2. How do you feel about being named a finalist in the 2010 Tech Awards? I've long admired MITX's ability to foreshadow the "next big things" with its Tech Awards winners. It is thrilling to be named as one of those companies that can see around corners and shape the future.
3. If you could describe your innovation in one succinct sentence, how would you describe yourself? Daily Grommet is forming a Citizen Commerce movement, allowing everyday people to reshape the commerce experience by suggesting, supporting, and buying products that are meaningful to them.
4. How was your company founded, and what inspired its creation? Daily Grommet founder, Jules Pieri, is an industrial designer whose career includes executive roles building consumer brands, products and software. While President of a social networking startup, she realized that if she combined the amplification power of social behaviors and technologies, with the inherent value and entertainment factor of interesting and inspirational product stories, it would be a change-the-world business opportunity. She knew that telling those stories via video would give people a way to see under the hood of products--both their fascinating creation stories, and the values and people behind them.
5. What makes your company different from other companies in your market space? Rather than a traditional destination e-commerce website, our company has built a community-based, interactive marketplace with video and content which can be distributed across the internet. In so doing, we solve a big problem for creators of inventive products. Namely, we broadly build awareness with audiences who care about supporting companies that amplify good in the world -- be it technical innovation, preserving craft or communities, or social and green enterprise.
6. What has been your company's greatest accomplishment in the past year? In October of 2009, Daily Grommet came out of Beta, officially launching our marketplace and introducing a new platform which took the business from a flash-sale, affiliate-based model to a drop-ship model, offering a deep catalog of products and services.
7. What is your greatest asset? Our community is our greatest asset: both the businesses developing inventive products and services, and the regular people who surface those unique product ideas, and directly tell us about companies which are making a difference. Together, these groups have the power to entirely reshape the consumer experience (which is 65% of our economy), by removing traditional retail bottlenecks and ensuring the end of nameless, faceless business.
