If you’re a marketer, it’s a good time to look for gaps. We live in an age of asymmetrical advantage, and emerging companies have access to the same computing power, networks, and channels that everyone else does. Tune into this Unconventionals episode to hear how finding the right gaps can propel a business and change a market. Look at the beer ma…

Artificial Intelligence may be all the rage, but that doesn’t make it easy to market. The voices on AI range from Alexa (powered by) to Zuckerberg (defender of), which means it’s hard to get a bead on what AI means. And AI gets a bad rap, branded as a job killer or more ominously, a threat to the human race. How do you launch an AI brand in this en…

We are in the midst of a big cultural moment for finding our roots. The moment is enabled by science for sure. DNA tests are simple and cheap--they'll run you about 100 bucks. But it's also driven by a deeper hunger for connection. It's in the zeitgeist, and conversations about identity are everywhere. We're more global than ever but nationalist st…

According to Whoop founder Will Ahmed, our bodies are keeping secrets. Those secrets hold the key to human performance, and the Whoop Strap unlocks them. It’s a big claim, but one that LeBron James, Michael Phelps and hundreds of professional athletes are validating in their everyday use. In this Unconventionals interview, we discuss how Whoop’s de…

B2B is always about change—reframing how people buy, introducing an innovation, or getting people to think about your company in new ways. You can increase your chances of success by getting change agents on board—the subset of your market who are the most likely to share and drive your agenda. Finding your crazies makes your market smaller—and mea…

Peloton is becoming one of the hottest brands in fitness, and it all starts with an extraordinary experience. Stripped down, the company sells you a cycle in your home and spinning classes delivered through the internet. But it adds up to something new and different: an addictive fitness regimen that almost no one who starts wants to stop. In this …

Digital dominates our everyday lives, and we increasingly organize our world around the software, platforms, and devices of the world's largest technology brands. At the same time, there is a renewed craving for brands that are small, hand-crafted, and proudly analog. In partnership with the Columbia Business School, The Unconventionals brought tog…

Today on The Unconventionals, a special edition. Call it “Unconventionals Young Guns.” We're taking a peek into the future, and the future looks pretty great, at least embodied by Eric Katz and Kulisha, a company he founded with a handful of other students who hail from Brown to UCLA to Kenya. Kulisha, which comes from the Swahili verb "to feed," p…

Google isn’t a health care company—they don’t treat patients, fund care, or make drugs or devices. But If you want to understand where healthcare advances will come from, you could do worse than watching where Google is placing its bets. On this episode of The Unconventionals, we’re talking to Google about solving big problems in health care. Our g…

Organovo’s printers create human tissue that mimic the form and function of native tissue in the body — but live outside the body. This is a big deal. A feat of science and engineering that’s truly disruptive, sci-fi kind of stuff. But the innovation alone doesn’t guarantee success. Once you’ve created something truly novel, how do you bring it to …

If you want to understand the future of luxury brands, you should take a close look at Shinola. This five year-old company chose Detroit — the original maker city — as the setting for a mission that is ambitious and unconventional: making watches and other highly-crafted products, creating jobs, and building a valuable design brand in the process. …

GE is Thomas Edison’s company, with a heritage of industrial innovation that goes back more than 100 years. But you’d be excused for missing this during the heyday of GE Capital, when financial services delivered 50% of corporate profit. GE is shedding its financial services division. And it’s no longer in the refrigerator and microwave oven busine…

Even though they’ve become a necessary part of society’s progress and have made life much easier, robots are a lot of work. They require teams of programmers in order to perform the most basic tasks, and every worker on the line needs to learn the safe way to interact with them. Yet, they were all we had. Rethink Robotics set out to find a better w…

Think about your favorite piece of clothing. You probably know what you paid for it, but do you know how much it cost to produce it? The tag may tell you what country it was made in, but do you know exactly where? If you shopped with online clothing retailer Everlane, you’d know these details. Typically, the fashion industry keeps the difference be…

The morning commute on public transportation is rarely easy. You hope for a reliable, fast and comfortable ride but probably end up with a not-so-pleasant start to your day instead. That would all change if you used Bridj — a startup determined to give people a better way to get around. Bridj uses billions of data points and algorithms to understan…

Waze is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app, and its 50 million users are dedicated to outsmarting traffic together. The maps are crowdsourced from roads users have driven on — so they’re always up-to-date. And to take it a step further, drivers can share real-time information about construction, congestion, and speed tra…

Music is generally an accompaniment to life — unless you’re listening on vinyl. Records make the music an event. You engage with the music and appreciate it for the art that is it because it isn’t portable, sharable, or ephemeral. In today’s world, that’s as unconventional as it gets.

Imagine how frustrated you’d be if you had to take a driving test every time you rented a car. Well that’s what private pilots deal with when they rent a plane outside of their home base or flight school. It takes months of training and thousands of dollars to get a pilot’s license, but simply having one doesn’t mean anyone will honor it. So pilots…

When thinking of great places for a startup, Afghanistan probably wouldn’t jump to the top of your list. But a few Army vets sensed an opportunity while serving there, and Rumi Spice — a company looking to grow the American saffron market— was born. More valuable by weight than gold, a saffron crop meant Afghan farmers could septuple their annual i…

If you produced what many view as the best beer in the world, with a 100% rating by Beer Advocate, you’d probably expect to be living a life of fame. But that’s not the case for John and Jen Kimmich —founders of The Alchemist Brewery and the folks behind the world renowned Heady Topper. With the crazy demand for the highly rated double IPA, it’d be…

The next time you’re at your favorite bar, take a look at the beer menu and count how many craft choices are on it. Chances are the list is growing each day. So after you order a delicious brew, raise your glass in honor of Lagunitas Brewing Company. Lagunitas reshaped the beer industry when it became one of the first brewers to regularly bottle an…

Walk into a fast food restaurant and count the number of smiling employees. With the way fast food workers are paid, chances are your count won’t be too high. That’s the MO John Pepper, founder and former CEO of Boloco, tried to erase when he started the burrito chain. Pepper wanted to create a culture where employees received better wages — which …

When Evernote came along, it re-shaped note taking by giving us a way to use technology to remember things. Many thought the application would fail with the business model it had — there was no specific target audience and people could use it for free, forever. But what those naysayers didn’t see was that Evernote’s value to the user grows over tim…

It seems odd that a large corporation would launch a campaign that’s neither proprietary nor tightly controlled. So when American Express — a not-so-small business — created Small Business Saturday, they must have envisioned a great opportunity. And with the President and U.S. Senate’s support, in addition to countless Mom & Pops, it’s clear they w…

Having a sense of naïveté is never a bad thing. Because there are no risks, when there are no rules. In the Beginner’s Mind, the most outlandish and bizarre ideas could be the best. And who knows? Maybe they’re right. In this episode, host Mike O’Toole is joined by David Rogers of the Columbia Business School to discuss the "Zen mentality" importan…

Is it a store, an agency, or a community center? According to founder Rachel Schechtman, Story is a little bit of all three. Based in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, Story is an unconventional boutique that reinvents itself every few weeks around a new theme, complete with new merchandise, brand partners, and in-store experiences. And while …

Many unconventional brands are proving that you can succeed while managing around ideas that aren’t typically measurable. With the right leadership and culture, you can certainly get by defying conventional business practices. In this episode, host Mike O’Toole discusses how unconventional brands are measuring success with David Rogers of the Colum…

Believe it or not, there can be such a thing as a “Good problem to have” in business. The highly popular fresh burger franchise b.good are finding themselves in these types situations lately as they continue to grow. Founded a decade ago in Boston with the mission to never be a "typical fast food joint," b.good always set out to make the best food …

When you think of a busy city a few images may come to mind. Bustling streets, busy shops, bumper to bumper traffic.But one thing you probably don’t picture is a green space and 55,000 sq ft farm sitting eight stories high. That's the scene at Higher Ground Farm here in Boston. We spoke with founders Courtney Hennessey and John Stoddard about their…

Sometimes all it takes is a simple unconventional question to change everything… Our friends at Warby Parker asked, “Why do eyeglasses have to cost $700?” The Dollar Shave Club wondered “Why do we pay top dollar for unnecessary shaving technology?” Which brings us to Unreal Candy, which was founded on a question we’ve all thought at one time or ano…

Pettis, CEO of the 3D printing company MakerBot. Imagine having the power to make creations in your mind's eye a reality - a reality you can hold in your own hands. I's not a plot from a new sci-fi film, it's the premise behind 3D printing powerhouse, Makerbot. Their desktop 3D printers have already completely changed the way creative professionals…

On this episode of The Unconventionals, host Mike O'Toole chats with Neil Blumenthal, cofounder of online eyewear retailer Warby Parker. Once labeled by GQ as "Netflix for glasses," Warby Parker has set out to change the perception that buying a pair of fashionable eyeglasses doesn't have to be a long-term and costly investment. In addition to a he…

On this episode of The Unconventionals, host Mike O'Toole sits down with Intel's Creative Director, David Haroldsen to discuss The Creators Project: Intel's unique way connecting the future of chip technology with today's modern artist. This revolutionary partnership between Intel and VICE media allows visionary artists using technology in innovati…

On this episode of The Unconventionals, host Mike O'Toole interviews Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Cottrill from Converse, about its innovative Brooklyn based recording studio - Rubber Tracks. For Converse, the sales of athletic shoes used to be very straightforward. Everyone wore Chuck Taylors. Over time the landscape for those shoes has become i…

In this fourth episode of the season, host Mike O'Toole talks to Shelby Clark, Founder and Chief Community Officer of RelayRides. Based in San Francisco, CA and founded in 2010, RelayRides is a peer-to-peer carsharing service. It allows private car-owners to rent out their vehicles on a short-term basis. RelayRides gets attention for an innovative…

In our third show of the season, host Mike O'Toole talks to Michael Dubin, CEO, Dollar Shave Club. From a baby shaving a man's head to a machete-wielding CEO dancing with a leaf blower, Michael Dubin's Dollar Shave Club video has reached over 7.3 million views on YouTube. His no-nonsense, tell it like it is, "Our Blades Are F**king Great" approac…

In our second show of the season, host Mike O'Toole talks with Morgen Newman, VP, International Sales and Jeff Avallon, VP, Business Development of IdeaPaint. Based in Ashland, MA and founded in 2002, IdeaPaint gives people the opportunity to unleash their creative potential through innovative tools that re-imagine the spaces where they work, learn…

We're kicking off our first show with Carey Smith, CEO of Big Ass Fans, a company in Lexington, KY that makes, well, big ass industrial and residential fans. It's a company where unconventional goes much deeper than the name - how they manufacture, how they market, how they treat employees and how they see their future are all far from typical.…