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☆ Stanford sociologist on how to succeed at work while raising young kids: 'It's not about being a perfect parent'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Balancing a full-time job with raising young children is a challenge — leading some burned out parents to fully put their careers on hold. And there's just been significant levels of illness among children and their parents," Cooper tells CNBC Make It. But no parent can spend 24 hours a day with their children, and everyone needs to take mental breaks at work. Other companies are more rigid about when and where you're working. Not every job or industry supports remote work, but the normalization of remote or hybrid job openings is one pandemic silver lining.

☆ What this MIT-trained CEO wishes school taught her differently: There's no 'right way' to succeed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

There's no "right way" to become successful. That's what Jasmina Aganovic, the 35-year-old CEO of beauty biotech startup Arcaea, wishes she'd known before she embarked on her career. Aganovic, who has a degree in chemical and biological engineering from MIT, launched Arcaea in 2021 after multiple stints developing products for other biotech companies. Her startup develops lab-grown compounds that mimic common ingredients in beauty products, but in a more effective and sustainable way, she says. School taught her to always search for "the clear, best answer," Aganovic says.

☆ Ex-basketball star thought Nike and Adidas weren't doing enough for Black people—so he built a $30 million competitor
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Lanny Smith wants someone to challenge sportswear giants like Nike, Adidas and Reebok — so much that he's trying to do it himself. Smith, 38, is the founder and CEO of Actively Black, the sportswear company he launched in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd's death. Today, Actively Black is a multimillion-dollar brand, reportedly valued at $30 million in 2021. NBA star Stephen Curry was spotted wearing an Actively Black hoodie during a press conference last year, shortly after former President Barack Obama sported a watch the brand collaborated on. And we were going to build our own table," Smith says.

☆ Esther Wojcicki raised 2 successful CEOs and a doctor—here's why she thinks good grades don't matter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The grades you got in school don't really matter, says educator and bestselling author Esther Wojcicki. "The number one way I think we need to [encourage creative students] is we need to cut the importance of grades." Wojcicki's decades of teaching high school taught her that good grades are overrated, and not a significant indicator of a child's future success. Yet they're an important factor in how the country's education system views students' success and determines their future opportunities, she said in Dubai. "Everybody is fighting for grades and those grades lead to college, and if you don't have those grades you cannot go," Wojcicki said.

☆ 10 in-demand side hustles and jobs you can do from home—one can make almost $100,000 a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The company's 2023 report on the "State of Remote, Freelance Jobs" includes a ranking of the 10 most in-demand job titles for remote, freelance work that companies on FlexJobs' platform hired for in 2022. Topping the list of job titles is "executive assistant," a role that often includes duties such as managing an executive's calendar and taking meeting minutes, according to FlexJobs. 3 despite an annual mean full-time wage of $39,070, according to BLS data. Of course, even though millions of Americans are already getting by as freelancers, leaving the stability of a full-time job to start a freelancing career is not without risks. If you usually have trouble making a solid financial plan and sticking to it, the "feast or famine cycle" of freelancing might not be for you, the FlexJobs report notes.

☆ Donna Kelce raised 2 Super Bowl-winning brothers—here's the No. 1 parenting rule she used
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Donna Kelce had a rule for her children growing up: Once you start something, you have to see it through. Coming into the game, both were already Super Bowl champions, with Travis winning in 2020 and Jason in 2018. When the Kelce brothers were growing up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, their parents always preached good sportsmanship, Donna told parenting website SheKnows. The boys were encouraged to try any sport they wanted to play — football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, hockey, wrestling. "'Once it's over, if you don't like that team, or if you don't like that sport, you don't have to play anymore,'" Kelce said.

☆ How Solo Stove turned backyard fire pits into a $400 million empire
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Sam Rega | 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 EmailHow Solo Stove turned backyard fire pits into a $400 million empireThis is Solo Stove. Known for its smoke-free backyard fire pits and camping stoves, the brand was started in 2011 by brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan. It's grown from Kickstarter campaigns to a $2 billion valuation when it went public in 2021 as Solo Brands under CEO John Merris. That same year, it acquired outdoor brands, Chubbies, Oru Kayak and Isle while generating about $404 million in revenue. Here's how Solo Stove turned fire pits in a multi-million dollar empire.

Brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan didn't have to reinvent the wheel to build a $400 million company with a cult following. Their company, Grapevine, Texas-based Solo Brands, makes the Solo Stove — a backyard fire pit that the Jan brothers describe as a "virtually smokeless" campfire alternative. As of Tuesday morning, the company now has a $406.74 million market cap under the stewardship of CEO John Merris, who signed on in 2018 after meeting with the brothers. "I remember in that first conversation with them, Spencer and Jeff telling me that they had reinvented fire," Merris tells CNBC Make It. Then, the brothers sent Merris home with a Solo Stove — and the first time he tried it out on his Texas ranch, he was "absolutely blown away."

☆ 34-year-old's startup, worth $1.5 billion and backed by Google, wants to make tutoring free for kids everywhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

As college prep season starts, some high schoolers — or their parents — are probably thinking about hiring private tutors to help boost their SAT scores. It makes a difference: Research shows that private tutoring can help improve SAT scores by roughly 37 points, which can make a difference on college applications. The 34-year-old is the CEO and founder of Paper, a Montreal-based virtual learning platform he launched in 2014 to try making private tutoring more financially accessible. He quickly learned that wealthier students often performed better in school, even before they hired private tutors. Over the last five years, the startup has made some of its biggest strides in "large, urban districts," Cutler says.

☆ Asking these questions can help you succeed, says Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky: 'Close your eyes and just think'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Ask lots of questions, says Kind Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky. Lubetzky is no stranger to building a successful business or career. "What's really important is that you ask a lot of questions and be extraordinarily curious," he says. Put away your phone or computer for a whileThe first person you should consult for advice is yourself, Lubetzky says. His advice: Put away your phone or computer and "go on a long walk" so you can ask yourself important questions.

☆ One of Jeff Bezos' secrets to success: The boss should always talk last in meetings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

If you ever find yourself taking a meeting with Jeff Bezos, don't expect the billionaire Amazon founder to speak first. There's a reason Bezos thinks managers should always speak last in business meetings, for example. "I hold a lot of meetings, and I would talk first in a meeting, and [Bezos] goes, 'No, no, no. Similarly, Bezos recommends keeping the meetings themselves as short as possible once the reading period is over, Sanchez said: "Keep meetings under an hour, if you can." Bezos' meeting method is favored by other tech executives, too.

☆ Kind Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky made a $220 million mistake—it turned his startup into a $5 billion company
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Today, Kind is a big name in the snacks industry, reportedly valued at $5 billion when it was acquired by food giant Mars in 2020. There was just a single catch: The deal called for Lubetzky to sell the company within five years. Lubetzky had to assemble $220 million for the deal, a mix of company cash and millions of dollars in bank loans. CNBC Make It: What were you thinking as the deadline to sell Kind approached? I am still a meaningful stakeholder in Kind today, and I still guide them.

☆ Want to quit your job and run your side hustle full time? Start by working at one of these 5 companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In the case of many a successful startup founder, that means working a day job before they're ready to strike out and start their own new business. Multiple big-name companies top the list, according to a new report from small-business lending platform OnDeck, which examined large U.S. companies with high rates of former employees launching their own businesses. The top four companies on OnDeck's list all hail from the consulting world, which isn't surprising: Consultants at those companies are often tasked with helping clients hone their management and business strategies. Goldman Sachs leads the way among financial services companies on OnDeck's rankings, with 5.92% of former employees becoming founders. By focusing primarily on large companies, OnDeck's report doesn't provide a comprehensive list.

☆ Bill Gates says no country ‘gets an A’ for its Covid pandemic response—including the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates says some of the world's governments have handled the spread of Covid-19 better than others, but the billionaire won't give any country a perfect mark. The Microsoft co-founder and health care philanthropist has both praised and criticized multiple world governments' responses to the pandemic since the coronavirus's initial spread in late 2019. Poor Covid responses inspired government spending on future pandemic preparedness in multiple countries, he observed. Gates also applauded Australia's pandemic response last year, noting that the country quickly closed its international borders in March 2020. The U.S. gave that money to companies in multiple countries, resulting in multiple effective Covid vaccines.

☆ Bill Gates is ‘very optimistic’ about the future: ‘Better to be born 20 years from now...than any time in the past’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates spends a lot of his time sounding the alarm over existential global threats, like climate change and future pandemics. Yet the billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist says he's still "very optimistic" about humanity's future on Earth. Even with challenges facing current and future generations, Gates says anyone born in the next few decades will be better off than people born at any previous point in history. Gates asked, noting that the average lifespan for human beings has vastly improved over the past three centuries. "So, the scope of human innovation over time ... is a phenomenal story."

☆ The 3 biggest reasons startups failed in 2022, according to a poll of almost 500 founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Knowing the biggest risks that most commonly cause new startups to fail could make the difference between whether your own business sinks or swims. And roughly 20% of new businesses fail within their first year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Luckily, some new research can shed some light on the biggest recent obstacles that have thwarted startups. Skynova, which makes invoicing software for small businesses, surveyed 492 startup founders in November 2022 and analyzed startup data from CB Insights for the new study that looks at the most common reasons behind startup failures in 2022. The study notes that 47% of startup failures in 2022 were due to a lack of financing, nearly double the percentage that failed for the same reason in 2021, based on CB Insight's data.

☆ Mark Cuban: ‘People thought I was an idiot’ for launching the company I sold for billions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Take Broadcast.com, the pioneering audiov streaming company that made Mark Cuban a billionaire. In 1995, Cuban was living off of the roughly $2 million in proceeds from the sale of his first tech company, MicroSolutions. But it was great timing for Cuban, who sold most of his stock before the market crashed. "[It's] the origin story of streaming," Cuban told CBS. I'll just turn on the radio,'" Cuban said on a 2021 episode of the "Starting Greatness" podcast.

☆ Startup funding has tanked over the past year—and recession fears are to blame
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Startup investors are doing it, too. Venture capital investors are pumping the brakes on aggressive funding of startups, spooked by an uncertain economic picture, plunging tech industry stock prices and growing recession fears. Another prominent factor behind the steep drop: stock market turmoil causing tech startup valuations to plummet, freezing the market for IPOs and resulting in widespread tech layoffs, Crunchbase suggested in a blog post. Many investors expected inflation to be under control sooner, along with a slight rise in interest rates, Grabow notes. As a result, VCs have pulled back significantly on the aggressive funding trends of 2021, Grabow says.

☆ Mark Cuban says he doesn't need his billions: I'd ‘for sure’ be just as happy with 1% of my net worth
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Mark Cuban says he'd be just as happy today without as much as 99% of his estimated $4.6 billion fortune. In an interview with CBS's "Sunday Morning" on Sunday, the 64-year-old owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks was adamant that he doesn't need his billions. When asked if he'd be happy with "1% of what you're worth," Cuban replied, "Yes. One percent of $4.6 billion — Forbes's current estimate of Cuban's net worth — is still $46 million, a lot more than many people see in a lifetime. In 1999, Yahoo paid $5.7 billion in stock to acquire the company, turning Cuban into an instant billionaire.

☆ This restaurant started as a Mexican beach-side taco stand in a $3,000 VW bus—soon, it could come to a block near you
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Today, it's a fast-casual Mexican restaurant chain with 15 locations across New York, Miami and Washington, D.C. That's a far cry from Tacombi's beach days, which started when Wolos bought his 1963 green VW "bus" in Mexico City for $3,000. Wolos converted the van into a mobile restaurant where he sold his first tacos, he told Total Food Service in November. He wrote a business plan for a restaurant chain concept called "Taco Rex" where he'd sell Mexican food that was, to him, actually Mexican. "I saw that Taco Bell, Chipotle and Old El Paso and all these legacy brands of Mexican food weren't connecting people to this side of Mexico."

☆ BMW’s first 'color-changing' concept car is here—and the tech could be used in everything from e-readers to smartwatches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

What if the color of your car could change based on your mood or the weather? That's the idea — or, at least, one of the ideas— behind BMW's new "i Vision Dee" concept car, a midsize electric sports sedan covered in futuristic panels that can change color on demand. BMW describes it as the world's first "color-changing" car. The car can cycle between 32 different solid exterior colors, with mix-and-match capabilities due to its 240 different panel segments. As with any concept vehicle, the technology behind the Dee's color-changing capabilities is likely years away from consumer availability.

☆ LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault: World's richest person admires Buffett, Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That would be France's Bernard Arnault, the 73-year-old co-founder and CEO of LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate known for operating iconic brands like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Christian Dior. He still holds a 97.5% stake in the iconic French luxury fashion house. How did he become the world's wealthiest person? Amid global market turmoil, Arnault's wealth has held fairly steady in recent months. The vast majority of Arnault's wealth is tied to LVMH's stock, and since 2020, the company's stock price has grown by nearly 65% overall.

☆ Worried about the economy? These 5 successful companies were started during the Great Recession
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Multiple high-profile startups that did just that after launching during the Great Recession, which ran from late-2007 to the summer of 2009. It's proof that even tough times aren't enough to prevent every great idea from growing into a flourishing business — especially if your idea can save other people money during tough times. Today, Groupon has more than 20 million active customers — a lot, but less than half of its 54 million customers in 2014. The app currently has more than 90 million users. In 2018, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told CNBC that he's seen Venmo help people who grew up during the Great Recession become more thoughtful about taking care of their money.

☆ Stop complaining, says billionaire investor Charlie Munger: 'Everybody's five times better off than they used to be'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Billionaire Charlie Munger thinks we should all be a lot happier. During that annual meeting, Munger complained that envy is a driving factor for too many people today. In 2019, Munger downplayed the effects of wealth and income inequality, and claimed that the politicians who were "screaming about it are idiots." At the Daily Journal's annual meeting this year, he added that most people's concerns over wealth inequality and criticisms of the extremely wealthy were "motivated" by envy. Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletterDon't miss: Billionaire investor Charlie Munger: ‘The world is not driven by greed, it’s driven by envy’

☆ Mark Cuban’s advice for young people starting a business: ‘It really comes down to one simple thing’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Billionaire Mark Cuban was only 12 years old when he launched his first side hustle, so he knows what it takes to start a business at a young age. And, he says there's one simple thing you need to consider if you want to do it, too. "If it's a product, do something that's easy for you to get and easy for you to sell," Cuban said, adding: "It really comes down to one simple thing. As long as you don't mind putting in that work, especially after you choose your business opportunity, a world of opportunity can open up for you, Cuban told the high school students. "If you're willing to take the initiative and start a business, anything is possible," he said.

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