Fast Company March 2015

49 Mark43 “There are 180,000 felons on the loose in the United States that police can’t track,” says Scott Crouch, CEO and cofounder of Mark43. The 23-year-old Harvard grad is building a cloud-based records-management and analytics system to fix that, making policing smarter, more efficient, and more accountable. Crouch’s platform is a web app that makes it easier and faster for cops to enter arrest and incident reports, reducing a process that can take several hours on decades-old systems down to about 30 minutes. Mark43 then adds a layer of al g or-ithmic intelligence, connecting the police reports to data such as social media activity and phone records (obtained via warrant), which provides a more complete picture of a criminal or syndicate. The system, which was born out of a junior-year engineering…

“I was inspired by fear. At first, it was fear of HIV—I was exposed after an intimate relationship with someone who failed to disclose their status. That was scary. And then I heard about a possible study that involved taking daily medication and some counseling, and, well, that was concerning too. What was this medicine? Were there side effects? And, quite frankly, I worried that African-American males can be treated as guinea pigs in medical studies. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had been putting myself at risk for a long time, and there were habits I needed to break. So I signed up and began taking what turned out to be Truvada PrEP. In counseling, they asked me things like how many…

FAST CITIES Housing the homeless is a complicated problem, not least because of the stigma attached to the homeless people themselves. “There are still people who think we should isolate these individuals on the outskirts of town,” says Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan, who has spent his career alternating between luxurious private residences and affordable living spaces for the city’s least fortunate residents. Maltzan says his latest project, the Star Apartment Complex, is “part of a much larger movement” to make housing for the homeless part of the urban landscape. Set on top of a former commercial building in L.A.’s notorious Skid Row, it’s a boxy amalgam of prefabricated residential units, with amenities such as a running track, classroom space, a basketball court, and a community kitchen. Creating affordable housing will help the…

Swipe for options As they enter the store, shoppers encounter a huge interactive screen that shows off Minkoff’s wares and allows customers to digitally choose items to try on. An iPad-armed salesperson then brings the requested clothes to a fitting room. A smart mirror helps out Inside the dressing room, RFID chips attached to the clothing’s tags trigger an interactive mirror to digitally display the items. Using the mirror’s touch screen, customers can ask a clerk to bring different sizes or styles and can customize their lighting. Save picks for later Users who have the Rebecca Minkoff mobile app and PayPal can check out right in the dressing room. And if they decide not to buy anything, they can text themselves a digital record of the exact pieces and sizes they tried on in case…

40 Ikea: For delighting customers at each and every turn More than 770 million shoppers visit an Ikea annually, and more than twice that visit its website. The $38 billion Swedish home giant works harder than any other big-box retailer at making its stores charming—inspiring customers to bring that joy back home. 41 Samsung Electronics: For bringing Internet intelligence to more things Samsung has seized the leading role in creating the Internet of Things. The global technology firm has built dozens of smart appliances, and last summer it acquired SmartThings, a kit that makes it easy for consumers to connect to lightbulbs, speakers, and other devices. “The vision,” says SmartThings founder Alex Hawkinson, “is that it’s super easy for an everyday person to make their home a smart home.” IKEA 1. Easier to assemble The Regissör…

500,000 People with hepatitis C who die each year 117,000 Patients, as of September 30, 2014, who have been treated with Sovaldi, which has been shown to be 90% effective in curing hepatits C. $11 billion Amount Gilead paid to acquire Pharmasset (maker of an early-stage Sovaldi). $8.55 billion Revenue generated by Sovaldi in its first nine months on the market. 10 Months between Sovaldi’s commercial release and FDA approval for Harvoni, Sovaldi’s sequel, which creates a oncedaily pill that’s even more effective than the original. 28 Other drugs in Gilead’s pipeline.…