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☆ As comedy views surge on TikTok, comedians say the app has broken the traditional power balance and opened up 'so many more ways' to be working comedians
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Before TikTok, comedians often bet on auditions or personal connections to break into the industry. Today, with 417,000 followers, Rahma is carving out a new space for unscripted comedy on the app. Insider spoke with 20 entertainment and TikTok insiders, including a dozen comedians, about how TikTok has impacted the comedy industry. TikTok comedians are bypassing traditional industry gatekeepersComedian Kyle Gordon was "flailing" before TikTok. Five comedians said they felt traditional late-night shows and comedy TV were losing some of their cultural impact as TikTok encroaches.

☆ Comedians say TikTok has broken the power of traditional gatekeepers and brought greater control and financial stability to their careers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

☆ Novo Nordisk rivals see room to compete in $100 billion weight-loss drug market
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Michael Erman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The company has two oral GLP-1 drugs in mid-stage trials, and aims to choose one for a late-stage trial this year. He forecasts GLP-1s or similar drugs topping $100 billion in annual sales early in the 2030s, with Lilly's product accounting for more than $50 billion in sales. Smaller biotechs are also vying for a piece of the obesity market and hope large pharmaceutical companies will pay up for partnerships. "I don't know if it's $90 billion or $80 billion or $50 billion. The current GLP-1 drugs can cause nausea and vomiting.

☆ Citi says the recent selloff in this biotech stock is 'overdone,' predicts shares can rally 30% from here
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The recent selloff in shares of Sarepta Therapeutics looks "overdone," according to Citi. Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics pulled back about 20% one day last month after regulators said they would hold an advisory committee meeting for SRP-9001, walking back previous plans to assess it without one. Despite these fears, Bitritto-Garg thinks an advisory committee was always in the cards for the treatment, but difficult to obtain as the FDA's Office of Therapeutic Products grappled with a restructuring and lack of resources. SRPT YTD mountain Shares so far this year She added that an advisory committee "may not be indicative of a meaningful change in FDA's position on the filing." Along with the buy rating, Bitritto-Garg slapped a $179 price target on shares, implying 30% upside from Monday's close.

☆ CNH Industrial buys Augmenta to boost crop treatment accuracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, March 13 (Reuters) - Italian-American vehicle maker CNH Industrial (CNHI.MI) has acquired U.S. company Augmenta, valuing its strategic partner at $110 million, in a bid to help farmers harness technology to increase the effectiveness of crop spraying. CNH, a maker of farm machinery and construction equipment sees so-called precision technologies as a key competitive feature in its agriculture business, its largest one. The group, whose revenue topped $25 billion in 2022, has said it was pursuing an estimated contribution from precision technology components of $1 billion to this year's net sales. CNH already owned a 10.5% stake in Augmenta through its venture capital arm CNH Industrial Ventures. The deal, which will be funded with available cash, is expected to be closed in the first quarter, CNH Industrial said.

☆ A housing downturn is causing a reckoning in the once-hot cluster of proptech startups that let homebuyers pay all cash and win bidding wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In that market, all-cash offers were king to sellers because they ensured quicker, stress-free closings. According to Redfin, all-cash offers quadrupled the chances that a homebuyer would win a bidding war. Ribbon has since paused its all-cash offering, but some of the other firms that Insider featured last year are still making all-cash offers. FlyhomesFlyhomes is a real-estate brokerage that featured all-cash-offer services for years and distinguished itself in December 2021 with a free all-cash-offer product. "The value to the buyer is different than in a seller's market," Garg said in the email.

☆ Amazon is trying to fix employee frustration over plunging pay by letting them pledge stock for home loans in a deal with Better
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon employees, even those who have left, can pledge their stock as collateral for home mortgages. Under the new program, Amazon employees will be able to use their vested stock as collateral in the home-buying process, Better said in a statement on Tuesday. The company's stock price hovered around $93.50 on Tuesday morning — a drop from more than $150 a year ago. The home loan benefit applies to both "current and former Amazon employees with vested equity in Amazon," per Better's statement. Amazon employees have flagged concerns about the company's compensation packages trailing those of its Big Tech peers.

☆ VCs have swapped out tennis rackets and golf clubs for pickleball paddles. Here's why the sport has become one of the hottest hobbies in Silicon Valley.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Pickleball has exploded in popularity in recent years, becoming America's fastest-growing sport. From building relationships to escaping stress, here's why VCs are obsessed with the sport. In the background, pop music floated through the air as the group prepared for a trying battle of wits and athletic prowess — pickleball. Once reserved for the quiet neighborhoods of suburbs and 55-plus retirement communities, pickleball has exploded onto the tech and VC scene in recent years, investors say. A networking toolAnd other aspects of the sport make it an ideal pick for a hobby or networking tool, VCs added.

☆ Too many companies botch mass layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

When it comes to mass layoffs, there seems to be no end to the worst, most bungled ways in which some employees first learn they are being let go. “People have to feel they’re being treated with respect,” said Sarah Rodehorst, CEO of Onwards HR, an offboarding technology platform for human resources, legal and finance teams. (Google declined to comment, pointing instead to a blog post from the CEO on the day of the layoffs.) Employees should receive a communication from the CEO or from division leadership that informs them layoffs will occur and offers them the business reasons for the decision. By “small,” Lee means no more than 5 to 10 people, including a leader or manager they know who delivers the news.

☆ In 2022, UWM became the top US mortgage lender and its CEO bought an NBA team. Against the odds, it expects to grow more.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

United Wholesale Mortgage became the country's largest originator in 2022. Mortgage rates soared at their fastest rate in decades, halting refinances and slowing home purchases to a crawl. In a way, UWM's strategy is much more old-fashioned than other mortgage players, including Rocket Mortgage. "The idea that you can go on a computer, click a button, and there's your mortgage, that's foolish," he said. To Rocket Mortgage, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of its business.

☆ Bitcoin’s popularity with developers shrunk last year while Ethereum’s flourished. Here’s what that means for investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Crypto prices suffered badly in 2022, but developer activity for the year paints a more optimistic picture for investors. That puts developer growth at 9% for the year, the report showed, even as the price of ether dropped 67%, according to Coin Metrics. Its price collapsed 50% last year, but the strength of its developer community gave investors hope it would pull through. Meanwhile, bitcoin's developer population shrunk 4%, though it's still the fifth largest in the market at 300 full-time builders. Why it matters for investors Developer activity is an indicator of a network's utility and potential for end users.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. airline operations returned to normal on Thursday even as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to investigate pinpoint the cause of a computer outage that grounded flights nationally and to prevent it from happening again. "FAA operations are back to normal, and we are seeing no unusual delays or cancellations this morning," the FAA said in a tweet. More than 11,300 flights were delayed or canceled on Wednesday in the first national grounding of domestic traffic in about two decades. As of noon Thursday, 1,400 U.S. flights were delayed and 117 were canceled, according to FlightAware, a typical aviation day given current weather issues. Major carriers Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), United Airlines (UAL.O), American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) all were reporting normal operations on Thursday.

[1/2] Passengers wait for the resumption of flights at O’Hare International Airport after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures due to a system outage, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Jim VondruskaWASHINGTON/CHICAGO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. airlines said they expect operations to return to normal on Thursday as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambles to pinpoint the cause of a computer outage that grounded flights nationally and to prevent it from happening again. More than 11,300 U.S. flights were delayed or cancelled on Wednesday, according to FlightAware, in the first national grounding of domestic traffic in about two decades. Major carriers such as Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), United Airlines (UAL.O) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) said they expected normal operations on Thursday. "The health of that agency and its ability to deliver on its mission really is important," he said in an interview.

Proptech customers, employees, and investors said they went from delighted to disillusioned. Proptech investors eager to capture these trends pumped $32 billion into the industry in 2021. As markets deteriorated, disillusionment set in among proptech customers, investors, and employees. Some customers say they were disappointed buying homes via proptech startupsReal-estate startups like Divvy Homes and Better launched under the auspices of helping customers afford quality homes. Investors in proptech firms are taking financial hitsYou don't need to ask proptech investors whether they're disappointed in the sector's performance — just look at share prices.

☆ The top stories in the world of banking in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

While 2022 wasn't a banner year for banks, it also wasn't a complete disaster. Will Nance, Neena Bitritto-Garg, Corinne Blanchard, and Michael Elias Goldman Sachs; Citi; Cowen; Deutsche Bank; Sean Gladwell/Getty; Savanna Durr/Insider1. At Goldman Sachs ID swipes were tracked. But by 2022 the wheels were starting to fall off on CEO David Solomon's consumer ambitions, as first reported by Insider. This fall, Wells Fargo made the decision to move tens of thousands of accounts out of its private bank that had under $5 million.

The free food programme, however, cost the government around $47 billion, worsened the fiscal deficit and reduced wheat stocks in government warehouses to multi-year lows. The government expects to save nearly $20 billion a year by ending the COVID free food scheme. MODI TRUSTED BY VOTERSSome economists had wanted the food programme gone months ago as COVID curbs eased. Had the trust not been there, and for any other leader, it would have been difficult to end such a food programme ahead of elections." But senior BJP leader and former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the decision to reduce food aid should not be linked to elections or politics.

☆ VCs say hybrid work, generative AI, and niche collaboration tools will be some of the top future-of-work trends that dominate 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Insider talked to VCs about the rising trends they say will revolutionize the way we work and live. Insider spoke with 15 venture capitalists about the trends and verticals they think are most likely to revolutionize the way we work and live today. Therefore, startups that will thrive going forward are those that embrace a mix of in-person and remote work, known as hybrid work, Thacker and other VCs said. An increase in workers caregiving for aging or sick family members is also supported by flexible work, the CRV general partner Kristin Baker Spohn said. "A lot of employees, whether it's the Great Resignation or the pandemic, found themselves changing the way that they work."

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☆ New Delhi’s air pollution leaves residents gasping for breath
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Gafira Qadir | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

By the first week of November, New Delhi’s air quality index was 472, high enough to affect healthy people while having a serious impact on those with existing conditions. In some areas of the city, the reading exceeded 800, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, a regulatory body. Experts say exposure to low air quality levels increases the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer. In response to the poor air quality, Delhi officials ordered the closure of primary schools and reduced outdoor activities for older students from Nov. 4 to 9. A government vehicle sprinkles water to control air pollution in New Delhi last month.

☆ Solana is facing its 'crucible moment' after the FTX blowup sent it down 50% last week
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Investors say it feels like a make-or-break moment for the Solana network, but they're optimistic it'll pull through. "Every community has to have a crucible moment," said Avichal Garg, a managing partner at venture capital firm Electric Capital. "FTX really helped construct this ecosystem, they put a lot of money and resources behind it and helped the flywheel get going," Garg said. On the bright side, whatever amount of Solana tokens was locked on the FTX exchange can't be sold now. However, those close to the Solana community have been strongly encouraged by growth trends in its developer base.

☆ Eightfold.AI: 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The six-year-old company uses deep learning and artificial intelligence to help companies find, recruit, and retain employees. Its talent acquisition platform enables customers to identify suitable candidates and import and filter through thousands of resumes. A candidate can upload a resume and Eightfold's system will identify the most relevant jobs for that candidate in real time. Customers include Bayer, Capital One, Activision, Booking.com, Vodafone, Mercado Libre and Akamai. The company has raised nearly $400 million to date from investors including SoftBank, General Catalyst, Capital One Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Foundation Capital.

☆ 19 top venture capitalists to know that invest in AI and machine-learning startups like Hugging Face and Databricks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

In 2021, VC-deal activity in AI tech shot up to $118 billion, according to PitchBook data. Investment journeys have validated some long-term AI VCs over the past decade. In 2022, VC investments in AI and machine learning amounted to $48.2 billion as of June 30, according to a recent PitchBook report. Last year, VC deals in AI and machine learning amounted to $118 billion, a roughly 80% increase from 2020, according to the report. Here are 19 venture capitalists to know who specialize in AI and machine learning:

☆ Elon Musk touts big plans for Tesla's Optimus robot, but some experts doubt it's the next big thing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Eight experts told Insider they have doubts about Elon Musk's promises for Tesla's Optimus bot. Several experts said Tesla's AI Day demonstration doesn't stand out from other companies' projects. This year, at Tesla's second annual AI Day a prototype of the Optimus bot walked slowly onto the stage and waved to the audience. The Optimus bot did stand out in one way, according to several experts — its hands. Animesh Garg, a professor of AI Robotics at the University of Toronto, called the bot's hands "impressive."

☆ Vishal Garg wants you to understand why he's still Better's CEO, even after getting ridiculed for brutally laying off 900 people via Zoom
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-03 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better, spoke out nine months after laying off hundreds of people over Zoom. "I would regularly tell my team that I think I'm the right founder for this company," Garg said. For his younger employees, Queens might be known as a hip borough with diverse populations and menus. But to Garg, Queens was something to be embarrassed by, leading him to pour even more energy into his work. Now at the helm of a slimmed-down Better, Garg is firmly looking forward to the future, SPAC or no SPAC.

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