How a tiny startup trended on twitter for days

#questival #gearforgood #cotopaxi #trendingstartup...
 OMG! What in the world is #gearforgood and how has it been in the top 3 world-wide trends on twitter the entire weekend? -Even with the hip hop duo OutKast reuniting after 10 years on the same day?
 #gearforgood is the slogan of Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear start-up that went live on Friday April 11th, 2014. Imagine Bear Grylls and Mother Teressa start a company, they include the Tom's Shoes guy and you get Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear company that donates at least 10% of profits to partnering non-profits.
 The small startup team wanted the whole world to know they were launching. They did so by creating a 24-hour "Amazing Race-esc" competition where teams of 2-4 adventurers get points for completing challenges while wearing the Cotopaxi backpack given to them at registration. Challenges range from hang gliding while wearing the backpack (20 points) to eating a hotdog with hot sauce, in a hot tub while wearing hot pants(10 points).
 Why would anyone be willing to do such quirky things for "points"? Well, Besides the fact that many of the participants are overly-sober Mormons in search of a natural high (Cotopaxi headquarters just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah) the three teams with the most points by 6 pm on Saturday win trips to Macchu Picu, Thailand, or Kilimanjaro. "Fetch me my hot pants!"
 All tasks must be documented via social media with hashtags #gearforgood #questival and #yourteamsname, hence the world-wide trend on twitter and If instagram and vine had similar trending topics set up, no doubt #questival would be blowing them up as well.
The Cotopaxi team is no stranger to successful e-commerce launches. CEO Davis Smith has raised over $40 million in venture capital with former startups Pooltables.com and Baby.br, Brazil's leading e-commerce company focusing on baby care. Smith is now focusing on Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear company with a social mission, that has successfully dominated social media this weekend. For more information go to the cotopaxi website

Five things that make me feel like a boss (that probably shouldn't)

Every once in a while I feel awesome for doing something that really didn't take any effort on my part. Here are 5 things that make me feel like a boss when I really didn't do anything to merit the great feeling.


1) Pulling the "pull through" in a parking lot.

Finding a good parking spot is one thing.  Finding an open parking spot with an adjacent open parking spot that you can "pull through" giving you the convenient exit that comes with the back in with the effort of just a normal parking job.  Look around you at all the cars just parked regular.  If an earthquake were to hit, all those clowns would be frantically trying to reverse into a three point turn.  Not you boss.  No reverse for you.  Put your car in drive and escape the natural disaster with the ease and bossness of John Cusack in "2012" and for anyone who has endured the movie "2012" this bossness is both cheesy and corny.

2) Running a Yellow light

Even when I am not in a hurry, going through a yellow light makes me feel like I somehow won. Had I left the house just 3 seconds later, I'd still be back at that intersection but no, I made a good choice by leaving the house at the exact moment I needed to.  This will make me able to proceed through more intersections without having to stop.  Efficiency, BOW TO YOUR MASTER WHO IS CALLED, ME.






3) Catching memorabilia at a sporting event.

I've caught mini nerf balls, glow sticks, t-shirts and guitar picks at events. Each time, I felt awesome and superior to the noobs around me who were also trying their darndest to catch the garbage male cheerleaders were throwing into the crowd.
  One time at a BYU basketball game, the old guy sitting one row in front of me caught a t-shirt.  Problem was, I caught the same one.  We tugged on it back and forth until his arthritis got the best of him.  When I unrolled the thing, it was a XXL women's shade shirt.  The thing would not have fit Honey BooBoo's mother.  I didn't want it.  The old man with the tingly left arm couldn't use it.  I don't know if I even took it home.

 The thrill of catching things that others are also trying to catch make you feel like a boss until you realize you now have to find a child or garbage can for whatever you caught.

4) Saying a pun

You are at a party.  There is a lot of extra food at the end of the party.  Someone says, "It's a shame that this food has to go to waste." to which you reply, "Well, at least the food isn't going to our "waist".  Now, what you expect is
1) laughter
2) people spraying drinks out of their mouths
3) being hoisted on everyone's shoulders


You feel like a boss. You feel very "punny" right?
NO.
Wrong!
You should expect
1) dirty looks and head shakes
2) women covering their childrens' ears
3) "pun-ishment"

No one respects a guy who delivers a pun.  Instead of making that pun about the food going to "waist" you should have said, "I eat food out of the dumpster all of the time. If you throw it away, I'll just dig through the trash outside and take it home"  That would get you more -but not much more- respect than a pun.

The lesson here is: Don't be bustin out puns.  Even if it makes you feel like a boss, it shouldn't.


5) A long pee


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When I urinate for a long time, I feel accomplished.  I feel healthy.  I feel like a boss.  If it happens in a public restroom I'm tempted to yell to my stall-mates, "Are you guys hearing this!?  I have been going FOREVER!  I swear I'm not pouring out a carton of grape juice!  Whoah!  Guys, there has been continuous flow the entire time I've been talking to you AND I'm STILL going!"

There is no denying the great feeling that comes with a long pee.  In reality, I didn't do anything to merit this feeling besides drinking a lot of liquid.

So there you have it.  Five things that make me feel like a boss.

your new show

Dear BYU peers,

Has your significant other ever broken up with you because your ex who turned out to be gay made a pass at their dad? Have you ever been sentenced to a prison sentence because you were framed by illegal aliens who really work for an elitist company that secretly dominates the U.S. government? Are you secretly a superhero after your drain regurgitated toxic waste on you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions or if you even thought "no, but that sounds like it could happen," you are definitely one of the few and proud "I watch and obsess over television dramas crowd''.

While other college kids are saying things like, "lets go to the game," or "let us go clubbing," or "let's get plastered," BYU students are saying things along the lines of, "did you catch glee last night," or "I have seasons 1 through 900 of Lost," or "my roommates and i ate ice-cream through all of season 1 of Heroes last night."

Is there a problem with this picture? The answer is YES! We need to get out folks!

I myself am a fan of a good show called "Modern Family." However, i, unlike most students at BYU realize that Phil and Claire Dumphey are actors. They are not real people.

My case for watching less TV seasons and getting out more is two fold...1st fold-we are losing touch with what is acceptable in reality and my 2nd fold is that i think we are missing opportunities.

1-Have you ever watched a show like "the OC" or "One-Tree Hill?" You may think it is normal to attempt to kill the man that stole your girlfriend, or you may think that suicide is a viable option after losing your boyfriend....THIS IS NOT THE CASE! You are under a haze of misconceptions that i like to call...."haze of misconceptions." You must run...the facts are TV relationships are not realistic...TV characters are not realistic...I mean how many people have you met that have killed 72 people in a 24 hour period?

2 fold-have you ever stayed home from hiking, boating, or bowling because you didn't want to stop watching "Gilmore Girls" season 2?...after all you have only watched it for 12 consecutive hours. Have you ever stood a date up because Michael Schofield was about to escape prison...AGAIN...in prison break!? If you answered yes to these questions or have committed similar transgressions....than your dumb!!! Live you life for you...Dont live vicariously through a fictional character on the tube.

I am calling for change (sounds like Obama)! Get out and do stuff...live in our reality, the real reality!

the newest cool thing

Oh Child! Your google+ account has sat dormant since the day you responded to that exclusive invite to join and you are somehow too classy to give twitter a chance. If you don't do a cool new thing soon, people will know you're lame. Don't worry. The fine gentlemen of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen gotcha covered from Raintree apartments down to SoPo* and you don't even need to join a new social networking site, just use facebook.

The newest feature on facebook is the ability to subscribe to people's accounts (sort of like following someone on twitter) and right now the absolute most coolest thing that can pop up on your newsfeed is: "(your name here) subscribed to Tom Anderson." Who the devil is Tom Anderson you ask? The myspace guy. With the white t-shirt and the weird angled picture...you remember now? People just think it is so wiggidy wack that Tom, the myspace guy, has a facebook page. What makes you think that Tom could live without one when you can't? But go ahead and try. However, like so many who have preceded you, you are bound to enter the stages of the facebook cycle.

Trigger stage: You receive back to back updates on your news feed inviting you to take care of some animal or "like" a random companies' page so your friend can win a free t-shirt. This is the animal farm straw that breaks the camel's back and you decide you are DONE WITH FACEBOOK. It's LAME!

Announcement Stage: using your status update, you announce to all of your "friends" on facebook that you are leaving them so they will need to figure out another way to contact you, either through email or phone call or waving.

False Liberation: you "delete" your facebook account which oddly still exists and can be accessed by you signing in the way you always have for the last few years...in spite of how easy it will be to reenter the facebook world, you know you will never come back.

Loneliness and Productivity: You get a lot more done at your computer but come weekends, you have no idea what is going on around town. Even worse, your birthday came and went and only your closest friends and relatives who actually care about you wished you a happy birthday :(

Last temptation: The last temptation consists of you legitimately needing facebook. Your friend tells you she wants to set you up with a friend of hers. You are hesitant to accept. You wish there was a way to have a small sample of your blind dates interests and opinions, a photographic history of significant events in the last 2-5 years of her life as well as a smaller, "best of" photo collection featuring her doing REALLY cool things or standing next to REALLY famous buildings/people and some pics of her looking EXTRA nice in a bridesmaid dress or a casual but carefully cropped group photo where she accidentally looks super hot.

Yes, if only you had a free tool that could provide you with such information so that you don't end up on a crappy blind date...

and that's when you log back in.

Why? Because you NEED it. How else would people you aren't sure you know hit you up for your address so they can mail you a wedding invitation? How would you ever be invited to a provo hipster house shows?** (e.g. Music night at the couch house) and Sans Facebook, how would anyone see the pictures of you building desks in Africa for school children this summer?

Answer: they wouldn't.

Moral of the story:I need facebook, you need facebook, even Tom Anderson needs facebook.

*SoPo is what all the cool kids call "South Provo". So if you decide not to follow Tom, you can still do a new cool thing by dropping this in a sentence. (e.g. Whatsherface:Hey Tomkins, where are you living this semester? Tomkins: In a house in SoPo. Whatsherface: That's hot.

**answer: pintrest, tumblr, and a new one social media site that you haven't heard of before because you are a noob

"let the great experiment begin!" -Tobias Funke