A test drive that comes to you. A car loan you can close on your mobile device. Wouldn’t it be amazing if buying a car could be this easy? With Shift, it is. Here’s founder George Arison’s elevator pitch: “Shift is a way to buy and sell cars. If you…Read More
Entrepreneurship Blog
Launch Pad: Want To Buy Travel Better? Use Big Data
Flyr, founded by Alex Mans Elevator Pitch: “What we do at Flyr is we are really good at predicting what the price and availability of specifically airline tickets will be in the future, and we use that knowledge to either allow customers that are booking their travel have more flexibility…Read More
Launch Pad: Not Your Ordinary VC
Andy Rachleff, W’80 isn’t your ordinary VC. He’s one of the five co-founders of Benchmark. In their conversation, here’s how Karl Ulrich describes Benchmark: “Benchmark has among the highest returns in the entire venture industry returning—depending on which years you look at—more than ten times what investors put in. And…Read More
Launch Pad: Hot Cloud Storage
If you’re a cloud storage geek, then do we have a treat for you! This interview with Wasabi founder David Friend goes deep into the weeds of how and why they’re offering, in David’s words “exactly the same as Amazon S3 cloud storage except it’s one fifth the price, and…Read More
Launch Pad: What’s In Your Tampon?
What’s in your tampon? Bet you don’t know—unless, of course, you already use Lola, in which case the answer is 100% organic cotton. Lola founder Alex Friedman, WG’11 got fired up when she realized that the FDA doesn’t require brands to list the ingredients in their feminine hygiene products.…Read More
Lauch Pad: A Folding Helmet, A Safer Ride
“About 90% of bike-related deaths were associated with people that were not wearing a helmet,” explains AnneeLondon founder Rachel Benyola. Wearing a helmet, “reduces head and neck injury by at least 50 percent to 60 percent, which is huge in making the difference between life and death.” The only problem…Read More
Launch Pad: A Ring that Rings
Naivete can persuade you to try for the seemingly impossible. If you follow this up with education and hard work–sometimes the impossible becomes a successful startup. That’s how Ringly founder Christina Mercando d’Avignon made tiny wearable tech that fits in a cocktail ring. Listen to hear how she immersed herself…Read More
Launch Pad: Cancel That Unused Subscription
That gym membership you signed up for but haven’t used in five years? You know they’re still charging your credit card every month, right? What if someone would not just point that out to you—but also take care of cancelling it as well? This is what Truebill does. As founder…Read More
Launch Pad: Customer Service, Reinvented
Calling customer service is a nightmare. But what if it didn’t have to be? What if you could call up a major company—your credit card or your airline, for example—and they instantly knew who you were? If they had your tweets, your emails, and your most recent experiences with the…Read More
Launch Pad: Wearable Airbags To Prevent Broken Hips, And Death
The #1 fear of older adults is falling and breaking their hips. The #2 fear is dying, in case you were wondering. Which is what happens, all too often, after a bad fall. So Drew Lakatos, founder of ActiveProtective, tells Karl Ulrich in this thoughtful interview. ActiveProtective, Drew explains, is…Read More