Web features organized by Career Zone:
Hard Times in Little Kabul
Afghan businesses in the Fremont, California area are suffering fallout from the terrorist attacks. But patriotic Afghan-Americans are hopeful that customers will return before it’s too late. Fara Warner
Sharper Image
The FBI is turning to a small Boston software firm for help in transforming surveillance video into high-resolution images — and then using the pictures to help track terrorists. Call it the ultimate killer app. Linda Tischler
Raise the Roof
SpectraSite is a small company with big real-estate holdings in the New York area: 1,200 rooftops. After September 11, SpectraSite did its part by searching for more rooftops to house antennas that may ease the city’s communications logjam. Charles Fishman
Building Space
Who can blame people for feeling uneasy now in the workplace? One design visionary says this is the time to rethink the American office — and to design in a new look, feel, and sense of compassion. Anni Layne Rodgers
Miracle Workers
Amid the rubble of lower Manhattan, companies are working miracles to get their operations back to work. Firsthand reports from the New York Board of Trade, a Verizon switching center at 140 West Street, and other places under (re)construction. Keith H. Hammonds
Open for Business
How do the owners and employees of a small restaurant in Brooklyn respond to a world-changing tragedy just a few miles away? Not by fleeing or closing, but by staying open for business and serving the needs of the neighborhood. Ron Lieber
IBM.com’s Man in the Hot Seat
David Leip runs one of the world’s largest Web sites for one of the world’s most powerful companies. Here, IBM’s corporate Webmaster offers practical tips for keeping a busy site up and running 99.998% of the time. Christine Canabou
10 Prize-Winning Products
The ballots are in. Some of the world’s savviest designers voted these products best in show at their annual meeting in Boston recently. What gizmos and gadgets would you add to the list? Linda Tischler
Virtual-Reality Check
Bill Buxton’s company helped create the computer-generated characters in the film Final Fantasy. We asked him for his predictions on what our world will look like 10 years from now. Fara Warner
Mogul for a Day
Fast Company senior editor Bill Breen insisted he had the right stuff to lead a new-economy company. So we sent him off to try his hand at running a faux PDA firm. Our advice: Bill, don’t give up your day job. Bill Breen
How the PC Really Got Started
The personal computer turns 20 this month. At a gala party in Silicon Valley, the PC’s original developers, including Bill Gates and Andy Grove, swapped tales of those wild days on the frontier of the computer revolution. George Anders
Educating Michael
Michael Bronner made a fortune as founder of a hot direct-marketing company. His new company helps less affluent Americans save the small fortune required for their kids’ college tuition. Here’s what Bronner has learned so far. Paul C. Judge
On the Eve of Destruction?
Creative Destruction argues that corporate survivors must be flexible — unconcerned by threats of cannibalization, channel conflict, or earnings dilution. In short, they must rethink the Built to Last credo. Keith H. Hammonds
Recipe for Success
How do you launch a software business staffed by Web-wary employees and targeted at a tech-averse audience? Start with passion, add funding, season with experience, and serve. Linda Tischler
Speed Is Life
The former head of Lycos defends his portal strategy, diagnoses Yahoo!’s ailments, and encourages entrepreneurs to study history with a vengeance. Paul C. Judge
Sex Sells
What can X-rated sites teach traditional dotcoms about turning eyeballs into cash? Five profit-generating strategies from an erotic B2C that’s been in the black since day one: Penthouse.com. Anni Layne
The Day the Wheels Fell off Kozmo.com
So this is how the world of a dotcom ends, not with a bang but with some soon-to-expire Fresh Samantha juice. A tale of the last days of Kozmo.com, told by one of the last remaining Kozmonauts. Peter Kempe
(No) Exit Ahead?
A leading venture capitalist offers a tough-love survival guide: how to keep your company afloat when the IPO market has dried up. Rekha Balu
In Search of the Perfect Startup
It’s hard enough in this economic climate to start one new company. So why is H. Michael Zadikian determined to start four at the same time? An entrepreneurial adventure story, in two parts. Rekha Balu
Why QVC Is Sold on the Internet
Forget about costume jewelry and vegetable peelers. Today’s QVC is a $3.5 billion retailing juggernaut that knows how to sell online. The lessons it has learned are worth their weight in gold. Paul C. Judge
Feeling Fatigued? Real Entrepreneurs Keep Walking
Recession be damned. Johnnie Walker believes innovators must plod on regardless. Find out why the Scotch-whisky company is doling out cash grants to ordinary people with extraordinary stamina and mettle. Anni Layne
After the Gold Rush
Looking for fresh ideas? The enormous Internet World show in Los Angeles has a few sparkling moments — but mostly a church-like stillness and a lot of worn-out hopes. George Anders
Make Your Company More Resilient
It was a life-and-death setback when Odwalla apple juice killed a baby girl. Here’s how CEO Stephen Williamson managed through a tragic crisis. Anni Layne
New Business Boot Camp
The Navy SEALS pride themselves on running the toughest school on earth. Will their work ethic be enough to help a startup succeed in one of the toughest economies in years? ISpheres hopes so. Cecilia Rothenberger
Passion Play
Pallotta TeamWorks inspires intense loyalty from its customers by disrupting their lives, demanding their money, and subjecting them to physical pain. What is Dan Pallotta’s secret? Anni Layne
The Four Horsemen of the New Economy
Xerox, Polaroid, AT&T, and Kodak fell off the bleeding edge of technology innovation because they stopped funding small, speedy companies with good ideas, according to venture-investing expert Joseph Bartlett. Read here about three thorny issues any corporation faces when entering the venture markets. Joe Bartlett
Shopping Sites With Sizzle
Just in time for Christmas, a team of hard-shopping Web analysts hands out eGold awards to the best e-commerce sites — and eBomb awards to those that may deliver a lump of coal this holiday season. Linda Tischler
Have Yourself a Merry Online Christmas
Will this year’s cyber-shopping experience be merry and bright? One expert predicts yuletide cheers from shoppers who pick their sites wisely. Linda Tischler
Perfecting Your Pitch, Part Three: The Overview Overview
The third and final part of Garage.com’s master class on the art of a pitch: Bill Joos tells you how to wow them with your overview presentation. John Hoult
Perfecting Your Pitch, Part Two: The Horse Race
The business-plan pitch can mean the difference between VC funding and burnout. Bill Joos, vice president of business development for Garage.com, advises entrepreneurs to keep the pitch short and to focus on three key themes: market, idea, and team. John Hoult
Perfecting Your Pitch, Part One: Assume Short Buildings
Bill Joos preaches the art of the pitch for Garage.com. The soul of his sermon? Brevity brings the best results, so give your elevator pitch a lift. John Hoult
E-tail Evolution
Online home furnishings sites have been plagued with problems from technological glitches to shipping disasters. But one savvy e-tailer found the best way to succeed in this sector was to apply his brick-and-mortar experience to his new virtual business. John Hoult
Stepping Into Bigstep.com
Lucy Reid left a safe and successful career to take Bigstep.com the next step. Read her plans for the young startup and her reflections on what’s lost and gained in the voyage to the new economy. John Hoult
Ownership 101
Steve Mariotti shape-shifted his way through four careers — corporate suit, solo businessman, high-school teacher, and foundation founder — and discovered his passion giving low-income kids the entrepreneurial tools to bootstrap their way into a new life. John Hoult
Reduce Your Cycle Time
It’s T-minus 10 and counting until launch, and your project is languishing on the launch pad. Will it fly? Will it fizzle? This is a recurring nightmare for change agents and project leaders hell-bent on speed, yet shackled by time-consuming procedures and slow teammates. Astrid Sandoval
Soul Proprietor Scores Big
When Fast Company last checked in with Troy Tyler, the SOHO entrepreneur was desperately seeking a buyer for his smartRay Network. Last month, he found what he was looking for. His story offers a lesson in scoring the right deal … fast. Keith H. Hammonds
Celluloid Shooters
If art imitates life, and life today so closely resembles a high-stakes poker game, then it stands to reason that 21st-century gamblers could learn a thing or two from Hollywood’s greatest onscreen hustlers and card sharks. Anni Layne and Katrina Barnas
The Message Is the Marvel
“Dotcom advertising has launched a creative revolution. It has created a new Renaissance for advertising.” Lauren Heist
Little Dotcom Coupe
Grease-monkey gurus Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR’s “Car Talk” answer questions about online automotive research and purchasing — a trend that could forever alter the car industry as we know it. In addition, Click and Clack discuss the importance, functionality, and dangers of evaluating cars on the Internet, and answer the question: Does the Web really put you in the driver’s seat? Anni Layne
Business Without Borders
123 years after Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone, Boston remains home to several forerunners in communications and science. Meet three local companies working to break down global language barriers with their technology, ingenuity, and lovable bots. Anni Layne
Speeding Bullet Inc.
growth company n (1959): a company that grows at a greater rate than the economy as a whole and that usually directs a relatively high proportion of income back into the business.
Meet the fast-growth gurus, leaders and survivors who are making Webster’s definition obsolete. Learn about time-tested techniques and guiding principles that keep them ahead of the pack. Anni Layne
First Annual E-Commerce Awards
MIT honors Web-commerce luminaries with a speed-of-light ceremony. Marla Abramson