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I spent Passover with Boyfriend’s family in PA this past weekend. Among the family members was a very precocious and talkative little girl who is the niece of the Boyfriend. I really like her, because she reminds me of me when I was her age, but that’s a whole other story better suited for a later time.

Anyway, this little girl asked everyone during dinner (not the Passover dinner, but the dinner on the second night) what stock they would invest in. I don’t know anything about buying or selling stocks, and the one time I tried some simulated stock investing from this website run by CNBC, all the stocks I picked went down (probably because I picked them, um, randomly).

Well, in any case, what I ended up telling her was just a few companies that I admire and would like to support by buying their products, using their services, and in general wishing them well. So here’s a list of companies that I like as great businesses. And no, I swear I’m not getting paid by any of them!

1). Google -- I still have some (hazy) memory of pre-Google days when searching for anything on the Internet was a huge pain. Google changed all that, and I thank them every time I search for anything. If there’s one company whose founders truly deserve to be filthy rich because they provided such a valuable service to society and saved EVERYONE billions and billions of dollars in the process, Google is it. And it’s not just their search engines, it’s every product they’ve come up with after that. Adword. Googlenews. Gmail … (Though I do hear that blogger, which is owned by Google, has a lot of bugs) Anyway, totally, totally impressed with them.

2). Apple – I love all their sleek and smooth products, and love their devotion to design. Needless to say I’m typing this post up in a tidy little PowerBook. I love the fact that they are David to Microsoft’s Goliath. And I love the fact that OS X, unlike Windows, is not buggy and virus-laden. And words are out that their new Tiger is awesome. Now, if only they’ll come out with their Powerbook G5s before I enter law school…

3). Starbucks – For all those people who say that Starbucks doesn’t have good coffee, I don’t know what they talking about. The most consistently good coffee I’ve drunk is at Starbucks rather than at any neighborhood coffee place. But more importantly, Starbucks is a place with nice decor, comfortable couches, and great interior design, evidenced by the fact that every other neighborhood coffee place that wants to be “hip” began copying their décor, and some other chain restaurants and cafes as well (I’m thinking of Panera Bread and Au Bon Pain). The only downside is that unlike Panera Bread, they don’t offer free wireless. It’s this T-Mobile thing you have to sign up, which is a little annoying. (I do have an account, but I wish they would just stop being so stingy about this obviously important feature for a large part of their clientele, but anywayz).

4). Honda – Boyfriend and I shopped for and bought a car recently, and we learned a lot in the process. Of all the dealerships we visited (and believe me, we visited many, many, to the point where we joke about it when we pass a car dealership now). Of all of these, the Honda dealerships blew us away. The salespeople are educated, not pushy, and extremely convincing. The dealership seems to treat them with respect, and in turn, the salespeople actually seem genuinely excited about their cars. The cars themselves are AMAZING. (I salivate at the thought of a Honda Element, which is the pinnacle of coolness and may just be my next car. The Toyota Scion, which is a lot less expensive and has the same boxy look, doesn’t hold a candle to Honda’s sturdiness and ingenuity of design).

Granted, we may have visited exceptional dealerships, but it was by far the best experience I have had at a car dealership. It was actually kind of enjoyable.

Anyway, those are all the companies I told her, and I admire them mostly because their products are sleek and well-made, and their management team seems really, really smart. Having worked at a little start-up in the past few years, I understand a lot more how hard and how valuable it is to manage a company well. I will add to this list in later post if any other companies occur to me.