WEBVTT - Top Tech Companies of 2013 Part One 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in tescht with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:13.960 stuff works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.080 tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren foc Obama, 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.639 and you know, we're starting to wind down the year 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.880 often and we thought it might be cool for us 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.280 to take a look at some of the big tech companies, 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.880 the best tech companies to work for in Yeah, because 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:31.720 some of them are actually really small. Yeah, and some 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:33.840 of them you may not have heard of because they're 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.840 not necessarily companies that average consumers would end up interacting with. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.560 They're more like companies that enterprises interact with. And we 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.200 managed to get this list. It was from an article 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.680 that was published in Business Insider by Megan Rose Dickey, 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.640 who put together an amazing list of twenty five companies. 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:57.120 We're looking at the top ten. Business Insider does this 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.680 list every year, and I think a competition this year 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.360 was a little but stiffer the lowest ranked. Okay, so 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.360 so what this is looking at. It's based on at 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.720 least twenty company reviews on glass door um from from 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.679 a certain date, range from from from a good year 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.679 long range. Yeah. They look over a stretch of twelve 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:16.840 months end of the year, and then an extra from 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:18.560 the beginning, and in case you want to know what 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.240 glass door is if you haven't been searching for a 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.280 job recently. Glass door is a job seeking kind of tool, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.560 and it'll lets you not only look to see what 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.479 jobs are available, but also gives you some insight as 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:32.360 to what it's like to work with those companies based 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.240 on actual employee comments about those companies. Right, employees can 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:40.280 go on there and give some pretty honest and sometimes 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.800 brutal and sometimes wonderful reviews of what it's like that 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.480 what corporate life there's like. Right, it might say something 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:50.040 like the benefits are amazing, work life balance is fantastic, 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.440 I really enjoy my work, and others might say things 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:57.120 like I really wish that my my supervisor would stop 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.560 buying a new whip every week so that maybe the 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.840 old whip would start feeling less painful. Yeah, obviously that 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:06.960 second type of company would be the one that I 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.680 think most people would wish to avoid most people most people. 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:14.240 I'm not going to paint as with a completely broad 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.520 brush on that one. So, but so, these company ratings 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.480 are in a five point scale, with with one being 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.360 the worst in five being the best and uh, this 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.360 this year, the lowest in our top ten is ranked 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.080 four point one. Last year the winner was only a 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.079 four point four, So there's there's been a lot of upsets, right, 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.280 And we're going to look at the top ten, but 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.680 in this particular part, we're gonna look at numbers ten 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:40.120 through six so that we can really kind of give 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.160 a little bit of an overview of each company, because 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:43.919 we could just tell you the name and the rating, 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:45.840 but you could read the article for that, and you 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.120 should go to the article. Like we said, there are 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.000 other entries in there that we're not going to cover. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.440 I'll give a little honorable mention at the end of 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.640 the next episode for some of the companies that you 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.560 may have heard of that that made the list, but 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.760 we're not in the top ten. But we wanted to 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.280 actually explain kind of these companies were and uh and 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.399 what they do. A couple of them I hadn't really 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.400 heard of before, had only heard of kind of in 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.760 passing a couple of them, I had not Not only 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.000 did I not know what they were. When I read 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.280 the corporate speak for what they did, I still wasn't 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.680 sure what was happening. And I had to keep digging 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.720 to figure it out. Um full disclosure. Years and years 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.440 and years ago, I worked for a human resources management 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.440 consulting firm and uh, and I learned the the art 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.560 of corpse speak. But it has been a long time 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.200 and I have lost a lot of that ability. And 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.640 also different corps speak is different, I mean you get 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.760 I mean the ones that I was kind of like, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.160 what does your company do? Or the kind of new 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.880 marketing sort of yes, where I just like, so you 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.560 do colors on websites that are really shiny and I 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.720 don't understand what's going on. And and yeah, back when 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.440 I was working for a consulting firm, cloud based was 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.120 not a thing. That was that So everything now is 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.480 cloud based apparently. But last year a couple of the 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:05.040 companies made it in included Miter and LinkedIn and Google, 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.880 Apple Yep, yep. And some of these also made it 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.360 into the list this year, but in different rankings than 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.440 they did in years before. So let's kick this all off, Lauren. 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.200 What company came in at number ten? Number ten would 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.520 be Orbits. Now, this was one that I was familiar with. 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:24.640 I think anyone who has done a lot of travel 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.880 is familiar with this company. It is of course an 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.440 online booking agent system for all kinds of travel stuff, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.080 you know, from from the hotels to the tickets themselves, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.640 to entire packages like cruise, ships or articles, vehicles, car rental, yeah, 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.400 all that kind of stuff. And then you know, this 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.080 is one of those things where it was like a 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.440 no brainer for the internet, right. It was something that 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.640 allowed you to have access to all the tools that 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.880 a travel agent would have for the average consumer. And 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.120 once you had some companies put that together and really 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.880 organize it, it really made a great deal of sen 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.680 gave empowerment to the consumer. They had a lot more choices, 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.520 they got to see, uh, some some great savings as well. 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.240 Sometimes the savings are kind of hidden behind a veil, right, 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.880 Like you, if you book with a certain amount, you're 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.440 you might get a great deal, but you don't know 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:18.960 what hotel you're going to get until after the deal 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.719 comes through. All right, if you've got flexible travel plans 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.599 or don't mind that element of surprise for for slightly 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.080 anxious people like me, I'm like, please just let me 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.960 pick the thing that I want to pick. Um For 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.880 people like me, I'm like, where's the cardboard? Box. Okay, 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.080 as long as I can get there. But yeah, So 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.560 so the company was founded back in and, um, that's 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.240 by a group of airlines. Yeah. In fact, American Airlines 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.880 was one of those companies. Yes, uh that yeah. In 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.640 addition to them, we've got Delta, United, Northwest, and Continental. Yeah. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:53.800 Not all of those are around. Some of them, like 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.080 Delta acquired Northwest for example. So there, But at any rate, 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.320 it was kind of cool these airlines all got together 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.120 and said, let's try and create this this tool that 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.960 would be really useful. I mean, obviously it's served them 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.400 as well as the customers. It's not like it was 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.680 an altruistic move necessarily, but the benefit was incredible for 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.720 everyone certainly. They the website launched in two thousand one, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.640 and then the company was acquired by two thousand four 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:25.159 by another company called um Sant. Sendant, I think, yeah, 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.240 it's a C E N D A N T. And 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.840 I have obviously I never have heard that words spoken aloud, 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.400 so I'm assuming Sendant, but I don't know things that 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.240 we should have looked up before he came into the room. 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.160 Um and they had an I P O in two 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.919 thousand seven. Yep, so this is a publicly traded company. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.080 Some of the ones we're talking about are publicly traded 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.200 a couple or private, and then some of them are subsidiaries. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.479 Technically this is a publicly traded company that um that 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.680 hasn't a parent, uh kind of company. The scendant would 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.760 be the parent here. But um, yeah, the company was 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.279 rated pretty highly. As you said, it's the lowest rated 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.880 of all the ones we look looking at four point 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:09.440 one and they're CEO approval percentage rating. That's for Barney Harford. 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:12.880 So yeah, that's not bad. That's not bad. And the 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:18.680 CEO percentage approvals UM bounce around. You'll hear in the 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.040 n or so. Yeah, you'll hear as we go on 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.600 that some of them that the company may be rated 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.040 higher and a CEO may be rated lower. But you know, 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.440 it happens. Uh. It turns out that the employees say 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.920 that there are a lot of learning opportunities to work 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:34.920 when you're working at Orbits, and that there are good 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.520 benefits and lots of room for growth, which is great. Uh. 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:40.480 And then you know, I decided that it would be 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.560 kind of neat to look in the news because, first 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.760 of all, this article that was written for Business Insider 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:50.040 came out in the summer of because it was looking 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.200 over the past twelve months, which actually started in the 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.160 summer of twelve obviously, so since then I thought it'd 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:57.920 be neat to look and see what kind of news 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:02.080 articles had popped up about these companies. So with the Orbits, 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.560 there were some there's some you know news and some 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.000 bad news. Um. For instance, there was a bit of 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.200 a kerfuffle, you might say, a couple of counties in 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:16.240 Maryland had brought a suit against Orbits claiming that had 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.480 not paid taxes properly in those counties. And the taxes 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.520 in question were in response to booking fees for hotel rooms, 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.080 something that the Orbit says it should not be held 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.079 accountable for, and things the county say you should totally 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.640 be held accountable for this. And actually the article I 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:39.040 read was pretty um, kind of cynical, because I was 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:43.040 talking about how a lot of governments, specifically like local governments, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.839 county governments and city governments, we're looking at companies as 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:51.200 a potential revenue source by going after these things that 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.320 you know didn't exist before because of the online world 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.760 is so stills wherein right you're doing business with people 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.240 all over the place, right, So it's almost that same 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.800 sort of mentality, at least according to the person who 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.480 wrote this article, the same sort of mentality as someone 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.960 who would claim that the police force in your local 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:13.960 area is stepping up uh roadblocks and and speed traps 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.520 in order to fill a quota. It's that kind of 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.960 same message I was getting. Whether or not that's the case, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.120 I can't say, but that was that was certainly the 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.400 implication that I was getting from this particular author. But 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.720 another interesting bit of news, so Orbits also suffered a 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.880 twenty percent drop in their share prices after an earnings 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.520 call back in November of That earnings call revealed that 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.160 company performance fell below projections. Uh. They said that it 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.040 was mostly because there was a drop in airline revenue. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.960 Even though hotel revenue is increasing, there's been overall this 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:52.160 year a pretty drastic drop in airline Yeah. So, but 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.840 but the good news is that executives say they feel 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.440 there's there's a very optimistic chance that revenue growth will return, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.360 maybe not quite at the level they had projected originally, 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.960 but they they're seeing an upswing, so it's not all 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.000 bad news. So yeah, that's ah, that's our number ten, 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.560 So I guess we need to move on. Yeah, number 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.080 nine would be Exact Target. Now this is one that 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:20.360 I had never heard of or I was completely unfamiliar with, 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.360 and partially because again, this is a company that is 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.920 a tech company, but it's not creating stuff. Yeah, it's 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.320 not like it's coming out with a video game console 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.920 or a smart watch or even a website that most 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.120 people would go to. This instead is a digital marketing 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.360 software as a service company s a a S. Right. 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.000 They do they do software for for email, mobile, social media, 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:49.880 and web marketing specifically, so you might if you're a 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:54.480 company and you don't have your own marketing department, then 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.360 you may work with a company like Exact Target to 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.360 handle the marketing strategies for your company. Um, this is 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.000 something we're seeing more and more of today. Like you 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.920 think back in the old days of business, where you 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:11.239 had this monolithic building that housed dozens of different departments 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.600 that never talked to each other and had terrible, uh 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:20.000 competitive relationships with one another. I've been in actually a 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.240 couple of couple of companies that worked like that. I 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.280 just think of things like mad Men. You know, you 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.360 watch shows like that and you're like, Oh, that's what 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.600 a marketing company is like, right, because it's you know, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:33.480 everything is very siloed and competitive and cutthroat. H Well, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.439 these days, a lot of companies are looking to other 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.880 organizations to handle certain things that they need to do 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.520 but they don't want to do with under their own 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.560 roof because it's not their focus. Right, particularly with startup companies, 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.160 You've got these big startup companies where they might be 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.000 engineers who are behind the startup company, and the engineer 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.040 is really good at making something that people want to use, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.880 but not necessarily so good at everything else that's required 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.160 to run a business, right, And frequently the kind of 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.600 people who are really good at talking up a product 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.480 are not the same kind of people who necessarily created it. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:12.400 So I think that that exists across many industries. Oh yeah, yeah. 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.640 So this particular company was founded in two thousand. It 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.040 started on a two hundred thousand dollar investment, and specifically 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.440 they offer a quote cloud based marketing software in quote 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.520 to help brands reach consumers. So cloud based meaning that 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.840 you would be able to interface with this no matter 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.080 where you happen to be. If you were a customer 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.000 of exact target, you could end up logging in and 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.680 using their tools, includes analytic tools, which are really important 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.480 these days to make sure you are doing the right 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.000 thing right, that you're reaching the people you want to reach, 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.400 and that your message is having the intended effect right. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.520 And since since exact Target does more software than the 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:55.280 implementation of of a marketing campaign for its for its customers, 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.120 that's a pretty important thing to have those analytics built 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.000 in right, right. So there they're doing is they're giving 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.200 all the tools that your company would need in order 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.960 to get your message that you have crafted out to 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:12.239 your customers. Because it's one thing to create your brand's identity, 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.920 it's another thing to get that identity out there. In fact, 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.440 we're gonna be talking more about that a couple more 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:23.760 times in this list. So yeah, uh, an interesting company 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.520 to talk about because again it's one of those that 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:28.360 otherwise I don't think I would have ever mentioned. I 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.760 wouldn't have been aware of it because I don't own 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.600 a huge company that needs marketing. But but yeah, they've 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.880 got a really high rating, this kind of same four 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:40.680 point one that Orbits has. But it's CEO approval of 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.240 of Mr Scott D. Dorsey is yes, and I believe 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.400 Mr Dorsey is also one of the co founders of 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.600 the company. So that's another thing that we're gonna be 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.360 You know, a lot of these companies were talking about 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:55.520 here are relatively young, and so the people who made 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.360 the companies are still very much an active part. You know, 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.319 there are some legacy companies out there. I'm gonna go 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.719 ahead and give you a spoiler. Guys, there aren't very 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.240 many on this list. You're not gonna hear HP, You're 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.280 not gonna hear IBM, You're not going to hear Intel. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.840 These companies that have decades and decades of history. So 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.280 a lot of the companies are very young, still very 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:20.200 flexible and and and able to make big changes. Plus 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.680 they have some of the original people still very much 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.280 involved on a day to day basis in the operations. Yeah, 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.080 going through this list, it's interesting. I found that. I mean, 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.640 it's just easy to see where where that kind of 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.800 environment would lead to happier employees than the kind of 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.560 thing that gets so huge, right, because once you get 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.000 to that level, you have to put systems in place, 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.920 otherwise you just have chaos. Right. Although there is one 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.480 mega mega mega company, actually a couple of mega companies 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.080 that will be talking about in this episode that you 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.000 know are still pretty good at keeping everything organized. Yeah, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.360 but this one is pretty small. It's only about two 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.080 thousand employees or so. Um and uh, it sounds like 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.240 one of the perks of working there is that they 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.520 let their employees be pretty independent. Um, but that comes 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.320 with the caveat of you're expected to keep up. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.360 you are given a lot of autonomy, but that company 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:17.440 with great power comes great responsibility always. Yeah. So they 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.160 also have listed core values on their website, which includes 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.480 pretty simple things. I mean, these are kind of like 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.800 the Golden Rule broken down into a corporate approach, So 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.080 things like treat people well and be easy to do 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:35.680 business with and uh and make clients look like heroes. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.200 These all seem like very you know, obvious kind of things. 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.800 But when you when you make it a core part 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.120 of what your company is all about, and you and 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:50.360 you truly try to stick with that, then obviously that 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.200 that can trickle down into other elements that make it 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.360 a great place to work. Um. They also have a 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.480 philanthropic arm, the Exact Target Foundation, which was founded in 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.440 twenty eleven, and they that's dedicated to doing lots of 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.680 stuff like helping with hunger relief, increasing educational efforts, and 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:13.560 even supporting entrepreneurship across the world. So it's a company 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.240 that involves itself in multiple ways with its community. So 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.280 that's good. Yeah, it was doing so well for itself 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.640 at Salesforce dot Com announced that it was going to 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.960 acquire the company for two point five billion in June 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.120 of this year, yep, and completed that acquisition in July. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.880 So technically this company is now part of another company. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:33.320 It's kind of funny because when I was looking at 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.360 this list, Uh, some of the other ones further up 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.720 the list above number ten are companies that now are 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.080 the same company. I think it was like numbers fourteen 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.400 and thirteen or something like that are now part of 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.640 the same company. So yeah, salesforce dot Com also was 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:54.040 number nine on last year's list. And uh apparently you know, 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.160 uh exact target has actually boosted the sales forecast for 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.720 sales force dot Com. So salesforce dot Com had a 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.840 certain number that was projected out by its analysts right saying, 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:08.760 this is what we expect to hit by the end 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.520 of the year. By acquiring, uh this this company, they've 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.080 actually managed to boost that up, so now they're performing 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.119 above what they had projected. So in fact, exact target 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.560 has really been a benefit to Salesforce already in the 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.800 short term financial scale of things. It remains to be 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.919 seen how this plays out over time, because anytime you 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.160 have an acquisition there are some issues to work out 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.560 with cultural differences between the two different or two or 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.719 more different companies different entities. But one would hope that 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.359 since Salesforce has been on this list before and exact 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.320 targets on it this year, that it wouldn't change too much. Hopefully. Yeah, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.800 although definitely some of the some of the reasons that 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.000 people gave for enjoying working at some of these places 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.320 varied hugely among different companies on the list. You know, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.520 some people said, I love this company because you get 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.840 to act like a crazy college kid, and others are like, 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.040 I love this company because they don't make you act 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.360 like a crazy college kid. Right, so yeah, So it's 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.400 also one of the things that really benefits you when 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.000 you do your own research, because you have to take 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.919 into consideration your own ideal working situation, right, Like, if 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.359 you're one of those people who really thrives on collaboration, 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.359 and you you have to be around other people, and 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.840 you love working on projects with people, and maybe maybe 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.399 even working on projects with different groups of people throughout 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.440 your career, so it's not like you're part of a 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:34.040 team that's really cohesive. You your team changes, you know, 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.359 project a project. Then obviously one type of company is 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.479 going to be a better fit for you than some 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.359 other company where you're sitting at a desk and you're 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:43.800 always doing the same thing all the time always. However, 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.280 if you like stability, that other version sounds way more 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.479 your speed than some crazy one where you have no 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:52.520 idea who you'll be working with from one day to 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:57.359 the next. I'm I'm kind of in both camps on 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:59.560 that one, but I mostly work with the same people 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.359 from data day, so I guess I have that benefit mostly. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.600 I mean, we've got a wide team of similarly crazy 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.040 people running around. Let me put to you this way, 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.480 if Josh Clark ever comes up to me and says, hey, Strick, 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.399 I need your help with something, I ask a lot 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.080 of questions before I agree. The last time that I 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.800 ran into Josh Clark on the elevator, he was carrying 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.199 like like three packages of rope, like industrial rope and 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.320 I was like, Hey, good morning, Josh, how are you doing. Yeah, 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.080 so it pays to ask questions around here, that's what 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.359 we're saying. Let's move on to number eight. Number eight 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.040 is is another digital marketing company called Responses. Yeah, this 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.760 one again. This was another one. Both Exact Target and 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.040 Responses were companies where I had to dig a little 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.879 deeper to really understand what they do because Lauren and 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.360 I do a little bit of marketing on a very 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:49.399 surface level, very surface. We like to interact with people 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.800 on social networks, which technically falls under the category of marketing, 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:54.600 but we think of it as being able to like 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.919 share awesome stuff with our fans and find out what 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.800 they like, so we don't really necessarily think of it 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.119 in the same terms as a marketing department would. So 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.360 a lot of this is like foreign language to us. 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.760 But Responses is one of the companies that will do 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.280 more of this stuff for you. They also work in 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.119 you know, email, mobile, social, and web, but with a 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.720 full like software planning and implementation kind of package. Yeah, 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.720 and they were founded in n Their headquarters are in 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.520 San Bruno, California. It turns out California is a great 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.960 place to work if you're in tech weird right you 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.240 never thought of it in Silicon Valley and all that 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.120 kind of stuff. Um, So they also do a lot 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.639 of research on what are the most effective means of 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.760 reaching consumers. Uh that if you go to the website, 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.600 one of the taglines on there is your customers want experiences, 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.480 not campaigns. So the idea being that, you know, it's 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.560 not just not just the delivery method, but also what's 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.159 the actual message, what what are you trying, what's the 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.879 effect you're trying to get besides just people interested in 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.439 your product, and they they try and construct an entire 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:02.200 approach from attracted the consumer, making them aware of who 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.120 you are and what you do, getting them to purchase 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:08.600 the whatever product or service you offer, and then getting 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.400 them to repurchase later on. So the idea being that 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:16.080 you convert a customer into a loyal customer. That sort 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.879 of conversion is obviously really important for a lot of businesses. 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:21.960 I mean, it's great if you can make a sale, 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.160 it's better if you can make a lifelong customer. So 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:27.720