The Wise Money

This article was written by Phineas Upham Knewton was founded in 2008 by Jose Ferreira, who came from Kaplan before that. Ferreira wanted to begin a company based around the concept of “adaptive learning,” or learning that uses computers as interactive teaching tools. Knewton is technology platform, not an app itself. The difference is in the details. Where an application has pre-defined goals in mind (IE, getting students to learn or to read from a certain text book), a platform is focused on providing a tool set for students to grow with. Knewton’s tools track student performance, and provide a real-time analysis of a student’s behavior and learning. Knewton uses…

This article was written by Phineas Upham The first Nissan car was built in 1914. It was called a DAT, which was an acronym of the names of the investor’s families, but it sold well enough to put the company into the auto making market. The company went through several early name changes, finally settling on DAT Jidosha & Co., LTD in 1925. They began producing trucks to carry freight for the military. The consumer market for passenger cars was basically non-existent, with only the most affluent able to afford the costs of producing one. DAT merged with an auto parts maker for trucks in 1926. This was the beginning…

This article was written by Phineas Upham Jet Blue was founded by David Neeleman, and it is a Delaware based company that was incorporated in August of 1998. Neeleman called his new company “NewAir.” Neeleman and some of the executives in JetBlue came from Southwest Airlines, and the company began life by offering a low-cost fare to incentivize travel. The trick was that they also offered some in-flight amenities, like television and satellite radio stations, at every seat on the plane. Neeleman said, in his own words, that he hoped “to bring humanity back to air travel.” It got permission to occupy 75 spots at John F. Kennedy airport for…

This article was written by Samuel Phineas Upham In 1965, a man named Fred Deluca had a plan to earn money for his medical schooling. He asked a friend to borrow a paltry sum $1,000, then he set to work opening a sandwich shop with the money. He called it “Pete’s Super Submarines,” and the original location was in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The franchise expanded within a year and the friends had to start a holding company to support the expansion and oversee the business. The company they formed was called Doctor’s Associate Inc., which was a reference to DeLuca’s goal to go to med school and his friend’s doctorate in…

This article was written by Phineas Upham The Royal Shell Corporation, commonly known simply as “Shell,” is one of the world’s most valuable companies. It’s a multi-national oil company with headquarters in both the Netherlands and Europe, and it’s considered one of the six major oil companies currently in existence. The company is currently responsible for 84% of the GDP from the Netherlands, with assets totaling $357 billion. Shell is involved in all aspects of oil production, which include exploration and distribution. It also dabbles in alternative energy, in the forms of both biofuel and wind. Shell is active in 90 different countries, and the company produces roughly 3.1 billion…

This article was written by Phin Upham Edward Jones is a commission-based investment firm with an intriguing twist. It takes a personal approach to investing and creates offices that are staffed by no more than one broker. This way, a client can carefully choose his broker and interact with only that person. Because of this unique model, Edward Jones is considered one of the largest brokerage firms (in terms of sheer numbers) in the United States. The company was founded by Edward T. Jones in 1922. He was the originator of the branch network, which was useful in a time when he was attempting to expand through rural stretches of…