What It Is

Mashable is a well designed website that brings together world digital and social media news and culture. Designed by Pete Cashmore in 2005, Mashable quickly took off, being recognized as a brilliant combination of appealing technology and news. The Goal of mashable is to simply be a “one-stop shop” for social media users.

       What it does

Mashable is an effective way for its users to get world and local news from many perspectives on one website. Cashmore’s goal in creating the site was for people to be able to check out multiple news stories and reactions to those stories from one site. Users can share stories, which adds to the stories put up by the Mashable staff.

Pete Cashmore’s creation shows that in a constantly changing culture, it is necessary for the entrepreneur to adapt to what the consumer wants. He saw that digital news and social media are the emerging dominant force is modern news, and he used that to fuel his business venture.

A company started by three friends: Simon, Jehan, and Danny, “Who Gives a Crap” sounds like a humorous business. Maybe it is, but they realize their goal is serious. There are about 2.5 billion people in the world who don’t have access to a toilet, which is about 40% of the worlds population. These men knew their goal was to provide toilets to those without access around the world, and they were able to come up with a way to do it. “Who Gives a Crap” is now a company that sells toilet paper in order to provide toilets to 3rd world countries in need.

In 2012, they launched their business through crowd funding, and thankfully, people actually “gave a crap.” Simon sat down on a toilet, and refused to move until they had raised 50,000$. After 50 hours, the three friends had finally reached their financial goal. Now, Simon, Jehan, and Danny’s business is a fairly large scale toilet paper provider, offering cheap toilet paper. They donate 50% of their revenue to WaterAid, a company that will build and distribute the toilets in the countries who need it the most.

“Who Gives a Crap” is not just a business with a clever and funny name, they are one with a set and achievable goal. Simon, Jehan, and Danny figured out a way to make profit for themselves and develop a charitable organization. If you want to check out some of their products, you can visit http://us.whogivesacrap.org/pages/about-us.

Back to the Roots

In 2009, Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez were students at the University of California, Berkeley, and were set up to go their separate ways after graduation that spring. Their plans drastically changed when they heard a fascinating lecture regarding the growth of mushrooms in recycled coffee grounds. Although this would have meant nothing to the average student, these two men took this idea and ran with it. Their idea began to take shape in there fraternity house using 10 paint buckets and some used coffee grounds with mushroom spawn. In just a few days, they saw the fruits of their work, the first crop.

Using jsut $5,000 from a business plan competition, Arora and Velez purchased a small warehouse and began “Back to the Roots,” that year. Although it didnt seem like much, this money, they claimed, was like giving them “a million dollars.” After selling their first products to fresh markets, they expanded their business into the manufacturing of “do it yourself” mushroom growing kits.

Now an international business, Back to the Roots distributes their mushroom kits to 2,500 retailers across the globe. Annually, their company recycles around 3 million pounds of coffee grounds, keeping them out of landfills. They used this statistic to prompt large companies to use their product in order to promote an environmentally friendly advertisement. Their business continues to grow today, with about 5 million dollars of profit last year, and an expected increase in profit this year. When asked about their company, Arora said “We’re all growing together. We really want to build a lifetime, generational brand.” It’s interesting that Arora and Velez were able to use an idea from a single lecture they heard as college seniors, and turn it into a “lifetime, generational brand.”