Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Amid an uncertain economy—the growth of AI, tariffs, rising costs—companies are pulling back on hiring. As layoffs increase, the labor market cools, and unemployment ticks up, we’re seeing fewer people quitting their jobs. The implication: Many workers will be “job hugging” and sitting tight in their roles through 2026. Put more pessimistically: Employees are going to feel stuck where they are for the foreseeable future. In many cases, that means staying in unsatisfying jobs. Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workforce report shows that employee engagement has fallen to 21%. And a March 2025 study of 1,000 U.S. workers by advisory and consulting firm Fractional I…

One of the world’s biggest AI startups might be eyeing a massive IPO. According to a new report in the Financial Times, Anthropic has tapped the Palo Alto-based law firm Wilson Sonsini to help the company go public as soon as early next year. The law firm has a deep well of experience shepherding major tech IPOs and has worked with Google, LinkedIn, Lyft, and Square on their public offerings. In the lead-up to a potential IPO, the Financial Times reports that the company is drumming up a private round of funding that would peg its value at over $300 billion. According to the report, the company is also discussing its plans with large investment banks, but those ta…

Founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple officially incorporated on April 1, 1976. The company helped usher in the era of personal computing, pairing meticulous design with tight hardware–software integration and a simple promise: “It just works.” Its history has been anything but linear. There were early breakthroughs, a near-collapse in the 1990s, and a dramatic revival after Jobs returned, followed by a run of mass-market hits beginning with the iPod and accelerating with the iPhone. All told, Apple has over five decades launched category-defining products, shelved its share of misfires, and pushed some genuinely odd ideas. These are the clearest examples of eac…

AI is bringing voice to the forefront of brand interactions. Smarter AI means we can talk to our technology—LLMs, software, phones, cars, fridges, and even banking apps. The novel part is this: Our technology is now talking back, and convincingly so. Brands are catching on, and the smart ones know that voice isn’t just functional, it will form a core part of the brand identity itself. Voice will be the next frontier of branding. And not metaphorically. A brand’s literal voice—the voice(s) used for advertising, on their website, and now, in interactive AI-based conversations with customers—is becoming just as ownable as elements of a visual identity. But standing out …

Beleaguered pharmacy chain Rite Aid has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after weeks of media reports suggesting that it was on the cusp of doing so. The bankruptcy is Rite Aid’s second in two years, and it leaves a lot of questions for both customers and employees, including whether stores will be closing, if there will be layoffs, and what happens to customers’ prescriptions. Here’s what you need to know about Rite Aid’s second bankruptcy. Why did Rite Aid file bankruptcy the first time? Rite Aid originally filed for bankruptcy in 2023. It emerged from the process less than a year ago, in 2024, with the hopes of being in a better fi…

Anthropic is turning to a Biden administration alum to run its new Beneficial Deployments team, which is tasked with helping extend the benefits of its AI to organizations focused on social good—particularly in areas like health research and education—that may lack market-driven incentives. The new team will be led by Elizabeth Kelly, who in 2024 was tapped by the Biden administration to lead the U.S. AI Safety Institute within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Kelly helped form agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic that let NIST safety-test the companies’ new models prior to their deployment. She left the government in early March, and in mid-Mar…

Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) announced it will close select Foot Locker stores and raised its full-year year outlook, in its third quarter earnings report on Tuesday. While Dick’s has not disclosed how many locations it will shutter (Fast Company has reached out for confirmation), it is part of a larger restructuring effort, according to executive chairman Ed Stack who spoke with CNBC. Dick’s acquired leading footwear and apparel retailer Foot Locker for $2.5 billion back in September, according to its latest earnings release. As of November 1, the company was operating 3,230 store locations across the combined Dick’s and Foot Locker businesses globally. …

The time-honored tradition of scouring a new cereal box in search of a prize is coming back to the breakfast table. WK Kellogg Co. is partnering with Disney ahead of the release of Toy Story 5 this summer, rolling out cereal boxes with either classic in-box playable toys or collectible items inspired by the animated movie franchise. When and where to find them Beginning April 26, customers nationwide will be able to get their hands on the Toy Story 5-inspired cereals across Kellogg’s many brands including Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, Apple Jacks, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, and Cocoa Loops. The limited-edition boxes can be id…

Sales at Target fell more than expected in the first quarter and the retailer warned they will slip for all of 2025 year as its customers, worried over the impact of tariffs and the economy, pull back on spending. Target also said that customer boycotts have also done some damage. The company scaled back many diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in January after they came under attack by conservative activists and the White House. Target’s retreat created another backlash, with more customers angered by the retailer’s reduction of LGBTQ+-themed merchandise for Pride Month in June of 2023. Shares fell more than 4% before the opening bell Wednesday. Sales fell 2.8…

In 2015, Disney discovered a new way to cash in on nostalgia: live-action remakes of its classic animated films. That started with Cinderella, brought back to the big screen 65 years after the original movie premiered. In the decade since, Disney has released 12 more of those remakes, with the gap between the original films’ release dates and the remakes growing shorter and shorter. The next entry is a remake of 2016’s Moana coming to theaters this July, a few months shy of the original’s 10-year anniversary. Disney remakes are designed to recapture the magic of the source material, replicating iconic shots and rehashing beloved lines, scenes, and songs. But that creativ…

May often brings not only flowers, but also a highly anticipated—and in some cases, dreaded—event for college seniors: graduation. On their final day as students, they will walk across the stage to applause from peers, receive their diplomas, and start their lives as adults. Some of them will already have jobs lined up, while others may still be looking. A recently updated report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests that how employable those graduating seniors are could well be influenced by which college majors they chose in their freshman and sophomore years. What do those choices say about a student’s future job prospects? The report offers a number o…

When ChatGPT burst onto the scene, much of academia reacted not with curiosity but with fear. Not fear of what artificial intelligence might enable students to learn, but fear of losing control over how learning has traditionally been policed. Almost immediately, professors declared generative AI “poison,” warned that it would destroy critical thinking, and demanded outright bans across campuses, a reaction widely documented by Inside Higher Ed. Others rushed to revive oral exams and handwritten assessments, as if rewinding the clock might make the problem disappear. This was never really about pedagogy. It was about authority. The integrity narrative masks a control…

My working days often unfold in either Zoom minimalist workplaces or glass-walled conference rooms with sleek windows, filled with entrepreneurs pitching ideas. As a marketing executive and startup mentor, I lead strategies for companies of various sizes, guide founders at startup accelerators TechStars and Founder Institute, and serve as an awards jury member. My calendar overflows with executive consultations, brand campaign planning, and deadline sprints. But between Christmas and New Year’s, I trade those sterile spaces for museum halls alive with color and history. It wasn’t easy getting out the door the first time I did this in 2021. I was filled with fears.…

Earlier this week, I had AI handle all of my grocery shopping. Using Perplexity’s Comet browser, I provided a link to my shopping list on Google Keep, then asked it to put everything in my cart for a Kroger pick-up order, making sure to select previous purchase items when multiple options are available. Within a few minutes, Comet had picked out all the correct items—including the taco shells and fake meat we usually get for taco night—and plopped me onto the check-out page. This kind of scenario explains why so many AI companies are now trying to build their own browsers. Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia both became widely available without an…

Tesla rolled out “affordable” versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and its Model 3 sedan, but the starting prices of $39,990 and $36,990 struck some as too high to attract a new class of buyers to the electric vehicle brand. Tesla’s stock fell 4% and Tesla bull Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said he was disappointed that the cars were only about $5,000 cheaper than the next trims of the models. The new versions, called Standard, cost more than what the previous models started at, including a $7,500 tax credit that expired at the end of September. The much-awaited unveiling is crucial for Tesla as it pushes to reverse falling sales and waning market shar…

I have what I consider a healthy skepticism toward authority. I’ve always considered leaders—despite what titles they hold—as fallible people who don’t necessarily deserve blind adulation or deference. That skepticism has made it hard for me to adopt the “company man persona,” which might explain how little of the proverbial corporate ladder I’ve climbed. And rather than take responsibility for that, I’m going to “blame” my dad: The instinct to question rather than comply, to think critically instead of playing yes-man, came from him. We never had a formal conversation about it. I just watched how he moved through the world—confident, grounded, with little to prove—a…

Bitwarden, the maker of a popular free password manager and other security solutions, is quietly making changes. In February, longtime CEO Michael Crandell moved to an advisory role, according to LinkedIn, with no announcement from the company. His replacement, Michael Sullivan, former CEO of both Acquia and Insightsoftware, touts his experience with “all facets of mergers and acquisitions” on his own LinkedIn page, including experience working with leading private equity firms. CFO Stephen Morrison also left Bitwarden in April, replaced by former InVision CEO Michael Shenkman. Both Crandell and Morrison joined the company in 2019. Kyle Spearrin, who started Bitwa…

Since Brian Niccol took over as Starbucks Chairman and CEO in 2024, he’s promised a grand turnaround for the coffee giant by going back to its roots in lovingly designed, customer-centric stores. The messaging wasn’t enough to break six straight quarters of global sales decline. Global sales grew 1% at the end of the 2025 fiscal year, but they left the U.S. behind. Now, Starbucks’s Q1 2026 earnings have beat analyst estimates and seem to be cementing a turnaround, marking the first time same store sales have increased in the U.S. in eight quarters. Starbucks same store sales were up 4% in the U.S. and 5% globally during the first quarter, thanks largely to a 3% ri…

Elon Musk wants to execute the largest initial public offering in history, chasing a staggering $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion valuation for SpaceX. To justify this unprecedented price tag, he is aggressively hyping a cosmic vision: launching 1 million artificial intelligence servers into orbit to create a 100-gigawatt space data center in the next decade. He plans to one day build a factory on the moon to catapult these servers to Earth’s orbit. If that sounds like the background plot of a boring space movie, it’s because it is science fiction. The TL;DR: here is that Musk’s blueprint is fundamentally broken, according to experts in physics, aerospace engineering, and …

With its AI credit limits officially up and running, design software maker Figma has just notched another successful quarter under its belt. The company reported $333.4 million in revenue for quarter one—a 46% increase year-over-year (YOY). The boost follows 40% and 38% revenue growth YOY during the two previous quarters. Figma attributes its improving performance, in large part, to its AI-powered tools. “Our outperformance in quarter one was fueled by stronger than expected seat expansion across entire organizations, driven by design’s growing importance and adoption of our AI products including Figma Make, MCP, and Figma Weave,” Figma CFO Praveer Melwani sa…

Shares of Fiverr International Ltd. (NYSE: FVRR) are dropping significantly this morning after the freelance marketplace platform reported its Q4 2025 financial results. While the company reported modest revenue growth, its 2026 outlook sent the stock plunging, even as Fiverr executives put a positive spin on the impact of artificial intelligence on its business. Here’s what you need to know. Revenue increases, but outlook sends investors fleeing On Wednesday morning, Fiverr reported its fourth-quarter 2025 results. And those results, for the most part, were mixed. The company saw modest growth in total revenue, which rose to $107.2 million in the quarter…

An in-person remote position sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s exactly what athletic supplement company Inno Supps was advertising in a LinkedIn job posting that’s gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Though its listing for a senior copywriter was labeled as remote, job seekers were quick to call out the fine print at the top of the job description: “Please apply only if you are willing to eventually work onsite in Henderson, Nevada,” it read. “While this role is listed as ‘remote’ for visibility, it is an onsite position and requires in-office presence.” Inno Supps was apparently looking to capitalize on the gap between the demand and supply for remote work. A…

Last week, four Condé Nast staffers were abruptly fired after participating in a union protest at the publisher’s 1 World Trade Center headquarters. The journalists had confronted chief people officer Stan Duncan outside his office, demanding answers on a fresh wave of layoffs that had just hit the company. The incident followed Condé Nast’s announcement that Teen Vogue would be folded into Vogue.com, resulting in multiple layoffs, including Teen Vogue’s editor-in-chief. Footage obtained by The Wrap shows Duncan declining to engage with employees, instead repeating that they should “go back to the workplace.” In the clip, one of the journalists asks, “What c…