A new nonprofit aims to help fast-growth companies build their businesses by considering societal and environmental impacts from the outset. Responsible Innovation Labs, founded by Hemant Taneja, managing partner at venture firm General Catalyst, and former Stripe executives Jon Zieger and Diede van Lamoen, will help founders innovate with economic inclusion, environmental sustainability, workforce diversity, privacy, and “intentionality and impact.” “I’ve been invest
I spend my days working with customers in highly emotional situations as a VP of sales and client experience at SOLD.com. Selling a home brings up all kinds of issues for people. For many, it’s not only the biggest financial decision of their lives, but it also can mean leaving a place where they’ve built lifelong memories. Helping people use technology to make decisions is table stakes. What makes someone really good at this job is providing support beyond the standard of basic co
What if an NFT were somehow linked to something as old-school as an actual physical product? This is the concept behind the Grid, a new platform where people can buy NFTs (nonfungible tokens) of digitized, sports memorabilia—an NBA jersey, say, or a player’s sneaker. Then, by accruing enough points through trading and selling those NFTs, they can wind up with the real jersey. It’s a concept that takes NBA Top Shot—which set off the craze for NFTs featuring baske
On October 16, an unknown number of drivers for grocery delivery service Instacart went on strike. These shoppers, as Instacart calls its independent contractors, vowed to forgo logging onto the app that provides their dispatches. Other drivers who couldn’t afford to go without work still promised to reject the lowest-paying grocery orders, which pay $7 to the driver. The protestors demanded that Instacart meet a number of demands around higher fees, commissions, and tips, plus a reformed
When I started working on this story, my laptop screen consisted of nothing but empty white space—a blank canvas on which to tune out distractions and write. That’s what you get when you write in Typora, a distraction-free text editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. With Typora, there are no ugly toolbars, superfluous collaboration options, or clumsy menus between you and your work, and the app works entirely offline. I first discovered Typora five years ago and have used it to write
Language-learning app Duolingo just released its second annual Language Report, and two things are clear: Netflix and TikTok really have an international grip on the culture, and people are deep in their feelings about family. Among several highlights from the survey, 70% said that a TV show could motivate them to learn a language. The most commonly referenced shows were Money Heist (Spanish), 37%; Squid Game (Korean), 28%; Emily in Paris (French), 20%; Dark (German), 16%; and Lupin (French), 16
Over the past year and a half, I’ve spent an enormous amount of time pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area on my Gazelle e-bike. The 3,800 miles I’ve covered have been great fun and good exercise. But I didn’t think of them as an alternative to driving. Cars–in case you hadn’t heard–excel at hauling multiple people and their possessions. My Gazelle, on the other hand, carries me and a pannier bag that can accommodate roughly one small grocery bag&#x
Ten years ago this month, we witnessed what may very well go down as one of the most significant events in modern American history: In downtown New York’s Zuccotti Park, police officers stormed a small, makeshift compound, evicting a small throng of occupants and putting an end to what became known as the Occupy Wall Street movement. Or did they? Though Occupy’s physical presence, which I crossed through daily on my walk to work, was short-lived, it continues to loom large in the p
Less than two weeks ago, we saw something historic happen: ConstitutionDAO led the largest crowdfund for a physical object to date, raising $47 million worth of Ether in just a few days. Their goal? To purchase one of eleven rare copies of the U.S. Constitution, a true attempt of ownership by the people, for the people. Even though ConstitutionDAO ultimately lost the bid, what we have left is more than a conversation. Now, we find ourselves in the middle of a movement, with a growing number of i
Do you want to eat (1) poorly (2) moderately or (3) well? A long, long time ago in Minneapolis, this question loomed over a small group of eighth-graders. Appearing on a teletype machine—basically a primitive computer keyboard connected to a printer—at Jordan Junior High School, the strange question broke open the world of The Oregon Trail. Decades later, the title remains perhaps the most influential educational video game ever created, one that endures today as its influence is s