In his inauguration speech, President Obama paid homage to entrepreneurs. The path to greatness, he rhapsodized, has been paved by "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. "
Almost three years later, it's clear he was spot on. Entrepreneurship has been one of the precious few bright spots in a terribly gloomy economy, and this new generation of entrepreneurs, both intentional and accidental, has taken it upon themselves to keep things chugging along. At the same time, starting a business gained serious cool cred.
Consider American Express' slick ad campaign featuring Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard; foursquare's founders as models in glossy Gap mag ads; and the cults of celebrity surrounding "the Zuck" and the late Steve Jobs. Even A-list stars like Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga added headlines to their clip files from startup-centric blogs like TechCrunch and Mashable.
"Entrepreneurship has become sexy in a lot of ways," says Clay Newbill, executive producer of ABC's Shark Tank, which features people pitching their dreams to a panel of deep-pocketed investors, including Mark Cuban.
Entrepreneurship has never been more practical, either. According to the Kauffman Foundation, 565,000 new businesses were created in 2010 - the most in 15 years - as many new 'treps were forced into it by the downturn. "Young people know that there's a high likelihood they'll have to make it on their own," says Thomas Knapp, associate director at the University of Southern California's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. USC has seen a 13.2 percent year-over-year increase in students taking entrepreneurship courses at the school.
Trend No. 1 - Decision
Discovery fuels invention (and purchases)
If the more than 27 million
pieces of content shared online every day is any indication that
collective knowledge is king, then it should come as no surprise that
it's now a key component of modern decision making. According
to a July study on the psychology of online sharing by The New York
Times Customer Insight Group and Latitude Research, 85 percent of those surveyed say reading others' responses helps them understand and process information and events, and 73 percent say sharing helps them process information more deeply. Notably, 73 percent
share info to connect with other people with the same interests - a big
part of why discovery is an important market, and recommendation
engines for everything from music to movies to food are so popular.
"People
are looking for a trusted filter to surface good content, good products
and good experiences," says Jonathan Hills, partner at New York
City-based Bashki Generation, a digital agency specializing in content
sharing. Hills notes that for some brands,
every person who shares content brings an additional five new unique
visitors back to a site, who on average will spend 1.3 times longer on
that site, read 1.9 times more content and experience 27 percent favorability toward the brands they encounter within the shared content. Decision Profile: Get Out of Town With Wanderfly
A late 2010 study by Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst Sucharita Mulpuru found that 62 percent of online retail shoppers think product recommendations are useful, and 15 percent made purchases based on recommendations. "Rather than have a one-size-fits-all approach, recommendation engines let you automate and personalize the site experience for shoppers based on what you can infer about their needs, wants and shopping preferences," Mulpuru says.
Retail was just the start. Decision engines that curate a user's interests, social information and recommendations from others are cropping up more and more - and even the big players are working to keep up: In 2009, Netflix awarded a million dollars to the team that offered the best solution for improving their recommendation engine's accuracy of predictions.
"Given the profusion of content out there," Mulpuru says, "anything to help to filter what is relevant to you makes a lot of sense." - Michelle Juergen
Leading the way
Spotify
Launched in the U.K. in 2008, the digital music service that lets its 10 million-plus registered users discover, listen to and share more than 15 million tracks with friends officially opened to US audiophiles in July. Along with its Facebook integration in September, CEO and founder Daniel Ek announced Spotify's two million paying subscribers, up from one million in March.
Ness
The iPhone app that serves up restaurant recommendations for about 500,000 locations based on a user's preferences and ratings and other users' ratings is just the beginning for Los Altos, Calif.-based Ness Computing, which publicly disclosed a $ 5 million financing round in July. CEO and co-founder Corey Reese says the "likeness engine" will eventually offer recommendations for movies, music, concerts, local events, shopping, travel and more.
Hunch
With the lofty goal of creating a "Taste Graph" of the web, Hunch combines algorithms with user-curated content to provide recommendations to users on things they'll like. The data in the Taste Graph has roughly doubled in the last year and now includes more than 500 million people, 200 million items - from books to boots - and 30 billion connections between people and items. User-added monthly recommendations more than doubled compared to six months ago.
