In 2024, the U.S. added nearly 12,500 new DC fast EV chargers to the national public network. Fast chargers can get an EV to an 80% charge in less than an hour, an appealing option to drivers with range anxiety, or those who cant install EV chargers at their homes.
It was a landmark accomplishment bolstered by Biden Administration initiatives, including the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. But in 2025, the country is on pace to install even more fast-charging portsdespite Trumps attacks on EVs and their infrastructure.
The deployment of fast EV chargers is on a record pace in 2025, according to a new report from EV charging analytics company Paren. Their latest analysis forecasts that 16,700 fast-charging ports will open across the country this yearup more than 25% from last year, and 2.5 times as many ports as opened in 2022.
In the second quarter of 2025 alone, the country added more than 4,000 fast ports to its EV charging network, a more than 23% increase from the first quarter. One EV charging station can have multiple ports, so while new station openings were also up, it was by a smaller amount: the U.S. opened 784 new EV charging stations in the second quarter of 2025, up from 738. New EV charging stations are typically opening with 8, 10, 12, or more charging ports.
The number of new EV chargers seem surprising given how Trump has taken aim at EV programs since he took office earlier this year. On his first day in office he wrote in an executive order that he was ending the EV mandate, and since he has killed the EV tax credit as well as paused NEVI funding, cutting off millions of dollars for EV chargers. At the end of June, months after Trumps NEVI pause in February, court rulings lifted that freezebut some EV charger startups had already been hurt by the move.
According to Paren, though, NEVI funding would have accounted for just 2% to 3% of the new DC fast-charger ports in 2025. (NEVI funding also goes to Level 2 EV chargers, which get an EV to 80% in about 4 to 10 hours, and which in 2024 made up the majority of newly installed EV charging infrastructure.)
When it comes to fast chargers, private companies have stepped in to fund the space. Paren calls these “Charging 2.0 companies, and points to Ionna, Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging, BP Pulse, and Walmart as examples as businesses that have increased their fast-charger deployments. Those companies have brought EV charging to places like Starbucks and Waffle House, modifying the idea of what it looks like to refuel your vehicle.
Tesla has long been one of the dominant fast-charger companies, but when its Supercharger team saw layoffs last April, that slowed down its pace. Since the fall, it’s been back on track for deployments, but Paren notes that its overall share of the fast-charging space has declined. Between 2013 and 2017, Tesla accounted for 85% to 98% of new DC fast-charger ports that opened, but in Q2 of 2025, Tesla accounted for just 40% of new fast-charging ports. Paren estimates Tesla will open just 6,000 ports in 2025, bringing its share further down to 36%.
If the amount of fast EV charging ports stays on the record pace for all of 2025, then the U.S. could have more than 100,000 fast-charging ports by 2027. Thatll be necessary to support growing EV sales. Even as Trump tries to curtail the industry, and as Tesla loses marketshare, EV salesboth new and usedare up so far this year.
Drive through the plains of Iowa or Kansas and youll see more than rows of corn, wheat and soybeans. Youll also see towering wind turbines spinning above fields and solar panels shining in the sun on barns and machine sheds.
For many farmers, these are lifelines. Renewable energy provides steady income and affordable power, helping farms stay viable when crop prices fall or drought strikes.
But some of that opportunity is now at risk as the Trump administration cuts federal support for renewable energy.
Wind power brings steady income for farms
Wind energy is a significant economic driver in rural America. In Iowa, for example, over 60% of the states electricity came from wind energy in 2024, and the state is a hub for wind turbine manufacturing and maintenance jobs.
For landowners, wind turbines often mean stable lease payments. Those historically were around US$3,000 to $5,000 per turbine per year, with some modern agreements $5,000 to $10,000 annually, secured through 20- to 30-year contracts.
Nationwide, wind and solar projects contribute about $3.5 billion annually in combined lease payments and state and local taxes, more than a third of it going directly to rural landowners.
States throughout the Great Plains and Midwest, from Texas to Montana to Ohio, have the strongest onshore winds and onshore wind power potential. These are also in the heart of U.S. farm country. The map shows wind speeds at 100 meters (nearly 330 feet), about the height of a typical land-based wind turbine. [Chart: NREL]
These figures are backed by long-term contracts and multibilliondollar annual contributions, reinforcing the economic value that turbines bring to rural landowners and communities.
Wind farms also contribute to local tax revenues that help fund rural schools, roads and emergency services. In counties across Texas, wind energy has become one of the most significant contributors to local property tax bases, stabilizing community budgets and helping pay for public services as agricultural commodity revenues fluctuate.
In Oldham County in northwest Texas, for example, clean energy projects provided 22% of total county revenues in 2021. In several other rural counties, wind farms rank among the top 10 property taxpayers, contributing between 38% and 69% of tax revenue.
The construction and operation of these projects also bring local jobs in trucking, concrete work and electrical services, boosting small-town businesses.
The U.S. wind industry supports over 300,000 U.S. jobs across construction, manufacturing, operations and other roles connected to the industry, according to the American Clean Power Association.
Renewable energy has been widely expected to continue to grow along with rising energy demand. In 2024, 93% of all new electricity generating capacity was wind, solar or energy storage, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration expected a similar percentage in 2025 as of June.
Solar can cut power costs on the farm
Solar energy is also boosting farm finances. Farmers use rooftop panels on barns and ground-mounted systems to power irrigation pumps, grain dryers and cold storage facilities, cutting their power costs.
Some farmers have adopted agrivoltaicsdual-use systems that grow crops beneath solar panels. The panels provide shade, helping conserve water, while creating a second income path. These projects often cultivate pollinator-friendly plants, vegetables such as lettuce and spinach, or even grasses for grazing sheep, making the land productive for both food and energy.
Federal grants and tax credits that were significantly expanded under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act helped make the upfront costs of solar installations affordable.
However, the federal spending bill signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, rolled back many clean energy incentives. It phases down tax credits for distributed solar projects, particularly those under 1 megawatt, which include many farmscale installations, and sunsets them entirely by 2028. It also eliminates bonus credits that previously supported rural and lowincome areas.
Without these credits, the upfront cost of solar power could be out of reach for some farmers, leaving them paying higher energy costs. At a 2024 conference organized by the Institute of Sustainability, Energy and Environment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I work as a research economist, farmers emphasized the importance of tax credits and other economic incentives to offset the upfront cost of solar power systems.
Whats being lost
The cuts to federal incentives inlude terminating the Production Tax Credit for new projects placed in service after Dec. 31, 2027, unless construction begins by July 4, 2026, and is completed within a tight time frame. The tax credit pays eligible wind and solar facilities approximately 2.75 cents per kilowatt-hour over 10 years, effectively lowering the cost of renewable energy generation. Ending that tax credit will likely increase the cost of production, potentially leading to higher electricity prices for consumers and fewer new projects coming online.
The changes also accelerate the phaseout of wind power tax credits. Projects must now begin construction by July 4, 2026, or be in service before the end of 2027 to qualify for any credit.
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Meanwhile, the Investment Tax Credit, which covers 30% of installed cost for solar and other renewables, faces similar limits: Projects must begin by July 4, 2026, and be completed by the end of 2027 to claim the credits. The bill also cuts bonuses for domestic components and installations in rural or lowincome locations. These adjustments could slow new renewable energy development, particularly smaller projects that directly benefit rural communities.
While many existing clean energy agreements will remain in place for now, the rollback of federal incentives threatens future projects and could limit new income streams. It also affects manufacturing and jobs in those industries, which some rural communities rely on.
Renewable energy also powers rural economies
Renewable energy benefits entire communities, not just individual farmers.
Wind and solar projects contribute millions of dollars in tax revenue. For example, in Howard County, Iowa, wind turbines generated $2.7 million in property tax revenue in 2024, accounting for 14.5% of the countys total budget and helping fund rural schools, public safety and road improvements.
In some rural counties, clean energy is the largest new source of economic activity, helping stabilize local economies otherwise reliant on agricultures unpredictable income streams. These projects also support rural manufacturing such as Iowa turbine blade factories like TPI Composites, which just reopened its plant in Newton, and Siemens Gamesa in Fort Madison, which supply blades for GE and Siemens turbines. The tax benefits in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act helped boost those industriesand the jobs and local tax revenue they bring in.
On the solar side, rural companies like APA Solar Racking, based in Ohio, manufacture steel racking systems for utility-scale solar farms across the Midwest.
An example of how renewable energy has helped boost farm incomes and keep farmers on their land.
As rural America faces economic uncertainty and climate pressures, I believe homegrown renewable energy offers a practical path forward. Wind and solar arent just fueling the grid; theyre helping keep farms and rural towns alive.
Paul Mwebaze is a eesearch Economist at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Starbucks announced its third-quarter financial results on Tuesday, July 29, presenting a company in a high-stakes race to institute major changes, but not quite there.
The coffee chain reported its sixth quarter in a row of declining same-store sales. These numbers dropped 2% globally, though most stores outside North America reported flat sales. In the United States, a 2% drop was better than the 2.5% decline that Wall Street had predicted, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. In China, Starbuckss second largest market, comparable store sales increased by 2% due to a rise in transactions.
While our financial results dont yet reflect all the progress weve made, the signs are clear were gaining momentum, Brian Niccol, chairman and CEO of Starbucks, stated in an accompanying video.
Niccol, who joined Starbucks as chief executive in September of last year, previously orchestrated a turnaround at Chipotle Mexican Grill, following a food safety crisis at the burrito chain.
Starbucks reported $9.5 billion in consolidated net revenuesan increase of 4%.
‘We’re ahead of schedule’
A pep talk from Niccol appears to have helped to satiate investors, with Starbucks stock (Nasdaq: SBUX) rising over 5% through after-hours and into premarket trading on Wednesday.
Weve fixed a lot and done the hard work on the hard things to build a strong operating foundation, and based on my experience of turnarounds, we are ahead of schedule, Niccol stated in a release. In 2026, well unleash a wave of innovation that fuels growth, elevates customer service, and ensures everyone experiences the very best of Starbucks. Were building back a better Starbucks experience and a better business.
Niccol has been championing a Back to Starbucks plan. It focuses on exceptional service, simplified routines, and deeper customer connections. Basically, Starbucks wants to rehumanize itself. This process includes expanding the assistant store manager role and internally hiring 90% of retail leadership.
Oh, and Starbucks is bringing back seats. In an era of machines, mobile orders, and depersonalization, Niccol has decided that Starbuckss cafes should be warm, textured, and have ample seating.
Leaders known for their emotional intelligence often pride themselves on cultivating trust, psychological safety, and genuine connection with their teams. These are essential assets in any leadership toolkit, particularly in environments that rely on collaboration, creativity, or mission alignment.
But inevitably, there are moments when these strengthsempathy, warmth, patienceneed to be supplemented with something sharper: clarity, candor, and the ability to speak directly when the situation calls for it.
If you lead with empathy, you may already be adept at sensing how people are feeling and anticipating the downstream consequences of your words. But in certain moments, the harder leadership move isnt to hold space. Its to draw a line and provide someone a necessary reality check. Conversations like these often feel uncomfortable, but they ultimately serve the integrity of your team, your organization, or the individual themselves.
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Confusing directness with harm
Many conscientious leaders hesitate to be fully direct because they conflate honesty with harshness. The fear is understandable: no one wants to be perceived as punitive, cold, or unfeeling. So we delay giving feedbackhedging our language and prioritizing emotional comfort over organizational clarity.
But avoiding the truth rarely protects peopleit usually disorients them.
What erodes trust over time isnt directness; its the absence of it. Its the vague feedback that leaves a team member guessing. The unspoken performance concern that festers behind the scenes. The dissonance between whats said in public and whats whispered in private.
Said differently: kindness without clarity is often just misplaced anxiety.
Directness as a form of respect
When a performance issue arises or a behavioral pattern needs to shift, its worth asking: What does this person deserve to know?
Assuming your intent is constructivenot punitivebeing direct is a sign of respect. It assumes the person is capable of hearing hard truths and of responding thoughtfully. It also models the type of culture most high-performing teams want: one where feedback is not weaponized, but neither is it avoided.
A few ways to ground a direct conversation in professionalism and respect:
I want to have a conversation thats candid, because I take your role and your contribution seriously.
This might be hard to hear, but I trust your ability to receive itand respond in a way that reflects your strengths.
Im raising this because I value your place on the team and I want to make sure were aligned moving forward.
This kind of framing cant mask a poorly handled messagebut it can open the door to a conversation grounded in mutual respect, rather than defensiveness.
Delivering clarity without cruelty
A direct conversation should be just thatdirect. That means no extended preamble, no hedging language, no passive-aggressive tone. Say what you need to say plainly, and without dramatizing or editorializing.
Consider this structure:
Signal the conversations purpose: I want to give you some candid feedback about how youre showing up on the team.
Name the issue specifically: Youve missed several key deadlines this quarter, and its created ripple effects for others.
Explain the impact: People are waiting on your contributions, and timelines are slipping. Its affecting morale.
Invite dialogue: Im curious how youre seeing thisdo you agree with that assessment?
Identify a clear next step or standard: We need to see improvement over the next month, and Im happy to support youbut the expectations are non-negotiable.
This approach allows you to balance accountability with collaboration. It removes ambiguity while still inviting the other person into the solution.
Anticipate discomfortbut dont personalize it
Even a well-structured conversation may evoke a strong emotional response: frustration, embarrassment, disappointment, defensiveness. This is part of the processnot an indication youve mishandled the exchange.
Resist the urge to over-explain, soften your message mid-stream, or rush in to repair the other persons reaction. If the message is true and necessary, the short-term discomfort is a feature of the process, not a bug.
One helpful internal reframe: This may feel hard, but that doesnt mean its harmful. It means it matters.
Of course, how you follow up also matters. If the person is emotionally reactive or distressed, you can acknowledge the emotion without retreating from the content. A simple I know that was a lot to take inlets revisit this in a few days after youve had a chance to reflect can provide space for integration while still maintaining accountability.
Clarity shapes culture
Handled well, these conversations arent just about individual performancethey shape your organizational culture. When feedback is delayed, filtered, or inconsistently delivered, teams become unclear about whats expected, whats tolerated, and what success actually looks like.
Conversely, when leaders are willing to say the hard thingwith steadiness and respectit signals that performance standards matter, and that team dynamics are worth protecting.
Direct communication becomes an act of stewardship: protecting the integrity of the organization, safeguarding the cohesion of the team, and supporting the growth of the individuals within it.
Final thought
Some people are naturally more direct; others more sensitive to tone and relationship dynamics. But having hard conversations isnt about personalityits about discipline. Its a practice. And like any other leadership muscle, it gets stronger with use.
For the empathic leader, the goal isnt to stop caring or to suppress emotional intelligence. Its to channel those qualities into a leadership style thats both principled and effective.
The best leaders dontchoose between empathy and clarity. They hold both. And they have the courage to speak candidlyeven when its uncomfortablebecause they understand that clarity is what allows empathy to be sustainable over time.
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A massive earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russias far east on Wednesday morning, July 30, local time.
The quake was the sixth-largest ever recorded and sent tsunami waves spreading across the Pacific Ocean. Some of those waves are headed to the United States and have already made landfall in some states, leading to numerous tsunami warnings and advisoriesmany of which are still in effect.
Heres what you need to know about the Kamchatka quake and tsunami, and how you can track the latest warnings for where the waves could be headed next.
Whats happened?
On the morning of July 30 local time (about 11:24 p.m., July 29 UTC), a massive earthquake occurred off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russias far east. The quake registered a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale, making it the sixth most powerful earthquake to ever be recorded, according to CNN.
The epicenter of the quake was about 74 miles southeast of the region’s largest city, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and occurred at a depth of about 12.8 miles below the surface.
The Kamchatka earthquake is the largest quake recorded since the Thoku earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011. That earthquake measured 9.1 on the Richter scale and led to a devastating tsunami in Japan, which cost around 20,000 lives and led to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
In the hour after the initial quake, two significant aftershocks measuring magnitudes of 6.3 and 6.9 struck, and since then, multiple aftershocks measuring 5 on the Richter scale have hit as well. The initial quake and these aftershocks have sent tsunami waves spreading across the Pacific Ocean.
Where did the Kamchatka tsunami waves head?
The tsunami waves that spread as a result of the Kamchatka earthquake headed across the Pacific Ocean and made landfall on Russias far east coast.
According to CNN, the waves first hit Russia and Japan. They then traveled across the Pacific to Canada and the United States. In the United States, the waves are known to have made landfall in five states:
Alaska
California
Hawaii
Oregon
Washington
Following the earthquake, as the tsunami waves spread across the Pacific, authorities in these states issued tsunami warnings, and in some locations, urged residents to evacuate to higher ground.
In Hawaii, Governor Josh Green told residents to evacuate coastal areas, stating, It will not hit one beach, it will wrap around the islands.
In addition to the five U.S. states listed above, as well as Russia, Japan, and Canada, other countries have issued tsunami warnings and alerts, including Chile, China, French Polynesias Marquesas Islands, Indonesia, Mexico, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, and Vanuatu.
Tsunami Warning map
Numerous tsunami warnings and advisories have been issued for cities and states in the U.S. as a result of the Kamchatka quake. Some of these warnings have been downgraded to advisories, while others remain in place. Its also still possible that further warnings or advisories will be issued.
A great way to keep track of all these alerts is by checking out the Tsunami Warning map by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service.
The color-coded map displays the latest tsunami warnings and advisories, as well as other alerts. Its mapping technology is powered by the spatial analytics company Esri.
Alerts are displayed on the map in one of five colors:
Tsunami WarningRed
Tsunami AdvisoryOrange
Tsunami WatchYellow
Tsunami Information StatementGreen
Tsunami ThreatPurple (International)
Two of the most serious alerts on the map are the red Tsunami Warning and orange Tsunami Advisory alerts.
According to the U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers, the red Tsunami Warning is issued when a tsunami with the potential to generate widespread inundation is imminent, expected, or occurring. Warnings alert the public that dangerous coastal flooding accompanied by powerful currents is possible and may continue for several hours after initial arrival.
A yellow Tsunami Advisory is issued when a tsunami with the potential to generate strong currents or waves dangerous to those in or very near the water is imminent, expected, or occurring. The threat may continue for several hours after initial arrival, but significant inundation is not expected for areas under an advisory.
If youre in a coastal area that may be impacted, its a good idea to keep abreast of tsunami alerts in your area. To find out more about what to do in the event of a tsunami threat, you can check out the U.S. governments Ready website about tsunamis.
For all of those doomscrolling on TikTok, a new feature is here to bring additional context to videos, regardless of what weird side of TikTok you might find yourself in.
Alongside a series of new features related to safety, TikTok announced on Wednesday, July 30, the launch of “footnotes,” the video app’s take on X-style “community notes. Available for users in the U.S., the community-approved notes are set to appear on short videos when members of the community feel like further context is needed.
“Footnotes are drawing on reflective knowledge of TikTok’s entire community in the U.S. by allowing people to add relevant information that they know to content that they’re watching on TikTok,” said Erica Ruzic, TikTok’s global head of integrity and authenticity product, at a press event in New York.
For instance, an expert or researcher might weigh in on videos related to scientific topics, while other users might provide additional resources and data to videos with misleading claims.
Ban deadline loomingagain
The announcement comes just 49 days before the September 17 deadline imposed by President Trump’s administration requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, to sell the popular app to an American buyer. This new date is the administration’s third-extension for the TikTok ban, following a brief shutdown of the app earlier this year.
As a privately held company, ByteDance does not share its financials, yet estimates earlier this year hinted that its U.S. operations could be worth as much as $50 billion.
Footnotes also follows a series of already active features developed for trust and safety, including labels for AI-generated content, verification checks to confirm a creator’s identity, and banners offering reliable sources for topics vulnerable to misinformation.
How do footnotes work?
Similarly to X, not everyone is able to contribute community notes, with participation limited to a select group of contributors.
“These contributors are going to be able to write and also rate footnotes, starting with short-form content,” said Ruzic.
With footnotes’ pilot initially announced in April, 80,000 users signed up to join the contributor community. To qualify, TikTok is requiring contributors to be a user based in the U.S., to have an account that has been active for at least six months, and to not have recent community guideline violations.
For accepted contributors, an extra button will be available on screen to add their written community notes or rate the existing notes. Powered by a bridging-based system, contributors can rate notes as “helpful” or “unhelpful,” with the system identifying the areas of consensus to determine what community note to broadcast.
“The more footnotes that get written and rated on these different topics, the smarter and more effective our system is going to become,” Ruzic said. “At first, it might take some time for a footnote to become public, as contributors are getting started and they’re really familiarizing themselves with the feature.”
While the feature is now available for those who registered for the pilot, all U.S. users can expect to start seeing footnotes at the bottom of videos in the coming weeks.
Are footnotes enough?
It’s become increasingly more common for social media platforms to rely on users to moderate in-app content.
Community notes first launched on then-Twitter in 2021 (the feature was then called Birdwatch) as a crowd-sourcing information tool, but once Elon Musk took over, it quickly became a replacement for in-house content moderators.
Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg of Metawhich owns Facebook and Instagramannounced a similar strategy, relying on community notes and replacing fact checkers.
“I think the fact checkers see a lot of potential in these programs. They have a lot of good sides,” said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, during TikTok’s event. “They get the public engaged in thinking about the quality of information that they have access to.”
Still, Holan raised three main concerns with these features: There can be low participation due to a lack of interest in the feature; the systems can be swayed by convincing a large group of people to weigh in on a note; and if no consensus is reached, a note never appears.
“There’s a lot of opportunities when the note systems are combined with other systems,” she added. “Where we raise a red flag is [where platforms may] turn their entire content moderation effort over to a public notes program.”
Cloudflare supports more than 20% of total internet traffic. The company recently made headlines with breakthrough technology that blocks AI companies from scraping online content with impunity. Cofounder and CEO Matthew Prince shares how the new tools are poised to dramatically impact AI firms, publishers, and the future of the internet.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
You released a new tool that’s got a lot of folks buzzing: a blocker for AI crawlersthe bots that scrape content from websites without their consent. You’ve called this new tool the biggest thing you or the company has ever accomplished?
Yeah. I feel incredibly fortunate to have built what today is a $60 billion company on the back of the internet. And we became aware about 18 months ago of a new threat to the internet, to content creators, which was being posed by these AI companies. When we realized that there was something we could do about it, we spent about a year talking to everyone in the content creation space, everyone in the AI space. . . . We’re going to change the rules of the road, and say that if you’re not paying for content as an AI company, then you don’t get that content.
Today it’s almost 10 times harder to get actual traffic from Google for the same amount of content you created. The minute you show an AI overview, it’s less likely that people click on links. And again, that is better for the Google user, but it is worse for the content creator because it means that you can’t sell a subscription, you can’t sell ads, and you can’t even get the ego boost of knowing that people are reading your stuff.
Today, OpenAI is 750 times harder to get traffic from than the Google of old. Anthropic is 30,000 times harder to get traffic from than the Google of old. And so, if content creation is struggling today [when its] 10 times harder, I worry that it won’t survive [if its] 750 times or 30,000 times harder [to read] original content. . . . And if people don’t have the incentive to create content, they’re not going to create content. So there needs to be some business model behind the future of the web, and it’s not going to be around traffic because an AI-driven web doesn’t drive traffic.
And the irony is that the AI itself needs the content to be able to make those answers. Now who knows where they’re going to get their answers from.
That’s the key: 80% of the major AI companies use Cloudflare in their infrastructure. What they have all said, with a few exceptions, is We agree, content creators need to get paid for content, but it has to be a level playing field. What nobody wants to do is pay for content where all of their competitors get it for free. So, creating that level playing field is incredibly important.
Just Anthropic will scrape a site 60,000 times for every one visitor that’s there. Someone has to pay for that traffic. Just from a pure fairness perspective, they should be compensating creators that they’re pulling that content from.
We started as a cybersecurity company. We go to war every day with Russian hackers, Iranian hackers, North Korean hackers, Chinese hackers who are trying to get in and thwart our systems. So when we first started talking to publishers about this, it was almost this sort of nihilistic, Oh my gosh, what are we possibly going to do? There’s no way we can stop it. These guys are so smart, they’re a bunch of nerds in Palo Alto. . . . We can’t ever possibly block them. And I remember thinking, We block the North Koreans every day. AI companies are a piece of cake.
Before you release the first round of this tool, did you give the AI companies a heads-up?
I think there are some bad actors out there, and I think it’ll surprise some people who the bad actors are. We’re monitoring them, and very soon we will publish and we will name and shame who is actually a bad actor in this space. And we will take from what has been basically posting a speed limit sign that says Don’t drive more than 55 miles an hour . . . and we’ll make it into something that is actually much more strict. We’re saying, Listen, we’re taking away your car, you’re not allowed to drive on the road anymore.
I understand you’re exploring sort of a pay-per-crawl model with some of the content publishers, which to me sounds a little bit like a toll on the highwaythat you have to pay a toll if you want to come through.
If you are generating a huge amount of cost by crawling somebody, but you’re not giving them any benefit, then step one is block them. Then once you’ve created scarcity, then there can be a market, right?
There has to be some compensation for taking content, and it’s not going to be traffic anymore, it’s going to be something else. Now the question is, Okay, how do you pay? And I think a lot of times, big AI companies and big publishers are just going to negotiate deals themselves. So if you’re Condé Nast, you go out and do an OpenAI deal, or a Google deal, or something else, and you negotiate it yourself. We don’t have any role in that. I think for the smaller AI companies, or for the long tail of publishers, Cloudflare can hopefully sit in between and help negotiate what is the best deal. And we don’t know exactly what that will look like yet. It could be a micropayment every time a page is accessed. It could be something that’s closer to a Spotify model where there’s a pool of funds and that gets distributed out to all of the different content providers. . . . That will develop, but step one in any market has to be scarcity. If you don’t have scarcity, you don’t have a market.
I’m actually optimistic [that] all of us are going to have subscriptions to a certain number of AI agents that are out there. And how AI companies will differentiate themselves is access to unique content that they have and they have alone. So, imagine Taylor Swift is about to release a new album, and she does an interview with some journalists, and they are willing to give that interview to one AI company exclusively for a week. How much is that worth? Probably quite a bit, right? A lot of people are going to sign up. And so, I’m actually optimistic that we might be at the precipice of a golden age of content creation.
If we do this right, and we get the incentives right, it might be that instead of us all worshiping the deity that Google taught us to worship, which is traffic, which has always been a really bad proxy for value, if instead we find a way to compensate creators based on when they actually create something which is worthwhile and advances human knowledge, we can actually do some real good in the world, at the same time that wehelp the content creators get paid more.
Successful innovationespecially breakthrough innovation that drives sustainable, long-term growthrequires getting a lot of things right along the whole innovation journey, from concept development to commercial launch.
Some of the key steps along this path are well understood and generate lots of attention, among them understanding and building product/market fit, soliciting customer feedback early, and gauging customer willingness to pay.
But even the best companies and the most innovation-minded, C-suites can get innovation wrong. In our book Predictable Winners, we leveraged the experience of hundreds of projects, analyzed company case studies, and examined a lookback study of 100 innovations.
As a result, we determined that several mistakes are quite commonand can put the overall success of an innovation at risk.
There are three deadly sins that stifle innovation. Most innovators make them. They are:
Sin #1: Picking the wrong early adopters
A key decision in any businessand a critical one for innovatorsis determining who your target customers are and arent. The right answer is a byproduct of effective customer segmentation.
For innovators, its especially critical to identify early adopters. But doing that correctly is not as simple as it seems.
Many innovators assume that early adopters are simply those customers who are willing to use their products first. Not so. Anyone can sell a handful of products to friends, family, and tech junkies. The right question to ask during the initial market-testing phase is, which customers seem most excited and passionate about the product? Who is clamoring for the opportunity to try it? Early adopters are not just customers willing to buy your product before anyone elsethey are the customers who love your product.
Their passion and loyalty help you build a sustainable base of customers who serve as a reference and can unlock network effects for later adopters. In other words, early adopters need to care disproportionately about your value proposition. Often, they are a subset or micro-segment within a broader group you have identified through your segmentation processoften the bull’s-eye of that customer segment. Lululemons initial strategy was to target young women with active lifestyles for their line of fashionable but action-friendly apparel. Within that segment, female yoga teachers became the early adopter group. Intuitive Surgical found that the early adopters for their da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery systems were not, as expected, cardiac surgeons but rather urologists who loved da Vinci because it gave them their first-ever option for removing prostates via a minimally invasive surgical procedure.
As an innovator, you need to intentionally define the early adopters. Then, determine what the subsequent target customer segments will be. The right group of early adopters can build a lasting foundation and help unlock the customer runway. Intentionality makes this a strategic and conscious choice. Dont let your early adopters just happen to you.
Sin #2: Playing chess with yourself
A great innovation will generate swift, fierce competition. Many innovators are surprised at the speed and intensity of competitive response.
In fact, one of the most common mistakes innovators make is to underestimate their competitors and underinvest in understanding how their competitors will respond. Theyre too focused on their own product and their own customers. They do insufficient research on their expected competitorsand on the individuals who lead those companies. They subconsciously bias their moves based on what they want the other side to do. They assess competitive responses far too optimistically and fail to anticipate the full range of competitors actions. As a result, they often underestimate how quickly competitors come to market and how much impact that speed to market can havethis holds true in markets as different as pharmaceuticals and automotive (e.g., Teslas launch of the Model 3).
What these innovators are doing is playing chess with themselves instead of the competition. When you do that, youre always tempted to have your opponent play the game you want them to play. This is just human nature, right?
A better move is to conduct a wargame. An effective wargame forces you and your team to role-play as if you were the competitor. If you can do that successfully, you will be well positioned to understand how and why your competitors go to market. That means you will be able to predict their behaviorwhich in turn, will enable you to pursue the right strategy to win in the marketplace.
Wargaming demands that you gather data on your competitors. These days, theres typically no shortage of data available. But many innovators do this homework incompletely. Keep this in mind: you cant know your competitors too well. Data gathering will help you understand their true competitive advantages. The exercise will help you understand the range of competitive actions but also keep them in bounds. In effective wargaming, many ideas for possible actions can come up, but in most cases only a few paths will appear to be rational and likely.
The focus should be on competitive advantage. Lets keep it simple: A competitive advantage is the reason a competitor wins. Often, there arent that many entries on that list, and theyre not necessarily the most inspiring attributes. They may be strong relationships with hard-to-reach customers, control of a channel, expertise with manipulating a raw material, brand longevity, size of an installed base, and so onall examples of real, tangible competitive advantages, which are both hard to replicate and contribute significantly to a winning strategy. Again, your competitive homework needs to help you to understand whats on the short list for each of your key competitors.
This cuts both ways, though. Sometimes, your competitive advantage may simply be the flexibility to do things your competitors cant. Among U.K. supermarkets in the early 1990s, Tesco was always a little behind the market leader, Sainsbury’s: lower share, lower margins, and a more down-market positioning. Ten years later, Tesco was twice the size of Sainsbury’s. How did that happen? While its true that Tesco innovated, for example with its loyalty program, the big reason they were able to gain share was simply that they built more stores. Sainsbury’swith the founding family still owning a significant stake targeted a hefty 21% return on equity. Tesco, by contrast, was happy with 18%. This helped fund expansion and gave them more freedom to respond to low-price discounters. Investors were happy, too, because they could see the company was growing and gaining share.
The disciplined competitive analysis that results from wargaming can reveal similar trajectories. In our experience, we have seen aha moments arise when previously hypothesized actions or scenarios are proven to be off-base and are replaced by more likely and more nuanced expectations for competitive responses.
Butand this is an important caveatnot all competitive responses and not all business strategies are rational. This is where knowing individual leaders pays off. Factoring in the styles, track record, and biases of competitors leaders is essential if you are going to anticipate their moves.
No matter how you proceed, keep in mind that the essential point of wargamingand indeed, of most steps along the path of innovationis to never assume that yu are smarter than your competitors. Dont underestimate them.Its almost always better to overestimate themand then be pleasantly surprised when they play into your chess game.
Sin #3: Discovering barriers to adoption only when you launch
All of the innovation planning in the world comes to nothing if the new product or service fails at launch. There is one goal at launchcustomer adoption. Here is where planning can and must pay off.
Perhaps the most impactful mistake innovators make is failing to develop a deep enough understanding of their customers before launch.
In particular: Before launch is when you must proactively identify and mitigate barriers to adoption that can spell the death of your innovation.
The last thing you want is to find out that there is something that keeps your customers away from your productand that you only found out about it when youve started commercialization.
True, you can still take action at that point. But your options are severely limited. At best, you can adapt and find a way to overcome them. At worst, you can scuttle your launchand hope you dont scuttle the company along with it.
Best practitioners understand the whole scope of the customers purchasing journey and all the possible barriers that arise at each step. It is also essential to understand the relative importance of these barriers. How severe are they? And how many of your potential customers do they impact?
Once you have a thorough handle on your customer purchasing dynamics, you then canand mustmake it your key prelaunch objective to identify and mitigate those adoption barriers.
Those barriers are simply reasons not to adopt. They vary by customer segment, by stakeholder, and by where they occur along the purchasing journey.
You wont necessarily be able to impact all of thembut if you anticipate them, you can at least know which ones you may be able to impact. Take a systematic approachuse the customer purchase journey as an organizing principle. This journey can be generalized into several phases: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Many other versions of the customer journey (or marketing funnel) exist. You can tailor them to your specific needs.
Uber succeeded in identifying three barriersnot having the legal right to operate locally, not having enough drivers, and not attracting enough customers. With that knowledge in hand, Uber was able to formulate a plan of attack. Without the resources to lobby each local market, Uber chose to ignore the established regulatory framework, first establishing itself as a gig economy alternative for drivers and a less expensive, more convenient option for customers. Only then did it address policymakersusing its drivers and riders as a political force. The company had specific plans to overcome the adoption barriers for each target community. Incentives and bonuses helped build driver ranks. Careful analysis quantified how many consumers might leak out at each stage of the customer journey and indicated how to mitigate those barriers (and which to prioritize). Extensive (and localized) advertising and marketing along with safety features like GPS tracking served to allay consumer concerns and turn them into Uber riders. Many of Ubers tactics were questionablenot all were praiseworthy. For example, their decision to ignore local regulations in some communities was rightly subject to sharp criticism. But Ubers story does serve to illustrate how a systematic approach to barriers drives strategic choicesand how those choices in turn drive adoption.
Uber also illustrates that not all adoption barriers are created equal. It turns out that in many situations, its possible to quantitatively assess the impact of each adoption barrier, and this assessment can help you prioritize the order in which to tackle them. An effective way to do this is to conduct a leakage analysis along the customer journeysimply stated, how many customers leak out from the purchasing journey at each step? Understanding why such leakage occurs, where it is most significant, and what steps you as the innovator can take to minimize leakage can be very powerful.
Sin no more
While there is no doubt that the innovation sins can be deadly, they can also be overcome. A systematic approach is the key. By anticipating competitors actions and establishing a deep understanding of the customer journeyand by establishing gates and safeguards at each critical stepits possible to greatly reduce the risks of innovation and ensure that the process of developing breakthrough products and services will be predictablewith much greater odds of success.
Zohran Mamdanis victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary is sending shockwaves through the real estate market. But even though the 33-year-old won at the polls, some influential New Yorkers aren’t sold on his democratic socialist policiesincluding a promise to freeze rents.
The mayoral candidate campaigned on a promise to immediately freeze the rent for all 2 million-plus New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, and to triple the citys stock of affordable housing by constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.
That plan is certainly ruffling some feathers. Mamdani’s mayoral primary victory in June was followed by a one-day sell-off in shares of companies with significant exposure to the New York real estate market, as well as threats of a mass exodus by some of the citys wealthiest denizens.
Such policies might sound attractive (and clearly appealed to voters), but there are those in the real estate industry who are skeptical. In particular, some experts caution that while Mamdani is well-intentioned, he may be naive about the realities of New Yorks housing situation. And even if a rent freeze could be enacted rather quickly, it takes many years to get an adequate supply of new housing on the market.
The concern among the real estate community is that while a rent freeze might provide short-term relief for tenants, it also risks raising market rents and causing long-term damage to building maintenance, rental supply, and investment interest, John Walkup, cofounder of New York-based UrbanDigs, tells Fast Company, noting that a rent freeze could accelerate the bifurcation between rental rates for regulated versus market-rate housing.
According to Walkup, if landlords with mixed portfolios of housing units aggressively increase the rents for market-rate apartments to offset the losses for regulated units, the people who ultimately stand to pay the price of well-intentioned policies are other renters. And there are other potential consequences: Landlords could defer maintenance or upgrades, while there might be a rise in warehoused units that landlords intentionally keep off the market.
(Mamdanis campaign did not respond to several requests to offer comment on the arguments described in this story.)
Maintenance woes
Landlords of smaller properties are going to face the most challenges, argues Peter Bafitis, managing principal at RKTB Architects in New York.
Many buildings with subsidized and rent-stabilized housing are older, and older buildings typically require more maintenance. Meanwhile, Bafitis says, the cost of materials and labor have skyrocketed in recent years.
These owners are struggling to keep up with regular building maintenance and needed repairs, he says. Whats been happening is that these smaller landlords have not been renovating apartments and theyre letting them be vacant because the finances dont make sense.
These landlords rely on moderate rent increases to maintain their buildings, Bafitis says, noting that if thats taken off the tableand theres no commensurate relief for landlords, say in the form of reduced taxes or utilities coststhey will face a legitimate burden that will ultimately affect renters.
Supply issues
Like Walkup, Bafitis says any holistic solution to New Yorks housing problem must address supply: If you only deal with one side of the equation, its not going to work.
The construction of regulated housing depends on private investment, but a rent freeze could deter outside investments in buildings that are often valued based on potential rent increases, Walkup says, noting that if theres no carrot for investorsbe it in the form of rent increases, subsidies, or tax incentivesthey could find it less appealing to invest in regulated buildings and more attractive to invest in market-rate buildings instead.
Because of the public-private partnership thats required to build this type of housing, if elected, Mamdani would have to find a way to partner with the private sector. There has to be something in it for them, thats the only way for it to work, Bafitis says.
And even with partners on board, there are logistical hurdles to overcome. Building a large supply of new houses quickly? Fuggedaboudit, Bafitis says. “Not in New York City.”
Thats a reality he deals with on a daily basis as an architect. Whereas it once took one to three years to bring a small-scale project to completion, the timeline has now stretched to more like five to seven years. Its just because of the red tape, he says. Its mind-boggling.
Finding middle ground
While both Walkup and Bafitis commend Mamdani for focusing his campaign on issues of housing affordability, they say a holistic solution is necessary to truly address this problem. And, to be fair, there are a lot of ifs to be sorted out between now, the general election in November, and Mamdani potentially taking office.
Like many politicians before him, Mamdani, if elected mayor, may walk back some of the promises he made as a candidate. While a rent freeze is a great slogan, Mamdani would have to be a consensus-builder as mayor and find ways to work with the various well-entrenched forces in the industry, Bafitis says, adding, Housing is an incredibly complicated business in New York.
Finally, all the bluster this month about Mamdanis potential impact on the housing market might be a bit much, particularly with more than three months until the general electionand plenty of time for him to refine his agenda.
Usually, the initial reaction is a knee jerk that leans in the direction of the worst-case scenario, Walkup says.
Ty Haney is wearing a blinged-out zip hoodie, with the words “Doing Things” emblazoned in diamanté. This was the motto of Outdoor Voices, the activewear brand she founded in 2013 at the age of 23.
Five years ago, Haney left Outdoor Voices in the midst of crisis. Reports swirled that Haney was experiencing conflict with retail magnate Mickey Drexler, who had been brought in as chairman, and that the company was losing money. Last year, Outdoor Voices shuttered all retail stores and was acquired by the private equity group Consortium Brand Partners. And in a twist, Consortium reached out to Haney to see if she would want to come back to lead the company again.
Haney said no. In her time away from Outdoor Voices, she had launched two other companies: Joggy, an energy drink brand that is now sold at Target, and Try Your Best (TYB), a consumer loyalty platform with 200 brands on it. “I was, like, ‘No, I’m busy,” she recalls. “I enjoy what I’m doing.”
[Photo: Outdoor Voices]
It wasn’t just that Haney had a lot on her plate, running two startups as a mother of two. It was also that her departure had been so traumatic. Haney was part of a broader wave of female founders who left their companies over the last five years, sometimes in a shroud of disgrace, in what has been described as the end of the girlboss era. Steph Korey, cofounder of Away, stepped down after being accused of creating a toxic work environment. Yael Aflalo, founder of Reformation, stepped aside because of allegations of racism. Gregg Renfrew, founder of Beautycounter, was ousted from her company after she sold it to private equity group Carlyle.
In Haney’s case, the problems were largely focused on profitability. The company had raised more than $60 million from investors like Forerunner and General Catalyst, who bet that Outdoor Voices could one day grow to the size of Nike or Lululemon. But six years in, it was losing $2 million a month, with annual sales of $40 million. Drexler was brought in to help steer the ship, but his strategies and leadership style were at odds with Haney’s. And she saw no other path but to leave her fledgling brand.
But even after turning down Consortium’s offer, the private equity firm kept coming back. And it struck Haney that she had an opportunity to revive the brand she had poured so much of her life into building, and to make it relevant to the next generation of consumers. “They saw a brand without a founder and a brand without vision, and that’s not a good scenario,” she says. “I began to think this could be a really awesome creative outlet.”
[Photo: Outdoor Voices]
Haney quietly returned to Outdoor Voices a year ago. But she’s announcing her return this week in conjunction with the brand’s relaunch. Today, the website comes back online with a new collection of clothes thoughtfully designed to appeal both to the brand’s original millennial audience, but also to Gen Z. The products will be exclusively available to the TYB community, but will be shoppable to the wider public on August 5.
“We want to reactivate the original millennial loyalists,” Haney says. “But we’re introducing the ‘Doing Things’ philosophy to the next generation. The collection is boldly fashion-forward and fits into your lifestyle. I’m seeing Gen Z mixing in vintage and natural materials into their looks.”
I sat down with Haney to discuss why so many female founders came under attack, and how she plans to run Outdoor Voices differently this time around.
Looking back, why do you think so many female founders left their businesses? What do you make of the narrative of “the fall of the girlboss”?
There were a lot of dynamics at play. Firstly, the direct-to-consumer venture-funded model wasn’t a home run success. All of these sexy businesses and founders got a lot of capitalin my case, when I was quite young. The expectations to grow were massive. We were growing, but we were not a technology business. When you get inventory involved, growth becomes very challenging.
But challenges in business are normal. You face a hundred of them a day. It was unfortunate that the culture at the time was to take down women who had a lot of success.
What I’m most concerned about is the effects these massive takedowns of female founders have had on women’s appetite to start their own businesses, raise money, and go for big things. Right now, I want to model that a female founder can return. And that women should want to build big companies.
[Photo: Outdoor Voices]
As I’ve written before, many of the female founders who were the face of their brands experienced the most misogyny. And female founders who were behind the scenes often avoided the worst of these attacks. Unfortunately, I think this has made many women in business more camera-shy. How do you feel now, coming back?
It’s still very important for me to own the message. Even for this relaunch, there’s a video in which I’m narrating and breaking the news. In my experience, using PR and social media to amplify the story has been very helpful. And I’ve learned that it is important for me to be the first to speak.
I’m not first-time founder anymore. When I was 23, I was scared of allegations and articles that would end my career, or my life as I knew it. I keep coming back to the fact that this is par for the course if you’re going to build a business in the public eye.
I want to show that you can get through negative press. There are always going to be mistakes and unfortunate incidents in business, but we can solve them. That’s what I care about most.
Given how traumatic it was to leave the company, why did you choose to come back? Why not launch something entirely new?
I’m irrationally optimistic. It’s almost like childbirth; you kind of forget the bad things. I am very grateful for that first chapter. When I look back, I feel like 90% of building Outdoor Voices was awesome, and 10% was hard. But that’s life.
But also, there is still a lot of brand equity with Outdoor Voices. There’s an emotional connection to Outdoor Voices because of its mission, which is to move. We have a strong foundation, so I am eager to see how we can reactivate that.
[Photo: Outdoor Voices]
With this new chapter of Outdoor Voices, you’re integrating your other companiesJoggy and Try Your Best. Were you surprised that Consortium was so eager for you to bring all these businesses together?
All of these companies are synergistic. TYB has more than 200 of the top consumer brands on the platform. The tool is really working to help brands engage with their community and make them more valuable over time. So it’s a tool that was made for Outdoor Voices in many ways.
And for Joggy, it has a similar mission to maximize happiness through movement. So having a can in hand while you’re “doing things” just makes sense. It’s not that deep, but you’ll see how the brands continue to work together.
I think it’s very meaningful that Consortium really sees me, and came to me first. I believe in my ability to set a vision and execute against it. Being here feels right, and I think it’s a recipe for success.
