1. S2Gaming (Kalamazoo, MI) – Small gamaing company
2. Mojhang, Inc. – Stockholm, Sweden
3. Tom Shoes – Charity work + existing company (give shoes to kids who don’t have them when you buy a pair)
4. [ Girl from Minnesota ] – Harm’s Way for Kids. Makes bracelets for troops… 1M bracelets… (18yrs old)
5. Rob Dyrdek (pro skater) – crazy entrepreneur/investor, foster/grow sport in new areas
6. Johnny Cupcakes – T-shirts, NY (?), bakery/apparel
7. Life is Good(tm), started out of a van
8. Matter of Trust – collect hair to make oil spill cleanup mats
9. Post Secret
10. Small business / individual entrepreneurship (eg. family member starting business)
11. NFL Play 60 – children’s charity by NFL players
12. [ Local charity ] Sell products made by the disabled, profit back into local community
13. GMC Chevy – Why the buyout?
14. Saturn – again, success/failure questions — why?
15. Hummer… (all on the theme of “things that failed”)
16. [ To Write Love on Her Arms ] – social org/business
17. Facebook vs. MySpace?
18. RED(tm) – Bono’s … project
19. Firefox – originator was 15, doing well at this point
20. Invisible Children
21. Heifer International
22. David Carr, Tumblr founder
23. Gas price fluctuation/oil spills…
24. Dawn – P&G – Corporate sponsorship/donation schemes/incentives/projects
25. Tide – Loads of Hope
26. Perez Hilton – Celeb blogger, now a celeb
27. 5 Guys Burger & Fries
28. McDonalds
29. Wal-Mart
30. Starbucks
31. Google
32. Keurig
33. Monsanto – subsidized seed/corn
34. Bing, Blackle – why smaller, energy, social angles…
35. Krispy Kreeme?
36. National Wildlife Foundation
37. PETA
38. Whole Foods
39. Charles Schwab – Dyslexia foundation
40. Apple
41. Annheiser-Bush Budweiser (US)
42. The microbrew industry
43. Micro vs. mega (name industry)
44. Special Olympics
45. Purmanti’s (sandwich company)
46. Gary Vanderchuck (sp) – wine guy/social media
47. Walt Disney
48. Bill Gates
49. Steve Jobs
50. Mike Sheldrake – env conscious surfboards
51. Seth Godin – author/blogger, domino book project (Amazon partnership)
52. Greg Mortenson – 3 Cups of Tea
53. iTunes – music industry transformation (Napster, perhaps?)
54. Hulu
55. Netflix / RedBox – movie industry
56. — (Demise of the video store?)
57. Prof. chef store/food culture in CA
58. Ben & Jerry’s
59. Founder of Tesla – PayPal
60. Boardwalk artists – the individual crafter/artist
61. Richard Branson
62. Tobacco pricing industry variation
63. Locks of Love
64. Pantene charity (related?) – Great Lengths
65. Charity and Gender
66. (are charities viewed as gendered?) – race, socioeconomic divisions/questions?
67. Harlem educational initiative – … (need to google to find out more)
68. Technology (a bit broad – Apple, Microsoft)
69. Open Source movement (perhaps focus on one)
70. Susan Kalman for the cure – NFL wearing pink, rise of social movement/branding
71. TFA (Teach for America)
72. Livestrong (DeepLocal, Chalkbot)
73. Larry Lessig
74. Exec producer of Greek. Allegheny alum?
75. Paul Watson – eco terrorist/conservationist – Whale Wars
76. Pres/VP of KDK (alumna?)
77. Alumni stories
78. Ruby on Rails team (language, environment for web programming)
79. Boxtops for Education

What about businesses and things that failed? (Eg. all online pet stores from the 1990′s.)

History/Current/Future

On that theme, after our first round of brainstorming, we will watch the 2009 video from TEDIndia titled Anil Gupta: India’s hidden hotbeds of invention.

Related is Anil’s work regarding the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions and Honeybee Networks. Inspiring innovation.