He Created a Tool That Lets Anyone Start Their Own Business With Just an Image — And It Has Minted...
Nuseir Yassin, the creator of the Nas Daily video brand, launched Nas.com, an AI‑powered platform that lets solo entrepreneurs build a storefront, generate marketing content and run ads from a single product photo. The startup has raised $40 million—$27 million in its latest round—and grew annual recurring revenue from about $1 million to $8 million in a year. Backed by Vinod Khosla, Nas.com claims to have created four millionaires across diverse sectors, positioning itself as a Shopify alternative focused on content and marketing automation. The service charges $10‑$99 per month, with an average subscription of $30, plus modest fees on ad spend and transactions.
Iran Is Threatening Undersea Cables. The World’s ‘Digital Chokepoints’ Have Never Been More Vulnerable
Iranian state-linked media floated a plan to levy fees on operators of undersea internet cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz, signaling a new geopolitical threat to the world’s digital infrastructure. The proposal follows recent warnings that the Hormuz corridor,...
As Funding Dollars Dwindle, Newsroom Tech Companies Are Heeding the Call for Consolidation
Funding for newsroom technology startups has dried up, prompting a wave of consolidation. Indiegraf, known for its content management system, announced its third acquisition in three months, buying News Revenue Hub’s donation‑management platform RevEngine. The deal, part of a broader...
Steve Goldstein: AI Can Make Podcasts. But Can It Make Anyone Care?
AI‑generated podcasts have exploded, accounting for roughly 40% of new shows over a recent nine‑day period, with Inception Point AI alone operating more than 10,000 active feeds. A NYU focus group rated these shows an average 2.3 out of 5,...
CREW Carbon Lands $25M Series A Round
CREW Carbon, a Brooklyn‑based water‑technology firm, closed an oversubscribed Series A round totaling $25 million, comprising $19 million in equity and $6 million in grant and other non‑dilutive funding. The round was led by Burnt Island Ventures with participation from AP Ventures, Sony Innovation...
A Guide to Making Short Videos to Boost an RIA's Brand
Financial advisors are turning to short-form videos on LinkedIn and Instagram to attract prospects, reinforce their brand, and supplement referrals. Practitioners like Sathya Chey Patterson and Kelly Klingaman report increased client engagement and reduced ice‑breaker time after posting regular clips....
CREATE Medicines Nabs $122M Series B
CREATE Medicines, a Cambridge‑based clinical‑stage biotech, closed a $122 million Series B round. The financing was co‑led by Newpath Partners, ARCH Venture Partners and Hatteras Venture Partners, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments and existing backers. CREATE’s proprietary mRNA‑LNP platform programs T...
Peter Thiel Is Leading Investment in an Ocean Data Center Powered by Waves—And the Startup Is Reportedly Worth $1 Billion
Panthalassa, a US startup developing wave‑powered floating data centers, raised $140 million in a round led by Peter Thiel, pushing its valuation to near $1 billion. The company’s Ocean‑3 node, a 280‑foot steel structure that converts wave motion into electricity and cools sealed...
GridCARE Raises $64M to Launch AI Energy Category
GridCARE, a Redwood City startup, closed an oversubscribed Series A round of $64 million, bringing total capital to $78 million. The funding will fuel the launch of a new industrial category called “Power Acceleration,” aimed at eliminating multi‑year grid connection delays for...
General Atlantic Invests in PowerGEM
General Atlantic has entered a financing round for PowerGEM, a developer of high‑pressure hydrogen storage systems. The firm joins existing investor TA Associates, which has supported PowerGEM since 2024. The new capital is earmarked for scaling production capacity and expanding...
FASB Tackles Transferable Tax Credits
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted to advance a project addressing the accounting treatment of non‑refundable transferable tax credits, a gap highlighted by recent clean‑energy incentives such as the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Stakeholders...
Paramount+ Backs Blockbuster A-LEAGUE MEN Semi Finals
Paramount+ and Network 10 will air the Isuzu UTE A‑League Men semi‑final second legs this weekend, delivering live coverage of Adelaide United vs Auckland FC and Newcastle Jets vs Sydney FC. Both matches are sold out, with Adelaide counting on Golden Boot winner...
Unexpected 401(k) Fees Raise Costs, Confusion for Employers
The retirement‑plan landscape for small and mid‑sized employers is being reshaped by a wave of unexpected fees, according to Human Interest’s “Retirement Industry Disruptor” report. Surveying 500 U.S. benefits decision‑makers between March 3 and 12, the study found that roughly 66% of...
WAFL v SANFL Rivalry Returns Live and Free on Seven
Seven Network will broadcast the historic WAFL versus SANFL state football clash live and free on its main channel and the 7plus Sport streaming service this Saturday. The match, held at Sullivan Logistics Stadium, marks the 101st edition of the...
Managing Platforms, Filming Fandom, and Approaching AI with Care: Takeaways From Our Creator Marketing Event
The creator economy remains a dominant force, with 86% of U.S. marketers using influencers in 2025. At Marketing Brew’s "Next Phase of Social & Creator Marketing" event, leaders from ESPN, Cava, Anthropologie and agencies highlighted the need for multi‑platform strategies,...
Department of Labor Restores Salary Levels for FLSA White Collar Exemptions
On May 14, 2026 the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a technical amendment that overturns the 2024 rule and reinstates the 2019 salary thresholds for the Fair Labor Standards Act white‑collar exemptions. The executive, administrative and professional...
Trump’s Best China Trade Deal Is the One He Doesn’t Make
The article argues that President Trump should forgo a new China trade deal, citing three decades of ineffective engagement that never compelled Beijing to honor commitments. It highlights the limited success of the 2020 Phase One agreement and points to the...
Study of 800K AI Responses: How Review Profiles Shape Brand Presence in AI Search
A new study of 804,491 AI‑generated responses across four major AI platforms shows that having a Trustpilot profile dramatically boosts a brand’s citation rate. Brands with just 1‑13 reviews jump from a 1% median citation rate to 53.5%, while fully...
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Form D2D JV for Rural Coverage
AT&T, T‑Mobile and Verizon announced an agreement in principle to launch a joint venture that will deliver direct‑to‑device (D2D) satellite services across the United States. The three carriers plan to pool spectrum and build a unified platform that lets satellite...
Cup Runneth Over: Inside the Alcohol Brands Pouring Marketing Into Soccer This Year
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted across North America, giving alcohol brands a massive platform. Companies such as Michelob Ultra, Modelo, Stella Artois and Don Julio are committing record‑high media spends and multi‑channel activations, with some planning 18...
New York’s Neue Gallery to Merge with Metropolitan Museum of Art
The privately owned Neue Galerie, founded by Ronald Lauder, will merge with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2028, creating the Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie. The deal includes a $200 million endowment to preserve the collection and a donation...
US Clears H200 Chip Sales To 10 China Firms
U.S. Commerce Department has granted export licenses to roughly ten Chinese companies—including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com—to purchase Nvidia's H200 AI chip, the company's second‑most powerful accelerator. Each approved buyer may acquire up to 75,000 units, but no shipments have...
Hormuz Oil Flows Creep Higher as More Supertankers Exit
The number of supertankers exiting the Strait of Hormuz has risen, with four VLCCs—each carrying roughly 2 million barrels—departing since May 10, approaching a flow of about 2 million barrels per day. This is a modest increase compared with pre‑war traffic of roughly...
The Sports Podcast Audience 2026
The 2026 Sports Podcast Audience report, released by Sounds Profitable, highlights the unrivaled attention, engagement, and trust that sports podcasts command compared with other audio formats. A webinar featuring Tom Webster and Bryan Goldmark of Locked On showcases exclusive research,...
Why Q2 Is the Best Time to Interview CPAs and Tax Firms
Most founders treat their CPA as a compliance‑only vendor, missing opportunities for proactive tax strategy. The article argues that Q2, after the rush of tax season, provides the clearest window to evaluate and potentially switch CPA firms. During this period,...
James Wise on Why the Sovereign AI Unit Criticism Is Wrong – and the One Company He Wishes He’d Backed
James Wise, partner at Balderton Capital, joins the Sifted Podcast to discuss his latest venture as chair of the UK government’s Sovereign AI Unit, a £500 million (~$635 million) fund aimed at accelerating artificial‑intelligence research. He explains the fund’s early investments in...
Donald Trump Meeting with Xi Jinping in China Steadies Oil Markets Amid Fresh Gulf Attacks
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing, calming oil markets as Brent slipped to $105.25 a barrel and WTI to $100.80. The meeting raised hopes for diplomatic progress in the West Asia conflict, but fresh...
'Going to Be a S***show': Parks, Interior Struggle to Hire Temporary Staff Ahead of Busy Season
The Interior Department is lagging behind its seasonal hiring goals, with only about 4,200 temporary workers in early April—a 14% drop from 2024 and 33% short of the National Park Service’s target of 7,700. The agency has shed roughly 11,000...
To the Abyss and Back: How Fintech Firm Flyhomes Survived a Boom-Bust Housing Cycle
Flyhomes, the Seattle‑based fintech that pioneered a "buy before you sell" mortgage, weathered the pandemic boom, a rapid rise in interest rates and a sudden freeze in venture capital. Facing soaring customer‑acquisition costs, the company shut down its own lending...
Spotify Will Adopt Apple's Video Streaming Standard, Making It Easier for Podcasters to Reach Both Platforms
Spotify announced it will adopt Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) standard for video podcasts, allowing creators to publish video content on Apple Podcasts without altering their existing Spotify workflow. The integration, slated for later this year, will extend across Spotify...
Cortex Code for FP&A: Faster Insight
Snowflake has launched Cortex Code, an AI‑powered coding assistant embedded in its Snowsight interface, to help finance teams build and modify SQL and Python workloads directly on governed data. By coupling AI generation with native context—roles, schemas, and cost controls—the...
Alibaba Cloud Needs 10x Its 2022 Compute Capacity, Says CEO Eddie Wu
Alibaba Cloud announced it will scale its data‑center capacity to ten times its 2022 level, driven by explosive AI demand. The Cloud Intelligence Group posted $6.035 billion in quarterly revenue, a 38% year‑on‑year increase, with AI services contributing about $1.3 billion. CEO...
The Ad Monetization Paradox: How User Experience Drives 3x Revenue Growth with David Leviev
David Leviev, CRO and co‑founder of Nimbus, discussed how independent mobile publishers can replace off‑the‑shelf ad solutions with a custom monetization stack. By integrating AI‑driven decisioning and first‑party data, Nimbus claims to triple revenue without harming user experience. The episode...
Bessent Sees 'Substantial Disinflation' Ahead as Warsh Takes over the Fed
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that despite April’s CPI rising 0.6 % and core inflation at 2.8 % YoY, he expects only one or two more hot inflation readings before a substantial disinflation period begins. He attributes the recent energy‑fed price...
ZenBusiness Launches AI-Ready Infrastructure for Business Formation and Compliance
ZenBusiness announced an expansion of its ZenBusiness Enterprise platform, adding AI‑ready API infrastructure that lets partners embed business formation, licensing and compliance workflows directly into their customer experiences. The new APIs pull data from ZenBusiness’s decade‑long repository on nearly one million...
Intuitive Machines to Acquire Goonhilly Earth Station and COMSAT to Scale Deep Space Network
Intuitive Machines announced a definitive agreement to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd and its U.S. subsidiary COMSAT, adding 44 antennas and deep‑space assets to its portfolio. The deal creates a vertically integrated space‑to‑ground network spanning the UK and the United...
With Sports Fragmentation, Following the Fans Is Crucial
Live sports remain the last true appointment‑viewing experience, but rights deals are scattering content across dozens of apps and walled gardens. This fragmentation leaves advertisers chasing siloed audiences and missing incremental reach, even though sports made up 96% of the...
Mortgage Rates Stabilized at 6.36%, Despite Inflation
Mortgage rates held steady this week, with the Freddie Mac 30‑year benchmark slipping to 6.36% after a one‑basis‑point decline. The dip occurred even as the 10‑year Treasury yield rose on fresh inflation concerns, thanks to higher prices for mortgage‑backed securities and...
Google Analytics Adds AI Assistant As Default Channel Group via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google Analytics 4 now automatically assigns traffic from recognized AI chatbots to a new “AI Assistant” default channel group, labeling the medium as “ai-assistant” and the campaign as “(ai-assistant)”. This eliminates the need for custom channel groups built with regex...
The Fwd. Network Renews The Tamsen Show as Brand Partnership Demand and Audience Growth Drive Second Weekly Episode
AdLarge and the fwd. network have renewed The Tamsen Show, expanding it to two episodes per week after a breakout first year marked by audience growth and a 2025 Signal Award. The podcast, hosted by Emmy‑winning journalist Tamsen Fadal, targets...
SAP Taulia Launches AI Working Capital Tools
SAP Taulia announced a suite of AI‑powered working capital tools at SAP Sapphire, including the Working Capital Agent, Intelligent Terms Negotiations, and Extended Flow with Payables. The Agent links Taulia’s financing products to existing AI platforms like SAP Joule, offering...
Spotify to Adopt Apple’s New Video Podcast Tech, Offering Creators Easier Cross-Platform Distribution
Spotify announced it will adopt Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video technology, enabling its hosted shows to distribute and monetize video podcasts on Apple Podcasts without any technical changes. The move promises adaptive streaming that adjusts video quality in real...
What Apple’s CEO Transition Got Right And Why Most Boards Overlook This Lesson
Apple’s orderly handoff from Tim Cook to John Ternus is being hailed as a model of CEO succession, but the smooth public announcement masks years of disciplined pipeline building, cultural oversight, and candid board‑CEO dialogue. The article argues that most...
Byron Allen Bought BuzzFeed. He Wants Starz Next
Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group purchased a majority stake in BuzzFeed for $20 million in cash with a $100 million earn‑out, adding the BuzzFeed and HuffPost brands to his portfolio of free‑ad streaming assets like Local Now. The deal complements his existing holdings,...
David Lomelí Named General Director & CEO of the Dallas Opera
The Dallas Opera announced that David Lomelí will assume the role of Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO on June 1, 2026, succeeding Ian Derrer. Lomelí brings a decade of senior artistic experience at Dallas Opera, plus recent leadership at Santa Fe Opera and...
They Built a $50 Million Business Before GLP-1s Became Mainstream. Now They’re Eyeing This New Health Frontier
Josh and Katy Whalen turned personal hormone challenges into Joi + Blokes, a bootstrapped telehealth firm that now exceeds $50 million in annual revenue. The company rides the wave of GLP‑1 and longevity treatments, offering lab‑driven hormone optimization and weight‑loss plans. Regulatory scrutiny...
Employers Say They’re Doing Enough to Help with Medical Costs, but Workers Disagree
A Prudential Financial study finds that three‑quarters of employers believe they are adequately helping workers manage medical costs, yet fewer than half of employees share that view. More than 70% of workers reported at least a 5% increase in medical...
Premier Foods Results Takeaways – M&A Appetite May Be Whetted as Debt Ratio Hits All-Time Low
Premier Foods reported a record‑low net debt ratio of 0.6, signaling a strengthened balance sheet. Free cash flow jumped 15% year‑over‑year, giving the company ample liquidity for strategic moves. The upbeat results sent the shares up about 8% in trading....
Smaller Doesn't Mean Easier for RIA M&A
Sam Anderson argues that independent RIA mergers appear simpler than headline‑making corporate deals, but hidden complexities emerge during negotiations. In RIA transactions, owners are also the rainmakers, so decisions about governance, compensation, and client transition become central deal points. Due...
How Much Is Dana White Worth in 2026? Inside the UFC CEO’s $600M Fortune
Dana White’s net worth tops $600 million in 2026, driven by his stake in the UFC’s $4 billion 2016 sale and a $20 million annual CEO salary. The former promoter’s wealth surged after the UFC secured a seven‑year, $7.7 billion media‑rights agreement with Paramount...