Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Fast Company

75,000 That’s how many companies have signed up for Uber for Business since its 2014 launch. Among its recent exploits, Uber leveraged its consumer dominance to woo firms into letting users create separate profiles for work rides and introduced UberEvents, which enables companies to prearrange transport. Emil Michael, Uber’s SVP of business, credits employees with company adoption: “It’s like millennials coming into work and asking to connect their iPhones into IT.”…

Seven years after pundits opined that Apple’s Beijing store would have trouble moving phones, China now accounts for 25% of the company’s total revenue, with sales doubling every year. “If you look back five years, China’s middle class had about 50 million people,” Tim Cook told investors last October, “and if you look ahead five years, it will have 10 times that number. I feel like we are reasonably well positioned in China.” That’s an understatement: iPhone 6 was the number one–selling smartphone in mainland China at the end of 2015. And the iPhone 6 Plus, such a perfect fit for the Chinese market? Number two. This popularity is also spurring App Store revenue, which in China grew 127% in 2015; the country today boasts 1 million iOS developers. By…

The hip optical shop doubled its retail locations to 20 in the past year and experimented with a handful of non-eyewear products, from mugs to cookies, in order to “get permission to enter more categories in the future,” says co–CEO Dave Gilboa. At the same time, Warby Parker recommitted to its mission of bringing glasses to people who need them. Since its founding, it has distributed pairs throughout the developing world. Now, thanks to a new part nership with the City of New York, it’s helping to ensure that kids in high-needs schools back home receive eye exams—and, if necessary, free Warby Parker–designed frames. The company has also piloted a program with DonorsChoose.org to encourage teachers to partner with Warby Parker to provide free screenings and glasses for their students;…

0.1 millimeters The margin of error with which the new onearmed Sawyer robot from Rethink Robotics per forms high-performance, high-precision manufacturing for companies such as GE and furniture maker Steelcase. Made for detail-oriented tasks, the 42-pound Sawyer takes just two hours to set up and requires little human oversight. Rethink already has distribution partners for Sawyer in China, Japan, and Latin America— proving the diminutive robot has global reach.…

PROBLEM Members of Asia’s rising middle class have few resources if they want to travel independently in their own region. SOLUTION An Asia-focused tours-and-activities online booking platform that connects travelers with 13,000 activities. SECRET WEAPON A first-for-the-region system that helps small tour operators manage everything from translations to inventory online. 2015 MOMENTUM A new integration with China’s online travel colossus CTrip has fueled an average month-over-month growth of 100%. NEW ALLIES Travel agents—a digital platform allows them to plan itineraries drawing from BeMyGuest’s tour inventory. WHAT’S NEXT Partnerships with other major travel engines in India and China in 2016; support for more Asian languages.…

After opening 2015 with an IPO, file-sharing service Box nailed down partnerships with Amazon, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce, helping it reach 41 million users. This strategy of aligning with tech behemoths is “necessary and fundamental,” according to CEO Aaron Levie. “The only way you choose Box is if you can connect our platform to all the other key business applications and devices that you’re using.” Here’s what Levie is getting from his new friends. 1 Global reach IBM’s “size and might,” as Levie puts it—almost 400,000 employees and more than $90 billion in revenue—is invaluable for his 1,400-person company. The Big Blue partnership introduces Box to a worldwide network of potential clients. “Literally, they are selling us,” he says. 2 The Apple mind-set As Apple’s user base balloons, employers…

PROBLEM Lost faith in financial institutions: 69% of 18- to 34-year-olds don’t trust banks, and 40% keep their net worth in cash. CLEVER SOLUTION Faith-building products such as a name-your-own-fee mutual fund and free-ATM, highinterest checking. WHY IT’S BETTER Puts the customer in control: Aspiration has to be great at every turn or the investor can opt to pay nothing. FOUNDER’S STORY CEO Andrei Cherny is a former policy wonk and financialfraud prosecutor who once worked with Elizabeth Warren. 2015 MOMENTUM Signed up tens of thousands of customers in first year; doubling every five weeks; 90%-plus of investors pay fees. WHAT ’S NEXT A single platform for banking, investing, and charitable giving. “We’re bringing people off the sidelines,” Cherny says.…

PANDORA Pandora is changing its tune. As more and more music fans sign up for on-demand streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, the Internet radio giant has lost some momentum, but now the company is transforming itself via a slew of recent deals and acquisitions. In July, Pandora bought musicdata-analytics startup Next Big Sound, giving the company deep insight into how people listen to songs online. Then last fall, it acquired concert-ticket site Ticketfly, which it’s now integrating into its core service, and signed a licensing deal with Sony/ATV, settling a longrunning dispute that threatened the company’s access to songs from big stars such as Adele and Taylor Swift. And in December, it purchased ondemand streaming site Rdio, which will let it compete with Spotify and Apple Music.…

Having established itself as a purveyor of binge-worthy shows such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, in 2015 Netflix ramped up its plan to become the first global online entertainment network: It released a new original title on the service every one and a half weeks—and then rang in the new year by bringing its service to an additional 130 countries and planning more than 700 hours of new programming. Netflix—which has nearly 70 million subscribers and has seen its stock rise 500% over the past five years—is laser-targeting demos to give them at least one title they can’t live without. Older viewers were treated to Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda; Between spoke to teens; Spanishlanguage audiences could watch Narcos and Club de Cuervos; Master…

Google cofounder Larry Page’s announcement of Alphabet, a new holding company that would house Google and convert many of his wildly forwardlooking technical pursuits into their own operating units, signaled a brilliant strategic play. The move allowed Page to step away from day-to-day management of Google; it quieted skeptics who carp about Google chasing dreams with no obvious connection to its core advertising business; and it empowered these ambitious projects to move faster. While questions remain about Alphabet’s mechanics, the reinvention has already borne fruit. Nest released its third-generation thermostat and is reportedly racing ahead on new augmentedreality glasses; Access is targeting larger cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago for its gigabit broadband service. Alphabet has also fostered new moon shots such as combating malaria and dengue fever with…

OPPORTUNITY As Android grows bloated, Cyanogen offers a more open, customizable version of the world’s dominant phone OS. STRATEGY Woos handset makers in hypercompetitive markets like India by letting them modify their own software. 2015 MOMENTUM Deals with OnePlus, Lenovo, India’s Micromax, and BQTelefonica to sell millions of Cyanogen handsets worldwide. 800 LB. RIVAL Google, which has become insistent that if device makers want Android, they have to take it Google’s way. SURPRISINGALLY Microsoft. Its deal offers Cortana and Skype on Cyanogen’s OS as alternatives to Google Now and Voice. WHAT ’S NEXT Giving developers more access to its OS to innovate app experiences; finding a workaround to the Google Play store.…

When Apple Music launched last June, it was a direct challenge to industry leader Spotify, but the Swedish startup’s subscriber growth just kept picking up speed; it now has more than 75 million users and 20 million paying customers. Why? Part of the reason is its growing slate of features, built on sophisticated analytics. “We are a metrics-driven organization,” says chief product officer Gustav Söderström. He explains the features that take Spotify from metrics to music. 1 Running To help people amp up their workouts, Spotify created Running, which matches tunes to your individual pace. “We said, ‘What if this digital music player could personalize not just based on your taste, but on the situation?’ ” Söderström says. “You’re going to see us take this approach elsewhere.” 2 Taste Rewind…

When the multiplayer online game League of Legends held its 2015 World Championship Final in the packed Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin last October, 36 million people watched online—nearly twice the audience of last year’s NBA Finals. Riot Games cofounders Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill first introduced the world to League of Legends back in 2009, when, Merrill says, live video-game competitions were “sort of analogous to track meets. They were cool opportunities for fans to come together, but the viewership and fan experience was severely limited.” Today, e-sports is a nearly $1 billion industry, complete with milliondollar prize winnings— and Riot Games is the dominant player. Riot now produces its own ESPN– like, online e-sports channel; oversees a system of divisions and tiers that players progress through to reach the…

The upscale cycling studio is riding its grapefruit-scented brand of escapism beyond its core hubs of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. As it rolls toward an expected 2016 IPO, SoulCycle is boasting a 23% profit margin—and quickly expanding its studio footprint. In 2015, it moved into Miami and Chicago and went from 37 to 55 studios, with plans to add another 10 to 15 every year until it has 250 U.S. sweat shops. Before it enters new cities, SoulCycle assesses demand via social media and pop-up events like its 10-city winter 2016 partnership with Target. At least three to four months prior to any launch, it deploys studio teams, instructors, and marketers to create awareness and excitement among local influencers and businesses. “Bringing joy to fitness,” says CEO…

With savvy investments in Box, Slack, Survey-Monkey, Wealthfront, and Second Market, Social Capital could have been content being a prosperous venture firm. Instead, according to founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya, it’s aiming to be “a progress factory.” Social Capital invests in startups, but when “industries [are] so lumbering that they are really holding back human potential,” the fund steps in and creates the solutions itself in the form of new businesses. Among the five companies Social Capital has started are Glooko, a diabetes-management service that uses data to help patients better manage the chronic ailment (Palihapitiya’s dad suffered from the disease), and Rama, a wireless carrier rolling out low-cost Wi-Fi in developing nations with an intent to disrupt the U.S. market as well. Palihapitiya and his partners try to focus…

Snapchat owes its transformation into a mobile entertainment hub—one that has deals with the NFL, MLB, Fashion Week, and every music festival you can think of—to Live Stories. The company introduced the feature, which allows users to follow stitched-together videos of live events, a little over a year ago. Since then, Live Stories has covered everything from the VMAs to Mecca during Ramadan. Up to 20 million of Snapchat’s 100 million users tune in each day. This isn’t just a cool element, but a major threat to the entertainment industry: More than twice as many 18- to 24-year-olds watched the first GOP debate as a Live Story as on live TV. Stories is also becoming a revenue stream for the company, as Snapchat offers attractive ad deals around these events…

Shopify, which started humbly as a way for its founders to sell snowboards, now sells e-commerce tools to more than 200,000 stores and was expected to generate almost $200 million in 2015 revenue. It’s growing at approximately 100% annually and nearing profitability. Why? Because it helps merchants go wherever people might want to buy. “Businesses half a year old can sell across five different channels,” says CEO Tobias Lütke. Here’s how Shopify supports them. 1 Social sales Shopify has been instrumental in bringing “Buy” buttons to social media, inking deals with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to create opportunities for its users where they hang out. Shopify clients using Pinterest Buyable Pins have doubled their conversion rate compared with other pins. 2 Virtual management Shopify’s app gives clients full control over…

As Sony and Oculus ready their virtual-reality headsets for the masses, one thing is clear: Early adopters will be angling for immersive content to feed into their devices. Palo Alto– based startup Jaunt has anticipated this demand, becoming a full-service shop for artists and brands seeking to crack the nongaming VR scene. Last summer, as part of what founder and CEO Jens Christensen calls its “professional pipeline,” Jaunt debuted an exclusive, highperformance 360-degree camera, which is able to film in low light and capture high-speed images and multidirectional sound. It also opened a studio in L.A. helmed by the former CTO of Lucasfilm. Jaunt has produced films for ABC News, the North Face, and Paul McCartney and counts both Disney and CAA–backed Evolution Media Partners among its investors. “There will…

ARCHITECTURE Structural design increasingly requires modularity and adaptability: The most compelling new buildings interact with their surroundings. OMA’s Timmerhuis city hall in Rotterdam, Netherlands, resembles stacked blocks—a nice visual effect that also allows units to be added or removed over time. Archiblox’s modular sustainable homes maximize sunlight. Other nature nurturers include SANAA’s Grace Farms River Building and Ingenhoven’s “Green Heart” high-rise, which will put a giant mountain amid Singapore’s bustle. 1. SANAA 2. OMA 3. Archiblox 4. Tengbom 5. Ingenhoven Architects 6. Assemble 7. Gerber Architekten 8. Kasita 9. Ateliers Jean Nouvel 10. Lake|Flato. AUTOMOTIVE 1. Hyundai For augmenting autos with gesture-controlled heads-up displays 2. Ford For embracing e-bikes and ride sharing 3. Tesla Motors For adding autopilot features overnight and making your car come to you 4. Quanergy For…

“The Frédéric Malle Fleur Mecanique diffuser looks cool in my home. It’s also wireless and rechargeable.” Justin Fuisz Founder and CEO, Fuisz Media “Thrive Market’s social mission is to make healthy food available to everyone by creating an online platform that sells in bulk at a discount and allows you to filter by food type, like gluten-free, vegan, or paleo.” Anna Kaiser Founder and CEO, AKT InMotion “Elle Luna is an incredibly talented San Francisco– based artist and designer. She created the user interface for Uber and most recently wrote an amazing book called The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion.” Jonathan Wegener Cofounder and CEO, Timehop “ The ceramics at artshack brooklyn are gorgeous, and you will never find anything else like them. Everything is…

CVS Health isn’t content merely to be a $153 billion drugstore chain. It wants to completely redefine retail health care. “About half of our patients come on nights and weekends,” says CEO Larry Merlo. “About half of our patients don’t have a primary-care physician.” That’s why CVS has bet on in-store clinics—just one of the ways in which Merlo has made the company synonymous with storefront health care innovation. 1 Just say “no” Though sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products brought CVS $2 billion in annual revenue, Merlo viewed them as “a barrier to our long-term growth.” The decision to end the company’s tobacco business may have raised eyebrows, but it refreshed CVS’s reputation overnight. 2 On-demand health care CVS has doubled down on its MinuteClinics, in-store walk-in medical…

“When people describe us, they say, ‘They’re leaderless,’ ” says Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza. “We just don’t have one leader. We have many leaders who are empowered to make decisions and guide strategy in their communities based on what makes sense for their local context.” Historically, the most effective sociopolitical movements have coalesced around single leaders like Dr. King and Gloria Steinem. Black Lives Matter stands out for empowering each of its more than 30 chapters worldwide to take action when and where they see fit, tapping into the support and resources of the wider organization. This fluidity has enabled activists to move quickly to organize headlinegrabbing protests from New York to Minneapolis and even crash presidential campaign rallies to press for a more substantive discussion of race…

OPPORTUNITY InMobi’s personalized mobile ads are a refreshing departure from intrusive, onesizefitsall approaches. STRATEGY Takes advantage of phones’ sensors to serve up customized ads—and dominate in China and India. 2015 MOMENTUM Launched Miip to scan app behavior to curate deals; reach exceeded 1 billion phones worldwide; 75% revenue growth. 800 LB. RIVAL Google, which leads the $100 billion mobile ad market— except in China, where it can’t operate. SURPRISINGALLY Dell—its data centers are helping InMobi scale its growing Miip network. WHAT ’S NEXT Burrowing deeper into phones via partnerships with Samsung and other handset makers.…

$5 billion 2015 revenue from GE’s new cloud platform, Predix, and all the apps built on top of it. Predix enables customers (Boeing, Exelon, BP, and others) to analyze machine data from jet engines, wind turbines, freight trains, and the like—and issue commands to maximize their efficiency. “The Industrial Internet is going to be a combination of the physical and the analytical,” says CEO Jeff Immelt. “We bring a tremendous amount of credibility to that world.”…

On the day you read this, we—and 2 million other people at companies including Zappos, Pinterest, and Samsung—are conversing in the messaging tool Slack. “Slack ends up being the one app you have open all day, every day,” says CEO Stewart Butterfield. The company delighted its rabid fans in 2015 by adding emojis, private group messages, and support for more than 150 apps. But it’s the creative ways that users deploy Slack, in and out of the office, that give it its soul. 1 Taking it home Slack is for enterprises — and made $50 million from 570,000 paid users last year —but once you’re in it all day, why not fold in your home life, too? Users have turned to the productivity app IFTTT to forward personal texts to…

Topical, even political, comedy has been a latenight staple for generations, but until Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, produced by Oliver’s company, Sixteen String Jack, it didn’t make a point to routinely incite action. Oliver’s signature work—intensively researched, long-form pieces that dive into underexplored issues for up to 20 minutes—often asks viewers to participate in the joke. Within hours of airing, HBO releases Oliver’s entreaties online (an unusual step for a subscription network), helping them echo throughout the Internet and beyond to stimulate a national conversation— and even impact policy. Here, three topics Oliver has addressed. 1 Big Tobacco Last February, when tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris International threatened expensive legal action against countries such as West Africa’s Togo over their plans to require graphic warnings on cigarette packages (in…

PROBLEM Budget travel in Europe often means choosing between anodyne hotel rooms and unappealing hostels. SOLUTION A brand of ultrastylish hostels with both shared and private rooms, along with hip, local inhouse events. SECRET WEAPON Creative director Anwar Mekhayech, whose eclectic-sexy interior design gives the brand its heat and increasing buzz. 2015 MOMENTUM Opened the 920-bed Generator Paris, bringing the total to 8,600 beds across 10 hostels; took in about $63 million in 2015. NEW ALLIES Brand marketers, for whom adventurous millennial travelers are catnip; Uber and Urban Outfitters have already aligned. WHAT’S NEXT An American invasion (Miami, Utah, L.A., and more) over the next few years; resorts are also coming.…

PROBLEM Forty million Americans carry a whopping $1.19 trillion in student-loan debt. CLEVER SOLUTION Customizes studentloan refinancing and other loans based on a real-time look at borrower’s spending, savings, bill pay, etc. WHY IT’S BETTER Uses data science to rate worthiness and features transparent, flexible pricing to ensure a customer’s ability to pay. FOUNDER’S STORY CEO Louis Beryl, 35, is still paying off his student loans from Princeton and Harvard (Business and Kennedy). 2015 MOMENTUM More than $400 million in loans issued, with dramatically higher repayment rates and no customer churn. WHAT ’S NEXT Expect Earnest to originate its own student loans. “Good savers shouldn’t have to get a cosigner,” Beryl says.…

How do you produce better results for people undergoing major surgery in chaotic, overtaxed hospitals? According to the not-for-profit Noora Health, you do it by teaching family members to assist in their relatives’ care. Noora began as a graduate project in Stanford d.School’s Design for Extreme Affordability class. Today, it works with 26 hospitals throughout India, including Narayana Health, one of the country’s largest chains, and has trained more than 45,000 people at a cost of less than one dollar per person. (It charges for-profit hospitals to subsidize its work at not-for-profit ones.) Noora focuses on basic skills, such as wound hygiene and, for cardiac surgery patients, breathing exercises. “We address the highest-impact 10 to 15 skills,” says Noora cofounder and chief design officer Katy Ashe. “Who knows the patient…

1 million Number of current, active, paying subscribers of Babbel’s language-learning apps in 2015. Just as important, says founder Thomas Holl, is how long these users stick around. People like the interactive courses so much that they pay the monthly fee for more than a year. Babbel tailors its 8,500 hours of instruction across 14 languages according to the specific quirks and peculiarities of each of the seven native tongues it supports—making it both effective and global.…