ReportWire

Tag: startups

  • How Twelve Labs Teaches A.I. to ‘See’ and Transform Video Understanding: Interview

    [ad_1]

    Soyoung Lee, co-founder and head of GTM at Twelve Labs, pictured at Web Summit Vancouver 2025. Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images

    Sure, the score of a football game is important. But sporting events can also foster cultural moments that slip under the radar—such as Travis Kelce signing a heart to Taylor Swift in the stands. While such footage could be social-media gold, it’s easily missed by traditional content tagging systems. That’s where Twelve Labs comes in.

    “Every sports team or sports league has decades of footage that they’ve captured in-game, around the stadium, about players,” Soyoung Lee, co-founder and head of GTM at Twelve Labs, told Observer. However, these archives are often underutilized due to inconsistent and outdated content management. “To date, most of the processes for tagging content have been manual.”

    Twelve Labs, a San Francisco-based startup specializing in video-understanding A.I., wants to unlock the value of video content by offering models that can search vast archives, generate text summaries and create short-form clips from long-form footage. Its work extends far beyond sports, touching industries from entertainment and advertising to security.

    “Large language models can read and write really well,” said Lee. “But we want to move on to create a world in which A.I. can also see.”

    Is Twelve Labs related to Eleven Labs?

    Founded in 2021, Twelve Labs isn’t to be confused with ElevenLabs, an A.I. startup that specializes in audio. “We started a year earlier,” Lee joked, adding that Twelve Labs—which named itself after the initial size of its founding team—often partners with ElevenLabs for hackathons, including one dubbed “23Labs.”

    The startup’s ambitious vision has drawn interest from deep-pocketed backers. It has raised more than $100 million from investors such as Nvidia, Intel, and Firstman Studio, the studio of Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. Its advisory bench is equally star-studded, featuring Fei-Fei Li, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Alexandr Wang.

    Twelve Labs counts thousands of developers and hundreds of enterprise customers. Demand is highest in entertainment and media, spanning Hollywood studios, sports leagues, social media influencers and advertising firms that rely on Twelve Labs tools to automate clip generation, assist with scene selection or enable contextual ad placements.

    Government agencies also use the startup’s technology for video search and event retrieval. Beyond its work with the U.S. and other nations, Lee said that Twelve Labs has a deployment in South Korea’s Sejong City to help CCTV operators monitor thousands of camera feeds and locate specific incidents. To reduce security risks, the company has removed capabilities for facial and biometric recognition, she added.

    Will video-native A.I. come for human jobs?

    Many of the industries Twelve Labs serves are already debating whether A.I. threatens humans jobs—a concern Lee argues is only partly warranted. “I don’t know if jobs will be lost, per se, but jobs will have to transition,” she said, comparing the shift to how tools like Photoshop reshaped creative roles.

    If anything, Lee believes systems like Twelve Labs’ will democratize creative work traditionally limited to companies with big budgets. “You are now able to do things with less, which means you have more stories that can be created from independent creatives who do not have that same capital,” she said. “It actually allows for the scaling of content creation and personalizing distribution.”

    Twelve Labs is not the only A.I. player eyeing video, but the company insists it serves a different need than its much larger competitors. “We’re excited that video is now starting to get more attention, but the way we’re seeing it is a lot of innovation in large language models, a lot of innovation in video generation models and image generation models like Sora—but not in video understanding,” said Lee, referencing OpenAI’s text-to-video A.I. model and app.

    For now, Twelve Labs offers video search, video analysis and video-to-text capabilities. The company plans to expand into agentic platforms that can not only understand video but also build narratives from it. Such models could be useful beyond creative fields, Lee said, pointing to examples like retailers identifying peak foot-traffic hours or security clients mapping the sequence of events surrounding an accident.

    While A.I. might help a Hollywood director assemble a movie, Lee believes it won’t ever be the director. Even if the technology can provide narrative options, humans still decide which story is most compelling, identify gaps and supply the footage. “At the end of the day, I think there’s nothing that can replace human creative intent.”

    How Twelve Labs Teaches A.I. to ‘See’ and Transform Video Understanding: Interview

    [ad_2]

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

    Source link

  • 6 Startups That Reveal the Secret to Attracting Gen Z Customers

    [ad_1]

    Winning the hearts and loyalty of Generation Z is an uphill battle. As the first digital native generation, these young people have grown up with an endless stream of apps—shopping, working, learning, dating and making friends online. Gen Z has made TikTok a dominant force in social media and are passionate about their interests, from K-pop to climate change.

    Plenty of startups have tried to woo this demographic group, and many have failed. But a few select startups have found success in recent years by targeting areas that are of particular interest to Gen Z. Here’s a look at how some entrepreneurial companies have been successful in attracting Gen Z.

    Margins

    Founded late last year, Margins is a San Francisco-based company that is riding the BookTok wave. That substantial TikTok community lets Gen Z recommend, review and discuss books—and it’s driving sales for authors. Margins founders Paul Warren and Nick Punt saw quick success with their app, which helps BookTokers track what they’ve read and discover new books, adding a social element to a sometimes-solitary activity. Installs went from 400 to 60,000 in just 12 days. That number crossed 100,000 in April of this year.

    Doji

    Individual style is important to Gen Z, but putting a look together can be complicated. Founded in 2024 by Dorian Dargan and Jim Winkens, this NYC-based company blends fashion and tech, letting users create an avatar of themselves to virtually try on designer clothes. That lets younger users have access to styles they might not otherwise be able to test—and lets them experiment with different looks without fear of embarrassment. In May, Doji raised $14 million in seed money to expand the app and improve its AI models.

    Elin.ai

    Research by the Walton Family Foundation found that 42 percent of Gen Z struggles with depression and feelings of hopelessness. That’s part of the reason this generation has pushed to bring mental health to the foreground of the national healthcare conversation. Czech-based Elin.ai, founded in 2023 by Jan Romportl, Petr Stanislav, and Jiri Horacek, taps into that interest, using artificial intelligence to analyze screenshots and offer personalized advice to help users, helping them manage stress, anxiety and cyberbullying, among other challenges.

    Swsh

    Gen Z has been documenting its life in photos and videos for nearly two decades, so it’s no surprise, really, that photo-focused apps and companies resonate with those users. Swsh, founded in 2022 by Weilyn Chong, Nathan Ahn, and Alexandra Debow, is a New York-based photo sharing and social platform that is tailored to Gen Z interests. Users can filter out items from photos and use the app’s AI-driven facial recognition tool to search for photos of themselves. The company recently began offering the ability to password protect albums, so users can control who sees the shots.

    Corner

    Gen Z is a big proponent of shopping local, but they demand those stores have online shopping tools. (A 2023 survey found 73 percent of Gen-Zers and 75 percent of Millennials say they would be more inclined to browse and buy more often from small businesses that provide wider payment and delivery choices.)  Corner, founded in 2022 by Eliza Wu and Jake Xia, helps them do that with a layer of social media on top. It’s a mapping application, where the point is to discover and explore local businesses based on social recommendations. Rather than scraping other sites, the app has built its map from the ground up—and in three years, its users have added more than 275,000 locations. There are no star ratings, and while there are the expected restaurants and retailers, you’ll also occasionally find a listing for a spot to watch the sunset. The app has over 55,000 users across 450 cities.

    Beli

    A social network for foodies, New York City-based Beli was founded in 2021 by Judy Thelen and Eliot Frost. Users rank restaurants and other food-focused places, marking their favorite dishes. The app offers a score for how the app’s users liked the restaurant as well as one for how the individual user’s friends on the app liked it. Profiles can be public or private and the app has evolved into a dating app of sorts, connecting people with similar food interests. Gen Z has enthusiastically embraced it (roughly 80 percent of the app’s users are under 35), thanks to the social elements and the chance to express themselves. Beli now boasts over 60 million reviews globally, topping Yelp.

    [ad_2]

    Chris Morris

    Source link

  • How This Corn-Free Popcorn Startup Landed Novak Djokovic as an Anchor Investor

    [ad_1]

    Can you have popcorn without corn? Serial entrepreneur Jess Davidoff and tennis star Novak Djokovic certainly think so. At the Hellenic Championship tennis tournament in Athens, Greece, on Saturday, the pair officially launched Cob, a sorghum-based “popcorn” brand. 

    In addition to leading a $5 million seed round, 24-time Grand Slam Champion Djokovic is coming on board as a co-founder. “I prioritize companies that have products that my family and I actually use and consume,” says Djokovic, who has also invested in a handful of wellness and sports-related startups. “I can not only add value but act as a sounding board for future product innovations.” 

    Like many businesses, Cob sprang from a personal need. Soon after Davidoff’s first son started eating solid food, he began to have severe, unexplained health issues. With doctors unable to pinpoint a cause, she started eliminating foods from his diet to see if a food allergy might be the cause. Eventually, she zeroed in on corn as the potential culprit, and an allergist confirmed the diagnosis.  

    Finding a Corn Alternative

    Corn allergies are relatively rare, but they’re also extremely challenging to work around, since corn is used to make common food additives like corn syrup, riboflavin, and citric acid. “I essentially couldn’t feed him anything that was packaged or from a restaurant, so I started making everything myself,” says Davidoff. “One of the foods that I particularly missed was popcorn.” 

    She went to New York specialty grocer Kalustyan’s and bought a bunch of grains to see what might pop well. “Most of them tasted like a bad rice cake,” she says. “I stumbled upon sorghum, which happened to pop just like popcorn, and we started to make it all the time.”  

    Davidoff was impressed by the nutritional and environmental profile of sorghum, a drought-resistant grain often found in dishes in parts of Africa and Asia. In the U.S., most of it is grown in the so-called Sorghum Belt that stretches from South Dakota to Texas, and it’s primarily used for ethanol and animal feed. But because its nutrient dense and gluten free (like corn), it’s beginning to appear in American health food aisles and baby foods: Little Spoon and Jennifer Garner’s baby food brand Once Upon a Farm both use sorghum in their puffed baby snacks.  

    Davidoff’s friends liked the popped sorghum as well, and by the time her second son was also diagnosed with a corn allergy, she believed there might be a market for corn-free snacks.  

    Early in her career, Davidoff founded and sold several education and tech firms before settling into a career as a turnaround CEO for celebrity and consumer brands. “I absolutely loved what I did,” says Davidoff. “I honestly thought I would do that for the rest of my career, but I stumbled upon sorghum and decided to jump back in the founder seat.” 

    She picked the name Cob because “the cob is what’s left once we take all the corn away,” she says, and began selling bags at farmers’ markets and specialty stores in the Hamptons last summer. Most people had never heard of sorghum, but they liked what they tasted. In fact, Cob sold out of its initial inventory in just six weeks. 

    Courting a Tennis Legend

    Davidoff had a hit on her hands, but she needed a business partner who could help her get the word out. On a run, Novak Djokovic’s name popped into her head. “I was drenched in sweat. I came into my husband’s office, and I’m like, I’m going to get Novak Djokovic,” she remembers. “He’s the perfect co-founder for this because he talks extensively about his plant-based diet and why ancient grains are so good for you.” 

    She didn’t know him, but a professional tennis player whose brand she’d worked for in the past was able to relay a message to Djokovic’s team, and they arranged a call. “He loved the idea,” Davidoff says. But Djokovic wanted to be sure the product held up to scrutiny. “I met with his nutrition team, who vetted everything,” says Davidoff. “They had such extensive questions to the point where I had to chat with an agronomist to fully understand how sorghum absorbs heavy metals from soil.” 

    After that, she flew to Europe with samples for Djokovic and his family to try. Djokovic was impressed by Davidoff’s background and personal connection to the brand. He agreed to come on as a co-founder, offering input on product development and marketing—and not to mention his star power and 16 million Instagram followers. 

    Finding the Right Flavor

    While Djokovic is known for his meticulous eating habits and sticking to a gluten-free, largely plant-based diet, the co-founders knew they needed to make something that would be both healthy and commercially viable. “It’s been fun to do that tango between what is in Novak’s fridge versus what’s going to work when we want to [get into] Target,” Davidoff says. 

    If the company had stuck with Novak’s strict diet, it probably would only have been able to offer its Mediterranean Herb and Olive Oil & Pink Salt flavors. “No dairy, and nothing sweet,” she says. But Cob also offers a Seriously Cheesy flavor topped with organic Parmesan that’s already a hit with kid testers. (For his part, Djokovic says Olive Oil & Pink Salt is his favorite flavor.) 

    Cob is available for online preorders starting November 1, and Davidoff hopes to be in retail stores by late 2026. With time, Cob plans to roll out other snacks and pantry staples with sorghum as the hero ingredient.  

    So far, Cob’s founders are mum about what the next product will be, but Djokovic offered a hint: “It might make an amazing side dish for your holiday meals!” 

    [ad_2]

    Jennifer Conrad

    Source link

  • Donald Trump’s Truth Social Is Launching a Polymarket Competitor

    [ad_1]

    “If you had to point to one reason [crypto prediction markets] are able to come back to the US, you have to point to the Trump administration,” says Zach Hamilton, founder of crypto startup Sarcophagus, in an interview with WIRED. “Donald Trump. I mean, that’s it.”

    Even before the arrival of Truth Predict, the Trump family had a financial interest in the spread of prediction markets in the US.

    In January, Donald Trump Jr. joined Kalshi as a strategic adviser. Then, in August, Polymarket received an investment from 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm where Trump Jr. serves as a partner. As part of the deal, Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board.

    The ties between the Trump family and Polymarket, forged just as Polymarket was seeking reentry into the US, have drawn scrutiny from critics who claim the investment could amount to a conflict of interest. The deal creates an opportunity, they allege, for the Trump family to profit from changes in policy instigated by the Trump administration.

    “No one is saying members of the president’s family cannot engage in normal capitalist activities in a capitalist country,” says Jeff Hauser, executive director at the Revolving Door Project, an organization that seeks to scrutinize the behavior of elected officials. “But Polymarket is the subject of heated political controversy. As such, the investment reflects a significant conflict of interest—and an avoidable one.”

    “Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a statement to WIRED.

    Polymarket, TMTG and 1789 Capital did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

    The Truth Predict launch also tees up a scenario in which separate facets of the Trump family’s business empire could effectively compete against one another.

    “From a venture capital perspective, many of us don’t like to invest in competing projects. We try to avoid that,” says Chris Perkins, managing partner at crypto VC firm CoinFund. “We try to identify category winners.”

    Already, businesses connected to the Trump family are operating competing bitcoin treasuries. In June, a dispute broke out over which corporate entities were permitted to launch an “official” Trump-branded crypto wallet.

    [ad_2]

    Joel Khalili

    Source link

  • This Startup Raised $100M to Take on One of Tech’s White Whales: American-Made Computer Chips

    [ad_1]

    Substrate, a small San Francisco startup is making waves in the global semiconductor industry, a business widely believed too complex to break into. With its proprietary technology, Substrate emerges as a potential rival to Dutch company ASML, the current sole global manufacturer of the lithography equipment which produces microchips. 

    According to the New York Times, ASML uses a massive machine to create semiconductors for the chips essential to smartphones and AI systems. Founder James Proud, 34, says Substrate’s solution cuts the cost in half, using a proprietary particle accelerator to funnel light through a more compact lithography machine. 

    With over $100 million in funding, backed by firms including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and General Catalyst, the company is valued at over $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. But industry experts say ASML has a 10-year head start navigating the overwhelming expenses and technical challenges involved in building advanced microchips. 

    Fundamentally altering chip production is the one of the biggest challenges in tech, which is why few have tried. While Proud has yet to navigate the obstacle-ridden road to commercialization, it seems he’s emerged in an opportune moment: a time when the Trump administration has expressed keen interest in reducing reliance on foreign manufacturers. 

    Vice President JD Vance met with Proud to discuss the innovations in March. According to the New York Times, Vance declined to comment for their recent story on Substrate.

    Proud doesn’t have roots in the lithography industry, which he says actually drove his ambition. He says if he had prior experience, “I probably wouldn’t believe it’s possible because I’d probably know too much about how hard it’s going to be, and it was and it has been immensely hard.” 

    The company says it aims to produce its first chips by 2028, at which point it plans to have built its own ecosystem of chip manufacturers. 

    [ad_2]

    Ava Levinson

    Source link

  • Startups Are Trying to Help People Live Longer. Longevity Researchers Say They Should Focus on This Instead

    [ad_1]

    Human longevity science has seen a surge of commercial investment in recent years, as venture capitalists and private financiers flood the space looking to develop medical interventions and therapies that purport to extend the human lifespan. 

    At the Inc. 5000 conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday, the scientific researchers Jay Olshansky and Allen Wang discussed the human longevity boom alongside Mark Rivers, the CEO of Canyon Ranch, a hospitality group. 

    The trio all agreed that the explosion of investment and hype surrounding human longevity can sometimes muddle a vital point: It’s important the industry focuses on improving people’s health, rather than lifespans. 

    “I came into the [human longevity] field a couple years ago, and really the philosophy that all the researchers enforce is that our research is extending the health-span, not the lifespan,” Wang, an epigenomic researcher at the University of California, San Diego, said. 

    “A year of healthy life has an extraordinary value that I think we don’t often understand or appreciate,” Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago said, echoing Wang. 

    While eliminating disease is a noble and worthwhile goal, that isn’t the goal of longevity research. Rather, Olshansky’s field seeks to understand how to expand the years of healthy life enjoyed by most people. “The longer we live, the more difficult it becomes to live longer,” he said. 

    It’s easy to see how a startup promising the elixir of youth could be seen as peddling snake oil, Olshansky argued. But longevity is a broad category, encompassing apps that track certain biometric markers, supplements that purport to promote longevity, as well as companies like Aeovian Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical firm staffed by PhDs that develops therapies for cellular health. 

    There’s also full-body MRIs, hormone therapies, and perhaps most popular, GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backs a longevity startup called Retro Biosciences, and the field has grown thanks to the influencer Bryan Johnson, whose attempts to become immortal have become a pop-culture phenomenon portrayed in a Netflix documentary. 

    What often gets lost in all the hype surrounding longevity, Olshansky said, is that there aren’t a lot of revolutionary therapies available for the common person. At least not yet. Canyon Ranch offers a retreat called Longevity8, which immerses attendees in a protocol of screenings, tests, and various mental health programs. It costs $20,000, and Rivers said “it’s not a panacea,” but it still gets people coming back. “In this space, there are mercenaries, and there are missionaries,” Rivers said. “We are devout believers in science.” 

    Rivers explained that Longevity8 combines “eastern modalities, mental health, and spiritual wellness” programs with board certified dieticians, sports medicine specialists, and Dexabody scans, which measure bone density. 

    That kind of treatment might not be affordable for most people. Luckily, there are plenty of ways for the vast majority of humanity to heighten their chances of living longer. “Get a good pair of walking or running shoes,” Olshansky said, “because exercise is about the only equivalent to a fountain of youth that exists today.”

    [ad_2]

    Sam Blum

    Source link

  • How to Turning Fractional Leadership Into Full Teamship

    [ad_1]

    This article was co-authored by Keith Ferrazzi and Maciej Traczyk. Traczyk acts as a sherpa, guiding entrepreneurs to the sellable company peak. A serial entrepreneur himself, he runs multiple international business ventures and helps founders grow their businesses faster with fewer mistakes while having fun.

    Fractional executives aren’t just a trend. They are now essential to the modern startup toolset. However, if bringing one part-time leader on board is a challenge, hiring several at once? That’s a whole new management game, and most founders aren’t fully prepared. As more CEOs tap into a “portfolio” C-suite, the struggle shifts from simply getting the talent, to actually building them into a unified, accountable team. That’s where teamship comes in: shared outcomes, one operating cadence, and mutual accountability across functions. 

    The challenge: Make them one team 

    Ask any founder who’s overseen a group of fractional executives, and they’ll say that the toughest part is moving from a collection of experts into a coherent leadership team. Even the best fractional executives can drift in different directions unless there’s a plan and a system to bind them.  

    You don’t need more meetings. You need a simple system. So, what does it take to flip the switch from isolated stars to real teamship? 

    1. Nail the strategy. Then, stick to it. 

    Fractional teams won’t gel unless there’s crystal-clear strategy and a clear moment when strategy planning ends. The CEO must set a firm beginning and conclusion to each planning sprint, making sure the entire leadership group agrees not to let analysis drag on or constantly reopen foundational questions. Communicate the plan, lock it, and pivot only when the data demands. 

    2. Outcomes over activities 

    Success isn’t about keeping everyone busy. What matters is delivering on commitments. CEOs should guide every fractional leader to clarify exactly what outcomes they will achieve: real results such as revenue targets, completed launches, strategic milestones. Make them measurable, such as “Partner pipeline to $1.5M,” “v2.3 live to 100% of customers,” or “CSAT 4.2-4.5.” Only once those commitments are explicit does true accountability emerge. Activity alone is never the goal. 

    A founder, tired of sifting through stale spreadsheets and losing money on “legacy” clients, couldn’t afford a full-time C-suite. We orchestrated a one-two fractional punch: first a fractional CFO who rebuilt data collection and financial analytics, so decisions happened on time. Then, came a fractional CMO who rewired the value proposition to attract profitable clients. Within a few months, the company shed unprofitable accounts and closed a multimillion-dollar, long-term deal. 

    3. Guard the vision and the gaps. 

    Vision can fade when multiple leaders run in parallel. In to master teamship, appoint someone to own the seams between product, marketing, sales and success and other applicable functions. Schedule a 30-minute weekly Integration Review to reconcile roadmaps and resolve the top three cross-functional risks. 

    4. Work smart: Leverage tech and culture. 

    Fractional leadership means every minute counts, and wasted meetings are twice as expensive. Shorten meetings and raise the signal by harnessing AI tools for notes, tracking, and decision support. Implement a live KPI dashboard for transparent commitment tracking. Make candid and open dialogue a norm so fractional execs can surface issues quickly, not hide them. 

    5. Write the social contract. 

    Beyond outcomes and systems, teamship runs on a social contract, a co-created pact, written in clear, simple language, and signed. It spells out how you work together: the few behaviors you expect, how decisions get made, when you escalate, what happens when a commitment slips, and how you give feedback without drama.  

    Keep it short, specific, and referenced every week, aka “Did we honor the contract?” Have a quick monthly refresh as the business shifts. When the rules of engagement are explicit, and owned by everyone, fractional leaders stop operating in parallel and start acting like one accountable executive team. 

    Fractional leadership works when it operates as one system, not a collection of experts. However, to turn a loose roster into a true executive team, set a clear strategy, manage outcomes, install tight operating cadences and make candor non-negotiable. That’s how you turn a group of individual fractional leaders into a scale-ready executive team. 

    [ad_2]

    Keith Ferrazzi

    Source link

  • How Blueland’s Founders Avoided the ‘Founder Divorce’ That Kills 65% of Startups

    [ad_1]

    Since my co-founder John Mascari and I started Blueland, we’ve only had one real disagreement—what to name the company. That was seven years ago. Since then, we’ve made thousands of decisions that matter far more. Somehow, we’ve managed to stay aligned. 

    That doesn’t mean we see everything the same way. We approach problems from different angle, and we ask different questions. However, we’ve built a partnership grounded in trust—trust in the other’s ownership and trust that the other person cares as deeply, works as hard, and sweats the details just as much. 

    Co-founder conflict is one of the top reasons startups fail 

    Research from Harvard Business School shows that around 65% of startups fail because of co-founder conflict or misalignment. “Founder divorce” is one of the most common but least-discussed risks in building a company. You can have the right idea, funding, and timing, and still fail because your partnership breaks down. From day one, we knew that if we wanted to build something durable, we’d have to protect alignment as deliberately as we protect cash flow. 

    How we work together 

    From the start, we divided responsibilities loosely by strength. For example, I tend to lead on marketing, brand, and creative. He focuses more on operations, finance, and our people. Those boundaries, however, aren’t walls. We both deeply co-own our mission and product philosophy. We both jump into anything that touches the customer or the planet. We talk nearly every day—sometimes about the biggest strategic calls and sometimes about the smallest details. 

    We each care deeply about the details. Knowing the other does the same is what makes trust possible. When he makes a call on a supplier, I don’t need to double-check it because I know it was made with as much care as if I had made it myself—never out of convenience or lack of time. When I do double-check, it’s welcome. We’ve built enough trust that questions never feel like second-guessing. We both know any push or challenge comes from the same place — wanting to get to the right answer for the company. 

    That kind of trust actually makes it easier to challenge each other, not harder. It’s a habit the broader team sees and mirrors. When people watch founders question each other with respect and curiosity, it sets the tone for how the whole company communicates. 

    Revisiting our North Star every year 

    From the beginning, we take a step back to reset once a year. Together with our board and leadership team, we set a North Star—a theme or focus for the year. Then, we define each leader’s priorities that will bring it to life. 

    We also revisit our company values to make sure they still feel true to how we operate. Next, we share the theme with the full company. It keeps everyone anchored and keeps us accountable. 

    When everyone knows the focus, it’s easier to see when decisions start to drift away from, including our own. That discipline around alignment isn’t just for founders. It scales across the organization. 

    Staying aligned in practice 

    Alignment doesn’t happen by luck. It’s maintained through constant communication. We check in daily—sometimes formally, sometimes between meetings or flights—to trade notes, flag concerns, or pressure-test each other’s thinking. If something feels off, we don’t wait. We speak up immediately. It’s rarely dramatic, but this habit has prevented countless small misalignments from becoming bigger ones. 

    What makes it work 

    • Shared ownership of purpose
      We both care about why the company exists and what we refuse to compromise on. 
    • Equal respect for detail
      We trust each other because we both do the work and commit to the details. 
    • Constant communication
      We don’t wait for formal check-ins to reconnect. 
    • Regular re-alignment
      Revisiting the North Star each year keeps decisions consistent and our focus transparent. 
    • Assuming good intent
      Every disagreement starts from the belief that we’re both trying to do what’s best for the company and the mission. 
    • A shared desire to keep learning
      We both approach the business with curiosity. There’s always more to understand, questions to ask, and new ways to make Blueland stronger. 

    The real takeaway 

    People sometimes hear that we’ve only had one major disagreement and assume that means we never debate. It’s the opposite. We question everything. We just do it from a place of total trust. The goal isn’t to avoid conflict. It’s to build a partnership where you know the other person cares as much as you do. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    [ad_2]

    Sarah Paiji Yoo

    Source link

  • 80 Percent of Employees Say Working at a Startup Is Bad for Their Mental Health

    [ad_1]

    Can working at a startup company harm your mental and physical health? A new study by Startup Snapshot strongly suggests the answer is yes.

    In an anonymous survey of 270 startup employees, 80 percent said that working at their startup had negatively affected their mental health in various ways. Fifty percent said they experienced burnout, 52 percent said they suffered from anxiety, and 10 percent admitted to having panic attacks. In fact, the research showed, working at a startup can be even more stressful for employees than it is for the startup’s founder or founders.

    Startup life also makes it tough for those employees to deal with that stress. More than two thirds said they end the workday feeling both mentally drained and physically exhausted. And 62 percent said that at least a few times a month they felt too exhausted to spend time with their friends. Not only that, 45 percent said they’d cut back on physical exercise since beginning work at their startups. Both physical exercise and social interaction have been shown to reduce stress and improve mental well-being.

    So working in a startup packs a double punch. It can stress you out and at the same time prevent you from doing the things that will alleviate that stress.

    “Employees pay a price they never anticipated.”

    Respondents said they never expected this. Only 10 percent said they knew before they did it that working in a startup could take this kind of toll. “The shiny lights of startup life are compelling–who wouldn’t want to be part of that story? But behind the glow, employees pay a price they never anticipated,” said Nektarios Liolios, serial entrepreneur and startup advisor, in a statement accompanying the report. “They enter with energy and belief, and too often leave drained, disillusioned, or
    unwell.”

    Some might be tempted to shrug off these findings. After all, working a startup is supposed to be stressful, isn’t it? Maybe. But no founder or board member should be Ok with the degree of stress in startup life this research shows. Especially because these findings suggest some fairly simple changes that could go a huge way toward making it better.

    1. Make it easier to talk about startup stress.

    Eighty percent of respondents said their mental health was affected by their startup jobs. But only 15 percent said they would ever talk with their bosses about these challenges. While that’s very understandable, it’s not particularly helpful. Creating a culture where people can talk about things like burnout and anxiety is an important step toward solving them.

    2. Rethink your perks.

    When Startup Snapshot asked what their employers provided to support their health and wellbeing, 68 percent said their startup offered remote work. And 62 percent said they had flexible hours. Only 13 percent said their companies offered access to counseling or therapy, and only 14 percent said they had access to wellness activities such as yoga or fitness classes.

    Remote work and flexible hours are popular perks that many employees seek and many startups offer. But a substantial portion of your employees likely want mental wellness support too. In the survey, 38 percent of respondents said they wanted wellness activities, and 24 percent said they wanted access to counseling.

    Employee assistance programs are, of course, more common at large, well-established companies than they are at startups. But making sure employees have at least some access to perks that can support their mental health is a good idea for every startup. With less stressed employees and fewer cases of burnout, it may pay for itself in productivity and employee retention.

    3. Take care of your own emotional health.

    As a founder, you may think no one else at work cares how stressed you are or how hard you’re working. But that’s wrong, the survey shows. “When the leader is overwhelmed, the team feels it, whether it’s spoken aloud or not,” Survey Snapshot researchers write. “In small, fast-moving companies, the founder’s emotional state
    doesn’t just affect them, it shapes the culture.”

    The survey results show that stress in the workplace is contagious, especially when it comes from the top of the organization. And, not surprisingly, most founders appear to be stressed. In the survey, 57 percent of respondents said they saw their company founders expressing stress or anxiety often, at least a few times a month or more. And those who reported having highly stressed founders had 16 percent lower wellbeing at work, and 14 percent more burnout than the sample at large.

    The message is that it’s important for every startup founder, and really every team leader, to take care of their own emotional health, especially at work. It’s the only way to avoid spreading their stress to their team like some kind of awful flu. (There’s lots of information about how to do this in my book Career Self-Care: Find Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work.)

    4. Tell your employees the truth.

    Most founders don’t open up to employees about most of their stressors or concerns. Even though more than half can see that their founders are stressed, only 10 percent of respondents said their founders discuss their stress with employees. And only 18 percent said their founders discussed the startup’s challenges with employees.

    Founders who keep their troubles to themselves may be attempting to shield their employees from worry. If so, they’re actually doing the opposite. When asked their main source of stress at work, 50 percent of respondents said it was a lack of information.

    In most situations, knowing the truth, even if it’s not what you want to hear, is better than having to guess at what’s going on. So being transparent with employees whenever you can is probably a better approach than keeping all the bad news to yourself.

    Despite all of the above, the survey revealed some very good news: Employees love working at startups. More than a third said they joined their startup because they were inspired by the founder. And 91 percent said that if their current startup didn’t work out, they’d look for a job at another startup.

    The inspiration and excitement that go with working at a startup are the secret sauce that helps founders attract top talent to their companies. Take care of their emotional wellbeing, as well as your own, if you want them to stick around.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    [ad_2]

    Minda Zetlin

    Source link

  • How Cleveland Helps Startups Compete in This $3.4 Billion Market

    [ad_1]

    When public organizations decide to tackle large problems confronting the communities they represent, they often turn to private sector partners offering effective solutions. When the Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA) tried to do that in its efforts to improve the management and health of Lake Erie, it discovered a shortage of businesses capable of filling its needs. In response, CWA created its own, enormous testbed that it allows water sector startups to use for developing, perfecting, and marketing their products—and for propelling their companies into full commercial operation.

    Launched in 2014, CWA initially brought together industry, civic, and political leaders determined to create a new and effective economic development cluster. Early on, the organization homed in on the objective of forging partnerships between public organizations and private sector companies.

    Fast forward to 2022, when CWA began building out the Smart Lake Erie Watershed, a collection of 200 sensors placed on buoys and in shore positions that together provide a Long Range Wide Area Network—or a de facto WiFi coverage—of 7,740 square miles across the lake.

    The result is a continuing feed of data on water nutrients, contaminants, wave conditions, and other information that’s valuable to a wide array of partners in utilities, agriculture, maritime research, and even to recreational users. It also serves as a 24/7 communications infrastructure that can be used for early warning and disaster response purposes.

    The network is also offered as an invaluable testbed to startups developing new water quality technologies. That allows them to trial and improve their platforms in real world situations—and take them to market faster as proven products.

    In doing so, it seeks to help startups overcome what CWA identified as a major hurdle for companies to enter and prosper in a water sector that’s difficult to crack.

    “We meet with hundreds of companies annually and consistently hear that real-world testing is a major barrier to market,” CWA president and executive director Bryan Stubbs told Inc. in emailed comments. “In response, we built a regional testbed network that connects innovators with end-users — like utilities and government agencies — for pilot projects. These collaborations provide valuable data for tech developers and low-risk access to new solutions for network partners. Leveraging our region’s cooperative ecosystem, rich in industrial expertise and entrepreneurial support, CWA has cultivated Cleveland as the ideal launchpad for water innovation with global impact.”

    Meanwhile, CWA’s Smart Lake Erie Watershed facilitates recruitment of both public funding and private investment for small business tech partners. That’s significant for two big reasons.  

    Early on, CWA realized companies focusing on water solutions often fizzed out before making it to market. Such startups are typically under-financed, as investors favor more mature technologies with bigger profitability potential. Meanwhile, even established sector businesses like GE Water have frequently been sold off by parent companies that had provided the financing necessary for future tech development.

    CWA recognized that as a mistake by big businesses and investors who underestimated the rising demand for water protection technologies.

    According to many estimates, the global market for sensor-based monitoring of water and soil is set to reach $3.4 billion by next year, with some forecasts doubling that figure. The worldwide market for the kind of smart water management tech systems CWA continues developing with business partners is slated to exceed $23 billion by 2027.

    In responding to that rising activity, CWA facilitates partner businesses that test and review over 250 emerging technologies each year using the Smart Lake Erie Watershed. So far, that activity has attracted $15 million in direct investment in CWA, with partner startups having raised over $50 million on their own.

    One of those startups is Ohio company CLEANR, which used the Lake Erie Watershed to continue testing and improving its water filtering tech. As a result of that, the company’s microplastics filtration system now removes 90 percent of microplastics that usually flow out into waterways from washing machines and other appliances. Moreover, it also clears those pollutants from water flowing into households, and is now sold to third party washing machine and appliance manufacturers.

    “CWA has been a crucial partner for us in raising awareness of the risks of microplastic pollution to our water systems and food supply,” said CLEANR co-founder and CEO Max Pennington, noting that as the shallowest of the Great Lakes, Erie is the most susceptible to rising temperatures, and has the highest degree of microplastic pollutants.

    “They were quick to understand why the Great Lakes are becoming ground zero in this public health threat and how our technology can make a massive impact on this problem upstream where it starts,” Pennington added. “They’ve connected us with the right players around the Great Lakes to test and launch our technology at a key juncture as the U.S. Senate and a half-dozen state legislators introduce bills that mandate or incentivize filters for all new washing machines starting in 2030.” 

    More recently, CWA teamed up with several Ohio businesses to test technologies designed to prevent nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural fertilizer from draining into Lake Erie and connected waterways, where they provoke destructive algae blooms. Last week the organization announced it had retained Ohio industrial engineering company Neundorfer as the selected partner in a pilot project. That solution sends electric charges into manure used to fertilize farmland, which separates phosphorus in it and causes it to remain in the field rather than running off during rains.

    Neundorfer’s participation in CWA’s program is all the more significant in the company broadening its previous focus on air quality and pollution control solutions to water. That expansion was a direct result of it seeing potential business opportunities in helping solve challenges the CWA and the wider public face in protecting the lake.

    “We’re established leaders in industrial air pollution control, and we’re excited to explore the water tech space through this CWA pilot project,” said Neundorfer president Steve Ostankek, noting that transition comes as the Northeast Ohio company celebrates its 50th anniversary. ”It allows us to explore a new market in a low-risk environment and apply our expertise to a cause that could protect our waterways and help farmers.”

    That kind of response from both startups and established businesses has allowed CWA to generate momentum, and build on that as it moves ahead. As more companies test their new technologies in the Smart Lake Erie Watershed project—and develop mutually beneficial solutions with CWA support—the appeal of tackling public sector problems with commercially based projects grows for other entrepreneurs.

    “This is a prime example of connecting the dots across Ohio’s water economy,” Max Herzog, CWA’s deputy director of programs and partnerships, said a blog post on the farming initiative. “We are leveraging our world-class testbed network to support an innovative Ohio company, address a critical environmental issue, and provide economic benefits for farmers—all while accelerating the commercialization of cutting-edge technology right here in our region.”

    [ad_2]

    Bruce Crumley

    Source link

  • Polymarket Just Got a $2 Billion Investment From the NYSE. But Its Future Is Far From Clear

    [ad_1]

    It has been roughly three years since prediction site Polymarket has been available to U.S. users. Since July, though, the company has been taking steps to restore that access—and it just got one of its biggest votes of confidence.

    The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, on Tuesday, announced an investment of up to $2 billion in Polymarket, which will value the prediction market at approximately $8 billion. The investment by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. makes 27-year-old founder Shayne Coplan the youngest self-made billionaire in history.

    It comes less than three months after New York City-based Polymarket began publicly talking about its U.S. comeback, announcing it had acquired QCX, the holding company of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-licensed derivatives exchange, and QC Clearing, a clearinghouse, for $112 million. That, it said at the time, “paves the way for U.S. users to access Polymarket in the near future.”

    Maybe not quite as near as it had hoped for, though. Despite all the positive momentum, Polymarket remains unavailable to U.S. users. A message on the site’s home page currently reads, “Polymarket will soon be available for US traders. We’re working hard to get the U.S. platform ready for launch.”

    Polymarket ceased operations here as part of a settlement with the CFTC. That dispute emerged from Polymarket’s lack of a license. There were also concerns of market manipulation. In July, though, the Justice Department and CFTC ended their investigations (which were launched by the Biden administration). That led to the QCX deal, which opened the path to resume operations in the U.S.

    Any delay in resuming those operations, however, only gives Polymarket’s competitors a chance to lock in users—and there are plenty of competitors.

    With the Intercontinental investment, Polymarket’s valuation is now four times that of rival Kalshi, but when it comes to trading volume, the two are still largely on even footing. For the week to September 29, New York City-based Kalshi boasted a 67 percent share of the global prediction market. Polymarket had 31 percent. Up until late August, Polymarket had been far and away the category leader.

    Polymarket has a global audience, while Kalshi tends to focus more on the U.S., which has a larger customer pool. Kalshi also scored a big victory last year when a federal court authorized it to offer presidential election contracts, something that had been illegal for a century in the U.S. (Some two million users bet more than $1 billion on the Trump versus Harris race alone. Polymarket racked up $3.6 billion in wagers outside of the U.S.)

    There are plenty of other prediction markets in the mix as well. Robinhood launched one before the presidential election last year and has since partnered with Kalshi to add event contracts trading. And Crypto.com partnered with Underdog to start a sports prediction market last month.

    “At the most fundamental level, [prediction markets] are the application of capitalism to the pursuit of truth,” wrote Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev on social media after the deal with Kalshi was struck. “Market incentives and the wisdom of the crowds sift through all the information out there to determine answers to well-specified questions and outcomes to important events.” 

    Prediction markets operate in something of a grey area compared to professional sportsbook operations, and their legality is still being figured out by courts and the CFTC. As that drags on, though, prediction market sites have continued to grow and become habitual for users.

    Wagering on events, from politics to sports to the number of posts Elon Musk will make on X in a given week, has become a multibillion-dollar business. A forecast from Metatech Insights predicts the decentralized prediction market alone will reach $95.5 billion by 2035. The majority of that growth is expected to take place in the U.S., which is why Polymarket has been so eager to return.

    Beyond acquiring QCX, the company has taken other steps to ensure it doesn’t run into the same problems it did before it was banned. Donald Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board in August, and his venture-capital firm 1789 Capital is now an investor in the company (as is Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund). Intercontinental Exchange, meanwhile, has its own ties to the Trump administration. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher is married to SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler.

    [ad_2]

    Chris Morris

    Source link

  • Meet the Gen-Z Founder Building the Canva of Memes

    [ad_1]

    Jason Levin, the founder of Memelord Technologies, believes that memes are the most powerful communication tool at humanity’s disposal. If deployed correctly, memes can shift cultural currents—and also possibly make you rich. 

    That belief is shared by a group of investors who last month funded Memelord’s seed round with $3 million. Memelord Technologies, founded by the 28-year-old Levin in 2024, bills itself as meme SaaS. It’s a platform that allows users to root through a giant cache of images, layer them with text, and throw their creations into the ether in the hopes of marketing a business, or perhaps rebutting a stranger’s argument in Elon Musk’s mentions. 

    It’s probably the internet’s most sophisticated meme-generating platform, with a sprawling collection of digital motifs, videos, and templates that can help anyone tap into their trollishness or set foot in the culture wars. 

    “We build weapons for keyboard warriors,” the company’s homepage says. Those keyboard warriors can subscribe at both individual and enterprise tiers, for $42 and $299 a month, respectively. 

    A variety of investors participated in the seed round, including Slow Ventures and Long Journey Ventures, along with independent financiers such as Balaji Srinivasan and Troy Osinoff. “The Memelord team [is] set up to become effectively the Canva for memes in a very powerful way,” Sam Lessin, General Partner at Slow Ventures, tells Inc. 

    Describing the cultural resonance of memes in 2025, Levin cites Tesla’s CEO: “Elon says [he] who controls the memes, controls the universe. He’s not joking.” 

    Levin, for his part, is a meme aficionado who has put in ample work studying the craft and business of shitposting. He published the book Memes Make Millions in 2023, which draws on interviews with the admins of the internet’s most popular meme pages, like BoredElonMusk, probing their money-making strategies. “I learned so much writing this. I learned everything. It was like I did my PhD in memes,” he tells Inc. 

    Memetic warfare—or at least stunts—appear to be something of a lifestyle for Levin. He has documented his own pranks on social media and seems to delight in achieving certain viewership metrics—like the time he got over 20 million Instagram views reading a book called “How to Live With a Small Penis” while riding the subway. “I wrote in my book that pictures speak a thousand words, but memes speak a million,” he says.

    Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Silicon Valley investors saw an untapped opportunity in the meme economy. It’s a language that has crawled up from the deepest rungs of 4Chan and become regular fodder of the online experience, like the deranged photos of JD Vance that might clog your social feeds at times. Even the federal government’s social channels are now flooded with them. The Department of Homeland Security and The White House have regularly used memes to celebrate immigration raids. 

    To anyone familiar with the terminally online, politics is probably the richest territory for a meme-making product looking to take over the world. Campaigning is an art that meets people online as much as it meets them at their doorsteps, regardless of party affiliation. Donald Trump is a chronic poster who regularly shares memes mocking his adversaries; Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for NYC mayor set a new standard in digital savvyness on the left. 

    When asked about Memelord’s potential, Lessin, the investor, says: “Huge is the answer. Early days, but huge. We wouldn’t do things if we didn’t believe they could be.” 

    Levin already has experience in political posting: Memelord partnered with Andrew Cuomo’s campaign for NYC mayor earlier this year. After Levin revealed himself as Cuomo’s undercover meme-chef, he reveled in the triumph of attracting more eyeballs to the former New York governor’s foundering social media presence. 

    When asked how he assesses the marketplace for memes in politics, Levin has one word. “Infinte.” When asked to elaborate, he says, “No.” 

    When asked about potential competitors, Levin invokes a meme. 

    “The Lion does not concern himself with people who are not committed to the bit,” he says. 

    Memelord would like to continue its political work. After all, in addition to President Trump, California Governor Gavin Newsom has attracted a lot of attention and media coverage for communicating via memes on his social accounts. Contracts with government agencies “is definitely a goal of ours, transparently,” Levin says of Memelord’s aspirations. Among its current clients, Memelord already has “government adjacent projects, NGOs, and ex-government officials,” Levin says, (Levin added “no comment” when asked if he could name clients.) 

    Levin and his investors also believe that businesses are a big target market, including the marketing departments at tech companies and beyond. Memelord wants to become standard B2B software for white-collar incursions into online discourse. Currently, Memelord’s clients listed on its website include CRM giant Hubspot, X, and the newsletter platform Beehiiv, among others. 

    “Memes are intertwined with culture and they’re not going anywhere, so why not invest in tooling around it? Only other meme investments you can make right now are in coins,” says Troy Osinoff, a venture capitalist who participated in the round. 

    Inc’s conversation with Levin took place on Wednesday, October 1 and lasted roughly 13 minutes. It ended abruptly. When Levin was asked about making introductions to his investors, he suddenly became confused about the story’s intent and expressed concerns about a “hit piece.” He then hung up without warning, after being asked to elaborate on his concerns. 

    On Monday, Levin posted a text exchange with an investor. 

    It’s unclear if the insults are an additional add-on or come with a free monthly trial. 

    [ad_2]

    Sam Blum

    Source link

  • The AI-Powered Patent Check That Is Reducing Risk for Startups and Their Lawyers

    [ad_1]

    AI is changing patent work in the same way spreadsheets changed accounting. The busy-work shrinks, and expert judgment matters more. That shift is good news for founders, investors, and, most crucially, attorneys who want to deliver earlier, more precise answers about, “Can we ship this without stepping on someone else’s patent?” 

    Why AI patent work matters now 

    In fast cycles, teams commit to features, designs, and markets long before the full extent of legal risk is known. Traditional patent searching is thorough but slow and expensive when used as the first step for every idea. AI, however, flips the order. It makes a quick, inexpensive first pass possible at the start, so attorneys can focus time where it counts. 

    What’s an early FTO check  

    Freedom to operate (FTO) is about risk. “Are there patents out there that our product might infringe?” A pre-FTO or triage pass is a fast screen—minutes, not weeks—that scans the landscape and highlights likely collisions. It’s not a legal opinion. It’s a map that says, “Pay attention here,” so counsel can dive deep efficiently. 

    What’s changed about the patent process 

    Modern AI can read and understand any sort of document fast and reliably, break it into claim-like elements—such as features, methods, and signals—and match those against huge patent corpora to surface the closest neighbors. AI is great at recall and ranking. The lawyer is great at boundaries and remedies—deciding if a claim overlaps, proposing a design-around, or advising to avoid jurisdiction. 

    The attorney angle and advantage 

    AI doesn’t replace legal judgment; it routes work to it sooner. That means attorneys can offer productized, fixed-fee “front-door” services without guessing. Think of it as a standard intake: 

    1. Triage: This is fast and low cost. Run the idea through a pre-FTO screen; get a ranked list of potential conflicts with plain-language notes. 
    2. Counsel review: This can be flat or fixed. An attorney interprets the overlaps, tests claim boundaries, and recommends changes (“Use method B, not A; file here, avoid there”). 
    3. Formal opinion: This is customized. Where warranted, the full FTO or targeted non-infringement analysis in specific jurisdictions. 

    Clients get speed and clarity while attorneys spend time on judgment, not on stitching together PDFs and queries. 

    Ultimately, tools make all the difference. For example, Evalify, a Nobody Studios portfolio company led and co-founded by William Carbone and Nick Sgobba, is one of the next-gen tools making that front door workable. Teams upload a short product brief or even a presentation deck. The system maps it to relevant patents and returns a preliminary FTO score with the closest references and a readable rationale in minutes. Attorneys then take that packet as the starting point for review, strategy, and, when needed, formal opinions. It’s the intake layer, not the last word. 

    Guardrails that make this safe 

    • Privilege and confidentiality: Matter data is isolated, logs are auditable, and default settings avoid cross-matter training, unless a client explicitly opts in. 
    • Explainability: This is every reference link to why it was flagged. No black-box magic is required to justify the next steps. 
    • Right tool, right moment: Pre-FTO is for early decisions. It doesn’t replace patentability searches, litigation strategy, or full clearance opinions. 

    It’s a win-win for the whole startup ecosystem 

    • Founders and product leaders can add deck-to-pre-FTO to their idea checklist before locking the roadmap. This equals cleaner calls, earlier. 
    • Investors can ask portfolio companies for a triage pass at the proposal stage. This reduces avoidable risk and speeds de-risking. 
    • Attorneys and firms can now offer a clear entry product—priced, scoped, and fast. They’ll use AI to widen the top of the funnel and reserve expert time for what they do best. 

    The future of patent work 

    AI won’t practice law, and it definitely won’t replace attorneys. However, it will make the front end of patent risk faster, cheaper, and easier to understand. It will also do this at a more predictable, if not fixed, cost. Firms that produce this intake—and founders who make it a habit—will move faster with fewer surprises. That’s not disruption for disruption’s sake. It’s simply better timing for everyone. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    [ad_2]

    Peter Economy

    Source link

  • 7 Side Hustles That Let You Start Earning Extra Cash Right Away

    [ad_1]

    Side hustles are a great way to supplement your income, but sometimes you need money in a hurry. Many side hustles that require you to find and build a customer base or an audience can take a while to monetize. 

    But there are several side gigs, particularly in the service economy, that let you start building your bank account quickly. And, depending on where you live, you could raise a good amount of money in a short time, because there’s an abundance of demand.

    Here are a few side hustle ideas that will put cash in your pocket quickly.

    Rideshare 

    The beauty of side hustles with services like Lyft and Uber is you’re entirely in charge of your schedule—and the more time you have available to drive, the better the chances of getting a big check. (The income isn’t bad either, averaging just over $21 per hour for rideshare jobs, according to ZipRecruiter.) You can work around your 9-5 job, if that’s a factor, or just make yourself available for riders when you have a free moment. It can take a few days to a couple weeks to get approved as a new driver.

    Delivery driver

    Don’t want to ferry people near and far, but you’ve still got a car and free time? Signing up to do side gigs for a delivery service like DoorDash, GrubHub, Instacart, or Deliveroo can be a quick and easy way to make some extra cash. You’ll generally earn a flat fee per delivery as well as tips, though payments and payment methods vary from company to company. Getting signed up can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks.

    Repairs

    If you have the skills and tools, there are always people nearby who need things repaired or taken care of that are looking to avoid the sometimes ridiculously high costs charged by full-time home service companies. Promote your work on sites like TaskRabbit or Thumbtack to find work—and monitor your neighborhood or town’s Facebook resident page. Calls for help go up regularly on those.

    Childcare

    This might be the fastest way to pick up extra cash. Parents want someone who is mature enough to handle any emergencies that might arise when it comes to their children. The best way to find work is via personal connections with people in your neighborhood and town. There are also plenty of services for people that might be new to town or don’t know anyone who might make a good sitter. Sittercity, Care and SitterTree are all worth checking out and pay rates of up to $23 per hour.

    Yard care

    Yard work, for some people, is a burden, but because they want to keep up with the Jones (or live in fear of a nastygram from the HOA), they’re often eager to hire someone to take care of things for them. Whether it’s mowing the lawn and weeding, raking fall leaves or cleaning out the gutters, there’s an incredible amount of demand for this side hustle. Your neighborhood Facebook page is a good place to start advertising your services and to keep an eye out for people looking for help. Nextdoor is another good place to look for gigs.

    Dog walker

    If you prefer the company of four legged companions when you take a stroll, consider making a side hustle out of it. Sites like Rover let you advertise your services as a pet walker or doggy day care hub. You can set your own schedule and offer whichever services you feel qualified for. A study by NetCredit put the average income of folks who take this side hustle to be $24.84 per hour.

    Crafting

    Making homemade jewelry or candles or even something like a bath bomb is a good creative outlet. Of course, you can set up a digital storefront to sell online. (Etsy is one of the go-to spots to set up a store to sell those wares to a huge built-in customer base. Listing an item costs 20 cents and there’s a 6.5 percent transaction fee on the sale price. Etsy can also help advertise your goods beyond its site, for another cut of the sale price.) For quick cash, though, consider selling your goods at farmer’s markets, neighborhood markets or collectives in your town. Facebook Events is a great place to learn when those will be taking place nearby.

    [ad_2]

    Chris Morris

    Source link

  • How the Shutdown Threatens to Disrupt IPO Market Momentum

    [ad_1]

    A U.S. government shutdown threatens to stall the IPO market’s long-awaited comeback, just as strong investor demand and successful debuts had breathed life back into new listings.

    The U.S. government shut down much of its operations on Wednesday as deep partisan divisions prevented Congress and the White House from reaching a funding deal.

    With the Securities and Exchange Commission running only essential functions on a skeleton staff, the agency will stop processing IPO paperwork, leaving companies primed for Wall Street debuts such as actress Jennifer Garner’s baby food company Once Upon a Farm and electric-aircraft maker Beta Technologies in limbo.

    The fall window has been gathering momentum, with a wave of successful debuts, raising hopes that 2025 could be a breakout year for IPOs after high interest rates and volatility stalled the market for nearly three years.

    “A shutdown grinds the SEC to a halt, which means no prospectus reviews, no comments cleared and no green lights for going public,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and CIO at Running Point Capital Advisors.

    “It’s bureaucratic purgatory at the worst possible time, just as the IPO market was beginning to thaw from a deep freeze,” Schulman added.

    U.S. IPOs have raised $52.94 billion from 263 listings as of September 29, the highest since 2021, according to Dealogic. The largest listings of the year included LNG giant Venture Global, buy-now-pay-later lender Klarna , and AI cloud firm CoreWeave.

    In addition to Once Upon a Farm and Beta Technologies, life insurer Ethos Technologies was also among the biggest companies to file for an IPO recently. Representatives for the three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

    The pipeline for the rest of 2025 and going into 2026 features several other high-profile would-be issuers, including medical supplies giant Medline, SoftBank-backed PayPay, and corporate travel management platform Navan.

    “Already this is shifting timelines back for deals that were on the fence,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.

    “If it lasts more than a week, the IPO market will grind down to a halt, cutting short the rebound we were expecting.”

    U.S. IPO market rebounds in 2025

    Temporary Setback

    While government shutdowns are typically short-lived, the longest in history — 35 days spanning December 2018 to January 2019 — occurred under President Donald Trump’s previous administration.

    At the time, the IPO market came to a virtual standstill. But a few companies sidestepped the SEC by locking in their IPO prices weeks in advance, allowing them to proceed with listings despite the shutdown.

    While the shutdown lasts, the IPO freeze could ripple across Wall Street, delaying deals for banks and limiting listing fees for exchanges.

    Still, as with 2019, listings are likely to bounce back, said some market watchers. Strong investor demand, hefty inflows into IPO-themed funds and the best after-market performance in years will continue to lure companies to the market, said Lukas Muehlbauer, research analyst at IPO research firm IPOX.

    A weeks-long shutdown could potentially dampen market sentiment and spur volatility, but the fall window was generally the strongest for IPOs and would likely shrug off a shutdown blip, according to Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.

    “IPO activity should be pretty solid and dominate any near-term hiccups around a shutdown,” Saglimbene added.

    A bar chart showing the US government shutdowns since 1976 and their duration.
    Three of the four longest U.S. government shutdowns happened since 1996.

    Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; editing by Michelle Price and Krishna Chandra Eluri.

    [ad_2]

    Reuters

    Source link

  • Marissa Mayer Is Dissolving Her Sunshine Startup Lab

    [ad_1]

    Sunshine, the consumer AI startup founded by former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in 2018, has seen brighter days.

    The small startup is shutting down, and its assets are being sold to a new entity incorporated by Mayer called Dazzle, according to an email viewed by WIRED. Mayer sent the email to Sunshine shareholders on September 17, informing them that Dazzle has officially incorporated and is ready to acquire Sunshine’s holdings.

    The deal requires approval from shareholders, including Sunshine cofounder Enrique Muñoz Torres, Norwest Venture Partners, Felicis Partners, Ron Conway’s SV Angel, the PR firm Archetype Agency, and others. As of Sunday afternoon, 99 percent of shareholders had signed, according to sources close to the situation. Mayer is the company’s largest shareholder and investor.

    The email did not elaborate on what Dazzle’s purpose will be, but sources tell WIRED that Mayer is eyeing a new kind of AI personal assistant. Sunshine’s roughly 15 employees are expecting to find new roles at Dazzle, sources say.

    “After careful consideration, Sunshine’s management, and 99.99% of its shareholders, determined the strongest path forward for the company was to sell to Dazzle AI, a new company already incorporated and with committed funding,” Mayer said through a spokesperson. “As Sunshine’s largest investor, shareholder, and CEO, Marissa is proud of what the team built and looks forward to carrying that momentum into new opportunities around Dazzle.”

    Mayer founded Sunshine, originally called Lumi Labs, in 2018 after her five-year turnaround attempt at Yahoo. Prior to becoming CEO of Yahoo, Mayer had a storied career at Google, where she was employee number 20. Mayer designed the interface for Google Search and helped develop Google Maps and Google AdWords.

    The idea for Sunshine’s first product, an app for managing contacts, stemmed from Mayer’s own experience tapping into her deep network of Silicon Valley luminaries as she was trying to launch her company. That app, Sunshine Contacts, launched in 2020. By that point, the startup had raised $20 million in venture capital funding, in addition to Mayer’s personal contributions.

    Early on, the Sunshine app was plagued by complaints that it potentially violated user privacy. The app, which used AI to identify and merge duplicate people in your phone’s contacts list, was also pulling in information from Whitepages to automatically add home addresses to contacts.

    In 2024, Sunshine launched a photo sharing app called Shine. Like Sunshine Contacts, Shine was widely viewed as a flop.

    [ad_2]

    Lauren Goode, Zoë Schiffer

    Source link

  • Oklo Director Sold 50,000 Shares of Nuclear Start-Up Before Selloff

    [ad_1]

    Oklo Director Sold 50,000 Shares of Nuclear Start-Up Before Selloff

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Why One VC Thinks Quantum Is a Bigger Unlock Than AGI

    [ad_1]

    Depending on how you think about it, there’s half a dozen or more approaches to the hardware. And I became excited that within the hardware approach, the neutral atom approach was high potential. So we backed [Thompson’s] company called Logiqal.

    What happens if you’re right?

    I’m a venture investor, and we believe in convexity—taking risks on things that most likely won’t work, but if they do work could be 500x in value.

    It’s a real earth-moving innovation if there’s a chance that quantum computers find the path toward success. You unlock these thinking engines, these computational engines that can run the future of material sciences, the future of pharmaceutical innovation, the future of logistics, the future of financial markets in ways that we’ve never seen before.

    You can see a future where you could create pharmaceutical advancements that could elongate life 20 to 30 years. You could see changes in material sciences where we could invent new products. It could help us get to Mars! That is what quantum computing unlocks.

    The way you talk about quantum computing sounds a lot like how many AI enthusiasts talk about artificial general intelligence.

    In many ways, quantum is today where AI was back in 2015, which is a lot of really big research and science projects and starting to have practical applications rather than just pure research.

    You mentioned that it’s hard to fake being a quantum expert. I would posit that it is not as hard to fake being an AI expert. How do you decide who to back?

    There are so many companies that are being built and born in AI that when you extrapolate them 5, 10 years will not have a true genuine moat outside of brand or speed. Brand and speed are rarely strong enough moats to build a generational company.

    I’ll give you an example. BrightAI creates stickers that are roughly this big [she makes a circle with her fist]. The company puts a sticker on every telephone pole, on every HVAC system, on every water line system, and then observes it for long periods of time, 5, 10, 15, 20 years [and flags potential issues]. That’s a pretty good moat. You’re not ripping all those stickers off.

    For the most part, the value in AI accrues to the incumbents. Penny, my cofounder, is on the board of Microsoft. If you think about it, Microsoft and Google—Google has 3 billion users. Microsoft has a billion users. They can launch a product that is OK, not excellent, and they still have a pricing power, a distribution power. And so we very much think about the world where when the elephants dance. Don’t be an ant.

    How do you use AI?

    For everything. There’s nothing you don’t use AI for, nothing. From every question, I mean, today I probably used it 25 times.

    It’s replaced Google for you?

    Everything. Everything. Deep research, sourcing. Today I was looking up what jobs are declining fastest in the world. Truly, I would say it’s not a dozen times a day. It’s dozens of times a day.

    This is an edition of the Model Behavior newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.

    [ad_2]

    Zoë Schiffer

    Source link

  • Nvidia Spends Nearly a Billion on AI Startup to Hire CEO | Entrepreneur

    [ad_1]

    Nvidia has paid nearly a billion dollars to bring in fresh talent and technology from an AI hardware startup.

    According to a CNBC report on Thursday, Nvidia spent more than $900 million in cash and stock to hire Rochan Sankar, the CEO of AI chip startup Enfabrica, as well as several other employees at the company. Additionally, as part of the deal, Nvidia is allowed to license Enfabrica technology. The deal closed last week, and Sankar has already begun working at Nvidia, per CNBC‘s sources.

    Enfabrica’s chips use special software to keep data center speeds up, but costs down. The startup’s standout feature is a system that incorporates cheaper memory costs, which noticeably reduces the cost of operating AI.

    Related: Nvidia’s CEO Says It No Longer Matters If You Never Learned to Code: ‘There’s a New Programming Language’

    The deal, which involves bringing in new talent, is similar to those conducted recently by Google and Meta. In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion in AI data training startup Scale AI. The deal involved former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang leaving the startup to join Meta’s superintelligence team.

    Meanwhile, in July, Google signed a $2.4 billion agreement with AI coding startup Windsurf to hire the startup’s CEO, Varun Mohan, as well as other employees. Google also obtained a nonexclusive license to Windsurf’s technology.

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images

    The advantage of trading money for new talent is that tech giants can circumvent the complex regulatory hurdles that come with acquisitions — and still poach top talent from other companies.

    Nvidia first began its involvement with Enfabrica in 2023, as one of the backers in a $125 million Series B funding round for the startup. Enfabrica was last valued at around $600 million in November, following a $115 million Series C round, according to PitchBook.

    Nvidia has also made or considered a few other high-profile deals lately. Earlier this week, the AI chipmaker announced that it would be investing $5 billion into Intel to develop advanced technology, a deal that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called “an incredible investment.” On Friday, Nvidia signed a letter of intent to evaluate a $500 million investment in self-driving car startup Wayve.

    Nvidia is the world’s most valuable company, a spot it claimed in June. One month later, Nvidia became the world’s first company to exceed $4 trillion in market value. The AI chipmaker is worth $4.32 trillion at the time of writing.

    Related: Nvidia CEO Warns That ‘Some Jobs’ Will Disappear As the AI Chipmaker’s Earnings Beat Estimates

    Nvidia has paid nearly a billion dollars to bring in fresh talent and technology from an AI hardware startup.

    According to a CNBC report on Thursday, Nvidia spent more than $900 million in cash and stock to hire Rochan Sankar, the CEO of AI chip startup Enfabrica, as well as several other employees at the company. Additionally, as part of the deal, Nvidia is allowed to license Enfabrica technology. The deal closed last week, and Sankar has already begun working at Nvidia, per CNBC‘s sources.

    Enfabrica’s chips use special software to keep data center speeds up, but costs down. The startup’s standout feature is a system that incorporates cheaper memory costs, which noticeably reduces the cost of operating AI.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    [ad_2]

    Sherin Shibu

    Source link

  • US Tech Giants Race to Spend Billions in UK AI Push

    [ad_1]

    Microsoft and Nvidia have unveiled plans to invest up to $45 billion dollars into the UK economy, in a move that will bolster the building of more data centers as well as research and development into artificial intelligence.

    The investment comes as US President Donald Trump travels to Britain, where he is expected to announce a US-UK tech deal alongside UK prime minister Keir Starmer.

    As part of the agreement, Microsoft has committed to invest $30 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years. The company claims this is the largest financial commitment it has ever made in the UK and will make up more than two thirds of the total investment announced into the UK this week, timed to Trump’s visit.

    “We are focused on British pounds, not empty tech promises,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, told journalists in a virtual briefing ahead of the announcement today. “We will be good for every cent of this investment.” Half of the money will go to capital expansion— “all new money, all new investments,” Smith claimed—whereas the other half will go to efforts like a partnership with the data center business Nscale, to finance and use its facilities.

    Nvidia, for its part, has pledged to spend up to $15 billion on AI-related R&D efforts in the UK. The chipmaker will not invest directly into building out the infrastructure, instead acting through its partners CoreWeave and Nscale.

    This announcement comes alongside a new joint venture from Nvidia, Nscale, and OpenAI today, which plans to “strengthen the UK’s sovereign compute capabilities” through an AI infrastructure partnership called Stargate UK. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang traveled with Trump to the UK during his state visit this week.

    “Stargate UK ensures OpenAI’s world-leading AI models can run on local computing power in the UK, for the UK,” said OpenAI in a statement. OpenAI will provide up to 8,000 GPUs in the first quarter of 2026 with the potential to scale to 31,000 GPUs over time. As part of the agreement, OpenAI says Nscale is set to significantly expand its capacity across a number of sites in the UK, including Cobalt Park in Newcastle, which will be part of a newly designated AI Growth Zone in the North East.

    “This historic commitment from Nscale shows how the UK can build the future of AI, together with our partners from the US,” Nscale CEO Josh Payne said in a statement. “It’s only by building world-class AI infrastructure that we will stay competitive in the global race.”

    When asked to characterize Microsoft’s relationship with Nscale, Smith said simply, “we write the check, and they spend the money.”

    Smith was quick to claim that the company did not get a request from the Trump administration to make an investment announcement. “We have had many conversations with the UK government, including with folks at Number 10, as you would expect, and those have been going on for months,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Natasha Bernal

    Source link