nbr spring 2013 newsletter

Andy Dunn (‘00) How the founder of bonobos

is leading the e-commerce

revolutionJack Hopper 14

PLUSChicago’s Digital Startup

Community Booms 8Judith Kim

The Rising Cost of Northwestern Education10

Youjin Lee

Dispatch from Singapore,the New Asia 18

Matthew Wong

Volume 01 | Spring 2013

Northwestern Business Review

Photo By BonoBosi

2 | NORTHWESTERN BUSINESS REVIEW

NBRRobert Galliani | Editor-in-Chief

Judith Kim | Managing Editor

Ross Gordon | Creative Director

Jordan Fudge | Marketing Director

Jack Hopper | Finance Editor

Dylan Kraslow | Technology Editor

Jake Axelrod | Contributing Editor

Special Thanks to Faculty Advisors: Desiree Hanford, Mark Witte

& Sponsors

3690 OAK AVENUE • NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS 60062 • 847.498.2678

NORTHWESTERN BUSINESS REVIEW | 3

Letter from the editorWhen Rishi Shah founded the Northwestern

Business Review in 2005, his goal was to highlight companies and people that were “doing well by doing good.” Since then, NBR has transitioned from a biannual print magazine circulated regionally to a largely online publication, with daily content that (in theory) could reach anyone, anywhere. Through these changes, Rishi’s guiding vision is still at the core of what we do: NBR highlights the people, corporations, and trends that are moving the world forward, so that our undergraduate readers are prepared to positively contribute when their time is called.

This quarter, that has meant hosting Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos, for an on-campus lecture on the future of commerce in the Internet age. We have explored the implications of a world with driverless cars, and why college tuition, at Northwestern and around the country, continues to rise. We have likewise relayed stories about what it’s like to work at Facebook and the Chicago incubator 1871, and have forecasted what to expect from Singapore in an increasingly globalized economy. Our content reinforces the notion that the pace of global change has never been faster, and that it is today’s college students who will be counted on to make sure that the change is for the good.

Though academia and industry appear at times to be at odds, we at NBR are fortunate in thinking that Northwestern, with its rich tradition in journalism, business, and liberal arts education, is the perfect laboratory for unraveling the relationship. We embrace the challenge of doing so, in this issue and for years to come

Robert Galliani Editor-in-Chief

NBRTable of contents

Corporations

Chicago

Northwestern

Entrepreneurs

Outcomes

World

Move Fast and Break Things Rob Galliani

An End to the Driver's Test Jeff Goodman

Going Private? Karina Jhangiani

Wrigley Field's New LookArjun Vellayappan

Chicago's Digital Startup Community Booms:Judith Kim

The Rising Cost of Northwestern Education Youjin Lee

A Needed Investment in Basketball ProgramDylan Kraslow

Chisel Answers Tabelt Note Taking QuestionFaique Moqeet

Acqui-hire Fad Hits Tech IndustryJake Axelrod

Bonobos Ushering in E-Commerce Revolu-tionJack hopper

The Power of the Lecture HallToby Lee

Better Weekdays Brings Clarity to Job SearchAvy Faingezicht

Jay-Z Opens Sports AgencyDylan Kraslow

Dispatch from Singapore, the New AsiaMatthew Wong

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CORPORATIONS

“Move fast and break things” is quite possibly the last thing someone is inclined to do upon walking into the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company. But at Facebook, the fastest company to ever make the Fortune 500 list, to “move fast and break things” is a guiding philosophy, manifested in everything from the mural that greets visitors to its Building 18 all the way up to the outlook of its CEO.

When I met Mo Safdari (WCAS ’10), my host for a day that was arranged through Northwestern’s NEXT program, he relayed to me how the corporate cultures of the area’s two biggest companies are usually characterized: “Google is like business school,” he explained, “and Facebook is like undergrad, which is great, because after Northwestern, I thought it was all downhill for me from there.” As we embarked on our tour of the office park, I quickly began to see why.

“We’re getting a jumbotron, apparently,” said Mo, casually motioning to two electricians who were installing a piece of technology that seemed better equipped for Candlestick Park than an office. Seconds later Mo pointed out the gaudy neon lights that were recently added to make the outdoor dining options look more like restaurants. “It doesn’t really make sense,” he said, “because all of the food is free.”

Then there were the vending machines. In addition to the conventional ones packed with snacks and sodas, others were fully stocked with keyboards, headphones, and other computer accessories. I had entered a hacker’s dreamland, where money, at least for the time being, appeared to be of little consequence.

Facebook moved into their current Menlo Park location in August of 2011. Facebook’s new home is a huge facility, one that the company is still growing into. When we stumbled across a vacant room, Mo, who joined the company in December, mentioned the fact that his team had hired three more people just the day before. Although the room won’t be vacant for much longer, those who ultimately occupy it shouldn’t get too settled.

Facebook recently commissioned world-renowned architect Frank

Move Fast and Break ThingsFacebook: An Inside Look at Life at the Facebook Headquarters BY ROB GALLIANI

Gehry to build a 400,000 square foot building to complement the existing campus, with construction slated to begin later this year.

For a long time, the million-square-foot space was home to Sun Microsystems, the computer vendor that also developed the Java programming language before being acquired by Oracle in 2010. The transition is emblematic of a greater shift in Silicon Valley. Out are the iconic acronyms like HP and IBM, and in are companies with young founders built on technology that intimately informs people’s lives. “Silicon Valley,” Safdari confided in me, “has a bias towards young people. The best way to win an argument here is by doing something.”

Mo’s official title is Project Manager of new launches, where he works as apart of the User Operations team. His days involve evaluating the user experience for Facebook’s various new products and engaging with the Engineering department in order to improve it. He’s traveled, already to the company’s offices in Austin, Dublin, and Hyderabad, and relishes the fact that the company has retained

its start-up sense of community even in the face of its rapid growth.

For example, he told me how “Zuck” is fond of bringing in a meal from McDonald’s for the late night sessions that typically anticipate new product launches. On one of the nights leading up to the launch of Poke, Facebook’s answer to SnapChat, Mo had the pleasure of eating one of the fries paid for by the $13.3 billion man. Then there’s the fact that “at other jobs, you work on a project and your manager might pack you on the back. At Facebook, what you work on one day can impact 1 billion people the next.”

Before coming to Facebook, Safdari spent two years teaching science at an alternative school in Dallas with Teach For America. That experience has given him the ability to put his current work in a certain context. “At the end of the day, if people don’t like Poke, people don’t like Poke,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and laughing. It’s the exact situation that moving fast and breaking things is equipped to handle.

Photo By Kevin Krejci


CORPORATIONS

Believe it or not, you may see a driverless car pull up next to you on the road sooner than you think—that is, if you haven’t already. Driverless cars are already street legal in California, Nevada, and Florida, and more states are soon to join them. With autonomous cars not subject to human error in our freeway’s future, there are many possible benefits for society. In America, there are about 30,000 fatal car accidents each year and millions more that result in injuries. For the majority of people, the most dangerous thing they will do on any given day is get behind the wheel of their car. In the future, when autonomous cars are the norm, we won’t need to worry about having had a few too many drinks or needing to send an urgent email because we will merely be passengers in our own cars. And this future may be approaching faster than you know it.

In 2004 DARPA held the first Grand Challenge, an event to spur the innovation of driverless vehicle technology. With one million dollars on the line, competitors were challenged to complete a 150-mile course in the Mojave Desert. The best finishing team was able to complete just over 7 miles of the course before getting stuck on a rock. No prize money was awarded. In 2005, the Grand Challenge was held again, but this time, five entrants successfully completed the entire course, and seventeen more passed the seven-mile mark.

Eight years later, driverless technology has improved to the point where some autonomous vehicles are successfully (and legally) driving alongside traffic on freeways and in cities. While you cannot yet go out and buy a driverless car, estimates are that such a possibility is less than a decade away. Even if you had never heard of the Grand Challenge, this should not come as too much of a surprise, as car manufacturers already make semi-autonomous vehicles that supplement human drivers in order to enhance safety.

There are cars that can parallel park themselves, keep from drifting into other lanes on their own, and slow down automatically with the traffic or to avoid a collision.

With a fully autonomous vehicle we can expect more drastic changes. For one, the state of the driver will be of little importance. People will be able to check messages and do work from the front seat of their car without needing to pay attention to the road. Designated drivers will be a forgotten inconvenience and there will no longer be tragedies arising from drunk driving. We can expect far fewer traffic jams, as the driverless cars will navigate our roads much more efficiently than we ever could. Parking troubles will also be a thing of the past. Consider the possibility of having your car drop you off right in front of a crowded downtown restaurant, park itself while you order appetizers, and then valet itself as you’re wrapping up dessert. The only downside appears to be the chauffer industry.

General Motors, Volvo, Mercedes, and Volkswagen are all known to be developing a fully autonomous car, but perhaps the biggest player in the space right now is Google. Google has equipped over ten vehicles with their technology, and the fleet has logged hundreds of thousands of accident-free miles so far. Google’s system involves GPS, radar, and various other sensors to allow the cars to navigate any road and be aware of surrounding traffic. Google even released a video of a legally blind man running errands behind the wheel of one of Google’s driverless cars. Google co-founder Sergey Brin predicted that this technology would be ready for the public in as soon as five years. Regardless of the number of years, the implication is clear enough: the human driver is on a collision course, the apparent next victim of disruptive technology.

An End to the Driver’s TestWith driverless cars, it’s not a matter of if, but when BY JEFF GOODMAN

Photo from chairman of the joint chiefs of staff


CORPORATIONS

One of the first few terms one learns in a Wall Street course is initial public offering (IPO), the first stock a private company sells to the public. Every year several CEOs decide to take their private company public by selling their company’s stocks in order to gain a trading position in the stock market and thus acquire the capital they need to expand. Companies like Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon recently made headlines when they went public.

Rarely, however, does one hear about a public company going private. There are numerous benefits of being a publicly traded company, namely the abilities to raise capital, to fund research and development, pay off existing debt and gain company publicity. Yet, in early February, CEO Michael Dell and technology investment firm Silver Lake Partners announced their intentions of taking Dell, one of the largest personal computer (PC) vendors, private in a $24.4 billion buyout deal. Motivations for this deal stemmed from observations of the growing inability of PCs to compete against the recently booming lighter device markets such as smartphones and tablet. Dell’s recent plummeting stock market performance and twenty percent decline in fourth quarter company shipments is evidence of this decline. The severity of the ‘end of the PC era’ is further showcased in a general consensus that PCs will eventually be replaced by smaller devices for email and Internet applications and be used

Going Private?Dell Flirts With Idea of Leaving Stock Market BY KARINA JHANGIANI

Photos By Dell (toP left), affiliate (toP right) anD DaviD Precious (Bottom right)

solely for complicated document execution.Despite the infrequency of privatization, its numerous

advantages are worth examining for all companies facing competition in the equity world. First, the reduced regulatory and reporting requirements that come with privatization allow company management to devote their energy to growing their business. Although Dell will still be obligated to report to its private investors, privatization will free the technology giant from the pressures of meeting quarterly earnings expectations and allow them to focus on long-term shareholder wealth accumulation. Thus, many contend that “take-private” transactions, the purchase of a publicly traded corporation’s stocks by large private equity groups and firms, will become increasingly popular in an economy where low-risk and high returns make for the perfect combination.

Whether this recent lack of consumer confidence both in Dell and the company’s main product, the PC, will persist remains as uncertain as the technology industry’s stock market volatility. Last Friday, the Blackstone Group officially ended its bidding operations for Dell upon learning that the company experienced a 14% market decline in PC volume during the first quarter of 2013, the steepest product drop in technology history. The technology sector usually receives a large valuation on stock value because of the widely held belief that it will continue to be a growing industry. While this notion is losing traction, there appears to be growing support for privatization.


The Chicago Cubs beloved ballpark, Wrigley Field, is finally getting an upgrade. And it is a big one.

A five year, $500 million renovation deal was announced on Sunday, April 14, 2013. It promises to install a new 6,000-square foot electronic outfield video scoreboard in left field and add 1,000 remote parking spots with free shuttle service among other innovations.

The changes inside the ballpark should increase revenue for the Cubs. An increase in the number of night games played (from 30 to 40 a year) and an extension of beer sales until the end of the seventh inning should make a tangible difference for fans.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel described

the deal as “allow[ing] the Cubs to restore the Friendly Confines and pursue their economic goals, while respecting the rights and quality of life of its neighbors”. The agreement includes no taxpayer funding and will largely be supported by Cubs ownership and new marketing revenue.

The plan does have a few hurdles to still overcome.

First, rooftop building seat owners have threatened to sue the organization if renovations obstruct their view. The possible business implications are huge. If views are blocked, large streams of revenue and the pricey rooftop seats may go shut down. Rooftop owners anxiously wait for details about the locations of

Wrigley Field’s New LookChanges Coming to Chicago’s Famous Ballpark BY ARJUN VELLAYAPPAN

the new outfield installations and may seek compensation if they believe their product is damaged.

Second, local Wrigleyville neighbors have voiced concerns about increased traffic and noise due to the renovations. The Cubs are hoping to minimize these worries through public hearings and community concessions such as free off-site parking and building other local infrastructure.

Finally, the organization is looking to change Wrigley Field’s property tax status so they can be eligible for millions in tax credits under the National Register for Historic Places. It is still questionable whether the government will approve this application but it would make a big difference in the on-time completion of the planned overhaul.

This deal has been described as a “win-win” for the Cubs and the city. With much needed stadium upgrades to modernize the charm of one of Chicago’s biggest attractions, it is tough to disagree with the ideas ownership has presented.

That being said, the devil is always in the details so the question remains how effectively the team will be able to overcome hurdles while maintaining the integrity of their original mission. To improve fans’ Wrigley experience without sacrificing the historic feel of the ballpark will be tough. But if done correctly, these renovations may reinvigorate Cubs baseball for years to come.

Photos By jason howell (toP) anD rDiKeman (Bottom)

NORTHWESTERN BUSINESS REVIEW | 9 8 | NORTHWESTERN BUSINESS REVIEW

CHICAGOCHICAGO

A New 1871History remembers 1871 for the

Great Chicago Fire, but the lasting legacy was the reconstruction that followed when innovators, architects and entrepreneurs flocked to the city. The city was rebuilt to be bigger and better, having been quickly transformed into the focal point of business that it is today.

With a similar vision, the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC), with the support of venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker and a $2.3 million state grant from the 2009 Illinois Jobs Now! Capital plan, created 1871, a center where digital designers, engineers and entrepreneurs can come to develop their businesses.

1871 is the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center’s attempt to consolidate Chicago’s fragmented entrepreneurial ecosystem. From the space’s interior design to a wide range of programming hosted there, 1871’s mission is to help startups grow into successful companies, and keeping them in Chicago after they have done so.

1871 is located on the twelfth floor of the Merchandise Mart off of Michigan Avenue. The 50,000 square foot space is open with short and long desks that are arranged to mimic the streets of Chicago and a wavy, blue wall that represents the river.

There is a large open space where you can bounce your ideas off of

Chicago’s Digital StartupCommunity BoomsA New 1871 BY JUDITH KIM

Photos By juDith Kim anD infograPhics By 1871

individuals from other 1871 startups. At Intelligentsia, a coffee shop startup at 1871 based on the idea of fostering “an environment steeped in educating and humility,” you may find yourself having a cup of coffee with legendary startup founders such as Chuck Templeton who come to the center to share their experience and knowledge to new startups.

When I visited 1871 a few weeks ago, Neal Sales-Griffin, co-founder and CEO of Starter League (also located at 1871) and NU alum, noted that the one disadvantage to this open space was becoming distracted by the work that the brilliant individuals that surround you were doing. But the 1871 interior design team recognized that this might be a problem and thus also created conference rooms and individual office spaces for startups to rent so that they can have a space that allows them to fully concentrate on their work.

Chicago: an ideal startup ecosystem

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Kevin Willer, President and CEO of the CEC, highlighted three forms of capital that are required for a startup ecosystem to thrive: human, financial, and social.

Chicago has all three.

Chicago is rich in human capital. Willer points out that “in terms of

human capital we have two of the top five business schools, five renowned design schools, and access to several universities with leading computer sciences programs.”

Furthermore, financial capital is abundant in Chicago. “Capital follows great opportunity and we’ve been seeing this over the past two years. Local VC firms are keeping investments local and national VC firms are starting to come [to Chicago] looking for deals. We’re talking about rather sizeable investments ranging from 10M to 40M. Additionally, Chicago has an extremely supportive ‘Angel’ community, which provides ample support to our seed stage companies.”

Chicago has great social capital as well with the influence of Chicago-based Fortune 500 companies such as Walgreens, Allstate, United Arlines and JPMorgan Chase. The PwC Cities of Opportunity 2012 report ranked Chicago ranked first in intellectual capital and innovation, and secured second in economic clout, ease of doing business and technological readiness among U.S. cities.

So why has Chicago not becomea startup hub in the past?

“It’s not a problem of talent,” says Willer, “It’s that we are tasked with keeping them [in Chicago],” instead of leaving for other cities like the Silicon Valley.

Thanks to the opportunity and resources that 1871 is creating, the issue of losing talent is rapidly diminishing. This year, 1871 received 900 startup applications and currently hosts 225 startups.

Chicago may become a leading city of opportunity as a startup ecosystem, adding another top ranking to its already long list of accomplishments.

Happy 1-Year Anniversary 1871!

This past month, 1871 celebrated its one-year anniversary. The 1871 team asked Lab42 to analyze the economic impact of 1871’s startups in its first twelve months. The results bring to mind the awe that spectators must have felt when observing the success of the Great Chicago Reconstruction over a


NORTHWESTERN

It may not come as a surprise that according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the largest consumer debt class in the country is home mortgages. What may be alarming is that student debt is the second largest. The $1.1 trillion national student debt is a harsh reality for the 38 million student loan borrowers in the nation, and the 4000 or so who go to Northwestern.

The interest rates for loans issued by the government have recently become the subject of public scrutiny. Since 2006, the interest rate for student loans has been a fixed 6.8%, while the government’s funding costs are lower than 2%. The gap between these two rates provides the $33.5 billion in profit that the Education Department expects to gain for the 2013 fiscal year through loans.

Regardless of the huge debt accumulation, even students fortunate enough to not need financial aid will continue to be pinched by rising tuition costs. In the past ten years, tuition has increased by $20,000 while the cost of room and board has grown by over $6,000. Every year, students receive an email disclosing the costs for the next school year. It emphasizes the substantial number of scholarships and financial aid given out by the university while revealing yet another tuition hike and a brief explanation that usually goes as follows: “The additional funds also will support investments in academic and student programs, in particular, investments in student advising, salary and benefit increases for Northwestern faculty and staff, fundraising support, and improvements in maintenance of the University’s facilities, student sustainbility initiatives and information technology and enterprise systems.”

Although financial aid as a whole has been increasing faster than tuition, Northwestern’s undergraduate population has increased by 2000 in the past decade. This means that the average aid per student has increased by $5,000 in the last ten years, while tuition has risen by $20,000.The budgets for the fiscal year of 2012 and

2013 show a $133 million increase between these two years. Over the year, the biggest increased expense is a section called capital & other transfers, although the name changed slightly between the two years. In 2012, it was called transfers to/(from) capital projects, debt service, and endowment, which was defined as the “movement of funds from one unit to another… including transfers to fund outside the all-funds frame work”. James Hurley, Associate Vice President of Budget Planning, explained this category as a partition of the budget that is separated into several buckets of expenses, such as capital projects and financial aid. Each bucket has an allotted amount that is used to complete projects such as renewal and replacement, which is dedicated to repairing buildings and its utilities.

The rising tuition is frustrating for students and their families, especially those who watch their debt pile up higher each year. The factors for the rise of tuition are numerous, but one of the biggest factors is the rising cost of financial aid, according to Mr. Hurley. Since Northwestern is a need-based university, Northwestern does its best to ensure that every student can afford to attend the school by providing financial aid.

Additionally, Northwestern is doing its best to keep up in a world of growing standards and competition. Extensive renovations have given rise to the acclaimed Ford Design Center and the current revamping of the main athletic center, SPAC. New buildings for the Bienen School of Music and Annenberg School of Communications are also in the works, as are plans to build a new visitor’s center and sailing facility. Although these new projects are costly, they are not the direct cause of the tuition increase since these are mostly funded by savings and fundraisers.

What students and parents expect from a university has evolved over the years as the top universities compete for selectivity. But as Milton Friedman would remind us, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

The Rising Cost of Northwestern EducationRising Tuition at Northwestern Reflects a Nationwide Trend BY YOUJIN LEE

Photos By juDith Kim


NORTHWESTERN

A New EraOn March 27, Northwestern’s Athletic Director Jim

Phillips announced that Chris Collins will be the next head coach of Northwestern University’s Men’s Basketball team.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Chris, his wife, Kim, and their children… into the Northwestern family,” said Vice President for Athletics & Recreation Jim Phillips. “He has a tremendous pedigree as a basketball coach and will be an outstanding leader for Chicago’s Big Ten Team, and mentor for our student-athletes… [He] is a perfect fit for this institution and our men’s basketball program.”

Collins’ contract is for seven years at a “very competitive salary.” The official figure has yet to be released, however.The Challenge at Hand

Collins replaces former head coach Bill Carmody, who was fired on Saturday, March 16, as the Wildcats’ 24th coach. He hopes to be the first to lead the Wildcats to an NCAA Tournament berth.

Collins, son of Philadelphia 76ers’ coach Doug Collins and a former assistant to Duke’s Mike Kryzewksi, will have a difficult task at hand, turning around one of the least successful and least distinguished programs in NCAA history. Still, he embraces the challenge.

“We’re going to build a winner,” Collins told reporters during an official press conference at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Tuesday, April 2. “I’m confident. I’m in it for the long haul.”

Stringent academic standards, outdated facilities, and a lack of tradition stand in his way, however. The factors have, in the past, hindered the Wildcats’ competitiveness in the recruitment of top talent in the past. Recruitment struggles have subsequently made reaching the NCAA Tournament all the more difficult. Academic standards are not likely to be lessened and tradition can only be built overtime. Yet although a complete overhaul is unlikely, facilities can be updated and improved through further investment in the school’s basketball program.Investment in the Future

In September 2012, Northwestern announced its plan to construct a new athletic facility on the north end of the Evanston campus. The new facility, named the Ryan Fieldhouse, will primarily serve as a practice venue for

intercollegiate sports, including Men’s Basketball.To date, Northwestern University has raised more than

$55 million for the construction of the new facility. There is not yet an official timetable for the facility’s completion.

But the practice facility will far from guarantee the Wildcats’ success in reaching the NCAA Tournament. After all, practice facilities are not the only facilities athletes consider when committing to colleges.Implications

The Big Dance berth may not be worth as much, from a purely financial standpoint, as some may think. While merely making the tournament can net a school nearly $1.9 million, the money is paid to the conference, not the individual school, as part of the NCAA’s revenue distribution model. Colleges and universities do not receive direct reward money. The Big Ten’s success in this year’s tournament will determine the conference’s payouts through 2018.

The lack of direct reward money does not, however, mean that schools do not benefit from NCAA Tournament success. Successful athletic departments tend to receive more money through other outlets, such as increased ticket and merchandize sales, larger and more frequent alumni donations and a greater number of applications.

The recent success of Florida Gulf Coast University is a great example of this. This year, FGCU reached the Big Dance in only its second year of Division I play and advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen. Following FGCU’s success, the university saw a tremendous increase in both attention and revenue. In March, the university’s campus bookstore sold roughly $378,000. Last year, the bookstore sold only $24,000 worth of merchandise during the same period. Furthermore, hits to the university’s main website increased roughly 1480%, along with an approximate 430% increase in views on the school’s admissions’ page the day after the teams’ victory against Georgetown.

While FGCU may be an extreme example, the trends are not at all isolated. While a school may not get rich off of an NCAA Tournament berth alone, making the Big Dance does provide a boost to the school’s financials and reputation as a whole.

A Needed Investment in Basketball ProgramA New Coach Means a New Era for Wildcats BY DYLAN KRASLOW

Photo By mrmcPhoto


NORTHWESTERN

The increasing popularity of tablet devices has been accompanied by a flush of note taking applications. However, none of them seem to specifically address the needs of note takers in a class or meeting setting. Most are too focused on being the app for just one feature and serving a broad user base rather than integrating key functionality that appeals to a single user segment.

A team of Northwestern students set out to change this. They have developed Chisel, a note-taking app that seamlessly integrates typing, drawing, and document annotation. Instead of having to use two or three apps (e.g. one to type notes and one to draw graphs and charts), Chisel allows students to do both in one interface. Currently, some note taking apps offer features such as integration with DropBox or recording audio notes, yet none offer precisely what Chisel does.

A note-taking app was not what Kellogg first year Westin Hatch initially suggested. Once the other team members, Samantha Zhang, Amrit Kanesa-Thasan, and Alex Wilson joined him in the annual NUVention: Web

class, the team pivoted from Hatch’s original idea, a word-processing app, to a note-taking app. Using students in the Kellogg Educational Technology Incubator (KETI) to test their market, they realized there was a real need for Chisel’s integrated note taking and graphic producing capabilities. With clear demand for the app, the team members split responsibilities for development of different aspects of the app: Zhang worked on the front-end design, Wilson on the coding, and Kanesa-Thasan and Hatch on the business and marketing aspects.

Having started in January, Chisel is now a reality, having submitted the app to Apple’s app store last week. The app is free for use in four classes, after which students can purchase a premium version of the app for use in unlimited classes. While currently only offered for iPad, they plan to increase their offer platforms to Android and other tablets in the future.

The group has also participated in start up competitions to try and win funding. In the Northwestern InNUvation competition, the group was one of six teams to advance to

the semifinal round, allowing them to compete on May 8th at the final event. They will compete to be one of the three teams to win various amounts of funding. The team plans to use this money to market their app to college students around the country.

At the semifinals, one of the judges, Gary Dollinger, Chief Executive Officer of Adalyze Technologies, said that he believed chisel had the “potential to go viral.” Responding to Mr. Dollinger’s comment, Hatch said the group was “humbled” but that he understood no one could accurately predict virility. He stressed that funding for marketing is integral even if Chisel went viral.

Aside from the Northwestern InNUvation competition, the team is also a semifinalist for Dashfire Launch, which would provide office space and a stipend that allow the team to work on Chisel over the summer.

“Were very passionate about this as a team and we are very excited,” Hatch said conclusively, “we think a lot of other students will be too once they have Chisel in their hands.”

Chisel Answers Tablet Note Taking QuestionNew App from NU Students Makes Taking Notes in Class Easier BY FAIQUE MOQEET

The Founders

Westin Hatch Biz Guy Kellogg School of Management

Alex Wilson Tech Guru McCormick School of Engineering,Computer Science:

Amrit Finance Kanesa-thasan WizWeinberg College of Arts & Sciences,Economics : Samantha ExperienceZhang ArchitectMedill School of Journalism,Marketing

Photo from chisel


NORTHWESTERN

In March 2011, Nick D’Aloisio was studying for a history exam when he came up with the idea for Summly, an application that would improve how news articles are presented on smartphones. A week ago, D’Aloisio, who is now 17, sold the application to Yahoo for $30 million dollars, receiving 90% cash and 10% stock. He will stay on at the company for at least 18 months, and will work out of the company’s London office.

Summly was downloaded over 1 million times since its release to the Apple Store in November, but Yahoo immediately shut down the application

upon acquiring it. This kind of acquisition has been referred to as an “acqui-hire,” an acquisition that is made for the assets (human capital, included) that come with the purchase, rather than an application itself. Yahoo has already acknowledged that it will incorporate the algorithm into its mobile applications. It turns articles into 400 character blurbs for the reader to decide if it’s worth reading.

This acquisition is apart of a growing trend in the technology industry, as companies like Google and Facebook have treated assimilating smaller upstarts as a way to scale

their own business. These purchases also show the tremendous opportunities to young entrepreneurs. If they can show great talent in making practical, elegant applications, they will get paid for it regardless of their age. When D’Aloisio was raising capital for Summly, firms did not hesitate to fund a 15 years old, even though doing so made him the youngest person in the world ever to raise VC.

This is not to say that all of his success has come easily to D’Aloisio. He recently gained attention for begging Gizmodo to put him on the website’s best apps of the week article.

He e-mailed every single person who worked for the website when the writer who writes the Best App of the Week section wouldn’t answer his e-mails. He also threatened that if his application was given one bad review, he would go “without food for the next month. ”

Yes, it is incredible that young people have the ability to make an influence in the tech industry, but as the example of D’Aloisio shows, prodigious talent does not imply that the other parts of one’s personality are fully developed.

Acqui-hire Fad Hits Tech IndustryYahoo Acquires Summly, the Brainchild of a 17-year old BY JAKE AxELROD

Photo By leweB12


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Bonobos Ushering in E-Commerce RevolutionHow Andy Dunn (‘00) Has Built One of the Internet’s Biggest Brands

Many people would not think to launch a business based on the idea that pants need to fit better. Then again, most people aren’t Andy Dunn (’00). Dunn, a Westchester, Illinois native and Weinberg graduate, launched Bonobos while at Stanford Business School in 2007 and has watched his idea flourish into a full-blown clothing giant. The company has amassed over 32,000 customers, including Derron Williams of the Brooklyn Nets and former Chicago Bear Hunter Hillenmeyer, and has set the standard for clothes that fit right in the age of online shopping.

On April 4th, Dunn spoke about his company and the state of Internet commerce was as the featured speaker in an event sponsored by NBR in the McCormick Tribune Center.

Dunn’s idea for Bonobos was unorthodox among his peers at Stanford GSB. While his entrepreneurial inclined classmates were chasing the social media trend, Dunn was fixated on a personal frustration--wouldn’t it be great if pants fit better? Together with his roommate Brian Spaly, Dunn began asking others if they felt the same way. Most people, he found, preferred wearing jeans because they were the most comfortable—khaki pants were necessary, and only worn, for dressy events.

That was enough to convince Dunn that there had to be a better way. He moved to New York, and together with Spaly and another developer, Bonobos was born. Dunn pitched his Stanford professors Joel Peterson and Andy Rachleff, confidently asserting that he was “going go into

an established industry and break the rules,” and received the traction he needed to launch a formidable business.

Bonobos was, and still is, based on a simple idea. According to Dunn, “a great brand inspires people and solves problems,” and Bonobos does both. When Bonobos was launched in 2007, the vertical e-commerce business in the apparel industry, in which a company owns its supplier and chooses to sell pants exclusively online, was virtually unheard-of; most businesses either sold other brands’ clothing or their own brand in a “brick-and-mortar” store. But having seen L.L. Bean and Land’s End (where Dunn himself worked after college, as a Bain consultant) make ripples in the clothing industry with their catalog-only stores, Dunn realized the value of brands not being in stores.

To provide better fit, in addition to making generally more comfortable pants, Bonobos offers more sizes than any other major retailer. Bonobos is also armed with a team of “Ninjas”—the service team that helps any customer find the best clothing available for their needs.

In addition to first-rate customer service, Dunn believes a brand should be built with a certain lightheartedness in mind. Bonobos public perception is fueled by things like their recent April Fool’s Day joke, where they touted a fictional “Girlfriend Jean,” a response to the “Boyfriend Jean” popularized by The Gap,

Though it hasn’t backed down from its conviction “that guys don’t like shopping,” Bonobos has partnered

with Nordstrom’s and has launched personal stores of its own, called Guideshops. The Guideshops allows customers to try on their clothes in-person without the pressure of having to buy anything on the spot, and is designed for portion of the market still uncomfortable with the idea of buying clothes they have only seen online.

Revenue-per-square foot at these locations is in line with what you would see at a Tiffany’s or an Apple Store. The company also recently announced Maide, a new line of golf apparel. “Golf has lost the style of the 50s and the 60s, because these guys are going out there like they’re about to do a triathlon,” Dunn said.

Bonobos is a forerunner in dismantling the traditional brick-and-mortar retail status quo, but Dunn knows he has other partners in the revolution. Asos, another e-commerce clothing site, is now worth over $4 billion, and eyewear site Warby Parker, which is shaking up the eyewear industry, are examples of the future of consumption: brands built for a digitally-driven world.

Where cars took people from traditional small towns and villages to the big city, the Internet can take the impersonal big-city interactions and tailor them to individual consumers, from the comfort of their own home. These companies, along with Bonobos, are opening the door for more entrepreneurs with their own crazy ideas to bring businesses into the vertical e-commerce world. Just like Dunn did back in 2007.

BY JACK HOPPER


EntrEprEnEurship

A long week of typical, mundane work has just ended – even though you feel a desire to be productive, what is there to do? Your EECS assignment due next Wednesday looks boring, and you’re quite not ready to start brainstorming for your upcoming paper.

Keaton Swett, a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University now living in Silicon Valley, believes he has found the solution. His startup MindSumo pairs the untapped and underutilized talent found in the students at various universities with the everyday problems companies want a solution for. As an example, Chegg.com posted a “challenge” on MindSumo for students to develop an algorithm that would allow them to avoid class conflicts, a common problem not only here at Northwestern, but across the nation. Challenges like these are posted from a variety of different companies, including Microsoft, IBM, and Hulu.

For the less capitalistically oriented, MindSumo also allows students to contribute fresh ideas to solve larger societal problems for various nonprofit organizations. For instance, a recently completed challenge from the Voter Equality Foundation asked students to, “Propose a method to increase voter turnout [and] describe what additional incentives your plan leverages…to persuade citizens to participate in elections.” Such challenges give a voice to many brilliant ideas that individuals otherwise might not know how to express. In addition, it allows for those outside of traditional competitive fields (such as programmers coding in Hackathon competitions) to also contribute and participate in a contest setting.

To sweeten the deal for students, monetary compensation is offered for whomever wins a particular challenge. Funding for the rewards comes from the challenge’s original sponsor, and the amount varies depending on a particular challenge. The aforementioned challenge from Chegg.com to develop an algorithm paid $150 to 5 winners and $50 for “honors,” all of who were judged internally by Chegg.com, while being one of 10 “winners” in presenting an

The Power of the Lecture HallMindSumo is betting on the ingenuity of college students BY TOBY LEE

idea to the Voter Equality Foundation would have made one $50 richer.

In addition to the monetary rewards, solving problems through MindSumo solves another challenge for many college students: resume development. College students everywhere would love to be acknowledged for their accomplishments, but don’t know how to display their talent in a way that can be tangibly recognized by companies. Meanwhile, companies have problems, but don’t know how to recognize and attract talent to solve them. As Swett himself remarks, “It’s hard for companies to get insights from millennials, and MindSumo uses crowdsourcing to allow companies to tap into this collective brainpower…MindSumo is taking advantage of this through its challenge platform.” Therefore, MindSumo’s solution truly acts as a win-win, with all sides benefiting from linking up students to companies.

Since its founding, by Swett and co-founders Trent Hazy and Rohan Puranik, both Stanford University graduates, the company has made enormous strides in winning

accolades and recognition. As of January 2013, Google Ventures has announced that it would back the one-year startup, while Swett gained a spot as a mentor for Plug and Play Startup Camp, a prestigious program that immerses entrepreneurs into Silicon Valley’s friendly environment.

All of these accolades do one thing: it grants MindSumo publicity not only within the corporate world, but also in the public eye. Various news outlets, including the highly visible CNET, have had articles covering MindSumo’s many accomplishments. While the site remains under beta development for now, limited only to a narrow audience, the founders have expressed hope for the site to be “on our way to removing the ‘Beta’ stamp that adorns our current logo.”

So the next time you’re bored on a Friday night and tempted to start a League of Legends tournament from your dorm room – remember, you could instead be getting paid solving real problems for real companies out there; as a bonus, it can improve your resume as well!

Photos from minDsumo


EntrEprEnEurship

As students hunting for internships and full time jobs, we are constantly faced with the prospect of handing out a hundred copies of our resume at career fairs, and combing through many companies websites’ for hours, trying to make a potentially life changing decision with little to no information at hand.

The job search is a gruesome, time-consuming process, but we all have to go through it at some point of our college careers. Better Weekdays is a Chicago based startup that aims to solve this problem by helping students and professionals make better career decisions for maximum impact. Through an objective assessment called JobScript™, Better Weekdays captures an individual’s motivations, abilities and personality. According to its creators, taking the assessment has proven to establish clarity in best-fit roles, enhance interview performance, and enable targeted professional development for its users.

Founded in late 2011 by Chris Motley and Kunal Parbadia, Better Weekdays is currently housed in Chicago’s 1871 co-working space, and is advised by the Director of Alumni Career Services for the Kellogg School of Management, Matthew Temple and Kellogg professor Joseph Dwyer, through his company Digital Intent.

After leaving Goldman Sachs, Motley took an assessment that gave him more clarity of where he wanted to go with his life. He attended Kellogg’s part-time MBA program while simultaneously working for 1888 Mills, developing a new production facility in sub-Saharan Africa as Executive Vice President of the division he led. This opportunity inspired him to replicate the assessment experience among his friends and others, creating what would become Better Weekdays. The initial idea was to cater to top MBA programs, but they quickly noticed that their corporate clients hired relatively few MBAs compared to undergrads. Furthermore, one of its Fortune 500 customers advised that the data from JobScript could help to differentiate undergraduate job candidates that have little work experience. As a result, the company expanded its target audience.

Chris and Kunal met during Startup Weekend Chicago in July 2011. When Kunal heard Chris’ pitch, it made him reflect on his career decisions and how uninformed he had been at the time. According to Parbadia, it was just a process of following the herd, allowing his mentors, friends and others to make decisions for him. “Consulting and banking might be the most lucrative roads, but there are

other ways to align yourself with your passions” Parbadia said, “Chris was a trader at Goldman for 4 years, and he realized that being there wasn’t aligned with his life goals, it just wasn’t his passion even if he enjoyed the people and the challenge.” The two founders went on to release the alpha version of their product in April 2012.

On the employer side, they want to bring more objectivity to the recruiting process, allowing to screen and recruit on campus, where they have little to no presence. Meanwhile, students and alumni can be matched to companies through Better Weekdays’ online platform. The startup is currently developing pilot programs through partnerships with Career Services at several top tier universities, offering the tool for free, as it is a great compliment to other services offered for students by their own institutions. Better Weekdays’ online platform is currently free for students and alumni at Northwestern, University of Chicago, and Notre Dame. In return, the company provides aggregate data to the schools, allowing for greater insights into the student and alumni population.

Better Weekdays is currently fundraising, and will release its latest set of features during the second week of May 2013.

Better Weekdays Brings Clarity to Job SearchWhat the Future Holds for the “World’s Richest City” BY AVY FAINGEZICHT

graPhics from Better weeKDays


World

Shawn Carter, better known by his stage name, “Jay-Z,” is a modern day Renaissance Man.

As a rap and hip hop artist, Jay-Z holds the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200. As a music producer, Jay-Z is the former CEO of Def Jam Recordings and the current founder of Roc Nation, representing clients such as Rihanna. As an entrepreneur, Jay-Z is the co-creator of the Rocawear clothing line and the owner of the 40/40 Club, a sports bar with locations in New York City, Atlantic City and Chicago.

Now, Jay-Z is about to try his hand at a new endeavor: professional sports agent.

On April 2, 2013, ESPN announced that Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is launching his own sports agency, Roc Nation Sports, an extension of the artist’s Roc Nation brand. The agency will partner with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a renowned talent agency with athletic clients the likes of Peyton Manning and David Beckham.

“Because of my love of sports, it was a natural progression to form a company where we can help top athletes... the same way we have been helping artists in the music industry for years,” Jay-Z told reporters after the announcement.

In conjunction with the launch announcement, ESPN also reported that Robinson Cano, the New York Yankee’s All-Star second baseman, would leave former agent Scott Boras, one of the industry’s highest-profile sports agents, to join Roc Nation Sports and CAA. Only days later, reports surfaced that New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz would also join the agency.

The Major League Baseball Players Association is currently considering Jay-Z’s formal petition to become a certified baseball agent. Jay-Z has likewise expressed interest in becoming certified to represent clients in both the NBA and NFL. Before he can represent NBA players, however, he must first sell his 0.67% stake in the Brooklyn Nets organization.

Jay-Z is not the first high profile rapper to try his hand in the world of sports. Percy “Master P” Miller launched No Limit Sports, a sports management firm and an extension of the artists’ No Limit brand, back in 1999. Master P’s agency had one client of note: NFL running back Ricky Williams, widely considered one of the league’s hottest

players at the time he was drafted in 1999. With Master P’s negotiating help, Williams received a $68.4 million contract from the New Orleans Saints, who drafted him fifth overall. The contract, now considered one of the worst contracts in sports history, was highly incentive-based. Williams met few of said incentives and walked away from the deal with only $3.8 million, not including his signing bonus. The running back left Master P’s agency in 2000, and No Limit Sports has since folded.

Jay-Z hopes to have more success than his former rap counterpart, but opinions appear mixed on whether or not he will.

However, Jay-Z may just have the skills and resources to achieve what Master P couldn’t.

Unlike Master P, Jay-Z is not alone. Roc Nation Sports’ partnership with CAA Sports not only provides the agency with much needed credibility, but also brings in an experienced team on contract negotiators. CAA Sports’ agents have, over the past few years, negotiated over $1 billion in client contracts. At least until Jay-Z is certified, CAA Sports agents will handle most of the direct contract negotiations.

As such, Jay-Z’s major role with Roc Nation Sports will be outside of the boardroom, and this is exactly where he can excel. As Ira Childress, president of Childress Sports Consulting notes, Jay-Z’s biggest asset could be his skills as a recruiter of sorts.

“The biggest thing Jay can provide... is the ability to build and have relationships,” Childress says. “The reason why he was able to land Robinson Cano is because they developed an interpersonal relationship over years. Jay will provide access. That’s key. It’s all based upon trust. Robinson Cano knows that Jay-Z is working with people who can get the numbers. But he also knows ‘I trust Jay.’ So that’s a big step.”

Beyond that, Jay-Z could provide clients with branding and image building off of the field. After all, few alive today are better at doing just that than Jay-Z, building an empire around, of all things, himself.

As he rapped in Kanye West’s song, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.”

Only time will tell whether this “business” will come to include a successful sports agency.

Jay-Z Opens Sports AgencyBrooklyn Rapper Does It All BY DYLAN KRASLOW

Photo By miKamote

NORTHWESTERN BUSINESS REVIEW | 19 18 | NORTHWESTERN BUSINESS REVIEW

WorldWorld

Singapore is a place of many contradictions.A towering, glitzy skyline mixes with lush green

surroundings emanating from the almost perpetual rainfall that douses the city-state. Chinese Singaporeans make up almost 75% of Singapore’s resident population yet walking down the sidewalk of Orchard Road – the city-state’s answer to New York’s Times Square or Shanghai’s Nanjing Road – reveals a more ostensible diversity, in large part due a booming tourism industry and global business interests. Meanwhile, world-class restaurants from Sky on 57 to Waku Ghin serve foie gras, Ossetra caviar and “Ace of Spades” champagne, but a plate of “Hainan chicken rice” at Singapore’s popular hawker centers can be bought with spare pocket change.

In March, WSJ Money magazine anointed Singapore “the world’s richest city,” citing studies touting the city-state’s 449 Ferraris, 188,000 millionaire households, and $56,532 GDP per capita (or in other words, the world’s highest) despite a population of only 5 million. Its newfound celebrity residents include Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who has reportedly embraced Singapore’s thriving nightlife scene, as well as former Quantum Fund co-founder Jim Rogers whose two young daughters speak fluent Mandarin.

“If you were smart at the start of the 19th century, you made your way to London. If you were smart at the start of the 20th century, you moved to New York. And if you are smart at the start of the 21st century, you will find your way to Asia,” Rogers wrote in his latest book Street Smarts.

There is no doubt that Singapore constitutes what Asia Society Museum director Melissa Chiu described to Departures in 2011 as “The New Asia,” a projection of “all our fears and fantasies.” Examples from the reported $26,000 cocktail containing a diamond inside at Pangaea nightclub to the Louis Vuitton “island” store that floats above the water in Marina Bay can indeed seem borne out of fantasy. But what if anything does Singapore have to fear in the future?

On a recent two-day trip to the city-state with my father, I heard from a waiter at the popular Long Beach Seafood Restaurant, the establishment attributed with the creation of the region’s famed black pepper crab. He spoke to many observations he’s seen growing up in the city-state, but two stood out to me in particular: language education and class stratification.

As a child, the waiter said he attended school with English, Hindi, Malaysian and Chinese classmates who would play and frequently mingle with each other in and out of class. In effect, he grew up learning each of the respective four languages, a key advantage in a place where tourism and global business can sometimes require him to use all four in a given day. In 1966, the government switched to a bilingual education policy, prompting all subjects to be taught in English, with time set aside in curriculum for “mother tongue” lessons. As such, the waiter said that children today in Singapore are less apt to embrace the small city-state’s unique multiculturalism.

The Economist made a similar observation in January

Dispatch from Singapore, the New AsiaWhat the Future Holds for the “World’s Richest City” BY MATTHEW WONG

2011 explaining that, “with English and Mandarin shaping up as the dominant tongues of the 21st-century, Singapore’s language policy may be proven right, but could still cost it one of the richest parts of its identity.”

Class stratification, too, appears to be an increasing worry for many Singaporeans and is noticeable to any passive observer. Taking a taxi back from dinner one night, a Lamborghini raced paced us on a local road, a scene that reminded me of a now infamous car crash by a Chinese national in a Ferrari who sped through a red light and killed a taxi driver and his female passenger drawing anger from local citizens. The waiter was quick to point out the disparity between real estate and wages: while almost all real estate in Singapore has risen immensely over time, salaries especially in blue-collar jobs have largely remained stagnant.

As such, notable apartments such as “The Marq” on Patterson Hill, which hit over $5,800 per square ft in

2011, will likely remain a moat for the global business elite rather than local Singaporeans clamoring for social mobility. Indeed, Delowar Hussin, a Bangladeshi laborer told Bloomberg last December that his basic wage of $15 a day hasn’t changed in four years even as his monthly living costs have risen from S$300 to as much as S$400. As such, the possibility of social strife may become a worrying concern. “I wouldn’t be surprised if labor strife becomes a more frequent occurrence going forward,” Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. said in the same Bloomberg story.

Looking across the bright lights of the Singapore skyline at night from Marina Bay, it’s apparent that the city-state has turned itself into an awe-inspiring manifestation of modernity and cosmopolitanism. But as with other cities that make up “The New Asia” – Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul – fear and fantasy can be a delicate mix.

Photos By michael elleray anD lim toh han

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