Oktogo: Online Travel in a Distrustful Country

In Russia’s growing travel industry, Oktogo.ru is the leader in online hotel booking. It has a database of more than 5,000 hotels in Russia and 250,000 worldwide. Oktogo.ru is more preferred by visitors going to Russia because of its huge and relevant offerings.

Russians are quite wary of online transactions and credit card usage. Only 10% of the country’s businesses are handled online. In spite of this, Oktogo made $30 million in revenues in 2012 from only $6 million in 2011. Oktogo was successful in using smartphone in lieu of broadband which has lesser following.

Oktogo was founded by Marina Kolesnik, who also acts as the company’s CEO. Kolesnik has a proven track record in executive management. She has a deep knowledge of online travel and hospitality and its relevant technologies. Before founding Oktogo, Kolesnik worked with DataArt and lead the company’s growing online travel and hospitality business in the UK and US. Kolesnik also worked with McKinsey & Co. as management consultant.

Evernote: App for the Data-Addled Times

Evernote is a developer of app that lets users save and retrieve data – a note, photos, or parts of a web page – through desktops, tablets and smartphones. Acting like an external brain, Evernote is capable of cataloging the people they meet and even the food they eat.

From just 20 million users in 2011, Evernote reached 45 million users by the end of 2012. With more than a million users paying monthly subscriptions of $5 for unlimited access and storage, Evernote is earning $1 billion annually. According to CEO Phil Libin, Evernote is not an original idea in technology; nonetheless, it is successful because the timing was right.

In order to get things and communicate effectively, Evernote understands the need of data users to remember. Evernote has the collection of useful apps that save thoughts and ideas and preserve experience, users can stay organized for a more productive and efficient work.

Evernote’s apps are designed for note taking. A “note” is a piece of formatted text, excerpts of a webpage, a photo, a handwritten note or a voice memo. The note can carry an attachment. Evernote will sort the notes into appropriate folders. The users can tag, annotate, edit, give comments, search and export the whole or part of a note.

The apps are easy to use. It is compatible with a number of OS platforms such as iOS, OS X, Andoird, Chrome OS, Microsoft Windows, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and webOS. They also offer online synchronization and allow backup services. The apps are available in restricted free and paid versions. Online service is free up to a certain usage limit per month. Additional usage is available for paying users.

Evernote is a private company based in Redwood City, California. It was founded by Stephan Pachikov and was launched in open beta in June 2008. Among its leading investors were Sequoia Capital, DoCoMo Capital and Morgenthaler Ventures with funding of $20 million; CBC Capital and Meritech capital raising funds of $70 million; and, Valiant capital Partners and AGC Equity Partners raising another $85 million.

The House of Windsor: Specialized Headwear for All Occasions

Designer millinery – it's just one of the many niches present in the wide arena that is the fashion industry, but it's a highly lucrative one. The House of Windsor is an Australian millinery that crafts specialized headwear and hair accessories. From hats to veiled caps, The House of Windsor has a wide range of one-of-a-kind yet elegant pieces to suit all occasion.

The House of Windsor works with top designers in the country and abroad in creating their masterpieces. Brenda Wilson, Pam Cameron, Carolyn Unwin, Karen Manly and celebrated milliner Ann-Maree Willett have all had their work featured in The House of Windsor's catalogue, bringing that touch of class and flair to special events such as weddings, baptisms, races and other social activities. Based in Brisbane, The House of Windsor also makes and sells jewellery designed by Maree Phillot, as well as custom-made accessories according to each person's tastes and needs.

IMG: The World's #1 International Modeling Agency

The fashion industry is vast, encompassing numerous divisions and even more names. Fashion also crosses over and overlaps with other industries such as entertainment, mass media and pop culture. This is especially true with the proliferation of shows such as “America's Next Top Model” and “Project Runway” that seek to bring fashion closer to the average consumer through reality television shows that portray models and fashion designers as normal, relatable people. To make it in the world of fashion, one needs a strong, sellable presence, talent and a determination to tough it out. All these are qualities that IMG Models possesses in quantities.

IMG Models, a division of conglomerate IMG Worldwide, has climbed its way to become the world's number one international management company. With offices in New York, London, Paris, Milan and Sydney, IMG lays claim to some of the world's most beautiful, most prolific and most marketable faces. Not only does IMG handle modeling careers, they are behind the meteoric rise of many of the fashion and entertainment industries' figureheads, turning boy or girl-next-door models into household names of international repute.

IMG has worked with and represented Gisele Bundchen, Lily Aldridge, Tyra Banks, Mischa Barton, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Kerr, Milla Jovovich, Heidi Klum, Tallulah Morton, Kate Moss, Gemma Ward, Liv Tyler, Kate Upton, Candice Swanepoel, Julianne Moore, Alexis Bledel and Cindy Crawford – proof that the agency is not only capable of turning out supermodels, but excellent actresses and entertainment hosts as well. IMG Models maintains a strong presence in the world's key fashion capitals, promoting its talents and working in conjunction with the other IMG divisions to maximize their clients' potential across all possible areas. With a solid reputation behind it and a commitment to quality, IMG's recipe for success has been well on track for the past years, and shows no signs of slowing down soon.

Parse: For an Easier Mobile Backend

Parse is a startup that developed a platform that allows adding cloud components to existing mobile applications. In the summer of 2011, Parse debuted on private beta. Recent observations proved that Parse is slowly gaining traction by the hour.

Parse’s software platform enables software developers to store data on servers without the need of configuring server-side codes. The platform is maintenance free; hence, also worry free. Unlike its competitors, Parse business philosophy is all about minimum configuration. By typing a few lines of the code, users can run the platform and store data.

Some angel investors in Silicon Valley have noticed Parse business potentials. Since funding is important to startups like Parse, Google Ventures, Y-Combinator, SV-Angel and Menlo ventures have contributed funds to carry on the company’s business at its inception.

Now that funds are more secure, Parse’s team is working hard to become the most amazing platform for software developers. The idea may be difficult but Parse team is committed and passionate about the vision.

Yelp Inc.: Local Business Directories and Reviews that Make the Big Difference

Yelp Inc. is the operator of yelp.com, a review site and local business directory with social networking features. From 71 million unique visitors per month in 2012, yelp.com had more than 100 million unique visitors in January 2013. Yelp’s income is coming from advertising local businesses.

Yelp started off MRL ventures. MRL was founded by incubator Max Levchin along with a few ex-PayPal executives. MRL was created to develop Levchin’s investments. Levchin and his associates Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman met to discuss Yellow Pages in 2004. Stoppelman’s difficulty in finding a local physician on the internet led them to agree to ask Levchin to ask his friends for recommendations from friends through email. On that day, Levchin agreed to pour in $1 million for the project. It was co-founder David Galbraith who gave the name “Yelp”.

Initially, yelp.com was difficult to use. It attracted just a handful of visitors and reviewers. However, in a period of serendipity, Simmons and Stoppelman have noticed that a huge portion of users preferred to use the feature that allows them to write reviews without prompting. The site was re-launched in 2005 based on the unsolicited reviews.

Yelp’s community started to grow. Many local businesses wanting to attract patrons joined the community. Yelp also launched the Yelp Elite, a super-user community which was created to give rewards to the best reviewers. Yelp Elite is always invited in parties and special events.

In 2005, Yelp accounted close to 12,000 reviewers in 2005. In 2006, the number grew to 100,000. Yelp produced “People Love Us on Yelp” stickers to increase awareness for Yelp. In 2008, monthly visitors to the website grew to 15 million. Three years into Yelp’s launching, the company was active in 24 cities with website traffic doubling in just six months.

Yelp was able to raise funding amounting to $5 million from Bessemer Venture Partners at the onset of the company. In 2006, another $10 million was contributed by Benchmark Capital and another $15 million from Dag Ventures in 2008. Elevation Partners also contributed $100 million in 2010.