Poketo

There are times when art and commerce collide in a great way. In the case of Poketo, that collision was quite literal: The company got its start selling wallets that were designed by emerging artists.

Poketo has been bringing affordable, art-minded products to the masses since 2003. That year, founders Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung invited six artist friends to design vinyl wallets to sell at a gallery show, to great success. The married couple decided to do another wallet series, then branched out to artist-designed stationery, housewares and T-shirts. They now sell their products at Poketo.com, the MoMA Store, Anthropologie, CB2 and Urban Outfitters.

Their philosophy, Vadakan says, is "art for everyday: bringing art into your everyday life, things you can wear and use."

Poketo has been commissioned to design wallets for MTV, Nike and bands such as the Shins, Arcade Fire and Weezer. But the biggest boon came in 2010, when its 52-piece collection for Target sold out in weeks. "The challenge," Vadakan says, "is retaining that audience and continuing to grow."

Revenue has increased every year since launch (aside from a blip in 2009, when much of retail took a hit). 2010 sales were $750,000, and a 15 to 20 percent gain is projected for 2011.

Most items are produced in limited editions that range from less than 100 to a few thousand, and each product comes packaged with the artist's bio. "There's a story behind it, and people can connect with it in a human way," Vadakan says.

Poketo's artists receive a percentage of sales of their work. For them, Poketo and sites like ideeli and One Kings Lane offer new opportunities for exposure. "It's one of the ways the internet is allowing people to be discovered in different ways than being seen in the aisle of a store," says Dan Butler, vice president of merchandising and retail operations at the National Retail Federation.

And for creative people who lost jobs during the recession, artwork may be a way to replace lost income. "It's a way of engaging their skills differently," Butler explains. "In some cases, it makes sense to create new products."

For artists and consumers, Poketo represents commerce with a genuine personality. "It's not only the products," Vadakan says of the company's appeal, "but a connection with the brand."

Here is their website: Poketo Art for Your Everyday

Goldstar

Startup #1: Goldstar It is the world’s largest online seller of half-price tickets to a broad range of live entertainment.

How’d they do it?Starting with $1000 ($800 being paid to the state) Rich Webster, Jim McCarthy, and Robert Graff noticed something wrong with the ticketing business.

Venues were giving away tickets for free to shows that were unsellable. Instead of being able to fill up a show, venues found themselves with a lot of unwanted seats. The trio quickly realized that it was a lose-lose situation for both the consumers and the venues, and decided to take action. “No venue wants to be told that their product is worthless, and no customer wants to go see a show that’s unsellable,”  said Robert Graff.

In October of 2001, Webster, McCarthy, and Graff decided to do just that and GoldStar was born. They were able to get the company off of the ground by focusing on their solution for popular undersold shows.

Already disenchanted with the waste of funds and inefficiency caused by accepting VC investments they’d seen at another Startup, the trio decided against seeking any outside funding. “We purposefully didn’t want anyone else’s money because we didn’t want their advice” said Graff.

Today, Goldstar works directly with 4,000 venue partners to connect them with their huge and growing audience. Venues list tickets with Goldstar to sell to their members for a discounted price. The company has over 1.5 million subscribers and offers over 900 tickets to events at one time.

Here is the link to their website: Goldstar International Express Couriers :: Providing a full range of ...

RecycleBank

RecycleBank

New York
Founders: Ron Gonen and Patrick Fitzgerald
VC (Venture Capital) Investment over the last four quarters: $30 million

Founded in 2004 by Columbia Business School grad Ron Gonen, RecycleBank is a recycling system designed for municipalities that rewards people for recycling with points that can be redeemed at retailers. The company, which has raised a total of $45 million, contracts with cities and towns to set up systems to collect and track recycling. Currently running in 15 states and dozens of cities from Alexandria, Va., to Albuquerque, N.M., RecycleBank makes money by taking a cut of the savings municipalities realize by reducing the amount of waste they send to landfills. With local government looking to save during the downturn, Gonen calls it a "unique time in our growth curve."

Key to startup success: "The most important thing, more important than price, valuation, or EBITDA, is the quality and character of the person with whom you are doing business."

Here is a link to their website:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=recycle%2Bbank&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CHIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.recyclebank.com%2F&ei=r3XCTubtB8iX8QOg97mzBA&usg=AFQjCNEA2oxDHlkxLS6Fkj1ACRs_s5lAfw&sig2=ib-gxxk-DBGUoZYtb6XKdw

Groupon

Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies. Groupon was launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston,New York City, and Toronto. As of October 2010, Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 35 million registered users. In October 2011, a report from Forrester Research suggested that the Groupon business model was a "disaster", and that the firm had become an example of "how fast an Internet darling can fall."

The idea for Groupon was created by now-CEO and Pittsburgh native Andrew Mason. The idea subsequently gained the attention of his former employer, Eric Lefkofsky, who provided $1 million in "seed money" to develop the idea. In April 2010, the company was valued at $1.35 billion. According to a report conducted by Groupon's marketing association and reported inForbes Magazine, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal, Groupon is "projecting that the company is on pace to make $1 billion in sales faster than any other business, ever".

Groupon was born out of The Point in November 2008. Its name blends from “group” and “coupon”. Groupon's first deal was a half-price offer for pizzas for the restaurant on the first floor of its building in Chicago.

Groupon serves 500 markets and 44 countries, the many major geographic markets internationally include cites in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy,Poland, Portugal, Spain, Puerto Rico, Japan, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Sweden, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Norway, Romania, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Russia and South Africa .

In Australia, development of Groupon has been slow owing to legal disputes between Groupon and an Australian company, Scoopon. Groupon now operates in Australia as "Stardeals" while the legal problems are worked out.

On February 19, 2011 The Wall Street Journal reported that Groupon was preparing to launch in China.

Groupon is also expanding into the MENA region with its launch of Groupon UAE on June 16, 2011.

Groupon New Zealand launched on 10 May 2011 in conjunction with local Facebook tourism hub Gotta Love NZ. The New Zealand market is already crowded with over 50 deal sites active.

2 Great College Startups

- At the tender age of 14, Jessica Mah sold her first company, which rented server space to small businesses, at a marginal profit. She then set up jessicamah.com and began to blog about business and technology from a young person's perspective. Last fall, Mah, now a Berkeley junior, came up with the idea for a new venture, which she began to chronicle on the site. "All of us were looking for internships, and I had no clue where to start," Mah says. "This is how business ideas begin: You want to do something, and you run into problems." Equal parts Craigslist and Mediabistro, the new site, InternshipIN, helps students identify high-quality internships—i.e., internships that do not involve "getting coffee and making copies," Mah says. Much of the initial traffic has come through a partnership with SimplyHired, a job search engine. Eventually, Mah hopes to begin charging employers a fee to post listings on the site.




- Last year, Caroline Rooney launched The Bearon, an upbeat T-shirt line sold primarily through her own website and independent sales reps on six other college campuses, including the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Syracuse University, and Northwestern. The 19-year-old is donating 20 percent of the profit from every shirt sold to three charities: UNICEF, the Alzheimer's Foundation, and New York City's Public Art Fund. For marketing, she maintains a page on Facebook, holds events with campus Greek organizations, and often speaks at assemblies and club meetings. She also maintains a blog on her website, thebearon.com, on which she promotes her favorite artists and photographers, and posts photographs of customers wearing her shirts in cities around the world. "It's getting to the point where I don't recognize some of the people who are sending in orders, calling in questions, or walking around campus wearing the shirts," Rooney says. "That's when you know the word of mouth has gone to the next level, and that's really exciting."

Digg!

Kevin Rose (born Robert Kevin Rose, February 21, 1977) is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk.


Digg is a user driven social content website. Everything on Digg is user-submitted. After you submit content, other people read your submission and “Digg” what they like best. If your story receives enough Diggs, it’s promoted to the front page for other visitors to see.
Kevin Rose came up with the idea for Digg in the fall of 2004. He found programmer Owen Byrne through eLance and paid him $10/hour to develop the idea. In addition, Rose paid $99 per month for hosting and $1,200 for the Digg.com domain. In December of 2004, Kevin launched his creation to the world through a post on his blog.
Digg has been a force ever since. Acquisition offers have been made, Rose was on the cover of BusinessWeek and according to Alexa, Digg is in the top 100 most trafficked sites on the internet. The success hasn’t come without its share of problems though. The site has had to face services aimed at gaming the way stories hit the front page, as well as a user revolt. Digg has however been able to get over these hurdles as it continues to be one of the social news leaders.
Digg is a user driven social content website. Everything on Digg is user-submitted. After you submit content, other people read your submission and “Digg” what they like best. If your story receives enough Diggs, it’s promoted to the front page for other visitors to see.

Pret A Manger

Pret A Manger has come a long way in a short time. in just 16 years of trading it has changed the way we lunch forever. In the past, if inner city workers wanted to nip out and get a snack they could either go to a specialist, independently run sandwich shop or a supermarket where standards can vary from good to (more frequently) very bad. This is where Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham stepped in to fill the gap.

Three years after having graduated from the Polytechnic of Central London with the same degree (Urban Estate Management), Beecham and Metcalfe opened their first Pret a Manger store in Victoria in London with a name borrowed from a boarded up shop. However, after twelve years of running the business the two co-founders decided to take a more back seat approach and appointed Andrew Rolf as a partner, shareholder and chairman of the overall operation.

The angles or values Rolfe mentions are key to the brands’ continuing success and have been purposefully retained throughout Pret’s lifetime, something many small businesses could aspire to. Pret’s chairman believes the company to still be as strong as ever. “There are three core values that have always remained true to the brand and they all stem around passion. First and foremost, we are passionate about food and keeping it fresh and interesting. This is our core product and we work hard to produce the best we can. It would be easier to get tubs of guacamole instead of cutting fresh avocados in each kitchen in each shop but we stick to quality and taste."

When a brand gets bigger, expansion plans come into question and new partners need to be found to achieve successful growth. This is why last year the McDonalds Corporation bought a 33 per cent stake in the company that gave Pret access to their global infrastructure in property as well as improved construction and distribution and new ways of spreading the brand abroad.

Do you think there is a future for Pret in Asia? How big could they get?