In private equity, the smartest general partners (GPs) are realizing that co-investments aren’t just a fundraising sweetener; they’re a strategic lever. Done right, they strengthen the portfolio, deepen LP relationships and reduce overall risk exposure. Yet many GPs still treat co-investing as an afterthought rather than a core element of fund strategy.

In today’s climate, where LPs are more selective, underwriting standards are higher and trust is harder to earn, co-investments can be the edge that separates high-performing GPs from the pack. Here’s how the most sophisticated firms are using co-investing not just to raise capital, but to build resilient portfolios and tighter LP alignment.

Related: The Collaboration Between Limited Partners and Growth Partners: Investors’ Perspective

Why co-investments matter more than ever

The co-investment market has matured rapidly over the past decade. According to Preqin’s Global Private Equity Report, nearly 70% of LPs now expect co-investment opportunities from their fund managers. This demand is no longer limited to mega-institutional family offices. Sovereign wealth funds and even smaller foundations are seeking ways to increase exposure to direct deals while lowering blended fee structures.

Meanwhile, a 2023 report from PitchBook emphasized that co-investment volume is rising even in volatile markets, fueled by LPs looking for more control, lower fees and deeper access to quality deals.

For GPs, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge: Co-investments can strain internal resources and slow deal execution if not managed well. The opportunity: When built into the fund’s operations and strategy from day one, co-investments enhance portfolio flexibility, attract strategic LPs and reduce concentration risk, all without diluting fund governance.

Co-investing as a tool for portfolio construction

Smart GPs treat co-investment capacity as part of their capital stack, not a separate, ad hoc offering. This mindset allows them to:

• Pursue larger deals than the fund alone could support, without increasing fund-level concentration.

• Add diversification by allocating fund capital to core positions and inviting co-investors into adjacent or higher-risk assets.

• Act quickly on opportunistic deals by pre-qualifying LPs who can co-invest with short notice.

Let’s say your $100M fund is targeting 10 core platform deals of $10M each. You come across a $25M acquisition that fits the thesis but exceeds your single-asset exposure cap. With co-investment capital lined up, you can still lead the deal, funding $10M from the fund and $15M from co-investors. This approach maintains portfolio balance while giving LPs direct access to a larger asset.

More importantly, it builds your reputation as a GP who brings access, not just capital.

For a case study of this dynamic in action, this piece from Hamilton Lane illustrates how co-investments have become an essential tool in modern private market strategy.

Related: The Risks And Rewards Of Direct Investment For LPs

Reducing risk while increasing ownership

One underappreciated benefit of co-investing is how it allows GPs to retain control of high-conviction assets without overexposing the core fund. In many cases, the most attractive deals are also the most capital-intensive. Without co-investment partners, a GP must choose between taking a smaller slice or over-allocating from the fund.

By bringing in co-investors, GPs can secure majority or lead positions while staying within prudent limits. This improves control over governance, exit timing and value creation plans, all critical levers in reducing downside risk.

Additionally, co-investing can be a powerful tool in navigating market cycles. During downturns, GPs can selectively syndicate capital-heavy deals to preserve dry powder, while still deploying into discounted opportunities. The BVCA’s 2023 Private Equity Guide offers insights into how firms are adjusting their co-investment behavior during a recession.

The operational backbone of a co-investment strategy

Of course, offering co-investments isn’t just about having the deal flow. The GPs who excel at this have built internal systems to handle:

• Legal structuring: Quick SPV setups, allocation mechanics and clear governance roles

• LP segmentation: Understanding which investors have the appetite, capacity and decision-making speed to co-invest

• Data sharing: Secure, real-time access to diligence materials and post-investment reporting

• Compliance and fairness: Ensuring transparent allocation that doesn’t disadvantage the core fund

This operational backbone is often the difference between firms that “can” offer co-investments and those that do so consistently, cleanly and at scale.

For GPs looking to mature their fund ops, platforms like Carta and Juniper Square simplify co-investment administration, LP communications and investor onboarding.

More advanced GPs are also using tools like Passthrough to streamline subscription documents or Anduin for automated investor workflows.

Co-investment fosters lasting trust

From an LP point of view, we see co-investing as a way to display confidence and alignment. It gives them more say, more return and often a larger role at the table. When done fairly, it turns your investors into what they are — full partners. In a world that is becoming more relationship-based in terms of fundraising, GPs who put in consistent, thoughtful co-investments are at an advantage.

• Retain top LPs in future funds.

• Convert one-time investors into anchor commitments.

• Win allocations in competitive fundraising cycles.

According to HarbourVest’s 2023 LP Survey, nearly 80% of LPs reported higher satisfaction and trust in managers who offered co-investment access, especially when the deals performed well and were communicated transparently.

Related: Why Direct Investments By LPs Are On the Rise

A word of caution: Don’t over-promise

With all its advantages, co-investing is not a silver bullet. When used excessively or poorly, it may bring execution risk, create inefficiencies and bring LPs into conflict. The most common shortcomings are:

• Providing too much in co-investments, devaluing their quality

• Granting favors with allocations

• Procrastinating closings from side deal logistics

• Failing to coordinate internal bandwidth to handle the complexity

The best firms are selective. They set expectations with LPs early, often in the PPM or DDQ, and focus on quality over quantity. One excellent co-investment that delivers a win can be more powerful than five rushed ones that don’t perform.

Co-investments are no longer optional; they’re a defining feature of modern private equity. But the edge doesn’t come from offering them. It comes from integrating them into your portfolio construction, risk management and LP strategy.

The smartest GPs know this. They use co-investing not just to fill out a cap table, but to build durable LP relationships, de-risk big bets and unlock operational agility. As fundraising becomes more competitive and LPs demand more from their managers, those who treat co-investing as a core fund ops capability, not a last-minute offer, will stand out.

We’ve all heard it: “Be transparent with your team.” It’s the advice that gets handed out at every startup panel and leadership workshop, especially when the waters get rough. And at first glance, it looks like a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to know the truth? Who wouldn’t want to work somewhere honest?

But in the thick of a crisis, the reality is more complicated. When you’re the one steering the ship and the waters turn choppy, the call for transparency starts to sound a lot less simple. There’s a very real difference between being open and overwhelming your team. The right amount of information can create clarity and trust. Too much, too soon, or in the wrong way can lead to confusion, distraction and even panic.

Most people — especially founders — learn this lesson the hard way. Maybe it starts with an attempt at full openness: You share every new update as soon as it comes in, mention every risk and try to involve everyone in every tough decision. The intent is good. But then you notice side effects: anxious questions, whispered rumors and a team that feels less steady, not more.

Here’s why transparency can actually hurt your team in a crisis and how to handle it instead.

Transparency without context creates noise, not clarity

Leadership is full of messy, moving targets. During a crisis, your dashboards light up, your inbox fills with alarms, and every meeting brings a new set of questions. For some, the instinct is to share it all — to be as open as possible so nobody feels left out or kept in the dark.

But raw information without context can be worse than saying nothing. If you give your team every data point and warning bell without making sense of it yourself first, you’re handing them a pile of puzzle pieces and asking them to build the picture. Some will try, but most will feel lost. Assumptions fill in the gaps. (And usually, those assumptions don’t land in your favor!)

Context is what separates clarity from chaos. Instead of raw facts, people need to know what those facts mean. Are we facing a cash crunch, or just an expected seasonal dip? Is this client’s feedback a sign of a bigger trend, or a one-off? Your job as a leader is to interpret the story behind the data before you share it widely. If you haven’t made sense of it yet, neither will your team.

When you’re ready to share, give the background, share your thinking and explain why it matters. And if you don’t know yet, it’s okay to say that. “Here’s what we know, here’s what we don’t, and here’s what we’re doing next.” That’s more stabilizing than anecdotal data and uncertainty.

Emotional stewardship vs. emotional spillover

Honesty is important, but so is emotional discipline. In the pressure of a crisis, it can be tempting to process your fears and anxieties out loud, almost as a way of inviting your team into your stress. But there’s a world of difference between letting people in and asking them to carry your burden.

If you share every fear, doubt or draft scenario as you’re experiencing it, you risk dragging your team onto an emotional roller coaster. Instead of feeling involved, they end up riding shotgun to your worst-case-scenario thinking. It can feel like every week brings a new mood swing, and it’s distracting and exhausting.

What your team actually needs is for you to do your own processing with your board, mentors or a small circle of advisors — people whose job is to help you sort out your own thinking. Once you’re grounded, you can come back and share what matters most in a way that helps others do their jobs.

Share your humanity, yes, but don’t turn your town hall into group therapy. Your team deserves your thoughtfulness, not your unfiltered reaction.

Transparency does not equal consensus

One of the biggest misconceptions about transparency is that it means everyone gets a vote. In a crisis, leadership sometimes requires you to make quick decisions, even unpopular ones. If you mistake transparency for consensus, you risk slowing everything down or, worse, giving the impression that every issue is up for debate.

You can and should explain your reasoning, outline the options you considered and be clear about the risks you’re accepting. But ultimately, your team needs to know that you’re accountable for the call and that you’re confident in your direction — even if not everyone agrees.

Inviting feedback is not the same as opening every topic for a team referendum. Sometimes, what people need most is the assurance that someone is steering the ship.

Timing and delivery are just as important as the message

It’s not just what you say, but when and how you say it. Dropping a tough update in an email late on a Friday or scattering information piecemeal in Slack can make your team’s anxiety worse. Instead, gather your team, give them your full attention and offer them space to ask questions even if you don’t have all the answers yet.

Think through the cadence of your communication, too. People need regular check-ins, but they don’t need a tidal wave of info every time you get new input. Predictability creates safety, even when the news itself isn’t what they’d hoped for.

Transparency, when done thoughtfully, builds resilience and trust. But in a crisis, your job isn’t to share a running list of every problem and possibility. It’s to interpret the facts, contextualize them and communicate with care. Honesty matters, but so does judgment.

In the hardest moments, your team is looking for a calm hand on the wheel. Give them clarity and confidence, and you’ll get through those moments much more easily.

Three of the same VC firms that backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay, respectively, are all investing in Pacaso.

Venture backing in companies like Pacaso is nothing new. After all, early-stage companies often have the potential to deliver the most outsized returns.

But, recent regulatory updates have opened the door for individual investors to invest alongside these venture capitalists. Normally, everyday investors have to wait for a company to go public before they can invest, missing out on that early gain potential. Now, some companies are opening up investment opportunities to the public.

This type of investing has already seen some great success stories. For example, in 2016, 433 people invested an average of $2,730 in a private startup named Revolut. Fast-forward to today, those $2,730 stakes are worth more than $1 million, up 89,900%.

That potential could be why 10,000+ investors have taken the chance on Pacaso alongside big-name VCs, contributing $36M+ already. It’s no surprise, considering Pacaso’s résumé:

• The company has made $110M in gross profits to date
• Pacaso’s co-founder sold his last company to Zillow for $120M
• They operate in more than 40 vacation destinations across the U.S., Mexico, UK, and France
• The company reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO

The growth potential is where the excitement is. Below we’ll reveal more about how Pacaso has built a competitive moat so quickly, and how you can share in their potential growth.

Next-generation co-ownership

After his $120M exit and subsequent role as a Zillow executive, Austin Allison created Pacaso’s game-changing co-ownership model. Powered by proprietary tech and an innovative structure that eliminates the headaches of traditional vacation home ownership, it’s already leaving a mark. Here’s how:

• Seamless transactions: Clients easily buy, finance, and resell, shares of luxury homes through Pacaso’s intuitive platform.
• Turnkey ownership: Pacaso handles maintenance, scheduling, and furnishing; owners simply enjoy their vacation homes.
• Maximized value: Homes that once sat empty up to 90% of the year now stay occupied nearly year-round, benefiting owners and local economies.

The demand for their services and expertise is real. In top destinations, co-ownership is growing 21% annually in the U.S., and Pacaso homes have appreciated nearly 10% since 2021 – roughly double the growth of the broader luxury market.

Scaling into 10 new international destinations

Pacaso is already leading the charge in the $1.3 trillion U.S. vacation home market, combining real estate innovation with tech-driven efficiency to generate multiple revenue streams, the company says. These include transaction service fees on every sale, recurring property management fees, and exclusive financing options tailored to co-owners.

And the platform’s global reach is growing quickly, as they’re already seeing strong returns in the $500B global market. In 2024, they set records in Paris and London. Meanwhile, Cabo is the #3-most-searched destination on their platform. No surprise Europe and Mexico have accounted for 22% of revenue over the past two years, the company says.

Now, they’re taking international expansion to an entirely new level. They recently announced 10 new international destinations will be added to their platform, spread across Italy, the Caribbean, and Mexico. That means Pacaso’s unique model is poised to dominate a combined $1.8T in vacation home markets.

Why investors are paying attention

There are many reasons why firms managing a combined $180B+ in assets have already backed Pacaso, including:

• Proven leadership: With a $120M exit and experience as an executive for Zillow, Allison’s real-estate expertise is unmatched.
• Strong growth metrics: Full-year 2024 financials showed a 21% YoY increase in gross real estate volume and a 24% improvement in adjusted EBITDA.
• Surging demand: 40% of Americans want to buy a vacation home in the next year (Coldwell Banker), and co-ownership is growing 21% annually in the United States

After impressive full-year earnings showed gross profit grew 41%, and with continued growth and expansion plans ahead, Pacaso is hitting their stride. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

You can claim your stake in Pacaso today for just $2.90/share. Be part of this market’s next big disruption. Visit invest.pacaso.com to learn more.

This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the Nasdaq is subject to approvals. comparisons to other companies are for informational purposes only and should not imply similar success.

Igor Babuschkin announced this week that he is leaving the company he helped cofound with Elon Musk to start his own company focused on AI safety research.

Babuschkin posted the news on X, which is owned by xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company.

“Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” he wrote. “I still remember the day I first met Elon. We talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold.”

Related: ‘My Startup Roots Have Begun Tugging on Me’: A Big Tech CEO Just Quit to Be an Entrepreneur Again

^{Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of xAI, during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg | Getty Images}

Babuschkin wrote that “through blood, sweat, and tears,” they “shipped frontier models faster than any company in history,” and during the process, he earned two “priceless” lessons from Musk.

1. Be fearless

“Be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems,” he wrote. Babuschkin noted that Musk personally worked with the team, flying to a data center and staying all night until the issues were fixed.

2. Have a “maniacal” sense of urgency

“xAI executes at ludicrous speed,” he wrote. “Industry veterans told us that building the Memphis supercluster in 120 days would be impossible. But we believed we could do the impossible.”

Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023. I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed.

Building…

— Igor Babuschkin (@ibab) August 13, 2025

Musk replied to his post, offering thanks: “Thanks for helping build xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.”

Related: Elon Musk’s xAI Is Hiring Engineers for Its Anime ‘AI Companions’ — With Salaries Up to $440,000 a Year

In 1978, James Dyson had an idea for a bagless vacuum cleaner that maintained suction. He was frustrated with what was considered to be a top-of-the-line model, which he said frequently clogged and lost cleaning power as soon as it filled with dust.

Dyson worked on his idea full-time, and after five years of work and 5,127 failed prototypes, he created the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner — the now-famous Dyson, which has since become a consumer electronics brand reaching sales of $9.6 billion in 2023. But those early years came at a cost: He was borrowing heavily from the bank to make ends meet and had accumulated over $1 million in debt.

“Eventually, I owed over a million dollars, which for a penniless person in those days, going back 30 odd years, was a lot of money,” Dyson, 78, told Entrepreneur in an interview. “I didn’t have any money.”

Related: Emma Grede Dropped Out of School at 16. Now the Skims Boss Runs a $4 Billion Empire.

But he also had “little to lose,” he says, which is why he took a chance on his vacuum idea despite the financial pit. He lost his father at a young age and felt a keen sense of ownership and passion for what he was building and for his future.

“I suppose I don’t mind living on the edge,” Dyson said. “I lost my father when I was nine years old. I had it built into me that my future was entirely down to me, and to do it on my own.”

“I wanted to do it,” he added.

^{James Dyson. Credit: Dyson}

Financial constraints made Dyson more creative because not having money taught him how to cope without it. For example, he couldn’t hire salespeople, advertisers, or promoters, so he went out himself to sell the vacuum cleaner.

“It took quite a long time,” Dyson said. “Almost every businessperson I spoke to said that I was mad.”

Related: Nick Offerman’s Side Hustle as an Actor Helps Fund the Business He Started 23 Years Ago — and Still Works at Every Day

In 1993, Dyson set up his own shop and produced the first unit of the Dyson Dual Cyclone DC-01 vacuum cleaner at a price of $399. By 1998, Dyson had sold 1.4 million units of the vacuum globally, and by 2004, the DC-01 was cemented as a commercial success, outselling its nearest competitor in the U.K. by a ratio of five to one, per Industry Week.

In recent years, Dyson’s eponymous company has reached new heights. In 2023, with a broader product portfolio, including hair tools, lighting, fans, and headphones, Dyson’s company achieved a record global revenue of £7.1 billion ($9.6 billion) and employed 6,500 workers. Revenue increased 9% from the previous year.

Now, Dyson’s net worth is reportedly around $15.3 billion, making him the third-wealthiest person in the U.K. He’s received other honors, too, including a knighthood in 2006 for his services to business.

Related: A Billionaire Founder Admits He Had ‘Horrible Habits’ — Then He Started a Morning Routine That ‘Transformed’ His Life

Dyson has certainly paid off those early debts and says he celebrates the “little successes” just as much (or even more) than the big ones. He points to Dyson hand dryers as an example — the product isn’t a “huge” business, like, say, the Dyson hair dryer, he says, but he still finds it “interesting.”

“You shouldn’t do everything in life just to get big numbers, big successes,” Dyson said. “Little successes are just as satisfying.”

^{Join top CEOs, founders, and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue, and building sustainable success.}

It’s easy to believe AI is replacing personality. The tools keep getting smarter, the answers faster, the automation more seamless.

But here’s what I’ve seen — through client work, advisory calls and personal experience: the more AI evolves, the more your personal brand becomes your most defensible asset.

We’re not entering a future where the individual disappears. We’re entering one where the people who know who they are — and know how to show up with clarity — will stand out.

Your name. Your tone. Your beliefs. Your story. These aren’t just personal details. They’re trust signals. They’re what make people remember you. They’re what make your work hard to replicate or replace.

Related: 10 Reasons Why Branding Is Important, Even For Startups

AI has changed visibility

We’ve now entered a phase of work where tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot shape the flow of information. They decide who gets surfaced, who gets linked and who gets seen first.

But even when AI brings people to your doorstep, they still do what they’ve always done. They Google you. They check your LinkedIn. They look for alignment, consistency and depth. They want to know you’re real. That your voice holds up across platforms. That your work and your words match.

They don’t want to be sold. They want to be led. And people follow voices that are clear, specific and grounded.

AI might deliver the content. But your brand is what earns the trust.

What AI can and can’t do

Yes, AI can move faster than you. It can summarize your thoughts, mimic your style and output a polished draft in seconds. But it can’t replicate your point of view. It can’t manufacture your lived experience. And it doesn’t carry your credibility.

That’s what makes your brand valuable. It’s not a tagline. It’s not a color palette. It’s the clarity you’ve earned over time — through experience, reflection and repetition.

And in a market flooded with speed, it’s depth that stands out.

The brands that win aren’t the loudest

The best personal brands aren’t built to be liked by everyone. They’re built to be unmistakable. The kind people remember, refer, and recommend.

When your brand is working, people know what you do, how you do it, who it’s for and what you care about. That clarity creates alignment, not just with clients or followers, but with AI systems scanning the internet trying to understand who you are and why you matter.

That’s how you stay discoverable. That’s how you become referable. That’s how your work gets amplified — by machines and by people.

How to build a brand that holds up

If you’re serious about building a personal brand that can stand out in this AI-driven landscape, start here:

1. Get consistent online
Audit your digital presence. Look at your LinkedIn, your website bio, your social profiles, your media mentions. Are they telling the same story? Are they using the same tone? AI systems build understanding from scattered signals. Don’t confuse them.

2. Define your voice and values
What are you known for? What do you stand against? What’s your tone — calm, bold, curious, directive? Write it down. Keep it close. Let it guide how you write, how you speak, how you show up.

3. Show your work
Share case studies. Reflect on what you’ve learned. Talk about your wins, but also about the work behind them. We’ve entered an era where authority comes not from titles but from transparency.

Related: Creating a Brand: How To Build a Brand From Scratch

Clarity beats noise

We don’t need more noise. We need more clarity.

Your personal brand is not a vanity project. It’s not about trying to be everywhere or please everyone. It’s about becoming a trusted signal in a noisy world. It’s the filter that helps people decide what to follow, who to buy from, and which voices to let influence them.

AI might accelerate reach. But your identity is what sustains the connection. And that’s what builds longevity. This matters not just for marketing, but for momentum, opportunity and trust.

Because the truth is, your brand speaks before you do. It speaks for you when you’re not in the room. And it can carry you through every algorithm shift, platform pivot and market change.

People will always gravitate toward someone who knows who they are — and lives like it.

So if you’re building a brand right now, don’t aim for attention. Aim for alignment. Make it clear. Make it true. And make it yours.

JPMorgan Chase really wants its employees back in the office five days a week, and it’s offering a shiny, amenity-packed new tower, located at 270 Park Avenue in New York, as a perk.

The just-built 60-story “supertall” skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan is expected to open in the next few weeks. It’s 1,389 feet high and will serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters for its 14,000 employees in the area. It’s also the tallest structure in New York that will be 100% powered by hydroelectric energy.

Related: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Says Only One Group Is Complaining About Returning to the Office

^{Getty Stock | 270 Park Ave in Manhattan under construction.}

The new tower features a gym with state-of-the-art cardio, strength, and recovery equipment, daily group exercise classes, and a fancy new locker room. According to the New York Post, employees were complaining on Reddit about having to actually pay for the new gym, but no price has been set as of yet.

“Everything is still being finalized,” a JPMorgan rep told the outlet.

When it comes to food, the standard skyscraper cafeteria fare just won’t do for employees of the biggest bank in the U.S. Instead, Head of JPMorgan Real Estate, David Arena, originally said the goal was to create something “like Eataly or even better.” That came to fruition in the form of a 19-restaurant food hall curated by Danny Meyer’s Hospitality Group (the company behind Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and others).

Related: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Regrets Cursing at Company Town Hall But Stands By Return-to-Office Mandate: ‘We’re Not Going to Change’

According to photos seen by Business Insider, there is also an Irish Pub, a plethora of outdoor and communal spaces, and conference rooms with city views so grand that employees might have a hard time focusing on the presentation.

JPMorgan first announced its return-to-office (RTO) mandate in January and began its implementation in the spring. Although it was met with some internal opposition (more than 1,900 workers signed a petition calling for a hybrid work schedule), the bank has pushed ahead.

Related: RTO Mandates Have Workers Looking for Alternatives to Companies like Amazon and JPMorgan

About one in five Americans works past the traditional retirement age, according to Pew Research. And billionaire Warren Buffett has proven that it can be quite lucrative to keep working in older age — the 94-year-old Berkshire Hathaway CEO earned close to 95% of his personal wealth after age 65, per Barron’s.

Buffett turned 65 on Aug. 30, 1995. At that time, his Berkshire stock was worth about $12 billion (about $25.3 billion today with inflation). In the three decades since, Buffett’s net worth has skyrocketed as Berkshire’s stock price has grown nearly 30-fold.

Related: ‘It Was Unfair’: Warren Buffett Reveals the Real Reason He Stepped Down as CEO

Buffett is now worth $141 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with 99% of his wealth, or $140 billion of his fortune, tied to his interest in Berkshire Hathaway. The Index places him as the eleventh-wealthiest person in the world, at the time of writing.

^{Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage}

Buffett’s wealth has grown nearly 12-fold from 1995 to 2025, despite his extensive charitable giving. In June, Buffett made his biggest annual donation yet to five organizations, dividing up $6 billion between the Gates Foundation and four family charities: the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation.

Buffett began making annual contributions to these organizations starting in June 2006 and has donated a total of over $60 billion to these foundations so far.

Related: Warren Buffett Is Making a Big Change to Next Year’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

Barron’s estimates that if Buffett hadn’t given away a portion of his wealth, his fortune would have more than doubled at this point, reaching $300 billion.

Buffett has held the position of CEO of Berkshire Hathaway for 55 years, beginning his tenure in 1970. At Berkshire’s annual meeting earlier this year, he announced that he would be stepping down, and Greg Abel, 62, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, will assume the role of CEO on Jan. 1, 2026.

Berkshire Hathaway’s market value was a little over $1 trillion at the time of writing.

^{Join top CEOs, founders and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue and building sustainable success.}

Every founder, no matter how skilled or successful, eventually hits a wall. Change will inevitably come: the market shifts, the capital dries up, your product stops resonating or you simply outgrow your original vision. When that moment comes, there is one key differentiator between those who survive and those who spiral, and that is reinvention. Reinvention is more than changing direction; it’s the willingness to continually question, adapt and rebuild yourself and your business when the world changes faster than your plans.

I’ve had to reinvent myself more times than I can count, from traditional banking into blockchain, from smooth VC-backed launches to survival mode, and most recently, to scaling through prominent partnerships as regulatory clarity sweeps through the Web3 space.

There’s nothing glamorous about pivoting, but every reinvention has taught me something I wish I’d known five years earlier. Here are five lessons that have shaped my journey, and I believe they can make a difference for other founders facing inflection points of their own.

Related: 7 Powerful Tools for Reinventing You and Your Business

Build for the tough periods

The hardest pivot of my career came in 2022. We were mid-way through a funding round for our investment platform, which was expanding into blockchain infrastructure. Term sheets were lined up, and momentum felt strong. Then the market collapsed. VC sentiment cooled, investors backed out, and the capital we were counting on vanished.

Startups around us began shutting down or retreating. We had every reason to do the same. But instead, we made perhaps the hardest decision of all: We stayed. We restructured our team, narrowed our focus and doubled down on traction over optics. It wasn’t glamorous, and growth slowed, but it was the most defining moment of my career. It taught me something I’ve carried with me ever since: Bull markets reward hype. Bear markets reveal builders.

Conviction is your greatest startup asset

If I had to summarize my entrepreneurial journey in three words, they’d be: conviction, disruption, reinvention.

Conviction means unwavering belief in your vision, even when the outcome is uncertain and the world hasn’t caught up. It’s what keeps founders moving forward when there are more doubters than supporters. Conviction gets you through uncertainty. Disruption forces you to stay sharp. And reinvention? It’s the cost of staying in the game. Founders often think “novel” means “unproven.” But when you’re building something truly original, whether a tech protocol or a belief system, people won’t get it at first. If everyone could already see it, the opportunity would be gone.

When you’re out ahead of the narrative, conviction is your only fuel. Use it wisely.

Related: 5 Steps to Successfully Reinvent Your Organization

The right “why” will carry you through any “how”

When we launched Zamanat, a Shariah-compliant DeFi app built on ZIGChain, I wasn’t chasing a niche. I was following a deeply personal belief: Ethical finance should be available to everyone, and blockchain, at its best, is about unlocking access for all.

As someone who has used Shariah-compliant financial products myself, I saw the disconnect between traditional Islamic finance and what was being built in Web3. Most solutions were either too generic or compromised on principles. We didn’t want to choose between financial innovation and faith-based values. So we built both.

Was it a market opportunity? Absolutely. Was it a personal conviction? Without question. But more than anything, it was a responsibility to create a system that didn’t leave people behind.

Discerning “when” to pivot

Too often, founders wait for the numbers to “prove” it’s time to pivot. But by then, it’s often too late. In my experience, pivots don’t start with spreadsheets, but rather with friction within the team. This can look like product decisions that feel forced, direction that takes too many meetings to align and progress that isn’t enjoyable anymore. When momentum slows from lack of energy, rather than from lack of effort, that is your signal.

Many of the world’s most successful companies only got there because they heeded these subtle signals and made bold changes. For example, Instagram began as Burbn, a complicated check-in and gaming app. When the founders realized adoption was stalling, they zeroed in on the only thing users truly loved: sharing photos. That pivot didn’t come from hitting a numbers wall; it came from recognizing where real momentum and excitement lived. The result? Over one billion users and a multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Facebook.

By contrast, when you are still energized with deep belief in your vision, even if the world has not caught up or there isn’t much traction, it’s a sign you are building something that matters. Trust that signal, too.

Related: How Pivoting Saved My Business When Things Didn’t Go According to Plan

Reinvention doesn’t mean abandoning your “why” — it means upgrading your “how”

The biggest myth about pivots is thinking they mean failure. In reality, the smartest pivots are rooted in the same mission, just pursued through a smarter strategy, a better vehicle or a more sustainable team.

Every time I’ve reinvented myself, from finance to blockchain, from founder to venture builder, it’s been because I returned to my original “why.” But I grew bold enough to admit that the way I was doing it was not working. And that is not failure — it’s evolution, and it might just be your superpower.

Startups are a game of stamina, not just speed. Reinvention isn’t a detour. For most of us, it’s the only way forward. If you’re at a crossroads, unsure whether to pivot, pause or push ahead, know this: You don’t need a new pitch deck. You need to return to your original purpose and find the best new path to deliver on it. Real builders are not afraid to reinvent, not because they failed, but because they have grown.

Perplexity AI, an $18 billion startup whose AI-powered search engine links out to original sources, just made an unsolicited offer to buy Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal was first to report.

According to the WSJ report, Perplexity said its offer to buy Chrome is “designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator.”

“Multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full,” Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said, per Bloomberg.

Related: Everyone Wants to Buy Google’s Chrome Browser — Including OpenAI, According to a Top ChatGPT Executive

Chrome could be valued anywhere between $20 to $50 billion according to analysts, but it isn’t exactly for sale. Google might not have a choice, though.

In August 2024, a federal judge ruled that Google illegally monopolized the online search and search ads markets, writing in a 286-page opinion that “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly” through exclusive agreements.

One remedy suggested by the DOJ was for the tech giant to sell its Chrome browser. A judge is expected to decide by the end of August what Alphabet must do.

Google is appealing part of the rulings and has indicated they are not interested in selling Chrome. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a slew of potential buyers.

In April, a judge asked ChatGPT’s Head of Product Nick Turley if OpenAI would try to buy Chrome if parent company Alphabet was forced to divest, and he said a definite yes.

Related: Firefox Would Like to Remind Everyone It Exists and ‘Isn’t Backed By a Billionaire’

“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” Turley said in court, adding that ChatGPT and Chrome combined would give his company the chance to offer an “incredible experience” that’s “AI-first.”

Perplexity AI is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2022. The startup is preparing the wide release of its own browser, Comet, though the company said it wouldn’t make any “stealth modifications” to Chrome if the deal went through.

Perplexity’s formal bid also said it would “extend offers to a substantial portion of Chrome talent.”

At press time, Google Chrome has around 68% of the web browser market share (Safari is No. 2 with nearly 16%, Microsoft Edge has 5%, and Firefox has 2.5%).

Perplexity AI also submitted a bid of at least $50 billion to buy TikTok in January, per CNBC.

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