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☆ These 2 activities can help you raise smarter kids, says brain study: They're 'associated with improved cognition'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

"Improved diet quality and increased organized sports and reading were associated with improved cognition," the neuroscientists wrote. One particular part of the study's findings stands out: the suggestion that structured physical activity, like organized sports, can improve kids' cognitive skills. The finding builds on past research, which showed a clear link between increased physical activity and improved brain function, including memory and learning ability. Team sports especially offer a mental health boost by blending physical activity with social development. Still, experts often recommend a healthy mix of structured and unstructured play for children: The former can provide more targeted learning, while the latter can help foster creativity and self-motivation.

Persons: Neuroscientists Organizations: University of Eastern, National Institutes of Health, Team Locations: University of Eastern Finland

☆ Investor who studied at Harvard's 'Happiness Lab' shares the No. 1 thing that 'actually drives happiness'—it isn't money
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Alexa von Tobel learned at Harvard University that money doesn't buy happiness. But despite her own financial success, von Tobel, 39, says she's derived the most happiness throughout her career from "the intangibles that money can't buy." "Through my time at Harvard's Happiness Lab during my undergrad years, I really gained a new perspective on what drives happiness," von Tobel tells CNBC Make It, adding: "What actually drives happiness are the simple routines and the daily rituals in our lives that create community and connectedness." In college, von Tobel earned Magna Cum Laude honors for a senior thesis on happiness in the small country of Bhutan, according to her LinkedIn profile. "The daily effort drives happiness, not the outcome," says von Tobel.

Persons: Alexa von Tobel, She's, von Tobel, she's, Von Tobel, Tal Ben, Shahar, Shawn Achor, It's, Warren Buffett Organizations: Harvard University, Northwestern Mutual, Harvard, CNBC, Magna Cum Laude Locations: Bhutan, LearnVest

☆ 37-year-old launched a bank specifically for Black-owned businesses—to help fix 'a problem for everybody'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Ifill — who is Black — watched businesses in her Brooklyn community struggle to stay afloat, their frustrations with traditional banks front and center. In January, she launched Guava, an online banking platform aimed specifically at Black small-business owners. For context, Mercury — another online bank for startups — topped 100,000 customers in three years, according to TechCrunch. Many large banks boast millions of small-business customers each. "Especially for Black people [and] especially for immigrants in this country."

Persons: Kelly Ifill, Ifill —, Black, Ifill Organizations: CNBC, TechCrunch Locations: Brooklyn , New York, Brooklyn

☆ Mark Cuban passed on an early Uber investment—his $250,000 would be worth $2.3 billion today: ‘Whoops’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"Just think: If I would've given him $250,000 on a [$10 million] valuation, it'd be billions," Cuban said. Specifically, given Uber's market capitalization of $90.1 billion as of Friday, Cuban's $250,000 would be worth $2.25 billion today. But, still," said Cuban, whose net worth is currently estimated at $5.1 billion. Cuban and Kalanick already had history at the time: Cuban invested $1.7 million in Kalanick's previous venture, a peer-to-peer networking startup called Red Swoosh, in 2005. However, Cuban said he didn't agree with Kalanick's $10 million valuation of the startup at the time: "I said, 'I'll do it at [a] $5 million valuation...' for Uber!"

Persons: Mark Cuban's, Uber, Travis Kalanick, Kevin Hart's Peacock, Hart, Cuban's, Kalanick, Cuban, Troy Carter, Carter, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett Organizations: Uber, Cuban, SXSW, CNBC

☆ 29-year-old’s self-driving car startup was born in a garage—now it has Bill Gates’ attention and a $1 billion valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Since launching Wayve in 2017, CEO Alex Kendall has often felt like the self-driving car industry's mostly ignored little brother. In 2017, Kendall got a Ph.D. in deep learning and computer vision at the University of Cambridge. While there, he helped develop a deep learning algorithm for a computer vision concept called "semantic segregation." A delivery van outfitted with Wayve's autonomous driving software is part of the fleet of vehicles making grocery deliveries across London. When he and Kendall launched Wayve, "many of the big technology giants had just put billions of dollars of funding into building autonomous vehicles," Kendall says.

Persons: Alex Kendall, Kendall, Amar Shah, Wayve, Bill Gates, we've, it's, Shah, I've Organizations: Microsoft, Virgin, CNBC, University of Cambridge, PACE, Eclipse Ventures Locations: London, South, Cambridge, Asda, Kendall

☆ Bill Gates says A.I. could transform education: It 'will be like a great high school teacher' who always gives useful feedback
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates has a vision for how artificial intelligence could transform education — by mimicking your favorite high school English teacher. "Very few students get feedback [from software programs] on an essay that this could be clearer, you really skipped this piece and the reasoning," Gates said. Gates stopped short of saying AI could — or should — ever replace human teachers. Rather, chatbots could assist overworked teachers and help "close the [education] gap" for low-income students around the world, he said. Khan Academy is also experimenting with using the tool to help facilitate student discussions, potentially providing "an army of teaching assistants for every teacher," Khan added.

Persons: Bill Gates, chatbots, Gates, Sal Khan, Bing, Khan, Tovah Klein, Klein, Warren Buffett Organizations: Khan, Microsoft, Khan Academy, New York Times, Barnard College, CNBC

☆ Bill Gates watched ChatGPT ace an AP Bio exam and went into 'a state of shock': 'Let's see where we can put it to good use'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Even tech icon Bill Gates says he was caught off-guard by the rapid development of artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT. The story began last June when Gates first tested the AI-powered chatbot — developed by Microsoft partner OpenAI — and came away unimpressed. Two months later, OpenAI's developers came back, and Gates watched ChatGPT achieve the top score of five on the test. "I'm still, personally, in a state of shock at 'Wow, it is so good,'" Gates said. Still, the rapid development left Gates thoroughly impressed, and excited about the technology's potential applications: "Let's see where we can put it to good use," he said.

Persons: Bill Gates, Gates, Sal Khan, OpenAI —, Sam Altman, I'm Organizations: Khan, Microsoft, AP

☆ 3 friends pooled $3,000 to sell T-shirts—they've brought in over $250 million since 2019
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

When Bartlett and a couple friends pooled $3,000 to launch men's apparel brand True Classic in 2019, he'd never sold clothing before. But the idea behind True Classic, affordable shirts built to flatteringly fit the everyman, seemed to resonate with people. The mistake, he says, nearly put True Classic out of business. Now, finally, True Classic is once again positioned to compete with direct-to-consumer rivals like Everlane and Vuori, and clothing giants like Nike and Ralph Lauren. True Classic spent $40 million on its first inventory order for the year.

Persons: Ryan Bartlett's, Bartlett, he'd, — Nick Ventura, Matthew Winnick —, Ralph Lauren, who'd, should've, couldn't Organizations: CNBC, Nike, Facebook Locations: Los Angeles, Ventura

☆ The No. 1 thing successful people never do, from an investor who sold her startup for $375 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

It takes confidence to launch your own business, but overconfidence can be a recipe for failure. That's why Alexa von Tobel warns not to get too caught up in your own success. People were clearly excited about the business, and von Tobel knew she'd "hit [on] something" with the idea. As a first-time entrepreneur, von Tobel didn't get carried away with her company's early success. Making sure you retain some "healthy paranoia" doesn't mean you have to live in constant fear of failure, von Tobel notes, or be afraid of celebrating wins, in order to be successful.

Persons: Alexa von Tobel, LearnVest, von Tobel, she'd, didn't, von Tobel didn't, Warren Buffett Organizations: CNBC, Northwestern Mutual Locations: Harvard

☆ William Friedkin, acclaimed 'Exorcist' director, dead at 87
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Director William Friedkin attends a walking tour around Georgetown that focused on some of the film locations from the original Exorcist in Washington D.C., U.S. April 17, 2018. "The French Connection" won five Academy Awards, including best picture, best director for Friedkin and best actor for Gene Hackman, who Friedkin initially did not want in the memorable role of New York narcotics detective Popeye Doyle. "The Exorcist" was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best picture and best director for Friedkin. In "The French Connection," cops played by Hackman and Roy Scheider in the decaying New York City of the early 1970s track a French heroin smuggler. William David Friedkin was born on Aug. 29, 1935, and grew up in Chicago, the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants.

Persons: William Friedkin, Carlos Barria, ", Friedkin, Sonny, Cher, Gene Hackman, Popeye Doyle, Linda Blair, Tom Huddleston, they're, William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, Ashley Judd, Joe, Matthew McConaughey, Billy, Hackman, Roy Scheider, William Peter Blatty's, Blair, Oscar, levitates, Mercedes McCambridge, Al Pacino, Gay, William David Friedkin, Sherry Lansing, Jeanne Moreau, Lesley, Anne Down, Kelly Lange, Will Dunham, Danielle Broadway, Bill Trott, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Washington D.C, REUTERS, Creative Artists Agency, Chicago TV, Thomson Locations: Georgetown, Washington, York, L.A, New York City, Chicago, Hollywood, Los Angeles

☆ Ivy League child psychologist: Let your kid use ChatGPT—but only if you do these 3 things first
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"Certainly for younger children, for elementary age [and] preschoolers, they definitely need adult involvement navigating the digital world period, let alone a digital world which may have that much more ... inaccurate information," she adds. Even without the concern of misinformation, you should still supervise your kids' AI sessions for a simple reason, says Klein: You understand context and nuance better than machines do. Covid-era research shows that remote-learning wasn't particularly effective for younger children — and, in some ways, may have been harmful to their behavioral and learning development. "Interacting with humans is so important for children: It's how they learn to relate and to read people and to read cues. Even if the child's struggling, that kind of feedback is really important," Klein says.

Persons: Bill Gates, chatbots, Tovah Klein, Barnard, Klein, —, we're Organizations: Microsoft, Barnard College Center, Development, Columbia University

☆ How a Harvard grad school dropout launched a startup during the Great Recession—and sold it for $375 million in just 7 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In 2007, while working as a Morgan Stanley analyst, von Tobel started working on a 75-page business plan. A year later, she entered Harvard Business School, assuming she'd need training and connections to launch a successful startup. She credits her detailed business plan, and her conviction that she could tap into an underserved market of people who urgently needed help. Fast forward, I went to Harvard and Harvard Business School, and I remember being taken aback that there was zero education about the wallet and our finances. I was in this extremely cozy, safe cocoon with a clear life plan.

Persons: von Tobel, Morgan Stanley, Von Tobel, Von, hadn't, would've Organizations: CNBC, Harvard Business School, Northwestern Mutual, Harvard, Alexa Locations: New York, America

☆ CEO shares the 2 strategies he uses to prevent a toxic workplace: Embracing ‘honest feedback’ and 'celebrating failure'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Nucci co-founded Guru, a 150-employee Philadelphia-based enterprise software startup, in 2013. He'd launched a startup before — a cloud software startup called Boomi, which was acquired by Dell in 2010 and then sold for $4 billion in 2021 — but he'd never been a CEO. He quickly realized that his words "carried a certain weight" as everyone's boss, he says. In a sense, Nucci discouraged a specific kind of toxic atmosphere, where rampant aggressive criticism results in downtrodden employees. By doing so, he put Guru on a path to a different type of toxic workplace, he says — where a lack of honest and clear communication could lead to languishing projects and frustrations boiling over.

Persons: Rick Nucci, Nucci, He'd, he'd, Guru Organizations: Dell, CNBC, Workers Locations: Philadelphia

☆ Mark Cuban says his 13-year-old son is a 'little mini-me,' selling candy at school: 'He's hustling'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Mark Cuban believes he became a billionaire because he's been hustling and selling since childhood. Cuban recently bragged about his 13-year-old son Jake's side hustle selling candy at school on an episode of comedian Kevin Hart's Peacock talk show "Hart to Heart." "He's hustling and selling stuff all of the time," Cuban said in the interview, adding that Jake is tracking and organizing his efforts, too. "He shows me his spreadsheet because he's buying candy and selling it at school," Cuban told Hart, chuckling. Hart noted that Cuban must have been "mind-blown" to see his son taking a candy side hustle so seriously.

Persons: Mark Cuban, he's, Cuban, Kevin Hart's Peacock, Hart, Jake, wouldn't, Cuban's Organizations: Dallas Mavericks, Cuban

☆ 23-year-old's food businesses bring in $650,000 a year: 'I’m a brown kid with tattoos and no college education, and I’m doing it'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Ashton Jackson Tom Huddleston Jr. Zachary Green | Ashton Jackson | Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

[Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Nico Vergara worked at Zeds Real Fruit Ice Cream before launching his business. And it all started with a small New Zealand-style "real fruit" ice cream cart in Portland, Oregon. Vergara helped manage a business, Zed's Real Fruit Ice Cream, that used the machine before starting his own in 2021. Most of that revenue — $473,000 — came solely from Nico's Ice Cream. One piece of equipment was particularly important: the ice cream blender, made by a Hope, New Zealand-based company called Little Jem.

Persons: Nico Vergara, Vergara, he'd, Jem Organizations: CNBC, Cream, Apple Locations: New Zealand, Portland , Oregon, Portland, Oregon, Washington, Mexican, Zealand, Hope , New Zealand

Today, Nico's Ice Cream includes two brick-and-mortar locations in Portland and pints sold in about 60 grocery stores across Oregon and Washington. Within a year, one ice cream cart became two brick-and-mortar locations, a Mexican restaurant and a cafe that closed almost as quickly as it opened. Most of that revenue — $473,000 — came solely from Nico's Ice Cream. One piece of equipment was particularly important: the ice cream blender, made by a Hope, New Zealand-based company called Little Jem. Vergara, working at one of his two Nico's Ice Cream locations.

Persons: Nico Vergara, Vergara, he'd, Jem Organizations: Zealand, CNBC, Cream, Apple Locations: New Zealand, Portland , Oregon, Portland, Oregon, Washington, Mexican, Zealand, Hope , New Zealand

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow I turned my love of 'real fruit' ice cream into $650K in salesIn 2021, Nico Vergara sank all the money he earned playing the stock market and working in the service industry into an ice cream cart. He planned to sell a special kind of ice cream blended with real fruit and open a shop in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Now, Nico's Ice Cream has two brick-and-mortar locations in Portland, helping Vergara also open a restaurant, Nico's Cantina. At the age of 23, he's bringing in $650,000 in annual sales from all of his ventures.

Persons: Nico Vergara, Vergara Locations: Portland , Oregon, Portland

☆ This couple raised CEOs of two multimillion-dollar tech startups—here's their No. 1 parenting secret
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Usha and Balu Viswanathan pose with their children, Nikil (far left) and Tara (far right). Balu and Usha Viswanathan always tried to instill good values, a strong work ethic and confidence in their two children, Nikil and Tara. That year, with Nikil and Tara still in grade school, the couple launched a tech consulting business. They were inspired by the stories of Silicon Valley, with founders building successful tech businesses from scratch to take advantage of the late-1990s internet boom. Usha Viswanathan

Persons: Usha, Balu Viswanathan, Balu, Usha Viswanathan, Tara, Nikil, Viswanathan, We'd Organizations: Rupa Health, SEC, CNBC, U.S . Bureau of Labor Statistics, Starnik Systems, U.S . Air Force Locations: Tara, Lubbock , Texas, Lubbock, Silicon Valley, India

☆ Is there a 'right' age for kids to be on social media? 'I certainly don't think anyone under 13' should use it, expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

What's the best age for kids to start using social media? Surgeon General Vivek Murphy that social media presents a "profound risk" for the mental health of adolescents and teens. Murphy's warning, which came with recommendations for how the tech industry can revamp social media platforms to make them safer, follows a similar health advisory issued by the APA earlier this month. That's easier said than done, especially when all your kids' friends have social media accounts. "We have no psychological science demonstrating that kids will suffer for not being on social media," Prinstein says.

☆ 37-year-old owed $5,000 in tickets—now he's sold more than $1 billion worth of parking reservations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

If he hadn't been laid off or racked up $5,000 in parking tickets, Mark Lawrence might have never launched his digital parking company. SpotHero declined to provide revenue figures, but its website notes that it takes a 35% cut of each reservation. The company has other revenue streams, too — like selling price data analysis to parking sellers, for example. "The whole idea was that there's not enough parking, [and] how do we make it easy to park?" Turns out, there was actually plenty of parking, he says: "You just don't know where it is."

☆ CEO who manages $1.5 billion in assets shares her No. 1 investment tip for women: ‘Just do it’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sallie Krawcheck's biggest piece of advice for women investors is simple: Invest some money. After Wall Street CEO and CFO jobs at places like Citibank and Smith Barney, Krawcheck co-founded Ellevest, a digital investment and wealth management platform, in 2014. One in 10 women say they don't fully understand investing, and only about 28% feel confident investing, the BNY Mellon report noted. "Women will not invest if they don't understand, [but] men will invest anyway." That trend is good news for a platform like Ellevest, which has raised $144 million in funding since launching and manages more than $1.5 billion in assets from women investors.

☆ You're right to be scared of A.I., says Ivy League expert and White House advisor—these 5 guardrails can protect 'against harm'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

On Monday, researcher Geoffrey Hinton, known as "The Godfather of AI," said he'd left his post at Google, citing concerns over potential threats from AI development. Google CEO Sundar Pichai talked last month about AI's "black box" problem, where even its developers don't always understand how the technology actually works. Among the other concerns: AI systems, left unchecked, can spread disinformation, allow companies to hoard users personal data without their knowledge, exhibit discriminatory bias or cede countless human jobs to machines. In the "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights," Venkatasubramanian helped lay out proposals for "ethical guardrails" that could safely govern and regulate the AI industry. With them in place, most people would barely notice the difference while using AI systems, he says.

☆ The most effective—but unpopular—way to raise happy kids, says Ivy League child psychologist
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The key to raising a happy child is to allow them to be unhappy. It might sound counter-intuitive, but it's highly effective, says Tovah Klein, a child psychologist and author of the book "How Toddlers Thrive." "We all think the way to raise our children to be happy is to make them happy. When a child is upset, parents often instinctively look to cheer them up or distract them. You could ask an upset child to take a deep breath and attempt to put their feelings into words, experts say.

☆ Sallie Krawcheck says a single decision was almost ‘the end of my career’—instead it launched her to Wall Street stardom
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Sallie Krawcheck's legendary Wall Street career almost ended soon after it began. The move was slammed by her Wall Street peers. On Wall Street, the consensus is often seen as the safest bet. You were among the first female CEOs on Wall Street. The upside to running one of these storied Wall Street firms is [that] I'm going to get to turn it around, I'm going to learn a tremendous amount, I'm going to do something no one else has done.

☆ These are the 7 best large U.S. cities for starting a new business—New York and D.C. don't fare well
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Launching a small business is a challenge, especially these days. The top four cities on the ranking are all Floridian, largely due to criteria like low unemployment and relatively low corporate tax rates. Florida ranked 11th on CNBC's own list of the top U.S. states for businesses in 2022, for similar reasons. For those who don't want to move to Florida, cities like Durham and Boise offer bona fide alternatives. Join CNBC's Small Business Playbook virtually on May 4th, where entrepreneurs will share advice and tips on how to handle economic uncertainty, inflation and more so your business can succeed for the short-term and the long-term.

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