Anthropic might have advertised its Claude chatbot as proficient in writing, but there’s one writing task that the startup doesn’t want people to use the AI chatbot for: filling out Anthropic’s own job applications.

All of Anthropic’s close to 150 open job positions ask applicants to write their materials themselves and not use AI like Claude or ChatGPT to help. It doesn’t matter if the position is in finance, communications, or sales — the job application asks all candidates to agree not to use AI in their submissions.

Related: An Employee Told Me He Was Quitting to Join OpenAI in 2016. I Said It Was a Bad Idea. Now He’s an AI Billionaire.

The agreement is outlined under a section in the application titled “AI Policy for Application,” which was first spotted by open-source developer Simon Willison earlier this week.

The section is the same across positions and reads: “While we encourage people to use AI systems during their role to help them work faster and more effectively, please do not use AI assistants during the application process. We want to understand your personal interest in Anthropic without mediation through an AI system, and we also want to evaluate your non-AI-assisted communication skills. Please indicate ‘Yes’ if you have read and agree.”

Related: Amazon Invests $4 Billion in ChatGPT Competitor, Making a Bold Move in the AI Arms Race

Entrepreneur confirmed that all roles had the policy at the time of writing. Even roles like mobile product designer, which did not have the AI Policy for Application as of a Monday report from 404 Media, now have the policy.

^{Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images}

Anthropic’s preference for no-AI applications isn’t unique. Many other major U.S. employers will not tolerate AI use by job candidates. According to an April survey from Resume Genius, AI-generated resumes were the biggest red flag for 625 U.S. hiring managers, with 53% stating that they were less likely to hire a candidate based on it.

Still, candidates are using the technology. An August report from the Financial Times found that about half of job applicants were using AI to help their job applications stand out, from writing cover letters to infusing their resumes with keywords. Applicants can quickly generate cover letters and resumes, leading to about twice as many job applications per posting.

Related: An OpenAI Rival Developed a Model That Appears to Have ‘Metacognition,’ Something Never Seen Before Publicly

What Is Claude?

Anthropic’s Claude is a popular AI chatbot that can provide everything from health coaching to legal advice, with the New York Times calling it the “tech insiders’ chatbot of choice” last month for its willingness to express opinions and act as a therapist. It has a free tier, an $18 per month Pro tier, and a $25 per person per month Teams tier. Users told The Times that talking to Claude felt more like talking to a smart human than a chatbot.

“It’s eerily good,” one user wrote on X in October. “This is the first time ever that I’m interacting with an LLM and have to keep consciously reminding myself that it’s not actually sentient.”

People were saying that Claude Sonnet works great as a coach/therapist so I’m trying it out now and it’s indeed eerily good. This is the first time ever that I’m interacting with an LLM and have to keep consciously reminding myself that it’s not actually sentient.

— Kaj Sotala (@xuenay) October 29, 2024

Claude isn’t as popular as rival ChatGPT, which draws over 300 million weekly users as of December, but its webpage still drew 73.8 million visits in December, according to Similarweb.

As of last month, Anthropic was in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a deal that would value it at $60 billion, making it the fifth-most valuable U.S. startup after SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks.

Related: Almost Half of VC Funding Raised Last Year Went to Startups in One Category

Americans can’t get enough of side hustles — the gigs allowing them to earn extra cash outside of their 9-5 jobs — and young entrepreneurs are especially keen to start their own. These days, 44% of millennials and 48% of Gen Z have a side hustle, according to Bankrate’s Side Hustles Survey.

However, millennial and Gen Z side hustlers are no longer the newest on the scene: Gen Alpha, born between 2010 and 2024, might be between the ages of 1 and 14, but many of them are already taking control of their financial futures.

Related: Move Over Boomers and Millennials — Here’s How Gen Alpha’s Top Entrepreneurs Are Printing Money

A staggering 69% of Gen Alpha say they’ve started or plan to start a side hustle, according to the Acorns Money Matters Report™ for Kids.

Acorns’ report, which surveyed more than 60,000 6-to-14-year-olds and 2,000 of their parents, explores Gen Alpha‘s financial planning — and their parents’ own financial concerns.

An “economic powerhouse” with an estimated $11.3 billion spending power, Gen Alpha is getting proactive about their personal finances: They’re planning or starting side hustles to earn additional spending money (58%) or save funds for the future (31%), the report found.

Related: ‘My Schedule Is Mayhem’: Nearly 50% of Parents Now Have Side Hustles, According to a New Survey

“It’s encouraging to see how mindful Gen Alpha already is about financial security,” Acorns CEO Noah Kerner says.

What exactly are these young side hustlers saving for? According to the report, 19% are already saving for college, 24% for their first car, 11% for their first home and 6% for their retirement.

What’s more, Gen Alpha’s parents might be contributing to their children’s money mentalities.

Most kids and teens aged 10 to 14 (63%) hear their parents talk about money often, and among children in that age group who associate stress with money, more than three-quarters of their parents report feeling the same way, Acorns’ research revealed.

Related: ‘It Was Taboo’: Parents Shape Their Children’s Relationship With Money. Here’s How to Set Kids Up for Long-Term Success Instead of Struggle.

Northwestern Mutual vice president and chief portfolio manager Matt Stucky told Entrepreneur that parents can instill strong money management skills in their kids like any other good habit.

“It just takes a lot of repetition — things like saving, investing,” Stucky says. “I’m not going to teach my 4-year-old about investing, but just the idea of if I save a dollar, that means I can spend it down the road on something that I really want. That takes a while to sink in.”

This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Discovering something new can be easily done, however, truly learning and applying it to real life is another challenge.

People look at me today as the founder and CEO of a $100 million business and think I’ve always had everything figured out.

The truth is, I was not the best student in my early years, traditionally speaking. My idea of learning didn’t line up with the state’s curriculum. I cut school so often that my parents finally agreed it wasn’t the right environment for me. So, at 16, I officially — and with my parents’ legal blessing — became a high school dropout.

Of course, a formal education is hardly the only way to learn. Life is the best teacher.

I didn’t learn business from books; I learned from experience.

But whenever I did run into something I couldn’t solve on my own, I would research the subject. I still have many books on management and business on the shelves in my office that are full of highlights, scribbles and marked pages for reference.

As it turns out, scientific studies prove that writing on paper and interacting with print materials helps us learn better. These days, I do listen to podcasts and books while I ride my bike, and watching YouTubers and reading blog posts is helpful. However, I still make it a point to incorporate notebooks and books in my business, both for my employees and clients.

Why? Because the power of print still stands strong today in a sea of digital noise. Here’s how to make the most of it:

Related: The 3 Greatest Lessons I’ve Learned After 25 Years in Business and $100 Million in Revenue

1. Incorporate notebooks and other print materials into your business operations so both employees and customers can learn more

According to neuroscientists at the University of Tokyo, writing on physical paper can lead to more brain activity when remembering the information an hour later. After a number of studies, researchers concluded that unique, complex, spatial and tactile information associated with writing by hand on physical paper is likely what leads to improved memory.

Contrary to the popular belief that digital tools increase efficiency, people who used paper completed the note-taking task about 25% faster than those who used digital tablets or smartphones.

The research concluded: “Our take-home message is to use paper notebooks for information we need to learn or memorize.”

Another perk of print: People are more likely to revisit printed copy as opposed to digital documents. Marketing research has shown that nearly a third of all direct mail remains in the home more than a month later, making this a valuable tool for your business.

I can confidently say I’ve experienced the power of print firsthand. I built my own business, PostcardMania, from nothing to over $100 million in annual revenue by spearheading our own marketing with direct mail. It’s always been the cornerstone of our promotion, and today we mail over 230,000 postcards every week to promote ourselves.

We’ve also helped 121,976 businesses nationwide with direct mail-led campaigns. Along the way, we’ve racked up over a thousand direct mail case studies across hundreds of industries — and those are just the campaigns I’ve gotten permission to share far and wide. Speaking of which…

2. Launch a direct mail marketing campaign to increase your new leads

Which advertisement does the average person respond to more? A digital ad on Facebook, Instagram, Google or a postcard? One study revealed that participants’ recall was 70% higher if they were exposed to a direct mail piece (75%), rather than a digital ad (44%).

This gives you a major advantage over competitors if you incorporate direct mail into your integrated marketing strategy. This doesn’t mean you ditch social media or digital ads altogether, but adding direct mail as a physical touchpoint bolsters your digital strategies. It all works together.

A new law is also going into effect this year that will limit lead-buying and lead-sharing. This means generating new, organic leads will be far more important. The industries of real estate, mortgage and insurance will be heavily impacted.

One of my clients, Klooster Family Dental, tripled their monthly customers — from 15 new patients a month to 56 — after mailing postcards consistently. By adding postcards to their marketing mix, they were also able to open another office location!

With more regular new business coming in, and the potential for repeat purchases, your revenue can skyrocket.

Related: This Powerful Marketing Strategy Will Help You Outshine Your Competitors and Make Your Brand More Memorable

3. Implement direct mail automation into sales funnels to boost sales

Direct mail marketing will affect your new lead numbers, but it also has the potential to close more leads as well. By automating your mailers and placing them inside your sales funnel, you’ll be able to reliably close more leads.

About 85% of marketers agree direct mail delivers the best conversion rate of all channels they use, up from 74% in 2023.

The main reason for this is because of the tangible — and more memorable — impact of mail. And with today’s technology, automation helps take the work out of mailing postcards or letters every month, too, so you can save time as well.

I suggest you connect your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to a direct mail automation platform. That way, postcards can be triggered in your CRM. Someone becomes a new lead? They receive a postcard in the mail. Someone receives a new quote? They get a postcard as well. A lead goes cold? Postcard.

Automated direct mail is growing fast. This is the fastest-growing part of my business currently, and we expect to grow even faster in 2025.

If you still doubt the power of paper, I challenge you to at least try out one of these initiatives. You’ll likely be happily surprised by the outcome!

Related: How to Boost Your Business With Direct Mail Automation and Retargeting — a Detailed Beginner’s Guide

When you think of industries driving marketing innovation, HVAC might not top your list. But as the world moves toward a more connected, sustainable and customer-centric future, the HVAC industry is quietly becoming a leader in modern marketing. The changes happening in this space aren’t just relevant to HVAC — they hold lessons for every sector, from retail to technology.

As we approach AHR Expo 2025, scheduled for February 10–12 in Orlando, Florida, the world’s largest HVAC marketplace will not only highlight cutting-edge products but also showcase the marketing strategies reshaping the industry. This shift from technical sales pitches to emotionally resonant, data-driven campaigns is setting a standard all businesses should emulate.

Related: 7 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn From an Unlikely Source

The HVAC data goldmine: Personalization at scale

One of the biggest shifts in HVAC marketing is the integration of smart technology. Modern HVAC systems are equipped with IoT sensors that track performance, energy usage and maintenance needs in real-time. For marketers, this data is gold. It enables campaigns that are hyper-personalized, ensuring customers receive messages tailored to their specific needs and habits.

For example, an HVAC company can send reminders about filter replacements, recommend energy-efficient upgrades based on usage data or alert a homeowner when their system is operating inefficiently. These messages aren’t just relevant — they’re timely, creating a sense of connection and trust between the brand and the customer.

The lesson for other industries is clear: Personal data, when used ethically, can create campaigns that feel more like helpful advice than advertising. Whether you’re in healthcare, finance or consumer electronics, harnessing real-time insights can help you deliver value and deepen relationships.

Sustainability as a marketing powerhouse

In the era of climate change, sustainability has become a key focus for consumers. HVAC companies are stepping up, showcasing eco-friendly refrigerants, energy-efficient systems and carbon-reduction initiatives. At AHR 2025, sustainability will take center stage — not just as a technical feature but as a compelling narrative.

This shift is particularly relevant for industries seeking to align their marketing with broader societal values. Brands that prioritize sustainability aren’t just meeting regulatory requirements — they’re connecting with a new generation of values-driven consumers.

In HVAC, sustainability marketing doesn’t stop at product features. Companies are educating customers about long-term savings from energy-efficient systems, offering tips to reduce carbon footprints and partnering with organizations that promote environmental stewardship. For any industry, the key takeaway is that sustainability is more than a buzzword — it’s a driver of trust and loyalty.

Digital transformation: Meeting customers where they are

Traditionally, HVAC marketing relied heavily on local ads, direct mail and trade shows. While these channels still play a role, the industry has embraced a digital-first approach. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram are now home to HVAC influencers who demystify system upgrades and share maintenance tips. Brands are using 3D augmented reality tools to let customers visualize how a new system will fit into their home or office.

Digital transformation isn’t just about technology — it’s about creating seamless experiences. HVAC companies are integrating digital touchpoints into every stage of the customer journey, from interactive product guides to virtual consultations. The result? A frictionless path to purchase that feels intuitive and modern.

This approach isn’t unique to HVAC. Any industry can benefit from rethinking its customer journey to incorporate digital tools and channels. Whether it’s a virtual fitting room for clothing brands or AI-driven chatbots in financial services, the lesson is to meet customers where they are — online.

Related: How to Give Customers the Digital Experience They Crave

Trust is the new currency

HVAC systems are a significant investment, often requiring expertise that the average consumer doesn’t have. This makes trust a critical factor in marketing. HVAC companies are doubling down on trust-building efforts, emphasizing third-party certifications, transparent pricing and glowing customer reviews.

At its core, marketing is about storytelling — and HVAC companies are getting better at it. The industry has moved away from purely technical narratives and embraced customer-centric stories that highlight comfort, energy savings and environmental impact.

For other industries, this focus on trust should resonate. In an age of misinformation and skepticism, consumers want brands they can rely on. This is especially true in sectors like technology, healthcare and financial services, where the stakes are high, and the decisions are complex. The HVAC industry’s success in building trust demonstrates the importance of clear, honest and consistent communication.

Lessons from AHR Expo 2025

While the AHR Expo has always been a platform for technical innovation, it’s increasingly becoming a showcase for marketing excellence. This year, attendees can expect to see immersive experiences, live-streamed panel discussions and content strategies that demonstrate how HVAC brands are breaking out of the traditional mold.

For other industries, AHR 2025 is a reminder that even the most technical sectors can innovate in marketing. Whether you’re selling software, home goods or financial services, the opportunity lies in rethinking how you engage with your audience and tell your story.

Related: 5 Ways to Build Brand Customer Trust (and Why It Matters More Than Ever Before)

What every industry can learn

The HVAC industry’s marketing transformation offers several key takeaways that are universally applicable:

1. Use data to personalize: Customers want solutions tailored to their needs. Whether it’s real-time usage data or predictive analytics, personalization is a game-changer.

2. Prioritize sustainability: Align your brand with values that resonate with today’s consumers. Highlight not just what you do but why it matters.

3. Embrace digital channels: From social media to augmented reality, digital tools can make your customer journey seamless and engaging.

4. Focus on building trust: Transparent communication and authentic storytelling will set you apart in an increasingly skeptical world.

5. Leverage storytelling: Move beyond product features and focus on the experiences and benefits your offerings enable.

The HVAC industry might not seem like a natural innovator in marketing, but it’s proving that even traditional sectors can adapt, evolve and thrive in today’s landscape. By embracing data, sustainability and digital transformation, HVAC companies are setting a new standard for customer engagement.

The question isn’t whether these lessons apply to your industry — they do. The real question is: How will you adapt them to stay ahead?

When 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng, founder of the tech world’s latest AI star, DeepSeek, returned to his home village in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong for Lunar New Year’s Eve celebrations last week, he was given a hero’s welcome.

The village honored him with a red banner that said, “Warm congratulations for becoming the pride of his hometown,” according to a translated version of the banner.

Wenfeng’s popularity is partly due to his AI startup, DeepSeek, which rattled U.S. tech stocks when it skyrocketed to the top of app stores last month (it’s still topping iPhone charts) after claiming that its latest AI model matched or surpassed AI from industry leaders like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google—but at a fraction of the cost.

While AI from startups like Anthropic can cost $100 million to develop, DeepSeek claims its AI costs less than $6 million for the same functionality.

Related: DeepSeek AI Cost Less Than $6 Million to Develop. Here’s Why Meta and Microsoft Are Justifying Spending Billions.

^{Liang Wenfeng. Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images}

Wenfeng was already popular in Guangdong before DeepSeek. He became a billionaire after establishing the hedge fund High-Flyer in 2015, which exceeded 100 billion yuan (close to $14 billion) in assets under management by 2021. He is now worth at least $1 billion, according to Forbes.

Residents of his hometown told the Financial Times that as a child he was a “top student” who read comic books and excelled in math.

“We all grew up in this village,” one resident told the publication. “We’re very proud of him.”

Who is Liang Wenfeng?

Wenfeng was born in 1985 and was a straight-A student in school, per the Wall Street Journal.

Before founding DeepSeek, Wenfeng pursued an education in engineering. According to The New York Times, he has a technical background in AI engineering and wrote his 2010 thesis on improving AI surveillance systems at Zhejiang University, a public university in Hangzhou, China. He graduated from Zhejiang with a master’s degree in information and communication engineering.

Related: OpenAI Says AI Industry Disruptor DeepSeek May Have Copied Its Work as Rivals Race to Catch Up

Wenfeng founded the hedge fund High-Flyer in June 2015 at the age of 30, per the Chinese publication QQ.com. He and his team were determined to use math and AI to deliver strong results for clients.

High-Flyer experienced regulatory pressures from 2019 to 2023, leading the team to focus more on AI as a side project and build computing systems with Nvidia graphics cards. Wenfeng officially founded DeepSeek in July 2023. The AI company became more of a focus for him after High-Flyer had to shut down its primary investment product in February 2024, per The Times.

In a 2023 interview with Chinese tech publication 36KR, Wenfeng said that DeepSeek’s goal was general artificial intelligence, or AI that surpasses human cognitive abilities. He also said that AI startups were well-positioned to compete with established companies.

“The market is changing,” Wenfeng told the publication according to an English-translated version of his remarks, which were originally made in Chinese. “The real decisive force is often not some ready-made rules and conditions, but the ability to adapt and adjust to changes.”

Related: Is DeepSeek the Worst Nightmare for VCs? Venture Investors Are Rattled, But Some See a Silver Lining

Citigroup isn’t following fellow Wall Street banks like JPMorgan and implementing a strict return-to-office policy. According to recent reports, Citigroup has decided to stick with its hybrid schedule which allows staff up to two days per week of remote work.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told managing directors on a quarterly call in mid-January that the bank will continue to have a hybrid work schedule, The Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Per the report, Fraser said that Citigroup’s hybrid work policy gives it a competitive advantage by allowing it to recruit talented staff.

The majority of Citigroup’s 210,000-person workforce is on the hybrid schedule now, with only traders and staff at bank branches expected to be in the office five days per week.

^{Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images}

Fraser has taken measures to help Citigroup’s workforce establish a measure of work-life balance. In March 2021, she sent a memo to the bank’s staff creating Zoom-Free Fridays, where employees were not required to take video calls on Fridays. She also encouraged staff to keep their work to working hours and take their vacation time.

Related: Remote Walmart Employees Question Return-to-Office Policy, Some Opt to Quit Instead of Relocating

“When our work regularly spills over into nights, very early mornings, and weekends, it can prevent us from recharging fully, and that isn’t good for you, nor, ultimately, for Citi,” Fraser wrote in the memo.

Fraser’s stance on hybrid work, as giving Citigroup an advantage over the competition, contrasts with that of other banks on Wall Street, like JPMorgan. Last month, JPMorgan asked all of its 300,000-plus employees to return to the office five days per week by March. Employees pushed back almost immediately on a company post announcing the mandate, with over 300 comments explaining that the policy would affect their childcare costs, commute, and work-life balance.

Other Wall Street institutions asked employees back to the office even earlier. Goldman Sachs told its U.S. employees that they had to be back in the office by June 2021.

Meanwhile, several major companies have decided to stay with more flexible schedules. Starbucks has maintained a hybrid schedule with two days working remotely for its corporate employees while Spotify has a work-from-anywhere policy.

Related: ‘Retiring the Hybrid Policy’: Dell Issues a Strict Return-to-Office Mandate for Most Employees

Waffle House is famous for more than the food—the restaurant chain is used as a barometer to determine the severity of local storms and is pretty much the catalyst for Reddit’s existence. It also sells 272 million eggs per year.

Now, the 24-hour roadside stalwart is making a statement about the breakfast staple—by adding a 50-cent surcharge (per egg) to orders nationwide.

Waffle House notes, “Rather than increasing prices across the menu, this is a temporary, targeted surcharge tied to the unprecedented rise in egg prices.”

Due to bird flu, Waffle House is adding a .50 cent per egg surcharge to all menus @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/hpfn52RIlh

— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) February 3, 2025

Waffle House reps said the “continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices.”

“Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions,” the statement added.

The chain also posted signs in restaurants with the news.

Waffle House has announced that they will temporarily be adding a 50-cent surcharge per egg until egg prices go down. pic.twitter.com/vVT3jGOVPv

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) February 4, 2025

Egg prices have increased by 50% over the past year, and in some cities, like New York, customers might be paying $1 per egg at the grocery store—a dozen cage-free eggs at Whole Foods were selling for $11.99.

And it’s not just hitting Waffle House. Local news outlets from Tampa, Florida to Upstate New York report that area restaurants are grappling with rising prices by making changes in-house, from switching suppliers to even changing recipes.

Award-winning mixologist Alba Huerta believes that cocktails are more than just drinks — they are stories in a glass.

Huerta, who was born in Mexico and raised in Texas, is the bartender and owner of Julep in Houston. She has spent more than a decade shaping the country’s cocktail culture, winning countless awards and creating more than 110 cocktails. As a result, she has gained international acclaim for her bartending skills.

From the very first drink she crafted in 1998, Huerta understood that bartending was about more than mixing ingredients. She immediately loved the unique experiences she could give her customers.

Related: His ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’-Themed Pop-Up Restaurants Bring the Classic Video Game to Life — and Feature the Beloved Character’s Favorite Food

For Huerta, the process of creating a cocktail is a deeply personal and collaborative experience. “By the time we get to an iteration of a cocktail that we think is exemplary, that drink has been made 20-30 times,” she says.

The cocktail evolves through input from her entire team. Creative influences can come from seasonal ingredients or even pop culture, but each drink is one of a kind. To Huerta, this collaboration is the true nature of hospitality. It’s about relationships. You share part of your story and interests with the guests to see what they will do with it. Sometimes, they change things to make it their own.

That’s what makes it fun and meaningful. You can build a unique bond with a customer over something as simple yet complex as a carefully crafted drink.

Related: This NYC Man Is Revitalizing the Famous Bar From ‘Goodfellas’ As It Approaches Its 200th Anniversary

Lessons in bar ownership

Julep just celebrated its 10th year in Huerta’s hands. The challenges of building and maintaining a business, especially after the pandemic, have taught her many lessons.

Here are four key lessons Huerta shares from her decade as a bar owner:

• Details matter. For Huerta, the smallest details are what create memorable experiences. “The space, the lighting, the paper the menus are printed on, the way you name your drinks so that your guests can navigate the menu more easily,” she explains. Every element and touchpoint contributes to the guest’s experience.
• Community is everything. Huerta is passionate about the power of community, not just in business but in life. She credits much of her success to the support of her local community and urges other entrepreneurs to build meaningful connections. For anyone looking to change careers, build something new or do anything else, the support of a community will help them think bigger and more creatively.
• Ask for help when you need it. No one wins alone. Stop thinking you need to do it all yourself. Asking for help will equip you to do greater things. Huerta’s advice is as much about collaboration as it is about asking for help from those ahead of you. Take mentoring as often as you can.
• Share what you’ve learned. Huerta is deeply committed to helping others in the hospitality industry. She believes you should always take what you’ve learned and hand it to the people coming up behind you. The tools available now make it much easier to create a brand or business than it was even a decade ago. Use every tool and share every lesson.

Whether crafting a signature cocktail or offering a word of advice to a fellow business owner, Huerta’s impact is undeniable.

She has become an important influence on cocktail culture worldwide, but her heart for hospitality is about people. The relationships she builds and the memories she makes for everyone she meets make it all worthwhile.

“I never imagined I would open this bar twice,” she admits, noting how the world has changed in recent years. Despite these hurdles, her dedication to the craft and community has kept Julep thriving.

Related: Embracing Fear Fueled this Michelin-Rated Chef’s Comeback

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Related: How These Entrepreneurs Turned a Seasonal Venue Into a Nightlife Powerhouse

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I am competitive, and I hate to lose. When I feel like someone is going to be better than me at something, it flips a switch somewhere deep inside of me and puts me into overdrive.

This isn’t limited to the work I do at FutureFund, my free fundraising platform for K-12 school groups. I want to be the best athlete, coach, family man and software engineer that I can be. And for the most part, this works. It motivates me to strive for excellence and keep challenging myself instead of becoming too comfortable and stagnating.

But the same tendency that drives me to excel at these things can sometimes become counterproductive. My dislike of losing is actually so strong that I often hate playing board games. As you can imagine, that can really put a damper on family game night if I don’t keep it in check.

Lots of people in tech are like this because it’s a competitive landscape. Maybe it’s the same for you: anything you do, you have to do 100% — and because you put 100% of yourself into something, it’s almost impossible for your success or failure not to feel like a reflection of who you are. Like me, you have a brand, and that brand is: when you do something, you will succeed.

The trick is to keep your sense of competition healthy so that it serves your work and personal goals instead of getting in your way. Here’s how I do it — and how you can, too.

Related: Stop Bossing Your Team Around — How Coaching Can Remove Your Blind Spots and Transform Your Leadership Style

The way you respond to competition is a choice

Not everyone responds to competition in the same way. People tend to fall into one of two groups when they witness someone else succeeding at a goal they have for themselves.

The first group tries to sabotage the success they see in others. They ask how they can shift their competition’s reputation so that it’s negative. This is more commonly accepted than you might assume. We tend to look down on brands who run obvious smear campaigns against their rivals, but lots of companies get away with writing press releases that favorably compare their products or services to those of their biggest competitors.

The second group tries to improve themselves so they can match and surpass the success they see others experiencing. They become motivated to better themselves instead of casting aspersions on their rivals. This approach can feel like a lot more work, but I have found that it’s also frequently much more rewarding.

The first group’s approach might work at first — but there are obvious risks. Not only can this blow back on you if you’re too heavy-handed, but it can also provoke your rivals and motivate them to work harder against you than they normally would have. But the biggest problem is that focusing on others doesn’t do anything to improve your abilities.

The second group’s approach requires you to be unflinchingly honest with yourself and your team about your strengths and weaknesses, which can be challenging at first. But it also pays dividends. You learn where to invest your time and effort for maximum gains. You become more efficient and less likely to blame others for your mistakes, and you ultimately get closer to becoming the best you can be at what you’re doing.

Related: Why You Have to Let People Fail Now So They Can Succeed Later

Wanting to win vs. hating to lose

Once you’ve chosen to motivate yourself instead of tearing down your competitors, the next question is how to do it. Here’s one way to think about it that’s always helped me:

It’s not just about wanting to win; it’s about hating to lose. If you’re anything like me, the disappointment of losing is usually stronger for you than the joy of winning.

This doesn’t permit you to be a sore loser on those occasions when it inevitably does happen — you don’t want to ruin family game night. But making it a priority to avoid unfavorable outcomes is often helpful because it makes you more likely to fix the kinds of things that people might let slide if they’re too focused on their wins.

One of FutureFund’s major competitors ultimately went out of business because their support team routinely took weeks to get back to people. This issue would have been easy to correct, but they let it become their Achilles heel. Although it might not have felt important enough for them to fix, it turned out to be important for their users.

So we decided that one of our non-negotiables would be to answer support tickets in a reasonable amount of time — a couple of hours or less. That was easy to commit to, but it had a profoundly positive impact on our success.

Think about this in the context of your startup. Staying competitive means celebrating your wins, but never letting yourself be complacent about where there’s room for improvement.

Related: 4 Coaching Stages Every Leader Should Master to Help Others Grow

You define what winning is

Finally, you need a healthy way to quantify and acknowledge your wins. That can be difficult because, in business, it’s not always clear who’s winning. There are no universal goalposts that everyone can see.

Here’s my rule: competition is healthy when you decide what success looks like instead of letting others do it. Measure your progress by how far you’ve come in relation to the goals you’ve set instead of letting your competitors control the narrative and always being one step behind them.

Success, for me, is about being a little better than I was the day before. When you’re in a startup, your product won’t be perfect at first — or maybe ever. But you work to make sure it’s better today than it was last month — or last week, or yesterday. This way, you can at least make sure you’re heading in the right direction.

If you’ve chosen your mission carefully, this kind of progress becomes a much better benchmark for success than what some other company is doing. You can read more about that in my next article below:

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman became a billionaire when Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion in cash, and he has also made his fortune on high-return investments in more than 80 tech startups, including Airbnb, Groupon, and Flickr. He famously made $111 million from his initial $37,500 investment in Facebook.

Now Hoffman is turning his attention to AI in healthcare with a new startup he introduced last week with co-founder Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee: Manas AI. And this time Hoffman has deeper hopes than just a high return on investment — he wants to help cure cancer.

Manas is bringing AI to some of the world’s top drug development scientists to deepen their expertise and speed up the rate at which new drugs are discovered. The startup aims to unite researchers with advanced AI systems to more quickly figure out how potentially life-saving drugs could interact with the human body.

Related: LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman: To Scale, Do Things That Don’t Scale

Manas is initially turning its attention to aggressive cancers like breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma. Its long-term vision is to fundamentally change how the industry discovers and develops new medicines.

“Most people have had friends, family members, etc., who’ve died from cancer or had serious cancer problems,” Hoffman told CNBC on Monday. “If we can make a huge difference on this, and this is the kind of thing that AI can make a huge difference in, it’s the kind of reason why AI can be great for humanity.”

^{Reid Hoffman The Midway SF on December 05, 2023, in San Francisco, California. Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED}

The startup has raised $24.6 million in seed funding so far, with Hoffman leading the funding round with venture capital firm General Catalyst. It will operate its AI systems in data centers owned by Microsoft.

Related: Reid Hoffman: To Successfully Grow A Business, You Must ‘Expect Chaos’

Mukherjee is a Columbia University professor and author of “The Emperor of All Maladies,” a book about cancer. In 2016, he helped found Vor BioPharma, a cell engineering company, and in 2021 he founded Myeloid Therapeutics, a cancer therapy startup.

Manas currently has four employees including Mukherjee and Hoffman, with Hoffman saying he serves as the company’s “AI guy” and Mukherjee as the “bio guy.” Manas’ goal is to unite the two fields.

“It isn’t just the best of science and it isn’t just the best of AI, because either of those two [is] insufficient,” Hoffman told CNBC. “You need to put those two together.”

The AI healthcare sector saw substantial investments in 2024. According to PitchBook, investors poured $10.5 billion into 511 healthcare AI deals in 2024. Cancer screening AI startup Freenome raised the most money out of the group with a $254 million Series F in February 2024.