Typical is never truly typical as it changes as people, countries, and the world continues to evolve. In fact, change is accelerating faster than it ever has before.

To all the folks who are driving this effort, thank you thank you. This is just the beginning of helping the community for the long term, not just a holiday effort. Looking forward to seeing this seed germinate. Please go to www.needmap.com to give us your ideas.

It seems to be the consensus these days that while any number of reasons may lead you to subscribe to a newsletter that rarely is it opened once you receive it. Maybe your interests have changed, maybe you now have a vendetta against the company that sent it or maybe, and most likely, your inbox is simply too full of demands from co-workers, clients and others who need you to respond and now. Making time to enjoy a newsletter is not as easy as it once was with everyone working so hard to get through these times and even if there was the time who wants to read the everyday, mundane typical newsletter?

We at eROI had to ask ourselves: what can we do to make our newsletters a more exciting and informative source of news and updates? Most importantly we had to figure out a way to get the information to you without any excess baggage and clutter. We needed fresh and exciting, informative yet stylish, everything the news delivers but in a new interactive way. The way I like to describe our team is dynamic; it is the perfect word for us. Technology is what we do, design is what we love and above all, you are who we care about. In creating this newsletter we had you in mind, all the way.

Yes, by now you have noticed our “idea” of new. Our latest newsletter (we were very proud of it) is defiantly not run of the mill. As a team we came together, bounced ideas all over the place and most importantly, listened to you. What happened was the birth of something so wonderfully outside of the norm that we instantly fell in love with it and have promised to grow and nurture it. We had “new” on the mind while creating this change in our newsletters, as one of our developers put it; “we want the opportunity to interact with them but also allow them a fun and easy way to interact with each other”.

We definitely had your time on our mind. Time is everything. We care about your time as much as our own. In opt of a lengthy newsletter which leaves you swimming in a sea of information you may or may not be interested in; we have chosen a different approach. You decide which topics you are interested in and you get to them quickly and painlessly. You also decide which topics you want to know more about. Our new style of newsletter runs on your time; not on anyone else’s.

We want to move innovative and exciting ideas around the internet. At eROI we thrive on the unique shells we must cast over that which is necessary. Just because you need the information in no way means you cannot enjoy the learning of it! We are pledging to bring you only the stuff we think you will really like and not the stuff we think you should like because everybody else says so. We pledge that it will be fun and not make you want to cry out of boredom and we pledge that we will listen to everything you say so that we can become better, faster and stronger!

We realize the world is evolving and we realize you are too. We hope you will stick with us as we grow! I have included some comments from the members of our team who were in the lab with this creation from day one. They worked tirelessly on our new newsletter and they did it all for the love of it!

“The main excitement for me are the additions of the “Ask It!” tab for facebook, and the comments on the landing page.  I think that this is our chance to get instant feedback from our subscribers.” - Amanda (Development)

“The idea of re-creating our newsletter was inspiration enough. Making something that would preform better, be more visually appealing and engaging was how I approached it. Not only that, but we had great success with the video telling everyone we were ditching our current newsletter, so the pressure was on. I had the idea to incorporate something conceptually that would make people do a double take… like… “did he really use moving sperm in an email” kind of reaction.”

“I thought that the final product turned out great! We are pushing hard to do a lot in a short time. With copy edits at the last min, re-thinking light box functionality or even the development on our Facebook page, we were rushing to get it all done. And we did it! What I am most proud of is the strategy behind all of it (Meaghan worked hard on this)… and that we will be rolling out one of these on the same structure every month will definitely keep people coming back.” - Stephen (Design)

“The performance of our previous newsletter had hit a plateau so, after testing many elements, we decided it was time for something new. We took a hard look at what our subscribers wanted from us, and what we had to offer to them. The result is a strategy that will provide a unique design each issue, content that is forward-thinking, yet easy to read, and elements that encourage the conversation to extend beyond the inbox.” – Meaghan (Marketing)

President Bill Clinton addresses @inc500 conf thru video
5:42 AM Oct 1st via TweetDeck

Gary Hirshberg CEO – Stonyfield Yogurt

Should be good! RT @inc5000: Today’s 1st session is starting! Gary Hirshberg, the CE-YO from Stoneyfield at #inc500conferenece!

Stonyfield Yogurt is up to $360 million in sales now. Gary going to go over his philosophy on triple bottom line.
5:47 AM Oct 1st

Churchill quote “success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”
5:49 AM Oct 1st

If the rest of the world adopted USA energy and total consumption, we’d need 5 Earths to be able to handle it.
5:52 AM Oct 1st

67% of Americans are obese or overweight. Just like the environment, unintentional actions lead to disastrous effects.
5:56 AM Oct 1st

Stonyfield first 9 years to get to $4m revenue and barely unprofitable. Never got venture money. Grew with cradle to cradle thinking.
6:04 AM Oct 1st

9 carbon footprint teams – transportation, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable packaging, etc
6:08 AM Oct 1st via TweetDeck

Real sustainability is about innovation not just Eco efficiency
6:11 AM Oct 1st

@inc5000 Gary hirshberg, stonyfield yogurt CEO. Cradle to cradle = no waste. Highly profitable, requires a little investment up front.
6:15 AM Oct 1st

Organic cows live twice as long as conventional cows. Whoda thunk that?
6:21 AM Oct 1st

The challenge: stonyfields gross margins are 10 percent less than competitors. Better net margins from less advertising.
6:25 AM Oct 1st

Stonyfield lids talk about their causes. Huge customer loyalty. Advocacy.
6:27 AM Oct 1st

Stonyfield is deeply engaged in PR and social media. This year- 4 billion media impressions.
Fri Oct 01 2010 06:33:56

Mollusks take calcium carbonate from their environment to make their homes. Humans will need to do this with carbon.
Fri Oct 01 2010 06:38:33

Kevin Surace CEO – Serious Materials

@inc5000 next speaker Kevin Surace of Serious Materials rethinking an industry retrofitting homes and building with Eco drywall
Fri Oct 01 2010 06:44:24

Kevin surace – Inc. Magazine entrepreneur of the year. Need to identify a big problem. For him: climate change.
Fri Oct 01 2010 06:51:34

Today- only 0.4% comes from wind and solar. Everything else is coal, oil, and others.
Fri Oct 01 2010 06:54:45

Ecorock tackles the problem that 40% of total world energy usage is in building energy inefficiancy.
Fri Oct 01 2010 06:57:33

QuietRock is 5x more than drywall but total installed cost was actually quite a bit less.
Fri Oct 01 2010 07:02:39

People advice- look at hiring people outside your industry who look at a problem differently. Take company to next level
Fri Oct 01 2010 07:04:37

Your customers will not go with you just because you are green. Got to save them money. Most important.
Fri Oct 01 2010 07:07:22

Serious Materials replaced out all windows on the Empire State building with high Rsquared value windows. 6500 windows, saves $28m.
Fri Oct 01 2010 07:09:53

Everyone says they are innovative, but to truly disrupt an industry is really really hard.
Fri Oct 01 2010 07:11:47

Apple is most well known example as a disruptor. iPod was 50th digital music player in the market, but did it uniquely.
Fri Oct 01 2010 07:13:44

Serious Materials CEO is PR genius by buying shutdown doors and windows manufacturing plants and partnering with unions. Moving fast.
7:27 AM Oct 1st

Tim Westergren Founder – Pandora

Pandora founder Tim Westergren speaking now @inc5000 conference. Very psyched to hear his story of going broke then $100m rev this year.
7:36 AM Oct 1st

By end of 2001, over 50 Pandora employees worked for free. It stayed that way for 2 years. Founder had $200k personal debt. Got $9m VC in 04
7:46 AM Oct 1st

Tried it as a subscription model, but people didn’t want to pay. Pandora now has 65 million users in US. 100k new users per day @inc5000
7:49 AM Oct 1st

@pandora – your founder talking now about responsiveness to real human listeners. Do u engage on Twitter?
7:55 AM Oct 1st

Washington dc political process nearly shut down pandora due to Internet levy on streaming music. 400k faxes to congress in 3 days. Saved.
8:04 AM Oct 1st

Radio is 85% of how people consume music. Biggest $ part of industry. Pandora makes money thru advertising. Cash flow positive, but not prof
8:10 AM Oct 1st

Pandora 90k artists. 70% independent. @inc5000
Fri Oct 01 2010 08:12:44

@inc5000 panel “inside the mind of an investor”. Only 500 actine VCs in country. As entrepreneur, still need to be selective
Fri Oct 01 2010 09:19:41

Danny Meyer – New York City restaurateur and CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group

@inc5000 current speaker is Danny meyer of the famous NYC restaurant Gramercy Tavern
Fri Oct 01 2010 11:58:01

51% of your success is how you make customers feel. 49% is the technical delivery of your products and services. Hospitality is adapting to
Fri Oct 01 2010 12:19:48

Jean Chatzky – Author of “The Difference”

@inc5000 speaker now is Jean Chatzky, author of “the difference”. Anyone can prosper even in toughest times.
Fri Oct 01 2010 12:48:23

As an entrepreneur, Jean knows company owners think often about finances, but how structured are we in our thinking?
Fri Oct 01 2010 12:58:47

#inc500 Human nature in personal finance is to be over-confident about our future finances.
Fri Oct 01 2010 13:03:12

3 traits of financially secure people: Habitual savings, diversified investing, and …
Fri Oct 01 2010 13:11:34

Money doesn’t bring happiness. Statistically, happiness attracts money and success in all stages of life.
Fri Oct 01 2010 13:18:53

Saturday, Oct 2 – Day 2
#inc500 First session on virtualization and cloud computing is a bit of an infomercial for Dell.
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:11:29

RT @IncMagazine: “Giving entrepreneurs better access to capital would have been No. 1 way to get us out of the economic downturn.” S. Felice
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:12:54

Steve Felice word of advice is to not wait so long to get international experience. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:41:03

John Gerzema says the great recession could be the best thing for america. Underlying sense of optimism. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:43:31

Based on a huge study on American spending habits, there is a major shift from mindless to mindful purchases
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:44:51

Author of “Spendshift” says American consumers collectively saying “if you want to sell to me, you better have my back”.
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:46:51

Shift happened in 2005 from superficial stuff to authentic, craft-driven meaningful products. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:48:23

RT @IncEvents: Final Day @ Inc. 500 conference! Listen to @johngerzema talk about Decoding the New Consumer right now.
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:49:57

Trends since 2005 – fewer logos on new clothing, more volunteerism, retooling empowerment betterment, people becoming self-reliant.
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:52:38

Lots more Americans, even in Dallas, have backyard chickens. Fascinating that this defines a trend.
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:54:44

Time banks is a cool concept. You give time as a guitar teacher and I give back by doing yardwork. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:56:23

Spend Shift trend – badge of awesomeness – creativity but keeping it simple and frugal and Eco. Nimble, adaptable.
Sat Oct 02 2010 06:58:54

50% of mellenials don’t have a land line, bookrenter.com, neighborgoods.com. Use hulu.com and don’t pay for tv cable #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 07:02:40

Recyclebank – works like frequent flyer miles for rewarding recycling. Trend towards uber-local support #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 07:06:43

Simplicity example – Shoebox banking. Put all your personal financial statements in a shoebox and bank figures it all out for u #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 07:08:52

We are moving from a credit to a debit society. The $ that we are spending today is really ours. More selective, mindful consumption.
Sat Oct 02 2010 07:13:34

America is an emerging market for values-led innovation. Future is bright. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 07:14:41

Hilarious zappos video about the “happiness bus” playing at #inc500conferenece. 3 month happy bus tour
Sat Oct 02 2010 08:54:06

I gotta check out the happy bus outside the Gaylord resort Hotel here #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 08:57:55

Tony Hsieh CEO – Zappos

Tony Hsieh speaking now. Glad he is adapting his presentation from last year #inc5000. Happy bus coming to Portland in 6 weeks
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:02:27

RT @IncMagazine: “I sold LinkExchange because it wasn’t fun anymore…the company culture went down.” says Tony Hsieh @zapppos #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:02:40

New zappos record for longest phone call. 7 1/2 hours. What if you need to go to bathroom? #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:10:44

Zappos Call center people are trained to check pricing with 3 competitors and tell customer to go with less $ competitor product
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:13:04

Nice! RT @sandydlc: #zappos saved me for inc conference gala outfit. Ordered sandals Monday, arrived Tuesday, flight early Thursday #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:16:02

Growing zappos brand over next few years – clothing, customer service, culture #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:17:45

Two books in Zappos giving library – Good to Great, Tribal Leadership. Important findings #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:20:37

Commitable core values – doing a google search on any 1 of 10 core values – zappos shows up #1. Unique. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:23:39

Luck is really about being open to opportunities. More perspective than fact #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:25:29

Zappos has 1500 vendors that have total access to info in zappos extranet #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:28:31

Great companies had really strong cultures and all had a higher purpose. Chase the vision, not the money #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:33:27

Zappos took the high human touch approach, not high tech approach.
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:37:35

2009 timing of when zappos vision became broader to “delivering happiness”. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:38:48

What is your goal in life? Ultimately, it’s to be happy and fulfilled. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:49:42

Happiness framework – perceived control, perceived progress, vision #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:51:37

To build enduring, great companies, you need profits, passion, purpose. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 09:55:46

Norm Brodsky #inc5000 talk on sales -listen to your customer, take responsibility, everybody sells
Sat Oct 02 2010 11:31:31

Learn from others. What you like. What you don’t like. Borrow others ideas and embellish them. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 11:33:46

Hire salespeople who want to stay with the company forever. Right attitude is everything. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 11:46:04

Norm Brodsky – some of the best suggestions come from employees. Put up a suggestion box and use it! #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 11:54:02

The real question is “why are we doing this?” prioritize. Need to write down your life plan. Do that with your wife. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 12:06:18

Norm says you have 48 hours to put things you’ve learned into action or you won’t do it. #inc5000
Sat Oct 02 2010 12:12:58

Great black tie #inc5000 awards ceremony tonight!
Sat Oct 02 2010 17:02:43

What an amazing #inc5000 conference. Heading back to pdx now. Looking forward to putting some of what I learned to use!
about 21 hours ago

Below is a little video that Chase did on me as part of a series of videos of entrepreneurs at the event – cool idea to engage the audience. I thought I might win an iPad for this, but I didn’t. They made this really relevant for the Inc. 5000 crowd.

Some quick facts:
3-year growth: 77%
2009 Revenue: $4.8 million
2006 Revenue: $2.7 million
Employees: 41
Founded: 2002
Industry: ■ Advertising & Marketing
Industry rank: #252
#27 in Portland, OR

See the Full List of all Inc. 5000 honorees

Click above to see our Inc 5000 profile

Let’s see a close up!

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