn't the smart grid become more ubiquitous? Unsurprisingly, Europe seems further down the path with the potential to leverage wind power from the North Sea Grid and solar power from southern Europe in a continental supergrid. But why hasn't the U.S. made more progress towards smart grid connectivity?
I think one of the biggest challenges is the industry's lack of stakeholder engagement from consumers (corporate and residential) and politicians. When utilities have in the past held referendums regarding the investment in smart grid technologies, does not always go in their favor. This is often because consumers believe that the costs outweigh the benefits. More needs to be done to clearly establish the business case for smart grid adoption. Of course, I am not alone in recognizing this issue. is focused squarely on the problem. And Katharine Brass, the Program Manager for GE's Ecoimagination program, recently that the biggest barrier to more widespread adoption is consumer perception. Security Concerns. In today's world of heightened concerns over terrorism and increasingly sophisticated hackers, there is no wonder many worry about the vulnerability that our energy system could be exposed to if it truly were as IT-focused (and dependent) as we envision. This is a legitimate concern being addressed by the industry, as evidenced by the forthcoming to be held next week in San Diego.Standards. To Fast Company readers, this will sound like a familiar problem. Numerous technology providers are offering a range of technology solutions ,from smart meters to grid automation software--and many of them have a vested interest in using proprietary, closed standards. The smart grid will only succeed on a large scale if technology suppliers agree to work on an open standard. Regulatory and Policy Support. The U.S. has a difficult landscape for bringing the energy industry into the 21st century. We have a mix of federal regulation and state legislation, as well as some level of autonomy at the municipal level. A great book that explains this issue is . Guido Bartels, IBM’s head of Global Energy and Utilities, Chairman of GridWise Alliance and an adviser to the Obama Administration, has also about the need for more regulatory action to provide the proper incentives for the adoption of smart grid technology.
I have no doubt that we will see continued progress towards the adoption of smart grid technology in the U.S. And yes, there has been progress. More than 20 million smart meters have already been installed in the country, with approximately 60 million planned for near-term installation. However, the barriers discussed above are legitimate challenges that the industry and its stakeholders need to overcome. For example, in the past few months, BC Hydro encountered opposition from consumers and municipalities in British Columbia to its smart reader rollout because of fears about low-level radiation. For now, BC Hydro has committed to moving forward with or without community support. Perhaps the utility should consider addressing barriers number one and four for their next phase of the smart grid deployment.
[Image: Flickr user ]
Boyd Cohen, Ph.D., LEED AP, is a climate strategist helping to lead communities, cities and
companies on the journey towards the low carbon economy. Dr. Cohen is
the co-author of Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate
Change.
Google Amps Up Analytics, Facebook Spartan En Route, Playbook Cuts Prices To Keep Up With Kindle Fire
The world's dominant search engine released its enterprise-grade Google Analytics Premium product on Thursday. According to an official , Premium lets Google's corporate clients: track and collect data in real-time; create customized reports on their digital campaigns using 50 different variables; get technical support, live, from Google technicians; and export high volumes of data for analysis. Pilot customers for Premium included: Gucci, Travelocity, TransUnion, eHarmony and others. The service costs a flat fee of $150,000 a year. --LK
. With all the innovation in building and materials science these days--think of flexible, thin film solar panels or ultra-light concrete--it might surprise people that wood, at least when it's harvested in a sustainable way, remains among the greenest. A released on Thursday found that "using wood in building products yields fewer greenhouse gases than using other common materials." Trees killed by insects in national and state parks could even be used in buildings, reducing the risk of forest fires, USDA chiefs also suggested. --LK
--Updated 5:30 p.m. EST
A leaked mobile developers page has revealed the insides of a new mobile Facebook app, that TechCrunch identifies and confirms to be the rumored Project Spartan, Facebook's web-based HTML5 mobile app. The app will be accessed through Safari rather than the Apple App Store, giving Facebook a little more independence with the application, compared to the regular iPhone Facebook app available on the Apple App Store, or the long-awaited iPad app. --NS
Nokia To Build OS For Cheap Phones. will turn to creating an operating system for its low-end phones, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new Linux-based operating system, Meltemi, and its development will be led by Mary McDowell, VP in charge of mobile phones. --NS
--Updated 8:50 a.m. EST
. Late yesterday and into the early hours this morning, has been slowly expanding the offerings in its international iTunes stores as well as adding new countries. All 12 remaining nations in the EU are now covered by the Music store, and new TV, movie and e-book content has begun showing up in numerous nations where it was previously absent (Portugal's iBookstore, for example, now has a handful of paid e-books). The unannounced roll-out occurred mere hours after Amazon's Kindle event. --KE
--Updated 7:30 a.m. EST
. China will try to launch the first element of its space station today, the latest development in its rapidly-growing space plans, built upon original Russian tech innovations. Left out of development of the ISS, China is going it alone with the Tiangong 1 module--a tiny test bed that's part of "Project 921-2," a later plan to develop a massive orbiting space station due on-line in 2020, just as the ISS is closing. The launch aboard a Long March 2F rocket is due at 8:15 a.m. EST --KE
. Hours after took the wraps off their , a $199 Wi-Fi tablet, BlackBerry began selling their 16GB Playbooks on Best Buy in the U.S. at the bargain rate of $299, a $200 cutback from its original $499 tag. Other Playbook models, versions with 32GB and 64GB memories, also saw a $200 price drop from their pre-Fire days. --NS [Update: Barnes & Noble also cut their tablet price, and is now offering its Nook at a $25 discount.]
. Daily deals website may soon feature offers on items like furniture and sunglasses, through a new service, Groupon Goods. The company announced deals on household items like coffeemakers and televisions via email to some customers, Reuters reports. This new line of daily deals would follow yesterday's launch of a premium deals program, "Groupon Rewards." --NS
. has launched a new photo album sharing service called Photo Session. The service has a strong social flavor--up to 10 people can follow a slide show led by one person, while being able to talk to each other via a conference call feature that's built in. That's Flickr trying to keep in step with Facebook as the main place for people to share photographs, the . The updated Flickr iPhone app, and the brand new Android app are also out, and feature photo filters, like those on popular photo app, . --NS
--Updated 5:15 a.m. EST
Yesterday's Fast Feed: Amazon Reveals Kindle Fire, Google Motorola Deal Under DOJ Scrutiny, Goldman Sachs Hacked, and more.