Mark Sullivan

Red Nose Day uses comic relief to raise awareness about child poverty

Meagan Kirkpatrick wasn’t seeing things. That really was a giant red nose she saw on her way to work the other morning. It was one of the many ways people are raising awareness about Red Nose Day, which is working to end child poverty. On Thursday, May 25, there will be thousands of other noses—most […]

Young innovators: Daniel Arvidsson, Dan Korman, and Sam Marley of Blurr

The day after they threw a going-away party for a college friend, Daniel Arvidsson, Dan Korman, and Sam Marley realized that they didn’t have photos of the event. It took several days to track down a shot of the whole group—enough time for the roommates to come up with the idea for Blurr, a hyperlocal […]

In Detroit, making handcrafted glasses is a passion

Sean Yargeau says that when he and Brandon Davis created their first pair of eyeglasses, they didn’t have the slightest idea that it would become their life’s work. “We were making architectural models at the time,” says Yargeau, one of the cofounders of Detroit’s Sharklion. “We were using a lot of wood, and just to […]

Young innovators: Laura and Michael Dweck of Basic Outfitters

When New Yorkers Laura and Michael Dweck returned from their honeymoon, they had a standoff over storage space. “His underwear drawer wouldn’t close,” Laura remembers. “It was filled with underwear, some he hadn’t put on since college. I told him that anything he hadn’t worn in the past three months had to go.” And with […]

Young innovators: Amelia Friedman and Param Jaggi of Hatch Technologies

Amelia Friedman and Param Jaggi were in a bind. They had already launched their company Hatch Technologies, a fully automated drag-and-drop app builder, when they started running out of cash. The problem was that they were not far enough along in development to take it to investors. “We needed to figure out some way, any […]

Young innovators: Victor Gutwein of M25 Group

Victor Gutwein was in middle school when he launched his first startup in his hometown in northwestern Indiana. “I wanted to be able to earn money,” he says, “so I decided to put bubblegum machines all over town.” Gutwein says it taught him a lot about running a business—everything from generating more sales to managing […]

Young innovators: Shaniqua Davis of Noirefy

When Shaniqua Davis applied for jobs, she got far more responses when she used the name Shawn. A little research showed what she had already figured out: people with male and white-sounding names are much more likely to get called in for an interview. But switching between Shaniqua and Shawn didn’t seem like a sustainable […]

Young innovators: Matthew de la Hey and Alex Hanson-Smith of inploi

For London-based entrepreneurs, Matthew de la Hey and Alex Hanson-Smith, there have been a couple of turning points that proved they were on the right track. The first came a few months after they came up with the idea for inploi, a platform connecting employers and staffers in the hospitality industry. “Both of us are incredibly […]

Hip haberdasher Donovan England’s style suits everyone

Donovan England is in a hurry. He’s wrapping up a phone interview with a reporter while he and his friends speed to the airport to board a private plane. His destination for the weekend? A bachelor’s party in New Orleans. “Things are going pretty fast,” England admits. The 34-year-old entrepreneur’s business—an eponymous line of bespoke […]

Hip hop trailblazer Nas launches cutting-edge studio

Three young musicians huddle in the corner, engrossed in a serious discussion around the end of a long table. Some entertainment industry insiders step off the elevator, catching the attention of one of the musicians, who wonders aloud if that was someone they should recognize. Not far away, standing under a mural emblazoned with the […]

Women leaders ‘thrilled’ by outpouring of support at Creator Awards

Standing side by side with the other winners at the Creator Awards, Kellee James felt that she was a part of something extraordinary. “I’ve literally never seen that happen before,” said James, CEO of Mercaris, an agriculture startup. “It used to be that the only time women were part of a pitch competition was when […]

Searching for his mother in Haiti, David Pierre-Louis discovers his heritage

When a massive earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, David Pierre-Louis was distraught when he couldn’t find out any news about his mother. After more than a day of unanswered calls, he decided there was just one thing to do: travel to the capital city of Port-au-Prince and find her himself. The story of what he […]

At Creator Awards, women entrepreneurs take home top prizes

Photographers had just finished snapping a few final shots when Elizabeth Lindsey’s phone rang. She quickly ducked over to one side of the room. “I couldn’t wait to tell somebody the news,” she said to the person on the other end. “You’re not going to believe it.” Lindsey, the executive director of Byte Back, said […]

A lifelong love of tech inspires Saeed Jabbar to teach young people to code

Growing up in Guyana, the only thing Inclusion founder Saeed Jabbar wanted as a kid was his own video game console. But that luxury was out of reach for his family, until they moved to Jamaica, Queens when he was about 10 years old. “Every kid is interested in video games, right?” he asks. “But […]

In the home stretch, Creator Award finalists perfect their pitch

After leading her nonprofit for a decade, Cristi Hegranes had perfected her pitch. She knew just how to describe her organization’s work to the boards of some of the world’s most prominent foundations. Then she was notified that Global Press Institute was a finalist for the Creator Awards, and she threw her usual pitch out […]

Five ways to avoid burnout while you change the world

Jessa Messina says she noticed it during last year’s election. Many of her friends were excited about getting more involved in the political process, not realizing that it was leaving them completely exhausted. The founder of Yojo, which “brings wellness to the workplace through yoga and meditation,” says that no matter what your political persuasion […]

This branding pro is flying solo—and loving the view

“I’m 100 percent unemployable,” says Jenna Soard, laughing out loud. “It’s not that I don’t have the skills. It’s that I don’t always follow rules.” A yearlong stint as a designer at Nike—a dream job, she admits—convinced the Portland trailblazer that she needed to strike out on her own. Soard started You Can Brand, where she […]

Away from the crowds, this diamond guy’s business sparkles

Neil Press has had a lot of jobs in his life, from snowboarding instructor to hedge fund recruiter. It turned out that diamonds were his real passion. “I’m a diamond guy by trade,” says Press. “I do ‘privates,’ which is what they call private showings in the industry. People come to me looking for that […]

Mark Sullivan

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