Report on Squarespace (the Company that I researched)

Product/Service: What, in a sentence, does this company do/sell?

It is a service industry; where users can build and host websites, online shops and blogs. Blogs or sites can be either personal or business.

Founder/Co-Founders: Who founded the company? Are they still involved in day to day operations?

Anthony Casalena is the Founder of Squarespace, Inc. He started the company in 2003 in his dorm room of the University of Maryland. He is also the current CEO (Chief Exceutive Officer).

Office/Headquarters: Where is the company located? Do they have a single headquarters, or do they have locations throughout the country/world?

They are in NYC (Broadway and 5^th Ave), in Portland in the state of Oregon, and in Ireland, a European country. Full addresses are below.

• NYC: 459 Broadway, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10013
• Portland: 222 NW 5th Avenue, Fourth Floor, Portland, OR 97209
• Ireland: Le Pole House, 1st Floor, Ship Street Great, Dublin

Method of Making Money:  How does your company make money? Through advertising, subscribers, royalties, affiliate purchases, lead generation, selling data, or freemium payment models?

Squarespace makes money on Premium Payment model. They charge different amounts depending on number of payments per year (meaning monthly payments or once a year payment).

Target Customers:  Who are the target customers for this company?

Individuals who wants to be a blogger, or businesses like a restaurant willing to create websites, or people who want to publish pictures from their events such as wedding are target customers for this company.

How many current users/customers, etc: How many customers do they currently have?

Exact number of customers is unknown, but the company website mentions big brand names like CISCO, HBO, and Target among many others as their customers.

  How does the company advertise its product/services?

In broadcast television, radio, online, magazines, and newspapers. They were in SuperBowl 2015 too.

Competitors/Competitive Advantage: What companies offer services/products that compete with your chosen company? What sets your chosen company apart from its competitors?

WordPress is one of the biggest competitors of Squarespace.

Squarespace makes it easy for beginners to advance level users to build websites. One can drag and drop content easily. Unlike this, one need to commit weeks to learn how to use WordPress properly.

Squarespace has better support team unlike WordPress.

Works Cited: You must document all the websites and articles you use to find the above information. Simply include a list of websites at the end of the blog post.

http://www.businessinsider.com/cool-startups-to-work-for-in-new-york-2014-10#squarespace-6

http://www.wsj.com/video/super-bowl-2015-squarespace-ad/6624ECEE-2A4A-48EE-B89F-FCFB95AD7709.html

http://mashable.com/2014/10/07/squarespace-google-integration/

http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/squarespace-vs-wordpress/

Product/Service: What, in a sentence, does this company do/sell?

Answer: They offer a technology platform where people can buy stock in their favorite brands by invest as little as $10 and pay no fees to trade or sell.

Founder/Co-Founders: Who founded the company? Are they still involved in day to day operations?

Answer: I cannot find any in information the founder of this incredible company, however, I do know that Mr. Barry Schneider is the Chairman, President, and CEO.
Office/Headquarters: Where is the company located? Do they have a single headquarters, or do they have locations throughout the country/world?

Answer: The headquarter of this company is located at 150 California Street San Francisco, CA 94111. As a new company they only have one headquarter.

Method of Making Money:  How does your company make money? Through advertising, subscribers, royalties, affiliate purchases, lead generation, selling data, or freemium payment models?

Answer: Loyal3 has a unique business model. Rather than charge fees to users, they perform services for companies, and charge them for those services. Like helping raise capital, lower costs of individual shareholders and increase brand engagement.

Target Customers:  Who are the target customers for this company?

Answer: They target regular people with or without trading experience in the United States.

How many current users/customers, etc.: How many customers do they currently have?

Answer: They do not provide any data about how many current users/customers that are using their service.

How does the company advertise its product/services?

Answer: Advertise their product they use social media site like Facebook and twitter. The company also advertise on their website. They featured on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Fox Business, Nerd Wallet, The New York Time, Wallet Street Journal, and Business Time. Those type of appearance give them a huge exposure to the public.

Competitors/Competitive Advantage: What companies offer services/products that compete with your chosen company? What sets your chosen company apart from its competitors?

Answer: they are competing against company like Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE. What sets them apart is that they don’t charge the investor any fee to sell or buy shares in company. They also give regular investor the opportunity to participate in IPO, the other competitors does offer this service. What makes it even more interesting is that IPO is still reserve for people with a large amount of money and influence in the business world but they manage to give this service to people with limited income like myself free of charge.

Works Cited: You must document all the websites and articles you use to find the above information. Simply include a list of websites at the end of the blog post.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-LOYAL3-EI_IE408109.11,17.htm

https://www.loyal3.com/about-loyal3.html#contact

http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/loyal3-review/

http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/online-brokers/loyal3.aspx

http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/23/loyal3-raises-18m-to-make-buying-stock-as-easy-as-a-facebook-like/

ZocDoc

Product/Service: ZocDoc is a company that provides patients with free online access to healthcare services.  ZocDoc was created to solve patient problems and improve the modern healthcare experience.  Patients can sign in to gain access.

Founder/Co-Founders: Cyrus Massoumi is CEO and founder of ZocDoc.  ZocDoc was created in or around 2007 when Cyrus Massoumi ruptured his eardrum and spent four days searching for a doctor.

Office/Headquarters: The headquarters of ZocDoc is located at 568 Broadway #901, New York, NY 10012.

Products/Services:  The service provides millions of patients with physician ratings, medical services, physician appointment times, and appointment booking without the phone calls or month-long wait to book an appointment.

Method of Making Money:  Healthcare providers who partner with ZocDoc pay a subscription fee for ZocDoc’s service.  In turn ZocDoc help providers increase the efficiency of their practices, fill their last minute cancellations, and provide prompt medical care to patients.

Target Customers:  Patients or anyone in need of healthcare services.

How many current users/customers, etc: An exact number of users/customers were not listed.  Currently, ZocDoc serves more than 40% of the US population, across 2,000+ cities. We’re continually expanding our service to new cities and towns according to patient demand.

How does the company advertise its product/services?  They use social channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, and word of mouth.  Journalist are encourage to visit their Press page for coverage information.

Competitors/Competitive Advantage: ZocDoc has opened the doors for other companies, such as iMedicalApps, Gigaom.com, and mashable.com.

Works Cited: 

https://www.zocdoc.com/aboutus

https://www.google.com/search?q=google&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&gws_rd=ssl#rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&q=competitors%2Fcompetitive+advantage+of+zocdoc

StartApp

Product/Service: This company helps app developers generate revenue for their apps.

Founder/Co-Founders: Gil Dudkiewicz- CoFounder                Ran Avidan- Co-Founder

Office/Headquarters:

584 Broadway St.    12th Floor Suite 1206

New York, NY 10012

Method of Making Money:  Through royalties. By integrating apps with the SmartApp software development kit.

Target Customers:  Companies that develop apps. Also anyone who has created a great app and needs help promoting it.

How many current users/customers, etc: Over 300,000,000 active users every month

How does the company advertise its product/services?  Through banner ads. Through native ads.

Competitors/Competitive Advantage: Admob and InMobi.  The advantage that StartApp offers is that app developers get paid $50 per 1,000 downloads. This is something that competitors can’t or won’t do.

Works Cited:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shamahyder/2014/09/08/15-tech-companies-taking-nyc-by-storm/

http://www.startapp.com/

http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/18/startapp-reaches-150m-downloads-brings-10x-more-revenue-to-developers/

LocalVox
Product/Service: helps local businesses and franchises market themselves online via web, social media, directories, search & email.
Founder/Co-Founders: David Pachter (CEO) and Trevor Sumner (President)
Office/Headquarters: 420 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017 – only office
Products/Services: Provide marketing consultation for clients. Product include LocalCast, SearchCast, LocalConnect, as well as social reputation management
Method of Making Money: Clients pay a premium for their services, prices depending on with package is selected. Packages offered include: Boost @ $399 per month, Mobile boost @ $549 per month, and Complete @ $1499 per month.
Target Customers: Local Businesses as well as chains and franchises.
How many current users/customers, etc: Thousands which include AMC Theaters, Buffalo Wild Wings and Whole Foods
How does the company advertise its product/services? Through Press. They’ve been featured in various prestigious business articles by Forbes, Fox News, Bloomberg Businessweek, etc.
Competitors/Competitive Advantage: Some of LocalVox Competitors include EMT Marketing and Zoiden. What set LocalVox apart is its affordability and customizable plans.
Works Cited: You must document all the websites and articles you use to find the above information. Simply include a list of websites at the end of the blog post.
http://www.thumbtack.com/ny/new-york/social-media-marketing/
http://localvox.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LocalVox_Media
http://rightstartups.com/marketing-unlocked-local-vox/
http://localvox.com/customers/

Brainscape

Product/Service: Brainscape is an adaptive web/mobile education platform that helps you learn anything more efficiently, using cognitive science.

Founder/Co-Founders: This company was founded by Andre Cohen, who is also the CEO. He is still very much involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Office/Headquarters: Brainscape is headquartered in the heart of New York City, and this office is their sole location.

Products/Services:  Brainscape is a web/mobile platform that allows its users to learn and retain information at an astonishing rate; It does so by breaking complex concepts down into smaller, easily absorbed building blocks, delivered to the individual in a way that matches their particular pace(their studies show that on average, we lose 90% of what we attempt to retain via traditional study methods). Their process supposedly helps one to learn exponentially faster than most traditional study methods(flash cards, books, etc.). These services are conveniently delivered across desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets.

Method of Making Money:  As far as I can tell, Brainscape makes its money from royalties garnered as a result of licensing its platform out to a variety of content-makers. They also issue private licenses to schools and universities, cognitive science researchers, tutors, and in general, companies interested in training their employees more efficiently than ever before.

Target Customers:  To quote a short blurb on their website: “join the millions of students, teachers, language learners, test-takers, and corporate trainees who are doubling their learning results.”

How many current users/customers, etc: If the counter on their website is accurate, the number of people who use Brainscape is about 7,025,380.

How does the company advertise its product/services? The brains behind Brainscape have built their presence by partnering with apps such as MCAT Chemistry, Ultimate Music Theory, LEED Green Associate, and Gourmet Food, all powered by Brainscape’s algorithms.

Competitors/Competitive Advantage: I’ve found quite an extensive list of companies that offer services similar to Brainscape’s, and these are:

Anki

Memrise

Mnemosyne

Learning with Texts

Instreamia

SuperMemo

Lingocracy

FluxCards

Pauker

Mnemojojo & Mnemododo

Winflash

Nabbber

Cram.com

Blonskij

Ebbinghaus

EasyWords

Flashcard Exchange

Dictionary.com Flashcards

Flashcard Hero

I’m not quite sure what, if anything sets Brainscape apart from these other products/services. These other products are also flash-card based, and promise to accomplish the same things as Brainscape.

Works Cited:

https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2010/03/how-brainscape-was-born/

https://www.brainscape.com/marketing/partners.html

https://www.brainscape.com/marketing/about

https://www.brainscape.com/

Dayna Rios

COMPANY: GrubHub

Product/Service: GrubHub Inc. is the nation’s leading online and mobile food ordering company dedicated to connecting hungry diners with local takeout restaurants. The company’s online and mobile ordering platforms allow diners to order directly from approximately 30,000 takeout restaurants in more than 800 U.S. cities and London.

Founder/Co-Founders: Matt Maloney and Mike Evans. Evans has decided to leave to company to pursue other goals but, Maloney is still a VERY active founder of the company.

Method of Making Money:  For every order that is placed, Grubhub is given at least 10% from the actual amount that the consumer paid for their order. Sometimes more. But, it does come out of the restaurants pocket, not the consumer placing the order.

Target Customers:  Literally anyone looking to place an order for food.

How many current users/customers, etc.:  Grubhub processes around 174,000 orders on a daily basis. GrubHub has served more than 4.19 million people in the last 12 months.

How does the company advertise its product/services? Online marketing, and print ads. Especially, in the New York City subway cars.

Competitors/Competitive Advantage: Seamless used to be the main competitor until they merged into one company last year, with Grubhub being the parent company. Now, allmenus, menupages.com, Yelp, and Square appear to be the ones competing against GrubHub.

Works Cited:

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-big-stat-grubhubs-new-competitors-covet-2015-2

https://www.grubhub.com/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324787004578495411888526172

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/how-do-delivery-services-grubhub-and-seamless-make-profit