Most Innovative Companies Fast Company

We’re taking a look at some of our favorite moments from the 2021 Fast Company Innovation Festival. 
Here’s a conversation about how we can fix the childcare crisis with Wendy Chun-Hoon, director of the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor, and Elliot Haspel, author and philanthropic program officer at the Robins Foundation.

In this episode, we’re talking about social media. While Facebook and Twitter still dominate the space, apps like TikTok and Clubhouse are offering people new ways to express themselves and form communities. 
Amy chatted with Maria Raga, the CEO of Depop, the fashion resale app that’s become popular with Gen Z. The platform has 30 million registered users: 90% of them are under 26 years old. They discuss Depop’s unique approach to social commerce and how it has fostered a deep connection with younger users.

On this episode, we’re going to talk about the gaming industry, which is worth more than 160 billion dollars globally. Over the past year and a half, as people have gone from sheltering at home to tentative re-engagement with the world to….whatever is in store for us this fall, games have taken on an outsized role in our lives. 
Amy sat down with Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, to discuss why he wants to do far more than just digitize the age-old pastime of buying and selling trading cards.

In this episode, we’re talking about biotech and health. If this past year and a half is any indication, investment in these sectors is critical. We’ve seen how we can confront a global pandemic with fast-tracked RNA-based vaccines. We’ve harnessed genomics to track and diagnose illness as it spreads. And the rise of telemedicine has made healthcare more accessible to all. 
Amy talked with Twist Bioscience CEO and Co-founder Emily LeProust about the MIC winner's cutting-edge technology that has pioneered what’s known as synthetic DNA. It’s used in therapeutics and precision medicine, but has applications across agriculture, biomaterials, and even data storage.

We're talking about AI in this episode. Once the villain of Sci Fi thrillers, AI is one of the most crucial—and misunderstood—sectors that we cover here at Fast Company. The truth is, AI—in some form or another—underpins the operations of just about every company these days, from powering self-driving technologies in our cars to serving up product recommendations when we’re shopping online. And though we’re increasingly aware of how algorithms can perpetuate and amplify inequities, AI is also being used by companies to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, increasing crop yields, fighting disinformation, and helping us track and control a global pandemic. 
We're featuring one such company: Pachama, an MIC honoree that’s taking on climate change with the help of some advanced AI and data science. Amy speaks with Co-founder and CEO Diego Saez Gil about how Pachama is revolutionizing the fight against global warming.