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Bill Winters, the CEO of 160-year-old bank Standard Chartered, says that the MBA he earned from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business was a “waste of time” — but the humanities undergraduate degree he received from Colgate University was more worth it.

In an interview that aired earlier this week, Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua asked Winters, 63, what he would recommend for young people to study. Winters responded by saying that he studied international relations and history as an undergraduate, graduating in 1983. He recommended those fields, stating that majoring in those areas taught him “how to think.”

But his MBA from Wharton in 1988 was unnecessary, he said.

“I got an MBA later, but that was a waste of time,” Winters told Bloomberg. “I learned how to think at university. For the 40 years since I left university, those skills have been degraded, degraded, degraded.”

Related: Goldman Sachs CIO Says Coders Should Take Philosophy Classes — Here’s Why

Winters explained that critical thinking skills are “coming back” and becoming more important in the workforce now because AI is taking over tasks on the technical side.

“I really think in the age of AI that it’s critical that you know how to think and communicate,” Winters said.

He clarified that communication doesn’t mean to act like ChatGPT and churn out answers, but to know an audience and anticipate their needs with curiosity and empathy. Technical skills are being needed “less and less,” Winters said.

^{Bill Winters. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Winters started his career at JPMorgan in 1983, rising over nearly three decades to become the co-CEO of JPMorgan’s investment bank. He was considered a potential successor to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, but was ousted by Dimon in October 2009. He started his own fund management business, Renshaw Bay, in 2011 and joined Standard Chartered as CEO in 2015.

Related: Using ChatGPT? AI Could Damage Your Critical Thinking Skills, According to a Microsoft Study

Winters isn’t the only executive encouraging the study of the humanities. Goldman Sachs’ Chief Information Officer, Marco Argenti, wrote in a post in the Harvard Business Review last year that engineers should take philosophy classes in addition to standard engineering courses. That’s the advice he gave his college-age daughter who was thinking about what to study.

Meanwhile, big tech companies are rapidly adopting AI in their operations as the technology sweeps over technical skills. AI generates about 30% of new code at Google and Microsoft, and up to half of software development within the next year at Meta.

“Vibe coding,” or having AI code entire apps and projects based on prompts, is also on the rise. Even Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated earlier this month that he had used AI coding assistants to “vibe code” a webpage in his spare time.

Busy Philipps wasn’t trying to disrupt the celebrity marketing model when she first cried on Instagram stories. She wasn’t pitching brand deals or testing a strategy. She was just being real. But it turns out that unfiltered vulnerability — streamed to millions — wasn’t just cathartic. It was transformative.

Long before “authentic marketing” became a buzzword, Philipps was living it. And in doing so, the Freaks and Geeks and Dawson’s Creek actress discovered something Hollywood had long taught her to avoid: Being yourself online can actually be a superpower.

“Since I was a teenager, how I was portrayed in the media was always just very dependent on a reporter and the space they had allotted for a profile of a young actress like myself,” Philipps says. “I loved being able to have a direct line to people… being able to put [myself] directly out to the fans.”

Philipps’ Instagram stories marked a turning point in how she connected with the public. Rather than polished outcomes, she shared messy, behind-the-scenes moments to build deeper connections. And after years of curated press coverage and red carpet appearances, social media gave her the chance to control her own narrative and pursue opportunities she was passionate about.

Related: From Pennies to Millions: What It Felt Like to Make Money for the First Time

Her breakthrough moment came after her first late-night show, Busy Tonight, was canceled. In the old celebrity playbook, that kind of public career pivot would’ve been tightly managed. Philipps took another route — she processed her disappointment openly. “Oh, honey, I dwell,” she says. “I was just deeply feeling the injustice of the thing…but the more meetings we took, the more I thought, Why do these people get to determine what success looks like for me?“

Instead of jumping on the next available offer, Philipps paused and listened to her instincts. She passed on a major deal, ultimately paving the way for her QVC series, Busy This Week. “I called [executive producer Caissie St. Onge] and said, ‘Just hear me out. I feel like we can go directly to advertisers and get them to fund our talk show.'”

That gut-driven decision led Philipps to a larger realization: Creators could bypass traditional gatekeepers and build something of their own. For entrepreneurs, the takeaway is equally powerful: Don’t just chase the next opportunity. Wait for the one that aligns with your values.

Related: 5 Secrets to Success From a Sustainable Business That’s Grown 95% in 3 Years

Today, Philipps is much more than an actress — she’s a producer, podcast host, QVC personality and investor in mission-driven brands. What sets her apart isn’t just the breadth of her work, but the intentional way she uses her influence. On her QVC series, every product is selected with purpose, and many sell out quickly.

“There was a dress that Caissie wore that sold out immediately,” Philipps shares. “And when Tina Fey was on the show, there was this slightly terrifying Christmas squirrel that she had a lot to say about — but that squirrel sold out less than a week later.”

As a late-night host, Philipps’ approach is collaborative, honest and driven by care — a strategy that any entrepreneur can learn from. “I might be a f****** visionary, but I didn’t go to business school, and I don’t know how to code,” she says. “You’re only as good as the people you’re working with. QVC has been an incredible partner because they’re open to all the ideas.”

Related: Want to Work With Influencers? Here’s What Small Business Owners Need to Know.

Philipps brings that same mindset to investing. She doesn’t partner with a brand unless she believes in it. “With [BEHAVE Candy], I literally was just buying it,” she says. “Then my agent brought it to me, and I was like. ‘Familiar with the brand? I literally have it in my pantry.'”

What matters most to Philipps is the “why” behind a business. The brands she supports, including BEHAVE and Period., share a common purpose. They’re built by founders who care about making a positive impact, not just turning a profit.

“We have a surplus of s*** in the world, so…why? Why do we want it? Why do we need it? What good is it to the world? And what good are you gonna be to the world?”

By leading with her values, Philipps has built a following that trusts her deeply, supporting the products and platforms she stands behind. That connection is the foundation of long-term influence. Whether you’re an actress or a small business owner, people are attracted to authenticity with a purpose.

As Philipps puts it: “Is it doing something good in the world? That’s what matters to me.”

These are some of the principles that Philipps followed to get to where she is today:

• Own your voice. Don’t wait for permission to share your story. People connect with truth more than polish.
• Take your time. It’s okay to dwell after a setback. Wait for what feels right.
• Surround yourself with great people. Your team matters. Find people who fill in the gaps and support your vision.
• Invest in alignment. Don’t chase influence—cultivate values-based partnerships.
• Turn missteps into momentum. Even a public failure can become a launching pad if handled with transparency and care.

Related: This Local Bakery Has Lines Out the Door. Here Are the Secrets to Its Success.

Whether you’re starting a new phase in your professional journey or reflecting on decades of experiences, mentorship is critical to thriving in your career. Mentors inspire new talent to hone their unique skill set and capitalize on opportunity. As a professional grows, the former mentee becomes a mentor themselves, shaped by the guides who first led the way. Here are four reasons why mentorship can provide holistic rewards for you, your teams and work.

Developing skills

As experts across a variety of vocations, mentors bring a plethora of experiences to junior colleagues and their organizations. Mentor value is truly far-reaching. According to a CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey, 91% of people with mentors are satisfied with their jobs, and 71% of employees with a mentor say their company provides them with quality opportunities to advance their careers, compared to 47% of those without a mentor.

One of the many benefits of mentorship is tailored skill-building. Through their extensive industry knowledge, leaders can:

• Counsel improvement areas by sharing specialized knowledge and best practices specific to the needs of their mentee.
• Offer relationship-building advice and strategies.
• Instill a continuous learning mindset for career-long growth.
• Model soft skills such as leadership behaviors and successful verbal and written communication tactics.
• Share real-world examples to help their colleague navigate current situations with context.

Mentorship presents a mutually beneficial relationship for the mentor as well, allowing them to engage and understand emerging technologies, generational differences and unique perspectives.

Related: I Mentor First-Time Entrepreneurs — These Are the 4 Unseen Benefits I Gained By Giving Back

Navigating challenges

Challenges are inevitable, and how leaders rise to help their teams meet them can mean the difference between near-sure success or inevitable disaster. For leaders who have “been around the block” and seen the rise and fall of their industry, drawing on those experiences can prove instrumental in these situations. In other instances, engaging a novel approach and “unsticking” from past ways of thinking may be what your team needs.

In my own work, an unexpected situation once required me to think outside existing protocols as a mentor. I was tasked with leading a new group, but found that past ways of thinking and programs were actually preventing us from moving forward. I also learned that each member of my team had their own barriers that prevented them from achieving success. Rather than sticking to the original plan, I realized we needed to free ourselves and try new guidelines that addressed each person’s skills as well as their misfires. Being there as a mentor and working through individual needs helped the group redefine the structure we needed. This decision grounded all of us in a key learning that can apply beyond the workplace: Move beyond to find what prevails.

Networking

Much like skills, industry connections from a mentorship relationship take a mentee’s potential one step further. Speeches from high school valedictorians, celebrities, Nobel laureates, award winners, athletes, C-suite leaders and the like often acknowledge how mentorship opened life-altering doors. And for mentees of backgrounds and experience levels different from the predominant ones of their industry, networking can be especially significant.

In the small business landscape, mentorship can offer profitable pathways to new suppliers, client referrals and cross-industry partners. More broadly, new connections help businesses become better ingrained in their local communities and the causes their customers care about. Mentorship also reminds the mentee that their entrepreneurial journey is a networking haven of resources, connections and opportunities rather than a “go it alone” venture. Networking is a sounding board and support system of mentorship.

Related: Everyone Needs a Mentor — But Being a Mentor Is Just as Important. Here’s Why.

Passing it on

One of the great things when it comes to organized mentorship programs is the far-reaching joy across generations of mentor and mentee. An example that comes to mind is our annual The UPS Store Small Biz Challenge, a multistage competition that offers a chance for small business owners to compete for a share of the $35,000 prize pool, an editorial feature and one-on-one mentoring with a small business expert. Being a small business owner or entrepreneur amid an evolving landscape can feel intimidating by nature, which is why The UPS Store supports small business owners by providing resources to help them grow, thrive and reach their entrepreneurial dreams.

This year’s Small Biz Challenge winners, Sydney Attis and Mikayla Garcia, owners of Just Call Me Shirley, epitomize the spirit we see in all our applicants. Emerging from their victory, their mentorship lessons and challenges overcome have shaped new opportunities for them to help fellow entrepreneurs and business owners be unstoppable.

Regardless of the career stage or industry, mentorship has a role in all of them. It brings people together and boosts business development on the micro level. Simple setups, such as biweekly meetings, coffee chats or even happy hours, provide a space for these conversations. This time can become a natural part of your and your team’s work culture. With its many upstream and downstream benefits, consider incorporating mentorship when growing your business.

In order to make things faster and easier for baristas and potentially cheaper for customers, Starbucks is switching to a flat-fee system for syrups.

Beginning Tuesday, in stores in the U.S. and Canada, any combination of sauces and syrups will be a flat fee of 80 cents, whether you ask for one pump or four. Adding syrups to already pre-flavored beverages is free, per Bloomberg. Before the new changes, prices varied depending on flavor, number of pumps, and drinks being purchased.

Related: Starbucks Is Hiring In-Store Human Workers After Replacing People With Machines — and Finding It Didn’t Work

Matcha powder add-ons will now cost $1 per scoop, chai concentrate is now set at 80 cents per serving, and dried fruit is now 50 cents each.

Starbucks has been making a slew of changes since Brian Niccol joined as CEO last fall, promising to turn around the company’s lagging sales.

“We’re getting back to Starbucks. We’re refocusing on what has always set Starbucks apart — a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas,” he wrote at the time. “This is our enduring identity. We will innovate from here.”

The company has since cut items from the menu, implemented a new dress code for baristas, and closed its former “open door” policy.

Related: Starbucks Is Hiring a ‘Global Content Creator’ to Travel, Drink Coffee, and Get Paid Six Figures

An Amazon grocery executive says the company’s internal bureaucracy is “ridiculous” and that the retail giant is working to reduce it.

At an internal meeting last week for Amazon’s grocery team, an employee asked how the company planned to speed up decision-making due to the “multiple levels” needed for approval. The meeting leaked on Wednesday when Business Insider obtained a recording of it.

Amazon’s Vice President of Worldwide Grocery and Whole Foods CEO, Jason Buechel, responded to the employee’s concern by characterizing internal bureaucracy as “ridiculous” and saying that Amazon is trying to speed up processes in several areas, like spending approvals. According to Buechel, bureaucracy slows down Amazon’s grocery business and holds the company back.

Related: Amazon Tells Thousands of Employees to Relocate or Resign

“The feedback I’ve gotten from team members and employees is that ultimately, we’re wasting time,” Buechel said at the meeting. “It’s taking too long for decisions and approvals to take place, and it’s actually holding back some of our initiatives.”

^{Jason Buechel. Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit}

Amazon’s emphasis on reducing bureaucracy extends up to CEO Andy Jassy. In September, alongside a return-to-office mandate, Jassy introduced a “bureaucracy mailbox” for employees to submit examples of where they saw unnecessary processes or rules at the company. By November, that inbox had received more than 500 emails and Amazon had acted on more than 150 suggestions.

Jassy also announced in September that the company would eliminate excess layers of middle management by the end of March. Amazon achieved this goal by pausing the hiring of new managers, demoting some managers, and requiring existing managers to increase their number of direct reports.

At a leaked all-hands meeting in November, Jassy said that “one of the reasons” he was still at Amazon was “because it’s not a political or bureaucratic place.”

“The reality is that the [senior leadership team] and I hate bureaucracy,” Jassy said at the meeting.

Related: ‘I Hate Bureaucracy’: Leaked Internal Amazon Document Reveals How the Tech Giant Is Cutting Down on Middle Management

Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022 to cut costs, and recently conducted layoffs in various departments. The retail giant cut dozens of jobs in its Goodreads site and Kindle division earlier this month.

Amazon’s grocery business faced layoffs earlier this week when the company laid off at least 125 employees who worked in a Fresh grocery store in Federal Way, Washington. An Amazon spokesperson told The Seattle Times that the employees had the option to transfer to similar roles at nearby sites.

Amazon employs 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees.

Dating app company Bumble is laying off 30% of staff, or nearly one in three employees.

In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted earlier this week, Bumble disclosed that it was reducing its global workforce by approximately 240 roles in the latter half of the year.

The company expects to spend $13 million to $18 million on severance payments and benefits for impacted employees. However, the layoffs will result in up to $40 million in annual cost savings, the company claims. According to the filing, Bumble intends to reinvest “the substantial majority of these savings” in initiatives like “product and technology development.”

The last time Bumble had a round of layoffs was in January 2024, when the company reduced its workforce by around 30%, or 350 employees at the time.

Related: Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd’s Daily Routine: 5 A.M. Wake-Ups and Dialing Into Meetings After Dropping Her Son Off at School

Bumble shares were up over 20% following the news of workforce reductions.

Also in the filing, Bumble increased its revenue forecast for the current quarter. The dating app company updated its second-quarter revenue forecast to a range of $244 million to $249 million, up from the previous prediction of $235 million to $243 million.

The layoffs arrive months after Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd returned to the company as CEO. Wolfe Herd founded the app in 2014 and served as CEO from January 2020 to January 2024. Lidiane Jones, who was previously the CEO of workplace messaging app Slack, took over as CEO of Bumble from January 2024 to March 2025 before stepping down for “personal reasons.” Wolfe Herd stepped back in, rejoining the company as CEO in March.

“Bumble needs me back,” Wolfe Herd said in an interview last month with The New York Times. “Watching it fall from its peak has been very hard.”

Related: Former Youngest Self-Made Billionaire Surprises Employees With Full Week Off

Bumble went public in 2021. Its market value has plummeted from $7.7 billion in early 2021 to about $661 million at the time of writing. Low user retention and fewer paying users have led to decreased revenue, causing the app to decline, per Business Insider.

^{Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Last month, Bumble released its most recent earnings report for the first quarter of the year. The report was disappointing: total revenue decreased 7.7% year-over-year to $247 million, with Bumble app revenue dropping 6.5% to $202 million, and Bumble app paying users decreasing 1% to 2.7 million users.

Wolfe Herd reassured investors in the report that Bumble is on “an accelerated path to return to sustainable, long-term growth” with “more quality and relevant matches” for users.

“Our path forward is clear,” Wolfe Herd stated in the report.

Every entrepreneur has had that moment of inspiration, when an idea begins to take shape. Maybe it’s a new product, a clever app, a unique service model, or even just the perfect name for your business. It’s an exhilarating feeling. But here’s the catch: ideas are easy to admire and even easier to copy — unless you know how to protect them.

As the CEO of an international franchise brand, I’ve had a front-row seat to what happens when innovation meets reality. Over the years, I’ve watched businesses soar because they locked down their intellectual property, and I’ve seen others struggle when they didn’t. So let me walk you through what I’ve learned along the way, not as a lawyer (because I’m not one), but as someone who’s built a company where protecting innovation isn’t just smart, it’s survival.

Related: Considering franchise ownership? Get started now to find your personalized list of franchises that match your lifestyle, interests and budget.

What Is intellectual property (IP)?

Think of intellectual property (IP) as the secret sauce behind your business. It’s the name you came up with in the shower. It’s the quirky logo that somehow just works. It’s your proprietary method for getting something done better, faster, or smarter than everyone else. And it deserves protection just as much as any brick-and-mortar storefront.

There are several primary ‘flavors’ of IP, each serving a distinct purpose. A trademark protects your brand identity: your business name, logo, tagline, and possibly even a jingle if you’re feeling particularly creative. Copyrights cover creative stuff: that killer blog post, your instructional videos, your software code. Patents? Those are for inventions, big or small, from rocket fuel to the rubber spatula. And trade secrets? Well, those are the hush-hush techniques and processes you don’t want to leave your inner circle. Think grandma’s cookie recipe or a franchise brand’s proprietary training manual.

Related: ‘Send a Man Next Time’: How an Entrepreneur and Her Daughters Built a $2.5 Million Franchise in a Male-Dominated Field

Why IP is everything

I get it. When you’re launching or scaling a business, your to-do list is a mile long. But here’s the thing: ignoring intellectual property can come back to bite you. I’ve seen businesses spend years building a recognizable brand, only to discover someone else trademarked the name first. I’ve seen marketing content borrowed by competitors and product ideas replicated without a second thought. It’s not just unfair, it’s expensive.

In the world of franchising, intellectual property is everything. Our proprietary technologies and systems, training programs and digital tools form the blueprint for franchisees across the country. Without explicit protections in place, none of it would work. A franchise is only as strong as the brand behind it — and a brand is only as strong as its IP.

You don’t need to be running a franchise to feel the impact. Maybe you’re a startup founder pitching to investors. If you’ve got a solid product and no IP protection, it’s a red flag. Maybe you’re launching a wellness brand on Instagram. If your logo isn’t trademarked, you could be asked to change it after you’ve already printed materials and built a website.

Related: How I Survived My First Crisis as a CEO — And Rebuilt From Zero

How to protect your ideas

Now, before you start spiraling, let me say this: you don’t need to figure it all out today. But you do need to start thinking like the owner of something valuable, because you are. Begin by researching whether your business name is already in use. If it’s available, investigate trademarking it. If you’ve invented something original, talk to a patent attorney. If you’re creating content, ensure that you keep accurate records and understand the basics of copyright. And if you’ve got a secret recipe or an algorithm that drives your business, treat it like gold: secure it, limit access and have team members sign confidentiality agreements.

Most importantly, get help. IP law is nuanced and while I can speak to it from a business perspective, I can’t offer legal advice. (Here’s the official disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. Always consult with a qualified intellectual property attorney to protect your unique business assets adequately.) What I can say is that making this a priority early on can save you time, money, and stress in the long run.

Entrepreneurship is a journey of building, brick by brick, idea by idea. But if you don’t guard what you’ve built, someone else might swoop in and stake a claim. That’s not just frustrating, it can be devastating to everything you’ve worked for.

At Anago Cleaning Systems, we’ve spent decades fine-tuning our business model and safeguarding the intellectual property that drives it. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to grow, franchise, and innovate with confidence. You don’t need to build a global franchise to benefit from that same protection. You simply need to treat your ideas as valuable assets, and take steps to protect them accordingly.

Because in the world of entrepreneurship, the idea is just the beginning. How do you protect it? That’s what turns it into a business.

Related: Use These 4 Storytelling Strategies to Grow a Loyal Following

Adam Povlitz is CEO & President of Anago Cleaning Systems, an international franchise brand specializing in commercial cleaning. The views expressed here are based on business experience and do not constitute legal advice. For matters of intellectual property, always consult a licensed legal professional.

In 2006, Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge didn’t have visions of becoming entrepreneurs with a goat milk skincare and body care brand. The New York City-based couple went on an apple-picking getaway upstate one weekend and stumbled on a little town called Sharon Springs. They fell in love with the town, and on their drive out, with a property for sale: Beekman Farm, its house built in 1802.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Beekman 1802. Josh Kilmer-Purcell, left, and Brent Ridge, right.}

Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge were far from professional farmers — Kilmer-Purcell worked in advertising, and Ridge was a physician who’d started the health and wellness division of Martha Stewart Omnimedia — but they thought the farm would be the perfect weekend place, so they cashed in their savings and purchased the property.

Not long after they moved in, they received a note from their neighbor, a farmer named John, who was losing his farm and had no place for his 80 goats. Would the couple mind moving the animals into the empty barn on their property? They agreed and invited John to live in a small cottage on the farm and be its caretaker.

Related: This Founder Noticed a Stark Change at a Local Pride Parade — and Says It Creates a ‘Real Opportunity’ for Small Businesses

“Everything was great,” the co-founders recall. Then the 2008 recession hit.

“We lost our jobs within 30 days of each other, and we had this new mortgage — we had to pay [off] the farm,” Kilmer-Purcell says. “So we literally Googled, ‘What can we make with goat milk?’ And the first thing that came up was goat milk soap.”

The co-founders note that while many entrepreneurs today start a business with the goal of eventually selling it, that was the furthest thing from their minds when they launched their brand in 2009 — they were “just trying to survive.”

“ I remember calculating that if we sold $80 worth of soap a day, that would be enough to pay the mortgage for that month,” Kilmer-Purcell says, “so some nights we’d be sitting there at like 10 p.m. in bed being like, ‘Come on, just one more order. Come in.'”

Now, Beekman 1802 has sold more than 60 million bars of that soap and surpassed $150 million in sales. Beekman 1802 sells its premium skincare and body care products via its website, QVC, Ulta Beauty, Amazon, Target, the LaGuardia Airport Kindness Shop, its flagship mercantile in Sharon Springs, independent retailers and more.

Related: The ‘Hustle’ He Started Out of His Station Wagon Became a Nationwide Business That’s About to Hit $300 Million: ‘Everything We Do Is Pretty Simple’

Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge have also published three cookbooks, and their first business book, G.O.A.T. Wisdom: How to Build a Truly Great Business, will be released on July 1.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Harvard Business Review}

“We started selling the bars of soap on our website.”

One of the first steps was to build a website for the brand; back then, direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales were just starting to gain traction.

“ We were one of the very first beauty brands to be DTC,” Ridge says. “Josh learned how to code. He coded the first website, [and] we started selling the bars of soap on our website. But back then, of course, you were not going to make a fortune off of selling stuff on a website. It just wasn’t the environment.”

The co-founders wanted to take their all-natural, goat milk soap product where it had never been before — the luxury retail space. So Ridge cold-called luxury department stores on Fifth Avenue in New York City: Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue and Henri Bendel.

The buyer at Henri Bendel told Ridge that if he could commit to coming to the store every day for the next eight weeks ahead of the holiday season, the retailer would give them a three-foot by three-foot table on its main floor, where the brand could engage with the customers. If the product was a hit, then the store would stock its products going forward.

 ”So that’s what I did,” Ridge recalls. “I would get up every morning at the farm. It’s about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the city. I would bring in all the soaps. I was set up on the little table. I would stay until closing at 8 or 9 p.m., drive all the way back three-and-a-half hours to the farm. I did it every day for eight weeks.”

Related: There Are Three Types of ‘No,’ Says the World’s Leading Door-to-Door Sales Expert. Here’s How to Know Which One You’re Hearing

As a physician and scientist, Ridge admits he didn’t know much about how to sell a product back then. However, through exposure to other salespeople on the floor and “osmosis,” he figured out how to do it effectively. Another major breakthrough came during that time: A buyer for Anthropologie stopped by on a scouting mission and “fell in love” with Beekman 1802’s story.

“That’s how we got our first big order,” Ridge recalls. “Our first big break was going national with Anthropologie.”

“[Reality TV] helped us grow a really loyal, manageable fan base quickly.”

For the first decade of the company’s growth, Beekman 1802 didn’t take any outside funding. The co-founders were committed to starting the business the “old-fashioned way,” not “spending $1 until they’d made $1.50,” in the wake of a recession where financial institutions had let so many people down.

As a result, the entrepreneurs didn’t have the money to market their brand in the early days. Well-aware of the value of media, Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge seized every opportunity to get Beekman 1802 in front of an audience, from local news programs to blogs.

Then the co-founders had the exciting and unexpected opportunity to star in their own reality TV show. Kilmer-Purcell was interviewing for a creative director position at a network when the president told him that she didn’t know if he was right for the job — but would he and Ridge consider appearing in a reality TV show about their life on the farm and launch of their business?

Related: What the C-Suite Needs to Know About the True Power of Earned Media

The co-founders embraced the opportunity to generate awareness for their brand, and within five months, The Fabulous Beekman Boys was airing.

“It helped us grow a really loyal, manageable fan base quickly,” Kilmer-Purcell explains. “But we weren’t distracted [by] becoming reality TV stars and trying to get another show and another show. It was just a really good free commercial that helped us start the business.”

The Fabulous Beekman Boys ran for two seasons, and although the co-founders weren’t seeking out more reality TV opportunities after it wrapped, another one came to them after a serendipitous encounter at one of their book signings: The chance to compete on CBS’s The Amazing Race.

“The Amazing Race story was so authentic to the brand that it was a multiplier.”

It was 2013, and Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge figured that even if they only made it halfway through the competition, the number of viewers tuning in would bring the Beekman brand significant exposure. In the first episode, they introduced themselves as “The Beekman Boys” to get the ball rolling and make sure “that was always what people would hear.”

“We were the underdogs the whole season,” Ridge recalls. “We were two middle-aged gay guys. We’re not going to beat the athletes and younger people. In the third or fourth leg, we were in Indonesia and thought we were going home. It was like 120 degrees; we had been struggling the whole day and were trying to finish up this task, carrying 100 pounds of bamboo and thought we were pulling up last. So we thought, You know what? Let’s just make the most of this.”

The couple happened to be walking down a street where a school was letting out; with a lot of kids around and curious about the camera crew, Ridge started chanting “Beekman Boys,” and the crowd joined in. “We just thought, Oh, what a great way to go out of The Amazing Race,” Ridge says.

Then the co-founders pulled off something they’d never expected: They won the entire race. Before the win, Beekman 1802 received about 100 orders per day on its website. Immediately after, that number surged to thousands.

“What was great about the fact that we were always in last place and called the ultimate underdogs the entire race [was that] it fit in with our founder’s story: having lost our jobs and starting on the farm, two gay New York City guys in a small town in rural New York and starting with nothing,” Kilmer-Purcell says. “The Amazing Race story was so authentic to the brand that it was a multiplier.”

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Beekman 1802}

Related: How to Scale a Business Without Wasting Millions (Or Collapsing Under Your Own Growth)

Beekman 1802’s next big growth milestone came shortly after the co-founders’ success on The Amazing Race when the brand launched on TV retail. The entrepreneurs recognized the platform’s potential to tell Beekman 1802’s story and sell its products, but they knew they had to come up with a hook to halt viewers in their tracks.

So the couple opted to bring baby goats on air.

“It’s disruptive,” Ridge explains, “and makes you stop. If you get people’s attention, then you have a much higher likelihood of selling something. That was a real trick that we still use to this day. Now we’re the No. 1 skincare brand that crosses QVC and HSN.”

Beekman 1802 continued to scale, landing in Ulta Beauty, Target and Amazon. The brand’s Ulta rollout, set for approximately 1,500 stores, coincided with the pandemic and led the co-founders to seek their first outside investment for the company.

Eurazeo, a leading global investment group, acquired a controlling stake in the company with a $62 million investment in 2021.

“You have to go back to the fundamentals of what it takes to build a great brand.”

The co-founders have learned a lot growing their business over the years. Although they enjoy watching Shark Tank, the TV show where hopeful entrepreneurs can pitch their business ideas to the judges for potential investment, they warn aspiring founders not to fall for what they call “the Shark Tank effect” — the belief that they can’t start a business without raising money.

 ”What we found is businesses that start their life by raising money never actually become businesses,” Kilmer-Purcell says. “They just become fundraising businesses because they start by raising money and then a few months later, they raise more money, and then they have to raise more money — and they get better at raising money than running their own business.”

Seeing that pattern play out motivated the entrepreneurs to write G.O.A.T. Wisdom and share the lessons they’ve learned with the world.

“There are plenty of ways to have a good business where you can make money,” Ridge says, “but if you want a great business that’s going to have legacy and last, you have to go back to the fundamentals of what it takes to build a great brand.”

According to Ridge, ignoring trends is one key to success in the skincare and body care space, as copycat products will find it difficult to stand out in a market saturated with similar offerings.

“The world doesn’t need another vitamin C cream,” Ridge explains. “There are already a thousand vitamin C serums out there. What is the true innovation? How are you going to bring something new to customers that’s going to improve their lives?”

Related: Your Innovation Won’t Succeed Without Authentic Demand. Here’s How to Find It

The original act of kindness that came with the opportunity to host Farmer John and his goats remains Beekman 1802’s driving force, the co-founders say.

The company has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in product and financial support to hundreds of worthy causes. The brand has also established a Kindness Krew: a community of skincare content creators and community influencers who are “passionate about spreading kindness to skin, animals, community and the planet.”

 ”Selling the product is the next level down,” Ridge says, “because we know that if we are successful in spreading kindness, then the product will have more value to [people].”

A federal judge ruled for the first time that it was legal for $61.5 billion AI startup, Anthropic, to train its AI model on copyrighted books without compensating or crediting the authors.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco stated in a ruling filed on Monday that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted, published books to train its AI model was “fair use” under U.S. copyright law because it was “exceedingly transformative.” Alsup compared the situation to a human reader learning how to be a writer by reading books, for the purpose of creating a new work.

“Like any reader aspiring to be a writer, Anthropic’s [AI] trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different,” Alsup wrote.

According to the ruling, although Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books as training material for Claude was fair use, the court will hold a trial on pirated books used to create Anthropic’s central library and determine the resulting damages.

Related: ‘Extraordinarily Expensive’: Getty Images Is Pouring Millions of Dollars Into One AI Lawsuit, CEO Says

The ruling, the first time that a federal judge has sided with tech companies over creatives in an AI copyright lawsuit, creates a precedent for courts to favor AI companies over individuals in AI copyright disputes.

These copyright lawsuits rely on how a judge interprets the fair use doctrine, a concept in copyright law that permits the use of copyrighted material without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. Fair use rulings depend on how different the end work is from the original, what the end work is being used for, and if it is being replicated for commercial gain.

The plaintiffs in the class action case, Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, are all authors who allege that Anthropic used their work to train its chatbot without their permission. They filed the initial complaint, Bartz v. Anthropic, in August 2024, alleging that Anthropic had violated copyright law by pirating books and replicating them to train its AI chatbot.

The ruling details that Anthropic downloaded millions of copyrighted books for free from pirate sites. The startup also bought print copies of copyrighted books, some of which it already had in its pirated library. Employees tore off the bindings of these books, cut down the pages, scanned them, and stored them in digital files to add to a central digital library.

From this central library, Anthropic selected different groupings of digitized books to train its AI chatbot, Claude, the company’s primary revenue driver.

Related: ‘Bottomless Pit of Plagiarism’: Disney, Universal File the First Major Hollywood Lawsuit Against an AI Startup

The judge ruled that because Claude’s output was “transformative,” Anthropic was permitted to use the copyrighted works under the fair use doctrine. However, Anthropic still has to go to trial over the books it pirated.

“Anthropic had no entitlement to use pirated copies for its central library,” the ruling reads.

Claude has proven to be lucrative. According to the ruling, Anthropic made over one billion dollars in annual revenue last year from corporate clients and individuals paying a subscription fee to use the AI chatbot. Paid subscriptions for Claude range from $20 per month to $100 per month.

Anthropic faces another lawsuit from Reddit. In a complaint filed earlier this month in Northern California court, Reddit claimed that Anthropic used its site for AI training material without permission.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, 62, has begun selling Nvidia shares under a new trading plan that allows him to dispose of up to $865 million worth of stock by the end of the year.

According to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Huang offloaded 100,000 Nvidia shares, worth $14.4 million, between Friday and Monday, his first sale of the year. Another filing shows that Huang sold another 50,000 shares on Monday, valued at over $7 million.

The transactions fall under a new 10b5-1 plan adopted on March 20 and disclosed last month in Nvidia’s quarterly report. The plan allows Huang to sell six million shares in total by December 31, which would equal $865 million worth of shares at Monday’s closing price of $144.17.

Related: ‘The Decade of Autonomous Vehicles’: Nvidia CEO Predicts Major Growth in Robotics, Self-Driving Cars

Nvidia’s quarterly report also revealed that the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Colette M. Kress, and its Director, A. Brooke Seawell, also adopted 10b5-1 plans in March. Kress has the option to sell 500,000 Nvidia shares by March 24, 2026, and Seawell can sell over 1.1 million shares by July 31.

Huang’s trading plan gives him and other executives the option to cash in on stock on a pre-arranged plan. Huang has sold more than $1.9 billion in Nvidia shares to date, per Bloomberg.

^{Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images}

Huang is the 12th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $126 billion at the time of writing. Most of his fortune, or about $124 billion worth, consists of Nvidia shares, and the rest is cash. Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has been leading it ever since, owns about 3.5% of the AI chipmaker as of March.

Related: How Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Transformed a Graphics Card Company Into an AI Giant: ‘One of the Most Remarkable Business Pivots in History’

Nvidia recently reported strong earnings. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, ending April 27, the AI giant reported revenue of $44.1 billion, up 12% from the previous quarter and up 69% from the same period last year. Nvidia expects revenue to be even higher for the second quarter of 2026, predicting $45 billion.

Nvidia shares have been climbing for the past month and are up over 8%. The company is the No. 2 most valuable in the world, with a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, second to Microsoft.