March 2025

Entrepreneurs are famous for their ability to work long hours as they tirelessly build their companies, especially in the early stages of a startup. Excitement, passion and a healthy dose of caffeine are often enough to keep an entrepreneur powering ahead. While burning the midnight oil might be sustainable for a short time, entrepreneurs can quickly become overwhelmed with balancing financial stress and a mountain of administrative tasks. This can lead to decreased productivity, loss of excitement for the business, missed opportunities, decline in quality and financial instability.

For this reason, it’s important for small business owners to recognize when it’s time to start getting tasks off their plate and seek additional help. This is especially true if you are a solopreneur who is actively looking to scale your business beyond what you can handle personally.

Related: Learning to Let Go of Control and Delegate Can Be Hard. Here Are 3 Components to Make It Easier.

Automation, outsourcing and recruitment — Oh my!

The good news is that there are plenty of options to help you optimize your business and reclaim your most valuable asset — your time. With additional bandwidth, you can put effort into other high-value activities like sales or strategic planning. The challenge can be deciding which option is right for the job.

The first option any entrepreneur should explore is automation. This is typically the easiest and lowest-cost option. Many of the business programs or software available today come equipped with some form of automation. For example, you can set up filters that reduce the amount of time you spend sifting through email or install a chatbot that answers customer questions on your social media. Automation is typically best for simple, repetitive tasks — however, artificial intelligence is quickly getting better at performing complex tasks.

The next option is outsourcing. This can be more expensive than automation but is typically cheaper than hiring an employee. Outsourcing is best when you have a specialized task, especially if it isn’t a full-time job. For example, you may want to outsource bookkeeping instead of struggling to understand the complexities of accounting. This can save on frustration if accounting isn’t your expertise and doesn’t require the same commitment as hiring a permanent team member.

You may reach a point where it’s critical to recruit and hire full-time employees. This can be expensive due to the associated costs of payroll taxes, training, equipment and benefits. However, hiring employees gives the entrepreneur more control and ensures they are dedicated to the task at hand and not split across a number of clients like outsourced labor.

Related: How I Transformed My Business by Letting Go of Low-Value Tasks and Focusing on High-Impact Activities

Avoiding the common objections from entrepreneurs

Getting additional help is easier said than done. Let’s face it. Entrepreneurs can be quite stubborn when it comes to letting go of control of their “baby.” There are a lot of misconceptions that hold entrepreneurs back from getting the additional support they need to supercharge their business.

“Hiring employees is too expensive”

Hiring employees is no doubt one of the most expensive parts of operating a business. While hiring an employee may be a shock to the wallet initially, it may come with financial benefits to offset this expense. For example, hiring a new team member to process orders from existing customers may free up time to work on new business pursuits, ultimately growing your revenue and profit. At the end of the day, you have to decide if the benefit outweighs the cost. This is why it’s always best to look at automation and outsourcing before committing to the responsibility of hiring a full-time employee.

“No one can do it as well as me”

There may be some truth to this sentiment. As an entrepreneur, you’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into the business. But you shouldn’t let being a control freak hold you back from reaching your business’s full potential. Consider this: Nearly every major company has had to overcome this challenge at some point. Do you think Jeff Bezos would have been able to grow Amazon beyond his garage if he decided to do everything himself? Not a chance.

The reality is that others may not do as good of a job, and that’s okay. Your objective as the business owner should be to try and help your team understand how to perform the work to your standards. One of the best ways to do this is by having clear processes and workflows for them to follow to ensure it’s done exactly how you would do it yourself.

“I don’t have time to train someone”

Passing a task to another person or setting up an automation does require an initial investment of time. However, the long-term efficiency can be enormous. The good news is that you don’t have to boil the entire ocean at once. Instead, start small and iterate on your delegation process. As you free up a little time, you can then use that time savings to implement new time-saving tasks. The best solution is to focus on the highest impact or most time-consuming activities first rather than things that will provide little benefit.

Related: Hiring vs. Outsourcing: How to Recognize the Right Moment to Add Talent to Your Team

Ultimately, building and scaling a successful business requires entrepreneurs to swallow their pride from time to time and get the additional help and support they need to be successful. By creating optimizations through automation and delegation, you can grow your business without the crushing stress of having to do it all.

Warren Buffett has been trying to give away $1 million to an employee of Berkshire Hathaway during the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament — for at least a decade.

Buffett, 94, previously told The Wall Street Journal that the company made it easier than ever this year because he wants to see the money finally won.

Related: ‘We Made It Easier This Year Than Ever’: Warren Buffett Says He ‘Hopes’ He Can Finally Give Away $1 Million for March Madness

“I’m getting older,” he told the outlet. “I want to give away a million dollars to somebody while I’m still around as chairman.”

Well, it turns out that 2025 was the year.

The WSJ reports that Buffett’s office bracket was won by an employee of FlightSafety International, a Berkshire subsidiary. The winner asked to be anonymous.

This year’s rules stated that if an entrant picked at least 30 of the tournament’s 32 first-round game winners, they’ll get the cool million. In the past, employees needed a perfect first-round bracket (which is the reason for no past winners).

But Marc Hamburg, Berkshire’s chief financial officer, told the WSJ that 12 brackets actually had 31 of the 32 first-round games correct this year. So it went to a tiebreaker to see which bracket went the longest without a loss. The winner called the first 29 games in a row correctly.

“I feel good that we sort of hit the sweet spot on this one,” Buffett told the WSJ.

The runners-up (all 11) get $100,000 each.

Buffett said he doesn’t know the name of the winner of the $1 million prize and was told the person doesn’t want to be publicly identified.

Related: Worried About the Market? Here’s How Warren Buffett, Ray Dalio, and Harvard University Protect Their Portfolios

I never thought parenting and startups had much in common until I found myself navigating both at the same time. As a mom and a person in the tech space who has built products at PayPal and Ford, my job has always been hyper-focused on solving problems.

However, launching an app designed to help families streamline household management showed me something I did not expect: running a startup and raising a child are really similar.

Both require patience, adaptability and the ability to function under extreme uncertainty. Both demand that you make decisions with incomplete data, trust your instincts and learn from constant failures. And just like parenting, building a startup forces you to think beyond yourself because, ultimately, it’s not about what you want; it’s about creating something that helps others solve problems.

Related: 5 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Glean From Their Kids’ K-12 Teachers

Lesson 1: Structure creates freedom

When I became a single mom, I had to figure out how to juggle work, my daughter’s schedule and the emotional new reality of having less support. I needed a system to replace the mental load of managing everything alone. This is a problem many parents — and moms in particular — are faced with: this hidden mental load. That’s what led me to build my smart family management app that helps parents organize chores, schedules and household responsibilities.

In parenting, structure gives kids the predictability they need to feel secure. The same is true in a startup. Without structure, chaos is a given. At my startup, we had to create a system where our small team could move fast without stepping on each other’s toes. We set up clear communication protocols, consistent sprint cycles and defined success metrics. This didn’t limit creativity but actually encouraged it.

I’ve come to see structure not as a constraint but as a tool for empowerment. The more predictable the foundation, the more room there is for flexibility where it counts.

Lesson 2: Iteration is the way

When my daughter was little, I worried a lot about getting parenting “right.” I read the books, sought advice and agonized over decisions. But the truth is, parenting isn’t a linear path, instead it’s a series of constant adjustments. What works one year might not work the next. Kids evolve, and you have to evolve with them. A lot like software!

Startups are no different. When we first launched our app, I had a clear vision of how it would function. But once real parents started using it, I realized we had built the wrong thing in several ways. We had assumed too much. Our first chore management system was rigid and didn’t account for how different families operate. Parents wanted more customization, and kids wanted more gamification. We had to tear it apart and rebuild it based on actual user behavior.

The lesson? Perfection is a myth. You have to build, release, test and refine — over and over again. Whether it’s an app or a child, the goal isn’t to get it “right” from the start but to keep improving as you go.

Related: This Overlooked Principle Is the Key to Startup Success

Lesson 3: You always need a village

I used to believe I had to handle everything myself, both at home and at work. That’s a lie too many of us, especially women, tell ourselves.

As a parent, I learned the hard way that trying to do everything alone is a fast track to burnout. I had to learn to delegate, to trust my daughter to take on more and more responsibilities, and to lean on my support network.

That mindset shift carried over into my startup. At first, I tried to be everywhere at the same time: handling product, marketing, fundraising and user support. It wasn’t sustainable. Learning to trust my team, delegate responsibilities and bring in experts where needed didn’t just make the company run better; it made me a better leader.

I also think this applies to your co-founder. It’s important to find a co-founder whose vision and company values meet your own because they will also be part of your village.

Startups and families both thrive when responsibility is shared. No one person can, or should, carry the full weight.

Lesson 4: Emotional resilience for the win

Startups are an emotional rollercoaster, and so is parenting (especially during the teen years!). You can have a great week where everything clicks, only to be thrown into chaos by something unexpected.

The solution in both cases? Resilience and sticktoitiveness.

I’ve had moments as a founder where I thought, I am not good at this! How do I solve this problem I know nothing about? I’ve had moments as a mom where I thought, I have no idea what I’m doing. But I’ve learned that tough moments pass. The way forward is to keep going, even when you don’t have all the answers.

Resilience isn’t about never failing; it’s about adapting to failure without losing your sense of purpose.

Related: How Can a Working Mother Be Successful These Days? 6 Strategies for Success as an Entrepreneur and Parent

Lesson 5: The mission matters a lot

At some point, both in parenting and in startups, you have to let go of your ego. It’s not about you; it’s about the people you’re serving, the users or customers.

As a parent, my job isn’t to raise a child who reflects me — it’s to raise a child who becomes their own person. With my startup, my goal isn’t to build the app I want; it’s to build something that genuinely helps families. The best ideas often come not from what I think should exist but from what users tell me they need.

A founder’s job, like a parent’s, is to create something that outlives them. To set something in motion, nurture it, and eventually, let it grow beyond them.

Building a new tool has made me a better parent. Parenting has made me a better founder. Both roles have forced me to be adaptable, embrace imperfection and put mission above ego.

If you’re a founder, take a lesson from parenting: structure creates freedom, iteration is key and resilience is your greatest asset. And if you’re a parent, take a lesson from startups: let go of perfection, build systems that work for you and don’t be afraid to pivot when needed.

Whether you’re raising a child or a company, the real goal is the same: to create something meaningful, something that lasts, and something that makes the world a little better than you found it.

Email marketing revenue is set to hit $13.6 billion this year – proof that email remains a powerhouse. If email is a priority for your business, you’re on the right track. But to make the most of its potential, there’s one thing you can’t afford to overlook: the health of your email list.

Over the past year, at least 28% of your database may have degraded, the latest ZeroBounce report shows. After analyzing more than 10-plus billion email addresses, my team found that invalid emails are still the biggest driver of data decay – accounting for 2.5 billion addresses. Other risky contacts, such as spam traps and temporary emails, also played a significant role in eroding list quality.

Why focus on the quality of your email list

Growing your list of contacts is worth every effort. Expanding your audience helps you reach more potential customers and increase revenue, but only if those contacts are valid. A bloated list filled with bad data means:

• Many of your emails will bounce back and hurt your sender’s reputation.
• You’ll lose trust with inbox providers, which measure metrics like bounce rates to gauge your legitimacy.
• Your emails can start landing in the spam folder.

If you worry that your database may be hurting your email marketing efforts, here’s how to fix it – and keep poor-quality contacts from creeping in.

Plan regular email list cleanings

If you haven’t verified your email list in the past three months, now’s the time. Running your contacts through an email verification platform helps you remove outdated addresses, protects your sender reputation and improves engagement. Inactive or invalid emails hurt your metrics, take up storage space and inflate costs.

Make list cleaning a habit by scheduling it at least once a quarter – and set reminders to stay on track. Your inbox placement (and budget) will thank you.

Check new signups more carefully

Aside from validating your list once a quarter, you can take an extra step to ensure every new contact is genuine. Adding an automatic email checker to your signup forms helps block fake and invalid email addresses before they enter your database. This simple safeguard keeps your list clean in real time and reduces bounces.

Want fewer spam signups and stronger email performance? Filter bad addresses at the door.

Related: How to build a healthy, thriving email list

Keep signup forms secure

Use CAPTCHA to prevent bots from flooding your list with junk emails. Without this extra layer of security, you risk gathering fake signups that inflate your list but never engage. CAPTCHA is a simple test — like selecting images or checking a box — that helps weed out bots.

Your email marketing platform may offer built-in CAPTCHA, or you can use Google’s reCAPTCHA to protect your forms. It’s a small step that makes a big difference in keeping your database free of fake and harmful emails.

Always ask for permission

If you want a healthy, high-performing email list, buying one is out of the question. So is adding contacts without their consent. Even your own customers need to opt in before you email them. Otherwise, you risk compliance violations and spam reports, which damage your reputation and can ban you from the inbox.

Permission-based marketing helps you get higher engagement and stronger relationships with your customers. If they didn’t ask to hear from you, they probably won’t respond well to your emails.

Delete unresponsive contacts

Have certain prospects stopped opening your emails? If so, they’re probably no longer interested in your offers, which is the best-case scenario. The worst? Their email addresses may have been abandoned, and email providers regularly purge inactive accounts. Why risk a high bounce rate since those contacts have already stopped engaging?

To protect your sender reputation and keep your metrics strong, segment and remove unresponsive contacts every six months. Set a reminder to clean out these dormant emails before they start hurting your deliverability.

Related: 3 Things to Know Before Cleaning Your Email List

Content quality matters, too

All these proactive steps help you maintain a healthy email list — some with near-instant results. But list hygiene alone isn’t enough. If your emails don’t add value to people’s lives, even real, engaged subscribers will start tuning out.

When your audience stops engaging, inbox providers pick up on the signals. Low open rates, poor click-through rates, and unsubscribes are red flags to Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook. Over time, a decline in your metrics can push your emails farther from the inbox and hurt your ability to reach your audience.

Beyond removing obsolete and fake contacts, keeping your list engaged means consistently sending useful, interesting content. Whether it’s insightful tips, exclusive offers, or industry updates, make sure every email gives people a reason to open, read, and stay subscribed.

The most effective professionals don’t just say what comes to mind the moment they think of it. Instead, they pause to make sure the right thing is said by the right person at the right time. In fast-moving discussions, that brief moment of reflection can mean the difference between a rushed comment and a truly valuable contribution.

A striking 63% of employees say their voices have been ignored by their manager or employer, a disconnect that can have devastating effects on retention. Even more concerning, 34% of employees would rather quit or switch teams than voice their genuine concerns with management, according to The Workforce Institute. When leaders prioritize active listening and create space for meaningful dialogue, they build stronger teams, improve engagement and reduce costly turnover.

That’s the power of the W.A.I.T. framework — short for “Why Am I Talking?” It’s not about staying silent; it’s about creating space for better dialogue, sharper ideas and stronger relationships. By learning to pause before speaking, professionals at any level — whether with colleagues, subordinates or superiors — can drive more productive conversations, ensure key voices are heard and strengthen workplace dynamics.

Related: How Talking Less and Listening More Builds Your Business

Intentional speech fosters stronger leadership

Speaking more doesn’t always mean communicating better. Professionals who dominate conversations risk diluting their message and stifling valuable input from others. I learned this lesson the hard way early in my career. In my eagerness to close a deal, I kept talking — only to realize I had talked my way out of the sale. That experience stuck with me, teaching me that sometimes the most powerful move in a conversation is knowing when to stop talking.

The W.A.I.T. framework helps professionals communicate with purpose. Before speaking, ask yourself:

• Does it need to be said? Not everything that comes to mind adds value. Taking a moment to evaluate whether a comment contributes to the discussion can keep conversations focused and effective.

• Does it need to be said now? Timing matters. A point raised at the wrong moment might derail the conversation instead of enhancing it. Waiting until the right time can lead to greater impact.

• Does it need to be said by me? Sometimes, the most important contribution isn’t speaking but making space for the right person to share. When professionals wait to speak, they create an opportunity for better ideas, stronger insights or the right stakeholder to weigh in.

When you ask yourself, “Why am I talking?” (W.A.I.T.), you don’t just automatically pause — you create time for the conversation to evolve. If the point truly needs to be made, it may arise naturally from someone else. And if it doesn’t, you now have the time to follow up afterward to help shape the narrative in a more strategic way. Or perhaps you can ask a question to the right expert in the room to answer.

The late Larry King, one of the most respected interviewers of all time, understood the power of listening better than most. Rather than dominating conversations, he mastered the art of asking thoughtful questions and letting his guests speak — a skill every leader can learn from. As King put it, “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.” This mindset is just as critical in leadership as it is in journalism. When executives speak less and listen more, they gain valuable insights, build trust and create a culture where employees feel heard.

Related: The 4 Levels of Listening: Why Every Good Entrepreneur Should Talk Less

Pausing creates space for innovation and collaboration

The moments between words are just as important as the words themselves. When professionals allow for pauses during conversations, they create room for others to contribute, fostering a more inclusive and innovative environment. I learned this firsthand when working with a leader who rarely spoke in meetings, but when he did, his words carried weight. His quiet presence and well-timed contributions earned him influence, proving that leadership isn’t about talking the most — it’s about making each word count. Inspired by his approach, I shifted my communication style, focusing on listening first and speaking with greater intention.

Sheldon Yellen, CEO of BELFOR, champions this approach, emphasizing that great leaders “listen twice as much as they talk.” By intentionally stepping back, executives encourage diverse perspectives to emerge, leading to more creative solutions and stronger team buy-in. Companies prioritizing this kind of communication — such as Pixar, known for its collaborative “braintrust” meetings — often see greater innovation and team cohesion.

One extreme practice of a pause in meeting conversations happened when Jeff Bezos at Amazon implemented “silent meetings,” where executives spend the first 30 minutes reading a well-structured, written memo in silence before discussing a decision. This practice forces deeper thinking, eliminates knee-jerk reactions and ensures that ideas are fully considered rather than rushed responses dominating the conversation.

Self-awareness strengthens team dynamics

Beyond refining personal speech habits, W.A.I.T. helps professionals develop self-awareness, a key trait for fostering trust and engagement within teams. Effective communication isn’t just about what is said but also how it is received. Those who pause to consider their tone, timing and audience create a culture of respect and engagement where employees feel valued and heard.

I learned this lesson when leading a team early in my career. I believed I was being clear and direct, but a trusted colleague pulled me aside and told me my communication style sometimes came across as overpowering. Instead of fostering collaboration, I was unknowingly shutting people down. That feedback was tough to hear, but it changed everything. From that point on, I focused on asking more questions, actively listening and ensuring every team member had space to contribute.

A practical way to implement W.A.I.T. is by setting intentional “listening goals.” For instance, professionals can challenge themselves to speak last in meetings, allowing team members to share their perspectives first. This ensures that a range of voices are heard and helps team members refine their contributions by incorporating insights from others. Over time, this practice fosters a culture of mutual respect and collaborative decision-making.

Related: How to Develop Self-Awareness and Become a More Conscious and Effective Leader

W.A.I.T. before you speak and watch your leadership improve

Mastering communication isn’t about saying more — it’s about saying what matters when it counts and ensuring others are heard. The W.A.I.T. framework offers a practical way for professionals to cultivate intentional speech, foster innovation through silence and strengthen team relationships with greater self-awareness.

By embracing pauses and practicing restraint, professionals create an environment where their words carry more impact, their colleagues feel more valued and their conversations become more meaningful. In the workplace, words are powerful — but sometimes, their absence speaks volumes.

Ready to turn your side hustle into a thriving business? Then don’t miss our next Entrepreneur+ webinar event happening Wednesday, March 26 at 3 PM ET. (It’s free to subscribers — sign up here!) Special guest Hilary Hoffman, founder of SotoMethod, will be sharing the “stealth mode strategy” she used to grow her passion project into a global fitness phenomenon in just eight months.

We spoke with Hilary in advance of the event to get a sneak peek at her inspiring story and her advice for entrepreneurial-minded folks ready to try their own thing.

Please give us the elevator pitch of your business.
My name is Hilary Hoffman and I’m the founder of SotoMethod, an omnichannel fitness company offering both streaming services via our app as well as in-person classes here in New York City. Our method blends cardio and sculpting movements to maximize burn and deliver an efficient, full-body workout—whether you’re tuning in from home or joining us in the studio.

What inspired you to create it?
Before founding SotoMethod, I worked in finance, where long hours and high pressure made it nearly impossible to maintain a consistent fitness routine. When I couldn’t find an efficient workout that fit my lifestyle without sacrificing results, I created one myself. That personal need — combined with my deep commitment to movement and performance — led me to launch SotoMethod in 2021. What started as a solution for myself quickly became something bigger—a method designed to help others integrate fitness into their lives in a way that’s both effective and sustainable.

What was your “aha moment”?
My big “aha moment” came in 2021 when I realized that what started as a side hustle had the potential to be something much bigger. The classes began in my backyard in LA, where I trained just one or two people at a time. Then it grew to five, then ten, and before I knew it, demand kept building. That was the moment I recognized that this wasn’t just a workout—it was filling a real need. I wasn’t just leading classes; I was creating something that resonated with people on a deeper level. That’s when I knew I wasn’t just leaving something behind—I was running toward something with real impact, something that could evolve beyond fitness into its own community and ecosystem.

Sign Up to Ask Your Questions to Hilary in a Live Q&A

What has been your biggest challenge and how did you pivot to overcome it?
One of the biggest ongoing challenges has been ensuring alignment across all of SotoMethod’s channels—balancing the digital platform with our brick-and-mortar presence. The opening of our TriBeCa studio, which started as a pop-up, was a perfect example of navigating uncertainty. We weren’t 100% ready—we had no prior experience operating a studio—but growth isn’t about waiting until you feel fully prepared. It’s about equipping yourself with the right skills, taking calculated risks, and making the leap. That experience reinforced a core philosophy I always come back to: mitigate risk, evaluate the upside, and trust that action breeds clarity.

What does the word “entrepreneur” mean to you?
To me, being an entrepreneur means being obsessed with building something bigger than yourself. It’s not just a job—it’s a mindset, a relentless drive to solve problems, and the willingness to keep pushing forward when no one is watching. I love the quote, “Employee: waits for coffee break. Entrepreneur: forgets to eat.” It resonates deeply because when you’re truly invested, time disappears. You’re not working for a paycheck; you’re building something that matters—something you believe in so much that the usual markers of a “workday” don’t apply.

At the same time, I see a lot of new entrepreneurs chasing scale before they’ve nailed down value. I constantly reference Alex Hormozi’s quote, “New entrepreneurs spend so much time trying to make their offer scalable, they forget to make it valuable,” because it’s a crucial reminder: before you think about how big something can get, you have to make sure it’s worth growing. For me, that meant spending time refining SotoMethod—testing, listening, and improving—before ever thinking about expansion. True entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting something; it’s about making something great and then figuring out how to make it last.

What is something many aspiring business owners think they need that they really don’t?
Many aspiring business owners feel like they need to be everything to everyone, all the time—but that mindset often leads to a diluted message and burnout. Your values and voice should be reflected in your product, and it’s crucial to be intentional about who influences your decisions. Early on, I was selective about whose advice I took and kept much of my initial growth under the radar—an intentional choice that, in hindsight, paid off. Also, there’s a big difference between asking for advice and seeking feedback—advice is often based on someone else’s experience, while feedback is about refining what you’re already building. Understanding that distinction early on will make you a sharper, more strategic entrepreneur as you scale.

What is a book you always recommend?
One book that I often reach for when looking for motivation is The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life by Sally Jenkins. The book discusses how principles from sports can be applied to our decision-making processes in work and life. One of the lessons it delves into is the importance of preparation, adaptability, and learning from failure. Jenkins draws brilliant parallels between athletic experiences and everyday challenges, with insights that have been incredibly valuable to me as I’ve grown my business. The book has also guided me in building a mindset that is competitive but collaborative – a balance I believe all great entrepreneurs try to strike.

Is there a particular quote or saying that you use as personal motivation?
Since launching Soto, I’ve kept this Damian Lillard quote as the background of my phone: “If you want to look good in front of thousands, you have to outwork thousands in front of nobody.” It’s a reminder that the work that matters most is the work no one sees. It’s easy to celebrate the big moments, but they don’t happen without the hours spent refining, problem-solving, and pushing through when no one’s paying attention. For me, that’s what built Soto—not a single breakthrough, but the commitment to doing the work when it would have been easier to stop.

South Korean-based Hyundai announced a $20 billion investment in the U.S., CNBC reported.

President Donald Trump made the announcement alongside Hyundai Chairman Euisun Chung and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry at the White House on Monday.

The investment includes building a $5 billion steel plant in Louisiana that’s expected to add around 1,500 jobs.

Related: Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son Announced a $100 Billion Investment in the U.S.

It’s the latest in a series of U.S. investment announcements.

“Money is pouring in,” Trump said at the event. “This investment is a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work.”

Axios recently reported that Hyundai Motor CEO José Muñoz said the best way his company can “navigate tariffs” is to “increase localization.”

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced on Friday that it will invest more than $55 billion in the U.S. over four years, including building four new manufacturing plants, a 25% increase in investments compared with the four years prior.

Related: What Is Stargate? OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and President Trump Team Up for $500B AI Infrastructure Initiative.

“Our increased U.S. investment begins with the ground-breaking of a high-tech facility in North Carolina that will not only add U.S.-based jobs but manufacture cutting-edge medicines to treat patients in America and around the world,” J&J Chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato said in a statement.

Moreover, last month, Eli Lilly and Co., a rival of J&J, announced it intends to build four new factories in the U.S. and bring 10,000 construction jobs along with 3,000 jobs for engineers, scientists, operations personnel, and lab technicians.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, 34, has one piece of advice for anyone looking to be an entrepreneur: Don’t be afraid to be creative.

“I think one of the most important things today is really nurturing creativity,” Spiegel said in a recent episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett. “I think creativity is really the X factor, certainly in the age of AI.”

Spiegel said that the one trait he would advise any entrepreneur to develop is their creativity — and not by building apps like Snapchat either.

“We’re all born creative,” Spiegel said. “It’s only over time I think that we stop practicing that ability or we become fearful of expressing ourselves. And I think that can be overcome.”

Related: ‘Maybe We Do Need Less Software Engineers’: Sam Altman Says Mastering AI Tools Is the New ‘Learn to Code’

According to Spiegel, fostering creativity could take different forms, like pursuing art. He gave the example of his oldest son, 14-year-old Flynn, who loves to draw but doesn’t see a career in art as his future. Spiegel said that drawing was not a waste of time for Flynn but rather one path to creativity that allows him to exercise his creative muscles and visualize something other people don’t see.

Drawing is “one way, one tool, one skill, that he can use to express what’s in his brain,” Spiegel said.

^{Evan Spiegel. Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Vanity Fair}

Spiegel co-founded Snapchat in 2011 while studying product design at Stanford. He dropped out of the university in 2012 to focus on Snapchat full-time, building it into a multi-billion dollar business. In 2016, Snapchat changed its corporate name to Snap to reflect the expansion of its business into products like video-enabled sunglasses.

The company went public in March 2017 with a market cap of about $33 billion, about the same number as Marriott and Target, at the time. Snap had a market cap of about $16 billion at the time of writing, comparable to Best Buy and Domino’s.

Related: Snap Inc. to Cut 10% of Total Global Workforce in ‘Difficult Decision to Restructure’

Though its market value may have declined, Snap has more users than ever. Last year, the company’s daily active users grew by 9% year-over-year to reach 453 million.

Other social media companies, like Meta, have much higher market values; Meta was valued at $1.5 trillion at the time of writing.

Hyper-growth is exhilarating — the pace, the scale, the market dominance. It’s what every founder and investor dreams of. However, as companies in AI, Web3 and other frontier industries double and triple their headcount within a year, there’s one major question that doesn’t get enough attention: When does a company actually need real people processes?

We’ve seen this story play out before. Southeast Asia’s tech industry has exploded over the past decade, with companies like Grab, Gojek and Sea Group scaling aggressively. But for every success story, there have been growing pains — layoffs, cultural breakdowns and leadership churn. And now, we’re watching history repeat itself in AI and Web3 as hyper-growth companies find themselves in a race to not only build great products but also build great organizations.

Related: Looking Inward to Grow Outward: 5 Keys to Managing Human Capital Through Hyper-Growth

The cost of ignoring people processes in hyper-growth

In the early days of a startup, culture is organic. Everyone is scrappy, decisions happen fast, and the org chart is more of a suggestion than a structure. However, when a company grows from 50 to 500 employees in a year, that doesn’t scale. The biggest mistake founders make is assuming that what worked at a smaller size will continue working as they 10x their team.

Look at what happened with some of Southeast Asia’s biggest unicorns. Grab and Gojek had explosive growth, but as they expanded into new markets, they had to rapidly professionalize. Grab brought in seasoned executives to help scale operations, while Gojek had to integrate multiple acquired companies under one culture. The common theme? Scaling without a people strategy leads to inefficiencies, morale issues and, in some cases, public blowback.

In the AI sector, we’re seeing similar challenges today. OpenAI has dominated the conversation with its rapid growth, but internal tensions surfaced when leadership changes created uncertainty about the company’s direction. As AI companies hire aggressively, they need to think about how to maintain a sense of mission, alignment and structure. Otherwise, they risk turning into a collection of siloed teams instead of a cohesive company.

Web3 has its own version of this. DAOs and decentralized projects champion flexibility and autonomy, but many have struggled to maintain consistency as they scale. The lack of formal processes has led to governance disputes, leadership vacuums and difficulty in coordinating large teams. The challenge isn’t just building a great product — it’s creating an organization that can sustain momentum over time.

When to introduce real people processes

The transition from “move fast and break things” to “move fast but do it sustainably” doesn’t happen overnight. However, there are clear inflection points where hyper-growth companies need to start thinking seriously about people processes.

One of the biggest signals is leadership bandwidth. In the early days, founders can directly manage culture and decision-making, but once a company scales past 100-150 employees, leadership needs leverage. That means introducing clear roles, defining responsibilities and ensuring that teams aren’t just growing in size but also in effectiveness.

Another key moment is when decision-making slows down. If hiring has outpaced internal structure, teams start spending more time figuring out who owns what instead of executing. This is where companies need to introduce clarity — whether it’s through structured onboarding, leadership training or simply better internal communication.

Related: This Entrepreneur Took His Startup to the Next Level and Hated It

Lessons from companies that got it right

Scaling isn’t just about adding people but ensuring the right people are in the right roles and working effectively together. Companies that successfully navigate this transition don’t just react to growth; they anticipate it.

Take Sea Group, the parent company of Shopee and Garena. As it expanded, it invested heavily in structured leadership programs and internal training. This helped the company maintain a strong pipeline of talent, ensuring that as the company grew, its leaders were equipped to handle increased complexity.

Stripe is another example. Even as it grew into a global payments powerhouse, it maintained a strong focus on hiring alignment. The company famously keeps a “Stripe Press” where internal knowledge is documented to ensure consistency across teams. This is a prime example of how growth-stage companies can maintain operational cohesion even as they scale rapidly.

In AI, companies like Anthropic are taking a more structured approach from the start. Instead of hiring recklessly, they’ve been intentional about how they build teams, ensuring alignment between research, engineering and business functions. This might slow down short-term hiring, but it pays off in long-term efficiency.

How growth-stage leaders can build sustainable organizations

For founders and leadership teams in fast-scaling industries, the goal isn’t to slow down growth — it’s to make sure growth is sustainable. That means making a few key shifts in how they think about people and organization-building.

First, invest in leadership early. One of the biggest reasons startups struggle at scale is because their leadership teams aren’t prepared for the next stage of growth. Formal leadership training, executive coaching and structured mentorship programs aren’t just for corporate giants; they’re crucial for startups entering hyper-growth.

Second, define culture explicitly. Many companies wait too long to codify their values, assuming they’ll naturally scale with the company. But culture doesn’t just happen — it’s built. Growth-stage companies should document what they stand for and ensure those values are reinforced in hiring, performance management and daily decision-making.

Third, balance autonomy with structure. One of the biggest fears in fast-moving industries like AI and Web3 is that too much process will slow down innovation. However, the best organizations find ways to introduce structure without killing creativity. It’s about setting guardrails, not bureaucracy.

Related: How to Navigate High-Growth Environments and Boost Revenue Through Visionary Leadership

Lastly, embrace operational excellence as a competitive advantage. Companies that invest in clear roles, efficient collaboration and knowledge sharing aren’t just avoiding problems but setting themselves up to win. The best talent wants to work in organizations where they can move fast without chaos. The companies that get this right will be the ones that attract and retain the best people.

The next wave of AI, Web3 and frontier tech companies are in the middle of their hyper-growth moment. But the ones that become true market leaders won’t just be the ones with the best products or the most funding — they’ll be the ones that build organizations capable of sustaining that growth.

This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Marisa Risden, 32, of Denver, Colorado. Risden has built a flexible, thriving business completing traditionally male-dominated jobs on Taskrabbit. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Taskrabbit. Marisa Risden.}

What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
Before Taskrabbit, I spent nine years in public service as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, a role that strengthened my ability to problem-solve under pressure, communicate clearly and build trust with people in high-stress situations. While I found the work meaningful, I wanted a new challenge that provided flexibility and the opportunity to apply my skills in different ways.

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When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
I moved out west in 2020 and, in 2022, discovered Taskrabbit as a way to take control of my schedule and leverage my existing expertise. My parents owned a construction company, and my mom instilled in me the belief that I could learn and do anything I set my mind to. Long before DIY became a trend, she was tackling home improvement projects herself, showing me firsthand that women can do anything! She made sure I knew how to use power tools, paint and take on home projects with confidence. What started as a way to apply those skills soon evolved into a specialized business offering advanced mounting and minor electrical work, combining technical precision with problem-solving to deliver high-quality installations for my clients.

What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground?
Initially, I focused on projects within my skill set, but as I gained experience, I expanded into more technical services like electrical fixture installations and advanced mounting — tasks often assumed to be dominated by men. Taskrabbit has allowed me to establish a highly rated, in-demand service business where repeat clients trust me for precision, reliability and expertise.

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If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
Two things stand out: Optimizing my scheduling. Early on, I wasted a lot of time driving back and forth between Denver and Boulder for multiple tasks in a single day. Now, I proactively ask clients if they have the flexibility to switch time slots with others, allowing me to streamline my route. Learning to ask for adjustments has been a game-changer.

I’d also be more cautious with plaster walls. When I first started, I didn’t realize the potential health risks of drilling into plaster, particularly in older homes where asbestos may be present. Plaster was commonly used before the 1970s, and exposure to asbestos dust poses health risks. Now, I always wear an N99 drywall mask regardless of the material I’m working with — there’s a lot of harmful stuff in construction materials that I’d rather not breathe in.

When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for but likely aren’t?
One of the most overlooked challenges is asking the right questions upfront. The more information I gather before a task — such as wall type, client expectations and any potential obstacles — the smoother the job goes. This also helps avoid unnecessary trips to Home Depot mid-task for a unique tool or hardware.

Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong — how did you fix it?
As with any hands-on work, you never truly know what you’re up against until you get to the task and evaluate what you’re working with. Scoping the task ahead of time can only get you so far; surprises can and will inevitably happen. What sets me apart is my ability to pivot and problem-solve on the spot. Throughout my years of tasking, I’ve found that my commitment to precision and triple-checking my work before executing has been integral to preventing mistakes. And, of course, by performing every task with that same non-negotiable commitment, I’m able to ensure that my work is done right every time and, most importantly, that my clients are satisfied.

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How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
When I first started, I had no reviews and set a lower hourly rate to build demand. I took on every task available, working long hours to gain momentum. Within a month or two, I was consistently booked, and by the third month, I had a clear idea of my income potential. Initially, I made around $2,000 per month, working what felt like 24/7. But that hustle paid off; I built my reputation, gained hundreds of reviews and referrals and was able to scale my business significantly in a relatively short period of time. Now, I’m able to enjoy a work-life balance with my expertise fetching a more substantial hourly rate, and I’m able to schedule time off to appreciate my hard work.

What does growth and revenue look like now?
Taskrabbit has been a valuable source of income that I’ve been able to scale up or down based on my goals over the last three years. At times, I’ve worked full-time, completing 40-45 tasks per month, which equates to 70-80 hours of work. The platform provides the flexibility to take on as much or as little as you want, making it a great option for those looking to build a business on their own terms. I’ll typically earn around $3,500-4,500 a month when I’m working “full-time” at 60-80 hours a month.

How much time do you spend working on your business on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?
Taskrabbit operates on a client-request model, meaning I don’t always know what my week will look like in advance. I usually mark myself as available and wait for bookings. Unlike a traditional job with set days off, I structure my downtime around my bookings. For example, if I only have a morning task scheduled, I might take the afternoon off to meet friends or enjoy a relaxed day off. Seasonal demand also plays a role — busy periods like Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and the holidays bring in more tasks. My marketing primarily happens through word-of-mouth and client referrals. The game-changer for me was when I started asking for reviews every time before leaving a task — the majority of my clients don’t mind taking a few minutes to share their experiences.

What do you enjoy most about running this business?
I love seeing a project through from start to finish, but my clients are the real reason I enjoy this work so much. I’ve had the chance to meet and help so many incredible people, and I take pride in making their lives easier. Nothing beats a happy client who refers a friend because they had a great experience with me.

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What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
Specifically for women interested in similar work, my advice is:

1. Start within your comfort zone but push yourself to grow — learning new skills has allowed me to take on higher-value tasks.

2. Invest in quality tools — having the right equipment makes any job more efficient and professional.

3. Professionalism sets you apart — clients prioritize expertise, communication and reliability over anything else.

4. Don’t be intimidated: Just get started. Every expert was once a beginner, and the best way to build confidence is through hands-on experience. Skills can be learned, but determination, problem-solving and a willingness to figure things out as you go will take you far.

Take every opportunity to learn because even small jobs matter. Smaller tasks build confidence, refine your skills and lay the foundation for bigger opportunities. Every job teaches something new, and the more experience you gain, the faster you’ll grow into higher-value work.

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