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Working with your romantic partner isn’t just a niche phenomenon; it’s a growing trend. A recent study from the National Library of Medicine reveals nearly one in four U.S. small businesses are run by romantic couples. Yet, for all the talk of “power couples” in the startup world, precious little unfiltered insight exists on what it actually takes to share a bed, a budget, and a booming enterprise. For many, the lines between personal and professional don’t just blur; they cease to exist. My husband, Joe, and I are the founders behind Serenity Kids, now the fastest-growing shelf-stable baby food brand in the U.S. Our origin story is uniquely intertwined with our personal one: the business was our first “baby,” meticulously nurtured from a shared frustration with the unhealthy baby food aisle. Our second? A literal, adorable human baby who is, unbelievably, seven this year. As we scale a multimillion-dollar company while simultaneously navigating the exhilarating chaos of parenthood, I’ve gained an interesting perspective on the strategic moves and nonnegotiable rules that keep our marriage, and our company, thriving. The Nonnegotiable Boundary That Saved Our Marriage It sounds counterintuitive for founders whose lives are inextricably linked to their venture: put a hard stop on work discussions once you walk through the front door. But for Joe and me, this rule became the lynchpin of our relationship’s resilience. In the early days of Serenity Kids, it was 24/7. Every meal, every car ride, every evening was a business meeting. Our passion was relentless, but I quickly realized the constant operational debriefs were eroding our identity as a couple. We were colleagues who lived together, not partners. The encroachment was subtle. We’d be dissecting strategy over dinner or debating a supply chain hiccup right before bed. I realized that I missed him. And I had no idea what was truly happening in my partner’s life outside of work. The breaking point was Joe sleeping in the guest room because we’d had yet another work fight at bedtime. Those nights were disconnecting and actually set us back—both personally and professionally. Because close connection is our special sauce. Personality-wise, we are total opposites in every way—he’s an extrovert while I’m an introvert, I’m a perfectionist while he’s a “good enough” kind of guy, etc. So when we’re disconnected, we’re each operating as only half of a complete whole. I knew we needed a sacred space where we could simply be Serenity and Joe, disconnected from our job titles. Our solution: an unwavering commitment to compartmentalization. Of course, genuine emergencies warrant discussion. But the default is clear: once we’re home, we consciously shift gears. We discuss our day as parents and individuals. We prioritize connecting on a human level over any work-related issues. We have 1:1 meetings on the calendar three times a week just to discuss work. And if either one of us tries to bring up a work topic, we say “put it on the agenda!” We also have dedicated date days or date nights where we commit to avoiding both work and kid talk, so we can focus on each other, as well as quarterly vision retreats where we visualize the future of our relationship, family, and business. This rigorous boundary, challenging as it was to implement initially, has proven invaluable. It forces hyperefficiency during work hours and provides essential emotional bandwidth to nurture our romantic relationship, separate from the relentless demands of the business. Strategic Division of Labor In any cofounder dynamic, clear role definition is paramount. When you add parenting to the equation, that clarity shifts from crucial to existential. For Joe and me, this has been a huge area of growth and evolution. For the first several years after we had our daughter, I had the constant hum in my head that most working moms experience. “What’s for dinner? Who’s handling bath and bedtime tonight? What meetings do I have today and what should I wear?” For a long time, I wrestled with that mental load. Not just about completing the task, but all the thinking, planning, and worrying that drained my energy. I wasn’t sleeping well, I wasn’t eating well, and I just wasn’t taking care of myself. While Joe watched TV at night, I stayed up late washing bottles, ordering next-size-up baby clothes, and researching Della’s latest mystery rash. All while still working full time plus managing our family’s finances and anything that required paperwork. I was miserable. And after a brush with death from COVID pneumonia, I knew something had to change. I found the Fair Play method by Eve Rodsky, and my mind was blown. I now could see the mountains of invisible work I had been doing since Della was born that Joe had no idea even existed. After some hard conversations and Joe’s willingness to experiment with a different way, the constant weight began to lighten. Throughout this process, he and I have become true partners. He is no longer a partner who just “helps out.” This philosophy has shaped how Joe and I built our marriage and approach parenting. He dives deep into this in Episode 7 of his podcast Dadicated Joe, sharing how we’ve worked to keep the spark alive after becoming parents. Applying these principles has not only brought more harmony to my family but also reinforced the importance of clear roles, mutual respect, and holistic well-being at Serenity Kids. We work to build culture and sustainable systems where everyone can truly thrive. While encouragement is nice, what we all really need is a partner willing to jump in and fold the laundry when the piles get high. We’ve learned to be that support for each other. At home. At work. Everywhere. 5 Crucial Lessons I’ve learned a wealth of actionable insights I’d offer to other romantic partners considering, or currently navigating, the high-stakes journey of entrepreneurial cofounding: Strict Role Definition (and Unwavering Trust): This is nonnegotiable. You need to clearly delineate who owns what. Then, extend absolute trust in your partner’s domain. Undermining their decisions in their area of responsibility is a direct threat to both business progress and relationship integrity. Cultivate Separate Spaces (Even Symbolic Ones): Joe and I quickly learned that constant physical proximity, transitioning from “work mode” to “couple mode” in the same room, was counterproductive. Whether it’s different offices or simply dedicated “zones,” creating some physical and mental separation during work hours is vital for psychological resets. Proactive Relationship Investment: Your business will demand everything, but your personal relationship is the fundamental platform. Prioritize dedicated date nights, even if they’re modest. Engage in non-work conversations. Actively recall and reinforce the shared values and affection that initially drew you together, beyond the business ambition. Embrace Dynamic Balance, Not Static Perfection: The concept of “perfect balance” is a myth. Some days, the business will command absolute priority. On others, your child will need every ounce of your attention. Success lies in embracing this inherent fluidity and adapting, rather than chasing an unattainable, rigid ideal. Leverage Objective External Counsel: Engaging an objective third party—a business coach, a therapist specializing in entrepreneurial couples, or even a trusted mentor—provides invaluable perspective. They can facilitate healthy conflict resolution, reinforce boundaries, and ensure that communication remains robust and constructive. The journey of building Serenity Kids has served as a rigorous masterclass in leadership, partnership, and parenthood for Joe and me. We’re not merely disrupting the baby food market; we’re actively demonstrating a new paradigm for how ambitious couples can build a thriving enterprise and a fulfilling family life. It’s not perfect. It’s often messy. But I hope our story encourages others to set strategic boundaries, show mutual respect, and find an abundance of resilience. Maybe those of us crazy enough to do both journeys together truly can have it all—even if it means putting your first “baby” to bed before focusing on bedtime at home. View the full article

Google Search is testing a new carousel to promote AI Mode named "Ask AI Mode anything." It gives you ideas on how to "Explore" new or related topics in AI Mode.View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over. Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. The iPad mini is Apple’s smallest iPad in the lineup, but not its cheapest. If you’re someone who likes compact devices, that aren’t compromised in performance and hardware, you’ll like the latest iPad mini. For Amazon’s October Prime Day sale, the iPad mini is discounted by $120. The base 128GB model can be yours for just $379, instead of the regular $499 sticker price. This is the lowest price we've seen yet for the iPad mini, matching the Amazon Prime Day sale back in July. 2024 Apple iPad mini A17 Pro chip, Built for Apple Intelligence, Wi-Fi 128GB - Blue $631.68 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $631.68 at Amazon The latest iPad mini (2024) is a lot more powerful than the outgoing model, boasting Apple’s A17 Pro chip, the same found in the iPhone 15 Pro. It can handle multitasking and gaming with ease, and it also supports Apple Intelligence. Perhaps more surprisingly, it supports iPadOS 26’s new windowing mode where you can open multiple floating windows on the small 8.3-inch screen. The latest model also features more storage, now starting at 128GB. This means more room for your apps and games. The iPad mini looks like any other iPad in the lineup, but it’s small, measuring in at 7.69 by 5.30 by 0.25 inches (HWD) and weighing 0.65 pounds. The iPad mini features the Touch ID sensor at the top, like the iPad air, and it also supports Apple Pencil, as well as the new Apple Pencil Pro with new features like squeeze to select, barrel roll for rotating pen tips, haptic feedback, and more. There’s a USB-C port that can be used for charging and data transfer. There’s a single 12MP camera on the back that’s good enough for casual use and for scanning documents. PCMag gave the iPad mini a rating of four stars in this review, noting that it "remains a well-built and highly portable tablet." If you're looking for a larger model, Apple has also discounted the regular 11-inch iPad down to $279, and the iPad Air to $449 ($150 off, and the lowest price we've seen yet). Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime. Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member. Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free. Our Best Editor-Vetted Prime Day Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 2 Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $169.99 (List Price $249.00) Meta Quest 3S 128GB All-In-One VR Headset — $249.00 (List Price $299.99) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $279.00 (List Price $349.00) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Graphite) — $148.94 (List Price $219.99) Blink Mini 2 1080p Indoor Security Camera (2-Pack, White) — $34.99 (List Price $69.99) Ring Battery Doorbell Plus — $79.99 (List Price $149.99) Blink Video Doorbell Wireless (Newest Model) + Sync Module Core — $34.99 (List Price $69.99) Shark AV2501S AI Ultra Robot Vacuum with HEPA Self-Empty Base — $229.99 (List Price $549.99) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Wyze Cam v4 2K Wired Wi-Fi Smart Security Camera (White) — $25.95 (List Price $35.98) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Google updated the wording in the title documentation for Merchant Center, now suggesting you can use your own brand or company name in the short title of your products. That is, if you manufacture your own products.View the full article

Our second annual Ignition Schools awards recognizing the colleges and universities shaping future entrepreneurs and innovators arrives at a crucial crossroads for higher education. On one hand, artificial intelligence has caused us to rethink assumptions about how far and how quickly technology can improve our society and our lives. On the other hand, a storm of skepticism brewing in a sea of disinformation has dimmed the view of many toward college educations, which some have also accused of being politically indoctrinating. That has led to unprecedented attacks on university research funding at a time when core research is needed to develop advanced solutions in such fields as healthcare, defense, and education. The colleges that lead our list represent the diversity of education approaches that will be needed to prepare the next generation of disrupters to prevail. They include centuries-old institutions, sprawling public universities, colleges in the hearts of tech hubs, business schools with global footprints, and innovation centers helping to lift up new voices and communities. But they all recognize that they must offer more to today’s students than the business savvy that has long defined the MBA pipeline. In addition to focusing more on adaptability in a rapidly shifting tech and economic landscape, colleges are nurturing the inventive spirit by hosting pitch competitions, celebrating industry recognition, and addressing the needs and resources of their communities. In many cases, they have launched or forged ties with incubators and accelerators that promote networking with peers and successful entrepreneurs. These can also serve to leverage IP as the “secret sauce” providing an advantage to startups, enterprises, or thriving rural businesses without the pressures of exit-maximizing venture investors. In encouraging entrepreneurship, their programs are helping to develop the advancements of the next generation while inspiring alumni who can keep the innovation ecosystem healthy for future generations. 1. Stanford University Stanford, California Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford’s entrepreneurial engines have yielded incredible results. StartX funds and mentors founder teams involving at least one member of the Stanford community, while Launchpad challenges students to get their startups off the ground in 10 weeks, emphasizing action over planning. 2. University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Beyond pursuing a master’s in entrepreneurship or engineering or participating in startup clubs and competitions, students can find entrepreneurship opportunities at Penn’s Venture Lab, a hub catering to four different routes. The Founder, Explorer, Joiner, and Investor “pathways” offer resources to students curious about entrepreneurship as well as those looking to gain investing experience.>/p> 3. Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts Through its One Harvard approach, the school’s entrepreneurship initiatives reach across its 13 colleges, leveraging an extensive network of alumni and resources. The Harvard Innovation Lab, or i-lab, is the physical space where students and alumni build community and startups with access to funding and specialized programming. 4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, Massachusetts When it comes to business, MIT takes advantage of its world-class science and technological research. The two disciplines merge under the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, with programs and courses stemming from the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework. Developed at MIT, the step-by-step guideline helps founders transform their research or ideas into market-ready ventures. 5. Columbia University New York, New York Crowning Manhattan’s rapidly growing entrepreneurial scene, Columbia offers direct access to an expert network in the city, support for student ventures with groups like the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs, and a postgraduate resource in the Columbia Startup Lab for recent alumni.> 6. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan The Innovation Partnerships Startup Incubator helps shape the University of Michigan’s state-of-the-art IP into real-world applications. The program pairs founders from around the world with entrepreneurial mentors and provides access to world-class lab and office spaces. The incubator represents just one of the university’s business innovation programs, which include its Center for Entrepreneurship and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. 7. Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Israel Consistently ranked at the top for global entrepreneurship programs, Tel Aviv University offers students access to a network situated in a global startup hub, an in-house accelerator program and funding, and courses emphasizing a hands-on approach, including one that pairs students with Israeli startups. 8. New York University New York, New York The NYU Entrepreneurial Institute brings the university’s new founders and seasoned researchers and alumni together under a shared goal of launching startups. Community members can follow a clear path designed by the Startup Accelerator Program, including the Bootcamp, Sprint, and Launchpad phases, and continue toward a market-ready venture with seed funding and fellowships. 9. Cornell University Ithaca, New York The spirit of entrepreneurship rises far above Cayuga’s waters in Ithaca, New York. Any undergraduate may pursue a minor in the field, while eLab serves as an accelerator for student-led ventures. More specialized resources are offered, too, such as the training program for female and nonbinary PhDs and postdocs and an incubator for science and engineering-based businesses. 10. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California For the sixth year in a row, PitchBook named UC Berkeley the top public university producing venture-backed startup founders. Berkeley SkyDeck, the university’s incubator and accelerator, commercializes research and provides programming and coursework through the engineering and business schools. 11. Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois At the center of Northwestern’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is the Garage, which offers mentorship, events, and workspaces to more than 3,000 Northwestern students each year. The university emphasizes science-driven startups at the Querrey InQbation Lab and rewards top initiatives with funding and exposure through VentureCat, its annual startup competition. 12. Yale University New Haven, Connecticut Bulldogs of all disciplines are encouraged to embrace their entrepreneurial spirit at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale. One program, Launch, invites incoming first-year students to hear from alumni founders and collaborate in workshops, equipping them early on with the tools they need to excel as business leaders. 13. Tsinghua University Beijing, China Tsinghua University, which lies in startup hot spot Zhongguancun, Beijing, boasts the government’s support through national funding and partnerships. The institution hosts competitions such as the Great Idea Challenge and the President’s Innovation Challenge for startups and helps research efforts transform into successful commercial ventures via its private equity firm Tsinghua Holdings. 14. Duke University Durham, North Carolina Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship emphasizes problem-solving through programs, courses, competitions, and mentorship; students can join entrepreneurial-forward campus organizations like the Cube and HackDuke. Physical resources are available too. These include spaces like the Foundry for developing ideas and building prototypes and the Innovation Co-Lab for exploring emerging technologies like 3D printing. 15. University of Texas, Austin Austin, Texas UT Austin bridges budding entrepreneurs and Austin’s booming tech scene. The Austin Technology Incubator, the longest running of its kind, connects students with investors and experts who help commercialize their innovations. The college also supports female entrepreneurs through the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute. 16. University of Washington Seattle, Washington The University of Washington has climbed the entrepreneurship rankings in recent years. The Arthur W. Buerk Center offers programming to undergraduates as well as master’s students and PhD candidates, while the CoMotion hub supports student founders from industry-targeted incubators. 17. University of Southern California (USC) Los Angeles, California Known as the longest-running entrepreneurship program in the country, the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at USC encourages flexible thinking in dynamic situations. Students across all industries and experience levels are encouraged to participate in coursework and programming, including a connection to the extensive network in the neighboring tech startup hub, Silicon Beach. 18. University of Oxford Oxford, England EnSpire, the hub of entrepreneurship at Oxford, encourages all community members to develop business innovation skills. The university focuses on commercializing scientific and technological research. Oxford University Innovation manages the university’s IP and helps transform the research into companies, while Oxford Science Enterprises funds and develops those companies. 19. Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland The Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship hosts a range of programs and funding for JHU community members. The institution is also committed to strengthening Baltimore. The President’s Venture Fellowship provides funding to recent graduates pursuing full-time startups in the city, while courses like CityLab for MBA students explore livability challenges and solutions. 20. INSEAD Fontainebleau, France A graduate-only business school, INSEAD has a strong focus on fostering entrepreneurship. The Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship offers boot camps for startups, venture competitions, and mentorship through programs like Entrepreneurs in Residence. Its LaunchPad—located in Paris’s Station F, the world’s largest startup campus—promotes alumni-led business ventures through networking events and workspaces. 21. University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario Recognized as the top university in Canada for entrepreneurship, U of T offers extensive resources to its students, faculty, and alumni. Its incubators and accelerators include the Creative Destruction Lab, which supports seed-stage tech companies with high potential, and the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, which helps students team up to develop startups. 22. University of Maryland College Park, Maryland The University of Maryland’s approach to entrepreneurship builds on its strength in technology and health sciences, supporting both social and commercial ventures. The Startup Shell is a student-led incubator equipped with coworking spaces, while the President’s Entrepreneurial Fellowship offers Terrapin students a chance to bring faculty research to market. 23. University of California, San Diego San Diego, California UCSD’s entrepreneurship offerings span its engineering and management schools. Students and alumni find like-minded peers and mentors amid the programs and funding of the Sullivan Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where disruption is viewed as an opportunity to build positive change. Specialized offerings include the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur, which trains engineers, and the Triton Sustainability Challenge, which spotlights environmental solutions. 24. Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania CMU community members are encouraged to submit their startups through its website to receive access to an array of resources and networks. These include the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship’s VentureBridge, a pre-seed fund and accelerator program for full-time founders, and the Innovation Commercialization Fellows Program, which helps the university’s research evolve into marketplace offerings. 25. Babson College Wellesley, Massachusetts Babson is consistently ranked at the top of the country’s universities for entrepreneurship. In addition to funding the Butler Launch Pad, a community of entrepreneurs, the small New England powerhouse launched the first U.S. business-school center dedicated to female founders: the Frank & Eileen Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership. 26. University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago takes form at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. With accelerator programs like the New Venture Challenge, which launched Grubhub and Braintree, and incubators like Polsky Exchange, the institution takes an interdisciplinary approach to foster a collaborative entrepreneurial environment. 27. University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario Structured in a co-op program that integrates work experience with academics, the University of Waterloo offers 45 for-credit programs for entrepreneurs. The university hosts four incubators and fosters corporate partnerships to drive research to commercialization. Its unique creator-owned intellectual property policy ensures that their researchers own their inventions. 28. University of Cambridge Cambridge, England According to the university, the Cambridge Cluster is the most successful technology cluster in Europe. From within that sea of incubators and innovation hubs, the 816-year-old institution offers support through mentorship, lectures, and training to aspiring founders all the way to enterprise-stage businesses. 29. Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania Invent Penn State is the overarching hub of all things entrepreneurial at the university, connecting students to coaches, conferences, and competitions. The LaunchBox Network provides free business resources to community members. Its statewide locations enable widespread access. 30. University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Although a longtime supporter of entrepreneurship, UVA launched a new phase of commitment with UVA Innovates in September 2024. With the Foundry, a new student entrepreneurship hub, and Enterprise Studio, which partners with faculty, researchers, and investors to bring ideas to market, the university is amplifying the impact of its innovations. 31. Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona In September, U.S. News & World Report named Arizona State the most innovative school in the U.S. for the 11th consecutive year. Business advancement is baked into the university through the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute, which gives students tools to get their ideas off the ground and tackle challenges, and extends to connected entrepreneurship centers at the business, engineering, and design schools. 32. HEC Paris Jouy-en-Josas, France HEC Paris supports startups, regardless of the stage or industry, through its Incubation & Acceleration Center, Deep Tech Center, and Social Entrepreneurship Center. The innovation hubs offer a slew of programming, from a six-month-long acceleration program, Women Entrepreneurs for Good, to longer HEC Challenges. 33. University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota The Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship works in tandem with the Carlson School of Management to ignite an entrepreneurial spirit within its members. Student-owned Atland Ventures funds early-stage tech companies while the MN Cup, the largest startup competition in the country, supports Minnesota entrepreneurs. 34. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina In joining Innovate Carolina, the UNC community opens the door to resources that enhance and boost its innovative sparks. At the Junction, Tar Heel students and faculty, corporations, and citizen entrepreneurs can find the Launch Chapel Hill startup accelerator, mentorship, and co-working spaces. The Carolina EcoMap brings all these tools together on one platform. 35. Imperial College London London, England The Imperial Enterprise Lab encourages its community to test ideas and launch products to drive positive change. It connects students with mentors, co-founders, and workspaces and recommends relevant books and accelerators. The institution also offers a prototyping hub through the Advanced Hackspace and resources specific to climate, tech, and global health solutions. 36. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Urbana-Champaign, Illinois The University of Illinois encourages students to get involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. They can attend networking events each week at the Research Park, gain real-world experience at student-run consulting firm EntreCorps, or explore 3D printing at the Illinois MakerLab. Faculty and alumni can participate as mentors or competition judges in addition to pursuing their own innovations. 37. Texas A&M University College Station, Texas Texas A&M’s McFerrin Center, housed within the Mays Business School, offers programs to community trailblazers. Beyond the university-wide Aggie Pitch competition, students can meet and learn from peer entrepreneurs through a series of discussions at Entrepreneurs Exposed. Each year, the Aggie 100 celebrates the college’s entrepreneurs. 38. Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey In October 2024, Princeton launched the Office of Innovation to strengthen its commitment to entrepreneurship, which includes educational programs, mentorship, and funding. The hub hosts Strategic Partnerships and Engagement, Technology Licensing and New Ventures, and Innovation Infrastructure and Programs, all focused on promoting the university’s innovative minds and honing the impact of its research and education. 39. Washington University St. Louis, Missouri WashU splits its entrepreneurial offerings between its Olin School of Business and Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, both of which emphasize a hands-on approach. In addition to workshops and events, the Center operates the Student Enterprise Program, in which students run businesses that serve the WashU community, while the business school hosts competitions and pitch events like the Olin Cup. 40. University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, Colorado The University of Colorado offers entrepreneurial resources across each of its four campuses. Venture Partners at CU Boulder supports the commercialization of university research, and the Jake Jabs Center at CU Denver offers entrepreneurship program scholarships to students pursuing degrees, minors, or certificates. 41. Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia Georgia Tech’s Create-X educates students about business fundamentals and provides the tools and space they need to innovate. The program’s three categories, Learn, Make, and Launch, instill entrepreneurial confidence through coursework, launch programs, and funding. Regular networking events provide students with connections and information to further refine business concepts. 42. University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California Accelerators and coursework support entrepreneurial education throughout UCLA’s schools, but Startup UCLA is the root. The hub is home to the Blackstone LaunchPad mentor network, which sets students up for innovation success; Innovation Fellows, which advances faculty projects into startups; and Bruin Impact, which drives students toward positive change through innovation. 43. Boston College Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts While Boston College’s Carroll School of Management roots entrepreneurship in business fundamentals across all fields, the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship offers programs such as TechTrek@Shea, a professional development course in which students meet with senior leaders at companies such as Airbnb and Tesla and travel to business hubs like New York City and Silicon Valley. 44. McGill University Montreal, Quebec In 2024, PitchBook ranked McGill number one in Canada for both producing the greatest number of successful undergraduate startups and supporting the most female entrepreneurs. McGill’s Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship supports the community’s entrepreneurial minds through resources like the X-1 Accelerator and the annual Dobson Cup competition for seed funding. 45. London Business School London, England Located in a European startup hub, LBS offers its students an array of unique entrepreneurial development options. These include Global Experiences, which introduces students to international business approaches and cultures through panels and workshops. Others include the INcubator program and Entrepreneurship Summer School. 46. Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana Purdue Innovates is a bustling network targeting each stage of the startup process. Students find their footing through the incubator and grow through programs like Firestarter and Market Readiness. Meanwhile, seasoned entrepreneurs scale their ideas through the accelerator. And the Alumni Entrepreneurship Network provides long-term connections. 47. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa In 1996, philanthropist and entrepreneur John Pappajohn funded the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship at Iowa State, laying the foundation for what has become an innovation ecosystem. The Student Innovation Center and the ISU Research Park complement the entrepreneurship center, with all three supporting the university’s creative and motivated self-starters. 48. Boston University Boston, Massachusetts From teaching technology creation and commercialization to fundamentals of interactive media, the urban campus overlooking the Charles overlooks little in developing entrepreneurial acumen. Through seed grants, a summer accelerator, and mentorship, students are encouraged to build the future. BU also hosts Idea Con, the only cross-college innovation conference in the world. 49. Georgetown University Washington, D.C. Georgetown’s entrepreneurship program leverages its unmatched proximity to the seat of government power. Venture in the Capital—the university’s first student-led conference—hosts forums at which attendees discuss the intersection of entrepreneurship and public policy. The founder spirit extends into the community, too. The Pivot Program offers a certificate in business and entrepreneurship to those who have been incarcerated. 50. University of Florida Gainesville, Florida UF’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center aims to instill a sunbaked entrepreneurial spirit into its community through the core principles “every student an entrepreneur” and “total entrepreneurial immersion.” The center hosts competitions like the UF AI Days Gator Tank for AI businesses and offers an incubator, accelerator, and “dreammaker” through the Gator Hatchery. View the full article

In the long-established American ecosystem of scientific advancement, fundamental research—not geared toward immediate application—has mostly been conducted at universities with federal funding. The commercial sector, on the other hand, has been more likely to fund more applied research around ideas closer to market, including backing university studies in promising areas of computer science and medicine. Over time, industry has increasingly built its own innovations on top of basic, federally funded research, says Lee Fleming, professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. One prominent recent example is artificial intelligence, he says, which received federal funding for decades before exploding into commercialization in recent years. Earlier this year, though, when sudden federal funding cuts upended university research budgets, the ecosystem fell into turmoil. Faculty whose work often flew under the public radar publicly pleaded the case for their academic pursuits. Researchers at UCLA even held an old-school science fair highlighting the work federal cuts have left in limbo, including studies of brain cancer; the college’s renowned math professor Terence Tao argued for a restoration of federal funding or donations to help make up some of the difference. But non-federal agencies can only make up a fraction of the sums that these institutions depend on to continue their work. Universities have leaned on sources such as philanthropies founded by businesspeople who have built innovations on university research foundations. The Gates Foundation, charged with donating the fortune of Microsoft’s former CEO, has long offered support for medical research, for instance, and a new $3.1 billion Fund for Science and Technology, backed by the estate of his cofounder Paul Allen, recently announced plans to award at least $500 million in grants over the next four years. When staffers at the Spencer Foundation, which funds educational research, learned that their federal funding had been suddenly terminated, they—along with the Kapor Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation—quickly stepped into action, offering $25,000 bridge grants to scholars affected by the sudden cuts. “We heard stories like, I really just need to fund my grad student through the summer,” says Leah Bricker, Spencer’s director of programs. “Or, I’ve spent so much time partnering with X, Y, or Z community, and we’ve invested so much time, and now, overnight, I’m just going to have to leave.” It was just one of a number of rapid moves by the sometimes slow-turning philanthropic sector to get funds researchers needed to continue their work and pay grad students and other vital staff. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for instance, has provided millions of dollars to researchers at academic institutions in “rapid response” health research funding to make up for lost federal money, with plans to offer more over the next year. As universities have also stepped up outreach efforts to alumni and corporate sponsors, states with strong tech sectors, including Massachusetts and California, have proposed providing their own funds for research. California, for example, is proposing a $23 billion, bond-funded science research agency. Nonprofits, including some backed by industry, have also pushed into historically federal domains, such as managing infrastructure, for vital scientific data that could improve efficiency, even as they receive rapidly rising numbers of applications for existing grant programs. “While it’s really hard for any of us to say there’s opportunities coming out of all this uncertainty, I think there would be a better path forward for how scientists have access to and have data infrastructure,” says Elizabeth Weiss, senior director of philanthropic advising at the Science Philanthropy Alliance. But experts agree that any such efforts likely won’t be enough to make up for the potential shortfall anytime soon. “There’s a lot of creativity going on right now,” says Amy Miller, president of the PhRMA Foundation, which supports health-related university research with backing from drugmakers that also often fund research directly, including science at academic institutions. “But I really want to emphasize there is absolutely no way that the foundations and industry together can fill the gaps.” This story is part of Fast Company and Inc.‘s 2025 Ignition Schools awards, the 50 colleges and universities making an outsize impact on business and society through entrepreneurship and innovation. Read about the methodology behind our selection process. View the full article

Startups bubbling with new perspectives, fresh technologies, and a war chest to spend on disruption while their businesses find their footing are often rife with innovation, but they don’t hold a monopoly on it. Young talent looking to disrupt legacy industries traditionally looked to entrepreneurship and startups. As corporations prepare for AI they’re trying to convince innovators that the best place to turn their ideas into reality is within the enterprise. “It’s fundamentally shifted in the last year and a half to two years,” says Michele Capra, a senior client partner for talent recruiting and consulting firm Korn Ferry. “Clients are now coming to me saying, ‘we’re looking at our skills across the organization at the entry level, those skills have changed, and we need to recruit differently because of that.’” That transition, Capra explains, has also forced large employers across industries — from tech to financial services to consumer goods — to abandon one of their signatures selling points, namely a clear and predictable career development plan. “Traditionally you knew which roles would be here in 10 years, so there were career paths that offered true stepping stones,” she says. “Now organizations don’t know what roles will be like in 10 years, so they’re hiring for skills, because the career paths will look very different for these individuals.” While some formal AI credentials are widely valued amongst large employers Capra says they’re also looking to hire those that demonstrate more human or “soft” skills, which can help them put the technology to use solving challenges or developing new products or services. Traditionally, many courses on innovation within a larger business, or “intrapreneurship”, have targeted executives in professional learning programs. Cornell University offers an online course to obtain a certificate in intrapreneurship. Some programs, like one at Temple Univerisity, offer courses that span organization types, focusing on “big-picture thinking needed to launch your own business or propose innovative initiatives within existing organizations.” Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation however, offers an advanced class in Corporate Innovation, wherein students “delve into corporate venture capital, internal incubation processes, M&A decisions, and gain the tools to champion change within organizations.” While the Northwestern course is offered through its engineering college, the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence is compelling many institutions to broaden students’ technology education experience. “We have several institutional partners that are doing this, but one I would call out is Emory University in Atlanta,” says Christine Cruzvergara, the chief education strategy officer for Gen Z career platform Handshake. “They proactively hired AI experts within each of their academic domains to be embedded into those programs. Cruzvergara adds that, in her experience, graduates with highly desirable skills and attributes are often less concerned with a prospective employer’s size, and more concerned with its values, “They’re usually looking for a place that has a larger mission or vision around something that they can get behind,” she says. “[Employers’] ability to articulate that pretty clearly and upfront in early conversations really determines whether that conversation is going to continue.” That said, as with graduates pursuing startups, savvy candidates may realize that a lofty mission can have negative consequences.Nor does it mean that the corporate career ladder is the endgame. Cruzvergara says enterprises, much like many colleges, are highlighting the accomplishments of alumni— especially those who went on to become successful entrepreneurs — to imply that the company can offer young innovators a crucial stepping stone whenever they’re ready to trade greater risk for a greater potential reward. This story is part of Fast Company and Inc.‘s 2025 Ignition Schools awards, the 50 colleges and universities making an outsize impact on business and society through entrepreneurship and innovation. Read about the methodology behind our selection process. View the full article

Universities have long launched startups in fields like software and biomedicine, but many are now taking increasingly prominent roles backing entrepreneurship around farming, food, and agricultural technology. Part of Purdue’s Applied Research Institute, DIAL Ventures hosts a fellowship aimed at digitizing the agriculture and food industry. The “venture studio” connects fellows with startup experience to corporate partners and university experts who help them hone businesses addressing real market needs, says Professor Allan Gray, the program’s executive director. “The problem is our incumbent companies who feed the world—they’re not digital-native, and so for them to innovate in the digital space is actually quite difficult for them,” he says. “That’s where DIAL Ventures steps in.” So far, the program has backed companies in areas like farmland management, rural logistics, and agricultural equipment maintenance as well as a digital marketing platform for farmers as content creators called Make Hay. They are coming to market as experts say burgeoning technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and drones can help address long-standing issues in food production, thanks to innovations from automated harvesting and pest control to data-driven crop yield and logistics optimization. Gray says he expects multiple successful exits by startups within the next few years. Funding in the U.S. “agrifoodtech” sector grew 14% year over year in 2024, according to a recent report from venture firm AgFunder. But tech meant to handle real-world crops and food, not just abstract bits and bytes, can’t be built from isolated offices in Silicon Valley. A key part of Purdue’s role, Gray says, is ensuring technically adept entrepreneurs learn from the experts on the agricultural side. “You’ve got to be open-minded and really be careful about listening to what the industry is telling you is the challenge that’s in front of you,” he says. Of course, at universities serving rural communities, it’s not unusual for students to arrive with their own agricultural expertise, often from working on the family farm. And many of those schools are now helping those students sow their own business ideas. At Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, a program called Start Something includes a Student Incubator that supports work in emerging areas like soil analytics and drone pesticide application. One student doubled his drone business from one summer to the next, bringing in more than $200,000 in revenue, says Kevin Kimle, Start Something’s director. Kimle’s own son, Iowa State alum Jackson Kimle, runs a business harnessing innovative water filtration technology for a novel kind of Iowa livestock: fresh shrimp. More than 1,200 students participate in Start Something programs every year, including roughly 200 who take the program’s capstone class, which culminates with business plans presented to real investors and entrepreneurs. Kimle envisions adding programming for high school students interested in agricultural entrepreneurship, which can in turn help recruit them to Iowa State. Successfully pursuing new ideas can help graduates thrive in rural areas while giving back to the community, Kimle says, and entrepreneurial ventures can make it easier for family farms to stay viable for a new generation. Other ag-minded schools, including many that are part of the historic U.S. land-grant program with its long ties to farm and food innovation, boast similar programs, often backed by successful founders among their alums. The U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which promotes entrepreneurial education, has a subgroup for agricultural and rural entrepreneurship, and student startup hubs have launched at schools like the University of Nebraska, North Carolina State, Texas A&M, and Pennsylvania State University. Penn State offers support for entrepreneurial students throughout the campus, including the College of Agricultural Sciences, which launched an Entrepreneurship & Innovation program in 2012. Today, it includes offerings like Ag Springboard, a Shark Tank-style student pitch competition that draws hundreds of entries and works with students from a range of majors, says teaching professor Mark Gagnon, cofounder of the program. “A good number of our students from [the College of Information Sciences and Technology] and computer science come over the ag space, because these are some big challenges to solve, to figure out how to feed the world and reduce the impacts on our footprint,” says Gagnon. Students have launched companies like Phospholutions, which has developed a soil additive that makes phosphorus fertilizer use more cost-effective while reducing its environmental impact. Perhaps equally important, undergrad innovators train their startup muscles for later use, says Gagnon. “Having that experience at 20 years old is incredible,” he says. “Because when they’re 45 years old and they have the connections and the capital and they see an opportunity that has value and is scalable, they’re just that much further along.” This story is part of Fast Company and Inc.‘s 2025 Ignition Schools awards, the 50 colleges and universities making an outsize impact on business and society through entrepreneurship and innovation. Read about the methodology behind our selection process. View the full article

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Despite the president’s claims, the South American country is nowhere close to being the US’s biggest drug supplierView the full article

Let’s hear it for the frazzled. Those multitasking, multiskilled superhero women (and let’s be honest, they’re almost always women) whose days are packed to the brim—juggling leadership roles and caregiving, studying in between appointments, work calls, and late-night birthday party prep. They’re keeping it all going and doing it well, even if they feel like they’re barely holding it together. Procrastination? They don’t have time for it. In my new book Small Moves, Big Life, I lay out clear, accessible daily practices for dialing down overwhelm, especially for women in high-performance positions. It’s all about small, repeatable actions that keep you productive, focused, and moving forward, even on your busiest days. These aren’t chakra-activating, crystal-powered wellness goals (not that there’s anything wrong with that; you do you), they’re practical, no-nonsense, science-backed shifts that take just a few minutes and truly deliver momentum, not just in your work output, but in your mindset, too. Do the Thing “Do the Thing” is one of the key tools in that framework. It’s incredibly simple, effective, and designed to reduce decision fatigue. A hack, if you will. It’s an approach I’ve used for years, and I honestly couldn’t have founded and built an international business, led teams, and raised two daughters without it. I’ll admit, it’s a little counterintuitive, but hear me out. At its core, “Do the Thing” is a smarter way to write a to-do list. We’ve all scribbled down an overwhelming list of everything we need to do only to freeze at the sight of it. When your workload is intense and your brain’s already at full capacity, even planning becomes exhausting. That list of “everything” ends up doing the opposite of what we need. It stirs up guilt, triggers decision fatigue, and makes us feel like we’re falling behind, no matter how many hours we put in. I’ve seen this firsthand. In 2019, I was moving my family to New York City, restructuring my business, managing school logistics, and navigating a divorce all at once. I had big plans and even bigger responsibilities, and even though I knew I was doing my best, I was overwhelmed and out of sync. Despite constant effort, I didn’t feel like I was making real progress; I was doing everything but not really achieving anything. I needed to reclaim clarity, and fast. So, I did something radical: I ripped up the endless to-do list and rebuilt it from scratch. That’s how “Do the Thing” was born. The Power of Three I started with a blank sheet of paper and wrote down just three things: the highest-priority, biggest-impact actions for that day. These were my nonnegotiables. At the time, they were things like finalize a franchise agreement, review legal documents, renew a passport. Just three high priority tasks I told myself I would absolutely get done, no matter what. Once those were completed, I didn’t move on right away. I took a beat and recognized the win. I even gave myself a quiet, mental “Atta girl.” Because progress deserves acknowledgment. Then, I added two bonus tasks, things that would also move my day along but wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t get to them. Finally, I added one “feel good” action: something to look forward to that restored energy. That might’ve been a 15-minute walk, calling a friend, or trying out some new skincare. Just a tiny, intentional reset. What I created was a reverse pyramid: • 3 must-do items • 2 nice-to-haves • 1 mood-boosting reset It was short, focused, and completely doable. And it changed everything. That day, I got more done, not by doing everything, but just by doing what really mattered. My decision fatigue lifted, my energy returned, and I had a clear view of what success looked like. I finally had momentum, and it felt good. Doing Less Can Actually Drive More Results Over time, my “Do The Thing” tool became a mindset. It helped me reframe how I defined success, not by how busy I felt, but by whether I made meaningful progress. There’s expert thinking to back this up. According to Don Sull and Charlie Sull in the MIT Sloan Management Review, “The power of specific, ambitious goals to improve the performance of individuals and teams is one of the best documented findings in organizational psychology.” So, being specific wins, but I would add consistency and intention, too. One of the best benefits of “Do the Thing” is that it creates space for “full-out” effort. In my dance training, this meant not just learning the choreography, but performing “full-out” it like it was opening night. Now, years later, I apply that same mindset to work: show up fully, deliver with intention, and then move on. Here’s the equation I live by: Consistency + Full-Out Effort + Time = Results When you apply that formula, even to just three tasks, you start seeing big change. You go from exhausted to accomplished. Your long-term strategy becomes clear. And you go from spread-too-thin to truly impactful. Getting it done Perfectionism convinces us we need to do more, try harder, and never miss a beat. But the real magic? It’s in being specific, doing what matters most, and doing it with focus, clarity, and intention. “Do the Thing” doesn’t require a life overhaul, expensive systems, or elaborate rituals. Just a short list, written with clarity and intention, and followed consistently. Over time, that’s how momentum is built. That’s how high performers stay grounded. And that’s how you trade feeling frazzled for the extraordinary feeling of getting it done. Excerpted from Small Moves, Big Life: 7 Daily Practices to Supercharge Your Energy, Productivity, and Happiness (in Just Minutes a Day) (BenBella Books, October 7, 2025) View the full article

When asked, 88% of Americans will say they’re above average drivers. In the ability to get along with others, 25% of students rate themselves in the top 1%. When couples are asked to estimate their individual contributions to household work, the combined total routinely exceeds 100%. These are all statistical impossibilities. They’re also great examples of how we’re predisposed to overrate our abilities and contributions. As an aspiring CEO candidate, it’s important to have the humility to recognize your inherent, self-serving bias and counteract it through the following steps: Objectively assess your capabilities versus what’s needed Fill your skill gaps and gauge your progress on the way Refuse to play politics in the process What the company needs Assessing your capabilities starts with understanding what the company needs in its next leader. Brad Smith, the former CEO of financial software giant Intuit, uses a horse racing analogy: “The reason there are very few Triple Crown winners,” he says, “is because the Kentucky Derby is a very different track from the Preakness, which are both different from the Belmont. The right horse will win on the right track. If you’re a candidate, first ask yourself in an intellectually honest way, ‘What does the company most need?’ and then ‘Do I have that skill set today?’” To understand if you have what’s needed, and where you stand, analyze your abilities along at least four dimensions. The first is breadth of experience and record (for example, leading transformational change, delivering a profit-and-loss statement, and representing the company externally). The second is knowledge and expertise (as it relates to such things as financial acumen, sales leadership, technology, target markets, and industry trends). The third is leadership skill (for example, your ability to think strategically, establish executive presence, build teams, and show self-awareness). The fourth is the strength of your relationships and overall reputation. How are you viewed by internal stakeholders, such as your boss, peers, direct reports, and influencers? How about by external stakeholders, such as investors, customers, suppliers, regulators, and community leaders? And how do board members size you up? Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, summarizes success on this dimension as whether you have “followership.” “The best definition of a leader,” he reflects, “is if people are willing to follow you.” Consult others To help break through your self-serving bias, it’s important to seek others’ views. That might involve getting feedback from mentors, confidants, peers, and so on, but more often than not, you should ask someone else to gather that 360-degree information. The person who collects the feedback could be a trusted colleague, but most often, it’s an external coach. While some leaders view having a coach as a weakness, the best point to the sporting world, where no player or team gets to the championship without a great coach. Nasdaq’s CEO Adena Friedman shares, “Before I became CEO, I was getting 360s and coaching over a period of years. The coach gathered all the feedback. Then I sat down with them, and we discussed it together. It helped crystalize the feedback into ideas for improvement and action.” Robert Smith, founder and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity partners, explains the value of doing so. “If you’re right-handed, you usually have a weak left hand.” A great coach, he suggests, helps you see “What’s your left hand? What are you weak at that you can learn to be better at? And what are the things you need?” A learning journey Once you’ve assessed how you score along these four dimensions, it’s time to start improving yourself. Think of it as embarking on a learning journey that involves cycles of taking action and then reflecting with a close group of advisers on the progress being made. Such journeys typically combine ongoing leadership coaching with participation in various forums or roundtables, visits to other companies, targeted reading lists, briefings from experts, and finding opportunities to gain experience and build relationships by dealing with the media, presenting to the board, and representing the company externally. Pursuing this path requires striking a delicate balance. Without being seen as self-promoting or currying favor, you’ll want to increase your visibility so those who need to know are aware that you want to make the final ascent. “I’ve seen this go awry so many times when people begin to run for the job,” shares Intuit’s Smith. “They almost campaign for the role, and that’s the quickest way to throw you off track.” How it all comes together Former CEO of Westpac, Gail Kelly shares her keys to success: “Don’t play politics. Don’t undermine people. None of that ends well. Be authentic, transparent, a team player, and an active supporter of colleagues for the greater good, even if they’re also in the running for the role.” Her advice reinforces the importance of taking a gut check of your motivations and intentions. If they’re not sustainable, you simply won’t be able to walk the line with authenticity. Michael Fisher, the CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center summarizes how it all comes together: “It’s a quiet ambition pursued with humility. You gain confidence as you go by learning and growing every day.” Getting the balance right doesn’t just set you in good stead as a CEO candidate. It’s also a win for the institution. What company isn’t better off for having more service-oriented leaders connecting across the enterprise and boldly solving for the good of the whole organization—especially if they’re doing so while delivering on their core responsibilities, building their self-awareness, and developing new capabilities and more fruitful relationships? Adapted from CEO for All Seasons. Copyright © 2025, Dewar, Keller, Malhotra, Strovink. Reproduced by permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved. View the full article

Search Atlas announced an ambitious slate of features that make it easier than ever to manage every aspect of SEO The post Search Atlas Announces New Features For Agencies appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Legal experts say the Supreme Court's decision not to immediately rule on a request to remove Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook from office suggests that, whatever the court's views on independent agencies may be, it views the central bank differently. View the full article

Mortgage companies see a lending future backed by artificial intelligence, but there may be as many questions as answers to what the path might look like. View the full article

Glen Powell has proven that he can hold it down as the star of blockbuster movies, from Twisters to Hit Man. But on October 3, in his hometown of Austin, he was holding down the grill at the parking lot of his local Walmart. Powell’s grill work was pulling double duty as promotion for his new TV comedy, Chad Powers, and for Smash Kitchen, his clean food brand, which launched at Walmart in April. The brand debuted with a suite of condiments including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and barbecue sauce that look and taste on par with heritage brands but are made with all-organic ingredients. Priced from $1.97 to $4.97, they’re just pennies more expensive than their legacy competitors. After just six months on shelves, Smash Kitchen has lived up to its name, contending that its revenue is significantly outpacing that of legacy brands in the category, including Heinz, French’s, and Hellmann’s. On October 7, Smash Kitchen introduces a line of oils—extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil—all priced from $4.97 to $15.97. Sales figures shared exclusively with Fast Company show that . . . Smash Kitchen has generated more than $10 million in sales since April, and is on track to top $20 million by the end of the year. As Powell told me from his home in Austin—just hours before slinging burgers for his neighbors—cooking oils are a crucial part of his broader goals for the brand. “The intention was always for us to take over the American pantry,” he says. Thanks to the brand’s bona fides, consumers becoming increasingly ingredient-conscious, and Walmart’s efforts to capture those consumers’ dollars, Powell is poised to become the leading man of the Walmart shopper’s basket. The right time for a challenger Smash Kitchen started with Powell’s interest in making organic food accessible to more people, but it took off when he met two veterans of popular consumer brands. With Sameer Mehta, cofounder of dog food brand Jinx, and Sean Kane, who helped launch celeb-led brands the Honest Co. (with Jessica Alba) and Hello Bello (with Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard), he settled on the idea of reformulating pantry basics. The trio decided to start with condiments, a $12 billion market, according to Mintel. And the timing couldn’t be better. Though the market is dominated by large legacy brands, data from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows big companies—those with more than $1 billion in annual sales—lost share by about 3% between 2020 and 2024. In the same timeframe, smaller condiment manufacturers, with revenue under $1 billion annually, have grown share by 2.2%, while private label has grown 0.9%. It’s happening at a time when BCG’s data shows growth flatlining in categories associated with heavy processing. But brands that have positioned themselves as focused on ingredients, like Kraft Heinz’s Primal Kitchen and Unilever’s Sir Kensington’s, tend to be sold at higher price points or in higher-end stores. Powell was determined to create products that contain better ingredients but are accessible to everyday Americans. “I didn’t grow up in a place where I was able to buy organic,” he says. “You buy what you can afford.” Expanding Smash Kitchen’s Range Now Smash Kitchen has entered the cooking oil aisle, and a market segment that’s expected to reach $7.5 billion by 2028. The company has created an extra-virgin olive oil, an avocado oil, and a coconut oil, all free of artificial preservatives and flavors, all available in both traditional and spray bottles. As with condiments, Powell says price was a key consideration. “We spent time sourcing the best avocados and olives and coconuts,” he says. “But we’re trying to understand how to be as efficient as possible, to make sure we can get the best prices for the customer.” That’s where his cofounders Mehta and Kane bring their expertise at scaling cleaner products affordably (they also used their past experience with Walmart to snag the retailer as Smash Kitchen’s launch partner). With 4,500 U.S. stores and the accompanying logistics capabilities, Mehta says Walmart has “provided the scale for us to command a really great price.” Dan Frommer, retail expert and founder of The New Consumer, says launching at Walmart is not easy task. It requires a lot of capital for manufacturing inventory, as well as expertise in logistics to get products into stores and onto shelves. “Going from zero to Walmart’s scale is impossible for many brands,” Frommer says. “As a startup, you need to have deep pockets, as well as a very strong ground game.” Walmart’s evolution Meanwhile, Walmart has also focused on appealing to the changing tastes of U.S. consumers. The company just announced that it will eliminate synthetic dyes and other additives from all in-house brands by 2027. Last year it launched a new private-label brand called Bettergoods that is carefully calibrated to customers’ desires, including more organic ingredients. Many American consumers are cutting down on their household spending because of inflation and worries about the economy. Walmart has benefited from this trend, acquiring more customers with household incomes above $100,000 and $200,000 who may be opting to shop at the retailer instead of more expensive grocers like Whole Foods. “Walmart has done a really good job of making their assortment friendly to higher-income consumers,” Frommer says. “If you wanted healthy soda or snacks, you previously had to go to Whole Foods, but you can now get many of them at Walmart.” Still, these cleaner brands often cost more than legacy national brands. Smash Kitchen ketchup costs $3.97, while Heinz is $3.59. Smash Kitchen’s organic extra-virgin olive oil is priced at $8.97 for a 16.9-ounce bottle, while Walmart’s in-house brand costs $7.36. But the newcomer’s success suggests that its prices are not cost-prohibitive. “For core consumers, this is an affordable upgrade,” says Melody Richard, Walmart’s SVP of Pantry. “And for higher-income customers, these are much more affordable prices than they’re used to paying elsewhere.” The Celebrity Brand Playbook Call it (Paul) Newman’s law of celebrity brands: For every celebrity brand with a dedicated celebrity founder, like Newman’s Own, there is at least one that just slaps a celeb likeness or endorsement on some white-label products. Kane—who partnered with Alba, then Bell and Shepard, on new brands—says Powell takes his role as cofounder seriously. Powell has taken a particular interest in taste-testing the products. “Growing up in middle America, a lot of my friends and family assumed that organic food just doesn’t taste as good,” Powell says. “I’m trying to show that foods that are good for you can also taste great.” But Powell’s biggest asset to the brand is his enormous platform. It can be hard for new brands to break out in a crowded market. Powell is prominently featured in posters on Walmart endcaps featuring Smash Kitchen products, and he promotes the products in videos across social media, including one in which he’s a “condiment sommelier.” “We’re really fortunate to have somebody like Glen who has a microphone neither of us have,” Mehta says. “He’s on track with culture and social media. We don’t just need shelf space at a big retailer, we need a microphone to tell the story of what it means to be a clean, organic label.” Kane says his work launching brands with celebrities has taught him that that their long-term success depends on being able to stand on their own. For instance, the Honest Co. continues to do well even though Alba stepped away from the role of chief creative officer last year. “The smart thing to do is to use the celebrity for the first year or two as a launch mechanism,” says Frommer. “Ultimately, people are only going to keep buying them over and over if they like the product and if they serve a purpose in their life.” That is certainly Powell’s hope—that the brand stands on its own, and that people continue to buy Smash Kitchen products because they love them, not because of the company’s famous founder. “This is why I’m not putting my face on the bottle,” he says. View the full article

After weeks (or months) of applying and interviewing for jobs, you finally land the role made for you. It’s a moment of celebration and relief—this feels like the finish line. But what happens if, mere days after starting, you think: Did I just make a huge mistake? Maybe the job description was misleading, maybe the culture feels off, or maybe you just can’t shake the sense that you simply made the wrong move. Should you immediately look for the exit? Or is it possible to turn things around and make the role work? Early job regret can be a common experience, but it’s also one that needs to be handled carefully, both for your career growth and your professional reputation. Identify your feelings—then take action Before making any big decisions, it’s important to take a step back and reflect on what’s driving your regret. “Is it the actual tasks of the role? Is it the company? Is it the people you work with?” says Madeline Mann, author and career coach who runs Self Made Millennial, a YouTube channel about career development with over 400,000 subscribers. ​​ Pinpointing the source of regret will help you figure out whether the situation is temporary, something that could improve with time, or a much bigger mismatch between you and the job itself. If your new role seems unclear, overwhelming, or if you’re unsure how to execute your tasks, it might be time to seek clarity from your manager. Still, even if your manager thinks they’re telling you everything, there are times they’ve been in their role for so long they don’t necessarily remember what it feels like to be a new employee, Mann explains. Taking initiative to fill those gaps is far more effective than throwing in the towel and thinking, “No one told me, I’m lost. I give up.” If you know what you’re struggling with and you’re comfortable doing so, make sure you share it with your manager and be as transparent as possible. Tell them what you need; that way, “You’re bringing solutions to your manager, versus kind of putting it on them,” Mann says. Shifting your perspective to look for the positives—even small ones—can also help you regain a sense of control when you feel regret. “Sometimes we get into this victim mindset. But what is good? What is positive? What can you accomplish?” explains Mann. Celebrating even minor wins can remind you why you took the job in the first place. That may help you build momentum while you decide whether the role is truly the right fit for you. Patrice Williams-Lindo, CEO of Career Nomad and a career pivot coach, echoes Mann’s sentiments. If you’re regretting your new job, ask yourself, “Is it a blip or a collapse? If it’s just an adjustment, stay and recalibrate,” Williams-Lindo says. Now, she adds, “If it’s true misalignment, it’s time to leave. Staying in misalignment is how you compound career debt.” In other words, lingering in the wrong role can make it harder to leave later. When to bail If you’ve done all the above and still regret it, maybe it’s time to look elsewhere. But if the company itself isn’t what’s giving you reservations, that doesn’t always mean you need to leave the place entirely. “I always encourage someone to do their best to try to find a better fit within the organization they’re already at,” Mann says. “The best way to do that is to send out emails or instant messages when you’re a new hire and say, ‘Hey, I’m new. I just joined. Here’s my job title, and I’m making sure to connect with people in different departments so I can really understand the business and how I can be of service, possibly somewhere down the line, or collaborate with you in some way. Would you be open to talking for 15 minutes?’” Mann explains. If you’ve tried to make the role and company work, and it still doesn’t feel right—it may truly be time to move on. Mann refers to these situations as “oopsie” jobs—roles that last less than three months but were intended to be longer. “Those ‘oops’ jobs you can just very easily leave off of your résumé if you’d like,” Mann says. “Update your LinkedIn and digital footprint so this role looks like part of your evolution, not a mistake,” Williams-Lindo says. This might include refreshing your profile, highlighting key accomplishments, and aligning your experience with your broader career narrative. If you choose this route, it’s best to have a simple and understandable reason for why you left when bringing it up in interviews. “If you start complaining about the company, that’s actually actively hurting your candidacy for other jobs, so make your reason for leaving that company as concise and positive as humanly possible,” Mann says. A good example would be: “When I joined the company, there was a certain role I joined for. Once I joined, the priorities shifted quite a bit to something that was very much outside of my skill set, and so it was a mutual split. It made the most sense that I wouldn’t continue in that role. I even explored other roles in the company, and nothing seemed to fit with my exact skill set at that moment. So that’s why I’m open to new opportunities right now,” Mann explains. The key here is not blaming. Instead, you’re just saying things happened and that you’re looking elsewhere. To reinforce that forward momentum, Williams-Lindo adds another phrase you could try: “‘I realized where I can create more impact . . .’ and it’s at the new company you’re interviewing with. That frames you as future-focused and resilient, qualities every employer is scanning for,” she says. Whether you stay or go, it’s crucial to be clear on what you truly want moving forward so you can avoid this happening again down the line. “Maybe it’s because you didn’t know what you were searching for in the first place,” Mann says. She emphasized that clarity is key before making any career move. Don’t burn bridges on the way out Leaving a job early always carries the risk of damaging professional relationships. Many people overlook the importance of their final impression at a company. But by working hard until the end, documenting your tasks, and supporting colleagues, you can create goodwill even in a challenging situation, Mann says. “If your manager sees that in good faith, you gave it a good try, but it just wasn’t the right fit, I think it can make a huge difference,” she says. Of course, not every manager will take the news gracefully. Some may feel blindsided or frustrated, but even when emotions run high, the best thing you can do is stay calm, be transparent about your decision, and focus on leaving solutions, not problems, behind. Whether they’re mad or not, the best thing you can do is “document your wins, create clean handoffs, and position your departure as a values-driven choice,” Williams-Lindo says. “You don’t burn bridges by leaving; you burn them by leaving sloppily,” she adds. View the full article

At the Port of Seattle, cargo is always on the move. Longshoremen load and unload cars, electronics, grain, logs, and hundreds of other commodities from ships and trucks before these products land on store shelves around the world. The life of a longshoreman can be a difficult one, with long and labor-intensive hours spent on the waterfront. Yet, many of them say the work itself is not the most difficult part. Especially in recent months, as unpredictable tariff policies have impacted the number of ships entering U.S. ports, uncertainty is plaguing our ports and the workers who make domestic and global trade possible. “We’re very fortunate to have the jobs we do and what they pay and the benefits we have, but at the same time, the unknown is what keeps us from enjoying those benefits,” says Kesa Sten, a terminal chief at the Port of Seattle and president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 52. An unpredictable number of ships Within a few weeks of his inauguration, The President made tariffs a cornerstone of his international policy agenda—but these are not the low, consistent tariffs of past administrations. Broadly implemented and ever evolving, the new administration’s tariff policy has led foreign leaders to scramble for deals and has led importers to wonder: Are these high fees here to stay? At the ports, this unpredictability has led to inconsistent numbers of ships coming in: busy periods as importers race to get their goods into the country before new tariffs take effect and much slower days while they “wait and see.” Compared with last year, the number of imports the Port of Seattle is managing is significantly lower, on average, though spikes in activity during pauses or before new tariffs take effect have, in some cases, met or exceeded last year’s averages. “Just this last week in the Port of Seattle, we were rocking,” Sarah Esch, a dispatcher for ILWU Local 19, told Fast Company in early August. “I think they were just trying to land wherever they could in the U.S. before the August 7 deadline.” The August tariffs—which were implemented under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that allows the president to take charge of international commerce regulation during a national emergency—have been deemed illegal by federal courts. However, they will remain in effect until at least October 14 while the case is appealed to the Supreme Court, thereby extending uncertainty for importers and workers at the port. As dispatcher, Esch will continue to dole out jobs to those working on the waterfront all year. However, now that the busy summer season, when cruise and container ships alike flood Seattle, has come to an end, she is expecting much less work to be available—especially for the newer workers hoping to become registered longshoremen. Registration comes with big benefits, such as health insurance, retirement, and first pick of available jobs at the port. Getting registered, though, can take many years and comes down to the number of hours worked. As fewer ships dock in times of economic uncertainty and trade instability, fewer jobs are available, and the registration process can become more drawn out and competitive. “I need to be available, hoping to get work on the waterfront,” Cole Lowenstein, a second-generation longshoreman working in Seattle, tells Fast Company. “It takes me away from a lot of other things.” Lowenstein has been a casual, the industry term for a dockworker making their way toward registration, for more than six years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he remembers there was so much work available that casual workers would compete to see how many days in a row they could work, sometimes reaching 30 or 40 days straight. This year, his coworkers were “in awe” of the fact he worked nine days in a row. With job opportunities slowing down, Lowenstein says he lives 12 hours at a time, always waiting for the next dispatch to see if there will be enough work to warrant staying near the port or if he should make the trek back to his home in northern Washington. “I spend a lot of time sleeping in my car just because I’m two or three hours away from the house, and it’s not really worth the drive back,” he adds. These already irregular work schedules have become even more unpredictable in the age of ever-changing tariffs. What the tariffs are for High tariffs have been a key part of The President’s economic strategy since his first term. However, while his first-term tariffs targeted specific imports—such as electric vehicles, semiconductors, and steel, his second term has seen steep, across-the-board tariffs leveled against trading partners. Moves that are baffling to some economists. “Our president has offered several explanations for the tariffs,” Gene Grossman, an economist and professor at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, tells Fast Company. “Interestingly they’re in direct contradiction with one another.” A White House fact sheet related to The President’s tariffs outlines his goals for the policy: reducing trade deficits, bringing jobs back to the U.S., and raising revenues. Regarding these goals, Grossman says, “you can’t have it both ways.” Bringing jobs stateside would require us to produce more goods here and import less, but importing less does not allow tariffs to bring in revenue. Still, The President has moved ahead, creating a complex web of frequently revised tariffs over the past few months. In early February, he imposed steep tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, though many were suspended shortly after taking effect in March. He then announced a 10% tariff on all imports to the U.S., which both took effect and was paused on April 9. And despite summer-long negotiations, new tariffs were unexpectedly announced in August. Nearly all U.S. trading partners are impacted by a set of broad-reaching tariffs, which have been in effect since August 7. “A 15% tariff, if you knew it was going to apply to everybody always and it wasn’t going to be changed next month would be a problem for importers . . . but it would be a known problem,” says Grossman. The current unpredictable state of global trade is a separate issue for importers, Grossman adds, since it encourages firms that might invest in U.S. trade to wait and see what will happen, rather than acting. So far, the result of this “wait and see” attitude has been slowdowns in trade—and at the ports. The West Coast has been particularly hard hit, because it processes many imports from China and other countries in Asia that have been hit with high tariffs. Lowenstein has even noticed longshoremen usually based at Southern California ports coming up to Seattle to find work. “I’ve only heard rumors about how slow it may be [in California], but the rumors are pretty alarming,” Lowenstein says. What today’s low registrations mean for the future For Esch, who was in the process of becoming a registered longshoreman during the 2008 recession, the slowdowns today feel familiar. She remembers how the inconsistency of work added an extra dimension of uncertainty to an already difficult registration process. “I almost moved back home because it had just gotten so dreary and I went through bankruptcy—It was tough, it was really tough,” Esch says. “I’m good now, but, oh my god, I certainly wouldn’t want to be a casual right now.” Derailing the registration process for the next generation of longshoremen does more than inflict uncertainty on workers, it could destabilize the industry as more longshoremen choose to pursue other careers. After a long slowdown in work, if the number and frequency of ships coming to U.S. ports returns to previous levels, there may not be enough workers to handle their cargo, Lowenstein suggests. “Entire ships can sit for a day, a night, a shift, two shifts without being unloaded,” he says. “The ripple effects of that through our economy, I couldn’t even begin to articulate.” The ports are responsible for an estimated $2.89 trillion in economic activity, according to a 2024 report by the American Association of Port Authorities, and they support nearly 22 million jobs. For now, many working those jobs are sticking it out, hoping the tariffs uncertainty will settle soon. They’re buoyed by the longshore community, which they describe as both vibrant and close-knit—the type of community that rallies around each other in hard times as well as joyous ones. “It’s just a huge swath of the American public that all work at the same place, getting to know everybody,” Esch says. “We’re together for decades, so it really is like a family.” View the full article

Tata-owned carmaker agrees new financing scheme to ease cash crunch for suppliers hit by shutdownView the full article

If you're on the hunt for a social media management tool, chances are that Buffer and Hootsuite are some of the first names that pop up — with good reason. These two options are among the best, and both come packed with features to make social media management easy and help you grow your following. So, which one is best? It's an interesting question without a straightforward answer. Perhaps a better question would be: Which social media management tool is right for you? While both Buffer and Hootsuite offer similar core features — social media management, scheduling, and analytics — they were built with pretty different users in mind. Generally speaking, Buffer serves small to medium businesses, solopreneurs, and creators. Hootsuite, on the other hand, is primarily focused on large social media marketing teams at bigger businesses. You'll see these target users reflected in different ways across the tools, from how features work to the pricing structure (we'll break down the specifics below). That's not to say that, if you're on a large marketing team, Hootsuite is automatically the best option for you. The most important things to consider when weighing Buffer vs. Hootsuite are the following: Buffer vs Hootsuite feature overviewPlans and pricingEase of useSocial media planning and schedulingSocial media analyticsSocial media engagementTeam collaboration featuresLet's take a closer look at the two tools. Buffer vs Hootsuite feature overviewHere's a bird's-eye view of the key features and the cost of both tools. I'll go over most of these in greater depth in the rest of the article. Buffer Hootsuite Free plan ✅ Three social channels/social media accounts ❌ No free plan Paid plans Start at $5/month Start at $99/month per user Supported social media channels Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business, Mastodon, Start Page, YouTube Shorts, Threads, Bluesky, Shopify Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest (image only), YouTube, Threads Mobile apps ✅ iOS, Android ✅ iOS, Android Content planning ✅ Create Space (on all plans, including free) ✅ OwlyGPT (paid plans only) Engagement ✅ Paid plans only ✅ Paid plans only Analytics, Insights, Reporting ✅ Free plan (basics) and paid plans (advanced) ✅ Paid plans only Team members ✅ Paid plans only ✅ Paid plans only AI-assisted content generation ✅ Buffer AI Assistant (all plans, unlimited use) ✅ OwlyWriterAI (all plans, limited tokens) Social listening ❌ ✅ Paid plans only Website/link-in-bio tool ✅ Start Page (on all plans, including Free) ✅ Paid plans only Plans and pricingThe cost of a tool is a dealbreaker for many, so let's talk about the starkest difference between Buffer and Hootsuite right up front: the price. This is particularly important when some of your essential features might only be available on specific plans or cost extra. Here's a big-picture look at the pricing structure for both tools. Buffer pricingFree plan (up to 3 social media accounts/channels) — $0Essentials plan — $5 per channel per month, paid annually (or $6 paid monthly)Team plan — $10 per channel per month, paid annually (or $12 paid monthly)See Buffer's full pricing guide here → Hootsuite pricingStandard plan — $99 per user per month, paid annually (or $149 paid monthly)Advanced plan — $249 per user per month, paid annually (or $399 paid monthly)Enterprise plan — Contact for pricingSee Hootsuite's full pricing guide here → What this means for youBuffer and Hootsuite approach pricing from different angles, which directly affects what you’ll pay at the start and how costs increase as your needs expand. For creators: Hootsuite doesn't offer a free option, so you'll pay at least $99 per month to manage up to 5 social accounts. Buffer gives you 3 social channels at no cost, and if you need more, paid plans start at just $5 per month per channel. For teams: Hootsuite’s pricing grows with each user, while Buffer’s grows with each channel. A team with two users and two social media channels would cost you $198 per month on Hootsuite (or $298 if you pay monthly). With Buffer, you'd pay $20 per month (or $24 monthly). You can have unlimited users on the Team plan. Free trialsBoth Buffer and Hootsuite offer free trials of their plans, so you can put pretty much all of the above to the test without paying a cent. Buffer free trial: 14 days on Essentials and Teams plans. (Remember, you can use up to three social media channels on Buffer's forever-free plan.) Hootsuite free trial: 30 days on their Standard and Advanced plans, after which you'll be charged $99 or $249 per user month, respectively. Ease of useHow simple the tool is plays a big role in whether you can hit the ground running or spend time wrestling with it. The faster you feel comfortable inside a tool, the faster you can focus on your content strategy. Buffer: There’s no wasting time with Buffer — you can connect your social media accounts, set up a posting queue, and start publishing right away. The onboarding flow walks you through how to draft and publish content, so you're ready to go within minutes of signing up. Hootsuite: Hootsuite's social media management tools boast some handy additional features (like paid posts), and it’s a powerful platform for managing your entire social media presence. This also means there’s a bit of a learning curve to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. You can expect to spend some time figuring out where to find different features and how to use them. I definitely had to make a few trips to their knowledge base to find my way around. Social media planning and schedulingBoth Buffer and Hootsuite are comprehensive social media scheduling tools and offer a social media content calendar and queue system that will help you easily plan and schedule your posts. Let's dive into the details of how each tool handles planning and scheduling your social posts. Available channelsYou can connect multiple social media accounts and manage them from a single dashboard on both Hootsuite and Buffer. Here's a quick breakdown of the various social media platforms each tool supports: Buffer Hootsuite Facebook ✅Pages and Groups ✅Pages only Instagram ✅ Creator, Business, and Personal profiles ✅ Business and Creator profiles only TikTok ✅ Personal and Business accounts ✅ YouTube ✅ ✅ LinkedIn ✅ ✅ X/Twitter ✅ ✅ Threads ✅ ✅ Pinterest ✅ ✅ Bluesky ✅ ❌ Mastodon ✅ ❌ Google Business Profile ✅ ❌ WhatsApp ❌ ✅ Buffer supports organic social media management across all its available channels. Hootsuite offers the same for organic posts and also includes tools for managing paid ad campaigns on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter. Creating and scheduling postsBoth Buffer and Hootsuite cover the essentials of content creation and post scheduling — things like calendar views, bulk scheduling, crossposting across platforms, AI assistance — but the details differ. Some of the differences between the platforms may be a deal breaker for some social media managers and creators. Posting across platforms: Both Buffer and Hootsuite make it easy to draft a post once and share it across multiple accounts in one go. You can also tweak the text or images for each channel at this step, so you don’t have to start from scratch every time you want to post the same content to a different channel. Bulk scheduling posts: If you're sharing hundreds of posts across channels, you can bulk schedule your posts on both channels, with a few differences in limitations. Buffer supports uploading and scheduling up to 100 posts at a time from a CSV file on paid plans, which should cover most needs for creators and small teams. If you have more to upload, you can simply upload a second CSV file, since there is no limit on how many you can keep in your queue. Hootsuite raises the bulk upload cap to 350 posts, and you’ll need their Advanced or Enterprise plans to access this feature. For large teams managing a heavy posting schedule, that extra capacity can be helpful. AI assistance: Both tools have AI built right into the composer. Buffer’s AI Assistant is available on every plan, even the free one, with no cap on how many posts or ideas you can generate. Hootsuite’s OwlyWriterAI is included on paid plans, but it comes with limits, so you’ll need to be more selective about when you use it. Here's a comparison of the post composer window in both Buffer and Hootsuite for scheduling an Instagram Reel and TikTok. Scheduling an Instagram Reel and TikTok with BufferScheduling an Instagram Reel and TikTok with HoosuiteCover images for short-form video: Hootsuite doesn’t let you select covers or thumbnails for Instagram Reels created from Creator accounts or TikTok videos. This may not work for you if you want control over how your video appears in your grid. Crossposting to Pinterest: On Hootsuite, you can’t crosspost directly to Pinterest. Pins are handled differently from posts on other platforms, so you have to create and schedule them separately. Calendar views: Both tools include a calendar, but the layouts aren’t the same. Buffer shows you channel-specific posts in both week and month views, so you can see exactly what’s planned. Hootsuite gives you the post details in its calendar week view. In the month view, you can see post status, like how many posts are scheduled, but not which platforms they're for. Hashtag support: Buffer doesn’t have hashtag recommendations built into the composer like Hootsuite. Instead, it offers a free Instagram hashtag generator that anyone can use, even without an account. Inside the app, Buffer offers a hashtag manager, which lets you save and organize groups of hashtags to quickly drop into your posts. Capturing ideas and content planningPlanning ahead looks different depending on the tool you use. Buffer provides a dedicated space to gather and organize social media content ideas, while Hootsuite leans on AI to help spark and shape them. Buffer: On the planning front, Buffer offers the Create Space — an ideas hub where you can store any post content ideas, text, and media to access when you're ready to publish them. Features like tags and a Kanban board view make it easy to organize this library, helping you turn it into a flexible space that works for you.Tags and a Kanban board view help you keep this library structured, and built-in templates plus the AI assistant help you quickly turn a saved idea into a draft. Hootsuite: Hootsuite takes a different approach. Its planning features instead center on AI, with OwlyGPT acting as a chatbot that gives personalized suggestions based on your connected brands and accounts. You can use it to generate campaign ideas, write posts or video scripts, or even build a drafting schedule for one channel or for your social presence as a whole. There’s no dedicated space for storing unfinished post ideas as you work on them, and you could save your post as a draft as a workaround. Social media engagement Both Hootsuite and Buffer offer social media engagement features that will help you stay on top of messages and comments across multiple social media platforms. Buffer’s engagement featuresBuffer's Community feature is designed to help you build genuine connections across all your social media accounts. You can jump into conversations right from the Community tab in Buffer, and when you're stuck on what to say, the AI Assistant offers suggestions to get the conversation flowing. If you find yourself answering the same questions over and over, you can save those responses and pull them up whenever you need them instead of typing the same thing repeatedly. You'll also see a comment score for each channel — based on how quickly and consistently you respond — so you can understand where engagement feels strong and where it might need attention. The Community tool also gives you a window into how your audience is responding, whether that's comments on individual posts or replies and mentions across an entire social media account. Just type in a question about what you'd like to understand, and the AI will offer insights on how your audience is reacting. It can also suggest new post ideas and offer ways to keep audience engagement going. Hootsuite’s engagement featuresHootsuite’s Inbox 2.0 is a conversation management feature that works like a customer support tool. You can assign messages to team members, route them to the right place, and even set up automatic responses. It also works like a mini customer relationship management (CRM) tool — you can update a conversation with the user’s email addresses, phone numbers, and URLs so your team has all the important information at their fingertips when replying to messages. Worth mentioning here is Hootsuite's social listening tool. If you're interested in tracking mentions of and sentiment towards your company or brand, Hootsuite has some powerful options. You'll have access to ‘basic' social listening features like those within the example below, but full access to the tool is only available on their price-on-request Enterprise plan. Social media analyticsSocial media analytics tools can be a game-changer if you're looking to build your following and scale your social media presence across platforms. Again, both Buffer and Hootsuite have you covered, though the different user focuses are definitely evident in the complexity of the social media analytics options. Buffer’s analytics featuresBuffer analytics are easy to understand and interpret. You'll have access to post analytics for all the social media channels supported and can keep track of content performance at a glance. In-depth analytics (available on paid plans) are the next step up, and they’re just as easy to get to grips with. You'll get comprehensive metrics for Facebook Pages, Instagram Business and Creator accounts, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn Pages. For each of the channels mentioned above, you'll get a detailed look at important social media metrics, plus — and this is where the magic happens — recommendations based on these numbers. Not only does Buffer surface all the most important numbers. it also interprets them and suggests specific actions to help improve your social media performance. Under the Answers tab, you'll find: Your personal best time to post (for X/Twitter, you'll get the best day to post)Your best type of contentYour best posting frequencyAll of the metrics mentioned above can be turned into beautiful custom social media reports by simply clicking the ‘+' button next to each section. ⚡Want some general guidelines on the best posting times? Check out our Guide to The Best Times to Post on All Major Social Platforms →Hootsuite’s analytics featuresWhere Buffer shines for creators and small businesses, Hootsuite can provide insights for larger teams. Hootsuite includes the same core analytics you’ll find in Buffer, such as tracking the performance of your social media posts and audience growth, and providing recommended times to publish for each channel. Hootsuite brings some handy extras if you want to dig deeper into your analytics. You can track how your ads are performing, and you can also see how your overall results compare to others in your industry. There’s also competitor tracking — up to five competitors on the Standard plan and as many as 20 on the Advanced plan — so you can see how your content stacks up side by side. Team collaboration featuresTeamwork in social media management brings plenty of moving parts, like managing who has account access, what permission settings to use, and creating approval workflows that make working together feel easy. Both Buffer and Hootsuite offer feature rich team collaboration tools, although with different approaches. Working with teams in BufferTeam management in Buffer is straightforward — you can add unlimited users to the platform on the Team plans. For each channel, you can choose from three levels of access to give each person on the team: Full posting access: Their posts and ideas will be published when scheduled. Approval required: Everything they create will need to be approved by someone with full posting access before it is published.No access: They won't see the social media channel in their Buffer workspace at all.As you'll see from the screenshot below, the collaboration system is flexible enough to allow you to give users admin access, whether they have full posting access or not. Working with teams in HootsuiteHootsuite was designed with large teams in mind, so access and approvals is a complex, layered system that allows users to get really granular on who can see and access what. With different ‘organizations,' teams, and channels, you can create an intricate system for a big social media marketing team (or several). Organizations are the highest tier in the system. Within an organization, you can have multiple teams, assign team members to as many teams as they need access to, and assign social media accounts to these teams. You can also assign tasks to members or teams, route messages to specific teams, and control access to social accounts. You can also set default permission levels for new members — whether their posts need approval or not, or if their access is limited to the Inbox — and get as detailed as your team needs. In addition to teams and access levels, Hootsuite also offers the Content Library that's focused explicitly on saving templates and media files for everyone on a team to use. You can create as many content libraries as you need, and assign them to teams depending on what media assets they need access to. That said, Hootsuite's pricing is based on the number of users, so large teams will have to pay extra to have anything more than five users per account, even on Hootsuite's premium Enterprise plan. Which tool is right for you?As I touched on above, it really depends! There's no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to the best social media management solution for your brand and business. Hootsuite offers a powerful set of features once you’ve learned your way around. Buffer customers value its easy-to-use interface, the flexibility to add or remove channels, and the option to bring in team members without extra cost. If you're looking for something not mentioned here or more options, definitely check out our round-up of Hootsuite alternatives. If you do decide on Buffer (yay!) and have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out via hello@buffer.com. We're a global team, so there's always someone online to help! View the full article

We’re more than half a decade removed from pandemic lockdowns—when remote work profoundly upended the 9-to-5—yet the preference for workday flexibility endures, a new report shows. According to the recently released ninth annual State of Hybrid Work report from Owl Labs, a video conference tech company, 65% of workers are interested in a concept the report refers to as “microshifting”: “structured flexibility with short, nonlinear work blocks matched to your energy, duties, or productivity.” In other words: breaking up your work shift into a bunch of tiny ones. Perhaps you log on at 6 a.m. to get a head start, then take a break for a midmorning Pilates class before clocking back on to finish the day’s tasks. Or maybe you pause in the afternoon to do the school run or take the dog out, shifting your final work block into the evening, when the madness has settled down. Like similar methods, such as timeboxing or the Pomodoro technique, microshifting rethinks the flow of a traditional workday, zeroing in on when the individual feels most productive. Rather than being chained to a desk for eight hours each day, microshifting breaks up the slog into short concentrated bursts of productivity. Blast through your inbox, or go head-down on a project, and around that balance personal responsibilities and life events that crop up without notice. The new report shows that microshifting has proven particularly popular among Gen Zers and millennials, with nearly 7 in 10 reporting that they would prefer such an approach at work. It’s widely accepted that productivity cannot be measured simply by hours clocked. Research on attention spans and productivity has shown that using shorter, intentional work intervals helps sustain energy, prevents cognitive fatigue, and sharpens focus. “Workplaces aren’t as rigid and structured as they once were,” Kickresume cofounder and CEO Peter Duris told Fast Company. Flexibility is one of the most common and sought-after perks in a job, whether that’s having the option to work from home or working flexible hours.” In fact, Owl Labs found that employees were prepared to give up 9% of their annual salary for flexible working hours (and 8% for a four-day workweek). “Microshifting is a great way for employees to balance their personal responsibilities alongside work,” Duris said. “If you have the option to work microshifts, it could be worth discussing with your manager. This may be especially game-changing for parents or carers.” Rather than an opportunity to slack off, look at microshifts like mini work sprints. If you give it a try, digital scheduling tools and productivity apps like Focus Friend can stop you from feeling scatterbrained and keep you focused and on track while divvying up the day. Start by figuring out when you are most productive and tackle your high-priority tasks then. If you’re a morning person, get to work right away and schedule your low-priority tasks for when your productivity levels wane in the afternoon. If you’re a night owl, get your workout classes or errands out of the way first, then lock in for the evening grind. It’s always a good idea to get as acquainted as possible with your productivity style—at least until the next business buzzword gets coined and makes you rethink everything again. View the full article

At the beginning of this year, a climate tech startup called CarbonCapture was ready to break ground on its first commercial pilot at a site in Arizona. But the project is now about to open 2,700 miles away, in Alberta, Canada. The company started considering new locations shortly after the inauguration, as the political climate around climate projects quickly changed. “We were looking for regions where we felt we could get support for deployment,” says CarbonCapture CEO Adrian Corless. “Canada was an obvious choice given the existence of good government programs and incentives that are there.” CarbonCapture makes modular direct air capture technology (DAC), units that remove CO2 from the air. In late March, reports came out that the Department of Energy (DOE) was considering cancelling grants for two other large DAC projects, including one in Louisiana that involved the company. By the end of May, by the time the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations announced that it was cancelling $3.7 billion in other grants, the startup had already signed an agreement with Deep Sky Alpha, a facility in Canada that is simultaneously deploying and testing multiple direct air capture projects to help the industry grow. The startup had already self-funded its planned project in Arizona and built the modules for the site. Because it didn’t rely on government funding for the project, it could have moved forward in the U.S. But it saw that it would be harder to move from the pilot to later commercial projects in Arizona. Now, it’s planning to build its first full commercial project in Canada as well. (The company wouldn’t disclose the cost for either project.) “We just didn’t see a pathway in the U.S. to be able to show that linkage between doing a commercial pilot, starting to generate [carbon dioxide removal] credits and selling them, and then being able to raise the capital for something that’s much larger,” Corless says. Canada offers an investment tax credit of 60% for direct air capture equipment, plus an additional 12% for projects in Alberta, the heart of Canada’s oil and gas industry. The country also has strong support for R&D and first-of-a-kind deployments for early-stage companies, and multiple programs supporting climate tech specifically. The Canada Growth Fund, for example, is a $15 billion fund designed to advance decarbonization. And while Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, has taken steps backward on climate policy, he’s also said that he wants the country to be the “world’s leading energy superpower” both for conventional energy and clean energy. The situation in the U.S. is very different. The President recently called climate change a “con job” in a speech to the United Nations. When Chris Wright, the energy secretary, recently canceled another $13 billion for renewable energy projects, he said, “if you can’t rock on your own after 33 years, maybe that’s not a business that’s going places,” despite the fact that fossil fuels have gotten subsidies from the U.S. for three times as long. Fossil fuel subsidies are now nearly $35 billion a year, or as much as $760 billion if you include health and environmental costs. Direct air capture tech arguably hasn’t been hit quite as hard as other forms of climate tech, like offshore wind power. When the “One Big Beautiful Bill” gutted other funding, from tax credits for EVs to solar panels, it left in place some credits that facilities can earn for capturing carbon as they operate. But the Department of Energy recently cut multiple grants that would have helped new DAC projects get built. One of the large projects CarbonCapture was supporting—the Louisiana facility previously under review, called Project Cypress—lost funding, and the company just received official notice of its cancellation. Corless says that the startup is still carefully watching what happens in D.C.—and the company still hasn’t made any announcements about whether it might move its whole company, not just particular projects. Right now, it’s headquartered in L.A. with around 50 employees. It also has a small factory for its equipment in Arizona, next to the site where it had planned to build its first carbon capture facility. Moving the first project to Canada happened quickly. Five weeks ago, the site in Alberta was an empty field. Four weeks ago, the company shipped the modules it had built in Arizona to Canada. Construction crews have been finishing the final touches, and the company plans to begin commissioning the system next week. Deep Sky Alpha already had some key infrastructure in place, including access to solar power to run the equipment. The pilot will ultimately be able to capture 2,000 tons of CO2 a year, which will be buried underground. It’s possible that other companies might follow CarbonCapture’s move. “I think that there definitely are going to be several companies that are looking at the same data that we’re looking at,” Corless says. “And I think that it’s not lost on the Canadian government that they have an opportunity as well to step up and potentially take a leadership role in this space, which the U.S. has really owned for the last five years.” “The U.S. does have a real advantage, even without DOE support,” says Erin Burns, director at the nonprofit Carbon180. “But it’s very likely that uncertainty around DOE programs will weaken that edge. Some projects will move abroad. Some that might have thrived here will not. Others will achieve only a fraction of their potential. Each outcome is a setback on its own. Together they add up to millions, possibly billions, in lost investment and slower American innovation.” View the full article

Below, Ann Tashi Slater shares five key insights from her new book, Traveling in Bardo: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World. Slater has published fiction, essays, and interviews in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Guernica, and Granta, among others, as well as in The Penguin Book of Modern Tibetan Essays and American Dragons (HarperCollins). Her speaking and teaching engagements include Princeton, Columbia, Oxford, the American University of Paris, the Rubin Museum of Art, and Asia Society. What’s the big idea? Traveling in Bardo interweaves explorations of impermanence in our everyday existence with Slater’s girlhood in America and time spent with her Tibetan family in Darjeeling. Like her great-grandfather before her, she spreads guidance about “bardo” between-states, or periods of life transition, to Western audiences. Change is inevitable, can come at any moment, and only by growing our acceptance of uncertainty and endings can we live more fully. Tibetan bardo teachings help us navigate and embrace life in its sorrow and joy. 1. Between-states offer great possibilities for transformation. We experience between-states, or bardos, in every area of our lives, from friendship and marriage to children and parents to work and creativity. These periods of transition may be eagerly anticipated (a move to another city, the birth of a child) or painfully challenging (the end of a relationship, the loss of a parent). Whatever the case, they give us a chance to reset our compass and find new perspectives as we discover that the only thing we can be sure of is change. The transformative possibilities of between-states are imprinted on our psyches from an early age. Fairy tales are all about metamorphosis: After slumbering for a hundred years, Sleeping Beauty awakens; Hansel and Gretel defeat the witch in the forest and return home; Cinderella endures the cruel treatment of her stepmother and stepsisters and becomes a princess. We also see it in the natural world: a moth emerging from a cocoon, a flower blooming after the long winter. We’re drawn to the potential for evolution that is found in between-states, but can we experience transformation as we ourselves go through times of transition? It’s possible if we’re open to it. 2. It’s not change that threatens us, but our resistance to it. We’re wired to shy away from change, resist endings, and cling to what we know. Are you holding on to a job that has lost meaning? Or a belief system or way of living that no longer serves you? Perhaps you’re denying your parents’—or your own—aging and mortality? My grandmother told me once about a funeral she attended in Tibet in the 1920s where the dead man wanted to reenter his body. “We couldn’t see him,” she said, “but the high lama there saw that the dead man was trying to bring the corpse again to life.” This story is a striking metaphor for our resistance to change. We struggle and grieve, deepening our suffering by trying to hold on to what is lost to us. I experienced this when my father died suddenly, and I’m going through it again now as my mother disappears into dementia. There are endings we can do something about, like a job that’s no longer right for us, and ones we can’t, such as an aging parent. Regardless, only when we accept the reality of our situation can we open ourselves to the sorrow we naturally feel and move forward, instead of remaining trapped in denial. It’s our resistance to change—rather than change itself—that most threatens us, hindering the flourishing of our mind and spirit in a world where impermanence is the only certainty. 3. What we pay attention to becomes our reality. In life, we may drift aimlessly through the months and years, immersed in thoughts and reveries. What our distracted minds perceive turns into our reality, and we have the strange feeling that we’re dwelling in a parallel universe, able to sense our real lives but not live them. We worry that something is missing, or that we’re missing out, and we wonder if we’ll ever find ease and joy. We’re like the hungry ghosts in Tibetan cosmology: skeletal beings with throats as thin as a piece of hair and stomachs as big as the Grand Canyon (“never enough drinks or eats for them,” my grandmother used to say). The mind is like a team of horses that, given the chance, will charge off in different directions. The challenge is to take hold of the reins. As the bardo teachings tell us, the mind can be guided “like the controlling of a horse’s mouth by means of a bridle.” When conscious attention becomes our way of being in the world, we undergo a profound shift in our experience of life. Instead of feeling insatiable hungry ghost cravings, we reside more fully in each moment. As that becomes our way of being, we find the contentment that eluded us. 4. Karma is action, not fate. We often think of karma as fate. “It was my karma to buy that house,” or, “It was my karma to not get along with my daughter.” But karma isn’t just about things happening to us beyond our control. It’s about how what we do, think, and say in each moment determines our path forward. If our actions are positive, that’s all to the good, but if not, we make ourselves miserable through habitual behavior that is, in Buddhist terms, “unskillful,” like getting into power struggles with your child, having the same pointless arguments with your partner, or staying silent when you should speak up. We can transform what’s making us unhappy by changing our activities of body, mind, and speech. This may sound daunting, but it can be a small action, such as praising your partner rather than criticizing them, or expressing your opinion about something that’s important to you. Our actions in this moment are influenced by our past actions and, in turn, influence our future behavior. The more we choose the positive (kindness, honesty) or, conversely, the negative (disparaging others, lying), the more likely we are to keep acting in these ways. It’s up to us whether we slog on through trials of our own making or move into an awakened way of living that brings us the happiness we seek. At each moment, we have choice. Instead of tending the same old garden, we can till the soil for a new one, planting seeds and letting them flourish. 5. We confirm our humanity by living the life that’s ours to live. If we’re lucky enough to come into this world as a human (rather than, say, an ant or a tree), we possess the unique capacity to make the most of our lives, spurred by the knowledge—again, uniquely human—that we are mortal. Making the most of our lives in this fleeting, beautiful universe means living the life that’s ours to live. A tulip is a tulip, a tiger is a tiger. Tulips and tigers don’t lose sight of what they are and end up being something else, like: “I ended up a daffodil when I’m really a tulip!” Or, “How did I turn into an aardvark when I’m actually a tiger?” The capacity to live inauthentically is, unfortunately, all too human. “Be yourself” sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But we care too much about what others think, and when our last day arrives, we wonder why we cared so much and regret that we did. A wonderful aspect of authenticity is that it’s not about creating your essential self. Your self is like the wide blue sky, sometimes obscured by clouds but already and always existing. It becomes visible as we let go of unskillful ways of being, as we shed false personas and allow who we are to emerge. There are questions we can keep in mind that help us do this: If you found out you were going to die soon, what are some things (like others’ approval) that you would stop caring about? What would make you feel free? This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission. View the full article