Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Fast Company

On an overcast morning in June, a dozen or so young illustrators and animators gather in the lunchroom at the Bitstrips offices, located in an unassuming industrial building in Toronto’s swiftly gentrifying Queen Street West neighborhood. The occasion is the creative department’s twice-weekly brainstorming session, known internally as a Bitmojam, during which a new crop of bitmoji, the company’s illustrated digital mash notes, will begin to take shape. On a whiteboard, someone has written out the day’s challenge: “Shade.” Below that are listed six mildly derisive comebacks one might find useful in a text conversation, including “Are you f——ing kidding me?,” “Slow clap,” and “You had one job. . . .” Bitmoji are perhaps best described as the mobile web’s version of Hallmark cards, but better. Cartoon greetings that feature…

“Luxury is a state of mind: It’s how [something] makes you feel,” says Ian Schrager, the nightlife impresario turned hotelier, who is frequently credited (often by himself) for inventing the boutique hotel. His latest property, Public, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, has all the trappings of a high-end hotel, from the minimalist, light-filled architecture of the Pritzker Prize– winning firm Herzog & de Meuron to the restaurants from celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. But the price of a guest room? Starting at about $200 a night. Hotel brands have been trying— and failing—to hit the sweet spot of “affordable luxury” for the past decade, especially in cities like New York, where the average room went for more than $250 a night last year, according to travel consultancy STR. Most brands end…

BETTERMENT Already the largest of the independent robo-advisers, approaching $10 billion under management, the New York– based Betterment aspires to be much more. When advice is in your company DNA, argues cofounder Eli Broverman, you’re well positioned to add products like insurance, lending, and more. CREDIT KARMA With more than 70 million customers, CEO Kenneth Lin has been able to turn an unsexy credit-monitoring business into a powerhouse that also offers Americans recommendations for products such as credit cards, personal loans, and mortgages. FABRIC When Fabric launched its debut product this past spring—a life-insurance offering geared toward first-time parents—cofounder and CEO Adam Erlebacher was already setting his sights on savings accounts and retirement planning. “We are very customercentric,” he says. SOFI CEO Mike Cagney launched SoFi in 2011 with a…

As malls across the country succumb to declining foot traffic and the lure of online shopping, a development in Los Angeles’s artsy Culver City neighborhood is proving that it’s still possible to draw customers in person—if you design the right experience. Called Platform, the year-and-a-half-old space is a cluster of boutiques, workout studios, offices, and restaurants by up-and-coming chefs, all housed in an Instagram-worthy refurbished industrial complex. As customers line up for the mall’s free yoga classes and stroll through its outdoor gardens, Platform is emerging as a template for a new kind of shopping experience. Developers David Fishbein and Joey Miller, principals of the real estate company Runyon Group, prioritize experimentation. To secure a lease, each of the 26 long-term tenants had to offer an experience unique to its…

Uber TROUBLED TRANSIT PIONEER Execs are fleeing, founding CEO Travis Kalanick is out, and some users are souring on the company due to allegations of sexual harassment and worker mistreatment. Customers want decency along with disruption. (See page 25.) Wells Fargo BANK ON THE BRINK After a scandal involving fake customer accounts (with real fees) destroyed public confidence in the brand, the company ousted its CEO. Luring back customers will require a major goodwill deposit. United Airlines MAJOR CARRIER, BIG HEADACHE No one loves airlines, but when a video went viral of a passenger being dragged off a plane earlier this year, and United’s response was notably tone-deaf, the company came to represent everything people hate about modern air travel. NFL A LEAGUE UNDER PRESSURE Concussions and bad player behavior…

Ian Rogers Chief digital officer, LVMH Growing up in Goshen, Indiana, Ian Rogers was far more excited about skateboarding, punk rock, and hip-hop than haute couture, and his fashion sense ran toward baggy Carhartt and Dickies items purchased from Walmart. “We were literally dressed like janitors,” he recalls. These days Rogers operates in a decidedly higher-end milieu. In 2015, luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH—which owns Givenchy, Bulgari, and Marc Jacobs, among many others—hired him to be the company’s first chief digital officer. A former roadie for the Beastie Boys, Rogers had spent more than two decades in the music industry, including stints as CEO of Beats Music and senior director of Apple Music, where he oversaw iTunes Radio. At LVMH, Rogers is tapping skills he learned while navigating the music business’s turbulent…

Buck Mason men’s shirts From $28 buckmason.com “Buck Mason’s T-shirts are the only ones I wear—they’re classic, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Plus, they’re made in the U.S. and sewn in Los Angeles.” Ryan Williams Cofounder and president, Jopwell Jiva-Apoha oils From $60 jivaapoha.com “This woman-owned company’s handcrafted oils are beautiful and aromatic. Each one has its own healing property, like calming or awakening.” Bertha González Nieves Cofounder and CEO, Casa Dragones Tequila Studio Endo’s Ditri light fixture $2,500 studioendo.com “The modern, metal light fixture makes a statement with its unique style, high-quality craftsmanship, and glow.” Eric Silverman Founder, Silverman Real Estate Hedley & Bennett aprons From $58 hedleyandbennett.com “I love cooking, and I’ve always wanted something stylish yet functional to wear in the kitchen. Enter Hedley & Bennett’s durable, handmade…

Chelsea Hirschhorn can recall the moment she came up with each of the gadgets she has developed for her company, Fridababy. There was the time she was cleaning her dog’s teeth with a canine wraparound toothbrush and wished she had one for her 3-year-old; a few months later, she launched a three-sided child toothbrush that is now available in 18,000 Targets. Or there was that night when her 16-month-old was sick, and Hirschhorn woke him every hour to check his temperature; that inspired a patch that sticks under a child’s arm and sends temperature data every few seconds to a smartphone app. These tools might not be revolutionary, but Hirschhorn’s focusgroup- of-one strategy is clearly connecting. In the three years since she became the CEO of a small business with…

There’s no such thing as a typical look from Rodarte, the independent fashion label founded 11 years ago by sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy and beloved by critics and celebrities for its dark, romantic sensibility. Each garment is a unique mix of hand-altered fabrics, materials, and embellishments, offering a glimpse of the Mulleavys’ seemingly limitless imagination. This month, they’re bringing that same ingenuity to the big screen in Woodshock, a fantastical thriller written and directed by the Mulleavys and starring Kirsten Dunst. Here’s how they are expanding their brand into new mediums. Lean in to your in experience The Mulleavys were recent college graduates with no ties to the fashion industry when they started Rodarte in 2006. Instead of being a liability, the Mulleavys’ outsider status has helped them preserve…

YouTube BreeAnn Streng, Grand Rapids, Michigan “The best thing about YouTube is I can totally open up, showing my tattoos and piercings without having to censor myself or conform to what society thinks I should look like. I got this tattoo as a memory piece. I never thought I would reach over 100,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, and the day I did was mind-blowing.” Nike Melanie von Lonski, Braunschweig, Germany “I am a sneaker enthusiast, and I think the Nike Air Max 1 is one of the best ever. [These shoes] accompanied me through very important years of my life until, sadly, I grew out of them.” Starbucks Eli Yager, Vallejo, California “I am a proud [employee] of Starbucks, and it has done so much for me. For my…

NOVEMBER 25, 1993 Rhimes’s script about a black family in the South wins a prestigious film-school prize, but she can’t get the art film made. AUGUST 21, 1999 Rhimes’s first credit is a TV biopic of actresssinger Dorothy Dandridge (played by Halle Berry). She’s inspired by Dandridge’s calm but tough response to racism. FEBRUARY 15, 2002 Crossroads, Britney Spears’s big-screen debut and Rhimes’s first movie, is panned as lazy, contrived, and bland— phrases that don’t apply to Rhimes’s later TV work. JANUARY 30, 2004 Buzz starts building for Rhimes’s TV pilot, only the second one she’d written, about a group of medical interns in a Seattle hospital. ABC nicknames it “Sex and the Surgery.” MARCH 27, 2005 Grey’s Anatomy debuts, lauded for its diverse cast and fresh spin on the…

Not long after Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick was forced to step down as CEO following a spate of scandals at his ride-hailing company, one influential venture capitalist tried to convince me that there were no larger lessons to be learned from the debacle. Uber, explained this VC, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, was not emblematic of some “rottenness” at the heart of Silicon Valley. Rather, Kalanick’s tenure at Uber was simply an “anomaly.” Across the tech industry, startup founders, employees, and investors have been grappling with how to interpret Kalanick’s stunning rise and fall. Having built Uber into a disruptive force, a global service with more than 14,000 employees in 600-plus cities, and the highest-valued startup in history (approximately $70 billion)—all in just eight years—Kalanick seemed…

Dallas resident Steven Card has a thing for Costco hot dogs. “Every time I go, I Snapchat the sign, [telling friends,] ‘I’m here again!’ ” he says. So when the 26-year-old started trading stocks through Robinhood— an online brokerage that launched in 2014—it made sense to him to buy shares of both Costco and Snap, Snapchat’s newly public parent company. Card’s other stock holdings follow a similar pattern: Ford (there’s one in his garage), AMD (maker of the graphics card in his computer), and Anheuser-Busch InBev (cheers to that). “If I’ve never heard of the company, I don’t usually feel comfortable buying it,” says Card, who further vets his trades by reading financial statements and texting with a group of childhood friends who have also become Robinhood fans. When a…

Last year, Vanessa Stofenmacher wanted to expand her three-yearold direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand, Vrai & Oro, to include engagement rings. But she couldn’t stand the thought of buying traditionally mined diamonds, which are often unearthed in war-torn countries and sold to fund conflicts. Here’s how she found a stone with no skeletons, and modernized the engagement-ring shopping experience along the way. 1 Romancing the stone Stofenmacher’s search for ethical gems led her to Diamond Foundry, a Leonardo DiCaprio–backed startup that uses a plasma reactor to produce diamonds in a lab. “[Diamond Foundry] changes the environment in which diamonds grow without changing the product itself,” Stofenmacher says. She decided to use its stones in her rings; the partnership deepened last year when Diamond Foundry acquired Vrai & Oro to help commercialize…

Lyft THE OTHER RIDE-HAILING APP Once considered something of an also-ran, Lyft has surged as disgruntled Uber users have come to think of it as a warm-and-friendly alternative. In the week after #DeleteUber trended in early 2017, Lyft saw an increase in new users of more than 60%, and numbers have continued to be strong. Slack CHAT-CENTRIC WORKPLACE TOOL This increasingly vital platform is bringing social media’s unending digital connectivity to the office environment (and is another company that’s now a verb). Workers love it. Is it a productivity helper, or just another addiction? Everlane CULT CLOTHING RETAILER As consumers shun malls and embrace socially aware products, Everlane’s high-quality wardrobe basics—manufactured responsibly using minimal water and energy— represent a stylish alternative. Sweetgreen FAST-CASUAL SALAD SPOT Casual dining meets the locavore…

APRIL 2006 Anne Wojcicki cofounds 23andMe out of an apartment in Mountain View, California, naming the company after the 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain every human’s DNA blueprint. NOVEMBER 2007 23andMe begins offering its DNA spit test directly to consumers. The service costs $999 and provides reports on 14 traits and health conditions. OCTOBER 2008 23andMe’s test is named Time magazine’s “Invention of the Year.” JUNE 2010 The FDA sends warning letters to 23andMe and other direct-toconsumer genetic-testing companies, alerting them that their tests will be regulated as medical devices and they should begin the FDA-approval process. AUGUST 2013 23andMe launches the first national TV advertising campaign for its Personal Genome Service kit, which reports on more than 250 inherited conditions, traits, and disease risks, along with genetic ancestry.…