CATEGORIES

Leaving A Clean Trail

Your newest competitive advantage? A transparent supply chain.

Building Stronger Lives for Good

ConBody gives ex-cons a chance at a bright future after a rough start .

So, You Have This Great Idea...

Hiring a prototype contractor can be a cheaper and easier way to design your product. Use these tips to start building.

Want To Earn More? Sure. Live Somewhere Else? Why Not? The Company That Can't Say No

ANTHONY SALADINO, 26, made more than $100,000 last year—but he doesn’t have a fixed salary. He’s an account manager, helping clients like the fashion brand Alexander Wang get the perfect position in the search results when you Google “fashion” or “designer.” His income reflects how much the clients pay his company. Saladino works for Elite SEM, a digital marketing business based in New York City, whose CEO allows employees to select their compensation: straight salary or a commission-based hybrid. In either case, there are opportunities for addons. Ben Kirshner, the company’s 39-year-old founder and chief executive, doesn’t mince words: “One of my greatest frustrations when I was 21 was that I wasn’t getting paid what people with more experience were being paid,” he says.

The Smartest Money Advice I Ever Got

When to spend it, when to save it, and how to ask for it: Bobbi Brown, Max Levchin, Daymond John, and 19 other founders pass along the financial wisdom that led to their success

Fetishizing Simplicity

PERUSE A RACK OF PROTEIN BARS at any grocery story and they all blend together: claims of what the food does (or does not) contain, promises of protein, and some stamp of approval by the latest fad diet. Rxbar, founded in 2013 by Peter Rahal and Jared Smith, used to be one of them. But 18 months ago, the Chicago-based company gave its protein-bar packaging a radical overhaul, and they soon began landing in retailers including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, and Kroger. Rahal talks Inc. through logo shrinkage, packaging noise, and graphic-design enlightenment. 

Where Road Trips Are Both Work And A Perk

“It’s a competitive environment, but one where the overall interests of company and team and seeing the customer succeed rank higher than any individual’s success.”

Cynthia Rowley

Though her name is synonymous with fashion design, her work now ranges from developing office supplies to supporting new entrepreneurs

How Designer Couple Are Saving Health Ceramics!

Heath Ceramics was strong on cachet, but weak on its balance sheets. Then a designer couple came along to save it.

Fitness Warriors

Annoyed by her lousy yoga class experience, Sarah Larson Levey created Y7 Studio. She’s part of the upward-facing boutique fitness movement.

From Door Knockers To Bug Busters

Insects don’t respect business hours, so pest-control companies hire Slingshot to handle sales and service calls day and night. Co-founder and CEO Taylor Olson’s unusual odyssey from Mormon missionary to bug-bomb scheduler.

Diagnosis: The Scrubs Market Is Comatose. The Cure? Add Fashion And Function

Trina Spear first discovered the sleepy but lucrative scrubs market when she did a private equity deal for a large U.S. scrubs maker. Then a mutual friend introduced her to Heather Hasson, a fashion designer who was working on scrub designs that featured high-tech fabrics and trendy silhouettes. The two started Figs, the first e-commerce site to sell scrubs directly to consumers. They weren’t the only ones who saw a smart idea—early investors included Lululemon’s ex-CEO Christine Day and actor Will Smith. They expect revenue this year to top $100 million.

Finding Comfort In Their Own Skin

Sartorial frustration—and some encouragement from her wife, Naomi Gonzalez—drove Fran Dunaway to launch a clothing line for women with a masculine streak. But when the couple noticed that it was boxer briefs—not button-up shirts—that were flying off the shelves, they realized they had found their hero.

If You Can Make It There

Forget New York City and San Francisco. The next great startup hub is

Delivering Dinner-And Keeping The Profit

Recently, Inc.’s legendary Norm Brodsky visited Michelle Gauthier and Justin Schwartz, founders of the thriving New York City–based fast-casual chain Mulberry & Vine. Mulberry & Vine has carved out a niche in a hotly competitive market with its healthy fare—but like many city-based restaurants, it faces challenges with rising costs and the advent of delivery services like Grubhub. Luckily, Norm was there to lend an ear—and weigh in.

Annotated Fishing For Profits

Four years ago, Jacqueline Claudia was working in the aquaculture industry, intending to become a fish farmer. Then she realized: No brand was cutting through the scary seafood-industry headlines and making it easy for consumers to buy responsibly farmed, nutrient- rich fish. Today, the gourmet frozen fillets of Boulder, Colorado– based Love the Wild—co-founded by Claudia and Christy Brouker—are in nearly 2,700 stores nationwide, including Super Target, Safeway, and Whole Foods.

A Place Where Dogging It Is The Company Policy

When Mychele Lord was looking for a new headquarters for Lord Green, her Dallas based, sustainable building consultancy, one determining factor was finding a spot that would accommodate seven of her most important team members. Not the 17 humans, but the seven canines that report to work with them regularly.

Getting Schooled In What's Important

EvoText doesn’t seem like a textbook example of a tech startup. Granted, its 40 full-time employees enjoy great benefits, a liberal time-off policy, and many of the other perks of techdom. But what sets EvoText apart are some of the things not on the menu. It’s a company of computer geeks designing software for teachers to interact with students and dynamically implement curricula—and yet there’s not a foosball or Ping-Pong table in sight.

Beat The House

Buying a home in the digital age requires weeks of navigating the mortgage maze. These tech-savvy entrepreneurs speed things up—but should they?

Get Smart About Social Security

Maximize your retirement income with these tips.

Man Of Steel

No.324Viv Helwig VESTED METALS INTERNATIONALThree-year growth 1,423.7% | 2018 revenue $2.6M St. Augustine, Florida | Founded in 2014

Don't Break Up Big Tech

The platforms have been brutal to startups. But there’s a simpler fix.

Culture, Tech, And Flexibility: Keys To Talent Acquisition

Hiring and keeping the best employees is a big challenge in the current labor market, but SMBs have advantages they can leverage.

How To Grow Wings

Congratulations—you have enough money to start investing in fellow startups. What to know to become a supportive— and successful—angel investor.

Get Off Of That Cloud

Storage vendors can box you in if you try to switch. How to avoid the data trap.

For Love Or Meat

The hippie endurance athletes behind Epic Provisions sold their natural food company to General Mills for a reported $100 million. It began as an unexpected love affair. Then, it got complicated.

Gaining Altitude

Meet Wheels Up, one of Inc.s Private Titansthe nations most dynamic non-public businesses. No, its notUberfor jets. But the rapidly growing company is lowering the price of entry into the world of private aviation.

Taking On Goliath

In 2013, former co-workers Julie Dacar and Amrita Grewal paired up to build their own staffing firm. Neither imagined that three years later their upstart, Washington, D.C.–based TalEx, would dethrone an industry giant, which also happened to be the parent of their former employer.

Southern Style

Today, Lauren James Enterprises, a Fayetteville, Arkansas–based apparel company that sells preppy dresses and T-shirts with a southern flavor, has more than 100 employees, three retail locations, and $13 million in revenue. In the beginning, it was just Lance and Lauren Stokes, their baby, and the business—and no time to sleep.

The Drive To Thrive

Armir Harris came to the U.S. as a political refugee, but under the wing of his uncle, who immigrated two years later, he acquired the tools to shape his own American dream. Harris is the founder of Shofur, an Atlanta-based platform that books buses for events and tracks their location in real time.