Beyond the norm
Futuristic, innovative, synergetic: These aren't just savvy buzzwords for cool business wrangling. These are the must-have qualities for any forward moving small business on the grind. While many companies are still climbing out of the recession dugout, these three have found creative answers for consumer needs. From eco-friendly fashion to cab sharing to pristine bottle water, these edgy businesses have forged a path for others to follow, found audiences beyond their domestic borders and reinvigorated the very way business is done. If you want your business to step into the future, take a look at these fast risers and take notes.
NATALIA ALLEN
Founder & CEO of Design Futurist
www.designfuturist.com Just call her fashion forward with a capital double F.
Award-winning designer Natalia Allen is taking no prisoners on her mission to kick fashion into the future. The eco-friendly fashionista is stacking accolades worldwide with companies clamoring to gain her insights into making sustainability stylish.
I’m thinking I’m at the premiere design school in the country and I’m being asked to draw from an issue of Vogue.”
Allen is a science lover at heart. While she loves fashion, she is more fascinated with reconstructing textiles and reinventing approaches to design than design for aesthetics sake alone. “I was miserably bored,” she said of her initial forays into fashion studies. “One of the unfortunate truths of school in design, there isn’t a lot of focus on reinventing things. I’m thinking I’m at the premiere design school in the country and I’m being asked to draw from an issue of Vogue.”
The lack of challenge drove her to create her own. So she approached Dupont, a company that has pioneered innovative technology and forged a partnership. The result was her foray into wearable technology and the creation of a textile that was safe to wear but could conduct electricity and when paired with a battery pack could be used in garments that would power your mp3 player or cell phone. It became the foundation of $100 million in licensed technology for Dupont.
Her next invention was a photoluminescent top designed to make night runners visible. Working with phosphorescents and a textile company in Korea she created a living glow-in-the-dark fabric that absorbs light in the day and emits light at night and is not painted on or a surface treatment but a character of the fiber. This was all before graduation.
Of course, her user-friendly creations piqued the interest of professors and industry insiders alike. Her work garnered her the highly coveted Parsons New School of Design “Designer of the Year” award as a senior at the school in 2004, a title she shares with industry veteran Marc Jacobs.
Allen formed Design Futurist in 2005. She’s consulted with Calvin Klein, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Best Buy, Nike and Donna Karan, to name a few. Fast Company listed her company as one of the country’s 10 Most Creative Small Businesses; the World Economic Forum dubbed her as a Young Global Leader and she was included in the inaugural Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch in 2010 by AlwaysOn, an online media network focused on Silicon Valley.
After studying the path a garment takes from farmers growing the fibers to oftentimes sweat shops to the showroom and finally the consumer, Allen was appalled by the women and child-dominated workforce, toxic chemicals used and waste accumulated in the creation and maintenance of clothing. Hundreds of toxic chemicals are in our clothing, she says, and several thousand gallons of water are wasted in the production of a single pair of jeans. According to Allen, sustainability doesn’t just mean one thing but at its core “is a desire to make something that is beneficial for society today and for generations to come.”
Despite those facts, the eco-friendly sustainable fashion conversation is a bit more difficult to have than, say, presenting the hottest new “It Girl” cocktail dress. Yet Allen says this stage of her career is rife with challenges she’s excited to take on.
“It’s almost as if sustainability is a no-no,” says Allen. However, that hasn’t stopped her from crisscrossing the globe to engage leaders in this fashion forward conversation. In fall of 2011, she’s launching a completely eco-friendly sustainable fashion line of her own.
Derick Halliman
CEO of Lucid Enterprises, LLC
www.misth2o.com Derick Halliman credits perseverance to the success of Mist H20, his award-winning brand of premier bottled water. “I have nothing to fall back on,” he jokes, noting that prior to his work in the water industry he’d only worked stints at Pizza Hut and UPS.
Mist H20 won the 2008 Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition as well as the People’s Choice Packing Design Gold Award. Mist H20 also won the 2008 Water Innovation Awards (International) for Best Bottle in Glass- Silver Award.
The award-winning water has a strong presence in Europe, particularly the London hotel scene. The international win couldn’t have come at a better time.
Halliman founded Lucid Enterprises, LLC in 1997. However, the company began simply with Halliman delivering five-gallon water jugs to companies and homes.
“A lot of people think businesses go out of business because of money, but I say a lot of businesses fold because of growth....
He started largely because he discovered that friends were requesting bottled and filtrated water and thought the trend was mind-boggling. “I guess next they’ll start charging for air,” he said, mimicking his grandfather.
However, Hallman saw an opportunity and forged ahead. “I was a one man show,” says Halliman. “A lot of people think businesses go out of business because of money, but I say a lot of businesses fold because of growth, they can’t handle the growth.”
He then switched his business model to one that could sell or rent water filtration systems. When the economy took a downturn after 9-11, Halliman switched models again and purchased a bottled water company in 1994. “Buying a business is like buying a used car, they’re selling it for a reason,” he jokes. He closed the business in 2006.
Between his business problems and a health challenge, Halliman found himself fighting mild depression.
But an odd occurrence happened. “I dreamt the bottle for Mist H20 and I drew it out,” he says. A year later, Halliman rediscovered the drawing and decided to relaunch his company. “I said if I get back into this industry, I’m going to control everything.” He had a mold made of the bottle, sent it off and it returned perfectly.
“Usually, it takes a year and a half for R&D,” he says. He bought a bottling company in Tennessee, one that was closer and more manageable. Then he entered Mist H20 in a few competitions.
“The only reason I put it in the contest was to get some credibility,” says Halliman of the brand’s double win at the Berkeley Springs International. As for the Beverage World win, the Mist H20 bottle design was second to the Christian Lacroix designed bottle for Evian. The wins attracted the interest of several European distributors. Today, Mist H20 has a large European audience and is making headway in the United States.
Halliman won’t be deterred. Even when his plant burned down in 2009 right before a high profile awards event his company sponsored, he still managed to take the loss as an opportunity to buy another plant.
What’s next? Lucid Enterprises will unveil a vodka brand later this year. Halliman hopes to take the company public.
Cab Corner.com
The Team: Jonathan McKinney, founder & CEO, Jesse Sommer, co-founder & COO, Varun Bihani, CTO, Lou Carpino, CMO, Ajay G. Rajani, CFO, Leon Bart-Williams, CSO,
www.cabcorner.com Who doesn’t want to share a cab in these cost-cutting times? The founders and creators of
www.cabcorner.comsaw the writing on the wall when founder John McKinney witnessed the bar crowd flagging cabs while flocks of taxis crossed the Brooklyn Bridge each with a single passenger. “He said, ‘If I could connect these people, not only could I help the environment, but I could save some costs,’” says Jesse Sommer, co-founder and COO of CabCorner.
A novel idea was born. Within a year of operation CabCorner’s diverse team of twenty-somethings have made some impressive moves. The company acquired two of their competitors, becoming the premier cab sharing company in the world. Its services are currently available in 11 U.S. cities with a growing global demand as well.
If I could connect these people, not only could I help the environment, but I could save some costs,”
Sommer points to France, Brazil, Turkey, Singapore and Brazil as just a few of the buzzing international markets utilizing their cab sharing site. The company is also currently in talks to partner with airport shuttle services.
“A regular cab from Manhattan to JFK will cost $35, but when they book a ride with CabCorner it’s $25,” says Sommer. “Then if it’s two people it’s $12. It’s lower with three. So a $35 cab ride can be reduced to $8.”
The CabCorner team’s backgrounds range from nonprofit work to investment banking. However, their bustling expansion makes this a ripe time to seek investments, says Sommer; a strategy the team is currently working on. Meanwhile, Sommer is connecting liveries and cab services across the globe with the CabCorner program.
The company also partners with media companies to promote their services. While the company notes that both regular cab users and mass transit users are attracted to their service, they ultimately envision cab sharing as one of the preferred travel modes of the future.
“It really is an inevitability,” says Sommer. “With the number of people this planet supports and the density of our cities, cab sharing will be one of the ways people get around. We are trying to position ourselves as the immediate answer in cities where they need our services.” nv
Ytasha L. Womack is a film director and author. Her book Post Black: How A New Generation is Redefining African American Identity was listed as a 2010 Booklist Top 10 Black History Reader.
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Tips For Launching an innovative business:
EXAMINE YOUR WORLD: What trends do you notice? What lifestyle changes have you observed among friends and colleagues? Become a trendspotter before others see the wave and do something about it.
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT: While you can take the path of least resistance, the path less travelled is wrought with possibilities. Many cutting edge ideas may be light years ahead of the industry you’re working in. Develop your idea anyway and let the industry catch up to you.
REINVENT YOURSELF: Don’t get so stuck in current skill sets and industries that you fear developing new ones. If your idea requires that you branch out and explore new fields, then take whatever steps you think are appropriate. This may mean learning new skills, meeting people in fields you’re unfamiliar with and doing research.
BUILD A SOLID TEAM: . You can’t be a one man show. Build a team of like-minded individuals who share your passion and have other skill sets to contribute. “Don’t be afraid to hire people who are smarter than you,” says Halliman.
TAKE RISKS: . If it doesn’t work out, assess the lesson learned and keep moving.
GO GLOBAL: Expand your business to capitalize on the global market. The ones who need your services the most may be on the other side of the country or the other side of the world. Don’t fear new markets for your services.
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Tuesday, April 5th 2011 at 3:49PM
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