NYC Office Space & Entrepreneurs Stories
the greensoul team
“One Million Shoes in Five Years!” is a sign hanging in the
TriBeCa Office of Sunshine Suites’ Shiners Green Soul Shoes – it is also the company’s ambitious and altruistic goal.GreenSoul Shoes is a company with a socially conscience heart. These former investment bankers are using the same strategies they used in their executive positions on Wall Street to change the way the world thinks about consumption, recycling and the indigenous markets of the developing world.In an interview with
The Wall Street Journal , Stephen Chen describes the GreenSoul business model which creates a global marketplace for third world shoemakers to sell their shoes. For every shoe sold, one is given to a child in that same community.They are launching their first partnership in Southeast Asia where the sandals are made from 100% recycled rubber taken from truck tires.They feature thick durable soles and elastic straps made from inner tubes. They use no glue or stitching, these comfortable and attractive sandals are produced in a way that improves social and environmental standards.The idea started when attorney and serial entrepreneur Al Onglingswan was on vacation in the Philippines. Bored with the typical tourist attractions, Onglingswan opted to explore the interior of Manila solo. There, he was moved by the thousands of children picking through enormous garbage dumps, searching for anything of value they could sell for food.Barefoot, these orphans risk serious injury and infection from the millions of pieces of broken glass, shards of metal, and hypodermic needles discarded in the dump.When he returned to the United States Onglingswan vowed to do everything he could to help provide shoes for these children.For most, the economic crisis that befell Wall Street in past few months was well, a crisis. For the Green Soul Team the recent layoffs at financial giants Bear Sterns and JP Morgan Chase enabled Onglingswan’s big idea to get off the ground.Stephen Chen, a former VP of Business Strategy at Bear Sterns, and Iris Chau, a former VP of Equity Research at JP Morgan Chase joined Onglingswan after both were laid off from their respective positions.Together the three got to work on a business model to serve multiple stakeholders. In an interview with
Reuters, Stephen Chen explains GreenSoul Shoe’s Strategy: “Implement the same businesses techniques, stewardship and operations that you learn in a regular business and apply it in a socially conscience one.”These former investment bankers are also creating new allegiances between private and public organizations. Green Soul is working as a bridge between for-profit companies like Sketchers and the world’s leading NGOs such as UNICEF to provide a package of “goods” to the world’s most fragile populations.To see pictures and pre-order your pair of Green Soul Shoes
Click Here!!The group has already received orders from over 20 distributors and have been profiled by many major news outlets including the
New York Times. The group orignially created a buzz about their idea with low cost viral marketing and email campaigns. The GreenSoul Team used recession appropriate marketing strategies to do more than sell their award winning business model, they brought awareness to the plight of thousands of children in need. .Green Soul Shoes has been part of the
Sunshine Community for almost six months. For more information about the Green Soul Team, and their shoes visit their
website. .
Shiners
On Thursday, April 23rd the Shiners Networking Group hosted a Capital Markets Panel that discussed “Capital Raising & Lending Opportunities for Businesses in Today’s Economic Environment.” The five member panel included a portfolio manager for a leading investment management firm, a principal from a business incubation firm and a principal from a financial/analytics consulting firm that serves small and medium sized growing businesses. The panel also included principals of growing technology companies (www.directinteractive.com and www.regroup.com). For more information about the panel or to be included on the networking group’s event mailing list, please email shiners@sunshineny.com
Trulia
Like all start-ups, Sean Black had a big idea: change the way people search for homes on the Internet. Trulia, a technologically advanced real estate search engine with a clean design, has lead a sea of change in modern house hunting.The idea may have been revolutionary, but the origins were humble at best. “I started out working from my home,” Black says, “but working by yourself is incredibly lonely, distracting, and you don’t feel very legitimate – it’s pretty easy to just start hanging around in your underwear.”Black started thinking about renting a
New York City office space, but with only five employees (four of which were based out of San Francisco) this didn’t seem economically feasible. He considered shared
office space in New York City. “I went through HQ.com, an international provider of outsourced office spaces.” Black relates, “I took a tour of an office in the IBM building on Madison Avenue, they showed me a broom closet wit no windows for $2,500 a month.” This did not sit well, especially with a real estate authority. “First of all, I would kill myself. I would commit Hari Kari if I had to sit in a windowless room, let alone pay $2,500 for it.”Fortunately, Black’s wife read an article about start-ups and virtual office space that mentioned Sunshine Suites, and Black decided there was no harm in taking a tour. “It was cool, and funky, yet professional,” Black says “I loved the location on Lafayette Street. For Black, convenience was key: The 24 hour Crunch Fitness Center right across the street was a big selling point, and Black saved money on his membership through the Sunshine “Solar Power Affiliation Program.” He enjoyed benefits beyond improving his physique, “The price point is perfect, and everything is done for you – I guess the word is turnkey.”In November 2007 Black rode the elevator at Sunshine NoHo with a fellow Shiner from Astra Media, who specialize in taxi-top display advertising in New York City. Black says, “we got to talking, and ended up making a deal for a six-month campaign on 290 cabs, it was great exposure. Once they instituted TVs in cabs we got an ad out that, it really bolstered our credibility.”Trulia has continued to grow. “We started out with two million in venture capital, and since then we’ve raised another thirty-one million.” Black says, “when we launched it was just California, then it grew, state-by-state. Today, we are the fourth largest real estate site, the single biggest source of web traffic to all large brokerage brands – the only one that beats us is Google.”With such rapid growth (Trulia now boasts 85 employees) Black “graduated” from Sunshine Suites to a New York City office space that could better accommodate he company’s needs. There’s no doubt that Sunshine Suites payed a pivotal role in giving Trulia the basics (high-speed Internet, tech support, office space) and the intangibles (networking, social opportunities, credibility) that enabled his company’s success.To learn more visit
Trulia.com 
When Sam started Ike and Sam’s Kettlecorn in 2004 he was simply looking for an inexpensive
office space in New York City. What he found at
Sunshine Suites was a tight-knit community of small business owners who welcomed Sam into their fold.Of course, as the creator of a delicious snack food it was easy for Sam to make friends around the office. When Sam first came to
Sunshine Suites that’s all he had, a terrific product, but he needed some help getting his business off the ground. For many small business owners the initial costs of branding a product and creating a business model is what dooms many new companies to failure. Sam was able to cut costs extensively by taking advantage of the networking opportunities at Sunshine Suites. He met an award winning graphic artist who designed the unforgettable logo on Ike and Sam’s bags. Sam also made a connection with a loan officer in their
New York City office who helped him establish a line of credit when Sam needed capital fast. In addition, Sam organized focus groups within the community to do his market research, and got help with his business plan from other entrepreneurs who had the experience. He came to
Sunshine Suites because the prices for office space were unbeatable in New York City, what he found were the tools he needed to grow his business.“I can’t say my beginning was the easiest, but one thing I can say for sure is that if I rented somewhere else in Manhattan I would never have made it to where I am today.” Sam has gone far. Today, Ike and Sam’s Kettlecorn can be found on the shelves of many high-end grocery stores including Whole Foods Markets and home delivery service giant
Fresh Direct. To learn more about Ike and Sam’s visit their website at
www.ikeandsam.com</ 
From the article:
Like they say, there is a bit of a silver lining in every cloud and nowadays you really have to look hard to find it. I think you will agree the email I received from my friend an colleague, Cheni Yerushalmi, Managing Partner at “my home away from home,” Sunshine Suites is good news indeed.
Cheni has worked tirelessly the past few months with the NYC Economic Development Corporation putting together this awesome coalition and it looks like his hard work is about to payoff!
Click here to see more! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzLhc6r4Yag&feature=related]
On April 30th from 10:00am-5:00pm a professional camera crew will be on site at the TriBeCa West Office to shoot the second round of video profiles for all interested Shiners. There is absolutely no time to waste, this is the ultimate way to do some serious self-promotion, and appointments are filling up fast.
Videos on the web have become a major part of how people discover and learn about services they are seeking and companies they may want to work with. A video can showcase who you are and what your company does in a way the printed word cannot. There is absolutely no obligation, shoot your profile for free, and use the video anyway you like. You get to have some fun, be creative, reach out to people, and make an impact with your message while increasing your company’s search engine optimization. A thirty-second video takes less than 20 minutes to shoot.Every video will be posted right here on the Sunshine Blog, as well as the Sunshine YouTube Channel. Videos will also be embedded on your company profile on the Sunshine Suites website. More videos, like the one above will be posted here in the coming days, so check back to see some great examples.
If you’re interested, contact Nina Lubrano (nina@sunshineny.com, 646.723.4643) to schedule an appointment.
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