Fast Company has ranked two Georgetown McDonough School of Business alumni-founded companies on its ‘Most Innovative Companies of 2017‘ list.The listing, which is broken down by sector, highlights Sweetgreen and Social Tables, both of which were started up by McDonough alumni. Here’s a little more about the two companies:
Social Tables – 10th in the Live Events Sector
According to Fast Company, Social Tables is an online event-planning platform that offers check-in products, event diagramming, seating and design for firms, hotels, event planners and more. Well-known clients of the company include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, The Latin Grammys and Wolfgang Puck Catering. In 2016, Social Tables raised $13 million in funding.
Dan Berger, Social Tables CEO and McDonough alumni, recently said in an interview that he doesn’t just want to be a “disruptor” of his industry—he wants to be an “obliterator.”
“Disruptor means you take something and you kind of shake it up a bit. I would actually argue Airbnb and Uber are obliterators. They’ve shattered our reality and done something completely different. Government can’t even keep up with technology; they can’t even make up regulation in time. I was talking to an Executive Vice President at Interstate Hotels and Resorts over lunch: he was telling me that 5 percent of hotel stock in New York is Airbnb. New York couldn’t regulate it to save their lives. It’s past the point of disruption; it’s completely obliterated.
My view is obliterate not disrupt. I want to be an obliterator. We’re still working on it.”
Sweetgreen – 7th in the Food Sector
Meanwhile, Sweetgreen is a quick-service restaurant chain known for offering locally-sourced, healthy food choices along an open-kitchen assembly line. McDonough alumni Nicolas Jammet, Jonathan Neman and Nathaniel Ru opened the first Sweetgreen three months after graduating.
After noticing a hole in the healthy restaurant market, the trio raised $350,000 from friends and family to fund their first operation. Since then, the DC-based company has attracted $135 million in venture capital from investors, including AOL’s Steve Case, which has propelled Sweetgreen in markets like San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago.