Times of Entrepreneurship Stories
Got Boat? The Easier To Digest A2 Milk
A Bakery Burns, And An Entrepreneur Pulls Herself Together
The fund has backed OME Kitchen, a Durham, North Carolina startup that upgrades kitchens through iOT by turning any gas or electric stove into a smart appliance and Freeing Returns, an Atlanta-based company that uses artificial intelligence to prevent retail losses and find profits via data.
Advice for Small Businesses Worried About Their Deposits
Fear of bank failures has faded. But now is a good time to make sure your finance institution offers sweep accounts that increase your federal insurance coverage.
What You May Have Missed
Trailblazer: How Cotopaxi’s Founder Built A Cult Following And A $160M Salt Lake City Company
Davis Smith heads for a sabbatical while the famous impact-oriented company gets a new CEO. Lori Ioannou reports.
Venture Capital Spotlight: Zane Ventures in Atlanta
Don’t Go Into Personal Debt And Other Tips For Small Business Owners
News With A Future Spin
Big companies are padding margins. Cost pressures have faded, but big companies have the market power to keep increasing prices, PepsiCo is an example. “The bags of Doritos, cartons of Tropicana orange juice and bottles of Gatorade drinks sold by PepsiCo are now substantially pricier. Customers have grumbled, but they have largely kept buying. Shareholders have cheered. PepsiCo declined to comment.” Here’s the NY Times story.
This is also happening in the small business sector. Big companies whose customers are small businesses also have market power to increase prices in order to increase margins, as the LA Times reported a couple of months ago in an article titled: Amazon is taking half of each sale from small business merchants. Here’s the story.
Where are all those profits going? Well they helped buy the diamond ring Jeff Bezos gave his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, on his $500M superyacht.
To be fair, the profits also go to Amazon shareholders. Presuming they reflect the broader stock market, that’s mostly upper-middle-class and wealthy people. About 61% of Americans own stocks, according to Gallup, with the majority of holdings in portfolios nearing half a million.
Changing A Depressing Subject
On the brighter side: Innovation really is coming back to the heartland. We saw this as chip factories began to announce locations in former Rust Belt and southern cities. Now, as companies are digging deeper into the landmark legislation passed in the wake of the pandemic, there are green hydrogen plants in the works, too. Appalachia is vying for one.
Living the dream
Best Practices: Do Nothing
Author Olga Mecking outlines the value of doing nothing in an essay for the BBC. “In my book Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing, I define it as “doing nothing without a purpose” – so not scrolling on Facebook or engaging in meditation. Whereas mindfulness is about being present in the moment, niksen is more about carving out time to just be, letting your mind wander wherever it wants to go. And as we’re slowly recovering after the pandemic, it’s important to rethink the way we work and spend our time.”
Rathskellar
Time-saving hack: Studies show we have 5.5 hours of leisure time each day. Many people spend that time watching TV or looking at their phones, but those choices have been shown in studies to leave most people more dissatisfied and lonelier. Each time you interact with your phone or the TV, you have three choices: use, omit, or substitute, according to Michelle Drouin is a behavioral scientist and expert on technology, relationships, couples, and sexuality. Make a conscious choice, and if you decide to substitute, substitute for something that helps you feel good, like a walk or time with friends.
One Thing To Buy: If you’re interested in being environmentally friendly in your coffee-making process, here’s a biodegradable coffee pod company: Bruvi. You can also go with the old-fashioned pourover, a Chemex, which produces no waste at all.
One Place To Go: These mountains in Upstate New York don’t rise to the level of the Rockies, but the bonus is that the region is less crowded. And it shows up on lists of wilderness adventures, lakeside resorts and family vacations. Something for everyone. More info here.
Upcoming Opportunities ⭐
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1. Early Bird Pricing for GIIN
Early bird pricing on the GIIN’s Global Impact Forum ($1,250) ends May 31. The GIIN Forum hosts entrepreneurs with world-changing ideas, funders and investors, and organizations in between.
When: Oct. 4-5
Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
Link: here
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