ASSI’s flagship product-a sturdy camping shelter called the ShiftPod-offers insulation from poor weather conditions and can be set up in just minutes. (ASSI) has since expanded to aid in disaster relief. Though its origin story begins at Burning Man, Advanced Shelter Systems Inc. This camping shelter company created a cryptocurrency to subsidize donation costs You can read more here on how that transformation happened.įurther Future Festival 7. “Musk asked for more ‘stunning’ concepts, and pushed the team toward developing a better-looking, glass-tiled version,” Fast Company‘s Austin Carr writes of Musk’s reaction to the prototype. One way Elon Musk sold his investors on the merger was a flashy unveiling of the Solar Roof in October 2016-just weeks after denouncing the first installation as, well, ugly. Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity last year was viewed by some as a bailout, and that was all but confirmed by our feature earlier this year. Elon Musk thought SolarCity’s first solar roof prototype was a “piece of shit” “It won’t help make factories high-tech or ensure that we’re making well-crafted products.” (See also: Ivanka Trump’s own adventures in Chinese manufacturing.) 6. won’t necessarily do anything to ensure that they make good products,” Scott Shapiro, a cofounder of luxury eyewear brand State Optical, said. “Coercing business to manufacture in the U.S. But Fast Company‘s Liz Segran found that even entrepreneurs who cared about job creation didn’t necessarily share the worldview of their president. In recent years, startups across industries-be it eco-friendly fashion brand Reformation, furniture company Maiden Home, or hoodie maker American Giant-have opted to manufacture their products in the U.S. Even startups that manufacture in America don’t subscribe to Trump’s protectionist stance “I couldn’t know it then,” Zax writes early on in this story, “but the outcome of that battle would influence the purchase decisions of many thousands, if not millions, of people seeking a good night’s sleep.” State Optical Factory 5. Well, as Zax found out, mattress bloggers-and indeed a lot of product reviewers who earn commissions on online sales-wield far more power than you might have guessed. Why would a company reportedly worth over $750 million bother going after a few bloggers? When Fast Company‘s David Zax probed the underside, if you will, of online mattress reviews, he learned that mattress startup Casper had sued multiple sites over negative reviews. Online mattress reviewing is really, really lucrative-for bloggers and mattress companies
On a more positive note, here’s how a supposed competitor to Tilt-you guessed it, Venmo-is approaching monetization. Instead, Tilt was felled by bro culture, hubris, and a dearth of revenue.Īirbnb scooped up the company in an acqui-hire-or, as Fast Company‘s Ainsley Harris describes it, a “fire sale”-just two years after a $25 million cash infusion inflated Tilt’s valuation to $375 million. Tilt wanted to be the “Facebook of money” at a time when investors were eager to discover the next Facebook. Airbnb’s acquisition of social payments startup Tilt was not exactly a big payday for investors We gathered stories from screenwriter and actress Lena Waithe, transgender activist Malaysia Walker, and other LGBTQ employees.
Our Out At Work series explores how LGBTQ people are navigating their workplaces in 2017, at a time when protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation are under attack. That’s why choosing to be out at work isn’t a decision LGBTQ workers can make lightly. You can still get fired in 28 states for being gay or transgender That kind of planning also allowed the ACLU to halt deportation of people impacted by the infamous “Muslim ban” executive order Trump issued barely a week into his presidency.Ģ. “We had a Clinton plan and we were thinking about the transition, but we had to have a Trump plan because if he was to be elected, the challenges would have been too great to just on the fly.” The result was “The Trump Memos,” which the ACLU published in July 2016. “Everyone was talking about Clinton, Clinton, Clinton,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero told Fast Company. The ACLU was preparing for a Trump presidency six months before he was elected Happy Thanksgiving, and happy reading! 1. Let this serve as a reprieve, should you need it, from family time and political discussions at the dinner table-or, who knows, perhaps fodder for a lively argument. Below, we’ve compiled 10 of our favorite longer stories from this year, each of which we think might surprise you in some way.