Quality jewelry can be an expensive gift to buy, especially if you want it to be just right. Customizing jewelry in store can not only expensive but a hassle, and sometimes not even completely what you want. Matt Lauzon recognized this need and build his own website and company to offer a convenient method of building that perfect piece for that perfect someone. 
Gemvara.com is a place where you can go and make that piece just right for you. You start by picking out the jewelry type, then style, and finally specific gem and metal types. The result is a simple, reasonably priced place for anyone to become their own jewelry designer.
At just one-year-old in 2011, Gemvara had a $10 million run rate which was drastically increasing. Matt’s goal for Gemvara was to someday, “take Tiffany head-to-head.” (Matt Lauzon) Each piece, designed and ordered online, is made to order with supplies all bought and made in the United States.
Matt started his company, which was originally called Paragon Lake, while he was a student at Babson College. The original business model had a business-to-business approach but ultimately he wanted to be in more control over customer service and pricing, so he shifted to a business-to-customer model for Gemvara. Matt launched the Gemvara website in 2010 with 
$5.8 million from Highland and Canaan Partners. With the recession working to his advantage, and “by the third month, we were seeing six figures in revenue and our average sale was $1,000.” (Matt Lauzon) 20% of customers gave testimonials to the quality and creativity of Gemvara.
“I think about us as Amazon early on.”
-Matt LauzonSo why not go try it out yourself? Gemvara is perfect for any occasion and is excellent since you control the price.
When one mentions the word “outsourcing,” what images come to mind? Large IT companies passing their programming tasks to the legions of Indian computer science graduates in gigantic working stations? Product-oriented businesses redirecting their service calls to foreign call centers to lower their customer service costs? All these scenarios of what outsourcing is in today’s globalized work world. However, Matt Barrie’s vision for Freelancer has been to make both the ability to outsource work and the process of finding employers for freelancers streamlined and easily accessible to all.
What exactly is Freelancer.com? It is a middleman service that connects individuals or businesses that need services done (usually in the programming, design, or creative writing fields) and freelancers who have those skills and would like to monetize those skills through freelance employment. The marketplace allows the employers to skirt employment regulation/taxation and outsource their jobs; many employers are entrepreneurs or small business owners who need these services to create their website, develop their product, or advertise their company. Freelancer collects fees based on project size and the payout for freelancers, and offers a profile/social networking interface that features reviews, completion rate history statistics, and paid exams that allow freelancers to prove their proficiency at certain skills and earn a badge that they can display on their bids. Employers post projects onto the site that are bidded on by the freelancer community. Essentially, the site is much like Ebay but for services.
The Koger’s vision is inspiring because it’s the story of a realized dream. Together the couple developed a way to share what they love, and promote creativity. Sure they’re a quirky couple, but you know what? Their idea worked, and the pug is adorable. So let the man wear his wolf-shirt, and just trust that Susan gave him a hard time about it later.
Julia Hu is doing something dozens of others are doing. But she is doing it right and she is doing it better. Hu created a wristband called LarkLife that tracks sleep patterns, diet, and exercise. Millions of people attempt to log their food intake and fitness for the day through phone apps and website, but have trouble keeping up. This is not the only issue – Hu and her 21 employees at Lark Technology believe that people are not challenged to change their life simply with raw data. “When you look at everyone in the world, about 3 to 4 percent are motivated by data. These are Olympic athletes, highly goal-oriented people, and tinkerers,” Hu explains. “The rest of the population is not at all motivated by numbers–or is actually negatively motivated by seeing numbers.”