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The Ordinary, a cosmetics company known for its lower-priced, often single-ingredient products, just announced that it was furthering its mission to “remove unnecessary barriers to provide accessible, high-quality solutions.” To do so, it is offering people a free shuttle bus that runs between Williamsburg’s Domino Park and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. The company claims that The Ordinary Bus, which will run from May 26 through June 6, solves for a transit gap that can often involve a 50-minute subway detour through Manhattan. The tenuous parallel with the company’s skincare line is that it also provides a no-frills solution to a common problem (bad skin). …

Meta officially announced a sweeping round of layoffs today that will impact thousands of employees across the business, or about 10% of the company’s 78,000-person workforce. In a memo to employees today—obtained by Business Insider—Meta remained coy about the rationale for the layoffs, using the same language as in prior internal communications. “As previously shared, we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” the company wrote in the memo, which was signed by “Meta Leadership” and offered no further explanation for the job cuts. It se…

Elite education has spent decades competing on curriculum, faculty, and brand. Those signals still carry weight. But for founders, executives, and investors, the real question is no longer “Where did you study?” but “Who now takes your call—and why?” When high‑quality content is everywhere, the premium is shifting from information to access. What matters is the environment around the learning: who is in the room, how quickly trust forms, and what happens when people close their laptops and start talking about real decisions. That has become clear in my work advising GIOYA HEI, an institution that deliberately combines higher education with a curated leadership and…

The NAACP is calling on Black student-athletes and fans to boycott public universities in Southern states following a Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act. On Tuesday, the NAACP launched the “Out of Bounds” campaign, a nationwide call urging Black athletes, alumni, and fans to withhold all athletic and financial support from Southern public universities. The campaign prioritizes boycotting flagship universities in eight states that it says have “moved to limit, weaken, or erase” Black voting representation in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. …

Bumble has a new AI assistant: a matchmaker named Bee. The dating app company recently revealed the new dating guru during its fourth quarter earnings call, which was first reported by on TechCrunch. Essentially, Bee’s job is to learn about what users want in a partner through initial private conversations with the user and help them find matches through Bumble’s new “Dates” tool. Her job will eventually get bigger, too. Bee will help plan dates and even ask for (anonymous) feedback about those dates in the same way a close friend with the inside information might offer. In addition to adding the new AI tool, Bumble will be moving away from swiping right (yes) or left…

Not driving your car directly into a body of water may sound like common sense—but hey, if Elon Musk says it’s safe, who are we to disagree? A Tesla Cybertruck driver learned the hard way that Musk’s words aren’t gospel when he intentionally drove his car into Grapevine Lake in North Texas on Monday evening, employing the vehicle’s “Wade Mode,” which is intended for use in water up to 32 inches deep. Videos shared on social media show the vehicle moving through the shallow section of the lake, only for his Cybertruck to shut down when he got to deeper waters, leaving the vehicle stranded. In the aftermath, social media users are pointing to posts by Elon Musk that…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Based on our analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index, U.S. home prices are up 0.7% year over year between April 2025 and April 2026. That year-over-year pace is the same as it was a year ago—back in April 2025, when the national year-over-year home price growth rate was 0.7%. And it’s up slightly from the recent year-over-year low of -0.01% in August 2025. In the first half of 2025, the number of major metro-area housing markets seeing year-over-year declines climbed. That count has since stopped ticking up. 31 of the nation’s 300 largest housin…

Watch an exclusive 30-minute webinar for Modern CEO subscribers featuring Matt Fitzpatrick, CEO of Invisible Technologies, in conversation with Stephanie Mehta. Learn where AI is driving real business impact, how to separate hype from opportunity, and the key questions CEOs should be asking as AI adoption accelerates. View the full article

And the layoffs continue: Intuit plans to axe 17% of its workforce, about 3,000 of its approximately 18,200 global employees (as of July 31, according to its annual report), Reuters reported Wednesday. The company said it will focus on accelerating integrating AI across the company and its services, while streamlining operations. The news is based on a an internal ‌memo sent to employees from CEO Sasan Goodarzi, which argued the move would help the software company behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp deliver better products. In an effort to restructure and streamline, Intuit is also reportedly closing key hubs in Reno, Nevada and Woodland Hill…

Airbnb is becoming Airb-n-bigger. In an attempt to become what is something of an all-encompassing trip platform, Airbnb announced several new features and offerings on Wednesday, including a redesigned homepage, new service categories (such as airport pickups, grocery-delivery options, luggage-storage, and car rentals, along with new experiences), and even the ability to book rooms at boutique or independent hotels. That’s right: the company that built a name for itself offering alternatives to hotels is now folding some of them into its platform. Airbnb inflates The new features are wide-ranging, and users can even take advantage of social elements, like…

First there was nutrient timing, then proteinmaxxing—now, fibermaxxing is the latest viral wellness trend everyone is talking about. On TikTok, social media influencers can be seen extolling the virtues of fiber (hashtag #fibermaxxing). One such influencer is @shanny_do, a self-proclaimed “fiber-obsessed gastroenterologist,” who posted with gusto about what she packs each day for work at the hospital. (For the curious, that’s a bowl that includes: Ethiopian spicy lentils, some plain black beans straight from the can, baba ganoush and carrots; a second small bowl of berries—black, blue and raspberries; a Z bar—a kid’s protein snack bar made of oats—and an apple.) A…

U.S. markets are poised to open with gains on Wednesday as bond yields slipped and oil prices fell. Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.2% higher and Nasdaq futures jumped 0.7%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased overnight to 4.64% from 4.66% late Tuesday, but are up from less than 4% before the war with Iran began. That’s a notable increase and part of the reason that stock prices look even more expensive while threatening to slow the economy. Higher yields can drive up rates for mortgages and loans going to companies to build AI data centers, which has been a big source of growth for the economy. Ther…

Management and union leaders at Samsung Electronics failed to reach a last-minute deal over wages Wednesday, raising prospects for a strike at the South Korean electronics giant that could rattle global semiconductor supplies and the country’s trade-dependent economy. Government officials have threatened to invoke rarely used emergency powers to force a settlement at Samsung, where the union, which represents more than 70,000 workers, says the company has failed to offer adequate compensation despite its soaring profits fueled by the global boom in artificial intelligence. After the latest round of talks ended without a breakthrough on Wednesday, union leader Choi Seung…

Today, Figma announced an AI agent built natively inside its collaborative environment. Forget the disconnected, floating prompt boxes we’ve grown so tired of; this system gives you multiple digital assistants right on your digital drafting board in Figma Design. According to the company, it is capable of churning out interface elements and banishing the mindless drudgery of pixel-pushing, while keeping creators locked in their creative zone. With the update, Figma is fundamentally reengineering the digital drafting board into an autonomous engine. By throwing the gates wide open—inviting the marketing department, code-wranglers, and project supervisors to play …

The Target boycott is ongoing but it might be having less of an impact. On Wednesday, the company reported first-quarter earnings that included successes like a 6.7% increase in net sales year-over-year (YOY). The $25.4 billion in net sales included a 24.5% jump in non-merchandise sales, like Target Circle 360 membership revenues and the Target+ marketplace. In that vein, Target saw its digital comparable sales rise by 8.9% thanks to a 27% jump in same-day delivery with Target Circle 360. The retailer also reported earnings per share of $1.71, surpassing Wall Street’s predicted EPS of $1.46, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. “There is mu…

Prices are rising again, and by some measures, consumer sentiment is as low as it’s ever been. That makes it an opportune time for some Americans to perhaps get a boost to their credit scores if they’re able to. Now they might be able to. Last fall, FICO announced a new generation of its UltraFICO Score—an upgrade to its existing scoring model—infusing it with real-time cashflow data (with consumer permission, of course) from fintech company Plaid. The new and improved model is now live and available to lenders. FICO’s leadership says it could help lenders make better decisions about creditworthiness and, in most cases, consumers could see a boost to their cre…

Areaware, the 22-year-old design brand, announced its closure back in February, bidding farewell to its dedicated fan base and selling off the last of its quirky home goods in a series of final sales. Just three months later, though, the brand is getting a surprising second chance: Today, the puzzle company Piecework is announcing its acquisition of Areaware for an undisclosed sum. Piecework, founded in 2019 by Rachel Hochhauser and Jena Wolfe, plans to keep Areaware’s name, website, and socials separate, and will maintain the two as distinct sister brands. According to Hochhauser, who will serve as Areaware’s chief brand officer, the idea to acquire Areaware was…

The Eva Longoria Foundation announced a $1 million investment in UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) to support long-term, data-driven solutions that integrate leadership development and narrative change within Latino communities. “This grant is going to fund a lot of the economic research and policy work for Latina entrepreneurs, because we need to know what our economic power is,” Longoria said at the Inc. Founders House Los Angeles. Through this partnership, the foundation will fund a three-year initiative aimed at advancing Latina economic mobility by generating data on Latina entrepreneurs and workers and the barriers they face to building weal…

AI is everywhere these days. Try as you might to avoid it, you’re not likely to succeed. LinkedIn, though, is attempting to draw a line in the sand and, if not completely eliminate the AI slop on its pages, at least cut back on it. The company plans to target low-quality AI posts that distract its users from finding value on the platform. That has been a growing problem in recent months as people have trawled LinkedIn for engagement among professional users. The company’s VP of product, Laura Lorenzetti, says LinkedIn isn’t banning all posts generated by artificial intelligence. Some, she concedes, actually have some value. Others, though? Those need to go. …

Across job listing sites over the past few months, you might have noticed something curious. Alongside traditional titles like “designer,” “engineer,” and “product manager,” a new crop of roles is appearing. They have names like “designer engineer,” “builder,” or “design crafter,” and they represent a tipping point in the design industry that’s just beginning to play out. That tipping point is captured in the second annual AI in Design report, published by the investor firm Designer Fund and the venture capital firm Foundation Capital. This year’s report draws on a survey of over 900 designers across 60+ countries, including partners like Stripe, Framer, Linear, Noti…

We need to have a blunt conversation about the word empowerment. In the majority of companies, the lie behind the word “empowerment” becomes apparent in familiar ways: job descriptions that promise autonomy, leaders who proudly talk about their empowered teams, and meetings that end with “you’ve got this.” Reality though strips away the veneer of this lie: that same work still runs through a gauntlet of approvals, sign-offs, and second-guessing. The language suggests freedom. The system reinforces control. The result is not empowerment. It is dependence with better branding. In our work at Amazon helping Fortune 500 leaders understand how to dismantle their r…

Firefox is the browser that, statistically speaking, more people remember using than use today. Its market share in most countries is now just a sliver of what it once was. In 2011, it held more than a quarter of the U.S. desktop market. That many former users still remember it fondly may be a point of pride for the San Francisco-based nonprofit foundation behind the browser that broke Internet Explorer’s mediocre monopoly. But nostalgia alone doesn’t pay for the continued development of Firefox’s in-house Gecko rendering engine, along with versions of the browser for every major desktop and mobile operating system. “Anyone who was using the internet 15 years ago …

Canva just pulled off a clean sweep in the AI design world that’s about to make AI-generated branding a lot more common. On May 19, the company announced that it’s partnering with Google Gemini to bring its Canva Design platform directly to Gemini users. Once Gemini users enable Canva in their app settings, they’ll be able to search their Canva content from within the chatbot, generate designs based on the context of their chat history, and easily take designs into Canva to edit them. The move means that Canva has successfully integrated its design tools with every major AI player in the game: Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, and, now, Gemini. Canva’s aggressive integr…