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☆ I was scrubbing toilets at In-N-Out and needed to turn my life around. Now I make up to $17,000 a month as a self-taught copywriter.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Michael Clendenen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After consuming marketing and copywriting material, he sent businesses letters and landed clients. Now he makes up to $17,000 a month in profit and brings in six figures monthly for his clients. I got a job at In-N-Out Burger, and after a year of working there, I asked my boss for a raise. One of the first groups of people I started working with was chiropractors because I felt strongly about the work they did. Even to this day, when I want to bring on new clients, I send out a new batch of letters.

Persons: Michael Clendenen, —, Burger, Little, I'm, who's, Gary Halbert, Halbert, Barnes & Noble, I'd, I've Organizations: Service, Fortune, Barnes & Locations: Arizona, chihuahua, USA

☆ I left a troubled San Francisco for Croatia and regret it. My hometown's problems keep getting worse, but Dubrovnik has its downsides too.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Ashley Couto | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

She and her partner didn't want to move home to San Francisco long term because of rising crime. In 2016, I quit my job as a manager at a government agency in San Francisco to go traveling. San Francisco is not what it used to beI grew up in San Francisco, and that's where my family lives. You can't avoid homelessness anywhere, but the homelessness problem in San Francisco has become overwhelming. After we got married, we traveled to South America for eight months before I returned to San Francisco to visit my parents.

Persons: Gigi Chow, didn't, —, we'd, There's, Croatia We'd, Expats, you'll, I'm, It's, Roger, I'd Organizations: Service, Food Locations: San Francisco, Croatia, Dubrovnik, Europe, Asia, America, Barcelona, Spain, South America, Adriatic, It's, Francisco, California, Thailand, East Asia

☆ Stop using the phrase 'soft skills,' says millionaire bestselling author—here's what to do instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

When you think of the phrase "soft skills," you probably think of a few specific traits: emotional intelligence, interpersonal ability, an adeptness at communication. That's fine, says millionaire bestselling author Seth Godin — just stop calling them "soft." AI has already automated some traditional vocational skills, from coding and data analysis to copywriting and even architectural design. That's why many companies pay "less attention to soft skills when hiring," Godin wrote. Eighty-nine percent of employers say poor soft skills are a sign of a "bad hire," according to a LinkedIn survey conducted in 2018.

Persons: Seth Godin —, Godin, —, you've, Heidi Brooks, coders, salespeople Organizations: TED, Wall Street, Yale University's School of Management

☆ I make more than $5000 a month with writing side hustles. Here's how you can get started.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Jenn Leach | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

She makes more than $5,000 a month with writing side hustles. I personally do many of these side hustles every month and they help me earn an extra $5,250+ per month from them. Blogging is something I'd do alongside platform writing or some of the other writing side hustles on this list. First, I'd get set up on Fiverr and Upwork to do some freelance resume writing. You're writing to persuade and compel the reader to take action, like clicking a link, joining an email list, or purchasing something online.

Persons: Jenn Leach, Leach, —, more.Let's, I've, You'll, I'd, Instagram, Tik, It's, Ghostwriting Organizations: Service, Twitter, Creative, Jobs Locations: Texas

☆ I make more than $5000 a month with writing side hustles. Here's how you can started.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Jenn Leach | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Persons: Jenn Leach, Leach, —, more.Let's, I've, You'll, I'd, Instagram, Tik, It's, Ghostwriting Organizations: Service, Twitter, Creative, Jobs Locations: Texas

☆ Investors have piled into AI startups following the launch of ChatGPT. Here are 20 pitch decks used by Europe's AI founders to win over VCs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI startups raised $60 billion last year and investors have continued to pile in on the tech in 2023. Below are 20 pitch decks used by European startups deploying AI in everything from health to property. V7Generative AI, media, and designThis startup uses generative AI to speed up the property-buying process. This AI startup helps Big Tech firms compress videos while maintaining quality. This AI startup helps firms like TrueLayer and CurrencyCloud meet their revenue targets.

Persons: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Alberto Rizzoli, Simon Edwardsson, Iris Organizations: Morning, Investment, Venture, Insight Partners, Ventures, Google, Creative Fabrica, Big Tech, Health, Microsoft, Enterprise, Ikea, Twitter, CurrencyCloud Locations: Temasek

☆ I made $175,000 last year as a freelance copywriter. Here's how I scaled to quit my 9-to-5 and the perks I offer to land clients.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Rafael Meneses started freelance copywriting alongside his job as a university advisor in 2019. My first freelance copywriting job was on Upwork. I liked Fiverr because it let freelancers post "gigs" setting out what they offer, so clients would find me. My offer to clients is that I will do whatever they want me to and charge them for my time. When I started making more than my regular salary, and in April 2021, I decided to quit my job and do freelance copywriting full time.

Persons: Rafael Meneses, Meneses, copywriting, I'd, I've Organizations: Fiverr Locations: Miami, Fiverr, copywriting

☆ Oracle hits record after 50% surge in 2023, defying tech struggles
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Larry Ellison, Oracle's chairman and technology chief, speaks at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on September 16, 2019. For years, the database software developer lagged behind tech rivals in building cloud technology that met the demands of the modern-day enterprise. The shares are up over 50% in 2023, which would mark the best year for shareholders since the dot-com boom of 1999. Oracle got its latest boost this week after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue, prompting nods of approval from analysts. On Oracle's earnings call this week, CEO Safra Catz took a minute to express gratitude to the company's customers and employees.

Persons: Larry Ellison, Justin Sullivan, Larry Ellison's, Goldman Sachs, Ellison, Bill Gates, Let's, it's, Eric Lynch, Scharf, Salesforce, Kash Rangan, Oracle, Lynch, Safra Catz, Catz, Jefferies, Brent Thill Organizations: Oracle, Getty, Nvidia, Bloomberg, Microsoft, Scharf Investments, Google, Goldman, Amazon Web Services, Monday, Exxon Mobil, Pfizer Locations: San Francisco, TikTok, Cohere, IaaS, NetSuite, Los Gatos , California, Silicon Valley, A.I

☆ Nvidia invests in Google-linked generative A.I. startup Cohere
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Natalie Rose Goldberg | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Cohere, an enterprise-focused generative artificial intelligence startup, has raised $270 million in a Series C round of venture capital which includes AI giant Nvidia as an investor. In the new Cohere round, Oracle and Salesforce were also investors. Cohere is one of the companies that the new Salesforce Ventures generative AI fund is investing in. "We want to build that toolkit that's accessible to any dev," co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez told CNBC in June 2022. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang expressed confidence in Cohere, saying in a press release announcing the funding, "The team at Cohere has made foundational contributions to generative AI.

Persons: OpenAI, Cohere, Aidan Gomez, Gomez, Nick Frosst, Jensen Huang, DTCP Organizations: Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, CNBC, Google, Google Research, Inovia Capital, Schroders, Thomvest Ventures, Ventures Locations: CoreWeave, Cohere

☆ The chief design officer of Strava shares how she found the courage to speak up as a woman of color working in a male-dominated field
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Beyond working on brand and marketing design, product design, and research and content design, Butler strives to make the fitness website and app something for everyone. Combining her background in advertising, marketing, creative, and product design, she's at the forefront of Strava's user experience. There's about [several] functions that report to me: product design, brand design, content and copywriting, also content design and copywriting, design operations and then research. My team really works on the product experience — so the Strava app, iOS and Android, as well as our web-app experiences, desktop and mobile web. At Strava, when you're not in tech — like not product management, engineering, or product design — it seems like we're much better balanced.

Persons: Anita Patwardhan Butler, Butler, —, Strava's, she's, we're, we've, you've, Sephora, It's, Zipporah Allen, Brian Bell, I've, Linh Le Organizations: Service, Meta, Twitter, Strava, Facebook, Walmart, Hotwire, Sephora Locations: Big Tech, America, Sephora, Taiwanese, Strava, Mumbai, India, Nairobi

☆ After ChatGPT, AI startups are poised to boom. See 16 pitch decks used by founders in generative AI, health, and enterprise.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

See 16 pitch decks used by AI founders using the tech in everything from health to fintech. V7Generative AI, media, and designSupernormal, a generative AI startup that automates meeting notes, just raised $10 million. This AI startup helps Big Tech firms compress videos while maintaining quality. These 3 founders are using AI to analyze patients' biological profiles and recommend drugs. This AI startup helps firms like TrueLayer and CurrencyCloud meet their revenue targets.

☆ TV and film writers are fighting to save their jobs from AI. They won’t be the last
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

A powerful new crop of AI tools, trained on vast troves of data online, can now generate essays, song lyrics and other written work in response to user prompts. While there are clearly limits for how well AI tools can produce compelling creative stories, these tools are only getting more advanced, putting writers like August on guard. But as part of their demands, the WGA is also fighting to protect their livelihoods from AI. Stephanie Elam/CNNWhile film and TV writers in Hollywood may currently be leading the charge, professionals in other industries will almost certainly be paying attention. “Watch this #WGA strike carefully,” Justine Bateman, a writer, director and former actress, wrote in a tweet shortly after the strike kicked off.

☆ Inside LinkedIn's new push to use AI tools to amplify — not replace — creators' voices
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

LinkedIn sees potential for AI to amplify — not replace — creators' voices. Firmly of the view that artificial intelligence technology can augment and amplify those users' voices — not replace them — LinkedIn is eyeing opportunities in the burgeoning space. LinkedIn's collaborative articles begin with a thread generated with the help of AI, and then invite select users to contribute their perspective. Enter collaborative articles, which invited the several dozen teachers to offer up ideas like exhibiting "vulnerability" in the classroom. Think of these seminars like LinkedIn's version of Master Classes on topics like generative AI, machine learning with Python, and AI accountability.

☆ 44 of the most promising generative-artificial-intelligence startups of 2023, according to investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

We asked investors to name the most promising generative-AI startups of 2023. VCs were asked to name startups in their portfolios and ones with which they had no financial ties. This past year has seen doom and gloom for most of the tech world, but a small, rapidly growing group of startups have seen a renaissance. In the model layer, third-party and open-source providers like OpenAI and Stability AI train AI models that startups can build upon. Insider asked 22 top artificial-intelligence and machine-learning investors to nominate the early-stage generative-AI startups within this ecosystem they believe show the most promise.

☆ ChatGPT and Generative AI in Media and Advertising: With Use Cases Set, the Battle for Hearts and Minds Begins
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Insider Intelligence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Generative AI can already do much of the work and low-skilled labor that powers modern media and advertising. As the drive to combat burnout builds, Generative AI has inserted itself into low-risk functions such as mockups and copywriting. The need for intermediate agencies would diminish as platforms could use generative AI technology to create business ads themselves. Although the negative sentiment around AI continues to build, according to Morning Consult 52% of consumers believe that generative AI will stick around. Want to learn more about ChatGPT and Generative AI in Media and Advertising?

☆ 44 of the most promising generative-artificial-intelligence startups of 2023, according to VCs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

☆ I started making candles from a humble craft kit and grew it into a million-dollar business. Here are the steps I took to go from Etsy to Nordstrom.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Lola Christina Alao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tamara Mayne started making candles as gifts for her family with a store-bought candlemaking kit. I thought: Why not try and make some extra cash from selling candles on the side? I also started selling on Scoutmob — a now defunct website where buyers could discover independent makers, while still selling on Etsy and Squarespace. After a few weeks of just selling candles, I decided to pick up some freelance art-directing work to cover the bills. Our candles cost between $28 and $38 because of our increased overhead, when I first started selling them I was charging only $16.

☆ How this entrepreneur uses AI tools like ChatGPT to work 30 hours a week and earn 7 figures a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dimond said he's able to work so efficiently because he relies on a host of productivity and AI tools. "I'm really good at content. I'm really good at testing. I'm really good at marketing. I'm really good at copywriting."

☆ A business coach who quit her 9-to-5 and now makes $1 million in profit a year shares her growth strategy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Pauleanna Reid | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Jereshia Hawk is the founder of Leverage, an online coaching business for women of color. After seeking out online communities for coaches and learning the basics, Hawk started by selling PDFs and digital courses. About nine months into business, Hawk hired a coach to teach her how to develop a more viable strategy to package and deliver her expertise while maximizing her income. Continuing from coach to CEOOnce she had coaching down, Hawk turned her attention to the larger goal of financial freedom. $1 million and beyondHawk's next step is to extend the relationship with her clients by hiring a content-curriculum designer and more experienced program coaches.

☆ What's better than OpenAI? Developers shop for alternatives
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

George Mathew, an AI investor at Insight Partners, compared the AI foundation models to other technological breakthroughs which spawned competition. As the infrastructural layer of AI applications, foundation models have attracted the most investment from venture capitalists and strategic investors. Writing assistant Jasper.ai began with OpenAI's models, but does not want to rely on a single model, CEO Dave Rogenmoser told Reuters. For example, it uses OpenAI’s model to generate long articles, and Cohere to auto-complete sentences at faster speed and lower cost. Fergal Reid, Intercom's director of machine learning, conceded that OpenAI's GPT-4 is "very expensive."

☆ This self-proclaimed 'email marketing nerd' earns 7 figures by working 30 hours a week hosting virtual events, writing a paid newsletter, and creating digital courses. Here's how he does it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"I'm really good at content. I'm really good at testing. I'm really good at marketing. I'm really good at copywriting." He's "really bad" at finance, accounting, contracts, and hiring, he said.

☆ Fiverr or Upwork: When freelancers should use one over the other
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Alexandra York | Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

While their expertise may vary, many freelancers rely on the platforms Fiverr and Upwork to advertise their services, find clients, and grow their businesses. In his experience, Upwork clients are CEOs, startup founders, and established companies, while Fiverr clients tend to be smaller business owners or general individuals. That means freelancers who use Upwork can pursue fewer projects at a time while Fiverr freelancers typically complete more shorter-term gigs to earn the same amount of income. Payment terms and protection vary between platformsFisher's biggest gripe about Fiverr is that it pays freelancers in up to 14 days while Upwork pays freelancers in up to 10 days. "Whether it's Fiverr, Upwork, or any of the other platforms out there, you need to build your profile," she said.

☆ We tried a 4-day workweek for 6 months. Here's what we had to do to make it work and why we landed on something different.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

During the pilot, it went from 40 hours a week over five days to 32 over four days. The staff would work eight hours a day but only four days a week. On the senior-leadership team, we were used to handing over work, but for the creative team, it was harder to work across several briefs. Apart from that, working hours are fully flexible — and our office is still hybrid. Our working pattern might not work for larger organizations, and we might have to be more prescriptive about people's working hours if we grow.

☆ I quit my job as a nurse to house-sit — and I've now lived rent-free in LA, Portugal, Costa Rica, and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Claire Turrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Costa Rica and Mexico were the top two. We booked a trip to Costa Rica, but in March 2020, the pandemic hit and all our travel plans were put on hold. We checked out the site, and we typed in "Costa Rica" when it asked "Where do you want to go?" So far, we've stayed in 10 homes in landscapes as varied as the desert of Palm Springs and the jungle of Costa Rica. Our first house-sit was at a jungle casita in Costa Rica, where we looked after a little rescue dogIt proved to be one of our favorites.

☆ In the midst of the AI boom, investors are doubling down on diligence. Here are the five questions VCs are asking every generative AI startup during pitches.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Buzzy generative AI startups have so far avoided the troubles plaguing the rest of the tech world. Here are the five diligence questions investors are asking generative AI startups, according to VCs. But for generative AI startups, 2023 has been much of the same — and that hasn't been a bad thing. Insider spoke with eight of these VCs about the top five questions they're asking generative AI startups during diligence processes. One hallmark of generative AI startups are their eye-staggering round sizes.

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