It’s 3am. You’ve got diarrhea, a fever, and a blistering headache. Your spouse demands that you go to the hospital. You think it’s a mild-case of food poisoning and are convinced that Pepto-Bismol, fluid, and time are ample solutions to the problem. Who’s right? The wrong answer means either a few wasted hours and unnecessary hospital fees, or…
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Imagine turning on the pipes and seeing no water flow. Instead, you spend hours waiting for it to be turned on so your family doesn’t go thirsty. This is normal for millions of households in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, reports NextDrop. The San Diego startup sends text messages to locals in Hubli, India, alerting…
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You do what you can to stay as green as possible. You ride your bike to work. You buy your food from the local farmer’s market. You get your furniture second-hand from local garage sales. And then you walk into your local coffee shop to buy your usual fair trade dark roast coffee. You’re doing all…
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Not only can you have your cake and eat it too, you can feed the less fortunate in the process. By purchasing a $14 monthly membership, you get an assortment of five gourmet snacks (e.g.artisan chocolate, Asian jerky, truffles, etc.) and Love With Food will donate a meal to No Kid Hungry on your behalf. To date, Love…
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WITNESS, a nonprofit focused on documenting human rights abuses, has long been distributing cameras and training citizens to use them. But with cameras now available as software on smartphones, WITNESS has an opportunity to create a camera specifically designed to capture photos of human rights abuses, war crimes, and social justice issues. The first version…
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Which presidential candidate best represents your political ideology? Seems like a fairly straightforward question, right? Before getting too confident in your response, I suggest taking a quick stop over at Keya Dannenbaum’s latest venture, ElectNext. What has been dubbed the “OkCupid of Politics,” the concept behind ElectNext is pretty simple. First, select the topics that matter…
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Last night’s Iowa Caucus marks the beginning of the insanity that is an election year. In 2008, we saw then presidential hopeful Barack Obama benefit greatly from a thorough and strategic social media campaign. Look for technology to have an even more pronounced effect in 2012. Although not directly related to the race for president, the Washington,…
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Outdoor lovers, listen up. Have you ever been out on a hike, come across a specific species of bird, shrub, or flower that you didn’t recognize? Although you’re genuinely curious, there’s little you can do to find any answers. Project Noah is the answer. Simply snap a shot of the species in question within Project Noah’s mobile…
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Did you know that purpose is rapidly becoming the 5th “P” of marketing? According to the Edelman 2010 goodpurpose Study, 86% of global consumers believe that business needs to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as on business interests. In response to this shift in people’s mindsets, Chicago-based GoodPays.me is applying the consumer…
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The Apps for Communities Challenge announced the winners of $100,000 in prizes to developers who created community-focused apps. A partnership between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Federal Communications Commission, the national contest attracted 368 apps submissions. The winners – many of them with very interesting backgrounds – created straightforward, useful…
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If you are struggling to find a stylish gift for your vegan sister or animal-rights- activist brother, head on over to Fashioning Change, a just-launched Netflix-type recommendation site for stylish green shopping. Co-founded by Adriana Herrera, who has married her marketing and product development background with her interests in human rights, environmental, and education causes,…
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Fresh from its official public launch, MentorMob has declared that the “race to disrupt education is on.” Organization in online learning is the goal. With the abundance of quality and free material on the web today, the team at this startup aims to bring cohesion to this valuable, yet currently disorganized, information. MentorMob is a…
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First the purview of professionals, then available to the masses via the desktop – quality video editing can be added to the software services now available in the cloud thanks to WeVideo. WeVideo is a web-based, collaborative editing platform. It’s a fully-loaded video editor that allows users to craft a story with others, add effects,…
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For a while now, new companies have been cropping up with a mission to do some good while generating profits. It’s a great marketing tactic as well, since so many of us enjoy giving a little bit back when we can. BucketFeet is a Chicago-based startup selling artist-illustrated shoes and raising money for three children’s…
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I have a passion for startups with a mission to do good. They combine two of my favorite things – (1) creating something from scratch and growing it into a useful product or service, and (2) working to solve a social or environmental problem. So, anytime I come across a social entrepreneur, I get excited….
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Mobile distribution efforts to bring fruits and vegetables to food deserts have been a repeatedly-tried solution for bringing healthy food into the hands of those who need it. The recent trend with food businesses is to go mobile, with food trucks popping up on every street corner. For food justice advocates, that means filling school buses,…
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There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More