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Large-language models (LLMs) have taken the world by storm, but theyre only one type of underlying AI model. An under-the-radar company, Fundamental, is set to bring a new type of enterprise AI model to the masses: large tabular models, or LTMswhich could have an even bigger impact for businesses. What are LTMs? A major difference between LLMs and LTMs is the type of data theyre able to synthesize and use. LLMs use unstructured datathink text, social media posts, emails, etc. LTMs, on the other hand, can extract information or insights from structured data, which could be contained in tables, for instance. Since many enterprises rely on structured data, often contained in spreadsheets, to run their operations, LTMs could have an immediate use case for many organizations. What does Fundamental do? San Francisco-based Fundamental, founded roughly 18 months ago by CEO Jeremy Fraenkel, has made a public LTM model, NEXUS, which will allow organizations to tap into that data to make predictions and forecasts. The data types in the mix could include customer behavior, information from various sensors, or myriad other thingsbut again, its all locked up in rows and columns. If you look at what LLMs have done with unstructured data, its been amazing. But it only covers 20% of [overall] data, Fraenkel says. Thats the opportunity were going after. Its potentially a big deal, because Fraenkel says that roughly 80% of enterprise data used by companies to make predictions and decisions is structuredmeaning that its on private servers in columns and rows, not really usable by LLMs. You can try things with LLMs, but theyre not really adapted to do it, Fraenkel says. They dont work well with the structured data. They can work with, say, 100,000 rows. But a bank might have tens of billions of rows of data, which can overwhelm the model. Fundamental’s aim is the ability to make better predictions using that structured data. Fundamental is also announcing that its closed a $225 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Oak HC/FT, and included participation from Battery Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Salesforce. And it’s already worked out some big partnerships, too. That includes one with Amazon Web Services, meaning AWS customers can buy and deploy NEXUS directly through AWS dashboard, and even make payments using Amazon credit, and its available today. Well be fully integrated with AWS, Fraenkel says. AWS customers will have access to Fundamentals model through their existing contracts, and any company can use it out of the box. Annie Lamont, the founder and managing partner at VC firm Oak HC/FT, which led Fundamentals Series A round, says that at first, she was a little skeptical, but that was soon replaced by excitement as to what the company could be capable of. Werent these LLM companies, with endless capital, going to do this? Theyre not. Theyre different, she says. We knew that LLMs are great with unstructured data, but theres a hole when it comes to structured datawe hadnt heard of anybody solving the problem. Nobody has commercialized [this type of AI model] for enterprise, so they have a good head start, she adds. As for whats ahead? Deployment, adoption, and proliferation, Fundamental hopes. And if LTMs take off as LLMs did, theres a very high ceiling: A few years from now, every Fortune 50 will need to rely on these models to make better business decisions, Fraenkel predicts.
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E-Commerce
Work has a way of waking up parts of us we thought wed outgrown. You can move forward professionally, take on more visible roles, and be widely regarded as capableand still find yourself unsettled by moments that seem, on the surface, fairly ordinary. A comment lingers longer than expected. A meeting leaves you tense for days. A role you worked hard to earn suddenly feels exposing rather than energizing. When that happens, its tempting to assume something is wrong now: that youre underprepared, out of your depth, or simply not built for this level of responsibility. But often, whats being stirred up has less to do with the present moment than with experiences that shaped you much earlier in your career. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/acupofambition_logo.jpg","headline":"A Cup of Ambition","description":"A biweekly newsletter for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career and being an involved parent, by Jessica Wilen. To learn more visit acupofambition.substack.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com","colorTheme":"salmon","redirectUrl":""}} The past isnt gone. Its patterned. Consider Anna, a senior public health leader who had built a reputation for sound judgment and steady leadership. When she accepted a high-profile role in government, it looked like a natural next step. Internally, it felt like a step backward. Almost immediately, she began doubting herself in ways that were unfamiliar. She grew anxious before meetings and unusually sensitive to tone and hierarchy. After speaking, she would replay her comments, convinced shed revealed some fundamental gap. What made this disorienting was that nothing objectively negative was happening. Her colleagues were engaged. Her supervisor was supportive. Her performance was strong. And yet her body reacted as if the stakes were much higher. Over time, a pattern became clear. Anna had trained in an elite graduate program where intimidation was framed as rigor. Public critique was common. Questions were treated as exposures. Authority felt unpredictable. At the time, she adapted in ways that made sense. She became meticulously prepared. She learned to anticipate criticism before it arrived. She made herself intellectually airtight. That strategy worked. She succeeded. She moved on. Except that some part of her never quite did. Her new role didnt create anxietyit activated an old internal map, one shaped in an environment where visibility carried real risk. Intellectually, she knew she belonged. Psychologically, she was responding to an earlier chapter. This is how the past often shows up at work: not as a memory, but as a reflex. Why some roles feel heavier than others Psychologists have long observed that unresolved experiences dont fade with time. They flatten. They remain emotionally vivid and are reactivated when something feels familiar enoughespecially situations involving evaluation, authority, or public exposure. In those moments, the brain doesnt reliably distinguish between then and now. The body responds as if the original stakes have returned. This helps explain why certain roles or environments feel disproportionately taxing. Its not always about the workload or the people involved. Sometimes its about what the role resemblesearlier contexts where the cost of being visible, wrong, or unprepared felt genuinely high. Professional life has a developmental history We tend to think of our professional selves as separate from our psychological development. But careers have formative periods, too. Early mentors, first failures, environments where we learned what was rewarded, punished, or ignoredthese experiences quietly shape how we lead, speak, take risks, and respond to authority years later. Most of us already accept this logic when it comes to parenting. We know that unexamined childhood experiences can spill into how we parenthow we discipline, soothe, or overcorrect. Professional life follows the same pattern. Unprocessed career experiences dont show up as stories we consciously tell ourselves. They show up as leadership styles, communication habits, and emotional reflexes that can feel confusing in hindsight. What effective leaders tend to notice Leaders who navigate this terrain well arent necessarily the most confident or fearless. Theyre often the most curious. They notice when a reaction feels bigger than the situation warrants. They pause before assuming the problem is a lack of skill or effort. Theyre willing to ask whether an old pattern is being activatedand whether it still fits the present context. That kind of reflection doesnt make leaders less decisive. If anything, it tends to make them steadier. Decisions become less reactive. Authority feels less charged. Visibility becomes tolerable rather than threatening. Letting the present have more say This isnt about fixing yourself or endlessly revisiting the past. Most high-performing professionals are already capable, conscientious, and deeply invested in doing their work well. Whats often missing isnt insight, but the space to notice whats being activated and to treat those reactions as information rather than directives. Unexamined professional experiences tend to resurface indirectly: as tension, hesitation, over-effort, or a familiar sense of bracing. Its easy to mistake those signals for evidence that something is wrong now, rather than residue from an earlier context. Over time, what tends to change isnt the absence of discomfort, but how much authority its given. The past doesnt disappear. It simply stops running the meeting. And for many people, thats what makes work feel steadier again. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/acupofambition_logo.jpg","headline":"A Cup of Ambition","description":"A biweekly newsletter for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career and being an involved parent, by Jessica Wilen. To learn more visit acupofambition.substack.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com","colorTheme":"salmon","redirectUrl":""}}
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E-Commerce
Bobs Discount Furniture, a Connecticut-based furniture retailer backed by Bain Capital, is putting it all on the table. The company is going public, with shares expected to begin trading on Thursday, February 5, after being priced at $17. The retailer raised $331 million in its initial public offering (IPO). Shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol BOBS. The IPO was originally announced last month. The company’s retail operations are expansiveit has more than 200 locations in 26 states as of September of last year, but the East Coast is its stronghold. Data from Renaissance Capital shows that 61% of its revenue came from stores in New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic. Retail headwinds and risk factors Bob’s listing will test investor appetite for traditional retail businesses as the space has faced headwinds. Many brick-and-mortar chains are pushing through a difficult environment and market conditions, particularly as consumers have struggled with increased prices in recent years. Home furnishings retailers, in particular, have had a rough run lately. Chains including Circle Furniture, American Signature, and At Home have all filed for bankruptcy, along with adjacent retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Big Lots. Another important detail: Bobs sources a lot of its furniture stock from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia, which are subject to (or could become further targeted by) the Trump administrations tariffs. It’s a risk factor that stands out in the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We may not be able to fully or substantially mitigate the impact of these or future tariffs, pass price increases on to our customers or secure adequate alternative sources of products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial performance,” the filing reads. The company has been performing well, however. It reported net revenue of more than $1.7 billion for the nine months ended September 28, 2025, which was an increase of more than 20% during that same period the year prior, per the filing. During that same period, net income rose 64%.
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E-Commerce
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