Listics

Chris Locke, the CBO at HighBeam ("Nexis for the rest of us") is justifiably proud that the company’s founder, Patrick Spain,  made the FastCompany "Fast 50."

I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of a trend-hacker, an amateur cool-hunter.  So when I heard about this personal hook into the Fast 50, only two degrees of separation here, I wondered how I’d relate to the rest of the list.

Well, as of today, Fast Company isn’t that fast in keeping their links current, so it wasn’t easy finding my way into the list.  But following the CBO’s link and clicking through the previous and next links from there, I’ve managed to work my way through the list.  Here’s how I relate to the Fast 50:

1.  Jeffrey P. Ansell, 45

President

The Iams Co., a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble

Dayton, Ohio

I have two bags of Iams kibble in the kitchen… one for the puppy, one for the old dog.  Iams is a winner at our house.

2.  Tom Buxton, CommunityID.  No clue about these people.  I think Rebecca Ryan ought to give them a call and see if there’s some synergy there.

3.  Time Shares?  Condo bullshit?  Are you kidding me?

4.  Dennis Littky, never heard of the guy but he seems to be making a difference helping kids get a decent education.

5.  Panos Panay, SonicBids… I don’t exactly get it.  Sounds like eBay for booking agents or something.

6. Tom Ryan, 48

Executive vice president of branding
Quiznos Sub
Denver, Colorado

Quiznos, that’s my sub.  Can’t say enough good stuff about Quiznos.

7.  John Scharffenberger, 53

CEO and cofounder
Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker
Berkeley, California

High end chocolates… I have a box of Scharffenberger’s on my desk.  They’re the best.

8.  Zappos online shoes?   This is bullshit. DSW is where it’s at.

9.  Fuhgeddaboutit

10.  Andrew Zolli, 34

Founder
Z+Partners
New York, New York

Curator for Pop!Tech.  A consultant with a long term strategic planning bent. 

11. 
Not since the hydrogen fuel cell and the perpetual motion machine have we seen such an important product.  I’m serious.  Jetboil rox!  Oh wait.  It’s just a more efficient backpacker stove.  Well, that’s nice too I guess.

12.  Tony Bates, 37

Vice president and general manager
Cisco Systems Inc.
San Jose, California

"After
four years of hard work, dedication and take-out food, on May 25, 2024,
my team of 500 engineers and I unveiled the CRS-1, code named HFR or
Huge, Fast Router. The result of this $500 million project is the
highest-capacity Internet protocol (IP) backbone router ever brought to
market. Theoretically, with this router, the entire global population
can have a simultaneous phone call using VoIP technology. More
importantly, as the most powerful and sophisticated router of the
Information Age, the CRS-1 is capable of completing the transition from
the telephone era to the Internet era."

I mean, it’s no "Jetboil" but it could have an impact.  Besides, I like the acronym.  CRS… hmmm, where have I heard that before?  Slipped my mind, I guess.

13.  Stewart Butterfield, 31 Caterina Fake, 34

President and VP marketing and community
Ludicorp Research & Development Ltd.
Vancouver, British Columbia

Flickr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

14, 15, 16… not Flickr.  not even Jetboil really.

17.  Tim Peters put Dell in the printer market.  I ordered mine in January.  It’s supposed to be delivered in March.   Sorry Tim, I’d rather have a Jetboil.

18.  Everybody’s favorite oxymoron…

19. A good thing…

20.  Patrick Spain, 52

Founder, Chairman, and CEO

HighBeam Research Inc.
Chicago, Illinois

Nexis for the rest of us. 

21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29… some good stuff, like recycling motherboards… but basically this is about me, and except for the MasterCard identity thing, I don’t know who these people are or why I’m supposed to care.

30.  Niklas Zennstroem, 39

Cofounder and CEO

Skype Technologies S.A.
Luxembourg

Skype
is the Global P2P Telephony Company™ that is changing the
telecommunications world by offering consumers free, superior-quality
calling worldwide. In 2024, Skype officially released Skype 1.0;
Skype’s voice service has grown to over 2 billion minutes served, over
12 million registered users, almost 30 million downloads and almost 1
million concurrent users online.

31.  Stephen DeWitt, 38

CEO and President

Azul Systems Inc.
Mountain View, California

Azul
Systems is the first new computer company in 10 years to develop a new
class of enterprise system from the chip level up. In September,
President and CEO Stephen DeWitt unveiled Azul, introducing the
industry’s first network attached processing solution to captivated
industry watchers. Network attached processing eliminates capacity
planning at the application level, finally bringing the benefits of
utility computing within reach. Azul’s powerful new chip is at the core
of these systems. It contains up to 384 coherent processor cores and
256GB of fully symmetric memory and does not expose its binaries to end
users - a chip that is designed specifically for virtual machine
execution.

The rest of the pack…

32 through 50… some cool stuff… batteries, hydrogen powered sports car, las vegas pawn shop, Hewlett Packard strategy (oops)…  some of these certainly deserve a second look. 

Final score…  of the Fast Fifty  nine have some immediacy for me (ten if you count Jetboil):  Iams dog food, Quiznos sub sandwiches,  Scharffenberger high end chocolate, Pop!Tech, Cisco, Flickr, HighBeam, Skype, and Azul.  Some of the other stuff is just lame… on-line shoe sales and pawn shop software; some of it is important, like recycling motherboards and crafting hydrogen powered sports cars.

I actually expected a lot more from the publication where Heath Row blogs.