The New York Times certainly thought we were nuts, as did Forbes and Al Ries in AdAge, all of whom agreed that our six-figure acquisition of the nuts.com domain and our re-branding from NutsOnline to Nuts.com was an example of overspending. Was it? * * * I joined Cranford, NJ-based Nuts.com a year ago as the … Continue reading “What’s A Brand, Anyway? The Story of Nuts.com”
Author: Anne Swift
Anne is passionate about marketing, entrepreneurship, and collaborative innovation systems. Glamour Magazine named Anne a visionary who will change the world for her work with Young Inventors International.
As the founder of Young Inventors, Anne has trained more than 3,000 university innovators around the world, at institutions such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Northeastern University. Under Anne’s leadership, Young Inventors held conferences at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Toronto. She is the pioneer of BrainBuzz, a structured methodology for using collaborating teams to solve technology challenges at institutions such as MIT's Innovations in International Health and the Ashoka Foundation.
Currently, Anne is the Head of Marketing (a.k.a. Chief Marketing Nut) at Nuts.com. In early 2008, Anne co-founded a solar thermal building materials start-up, which installed the largest, and award-winning, solar thermal project in Pennsylvania. Anne has also consulted for the MaRS Discovery District, the Cleantech Venture Network, and technology start-up companies, including many social ventures. She has been a judge of several business plan competitions, including the MIT IDEAS Competition, the Stanford BASES Competition, Ashoka-Lemelson Invention Competition, and San Jose State University’s Neat Ideas Fair.
With training as an economist, Anne has conducted research on how organizations can successfully work together to identify and commercialize innovations, as well as how innovations arise in collaborative group settings. Anne’s work included research positions with the Innovation Systems Research Network at the University of Toronto and Carnegie Mellon University with support from the Kauffman Foundation. Anne also holds certificates from the World Intellectual Property Organization in intellectual property and management of innovation. Anne’s work has appeared in Science Magazine, IEEE Spectrum, Forbes, Popular Science, NPR, and many other major media outlets. For more information about Anne’s background, please visit www.anneswift.com.
Cleantech Payday: An Expensive Lesson in Patience
Many software entrepreneurs and investors are looking to replicate their successes in cleantech. They are in for a surprise. While investors often have enjoyed quick returns in software, many of the opportunities in cleantech require longer-term commitments and overcoming some of the challenges outlined below. Long Development Cycles. There is a reason it’s called hardware. … Continue reading “Cleantech Payday: An Expensive Lesson in Patience”
Three Ideas to Help Entrepreneurs Do What Entrepreneurs Do Best
Entrepreneurs in Michigan can reinvigorate the economy by doing what innovators do best: using existing resources to create new value. Here are three resources Michiganders can leverage: 1. Michigan’s world-class universities—After the collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh, universities filled the void with new technology start-ups. The University of Michigan is one of the … Continue reading “Three Ideas to Help Entrepreneurs Do What Entrepreneurs Do Best”
Sourcing the Right Crowd
Commercialization is rarely a solitary pursuit; bringing an idea to the world requires a set of diverse skills and knowledge, a proverbial commercialization village. Or a crowd. Enter the power of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing refers to aggregating a large number of people to express their opinions or ideas about specific topics—and the term first appeared in … Continue reading “Sourcing the Right Crowd”
Universities: An Entrepreneur’s Ecosystem
Universities offer a thriving ecosystem that lends itself particularly well to entrepreneurship among students, faculty, and staff. My belief in the ability of the institution of higher education to foster entrepreneurship comes first hand from my experiences as a student entrepreneur at the University of Toronto, as well as my work with Young Inventors International, … Continue reading “Universities: An Entrepreneur’s Ecosystem”