Unlike small businesses, startups aim to disrupt entire industries

Working at a startup isn't for everyone, and is often more fast-paced than a run-of-the-mill job

Some argue that ideal startup employees have to be better than the average worker at managing uncertainty, acting with an "ownership" mindset rather than being a cog in the machine, and pushing limits.

Startups are small, early-stage companies designed to grow fast

The definition of the word “startup” is complicated—so who better to define it than Y Combinator, perhaps the most well-known startup accelerator in the business? YC’s blog also explains how startups make money and build products.

Angel investors typically fund a startup at an earlier stage than venture capitalists

Angel investors and venture capitalists both invest in startups, but they differ in a few key ways. Angel investors typically invest earlier and in a smaller amount.

Startups fundraise in 'rounds' as they prove out their business and scale

When startups take on outside funding, those investments are divided into different "rounds." These rounds are catered to different stages in a startup's life cycle—a startup often needs different types of investors and amounts of funding at different stages of the business. For instance, a pre-seed investment round can include investments ranging from about $25K to $500K, whereas a Series D investment can be hundreds of millions of dollars.

75% of venture-backed startups fail

Startups are inherently risky ventures. Successful startups are relatively rare due to factors including cash flow drying up, marketing issues, and more.

Many startups in a variety of industries try to reframe themselves as 'tech companies'

Tech is still the dominant industry for startups—in part due to its low barriers to entry, high growth potential, investor preferences, and the proliferation of tech into a wide variety of industries. Sweetgreen, the fast-casual salad chain, for instance, has often referred to itself as a tech company.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

The term 'startup' can be traced back to a 1976 Forbes article

The magazine article included what’s widely considered the first recorded use of the word “startup.” The following year, the publication Business Week went on to use the term in a piece as well.

The 50-100-500 rule: when a startup is no longer a startup

According to startup expert Alex Wilhelm, a company cannot be considered a startup if it generates revenue exceeding $50M, employs more than 100 people, and has a valuation of $500M or more. However, Wilhelm modified the rule in 2018 to $100M in revenue, over 500 employees, and a valuation of $2.5B or more.

Many startup founders pull out-of-the-box stunts to get their businesses off the ground

Do you know Airbnb’s founders used cereal (yes, as in the breakfast food) to secure their initial round of funding? Or that PayPal’s founders once gave out free money to get people to sign up for the platform? These stories might be crazy, but they’re not uncommon.

Fintech relies on technology, not physical location, to serve financial customers

Most of the industry's prominent players were created since 2010, and are still in a growth phase. These institutions have broadly disrupted traditional banking and have pushed physical banking locations toward obsolescence.

The world’s top 20 cities for startups include San Francisco

In 2023, Singapore had the highest venture capital funding per capita in the world. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best place to have a startup. In 2023, PitchBook analyzed data to determine the world’s best startup city, including fundraising activity, venture capital deals, and exit value. San Francisco ranked as No. 1. See which other locales landed in the top 20 with this graphic.

Why private credit is attractive to both businesses and investors

While investors are attracted to the high rates, private credit is particularly attractive to mid-sized businesses that are too small for bank syndication and want faster, more flexible financing options.

Just because a big name company is going public doesn’t guarantee a successful stock

A reporter dove into how highly anticipated IPOs can still be risky, and why retail investors should be wary of investing right away.

Banks have increased small loan programs since 2018, upping competition for payday lenders

One of the reasons payday lending flourished for nearly two decades is that most banks charged high overdraft fees and didn't offer small loans. However, since 2018, banks have increased their small loan options. Supporters say this provides safer alternatives for consumers, as banks are subject to more regulatory measures and are less likely to allow consumers to keep rolling over loans.

The venture capital mindset is shaping the US into a 'portfolio state'

For decades, the US has operated as a low-regulation, private-sector-driven, globalized economy (also known as neoliberalism). In recent years, the Trump administration has taken direct stakes (rather than providing subsidies) in private companies with strategic products like semiconductors and rare earths. This paper argues the approach allows the US to capture the upside of growth.

When compared to stocks and bonds, alternative investments are often less regulated

Alternative investments are also often less liquid than traditional investments; they carry unique risk, return, and tax considerations.

Family CEOs tend to prioritize a non-economic goal: keeping the business in the family

Companies led by family CEOs tend to prioritize corporate social responsibility, but they also tend to invest less in innovation and international growth. They also have more debt on average.

The industries ripe for disruption by blockchain and cryptocurrencies

Blockchain—what is it good for? Lots of things, it would seem. Peruse this guide from The Motley Fool site and learn about different applications and use cases for blockchain technology. Financial exchanges, real estate, insurance, voting, an gambling are just a few of the 15 applications discussed here.

Airbnb started as a vacation rental startup and soon disrupted the hospitality industry

In this podcast episode, Airbnb gets the "How I Built This" treatment. The "How I Built This" host speaks with the entrepreneurs behind today's largest businesses about how they got started. In this episode, Airbnb's cofounder Joe Gebbia talks about how he built Airbnb.

The evolution of X, from startup to Musk-owned giant, reflects rapid tech shifts

Twitter began in 2006 as a side project and grew into a major global platform, widely used for news, activism, and political discourse. Despite mainstream success, it faced ongoing management turmoil, business struggles, and rising concerns over misinformation and user safety.

A startup is trying to create the diamond equivalent of the gold standard

It's called the Diamond Standard Co, and it uses an algorithm to assign standard values to a variety off small diamonds, grouping them together into individual coins. Historically, diamonds haven't been able to be classified as commodities or standardized like gold because they aren't uniform—factors such as clarity, cut, color, and carat size significantly influence the value of a diamond.

How the ocean is the new frontier of innovation

Space has been called the final frontier of innovation and investment for decades. Many innovators say the ocean is the new space, the vast majority of whose hidden depths remain obscure. In this podcast episode, business-minded experts discuss the opportunities founders see in the ocean, including seagrass restoration, underwater cable networks, and more.

Shorting is a high-risk and expensive investment strategy that hedge funds specialize in

Most investors buy stocks with the expectation that those stocks will be worth more tomorrow than they are today. Short selling, known as “shorting,” a stock is the opposite: The investor is betting the stock will drop in value.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The business models behind vaccines

Watch experts weigh in on the prevailing business models of vaccine production, including how the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the industry for good in this 20-minute video from Financial Times.

Listen to the pros and cons of owning a trademark as a small business owner

For many small business owners, it can be hard to decide when the time is right to file a trademark. This trademark lawyer says the decision often comes down to a product's branding, the size of the business, and how established the company is.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.