Twenty-three years after launching his first start-up Reid Hoffman was still feeling the effects. The creation of SocialNet, a site that tried to combine social networking with dating services and a classifieds board, “was a lonely and stressful journey,” Hoffman wrote in 2020. The use of food as a stress relief, combined with the meals taken during recruitment and sales, meant that more than two...
For followers of Elon Musk, the last few months have been quite a ride. Before buying Twitter, the entrepreneur’s tweets had largely focused on his companies’ achievements. Videos showed the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, the expansion of Starlink satellite coverage and the release of new Tesla lines. Scattered between those tweets were also plenty of standard memes, the occasional crypto...
In early November, as Elon Musk allowed anyone with eight bucks to buy a blue check mark, an account called @EliLillyandCo made a dramatic announcement. The pharmaceutical company was excited to declare that insulin was now free. As one responder put it, that would be “big if true.” Eli Lilly is one of the three main suppliers of insulin, delivering the life-saving hormone to more than 8.4...
After designer Casey Smith took a year-long maternity leave, she shut her business. Writing on her company’s blog in 2018, she describes the move as “a huge mistake.” When she re-opened, she found she had no plan, no marketing strategy, and heard nothing but crickets. “It was an awful experience that I would never want to relive,” she wrote. It was also a result that every business owner and...
In August this year, Samsung rolled out a new mascot. The little blue alien will function as the Korean company’s avatar in the metaverse and represent the firm across digital channels. It’s cute, with big eyes, pale blue skin, small horns, and a wide chirpy smile. The idea, the company said in a press release, came from a joke that people make whenever Samsung releases a new, unique product:...
An anonymous writer to the New York Times recently encountered a problem. They work at a non-profit in a unit of about ten people. The head of the group wanted the team to gather at a one-day retreat to set a strategy for the next fiscal year. But the office was undergoing renovations so the team needed a new venue. They settled on a common meeting room at the condo residence of a subordinate...
“Thefacebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges.” That was the first mission statement written in 2004, of the company that would become Facebook then Meta. The mission statement has changed a few times since then, describing the company as a “social utility” and as a way to give “people the power to share and make the world more...
Hank Li describes himself a “compulsive job-hopper.” Writing on eFinancialCareers in May this year, Li explains that he quit his first post-graduate job at a Singaporean bank after two years. His next position at a global bank lasted only eight months and at his third job, Li didn’t finish the year. With three jobs in just under four years, Li, a pseudonym, looks like a loyal employee compared to...
As they prepared to make their funding pitch, Waze’s founders knew they had a valuable solution to a common problem. Their technology would present a map showing drivers which route to take to reach their destination. But by collating the driving speeds of all their users, the app would also pick the routes that avoided the worst traffic. Users would get where they wanted to go. They’d arrive in...
Premier League soccer team Manchester United have had a slow start to the 2022 season, losing two of their first six games. But their position might have been even worse. In a pre-season game against Rayo Vallecano, the Spanish team faked a long pass, sending United’s defense scurrying back towards the goal. Rayo Vallecano then played a shorter through ball to Alvaro Garcia who forced a save out...
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