Q: What is the process like for selecting and adding a school to Cribspot's network?
There isn't an exact science for launching at new colleges. We typically consider several qualities such as the university type, size, location, geography, and make-up. Once we've targeted a school, we then ask landlords to add their rentals to Cribspot.  It's a very laborious and tedious process, so we typically work with universities to aid in that process.

Q: Can you talk a bit about your competition.  There’s plenty of it between Craigslist, Zillow and then of course the entrenched major property owners in the college towns.  How do you get students to go to Cribspot before them?
College students know they need a place to live the next year, but they aren't just going to use one website and lease the first place they find. We find that most renters use multiple sites and our advantage is that our site is built by college renters, so we typically have more data than other competitors.

Q: Cribspot is super active on social media and its own blog, generating a ton of quality content.  What's the strategy for the company when it comes to using social media specifically?
As a college start-up, we naturally focus on social media as a marketing tool. However, the real motivator behind sharing our content is that most new renters are completely ignorant of the rental process. We know this because we were once freshmen on campus. We really want to help these renters find a place and we've found that good content provides greater transparency to the chaotic housing search.

Q: You guys just raised a big seed round recently ($660,000), how will that additional capital help with the next phase of growth at Cribspot?
We raised the seed round to grow our portfolio of current campuses. The rental process is so broken that we are only tackling the first part of the problem. Eventually, we want to use the capital to alleviate some of the other stresses surrounding the rental search and leasing time.

 

Drive 40 minutes south of Salt Lake City, and you’ll eventually land in Provo, Utah, the state’s third largest city with a population of just over 120,000.  With the Wasatch mountains covering the eastern side of the city and Utah Lake sitting just to the west, Provo’s natural setting and proximity to top notch skiing make it a dream destination for lovers of the outdoors.  However, having spent the past few months traveling weekly to Provo for work, I came to realize the town is home to much more than mountains, missionaries, and an odd condiment called fry sauce.  It’s also the setting of rapidly growing tech startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Numerous high tech businesses such as Adobe, Ebay, and Microsoft found the triple threat of low unemployment, an improving economy, and relatively cheap cost of living too good to pass up.  They have all set up offices in the Utah Valley over the past few years.  Large companies with global call centers or aspirations for international expansion have been quick to leverage the large number of multilingual missionaries belonging to the omnipresent LDS community in Utah.  The emergence of a strong business environment can be found on a single street in North Provo that houses three billion-dollar companies (Ancestry.com, Vivint, and Qualtrics) all within 1,000 yards of each other.  Moreover, just last year Google selected Provo as its third location to receive the highly sought after Google Fiber, a major benefit to companies both large and small seeking ultra-fast internet speeds.

The secret of Provo and its entrepreneurial hub has been difficult to keep as more and more media outlets have covered the rapid growth of Provo and the Utah Valley, officially naming the region “Silicon Slopes” for its growing population of high tech companies and proximity to skiing meccas like Park City and Sundance. In 2013, Forbes rated Provo the No. 2 city on its list of Best Places for Business and Careers.  Additionally, Fortune magazine recently ran a cover story on Utah’s rockstar business owner Josh James and his business intelligence company Domo that landed a cool $125 million in funding last year.  James, a Mormon who served his two year mission trip in Tokyo attended BYU before co-founding web analytics company Omniture which went public with James as its CEO at 33 and then was acquired by Adobe three years later to the tune of $1.8 billion. 

James is a part of a lengthy list of former BYU Cougars that are helping to shape the tech scene in Utah.  The prevalent Mormon community helps to create a heavily shared town and gown atmosphere in Provo that has delivered a noticeable impact on the blossoming startup community.  According to an annual state report, approximately 80% of students at BYU are multilingual, supporting a more nimble and proficient workforce required by many young tech focused companies. The highly regarded Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at BYU also helps to fuel the startup scene in Provo.  Ranked as the #4 Undergraduate programs for entrepreneurship by Business Insider, the center features a 100% rate of faculty who are entrepreneurs and doles out over $175,000 annually for business plan competitions.  “Throughout the school year the center is constantly holding competitions for ideas and startups at all stages of the lean lifecycle” says 2nd year entrepreneurship student Blake Hampson. "The events encourage participation from all over campus and are probably some of the best advertised and best attended of any BYU events."

Growing startups like Money Desktop, Tute Genomics, and IActionable show the broad swath of industries being impacted by companies getting their start in the Utah Valley area.   In order to foster the growth of the various early stage ventures that call Provo home, startup accelerators such as Camp 4, a collaborative co-working space offering discounted office space to early stage ventures, have been popping up in recent years. Born out of a partnership between Innovative Network, Provo City Mayor’s office and BoomStartup, a competitive five year old startup, Camp 4 serves as an outstanding example of the benefits of blending government support, established academic involvement, and a talented community.  As corny as it may be, “Silicon Slopes” seems like an apt name for this beautiful town with big aspirations.  

If there is someone out there who enjoys doing laundry or dry cleaning, I have yet to meet that person.  The words tedious, dull, and time-consuming often come to most people’s minds when they walk by their overflowing dirty clothes bin or realize they have to rush to the dry cleaner before it closes.  A remedy for this problem now exists for Chicago residents thanks to two young entrepreneurs who have added laundry and dry cleaning to the humongous list of annoyances, problems, and subjects addressed by the ubiquitous phrase “there’s an app for that”.

Laundrymate is an on-demand laundry and dry cleaning pickup and delivery service. Launched in Chicago just last month, Laundrymate is the brainchild of co-founders Michael Facchinello and Tyler Mikev.  “Personally, the whole process was a huge pain in our butts, so we solved the problem in a way we would want it to be solved on a personal level” said Facchinello.  Tyler utilizes his background in mobile development to run the technical side of the business, leaving Michael to handle business and operations.  Together, the two have stressed delivering a great overall user experience from the very beginning, and have been rewarded by a steady increase in orders week after week.

Eager to give Laundrymate a try, I set aside a couple of work pants, a pair of jeans, and a few button downs to be picked up and dropped off without having to step outside my apartment.  I downloaded the easy to use mobile app, which prompted me to enter a pickup time and location, and even gave me the option to get an estimated breakdown of how much my order would cost.  Instead of bracing for the long, cold walk to the nearest dry cleaner, I sat back while my clothes were picked up when I knew I someone would be home.  About 48 hours later, I got a push notification from the app asking me to schedule a drop off time.  From beginning to end, the process was a breeze and had me seriously wondering if I was going to be making another trip to the dry cleaner anytime soon.

Learning quickly and efficiently has become a mantra for this two-man team as they work to balance perfecting logistic and technical elements of the business against marketing and promotion.  “Finding the sweet spot for speed has been really important for us in the early going,” Facchinello insists.  Despite having a growing to do list, Michael took a quick break from his duties at Laundrymate to chat with me about the company, his background, and the early lessons of running a business.

Q: You recently graduated from Chicago’s latest Startup Institute class. What was that experience like?
I cannot say enough good things about Startup Institute. Everyone involved in running the program both locally and nationally are top of the line. Before Startup Institute, I knew I loved designing and creating products, but did not have a formal education to do so. Startup Institute taught me best practices in product design and management.

They also do a phenomenal job of putting you in front of the best startup people in the area. Also, the education model is incredible. The approach is holistic and has instruction given by the best people currently practicing what they are preaching.

Q: There are quite a few companies, both large and small, that are in this growing delivery space that will pick up and deliver groceries, alcohol, clothing and everything else right to your door.  What is different or unique about creating a business around the dry cleaning/laundry experience? 
Companies like Uber, Grubhub, and Peapod do a great job of addressing very specific problems that need to be solved on a regular basis. They do not try to be something they are not, and this translates to satisfied customers who know exactly the value they will get by using that service. As a result, these companies have customers with a high life time value. That is what we are trying to do with Laundrymate.

I think companies that handle things like alcohol delivery have a place, but do not solve a problem that happens frequently enough, and are always more of an afterthought when that need arises. Similarly, companies that deal in hyper-local logistics do not hone in enough on a specific problem, so they do not come to mind when a customer could actually use them.

Q: What makes Chicago a good starting market for Laundrymate?
The demographics in Chicago are prime for it; just in Lincoln Park, there are roughly 60,000 people 21 or older making an average annual household income of $77k.  This single neighborhood represents a market with significant potential demand.  Another thing, the dry cleaning market is directly related to total population, which makes Chicago the third largest dry cleaning market in the country. On a more qualitative level, Chicago is home to thousands of consultants, bankers, and other time-pressed professionals who could realize significant value from Laundrymate. 

Q: Having just launched, what are some of the most important assumptions you are trying to prove about this business?
We believe the hatred people have for doing their laundry and trudging their dry cleaning to the cleaners will translate into a high desire to use Laundrymate. We also believe never having to visit an ATM or deal with payment when picking up clothes from the cleaners is valuable.  We are already starting to see that our peak hours of demand are outside of the traditional 8am to 8pm dry cleaning hours, which was an assumption going in. We operate from 5am to 10pm, 7 days a week.

Q: Someone comes up to you saying they want to start their own business, what is the first thing you would tell them to make sure they know before they make that leap?
I think it is important for people to get to the root of the real, tangible problem their business is solving. I would tell them to make sure they know why they want to start a business, and tell them to make sure their "why" is strong. Answers like, "wealth" and "prestige" are possible by-products of starting a company, but not a sufficient "why." 

Only a few moments after clicking submit I began to panic.  After finding  out weeks ago I needed to be in Denver for work, I had just ordered lift tickets and ski rentals for my first ski trip out west to Copper Mountain in Colorado. But as the confirmation e-mail landed in my inbox, I suddenly wondered how the hell I was going to bring all of my ski clothes out with me.  I was scheduled to be in Denver for a work trip from Monday to Thursday, but I would be skiing the weekend before which meant I’d be traveling for nearly a week.  Equipped with just a backpack and a standard carry on bag, I barely had enough room for work and casual clothes, let alone full ski gear.  I turned to almighty Google to address my problem and within a few searches of “ski gear rental” and “ski apparel rent”, I found my answer in the form of a Colorado based tech startup GetOutfitted.

Founded by Stanford grad Julian Flores, GetOutfitted is a ski and snowboard e-commerce site that delivers heavily discounted apparel and accessories rentals right to your door.  Having moved out to Colorado from California 9 years ago, Julian was eager to take advantage of all the great outdoor activities his new home state had to offer.  But time and time again, Julian’s plans to develop a passion for skiing and snowboarding were thwarted by expensive price tags for both apparel and equipment.  He was frustrated by the high  costs associated with outdoor sports, but Julian noticed his wife had rented a designer dress at a discounted price through the mail for an upcoming event.  “She accessed luxury at a fraction of the cost, with no intimidation and a lot of joy,” Flores recalls. “I realized right then, I could do the same for the outdoor sports industry, allowing people like me to get outside and try something, save money, and feel like a big spender.”   Julian quickly built out an online prototype to acquire customer validation and hasn’t looked back since.  

When I first landed on the website, I was impressed with its slick, professional layout and easy to use interface.  After creating an account in a few clicks, I set out to fill my cart by searching through an impressive selection of high-quality gear.  I went with a Dakine Atmos jacket and a pair of Obermeyer Recon pants.  I then scheduled my rental period (the site gives you the option to select between 3/5/10 day rentals) and entered my buddy’s Denver apartment as the delivery location.   GetOutfitted also gives its customers the option to pay extra to get your gear sooner. 

As my ski trip grew closer, I started to wonder if there was a way to track my order to ensure my gear would get to Denver on time for my ski trip.  Fortunately, a few days before I was all set to leave, I got shipping confirmation e-mail from GetOutfitted including tracking details and links to the FedEx shipping status on my items. 

Having started GetOutfitted  just a year ago, Flores, a former founder of a nonprofit consultancy and a Charter School in Colorado Springs, has been managing the steady growth of the e-commerce company thanks to effective SEO and search ad campaigns.  He has also invested considerable time trying to address the challenges faced by those searching for alternatives to current rental options.  Flores has obviously set out to build an experience that aims to please its renters from the moment they make an order until the time they ship the products back (free of charge).   “We track our customer facing-metrics, which are incredibly important to a consumer service like ours.  These include customer satisfaction, delivery reliability, sizing and fit accuracy of the apparel, and referrals from customers.   

When I landed in Denver Friday afternoon, I learned my order had arrived safely and on time, so I headed out with a couple of college friends to enjoy my first ski trip out west.  Both the pants and jacket did a stellar job of keeping me warm and comfortable (I quickly realized that although I might have looked the part, having spent most of my time on the bunny slopes in the Poconos, I was a little in over my head in terms of the quality and difficulty of skiing out west.  Returning the apparel to GetOutfitted was as simple as tossing the gear in the prepaid return envelope included in the box and finding the closest mailbox to drop it off.  Despite being sore from head to toe from a full weekend of skiing, I was thankful that I didn’t have to lug around my jacket and pants the rest of the week and back to the airport.  I vowed to return to ski out west at the next available opportunity in order to enjoy the fresh powder as much as this bro.

Flores will be the first to admit that competition does exist in the seasonal yet lucrative business of snow and ski apparel sales; however, the fantastic customer experience provided by Get Outfitted puts them in a position to win out against current alternatives for those heading to the mountains on a budget.  “Few resorts offer apparel out of their rental shops, and none offer the ability to put together a custom, current look that will allow skiers to look and feel great on the mountain,” explains Flores. “We offer a luxury experience for a fraction of the cost, with a fantastic unboxing experience, great customer service and a dead-simple return process.”  With a passionate founder leading the way and a group bent on creating a seamless rental experience from start to finish, GetOutfitted is a great option for anyone looking for great value during their next trek to the mountains.

Rajesh Karmani really hates food waste.   While studying at the University of Illinois, it was something he noticed on a daily basis, but after researching the topic of food waste a bit more, he quickly discovered the problem was much bigger than he thought.  He soon learned that the average American throws away 20 pounds of food every month. According to the Washington Post, the United States wastes enough food every day to fill up the Rose Bowl.  While 40 percent of the food produced in this country goes uneaten, 1 in 6 Americans deal with hunger on a daily basis.   An entrepreneur at heart, Raj saw opportunity where most saw inefficiency.

 Knowing there had to be a better way to connect the vast quantities of food surplus with the organizations that needed it most, Raj founded Zero Percent with that very goal in mind.  Utilizing his computer science background, Raj set out to build a convenient, safe, and efficient online food donation marketplace helping restaurants move surplus food to nearby soup kitchens and shelters.  “For me, Zero Percent was at the nexus of what comes natural to me, what felt right to me, and what interests me,” Raj explained. 

While Raj was trying to get his company off the ground in Champaign, just a few hours away, a program was being built to help startups just like Zero Percent. Operating out of co-working center 1871 in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, Impact Engine was created as a 16-week startup accelerator offering mentorship, support, and resources to companies addressing societal and environmental challenges.   When Zero Percent was accepted into Impact Engine’s second round of startups, Raj knew the opportunity would serve as the perfect chance to help him learn about his business at a rapid pace.  With the help of Impact Engine, Zero Percent is now working with over fifty nonprofits (Pacific Garden Mission, Franciscan Outreach, and Salvation Army to name a few) and is receiving regular food donations from well-known businesses and restaurants all over Chicago including Goddess and Grocer, Hannah’s Bretzel, and Dimo’s Pizza.  I got a chance to sit down with Raj to hear more about Zero Percent and how he began his crusade against food waste.

Q: Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I finished college in 2005, and I initially started doing some freelance consulting for companies in the UK, Pakistan, and the U.S., so that was my first jump into entrepreneurship.  I got admitted into a PhD program and for a while in that academic setting I got the chance to teach and do research.  I seriously considered pursuing an academic path, but I think during that time, entrepreneurship was aways in the back of my mind, but it just wasn’t getting the right outlet. 

Q: Both you and Caleb Phillips (CTO of Zero Percent) have very impressive backgrounds in computer science, so you have the technology side of the company pretty well covered. What has the learning process been like when it comes to running the business side of things?

We’re certainly learning a lot as we grow. Caleb came from a non-profit background, so he brought a lot in terms of knowing about food waste, food hunger, and non-profit management.  I was about to graduate and I came across this idea that combined my interests in technology, entrepreneurship, and volunteerism, but I knew I still had a lot to learn about business.

U of I has a great incubator program called EnterpriseWorks so we got space and membership there for six months.  It was a way to surround myself with smart entrepreneurs in the area.  As soon as that was ending and my graduation was approaching, we got the offer from Impact Engine and it could not have been a better fit considering it was based in Chicago and had a focus on social entrepreneurship.  They have been great at connecting us with mentors and advisors.  It’s a lot of learning every day, and there’s still plenty more to learn.

Q: When you are trying to get businesses and restaurants to use Zero Percent, how do you convince them to sign up?

Our early adopters are companies where green and sustainability is part of their culture.  These are businesses that have tried sustainability projects before but it did not work for them.  Then, we build upon those experiences and explain our additional benefits, like how these businesses can promote their food donations to their employees and customers.  We also explain the benefits of the data they receive from Zero Percent and the chance to create operating efficiencies and reduce costs such as trash hauling.

Q: With a business like this that depends so much on logistics, what are certain metrics you guys are constantly tracking and trying to improve upon?

At the crudest level we track how many pounds of food are rescued in a day.  We want to grow this from where we are now at 1,500 pounds per day to 15,000.  Doing so will give us operational and business metrics that we can show to potential customers and investors and convey what we do best, which is rescue pounds at the lowest cost, in the shortest amount of time, and in the safest way possible.  This is a hard problem because there are so many variables involved such as time, location, and size of delivery.  The real challenge is meeting those at the supplier side and the need side.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge of expanding this to cities across the country that need it just as badly as Chicago?

The challenge would be how to efficiently reach new donors. Restaurants are busy, time constrained, and cash strapped, so it is about finding more early adopters to help us grow.   We learned a lot in Champaign and Chicago, and we want to take what we’ve learned to help us scale here and grow to other communities.

With bowl season kicking off next week, millions of sports fans across the country are dreading the looming end of another exciting season of college football.  Even though you team not have made it to the historic Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl or the illustrious San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, you can always look forward to packing up the tailgating gear and heading back to campus next season. 

Such weekend football trips have become an annual tradition for many college sports fans; however, hotels rooms can be hard to find in college towns during gameday weekends and the good old laws of supply and demand cause the prices of those few available rooms to skyrocket during those six or seven weekends each fall.  By connecting passionate college football fans with homeowners looking to make some extra income, University Football Rentals has steadily become a company focused on ensuring college football fans can have both an enjoyable and affordable trip to see their team play.

Started a few years ago to serve Notre Dame fans descending onto tiny South Bend, Indiana, University Football Rentals has worked with hundreds of willing homeowners living near stadiums to list their properties and rent them out to fans coming in for the weekend. UFR makes the listing process extremely easy for homeowners to post a few pictures of their property, set their rental price, and immediately start making money.  Meanwhile, families and friends looking for a place to stay can search the listings by price, size, or proximity to the stadium.  Staying at a house with amenities like big screen TVs, pool tables, and hot tubs makes for a much more enjoyable gameday experience than splitting the group up between two or three hotel rooms.

Recognizing that this same shortage of housing is plaguing dozens of college towns across the country, University Football Rentals has steadily expanded over the past few years.  Fans flocking to Lincoln, Athens, and other great college towns are heading to the company’s website to ensure they can have a more cost-effective and enjoyable gameday experience.  Just this past year, the company added both Oxford and Ann Arbor to a continually growing list of towns with available housing.  I sat down with Mike Doyle, the company’s VP of Business Development to talk expansion, entrepreneurship, and the business behind connecting homeowners and football junkies.  Check out the interview and University Football Rental's video below

Q: What is the biggest challenge of running a very involved business with a lot of moving parts all over the country with such a small team?
There are a lot of different challenges. One thing that I've had to get a lot better at is prioritizing and creating processes. At bigger firms, there are all sorts of processes in place for every imaginable scenario. That's not the case with us - as things come up, we deal with them. That's not scalable, however, and the more you grow, the more of a problem that becomes. I've tried to spend a good deal of time formalizing the things that I do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Creating a master schedule, guidelines on how to deal with different issues, etc. I think this will become increasingly important when we start expanding the team.

Q: What drew you to work at a company like University Football Rentals?
During senior year, while in the process of looking for jobs, I remember speaking with someone about working for smaller firms/startups. I may be butchering this, but the guy had a quote that was something along the lines of "At most big companies, you can't even reach the gas pedals. At startups, they throw you the keys and make you drive the car."

I think what was the most attractive to me was that I would have the freedom to try lots of different things, and would be able to directly see the impact of my work. If I tried a new strategy that worked out well, I could point to the financials and say that I caused that growth. On the other side of the coin, however, if things started going south, there's no way to pass the buck. On top of that, I really like the challenge of growing something new - granted, when I joined the company we were already well established at Notre Dame, but expanding to new towns is a challenge that I really enjoy.

Q: How has the dynamic between University football rentals and Ann Arbor/State College/etc football rentals evolved over time?
We decided early on to have local pages for each college that we would expand to. The thought process was that for our business, national brand awareness was not a major priority, as 99.9% of our customers are only going to rent homes in one town (PSU fans rent in State College, UGA alums in Athens, etc). That has also been hugely helpful on the SEO front, as our naming strategy has helped generate lots of organic traffic for our network of sites. For our homeowners, it seems to be meaningful that we are a national company with multiple locations - it shows that we are an established and legitimate business, even if we don't have many homes in that particular town.

Q: What are the benefits of renters and homeowners from using RLAC instead of something like Airbnb?
In the majority of the markets that we're entering, Airbnb does not have a huge presence. They're a great company, but it seems that their focus is on large vacation destinations and cities - not smaller college towns. Aside from that, however, we are extremely specific in who we are marketing towards. All of our marketing dollars that go towards renters are targeted at football fan sites, alumni clubs, etc. We know who our customer is and focus in on them with all of our outreach.

Additionally, we only rent out entire homes, while a lot of Airbnb is renting out bedrooms in a home. For these types of events, people are often coming back with large groups (meeting college friends, families coming back, etc) and thus renting an entire home seems to work really well.

Q: What makes for a great new market besides a big football town.  Why an Ann Arbor or State College over a West Lafayette or Madison?  
The things that we look for are a large alumni base, a passionate football following, and a small(er) urban area, one that does not have enough hotel rooms to support the influx of people that show up for major events (namely football games and graduation weekends). Ann Arbor and State College have been ideal for us, in that both Michigan and Penn State have storied programs with really devoted fans, and are in smaller towns. Somewhere like Columbus is tough in that it's more of an urban area, and thus lack of hotel rooms is less of an issue. The same is true of a place like Madison, Wisconsin - the demand for this service simply isn't as high in a place like that, as there more of the traditional options available.

When it comes to custom clothing, men can be pretty clueless.  As a recent college graduate without much of an eye for fashion or style, I would certainly fall into this category.  Men typically want shirts and suits that fit well, yet often times we know practically nothing about custom clothing, or how we go about finding it. Unlike women who spend time scouring the internet for clothes (and who seem to genuinely enjoy doing it), young men are often deterred from shopping for expensive clothes they know little about.

Nevertheless, it’s a product and a look more and more men are clamoring for, as the market for custom fitting menswear continues to grow. Looking to reinvent the custom clothing experience for men, Monarc offers a seamless online retail experience allowing its customers to purchase quality and perfectly fitting clothing from the comfort of their home or office. 

After various stints in start-ups and consulting (and a brief getaway to Fiji), Mookie Lee noticed a serious lack of solutions for men with an interest in purchasing high quality custom apparel but without proper knowledge of custom menswear. Since launching in Chicago in late 2012, Mookie and the rest of the talented Monarc team have been steadily building a company focused on outfitting men in Chicago with custom fitting suits, blazers, and button-downs while providing high-end service without the high-end price tag. Check out a video of a Monarc photoshoot here. 

Having just started a job after school, I recently went through the process of searching for shirts and suits that fit well and looked good, but I hated every minute of it.  Bouncing aimlessly from store to store and wondering if the price tag on many shirts was some sort of sick joke, I became fed up with the process before it really even began. Basically, I was the ideal customer for Monarc.  Wanting to chat more with Mookie and the other co-founders, I arranged a custom fitting with one of Monarc’s style advisors at their office right outside downtown Chicago.  

While one of their friendly style advisors measured me for a brand new Monarc button down, I asked Mookie about how Monarc is able to provide cost savings to its younger and budget-conscience customers.   “Unlike other companies, we are partners with our manufacturer so we are able to cut costs from the beginning, passing on savings to our customer,” Lee explained. Additionally, the lack of a physical store allows Monarc to save substantially on inventory costs.

Beyond the cost savings, Lee insists the value of Monarc comes from the top-notch service its customers get through the lifecycle of a purchase with Monarc. “For the guys that hate shopping, we provide the high-end services that people normally pay thousands of dollars for.  Our knowledgeable style advisors come out to your home or office and provide recommendations, walk you through the custom process and hand deliver your clothes to your door in under four weeks.”

From its sleek and helpful website to its helpful and informative blog, Monarc spares no expense when it comes to marketing the style and convenience of the company.  Ray J. Park, Monarc’s do-it-all Digital Community Manager recognized the value of online brand engagement the minute he joined the company.   “As a new startup promoting affordable yet premium product AND service, it is important for the public to get a feel for your brand, style, and voice,” says Park.  “Our message from social media to our style advisors needs to be consistent and appealing.  Overall, our goal is to help men learn and experience the benefits of custom [clothing].”

Within a few weeks, my brand new custom Monarc shirt arrived at my doorstep.  Among a closet full of work shirts that are too baggy or loose, a custom fit shirt stands out because I know it was made to fit me.  At first, it was hard not to be skeptical of such a new company promising quality and convenience while still being affordable and accessible, yet Monarc delivers on their promise and then some.  Trading expensive and frustrating trips to the mall with custom fittings and affordable quality is something I could certainly get used to.

Having a conversation in just 140 characters can be a tough task for some.  When you consider that everyone from the Pope to Pitbull uses Twitter these days, there’s no arguing how wildly successful the microblogging platform has become (with 400 million tweets sent every single day).  Yet there are still people out there who crave more than a constant stream of Paris Hilton being annoying or Paula Abdul being really annoying.   Some people insist on having more meaningful social conversation between a group of participants.  For those searching for a more substantive online conversation platform, Branch might be their savior. 

Founded by Princeton dropout Josh Miller, Branch (formerly called Roundtable) seeks to create thoughtful conversations on topics between people all over the world.  The Branch team, based out of New York City, says they created Branch with the “mission to turn the Internet’s monologues into dialogues.”  Branch is not the first company to focus on putting the conversation and its content first, but its connection to the very company they are trying to differentiate from might be its key to large-scale user adoption.  

Back in 2012, Branch joined forces with Obvious Corporation, a startup incubator run by Twitter co-founders Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Jason Goldman.  Not surprisingly, Branch operates pretty seamlessly with Twitter; starting a conversation and inviting others participants into that “branch” can all be done by simply signing in with your own twitter handle and sending a quick tweet.  With backing from Obvious Corporation and other VCs, Branch was able to pick up nearly $2 million in seed funding early in 2012.  

The partnership with Twitter and its co-founders (along with their deep pockets) will be a distinct advantage for Branch going forward.  However, the company will need more than savvy advisors to emerge as its own platform and experience instead of just a “longer Twitter.”  With so many options to connect and communicate online, it will be interesting to see where Branch attempts to carve out its space in the wide and competitive spectrum of online conversation platforms.  

To get the latest on Branch, make sure to check out their blog. To get the latest advice on how to be awesome, just follow Puff Daddy on Twitter.

Startups solving some of the smallest yet most frequent problems in our lives can often be the most unique and exciting to follow.  It seems like every day I walked across campus during my four years of college and passed someone whose name I forgot.  Whether it was pulling out my phone and pretending to text or replying with the generic yet slightly insulting "Hey, man", I barely found a way to avoid these daily awkward moments that painfully reminded me how bad I was at remembering names.  

Co-founders Sohn and Elie Schoppik might have found the perfect solution for me, and the hopefully millions of others who suck at remembering names, with their startup Knowyo.  Through the process of gamification, Knowyo tests your knowledge of your fellow professional contacts on Linkedin.  After being provided a picture of the contact, users can guess the name, receive a hint, or receive a single letter of the person's name.  The software also tracks your progress and lets you know where you can improve.  Click here for the a quick 5 min demo/pitch with feedback from judges at San Francisco's 2013 Lanuch Festival

Since I no longer have the option to duck into the dining hall or fake speedwalk to a class I'm not even late for, I'll probably use this fun and easy way to remember the names of people in my office I should know and want to know.  

I first learned about Strikingly after reading a feature on Y Combinator by Nathaniel Rich in the May 2nd edition of the New York Times Magazine.  In order to add a personal feel to the article, Rich picked a few startups and founders to detail, one of them being Strikingly and its three determined founders: David Chen, Daefeng Guo, and Teng Bao.  The article is worth a read, and made it easy to root for these founders who turned down lucrative job offers and went through several series of pivots to come up with their final product.  Brief insights into stressful moments, like the drama behind determining which founder would make the pitch on demo day, paint a picture of founders who clearly the realize how the success of their idea often weighs in the hands of VCs with short attention spans and deep pockets.