Most Innovative Companies

Latest Episodes:

Elon Musk’s X is no Twitter: Is there still any magic left? Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

A year ago, Elon Musk bought Twitter for a whopping $44 billion. Since then the platform has changed dramatically . . . even its name. Senior staff editor Max Ufberg joins us again to break down what’s been going on at Twitter, er X, over the past year.

Also, “Black women are the fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs in this country,” says Nyakio Grieco, “yet still receive less than 1% of venture funding.” Grieco, founder of Relevant Skin and cofounder of Thirteen Lune, chats about her experience as a Black female entrepreneur and creating a beauty brand that’s exclusively inclusive. “We all have melanin, so this is a melanin-safe brand for all,” she says. But Grieco’s mission in launching Relevant Skin was to come up with products that wouldn’t be harmful to people with more melanin in their skin, which includes Black people and other people of color, so she did a deep dive along with her chemist. Grieco explained that the more melanin you have, the more prone you are to eczema, rosacea, hyperpigmentation, hypopigmentation. . . . “So, we want it to build efficacious products, steeped in history [with] timeless ingredients, as well as be married to the best science to make sure no one feels left out at the shelf.”

For more MIC behind-the-scenes, check out Yaz at @yazzyg on Instagram and Josh @joshuagchris on TikTok!

FROM FASTCO WORKS AND CAPITAL ONE: Empathy and Innovation: Keeping the Customer at the Center Oct 30, 2023

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Companies now have mountains of data to help drive decisions and develop products, but a holistic approach to product development must also prioritize customers’ needs and preferences. In this podcast interview, Stephanie Mehta, CEO of Mansueto Ventures, the parent of Fast Company, sits down with Emily Roberts, Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Consumer Product at Capital One to hear how to harness the power of technology and customer feedback loops to innovate products and experiences.

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ director Emma Tammi talks about horror innovation Oct 25, 2023

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Halloween season is here! And actor-director-producer Emma Tammi joined us to chat about her upcoming film, Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on the popular video game franchise. She told us all about adapting a video game to a movie, working with large animatronic puppets, and creating a horror movie that’s aimed at a PG-13 audience. But the scariest part of the movie process, according to Emma? Reading the reviews. . . .Opening Friday, October 27, in theaters and on Peacock, Five Nights at Freddy’s is produced by the spooky creatives at Blumhouse with the murderous mascots from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

Everyone feels like they have a book in them. Well, Roya Shariat proved it! The Glossier director of social impact and brand partnerships shared her tips on working a full-time job while pursuing her passion project. Spoiler: There’s no such thing as balance. It’s more of a trade-off. “It’s something I continue to struggle with,” says Roya, “and I’d say I’m not the best at dividing my time. It’s using my nights and weekends for that passion project and being a little ruthless sometimes about not going to socialize this month because I’ve got to work on this book proposal . . . It’s just, sometimes, not sleeping and sometimes working seven days a week.” Her cookbook, Maman and Me, is available now in bookstores around the U.S and coming soon to global markets.

For more MIC behind-the-scenes, check out Yaz at @yazzyg on Instagram and Josh @joshuagchris on Tiktok!

How Issa Rae secured success: Create what you’re passionate about Oct 18, 2023

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Actor, producer, and entrepreneur Issa Rae has several businesses under her belt already, and now she has partnered with Gallo to launch her own prosecco line, Viarae. We chatted about her business ventures, and how she decides which creative projects to pursue. It comes down to backing things that she loves and/or needs. When she wanted to start a coffee business, for example, it was because she wanted a coffee shop in her neighborhood—specifically to have a place where she could write all the time, but there was never one nearby. So, she helped found Hilltop Coffee and Kitchen. She’s also the co-owner of Sienna Naturals because she said she prefers to wear her hair naturally but taking care of it is very hard. Other projects involve making her production company, Hoorae, an all-encompassing ecosystem, and recently teaming up with Adam McKay to adapt the New York Times’ podcast series, Nice White Parents, into an HBO series.

On the WGA and SAG strikes, she says it was tough with the work stoppage and not being able to talk about her creative projects, but she fully supported them. And now, she says, she’ll have to navigate what to create next because everything is going to have to be high concept, and there will be fewer diverse shows. That will result in fewer casting opportunities, too: “While the writers were able to fight for more minimum staffing rooms, that means there’s less stuff to work on because everything is so expensive. In the same way that [the] ’90s to the 2000s had fewer diverse shows on the air, I think that’s for sure going to be a casualty of it all,” she explains.

For more behind-the-scenes looks of our in-studio recording, follow Yaz @yazzyg and Josh @thejoshuachris

Understanding the girlboss era, the sexist backlash, and what's next Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

Only 10% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, even though women make up 47% of the workforce. And female founders only get 2% of venture capital. When Sophia Amoruso coined the term ‘girlboss’ in her 2014 memoir, #Girlboss, she helped spark a movement for women to step into more leadership roles. But then she and a couple of other girlbosses faced backlash over their management practices, including creating toxic work environments. Compared to some of their problematic male counterparts, though, these women ultimately lost control of the companies they built. Fast Company senior staff writer Liz Segran breaks down why the reign of the girlboss is over and how the next generation of founders shouldn’t feel compelled to follow their playbook.

“I have no intention of raising money and blowing up and trying to take over the world,” Bite founder and CEO Lindsay McCormick says. The sustainable toothpaste company’s goal is to stay small, stay true to the customers that they serve, and continue to be able to trailblaze. She said the company aims to show big brands that there is something to be done about caring for the environment. “And if you do it right, people will get on board.”

And check out Stephanie Clifford’s coverage of the ongoing SBF trial.

FROM FASTCO WORKS AND SAP - Growth Agents: The inside story of Sweetgreen’s rapid rise to the top Oct 10, 2023

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Mitch Reback, CFO of Sweetgreen, is one of the rising corporate financial stars who is helping to take their companies to the next level. When he started, Sweetgreen had 25 stores; today, there are more than 220—and Reback says the company is still in its “infancy.” In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Reback takes a deep dive into his role as a growth agent. Capital is the engine that drives growth, and Reback says his job is to make sure the company has adequate capital to grow as well as determining how best to allocate it, including investments in stores, marketing, staff, and technology—or, as he puts it, to push innovation forward in a way that’s capital efficient.

FROM FASTCO WORKS AND SAP - Growth Agents: Duolingo’s CFO on how the company took over the language learning space Oct 10, 2023

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Duolingo’s freemium subscription model, beloved brand and strategic investments have allowed it to execute its educational mission and become a cultural touchstone. Matthew Skaruppa, CFO of Duolingo, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. Since he joined the company in 2020, Duolingo has grown its base of monthly active users by more than 80%. Each month, 75 million users hone their language skills on the Duolingo app. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Skaruppa discusses how his analytical background has allowed to him to be a more strategy-oriented CFO. For him, that has meant balancing big aspirations and finite resources, and turning the uncertainties of tomorrow into action today.

FROM FASTCO WORKS AND SAP - Growth Agents: How Pink Lily went from a side hustle to a multimillion-dollar company Oct 10, 2023

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The company’s director of finance explains how her job goes well beyond accounting. Tina Hetzer, director of finance at Pink Lily, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. She built Pink Lily’s finance team from scratch and has helped the company become one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Hetzer discusses the cash-flow challenges unique to fashion retailers and explains how working at a smaller, founder-run company can fuel greater collaboration across the organization.

Why nostalgia is such a powerful force for brand marketing Oct 04, 2023

Show notes

What do Chanel, Heinz 57, and Coors Light all have in common? They’re all brands that have built a connection with their consumers. On today’s episode, we’re looking at our company’s ‘Brands That Matter’ recognition program with ‘Fast Company’ senior staff editor Jeff Beer. Not only is it about building connections, but also developing culturally relevant messaging, making an impact through social causes, and communicating their mission and values clearly. We also chat about peak marketing nostalgia and, specifically, how Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is re-releasing SpongeBob shapes, which seems like a perfect example of a brand keying into what millennials miss about childhood.

‘Are you ok with being in the shadows?’ Bobby Kim, aka Bobby Hundreds, talks about how he started his streetwear brand, The Hundreds, 20 years ago. Every year, there’s always a debate about what streetwear is—some people say it’s not cool anymore because of elitism and snobbery within subcultures. To get around this, Hundreds says you need young people discovering it for first time, as well as seasoned veterans weighing in, for a brand to have lore and build a legacy. Most streetwear brands are built to be ephemeral, but Hundreds said what helped his company was sticking to its core values: honesty, communication, and being personable. “People never go out of style.”

Check out @bobbyhundreds and The Hundreds’ Substack ‘Monologue’: https://bobbyhundreds.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-diversity-and-representation

For Lego, net zero goals are anything but child’s play Sep 27, 2023

Show notes

Lego has been pushing its ambitious sustainability efforts for years . . . only to recently do an about-face (sort of) by telling us that it will continue manufacturing its blocks with petroleum-based ABS plastic. Even though the company promised to get rid of petroleum-based materials by 2030.

“Fast Company” senior editor Liz Stinson breaks down Lego’s recent announcement, which was more like “an excuse” or kind of an apology. In its efforts to redesign its bricks by using recycled plastic material, Lego decided that a) this kind of plastic just wasn’t going to be as good as the current ABS plastic used for its iconic bricks, and b) it would be more carbon intensive to have to retool its entire manufacturing process to make that work. So . . .it’s not exactly greenwashing, but it’s also not not greenwashing—and it highlights the interesting tension between what companies promise and what they can (or will?) realistically deliver.

And at the Innovation Festival last week, Yaz chatted with Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse; David Gordon Green, director of The Exorcist: Believer; and Emma Tammi, director of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Tammi discussed adapting a popular video game into a successful movie, how to balance her artistic vision with fans’ expectations, and producing a movie that could stand on its own. Blum explained how The Exorcist was the ‘riskiest’ undertaking of his life . . . and how he begrudgingly gave up the perfect release date of Friday, the13th, to Taylor Swift since her Eras Tour film is coming out that day.

And speaking of movie production, we’ve also been following the WGA strike with its recent deal.