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☆ Vita Coco: My billion-dollar coconut water company
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Raffi Paul | Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailVita Coco: My billion-dollar coconut water companyAfter a chance encounter with two Brazilian women in a New York bar in 2003, hearing about the tasty beverage they missed from back home, Michael Kirban and his friend Ira Liran wanted to introduce coconut water to the U.S. market. They co-founded Vita Coco the following year, initially investing $75,000 to launch the product in the U.S. Twenty years later, the company is worth more than $1 billion.

Persons: Michael Kirban, Ira Liran, Vita Coco Organizations: U.S Locations: New York, U.S

Vita Coco started with a leap of faith, a $75,000 investment and "several" maxed-out credit cards. Today, the bestselling coconut water company is worth $1.1 billion. They paid mostly with Kirban's money, which he'd obtained by founding and running a real estate software business after dropping out of college. That software business still exists, and Kirban still helps run it on the side, he says. It was only the beginning of Vita Coco's long journey to financial success, with more stumbling blocks along the way.

Persons: Vita Coco, Michael Kirban, Ira Liran, Liran, Kirban, There's, he'd, hadn't, Vita Organizations: Southern, U.S, CNBC, U.S . Food, Drug Administration Locations: Manhattan, Brazil, U.S, Bahamas

☆ Shaquille O’Neal says this advice from Jeff Bezos got him to invest in a $29 million education startup backed by Sam Altman
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

When you're considering investment advice, taking a tip from one of the world's wealthiest people is probably a good place to start. That's why Shaquille O'Neal says he turned to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for inspiration before deciding to invest in Campus, the online community college startup that's already raised more than $29 million from investors like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Discord founder Jason Citron. "I heard Jeff Bezos say, if you invest in things that's going to change people's lives, you'll always get a great return on your investment," O'Neal said. And, O'Neal has long touted Bezos' advice to seek out investment opportunities that he truly believes can "change people's lives." "If something comes across my desk and I don't believe in it, I don't even look at it," O'Neal told The Wall Street Journal in 2019.

Persons: Shaquille O'Neal, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Jason Citron, O'Neal, Fortune, he'd, you'll, Tade Oyerinde, Oyerinde, It's, Bezos, Matt Isbhia, Papa John's, Auntie Anne's, it's Organizations: Amazon, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Spelman College, of Famer, Phoenix Suns, Bezos, Wall Street, Google

☆ ‘Reduce some of those tantrums': 4 simple tips from a psychologist to manage your child’s screen time
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Managing your child's screen time can be one of the most challenging aspects of modern parenting. Christensen, a children's media researcher at SRI International, says it's important for parents to remember that not all screen time is bad. Christensen recommends that parents strive for a balance they're comfortable with for their own families. Here are her top tips for helping young children transition away from screen time without triggering a tantrum. Christensen recommends creating a media-watching routine.

Persons: Mott, Claire Christensen, Christensen, Let's Organizations: Mott Children's, Children's Health, SRI International, CNBC, Research

☆ Beautycounter’s founder sold the $1 billion business and lost her job—now she’s back as CEO: 'Failure is not an option'
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Gregg Renfrew built a billion-dollar brand, only to end up on the outside looking in after investors brought in a replacement CEO. Renfrew, 55, founded clean beauty brand Beautycounter in 2011 with the mission of disrupting the cosmetics industry by only selling products made without "questionable or harmful chemicals." Along the way, Renfrew and Beautycounter raised more than $93 million from investors, according to Crunchbase. Renfrew: It was really, really difficult. I sold the business right before the world opened up with Covid and so much was changing and swirling around.

Persons: Gregg Renfrew, Beautycounter, Carlyle, Renfrew, Marc Rey, Martha Stewart, Rey, burnishing, Renfrew's, Carlyle Roberto Marques, it's, It's, you've Organizations: CNBC, Ulta, Carlyle Group Locations: Renfrew, New York, Denver, U.S, Washington

☆ Ignore this 'blanket rule' most parents use, says psychologist: It's 'more destructive than helpful'
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"The cultural narrative that cutting back on screen time, just as a blanket rule, is always better for kids is more destructive than helpful," Christensen, a psychologist and researcher at Menlo Park, California-based nonprofit SRI International, tells CNBC Make It. But watching high-quality, educational content is good for your kids' development — teaching them important skills and emotional intelligence that can eventually help them develop into successful adults. What is 'good' screen time? Educational content tops Christensen's list of high-quality content, she says: "We're looking for videos that are intended to teach." How parents can reframe their approach to kids' screen time

Persons: Claire Christensen, Christensen, Dora, it's Organizations: Menlo, SRI International, CNBC, SRI Locations: Menlo Park , California

☆ These 'unusual' 4 traits helped Jeff Bezos grow Amazon into a $1 trillion company, says current CEO
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Jeff Bezos built Amazon into a tech behemoth and "everything store" that's now worth $1.6 trillion. Jassy, Bezos' longtime deputy, took the company's reins after the Amazon founder stepped down in 2021. "There aren't too many other bigger thinkers than Jeff Bezos," Jassy said, adding: "He always had a way of getting teams to think bigger." Jassy nonetheless touted Bezos' approach for inspiring great work from employees that helped fuel Amazon's success. "[Bezos] had a way of having really high standards, and then having everybody really stretch and aspire to those standards."

Persons: Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Fortune, Bezos, GeekWire, Jassy, Jeff, You've, it'll Organizations: Economic, Amazon, Pacific Science Center, Web Services Locations: Davos, Switzerland

☆ Perfectionism can hold your kids back—a psychologist shares her No. 1 solution for parents
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Striving for perfection might seem like a positive trait, among kids and adults alike. But perfectionism doesn't make your children any more likely to become successful adults, research shows — and it's a contributing factor to mental health issues like anxiety and low self-esteem. Her advice for the parents of perfectionists: Help your kids reframe how they think about mistakes. Learning to accept mistakes and view them as learning opportunities can help keep those missteps from becoming the source of added stress or depression, she says. "A perfectionist is trying to be effective, successful [and] to do well ... You can be more confident in that desired outcome if you have opened yourself up to feedback and testing and prototyping along the way," Butler says.

Persons: Allison Butler, Butler Organizations: Innovation, Bryant University, CNBC

☆ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shares the simple, 'most frequent advice' he gives people—it 'goes a surprisingly long way'
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But ultimately, it's a counterproductive approach, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. "Being clear about what you want to do, and asking people for what you want, goes a surprisingly long way," Altman recently told Bill Gates' podcast, "Unconfuse Me." When you let that fear of rejection get in the way of your needs and desires, the result is rarely favorable, Altman said. "A lot of people get trapped in spending their time in not the way they want to do," he told Gates. But when this works, it works surprisingly well."

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, Bill Gates, Gates

☆ 37-year-old Microsoft Excel world champion: Here are my best spreadsheet tips for budgeting and productivity
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Andrew Ngai is a 37-year-old Australian actuary with an unexpected side gig: Microsoft Excel world champion. Ngai has competed against fellow Excel enthusiasts since 2018, and won his third straight Excel championship at Las Vegas' HyperX Esports Arena last month, taking home a prize of $3,000. Those challenges have ranged from creating complicated financial models to, in one case, analyzing fictional asteroid mining data from a space-themed multiplayer role-playing game called Eve Online. You don't have to be an actuary or Excel champion to use the software to become more productive at work or create a budget that can save you money, he says. Here are Ngai's top tips for Excel users at any level of expertise to use the program for budgeting and productivity:

Persons: Andrew Ngai, Ngai, Ngai —, he's, Taylor Fry Organizations: Microsoft, Las, YouTube, ESPN Locations: Las Vegas, Sydney

☆ Psychologist shares a 5-step plan to come up with great ideas: It's a 'game-changer' in any workplace
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

If someone tells you, "come up with a great idea," your mind probably goes blank. But it doesn't have to be, says psychologist Allison Butler — you just need to know what steps to follow. Whether you want to impress your boss, invent something or start a successful business, Butler recommends a methodology called "design thinking" that she says can help anyone come up with great ideas. "The idea is that it seems like a checklist: Watch people, learn from them, craft insights, brainstorm great ideas [and] start to prototype," says Butler. Embracing critical feedback can help you do more than improve your ideas, too.

Persons: Allison Butler, Allison Butler —, Butler, you've, Cortney Warren Organizations: Innovation, Bryant University, Apple, Google, CNBC

☆ ChatGPT is particularly useful for people in these 3 industries, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

But the popular chatbot is particularly useful for workers in three specific industries, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. It's massively deployed and at scaled usage, at this point," Altman said during a recent episode of "Unconfuse Me," a podcast hosted by Bill Gates. Altman, whose company makes ChatGPT, made a point of noting that today's AI systems "certainly can't do [those] jobs" for you. CodingChatGPT can help programmers finish their work as much as three times faster than usual, Altman said. Some educators have worried that tools like ChatGPT could make it easier for students to cheat on assignments.

Persons: ChatGPT, Sam Altman, Altman, Bill Gates, OpenAI, Coders, coders, Gates, Dr, Tovah Klein, Healthcare OpenAI's chatbot, Jesse Ehrenfeld Organizations: Healthcare, Stanford, University of California, Educational, AIs, ASU, GSV, Barnard College, CNBC, American Medical Association Locations: Berkeley, San Diego

☆ In a 'lost' interview, Jeff Bezos revealed why he chose books as the 'best product' to sell on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In the beginning, it was just books — and Jeff Bezos had a reason for that hyper-specificity. Out of all the different products you might be able to sell online, books offered an "incredibly unusual benefit" that set them apart, Bezos said. "There are more items in the book category than there are items in any other category, by far," said Bezos. But in the book space, there are over 3 million different books worldwide active in print at any given time across all languages, [and] more than 1.5 million in English alone." "When you have that many items, you can literally build a store online that couldn't exist any other way," he explained.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, Bezos, —, Brian Roemmele Organizations: Libraries Association

☆ Mark Cuban shares the No. 1 jargon word he hates the most: ‘You sound stupid ... trying to sound smart’
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Cuban is no fan of jargon — and the billionaire is far from alone. But using jargon words when you could opt for something simple and clear instead, typically has the opposite effect, according to Cuban. "Always use the simpler word," Cuban told Wired in an October video Q&A. "There's no reason to ever use the word 'cohort' when you could use the word 'group,'" he said. You sound stupid when you use the word 'cohort,' because you're trying to sound smart."

Persons: Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett, Buffett, Elon Musk, Adam Galinsky, Galinsky Organizations: Wired, Tesla, Columbia Business School, CNBC Locations: Cuban

☆ At 99, billionaire Charlie Munger shared his No. 1 tip for living a long, happy life: 'Avoid crazy at all costs'
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Charlie Munger, who died at age 99 last week, attributed his success and longevity at least partially to a single piece of advice: "Avoid crazy at all costs." That's what he told CNBC's Becky Quick last month, in an interview meant to air on his 100th birthday in January. When pressed for his keys to a long and successful life, Munger at first demurred, saying "I don't know the secret." Just avoid it, avoid it, avoid it." "My partner Charlie says there is only three ways a smart person can go broke: liquor, ladies and leverage," Buffett told CNBC's "Squawk Box" in 2018.

Persons: Charlie Munger, CNBC's Becky Quick, Munger, Warren Buffett, he'd, Charlie, Buffett, CNBC's, Berkshire Hathaway, —, I've, Coke Organizations: Forbes, Buffett, Berkshire Locations: Berkshire

☆ This 48-year-old bet he could take on Coca-Cola—now his beverage company is worth $1.6 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Kirban, 48, is the co-founder and executive chairman of The Vita Coco Company, which started selling its namesake coconut water in 2004. Today, Vita Coco is a behemoth in its own right, sporting a $1.6 billion market cap as of Thursday afternoon. It commands nearly 50% of the U.S. coconut water market, according to the company's U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. I remember just sitting there, in this old apartment that I lived in at the time, thinking and thinking and thinking. Somehow, I went from "Holy s---, we're dead," to ... "Holy s---, let's go and beat the s--- out of them."

Persons: Michael Kirban, Vita Coco, Zico, Ira Liran, Mark Rampolla, Kirban, let's, I'd, it's, Guy Oseary Organizations: CNBC, Vita Coco Company, Cola Company, Cola, U.S . Securities, Exchange Locations: Zico, U.S

☆ Mark Cuban says he was ‘a lousy employee’—and that was key to his success
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"I was never going to be good at working for someone else," the billionaire investor and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks told Wired in a video Q&A last month. But, it wasn't until he was in his mid-20s that Cuban launched his first actual company, the software startup MicroSolutions. As Cuban told Wired, he asked a high-ranking executive to speak to a group of young employees at a happy hour about "what it's like to work at the bank." "I thought that was a really cool idea and I was taking initiative," Cuban told Wired. "I was a lousy employee because I was a know-it-all," he told Wired.

Persons: Mark Cuban, he'd, Cuban's, Cuban, I'd, Warren Buffett Organizations: Dallas Mavericks, Wired, Cuban, Mellon Bank, Indiana University, Yahoo, CNBC Locations: Cuban, Dallas, Pittsburgh, MicroSolutions

☆ The No. 1 type of praise to avoid if you want to raise 'stronger, more mature' kids: Harvard-trained parenting expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Want your kids to grow up confident and successful? Be careful about how you praise them, says toxic-parenting researcher Jennifer Breheny Wallace. "Noticing other people's strengths, and acknowledging them, makes people around us feel like they matter," she tells CNBC Make It. Spotlighting kids' honesty, creativity and other positive attributes often helped them grow in emotionally healthy ways, Wallace's research found. People become "stronger and more mature, less by being praised and more by being known," she recalls Weissbourd saying.

Persons: Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Wallace, Richard Weissbourd, Weissbourd Organizations: CNBC, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University Locations: U.S

☆ Bill Gates’ holiday list: 3 of the best books he read in 2023—plus 2 other recommendations 'just for fun'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Bill Gates is once again marking the holiday season with a list of some of his favorite books he read in the past year. His latest holiday list also includes a series of online economics lectures he calls "fantastic" and a holiday-themed Spotify playlist "just for fun." The book will help you better understand your own body, particularly what it means when you get sick, Gates wrote. The author "used to believe — as many environmental activists do — that she was 'living through humanity's most tragic period,'" Gates wrote. Gates' holiday Spotify playlistGates's 54-song playlist is available on his Spotify profile "just for fun," he wrote.

Persons: Bill Gates, Gates, Siddhartha Mukherjee Mukherjee, Columbia University oncologist, Mukherjee, Hannah Ritchie, Ritchie, Vaclav Smil Smil, he's, Smil, Timothy Taylor Gates, Taylor, King Cole's Organizations: Microsoft, Columbia University, University of Oxford, University of Manitoba, Stanford, Macalester College Locations: U.S

☆ Sam Altman says successful people ‘believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion’—that's frightening, says expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks to the media as he arrives at the Sun Valley Lodge for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 11, 2023 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Some, like ex-OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, believe in taking it to an extreme — and that's when they turn from inspiring to frightening, says a leadership expert. "The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion." Altman is "far from the first entrepreneur to have endorsed the idea that you have to believe in yourself, above all else" to succeed, says Moore. In his blog post, titled "How To Be Successful," Altman cited billionaire Elon Musk's "absolute certainty" that SpaceX could soon send a rocket to Mars as the "benchmark for what conviction looks like."

Persons: Sam Altman, Don Moore, Berkeley's, Altman, Moore, Elon Musk's, Musk Organizations: OpenAI, Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, CNBC, Microsoft, SpaceX Locations: Sun Valley , Idaho, OpenAI, Mars

☆ Mark Cuban: Don't quit your job to start a business without doing this No. 1 thing first
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Quitting your job to start a business can be both tempting and extremely risky. Make sure you have a safety net before taking the leap, says billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban. Don't just leave [your job] unless you know what the hell you're doing," Cuban told Wired last month in a video Q&A. "We hear all of these stories about all of these people who quit their jobs, started a company and made all of this money," Cuban said. "What you don't hear are the stories of the people who quit their jobs, started a company and failed miserably, and are now working at a job they hate."

Persons: Mark Cuban, — Organizations: Wired, Samsung, U.S . Bureau of Labor Statistics Locations: America

☆ Want a brilliant side hustle or business idea? Stop waiting for a 'lightbulb moment,' experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A great business idea will never strike you like a lightning bolt out of the blue. One of their top takeaways: There's no such thing as a "lightbulb moment," where a fully-formed idea for a successful business suddenly pops into your head. "There is this myth that as an entrepreneur, you should have a lightbulb moment: You wake up one day [and] see the light: 'This is an idea worth pursuing.' You go after it, you raise funds, you become successful, blah blah blah. The "lightbulb moment" concept ignores the time and work it often takes to flesh out a successful business idea, they say.

Persons: Catalina Daniels, James Sherman, Daniels, Sherman, who've Organizations: Smart, Harvard Business School, CNBC, Harvard University

☆ Harvard-trained parenting expert shares No. 1 message for her own kids: There's no such thing as a 'good college'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Kids in the U.S. are locked in a mental health crisis. Pressure from a young age to get into a "good college," as the only path to a successful adult life, may be making it worse. That's why parenting researcher and author Jennifer Breheny Wallace teaches her own three children a very simple concept. "The first thing we need to do is get out of our heads that there is such a thing as a 'good college,'" Wallace tells CNBC Make It. You can save your kids, and yourself, a lot of stress by "deflating that myth that college prestige is the secret to success," says Wallace.

Persons: Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Wallace Organizations: CNBC, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Harvard Locations: U.S

☆ These 3 ‘extreme’ parenting tactics actually work, says expert who interviewed 70 parents of highly successful adults
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That's according to parenting expert Margot Machol Bisnow, who interviewed the parents of 70 highly accomplished adults for her 2022 book, "Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams." "Every single one of these 'extreme' things the parents are doing is they're listening to their child. In contrast, the parents Bisnow interviewed displayed enough open-mindedness and trust to help their children develop independence, confidence and skills that proved useful for their future careers, she says. "What's sort of sad to me is, this shouldn't be extreme parenting," says Bisnow. Here are three examples of "extreme" parenting decisions that actually worked, according to Bisnow and the parents she interviewed.

Persons: Margot Machol Bisnow, Bisnow, John M, Chu's, Simon Isaacs, Isaacs Organizations: CNBC, Middlebury College, U.S . Olympic Locations: San Francisco, Colorado

☆ 2 Stanford grads want to replace your beer with cannabis drinks—they’ve already sold 10 million cans
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Anderson and Bullock refer to it as a "social tonic," or a hangover-free alternative to beer. It's one of the top-selling cannabis beverage brands in the U.S., according to market research firm BDSA. Bullock and Anderson project sales of more than 9 million cans next year — which, with prices starting at $24 per six-pack, would generate at least $36 million in annual revenue. Unsurprisingly, the co-founders say they're well-positioned to fill the void — even as research into cannabis' health effects remains inconclusive. That same year, Constellation Brands, which produces Corona and Modelo beers, invested $4 billion in Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth.

Persons: Jake Bullock, Luke Anderson, Cann, Anderson, Bullock, haven't, seltzer, MBAs — Anderson, Stanford, misfire, we've Organizations: Los, Anderson, CNBC, Gallup, Cann's, Bain, Co, Harvard University, Stanford University, Constellation Brands, Modelo, Apple Locations: Los Angeles, Canada, U.S, Palo Alto, alma, Colorado, Palo Alto , California, Corona, Florida, Sicily, California

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