No Junk in this Trunk (Club)
Early this month, LaunchSquad helped launch a revolutionary, virtual shopping service for men called Trunk Club.
To keep things real and answer a few questions right off the bat, here’s how Trunk Club works on a logistical level - in five simple steps:
1. Apply for the Trunk Club service online, which is 100% free.
2. Meet face to face with a Trunk Club fashion expert (via Skype) to determine clothing likes and dislikes.
3. Your fashion expert will mail a variety of hand-selected items which you then decide to keep or return.
4. Meet online again with the Trunk Club fashion expert for recommendations and insight.
5. Return whatever clothes you don’t like. Only pay for what you do.
What differentiates Trunk Club from already established (and highly successful) personal shopping services at stores like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus? For starters, the virtual element and use of Skype to conduct all correspondence. Not only can men now “shop” from the comfort of their home, but a trained style expert is doing the heavy lifting and actually selecting and ordering clothes for you. If you don’t have a webcam to participate in the Skype session with your expert, Trunk Club will send you a complementary one. That’s right, fo’ FREE.
Secondly, the breakdown of the distribution channel: Trunk Club operates without inventory or significant real estate, so it is scalable and sustainable at a time when traditional retail models (and even E-Commerce) are faltering. Whether we like it or not, with a model like Trunk Club the need for stores and malls isn’t as imperative or relevant as it once was. There will always be those of us that enjoy the hunt and tradition (or addiction) of shopping, but thanks to Trunk Club there is now an alternative option. And it’s only a matter of time before other versions of this (possibly for women) enter the market. Right now, we can say with confidence that there is no other company like Trunk Club that exists and early feedback from media such as TechCrunch, The Los Angeles Times, Yahoo! Tech, Women’s Wear Daily, and The Washington Post seem to suggest that.
With the innovative and dynamic 25-year-old CEO and founder Joanna Van Vleck at the helm of Trunk Club, this promising new retail model should continue to pave the way for the future of virtual commerce … and create some damn well dressed dudes in the meantime.
Volunteer Day at the Exploratorium
Last Wednesday nine LaunchSquadders participated in a company-wide volunteer day at the Exploratorium.
The museum is located within San Francisco’s Palace of Fine arts, widely recognized by its unique dome that rises up from the Marina District and can be seen from the Golden Gate Bridge. Founded in 1969, the Exploratorium showcases hundreds of science, art and human perception exhibits, all aimed at promoting informal education.
We kick-started our morning with some gardening in the park surrounding the Palace’s lagoon. Following a safety talk and tool demonstration from the Exploratorium gardener Trudy, our team partnered up for some serious weeding in the far corner of the park.
After we successfully de-weeded a group of trees, we moved inside the Exploratorium to join hundreds of visitors, including members of Hideout summer camp. The Squad took charge of the activities tables and taught visitors how to make cornstarch packing peanut creations, mini finger drums and flying rotocopters. In attempt to keep up with the kids, Brett Marty constructed an extravagant packing peanut turtle and Meghan and Chris performed their new finger drum duet, “Leaky Pipe.”
Once the visitors got their fill at the activities tables, the Squad departed the Exploratorium with free guest passes in hand and intentions to come back soon. This impressive and very interactive museum isn’t just for kids, we recommend a visit.
SugarSync Makes Syncing Social
We’re very excited about our new client SugarSync and some of the new features they introduced yesterday for their digital life management service. If you are not familiar with them, SugarSync is a cloud-based service designed to improve the way we manage and share our digital lives, and starting today, the sharing part just got a lot easier.
For those out there using Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, or Yahoo for email, SugarSync is now fully-integrated with your email contacts, so it is easier than ever to collaborate and share files with your friends and family. Also, for Facebookers, photo folders can easily be uploaded to your Facebook profile from your SugarSync account, making photo saving and sharing a seamless, one-click step. Even working on your BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device is easier, with support for shared folders and a new interface that helps improve navigation from your phone.
SugarSync lets you save, store and access all of your digital files, whether you work on a Mac or a PC, have an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile phone. All of your photos, music and documents are only a click away, no matter where you are, no matter when you want them. One especially cool feature is that you can stream your whole home iTunes library from your iPhone through the SugarSync application, so you don’t have to be limited to just the songs that you have put on your phone — calling all DJ’s!
Also, Sugar wants you to share the sweetness! They are offering a new referral program can help you earn up to 10 GB free- just for getting your friends to sign up for an account.
To taste the Sugar, sign up for a free 2 GB account here…
Evernote Hits One Million
Congratulations to our client Evernote for hitting the very impressive one million user mark on May 21st! It’s an incredible achievement, especially considering that the company reached this milestone only shortly over a year after the product’s launch — meaning that Evernote has grown its user base faster than Skype and Twitter.
For some history: Since it’s private beta launch in February 2008, the company has delivered a Web version, a popular iPhone app, and most recently a native BlackBerry application, thus truly delivering on it’s promise to make users’ notes available at anytime, in anyplace, from anywhere.
We’re really proud to be a part of this milestone and are looking forward to a summer of further developments and announcements as Evernote continues to grow its service and provide even more ubiquitous access to notes and memories. The first million is always the hardest, right?
For more information around the company’s growth, please see TechCrunch’s coverage of the milestone or check out the Evernote company blog.
LaunchSquad Gets Its Cloud On
It seems the cloud is everywhere these days – and LaunchSquad is no exception. Digital Media Buzz recently wrote on the use of cloud computing, highlighting how we’ve made the switch here at LaunchSquad in many ways. We’ve shifted to Gmail for our email server, but the biggest move was transitioning from traditional productivity software to Google Apps. It’s a change that’s allowed us to work more collaboratively and connect in real-time with coworkers in both our San Francisco and New York offices. The price is right too.
In addition to our own use of cloud services, we’ve been working with some clients who are really moving the needle in how businesses leverage cloud computing. Sonoa Systems is helping companies like MTV Networks and Pfizer open their Web services to the “cloud,” creating new business opportunities. Another client, i365, is leveraging the cloud to offer customers a fast, low-cost way to backup, secure and recover critical business data. And of course we’ve got a long list of SaaS providers, from SuccessFactors and Daptiv to InfusionSoft and InsideView.
Sonoa on the Cutting Edge of the Cloud
LaunchSquad client Sonoa Systems is a leader in the cloud-computing sphere with a gate-keeping technology that helps companies bring their services to the cloud. This technology helps companies manage and secure their APIs & services in the cloud by giving customers access to their information via the Web. By jumping into the cloud, companies save on pricey licensing contracts, control sensitive information, and stay competitive with current industry trends. It also means that during an economic downturn, more CIOs are opting into the cloud.
With their strong growth in 2009, Sonoa Systems CEO, Chet Kapoor, recently launched his blog, Edge of the Cloud. It is titled after the strategic role Sonoa plays with its clients - cloud computing “gateway,” Sonoa sits on the “edge” of cloud services and allows companies to easily make the transition. He bring 20 years of IT experience and thought leadership to the cloud computing discussion. His recent Q&A with industry analyst Dana Gardner dives into the current debate surrounding cloud API adoption by the enterprise. In another recent post, Chet gives feedback on the recent McKinsey report, Clearing the Air on Cloud Computing, which addresses the rumors and qualms that enterprises have before adopting the cloud.
You can read all of Chet’s insights on Edge of the Cloud where he blogs about cloud news, industry trends, and interviews thought leaders about the evolving cloud around them.
MokaFive & Ocarina on InformationWeek’s Startup 50 List
This week InformationWeek published its Startup 50 - a list of the most promising business technology companies to watch - and two LaunchSquad clients, Ocarina Networks and MokaFive, made the list!
At LaunchSquad, we love what we do because we get to work with innovative and cutting edge companies that have developed technology that could change the world, and Ocarina and MokaFive are perfect examples of this. Ocarina provides a storage optimization solution that enables companies to shrink their data and get much more use out of their storage space, helping them reduce their storage footprint, which is good for their budget and the environment. Meanwhile, MokaFive has debuted a revolutionary desktop as a service platform that allows people to securely access their desktop anytime, anywhere, regardless of network connectivity - you can even carry your desktop around with you on a USB drive!
Congratulations Ocarina and MokaFive!
The Audacity of Obama Girl
On the heels of being named PRWeek’s Boutique Agency of the Year, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve also been nominated for a 2008 SABRE award for our work with Barely Political and Next New Networks . The SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) Awards honor specific marketing, communications and PR programs that demonstrate innovative leadership, creativity and measurability within a wide range of industries, companies and organizations. LaunchSquad has been nominated for the “Entertainment” category alongside campaigns for T-Mobile, the Harlem Globetrotters, Current Media and the Florida Marlins.
The nomination comes after two years of hard work by LaunchSquad’s BarelyPoltical/Next New Networks team, especially in publicizing the Barely Political and Obama Girl videos, a campaign that closely followed the President’s own innovative campaign strategies. LaunchSquad worked closely with BarelyPolitical and Obama Girl to spread the word and help inspire millions of youth to get connected to and participate in the political discourse. Our campaign led to multiple TV spots for Obama Girl (Amber Lee Ettinger) including Fox’s O’Reilly Factor and Geraldo at Large, a photo feature in GQ Magazine and earning the title of E! Televisions Hottest Woman on the Web!
Huge congrats to the entire BarelyPolitical/Next New Networks team!
America’s Greenest Campus Launches
For colleges, it’s easy, and rewarding, to be green. Earlier this month, our client Climate Culture partnered with non-profit marketing organization SmartPower to launch America’s Greenest Campus, a nationwide contest among colleges to reduce the carbon footprints of their students, faculty, alumni and staff. Just in time for Earth Month, America’s Greenest Campus is energizing and inspiring young people across the country to make a difference to impact climate change.
The contest is supported by Russell Simmons, Hip-Hop mogul and Editor-in-Chief of GlobalGrind.com, and Internet celeb Obama Girl, who starred in “Save Your Energy,” an online video with Jake Hurwitz from CollegeHumor’s Jake and Amir dedicated to the official kick-off on March 31st.
Climate Culture’s platform powers the contest by tracking each college’s participation and carbon reductions per person. The site helps encourage students, faculty and alumni to reduce energy use and cost by making personalized, practical recommendations. The contest already has over 400 schools participating to win $20,000 in cash prizes. Along with the contest announcement was the launch of Climate Culture’s Facebook App, which allows anyone to sign up and see reductions on Climate Culture through Facebook.
So far, the contest has gotten the attention of Matter Network, Mashable, The Huffington Post and ZDNet, and school papers like College News, UPenn’s The Daily Pennsylvanian and Ithaca College’s The Ithacan.
The contest runs until October 2009, so there’s plenty of time to follow and participate through the Web site, Twitter and Facebook.
Cliqset Opens Your Social Graph
This week our client Cliqset launched its new open platform for users and developers to easily create and share social information across the Web. Cliqset’s fully open API allows developers to create virtually any social application that they desire. By making available full source code for their Outlook, iPhone and Windows Mobile integrated applications, Cliqset gives developers the freedom and the tools to make their ideas a reality, without facing the typical boundaries of other APIs.
For users, Cliqset offers a single place from which they can create and update all of their information (relationships, contacts, status updates, messages, photos) and have that information synced across all Cliqset-enabled sites. Cliqset aims to be the ‘last social identity you’ll ever have to create.’ Ultimately, the company puts users in control of their social identities, giving them the freedom to move around from site to site, be on any device, and always stay in sync. Another big benefit of Cliqset? Users need not ever worry about the privacy of their information–they can selectively share any information from their profile securely.
While offering some pretty unique proprietary technology, Cliqset also celebrates the openness of the Web. Already, the company embraces OpenID, OAuth and Microformats (with more to come). The launch is getting some great buzz in the media including PC World, ReadWriteWeb, PC World, Mashable and The Social Times.
Cliqset’s Jacksonville, Florida-based founders will be packing their bags and heading to SXSW Interactive this weekend, so Tweet at them, say hello, or get in touch with us at LaunchSquad to meet up.
To get your Cliqset ID, go to: www.cliqset.com.