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Tag: Money & Finance

  • Gen X’s Retirement ‘Blind Spot’ Derails Financial Plans: Report | Entrepreneur

    As the oldest members of Gen X continue to turn 60 this year, the so-called “sandwich generation” is getting closer to the typical age for retirement (62, on average).

    Unfortunately, many Gen X professionals lack the financial resources to retire well.

    Just 54% of Gen X savers said they’re on track for retirement, the lowest percentage of any generation, according to a BlackRock report.

    Related: 25% of Boomers Face a Bleak Retirement — Are You Making the Same Mistakes?

    An annual research study from Northwestern Mutual casts the spotlight on some of Gen X‘s most pressing retirement issues as the group approaches its golden years.

    First, Gen Xers said they’d need $1.57 million to retire comfortably, or $310,000 more than the “magic number” national average, according to the research.

    More than half (56%) of Gen Xers thought they’d likely outlive their savings, while just 40% of Boomers and beyond felt the same, per the report.

    Related: The National Average Salary Is About $65,000. Here’s What Americans Are Saving for Retirement — How Do Your Stats Compare?

    Across all generations, Gen X was the least likely to report the expectation of an inheritance.

    Additionally, Gen X respondents were more concerned than millennials or Boomers about paying off their mortgage: 25% compared to 24% and 18%, respectively.

    Gen X also reported less understanding of some critical factors that could impact their retirement plans. For example, they had a looser grasp on how inflation (53%) and taxes (49%) could affect their financial plans, compared to 66% and 62% of Boomers.

    Related: Retirees Will Likely Outlive Their Savings in 5 States, Falling Short By Up to $448,000. Here’s Where They Have Better Odds.

    What’s more, 50% of Gen X admitted to a “common blindspot” when it comes to managing their finances: They said they’d prioritized building wealth without doing enough to protect their assets. Just 35% of Boomers felt the same.

    “Growth without protection can leave people vulnerable,” Jeff Sippel, chief strategy officer at Northwestern Mutual, said. “Especially as you get older, safeguarding what you’ve built is just as critical as continuing to build. A holistic plan should account for both.”

    As the oldest members of Gen X continue to turn 60 this year, the so-called “sandwich generation” is getting closer to the typical age for retirement (62, on average).

    Unfortunately, many Gen X professionals lack the financial resources to retire well.

    Just 54% of Gen X savers said they’re on track for retirement, the lowest percentage of any generation, according to a BlackRock report.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Amanda Breen

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  • I Fell for a $1.25 Million Scam — Now MrBeast Is Helping Me Hunt Down the Scammers | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    This is hard to admit, but I got scammed out of $1.25 million.

    The money is gone, and I can’t get it back. But instead of hiding, I’ve decided to share my story. My recent post on X about the $1.25 million scam went viral with more than 4 million views and thousands of reposts and comments.

    MrBeast even chimed in that he would give a $100,000 reward to anyone who could help track down the scammers.

    Now that I’ve had even more time to process the situation, I think it’s time to share the lessons I’ve learned from my $1.25 million mistake.

    How it began

    A few years ago, I donated $1.2 million to MrBeast’s #TeamSeas campaign to help clean up the oceans. After the donation, I was invited to spend a few days with Jimmy (MrBeast) and his team.

    So, when they reached out to me again for a donation to MrBeast’s Team Water campaign, I naturally wanted to help. During the discussion, we even talked about planning another meet-up.

    A few weeks after I donated $1 million to the project, I was added to what looked like a private group text with other major donors; it didn’t feel out of place at all. In fact, it seemed like the natural next step.

    The group looked legitimate. The names were impressive: Mark Rober, Shopify’s Tobi Lütke, Stake’s Ed Craven, Adin Ross. There was banter, casual voice notes and even more talk about the donor trip. It all lined up with what I’d been expecting — and I felt like I was in the “cool crowd.”

    Then came the pitch: a crypto investment tied to a major exchange. Everyone in the group “joined.” I didn’t want to be the outsider. So I wired the money. $1.25 million.

    Later, I checked in with the real Jimmy and felt my stomach drop. The group text was fake. My money was gone.

    Related: The 3 Biggest Mistakes That Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

    Lesson 1: Don’t make big decisions when you’re distracted

    When the scam was unfolding, I was away at a retreat that I’d been planning all year. This was terrible timing for me, but perfect for the scammers.

    I was relaxed and in the completely wrong headspace for any major decisions. My guard was down, and I was the perfect target.

    Having reviewed the texts afterward, I see several red flags that would have given me pause any other day. However, I was distracted and made a rash decision.

    Tip: Don’t make major decisions when you’re distracted, traveling or emotionally charged. Give yourself the space and energy to sit with the choices and only make a decision with a clear head.

    Lesson 2: Listen to reality, not the story you’re telling yourself

    When I was added to the text group, I honestly wanted it to be real. I’d talked with MrBeast’s team previously about planning a trip, and my brain connected the dots, telling me this was all part of the plan.

    This also had me overlooking red flags. I didn’t verify the phone numbers, and I didn’t double-check anything. I trusted what I wanted to be true instead of what the evidence showed. I was naive, and it cost me $1.25 million.

    Entrepreneurs make this same mistake all the time. We fall in love with our product, our marketing strategy or our “next” big idea. When our customers and data tell us otherwise, we often struggle to accept that reality and continue pushing what we want instead of what is right.

    Tip: Don’t fall in love with the story you tell yourself. Trust the data, trust what your customers are telling you, and be willing to adjust or pivot.

    Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid of mistakes — share them

    This was easily the most embarrassing mistake of my life. I’m a successful entrepreneur, and I made more than $50 million before 30 — being scammed was not supposed to happen to me.

    But, it did.

    The easiest way to deal with this mistake would be to hide it. But, I didn’t.

    Instead, I shared it. First with my family and close friends, then publicly online. The responses ranged from “idiot” to “martyr,” but overwhelmingly, people appreciated the honesty. Some even admitted they’d been scammed too, but had never told anyone.

    And then something unexpected happened: MrBeast himself spoke up. He offered a $100,000 reward for credible information leading to the scammers.

    Sharing reframed the story. From personal embarrassment to a community problem worth solving.

    Tip: Don’t hide from your mistakes. Own them, talk about them, and turn them into lessons others can learn from.

    Related: Beware of SEO Scammers — Here’s How to Spot and Avoid Mediocre SEO Agencies

    Final thoughts

    I’ll never see the $1.25 million I lost again. But I can use it as the most expensive learning experience of my life.

    If you take nothing else from my story, take these:

    1. Don’t make important decisions while distracted.
    2. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
    3. Don’t be afraid to talk about your mistakes.

    If you’re curious about how this scam actually played out, I’ve made everything public. On Great.com, we’ve posted the full chat logs, the wallet addresses and even the phone numbers tied to the scammers. You can see exactly what I saw — and if you spot something that could help track them down, you could earn the $100,000 reward from MrBeast.

    This is hard to admit, but I got scammed out of $1.25 million.

    The money is gone, and I can’t get it back. But instead of hiding, I’ve decided to share my story. My recent post on X about the $1.25 million scam went viral with more than 4 million views and thousands of reposts and comments.

    MrBeast even chimed in that he would give a $100,000 reward to anyone who could help track down the scammers.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Erik Bergman

    Source link

  • I Started Side Hustles to Pay Off $40k Debt and Build Wealth | Entrepreneur

    This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Marissa Cazem Potts, a Bay Area-based Intuit financial advocate* and financial literacy professional. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Intuit. Marissa Cazem Potts.

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    Growing up, I experienced the pitfalls of my parents not understanding how to manage money.

    My father is second-generation American-Filipino, and my mom is half Black and half white and has enslaved person ancestry. Both of them wanted to make money and create a better life for themselves, but they didn’t know how to invest or even save their money. We spent a lot and would find ourselves in jeopardy. There’d be a year where I couldn’t get the new shoes I wanted for school because my parents didn’t manage their money well, but thankfully, we always had a home and all the things we needed.

    I wanted to be the generation that stops the cycle of being financially irresponsible.

    Related: The Shopping Strategy I Used to Pay Off $22,000 Debt and Save $36,000 Might Sound Extreme — But It Worked. Here’s How.

    I knew I had to go to college. My mother finished college; my grandmother had her master’s degree in education. I felt I had to at least get my undergraduate degree, coming from a legacy of women who considered education the way to financial freedom. My parents said they could help with my rent during college, but that was about it. I got a part-time job at Nordstrom and actually made a lot of money doing that.

    But when it came to tuition, there was no game plan. My parents dropped me off at the financial office at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The office told me that I could take loans out and wouldn’t have to pay them back until I graduated. I just wanted to make sure I got my education. So I signed the documents. I had a series of different loans, but I didn’t read the fine print. I didn’t understand the concept of interest, and I let the loans sit.

    I graduated in 2010 with that debt over my head and didn’t have a plan for paying it back. The first thing on my mind after graduating was getting a good job, making sure it paid well and thinking about what career I wanted to have. I’d always had a passion for writing, communicating and speaking, so I got an internship at E! News. That was unpaid, but it was a great opportunity.

    Related: I’m a Millennial Who Quit My Job Last Year to Do What I Love. Here’s How I’ve Made More Than $300,000 So Far.

    While I worked that unpaid internship, I had to make money on the side. So I started side hustles. I worked as a receptionist at a dance studio. I sold my old clothes. I was building income, but then I was spending it — on gas, food, something nice. At that point, I wasn’t thinking about paying the student loans or saving money.

    I was in Los Angeles for a while, then slowly navigated back home to the Bay Area for a career in technology. In the back of my mind, though, I always wanted to do something for myself, too.

    “I needed to start saving and investing, building a 401(k).”

     Eventually, I landed a job at Intuit and was introduced to financial education. There were tools like TurboTax, and at the time, Mint, Credit Karma. I realized I needed to get my finances in order. I needed to start saving and investing, building a 401(k).

    Then I took a job at LinkedIn and had a daughter, and I really didn’t want this $40,000 debt, increasing year over year, on my back. I’d learned a lot in my professional communications career — and realized I could spin that skill set into another side hustle, helping coach and advocate for executive women. So I started that executive coaching business on the side; I took on a few clients in the early morning, after hours or on weekends.

    Related: This Couple’s ‘Scrappy’ Side Hustle Sold Out in 1 Weekend — It Hit $1 Million in 3 Years and Now Makes Millions Annually: ‘Lean But Powerful’

    The side hustle kept me busy, and I had to sacrifice time with my young daughter and husband, so I made it a little spicier and reminded myself of my ultimate goal by funneling the money into an account called “Marissa’s Freedom Fund.” Any time I had a check from an executive coaching job or another side gig, it went straight into that account, and anything left over, whether $10 or $100, went into an emergency fund.

    I began paying off my six loans in 2022 and finished paying them off in 2023. I got that email from Navient, my loan processor at the time, saying, “Congratulations, your loans are paid off,” and I felt totally free.

    “Financial wellness means utilizing the tools that are available to you.”

    It’s important to treat financial wellness as self-care. The first step is looking at your debts and your accounts: I didn’t want to look at my student loan debt or credit card debt, but I had to see the big picture and figure out where to start. Financial wellness means utilizing the tools that are available to you, tapping into your network and practicing consistency — that’s the hardest part. You are your own worst enemy. You have to ensure you’re sticking to a routine when you’re working toward a financial goal.

    It can be intimidating, especially if you grew up in a home where you didn’t talk about money, but you should start your financial wellness journey as soon as you can. I try to talk openly with my daughter about finances so that she understands the power of a dollar. You can start small: $10 a month can grow into $100 a month, then $500 a month. Create savings and investment accounts. Also, be a conscious consumer — if you regret a purchase, return it.

    Related: ‘It Was Taboo’: Parents Shape Their Children’s Relationship With Money. Here’s How to Set Kids Up for Long-Term Success Instead of Struggle.

    Don’t feel defeated if you have debt. You have the agency to attack it by setting up different income streams. I still have that entrepreneurial drive today. I channel it both into my role as a financial advocate at Intuit, where I empower Gen Z (like my younger sister) and Gen Alpha with financial education and confidence, and as an intrapreneur, pursuing stretch projects and impact within my day-to-day work.

    It’s so important for younger generations to see that you can take the time to build skills, grow a network and test a business idea on the side while working in a traditional corporate role. A recent Intuit survey found that 26% of Gen Z already have a side hustle, and 37% want to start a side hustle.

    Related: Gen Z Is Turning to Side Hustles to Purchase ‘the Normal Stuff’ in ‘Suburban Middle-Class America

    By using your agency and leveraging free tools like Intuit for Education and other resources, you can prepare to launch a business full-time — if and when that path feels right for you.

    *Potts is not an official financial advisor; her tips are for “general informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. It is not a substitute for professional guidance.”

    Amanda Breen

    Source link

  • Expanding Your Small Business? You Need to Prepare For This Money Challenge | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In our increasingly digitally borderless world, the dream of international expansion is more accessible than ever for American entrepreneurs. The reach of social media and a strategic web presence has the power to make your brand visible to a global audience in seconds. Yet, as U.S. small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increasingly venture beyond borders, a significant yet often underestimated challenge emerges: currency volatility.

    From selling goods in Europe to sourcing materials from Asia, or managing a remote team spread across continents, operating internationally inherently means SMBs are engaging with different currencies. This involves added layers of complexity, not only because it entails managing Profit and Loss (P&L) statements in multiple currencies, but because the value of one currency against another is not static. A currency’s value can shift due to geopolitical events, economic news and market sentiment, often quickly and without warning. For small businesses, this can directly impact their bottom line in ways they might not be prepared for.

    Consider this scenario: You’re a small business owner and the U.S. dollar strengthens significantly against the currency in which you’ve priced an export contract. This means that your expected profit in dollars could sharply diminish upon conversion. Conversely, a weaker dollar could drastically increase the cost of imported goods, squeezing your profit margins or even making your products less competitive in the market. Beyond profitability, currency swings can make it difficult to accurately forecast spending or build a predictable budget. What you forecast to pay one month could significantly vary more or less the next, leading to instability that can derail your financial planning.

    For any U.S. small business looking to succeed in multiple markets, it’s essential to mitigate these risks by adopting a proactive currency management strategy. Here are three simple steps SMBs can take to hedge against currency volatility.

    Related: How to Solve the $800 Million Problem That’s Stopping Small Businesses From Expanding Overseas

    1. Assess exposure

    Small business owners should start by assessing how currency movements could affect their business. Consider which countries the business operates in and investigate the stability of local currency values over time. This provides an up-front indication of the level of risk you are taking on.

    From there, the next step is to establish the best way to manage a cross-border cash flow. For example, if you know you’re sourcing goods and materials from local vendors in a country with a volatile currency, you may want to keep most of the funds siphoned for those payments in USD until the time comes for you to actually make the payment. Alternatively, if you’re working with a foreign currency that is considered stable, it might be more cost-effective for your business to hold funds in that local currency consistently using a multi-currency account. By keeping those funds readily available, you can reduce the number of times you pay conversion fees and manage that revenue stream just like you would in dollars.

    It’s also worth noting that some businesses and individuals living and working in countries with volatile currencies may request to be paid in a non-native currency themselves, including USD. So it’s worth checking with suppliers and employees what their preference is before setting up payments.

    Related: How a Strong vs. Weak Dollar Impacts U.S. Businesses

    2. Rethink your supply chain

    Once SMBs have established their currency exposure, it’s time to start thinking strategically about how they’re spreading risk across the business. Especially this year, as new tariffs — taxes on imported goods — have created additional complexities for many small businesses, it’s more important than ever to mitigate the risk of unforeseen costs.

    A good place for SMBs to start is to take inventory of their suppliers. If they are all concentrated in one region with a volatile currency, it might be worth exploring alternatives. Similarly, if retail-based businesses shipping goods abroad are consistently paying cargo fees that they can’t readily predict, they might look for local suppliers of those same goods to avoid paying import charges on every order.

    Diversifying where the business buys and sells goods and services can significantly smooth out both currency risk and the impact of sudden tariff changes. In other words, rebalancing purchasing zones is a smart way to distribute and lessen overall financial exposure.

    Related: ‘Uniquely Positioned’: How Small Business Owners Can Successfully Navigate the Tariffs

    3. Embrace multi-currency financial platforms

    Regardless of a businesses’ chosen international structure, it’s crucial to choose financial tools that make managing a global cash flow simple. As I’ve already alluded to, multi-currency accounts can be a game-changer for SMBs operating across borders, allowing them to hold funds in multiple currencies and send money like a local to foreign accounts.

    Some multi-currency account offerings even allow businesses to set thresholds for automatic currency conversions, which means their account will automatically convert funds when a currency hits a designated rate. This seamlessly allows SMBs to capture gains and avoid losses without adding to their mental load.

    It’s also important to choose fast, affordable and transparent financial services providers. Faster international payments mean funds arrive quicker, reducing the window of exchange rate exposure. Some providers also offer a fixed exchange rate within a certain time frame, so businesses know that even if funds arrive the next day, it will be the exact amount they expected — no more, no less. For SMBs, having clarity on how much they’re paying in fees, when their money will arrive and how much their recipient will receive can be an enormous relief.

    Ultimately, managing exchange rate risk isn’t just about protection; it’s about creating opportunity. When currency volatility is well-managed, it can become a lever for competitiveness. Businesses that have the right tools can leverage these variations to optimize their purchases or strengthen their positions in critical markets.

    For U.S. entrepreneurs venturing into the global marketplace, understanding and proactively managing currency risk is no longer optional. By embracing transparency, demanding speed and prioritizing control over your international finances, SMBs can protect their margins, empower their growth and unlock the vast potential of the international economy.

    In our increasingly digitally borderless world, the dream of international expansion is more accessible than ever for American entrepreneurs. The reach of social media and a strategic web presence has the power to make your brand visible to a global audience in seconds. Yet, as U.S. small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increasingly venture beyond borders, a significant yet often underestimated challenge emerges: currency volatility.

    From selling goods in Europe to sourcing materials from Asia, or managing a remote team spread across continents, operating internationally inherently means SMBs are engaging with different currencies. This involves added layers of complexity, not only because it entails managing Profit and Loss (P&L) statements in multiple currencies, but because the value of one currency against another is not static. A currency’s value can shift due to geopolitical events, economic news and market sentiment, often quickly and without warning. For small businesses, this can directly impact their bottom line in ways they might not be prepared for.

    Consider this scenario: You’re a small business owner and the U.S. dollar strengthens significantly against the currency in which you’ve priced an export contract. This means that your expected profit in dollars could sharply diminish upon conversion. Conversely, a weaker dollar could drastically increase the cost of imported goods, squeezing your profit margins or even making your products less competitive in the market. Beyond profitability, currency swings can make it difficult to accurately forecast spending or build a predictable budget. What you forecast to pay one month could significantly vary more or less the next, leading to instability that can derail your financial planning.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    June Yuan

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  • CEO’s ‘Powerful’ Business Change Leads to 8-Figure Revenue | Entrepreneur

    “It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.

    A fashion industry veteran who started her career as a contemporary buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had an opportunity to realize that goal with Aligne, originally founded by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale women’s fashion brand in London in 2020.

    Seymour envisioned a new era for Aligne — the brand could fill a white space she saw in modern women’s clothing: the need for design-led, wearable pieces at an accessible price point, delivered with an omnichannel approach.

    Related: 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Became a CEO

    Seymour set out to make it happen, essentially “refounding” the company. She joined the business as managing director in 2022, relaunched Aligne under her vision in 2023 and was officially named CEO in 2024.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    “I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”

    During her first several years as CEO, Seymour focused on Aligne’s community building online and “design handwriting,” then branched out from a direct-to-consumer strategy to an omnichannel approach with U.S. retail partners.

    In fact, despite being a London-founded brand, Aligne sees a larger part of its business unfolding in the U.S., Seymour says.

    The CEO even recently relocated from London to New York to support the U.S. office and team as the brand continues its expansion.

    “ We’re still based in the UK, so I travel back and forth,” Seymour says. “London to me is our creative hub; it’s part of our DNA being a British brand. That’s super important to me and something we don’t want to lose. So we’re very much creatively driven out of London, but commercially driven out of the U.S.”

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    Related: ‘We Got So Many DMs’: This 27-Year-Old Revamped Her Parents’ Decades-Old Business and Grew Direct-to-Consumer Sales From $60,000 to Over $500,000

    As a still relatively young British brand, Aligne gains validation with a U.S. audience through retailers that have loyal customer bases.

    “In  the UK, it’s easier to be direct-to-consumer only because the UK is much smaller and more attainable,” Seymour says. “But in the U.S., to resonate as the next contemporary brand that people should be looking at, I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”

    Aligne recently launched with Nordstrom, a retailer Seymour says she’d always hoped to partner with one day, after the company direct-messaged her to express its interest in the brand. Aligne is also available at Anthropologie.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    Related: Her Self-Funded Brand Hit $25 Million Revenue Last Year — And 3 Secrets Keep It Growing Alongside Her ‘Mischievous’ Second Venture: ‘Entrepreneurship Is a Mind Game’

    “There’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”

    Despite the long-term goal to expand in retail, Seymour first prioritized understanding Aligne as a brand and its relationship to customers before tackling those partnerships, appreciating how important that strategy is for sustainable success.

    Whether you’re refounding a business that already exists or starting one from scratch, knowing who your customer is — and quickly — will make or break its growth.  ”And that’s easier said than done,” the CEO notes. “There are so many factors. With every iOS update, there’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”

    Aligne’s target customers are “confident, working” women, and acknowledging what those consumers wanted in a clothing line helped guide the brand’s design shift and the direction of its collection, Seymour says.

    Related: This Is the Real Secret to Exceeding Your Customer’s Expectations

    Dialing into that customer base is paying off. Aligne ended its fiscal year in July 2025 with 56% year-over-year revenue growth and revenue approaching eight figures.

    Most of Aligne’s pieces are priced between $100 and $300. Although Seymour recognizes why some brands evolve into the “premium contemporary” space amid rising costs and tariff challenges, she says the company is committed to its accessible price point.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    “I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support.”

    Being a CEO is a lot harder than Seymour thought it would be when she was 20 years old, she admits. But she appreciates how the job has allowed her to draw on her experience as a buyer, which demanded a “balance of art and science” much like the executive role does.

    “[There might be a] week that I’m so artistic and designing the concept and the line, and there’s other days where I’m definitely leaning into the science,” Seymour says. “But I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support in those areas because a CEO wears so many hats.”

    Related: I Founded a $1.7 Billion Startup for Small Businesses — Here’s the Secret Every Entrepreneur Should Know

    One of the biggest lessons Seymour’s learned during her tenure as CEO so far is the value in listening to her instincts — even when it’s difficult. Over the first couple of months of the company’s refounding, Seymour sometimes hesitated to say what she wanted, then didn’t get the results that she desired.

    “Three months in, I had this moment where I brought the team together and was much clearer about what I wanted,” Seymour says. “That brought them more on the journey with me, and it solidified us as a team and our values. If you have an idea and you’re building your own business, trusting your gut and not being scared to say it is powerful.”

    “It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.

    A fashion industry veteran who started her career as a contemporary buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had an opportunity to realize that goal with Aligne, originally founded by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale women’s fashion brand in London in 2020.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Amanda Breen

    Source link

  • 29-Year-Old’s Salty Side Hustle Hit $10 Million Last Year | Entrepreneur

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features New York City-based entrepreneur Seth Goldstein, 29. Goldstein is co-founder with Steven Rofrano of Ancient Crunch, a company behind the chip brands MASA and Vandy, which launched in 2022. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
    I was a vice president at a private equity fund focused on fast-growing healthcare businesses.

    When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
    My co-founder, Steven, made fun of me for eating Tostitos while we were hanging out in Miami. I didn’t know what a seed oil even was at the time, but that conversation snowballed into a side project, which became MASA Chips.

    Related: This Mom’s Garage Side Hustle for Kids Became a Business With $1 Billion Revenue

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
    Steven and I put in about $250,000 of our own money. I had saved a bit working in finance, and Steven had made some money (accidentally) timing the market perfectly on Florida real estate during Covid. We have raised about $14 million since then.

    If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
    We have always known that happy customers make a strong business, but we didn’t appreciate how much “latent demand” there is. We are primarily an online business, and we didn’t think email marketing made any sense until we tried it. Subscriptions seemed weird for chips, and now they are half of our business. If we knew then what we know now, Ancient Crunch would be about five times bigger.

    When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
    Most consumer packaged goods businesses are really just marketing companies. They hire a factory, slap their sticker on the bag and sell it for a markup. Because we fry our chips in beef tallow, we couldn’t find a factory, so we built our own. Turns out, that’s fairly challenging. The other major dynamic is that you always need more money than you think. We have said we are done raising money countless times in the past three years.

    Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
    Just recently, we had the good fortune of Vandy Crisps (our potato chip line) selling too well. Due to our in-house manufacturing, this meant that we had to go out of stock for about three weeks. While this doesn’t sound like a huge deal, it is very frustrating for customers to wait longer than expected (especially in the age of Amazon), and in the meantime, we can’t go market to new customers because we don’t have the inventory to sell them. We started working longer hours, got new fryers and are now back on track.

    How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
    We saw fairly consistent monthly revenue basically from day one. We were not profitable, but we had a product that people loved, and it sold pretty well right from the start. We were doing about $30,000 per month in the early days.

    Related: After College, She Spent $800 to Start a Side Hustle That Became a ‘Monster’ Business Making $35 Million a Year: ‘I Set Intense Sales Targets’

    What does growth and revenue look like now?
    We are very focused on growth. Last year, we did just under $10 million in revenue. Next year, we plan to do about $250 million.

    What does a typical day or week of work look like for you?
    I work about 50 hours per week these days. I have calls in a block from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and am working through emails the rest of the time. When you own the business, your job is whatever the biggest fire is. Often, that has been fundraising. Some days, that’s signing celebrity deals. Other days, it’s optimizing landing page conversions while trying to convince the next retailer to put you on the shelf. Founders always wear a lot of hats.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    What do you enjoy most about running this business?
    It’s awesome seeing your product gain cultural standing. When we started, this was a side project that most of my friends politely told me was a waste of time. Now, we have something like 100,000 people eating our products every month, and we are a bestselling product at several major retailers, including Erewhon and Citarella.

    Related: These 31-Year-Old Best Friends Started a Side Hustle to Solve a Workout Struggle — And It’s On Track to Hit $10 Million Annual Revenue This Year

    What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
    Make something that people want, then put it in front of 100 million people as fast as you can. Don’t start with, “I want to start a business.” Start with, “This thing should exist” or “This problem can be solved.”

    This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features New York City-based entrepreneur Seth Goldstein, 29. Goldstein is co-founder with Steven Rofrano of Ancient Crunch, a company behind the chip brands MASA and Vandy, which launched in 2022. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

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  • Over Half of Workers Tell Employers This Expensive Lie | Entrepreneur

    The truth is out of office for some employees.

    As workers increasingly resist the 40-hour work week, some of them even bend the facts to get their time back.

    A new report from online resume builder Kickresume, which surveyed nearly 2,000 employees worldwide, found that only 18% of them work the full 7-8 hours expected of them — unbeknownst to their managers.

    Related: Are You Leaving Work Before 5 P.M.? You’re Not Alone, the Workday Is Actually Getting Shorter, According to a New Report.

    Instead, nearly 60% of employees surveyed admitted they’re not fully honest on their timesheets. Most (44%) said they round up every now and then; 12% said they sometimes stretch the truth a little bit. A much smaller group (3%) said they regularly over-report their hours.

    Disengaged employees contributed to an estimated $438 billion in lost productivity in 2024, per Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report.

    There’s also a generational divide when it comes to lying about hours worked, according to Kickresume’s research.

    Related: Gen Z Is Changing the Workplace — Here Are 4 Trends Employers Can’t Ignore

    Gen Z employees were the most likely to admit to rounding up (49%) and stretching the truth (13%). Thirty-five percent of Gen Z workers claimed perfect honesty in timesheet reporting.

    Gen X employees, on the other hand, were most likely (46%) to claim total honesty when filling out their timesheets; 40% admitted to rounding up occasionally.

    Millennial workers came in close behind for claims of complete honesty at 43%, and 42% admitted to rounding up their hours from time to time.

    Related: This Is the Biggest Lie People Put on Their Resume

    Additionally, Gen X and millennial employees reported being equally likely (12%) to sometimes stretch the truth on their hours.

    Across all generations, just 7% of employees said they never take any unofficial breaks during the work day, per Kickresume’s research.

    Among the majority of workers who do give themselves some leeway, coffee or snack breaks emerged as the most popular way to spend time away from work (58%), the survey found.

    The truth is out of office for some employees.

    As workers increasingly resist the 40-hour work week, some of them even bend the facts to get their time back.

    A new report from online resume builder Kickresume, which surveyed nearly 2,000 employees worldwide, found that only 18% of them work the full 7-8 hours expected of them — unbeknownst to their managers.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • How to Spot a Real Day Trading Mentor (and Avoid Pretenders) | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    There is no shortage of people who talk a really impressive game about how they’re rich, have the whole “day trading” thing dialed in, and are willing to teach you how easy it can be to follow in their footsteps to become the next great day trader.

    I’m not one of them.

    Yes, I day trade for a living, and I’ve done OK. But I’m first in line to tell you that day trading is not easy. It takes dedicated effort over time to start becoming solid at day trading. Then it takes even more time and work to turn it into a profession.

    You have two main choices when it comes to learning day trading: You can learn by doing, or get a teacher. Teaching yourself — in other words, making all the mistakes yourself — is a really costly way to do it, in time, money, and stress. I recommend that you stand on someone else’s shoulders and at least avoid many of the mistakes they made.

    Because this is not a sales pitch to stand on my shoulders, I will describe five things to look for in a day trading teacher. You can then apply those tests to whichever teachers you find.

    Related: Before You Start Day Trading, Know These Stages

    1. You want someone who’s seen it all

    How long ago did they begin to day trade? You don’t want someone who claims to have done great in the last few months or maybe a year, and now feels bulletproof. The strongest teachers will have traded and survived through great markets, but also sideways markets and downright terrible ones.

    You also don’t want someone who claims to be “a natural” at day trading; in fact, you should hope they have lots of figurative scars, which often accompany lessons thoroughly learned.

    2. They need to be currently in the game

    Michael Phelps may have hung up his competitive swimsuit years ago, but he could be a great swimming coach for decades to come. Not too much changes in competitive swimming, other than younger people regularly breaking records.

    Not so with day trading. The markets constantly change in terms of which stocks are listed, regulations being updated and technology continually improving.

    Your teacher should be trading every week and preferably every day. Day trading is difficult enough; you shouldn’t make it even more difficult by working with someone who’s been a spectator for too long.

    3. They must be able to explain and remember

    We’ve all known some people who are great at what they do, but terrible at explaining it to others. Maybe they’re not very articulate, or they speak so fast you can’t follow them.

    When I say “able to remember,” I mean that experts can easily forget what it was like to be a beginner. After making literally 25,000 trades in my career, I can glance at four monitors filled with hundreds of bits of data, and it all seems so clear to me. But I do remember the feeling of confusion and even despair while looking at just a fraction of this firehose for the first time.

    Look for someone who’s clear, patient and willing to explain — sometimes again and again — until the topic makes sense to you. Day trading is all about near-instantaneous judgments, but your questioning and learning zone should be judgment-free.

    Related: Want to Be a Stronger Mentor? Start With These 4 Questions

    4. Seek a specialist

    If you have a heart condition and need surgery, do you want to go to a surgeon who’s worked on a few hearts, done some tennis elbows and is a fairly good plastic surgeon, too?

    You want the person with deep experience. The kind who could write a 500-page book that’s an “Introduction to…” instead of the 50-page pamphlet that’s “The complete guide” to something. Although many day trading principles indeed apply to commodities, cryptocurrency and other investments, I have yet to meet someone who’s equally expert at all those types of investments. I certainly am not.

    It may be true that you don’t yet know what specific investments you want to focus on. That’s cool; shop around! But at some point, when you decide the investment type you want to bear down on, look for a teacher who’s done the same thing.

    5. Insist on a truth teller

    Of course, you want a teacher to make it as easy as possible, but day trading is not easy. It’s not even easy for me at my stage, because every day I must earn any reward, and am quickly punished for forgetting key principles. Stay well away from anyone who gives you the impression that day trading can be picked up without much difficulty.

    Also, it’s incredibly important that you find a teacher who shows you ALL of their trades — the fabulous ones, the okay ones, and the “what were you thinking” terrible trades. I can’t say much about day trading with absolute certainty, but I’m certain about this: Every trader on the planet continues to have green days and red days. Every trader loses occasionally.

    The only difference is how much they’ve lost, and what they do about it. The smart, surviving traders check themselves into what I call “trader rehab.” This allows them to return to the basics, rebuild their confidence, and get back in the game. Anyone who’s not showing you these scars is not being straight with you, and they should not have your trust.

    Social media is full of people who say they took up day trading and scored. More power to them; I do believe in beginner’s luck and once had it myself. You don’t need a teacher at all to have beginner’s luck. But if you want to continue in this profession — not if but when that beginner’s luck runs out — that truth-telling teacher will be the best trade you take.

    There is no shortage of people who talk a really impressive game about how they’re rich, have the whole “day trading” thing dialed in, and are willing to teach you how easy it can be to follow in their footsteps to become the next great day trader.

    I’m not one of them.

    Yes, I day trade for a living, and I’ve done OK. But I’m first in line to tell you that day trading is not easy. It takes dedicated effort over time to start becoming solid at day trading. Then it takes even more time and work to turn it into a profession.

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    Ross Cameron

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  • Want to Retire One Day? Avoid 3 Common Retirement Mistakes | Entrepreneur

    Retirement remains a far-off — and in some cases, unattainable — goal for many Americans.

    About one in four adults over age 50 said they expect to never retire, according to an AARP survey. That’s perhaps not surprising given that Americans believe they’ll need $1.26 million to retire comfortably, per Northwestern Mutual.

    Related: Are You on Track for Your Age? Here’s When You Should Save for Retirement, Make 6 Figures and Buy a Home, According to a New Survey.

    In a new report from Bank of America, 68% of employees said that saving for retirement is their No. 1 financial goal, though working toward it often comes with significant challenges.

    The research, which surveyed nearly 1,000 full-time employees who participate in 401(k) plans and 800 employers who offer a 401(k) plan, revealed that the average employee doesn’t start saving for retirement until age 30 and wishes they had more retirement education (33%).

    Employees’ top expected sources of retirement income were as follows, per the survey: 401(k) or 403(b) (85%), Social Security (75%), checking or savings account 53%), IRA (38%), taxable brokerage or investment account (24%).

    Related: How Much Money Do You Need to Retire Comfortably in Your State? Here’s the Breakdown.

    Baby Boomers are retiring at a rapid rate, setting a record number of retirees in 2024 that allowed Gen X to outnumber them in the workforce for the first time, GOBankingRates reported.

    On average, Boomers began saving for retirement at age 34; now in their 60s and 70s, one in four of them don’t feel on track to retire, according to the Bank of America survey. Additionally, only two in 10 Boomers said they completely understand their Social Security benefits.

    Rising healthcare costs in retirement present another hurdle, as only 34% of employees said they’re saving and investing for future healthcare expenses, despite current research showing that a 65-year-old couple could need as much as $428,000 in savings to cover their retirement healthcare expenses.

    Related: How to Start Thinking About Retirement Before You Plan to Retire

    Respondents said the main reason they don’t save for health care is that they can’t afford it, but many who have access to an HSA through their employer also don’t understand the tax advantages and rollover process.

    When employees across generations were asked to reflect on what they would have done differently to prepare for retirement, they cited three common mistakes: not starting to save at a younger age (49%), not taking full advantage of their employer’s 401(k) match (35%) and not paying off debt sooner (36%).

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Bank of America

    “The modern employee wants help with their broader financial goals,” Lorna Sabbia, head of workplace benefits at Bank of America, said. “Employers should consider additional resources to support their workforce in ways that bolster their long-term goals while also helping them tackle short-term challenges.”

    Amanda Breen

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  • I Founded a $1.5 Billion Business. Here’s My Success Secret. | Entrepreneur

    This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Shanaz Hemmati, COO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, a $1.5 billion company that provides an all-in-one platform helping small businesses become official, stay compliant, manage finances and more. Her co-founder is Ross Buhrdorf, who serves as CEO. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of ZenBusiness. Co-founder and COO Shanaz Hemmati.

    I always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but I never really thought about going off and starting my own business.

    At the University of Texas at Austin, I studied computer engineering, starting with hardware design before pivoting to software engineering. I truly love technology, and especially software engineering, because you’re coding to solve problems — I still love solving problems.

    Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

    My husband’s an entrepreneur who’s always had his own businesses. He’d encourage me to start my own business, but I was too concerned. Sometimes women can think too hard about doing something; that’s what held me back from becoming an entrepreneur.

    For women in male-dominated fields, it’s important to seek out mentors who can help you from their experience, even if their journey looked different from yours. You can bounce ideas off them and ask them questions. Mentorship pushes you, but it also gives you assurance and confidence.

    Over the course of my career, I learned so much, which helped me when I made the leap to founder.

    “Small businesses are what keep the economy growing.”

    I first met my ZenBusiness co-founder Ross Buhrdorf when we worked at Excite.com, a web portal company founded in 1994. Several years later, I joined HomeAway, a vacation rental marketplace, where I stayed for 11 years until the company was acquired by Expedia.

    Later on, Ross and I met up for coffee, and he started talking about this idea of building something to help entrepreneurs and people who are starting small businesses. I was intrigued and excited. I’d always been passionate about that category in the market: Small businesses are what keep the economy growing and going.

    Related: I Walked Away From a Corporate Career to Start My Own Small Business — Here’s Why You Should Do the Same

    So Ross and I founded ZenBusiness in 2017.

    When it comes to a fast-growing company like ours, we have so many things on our to-do list, but we don’t always have the resources to get them done at the same time, so we have to prioritize.

    AI has been one of those priorities. Everybody in business should be using it these days. It’s a great tool that saves time once you get employees on board and using it based on their role and function. Our personalized AI assistant, ZenBusiness Velo, is included with every LLC formation and helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

    Related: Two-Thirds of Small Businesses Are Already Using AI — Here’s How to Get Even More Out of It

    “It all comes down to this — people are at the center of any great company.”

    For a long time, I’ve had this mantra that’s helped me succeed as a business leader: Be fearless, be ethical, be passionate.

    Being fearless means recognizing that nothing is ever going to be perfect, but you just do it anyway. Being ethical means always being honest, to yourself, to your co-workers, to anyone. And being passionate is everything. Loving your work and doing the best job possible will help you progress in your career and build your business.

    It all comes down to this — people are at the center of any great company. Anything you do is all about people, whether they’re employees, customers or the community.

    ZenBusiness puts this rule into action by hearing and supporting its employees.

    For example, we became an early adopter of remote work. The company sent employees home when the pandemic hit, but as we continued to grow and hire more people, we listened to employees who said that they preferred working from home. Remote work gave them the chance to spend time with their families, cut down on commute hours and be more productive.

    Related: A CEO Who Runs a Fully Remote Company Has an Unusual Take on Employees Starting Side Hustles: ‘We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves’

    “Maybe you launch as a side hustle to test it out.”

    All aspiring entrepreneurs should avoid the pitfall of thinking about a business idea for too long before they take action: Do it sooner rather than later.

    You don’t have to drop everything else you’re working on to start. Maybe you launch as a side hustle to test it out. Talk to the people you’re trying to solve a pain point for because those conversations will give you a lot of information.

    Every day, you’re learning something new, and being able to pivot fast can be the difference between driving your business in the right direction or not. There are always going to be surprises along the way. So remember, it’s all about the people who are around you — it’s all about the people you bring in to help you go through your business journey.

    This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.

    This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Shanaz Hemmati, COO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, a $1.5 billion company that provides an all-in-one platform helping small businesses become official, stay compliant, manage finances and more. Her co-founder is Ross Buhrdorf, who serves as CEO. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of ZenBusiness. Co-founder and COO Shanaz Hemmati.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • What Every Small-Business Founder Needs to Know About Stablecoins and Digital Dollars | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    My first exposure to stablecoins was mundane: a client selling digital courses asked if accepting USD-pegged tokens would cut card fees. Two years later, the question is everywhere I speak. Talk of “central-bank digital currencies” and government-blessed stablecoins has moved from policy circles to checkout pages, and entrepreneurs want a clear roadmap.

    Below is a founder-focused guide: what stablecoins are, why governments care and how early adopters can turn uncertainty into an operating edge.

    Stablecoins in plain English

    A stablecoin is a digital token engineered to hold a one-to-one value with a reference asset, usually a national currency. Private issuers such as USDC and USDT hold dollar reserves or short-term Treasuries to keep the peg.

    The next wave is public: the U.S. Treasury is drafting a supervisory framework, the European Central Bank is testing a digital euro and Singapore’s Monetary Authority has completed Project Orchid pilots. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies, the target price of a stablecoin stays flat; the upside for a merchant is lower friction at the point of sale, not capital gains.

    Related: The Hidden Problems That Could Threaten Crypto’s Future

    Why governments are getting involved

    Regulators see two goals. First, faster settlement removes plumbing risks that surfaced when regional U.S. banks failed in 2023. Second, programmable money can embed compliance (tax withholding, sanctions screening) directly in the payment rail.

    Policymakers believe that if official channels offer the same speed as private tokens, illicit or unstable alternatives lose appeal. For founders, this means the rails will mature under clear rules rather than live in gray zones.

    Related: What You Need to Know About the Future of Blockchain Finance

    Global momentum you can’t ignore

    In the United States, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has asked Congress for clear stablecoin legislation and the Treasury for formal guardrails, while Visa now settles some treasury transactions in near real time with USDC on Solana.

    Across the Atlantic, the European Central Bank has advanced its digital-euro project into a preparation phase and set aside funds to build prototypes with commercial banks.

    In Asia, Singapore’s Project Orchid finished a programmable-voucher trial that proved smart contracts can restrict a coin’s spending to approved merchants. All three efforts aim to reduce cross-border payment friction, a daily pain point for small businesses that buy from overseas suppliers or sell to global customers.

    What’s in it for founders right now

    Stablecoins promise lower fees because card interchange charges of 1.5% to 3% can fall to network-gas pennies, a shift that saves about twenty thousand dollars on two million in annual sales. They further provide immediate settlement, which reduces the cash conversion days to minutes and relieves the short-term credit requirement.

    Their universal access does not rely on the correspondent banks; a customer of the Eurozone having a digital-euro wallet can send money to a U.S. retailer directly, without the wire charges and time-zone lag. The programmable money also offers the advantage of automation of the refunds, royalty splits and escrow releases, and this reduces the manual reconciliation work.

    Risks investors and founders must price in

    Regulatory drift remains the first hazard because legal frameworks can change after elections, so revenue that depends on yet-to-be-finalized rules deserves a discount. Counterparty transparency is next; a stablecoin’s safety rests on its reserves, making audited statements a must-read during vendor onboarding.

    Custody and cyber threats follow, since one lost private key or hacked wallet can wipe out funds, and only multi-signature controls and SOC 2-audited custodians truly reduce that risk. Finally, accounting grey zones persist; the IRS treats each disposal of digital property as a taxable event, so until GAAP issues clearer guidance, companies need detailed sub-ledgers to track token activity accurately.

    A five-step action checklist

    1. Open a test wallet. Experience the UX before involving customers. Many providers offer no-code dashboards.
    2. Pilot with low-value invoices. Use a stablecoin like USDC for a small vendor payment to measure speed and fees.
    3. Choose a compliant gateway. Select processors registered with FinCEN and capable of issuing year-end tax reports.
    4. Update policies. Add language on digital-asset acceptance, refund terms and exchange-rate treatment to T&Cs.
    5. Monitor legislation. Track Treasury updates, ECB communiqués and state-level money-transmitter rules; adjust exposure quarterly.

    Related: Digital Currencies May Well Be The Way Forward. But Not All Of Them Are Going To Make It.

    Milestones to watch over the next 24 months

    • A U.S. stablecoin bill that defines reserve standards and federal oversight.
    • ECB prototype results on merchant acceptance for the digital euro.
    • Asian central banks forming cross-border settlement corridors.
    • Major e-commerce platforms adding stablecoin checkouts natively.

    Customer expectations are changing

    Stablecoins also reshape what buyers expect from businesses. Younger customers, used to instant transfers on mobile apps, see multi-day settlements as outdated. Accepting digital dollars signals a brand is willing to remove friction. For subscription models, programmable payments reduce failed charges and improve retention. For international buyers, instant refunds or conversions into local currency build trust. What begins as a back-office efficiency move quickly becomes a front-end advantage that strengthens loyalty.

    Each milestone reduces uncertainty and broadens the addressable market. Early movers stand to lock in mindshare and lower payment costs before competitors even draft policy memos.

    Stablecoins will not make entrepreneurs rich through price appreciation; their promise lies in reducing friction that quietly erodes margins and customer trust. Governments are pushing the rails into the mainstream, which means founders who learn the mechanics today can outpace peers tomorrow.

    Test small, document everything and you will be ready when digital dollars hit prime time.
    So is it time to pour money into stablecoin? Probably not yet. But it’s definitely time to start paying attention.

    My first exposure to stablecoins was mundane: a client selling digital courses asked if accepting USD-pegged tokens would cut card fees. Two years later, the question is everywhere I speak. Talk of “central-bank digital currencies” and government-blessed stablecoins has moved from policy circles to checkout pages, and entrepreneurs want a clear roadmap.

    Below is a founder-focused guide: what stablecoins are, why governments care and how early adopters can turn uncertainty into an operating edge.

    Stablecoins in plain English

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    Dmitrii Khasanov

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  • How a Mom’s Garage Side Hustle Hit $1 Billion Revenue | Entrepreneur

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Sandra Oh Lin, 50, of Los Altos, California. She is the founder and CEO of KiwiCo, a company that provides educational activities for kids meant to spark creativity and problem-solving through hands-on play. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of KiwiCo. Sandra Oh Lin.

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
    I had just stepped away from seven years at eBay Inc., where I had launched PayPal Mobile and led the eBay fashion business. I was working on a new fashion-related startup idea before I ended up starting KiwiCo in 2011.

    Where did you find the inspiration for the side hustle?
    When my kids were younger, I tried to find ways for them to exercise their creativity and put their problem-solving skills to work. I wanted them to grow up to feel like they could envision and better the world around them. As an engineer by training, I saw creating and building through hands-on activities as a way to explore, discover and build creative confidence. At the same time, I was drawing on my own childhood — I have such fond memories of making and building things with my mom while I was growing up.

    Related: After College, She Spent $800 to Start a Side Hustle That Became a ‘Monster’ Business Making $35 Million a Year: ‘I Set Intense Sales Targets’

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
    I started by creating hands-on projects for my kids. Then, I started to share them with friends and family during playdates. The parents and kids were so enthusiastic about the activities that it gave me the confidence to take it further. I laid the groundwork to see if there was a market for a real business. Then, I leveraged my network to start conversations with investors. We raised a little more than $10 million in venture funding. From there, we were able to become profitable and cash flow positive — and fund our own growth.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of KiwiCo

    Are there any free or paid resources that have been especially helpful for you in starting and running this business?
    I had a strong background in product design (having worked in R&D at Procter & Gamble) and ecommerce (from time at PayPal and eBay). Yet, I didn’t have any direct experience with fulfillment, supply chain and operations. I had a lot to learn. So I made a conscious effort to surround myself with people who were true experts. One example is Mike Smith, who was the COO of Walmart. He provided invaluable guidance, and he even helped interview our VP of operations candidates when we were hiring. Advisors like Mike were so helpful to us at that time.

    If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
    I had always heard people say that a strong culture is so important to define and cultivate when you build a company. That way, you can point to and reinforce the behavior and values that align. While I was able to grok that academically, I put it aside when I should have addressed it earlier. As a result, some of our hiring was off in the beginning, and we had to course correct, which was costly. It would have been helpful to have put the framework into place from the beginning.

    When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
    During the pandemic, one of our toughest challenges was sourcing enough supplies to keep up with surging demand. In the years since, we’ve seen our fair share of ups and downs on that front, but one thing has remained constant: the importance of strong, trusted relationships with our suppliers. They’ve been incredible partners through it all, and those collaborations have been key to helping us navigate post-pandemic growth with resilience and adaptability.

    Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

    Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
    I’ll never forget our very first alpha shipment. We had just 19 crates to send out, and it took a team of five of us the entire day to get them boxed and shipped. By the end, we were exhausted and looking at each other like, There has to be a better way. It was a wake-up call that we needed better systems and processes for fulfillment if we were going to scale. We figured it out along the way, but that moment sticks with me as a reminder of how far we’ve come.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of KiwiCo

    How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue?
    With our core business being subscription-based, we’ve seen consistent monthly revenue from the beginning. KiwiCo has been profitable and self-funded for many years now. What started in my garage has grown into a company that has shipped more than 50 million crates to families in over 40 countries and created more than 1,500 hands-on products and activities. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come, while still staying true to the heart of why we started: sparking creativity and confidence in kids everywhere.

    What does growth and revenue look like now?
    To date, KiwiCo has generated more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue. This is something I’m incredibly proud of, not just because of the number itself, but because it represents millions of moments of creativity and discovery for kids and families. Additionally, we launched in Target and Barnes & Noble this past year as part of building our wholesale channels.

    Related: He Spent $36 to Start a Side Hustle. Now the Business Earns 6 Figures a Year — With Just 1-2 Hours of Work a Day: ‘Freedom.’

    What do you enjoy most about running this business?
    One of my favorite parts of this journey is that my kids not only understand what I do for work but also are involved in helping shape KiwiCo’s products. My kids were the original source of inspiration for the company, and they continue to be critical testers of our products to ensure we’re creating the best hands-on activities for kids to discover and unleash their creativity and explore as they learn about the world around them.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of KiwiCo

    What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
    Finding a community of founders can be so helpful. Sharing the challenges and the opportunities that come from building a business with others who are in the same boat can be so valuable. You can gather everything from tangible, actionable advice to empathetic ears that have been there and done that.

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Sandra Oh Lin, 50, of Los Altos, California. She is the founder and CEO of KiwiCo, a company that provides educational activities for kids meant to spark creativity and problem-solving through hands-on play. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of KiwiCo. Sandra Oh Lin.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Amanda Breen

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  • Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Grew to $570,000 a Month: Penny Linn | Entrepreneur

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Krista LeRay, the 34-year-old founder of needlepoint store Penny Linn. She lives with her husband and two children in Westport, Connecticut. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn. Krista LeRay.

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
    Before starting Penny Linn, a new-age needlepoint store offering hand-painted canvases, accessories and more, I was a full-time influencer running my blog, Covering The Bases. I started the blog in 2013, but I only took it full-time about a year before starting Penny Linn. While managing the blog, I had a corporate career at Major League Baseball, where I worked on the social media team for over five years.

    Related: He Spent $36 to Start a Side Hustle. Now the Business Earns 6 Figures a Year — With Just 1-2 Hours of Work a Day: ‘Freedom.’

    When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
    I initially learned to stitch from my grandma, who inspired the name of the business, and then I really got into it in college at the University of Kentucky. I picked it back up again in 2018 when I started stitching custom belts for my dad and husband, and a ring bearer pillow for my wedding in 2019. Little did I know that this would be the perfect hobby to fall back in love with as the pandemic approached.

    As I got back into stitching, I quickly stitched through my stash of canvases and was disappointed with both the in-person and online needlepoint shopping experiences. It felt antiquated; there weren’t many sites with a good user experience, a handful of the shops made you call to order, and the designs felt very mature. I found myself wishing there were more fun and better accessories and canvases, so I started making them after my search came up short.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
    When I started painting my own canvases, I wasn’t even in the mindset of starting a business; it was still just a hobby for me. I probably spent under $100 buying a blank canvas on Etsy and paint at Michaels, and painted the infamous Ralph’s Coffee cup for myself. When I shared it on my Instagram, I had an overwhelming number of followers ask to buy one, so I knew my followers were also interested in needlepoint.

    As I began searching for cuter accessories for myself, I found that many custom items had a 100-item minimum. At the time, I had a business bank account for my blog, so I used that money to order the inventory and knew that I could at least sell 90 of them to my followers who also needlepointed. After making a few canvases and seeing the demand, I realized I had enough ideas to launch a larger collection online. So I bought the smallest Shopify package, started sourcing needleminders and project bags, and recruited my friends and family to help paint canvases.

    All in all, I spent about $5,000 on the initial inventory for our accessories and an additional $2,000 on shipping materials, canvas tape, etc., but none of this accounted for my time painting the canvases one by one, which was the biggest investment.

    Related: These 31-Year-Old Best Friends Started a Side Hustle to Solve a Workout Struggle — And It’s On Track to Hit $10 Million Annual Revenue This Year

    If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
    Looking back on how I built my business, it’s a catch-22; if I had known what I know today, I might have done it differently. However, having my hands in every aspect of the business has brought me a great deal of knowledge and appreciation that continues to shape the business.

    In the beginning, I hand-painted nearly every canvas, which took many, many hours, but it kept costs low since my labor was essentially free and gave me control over my inventory. If I had known that people outsourced painting, it would have saved me so much time and energy, but doing it myself taught me the value of a hand-painted canvas.

    Similarly, I wish I had hired people at the beginning to take more off my plate, but by doing it all, I learned valuable lessons and knew how I wanted every aspect of the business to run. I don’t think Penny Linn would be such a thoughtful and impactful brand today if I hadn’t had my fingers on every aspect of the business in the beginning.

    Related: I Interviewed 5 Entrepreneurs Generating Up to $20 Million in Revenue a Year — And They All Have the Same Regret About Starting Their Business

    When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
    The reason Penny Linn has been so successful as a business, and also in reviving the cultural love for needlepoint, is that we brought much-needed innovation to the industry. I never expected the amount of pushback from vendors and industry vets I received. Across the board, people pushed back on our ideas and how we ran our business.

    Today, we have found partners who believe in our growth and are building with us. When we launched our acrylic line in 2022, there was so much chatter online that it wasn’t innovative or unique, but today we hold a patent for the design, and it’s one of our bestselling lines. We also take a slightly smaller wholesale margin than the industry standard because I believe in making needlepoint accessible. Our wholesale partners were initially adamant that it wouldn’t be successful, but it has proven otherwise. I developed a thick skin while blogging and learned to shut out the noise, which has followed me into Penny Linn as we continue to shake up the industry.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn

    Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
    I vividly remember one of our first bag launches, which did not go as planned. It was a beautiful project bag with leather and PVC that we sold through so quickly! As I was packing them, I tested a few of the zippers and was very disappointed to find that they stuck and were difficult to open, despite the samples working perfectly. I reached out to each customer who had ordered them and let them know that the bags weren’t up to our standards. I offered them a full refund if they wanted to return the bag or a discount if they wanted to keep it.

    This became one of my biggest rules in business: When anything goes wrong, I need to take ownership and work to rectify it immediately. Our community was beyond appreciative of how proactive we were, and most ended up keeping the bags. We put the rest of the bags on clearance and now work with our team and vendors to ensure we have quality control measures in place.

    How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
    In the first six months after we launched, the only consistent revenue was what we generated during launches. Everything would sell out so quickly that we wouldn’t have any inventory left until the next launch. We would often have a day or two without sales in between launches, which wasn’t a sustainable way to run a business. To prevent this, we started producing more inventory and introduced our Penny Linn Collective, allowing us to bring on designers who expanded our offerings. Our designer collective has been fruitful for us over the past five years, and we continue to grow it today.

    We started seeing more consistent revenue in year two, doing just over $30,000 per month. The popularity of our launches started to level out, and we could better forecast inventory to keep our income steady. It was such a big deal for us at the time to reach these numbers, but we do that in a day now. Each year has been drastically different in terms of demand, and about every six months, we reach an inflection point where we need to increase quantities even more.

    Related: This Couple’s ‘Scrappy’ Side Hustle Sold Out in 1 Weekend — It Hit $1 Million in 3 Years and Now Makes Millions Annually: ‘Lean But Powerful’

    What does growth and revenue look like now?
    It’s been really exciting that Penny Linn has doubled or tripled each year. In 2024, we did $4.4 million in revenue, and we have already surpassed that and are on track to double it in 2025. We are currently averaging $570,000 per month. Whatever I think our ceiling might be, we come in and double it each year. Our growth has been so explosive that I do expect it to start leveling out in the next year or so, but there is still so much opportunity for the business.

    My mind is always racing with new ideas for the brand as we expand our product offering, launch new designers under the Penny Linn Collective and bring new accessories to market. Our store opening in Norwalk, Connecticut, earlier this year was a huge milestone for us, and now we are exploring what more stores might look like. I don’t see our growth slowing down anytime soon.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn

    What do you enjoy most about running this business?
    I honestly love what I do so much and find great fulfillment in it. I feel so much pride, excitement and joy thinking about what we’ve created at Penny Linn and the business I’ve built in under five years. It’s nothing I could have ever imagined as my career or what I expected Penny Linn to grow into. We haven’t seen many bumps in the road yet, and keep having success after success, which energizes me to keep going.

    I pride myself on the fact that Penny Linn is “by a stitcher for a stitcher,” and there is nothing more satisfying as a needlepointer to want something in my collection and to be able to make it. I’m privileged to have the ability to work with our vendors to create the products of my dreams, and it’s just as exciting to see how much our community loves them.

    I also find so much joy in the change we have brought to the industry and how we have been able to bring needlepoint to the forefront for a new generation. It’s crazy to sit back and think that my brand has revived a centuries-old tradition and built it into something that will continue to live on and evolve for generations to come.

    Related: These Friends Started a Side Hustle in Their Kitchens. Sales Spiked to $130,000 in 3 Days — Then 7 Figures: ‘Revenue Has Grown Consistently.’

    What’s your best business advice?
    The first is, “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.” People are often scared to reach out because they are afraid of rejection, but my motto is always to ask, and if they don’t reply, it’s still not a no. If they don’t respond, it’s not the end of the world, but the opportunity for the answer to be yes is so much greater.

    My second is to learn the difference between constructive feedback and criticism. If someone doesn’t like you or your business, they will never have anything nice to say, and it’s not worth listening to. However, if they are a loyal fan and a frequent shopper, and they comment on how a product or process might be improved, it’s worth listening to. It’s easy to get lost in the negative feedback, but the faster you learn what is worth listening to, the better decisions you will make for your business.

    Amanda Breen

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  • Taylor Swift and Amazon’s ‘Antifragile’ Secret to Business Success | Entrepreneur

    If you’ve had internet access since 2005, you’re familiar with Taylor Swift.

    Image Credit: Gilbert Flores | Getty Images

    The superstar musician is the most-streamed artist in the world. She is the first to win album of the year at the Grammy Awards four times. Her Eras Tour generated more than $2 billion in ticket sales. And she has a net worth of $1.6 billion.

    She also has something valuable in common with Amazon, the Jeff Bezos-founded ecommerce giant that boasts a $2.5 trillion market capitalization.

    Related: Don’t ‘Shake Off’ These 5 Business, Brand and Legal Lessons From Taylor Swift

    Aside from Swift and Amazon’s status as two of the most successful brands in the world, the pair shares a rare trait that’s helped them get there, according to former strategist at Harvard Business School Sinéad O’Sullivan.

    In her new book, Good Ideas and Power Moves: Ten Lessons for Success From Taylor Swift, O’Sullivan claims that Taylor Swift and Amazon have both reached the pinnacles of their respective industries by being “antifragile.”

    “In an increasingly complex and seemingly random world, some systems perform better in chaos than others.”

    The concept of “antifragility” relates to a field of physics called chaos theory. Lebanese American scholar of math and financial markets Nassim Taleb coined the term after noticing a peculiar event unfolding in systems and organizations across a wide range of fields, from biology to urban development, healthcare and more.

    “What he saw was that in an increasingly complex and seemingly random world, some systems perform better in chaos than others,” O’Sullivan writes.

    Essentially, antifragility flouts the human desire for stability and instinct to fear what’s different or unstable.

    “The idea of antifragility goes far beyond saying that uncertainty doesn’t have to be bad,” O’Sullivan explains. “It actually says that uncertainty is good. Antifragility isn’t just about surviving chaos; it’s about flourishing in it. It’s about flipping the script and turning adversity into opportunity, uncertainty into innovation and chaos into creativity.”

    Related: Embracing Antifragility — How to Leverage Uncertainty, Volatility and Stress for Unprecedented Growth and Innovation

    The immune system and winemaking serve as real-life examples of antifragility at work, O’Sullivan notes. A strong immune system has been exposed to pathogens and can better ward off future threats. Great wine often comes from vines under stress because they grow smaller grapes with more concentrated flavor.

    “Amazon’s business actually gets stronger because the volatility wipes out its competitors.”

    The pandemic helped reveal which companies were antifragile, too — those that didn’t have to wait for share prices to recover because they’d never really fallen in the first place, according to O’Sullivan. As many major retailers struggled to stock their shelves, Amazon maintained total control over its supply chain and saw its online business soar.

    “At Amazon, there is no single point of failure that would prevent toilet paper from being passed from millions of available sellers to millions of eagerly awaiting buyers,” O’Sullivan says. “Amazon’s business actually gets stronger because the volatility wipes out its competitors.”

    Likewise, Swift has demonstrated remarkable antifragility while building her business over the years. O’Sullivan cites four career moments when Swift took a “destructive” path that weakened the competition and strengthened her brand:

    1. In 2014, Swift withdrew her music from Spotify, the fastest-growing music streaming platform at that time, because she believed its compensation model for artists devalued their work.

    Why wasn’t the move “fatal,” as many industry experts assumed it would be? The “friendship first” and “music later” relationship she has with her fans plays an important role, according to O’Sullivan.

    “Taylor Swift can be compared to a Rolex watch, not a Swatch,” O’Sullivan writes. “The harder it is for people to access her music, the more they crave her and are willing to follow her. By withdrawing her music, Taylor Swift became what is known as a ‘Veblen’ or a ‘luxury’ good.”

    When Swift left Spotify, her music was in the playlists of more than 19 million users; the week she returned in 2017, she hit nearly 48 million streams.

    Related: 3 Lessons for Entrepreneurs From Spotify, Which Won Over Taylor Swift and Just Made its Billion-Dollar IPO

    2. Swift isn’t afraid to “beef” with other musicians and celebrities — like Kanye West after he told her on stage at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards that “Beyonce had the best video of all time.”

    “The more Kanye West beat down Taylor Swift, the stronger her fan base rallied around her, leading to extravagantly higher levels of emotional connection between Taylor and her fans within the Swiftverse,” O’Sullivan says.

    O’Sullivan adds that “at least from the outside, Taylor never starts the fights,” which also tends to fit within three main growth-fueling “vibes”: “powerful men taking advantage of less powerful women,” “women who are bitchy and unkind” and “being on the right side of history.”

    Related: 7 Business Feuds With More Beef Than Kanye vs. Taylor

    3. During the pandemic, Swift released not one but two surprise albums despite marketing limitations amid lockdowns and industry precedents.

    “When everybody else was fumbling to get a handle on their life, how was Taylor Swift able to Amazon herself?” O’Sullivan writes. “Well, most of it comes down to the fact that, like Amazon, she has spent her entire career creating, buying and owning her own ‘value chain,’ or the different parts of the music industry that she needs to engage with to release music.”

    The Swiftverse is “one hell of a strategic asset,” O’Sullivan notes — and kept her able to deliver core products into the market.

    Related: ‘Historically Unprecedented Demand’: Taylor Swift Fans Caused Ticketmaster’s Site To Crash Over 5000 Times

    4. Finally, Swift rerecorded her albums after Big Machine Label Group was sold to Scooter Braun‘s Ithaca Holdings.

    Some industry leaders considered the lengthy and expensive move one that “would suck the oxygen out of her career” — but because Swift is antifragile, the opposite proved true, O’Sullivan says.

    “As Taylor and Amazon both show us, [during a crisis] is exactly when their stock is going to rise,” O’Sullivan writes. “Investors who pay hundreds of millions of dollars to try to own what they think is Taylor Swift’s ‘core product’ (music) simply don’t understand her empire as well as she understands it.”

    Related: Taylor Swift Just Made a Surprise Announcement, Revealing the Marketing Genius Behind Her $1.5 Billion Fortune

    Going forward, business and strategy leaders who successfully lead through chaos will all be building antifragile organizations — Swift just happens to be ahead of the game, O’Sullivan says.

    What’s more, as beneficial as antifragility is, O’Sullivan acknowledges that adopting it isn’t easy. It requires embracing uncertainty and volatility, building resilience and accepting “weird and bad things.”

    O’Sullivan’s Good Ideas and Power Moves offers other takeaways from Swift’s career that entrepreneurs and business leaders might find applicable to their own, including how to be a unicorn, have a strategy and stick to it, build a world instead of products, negotiate with authenticity and more.

    Amanda Breen

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  • Why the Future of Finance Won’t Be Built on Innovation Alone | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are transforming business, governance and everyday life. Yet even while fintech startups continue to grow, their reach is still overshadowed by the global footprint of established financial institutions. That’s because innovation on its own isn’t enough to scale.

    A new paradigm has emerged: collaboration, where interconnectedness is taking center stage. The implementation of new, disruptive technologies requires building dynamic, highly integrated ecosystems made possible by partnerships fueled by collaboration.

    The definition of success is shifting. Once, it was enough to launch a unique product. Today, especially in industries such as blockchain and virtual assets, isolated solutions often fall short. Real success comes from being part of a larger ecosystem, where startups, institutions and regulators combine their strengths to accelerate adoption, scale faster and establish trust across markets.

    Related: How Strategic Partnerships Catapulted My Business to 200% Growth — and How They Can Help You, Too.

    The case for a networked mindset

    Innovation thrives when diverse players come together, and integrated ecosystems can amplify this effect. To scale disruptive technologies like blockchain and AI, entrepreneurs must learn to build together, co-creating with regulators, pooling infrastructure with competitors and building trust with institutions.

    No company can scale in isolation. Partners, whether distribution channels, liquidity providers or trusted institutions, are crucial for transitioning from concept to mass adoption. Just as importantly, organizations that bring regulators and institutions into the process early gain a significant advantage. By co-creating with policymakers and aligning with market standards, entrepreneurs not only accelerate approvals but also distinguish themselves as builders of trust, the ultimate currency in industries where credibility is essential.

    Leverage networks, not just capital

    Traditionally, financial institutions raced to outpace their competitors. But virtual assets operate differently: Technologies like blockchain depend on shared standards and infrastructure. Tokenized securities, for example, require common frameworks for custody, compliance and settlement. Here, competing harder matters less than collaborating smarter. The entrepreneurs who will thrive are the ones who see that the future of finance, and business at large, can only be built together.

    In my own experience, even something as complex as obtaining a regulatory license, a process that can take years, can be dramatically accelerated by partnering with specialists. With the right expertise and network, what could take years can be streamlined into months, proving that collaboration isn’t just valuable, but also transformative.

    Related: How Collaboration Can Help Drive Growth and Propel Your Business to New Heights

    Think like an industry builder

    Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once said, “Move fast and break things.” The motto encouraged agility and captured the spirit of disruption: Launch first, ask questions later. But what may have worked in the early days of social media is far less sustainable in industries where the stakes are higher. Today’s technologies involve finance and governance, and they challenge systems that have remained unchanged for decades. In these spaces, collaboration becomes essential. Entrepreneurs who want to build with lasting impact must align with regulators, institutions and even competitors to create trusted, scalable and resilient systems.

    Research shows that companies engaged in close inter-firm partnerships experience significantly stronger outcomes in innovation. When JPMorgan wanted to test the tokenization of investment portfolios, it didn’t do it alone. It partnered with Apollo, Axelar, Oasis Pro and Provenance Blockchain as part of Singapore’s Project Guardian. The result was Crescendo, a prototype that proved tokenized assets could be managed seamlessly across blockchains. Examples like Project Guardian prove that when multiple players align, entire markets move forward. To make collaboration scalable, industries need permanent frameworks, a principle first captured in Henry Chesbrough’s concept of “open innovation.”

    The chamber model

    The concept of “open innovation,” coined by Henry Chesbrough of UC Berkeley, argued that companies should not solely rely on internal R&D but instead share ideas, technologies and resources across boundaries. In finance and virtual assets, this principle is evolving into structured collaboration.

    Regulatory sandboxes in the UK and Singapore have already shown how powerful these models can be: Startups involved were more likely to raise funding and survive long term. But sandboxes are temporary. What industries need now are permanent, neutral structures that turn collaboration into a repeatable advantage.

    Just as chambers of commerce once accelerated global trade, new chambers in finance and virtual assets are emerging as convening spaces where startups, regulators and institutions align on shared standards. These platforms have already supported multibillion-dollar projects, such as gold-backed securities, by bringing issuers, regulators and institutional investors under a common framework.

    Related: Not Tech but Collaborations to Be the Next Big Thing for Fintech Industry

    For emerging platforms, joining a chamber provides more than credibility; it creates immediate access to capital allocators, regulatory advisors and tokenization partners. As these chambers interconnect globally, they form a unified voice capable of shaping international policy, driving market confidence and speeding adoption worldwide.

    Finance has always been global, and so has collaboration. Chambers give entrepreneurs a seat at the same table as regulators and institutions. In a market defined by speed and credibility, those who embrace collaboration not as a concession but as a growth strategy will be the ones who shape the future of finance.

    Technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are transforming business, governance and everyday life. Yet even while fintech startups continue to grow, their reach is still overshadowed by the global footprint of established financial institutions. That’s because innovation on its own isn’t enough to scale.

    A new paradigm has emerged: collaboration, where interconnectedness is taking center stage. The implementation of new, disruptive technologies requires building dynamic, highly integrated ecosystems made possible by partnerships fueled by collaboration.

    The definition of success is shifting. Once, it was enough to launch a unique product. Today, especially in industries such as blockchain and virtual assets, isolated solutions often fall short. Real success comes from being part of a larger ecosystem, where startups, institutions and regulators combine their strengths to accelerate adoption, scale faster and establish trust across markets.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Farbod Sadeghian

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  • Home From College: Jobs for Young Adults Without Work Experience | Entrepreneur

    Julia Haber, the 29-year-old co-founder of career platform Home From College, was a student at Syracuse University when she started her first business: an experiential marketing agency that brought retail pop-ups to college campuses and worked with brands like Shopify to teach students about entrepreneurship.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Home From College. Julia Haber.

    The experience gave Haber valuable insight into what the career landscape looks like for Gen Z — and just how much it had changed over the past six-plus years.

    “ This next generation is constantly looking for ways to figure out who they are by doing things,” Haber tells Entrepreneur, “and because it’s such a socially native generation, we see all these people online making money in different ways. This next gen really wants to work with brands they love as well and admire, and it’s a blend of this consumer meets career.”

    Related: Gen Z Is Redefining the Workplace — and Companies Must Adapt or Face Losing Talent

    Recognizing that many students graduate without knowing what they want to do with their lives — and often with significant debt — Haber wanted to help them build “multi-hyphenate” careers early on.

    So Haber launched the Los Angeles-based startup Home From College in 2021 alongside co-founder Kaj Zandvliet, a former banker at PineBridge Investments and financial analyst at Sony Music Entertainment.

    “We position ourselves as the translator between companies and college students.”

    Home From College provides students with an opportunity to earn their first dollars and work with the brands they love in a “flexible, student-first” environment.

    To that end, Home From College only hosts paid job opportunities, 90% of which are remote. Companies can create an account on the platform and list their “gigs,” which could be anything from a one-day project to a lengthier brand ambassador program. Students and recent graduates create their own accounts on the platform and apply for the gigs that interest them — no prior work experience required.

    Home From College is free for students to use. The platform offers four subscription tiers for companies, starting at $49 per month, plus a 20% fee on student compensation. All payments take place on the platform via Stripe.

    Related: Why Gen Z Is Ditching the Corner Office Dream — and How Businesses Can Adapt

    Students typically earn about $30 an hour, and the average ambassador program pays students roughly $1,000 a month. It’s also common for students to work two gigs at once. Some of the top earners have seen “tens of thousands of dollars in a short period of time,” Haber notes — with one dedicated student’s gigs even amounting to a $50,000 paycheck.

    “We position ourselves as the translator between companies and college students, and that really resonated,” Haber says.

    Home From College raised $1.5 million of pre-seed funding in 2022, then $5.4 million in a seed round led by GV, formerly Google Ventures, last year.

    The company is using those funds to continue building a “sustainable, fast-moving” business. Home From College has invested in high-level talent and AI to connect students and brands effectively.

    Related: Top Career Motivations of Gen Z and Reasons They Choose an Employer

    “We’ve been implementing a ton of new roles that have more of an AI bent to them.”

    Additionally, although Home From College initially focused on low- to no-skilled jobs, there’s an interesting opportunity to lean on the hard skills that Gen Z college students and recent graduates often already have — like those related to AI, Haber says.

    “We’ve been implementing a ton of new roles that have more of an AI bent to them,” Haber explains, “and helping companies catch up to the students who are already native [in AI]. So that’s been a new frontier of actually having the students be more of the experts in a topic that companies are less proficient in and helping bridge that gap.”

    Companies on the platform are also interested in students with a talent for customer success and sales at scale, Haber says.

    For example, some consumer brands look to students for help with distribution in challenging markets, like the outskirts of a college campus or the middle of the country. It’s typical for these companies to recruit students to source new locations, such as a nearby deli, to sell products.

    Related: Gen Z Talent Will Walk Away — Unless You Try These 6 Strategies

    “ So it’s creating almost a business development sales team, boots on the ground at scale, where they can hire hundreds of people for that type of role,” Haber says, “where it’s skill and labor, and then simultaneously social media and content.”

    Brands often rely on students to run their TikTok shops too, as it can be a massive undertaking for those that want to launch and scale a meaningful affiliate program, Haber notes.  

    “[Students] come in and run those programs on behalf of companies,” Haber says, “and it’s great because it helps generate revenue for their business, but simultaneously teaches [the students] marketable skills.”

    “You’re not just where you went to school. You’re a bigger version of that.”

    Above all, Haber encourages young adults launching their careers to “use your whole self as the opportunity to market who you are” and land the role you want.

    Home From College facilitates that by allowing students to share more information about themselves than a typical resume or job application might glean — for instance, having curly hair could make them “really attractive” to a shampoo brand that specializes in curls and needs a social media manager to connect with its target customer base.

    Related: Gen Z Is Losing Faith in the College Degree — Here’s 3 Reasons Why It’s Still Important for Them

    “You’re not just your major,” Haber says. “You’re not just what your GPA is. You’re not just where you went to school. You’re a bigger version of that.”

    This article is part of our ongoing series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a Young Entrepreneur®.

    Amanda Breen

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  • How Her Side Hustle Became a ‘Monster’ $250M Revenue Business | Entrepreneur

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Demi Marchese, 32, founder and CEO of 12th Tribe, a Los Angeles, California-based fashion brand. Here’s how she used $800 to grow a side hustle into a full-blown business that’s seen over $250 million in lifetime revenue and $35 million annually. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of 12th Tribe. Demi Marchese.

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
    After college, I worked in sales for my mom during the day and packed orders at night. I didn’t have a fashion degree. I just had a deep desire to build something that felt like me — bold, global, connected. The brand’s identity is grounded in that relentless hustle and the belief that women can create their own rules and lifestyles.

    Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

    When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
    I started 12th Tribe in 2015 out of a love for styling, storytelling and standing out. While studying abroad in college, I traveled to 11 countries — each one shaping how I saw the world and fashion. I became fascinated with the idea of expressing where you’ve been and who you are through what you wear.

    At the time, I was curating one-of-a-kind vintage pieces to avoid looking like everyone else. One pair of vintage Levi’s shorts became my travel staple and the first product I officially named and marketed as “the short you pack when you don’t know where you’re going next.” That idea resonated quickly.

    After moving to LA, I began dressing girls for Coachella with globally inspired pieces I sourced myself. The festival was a cultural moment, and I leaned in — styling every detail from jewelry to boots. Word spread, and soon I wasn’t just styling girls for festivals, I was building an online destination where they could shop the entire look.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of 12th Tribe

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
    I launched 12th Tribe with $800, no outside funding and a vision I couldn’t shake. I was a solo founder, fresh out of college, doing everything alongside my family and close friends, packing orders, styling shoots and answering every DM. It started as a side hustle, but our first viral moment hit fast. Festival season landed me in sorority group chats and across Instagram, and I was hand-delivering Thrasher vintage shorts to girls across LA. That short became our first cult product and the foundation of something much bigger.

    Related: He Spent $36 to Start a Side Hustle. Now the Business Earns 6 Figures a Year — With Just 1-2 Hours of Work a Day: ‘Freedom.’

    If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
    I would have spent a few years working on management skills. Learning how to manage people while also managing the high level of stress of building a company from zero would have changed my life. I also would have trusted the process more. When I was younger — and remember, I was in my 20s launching this business that turned monster real quick — I second-guessed myself a lot. I questioned what I knew. I let people sway me, and I wish I had trusted my gut a bit more at times.

    When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
    People see the photoshoots, product drops and glossy growth moments, but not the sacrifices behind the scenes. In my 20s, I missed more relationship moments than I can count. Not because I didn’t care, but because I was drained, too stressed, too responsible or simply empty from pouring into the business every day.

    Many assume there’s a team handling everything. But as a founder, especially starting from nothing, you’re in the thick of it. You’re not just driving vision and strategy; you’re carrying the weight of deadlines, departments and the livelihoods tied to your decisions. It’s a responsibility most people don’t understand.

    And as a woman, there’s the constant expectation to be “just enough” of everything. Too direct and you’re cold. Too kind and you’re weak. You’re expected to lead with grace under pressure, but the pressure never really lets up. In reality, it’s less about balance and more about stamina, self-belief and learning to keep going even when no one sees the weight you’re carrying.

    Related: These 31-Year-Old Best Friends Started a Side Hustle to Solve a Workout Struggle — And It’s On Track to Hit $10 Million Annual Revenue This Year

    Image Credit: Courtesy of 12th Tribe

    Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
    During peak season, our warehouse partner at the time mishandled inventory for a major launch. Thousands of units were delayed, and customer orders were sitting in limbo. For a brand built on community and trust, that moment felt like it could unravel years of hard work overnight.

    The first step was immediate transparency. I personally stepped in to communicate with our customers, letting them know we were aware of the issue, working around the clock, and that their trust was our top priority. Behind the scenes, I mobilized every department: Our operations team worked directly with the warehouse, our marketing team shifted messaging in real time, and we even restructured fulfillment processes to get orders out manually.

    It was a defining moment for me as a leader because it forced me to not only solve the crisis tactically, but also zoom out and reimagine how we protect the business long-term. That experience ultimately led us to transition to a new global logistics partner and completely overhaul our fulfillment strategy.

    Looking back, what could have been one of our biggest setbacks became a catalyst for scaling with more resilience. It reminded me that as a founder, my role isn’t to avoid problems — it’s to navigate them with clarity, communicate with integrity and make the hard decisions that position the business for the future.

    Related: I Interviewed 5 Entrepreneurs Generating Up to $20 Million in Revenue a Year — And They All Have the Same Regret About Starting Their Business

    How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the initial side hustle earn?
    In the beginning, it was just me — a one-woman show — with a few friends and family who’d step in to support. That was my first “tribe.” Because I kept the business lean and scrappy, I pushed myself hard and was fortunate to see consistent monthly revenue within just a few months.

    I set intense sales targets for myself and made a promise that if I was going to fall short, I would find a way to make it happen. That meant boots on the ground — whether it was setting up a pop-up, inviting girls into my apartment to shop or selling at any opportunity I could find. I refused to let a month go by without hitting the number.

    At first, I was only making a few hundred, which grew into a couple thousand. I was living at home, so my overhead was low, and I picked up extra income working for my mom’s sales company. But the real engine was pure hustle — I didn’t just wait for online sales to roll in, I created them.

    Eventually, when revenue stabilized, the first hire I made was a finance manager — because I absolutely hated reconciling the books. But those scrappy, do-whatever-it-takes beginnings laid the foundation for everything that came after.

    What does growth and revenue look like now?
    With over $250 million in lifetime revenue and $35 million annually, 12th Tribe has grown into one of the leading DTC fashion brands — all without outside investment. Worn by millions of women worldwide and supported by a loyal 600,000-strong digital community, we’ve become the go-to destination for outfits that make life’s most unforgettable moments. What started with festivals has expanded into a full lifestyle brand, dressing women from college through motherhood and beyond. We’ve achieved double-digit year-over-year growth, launched global shipping that doubled international orders and opened flagship stores in SoHo and on Abbot Kinney in Venice, all while staying 100% female founder–funded.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of 12th Tribe

    What does a typical day or week of work look like for you?
    As a founder and creative director, my time is structured very intentionally across the week to keep the business moving forward on both a visionary and operational level. I begin each week aligning with leadership; this sets the tone by clarifying top priorities, addressing roadblocks and ensuring every department has what it needs to execute.

    From there, I front-load my week with marketing and product, since they’re the heartbeat of the brand and require the most creative and strategic energy. Toward the end of the week, I shift into finance and operations, making sure we’re on track with budgets, forecasting and organizational flow.

    A typical day can swing between big-picture strategy and very hands-on work. I’m often on set for photoshoots, immersed in the creative process, because I believe in being boots on the ground when it comes to storytelling and product presentation. It’s a balance of vision-setting, team alignment and rolling up my sleeves where it matters most, keeping me deeply connected to both the brand and the people who bring it to life.

    I’m currently building out one of the biggest departments that is the center of the brand, so I work pretty heavy hours Monday through Friday. I have given myself the weekends to reset, but by Sunday night, I am prepping for the week ahead. It is really important that I get a full read on my schedule and prioritize what is most important.

    Related: This Couple’s ‘Scrappy’ Side Hustle Sold Out in 1 Weekend — It Hit $1 Million in 3 Years and Now Makes Millions Annually: ‘Lean But Powerful’

    What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
    I want women — especially young founders — to know that you don’t need a million followers, VC funding or a perfect plan to start. You need conviction, community and the courage to show up again and again. That’s what built 12th Tribe. And that’s what will keep us moving, one powerful moment at a time.

    Amanda Breen

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  • U.S. Parents Charge Kids Interest on Loans. Here’s How Much. | Entrepreneur

    As young Americans struggle with high costs of living and salaries that haven’t kept pace with inflation, some of them rely on loans to make ends meet.

    Nearly half (46%) of Gen Z between the ages of 18 and 27 depend on financial assistance from their family, according to a 2024 report from Bank of America.

    What’s more, even though some parents are willing to help their kids out with cash, those loans don’t always come without strings attached — sometimes in the form of interest.

    Related: Gen Z Is Turning to Side Hustles to Purchase ‘the Normal Stuff’ in ‘Suburban Middle-Class America’

    Financial media company MarketBeat.com‘s new report, which surveyed more than 3,000 parents, found that an increasing number are charging their adult children interest on family loans.

    “The Bank of Mom and Dad has always been generous, but even generosity comes with boundaries,” says Matt Paulson, founder of MarketBeat.com. “What’s striking is that while most parents don’t expect repayment — and certainly not at commercial interest rates — inflation and rising costs are starting to reshape how families think about money.”

    The average interest rate charged by parents was 5.1%, according to the data. That’s still well below the costs their children might incur elsewhere: The average personal loan rate is 12.49% for customers with a 700 FICO score, $5,000 loan amount and three-year repayment term, per Bankrate.

    Related: This Stat About Gen Alpha’s Side Hustles Might Be Hard to Believe — But It Means Major Purchasing Power. Here’s What the Kids Want to Buy.

    Only 15% of parents would be comfortable with lending their kids $5,000 or more at one time, according to MarketBeat’s research.

    Family loan repayment terms can also vary significantly by location. The top five toughest state lenders based on the interest rates parents charge were Nebraska (6.8%), Oregon (6.8%), Mississippi (6.5%), Georgia (6.4%) and Arkansas (6.3%), the report found.

    Parents in Delaware and Maine tended to be the most lenient when it came to charging their children interest on loans, with 2% and 4% rates, respectively, according to the findings.

    Related: Baby Boomers Over 75 Are Getting Richer, Causing a ‘Massive’ Wealth Divide, According to a New Report

    Many parents who expect repayment also have a fast-tracked timeline in mind. Twenty-one percent anticipated seeing their loan repaid in one month, 15% within one year and just 8% more than a year later, per the survey.

    Although 59% of parents reported being happy to help their kids with money, 27% said they would only do it if necessary, and 4% admitted to feeling resentful.

    In many cases, family loans don’t just provide financial support — they’re also “emotional transactions that test trust, responsibility and family dynamics,” Paulson notes.

    As young Americans struggle with high costs of living and salaries that haven’t kept pace with inflation, some of them rely on loans to make ends meet.

    Nearly half (46%) of Gen Z between the ages of 18 and 27 depend on financial assistance from their family, according to a 2024 report from Bank of America.

    What’s more, even though some parents are willing to help their kids out with cash, those loans don’t always come without strings attached — sometimes in the form of interest.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • My Profitable Company Is Worthless to Investors — Here’s Why That Works in My Favor | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Over the past few months, I’ve received a surprising number of emails and even phone calls from private equity firms asking if I’d consider selling my business.

    “Gene,” they all say, “we’ve followed your growth in the technology space and believe we can help you unlock value while preserving your legacy and team. Would you be open to a 20-minute call to discuss mutual opportunities?”

    It’s flattering, sure. And it makes sense. According to Harvard’s Corporate Governance site, private equity exits jumped from $754 billion in 2023 to $902 billion in 2024 — about a 20% increase. Other reports show deal value rising by 50% in the first half of 2024 alone, with strategic acquisitions leading the way.

    Private equity is everywhere — scooping up contractors, manufacturers, distributors and yes, even tech companies like mine.

    Why? Because many business owners are aging out. The average small business owner in the U.S. is over 55, according to the Small Business Administration — and that was back in 2020. So a wave of exits is underway, and investors are eager to buy businesses with strong financials, recurring revenue and growth potential.

    But my business? I don’t think I’m sellable. Not because I wouldn’t entertain an offer — but because once a buyer looks under the hood, they’ll realize the uncomfortable truth: My company has no real value.

    Related: Want to Maximize the Sale Price of Your Business? Start with These 5 Value Drivers

    The balance sheet no one wants

    Let’s start with the basics. My business has no hard assets. No buildings, no equipment, no physical property. Just a bit of cash and accounts receivable.

    Sure, we also have very few liabilities. In fact, most of our “payables” are actually prepaid client deposits — blocks of time that customers purchase in advance. It’s a great way to boost cash flow and reduce risk, but it creates a liability a buyer would need to honor. Not exactly attractive.

    No contracts, no guarantees

    We don’t lock clients into long-term contracts. We’ve never sold maintenance agreements or recurring support plans. Our clients use us when they need us — and leave when they don’t.

    There’s no proprietary process or secret sauce. What we do isn’t complicated. In fact, anyone could learn it online. Our clients hire us not because we’re unique, but because they don’t have the bandwidth to do it themselves.

    So if a private equity firm were to evaluate my company, they’d quickly realize there’s no predictable revenue stream to base a valuation on. No recurring income. No clear multiple to apply. We go project to project, client to client.

    That might work for me. But it doesn’t work for them.

    A team that disappears when I do

    I do have employees. But most of the work is handled by independent contractors. That comes with its own risk — from worker classification issues to a lack of long-term commitment.

    Our setup has always been virtual. We’ve been remote since 2005. No office. No shared culture. No in-person meetings. Everyone works independently, and I check in as needed. It works for us — but it doesn’t scream “scalable organization.”

    The reality? This business doesn’t run without me. I do the selling. I do the marketing. I oversee projects, handle accounting, manage admin and lead the day-to-day. If I were hit by a bus tomorrow, this business would fold within 30 days — with contractors and staff likely splintering off to do their own thing.

    No IP, no exclusivity, no moat

    We implement CRM platforms. It’s a crowded, competitive space. The very vendors we represent are often our biggest competitors. There’s no barrier to entry. Competitors appear regularly — usually cheaper, often younger and sometimes better.

    We don’t have any intellectual property, documented systems or defined processes. Every project is different, and it rarely makes sense to create templates or workflows that won’t apply next time.

    So there’s nothing here to “buy.” No assets. No exclusivity. No edge.

    So, what do I have?

    I have a business that works for me.

    For more than 25 years, it’s paid the bills, put my kids through college and built a retirement plan for my wife and me. It’s also supported dozens of employees and contractors along the way. That’s something I’m proud of.

    My model has always been simple: do the work, bill for it, generate cash, save what you can. Rinse and repeat. And for me, it’s worked beautifully.

    But let’s be honest: this model doesn’t build transferable value. There’s no goodwill. No buyer-ready systems. No brand equity. No enterprise value. Just a highly functional, one-person-driven operation that disappears without me.

    Related: Starting a New Business? Here’s How to Leverage Transferable Skills From Your Prior Careers and Drive Success

    If your business looks like mine

    Don’t be discouraged. But do be realistic.

    You may be generating cash — and that’s great. You may be living well — even better. But unless you’ve intentionally built for scale, structure and succession, your business may not be worth much to anyone else.

    And that’s okay — as long as that’s the plan.

    For me, it is.

    Over the past few months, I’ve received a surprising number of emails and even phone calls from private equity firms asking if I’d consider selling my business.

    “Gene,” they all say, “we’ve followed your growth in the technology space and believe we can help you unlock value while preserving your legacy and team. Would you be open to a 20-minute call to discuss mutual opportunities?”

    It’s flattering, sure. And it makes sense. According to Harvard’s Corporate Governance site, private equity exits jumped from $754 billion in 2023 to $902 billion in 2024 — about a 20% increase. Other reports show deal value rising by 50% in the first half of 2024 alone, with strategic acquisitions leading the way.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Gene Marks

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  • Baby Boomers Are Still Gaining More Wealth Than Millennials | Entrepreneur

    Older Americans have seen their wealth rise tremendously in recent years, while other age groups have not been as lucky, according to a new paper.

    Over a recent 40-year period, between 1983 to 2022, the relative household wealth of those now ages 75 years and older has “sharply risen” while the wealth of all other age groups has declined, New York University Economist Edward Wolff wrote in a new paper. The Americans whose wealth has outpaced all other generations are a part of the older Baby Boomers group, or those born before 1950.

    Wolff used the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances to compare two age groups — 35 years and under and 75 and over — and found the main factors that drive generational wealth are high homeownership rates, high amounts of stocks owned, and low home mortgage debt.

    Related: Home Sellers Now Outnumber Buyers in Record Numbers. Here’s What It Means for Home Prices.

    Here’s how older Baby Boomers got so rich:

    Homeownership rates

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Baby Boomers own nearly 40% of all available homes in the U.S., even though they make up just 20% of the population. The National Association of Realtors estimated in April that the Baby Boomer generation accounted for 42% of all home buyers, with nearly half of all Boomers purchasing homes with cash.

    Meanwhile, a Freddie Mac report from February 2024 found that, as Baby Boomers age, declining home ownership will cause 9.2 million homes to hit the market by 2035. The generation owned 32 million homes in the U.S. in 2022, but Freddie Mac predicted that the number would decline to 23 million by 2035.

    Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors estimated that home prices have almost doubled from 2014 to 2024, growing from a median of $217,100 in 2014 to $418,700 a decade later. In July 2025, median home prices hit another record high.

    Stocks

    When it comes to stocks owned, Boomers also stand out. According to The Kobeissi Letter, a commentary on global markets, Boomers held 54% of all U.S. corporate stocks and mutual funds in the first quarter of the year, compared to just 8% for millennials.

    “The generational wealth divide is massive,” The Kobeissi Letter wrote in a post on X.

    Home mortgage debt

    Home mortgage debt, which refers to the amount owed as a result of buying a home, is also particularly low for older generations. According to Bankrate, the average mortgage balance in the final quarter of 2024 was $194,334 for Baby Boomers — much lower than the $312,014 balance attributed to Millennials (ages 28 to 43) or the $283,677 balance associated with Gen X (ages 44 to 59).

    Mortgage debt is trending higher overall. The average U.S. mortgage debt was $252,505 in 2024, a close to $8,000 increase from the previous year, according to credit bureau Experian.

    Related: Here’s How Much You Need to Make Per Year to Buy a Typical Home in the U.S., According to a New Report

    Older Americans have seen their wealth rise tremendously in recent years, while other age groups have not been as lucky, according to a new paper.

    Over a recent 40-year period, between 1983 to 2022, the relative household wealth of those now ages 75 years and older has “sharply risen” while the wealth of all other age groups has declined, New York University Economist Edward Wolff wrote in a new paper. The Americans whose wealth has outpaced all other generations are a part of the older Baby Boomers group, or those born before 1950.

    Wolff used the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances to compare two age groups — 35 years and under and 75 and over — and found the main factors that drive generational wealth are high homeownership rates, high amounts of stocks owned, and low home mortgage debt.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Sherin Shibu

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