Jeremy Gutsche is an innovation expert, host of Trend Hunter TV, “one of North America’s most requested keynote speakers”[1], and the founder of TrendHunter.com, the world’s largest network for trend spotting and innovation. He has written several thousand articles and overseen the publication of 30,000+ trends for an audience of 5 - 8,000,000 monthly views. He has been described as “a new breed of trend spotter” by The Guardian, “an eagle eye” by Global TV, an “Oracle” by the Globe and Mail and “on the forefront of cool” by MTV.

Speaking Engagements - From audiences of 4,000 people to the homes of billionaires, Jeremy has inspired innovation around the world. With a contagious enthusiasm, he teaches about viral trends and a cutting edge approach to methodical innovation

Please visit JeremyGutsche.com for more info.

Jeremy Gutsche Interview

I love interacting with people, brainstorming new ideas and thrill seeking.  On the latter, I’m up for anything.  So far I’ve been swimming with sharks, racing baja rally cars, jumping from planes, skiing off cliffs, bobsledding and motorcycle racing.  Also, I have a short attention span.  Also, I forget the question. What?

I love everything about TrendHunter.com, and I’m most proud of the way that we have helped to connect a community of inspirational people.

Cool hunting isn’t the search for what’s popular. Cool hunting is the search for what’s NOT popular – yet. Once something becomes mainstream, its novelty and appeal is lost.  Cool is unique, cutting edge and viral.  Because cool is viral, marketers and product designers seek to attain it.

I like to hunt for Clusters of Inspiration.  This might have you wondering why the Trend Hunter guy use a word like ‘cluster’ instead of ‘trend’?  Quite simply, the word ‘trends’ is to broad.  It can refer to next fall’s fashionable color, or macro-trends like the green movement,  female buyers, consolidation, outsourcing, Web 2.0 and aging boomers.  These trends are somewhat useful, but too generic to enable breakthrough thinking.  Clustering is the art of identifying insights that are meaningful to your customer.  To create clusters, you’ll need to collect your observations from trend hunting and filter through the noise.

I’ve always been insatiably curious and obsessed with innovation. I am an entrepreneur at heart, although I spent years hunting for a business idea.  In fact, I created Trend Hunter as a place where people could share business ideas, and I was hoping along the way that I would find my own idea…

Fortunately, Trend Hunter grew into the business idea itself.  For this, I have been truly lucky because I feel like I am working on a hobby.  To me Trend Hunter is an obsession and a passion, but most certainly not a job.  I am passionate about our Trend Hunter community and I get really excited every time someone sends an email that we helped them to get inspired.

If I had to pick one, I would be forced to pick my article about HOT VICE PRESIDENTS, which attracted 1.1 million page views.  But I don’t want everything to be about Sarah Palin, so I will spread the love to some oldies but goodies:

- Get a Personalized Phone Call from Samuel Jackson
- The Half Suit – Business on top, Party Below
- The Innespace Dolphin Personal Watercraft
- Award Winning Pee and Poo Dolls
- The Rise of Shock Labels – Cocaine Energy Drink

Find something ridiculously new that is edgy, bizarre and controversial.

I let myself get lost in the trends at Trend Hunter.  Although we advertise that the site gets 8+ million views, 1-2 million are actually from me.  Basically, I like to expose myself to all the wonderfully brilliant innovations and along the way, I’ll get inspired.

When I get an idea, I become very obsessive about it.  This leads me to a zone where I will no doubt work through the night to finish what I started.  I don’t look at ‘all-nighters’ as a bad thing.  For me, I have realized that the wee hours of the morning make me remarkably more productive, so I embrace that.

Creativity.  Ambition.  Randomness.  The next big thing. 

Cell phones, pogo sticks and a TV network that plays nothing but the best of Paris Hilton’s Trend Hunter-themed children’s show.