DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ These authors interviewed 18 Harvard startup founders: Here’s the No. 1 trait that made them successful
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The only founders who do it successfully share one trait in common: the resilience to navigate a rocky path filled with unforeseen twists and turns. That's a key lesson that Catalina Daniels and James Sherman took from researching for their new book, "Smart Startups: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know — Advice from 18 Harvard Business School Founders." "Having resilience is absolutely essential [for] the emotional makeup of a person in terms of becoming an entrepreneur," Sherman tells CNBC Make It. "If they don't have that type of resilience, they need to learn how to build it up." In fact, every founder the authors spoke to agreed that resilience was the biggest key to their success, even more than prior experience or a winning business idea.

Persons: That's, Catalina Daniels, James Sherman, Daniels, Sherman, Harvard alums, Josh Hix, Nick Taranto, Kevin O'Leary, — Anna Auerbach, Auerbach, …, they're, Hix, Warren Buffett Organizations: Smart, Harvard Business School, Harvard, Groupe, CNBC, Werk, American Psychological Association

☆ Here's what Mark Cuban would do with just a phone and $500 in cash: ‘That is the best question I have ever been asked’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

If Mark Cuban needed to rebuild his fortune from scratch in six months, starting with just a phone and $500 in cash, he knows exactly what he'd do. "That is the best question I have ever been asked in my entire adult life," the billionaire entrepreneur and investor told Wired in a recent video Q&A. His first step, he said: Land a sales job, and use one of his best skills to quickly get ahead. "I am really, really, really good at sales," Cuban, 65, explained. "I'm going to find a sales job.

Persons: Mark Cuban, He'd, I've Organizations: Wired

☆ Co-founder of 2 billion-dollar companies: Here's the most important thing successful people do—'it's not going to hurt you'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Dealing with rejection is tough, but it's a necessary skill to master if you want to be successful, according to billionaire John Paul DeJoria. "Be ready for a lot of rejection," DeJoria tells CNBC Make It. "If you're prepared and you know you're going to get a lot of rejection, then it's not going to affect you. Put together, the three experiences show that rejection is inevitable, says DeJoria: "Whether you start a business or not, there's rejection. You're going get it in your personal life and in your business life."

Persons: John Paul DeJoria, it's, It's, Paul Mitchell, DeJoria, hairstylist Paul Mitchell, Patrón, Jenny Wang, Warren Buffett Organizations: CNBC, Bacardi Limited Locations: Houston

☆ Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian: If you want more success than most people, trick your brain into the 'surfer mindset'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The most successful people in life can recognize a window of opportunity, and know when and how to seize it. It's not unlike surfing, according to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. A "surfer's mindset" can help you succeed in both life and business, Ohanian told students in a keynote address at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, last week. Afterward, you might "paddle back out ... and wait five hours for another good wave," he continued. "That mindset is the right mindset for a life well-lived," he said.

Persons: Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, Ohanian, You've, Patrón —, you've, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Huffman, Huffman, Y Combinator Organizations: University of Virginia, CNBC, Global

☆ A-Rod regrets not investing in Amazon, Microsoft or Starbucks in the '90s: 'I wouldn't have to work so hard today'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"If I bought Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks, I wouldn't have to work so hard today." At the time, Microsoft's stock price was $2.35 per share, adjusted for any stock splits or dividends. Today, the company's shares are trading at $334.21 apiece, more than 142 times the price 30 years ago. Similarly, Starbucks, which went public in 1992, was trading at just 74 cents per share when Rodriguez signed his first contract. An investment of only $1,000 at the time would be worth more than $1.7 million today.

Persons: Alex Rodriguez, Seattle —, —, Rodriguez, Corp, he'd, would've, Rodriquez Organizations: Major League Baseball, Star, CNBC, Microsoft, Starbucks, Forbes, Seattle Mariners, Amazon Locations: Seattle

☆ He knew 'nothing' about selling alcohol when he launched Patrón—then he sold it for $5.1 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

When John Paul DeJoria first started selling tequila, he knew plenty about business — but "nothing whatsoever" about the liquor industry, he says. He was convinced he had a product superior to anything else on the market, and he knew he could sell it. Today, Patrón is one of the top-selling tequila brands in the world, selling roughly 3 million cases each year. Forbes currently estimates his net worth at roughly $3 billion. We knew nothing about the business, but we knew it was the best tequila in the world.

Persons: John Paul DeJoria, He'd, DeJoria —, —, hairstylist Paul Mitchell, John Paul Mitchell, DeJoria's, Martin Crowley, DeJoria, Francisco Alcaraz, Clint Eastwood Organizations: CNBC, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Bacardi Limited, Forbes Locations: Mexico, Mexican, Los Angeles, Patrón

☆ What Alex Rodriguez taught his daughters about recovering from major mistakes: ‘You have to stand up, take the hit’
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

When Alex Rodriguez's teen daughters make mistakes, he wants them to feel comfortable enough to come clean to their parents. The 48-year-old former Major League Baseball All-Star, who retired in 2016, has made his own share of high-profile mistakes. It felt particularly important for Rodriguez, whose father left his family when he was 10 years old. It can help relieve anxiety, teach that no one is perfect and model the good behavior of taking responsibility for your actions. It's unrealistic to expect your children to never make mistakes, Rodriguez adds: If his daughters never messed up, he'd worry "they're not pushing hard enough."

Persons: Alex Rodriguez's, Rodriguez, he'd, —, Rod Corp, Natasha, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett Organizations: Major League Baseball, CNBC, Rod, National Basketball Association's Minnesota Timberwolves, University of Michigan, Global

☆ If you don't 'encourage every opportunity' for your kids, you're a more successful parent than most, says Harvard-trained expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sometimes, the best way for parents to help their kids succeed is to hold them back. In many cases, she encountered parents who felt like their children were the ones insisting on signing up for difficult classes and impressive extracurriculars. "The parents that I met who had the healthiest achievers sometimes held their kids back," Wallace tells CNBC Make It. "Our kids see the dissonance between our words and our actions when we exhaust ourselves, trying to secure the best for them," Wallace writes in her book. DON'T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life?

Persons: Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Wallace Organizations: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, CNBC

☆ Arnold Schwarzenegger used 'authoritarian’ parenting—psychologists say there’s a better way for most to raise successful kids
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Arnold Schwarzenegger's role as a father of five children has had its fair share of dramatic moments. Some of them seem somewhat extreme: Schwarzenegger burned a pair of his daughter Katherine's shoes when she was a child after she failed to put them away properly, despite her father's repeated instructions, he said. He grew up with little money and a strict father of his own, and wanted to ensure his children were self-reliant and responsible. Schwarzenegger said he's "really well-bonded with my kids" today and that his adult children often laugh when reflecting on his punishments. For most parents, though, it isn't the best or safest way to keep kids in line, says Zeltser.

Persons: Arnold Schwarzenegger's, —, Schwarzenegger, Francyne Zeltser, Patrick, Katherine Organizations: CNBC Locations: Austrian, California, Schwarzenegger , New York

☆ 43-year-old's bar for women’s sports brought in $1 million in 8 months—this 1 sentence from her business plan made it happen
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In early 2022, Jenny Nguyen sat down to write a business plan for what would become The Sports Bra. That's her one-of-a-kind bar in Portland, Oregon, which only plays women's sports on its TVs and pulled in nearly $1 million in revenue in its first eight months of business. At the time, it was a hypothetical venture — and Nguyen wasn't confident that it would work. Sports bars dot the streets of every city, but Nguyen felt those businesses too often ignored any women's sporting events. DON'T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life?

Persons: Jenny Nguyen, Nguyen wasn't, Nguyen, —, She'd Organizations: Sports, CNBC, Global Locations: Portland , Oregon

☆ Harvard-trained parenting researcher: The most successful kids are ‘healthy strivers’—here’s what their parents always do
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-15 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Raise them to be a "healthy striver," says parenting researcher and author Jennifer Breheny Wallace. Healthy strivers are resilient and self-motivated to succeed, but who don't believe that their accomplishments determine their value as people. Kids who face that mounting pressure to succeed are victims of "toxic achievement culture," Wallace tells CNBC Make It. And when parents regularly voice their concerns about results like grades or sports trophies, it sends a potentially harmful message to their kids: They're only valued for their achievements. Here's how to raise healthy strivers instead, says Wallace.

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

☆ Americans have been scammed out of $2.7 billion in 2.5 years on social media—7 red flags to look out for
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Americans lost $2.7 billion combined to scams originating on social media between January 2021 and June 2023, says a new report from the Federal Trade Commission. The methods are aplenty, from romance scams to fake merchants, or fraudsters who take over your social media profiles and con your friends out of money. In some cases, scammers even create advertisements — using each social media platform's own tools — to target users based on age, interests and past purchases. Those younger users' tech savvy can end up working against them, David McClellan, CEO of cybersecurity startup Social Catfish, told CNBC Make It last year. "These people are overly trusting of the technology they're using, and they're more apt to respond to a stranger messaging them," McClellan said.

Persons: David McClellan, McClellan Organizations: Federal Trade Commission, FTC, CNBC

☆ 'Godfather of AI,' ex-Google researcher: AI might 'escape control' by rewriting its own code to modify itself
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-11 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Geoffrey Hinton, the computer scientist known as a "Godfather of AI," says artificial intelligence-enhanced machines "might take over" if humans aren't careful. "One of the ways these systems might escape control is by writing their own computer code to modify themselves," said Hinton. Humans, including scientists like himself who helped build today's AI systems, still don't fully understand how the technology works and evolves, Hinton said. As Hinton described it, scientists design algorithms for AI systems to pull information from data sets, like the internet. Pichai and other AI experts don't seem nearly as concerned as Hinton about humans losing control.

Persons: Geoffrey Hinton, Hinton, Sundar Pichai, Yann LeCun Organizations: CBS, Google Locations: Hinton

Instead, he's a co-founder of a $400 million food delivery company. Tsao launched the company, Caviar, with four of his best friends from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Building "Groupon for food" didn't work, "so we were like, 'Let's be the Uber for food.'" 'We just blew up'At the time, most of today's food delivery apps didn't exist yet. Five college friends founded Caviar in 2012, at a time when GrubHub and Seamless were the only major online food delivery businesses.

Persons: Shawn Tsao, he's, Tsao, Jack, Uber, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Abel Lin, Andy Zhang, Richard Din, Jason Wang, —, Munch, Groupon, didn't, Postmates, DoorDash, Andreessen Horowitz, Wang Organizations: University of California, CNBC, Investors, Tiger Global Management Locations: Berkeley, Francisco, U.S, Miami

Shawn Tsao, 34, co-founded food delivery app Caviar in 2012 with four of his college classmates and fraternity brothers from the University of California, Berkeley. Before Caviar, Tsao and his co-founders created on Munch On Me, a daily deals app for food. In the ensuing weeks, they decided to switch to an on-demand food delivery app — a novel concept at the time. In 2014, Jack Dorsey's payments company Square — now known as Block — acquired Caviar in an all-stock deal worth more than $100 million, according to Tsao. Five years later, rival food delivery company DoorDash purchased Caviar from Square in a deal worth $410 million.

Persons: Shawn Tsao, Munch, Jack, Tsao Organizations: University of California Locations: Berkeley

☆ Two childhood friends wanted better, cooler earplugs—their startup brought in $44 million last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Maarten Bodewes, left, and Dimitri O are childhood friends and the co-founders of Loop Earplugs. Maarten Bodewes Co-founder, Loop EarplugsEach co-founder spent roughly $40,000 to get Loop off the ground — "as far as I could go on my money," says Bodewes. "[We] 3D printed different prototypes, different shapes, different lengths of canals, sound entries, different filters that we tested," he adds. "The nightlife part is still driving a lot of our sales," Bodewes says. Source: Loop Earplugs

Persons: Maarten Bodewes, Dimitri O, you've, Taylor Swift, They're, ’, ‘, Bodewes, Wired, Loop's earplugs Organizations: CNBC, Microsoft, Saturn, Belgian Locations: Belgian, Brussels, U.S, Europe

☆ Harvard-trained toxic-parenting researcher: Here's the No. 1 thing I never do with my kids
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Teens in the U.S. are more stressed out than ever, and it's causing their mental health to suffer. Parents need to avoid adding to that pressure, says award-winning journalist and parenting researcher Jennifer Breheny Wallace. Her research for the book inspired her to make a big change to her parenting style when it comes to her own three children, she says. "When my kids come in the door, instead of asking them, 'How'd you do on the Spanish quiz?' — which I used to do before I wrote the book — I now ask them, 'What did you have for lunch?'"

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

The business works with more than 300 family farms across the country, and can process up to six million eggs per day. Vital Farms eggs can cost anywhere from $6 to $10 per dozen, multiple times the national average. From Whole Foods to 24,000 storesIt took two years for Vital Farms to turn its first operating profit. Those factors are expensive, and Vital Farms has to convince farmers that the costs are worthwhile. Vital Farms can process up to 6 million eggs per day at the brand's central processing facility in Missouri.

Persons: Matt O'Hayer, he's, O'Hayer, John Mackey, Mackey, It's, Russell Diez, Canseco, Diez, — Organizations: Vital, Rhode, CNBC, Foods, Vital Farms, American Society for, Albertsons, Kroger, Walmart, Care, People, Animals, PETA, Cal, Research Locations: Austin , Texas, U.S, Houston, Austin, Midwest, Publix, Target, O'Hayer, Missouri, Maine

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow Vital Farms turned 27 acres into a $450 million egg empireA self-described "serial entrepreneur," Matt O'Hayer says he's initiated "about 50 businesses" in his lifetime. In 2007, he established Vital Farms, a network of family-run farms dedicated to producing high-quality, pasture-raised eggs. With 27 acres of land and 20 Rhode Island Red hens on a farm near Austin, Texas, Matt's vision came to life: Today, the business has a market capitalization of more than $450 million.

Persons: Matt O'Hayer, he's Organizations: Rhode Locations: Austin , Texas

☆ Harvard grad, bestselling author, and toxic-parenting researcher who spoke to 6,500 moms and dads: The counterintuitive way to help your kids succeed
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

It feels natural to many parents to worry about their kids. In an increasingly uncertain world, you want to ensure they're on the right path and have the tools they need to succeed. But when your worry grows out of control and veers into anxiety, it can negatively affect mental health — yours and your child's. Various studies have found surging mental health issues for college students across the U.S. over the past decade. One recent Healthy Minds Study of 96,000 U.S. college students found that 37% reported suffering from anxiety disorders and 15% said they'd seriously considered suicide within the past year.

Persons: Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Wallace, they'd, I've Organizations: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard, CNBC Locations: U.S

☆ Mark Cuban shares the 'most important' advice he's given his own daughter: 'You don’t have to know what you’re going to be'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Cuban says the "most important" advice he gives his children is simple: It's OK not to know exactly what you want to do with your lives. "Everybody goes through that process of trying to figure out who they are," Cuban, 65, said, adding that he told his daughter: "You don't have to know what you're going to be. And you're changing, and you're evolving." "What you've got to be able to do is be agile and excited about learning — to be curious," Cuban said. If you're curious, and you're agile, you'll get there eventually.

Persons: Mark Cuban, Alexis, she's, Cuban, everything's, you'll, I'd, Tiffany Organizations: Dallas Mavericks, Vanderbilt University, CNBC Locations: Cuban

☆ He was inspired to be a software engineer by a Steve Jobs campus visit—his company just sold for $28 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Michael Baum's cybersecurity software company, Splunk, just sold to Cisco for $28 billion. As soon as I saw MacPaint and MacDraw, I knew I had to figure out how this worked," Baum told U.K.-based The Gentleman Magazine in 2022. Baum went on to establish himself as a serial entrepreneur, building and selling multiple software businesses before 2000. When Splunk went public in 2012, it was valued at roughly $1.6 billion. The "inquisitive nature" that drove him to learn more about Jobs' Macintosh computers "continues to drive me today," Baum told The Gentleman Magazine.

Persons: Michael Baum's, Steve Jobs, Baum, Jobs, Drexel, — Rob Das, Erik Swan —, Splunk, refashioned, he's Organizations: Cisco, Drexel University, Gentleman Magazine, BBC, Reuters, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Walt Disney, Yahoo, Jobs, CNBC Locations: Philadelphia, San Francisco, France's Burgundy

☆ This is the No. 1 'most important' AI skill you need to know, says MIT expert: 'You can learn the basics in 2 hours'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"The single most important skill that everybody has pointed to is these two words: prompt engineering," Agarwal, the chief platform officer of multimillion-dollar education technology company 2U, tells CNBC Make It. Prompt engineering is essentially the skill of refining and inputting text commands for generative AI programs like ChatGPT. "How you ask for something [from a generative AI tool] is very critical," says Agarwal, the founder of online educational platform edX, which was acquired by 2U in 2021. Prompt engineering can particularly help prevent generative AI's biggest current drawback: regular occurrences of mistakes, fabricated information and other errors, all known as "hallucinations." A well-trained engineer "can stop [AI] from hallucinating by providing constraints," creating more accurate and efficient results, Agarwal says.

Persons: Anant Agarwal, Agarwal, He's Organizations: CNBC, MIT, CNBC Technology Locations: hallucinating

☆ 35-year-old CEO of $1.4 billion company: 'Don't let perfect be the enemy of good' is terrible advice
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

You've probably heard the aphorism "perfect is the enemy of good" before. Spenser Skates, the 35-year-old CEO and co-founder of analytics software company Amplitude — which has a market cap of $1.38 billion — disagrees. Yet behind the scenes, the co-founders weren't sold on their own idea — which was "pretty good," but not "the bestest best," Skates says. It's timely advice: Entrepreneurship is on the rise in the U.S., and starting your own business is risky. "For a lot of teams, it's a hard decision, because you're talking about killing your momentum on something and restarting on something else, even when that might be the right decision," Skates says.

Persons: You've, Mark Cuban, Jeff Bezos, Spenser, Curtis Liu, Siri, weren't, That's, —, Liu Organizations: Global Entrepreneurship, Babson College, U.S . Bureau of Labor Statistics, CNBC Locations: Plenty, U.S

☆ 37-year-old quit Amazon and started 20 companies before coming up with Instacart—now he's worth $1.1 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mehta is the 37-year-old co-founder of Instacart, the online grocery delivery startup that went public on Tuesday and now boasts a market value of $8.8 billion. As Instacart's largest individual shareholder, Mehta is now worth a reported $1.1 billion after selling 700,000 shares of the company he launched in San Francisco in 2012. He quit his job and moved to San Francisco with a desire to build his own successful startup but no clear plan, he said. "The reason why I quit my job at Amazon was because I wanted to become an entrepreneur," Mehta said. Y Combinator helped Mehta land $2.3 million in venture capital funding within a few months, and Instacart quickly spread beyond San Francisco.

Persons: Apoorva Mehta, Mehta, CNBC's, Instacart, Y, Combinator Organizations: Instacart, Amazon, Kroger, Costco, SEC, CNBC Locations: San Francisco, Seattle, North America

Search resuls for: "Tom Huddleston"

25 mentions found