STARTUPS CENTRAL

As software takes on routine tasks, leaders now spend more time endorsing and policing outputs than producing them Artificial intelligence has started to swallow a lot of the nitty‑gritty that used to fill a founder’s day — from first drafts of proposals to routine customer messages and basic data crunching. That shift is freeing up clock time, but not necessarily lightening the load: business owners are increasingly tasked with deciding which machine-made products can carry

A leader who leans on familiar colleagues and neighborhood franchisees has helped the fast-casual chain export a Los Angeles-born identity to Europe while letting partners steer site choices and local operations. Jim Bittick, chief executive of Dave’s Hot Chicken, says the company’s corporate support staff is largely drawn from teams that worked together at other quick-service chains. He estimates roughly three-quarters of the roughly 75 people in that group had previous stin

Executives and professionals hoard practical lessons inside client work, creating a costly gap between what firms know and what they share publicly — a missed revenue and reputation opportunity that can be fixed by treating internal experience as the raw material for content. Most business leaders assume content problems begin with scheduling: what to post this week, which template to reuse, what stock photo to pair with a caption. But the damage starts earlier. The real loss

Subheadline: Social posts often promise the entire purchase as a deduction. Tax law ties write-offs to use, vehicle class and yearly limits — pick your method carefully before you buy. Sales pitches claiming you can expense an entire company vehicle at once are misleading, and following them can trigger trouble with the IRS. In many common cases the tax code limits how much you may deduct in year one. For example: a $50,000 passenger vehicle placed in service in 2026 that’s u

Many executives who excel at running companies stumble when facing reporters. Start by saying the single point you want remembered, keep three talking points in your pocket, and don’t let the conversation turn into a sales pitch — those moves protect your reputation and improve the chances of useful coverage. Even seasoned leaders can erode their credibility in media encounters. When time is tight and attention is scarcer, a stray claim or a long, meandering answer can cost y

A chance ask from a soccer club turned a retail-focused start-up into a sports-technology supplier, and the shift helped the business grow fourfold while opening deals with international federations and U.S. leagues. Haniff Brown founded Fit:match to solve online apparel fit problems, using artificial intelligence and a quick camera scan to produce measurements for shoppers. Last year, a prominent English club invited the company to trial the tool with its youth academy. Brow

He revealed this week that long before his fortune, he shared a three-bedroom, two-bath unit in Dallas with five other people and slept on the floor. In a post on X, Cuban said the 1,352-square-foot apartment housed six tenants for about two years and that each person paid roughly one-sixth of the rent — about $400 apiece. Cuban described himself as the last person to move in, which left him without a mattress and with only a small corner to stash his things. He added that he

After leaving Google Nest in 2017, two engineers founded Matic to address recurring flaws in robot vacuums; the company says it has generated $20 million in revenue. A device that repeatedly failed to return to its charger prompted one founder to act. He asked why consumers should put up with such basic shortcomings. Nariyawala, who serves as president, and Navneet Dalal, the CEO, set out to make a quieter cleaner that can weave through lived-in homes, avoiding pets, scattere