Cowfund

CowFund, founded by David Phelps. He comes from cow country (upstate New York), where his closest relationships were always with animals as a kid. Cows, however, have always struck him as faintly other-worldly, comically divine. The cow reminds us that we live in a constructed world, that it is a joy to build, and that it has a responsibility to others immediately outside. And it reminds us there is always more to see. More care for cows could literally transform our planet.

The nature of status symbols—very luxurious, very unnecessary—is perhaps what dooms them to be a technological revolution or two behind the times. In the internet era, that symbol is usually a Lambo and occasionally a yacht, high-rolling emblems of the full-century-out-of-date Age of Transportation. In the early 1800s, with accelerating industrialization, the status symbol was a cow. Was there ever any sillier? Cowfund is exactly what it sounds like—a reminder of how vain it is to be vain, how fun it can be just to be.