Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry of Method | photo by Suzy Poling
Omniture is like an intelligence upgrade for the Web. It provides thousands of clients, from Bank of America to JetBlue, with real-time information about how visitors use their Web sites; those visitors, meanwhile, find an increasingly personal experience rooted in previous behavior and interests. And the data derived from this sort of high-IQ interaction have made Omniture an essential tool for improving its return on online ad spending.Last year, it managed $500 million in keyword spending that led to $10 billion in actual commerce. “We want to change the online experience,” CEO Josh James says. “If consumers are happy, everyone is happy.” James certainly is: Omniture grew about 80% in 2007, with sales topping $140 million.
It seemed beyond the call of duty. But when iRobot, a technology company in Burlington, Massachusetts, was testing new versions of its military robot, it joined the Army. Specifically, the company sent engineer Tom Frost to basic training and on to Afghanistan, where he helped soldiers clear caves with iRobot’s PackBot, a nimble creature that can shoot audio and video and climb stairs (it even works underwater). Frost, whose army nickname morphed from “Sweet Cheeks” to “Tommy Gun” as he grew into his deployment, sent immediate feedback: “This thing has got to be lighter.”
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have provided a sad laboratory for iRobot, a company better known for the Roomba, a robot that vacuums floors, then cruises back to its charger base like a dutiful pet. For Helen Greiner, one of iRobot’s three founders, the war has provided the impetus for the military to fast-track the adoption of new technology. “There is no reason to send a person into a dangerous situation when a robot can help,” she says.
Before robots, the state of the art for cave clearing was to tie a rope around a solider’s waist and have him crawl around with a grappling hook. While in the field, Frost was able to improve the machine in real time, downloading code updates via satellite, cobbling together solutions to signal problems that occur in caves, and suggesting improvements, such as switching from a laptop interface to a more familiar joystick control. The result is the first infantry bot, priced to move at around $50,000 and weighing in at about 40 pounds. In December, the company won a $286 million contract to deliver as many as 3,000 of them to the U.S. Army.
IRobot was born of the purest geek passion. The three founders met at MIT and bonded over their love of robots: Greiner and CEO Colin Angle were undergrads together; CTO Rod Brooks was Angle’s thesis adviser. (Angle’s senior project with Brooks, a six-legged autonomous walking robot named Genghis, was later installed at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.) Ultimately, the trio decided it wanted to build robots that real people could use -- better living through robotics. “The challenge was that robots cost more to build than they delivered in value,” Angle says. “What would it take to have them touch people’s lives on a daily basis?” The founders left the rarefied air of academia and went into business in 1990. Government and university projects sustained them initially -- they built the behavior-controlled rovers for NASA that led to the Mars explorer -- but they were seriously strapped for cash. “We went six-and-a-half years never starting the month with enough money in the bank to make payroll,” Angle recalls. “But we always made it.”
While Greiner deepened the company’s military relationships -- iRobot joined a DARPA program for robotics in 1997 -- Angle spearheaded the consumer division. IRobot spent part of the 1990s making industrial cleaning robots for SC Johnson and toys for Hasbro; when both contracts expired, Greiner and Angle decided to combine what they’d learned into the Roomba. The company raised $38 million in investor cash in 1998, started developing the cute digital domestic (most users name them, as they would a pet) in 1999, and debuted its first version in 2002. The Roomba now accounts for around 2% of the vacuum market.
As the company has grown -- it went public in November 2005 -- innovation has become a priority. The consumer side runs periodic “bake offs” where inter-disciplinary teams develop ideas that have been languishing in-house. The last round produced the Looj, a gizmo that cleans gutters, currently in beta. The government-and-industrial arm opened the platform for its basic PackBot to outside developers last year as a way of driving innovation based on iRobot’s proprietary operating system. The move paid off quickly. “We partnered with an explosives-sensor company that was able to hook into our onboard computer,” Angle says. The resulting bomb-sniffing bot generated 25% of the revenue for the G&I division last year: “We shipped 150 in 2007,” mostly to Baghdad.
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Recent Comments | 16 Total
February 17, 2008 at 6:48pm by john ralston
sorry if this is a repeat - not sure the last post went thru.
I was surprised to see Prosper in this article for several reasons. Among them is high default rates - below is information from Prosper's site showing that defaults are 4.24% for the highest rated borrowers and 45% for the lowest rated borrowers (note actual default rates will be higher since some of these loans are only six months old).
Prosper, unlike other 2.0 firms, has squelched input from the community by deleting all the old forum postings and putting in a new process that screens all comments. Screening is usually fine, but many posts do not make it thru - seems like Prosper does not want its community to be engaged.
Here are the stats - hopefully they will make sense with this cut/paste...
Estimated ROI Help
Performance metric AA A B C D E HR
Average lender rate 10.74% 12.69% 15.05% 17.78% 20.81% 24.03% 23.80%
Net defaults -4.24% -7.01% -11.72% -15.63% -19.09% -29.65% -45.55%
Adjustment (interest and fees) -0.22% -0.43% -0.76% -1.21% -1.72% -2.85% -4.29%
Prosper servicing fee -0.49% -0.48% -0.70% -0.68% -0.67% -0.56% -0.53%
Average annual return 5.80% 4.77% 1.87% 0.25% -0.67% -9.02% -26.58%
Sorry this is not more positive, but I want to make sure you had perspective from someone who has been (was) a long term lender on Prosper.
John R.
February 19, 2008 at 12:00am by Jeremy Fretts
It is ironic to me as a user of AutoDesk products to see them on this list. I suppose their success as a business, and as a technology innovator merits #25. However, it is worth noting that many of their users are at best begrudging at accepting their market dominance.
In ten years of architectural practice, I can't say that I've met ANYONE who truly loved AutoDesk's products. In many cases, they are in fact loathed.
True competition would serve the industry well-- someone needs to inspire improvements to AutoDesk's user interfaces, help documentation, and pricing structure.
February 20, 2008 at 1:08pm by Mike Adam
Tesco's 'Fresh and Easy?' How innovative can that be? Trader Joe's has been around for years, and the concept sounds the same. They sell organics for prices you'd normally see for non-organic/natural at the grocery store, have fresh meat and produce, and are indeed just slightly larger than a 7-11. And yet, Trader Joes' has just about everything you need. They had $1 cliff bars while everyone else still had them $1.50-2.00.
February 20, 2008 at 2:08pm by Brock Stout
I suppose that each company can be argued with, but Toyota's inclusion made me laugh out loud. They helped invent just-in-time manufacturing (decades ago), but everything else, including auto designs, has been copied from other companies. Even in Japan, Toyota is known as the non-innovator, "borrowing" from competitors. Like most American press representatives, Fast Company just prints Toyota press releases without editing them. Sorry, I can't possibly take you seriously in the future on any issue.
February 20, 2008 at 11:54pm by Christoph Spitzenpfeil
I have to add a similar comment to this article about the 50 most innovative companies. I agree on Toyota as a co-commentator did before. The Lexus cars and even the new Camry are just design copies of the real innovator in the Auto industry - BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche; all three dare new technologies whereas Toyota only deploys them when these new technologies have proven themselves in the market.
I am also missing companies in this list which are helping making our environment cleaner and more livable. Where are those companies - the wind turbine and solar panel manufacturers? I am sorry Google, video game companies & Co. do not belong on this list as innovators. The world would be as good or as bad as it is now with or without them! Last but not least it would be nice if this list would contain more companies - and there are really good ones - from outside the English speaking hemisphere. Innovation does not always have only to do with good balance sheets, more sales, more entertainment, and higher volumes; the world has more difficult issues to deal with than those. This is where the list of the 50 most innovative companies massively falls short.
February 28, 2008 at 2:24am by akram uddin
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March 18, 2008 at 8:52pm by Kristen Wachsmuth
I was surprised and disappointed that Walmart made your list. They have to do more than market energy saving lightbulbs and teach employees about sustainability to be considered a company that is making an environmental transformation. What about all the wetlands and marshes and land that is being destroyed to build their behemoth supercenters right down the street from their current store? Selling 100 million light bulbs in nine months does not make up for that.
August 9, 2009 at 2:36pm by Sergio Mokko
In my opinion, deservedly dominate google and apple. 2 the most innovative companies. By Sergio
August 15, 2009 at 10:36pm by Todd McCalla
There are several companies that looked next to the Cool Springs Galleria that could easily fit into the worlds most innovative companies list. They are startups totally bootstrapping all operations with not one person taking a dime in salary. Williamson County Tennessee, primarily Cool Springs, is a petri dish for venture capital and bright minds.
October 7, 2009 at 9:38pm by cartier jewelry
Nice Post!!
October 20, 2009 at 10:16pm by dd dd
There are several companies that looked next to the Cool Springs Galleria that could easily fit into the worlds most innovative companies list. They are startups totally bootstrapping all operations with not one person taking a dime in salary. Williamson County Tennessee, primarily Cool Springs, is a petri dish for venture capital and bright minds.
http://www.uggboots365.co.uk
October 21, 2009 at 11:29am by Howard Carl
Nike's latest masterstroke is social networking, online and off. From events to the Web to unique retail hubs, Nike is blurring the line between brand and experience. jeep grand cherokee
October 21, 2009 at 11:29am by Howard Carl
Nike's latest masterstroke is social networking, online and off. From events to the Web to unique retail hubs, Nike is blurring the line between brand and experience. jeep grand cherokee
November 23, 2009 at 2:09pm by Faraz Alam
I am big fan of google. I like the way the company has evolved. They are seriously best at web.
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December 23, 2009 at 12:26am by Goemesee Osame
This man is extraordinary. He inspires many young men worldwide about going to college and achieving their dreams. people may have different perception though. To me, it is about balancing study, creativity, and work.
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December 23, 2009 at 12:46am by Goemesee Osame
This man is extraordinary. He inspires many young men worldwide about going to college and achieving their dreams. people may have different perception though. To me, it is about balancing study, creativity, and work.
elite