Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
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In 2012, Silicon Valley software engineer JT Marino stumbled across a problem—buying a mattress totally sucked.
Between confusing buzzwords, pushy salespeople, and backwards policies, JT knew there was an opportunity to take an archaic industry and flip it upside down. Enter Daehee Park, his long time friend and colleague. They launched a simple test site to see if anyone out there would actually be interested in buying a mattress online. Within just 15 minutes, Bingo! They had their first buyer.
After returning the money, they set out to learn everything they could about the industry. Tuft & Needle soon grew from two Silicon Valley software engineers to a team of over 150 people headquartered in Phoenix, AZ. They work each day to deliver a universally comfortable mattress, cut out the middlemen, and change the way mattresses are sold and delivered.
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Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
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Of the nearly 600,000 immigrants from former Soviet countries who settled in the United States between 1975 and 2003, Vlad Shmunis’ family was among the first. His family left Odessa in 1975 to escape the restrictions of the Iron Curtain. Shmunis’ story is just one example of the impact that the Soviet diaspora to the U.S. had on Silicon Valley and America’s innovation economy writ large. Freeing people to connect and do their best work is the foundation of the inclusive culture at RingCentral, where Shmunis serves as CEO to 6,000+ team members.
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Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
.
Adam Schwartz started Articulate in 2002 out of his one-bedroom apartment in New York City. He had just enough money to hire two experts – one who lived in Missouri and the other in India. Together, they built the backbone of an online learning product that would revolutionize the training industry. Today, over 112 million learners in 161 countries have taken advantage of career-boosting training from online courses created with Articulate applications. That model of hiring the best and giving them the freedom and trust to thrive is part of Articulate’s secret sauce and culture of empowerment.
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Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
.
As Texas faced record-low temperatures in February and snow and ice made roads impassable, the state’s electric grid operator lost control of the power supply, leaving millions without access to electricity. As the blackouts extended from hours to days, top state lawmakers called for investigations into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and Texans demanded accountability for the disaster. But when the power went out on February 16th at a crowded H-E-B in the Austin suburb of Leander, Texas, employees told shoppers that they could walk through the checkout aisles and take their groceries out of the store without paying.
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Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
.
When entrepreneur and author Fawn Weaver saw a 2016 New York Times article about Nathan “Nearest” Green, who while enslaved, taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey, she moved to Tennessee from California to see if she could turn the story into a book or movie. Shortly after arriving, Weaver found that the site of Green’s distillery was for sale. She made an offer and quickly set about to give the godfather of Tennessee whiskey his due. If you’re curious about the quality, you may be interested to learn that Uncle Nearest was the most-awarded American whiskey or bourbon of 2019 and 2020.
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Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
.
Tentree is a lifestyle apparel company that essentially thinks of itself as a forestry program that sells clothes. For every product purchased, the company plants ten trees through thoughtful programs that not only reforest the earth but also help rebuild communities around sustainable local economies. Since its inception in 2012, Tentree has planted over 35 million new trees around the globe. By 2030, the company’s goal is 1 billion.
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