Crowdfunding
Category: Financial Services
Disrupting: Lending

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and of alternative finance. In 2015, it was estimated that worldwide over US$34 billion was raised this way.

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter help artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas a reality. To date, tens of thousands of creative projects—big and small— have come to life with the support of the Kickstarter community. Over 10 million people, from every continent on earth, have backed a Kickstarter project. Every artist, filmmaker, designer, developer, and creator on Kickstarter has complete creative control over their work—and the opportunity to share it with a vibrant community of backers.

Digital Innovation
Category: New Platforms
Disrupting: Software & Product Development 

Digital innovation is achieved by leveraging new digital tools. The overriding concept is that the “digital” component is tactical and the strategic focus is the business (business model and/or value proposition). The important point is that it’s not a question of innovating for innovation’s sake, but in order to respond to unmet user needs or to provide a stronger customer value proposition.

Pivotal Labs is transforming how the world builds software. Pivotal facilitators use methods honed through thousands of hours collaborating with product teams in startups, enterprises and governments around the globe which include techniques that support Lean Startup and Agile methodologies. Welcome to a new way of thinking.

Social Media
Category: New Platforms
Disrupting: Advertising

Social media networks are a major resource for both small and big businesses that are looking to promote and connect audiences to their brands on the Internet. The platforms are easy to use and some of them even have paid advertising options for businesses that want to reach new audiences.

The millions of people who follow Kim Kardashian West and her sisters on social media have become accustomed to seeing them praise everything from fat-burning tea to gummy vitamins for healthier hair. For marketers contending with consumers who use ad blockers online and have cut the cord to their TVs in favor of streaming services, social media has become a way to reach an elusive audience. Brands such as Jack in the Box and Red Bull have proved willing to pay thousands of dollars per social media mention to people like the Kardashians and other so-called influencers who command big, loyal followings on services like Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.

Next-Generation Genomics
Category: Healthcare
Disrupting: Diagnosis, Treatment, Care

With its unprecedented throughput, scalability, and speed, next-generation genomics enables researchers to study biological systems at a level never before possible. Today's complex genomic research questions demand a depth of information beyond the capacity of traditional DNA sequencing technologies. Next-generation sequencing has filled that gap and become an everyday research tool to address these questions. The genomic approach has shown utility in the molecular detection and genotyping of infectious disease pathogens and for public health surveillance. With the use of NGS technology, pathogens can be isolated and researchers can detect pathogens directly from samples such as blood and CSF. Results are obtained rapidly with extreme accuracy, allowing better-informed treatment decisions. The sequence information obtained by NGS is also used to develop specific primers for PCR-based assays, to provide more complete sequence information for MLST assays, and to develop other specific field tests.

The Gig Economy
Category: Future of Work
Disrupting: Employment

The trend toward a gig economy has begun where temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. It's predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors. As the workforce is increasingly mobile, job and location are often decoupled meaning that freelancers can select among temporary jobs and projects around the world, while employers can select the best individuals for specific projects from a larger pool than that available in any given area.

TaskRabbit connects you with the same-day help in 3 simple steps. Taskers undergo an extensive background check and in-person on-boarding before joining the TaskRabbit community. They’re professional, highly rated, and always ready to lend a hand. Select from a list of popular chores and submit your request, choose a same-day appointment or a future time with time that suits your schedule and we’ll match you with the right Tasker for the job. 

Advanced Robotics
Category: Next-Generation Manufacturing
Disrupting: Manufacturing & Healthcare

Advanced Robotics are the technologies associated with the creation of automated machines that have a higher level of capabilities than stationary robots. These abilities can include movement, touch, communication and vision. In the coming years Advanced Robotics is expected to impact everyone, both at home and in the workplace. This is a technologically complex emerging market with significant opportunities for the right application.

Robotics healthcare threatens to challenge how patient care and treatment is performed redefining the word "preventative." Medical nanotechnology is expected to employ nanorobots that will be injected into the patient to perform work at a cellular level. Ingestibles and internables bring forward the introduction of broadband-enabled digital tools that are eaten and "smart" pills that use wireless technology to help monitor internal reactions to medications.

The Sharing Economy
Category: New Business Models
Disrupting: Community, Hospitality, Lodging, Automotive, Funding, Innovation, Commercial Real Estate

The Sharing Economy is a socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human, physical and intellectual resources. It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organizations.

Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone or tablet. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and 191 countries. Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions.

Internet of Things
Category: New Platforms
Disrupting: Utilities, Home Automation, Sensing & Monitoring

The Internet of things is the connection of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data. The IoT links objects to the Internet, enabling data and insights never available before.

When products work with Nest, you don’t have to tell them how to connect. Or what to do. They just work. In real homes for real people. All you need is a Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect or Nest Cam. Add another product, like a light bulb, and they’ll start to notice each other, learn from one another, and help you out–all on their own.

Food Trucks
Category: Food
Disrupting: Hospitality, Food & Beverage Industry 

With their flexibility, relative ease of operation and low start-up costs, food trucks appear to be leading the foodie revelation and thus disrupting the F&B industry. According to IBISWorld, Food trucks are not just a fad, they represent a viable segment that is set to generate $1.2 billion in revenue this year, a 12.4 percent increase over the past 5 years, and by 2017 that revenue is expected to increase to a whopping $2.7 billion. It's very entrepreneurial with 78 percent of operators counting four or fewer employees.

The first food truck was an ice cream truck turned taco dispensary that was opened by Raul Martinez in 1974 in East Los Angeles. Ever since, the growth in the popularity of mobile cuisine has been on the rise. 

New Materials
Category: Design & Manufacturing
Disrupting: Building, Fashion, Manufacturing

Researchers are developing cutting-edge foams, coatings, metals and other substances to make our homes, vehicles and gadgets more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Geckskin™ is a new super-adhesive based on the mechanics of gecko feet. Named one of the top five science breakthroughs of 2012 by CNN Money, Geckskin™ is so powerful that an index-card sized piece can hold 700 pounds on a smooth surface, such as glass, yet can be easily released, and leaves no residue. Geckskin™ offers tantalizing possibilities for synthetic devices that can easily attach and detach everyday objects such as televisions or computers to walls, as well as medical, industrial, clothing, and home applications. Geckskin opens up new opportunities for adhesion that have never been imagined before.

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Neutral Nets
Category: Computer Technologies
Disrupting: Manufacturing, Production, Logistics, Employment

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks all describe ways for computers to do more advanced tasks and learn from their environment. 

Machine learning is a broad term that encompasses anything where you teach a machine to improve at a task on its own. More specifically, it refers to any system where a machine’s performance at completing a task gets better solely through more experience performing that task. Neural networks are an example of machine learning that use a network of nodes (which act like neurons) and edges (which act like synapses) to process data. Inputs are then run through the system and a series of outputs are generated., but they are not the only way a machine can learn.

Autonomous and New Mobility Services
Category: Transportation
Disrupting: Public Transit

New Mobility Services help to better integrate and manage urban transport and contribute to the development of collective systems for seamless multi-modal mobility.

RideCell is the leading business automation platform to launch, operate, and scale autonomous and new mobility services, including ride-sharing, car-sharing, and dynamic fixed route services. We create a truly multi-dimensional mobility service, power businesses end-to-end, from consumer apps to the day-to-day fleet management, demand and supply analytics, marketing, CRM, and payments. We enable some of the largest and most innovative public and private mobility services in the world to launch, operate, and scale autonomous and new mobility services.

Autonomous Car Design
Category: Automotive
Disrupting: Driving

Self-driving cars should be on the road in the next five years, but apart from Mercedes Benz ‘Luxury in Motion’ concept, we haven’t seen a lot of heavily redesigned interiors.

Faurecia, a French interior supplier partly owned by Peugeot Citroen, wants to be the first out of the gate with new and innovative interiors for the self-driving car. Faurecia is working on an "active wellness" seat, which employs biometric sensors and predictive analytics to measure and respond to occupant stress, drowsiness and other symptoms, according to Rob Huber, vice president of innovation and ventures. The company also is experimenting with ways to blend voice recognition and gesture controls with advanced lighting, audio and control systems.