STARTUPCENTRAL

A contract operations specialist quietly built a small automation to stop repetitive tasks from eating into closing deadlines — and it mushroomed across her department without formal sign-off. Within days about two dozen people were using the tool, and managers noticed fewer delayed deals tied to missed paperwork. What began as a personal time-saver quickly protected revenue that would otherwise have slipped to a later quarter. The episode underlines a simple point many execu

Holly Smith began her tenure as chief marketing officer at P.F. Chang’s with a simple premise: listen first, act together. Charged with guiding more than 300 restaurants across roughly two dozen countries, she’s turning long-held customer affection into a playbook for steady change. Her approach pairs deeper use of restaurant data with a people-centered culture, aiming to keep signature menu items while introducing new reasons for guests to come back. Smith’s decision to acce

LinkedIn has tapped a decorated puzzle creator to design quick logic games aimed at nudging members toward more frequent, informal interactions on the site. The company has named Thomas Snyder its inaugural principal puzzlemaster, bringing on the three-time world Sudoku champion full time last October. Snyder, who has produced more than 10,000 puzzles for print and digital outlets over his career, will build a slate of short games LinkedIn plans to make available at no cost t

Subheadline: Marketing leaders must stitch together publicity, content, search tactics and technical trust markers now or cede discovery to better-prepared rivals. AI-driven discovery tools increasingly surface companies by weighing signals of credibility — things like media mentions, an established search footprint and content that demonstrates expertise. If your team hasn’t been intentionally stacking those elements, you’ll start losing exposure to competitors who have. The

Many founders and early investors say the market is now rewarding nascent artificial intelligence companies with richer seed rounds than in recent years, driven by advances in model capabilities and intense investor competition. Venture partners and startup founders around tech hubs report that offers for initial financings are arriving with larger dollar amounts and higher company valuations than they remember from a few years back. Rather than small, conservative bets, seve