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☆ Alexa Von Tobel Is the Super Connector of New York's Buzzy Tech Scene
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Inspired Capital co-founders Lucy Deland (left), Alexa von Tobel (center), and Mark Batsiyan (right) speak to portfolio companies at the firm's annual founder dinner in June 2024. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, von Tobel attended Harvard University, where she graduated with a degree in psychology. AdvertisementInspired Capital co-founders Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker. Inspired Capital founding partners Mark Batsiyan, Lucy Deland, Alexa von Tobel, and Penny Pritzker. Although von Tobel was on vacation outside the country, she stepped away from a fancy dinner to take McNulty Rojas's call and brainstorm solutions.

Persons: Alexa von Tobel, she's, Lucy Deland, Mark Batsiyan, It's, von Tobel, Capital's, who's, Zuckerburg, I've, Morgan Stanley, —, LearnVest, Batsiyan, Alexa, they'd, von Tobel's, Penny Pritzker, Obama, Brynne McNulty Rojas, — von Tobel, McNulty Rojas, Habi, Tobel, Von, Deland, it's, von, McNulty, hasn't, guac, She's, Benjamin Vandiver, Ivan Zhao, Lindsey Vonn Organizations: Flatiron, Business, New York VC, Harvard University, Facebook, Harvard Business School, Accel Partners, American Express Ventures, Northwest Mutual, LearnVest, Ventures, Northwest, Capital, Harvard, of Commerce, America Fund, Tiger Global Management, II, Alexa, Inc, Magazine, Winder, New York Locations: Jacksonville , Florida, New York, Deland, Miami, Latin America, York

☆ OpenAI's releasing a new AI model soon, and there's a lot at stake
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. In today's big story, what to expect from OpenAI's newest AI model that's in the works. GPT-5, the newest model upgrade for OpenAI's chatbot, is coming soon . AdvertisementOpenAI has a lot riding on its newest model, including its ability to get customers to cough up more cash. That's not ideal for a company that's preparing to take on one of the biggest juggernauts in tech: Google's Search.

Persons: —, Z's, Let's, Nordin Catic, OpenAI, Darius Rafieyan, Darius, ChatGPT, Justin Sullivan, Chelsea Jia Feng, it's, Sam Altman, Ned Davis, David Solomon, Goldman Sachs, David Zalubowski, Chiang Ying, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Alexa von Tobel, Tyler Le, Mark Zuckerberg's, It's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Annie Smith, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, Business, Getty, OpenAI, Ned Davis Research, Blackstone, Harvard, Microsoft, Starbucks, Apple, Apple Intelligence, Fed, Meta, Boeing, Kraft Locations: undergrad, New York, China, London

☆ Harvard-trained investor says this is the 'really powerful' financial lesson she wishes she’d learned at a young age
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Alexa von Tobel realized the importance of being financially savvy at a young age, but she still wishes she'd learned more about money as a kid. Like most children in the U.S., von Tobel received "no formal education" on personal finance. "Appreciating that you can have your dollars work hard for you, and on behalf of you, is a really powerful concept," von Tobel says. 'A skill set that you need for your whole life'Given her success as a fintech founder and investor, von Tobel clearly mastered that particular financial lesson eventually. "That concept is very powerful," von Tobel says.

Persons: Alexa von Tobel, she'd, von Tobel, Von Tobel's, von Tobel's, von, Von Tobel Organizations: Harvard University, CNBC, Northwestern Mutual Locations: U.S

☆ 3 simple ways to teach your kid about money and 'change their life,' says Harvard-trained investor and author
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Money is, simply, "a tool to help you live the life you want to," von Tobel says. Keep it practicalTalk to your kids about money in ways that make sense to them, von Tobel advises. "When you're walking through a store and your child wants something, pick it up [and] show them the price," says von Tobel. Adults often associate money with stress, because they're only thinking about "the things you didn't have," von Tobel says. "Trying to orient kids to have very positive, empowering moments around money early in their lives, we know from data [that] can change their life."

Persons: Alexa von Tobel, Von Tobel, It's, von Tobel, doesn't, Tobel Organizations: Harvard University, Northwestern Mutual, National Financial Educator's, CNBC

☆ Our crisis of loneliness, the new bet investors are going after
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Not long after founding the startup, Gaon shared his vision with famed venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. It was notable to Gaon at the time that Andreessen — "one of those investors who's known for seeing where the market is going" — appeared to have pinpointed loneliness as its own market. That moved her parents, Cindy and Anne Jordan, who had sold their first healthtech company years before, to found the Arizona company Pyx Health. "The loneliness crisis is bigger, and more urgent, than anything I've worked on before," Nyborg wrote in a blog post. Inspired debuted a thesis in 2020 that identified loneliness as a key focus for the firm to invest in.

Persons: Benjamin Gaon, Boaz Gaon, Benny, Gaon, Marc Andreessen, Andreessen, Wisdo, —, Anne Wojcicki, Marius Nacht, Andreessen Horowitz, Vivek Murthy, Betsy Hoover, Bumble, Rylie Sarabia, Cindy, Anne Jordan, policyholders, Dawn Owens, it's, Owens, Julie Rice, Elizabeth Cutler, Rice, Peoplehood, Phil Levin, Levin, Culdesac, Renate Nyborg, I've, Nyborg, Hugo Amsellem, He's, Ava, Catalyst, Nate Tepper, Tepper, Adam Besvinick, Frances Haugen, Hoover, Alexa von Tobel, von Tobel, David Spinks Organizations: Pyx, Labs, verve, Investors, Pyx Health, TT Capital Partners, New, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capita, AI Fund, NEA, AIs, Looking Glass, Anonymous, Glass, Facebook, Bloomberg Locations: Arizona, Minneapolis, New York, Ava, France, Peoplehood, Hopscotch

☆ Andrew Bialecki built Klaviyo into an email titan by breaking all the norms. Now he's taking it public as its largest shareholder.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Andrew Bialecki is preparing to take Boston startup Klaviyo public eleven years after founding it. Bialecki, who cofounded the marketing tech company in 2012, owns more than a third of Klaviyo, according to the company's recent S-1 filing. In the last eleven years, the 37-year-old has quietly built the hottest Boston startup you've never heard of. For comparison, HubSpot's Brian Halligan and Toast's Chris Comparato reported salaries of roughly $240,000 before taking their Boston startups public. Bialecki has also sold few shares of Klaviyo in inside rounds, according to two people familiar with the company's financials.

Persons: Andrew Bialecki, Jason Lemkin, Peter Walker, Klaviyo, Yankee frugality, Barry Chin, Ed Hallen, Hallen, Bialecki, Alexa von, TJ Mahony, he's, Elias Torres, Bootstrapping, Jon Karlen, Karlen, Mahony, Alex Clayton, frugality, HubSpot's Brian Halligan, Toast's Chris Comparato Organizations: Boston Globe, Getty, MIT's Sloan School of Management, Capital, Harvard University, Predictive Technologies, Fortune, Red Sox, Meritech Capital, Boston, Black, Patriots Locations: Boston, Coast, Bialecki, Washington, DC, Klaviyo, Braze, Miami

☆ 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

☆ 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

☆ 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

☆ Venture capitalists in New York City are ditching Patagonia vests for statement jackets and designer sneakers. Here's how 7 VCs are making personal style part of the job.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

New York's venture capital scene is rapidly growing as more West Coast firms move in. Several of New York's venture capitalists said they draw their style from the city's vibrant arts scene. But now, some venture capitalists don't necessarily see the merit in dressing like one another. Whether it's a leather skirt, a pair of sneakers, or a fleece vest, most venture capitalists told Insider that their work style boils down to one thing: personal power. Here are seven venture capitalists who take their style as seriously as their investments.

☆ Startup founders are panicked amid a market meltdown, but most VCs don't want to hear it. 'It's like don't ask, don't tell.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"It's like don't ask, don't tell," Josh Felser, a successful founder and outspoken investor, said. The following report on how startup founders are coping with the funding crunch was originally published on August 4. Seven Seven Six partner Katelin Holloway. Her investor, Seven Seven Six, pays for its founders to participate. Caleb Frankel, whose Seven Seven Six-backed startup, EarlyBird, helps families invest in their kid's financial future, wants desperately to have kids, but he and his wife have struggled with pregnancy loss.

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