The Businesses That Matter Most in 2017

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WHY UBER AND AIRBNB THE WORLD’S DON’T STOP MOVING WILL SLACK MAKE 50 MOST YOU SMILE? PLUS: INNOVATIVE TOP TENS IN 28 SECTORS CASPER SPICES UP COMPANIES THE BEDROOM THE BUSINESSES THAT MATTER MOST IN 2017

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Ten past Most Innovative Updates onTarget, Moleskine, How to achieve impact ina HI by Tobias Hutzler Photograph This page: Hapak by Peter Photograph cover: the On The FutureIsHere tising to virtualreality. nies in28 sectors, from adver- The most innovative compa- Top 10Lists Most InnovativeAlumni for 2017 Innovation Lessons 24 page on Begins matter themost. the businessesthat Our annualguideto COMPANIES INNOVATIVE 50 THE ments to come. ness andcultural develop- honorees that signaled busi- Boeing, andmore. time of constant change. CONTENTS March 2017 G HLI

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March 2017 FastCompany.com FastCompany.com 2017 March into a memorable sports, tech, and tech, sports, entertainment spectacle. See League melds League Drone Racing page 90. 7

CONTENTS

HIGHLIGHTS

No. 1 / Prime Time for Amazon 26 The e-commerce giant is amping up its membership program and taking bold leaps into the real world. By Noah Robischon

No. 2 / Google Pictures Perfect 32 With the help of unparalleled computing resources and a dash of AI, your photographic memories are becoming searchable.

No. 5 / Snap, Crackle, Pop 34 Snapchat’s future is so bright, it had to make its own shades. By Mark Wilson

No. 7 / Netflix Streams Ahead 42 The entertainment empire is bringing the serendipity back to channel surfing.

“Snapchat is nice because it isn’t a bul- letin board of now- irrelevant things like Twitter is,” says screenwriter and Snapchat star Kelly Oxford. “It disap- pears.” See page 36.

10 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Aaron Feaver

CONTENTS

HIGHLIGHTS

Nos. 11–16 / China Leads the Way 46 How Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, BBK Electronics, Huawei, and Dalian Wanda are setting the global standard for big ideas. By Austin Carr

Nos. 24–28 / Conversation Theory 56 Glossier, Kenzo, Clique Media Group, Hypebeast, and Reward- Style convert personality-driven content into sales.

No. 29 / The Internet’s Good Samaritan 66 GoFundMe spreads positivity to help deserving fundraising campaigns go viral. By Ainsley Harris

No. 31 / Microsoft Makes the Honor Roll 71 Minecraft allows the company to turn learning into an other- worldly adventure.

No. 36 / Casper Goes to the Mattresses 76 The fast-growing startup is launching a playful assault on sleepless nights. By Jonathan Ringen

Glossier founder Emily Weiss uses social media to bring her customers into cosmetics creation. See page 56.

12 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Shae DeTar )'(-J8GJ

2017 Top 50

Most Innovative Companies Index

Bandier CJ 4DPlex ESPN General Motors HTC Kenzo A–C New York Seoul Bristol, Connecticut Detroit New Taipei City, Paris PAGE 93 PAGE 95 PAGE 96 PAGE 97 Taiwan PAGES 56, 95 Abbott PAGE 97 Chicago BBK Electronics Clique Media Esri Get Schooled Kobalt PAGE 92 Dongguan, China Group Redlands, California New York Huawei New York PAGES 46, 92 Los Angeles PAGE 93 PAGE 94 Shenzhen, China PAGE 95 ABB Robotics PAGE 56 PAGES 46, 92 Shanghai Beautiful Ethereum GiveDirectly Kymeta PAGE 96 Destinations Color Genomics Zug, Switzerland New York Hulu Redmond, New York Burlingame, PAGE 93 PAGE 95 Los Angeles Washington AccorHotels PAGE 97 California PAGES 94, 97 PAGE 96 Issy-les-Moulineaux, PAGE 92 Etho Capital Global Kinetics France Beyond Meat Pittsburgh Corporation Hypebeast Lenny PAGE 97 El Segundo, Ctrip PAGE 93 Cape Town, Hong Kong Brooklyn California Shanghai South Africa PAGE 56 PAGE 95 Activision PAGES 89, 94 PAGES 92, 97 Facebook PAGE 94 Blizzard Menlo Park, IBM Levita Santa Monica, Blue Origin CyPhy Works California Glossier Armonk, New York Magnetics California Kent, Washington Danvers, PAGES 40, 95, 96, 97 New York PAGES 54, 92 San Mateo, PAGE 94 PAGE 96 Massachusetts PAGES 56, 96 California PAGE 96 Farmers Business iCarbonX PAGE 94 Adobe Blue River Network GoEuro Shenzhen, China San Jose Technology San Carlos, California Berlin PAGE 92 Livspace PAGES 74, 93 Sunnyvale, California D–F PAGES 74, 94 PAGE 97 Bangalore, India PAGE 96 IEX PAGE 94 Airbnb Dalian Wanda FieldLevel GoFundMe New York San Francisco Boom Beijing Pacific Palisades, San Diego PAGE 93 Lola PAGES 50, 93, 97 Centennial, Colorado PAGES 46, 92, 94 California PAGES 66, 96 New York PAGE 97 PAGE 96 Illumina PAGE 97 Alibaba DataKind Goldman Sachs San Diego Hangzhou, China Braeburn New York Fitwel New York PAGE 92 L’Oréal PAGES 46, 92, 94 Pharmaceuticals PAGE 95 London PAGE 93 New York Princeton, PAGE 96 Illumination PAGE 93 AliveCor New Jersey Descartes Labs GolfTEC Entertainment Mountain View, PAGE 92 Los Alamos, FocusMotion Centennial, Colorado Santa Monica, M–O California New Mexico Los Angeles PAGE 96 California PAGE 94 BuzzFeed PAGE 92 PAGE 96 PAGES 52, 94 New York Good Ventures Madison Amazon PAGES 50, 95, 97 Didi Chuxing Forerunner San Francisco Ingo Stockholm Wells Media Seattle Beijing Ventures PAGE 95 Stockholm Chicago PAGE 26 Byju’s PAGE 92 San Francisco PAGE 95 PAGE 94 Bangalore, India PAGE 93 Google Ammunition PAGE 94 Digit Mountain View, Instagram MailChimp San Francisco San Francisco Foursquare California Menlo Park, Atlanta PAGE 93 Carnival Cruise PAGE 93 New York PAGES 32, 92, 93, California PAGE 89 Line PAGE 93 96, 97 PAGE 95 Andela Miami Disney Marriott New York PAGES 93, 97 Burbank, California Foxconn Greencopper Intuit Bethesda, PAGE 92 PAGES 94, 97 New Taipei City, Montreal Mountain View, Maryland Casper Taiwan PAGE 95 California PAGES 81, 97 Anki New York DJI PAGE 96 PAGE 93 San Francisco PAGE 76 Shenzhen, China Green Mountain Medtronic PAGE 96 PAGE 96 Frog Power Iris AI Dublin Celmatix San Francisco Colchester, Vermont Oslo PAGES 82, 92 PAGE 93 Ant Financial New York DNAFit PAGE 93 PAGE 92 Hangzhou, China PAGES 88, 92 London MFS Africa PAGE 93 PAGE 93 Fulwell 73 Gro Intelligence iRobot Johannesburg Chan Zuckerberg London New York Bedford, PAGE 92 PAGE 92 Apple Initiative Domino’s PAGE 94 Massachusetts Cupertino Menlo Park, California Ann Arbor, PAGE 96 Microsoft PAGES 33, 94 PAGE 95 Michigan Fund for Public The Guardian Redmond, PAGE 94 Housing London Iroko Washington PAGE 93 Astroscale The Charity New York Lagos, Nigeria PAGE 71 Singapore Network Droga5 PAGE 95 PAGE 92 PAGE 96 New York New York Halo Neuroscience Moog Music PAGE 95 PAGE 95 FX Networks San Francisco Asheville, North PAGE 93 J–L Atlantic Los Angeles Carolina Records Cheddar Drone Racing PAGES 94, 95 PAGE 95 New York New York League Headspace Johnson & PAGE 95 PAGE 95 New York Santa Monica, Johnson Moon Express PAGES 90, 96 G–I California New Brunswick, Cape Canaveral, PAGES 85, 93 Baidu China Aerospace New Jersey Florida Beijing Science and Duolingo GE PAGE 92 PAGE 96 PAGE 92 Technology Pittsburgh Fairfield, Connecticut Hive Beijing PAGE 96 PAGE 93 New York Kaiser The Movement PAGE 96 PAGE 95 Bandcamp Permanente for Black Lives San Francisco Dyson GE Healthcare Oakland, Nationwide PAGE 95 Chobani Malmesbury, England Little Chalfont, The Home Depot California PAGE 95 Norwich, New York PAGE 93 England Atlanta PAGE 94 PAGES 44, 94, 96 PAGE 94 PAGE 84

14 FastCompany.com March 2017 THE DESERT IS HOT round sunshine, therealinspirationhappens. those venuesintoScottsdale’s reﬁned desertenvironment tionally functionalmeetingvenues.And,whenyoustepou industry atalargeconference, Scottsdaleoffersdistinctive, excep- thinking atintimateboardretreatsortoinvigorateanentire Whether you’relookingtosparkinnovationandblue-sky igniting. Absolutely MeetInScottsdale.com and year- tside tside MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

Musical.ly Otherlab Radiotopia SkyQuest Taco Bell University Wevr San Francisco San Francisco Cambridge, Gujarat, India Irvine, California Interscholastic Venice, PAGE 96 PAGE 93 Massachusetts PAGE 94 PAGE 96 League California PAGE 95 Austin PAGE 97 Naritiv OVO Sound Slack Tait PAGE 93 Venice, California Toronto Refinery29 San Francisco Lititz, Pennsylvania WeWork PAGE 97 PAGE 95 New York PAGE 54 PAGE 95 UpGrad New York PAGE 95 Mumbai, India PAGE 93 NASA P–R Snap TaskRabbit PAGE 94 Washington, D.C. Related Venice, California San Francisco Wieden+ PAGE 93 Companies PAGES 34, 93, 96, 97 PAGE 70 Vail Resorts Kennedy Parker Institute New York Broomfield, Portland, Oregon Netflix San Francisco PAGES 86, 93 Social Tables Tencent Colorado PAGE 95 Los Gatos, PAGE 92 Washington, D.C. Shenzhen, China PAGE 97 California ReplyYes PAGE 95 PAGES 46, 92, 96 Wilderness PAGES 42, 93 Parkwood Seattle Velodyne Lidar Safaris Entertainment PAGE 95 Songkick Tesla Morgan Hill, Gaborone, Netmarble New York Brooklyn Palo Alto California Botswana Seoul PAGE 95 Respawn PAGE 95 PAGES 93, 97 PAGE 97 PAGE 92 PAGE 94 Entertainment Patagonia Sherman Oaks, Sonnen Thinx Venables Bell The Wirecutter NetScout Ventura, California Bavaria, Germany New York & Partners New York Westford, California PAGE 94 PAGE 93 PAGE 80 San Francisco PAGE 95 Massachusetts PAGE 96 PAGE 95 PAGE 95 Restart Life Sony Tock WME IMG PatientsLikeMe Fall City, Washington Tokyo Chicago Venmo Los Angeles New Story Cambridge, PAGE 94 PAGES 94, 97 PAGE 95 New York PAGES 94, 95 San Francisco Massachusetts PAGE 93 PAGE 95 PAGE 92 Resy SOSV TodayTix Work & Co New York Princeton, New York Verdigris Brooklyn NextVR Paytm PAGES 81, 94 New Jersey PAGE 95 Mountain View, PAGE 93 Laguna Beach, Noida, India PAGE 94 California California PAGE 94 ReverbNation Tough Mudder PAGE 93 World Food PAGE 97 Durham, SoundHound Brooklyn Programme Peloton North Carolina Santa Clara, PAGE 95 Verily Innovation Niantic New York PAGE 93 California San Francisco Accelerator San Francisco PAGE 93 PAGE 92 Trademark- PAGE 94 Munich PAGE 97 RewardStyle Vision PAGE 94 PicoBrew Dallas SpaceX Brisbane, Vice Nike Seattle PAGE 56 Hawthorne, Australia Brooklyn Xiaomi Beaverton, PAGE 94 California PAGE 92 PAGE 95 Beijing Oregon R/GA PAGE 96 PAGES 46, 92 PAGES 93, 96 Pinterest New York TransActive Visa San Francisco PAGE 95 Sphero Grid Foster City, Yazda Nintendo PAGE 92 Boulder, Colorado Brooklyn California Houston Kyoto, Japan Rivigo PAGE 96 PAGE 93 PAGE 93 PAGE 96 PAGE 94 The Players’ Gurgaon, India Tribune PAGE 94 Spire Transloc Vivint Smart YouTube Njorku New York San Francisco Durham, North Home San Bruno, Buea, Cameroon PAGE 96 Robinhood PAGE 96 Carolina Provo, Utah California PAGE 92 Palo Alto PAGE 97 PAGE 54 PAGE 97 PlaySight PAGE 93 Spotify Noora Health Kefar Sava, Israel Stockholm Turner Vox Media Zebra Medical Stanford, California PAGE 96 Rocket Labs PAGES 44, 93, 95 Atlanta New York Vision PAGE 94 Los Angeles PAGES 94, 97 PAGE 95 Kibbutz Shefayim, Pledge 1% PAGE 96 Sprinklr Israel Norwegian San Francisco New York Twilio W–Z PAGE 92 Air PAGES 84, 95 S–V PAGE 96 San Francisco Bærum, Norway PAGE 44 Zipline PAGE 97 Podozi Stanford The Washington San Francisco Lagos, Nigeria Sacramento University Twitch Post PAGES 96, 97 Nvidia PAGE 92 Kings Stanford, California San Francisco Washington, D.C. Santa Clara, Sacramento PAGE 96 PAGES 94, 95 PAGE 95 Zoomcar California Powerhive PAGE 96 Bangalore, India PAGES 84, 97 Berkeley, California Starbucks Twitter Wasserman PAGE 94 PAGE 93 SafeMotos Seattle San Francisco Los Angeles Omada Kigali, Rwanda PAGE 94 PAGES 95, 96, 97 PAGE 96 Zuvaa San Francisco Prisma PAGE 92 New York PAGE 94 San Francisco Stratolaunch Uber WaterQuest PAGE 92 PAGE 92 Scopely Systems San Francisco Hydroresources One Medical Culver City, Seattle PAGES 33, 97 Management San Francisco Propeller California PAGE 96 Orem, Utah NUMBERS PAGES 74, 94 Madison, PAGE 94 Under Armour PAGE 94 Wisconsin Sweat With Kayla Baltimore Open Whisper PAGE 94 The Shade Adelaide, Australia PAGE 93 Wattpad 21st Century Systems Room PAGE 93 Toronto Fox San Francisco ProPublica Los Angeles Unilever PAGE 96 New York PAGE 51 New York PAGE 96 Sweetgreen London PAGE 95 PAGE 95 Los Angeles PAGE 96 Wearable X Orbital Simplify PAGE 94 New York 23andMe Insight Qlik Networks United Airlines PAGE 93 Mountain View, Palo Alto Radnor, Kuala Lumpur, Swiss Federal Chicago California PAGES 72, 96 Pennsylvania Malaysia Railways PAGE 97 WeChat PAGE 92 PAGE 96 PAGE 89 Bern, Switzerland Shenzhen, China Osterhout PAGE 97 Universal PAGE 97 2K Novato, Design Group Quantopian SirionLabs Robots San Francisco Boston Gurgaon, India Sworkit Odense, Denmark WeFarm California PAGE 97 PAGE 93 PAGE 94 Rockville, Maryland PAGE 96 London PAGE 94 PAGE 93 PAGE 92

16 FastCompany.com March 2017 COMFORT MEETS COLOR Free shipping and free returns. Order online or call 844.482.4800. FROM THE EDITOR

1. YOU CAN’T PATENT Chinese—more than we’ve INNOVATION. ever had before. This was Amazon and its chief, not a strategic objective of Jeff Bezos, have been defy- ours but a natural result of ing expectations for more our bottom-up reporting. than two decades. The The days of dismissing Chi- question is: How? Execu- nese businesses as mere tive editor Noah Robischon copycats are long gone. As sat down with Bezos, and senior writer Austin Carr what he learned (page 26) reports (page 46), an inno- points not to data metrics vation ecosystem has taken and rigorous processes— hold in China that is argu- which Amazon deeply ably more competitive than relies on—but rather to a Silicon Valley. Outfits like willingness to embrace Alibaba and Tencent are so uncertainty, experimenta- forward-focused, even the tion, and messy inconsis- best U.S.-based businesses tencies. Not everything have to take note and—with in the Amazon world is increasing frequency—they LESSONS OF orchestrated for perfection. find themselves playing Bezos doesn’t just tolerate catch-up. As one source this; he enjoys it. What he tells Carr regarding the INNOVATION understands is that each apps Alipay and WeChat, critical new idea may arise “There is no comparison in a different way, from a with anything in the U.S. FOR 2017 different source. Maybe Facebook eventually gets there—maybe.” 2. YOUTH WILL On September 4, 1921, my grandfather arrived in the United States, 17 years old, with just BE SERVED. 4. THE ‘‘UNDENIABLES’’ $25 in his pocket. He became a dressmaker, and in 1937 received a patent for what he called When Fast Company’s first ARE BACK. “a new, original, and ornamental design for a Dress Ensemble.” While my grandfather has Most Innovative Compa- Historically, only a half been gone for many years, I recently asked my uncle about the patent. He claimed that the nies list came out, Snap- dozen or so of our 50 Most actress Elizabeth Taylor once wore the dress it describes in a photo shoot for Seventeen. chat didn’t exist. Neither Innovative Companies are In many ways, my grandfather was an innovator. He launched his own business, and did Airbnb or Uber, Slack repeats from the prior year. thrived in the teeth of the Great Depression. But beyond our family, his impact was modest. or Spotify. The rise of these This time, 12 are returnees. His business closed when he retired. It never achieved scale or left a mark on our culture. businesses illuminates That’s because these enter- This personal story underscores just how difficult it is—and how rare—for even a suc- the risks that established prises continue to set the cessful business to break through. Which is part of what makes putting together our an- industries face, and how pace for their industries, nual 50 Most Innovative Companies list such a challenge. Our reporting team sifts through tastes in modern culture showing agility and aggres- thousands of enterprises each year, searching for those that tap both heartstrings and are shifting faster than siveness that makes them purse strings and use the engine of commerce to make a difference in the world. Impact ever. Younger consumers undeniable. Netflix (page is among our key criteria. expect newer, better prod- 42) opened up its plat- This year marks the 10th edition of our Most Innovative Companies ranking. Looking ucts all the time. That real- form to the majority of the back on that history, there are plenty of eye-opening lessons (see my article “Ten Innovation ity can’t be ignored. And world, and followed that up Lessons of the Past 10 Years” on fastcompany.com). This year’s list offers a brand-new slate what starts out serving the by adding offline viewing, of forward-looking ideas, from Amazon to Snap, Open Whisper Systems to Orbital Insight. youth will soon serve us a devilishly complex legal My grandfather would be amazed by the radical, fast-paced changes of these companies. all. As senior writer Mark and business maneuver. Here are 10 observations about the current state of the innovation economy. Wilson notes in his terrific Uber (page 33) pulled a U- assessment of Snap (page turn in its China business, 34), “The only people who only to double down on underestimate Snap are self-driving cars. Airbnb those who don’t take the (page 50) moved into book- time to see what’s right in ings and is exploring ticket front of their face.” sales, and BuzzFeed (page 50) took the germ of an 3. CHINA IS FOR REAL. idea, Tasty, and built a huge Robert Safian Six of the companies success. Google (page 32) [email protected] on this year’s list are is disrupting photo storage,

18 FastCompany.com March 2017 sharing-economy ideas to arena in our male-centric mobile-phone data plans marketplace—and mak- in the developing world: ing millions. Why shouldn’t people be able to sell bandwidth, that 9. GUTS CAN LEAD they’ve paid for but haven’t TO GLORY. used, to others? And then Many of the businesses there’s Orbital (page 72), and services that we love which analyzes satellite are powered by unseen imagery to “understand forces that are essential what we’re doing on the to their success. Netflix, earth and to the earth,” as for instance, operates founder James Crawford on the back of Amazon puts it. While Orbital’s Web Services, a $13 bil- revenue largely derives lion business inside the from financial firms, it’s e-commerce giant. Twilio partnered with the World (page 44) provides tools to Resources Institute to help app developers—also in- with detecting and stop- cluding Netflix. IBM (page ping deforestation. 54) has unleashed its Wat- son technology to bring AI 7. INNOVATION HAS capabilities to industries A SOUL. from professional sports Not every new venture to health care. MailChimp is about making money. (page 89) helps myriad Some are about giving it small businesses operate away. Pledge 1% (page 84) with more sophistica- is targeting startups with a tion and efficiency. And novel message: Along with then there’s Open Whisper Snap looks at setting aside a percentage (page 51), whose security the world of your business’s profits protocol not only under- differently–in part because it looks for employees and inves- pins its own app but is different itself. tors, why not take a portion helping Facebook provide See page 34. and give it to a cause? An- its users with safer, more other tactic is at the heart secure communications. of GoFundMe (page 66), a crowdsourced fundrais- 10. FOCUS ON WHAT and Apple (page 33) is we highlight a quintet 6. LITTLE ENGINES CAN ing utility that has applied YOU CAN CONTROL. delving deeper into chip of companies—Glossier, BLOW YOUR MIND. the model of Kickstarter If there’s a single thread making. Whatever distrac- Kenzo, Clique Media Some tech observers and Indiegogo to personal that runs through this tions other businesses Group, Hypebeast, and critique the way invest- giving—and already gener- year’s list, it’s the impor- may face, these leaders RewardStyle—that use ment dollars are dispro- ated $3 billion. tance of focus. Over the seem impervious. They are content as the engine for portionately allocated to past year, the nation’s setting their own course, commerce. Elsewhere, we 8. WHAT’S MUNDANE political dialogue offered startups aimed at rich, CAN BE FABULOUS. and everyone else is being highlight Beyond Meat coastal, urban elites—and many reasons for uncer- forced to follow. (page 89) and Chobani there’s certainly some basis Who cares about mat- tainty and pause. And yet (page 44), two examples tresses? As it turns out, the one sure recipe for 5. WATCH OUT FOR for that concern. But there of health-driven disrup- are also plenty of ground- a whole lot of people. In obscurity in today’s world THAT CLUSTER! tions in the food busi- breaking operations in just a few years, Casper is stasis. Culture will keep Some changes are felt ness. One Medical (page other arenas. Farmers (page 76), which sees itself moving, and those en- before they are seen, an 74), Medtronic (page 82), Business Network (page as the Nike of sleep, has terprises that move with underground tremor that Celmatix (page 88), and 74), for instance, is pooling built a $200-million-a- it—that attack their mis- puts us just a bit off bal- Headspace (page 85) point data and buying power for year operation on just four sions with fearlessness— ance. That often happens to a wave of coming tech- individual farmers to help products. Thinx (page 80) will find themselves in when a group of small yet centered changes in the them better compete with is addressing a different the strongest position to creative players are deftly medical field, regardless agribusiness. Simplify need: menstrual leakage. weather whatever politi- disrupting the same area. of what policy makers do Networks (page 89) is a CEO Miki Agrawal is at- cal or economic disruption

Celine Grouard (Safian) Grouard Celine Beginning on page 56, in D.C. Malaysian outﬁt applying tacking an unappreciated comes our way.

Clockwise from top left: Photograph by Cru Camara; Ramona Rosales; Eric T. White; Lyndon French March 2017 FastCompany.com 19 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

Updates from the MIC alumni

Nokia MILESTONES The Nokia brand is returning to phones after being licensed to HMD Global. The $26 Nokia 150 has a monthlong battery and doesn’t look too far off from the Nokia you loved in the mid-aughts. CHALLENGES Nokia/HMD is entering into an especially crowded Android marketplace, where many companies don’t ever reach profitability. In addition, the Google Play Store is currently not available in China, which is the new Nokia 6 smartphone’s first market.

BUZZ

Nestlé MILESTONES Scientists at Nestlé figured out how to cut sugar in choc- olate by 40%, by making it dissolve quicker to trick the taste buds. Products will roll out in 2018, with gradually reduced sugar so consumers don’t no - tice a difference. CHALLENGES Eighty- three percent of Nestlé’s revenue comes from its City Target, which launched in six Target, which once stood for slow-growing food and OUT OF THE locations in 2012, averaged about consistency and endless choice, beverage divisions, com- 100,000 square feet, still too big now wants to be adaptable, stream- pared to rival Unilever’s BIG BOX a footprint for major cities. The lined, and quick—the company 43% in those sectors. company faced a challenge: how to can research a new site and have BUZZ condense even more while provid- doors open within a year. “We look ing customers with a total Target at what needs aren’t being met by experience. Flex formats shrink the a neighborhood,” Schindele says. First Solar Target size to as little as 12,000 square feet “And then we meet them.” MILESTONES The solar The idea of a massive store that and tailor merchandise to specific —Claire Dodson energy systems maker is looks the same in every region is neighborhoods. They also dropped MILESTONES Target recently accelerating production a thing of the past, at least for Tar- the special moniker: All Targets, re- hired former Walmart exec of its cost-efficient Series get. In its place is a highly curated gardless of the size or shape, would Shekar Natarajan to fill the new 6 module by a year (it will begin in 2018) and version tailored for dense urban be known as Target. role of SVP of network planning and operational design. He is scrapping a planned areas. “How do we keep our store Manhattan got its first flex-for- tasked with harnessing tech to Series 5 edition. experience relevant?” asks Mark mat Target in October, in the Tribeca speed up Target’s supply chain. CHALLENGES The move Schindele, Target’s SVP of proper- neighborhood, which has been CHALLENGES Walmart attempted is part of a restructuring ties. “We customize, we evolve, and flooded with stylish young families. a similar curated-retail experi- that laid off more than we understand our guests.” The two-story outpost emphasizes ment with its Express stores 25% of its workforce in an In 2017, Target will roll out 28 apparel, toddler, and baby sections. but couldn’t nail the formula. It effort to better compete new flexible-format stores, double (It’s also the only Target so far to in- closed 102 of its smaller format in an overstocked market the number it opened in 2016. The clude a Chobani yogurt café in place locations in 2016. and recoup lost profits. company’s first small-store effort, of the now-standard Starbucks.) BUZZ BUZZ

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Blippar McAllister to lead its commercial airline business. MILESTONES Augmented- reality pioneer Blippar CHALLENGES In Decem- has added real-time ber, Donald Trump recognition to its app, let- tweeted that the order for ting users scan more than Boeing’s new Air Force 70,000 faces and pull One should be canceled up related info. It’s like due to what he claimed Shazam for public figures. was a $4 billion cost, caus- ing its stock to slip 1.6%. CHALLENGES Blippar must contend with BUZZ heightened competition from open-AR apps like Vuforia Studio Enterprise, which simplifies AR McDonald’s for businesses. MILESTONES McDonald’s is selling its operations BUZZ in China to state-owned Citic. The move allows McDonald’s to reap franchise fees while Citic uses its expertise to better target Chinese customers.

CHALLENGES The cost of labor is going up, and the chain’s revenue is still struggling to recover after drops in 2014 and ence. In addition to opening 40 new 2015. It’s hard to keep PUTTING SMART McDonald’s franchisees retail stores by the end of 2018, the Zaha Hadid Architects happy when innovations PEN TO PAPER company is working on building out like new digital kiosks its Moleskine Cafés, which it built The London- MILESTONES come with a price tag of based architecture firm in Milan in 2016 and in the Geneva nearly $60,000 apiece. is set to build the world’s Moleskine airport in 2015. Inspired by the café first all-wood stadium for BUZZ littéraires of the 17th century, these the Forest Green Rovers The success of Moleskine’s classic storefronts are part art gallery and soccer team in Stroud, notebooks in a digital age has been part meeting space, and they also England. The sustainable compared to the resurgence of vinyl sell Moleskine products. In addi- structure will have the Rent the Runway records or Polaroid cameras. But tion, Moleskine is expanding the lowest amount of embod- MILESTONES In Decem- ied carbon of any stadium ber, the clothing rental Moleskine knows that its future company’s limited-edition notebook worldwide. company raised a $60 hinges on its ability to work in tan- selection, which features characters million round of funding dem with digital technology. A year from Hello Kitty, Harry Potter, Mar- CHALLENGES Principal Patrik Schumacher and became profitable ago, Moleskine released its Smart vel and DC, Game of Thrones, Toy recently came under fire with $100 million in 2016 Writing Set, a pen and notebook that Story, and more. Moleskine, being revenue. It also launched for calling for the priva- converts handwritten notes seam- Moleskine, manages to give them tization of public spaces. its first flagship store in New York: 5,000 square lessly from the page to an app. The a chic spin. “There’s an emphasis The firm condemned company is now taking that idea a on design and creativity with ev- the remarks, saying they feet with personal styl- step further, leveraging its celebrated erything we do,” Berni says. “As a were not consistent with ists and store associates the late Zaha Hadid’s who tap into user data to Timepage calendar app to work in brand, we stand for the possibility way of thinking. personalize the shopping conjunction with a new physical of expressing yourself in all differ- experience. planner set to be released in 2017. ent forms.” —Claire Dodson

BUZZ Rent the CHALLENGES Users can take a snapshot of the day’s Belgian vehicle Runway has partnered MILESTONES to-dos, which the software will rec- importer D’Ieteren acquired with Neiman Marcus ognize and integrate with Timepage. Moleskine in 2016, giving it a new Boeing to open RTR boutiques valuation of almost $600 million. inside its department Eventually, the tech could operate Boeing MILESTONES stores, which could be like the Smart Writing Set. “We don’t The brand will have has reorganized its CHALLENGES risky with Neiman Mar- see analog and digital as antagonis- military and commercial to preserve its creative cachet cus’s recent revenue support into a new unit, tic dimensions in the lives of real as it grows so that it doesn’t lose struggles, down 4.1% in Boeing Global Services, people,” says CEO Arrigo Berni. its cult following—as when Star- 2016’s fourth quarter. and has hired former To that end, Moleskine contin- bucks lost the coffee diehards.

GE Aviation exec Kevin BUZZ ues to ramp up its physical pres- BUZZ MIR (Hadid); Celine Grouard (Moleskine)

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ONE CAN’T JUST BUILD SOMETHING TRULY ITALIAN. ONLY HISTORY CAN.

alfaromeousa.com THE WORLD’S

INNOVATIVE 50 MOST

COMPANIES “Our job,” says Amazon CEO Bezos, “is to invent new options that nobody’s ever thought of before and see if customers like them.” MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

01| AMAZON FOR OFFERING EVEN MORE, EVEN FASTER AND SMARTER

By Noah Robischon

Picture your ideal neighborhood. What does it look like? Is it manicured, with buildings set in a pattern so P that everything flows together, designed for perfection? Or is it gritty and spontaneous, the kind of place where a restaurant might move into the space that used to house a dry cleaner? Boxes bearing the Amazon logo can arrive at doorsteps in either of these environments, of course, but Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, prefers the second type. “I think neighborhoods, cities, and towns that have evolved are more interesting and delightful than ones that have been carefully top-down planned,” he tells me when I meet him at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters in November. “There’s just something very human” about them, he says. It’s a surprising answer from a man known for his disciplined adher- ence to Six Sigma–style processes and data-driven decision making. But it’s also revealing. Over its nearly 22 years, Amazon has moved into one sector after another and gentrified it, even if that meant tearing down its own existing structures. Amazon’s Echo smart speaker rose on the lot where its Fire Phone flamed out. The latest version of Amazon’s streaming music service, Amazon Music Unlimited, was constructed on top of its initial music store, Amazon MP3, which opened nine years ago. Ama- zon Studios’ Emmy Award–winning original TV shows are built upon a crowdsourcing platform that the company first introduced in 2010 for aspiring scriptwriters. Even the company’s fashion business—Amazon is now the second-largest seller of apparel in the U.S., according to Morgan Stanley—evolved from brand experiments in outdoor furniture (2004), home goods (2008), electronic accessories (2009), diapers (2014), and now perishables such as organic, fair-trade-certified coffee. Unlike Apple, Google, and Microsoft, Amazon is not fixated on a tightly designed ecosystem of interlocking apps and services. Bezos instead

Photograph by Peter Hapak March 2017 FastCompany.com 27 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

emphasizes platforms that each serves its own customers in library and makes it possible for Alexa to tell you whether the best and fastest possible way. “Our customers are loyal or not you’ll need an umbrella today. to us right up until the second somebody offers them a bet- Amazon is a singular enterprise, one that rises to the top ter service,” he says. “And I love that. It’s super-motivating of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list because for us.” That impulse has spawned an awesome stream it has continued to be nimble even as it has achieved envi- of creative firsts. Just this past year, Prime Video became able scale. To truly understand how Bezos is meshing size available in more than 200 countries and territories, fol- and agility in 2017, though, you need to look beyond sales lowing the November debut of figures ($100 billion in 2015) and the stock price (up more The Grand Tour, Amazon’s most- than 300% in the past five years) and consider three initia- watched premiere ever. Twitch, tives that drive Amazon today: Prime, the company’s rapidly the streaming video-game proliferating $99-per-year membership program; an incur- “OUR CUSTOMERS ARE network that Amazon acquired sion into the physical world with brick-and-mortar stores, LOYAL TO US RIGHT UP in 2014, unveiled its first three something the company has long resisted; and a restless re- UNTIL THE SECOND original titles from its recently thinking of logistics, epitomized by a new fulfillment center SOMEBODY OFFERS THEM formed studios. Amazon in- an hour outside Seattle that features high-tech robots work- vested millions in startups that ing alongside human workers like a factory of the future. A BETTER SERVICE,” CEO will build voice-control apps for Our mobile-first, on-demand world finds its roots in BEZOS SAYS. “AND I LOVE the intelligent assistant Alexa Amazon’s founding idea: that digital commerce will radi- THAT. IT’S SUPER- and give her thousands of new cally reshape our marketplace. The company’s impact has MOTIVATING FOR US.” skills. The company opened two already been staggering. In January, the nonprofit Institute dozen new fulfillment centers, for Local Self-Reliance conducted a survey of nearly 3,000 became the largest online store independent businesses, half of them retailers, asking them in India, and made its first delivery by autonomous drone to cite the biggest threats they faced. Competition from in the United Kingdom. chains and big-box stores, health care, finding employees, Bezos’s strategy of continuous evolution has allowed the and rising rents all ranked near the bottom as modest company to experiment in adjacent areas—and then build concerns. “Way above everything was competition from them into franchises. The website that once sold only books Amazon,” says ILSR codirector Stacy Mitchell. (The study now lets anyone set up a storefront and sell just about any- also found that Amazon’s expansion in 2015 led to a net loss thing. The warehouse and logistics capabilities that Amazon across all businesses of 149,000 jobs.) built to sort, pack, and ship those books are available, for a Despite all the twists and surprises in recent decades— price, to any seller. Amazon Web Services, which grew out all the newcomers with youth, funding, and can-do enthu- of the company’s own e-commerce infrastructure needs, siasm—Amazon remains the undisputed leader, a startup has become a $13 billion business that not only powers the at heart still striving to remake our expectations. And to likes of Airbnb and Netflix, but stores your Kindle e-book repeatedly remake itself.

Dash button: These Amazon TECH HARDWARE small, internet- CONSUMER GOODS LOGISTICS Gets Kindle: Popular for a connected tabs that Household items: Airplanes: The company decade and currently in users can push to AmazonBasics comprises has leased 40 planes for Physical its eighth generation, instantly reorder prod- more than 800 products, its exclusive use and the e-reader continues to ucts are finally catching ranging from USB cables reportedly plans to have THE E-COMMERCE have few rivals (mainly on: Amazon now carries to bath towels; under them all in operation by GIANT IS NOW FULLY Barnes & Noble’s Nook Dash buttons for more various other brand the end of 2018. Last and Kobo). than 200 brands. names, the company also August, it unveiled a Boe- ENTRENCHED IN THE REAL Echo: The Alexa-embed- WORLD. HERE’S WHERE. Fire OS devices: The sells baby wipes (Amazon ing 767-300 bearing the company’s Fire TV set- ded smart speaker, which Elements), laundry deter- Amazon Prime logo. top boxes and Fire sticks can respond to certain gent (Presto!), and Trucks: Amazon- (cheaper, pared-down voice commands and organic, fair-trade coffee branded semis have been versions of the boxes) integrate with other and nuts (Happy Belly). cruising highways since made up 22% of the devices, has given Ama- Apparel: Amazon rolled late 2015, when the com- streaming-media device zon a healthy head start out eight proprietary pany purchased a fleet market in 2015, beating in the connected-home clothing lines in 2016, to transport inventory. out Apple TV. The $50 category (to Google’s including Buttoned (The company is also Fire tablet has become a chagrin) with an esti- Down, a menswear brand looking seaward: Its popular competitor to mated 5 million–plus available only to Prime China subsidiary received the much pricier iPad. units sold since late 2014. members. a license to ship ocean freight last year.)

28 FastCompany.com March 2017 Nearly all of Amazon’s most recent innovations share a the shortest window possible. Stephenie Landry, the Ama- connection to Prime, which by some estimates accounts zon vice president who launched Prime Now in 2014 and for 60% of the total dollar value of all merchandise sold on has overseen its expansion into 49 cities in seven coun- the site. Between 40 million and 50 million people in the tries, explains that her business merely has to answer two United States use Prime, and, according to Morgan Stanley, questions: “Do you have what I want, and can you get it to those customers spend around $2,500 on Amazon annually, me when I need it?” The rest of the customer experience is more than four times what nonmembers spend. (Amazon built around answering both questions in the affirmative. refuses to offer any hard numbers related to Prime mem- The more products and ser- bership—that would be competitor focused rather than vices Amazon is able to cram customer obsessed, as the executives there say—but it will into Prime, the more likely users confirm that Prime members spend more and shop across are to renew their membership a greater number of categories than other users.) and buy more stuff, which gives “THE WAY THIS COMPANY If you somehow manage to take advantage of every Amazon more data about their [IS], IT WOULDN’T Prime membership feature, it’s undeniably a good bargain. tastes and what they are likely SURPRISE ME IF WE Along with free two-day shipping for millions of products, to buy next. That information CONTINUE TO KEEP and tens of thousands of items available at your door in an is used to spin out new prod- hour or less through Prime Now, there is one-hour restau- ucts and services, such as the ACCELERATING,” SAYS rant delivery, a free e-book a month (including the entire Dash button, which replenishes GREG GREELEY, AMAZON’S Harry Potter series), and ad-free viewing of a streaming popular items with a tap, and HEAD OF PRIME. video-game channel on Twitch—all included in the annual Alexa, which is built, in part, fee. You can get early access to Amazon’s best deals, 20% for shopping. “You can just say, off diapers, and unlimited photo storage. For a few more ‘Alexa, reorder toothpaste,’ ” says Bezos. “And it knows which dollars, Prime can be upgraded to include unlimited audio- kind of toothpaste.” That’s why he has repeatedly called books, grocery delivery, and a subscription to HBO that can Prime the company’s “flywheel”: a device used in engines be watched on Amazon’s Fire TV streaming media player. that provides constant energy. It is both an accelerant to More than 50 “benefits” were added for members around Amazon’s forward motion and a beneficiary. the globe in the second half of 2016 alone, says Greg Gree- ley, Amazon’s global VP in charge of Prime. “I would like to Bezos says that people have been asking him for 20 years say that the team thinks, ‘Oh, boy, we’ll take a deep breath whether he would ever open physical stores. The answer, here,’ ” he says. “But the way this company [is], it wouldn’t consistently, has been no. “I’ve answered pretty much the surprise me if we continue to keep accelerating.” same way the whole time, which is that we will if we have What Amazon Prime is selling most of all is time. Ev- a differentiated idea,” Bezos tells me. Yet today, suddenly, ery executive I spoke to, when asked about how it all fits Amazon has four concepts in the works. At the Amazon Go together, cites this desire to get you whatever you want in Why the shift? In part it links (Continued on page 98) store, set to open to the public in Seattle this year, customers will be able to simply walk off with merchandise. (Their accounts will be billed automatically.)

Drones: A bag of pop- corn and a Fire TV RETAIL became Amazon’s first Bookstores: Five new official drone deliveries, brick-and-mortar Amazon to a farmhouse in bookstores are set to En gland in December. open in the U.S. this year, The company plans to bringing the total to eight. test its Prime Air service further and, eventually, Grocery stores: “No lines, deliver packages to cus- no checkout” is how the tomers anywhere in less company describes the than 30 minutes. forthcoming Amazon Go, a smartphone-integrated Robots: Thanks to its retail experiment, currently acquisition of Kiva open to beta users in Seat- Systems in 2012, Amazon tle (and to the public in controls some 30,000 early 2017). The company robots around the looks to be building larger globe, which it fully grocery concepts as well. incorporated last year to —Kim Lightbody maximize warehouse and retail efficiency.

March 2017 FastCompany.com 29 get the equipment to I will carry a greater workload.

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02 |GOOGLE FOR DEVELOPING A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMOR Y

At its best, Google marries awesome com- in May 2015, Google Photos coalesces a user’s images across puting resources with algorithmic intelli- hard drives and devices, as well as closet shoeboxes, thanks A gence to create popular services that no one to the PhotoScan app, which debuted last November and dig- else can match: Search, Maps, Gmail, and itizes old prints. Drawing from Google’s image-recognition YouTube have been massive hits because and AI capabilities, the service’s Assistant feature can also they centralize content and make it easy to ﬁnd what you curate images into movie montages, animations, and col- want. With an estimated 1 trillion–plus images now taken lages. (One movie format, called Lullaby, stitches together annually, storing and presenting photos has become images of your sleeping baby.) More than 200 million users Google’s next big project—and a powerful way to pull us- have embraced Google Photos—an indication of how the ers even further into its orbit. “We thought we could apply company’s restless invention continues to transform cul- machine intelligence in an impactful way around photos ture. “People still scroll [through images] today,” Subharwal and videos to make it easier [for users] to enjoy what they says. “We plan to do more to make even that ﬁrst page of create,” says VP of Google Photos Anil Subharwal. Launched recent photos smarter.”

32 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Brian Stauffer 0 3 | UBER For accelerating autonomous driving

While experts debated whether self-driving cars would be com- mercially available in 5 or 10 years, Uber raced ahead and put vehicles on the road. Last August, it launched a program in Pittsburgh that allowed people to summon a self-driving car from their phones. At the same time, Uber acquired autonomous-trucking startup Otto. Together, these moves put the company, valued at $68 billion, at the forefront of transportation’s next wave. “The biggest asset and advantage [of our self-driving efforts] is being part of the larger Uber network,” says Raffi Krikorian, engineering director at the company’s Advanced Technolo- gies Center in Pittsburgh.

1 A smart pilot Uber deliberately chose Pitts- burgh for its first fleet because of the city’s erratic weather and 0 4|APPLE winding roads. “If we can drive in Pittsburgh, we [know we] have the features we need to FOR BAKING IN go and drive in other cities,” Krikorian says. The project has since expanded to Phoenix. ITS ADVANTAGES 2 Automotive allies Last summer, Uber signed a $300 million deal with Volvo, which provides the com- Apple isn’t, at its core, a chip com- of things that we put into the [image signal proces- pany’s current fleet of human- pany, yet its silicon engineering sor],” Shimpi says. As Apple has expanded into new assisted self-driving cars. The A group shipped four microprocessors product lines, its silicon team has had to figure out partners intend to debut a fully in 2016, each paired to a new product, how to realize the vision of the company’s systems autonomous one by 2021. including the iPhone 7 and AirPods. and design teams. And it can’t just shove the A10 3 Apple’s commitment to designing the very founda- where it doesn’t belong. The S2 chip, for example, Connected roads tions of its hardware, rather than merely buying was developed to give the second-generation Apple In October, Otto completed them off the shelf, gives it a sustaining advantage in Watch its lauded performance improvements with- the first self-driving 18-wheeler creating the most compelling consumer-electronics out sacrificing battery life, and the magic trick of how delivery (of 50,000 cans of experiences. “We pick the projects where we feel AirPods simultaneously deliver music to two sepa- Budweiser). “[One day] our like we can make a difference—the big customer- rate wireless devices is a direct result of program- self-driving Ubers will [be able impacting features,” says Anand Shimpi, who works ming embedded within their W1 chip. “We want to to] drive highways because the truck team is tackling it,” on hardware technologies at Apple. So the stunning improve without compromise,” says Shimpi. It’s this says Krikorian, “and the trucks depth-of-field effect from the iPhone 7 camera? That’s mind-set that helped Apple’s “rebuilding year” of fis- will drive in cities because directly enabled by the new A10 chip. “The actual cal 2016 generate more than $215 billion in revenue Ubers are [there].” production of the stored portrait image is because and almost $46 billion in profit.

Illustration by Tavis Coburn March 2017 FastCompany.com 33 05|SNAP FOR BRINGING CRACKLE AND POP TO A NEW WAY OF SEEING THE WORLD

By Mark Wilson

On a late summer evening in Phoenix, a group of Alpha Chi Omega sisters sit in the stands of the Arizona Diamondbacks stadium and take selfies. They capture duck-face snaps with each other, with churros, and with each other with churros. A bored camera operator spots them in the outfield stands, and two middle-aged MLB announcers have a field day, mocking the women’s youthful self-absorption. “That’s the best one of 300 pictures I’ve taken of myself today!” one com- mentator cracks. “Here’s my first bite of the churro!” chirps his coconspirator. “Here’s my second bite of the churro!” “Peralta knocks it into center! . . . And nobody noticed.” The clip went viral because, from the perspective of the MLB broadcast crew, the students seemed disconnected from events on the field. But the sorority sisters weren’t living their lives for the TV cameras. They were, in fact, having a great time at the game—via Snapchat. Consumers, advertisers, influencers, media brands, and rivals are increasingly viewing the world through Snapchat’s lens. In the past

34 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Eric T. White MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

JULZ GODDARD Mission: Power publi- cist YesJulz lives her life on Snapchat, sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of cool par- ties and time with clients like Gucci Mane. “My Snapchat followers are like my family. They’ve seen me at meetings with a record label and going on roller coasters. They’ve seen everything.” MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

KELLY OXFORD 18 months, the photo- and video-sharing app has released a slew of bold (and brazenly imitated) features, from absurdist Mission: The screen- digital masks to face-swapping to group chat, which have writer and author uses vaulted it to the vanguard of social communication. Snap, Snapchat for storytell- as the company is now known, claims more than 150 mil- ing (of course), sharing lion daily users, and it reportedly exceeded its lofty goal to life’s funny moments. generate more than $300 million in revenue for 2016. Its in- “As long as there’s an troduction of location-based image enhancements, known element of humor, as geoﬁlters, and Spectacles, its sunglasses that record 10 it’s always a hit. Yes- seconds of video from the wearer’s point of view, inspired terday, I passed a genuine consumer fanaticism for augmented reality and restaurant where the wearable computing in a way that overhyped rivals from sign looked like it Magic Leap to Google haven’t matched. As Snap is expected said HUMAN TASTY. So to go public this year, deconstructing the principles under- many people from pinning its products is more important than ever. After all, L.A. said, ‘I think that every time.’ ” the only people who underestimate Snap are those who don’t take the time to see what’s right in front of their face.

When Snapchat rebranded last September to Snap, MANNY MUA CEO Evan Spiegel proclaimed it a camera company. At Mission: The social first blush, it’s a curious bit of branding—Kevin Systrom, beauty vlogger shows founder of Snapchat rival Instagram, ardently argues that off his contouring with he runs a communications company—but Snap’s framing brands like Tarte and is intentional. Camera technologies have driven some of the Benefit Cosmetics, most important developments in media. In 1888, Thomas while also offering a Edison’s Kinetograph gave birth to motion pictures, and glimpse of his life be- provided Edison with early control over the film industry. neath the makeup. In 1957, NBC upgraded to color broadcasting, largely so its “Snapchat allows me owner, RCA, could sell color TVs. Kodak, once one of the to be Manny on an world’s most valuable brands, continues to sell off imaging everyday level. I get patents to a new generation of camera-obsessed companies, to show people a side including Facebook, Google, and Apple. of me I don’t ever get Visual information is a conduit for the digitized re- to show on Insta- lationships of the modern era, and Snap effortlessly gram or YouTube.” navigates this confluence of image, communication, and entertainment. Its most impressive illusion is that its app design feels casual or even random, when in fact, it’s a carefully thought-out experience, constantly being honed for maximum engagement. Whether it’s offering up cartoon ghost Snapcode Stickers for you to add a new friend or puppy-nose filters to apply to your face, Snapchat’s interface reinforces that it’s for fun. “They treat their core product like a utility, and they aren’t overly precious about it, ” says Ryan Rimsnider, Taco Bell’s senior manager of social strategy. “And if they are, they certainly don’t act like it.” For the past two decades, user-interface design has put a premium on an intuitive placement of functions. By con- This is why Snapchat has been able to evolve from only trast, Snapchat forces users to play around. Its design oper- allowing photos taken in the moment, which would dis- ates like a speakeasy, requiring you to feel for the secret door appear in 10 seconds, to adding Memories, which makes or have a friend who knows the passcode to unlock the next old content searchable, without a revolt. room. Many of Snapchat’s features, such as long-pressing on your face to bring up filters or being able to convert yourself Ultimately, what Snap offers users is control. “They into an emoji, need to be discovered. Adding people to fol- just want to provide crazy tools that enable fans to cre- low, whether they’re celebrities or your friends, is another ate stories with no end,” says Rimsnider. Take Snapchat’s clandestine game, one that rewards good creators rather augmented-reality lenses. These silly filters solve an im- than merely famous people. And Snap doesn’t generally is- portant problem: They give people something to do when sue press releases announcing app updates, preferring that they share. Puking a digital rainbow, one of Snapchat’s users are surprised when they find new features on their photo enhancements, is a prop to overcome stage fright own. Snapchat is therefore free to experiment more ag- when messaging friends. gressively than competitors with UI shifts and features— Stories, a collection of images and video that capture a and even break its own rules without breaking the app. user’s day and last 24 hours, has become the centerpiece

36 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Aaron Feaver Kelly Oxford Manny Mua

of the Snapchat experience. “Snapchat is the reality show is in talks with talent agencies and media companies to about your life that you shoot and edit yourself,” says Jason create scripted and unscripted “Snapchat shows” for the Stein, CEO of both the marketing agency Laundry Service platform. The Snap twist, according to one Hollywood in- and Cycle, a media startup. Indeed, some of the most re- sider: The four-minute-long series would be divided into nowned Snapchatters, such as Julz Goddard (better known 10- to 60-second chapters, much like users’ Stories are as YesJulz), effectively use the app to produce a series star- structured. When Snap internally produced its own test ring themselves. “I was talking to different networks about program—the election-year series Good Luck America—it a reality show, but I wasn’t really excited about other people even had the crew shoot host Peter Hamby off-center, at having creative control over my content and my image,” arm’s length, to create the impression that he was ﬁlming Goddard says. “Then I was like, Wow, this Snapchat is in- himself. In dealings with traditional media partners such credible. Everyone in the world can have their very own as NBC, which creates The Voice on Snapchat and a recur- television network.” ring Jimmy Fallon segment, Snap has offered shot-by-shot Snap is watching what its users create and deploying analytics from Good Luck America, showing how pacing those insights to woo Hollywood talent to embrace the that’s too slow, or shots that are too dull, will lose viewers in platform as a new entertainment medium. The company the middle of a video. Ultimately, Snap sees user-generated

Photograph by Ramona Rosales March 2017 FastCompany.com 37 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

Justin CyreneQ Kan

National Geographic and Vice, introduced the idea that you swipe up to learn more about a given story. “After months of DESIGNER REBECCA training the behavior,” says Kenny Mitchell, Gatorade’s direc- MINKOFF COMPARES tor of consumer engagement, “Snapchat then launched Snap SPECTACLES TO A PARTY Ads that allow for consumers to swipe up to get more info.” Snap’s most intriguing ad product has been sponsored DRESS OR SHOES, AN lenses, which has attracted the world’s best brand market- OVERT PIECE OF FLAIR ers, including Disney, McDonald’s, and Starbucks. For Cinco THAT CALLS ATTENTION de Mayo, Taco Bell released a filter that turned people’s TO ITS INTENT. heads into, yes, giant tacos. By most estimates, Taco Bell spent between $500,000 and $750,000 on a filter that was viewed 224 million times in a single day. That’s double the and Hollywood content evolving codependently, with each views of a Super Bowl ad for one-tenth the price, and, unlike building off the other. TV viewers, Snapchat’s audience is actively using, sharing, Similarly, Snap’s advertising business directly benefits and having fun with an ad. from the tools it creates for Snapchatters. The design team Users are already accustomed to adorning their faces that builds Snap’s consumer features also creates its ad- with gags to make their friends laugh, so it doesn’t matter vertising products; every tool for marketers began its life that the gag is sponsored. Snap goes so far as to measure delighting users. For example, Snapchat’s Discover channels, what it calls “play time”—how long a user might toy with which feature original content from media brands such as a giant taco on their face, even if they never take a photo

38 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Molly Matalon (Kan); Cru Camara (CyreneQ) that are less focused on a large narrative and more about JUSTIN KAN Kenny bringing my audience in on the cool stuff I get to do.” Mitchell Recently I wore Specs during a Chicago birthday bar Mission: The self-pro- crawl, capturing scenes that I’d never have filmed with claimed “Professional my phone. Walking into each dive felt Scorsese-esque as I Snapchat Q&A Answer filmed it, as if I was shooting my own Goodfellas, but grit- Giver” and Y Combina- tier. With both of my hands free to stuff my face, I captured tor partner uses Snap- a late-night tamale run as a tube of masa flying right below chat to mentor young entrepreneurs. the camera. If I wanted a selfie, I had to have one of those cinematic moments of staring placidly into a bathroom mir- “People like the feel- ror. Unlike Google Glass, which prompted “Glasshole” bans ing of access that is at New York and San Francisco bars, Specs are designed to very raw, unedited, be nonthreatening. (A playfully twirling LED light broad- and inspirational. I’m kind of a life casts that they’re filming.) coach for thousands Spectacles ingeniously package this face camera into of people.” something that people might actually want to wear. “It’s a classic shape reinvented,” says fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff of the Ray-Ban–inspired shades, which come in black, coral, and teal. She thought Glass was hideous, but CYRENEQ compares Spectacles to a party dress or shoes, an overt piece Mission: The former of flair that calls attention to its intent rather than hiding it. Verizon web designer Specs, which Snap conspicuously branded a “toy” when collaborates with such it announced them last fall, are likely just the first physi- brands as Walmart and cal camera that the company will introduce. Reports have Disney to make pop circulated that it has considered other forms of wearable art, including an ad- cameras, as well as drones. Snap has already tested selling venture series starring a number of pieces of official merchandise, such as beach Frozen’s Anna and Elsa. towels and backpacks, that hint at how the company thinks “On Snapchat, only about bridging the real and digital worlds. When Snapchat you can see the en- introduced official playing cards, they were more or less a gagement. And normal deck of cards, save for one thing: They came with that’s the best kind instructions for a game called SnapKings. To play, a group of thing to lessen the of friends in the same room sets the cards on the table, but pressure to post something great.” the game unfolds on Snapchat itself. If you draw a 3, you are instructed to “Snap yourself while making your grossest selfie face.” If you pull out a 9, you have to “Bust a rhyme for a 10-second Snap.” Much as with lenses, the cards initiate KENNY MITCHELL a Snap session, transforming a mellow Friday night into Mission: Gatorade’s fodder for an expanding universe of good times. director of consumer Despite Snap’s relentless creativity and distinct perspec- engagement is reach- tive, its future success isn’t assured. Facebook has been ing teen athletes via wearing it. Because it’s still valuable engagement. “They’re rapidly adding Snapchat-like features into Facebook, Whats- programs such as its really trying to make social ads suck less,” says Winston App, and, most notably, Instagram. The rise of Instagram Super Bowl Dunk lens Binch, chief digital officer of Deutsch North America, which Stories, the 24-hour video-sharing tool that blatantly mim- (160 million views) and works closely with Taco Bell’s social strategy team. “They’re ics Snapchat Stories, precipitated Snap’s decision to pursue even a seven-minute not trying to reappropriate other digital advertising norms. an IPO, according to one source. “It definitely caught them animated film featur- They want to maintain the integrity of the experience.” off guard,” says a person who does business with Snap. “It’s ing Usain Bolt. a huge threat.” With Facebook trying to choke off its rival’s “Part of what differ- In November, Snap introduced yet another strategy global expansion, investors could also inhibit Snap’s prog- entiates Snap Ads is to make its platform even more addictive, capable, and ress by dogging its stock if user and revenue growth don’t its immersiveness. advertiser-friendly: hardware. Snap Spectacles transform exceed the high bar Facebook set for social media. It’s full-screen with Snapchat the app into a brash sunglasses-camera that takes But Spiegel and company understand instinctually that sound on.” circular videos. Spectacles, or Specs, as Snap employees call power has shifted. The kids know what they’re doing. They them, eliminate that final point of friction of pulling a phone know what they like. And Snap isn’t afraid to tell media from one’s pocket to capture life’s spontaneity. They encour- companies and advertisers, Hey, shoot this more like the age sharing by design: When they initially pair with your kids do. What those career baseball broadcasters missed as phone, Specs actually film your first snap without warning. they jeered the Alpha Chi sisters? Those duck-faced women (After that, a tap of the frame initiates recording.) “Having a were now the ones in control of the cameras, and they have pair has already made a dent in the type of content I’m mak- countless stories to tell. ing,” says Mike Platco, a Snapchat artist and influencer. “It Additional reporting/writing by Jeff Beer, Claire Dodson, and has made me more excited to post ‘in the moment’ videos Nicole LaPorte

Photograph by Lyndon French March 2017 FastCompany.com 39 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 0 6|FACEBOOK FOR LAUNCHING THE RIGHT Facebook’s 1.8 billion users helped it ADS AT THE generate more than $26 billion in 2016 F revenue—with roughly 80% of it from RIGHT MOMENT mobile ads. But scale is only part of what’s driving that dazzling success: COO Sheryl Sandberg and her team have been relentlessly experimenting with how to make ads more compelling despite the limitations of small screens. “Creativity’s never been so important,” Sandberg says. “When TV ads [first ap- peared], people thought the creative was important. Then when you moved into online, what really mattered was the targeting. What we’re [now] seeing on the Facebook platform is that it’s both.” Over the past year, Facebook rolled out several new mobile ad formats, including full- screen, 360-degree video, and interactive ads that let users swipe, tilt, and zoom through carousels of images. And to help advertisers experiment with and make sense of these products, in November Facebook debuted the Creative Hub, a platform for businesses and agencies to mock up, share, and test ads. With Facebook’s growing focus on video, it’s also encouraging marketers to adapt their materials specifically to the social network (rather than just repost ready-made TV spots). When Sony Pictures added subtitles to its movie trailers last spring and recut them into a more news feed–friendly square format, it found them five times more effective in raising awareness than standard reposted previews. “You can’t just take your ads that were on the last platform and then port them over to the new one,” Sandberg says. Facebook is also enabling a more direct connection between online engagement and real-world commerce. Already some brands have used targeting to double the revenue yield from news-feed campaigns, such as when Celebrity Cruises showed users trip itineraries based on Facebook’s insights into where they were planning to visit. The next step is letting users complete the transaction without leaving the platform. In October, Facebook turned its Events calendar into a stand-alone app, allowing groups of friends to, say, buy concert tickets through the service, thanks to its relationships with Ticketmaster and Eventbrite. “We’re thinking about how to make Face- book more useful,” says Andrew Bosworth, VP of ads and business platform. “We’ve got 60 million businesses [with “It’s creativity with official pages] on the platform. We’ve got 1.8 billion people. technology,” says All we need to do is connect them.” The marriage of social Facebook’s recommendations with commerce is rapidly attracting Sandberg of the company’s efforts to advertisers: 4 million on Facebook, 500,000 on Instagram. develop ad products As Sandberg says, “We want to help them move products that drive sales. off shelves and drive cars off lots.”

Photograph by Mark Mahaney March 2017 FastCompany.com 41 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

07 |NETFLIX FOR MAKING SURFING FUN AGAIN

“When you turn on your TV,” says Chris wide effort that took nearly three years, demonstrates Jaffe, VP of user-interface innovation at Netflix’s commitment to stand out from competitors such W Netflix, “you’re used to things being loud as Amazon for more than just content (though Netflix is and happening.” That’s what led Netflix to planning to produce 1,000 hours of original shows in 2017 roll out a major UI upgrade in December, and plow $6 billion into its library, numbers that far outpace replacing static poster images with custom-created pre- its rivals). The company also recently unleashed Download view videos that automatically play when you scroll over and Go, which allows users to watch shows like Stranger a title card. The redesign encourages Netflix’s more than Things and The Crown offline. “We started [2016] by making 93 million subscribers to serendipitously discover what to Netflix available everywhere,” says Jaffe of the company’s watch rather than tediously browse its catalog and wonder then-surprise expansion into 130 new countries. “We ended if something is worth sampling. The upgrade, a company- it with making sure you could take it anywhere with you.”

42 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Matt Rota Slack is where work happens, for millions of people around the world, every day. MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

0 8|TWILIO FOR GIVING APPS A VOICE

There’s a good chance you use Twilio’s 1 2 3 technology daily, though that may come as Customizable alerts Simple video calls Global compatibility T a surprise. The text message saying your Twilio’s new Notify Last year, Twilio began al- Twilio works with more Uber arrived? Twilio sent it. When you lose product helps companies lowing developers to embed than 1,000 wireless carriers your Netﬂix password? Twilio delivers the determine the best way to videoconferencing within around the world, saving new one. The company, which went public last June and reach users based on their any app. IBM uses the func- developers the task of cod- saw its third-quarter revenue jump by 62% to $72 million, preferences, including tion in a new service called ing for each network. Yelp SMS, Messenger, Apple Bluemix that enables doc- used Twilio to build a global sells a diverse set of cloud services that help developers push notiﬁcation, and tors at a specialized cancer text-based reservation sys- program voice, message, and video communications into Google cloud-messaging clinic in Texas to video-chat tem for restaurants, and apps. “Companies need to support the communications service. Nike uses Notify to directly with patients, elimi- Crisis Text Line switched to their customers want to use,” says cofounder and CEO Jeff alert customers when a new nating long commutes for Twilio’s SMS platform to ex- Lawson. Here’s how he’s giving businesses more options. shoe drops. routine checkups. pand internationally.

09 | CHOBANI 10| SPOTIFY For stirring it up in the grocery store For enticing artists with data

Greek yogurt giant Chobani may sell a smooth product, but it isn’t afraid to play rough. Last The leading music service has been plowing year, it poked its rivals General Mills and Dannon with an ad campaign suggesting their yo- even further ahead, adding algorithmically gurts contain unappetizing additives. And its Mezé Dips serve as a direct counter to PepsiCo’s smart playlists like Fresh Finds and Release Radar to its uncannily good Discover Weekly. Sabra hummus brand (the soda giant tried to buy a major stake in Chobani early last year). Its 100 million users—40 million of whom Chobani’s aggressiveness extends to its product development: The company has been ex- subscribe—can also now integrate Spotify panding to win a greater share in the overall yogurt category, where it generates more than into matchmaking apps Bumble and Tinder. $1.5 billion in revenue annually. In 2016, it launched a new line of yogurt drinks, more variations Meanwhile, listening patterns produce data on its Flip mix-in product, additional yogurt flavors, and a concept café inside a Target in the company can use to identify artists’ su- Manhattan. The drizzle of honey on top came last spring when CEO Hamdi Ulukaya rewarded perfans and woo musicians to embrace Spo- tify as a promotional tool. “Artists want to his employees with hundreds of millions in shares. “One thing I always say is, ‘I don’t want put the fan first,” says Troy Carter, the super- more, I just want to do more,’ ” he says of his strategy for investing in others. “Whatever I see star manager who leads Spotify’s creator ser- in the world that discourages me, I answer with Chobani.” vices. “We can give them what they want.”

44 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Jamie Cullen YOU CAN’T BUILD THE BUSINESS OF TOMORROW ON THE NETWORK OF YESTERDAY.

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MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

11–16| ALIBABA, TENCENT, XIAOMI, BBK ELECTRONICS , HUAWEI, DALIAN WANDA FOR RAMPING UP THE PACE FOR THE WORLD

By Austin Carr

In October, Steven Spielberg, the highest-grossing film director of all time, traveled to Beijing for a meeting with I Jack Ma, China’s second-richest man and the cofounder of Alibaba, one of the most valuable internet companies in the world’s second-largest economy. Together, they inked a deal that gives Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment production company the financial backing of the e-commerce giant, along with its marketing savvy and substantial distribution power—the elusive keys, in other words, to making a truly global blockbuster. Ma, a film buff who reportedly loves The Godfather and calls Forrest Gump his hero, had circled Hollywood for some years, and even committed $1.5 billion to a film fund that helped bankroll and market Star Trek Beyond and Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, but this was his first direct alliance. At a press conference announcing the deal, the titans, dressed alike in dark suits with cups of tea between them, heaped praise on each other. “I never thought in my life I’d see this legendary master,” Ma told the crowd in Beijing, while touting the “cultural bridge” they were building. Spielberg declared that the deal will allow them to “bring more China to America, and bring more America to China.” The sight of Spielberg, the quintessentially American storyteller, seated alongside Ma, the quintessentially Chinese tech entrepreneur, was more than just a signal of China’s growing influence on the film industry.

Illustrations by Edel Rodriguez March 2017 FastCompany.com 47 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

It was also the latest in a string of recent developments 11 | ALIBABA incorporating WeChat-inspired customer-service bots and illuminating just how much Chinese companies are in- For creating new other business features into Messenger, while Snapchat has fluencing some of the most innovative and important U.S. hubs for commerce toyed with integrating payments into its communication businesses. With a market that some observers argue has platform. Meanwhile, Tencent is already orchestrating its become the most dynamic in the world, China has become a next paradigm shift: It just unveiled Mini Program, a new Its sophisticated set of colossal source of capital and creative thinking well beyond commerce platforms, platform that allows other services to build versions of its shores. Increasingly, it is leading the way in everything including payments, their apps inside WeChat (like bots, but better), which some from mobile software and services to devices and entertain- peer-to-peer shopping, believe could transform the messaging service into a full ment. And it’s accelerating the pace for the rest of the world, and ticketing, helped it operating system. Albert Liu, EVP of corporate development whether or not consumers know it. ring up $17.8 billion in at Verifone, which partnered with Alipay in October to bring Alibaba is just one of a slew of ambitious Chinese tech sales in one 24-hour its payments service to North America, now doesn’t know companies that has been at the forefront of the convergence period during its 2016 whether to call these messaging platforms “super apps” or between China and America. What they have in common is Singles Day event. gateways to the internet. “The advantage of super lifestyle a birthplace that’s more crucible than cradle. This year, the apps like Alipay or WeChat is they’ve connected incremen- Chinese box office will likely eclipse the U.S.’s. So too could 12 | TENCENT tally more data than an app that’s just focused on a single the value of venture-backed investments in China, which area: Alipay knows where you’ve traveled, what movies approached $50 billion last year (up 943% since 2013). China For reinventing you saw, what restaurants you ate at,” he says. “There is now ties or tops the U.S. market in online retail, mobile messaging, again no comparison with anything in the U.S. Maybe Facebook device sales, digital payments, gaming, renewable energy eventually gets there—maybe.” investments, and more. With more than half of its 1.37 bil- With the launch of Ten- The velocity of competition is just as torrid in the hard- lion citizens online, 90% of them via smartphone, China has cent’s new Mini Pro- ware market. Google veteran Hugo Barra, who recently seen an explosion of tech behemoths and upstarts driving gram, the 806 million stepped down as Xiaomi vice president, has witnessed first- users of its all-in-one innovation hubs like Beijing and Shenzhen to become more hand the extreme market fluctuations in China, where new WeChat app can now hypercompetitive than even Silicon Valley. access third-party appli- brands displace incumbents with lightning speed. When Less than a decade ago, China’s reputation was for spin- cations within the mes- Barra joined Xiaomi in late 2013, the then-three-year-old ning out shameless copycats of Western products, but to- saging platform itself. hardware maker was rocketing to become the No. 1 smart- day the model has been flipped. Spurred by an influx in VC phone maker in China. Clever flash sales of its sleek flagship dollars and talent, increased product sophistication, and a Mi devices (which rivaled the iPhone in quality) created fer- market maturing to meet the unique demands of China’s 13 | XIAOMI vor, and weekly operating-system updates made consumers population, “you ended up with this different evolution For elevating hard- feel like they were part of the design process. In 2015, with from the rest of the world, a continental internet broken off ware design Xiaomi’s growth slowing, Huawei, a telecom manufacturing from the Pangaea, which led to different interfaces, differ- giant, stole its crown, thanks to its carrier relationships and ent market dynamics,” says Calvin Chin, CEO of Shanghai- Xiaomi’s meteoric a massive investment in using its expertise to build its own based accelerator Transist Impact Labs. Then things really growth slowed in 2016, consumer devices. And then Oppo and Vivo, subsidiaries picked up steam. “Imagine The Hunger Games,” says Connie but it continues to set a of BBK Electronics, dominated 2016, by smartly targeting Chan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz who analyzes the high bar for consumer lesser-developed cities (which by American standards are Chinese technology industry. “[It comes down to] the sheer electronics: Its Mi Mix still enormous) while pushing youth-oriented features, size [of the country]. For any one company in the U.S., there smartphone has an such as the new Vivo V5’s 20-megapixel front-facing cam- might be 10 equivalents in China. In order to survive, you edge-to-edge screen, era, the perfect tool for the selfie-obsessed. have to iterate that much faster.” and its smart TV is thin- “Chinese technology companies, both in hardware and ner than an iPhone. Its This kind of rivalry has catapulted social media plat- software, are moving so fast from one generation to the ecosystem of stylish forms WeChat and Alipay well past their American counter- connected devices now next,” Barra says. “There’s so much resource investment parts. When WeChat, which is owned by Tencent, launched includes a rice cooker here, so much productivity, and obviously the fact that the six years ago, it was a mere chat app, while Alibaba’s Alipay and a robot vacuum. supply chain is [in China] makes things easier too.” You can basically acted as a PayPal for the company’s e-commerce be sure that Apple, whose China market share slipped 37% marketplaces. But in fewer than two years, WeChat gained in a single quarter last year, is studying every move. Huawei 200 million users, and soon expanded into mobile pay- 14 | BBK recently announced its new Mate 9, the first smartphone ments, a move that Alibaba’s Ma called a “Pearl Harbor ELECTRONICS embedded with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. And by attack” on his company. The fierce competition led to a the time the iPhone 8 finally lands this fall with a rumored For igniting new spree of innovations, which, by 2015, had propelled China’s smartphone markets bezel-less display, Xiaomi’s Mi Mix smartphone, which mobile-transaction volume ahead of the U.S.’s, to $235 bil- features a stunning edge-to-edge screen that reviewers lion, and morphed WeChat and Alipay into services that have called the future of mobile devices, will have already BBK’s Oppo- and Vivo- have become the envy of Facebook, Google, and Snapchat. brand smartphones been on the market for close to a year. “The average Chinese Hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers now depend on are currently China’s consumer has become incredibly discerning,” says Barra. these all-in-one apps to do, well, everything: interact with top two sellers be- “Their demand for consumer innovation is ahead of any friends; pay for cabs and utility bills; book hotels, flights, cause of their clever other market in the world.” and even dentist appointments; find love; and read news. targeting of third-tier U.S. tech companies have long dreamed of building city dwellers via local In the past year, no industry has attracted more Chinese that kind of universal experience on a single platform, and retailers and youth- interest (and raised American alarm) than entertainment, they’re now scrambling to re-create what’s become standard friendly features like which Chinese companies are pursuing with a mix of pro- in China. This year, Facebook began experimenting with high-res selfie cams. digious capital and strategic deal-making. Tencent and real

48 FastCompany.com March 2017 estate giant Dalian Wanda have joined Alibaba in commit- 15 | HUAWEI to film at Wanda’s new $8 billion production facility in Qing- ting billions of dollars to help produce the kind of techno- For iterating fast dao. “The Chinese market loves Hollywood content. At the logically ambitious and expensive film and TV projects that same time, they love to learn from Hollywood,” says Jack Gao, appeal to global audiences. Given the idiosyncrasies of the Wanda’s head of international investments and operations. With its new P9 and Chinese market (traditional Western advertising campaigns The implication of these aggressive moves is palpable. Mate 9 phones, the tend to fall flat there, and the country places strict quotas on telco-hardware giant Wanda’s acquisition streak has led members of Congress non-Chinese films), American studios need to partner with has elevated its hand- to request a Justice Department investigation into po- these companies to access this key element of the global helds to rival those of tential “foreign propaganda influence over American box office. “If you’re going to spend over $100 million on a Apple and Samsung— media.” Meanwhile, in the smartphone arena, suspicions movie and ignore the Chinese market,” says Max Michael, at half the price. of Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government have kept the head of Asian business development for the United Talent telecom company from spreading its wares in the U.S. With Agency, “you’re not doing your job right.” isolationist trade policies and a more combative relation- China, in turn, is intent on learning the ins and outs of 16 | DALIAN ship with China likely during the Trump administration, filmmaking from Hollywood as it builds up its own movie- WANDA some American and Chinese companies and investors with making infrastructure. In 2016, for example, Wanda chair- For staging its own interests linking the world’s two largest economies are ap- man Wang Jianlin, the richest man in China (just ahead of dream factory prehensive about the years ahead. Alibaba’s Ma), helped orchestrate the acquisition of Legend- But whether or not a specific product or brand from ary Entertainment, the production company behind The Dark The real estate giant’s China ever becomes ubiquitous in the U.S., the underly- Knight and The Hangover, for $3.5 billion. Wang previously bravura deals for Leg- ing innovations are already being imported and exported, purchased U.S.-based AMC Theatres, which made Wanda endary Entertainment impacting Americans regardless. You can see it reflected in the biggest cinema operator in the world, and more recently and its own $8 billion the design and build of your phone, in the way you interact struck a high-profile deal with Sony Pictures to cofinance movie-production facil- with friends and businesses, and in the entertainment you and market Sony movies in China. (Last November, he also ity are helping it amass consume. In that sense, the “cultural bridge” Spielberg and acquired prolific awards-show producer Dick Clark Produc- content for its theaters Ma discussed in Beijing is already being constructed. And and theme parks. tions.) Wang is said to be looking to make similar deals with no walls, physical or digital, will likely be able to stop it. the other major studios, while working to entice Hollywood Additional reporting/writing by Nicole LaPorte

March 2017 FastCompany.com 49 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

17 | AIRBNB For putting a world of experiences at our fingertips

The company that lured travelers from hotels to homes is now getting them off tour buses and into the real world. “What’s wrong with much of travel is that it’s so mass-produced and transactional,” says Joe Zadeh, VP of product for Airbnb. In November, CEO Brian Chesky introduced Experiences, local adventures that extend Air- bnb’s host-based hospitality into tours and multiday itineraries. The service creates a potentially lucrative revenue stream and marks the next hop in Airbnb’s journey to reimag- ine travel.

1 Specialized tours Experiences taps Airbnb’s community to offer the kinds of highly curated adventures that were once the exclusive 1 8|BUZZFEED domain of premium travel agents, such as a three-night sake tasting in Tokyo led FOR FEEDING A VIRAL by a sommelier ($177) and a dip into Paris’s African fashion culture ($60). FEVER 2 Armchair inspiration Occupying their own section within Airbnb’s new app, the Experiences listings are Tasty, BuzzFeed’s collection of tion that can be customized according to recipe type elegant, browsable, and aerial-view, time-lapse cooking vid- (from breakfast food to kids’ meals), sold a whopping highly visual—like a luxe T eos, has been the ﬁercest test of the 100,000 copies in its ﬁrst few weeks. “We didn’t even travel magazine. They’re also company’s thesis that the future of know the brand was that powerful,” says Tasty’s extremely easy to book. media is in creating winning content global general manager Ashley McCollum.

3 for social media platforms. The addictive, cheese- BuzzFeed recognized that Tasty could be a test Trips, not tools and avocado-laden shorts, part of the company’s kitchen for other original, service-oriented video Airbnb is moving closer to ﬁrst vertical that doesn’t bear the BuzzFeed brand, brands. So Tasty begot Nifty (do-it-yourself home handling users’ entire travel have drawn nearly 40 billion views in less than two projects) and Goodful (healthy living). Each new ver- experience. A deal with the app years on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, tical is ﬁrst proven out within the last one, and each Resy integrates restaurant and Tasty’s own site. The channel has also attracted has grown faster than its predecessors. By focusing reservations, and app users can advertiser love because of how smoothly brands can on categories that already have followings—there download more than 100 be integrated. More than 1 million people shared are 24-hour cable networks devoted to each one— guidebooks. Soon, it may add flight booking. “Can we build Tasty’s jalapeño popper burger recipe cooked on BuzzFeed is wooing cord-cutters and people who’ve out the best trip?” Zadeh asks. Oster’s 7-Minute Grill, boosting the appliance-mak- never had cable. As long as “Tasty Inc.” is racking up “Ultimately that’s what creates er’s sales. The vertical has even led BuzzFeed into views, McCollum says she’ll follow her company’s a service people love.” commerce: Tasty: The Cookbook, a hard-copy collec- mantra: “Don’t fuck with growth.”

50 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Alexis Facca 1 9|OPEN WHISPER SYSTEMS FOR BRINGING SECURE COMMUNICATION TO THE MASSES

In an era when email leaks inﬂuenced a presidential elec- Some app makers I tion and fears of government might view the likes of surveillance are on the rise, Facebook and Google even laypeople are starting to as competitors, but “we take precautions. Open Whisper Systems has see them as potential partners,” says Open no marketing budget and has never placed an Whisper Systems’ ad, but its constantly evolving Signal messag- founder Marlinspike. ing app, which keeps transmissions secret from all but their recipients, has become so attractive to the general public that it’s got millions of users, and its underlying algorithm has been incorporated into apps used by more than 2 billion people. “We’re just the weirdos who are interested in doing this, so that’s what we’re doing,” says founder Moxie Marlinspike, an iconoclastic privacy advocate who runs Open Whisper as an open-source project funded by grants and donations, with just a handful of full-time staff and contributions from a loosely knit group of security-conscious programmers around the world. (Edward Snowden is a fan.) Facebook announced in April that messages sent on the latest versions of WhatsApp would automatically be encrypted with the protocol, and the social networking giant is using it to add a secret messaging mode to its Messenger app as well. Google included the technology in its Allo messaging product, released in Sep- tember. In addition to security, Signal has recently added features that wouldn’t be out of place in commercial services: It now includes a search tool for GIFs, can sync conversations between mobile and desktop versions, and— naturally—offers messages that automatically disappear after a few seconds.

ArtPhotograph credit teekay by Noel Spirandelli March 2017 FastCompany.com 51 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

20 |ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT FOR CREATING A MONSTER OUT OF A MINION

What do you get when you pair a latchkey terrier mutt W with a hucksterish koala trying to put on a show? A double- blockbuster year for Illumi- nation Entertainment, the animation studio behind 2016’s The Secret Life of Pets (which grossed more than $875 million worldwide) and Sing ($360 million in its first three weeks), as well as the Despicable Me franchise. Its hits, each produced for about half the average film budget of rival Disney-Pixar, confirm Illumi- nation’s status as an entertainment company for the digital age, where interstitial ads and smartphone games have to be as compelling as the movies themselves. “Nothing we do is ancillary,” says founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. “Every interaction the audience has with our characters is equally important to us.” Thanks to a dedicated creative unit that functions as an internal ad agency, 20% of the material Illumination creates is simply in support of its movies—some appearing in increments as short as five seconds long. They’re helped by Illumination’s characters, ) which communicate in a universal visual language, care of the studio’s diverse group of international artists. And in a rare move, Illumination retains control over licensing deals and partnerships, working to create

original stories for projects such as the Min- Sing Minions, 2, Me Despicable ion Rush mobile game (which has 750 million users) and the Minion Mayhem rides currently at a handful of Universal Studios theme parks (Universal co-owns the Illumination brand with Meledandri). It’s part of Meledan- dri’s ongoing quest to “inspire the same sense

of wonder in all forms.” Universal Pictures/Everett Collection (

52 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Ollanski

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

21 |IBM FOR EMBEDDING WATSON WHERE IT’S NEEDED MOST

In 2016, an estimated 400 million people 1 2 3 interacted with IBM’s Watson: The artiﬁ- Personal shopping Teaching assistants Union organizing I cial intelligence platform now processes Retail outlets such as Macy’s A new collaboration be- The labor rights group Our data to assist in everything from oncology and the Mall of America tween Sesame Workshop Walmart recently created treatments to NBA draft picks. In the past are employing Watson’s and IBM is leveraging a chat app called WorkIt year, dozens of companies, including GM, Japan Airlines, language-processing tools Watson’s pattern recogni- that uses Watson to digest Hilton, and Pﬁzer, have launched initiatives using IBM’s to help shoppers navigate tion and natural language- the retailer’s employment their stores. After the North processing skills to create issues and policies (includ- intelligence. Watson owes its ubiquity to the dozens of Face embedded Watson in preschool curriculums tai- ing leave-of-absence and new AI tools, including emotional analysis and image its website to match users to lored to children’s learning sick-leave procedures) and recognition, that it offers developers. “Our mission is to let winter jackets, the company styles. A Watson-powered answer questions that em- people own their own AI,” says David Kenny, general man- saw a double-digit percent- vocabulary-builder app will ployees may not want to ager of IBM Watson. age boost in order value. start rolling out this spring. pose to managers.

22 | VIVINT SMART HOME 2 3 | SLACK For opening the door to the connected home of the future For fighting drudge work with bots

“We’re taking what’s very complicated and simplifying it for the consumer,” says Vivint Smart The 33,000 corporate teams using the popu- Home cofounder and CEO Todd Pedersen. The Provo, Utah–based company solves the most lar workplace messaging app have seen its common problems with intelligent appliances—namely that they’re often difficult to set up capabilities explode: Last year, Slack intro- and don’t play nice with any other internet-connected devices—by approaching smart-home duced video calling and made the platform more interactive, allowing users to browse technology as a subscription-based service. A lot of companies develop a single product, Ped- flights, approve budgets, and evaluate job ersen says, “but if you try to add additional services and products to your home, they’re com- candidates—all within the app. It also redou- pletely uncoordinated.” Instead, Vivint’s 1.2 million customers sign up for packages that include bled its efforts to become a more perceptive the installation of hardware (both its own and that of other companies, such as Nest); 24/7 tech office assistant, debuting tools for developers support; repair services; and the seamless coordination of everything—from doorbell cameras to create AI-based chatbots and investing in to thermostats —via the Vivint app. Last year, this strategy increased annual revenue by roughly startups building Slack-specific apps. “We want to get the annoying, friction-filled stuff 15%, to more than $650 million. The company is now launching an AI assistant that analyzes out of [your] workday,” says VP of product customers’ behavior to anticipate their preferences. In another grab at the mainstream, Vivint April Underwood. Slack reached 1.25 million struck a partnership with Airbnb that will let hosts link their accounts to Vivint, and use its paying users last year, positioning the com- equipment to interact with guests via a door cam and allow them keyless entry. pany to pull in $100 million in annual revenue.

54 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Rami Niemi When the market calls, answer it.

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2 4–28|GLOSSIER, KENZO, CLIQUE MEDIA GROUP, HYPEBEAST, REWARDSTYLE FOR USING CONTENT AS THE ENGINE FOR COMMERCE

56 FastCompany.com March 2017 “A lot of [beauty] products have traditionally been designed for display in retailers,” says Glossier’s Weiss. “We don’t have that concern.”

24 | GLOSSIER For collaborating with customers to create cult cosmetics

The beauty industry has generally ﬂowed into the world that really mattered,” she says. Comments in one direction: Executives in glass towers poured in, signaling an eager audience. “It’s our most replen- T decide which products they’re going to put ished product,” says Weiss. Glossier gets fans to preach (or on shelves, and women buy them (or don’t). post) the gospel in other ways. The brand’s modern, minimal- Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss has ist packaging is designed to look good in photographs, and turned this process into a two-way conversation by asking Glossier products arrive in a reusable pink pouch that doubles readers of her beauty news and reviews website, Into the as an Instagram backdrop. “We think of things from a content Gloss, to weigh in on every aspect of her three-year-old skin- perspective: How would this show up in a user-generated care and makeup company. In 2016, Glossier, which grew by photo?” Weiss says. Glossier further buffs its credibility by 600% year over year, released a slew of hit products, includ- touting other brands on both its Instagram feed and Into the ing the Milky Jelly face wash. Its development started months Gloss. “Where most beauty companies have tried to ignore earlier when Weiss asked her ﬂock what they’d want in their the fact that women are in an open relationship with beauty dream cleanser—“to make sure we were putting something brands,” Weiss says, “we have embraced that.”

Photograph by Shae DeTar MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

25 | KENZO For ripping up the seams of fashion marketing

It was probably the lasers. Yeah, when actress Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers) shot I lasers from her fingers during an epic dance routine in the Spike Jonze–directed short film Kenzo World, that’s likely when every marketer on earth went slack-jawed. Commissioned to cele- brate the launch of the French fashion house Kenzo’s first fragrance, the surreal and surprising spot, which went viral in September and won a top industry award in November, led to a wildly successful soft launch of the perfume—no paid media or marketing required. (Parent company LVMH cited the campaign as helping to drive the 8% growth in its perfumes and cosmetics division during the first nine months of 2016.) Kenzo creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, who also run the retailer and clothing brand Opening Ceremony, have consistently pushed Kenzo beyond fashion and into the larger realm of pop culture through creative risk-taking and collaboration. “It’s exciting for us to tap into culture in any way we can,” says Leon. Two more visionary projects followed in a six-week period, including a Carrie Brownstein–directed short satirizing the hyperbolic world of social media, which served as Kenzo’s fall/winter lookbook, and a video featuring Chance the Rap- per that announced Kenzo’s partnership with H&M. “We don’t come from a background of carefully mapped-out marketing,” says Lim. “We just move.” Hair and makeup: Jillian Halouska at Starworks Artists

58 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Pari Dukovic “There [is] no reason to be shy. The world is hungry for new things,” says Kenzo’s Lim, near right, of the approach she and her co–creative director Leon take to content marketing. MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

2 6 | CLIQUE MEDIA GROUP For parlaying fashion advice into retail gold

Known for its hit lifestyle and e-commerce amazing insight into what’s converting: what brands, what websites—Who What Wear (fashion), MyDo- silhouettes, what material,” says Power. “We’re also engag- K maine (home decor), and Byrdie (beauty)— ing the customer along the way. We’ll be looking through Clique Media leaped out of the digital world fabric swatches and go on Snapchat and say, ‘Which one and into the physical one in January 2016 do you like better?’ ” The crowdsourcing has worked: Who with a clothing line for Target. The millennial-minded What Wear’s Target collection has recently expanded into Who What Wear collection offers runway trends at big-box shoes, and Clique Media has more retail collaborations prices ($34.99 for velvet pants, $44.99 for a cape blazer) and in the works. Last July, Clique Media organized an IRL keeps up with the frenetic pace of fashion by committing meetup for readers of Obsessee, its new social-only “pub- to 12 updates a year. It’s a natural evolution for the 11-year- lication” for gen-Zers. It put together a pop-up shop at a old company, which grew out of the Who What Wear blog Los Angeles mall that sold Obsessee-branded T-shirts and started by Elle magazine veterans Katherine Power and school supplies. Teenagers thronged. Over the course of Hillary Kerr. “We felt that the high-end fashion magazines three days, the store processed more than 1,700 transac- spoke down to women,” says Power, who now serves as tions. Revenue wasn’t the only goal. “Everything was sold CEO. “We wanted to create this friendly voice that felt like for social currency,” says Power. “To purchase something, your most fashionable friend.” Today, Power’s team uses you had to make a Snapchat or post an Instagram, and, of the information gleaned from Clique Media’s verticals and course, tag Obsessee.” It’s step one in building a content social media accounts to ﬁgure out what will sell. “We have brand that sells.

60 FastCompany.com March 2017 Clique Media cofounders Power, left, and Kerr use their in-house data team to inform everything from website content to product development.

Photograph by The Collaborationist MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

Ma transformed his former blog into a public company with the debut of Hypebeast on the Hong Kong stock exchange last year. 27 | HYPEBEAST For uniting sneakerheads into a lucrative demographic

“In the world of hype, in the world of cool, advertising for both Ma’s sites and others’. Ma is also manip- you need to be the coolest platform selling ulating the tentacles of his operation to maximum effect. He I the coolest products,” says Kevin Ma, the un- ignites followers with weekly “Top Drops” on HBX, featuring flappable founder of the Hong Kong–based sales of limited-edition sneakers and T-shirts, and leverages streetwear site Hypebeast. Championing the data generated by Hypebeast and its associated sites to edgy brands such as Raf Simons, Vetements, and Hood by figure out what to stock on the e-commerce arm. “Once we Air, Ma’s site has grown from a simple sneakerhead review publish an article about things that we think will be hot, hub (created in his Vancouver bedroom) to a multifaceted we can see the data and reaction and engagement from the arbiter of all manner of urban fashion and culture that community,” Ma says. “It’s a mix of technology and so-called includes Hypebeast, the year-old female-focused Hypebae, big data that influences our buying decisions.” Hypebae, and an online marketplace called HBX that sells everything for example, was born last February from the insight that from Yeezy Boosts to Leica cameras. Proof that Ma knows women account for 15% of the traffic to the male-dominated how to stay on just the right side of the hype cycle: Much of Hypebeast. The company is now growing its editorial staff as Hypebeast’s 46% increase in revenue in the first six months it prepares for further global expansion. The United States of last year was fueled by its growing creative services divi- already accounts for more than half of its sales; mainland sion, which helps brands such as Gucci and Adidas produce China and its billions of feet, Ma hopes, are next.

Photograph by Chris Schoonover March 2017 FastCompany.com 63 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

28 | REWARDSTYLE For giving influencers a must-have accessory

RewardStyle is realizing the social media world’s longtime dream of converting influ- R ence into e-commerce opportunity. Founder Amber Venz Box has channeled her frustra- tion as a fashion blogger who wanted to make more money into a full suite of back-end publishing and tracking tools. Today, RewardStyle allows her and her fellow bloggers and Instagram personalities the chance to earn commissions on the products they promote. “Our mission is making [influencers] as economically successful as possible,” she says. Users who like a RewardStyle influencer’s ’gram receive an email on where to buy the featured look, a clever work-around that avoids forcing people to shop while they’re browsing their feeds. Venz Box negoti- ates commissions for influencers and provides tools to help them track the impact of their posts. In 2016, RewardStyle grew its influencer network to 11,000 people (more than 100,000 have applied) and drove more than $700 million in sales for its retail partners, which include more than 4,000 stores and brands, among them Kate Spade and Sephora. Its stylish crew now creates original content for 30,000 products daily, much of it on Instagram. (RewardStyle’s Instagram-optimized LiketoKnow.it platform drives almost 30% of the company’s sales.) The company’s data and its relationships help it make the best matches between retailers and pitch folk. “If [brands] want someone who drives a high volume of sales in accessories from $50 to $100 and lives in the Midwest,” Venz Box says, “we can [connect them with] that person.” As the shopping potential of Pinterest and Snapchat grows, RewardStyle is pushing to bring its tools to those platforms next.

64 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Trey Wright “[We’re] helping influencers professionalize,” says RewardStyle founder Venz Box. “Otherwise it’s the Wild West.”

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

2 9|GOFUNDME FOR FINDING THE VALUE IN GOOD DEEDS

By Ainsley Harris

Last summer, torrential rains dumped 7 trillion gallons of water on Louisiana, sparking flash floods and setting L homes adrift. As images of devastation looped across the nightly news, on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe there were flickers of hope—in the form of digital payments. Moses Wells, a commercial fisherman in Edgewater, Maryland, started a GoFundMe campaign to deliver emergency supplies. “I’m raising money and donations to make multiple trips in a large box truck,” he announced, and $2,381 poured in. In Boston, Louisiana State University fans raised $3,829 to help their bayou-based Tigers. In Texas, a Louisiana native organized an effort on behalf of his hometown: “Please help us as we are just Humans Helping Humans!” Donors responded with $12,403. By the end of the year, funding efforts for Louisiana flood victims had raised $11.2 million. Humans helping humans has helped GoFundMe quietly become the biggest crowdfunding platform on the planet, responsible for more than $3 billion since its launch in 2010. It can now bring in as much as $140 million a month in donations, and generated an estimated $100 million in 2016 revenue. (A for-profit enterprise, it levies a 5% fee on campaigns, in line with other crowdfunding sites.) GoFundMe started as a bootstrapped operation that found its audience in the heartland by embracing virtually any personal cause, from honeyfunds to memorials. While coastal-centric crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo kept their focus on project-based campaigns, GoFundMe connected with families staring down foreclosure, medical bills, and tuition debt. Then, in the summer of 2015, investors, including Accel (which backed Facebook in 2005), acquired and recapitalized GoFundMe, seek- ing to build on its success and create a fundraising behemoth. The key to this transformation has been GoFundMe’s cultivation of a new kind of campaign organizer: not just people looking for funds for themselves, but the proverbial Good Samaritan who jumped in after the Louisiana floods. At a basic level, Good Samaritans translate into more campaigns and more activated social networks. Add up their efforts, and the impact is profound: a realignment of how charitable aid is collected

Illustration by Brian Rea March 2017 FastCompany.com 67 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

and distributed, especially in the United States. GoFundMe to help campaigns achieve breakout growth by seeding sto- can raise millions in response to natural disasters and major Viral ries about them on social and traditional media. “In a world news events—$9 million for victims of the shooting at Orlan- where the internet is starving for content, GoFundMe has do’s Pulse nightclub, $7.8 million for protesters at Standing Effect more than almost any company,” he says. All he needs is a Rock, $3 million for Hurricane Matthew relief. In each case, A SINGLE GOFUNDME Good Samaritan at the center of the story: “The campaigns the company provided distant bystanders with easy means CAMPAIGN CAN HAVE that go really big are the ones where strangers are giving.” to take action, and then worked behind the scenes to make OUTSIZE IMPACT. Pfeiffer and his staff constantly monitor the platform for their efforts go viral. Where the government and community campaigns with a spike in shares or donations per minute. organizations can’t (or won’t) help, there’s GoFundMe. “The HERE’S HOW. From there, they start pitching local press; as a story picks needs are gigantic,” says chairman and CEO Rob Solomon. up, they reach out to a combination of legacy outlets (NBC’s “If the holes weren’t huge and gaping, GoFundMe wouldn’t Today, USA Today) and share-friendly digital media, includ- need to exist. We’re this digital safety net”—with more than COMMUNITY ing BuzzFeed and Refinery29. When a story starts to fade, they 25 million donors eagerly holding it up. ACTION find ways to bring it back—publishing a list of the top campaigns by state, for example. Last fall, $384,260 in donations At a time when Twitter spats and Insta-glamour seem to When South Carolina poured in to establish a makeshift retirement fund for Fiden- teacher Katie Blomquist dominate the hype cycle, GoFundMe has turned the old- cio Sanchez, an 89-year-old Chicago Popsicle-cart vendor, launched an effort to fashioned value of neighborliness into an animating prin- buy bikes for kids at her after the story was picked up by Chicago-area TV and radio, ciple. “We’re trying to encourage people to look around them elementary school, CNN, and more. In another era, in another place, a church or and see who might need help,” says Solomon, a former GoFundMe pushed the government program might have provided aging Americans Groupon and Yahoo executive who joined GoFundMe as part story to local papers. like Sanchez with relief. No longer. “GoFundMe presents a of its mid-2015 reinvention. Under his watch, GoFundMe Good Morning America more efficient and effective way to access help,” says Pfeiffer. has stayed true to its heartland roots while becoming a tech- and other national GoFundMe’s agnostic embrace of campaigns has served world star. “We talk a lot in Silicon Valley about technology outlets picked it up. it well. While many organizers tug at the heartstrings (cam- changing the world,” he says, “[but individuals] haven’t “Riding a bike symbol- been empowered to change their worlds all that much.” izes childhood joy,” says Blomquist, who ulti- GoFundMe gives them control, thanks to a finely tuned mately raised $78,000. product that optimizes for a “pay it forward” ethos. On campaign pages, for example, there is no simple Facebook-style “WE’RE A CONTENT- “like” button, which would allow people to feel as though ANIMAL RESCUE they’re engaging with a project—without contributing to it. DISTRIBUTION MACHINE,” “Likes didn’t actually help anyone,” says chief technology “Pets tend to do well,” SAYS COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF officer Ujjwal Singh of GoFundMe’s early experiments with says GoFundMe’s Dan DAN PFEIFFER. “THE INTERNET Pfeiffer. “It’s the inter- the button. “It was an easy way out.” Instead, visitors are IS STARVING FOR CONTENT net, and people love given three options: donate, share on Facebook, or tweet. cats.” Thousands of [AND] GOFUNDME HAS MORE Similarly, in the automated emails that acknowledge do- users have created THAN ALMOST ANY COMPANY.” nations, GoFundMe encourages sharing by telling people pages to pay for veteri- how much their promotion could be worth, in dollar terms, nary bills, but an effort based on analyses of past campaigns. “That’s had a dramatic to save a Calgary, paigns for children and pets consistently do well), just about impact on people sharing more,” says Singh. When clicking Alberta, animal-rescue any cause is fair game—even fundraising for an abortion, POST TO FACEBOOK could be worth $100, it’s hard to say no. organization dwarfed which the company previously banned, is now permitted This idea—that a modicum of effort can produce outsize them all, generating within legal bounds. Increasingly, the crowdfunding service results—translates into a new, viral mode of giving. In No- more than $100,000 in is a vehicle to push political buttons. A search for “Planned donations. vember, Arizona teacher Lisa Fandrich started a GoFundMe Parenthood,” for example, returns campaigns to help the page on behalf of 76-year-old Paul Lomax, whom she had organization alongside pages dedicated to replacing it. often seen selling copper coins on a busy corner in the Phoe- CRISIS RESPONSE Solomon isn’t concerned. “We’re a neutral platform that’s nix heat. “Why is a man of his advanced age out here?” she empowering people to help people,” he says. “It isn’t up to recalls thinking. She pulled over to talk with him, and then After 49 people died me or the right or the left to be the arbiter of worthy causes.” turned to GoFundMe. She raised more than $30,000. “Our and 53 were injured In the coming months, it may become more difficult elderly are not making it,” says Fandrich, who worries about in Orlando’s Pulse for GoFundMe to maintain this nonpartisan posture. But nightclub shooting Lomax’s ability to care for his wife and his house, which is for Solomon, the current political environment—in which last June, advocacy in disrepair. She attributes the campaign’s success (she ini- group Equality Florida major government investments in struggling communi- tially set a target of $5,000) to the public’s hunger for good responded by saying, ties have been stymied by partisan gridlock and distrust— news. “People are so tired of the negativity on the news and “We must honor underscores the company’s broader opportunity. In Janu- social media,” she says. “They want something to believe them with action.” ary, GoFundMe acquired nonprofit fundraising platform in.” The site currently hosts 100,000 campaigns a month. Its GoFundMe cam- CrowdRise, which has built Facebook-style pages for its GoFundMe owes its explosive reach to its ability to paign to support members, in a bet that millions more people are interested widely disseminate the good news that’s taking place on its survivors and victims’ in defining themselves based on the causes they support. “I service. “We view ourselves as a content-distribution ma- families received more don’t think we’re going to solve [through public policy] the chine,” says Dan Pfeiffer, who joined GoFundMe as its com- than $9 million—an education problems, the medical problems, for years,” Solo- emergency-campaign munications and policy chief in late 2015, after serving as a mon says. “There’s a populist movement around effecting record. longtime adviser to President Obama. Pfeiffer’s mandate is change.” And GoFundMe is its Good Samaritan.

68 FastCompany.com March 2017 *Terms & Conditions Apply Offer Ends 6/30/17

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TaskRabbit’s new app matches taskers with jobs in under five minutes, CEO Brown-Philpot says. “New Yorkers are faster. They’re down to one minute.”

3 0|TASKRABBIT FOR MAKING WORK

At a time of anxiety about jobs and living win jobs to one that lets them set fixed prices for services, wages, TaskRabbit has emerged as a lead- which include minor home repairs and house cleaning. In A ing platform for people looking to earn extra 2016, Brown-Philpot launched a mobile app that has sped cash—mainly because it is the rare sharing- the matching of taskers with tasks, and prioritized on- economy arrangement that can yield signifi- demand home services, a growing market. As a result, Task- cant income. “We’re helping good, hardworking people find Rabbit has quadrupled annual revenue and is profitable in meaningful opportunities,” says CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot. each of its 18 cities. Brown-Philpot is raising the company’s Her company has enabled workers to earn an average of $35 profile further by forging partnerships with major brands: per hour (nearly five times the federal minimum wage) by TaskRabbit is now Ikea’s exclusive service provider for help shifting away from a model that has “taskers” bidding to assembling items purchased at its London flagship.

70 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Chloe Aftel 3 1|MICROSOFT FOR BUILDING NEW WORLDS IN THE CLASSROOM

Minecraft is one of those ﬁendishly clever games with M an educational value so baked in that kids (and adults) don’t realize they might be learning something. Microsoft, which acquired the game in 2014 and sold an average of 53,000 licenses every day last year, is now unlocking Minecraft’s book smarts by adapting it to make classroom learning interactive and fun. Minecraft: Education Edition, which launched in November, helps educators apply the game’s world-building approach to top- ics ranging from art history to math. In the 10,000 classrooms that experimented with the beta, teachers had students assembling human bodies to understand biology; exploring medieval villages to enliven history; and creating roller coasters for a physics lesson. The educational version, which costs between $1 and $5 per student, includes a few tweaks for teachers, such as digital “chalkboards” to deliver instructions. But it keeps Minecraft’s focus on discovery, helping kids develop in-demand computational skills alongside subject-matter knowledge. “A lot of what creates [Minecraft’s] magical educational experience is the no-rules sandbox environment,” says project director Deirdre Quarnstrom. “Students really feel inspired to keep going and create their own challenges, which is exactly what educators want to see.” With more than 100 million Minecraft users worldwide, Microsoft is exploring where else its cultural phenomenon can bring joy, including school ﬁeld trips. The Museum of London, for instance, is now creating Mine- craft worlds to accompany exhibitions, bringing some additional heat to its exploration of the Great Fire of 1666.

Illustration by Bratislav Milenkovic March 2017 FastCompany.com 71 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

72 FastCompany.com March 2017 3 2|ORBITAL INSIGHT FOR SEEING THE BI G PICTURE IN SATELLITE IMA GERY

If you want to see beautiful images of Earth from a million miles away, visit NASA’s EPIC I website—just don’t expect to learn much about the economic or societal trends happening down below. For that, you’ll need Orbital Insight. The Mountain View, California–based company analyzes more than a million square kilometers of high-resolution imagery on a monthly basis from eight of the largest satellite constellations in orbit, and then uses machine-vision algorithms to put hard numbers on everything from the amount of water in reservoirs to the number of active fracking sites in North Dakota to the depth of pov- erty in Sri Lanka. “We call it a macroscope,” says founder and CEO James Crawford, a former NASA robotics engineer who also led Google’s mission to scan millions of books and make them searchable online. The U.S. government is an Orbital customer, as are more than 70 ﬁnancial ﬁrms, some of which link into Orbital Insight to make market calls. The most popular report measures American retail strength by counting the number of cars in shopping-mall parking lots and predicting daily consumer spending. The newest offering, a World Oil Storage Index, could prove even more valuable: It determines global reserves by country by mea- suring the length of the shadows cast by the lids of 20,000 storage tanks. Orbital Insight’s goal is more than economic, says Crawford. It’s to “understand what we’re doing on the earth, and to the earth.” The company recently partnered with World Resources Institute to detect patterns, such as when roads appear in previously untouched areas, that could help stop deforestation before it takes place.

Photograph by Mauricio Alejo MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

33 |ONE MEDICAL FOR CHANGING THE FACE OF PRIMAR Y CARE

To identify the ways that a doctor’s office 1 2 3 can be improved, One Medical founder and Flexible care Technology backbone Lower costs T CEO Tom Lee, an internist, spent the early Stylish ofﬁces with shorter Lee was early to adopt elec- One Medical’s reliance on days of his primary-care practice serving wait times and last-minute tronic health records and virtual care, including in a variety of roles, from physician to availability are One Medical patient-physician video chat electronic messaging and accountant. He hit on a membership model that adds con- hallmarks. Last year, it dou- via the One Medical app. prescription renewals, cierge-style services to a high-tech foundation—allowing bled its pediatric outposts. In 2016, he acquired the keeps overhead low, so it “[The company] expands to health-coaching app Rise can reinvest in innovation. him to cut the administrative costs of traditional care by meet patients where they to assist in preventative It also cuts the average cost two-thirds, he says. One Medical, which now has 52 offices are,” says Lee, who also of- care. “[Our] virtual business of care for employers by nationwide, a 40% bump over 2015, offers a template for fers consultations with nu- allows people to get high- 4.5%. More than 1,000 com- a health care system in flux. “We’re doing more for less,” tritionists, acupuncturists, quality care without co-pays panies offer One Medical’s says Lee, “and always reengineering our processes.” and the like. and deductibles,” he says. services to their employees.

34 | FARMERS BUSINESS NETWORK 3 5 | ADOBE For cultivating a new hybrid of data and agriculture For pushing creativity to the cloud

Independent farmers face a serious silo problem. It’s hard to know which seeds grow best Four years after Adobe announced that it (or even what to pay for them—same with fertilizer and chemicals) when you’re the only was converting its buy-once, use-forever operation for miles. So the three-year-old Farmers Business Network empowers growers to products to web-based services, the contro- harvest each other’s information. Big Ag may be consolidating, but FBN “is reinventing the versial decision has proven to be both a financial and creative success. “All technology has farm economy” to fight back, says cofounder Charles Baron. The service aggregates and a shelf life,” says Adobe CEO Shantanu anonymizes data—everything from seed and soil types to elevation and weather patterns— Narayen. Using cloud-based intelligence to to create a crowdsourced database that eliminates guesswork. “We democratize the informa- its advantage, Adobe’s Premiere Pro can now tion,” says Baron, “for farmers to share with each other and use for their own benefit.” For recommend movie edits, and Photoshop between $500 and $600 a year, members of the collective can access performance data for can reconstruct missing parts of images— more than 25 crops across 2,500 regularly grown seed lines. Growers can also track harvests product improvements that are delivered straight to users via cloud-based updates. in real time, giving them a jump on what the national market will look like months ahead of In turn, Adobe’s 2016 revenue leapt 22%, to USDA analysts. In addition, FBN combines the buying power of its members to offer chemi- $5.85 billion. Beating desktop-software sales cals and fertilizer at up to 50% off. In 2016, FBN more than doubled its membership for a with cloud subscriptions? That’s “among group that’s now 3,200 farms strong, representing 11 million acres across 31 states. [our] biggest milestones,” says Narayen.

74 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Bigshot Toyworks

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

36|CASPER FOR MAKING MONEY IN OUR SLEEP

By Jonathan Ringen

Last summer, Casper—the New York–based mattress company that aims, as its founders say, to become the L Nike of sleep—introduced a surprising new product. It was only Casper’s fourth major launch, after its high-tech foam mattress (which debuted in 2014) and extra-breathable sheets and pillow (2015), but it differed from those products in a major way. This one, it turned out, wasn’t meant for humans. The Casper Dog Mattress, which sells for $125, promises “to create a sleep environment that caters to canines’ natural behaviors.” An R&D team spent 11 months conducting dog sleep studies, consulting with canine psychologists and churning through more than 100 prototypes. “Which is a crazy idea,” admits Neil Parikh, one of Casper’s five cofounders and its COO. “It’s a dog bed!” The mattress (“Designed for top dogs, by top dogs”) is selling briskly. But that’s only part of the value. As Parikh puts it, it’s an opportunity “to [show] people how we think—to remind them that, ‘Hey, here is a cool group of people that thinks in an interesting way.’ ” If you’re going to convince consumers that sleep is a pursuit as worthy of obsession as exercise or eating, you have to approach things differently. Three years after launching the original one-model-sleeps-all bed-in-a-box, Casper is combining science, design thinking, branding, and a winking sense of humor to redefine the humble mattress and its accoutrements into lifestyle statements. And its hundreds of thousands of customers are proving that being well rested is finally getting its due. The company, which pulled in an estimated $200 million–plus in 2016 revenue (double the previous year’s), has begun expanding internationally, entering Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the U.K., with more countries soon to follow. “We’ve set up the infrastructure so within a couple months we can turn on a new geography,” says Parikh. “We’ve

Illustration by Ellen Porteus March 2017 FastCompany.com 77 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

got, like, a SWAT team that can go in [and be] operational Chapin’s team concluded that densely woven sheets don’t within 8 to 10 weeks.” Dream allow for cooling airflow, making the microclimate under To an outside observer, such excitement for selling Weaver the covers uncomfortably hot and humid. “The mattress, mattresses—a single model at that—might seem curious. sheets, and pillow are fundamentally very simple things, But, as their foray into dog beds demonstrates, Casper’s HOW CASPER KEEPS so the science around the materials is really critical for how founders are on a different mission. “When we talk about THINGS PLAYFUL IN well they work,” says Chapin. “We’ve gotten really good at becoming a lifestyle brand,” says Luke Sherwin, another THE BEDROOM understanding things like pressure distribution and heat cofounder and the chief creative officer, “it really is about and moisture management.” Chapin and friends are now the idea that whatever question you have about sleep, building out an R&D lab in San Francisco, which will allow Casper will have an answer.” for rapid prototyping and even in-house sleep-study bed- A SHOPPABLE rooms. Each space can be adjusted to mimic any possible Casper gets its whimsy—and relentless drive—from its PLAYHOUSE sleep environment in terms of temperature, humidity, and founders. Parikh, 27, dropped out of medical school, horrify- Casper’s new show- other parameters. “It’s sick,” says Parikh. “[We’re] gonna be ing his physician parents (especially his sleep-doctor dad), rooms are designed able to prototype something, then watch people actually to pursue sweet mattress-sales dreams with a group of guys like two-dimensional sleeping on it, while our team is at work upstairs.” he describes as his closest friends. Sherwin, 28, and chief houses, with furniture, The art is how Casper has prioritized this science while technology officer Gabriel Flateman, 26, attended Brown windows, and other cultivating its playful image. If Wes Anderson made a movie University with Parikh. (When Sherwin describes fostering homey details painted about a mattress company, it would probably look a lot like on the walls. The a company culture, he tends toward words like dialectically.) Casper—and not just because they’ve conducted sleep stud- only thing in 3-D? Chief product officer Jeff Chapin, 40, spent a decade at Ideo, The mattresses. ies with dogs. It’s also about the way the marketing is built where he designed toilets, car seats, and mattresses, the around meme-y blue-and-white cartoons designed to get latter for one of the major players. And CEO Philip Krim, people—even if they’re years away from needing new bed- 33, first saw opportunity in mattresses as an undergrad MOBILE NAPS ding—thinking about the brand. Or the company’s tastefully at the University of Texas at Austin, where he sold them, cheeky nods to the way the mattress, via its springy latex among other products, via an early e-commerce startup he The company decked layer, can enhance “indoor sports.” out an RV with nap pods ran out of his dorm room. None of the five has kids, all are Casper has maintained this puckishness as it moves and visited more than hyperarticulate and chatty, and their social and professional 20 cities on a country- into physical retail. It’s a dramatic shift for the company, lives are completely intertwined. “Where we got lucky was wide tour last year. Peo- opening it up to more traditional customers who might that we found people we really enjoyed working with,” says ple at events like Pride not feel comfortable making a major purchase online. (A Parikh. “People will hear us yelling in a room and looking Festival in Portland, queen-size mattress costs $950.) The company’s show- like we’re gonna throw shit at each other, but that’s because Oregon, and Chicago’s rooms, currently in New York, Los Angeles, and London, it’s a part of our DNA that we debate everything.” Ribfest were invited to feature elements one would never find in a Mattress King, When Casper launched, in 2014, the founders’ confi- pop in for a snooze, including trompe l’oeil paintings of furniture and secret dence in the idea was based on several core insights. One, of complete with a pre- napping spaces in back. In addition, Casper struck a major course, is that buying a mattress is typically an awful con- recorded bedtime story. partnership with the furniture retailer West Elm, which sumer experience. Another is that the vast margins (often allows customers to check out the mattresses in person 100% or more) that the major manufacturers bake in cre- SOCIAL OUTREACH at more than 90 stores across North America. (West Elm, ated an opportunity for a nimble new player. And then there for its part, gets a welcome frisson of Casper’s millennial- were a whole series of fundamental assumptions about Last fall Casper created friendly vibe.) “We went full force with Casper,” says Nancy consumer behavior that the company cheerfully upended, a pop-culture-savvy Tsuei, West Elm’s senior VP of merchandising. “We’ve given from the idea that people want a mattress designed for their text bot, Insomno- them significant real estate in our stores, online market- specific sleep style to the perception that word-of-mouth bot3000, for users to ing, home-page marketing, and space in our catalog, which message when they sales would be impossible to generate because nobody goes out to millions of homes.” can’t sleep. And talks about their mattress (a notion that was shattered by on its Snapchat chan- Parikh won’t say specifically where else he’s trying to an immediate boom in viral unboxing videos). “Maybe [the nel, it posts weekly bring the Casper sleep experience but allows that it includes videos were] a function of the fact that they like our brand, waffle reviews— pretty much anywhere you might find yourself snoozing: or the unboxing experience is exciting,” says Parikh, refer- because breakfast is in hotel beds, on cruise ships, on airplanes. “We’re in the ring to the way the mattress, which comes compressed into important too. final legs of probably closing some stuff [with an airline],” a surprisingly tiny roll, unfurls and expands in a dramatic he says. “How do you turn a pseudo-average experience of fashion. “But the fact that people actually want to talk about sleeping on a plane into something awesome? Usually that’s sleep is pretty interesting.” PILLOW TALK going to involve: How do we make the seats better? How do That last idea became a kind of umbrella insight—that Casper is no longer sim- we think about eye masks, duvets, pillows?” sleep is becoming a thing, a major lifestyle component, with ply sponsoring other What Parikh finds most exciting about Casper going a new cohort of evangelists proselytizing that the key to people’s podcasts. For mainstream is that it gives him and his buddies the chance productivity and overall health stems from maximizing the the company’s recent to test their own foundational assumptions. “When we first quality of our slumber. (It’s a belief that has found adherents eight-episode series, started the business, the demographic we thought we were in everyone from users of sleep-tracking apps to Arianna In Your Dreams, come- going to hit was millennials,” he says. But hundreds of Huffington.) That thinking runs through all of Casper’s dians and hosts Chris thousands of customers later, Parikh and company found subsequent products. Its sheets, for example, challenge the Gethard and Gary Rich- their beds appealing to a much wider group of users: “I ardson analyzed listen- assumption that higher thread count equals higher quality. mean, people who are 65 who live in Nebraska also need ers’ nighttime visions. From both human testing and material-science research, mattresses,” he says. And if not them, their dogs.

78 FastCompany.com March 2017 )HHOLQJ¿WDQGEHLQJDFWLYHGRHVQ¶WKDYHWRVWRSRQFH\RXVWHSLQWR WKHRI¿FH:LWK9$5,'(6.®\RXFDQWXUQ\RXUH[LVWLQJGHVNLQWRD VLWVWDQGZRUNVWDWLRQDOORZLQJ\RXWRPRYHWKURXJKRXWWKHZRUNGD\ 7KHUH¶VQRDVVHPEO\RULQVWDOODWLRQDQGPRGHOVVWDUWDW

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Thinx CEO Agrawal runs her brands with the glee of an outlaw.

3 7|THINX FOR TURNING PERIODS INTO EXCLAMATION POINTS

“I really believe we can change cul- Week runway show, she staged an event where models in ture,” says Thinx cofounder and CEO Miki Thinx (including a trans man in the company’s boy shorts) I Agrawal. That may seem like a lot to ask delivered monologues about oppression. As Thinx expands, of a line of stylish underwear designed Agrawal brings the same approach—a mixture of high- to prevent menstrual leaks, but Agrawal tech merchandise, considered design, and a rule-breaking brings the wit and provocation of a performance artist to philosophy—to new efforts. Last year, she introduced Icon, marketing products that have historically been associated a brand of incontinence underwear, and Tushy, a bidet at- with shame—and she’s catalyzed a movement along the tachment, along with seven different styles of Thinx under- way. Agrawal first grabbed everyone’s attention with a New wear. The additions helped Thinx reach tens of millions of York subway ad campaign featuring a series of refined, dollars in revenue in 2016. The company is now creating a innuendo-filled images of peeled grapefruit and runny eggs. line of organic, reusable tampons and athletic clothes that Last September, in lieu of a traditional New York Fashion incorporate its moisture-wicking technology.

80 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Samantha Casolari 38 | RESY For feeding our desire to be VIP diners

Resy uses technology to enhance the restaurant experience. Eaters book via a slick reservations app, and restaura- teurs use Resy software to reduce no-shows and help staff deliver personalized service. Last year, that combo helped the startup reach 1 million registered users and colonize 1,000 restaurants across 50 cities, each paying up to $899 a month for a subscription. Unlike its reservations-centric rivals, “we’re thinking past the host stand,” says cofounder Ben Leventhal.

1 Easy communication Resy notifies users when tables open up at exclusive spots. 39 |MARRIOTT Guests can text if they’re running late or bringing extra people. A new partnership with FOR PRIORITIZING Airbnb will soon allow travelers to book dining with their rooms. LOYALTY 2 Streamlined customer service Managers can use Resy to track what Leventhal calls “micro- events”—small interactions When Marriott completed its periences like private wine tastings, museum tours, that create memorable experi- acquisition of Starwood Hotels & and even Super Bowl packages. The company also ences. Union Square Hospital- W Resorts in September, it became the launched a redesigned Marriott app in January, which ity Group uses Resy (via an world’s largest hospitality company, allows guests to communicate directly with hotels Apple Watch app) to expedite with more than 6,000 hotels across about their preferences before and during their stays, wine service, signal coat check, and recall regulars’ orders. 120-plus countries. Just as important: It created and use their smartphones as room keys at more than the industry’s most formidable loyalty program. 500 properties. “We want travelers to connect the 3 Overnight, Marriott began allowing the 87 million dots: If you book with us, you get more access to more Data distribution combined members of the Marriott Rewards and experiences,” says Marriott global marketing ofﬁcer Restaurants can choose to Starwood Preferred Guest programs to transfer points Karin Timpone. “Loyalty is an essential element.” share receipt info with other and book rooms across 29 brands of the megacom- After all, loyalty drives not only repeat bookings but businesses to spot diners who pany, including the luxury properties of St. Regis also direct ones, allowing hotels to avoid paying hefty are particularly active or who and Ritz-Carlton. This rapid integration is part of commissions to online travel agencies. (In 2015, those have specific preferences. “If you get treated as a regular a broader effort by Marriott to prioritize customer agencies netted an estimated $16 billion in fees.) “By the first time you walk through relationships, which has included offering members expanding with physical buildings and digital touch the door, you are coming back,” a slew of new beneﬁts such as free Wi-Fi, exclusive points,” says Timpone, “we’re building an audience says Leventhal. room rates, and the ability to use points to pay for ex- and enriching our relationship with them.”

Illustration by Ramona Ring March 2017 FastCompany.com 81 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

40|MEDTRONIC FOR STREAMLINING DIABETES CARE

The $100 billion medical device maker “We try to do the menial work on the behalf of patients,” Medtronic announced in September that it says Michael Hill, Medtronic’s VP of R&D. The company took T had received FDA approval for a new diabe- the unusual step of working closely with the FDA to design tes management system called the MiniMed clinical trials—an effort that resulted in a rapid, 104-day 670G. Developed initially for patients with approval process for teens and adults to begin using the type 1 diabetes, a condition typically diagnosed in children device this spring. The MiniMed joins a suite of Medtronic and young adults, the MiniMed consists of a wirelessly con- initiatives in diabetes care. Last year, the company launched nected pump and glucose monitor that continuously track an app that helps patients determine what they can eat a user’s blood sugar levels and deliver insulin, reducing the based on their levels. A forthcoming Fitbit integration will need for finger pricks (users still have to recalibrate the de- let researchers aggregate glucose and activity data, to un- vice with a traditional finger-stick reading every 12 hours). derstand the role of exercise in treating diabetes.

82 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Kyle Bean; photograph by Sara Morris QGODUJHVW auto insurer

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4 1|NVIDIA FOR POWERING THE FUTURE

Once known as a gaming-centric maker 1 2 3 of graphics chips, Nvidia now applies its Virtual reality to go Cars with smarts Precision oncology O expertise in computationally intense ap- Few computing tasks are as Elon Musk announced last Nvidia is helping to develop plications to some of the digital world’s demanding as VR, which fall that all new Teslas will a set of AI technologies most ambitious new vistas, from virtual Huang says “has to be beau- ship with the ability to pilot known as CANDLE (Cancer reality to autonomous driving to medical research. These tiful and lightning fast.” themselves. At the heart of Distributed Learning Envi- technologies have “ﬁnally reached a level where we can Last August, Nvidia intro- that capability is Nvidia’s ronment) to tackle research duced three graphics cards Drive PX 2, an onboard com- challenges and identify new solve some really challenging problems,” says Nvidia designed to give laptops the puter that’s been adopted therapies. By running neural founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Plus, by putting its desktop-class performance by more than 80 companies networks on Nvidia hard- products into sectors that Silicon Valley is betting on, they need to keep up and research labs to wran- ware, the effort aims to ac- Nvidia has expanded its business prospects—and deliv- with Facebook’s Oculus gle data from sensors and complish a decade’s worth of ered double-digit growth every quarter in 2016. Rift headset. map routes. progress in ﬁve years.

4 2 | PLEDGE 1% 43 | THE HOME DEPOT For seeding early-stage philanthropy For growing without building

Amy Lesnick is looking for the next Uber—to commit 1% of its equity, product, profit, or In 2016, the Home Depot delivered an esti- time to charity. As the CEO of the nonprofit Pledge 1%, Lesnick thinks like an angel investor, mated $90 billion in annual revenue—and it identifying promising startups. But rather than trying to buy a piece of the action, she en- did it without opening a new U.S. big-box store in the past three years. “Our economic courages young brands to nurture a culture of giving and to maximize the potential for engine used to be driven by new square foot- philanthropic contributions as they scale. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff pioneered what he age,” admits CFO Carol Tomé. Her orange- calls an integrated philanthropic model in his company’s early days, giving away equity and aproned crew shifted away from that model goods, and enabling 1.5 million volunteer hours from employees. After evangelizing for oth- by integrating digital and in-store shopping, ers to follow his model, Benioff spun off the initiative three years ago as Pledge 1%. In 2016, paying particular attention to products that the nonprofit added 700 pledges (more than double its 2015 tally, for a total of more than tend to be unfriendly for e-commerce. Cus- 1,300 companies), including commitments from Harry’s and General Assembly. Australian tomers who crave in-person advice can now order via the website but pick up at a retail lo- software juggernaut Atlassian alone has donated more than $6.5 million to education-focused cation, or select items in-store and buy online charities. For Lesnick, the growth is a step toward her ultimate goal: irrelevancy. “In 15 years, from smartphone-wielding sales associates. we might not even exist,” she says. “[Early-stage philanthropy] will be as common as setting “We had to invest in the experience that our aside equity for future employees.” customers wanted,” Tomé says.

84 FastCompany.com March 2017 Illustration by Dan Matutina With more than 500,000 subscribers the company created a surprising ad campaign targeting paying an average of roughly $100 a year, exercise aficionados; it even ran spots during NFL and NBA W meditation aid Headspace has built a real games (teams such as the L.A. Lakers use the service). Head- business out of the ethereal realm of mind- space will reach 750 million airline passengers this year fulness. The app-based service, which is con- through its own in-flight channel on eight airlines, and it’s sistently among the most downloaded health-and-fitness planning to install phone-booth-size relaxation “pods” in offerings in the Apple App Store, removes the intimidation airports and other high-traffic, high-stress areas. To reach factor for beginners with an easy-to-use interface, inviting people more familiar with Solange Knowles than Sri Chin- animations, and how-tos about dealing with everything moy, the company also announced bundled subscriptions from panic attacks to relationship problems. “It’s our job with Spotify. For Puddicombe, meditation is a springboard to get people excited about meditation,” says cofounder for better living. “[There are] other areas of health and Andy Puddicombe, whose relaxed British accent pilots users well-being that could benefit from [our] platform,” he says. through Headspace courses. “It’s about putting meditation “Whether nutrition or exercise, there is always room for in places where people wouldn’t expect to find it.” Last year, approaching it in a more mindful way.”

44 |HEADSPACE FOR GIVING US ALL A MUCH-NEEDED MOMENT OF ZEN

Headspace cofounder Puddicombe believes meditation can be a key wellness tool.

Photograph by Alex Hoerner March 2017 FastCompany.com 85 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 4 5|RELATED COMPANIES FOR CREATING A THRILLING NEW WEST SIDE STORY

86 FastCompany.com March 2017 How do you turn a once-barren stretch 1. An elevated food court neighborhood. The site will 4. Retail therapy of Manhattan’s far West Side into a genu- Related enlisted renowned host a prominent SoulCycle To anchor its eventual 1 mil- H ine neighborhood? “It’s as much about chef Thomas Keller to studio and a 60,000- lion square feet of retail, embracing the public as it is having com- curate the site’s 16 dining square-foot gym, which will Related wooed Neiman mercial spaces and residential units,” spaces. The French Laun- be housed in the compa- Marcus to open its first says Jeff Blau, CEO of Related Companies, the real estate dry owner has already ny’s first Equinox-branded Manhattan store, due in developer behind the $25 billion Hudson Yards project. recruited chefs Costas Spili- hotel and spa. 2018. Once the deal closed, “[Hudson Yards] is not meant to be an enclave.” To suc- adis and José Andrés, and Related signed more ceed, Related is bringing together an array of lifestyle is planning his own steak 3. A culture hub affordable brands such as brands (including its own, SoulCycle and Equinox) and house. Other spots will be To create spaces capable of Zara and H&M. “You have to public amenities to create a private development with grab-and-go casual. “We’re drawing an anticipated have a range so people can broad public appeal. Here’s how the project is creating a going to have 40,000 125,000 visitors a day, go for whatever they new model for urban revival. office workers and 15,000 Related has tapped star- want,” says Blau. residents,” says Blau. “We chitect Thomas Heather- want places where people wick to design Vessel, a 5. A living landscape can eat every day.” $200 million, Instagram- A full 50% of the site will ready sculpture in the site’s remain open, public space. 2. A hardworking hotel plaza. Nearby will be the Landscape architecture The developer will use its Shed, a 200,000-square- firm Nelson Byrd Woltz is cult fitness brands to coax foot art space with a developing a soil structure residents into its buildings retractable roof for indoor- deep enough to accommo- and attract foot traffic outdoor performances and date full-scale trees—an from throughout the programming. expensive investment given the site’s position above active rail yards. But it’s reflective of Related’s approach. “[Hudson Yards] gave us the opportunity to think about how you would develop a city from scratch,” says Blau.

Illustration by Peter Oumanski MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

46 |CELMATIX FOR FORECASTING FERTILITY

Celmatix CEO Piraye Yurt- tas Beim says the “wake-up C call” to develop her company’s fertility-prediction software, Polaris, came after she was diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve at the age of 32. She learned that the nearly 7 million U.S. women struggling to conceive— and the doctors counseling them—were still relying on only the most basic information, such as age, to inform decisions on how to start a family. In an era of big data, she thought, these women should be relying on each other. Polaris, which broke out of trials in mid-2015, is now being used in more than a dozen of the nation’s largest fertility clinics, which serve some 7% of U.S. fertility patients. It allows specialists to compare a woman’s proﬁle to hundreds of thousands of others and calculate likely outcomes based on compa- rable patients. From there, her physician can propose a more targeted treatment plan, such as when she might begin IVF, or transition to IVF with donor eggs. To date, Polaris has been used to counsel roughly 30,000 women. After adding 45 employees and doubling in size in 2016, Celmatix is teaming up with home- DNA-testing company 23andMe to develop a noninvasive screening test for potential infer- tility markers, which is due out later this year. “The majority of our executives are women of reproductive age,” Beim says. “We are building products that we intuitively understand.”

Polaris allows fertility specialists to offer counsel based upon data, “which is game changing for patients,” says CEO Beim.

88 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Elinor Carucci 4 7|MAILCHIMP FOR GIVING LITTLE GUYS THE MARKETING SAVVY OF AN 800-POUND G ORILLA

Email-newsletter service MailChimp 1 2 3 made a stunning ascent last year into a A/B . . . and C/D/E/F You forgot If you like that, E $400-million-a-year-in-revenue power- testing something try this house. Its secret? An e-commerce solu- MailChimp’s multivariate A whopping 69% of online MailChimp’s new product- tions division that grew by 46% and has testing feature allows us- shoppers walk away from recommendation feature become a crucial marketing and data-analysis platform ers to evaluate a variety of checkout without making a uses a customer’s purchase email components—from purchase. MailChimp’s history and predictive for 2.4 million companies. “For small businesses that subject lines to send time— abandoned-cart tool enables data to suggest other don’t have a technology team, data is really hard to wran- in a single test. Customers businesses to gently remind products he or she may gle,” says cofounder and CEO Ben Chestnut. “We’re watch- who use either the service or people of forsaken items. want from a company’s ing it, collecting it, and making sure it’s paying off.” Here’s MailChimp’s standard A/B Sellers typically see a $610 store. Revenue from cam- a look at how the latest suite of MailChimp tools gives en- tests see, on average, a 20% bump in monthly sales paigns using it jumped trepreneurs a heightened impact online. boost in revenue. thanks to the notices. an average of 31%.

48 | BEYOND MEAT 49 | SIMPLIFY NETWORKS For exceeding beefy expectations For sharing wireless by the byte

If it looks, cooks, and tastes like a burger, then why shouldn’t a plant-based beef alternative Like an Airbnb for cell-phone data, this be sold alongside real meat? Especially if it “bleeds” (beet juice). That’s the argument that Malaysia-based service has created a market- Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown successfully made to Whole Foods after releasing his com- place for people to buy and sell excess mega- bytes from their monthly plans. Simplify pany’s ready-to-cook Beyond Burger last spring, a radical leap forward for mainstreaming connects users through its encrypted An- more sustainable alternatives to animal farming. “The consumer needs to be able to make the droid app: Sellers set their own prices and decision about plant versus animal [protein] in the meat case itself,” Brown says. The Beyond buyers pay through PayPal, enabling them to Burger, now sold at Whole Foods nationwide, is the company’s fourth new meat alternative in piggyback on other people’s internet access. as many years. That’s a remarkable pace given the R&D such products require. Brown’s man- Simplify, which launched in August, has date to his chef and science teams: Be first to market and then refine the products—or launch been adding 1,000 users a day across the globe, with a focus on international travel- new ones—as the science evolves. It’s an approach that has attracted investors from the ers. “These [mobile] networks were designed Humane Society to (real) meat producer Tyson Foods. “[We want] to change the system from in the 1980s,” says CEO Yen Pei Tay. “To liber- within,” Brown explains, “rather than throw rocks at it.” ate the market, something has to change.”

Illustration by Zohar Lazar March 2017 FastCompany.com 89 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

50 |DRONE RACING LEAGUE FOR SPEEDING INTO THE MAINSTREAM

90 FastCompany.com March 2017 In 2015, Nicholas Horbaczewski and a with three of the world’s top sports networks—ESPN, Sky friend ventured to a field in Long Island, Sports in the U.K., and Germany’s ProSieben—to broadcast I New York, where a group of guys were pi- its inaugural 10-episode, five-race season. The networks loting home-built drones around PVC pipes also invested in the league itself: Sky’s and ProSieben’s and pool noodles. It was his first encounter 7Sports networks are funding some of DRL’s operating costs, with the phenomenon of drone racing. Ten months later, and Hearst Ventures, which owns a minority stake in ESPN, Horbaczewski launched the Drone Racing League, a series participated in a $12 million investment round last fall. of spectacle-filled competitions in which pilots don VR-like “You’re seeing TV networks doing things they don’t normally headsets (which provide a drone’s-eye view of the course) do, in terms of committing to a new sport and growing it and zip their souped-up planes through gnarly, neon-lit into a major spectator [event],” says Horbaczewski, who obstacle courses. DRL held its first official race at the Miami continues to find creative ways to introduce his league to Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium at the end of 2015. By the fol- new audiences. He recently signed a licensing deal to de-

Production: Ville Gobi Andersson Gobi Ville Production: lowing fall, it had a major sponsor (Bud Light) and deals velop DRL-branded racing drones for kids.

Photograph by Tobias Hutzler MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

AFRICA

1. Andela 6. WeFarm For nurturing first- For helping class coders farmers spread their knowledge 2. MFS Africa Most For facilitating 7. SafeMotos cross-currency For letting Rwandans payments hail a safer ride Innovative 3. Gro 8. Podozi Intelligence For devising For tilling cosmetics for diverse Companies agricultural data complexions 4. Wilderness 9. Njorku Safaris For making job by Sector For using luxury searching simpler travel to fuel conservation 10. Zuvaa WE IDENTIFIED THE 10 MOST EXCITING COMPANIES ACROSS For bringing 5. Iroko African-inspired THE WORLD’S MOST VIBRANT INDUSTRIES, FROM SOCIAL MEDIA For streaming apparel to global AND BIOTECH TO ENERGY AND SPORTS. BELOW IS A SELECTION OF Nigeria’s Nollywood shoppers OUR PICKS. FOR THE FULL LIST, VISIT FASTCOMPANY.COM/MIC. BIOTECH

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIG ENCE 1. Medtronic 6. Color For simplifying Genomics 1. Google diabetes For democratizing management genetic testing 2. IBM 3. Baidu 2. Celmatix 7. PatientsLikeMe 4. SoundHound For mining fertility For uniting people 5. Zebra data to assist with chronic diseases Medical Vision conception 8. Parker 6. Prisma 3. Johnson & Institute 7. Iris AI Johnson For collaborating 8. Pinterest For incubating on a cancer cure 9. TrademarkVision medical startups 10. Descartes Labs 9. Braeburn 4. 23andMe Pharmaceuticals For donating data in For getting under the name of research opioid addicts’ skin

5. Abbott 10. Illumina For making heart For taking the cost surgery safer with of DNA sequencing dissolvable stents to new lows

CHINA

1. Alibaba 6. Dalian Wanda For creating new For staging its own hubs for commerce dream factory

2. Tencent 7. Ctrip For reinventing the For becoming messaging app— an all-in-one travel again and again platform

PRISMA 3. Xiaomi 8. Didi Chuxing For making masterpieces out of snapshots For taking the edge For riding off with off hardware design the Chinese ride- share business The most exciting development in photo sharing in years, Prisma uses artificial intelligence 4. BBK Electronics 9. Baidu to turn smartphone images into Picasso-style works of art. Unlike other photo-editing apps, For igniting new For accelerating the company doesn’t rely on traditional filters; Prisma’s final product is an all-new composition smartphone markets artificial intelligence crafted by the Russian startup’s neural networks in the manner of famous artists. Until late last 5. Huawei 10. iCarbonX year, Prisma was mostly a tool for creating stylized photos to share on social networks. In a bid For iterating fast to For funding the to persuade users to spend more time in the app, Prisma announced the Feed, its own location- create high-quality future of medical based social feature that allows users to view and interact with each other’s works. phones research

92 FastCompany.com March 2017 DATA SCIENCE ENERGY

1. Netflix 1. Tesla 6. Google 2. Spotify For creating the For buying enough 3. WeWork power infrastructure renewables to cover 4. Foursquare of the future its energy output 5. NASA 2. GE 7. Verdigris 6. The Guardian For building the For using AI to 7. Esri U.S.’s first offshore make construction 8. DNAFit wind farm efficient 9. University 3. Otherlab 8. Green Interscholastic For making energy Mountain Power League education interactive For turning Vermont 10. ReverbNation (even) greener 4. Powerhive For establishing solar 9. Sonnen microgrids in Africa For selling energy between batteries 5. TransActive Grid For harnessing block- 10. Etho Capital chain data to sell For offering a clean energy fossil-fuel-free ETF

FINANCE

1. Goldman Sachs 6. Quantopian For becoming a For crowdsourcing consumer lender investment algorithms 2. Digit For turning saving 7. Robinhood money into a For adding premium FOURSQUARE mindless task perks to trading For unlocking a treasure trove of geolocation information 3. IEX 8. Venmo For helping human For expanding investors compete beyond peer-to-peer Eight years after it introduced the mobile check-in, Foursquare is more focused on packaging with computers transactions insights about foot trafﬁc than making mayors of us all. Through its Pilgrim technology, it can 4. Ethereum 9. Visa track where its opted-in users are going. Foursquare is now layering that information with its For creating a more For empowering geolocation intelligence to launch tools that allow marketers from companies such as Unilever developer-friendly payment via public blockchain wearables and Subway to target consumers and measure the impact of digital ads on in-store visits. Last spring, Foursquare demonstrated its analytics prowess by predicting the scale of Chipotle’s sales 5. Ant Financial 10. Forerunner slump weeks before the earnings results were in. For banking on Ventures economic growth in For investing in the rural China future of commerce

DESIG N FITNESS 1. Snap 6. L’Oréal INTUIT For creating a glasses- For pioneering the camera people want use of stretchable 1. Headspace 6. Nike to wear electronics in the Last year, Intuit overhauled its flagship For providing us all a For lacing up for skin-care industry product, TurboTax, to make it more moment of Zen diversity—on and off 2. Airbnb mobile- and user-friendly. Customers the field For putting new 7. Ammunition 2. Related experiences at our For creating uncom- can now log in to the service with Companies 7. Halo fingertips promising work for Touch ID, take a photo of their W-2 and For making healthy Neuroscience unconventional clients have it mined for information, and pro- living a lifestyle For maximizing 3. Adobe cess their refund via Apple Pay. choice athletic performance For using the cloud to 8. Frog create software that’s For providing design 3. Peloton 8. Wearable X endlessly adaptable work to startups— For spinning a fitness For using fabric to then funding them AMMUNITION revolution in your realign the body 4. Intuit living room For making tax 9. Work & Co 9. Sweat preparation a friendly For building next-gen The San Francisco firm known for de- 4. Bandier With Kayla experience—really! products that shape For reimagining the For turning an companies’ strategy signing Beats by Dr. Dre has been dem- retail experience Instagram following 5. Carnival onstrating its versatility, creating into an empire Cruise Line 10. Dyson everything from a smart dashboard for 5. Under Armour For bringing high- For using nuclear Lyft to a sophisticated new brand for For transforming 10. Sworkit tech wearables technology to create the Huna Totem Corporation, an Alaska from an underdog to For personalizing to the high seas the ultimate hair dryer Native company. a global force workout routines

Illustrations by Peter Judson March 2017 FastCompany.com 93 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

FOOD HEALTH

1. Chobani 6. Domino’s STARBUCKS 1. One Medical 6. Propeller For expanding its For baking technology For making primary For helping asthma tastes to win the into every aspect of care affordable and COPD patients dairy aisle pizza night Changes to the chain’s loyalty program and convenient breathe easier irked some customers last year by 2. Farmers 7. Sweetgreen rewarding the biggest spenders. Still, 2. Apple 7. Verily Business Network For dishing up healthy For mining data to For putting health For taking the food and frictionless the number of active members grew build health apps data to work guesswork out checkout by 18% year over year, with loyalists of farming enjoying more stars for using partner 3. AliveCor 8. Omada 8. World services such as Lyft or Spotify. For mobilizing heart For using technology 3. Resy Food Programme monitoring to prevent diabetes For using software Innovation to turn a restaurant Accelerator 4. GE 9. Global Kinetics meal into an entertain- For taking a Silicon WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME Healthcare Corporation ment event Valley approach INNOVATION ACCELERATOR For reducing pain For collecting data to fight world hunger points at health care from wearables 4. Beyond Meat facilities to treat Parkinson’s For putting a veggie 9. SOSV The UN created what it calls an “activist burger in the meat case For betting on the Y Combinator,” giving companies 5. Kaiser 10. Levita artificial future of food $100,000 to test ideas to help the Permanente Magnetics 5. Starbucks For investing in For cutting down on For redesigning 10. PicoBrew world’s 795 million undernourished virtual office visits surgical incisions the loyalty program For creating an eco- people. There are projects under way without skimping friendly Keurig of beer to cut harvest losses, reduce waste, on perks for home brewers and make food donation a tap away. HOLLY WOOD

G AMING 1. Dalian Wanda 6. Disney For staging its own For finishing first dream factory at the box office 1. Twitch 2. 2K 2. Illumination 7. Hulu 3. Activision Entertainment For reinventing Blizzard For dazzling global itself as a live- 4. Nintendo audiences with its streaming provider animated features 5. Respawn 8. Fulwell 73 Entertainment 3. FX Networks For turning James 6. Sony For taking risks on Corden’s hits into 7. Restart Life new voices series commitments 8. Turner 4. Alibaba 9. Madison 9. Get Schooled For boldly making Wells Media 10. Netmarble its own pictures For fusing movies, VR, and theater 5. WME IMG For taking its 10. Scopely management For marketing prowess into live The Walking Dead events and more back to life

INDIA

1. Zoomcar 6. WaterQuest For finding new uses Hydroresources for idle cars Management For locating vital 2. Byju’s underground rivers For taking STEM education mobile— 7. SirionLabs and into the For letting software GET SCHOOLED countryside enforce the fine print For gamifying the college-admissions process 3. Paytm 8. UpGrad For accelerating a For training a new digital economy generation of entrepreneurs With just one guidance counselor per 500 students at the average U.S. high school, many 4. Noora Health college-ready seniors, especially in underserved communities, receive little support navigating For helping mothers 9. SkyQuest the admissions process. To help, the education nonproﬁt Get Schooled has been rolling out a help their babies For giving inventors series of digital games and competitions that encourage students to improve their attendance a marketplace 5. Rivigo records, prep for standardized tests, and familiarize themselves with student aid options. Re- For loading trucks 10. Livspace wards include everything from grants for their high schools and scholarships to PlayStations with algorithmic For customizing and sports memorabilia. Last year, Get Schooled logged nearly 2 million students on its site. efficiencies home design

94 FastCompany.com March 2017 LIVE EVENTS MEDIA

1. WME IMG 1. BuzzFeed 6. Vox Media 2. Twitch For feeding a viral For doubling down 3. Twitter fever with Tasty on quality content 4. Tait while expanding 2. The 5. CJ 4DPlex Washington 7. Cheddar 6. TodayTix Post For keeping cord 7. Greencopper For turning a legacy cutters connected to 8. Tock brand into a digital financial news 9. Tough Mudder frontrunner 8. ProPublica 10. Social Tables 3. Vice For holding local For beaming its officials accountable voice around the world 9. Radiotopia For giving power 4. Refinery29 to podcasting For expanding online enthusiasts and IRL 10. Lenny 5. The Wirecutter For captivating For generating millennial women— revenue with reviews on email

MUSIC

1. Spotify 6. Kobalt For using data to find For sniffing out the right tunes artists’ royalties across the web 2. Parkwood Entertainment 7. Instagram For making For becoming BFFs GREENCOPPER Lemonade out of a with pop stars For becoming the go-to app developer for music festivals fractured landscape 8. Atlantic 3. Bandcamp Records For defying the For racking up the If you’ve been to Afropunk, Governors Ball, or Panorama and used the music festival’s app, death of downloads gold (and platinum) then you’ve used Greencopper. The company caters to events of any size, powering apps on the back end and offering organizers tools for tracking audience engagement. Greencopper’s tech 4. OVO Sound 9. Moog Music also helps attendees spend their time wisely; a personalization feature, deployed at the Euro- For making Drake an For finding digital early winner of the relevance for analog sonic showcase, scanned users’ Facebook likes to suggest must-see bands. Last year, Green- streaming wars synths copper introduced GoExtra, a pricier subscription level that enables organizers to sell in-app advertising, offer targeted push notiﬁcations, and create image overlays in Google Maps. 5. Songkick 10. ReplyYes For personalizing For using chatbots to concert listings sell vinyl records

MARKETING/ADVERTISING NOT-FOR- PROFIT 1. Facebook 6. Ingo INGO STOCKHOLM For launching creative Stockholm new advertising For using technology 1. Pledge 1% 6. Hive products for the to give tourism a On behalf of the Swedish Tourist Asso- For setting the For giving smartphone personal touch ciation, Ingo created a daring travel- standard for refugees a voice corporate giving 2. Kenzo 7. Droga5 marketing campaign: “The Swedish 7. Chan Zuckerberg For putting real art For taking risks with Number” allowed people around the 2. GiveDirectly Initiative into advertising new kinds of content world to dial a number and be con- For offering aid in For uniting doctors nected to a random Swede. Over three the form of cash and engineers 3. FX Networks 8. Wieden+Kennedy months, it received 188,000 calls. For building buzz with For seeing unlimited 3. The 8. Good Ventures backward teasers and potential in TV Movement for For charting a unknown actors commercials Black Lives new approach to DROGA5 For transitioning grant making 4. R/GA 9. 21st Century Fox from a protest to For designing work For using fart jokes a political force 9. The Charity spaces and digital for movie-marketing Droga5 has been boldly experimenting Network experiences magic 4. DataKind For using star power with new forms of advertising. In 2016, For informing non- to fuel digital giving 5. NetScout 10. Venables Bell it created a mobile-first reality show, profits using data For turning a B2B & Partners a motivational app (with Dwayne “The 10. Fund for marketing strategy For creating brand- Rock” Johnson), and a series of Under 5. New Story Public Housing into a buzzy defining campaigns for Armour shorts for every postseason For building more For filling in feature film REI, Reebok, and more three-pointer scored by Stephen Curry. houses, faster the funding gaps

March 2017 FastCompany.com 95 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

ROBOTICS SOCIAL MEDIA

1. DJI 6. CyPhy Works DJI 1. Snap 6. Duolingo For flying drones For positioning its For giving users a For letting friends high above the drone to become virtual playground compare notes competition the go-to for parcel DJI extended its status as the gold delivery standard among drone enthusiasts 2. Facebook 7. The Shade 2. Universal with last fall’s release of the Phantom 4 For live broadcasting Room Robots 7. Stanford world-changing For Instagramming For teaching robots University Pro, which includes a 4K-enabled cam- events real-time celeb gossip to work side by side For finding sunken era and the ability to avoid obstacles with human developers treasures with a deep- and track objects. Next up: retail out- 3. Tencent 8. Sprinklr diving humanoid lets. DJI opened a flagship store in For reinventing the For managing big 3. Anki South Korea last year. messaging app— brands’ reputations For breathing life 8. Sphero again and again into artificially (and For giving kids the 9. Wattpad emotionally) Force by teaching 4. Glossier For turning online intelligent toys them to code ANKI For creating cult fan fiction into a robotic ball products from social Hollywood 4. ABB insights entertainment Robotics 9. Blue River Technology Setting a new bar for robotic toys, For building smarter Anki’s adorable Cozmo—which resem- 5. Taco Bell 10. Musical.ly back-end services for For using bots to For turning feedback For syncing tweens industrial robots increase farmers’ yield bles a diminutive real-world cousin of Pixar’s Wall-E—is as smart as he is artic- into viral content around the world 5. iRobot 10. Foxconn ulate, displaying an impressively lifelike For ushering consumer For automating its array of emotions through facial ex- robotics into Asia operations in China pressions and body movements. SPACE

1. Orbital 6. China SOCIAL GOOD Insight Aerospace For analyzing data Science and from a constellation Technology 1. Chobani of satellites For launching China 2. GoFundMe back into space 3. Zipline 2. Spire 7. 4. Nike For delivering better Rocket Labs 5. Unilever weather intel For giving small satellites liftoff 6. Patagonia 3. SpaceX 7. Qlik For reigniting our 8. Astroscale 8. Fitwel interest in rockets For safely redirecting 9. Yazda space debris 10. Google 4. Blue Origin For making the 9. Stratolaunch private space race Systems competitive For turning a plane into a launchpad 5. Kymeta For propelling 10. Moon Express internet service to For bringing us back new heights to the moon

SPORTS

1. Drone 6. PlaySight Racing League For bringing game- For speeding into changing analytics the mainstream to practice

2. Sacramento 7. Twitter Kings For combining live For reinventing video with digital the fan experience commentary

YAZDA 3. FocusMotion 8. Wasserman For holding ISIS accountable For giving For facilitating wearables new athlete-brand intelligence relationships After ISIS attacked, raped, and murdered the Yazidi people in northern Iraq in 2014, a group of 4. FieldLevel 9. GolfTEC activists assembled in the U.S. to form Yazda, a nonproﬁt that advocates on behalf of the victims. For helping athletes For using data to The group is now taking the campaign public: With the help of human-rights lawyer Amal get discovered demystify the golf Clooney, who signed on to represent Yazda last summer, the organization has been pushing for swing 5. The Players’ formal recognition of the genocide through the UN Security Council. It’s also harnessing the Tribune 10. ESPN power of technology to record what might otherwise be overlooked, crowdsourcing video testi- For turning sports For creating Oscar- monials from survivors to stitch together a timeline and map of ISIS atrocities. stars into storytellers worthy content

96 FastCompany.com March 2017 TRANSPORTATION VIDEO

1. Uber 1. Facebook 6. Twitter 2. Nvidia For mainstreaming For live streaming 3. General Motors live video must-see news 4. Velodyne Lidar and sports 2. Snap 5. Transloc For empowering 7. Naritiv 6. Swiss Federal users to star in their For telling brand Railways own reality shows and influencer 7. Zipline stories on Snapchat 8. United Airlines 3. YouTube 8. Hulu 9. Tesla For enabling creators with deeper content For expanding via its 10. Boom and better comments own skinny bundle

4. BuzzFeed 9. WeChat For serving up a For streaming NBA delicious video and ESPN to the platform in Tasty sports-obsessed masses in China 5. Disney For programming 10. Turner its ABC app like a For blending digital network and network viewing

VIRTUAL/AUG MENTED REALITY

1. Snap 6. HTC For giving users For developing control of their own the industry-leading augmented reality VR system

2. Google 7. Sony For using VR to For baking VR into BOOM measure your living PlayStation For bringing back supersonic room 8. Wevr 3. Facebook For giving A-list For gathering IRL directors VR cameras There was a time when the Concorde was the sexiest thing in the sky: a sleek plane that could friends in VR travel faster than the speed of sound. High fuel costs and inefficiencies grounded the Concorde 9. NextVR in 2003, but Boom is at work on a new plane that aims to transport passengers from New York 4. Nvidia For enveloping to London in less than 3.5 hours—and at business-class prices. It’s a feat made possible by For providing the viewers in live events power to process VR today’s fuel-efficient engines and lighter, carbon-fiber materials, along with Boom’s plans to 10. Osterhout limit capacity to 45 people. Though passenger service is several years away, Boom has received 5. Niantic Design Group letters of intent to buy $5 billion worth of aircraft from Virgin Group and another carrier. For introducing For using smart Pikachu to the glasses to augment real world industrial work

TRAVEL How we picked the World’s 1. Airbnb 6. Norwegian Air GOEURO Most Innovative Companies For putting a world For ushering in a of sophisticated new era of affordable A cadre of Fast Company reporters surveyed new experiences at transatlantic travel Navigating Europe’s robust bus, train, companies across 36 sectors and geographies. our fingertips and flight systems can involve visiting Their mandate: Identify the most notable 7. AccorHotels dozens of search engines. GoEuro 2. Marriott For embracing bold innovations of the year, and trace their For prioritizing loyalty hospitality brands painstakingly gathers that data for impact on businesses, industries, and the while becoming a 12 European countries (and counting), larger culture. The results are the top-10 lists megacompany 8. Beautiful allowing users to compare and book that appear here and at fastcompany.com. Destinations transportation right in its app. 3. Vail Resorts For evolving into a CONTRIBUTORS: Jeff Beer, Adam Bluestein, For cultivating powder creative agency John Brownlee, Diana Budds, Kelsey Campbell- hounds from across that optimizes for Dollaghan, Austin Carr, Sara Clemence, Morgan the globe wanderlust BEAUTIFUL DESTINATIONS Clendaniel, Claire Dodson, Amy Farley, Christina Farr, Ainsley Harris, KC Ifeanyi, Cliff Kuang, Hillel 4. Ctrip 9. Carnival Cruise Line Kuttler, Suzanne LaBarre, Nicole LaPorte, For becoming the all- This former travel-influencer network Jessica Leber, David Lidsky, Kim Lightbody, in-one travel platform For bringing recently began using its social savvy Sheila Marikar, J.J. McCorvey, Harry McCracken, for Chinese travelers high-tech wearables to offer creative services to the likes of Steven Melendez, Meg Miller, Ben Paynter, to the high seas Adele Peters, Ruth Reader, Nikita Richardson, 5. GoEuro Marriott and Hilton. Once custom Jonathan Ringen, Noah Robischon, Laynie Rose, For pulling planes, 10. Lola “social first” content is conceived, a Chuck Salter, Ben Schiller, Elizabeth Segran, trains, and automobiles For giving travel agents predictive algorithm anticipates which Daniel Taroy, Daniel Terdiman, John Paul Titlow, into a booking platform a welcome AI boost images will perform best. Cale Weissman, and Mark Wilson

March 2017 FastCompany.com 97 Planted on the edge of a military base, Amazon’s Amazon’s business is not without its chal- Amazon recently opened fulfillment center, in DuPont, lenges. The company’s imperative to deliver more Washington, looks from the outside like a generic stuff faster has racheted up its annual shipping (Continued from page 29) warehouse, with a line of idling trucks snaking costs north of $11 billion, reinforcing the pres- around the building waiting to load and unload sure to wring efficiencies out of the company’s product. But what’s inside represents a huge processes and its people. In the run-up to last back to Prime; retail stores offer a tangible advance in the way Amazon sorts, packs, and year’s holiday shopping season, pilots who work lure for the uninitiated. But, as Bezos explains, ships orders. for Amazon’s Prime Air shipping contractors Amazon’s technological sophistication also now It starts with a “vision tunnel,” a conveyor belt went on strike, demanding hiring increases to makes it possible for in-store shoppers to interact tented by a dome full of cameras and scanners. As reduce their workload. It’s no wonder that the with its digital platforms in all-new manners. each box comes off the truck, it is photographed blistering 2015 New York Times article about Monitoring the interplay is a classic Amazon way and scanned on all sides. Image-recognition al- bruising work environments at Amazon remains to spot new opportunities. gorithms then sort each parcel based on variables in the popular consciousness. The first wave of Amazon stores is somewhat such as the type of product or size and weight. Amazon is working to counteract this legacy. traditional: More than 30 pop-up shops showcas- What takes humans with bar-code scanners an The company pledged in January to create more ing Amazon’s electronic gadgets—Kindle, Echo, hour to accomplish at older fulfillment centers than 100,000 full-time positions over the next Fire TV, Fire tablets, and Dash buttons—dotted can now be done in half that time. 18 months, and it’s building a new headquar- the country by late last year. The next phase: Boxes are towed from the docks into the ters complex in the heart of downtown Seattle. expanding the highly curated Amazon Books million-square-foot warehouse, sometimes by Five buildings and a 2,000-seat auditorium will stores—which showcase titles with a higher- driverless vehicles. This facility handles the surround a trio of glass-enclosed spheres that, than-four-stars customer rating alongside ex- largest items that Amazon ships, which is why when completed in 2018, will contain more than cerpts of reviews from the website—from three there’s also a huge, 6-ton yellow robot on the 3,000 species of plants and trees from around the locations to eight. But it is the third leg of the main floor. It has a six-axis arm that could pick world. There will be flexible, couch-filled work company’s retail experiment that begins to rattle up a car with ease, but today it’s mostly lifting spaces and an “Expressions Lab,” where employ- expectations. Amazon Go is a convenience-store pallets loaded 4 feet high with diapers and Keurig ees can learn to knit or attend a “Bob Ross Paint concept the company announced in December (it cups to the second floor of the warehouse where Night.” One floor will include a small outdoor will launch publicly in Seattle in early 2017). After they will await shipping. The arm performs a dog park, and there will be several markets and a shopper swipes a code on her mobile phone at constant, mostly silent waltz with an ensemble cafeterias. Amazon is also funding an additional the entryway turnstile, she can grab whatever of rolling Amazon robots, which represent streetcar for the city, as well as bicycle paths lead- items she likes; they are magically added to her the next-generation offspring of the company’s ing to the three-block complex, which includes digital cart and automatically paid for when she $775 million acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012, 1.7 acres of public space. “The biggest thing is leaves, through her existing account. This abil- and were only fully integrated into the fulfill- probably just that we’re not in a suburban cam- ity to skip both the line and any cash register on ment center workflow last year. pus,” says Bezos, “which I think would change the way out is made possible by Amazon’s cloud Once a package leaves the warehouse, it may the vibrancy and energy of Amazon.” computing, machine learning, voice control, and end up on a Boeing 767 with the Prime Air logo In November, Amazon released a video ad logistics know-how. It’s also another example emblazoned on its side. Bezos rolled out the portraying a pair of aging friends—a priest and of Amazon creating a technology platform that first in a fleet of 40 wide-bodies last summer, an imam—laughing, hugging, and then order- could be sold to other businesses. which will be operated in partnership with two ing the same knee braces for each other. It is Finally, and more quietly, another grocery-store aircraft-leasing companies. These planes, like the a sensitive and moving vignette, portraying concept is also being prepped. Although no one in- thousands of cargo trailers that already sport the Amazon as a connector of cultures, the kind side Amazon is willing to talk about it, documents Prime logo, make Amazon less dependent on its of compassionate business it has not always filed with local buildings departments in Seattle partnerships with FedEx, DHL, and the United been given credit for being. The ad arrived just and the San Francisco suburbs of Sunnyvale and States Postal Service. And, pending FAA ap- two weeks after Donald Trump was elected San Carlos show that the company is erecting proval, those fully operational Amazon delivery president, so I ask Bezos what the company’s stores in all three locales. (Construction at the Se- drones might one day cut delivery time down to role might be in bridging the divides that exist attle location—where a Chinese restaurant once 30 minutes or less. in the U.S. After all, he bankrolls The Washing- stood, on a busy commercial thoroughfare in the Amazon stresses that its new automated ton Post, which went after Trump aggressively fast-growing Ballard neighborhood—appears to be fulfillment centers actually require more hu- during the presidential campaign. His answer nearly complete.) The documents describe a sys- man workers than the old ones did, because is almost laughably narrow. “Well, I’ll tell you tem that would seem to extend the AmazonFresh the warehouse can store a significantly larger one way that I don’t think anybody is divided,” grocery service: Customers load their digital carts number of products—which all still need people Bezos replies. “Everybody wants fast delivery. remotely and pay online, then schedule a physical for boxing and general oversight (plus, some- Low prices. I’m serious about this. Our job is to pickup within a two-hour window. “When picking one’s got to service those robots when they need provide a great customer experience, and that up purchased items, customers either can drive repairs). The plant in DuPont, active almost is something that is universally desired all over into a designated parking area with eight parking 24/7, employs more than a thousand people the world.” stalls where the purchased items will be delivered full time. At stow station 1405, for instance, I It’s tough to argue with his words. And yet to their cars, or they can walk into the retail area watch a young guy with tattoos, a man bun, and this Bezosian boilerplate is certainly less than to pick up their items,” the filings say. large-gauge flesh-tunnel earrings grab item the full story. Because Amazon is doing more These stores are not likely to change the way after item from orange robots, scan each one, than delivering our next tube of toothpaste. By most Americans get their cornflakes overnight. and, after the computer gives the green light, using the “divine discontent of the customer as Still, Amazon has always been good at being send it to be boxed. Over the holiday season, a North Star,” as Bezos puts it, the company is patient—and incrementally improving its offer- Amazon hired an extra 120,000 workers at energizing a culture of relentless progress. The ings. Since AmazonFresh launched in 2007, the centers nationwide to help meet demand. This neighborhood may be changing, but maybe that’s service has slowly expanded to dozens of cities. is what the future of American factory work good. Maybe that’s what business in the modern The Amazon neighborhood continues to change. might look like. era is all about.

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10 GLIMPSES OF THE WAY FORWARD These past Most Innovative Companies honorees signaled major business and cultural changes to come.

By David Lidsky Illustration by Markus Magnusson

1 With its Rhapsody subscription service, the digital 6 Squat, orange Kiva robots upended warehouse audio pioneer tried to woo users to rent, not buy, management for such brands as Toys “R” Us and Real Networks tunes, bucking a century of consumer behavior. Kiva Systems Staples, enabling faster shipping and handling. 2008 Today: In 2016, streaming became the primary 2012 Today: Amazon acquired Kiva later in 2012 way people listen to music, though Napster for $775 million. The technology, as well as (née Rhapsody) has just 3.5 million subs, versus subsequent enhancements, has delivered for Spotify (40 million) and Apple Music (20 million). the ur-retailer’s Prime and Prime Now services.

2 Embracing the principles of a then-novel business 7 This collaborative platform for software engi- structure called a B Corporation that made social neers let organizations such as Facebook Method responsibility as important as profitability, the GitHub and the Obama White House accelerate project 2008 cleaning-products startup grew to $100 million 2013 development by open-sourcing some code. in annual revenue. Today: Coding has emerged as an essential Today: There are 1,797 B Corps, including Warby literacy, as GitHub and rivals coax enterprises to Parker and Revolution Foods. value pooled projects over proprietary ones.

3 The media-backed, streaming TV network cre- 8 By disrupting wireless carriers’ SMS business, ated the experience of watching long-form video WhatsApp’s bare-bones messaging service Hulu content on the internet and mobile devices. WhatsApp accrued 400 million monthly users. 2009 Today: Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, HBO, Apple, 2014 Today: Facebook spent $22 billion to purchase and Hulu have continued to innovate, transform- WhatsApp, which now has more than 1 billion ing digital TV through daring originals, predictive users and is building a messaging-based operat- recommendations, and offline viewing. ing system.

4 The Chinese battery manufacturer beat GM, 9 With high-profile deals to power mainstream Toyota, and Nissan to market with the first plug- digital commerce via Apple and Facebook, the BYD in hybrid car. Then its fully electric E6 debuted in Stripe back-end payments service rose to prominence. 2011, using its lithium-ion ferrous phosphate tech. 2009 2015 Today: Stripe, which embodies the emergence Today: BYD’s marriage of energy capture and of application programming interfaces as storage with cars presaged Tesla’s move in the fuel for the innovation economy, is seeding global same direction. entrepreneurship via its new Atlas program.

5 Under the leadership of CEO Angela Ahrendts, 10 The granddaddy of old-school business conglom- the iconic fashion house used digital savvy erates embraced cloud computing and sensors Burberry (live-streamed runway shows and instant order- GE to optimize heavy machinery such as jet engines 2011 ing via in-store iPads) to elevate its fortunes. 2016 and wind turbines, generating $5 billion annually. Today: The fashion industry is fully Instagrammi- Today: Sensors, big data, and artificial intelli- fied, while Ahrendts runs Apple Stores, where she gence are creating an industrial internet has brought fashion to tech. and revolutionizing manufacturing productivity.

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