STARTUPCENTRAL

At 60, after starting 10 businesses over roughly four decades, I’ve enrolled in what feels like a fresh apprenticeship — building an AI company from the ground up. It’s the riskiest, most unnerving project I’ve taken on, even though I’ve sold firms to private investors and venture funds, endured bankruptcy once, advised public corporations, campaigned for state office (and lost), and authored two Wall Street Journal bestsellers while speaking at three TEDx events. My career h

Allison Ellsworth sold her prebiotic soft-drink brand Poppi to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion last year, capping a rapid climb from a home test kitchen to one of the biggest beverage exits in recent memory. The deal, announced after years of consumer-facing trials and aggressive retail expansion, marks a major payoff for a company that began as a personal health project and grew into a national contender on shelves and social feeds. Ellsworth says the product was born out of a lon

Elena Verna, the growth lead at Lovable, says her chief concern isn’t rival startups but industry giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The company, which launched in 2024 and now carries a $6.6 billion valuation, offers a platform that lets everyday users create complete applications using plain‑language prompts. Verna told reporters she fears the market will tilt toward whoever can reach the most users first. Lovable markets itself around what it calls "vibe coding," a natur

Subheadline: Practical steps — from keeping one-fifth of your week unscheduled to using automation as a gatekeeper — can reduce constant firefighting and preserve leaders’ energy as companies grow. When founders trade the scrappy start-up phase for a larger operation, the rhythm that once propelled growth often becomes the thing that trips them up. The immediate fix many rely on — working longer and taking on more — succeeds at launch but fails to carry an organization throug

A string of small decisions and mixed messages is eroding confidence in leadership at the team level, workplace specialists say — and rebuilding it will take deliberate, consistent behavior. Workers are increasingly skeptical of executive statements about technology and the future of work. As companies tout automation and efficiency, news about mass job cuts and investor demands for growth without added staff undercuts those assurances. Add in a flood of machine-generated con

Subheadline: As startups move beyond remote hustle, the way you arrange an initial workplace can shape teamwork, hiring and daily habits. When a company outgrows laptop-only operations, the choice of a first dedicated space becomes more than a line item in the budget. Founders who treat that space as a management tool — not just storage for desks — can influence focus, collaboration and staff retention from day one. Here are five concrete steps leaders can take when they sign

How prioritizing original ideas over pure efficiency can shape a company’s direction and long-term value. A tight cluster of decisions — not just better processes — often determines whether a startup thrives. Consider a recent example: a sole founder in defense technology who organized a set of 15 AI assistants and, as a result, reclaimed about one-half of a conventional 40-hour workweek. The automation freed time, yet the founder still had to decide what to build, proving th