4 ms·

Is there a tangible value to being on that list?

gnicholas 7y ago
I would guess there are two possible benefits: 1: publicity from being on the list, which FastCo presumably promotes at least once during the year (and probably leave up during the year) 2: being able to say you were selected for FastCo's list, which presumably gives you cred among certain groups. I do wonder if you might be held in lower regard by people who are aware that the competition costs so much just to enter.
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  I for one will never forget what it means now that I know they paid a bribe to be on it.
  - ansible 7y ago
    It is bribery, yes. It doesn't seem too expensive as far as marketing costs go.
  - gnicholas 7y ago
    I would actually be interested to know what percent of companies that pay to enter are included on one of the lists. If a large percentage of companies are honored, then it seems like a pretty transparent pay-to-play. This means the list is pretty worthless. OTOH, if a small percentage of companies are honored, then that means lots of companies are paying non-trivial fees and getting nothing in return. I believe the money is used to pay the people who review the applications, but unless those people have to be paid hundreds of dollars per application, or unless they have a high degree of redundancy in application review, the application fees wouldn't make sense. Basically, it would mean the list is a money-maker for them because they're accepting fees from so many unqualified companies. Either way (pay-to-play or revenue source), it definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Frankly, it'd be cool if they offered a way to crowdsource the selection process, where each company that applied was given 10 companies to rank. As long as the 10 given to each person were randomly selected, it would be difficult/impossible to game the system and upvote friends. Also, companies could be given applications from other lists (I think there's a social-impact list and a general-purpose innovation list) to make sure there are no conflicts.
justinclift 7y ago
Ego stroking for those people that desire it?

I would guess there are two possible benefits: 1: publicity from being on the list, which FastCo presumably promotes at least once during the year (and probably leave up during the year) 2: being able to say you were selected for FastCo's list, which presumably gives you cred among certain groups. I do wonder if you might be held in lower regard by people who are aware that the competition costs so much just to enter.

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
I for one will never forget what it means now that I know they paid a bribe to be on it.
- ansible 7y ago
  It is bribery, yes. It doesn't seem too expensive as far as marketing costs go.
- gnicholas 7y ago
  I would actually be interested to know what percent of companies that pay to enter are included on one of the lists. If a large percentage of companies are honored, then it seems like a pretty transparent pay-to-play. This means the list is pretty worthless. OTOH, if a small percentage of companies are honored, then that means lots of companies are paying non-trivial fees and getting nothing in return. I believe the money is used to pay the people who review the applications, but unless those people have to be paid hundreds of dollars per application, or unless they have a high degree of redundancy in application review, the application fees wouldn't make sense. Basically, it would mean the list is a money-maker for them because they're accepting fees from so many unqualified companies. Either way (pay-to-play or revenue source), it definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Frankly, it'd be cool if they offered a way to crowdsource the selection process, where each company that applied was given 10 companies to rank. As long as the 10 given to each person were randomly selected, it would be difficult/impossible to game the system and upvote friends. Also, companies could be given applications from other lists (I think there's a social-impact list and a general-purpose innovation list) to make sure there are no conflicts.

justinclift 7y ago

Ego stroking for those people that desire it?