In a sweeping legal move, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a significant settlement with some of the nation’s largest wireless service providers. The $10.22 million accord involves AT&T Mobility, LLC, Cricket Wireless, LLC, T-Mobile USA, Inc., Verizon Wireless, operating as Cellco Partnership, and TracFone Wireless, Inc. The settlement, announced yesterday, resolves investigations by state attorneys general into misleading and deceptive marketing tactics used by these telecom giants.
Investigations uncovered misleading practices including “unlimited” data promos with undisclosed limits, “free” phone offers with strings attached, obscured conditions for network-switching incentives, and distorted wireless plan comparisons. As detailed on the Texas Attorney General’s website, the investigation revealed companies were not entirely transparent about such offers.
The newly reached settlement requires that these companies halt any deceptive marketing strategies, making a shift to more transparent and honest advertising. This entails clearly and conspicuously disclosing any conditions or limitations associated with their services and promotions. According to Attorney General Paxton, “Businesses cannot lure consumers into deceptive deals through misleading marketing schemes.” He asserts in his statement that the obligations of this settlement will enforce a more straightforward approach in the industry.
Out of the total settlement, the State of Texas will pocket $1,152,078.23 to cover attorneys’ fees and costs resulting from the case. Paxton’s office has expressed its commitment to holding companies accountable for deceitful practices, emphasizing that these settlements are a step towards fairer consumer transactions within the state. In an era where digital connection is vital, transparency in how these services are offered and sold is paramount.
Consumers looking for details about the settlements can review the agreements through the provided links on the Texas Attorney General’s website for AT&T and Cricket Wireless, as well as those for T-Mobile, Verizon, and TracFone. These documents provide an insight into the commitments made by the companies to ensure future advertising is clear, accurate, and does not misguide consumers.
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Crypto.com spent $700 million to put their name on a stadium in downtown Los Angeles. Mastercard is a sponsor of the PGA Tour. Dunkin Donuts hired Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to star in a Super Bowl ad. Companies spend billions on marketing every year, but the question remains whether these campaigns translate into profits.
San Francisco-based startup Alembic is employing big data techniques developed for contact tracing during the pandemic to answer those questions. The company today announced a $14 million Series A that included Jeffery Katzenberg, NFL-star-turned-VC Joe Montana, and Braze co-founder Mark Ghermezian.
“If you spend a dollar does it actually produce an outcome? Until recently the best you could do was be in the ballpark,” said Katzenberg, former head of Walt Disney Studios, a founder of DreamWorks, and backer of Alembic through his venture fund WndrCo.
Katzenberg says that over the years he’s spent billions of dollars on marketing with no way of knowing if he was getting anything for his money. He compares traditional techniques for measuring the effect of marketing campaigns to “putting a finger in the air.”
But recent advances in AI and big data technology, he says, have made it possible to track the impact of marketing spend on a granular level, in real time.
“For every CMO, it’s somewhere between the holy grail, the fountain of youth, and the meaning of life,” said Katzenberg, “this was not doable a year or two ago.”
CEO Tomas Puig says that Alembic is using techniques developed by epidemiologists to track the spread to Covid-19 but applying that technology to calculating return on investment for marketing spend.
“Everybody talks about how MRNA is the only thing to come out of the pandemic in terms of technology, but that’s not true,” said Puig. The company uses AI models to crunch massive troves of anonymized data—everything from location data, to scrapes of televisions broadcasts, to proprietary customer data—to track exactly how much of an impact a company is gettin from a particular campaign.
“We can tell you tomorrow, did that actually have an effect or if it doesn’t, how much money are you burning by not pausing the campaign,” said Puig.
He says the company currently has about a dozen customers, including trillion-dollar chipmaker Nvidia, which is using the technology to guide its marketing efforts.
“It allows us to increase productivity in ways not possible before,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Though still early days for Alembic, it’s just the latest example of how rapidly progressing AI technology promises to upend entrenched legacy industries like corporate marketing.
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- A blogger turned wellness influencer and CEO Olivia Amitrano started her business with only $200.
- She said the best way to grow a blog is to use captivating titles, listicles, and specific solutions.
- Her supplement business, Organic Olivia, now brings in about $14 million in revenue every year.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Olivia Amitrano, a 29-year-old wellness entrepreneur from New York City. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I grew up with health problems that I always thought were connected, including skin and gut issues and some anxiety. We know now that there’s a gut-brain axis, but at the time, the doctors I went to kept telling me my issues weren’t related.
This motivated me to enter Fordham University as a premed student in 2011. Even though I eventually realized traditional, or integrative, medicine was my true calling, the statistics and research classes I took turned out to be extremely helpful later in my career. After one year, I switched majors to psychology and graduated in 2015.
Now I’m a wellness influencer with 474,000 Instagram followers and 94,000 TikTok followers. I also have my own supplement line that brought in $14 million in revenue in 2020, my highest-grossing year yet. Here’s how I built my business.
From my teens to early 20s, I was stressed out and sick, and my doctors said they couldn’t do anything
One day in 2012, I left school and drove myself to an acupuncturist who practiced traditional Chinese medicine. He took one look at my tongue and noted every symptom I was experiencing. He also prescribed me herbs that gave me more relief over the next week than anything else I’d tried.
After that visit, I started a blog detailing my journey. I began experimenting with herbs and seeing more alternative-health practitioners. I wanted to explain to people what worked for me to fix my issues, the diet changes I was making, and why.
In 2013, I tried to monetize the blog, but there wasn’t much information about affiliate marketing at the time, and influencers weren’t big yet. All I could do was post Amazon affiliate links for different herbs, skincare, and home products I blogged about, which made me anywhere from a few cents to a dollar per sale. I made $200 to $500 a month on average.
I grew my blog using specific strategies
Blog titles are critical. People are inundated with digital grabs for their very short attention spans, so you need to convince your audience in seconds that this topic is going to be easy to understand, fun to read, and valuable.
The most high-value content provides solutions, so ensure your article is solving a real and specific problem for your audience. Instead of writing about a skincare product you’re loving, write about a skincare product that has helped you with a specific skin complaint or condition such as eczema.
Structure, format, and quantify your articles. It’s easy and fun for our brains to contain things in neat, digestible bits, and lists help break up long articles.
Naming my blog posts “Everything I Wish I Knew About _____” has been an effective format, particularly on TikTok and Instagram reels. One of my blogs in this style, adapted from a reel that got 329,000 views, had “protein, calories, and hormones” in the blank, and it performed well on my site.
Other topics that performed well for me were digestion, cutting out sugar, aphrodisiac herbs, and preventing cognitive decline.
In 2013, I decided to write an e-book to help accelerate my business
I was working a series of side jobs, and I had $200 to my name. I spent it all at Trader Joe’s buying ingredients to make my favorite juice recipes to test and photograph them. The juice-recipe book made about $4,000 over three months, and I plowed all of that back into the business.
The key was starting very small with digital products since they have such low overhead and eventually putting that money into physical products. I started working on my supplement line in 2016 and named my business Organic Olivia.
In 2017, I started at ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism in Brooklyn
I wanted to understand the science and traditional wisdom that could explain why the herbs I was using for my health conditions were so effective. I also wanted the credentials, knowledge base, and real-world experience to formulate my own products and be taken seriously in the supplement and wellness world.
I completed a three-year intensive clinical program in 2020, where I learned how to formulate herbal remedies with the right therapeutic dose and complementary herbs.
Manufacturing supplements was a huge learning curve
I was lucky to have a friend who had worked in food manufacturing who explained the dos and don’ts of the industry to me and pointed out some of the corruption that exists.
I then met a great manufacturer at a supplement conference called Expo West who helped me navigate tricks in the industry, and we worked together as co-formulators. We also ensured our 33 products, which range in price from $25 to $79, were tested and certified by a reputable lab.
I’ve never taken investor money and now have nine full-time employees.
As an influencer, I promote my own formulas
I was an early adopter of Instagram and was really part of the first “generation” of influencers, but I don’t take sponsorships. I make commissions from affiliates, but I’ve never promoted something because a company approached me, which helps me maintain trust with my audience.
Instead of putting 100 products in front of my followers, they can trust my line of supplements because we’ve built a relationship.
Maintaining my blog has been a big part of my success. Researching and writing content doesn’t directly translate to revenue, but it’s important that it’s my voice because the brand is my face and philosophy.
The biggest mistakes I’ve made were spending too much on web-agency fees instead of hiring my own developer and keeping employees who weren’t working out because I wanted to be nice. Not only did it hit me financially, but it impacted the company’s energy and culture.
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Corey William Schneider was having an early life crisis. Like many young New Yorkers, he spent most of his time at a monotonous marketing job he didn’t care a lot about and his free time in his “comfort zone” of familiar restaurants and bars with his friends, but he didn’t feel fulfilled.
“I realized this is the greatest city in the world, but I didn’t know anything about it. I was ashamed of that,” he says. “I felt like I wasn’t interesting. I wanted to be an expert in New York.”
So he made himself a pact. Every weekend, he’d explore the city, venturing to a new cultural or historic spot way off the well-trodden path. But there was one problem: None of his friends wanted to join him. “The idea of going to Flushing Queens at 10:00 AM on a Saturday was, like, not their idea of fun,” Schneider says.
He started a Facebook group of like-minded travel nerds and announced he would organize an excursion, booking a private tour and even van tickets. However, he was worried he’d be on the hook for the money he had to shell out in advance.
“I thought two or three people would join,” he recalls. “But a hundred strangers joined the group asking how to buy tickets.”
Panicked, Schneider asked Google how to sell tickets online. Google recommended Eventbrite, an event management and ticketing platform that allows users to browse, create, and promote local events.
This was back in 2013. Schneider, now 34, could not have realized it then, but he’d just planted the seeds for what would become a massively popular tourism business called New York Adventure Club, which grossed over $1 million in 2022.
Photo: Corey William Schneider courtesy of New York Adventure Club
From food crawls to art tours
Schneider is now CEO and Founder of New York Adventure Club, an in-person and virtual tourism and events company geared toward locals.
Two years into organizing events, he realized he had to quit his day job and make his bustling side hustle a full-time endeavor.
He runs a tight ship. The staff consists of him and a virtual assistant, but he also contracts hundreds of private vendors.
Every week, New York Adventure Club sells tickets for over 20 events, from virtual webinars like learning about New York’s famed Gilded Age to in-person events, like a food crawl to discover the “secret eats” of Chinatown. The club also organizes social events and puzzle tours.
What makes New York Adventure Club stand out from the hundreds of other tour companies is that it caters to a specific clientele — locals, like Schneider, who want to know the city they love better.
“There’s a lot of organizations that go for those first-time tourists. But when you’ve been to New York more than once and are looking for something else, that’s the niche we fill,” Schneider says.
The 50,000 New York Adventure Club Eventbrite subscribers will likely not find basic tours of the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building, but they will find a behind-the-scenes romp through New York’s Red Light District of yore or a tour of TriBeCa’s art lofts.
Secrets to success
Schneider points to several factors that helped him turbo-charge his tourism business.
Passion
“There’s a lot of baggage that will come with organizing events and a lot of challenges, from logistics to the customers. So, at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you’re doing something you’re passionate about,” says Schneider.
For him, that meant planning events that he’d want to attend himself. Schneider views himself as his company’s best customer and leverages his passion for New York and its history to inform his decisions about his itineraries and partners.
Organization
The logistics of running a company that throws over 20 events a week can be overwhelming. Schneider recommends partnering with third-party platforms that help take some of the organizing burdens off the business.
With Eventbrite, he can leverage their existing infrastructure to promote his events and sell tickets. Schneider is also part of their creator collective, an ambassador program that offers educational resources. Last month, he wrote a blog post about how he stays organized with such a small team.
“If I were just starting out, I would’ve really latched onto all these articles about what an event organizer does and the different components of organizing events,” he says. “It’s not rocket science, but there are a lot of details, so having those resources is very important for someone who wants to get into the space.”
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NEW YORK, May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The SoC as a service market size is set to grow by USD 2,795.9 million between 2022 and 2027, progressing at a CAGR of 11.21% during the forecast period, according to Technavio Research. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. Discover market potential and make informed business decisions based on qualitative and quantitative evidence highlighted in Technavio reports, Download Sample Report
Although the rising bring-your-own-device and work-from-home model, increasing cyber risks and threats, and the increasing demand for IoT-managed services will offer immense growth opportunities, and it is likely to pose a challenge for the market vendors. In a bid to help players strengthen their market foothold, this SoC as a service market forecast report provides a detailed analysis of the leading market vendors. The report also empowers industry honchos with information on the competitive landscape and insights into the different product offerings offered by various companies.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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Based on segmentation by end-user, which is the leading segment in the market?
The market growth in the large enterprise segment will be significant over the forecast period. -
What are the major trends in the market?
Data protection regulations and directives for cybercrime is identified as the key trend in the market. -
At what rate is the market projected to grow?
The market growth is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.21% during the forecast period. -
Who are the top players in the market?
Arctic Wolf Networks Inc., AT and T Inc., Atos SE, Binary Defense Systems Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Clearnetwork Inc., Cloudflare Inc., ConnectWise LLC, CYREBRO, eSentire Inc., Fortinet Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Kaseya Ltd., NTT Corp., ProSOC Inc., SilverSky Inc., Stratospherer Networks, Suma Soft Pvt. Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Verizon Communications Inc. are the top players in the market. -
What are the key market drivers and challenges?
The market is driven by the rising bring-your-own-device and work-from-home models. However, the growing demand for limited trust in SOC-as-a-Service vendors will challenge the market growth. -
How big is the North American market?
North America will account for 40% of the market growth during the forecast period.
Soc As A Service Market 2023-2027: Segmentation
The Soc as a service Market is segmented as below:
The market growth in the large enterprises segment will be significant over the forecast period. The segment is driven by the large scope of operations and the rising security threats to large enterprises. Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) are establishing themselves as SOC service suppliers to offer solutions that can help enterprises fully manage their security operations to keep up with the ever-evolving cyber threats. This is another key factor driving the market growth.
North America will account for 40% of the market growth during the forecast period. The region witnesses the highest number of data breaches and cyberattacks, which has increased the number of vendors. In addition, factors such as the advent of new technologies and innovations in cloud and IoT, the growing popularity of digital transformation, and the increased importance of cybersecurity have fueled the growth of the SoC as a service market in North America.
The report comprises of various segments as well as analysis of the trends and factors that are playing a substantial role in the market, download a sample report
Soc As A Service Market 2023-2027: Scope
Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The SoC as a service market report covers the following areas:
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Soc As A Service Market 2023-2027: Vendor Analysis and Scope
The SoC as a service market is fragmented with the presence of several vendors. Large vendors are acquiring smaller vendors to expand their product portfolios and boost their market shares. There are several prominent vendors holding significant positions in the SOC as a service market. Vendors distinguish their offerings using unique value propositions to survive in this intensely competitive environment. Major vendors will continue to launch several information security products with high-grade features, expand their partner network, recruit more employees, and continue to expand globally to meet the demand and retain their positions in the market. The competition in this market will likely intensify further in the coming years, with the growth of products and service extensions, technological innovations, and M&A. Some of the key vendors covered in the report include:
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Arctic Wolf Networks Inc. – The company offers SOC as a service solutions such as Detect and Monitor Cyberthreats, Contain and Respond to Incidents, and Concierge Security.
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AT & T Inc. – The company offers SOC as a service solutions such as Unified Security Management.
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Atos SE – The company offers SOC as a service solutions such as Atos SOC.
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Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. – The company offers SOC as a service solutions such as Horizon SOC.
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Binary Defense Systems Inc.
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Clearnetwork Inc.
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Cloudflare Inc.
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ConnectWise LLC
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CYREBRO
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eSentire Inc.
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Fortinet Inc.
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International Business Machines Corp.
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Kaseya Ltd.
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NTT Corp.
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ProSOC Inc.
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Soc As A Service Market 2023-2027: Driver
The market is driven by the rising adoption of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and work-from-home model (WFH) models. Several employers across the world are adopting BYOD and WFH policies. They are providing their employees with customized laptops and cell phones with default configurations to connect to the company’s network in accordance with business guidelines. This has necessitated the need for the adoption of strict policies to secure data. In addition, the adoption of Choose-Your-Own-Device (CYOD) and remote working options have provided access to companies’ internal servers through private networks. All these factors have significantly increased the demand for SoCs, which is driving the growth of the market.
Soc As A Service Market 2023-2027: Challenge
The limited trust in SOC-as-a-service vendors is identified as the major challenge hindering the growth of the market. Unauthorized access to internal network infrastructure can become disastrous for businesses and those who work for them. In addition, the uncertainty of business owners further incurs additional costs associated with service quality, upper-level management, and data security. Also, the increased complexity of the network infrastructure and the incorporation of new security updates and product vendors lead to integration issues and slow down the systems. Such challenges are restricting the growth of the market in focus.
Soc As A Service Market 2023-2027: Key Highlights
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CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2023-2027
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Detailed information on factors that will assist SoC as a service market growth during the next five years
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Estimation of the SoC as a service market size and its contribution to the parent market
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Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior
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The growth of the SoC as a service market across North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa
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Analysis of the market’s competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors
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Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of SoC as a service market vendors
Related Reports:
The GNSS chip market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.31% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 1,708.25 million. The market is segmented by device (smartphones, tablets and wearables, in-vehicle systems, personal tracking devices, and others), type (consumer electronics, automotive and transportation, military and defense, and others), and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America).
The quantum computing market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.84% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 9,013.68 million. The market is segmented by deployment (cloud and on-premise), end-user (aerospace and defense, government, IT and telecom, and others), and geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa).
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Soc As A Service Market Scope |
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Report Coverage |
Details |
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Historic period |
2017-2021 |
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Forecast period |
2023-2027 |
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Growth momentum & CAGR |
Accelerate at a CAGR of 11.21% |
|
Market growth 2023-2027 |
USD 2,795.9 million |
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Market structure |
Fragmented |
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YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) |
10.54 |
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Regional analysis |
North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa |
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Performing market contribution |
North America at 40% |
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Key countries |
US, China, Japan, Germany, and UK |
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Competitive landscape |
Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks |
|
Key companies profiled |
Arctic Wolf Networks Inc., AT and T Inc., Atos SE, Binary Defense Systems Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Clearnetwork Inc., Cloudflare Inc., ConnectWise LLC, CYREBRO, eSentire Inc., Fortinet Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Kaseya Ltd., NTT Corp., ProSOC Inc., SilverSky Inc., Stratospherer Networks, Suma Soft Pvt. Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Verizon Communications Inc. |
|
Market dynamics |
Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. |
|
Customization purview |
If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. |
Browse through Technavio’s Information Technology Market Reports
Table of Contents:
1 Executive Summary
2 Market Landscape
3 Market Sizing
4 Historic Market Size
5 Five Forces Analysis
6 Market Segmentation by End-user
7 Market Segmentation by Service
8 Customer Landscape
9 Geographic Landscape
10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends
11 Vendor Landscape
12 Vendor Analysis
13 Appendix
About Us
Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio’s report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio’s comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.
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Email: media@technavio.com
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Yeah, baby. Yeah! Mike Meyers is listing his sprawling New York City apartment in Chelsea for $20 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The 5,700-square-foot penthouse apartment boasts five bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms and overlooks the Highline and Hudson River.
Photos by: Compass
Meyers bought the apartment in 2017 for $15.35 million. Real estate agency Compass describes it as “grandly scaled,” with two private elevators opening directly into the entry foyer. The living room is surrounded by walls of floor-to-ceiling casement windows that offer stunning 360-degree views of Manhattan.
The main living room and library are adjoined by a large terrace- almost 65 feet long. You’ll find a “massive Carrara marble waterfall island in the open kitchen.” The oak cabinets have leather-wrapped hand pulls. There is also a giant media room for watching movies and playing games.
The master bedroom has two large, walk-in closets and another “massive” en-suite bathroom with heated marble flooring, a walk-in shower and a wet room with a tub and sauna. A hallway from the private bedroom leads to a private study with a wet bar and access to the second private balcony. There are three additional bedroom suites and a large laundry room is a bonus feature.
Related: Yankee Candle Founder’s $23 Million Estate Comes with an Indoor Water Park and Two ‘Car Barns.’
Where is Mike Meyers now?
Mike Myers took a break from Hollywood after the release of Shrek Forever After in 2010. He returned to the screen in 2018 to star in Terminal and Bohemian Rhapsody. There have been some rumblings that a Shrek reboot is in the works featuring the original cast.
In a recent interview with Variety, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri confirmed that he and DreamWorks Animation are planning to revive the Shrek franchise and develop Shrek 5 with the original voice actors, including Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.
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Khloé Kardashian: Makeup, Ash K Holm; Hair, Irinel De León; Stylist, Dani Michelle: Seamstress, Mia Paranto; Manicurist, Zola Ganzorigt: Pedicurist, Millie Machado. Emma Grede: Makeup, Christina Cassell; Hair, Vernon François; Stylist, Simon Robins.
Image Credit: Greg Swales
The model wears a faded denim jumpsuit that hugs her curves like slalom skis. She’s tugging at the zipper that goes up the front. And the photo of her appears on the Instagram page for fashion brand Good American, where it garnered more than 3,000 likes and comments along the lines of “OMG,” “NEED,” and “OBSESSED.”
But amidst the emoji flames and heart-eyed smiley faces, a user who goes by the handle @jazziolebabe writes: “Prices r too high.” That’s sure to have a familiar ring to anyone with a company that sells things. “Customer obsession” is hot lingo these days, especially in retail. Everyone is scrambling to know what their shoppers want and need — and comments on social media are an obvious destination, because even negative feedback can be incredibly valuable. But finding useful insights often means dredging through the sewer of knives-out viciousness and abusive one-upmanship. And what do you do with something like “Prices r too high”? OK, sure — but last time you checked, you were in business to make a profit.
Related: How to Accelerate Your Success as a Female Founder
Making use of social media comments and other customer feedback is always tricky, whether you’re an everyday entrepreneur or someone like Khloé Kardashian, who has more than 300 million followers on Instagram alone. She also happens to be the cofounder of Good American along with Emma Grede, a fashion-industry veteran who’s becoming increasingly famous herself for her Shark Tank “guest shark” appearances. “You have to get a good sense of when people are just talking to talk,” Kardashian says, “and when to go, ‘You know what? I’ve read this enough, and where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Let’s pay attention to this.'”
More than anything else, learning to pay attention is what’s helped Grede and Kardashian build their size-inclusive brand Good American into a serious force in fashion, employing over 100 people and doing more than $200 million in sales last year.
A few years ago, when they saw a number of comments piling up about prices, they took note. While they’d always meant for their clothes to be accessible, Good American is not a low-end brand; jeans go for around $99 to $199. That’s because the production costs to make well-fitting apparel from sizes 00 to 32 Plus are hefty. Lowering the price by decreasing quality was not an option. So they focused hard on their customers, both on social media and off, and tried to look at shopping through their eyes, asking: What are we spending so much money on?
That’s when they saw the problem: A woman’s weight fluctuates. “It’s true regardless of where they are on the size scale,” says Grede. “I mean, I’ll be up or down six pounds depending on the time of the month — “
“Depending on the day,” Kardashian quips.
The point, says Grede, is that “these women have two or three different sets of jeans in that closet.”
What if they could solve this? The question led to an idea: They’d innovate a fabric that stretches four sizes, as magically as the fictional jeans in the 2005 movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Instead of lowering their cost, they’d increase their product’s value — saving their customers from having to buy multiple sizes. It was frustratingly slow and expensive to pull off, but in the end, definitely worth it: Their “Always Fits” jeans, launched in 2020, have become one of Good American’s best-selling denim products.
Related: Supermodel Karlie Kloss’s Lesson to Young Women: Never Be Afraid to Ask Questions!
For Grede, it was proof of a process that now underlies the brand’s success: You listen, identify pain points, and then invest in creating features that aren’t being duplicated elsewhere. “It puts a moat around our company, right?” she says.
It’s a moat built on voices.
You probably know who Khloé Kardashian is — but just in case you missed all 20 seasons of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the various spinoffs, and the current show, The Kardashians, then here’s the quick of it: Khloé is the youngest of the three original Kardashian sisters. She is “the funny one,” down-to-earth and good-natured, and always trying to make peace.
Grede, on the other hand, did not come from celebrity royalty. She grew up in East London, a scrappy Black girl raised by a single mom, in a family of women who embraced their curves. She was barely 26 when, in 2008, she started a brand marketing company called ITB Worldwide that was eventually acquired by Rogers & Cowan (she won’t say for how much). By then, she’d already embarked on her next act.
The idea for a size-inclusive apparel line came to her when she realized she was part of a problem. “I was working for the biggest fashion brands in the world, casting these seemingly diverse campaigns, and I thought, Wouldn’t it be amazing if they actually made clothes to fit some of these girls?” she says. “We talk about women having equal opportunity, and yet we let the fashion industry dictate that if we’re over a certain size, we aren’t important enough to service. It felt archaic to me. I just thought there was a huge opportunity.”
Related: 8 Qualities to Drive Your Success as a Female Entrepreneur
In 2015, she shared these thoughts with Kris Jenner, the Kardashian family matriarch, whom Grede had met through her fashion work. The following week, Grede was on a plane to Los Angeles to pitch the idea to Khloé. The meeting was in a conference room in Culver City, California, and all she had was a PowerPoint she’d worked up on the flight — essentially a manifesto of values, some images pulled off the web, and a bad placeholder name. Kardashian was wary.
“When I was younger, I took every opportunity to hawk products or do this and that — I didn’t even know what I was doing half the time,” Kardashian says. By 2015, however, she was much better equipped to evaluate a good business deal, and she was only interested if she deeply cared about the project. She took the meeting with Grede, but wasn’t expecting much.
In the room, though, Kardashian was impressed by Grede. She also immediately understood the presentation: The customer was her.
Growing up, before all the fame and social media, Kardashian was a cheerful, confident, athletic kid. She liked being physically bigger than Kim and Kourtney — until she became an object of the gossipy press. “I never knew I was, I guess, chubby or fat until the weeklies and tabloids started telling me I was,” she says, her voice hovering for a split second, as if careful to sidestep that old cavity of insecurity. But even in her younger days, she hated shopping. In the ’90s and early 2000s, there was no e-commerce, and in stores, larger clothes were ghettoized. “My sisters loved to go to little boutiques or chichi department stores. I was always being ushered to some underground basement, always being thrown a mumu or just being told, ‘No, you can’t shop here.’ And it made me feel so much less than.” Nothing was worse than trying to buy jeans, especially trendy ones like Frankie B. “No disrespect to Frankie Bs — but I have a butt and it’s not getting in Frankie Bs!”
Despite all that, Kardashian still felt sexy and attractive. “More power to me,” she jokes. But she knew other women did not feel the same. In Grede’s presentation, she saw a brand that could channel and spread that confidence around.
“The only thing I didn’t enjoy,” says Kardashian, “was the placeholder name. I don’t even remember what it was.”
“I do,” Emma mutters.
Related: 7 Practical Ways to Celebrate and Support Women Entrepreneurs
At this point, we’re all lounging couchside in a nook of a cavernous photo studio in Calabasas, the Los Angeles suburb of gated communities where Kardashian lives. Having ditched her stilettos and tight jeans, Kardashian is now dressed as if for a kid sleepover, in a fuzzy onesie. She nestles into the cushions and floods the space with a warm “we got this, girlfriend” appeal. Next to her, Grede is clad in Good American jeans and a work shirt. She has an easy confidence around her famous cofounder, and bristles with barely contained enthusiasm. Come on, I prod. Tell us the placeholder name.
Grede busts out laughing: “Absolutely not.”
Even without a name, from that first meeting, the two women saw what their advantage was. “The people making the decisions in fashion,” says Grede, “were largely white men and not connected to the customer.” She and Kardashian knew the customer intimately. And they realized that if they could get inside her head even more, they could make a lot of clothes for her.
So that became their game plan: Focus on the connection, consistently improve it, and learn to watch their followers as intensely as their followers have always scrutinized Kardashian.
Image Credit: Greg Swales
Good American launched on October 18, 2016. It was a nerve-wracking day. Kardashian may have many advantages over the average entrepreneur — in reach, in resources — but to her, this also meant the bar for success was extraordinarily high. Anything short of a smash hit could be portrayed as a humiliation. And this was the first time she wasn’t just endorsing a product or partnering with a sibling; it was a genuinely new business. Good American was producing jeans in sizes 00 to 24 — designed to look cute and sexy on women of all shapes, which was something of a groundbreaking proposition at the time.
Right as they were about to launch, Grede told Kardashian that they should aim for $1 million in sales — that day.
“The number just came from foolery,” Grede says now. “I never thought we’d do it.” But Kardashian took it seriously. “In my head, I was like, “Let’s do a million? Sure, Emma, that’d be amazing,” she recalls. “But it’s a lot of fucking money! And then to have it be filmed? I can’t go down like this.”
Because, of course, it was being filmed: The tape was rolling for Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Kardashian leaned into a full-fledged freak-out. “I’ve always been known as the fattest sister,” she told the camera. “And now that I’m over it, I don’t want to be known as the failing sister.”
Before that day, she and Grede had given retailers an ultimatum: They’d work only with stores that agreed to carry their full size range and display it all in one place — no separate floors for “petites” or “plus-size” (a term they avoided because of its negative connotations). In 2016, this was still not how stores tended to organize their clothes, but Nordstrom agreed and became their launch partner. “It meant trusting their vision,” says Pete Nordstrom, the company’s president and chief brand officer, explaining, “The brand had widespread appeal, as it was the first denim line to offer expanded sizes at a great value.”
Getting to launch was harder than they thought. Maybe Good American had product-market fit, but the actual fit of jeans on all these bodies was elusive. At the top of the size range, body shapes vary widely, so you can’t just enlarge smaller sizes. You’ve got to create different patterns, innovative fabric, and altered manufacturing processes. Factories just threw the specs back at Kardashian and Grede and said they didn’t make sense. Hiring was a pain, because there were so few fashion people who had worked with larger apparel. And then they needed models. “Back then, there was Ashley Graham…and Ashley Graham…and Ashley Graham,” says Grede of the trailblazing curvy supermodel. That left real women. So, how would they find them?
“We posted for our first open casting call,” Kardashian says. She did it on Instagram.
“We posted?” Grede cuts in. “Khloé, you posted. I had, like, 27 followers.”
Kardashian ignores her. “We didn’t even have the name yet. We were, like, hoping 10 girls come.”
They nervously waited on the appointed day at Milk Studios. Some 5,000 women showed up — a lesson about what their customer connection could do. “I knew Khloé had an enormous fan base, but I didn’t get that it was a two-way street,” says Grede. “I was like, That’s gonna be super useful for us.”
When they debuted online and at select Nordstrom stores, Good American did indeed hit $1 million in sales on day one. And immediately, the founders faced a major decision. “Another retailer, who should remain nameless because they are now our client,” says Grede, “put in an astronomical order for sizes 0 through 8.”
In scale, this was the kind of put-you-on-the-map order any young brand would dream of — but again, their sizing went up to 24. If that retailer only sold sizes 0 to 8, it would chip away at what made Good American special. It would also kick their core customer back down to the basement. “And then what does that make us? Just like everyone else?” asks Kardashian. “We were like, ‘You either take the full size range or you don’t. We’re not gonna sell our souls any more than we already have.'”
She smiles. Still, it was a hard decision. “Saying no to that level of sales from that type of retailer?” says Grede. “That was very difficult.”
Once Good American was out there, it was time to refine the brand. Buoyed by the responsiveness to the open casting call — which Good American has made a regular part of its marketing strategy — Grede and Kardashian started holding targeted focus groups on social media, asking women how the clothes could be better, what else they wanted, what their needs were. “But even with focus groups,” says Kardashian, “it gets murky, because everyone has an opinion.”
So they started looking closely at the returns. Early on, they noticed that a lot of size 14s and size 16s came back. “When you see that,” Kardashian says, “you do have to go, OK, why? Let’s look again at these comments.” What they learned is that customers were falling between the cracks of the even-numbered conventional sizes. So in 2018, they invented a size 15. “To this day, it’s our third or fourth best-selling size month-to-month,” Grede says.
Then they discovered another problem with customer feedback: Sometimes what people say they want is different from what they’ll actually buy. And sometimes the thing they’re asking for just doesn’t make sense for the business. Grede and Kardashian haven’t always gotten it right. Like when everyone was going crazy for rigid jeans, “we made them — of course we did,” Grede says dryly. It didn’t take long for them to realize that rigid jeans are not the most natural fit for curvy ladies. “We were quick to be like, ‘OK, we fucked up, and we gotta figure this one out,'” says Kardashian, putting an optimistic spin on it. “But it was also a great learning experience, because you wanna be with the trends, but maybe it’s okay to do ‘rigid’ with a smidge of stretch. Like, our girl needs that.”
Eventually, Grede and Kardashian built a data and analytics team to formalize the feedback process. But they continued observing their audience on their social channels, like detectives searching for clues. And about four years ago, they noticed something curious. By then, Good American had expanded into bodysuits, and customers were posting photos of themselves on social media swimming in them. Which was great, except…
“We were like, ‘The bodysuits are not made to get wet!'” says Kardashian.
“There’s an opening in the crotch,” explains Grede.
“Right,” Kardashian seconds. “It could snap open.”
Should they develop a swimwear category? they wondered. Their customers clearly wanted it. And selling swimsuits in the smaller sizes seemed like a no-brainer. But what about the higher sizes? Would really curvy women buy teeny bikinis and monokinis? The cofounders looked more carefully at the bodysuit category and noticed that in the sexier cuts, the larger sizes were actually selling better than the smaller ones. “So the wheels were turning, and we could get a little bit of a foreshadowing based on what other things were selling,” says Kardashian.
They decided to risk it, and the first line was ready in June 2020, just as beaches had emptied for COVID and Good American’s retailers were shutting stores and sending back orders. It was a hard time, but they launched the suits anyway, and swimwear grew into their second biggest category.
The next decision involved something their stylists picked up on: The models at the open-casted campaign shoots didn’t have attractive shoes or boots that fit around their calves. Grede saw an opportunity — they could get into footwear. But Kardashian worried that, unlike the swimsuits, this would be expensive, and the final product would be too high-priced.
“I’m not gonna lie, we were both scared,” Grede says.
“You were way more on board than I was,” Kardashian says.
“Well,” Grede concedes, “I do have that kind of mindset that, you know, we’ve done a lot of difficult things at Good American. Like, come on, we do it.” Grede’s energy can be persuasive. Six months after the swimwear, they launched their shoes — now their third biggest category.
In 2021, they stopped to take a breath. Grede had become a founding partner of Kim Kardashian’s shapewear label SKIMS (which has a reported valuation of $3.2 billion) and was launching the plant-powered cleaning brand Safely with Kris, while starting to appear on Shark Tank. Kardashian was busy with her show and, like Grede, now a mother. Until then, Good American had been focused on growth. But customers everywhere were increasingly concerned about climate change and social equality — as were Grede and Kardashian. So they decided to become a certified B Corporation, an arduous process verifying that Good American adheres to high standards of social and environmental responsibility. It also means being accountable for balancing profit with purpose.
“Good American isn’t doing this just because we wanted to have a buzzworthy moment. This is something that we genuinely believe in,” says Kardashian. “I never want my daughter — or anybody — to go through that experience that I went through. I want them to feel seen and represented.”
Image Credit: Greg Swales
Even with the B Corp, from 2021 to 2022, Good American’s sales increased by 30%. Today the brand offers sizes up to 32 Plus and has wholesale partnerships with Saks Fifth Avenue, Revolve, Bloomingdale’s, and Net-a-Porter. Last year it pulled off a collaboration with the multinational fast-fashion chain Zara — a milestone for both. As for Pete Nordstrom, he says pioneering with Good American has not only been a win, but has also influenced the department store chain. “The positive customer response to Good American has inspired us to expand our approach to size inclusivity,” he says.
But Good American’s success — and a broader body positivity movement — has also created competition. Nordstrom’s team has asked more of their brand partners to produce extended sizes, for example. And in the past seven years, the U.S. plus-size fashion market has grown from around $23.7 billion to an expected $30 billion in 2023, according to a recent analysis by Future Market Insights (FMI). Small size-inclusive brands like Big Bud Press, Henning, and Universal Standard are grabbing attention, while large companies from H&M to Nike have extended their lines to include clothes for larger bodies. “One of the fastest-growing markets in the apparel business is plus-size fashion,” says Sneha Varghese, lead analyst for consumer goods at FMI. “And there is still a lot of space for expansion.”
Related: Lewis Howes Has Built An Eight-Figure Personal Brand. He Did It By Constantly Reinventing Himself.
The fact that Good American sells casual clothes at a midrange price point puts it in the sweet spot, according to FMI’s analysis. It’s also got history on its side. “I believe any brand that is size-inclusive from the start has a huge advantage over straight-size brands — the grand majority of which have flat-out ignored extended sizes for years,” says Melissa Moylan, vice president of womenswear at Fashion Snoops, a global trend forecasting agency. “It’s not easy to simply extend straight-size patterns, and getting the fit wrong for a plus-size customer may mean they’re not coming back anytime soon.” She points to Bodequality, the inclusive effort that Old Navy rolled out with fanfare but ended up pulling back from stores last year. “That’s exactly when a brand like Good American holds its value; with not only a message of inclusivity and representation, but a proven track record.”
Grede and Kardashian say they are excited by the competition. But rather than racing ahead in their stilettos (which, take it from a witness, they can) to scoop up new clothing categories, the cofounders are standing by their playbook — listening to where their customers are now, and perfecting the products they already have. It’s a good strategy, according to Moylan: “No brand is good at everything.” So it’s wise to double down on what makes yours special.
As this magazine went to press, Kardashian and Grede were getting ready to open up a new channel for connecting with their customers — face to face. It will be Good American’s flagship store in Century City, California. “We’ve thought about this idea of inclusivity very much in a product-focused way,” says Grede, “and now we’re figuring out: What should the new shopping experience for our customers be? How do we make them feel good as soon as they come in?”
They have their questions. Now, as always, they’re waiting for their customers’ answers.
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When you think of startup funding, you may envision contests with almost no chance of winning or solid venture capitalists who will not be surprised by your concept. “Those who raise millions for their ideas’ implementation are just lucky ones,” you may think. It sounds surprising, but a strong community can help you achieve success much faster and easier.
The explanation is simple: The less a person has to contribute or “risk,” the more likely you are to receive a contribution. In this article, I’d like to share some tips from my own experience that may help you pique the interest of your audience in your solution and turn them into its backers. Each worthwhile idea will find supporters. Believe me.
Related: Who Needs Venture Capitalists When You Can Crowdfund?
1. Make sure your idea is providing a solution
In today’s world, no idea can be completely original, but it’s better if you can come up with a unique solution or significantly improve on something that’s already been made. How did we manage it? We saw the benefits and drawbacks of working in the music industry for a long time and wanted to develop something that would truly bring innovation to the space we know.
We carried out market research prior to building the platform. We researched whether similar initiatives already exist, what they do and the errors they made. Along with estimating the lifetime value of the product, we contrasted our idea with the needs of our target audience. It’s critical to understand whether our project has a solid foundation for the long term.
In our case, we saw the lack of including the fans on the journey and how the number of independent artists skyrocketed, but the way of getting funding for your projects was still limited to signing a label deal. Artists can invite their fans to be part of the journey while giving back to the community of people who have supported them along the way.
2. Show the audience a clear strategy
Be ready to tell the truth. Explain in detail how your platform works, say at least a few words about any possible risks, and show how the money you raise through the power of the community will be used to improve the project and make it more useful for this audience. It’s very important to give people a strong reason to support you.
Why am I emphasizing it so strongly? People are always reluctant to part with money when there is no obvious use for it. Once it is made clear to participants how their money will be used, what features they will have access to and what the ultimate goal is, a significant part of them will be ready to help you crowdfund.
Keeping in touch with your audience is not only about keeping them interested but also about showing how much you value their continuous support.
3. Make it easy to support you
The more clicks required, the less likely people are to join you. So, make the funding mechanism user-friendly. It determines the stability and success of your monetization. Prepare a brief registration instruction, and ensure that the website navigation is simple to understand. People in 2023 value their time and expect everything they use to be convenient.
There are numerous crowdfunding platforms available that are tailored specifically for startups or projects in the Web3 niche. Patreon, SeedInvest Technology, GoFundMe and other similar sites are examples. I will not recommend any particular platform, but I will share some criteria that will assist you in selecting the most convenient instrument.
First, look for a solution that can be directly integrated into your platform in the form of a button or direct link on the main page. Again, convenience is one of the top priorities for successful and predictable funding. Second, choose the one with the most payment methods integrated. Even the most ardent supporters of your idea may abandon you if they have to make multiple transactions to pay you. Third, because there are so many fake website versions out there, don’t forget to educate your users on how to spot a fraudulent link or platform page.
Related: 9 Steps to Launching a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
4. Don’t forget to spread the word
When choosing the best way to share your initiative, think about which social media networks or media outlets your target audience uses to get ideas. Participate in networking and exhibitions. Making connections with thought leaders and others in the field of the industry you’re looking to enter multiplies your chances of success tenfold.
We played more than one instrument at once. We worked hard to improve our social media, pitched our idea to top journalists and went to events where we could meet potential investors on a regular basis.
The specific marketing plan you use will depend on the market you are trying to reach, your target audience and the services you plan to offer, but the following tools will come in handy 99% of the time:
Develop your media relations: Promotion through news releases in global and specialized media is beneficial at both the project’s infancy and maturity stage. They will create “hype” in the first instance and enhance your expertise in the second. Create articles for publications, comment on current events, participate in interviews, and share announcements in the media and on the project website.
Utilize advertising services: Set up targeted ads on social networks trusted by your primary audience, use retargeting, and connect with influencers. Brand ambassadors who are thought leaders in your chosen niche will lend credibility to your project.
Educational content: Blockchain, Web3 and other complex topics require user education. This task can be easily completed with high-quality content: a site blog, FAQ, research, whitepaper, videos (both long and short, like TikToks), podcasts, AMAs and case studies. In this case, the user interaction path with your product might look like this: reading a blog post, visiting a landing page, and finally, requesting a demo of your product or leaving a request.
Effective social media marketing: Over time, it contributes to the formation of a community of devoted brand fans. Share news, solicit feedback, introduce the team, post behind-the-scenes content, employ various forms of storytelling, use memes or niche-related jokes and so on. A funnel could look like this: clicking on ads, subscribing to a channel, visiting the site and requesting a demo.
Affiliate marketing: Startup founders frequently do not have enough time to promote their businesses, which is understandable given their other responsibilities. That is why it can be a great option to outsource promotion or launch affiliate programs. The latter allows you to get a predictable result at a predictable price, which is especially important in the early stages when resources are scarce.
Related: 12 Key Strategies to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
As you can see, an idea lays the groundwork for a project but does not guarantee its success. Even ideas that aren’t very original can sometimes work because the people who came up with them did a good job of assessing their resources, chose the best ways to market them, and perhaps most importantly, didn’t give up.
My goal was to show you that angel and venture capital investors are not the only sources of multimillion-dollar funding. Millions can be earned through creativity and consistency. You can design your own strategy that will ultimately produce excellent results using the resources I provided from personal experience.
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Sometimes, people don’t want to see themselves on television — and a Kentucky man is suing Netflix for $1 million for showing his mug on the small screen.
Taylor Hazlewood is suing the streaming giant for defamation after he discovered a photo of himself in January’s true crime documentary, “The Hatchet Yielding Hitchhiker.”
Netflix screenshot of Hazlewood’s photo used in the documentary.
In the program, Netflix followed the true story of a hitchhiker named Kai (his real name is Caleb Lawrence McGillvary) who became a viral sensation after he told news outlets he murdered a man with a hatchet to stop him from attacking a woman. (Three months after going viral, Kai was arrested for a different murder and later sentenced to 57 years in New Jersey prison.)
Hazlewood claims that a 2019 photo he posted to his Instagram account of him holding a hatchet made its way into the film — even though he has zero relation to the crime or situation altogether.
Per the lawsuit, the photo appears as the film’s narrator asks: “Is this a guardian angel or a stone-cold killer?” Then, the writing on the screen reads: “You can never trust anyone.”
“Hazlewood is, of course, beyond angry that Netflix would implicate and connect him to such a salacious and infamous story and individual,” the lawsuit states, per The Washington Post.
Hazlewood also claims that friends and family members started reaching out to him when the documentary started to gain popularity, turning an innocent mistake into a viral fiasco.
“That’s going to go on for the rest of his life,” his attorney, Angela Buchanan said.
Hazlewood is seeking at least $1 million in damages from Netflix.
And as for McGillvary, he is not eligible for parole until 2061, though he is still claiming his innocence.
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MAYFIELD, Ohio — If Mayor Brenda Bodnar’s state-of-the-village address given Monday (April 17) was a movie, Progressive Insurance would have played the lead role. That’s because Progressive, by far the village’s largest employee, and the owner of much of Mayfield’s property designated for business, has been doing things differently for more than three years in that its employees, following the pandemic, have not been mandated to return to work.
In her 25-minute address, Bodnar explained that while Progressive still employs thousands, those employees are not working daily in Mayfield and, thus, not paying to the village income taxes as they did prior to 2020.
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