High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University | NPR

May 11, 2018June 13, 2018 ~ jessicahwang1 ~ Leave a comment

Like most other American high school students, Garret Morgan had it drummed into him constantly: Go to college. Get a bachelor’s degree.

“All through my life it was, ‘if you don’t go to college you’re going to end up on the streets,’ ” Morgan said. “Everybody’s so gung-ho about going to college.”

So he tried it for a while. Then he quit and started training as an ironworker, which is what he is doing on a weekday morning in a nondescript high-ceilinged building with a concrete floor in an industrial park near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Why People Dislike Really Smart Leaders | Scientific American

January 26, 2018June 13, 2018 ~ jvelezcustombpscom ~ Leave a comment

Why People Dislike Really Smart Leaders

Those with an IQ above 120 are perceived as less effective, regardless of actual performance.

Why People Dislike Really Smart Leaders

Intelligence makes for better leaders—from undergraduates to executives to presidents—according to multiple studies. It certainly makes sense that handling a market shift or legislative logjam requires cognitive oomph. But new research on leadership suggests that, at a certain point, having a higher IQ stops helping and starts hurting.

Conquering Adversity: From Homeless Teen to C-Suite | Business News Daily

May 8, 2017May 7, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You could say I had an unconventional upbringing – but it served me well and was the catalyst for my sense of determination, level of conviction and desire to succeed. I am truly a product of my own making.

My parents divorced when I was 12 years old. My mother moved far from our home in Michigan and I spent my early teen years living with my father. But, at the young age of 16, I moved to Florida to live with my mother. My presence was not well-received by my step-father. Before I could even graduate high school, I found myself homeless, broke and completely on my own.

How This Bedsheets Startup Figured Out The Right Way To Disrupt Sleep Patterns | Fast Company

March 17, 2017March 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There was a time not that long ago when buying high-quality bedsheets was a major investment. Walk into Nordstrom or Barneys, and you could easily drop $750 or more on sheets from Frette, Sferra, or Loro Piana. But over the last three years, a transformation has begun to democratize the process. Brands like Brooklinen, Parachute, and Boll & Branch are using clever direct-to-consumer business models that bring high-threadcount, long-staple cotton sheets to consumers at prices that start at under $100.

This new flock of bedsheets startups has been growing fast—expanding their product ranges and generating millions of dollars in revenue—and none has seen more impressive stats than Brooklyn-based Brooklinen. On the eve of its third anniversary, the company is only just now taking on its first external funding, a $10 million Series A round led by FirstMark Capital. The brand first came to the market in April 2014 with a Kickstarter campaign that raised $237,000, but after that point, its wife-and-husband cofounders say they were committed to bootstrapping the company.

How Rachael Ray Grew Her Brand Way Beyond the Kitchen | Entrepreneur

March 17, 2017March 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Even if you’re not a foodie or a fan of talk shows, chances are you’ve heard of Rachael Ray. The everyday cook started promoting her 30-minute meal idea locally at a store in upstate New York. Someone from the Today show happened to stumble upon her work, and as the story goes, a few guest segments on the morning show later, she was offered her own show.

Though adamant she’s not a chef, she’s clearly an expert, and coming up with over 5,000 recipes gave Ray unique insights into tools and products that were missing. This lead to the invention of multiple products, such as the Moppine and the oval Pasta Pot. She now has over 365 SKUs of cookware on the market in partnership with the Meyer Corporation.

Most impressive, though, is how far she has extended her reach outside the kitchen.

A Dyslexic Entrepreneur Says His Disability Helped Him Build A $3.6M Company | Forbes

July 1, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Stan Gloss, 60, is cofounder and CEO of BioTeam, a consulting firm that designs computer systems and networks for the life sciences market. The 14-year-old company has both public and private sector clients, including the National Institutes of Health , the Centers for Disease Control, Biogen and Regeneron. While Gloss is based in Middleton, MA, his 18 employees all work from their homes in eight cities across the country, including New York, Pittsburgh, Austin and Gainesville, FLA. Last year BioTeam logged $3.6 million in revenue. Gloss has fought a lifelong battle with dyslexia, managing to become a college professor and cycle through four other jobs before starting BioTeam. In this condensed and edited interview, he describes how he learned to make the most of his disability and why he thinks dyslexics can become successful entrepreneurs.

This Company Offers One-Stop Shopping For Artisanal Food | Entrepreneur

September 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In 2009, three software engineers, a CFO and an HR exec came up with a savory idea: They would create a platform that lets shoppers make purchases from multiple artisan food producers and have everything delivered in a single order, along with certain big-brand staples.

“To be successful, we knew we had to work with artisans in each city and build an online farmers market filled with local products,” explains Lior Lavy, co-founder and COO of Dallas-based Artizone.

Today the company works with hundreds of purveyors who sell everything from pancake mix to sea salt in three markets. We talked to Lavy about how he’s helping small food businesses expand their reach.

The Basics of How I Built a Seven-Figure Business Without Employees | Entrepreneur

August 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There is a lot to be said for those rare few that possess the ability to create huge companies with hundreds or thousands of employees that are all just ecstatic to be at work. It is exceptionally difficult and equally as impressive, which is why they end up taking up space on the front page of a major magazine or journal.

Although it appears flashy and glamorous, particularly with the amount of celebrity that todays super entrepreneurs wield, there is a tremendous amount of flexibility that is lost, almost by default, once you pass a certain size. Now, not only am I not one of those few, but I really don’t want to be.

This Guy Sold His Startup for $575 Million in Cash — And Gets to Keep Every Penny | Entrepreneur

July 17, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On Tuesday, the dating website Plenty of Fish got acquired by Match Group, an IAC/InterActive subsidiary that recently announced plans to go public later this year. Plenty of Fish sold to Match Group for $575 million in cash.

Markus Frind, 36, is the founder and CEO of the Vancouver-based Plenty of Fish.

Frind told Business Insider he started Plenty of Fish in 2003 “as a way to improve my résumé.”

“At the time there was a new programming language called ASP.NET, and I don’t like reading books, so I just went and created the site in two weeks, and then people started signing up, much to my surprise,” he said. “And it blew up from there. It wasn’t like I had a plan to create a dating site. It was just a side project I created that got really big.”

Frind, who was a developer before he founded Plenty of Fish, built the site without any venture-capital funding. He has retained complete ownership of the company, which has 75 employees.

“By the time I found out what VCs were, I was already making millions in profit, and I didn’t see the need to raise money because I wouldn’t know what to do with it,” he told Business Insider. “It was a profitable company, and there was no need to raise money.”