Many startups now have shoes-off policies

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.

Stanford’s ‘How to Start a Startup’ series

Stanford’s archive of lectures about creating a startup includes advice from Y Combinator notables such as former YC president and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and YC Cofounder Paul Graham.

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

Explore an up-to-date layoffs tracker with Layoffs.fyi, a tool that a startup founder created in 2020 to track tech and startup layoffs in real time.

The term 'startup'—which is typically used to describe private companies in their early stages of operation that focus on innovating new products or services to meet a market gap—can be traced back to a 1976 Forbes article.

'Startups' can be defined as small, early-stage companies that are designed to grow fast.

WeWork marketed itself on community

In a new era of work where many millennials wanted to work for themselves in offices with exposed brick, cold brew on tap, and casual dress codes, WeWork realized these entrepreneurs and startup workers didn’t want to do it alone.

The Y Combinator startup directory includes every company YC has funded

The startup accelerator has funded more than 5,000 companies over the years. This YC-specific search engine lets you look up any company to find out if it's a YC alum.

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.

When your 9-to-5 becomes optional

You've seen the headlines. But what would actually happen if everyone's 9-to-5 became optional? We dug into the data. Traced automation philosophy back thousands of years. Examined what happened when elevator operators disappeared. Looked at Alaska's 40-year experiment paying every citizen. And investigated the Philippines, where 89% of call center jobs are now at risk. What we found was more positive than bleak. This video explores three questions: What does the data actually show? What does history tell us about this kind of disruption? And what happens when work becomes optional?

Y Combinator changed the way startups around the world are built

Many of the philosophies that the leaders of Y Combinator have infused into the program’s portfolio companies have become the playbook for building the next big thing, such as its focus on founder personality and more.

Theranos and Pets.com are among some of the biggest startup failures ever

You might have heard of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes’s one-time blood testing company that landed the founder in prison for more than a decade after she was charged with fraud. The rest of the startups on a list of five of the biggest startup failures ever might not be as famous as Theranos, but they were met with similarly disastrous fates.

Stanford and Harvard are among the universities producing the most startup founders

Not all startup founders are created equal. This data visualization of the universities that produce the most startup founders is based on the number of alumni who have raised venture capital funding for their companies. That means these alums had to do much more than put "entrepreneur" in their LinkedIn bio to be considered startup founders.

Startup accelerators that include more training activities, such as pitch competitions, tend to have better long-term success rates

That's according to a new study from Wharton. Y-Combinator, perhaps the most famous startup accelerator, currently has 16 alumni companies trading on the public market. But not every entrepreneur who joins a startup accelerator makes it big.

Visualize where the first batch of founders from the famous startup accelerator Y Combinator are now.

Remote work offers a way for companies to save money on office space

Before the pandemic, real estate costs were between 3% to 9% of the typical S&P 500 company's budget (with the exception of companies in the energy industry). Eliminating some or all of a company's expensive office leases is one way that companies can save money by adopting work-from-home models. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Unlike small businesses, startups aim to disrupt entire industries

They also differ from small businesses in that startups have a higher level of risk, may take on outside funding from venture capital firms to boost growth, and more.

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.

See a list of 2024’s top 10 VC firms

A list of the top 10 VC firms, like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, ranked by assets under management shows how those two firms stack up against their competitors—and what kinds of companies those competitors invest in.

Some employers are using new technology to surveil remote workers

'Bossware' tools help employers make sure their remote workers aren't slacking off on the job, using surveillance technology to monitor employee computer activity and more.

Startup accelerators offer mentorship and seed funding in exchange for equity

Those programs, such as Y Combinator and Techstars, not only offer expert advice to founders, but also seed funding in exchange for equity. The goal is to help young startups learn from successful companies, making it more likely they attract venture capital.

See the world's largest fashion companies, from Nike to H&M, ranked by their CO2 emissions.

Smaller companies’ IPO information can be hard to track down

This calendar keeps you updated on the current IPO dates and pricing from different companies. You can search for upcoming and future IPO dates and see which companies withdrew from the IPO process.

See a real-time list of the most shorted stocks in the US

Every two weeks, the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange release the stocks with the most short positions. Some of the companies with the highest short positions as of early 2026 were Hims & Hers and Groupon.

Search this database of fashion and beauty brands to see how sustainable their business practices are.

See a database of large companies owned by private equity firms

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracked more than 200 companies owned by private equity with more than 7,000 employees. Companies on the list include J. Crew, Jersey Mike's Subs, Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

Many of the 2010s girlboss-era founders experienced a public fall from grace in 2020

In the 2010s, dozens of female founders were celebrated on the covers of business magazines like Inc. for their recent startup success, from Emily Weiss’s Glossier makeup brand to Steph Korey’s Away luggage company. But many of these companies were also the subject of large takedown articles around the year 2020.

Platforms like AngelList help angel investors find startups to fund

Angel investors leverage their high net worths to fund seed-stage startups. While they could see high returns, investing in such an early company is a risk.

Read a profile about a company that makes everyone's salaries public knowledge in an effort to curb the gender pay gap.

At social media management platform Buffer, employees have been able to see each other's salaries since the year 2013. This article explains how Buffer's decision to make these numbers public has impacted the social media company's workplace culture, internal wage growth, and more. Read the article here.

Some Nike shoes are actually making runners too fast

In 2018, Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge lowered the world marathon record to 2:01:39 in a pair of Nike Vaporflys. The unusually thick running shoes sparked controversy around the shoe regulations for professional runners.

Over 400 tech companies call Santa Barbara home

The city boasts a strong talent pipeline from UCSB, established tech companies like Sonos and Procore and dozens of startups. Search for any company in Santa Barbara with this regularly-updated directory.

Beanless 'coffee' is an eco-friendly alternative

As we consider the role of agriculture in climate change, many people are seeking alternatives to the most resource-hungry crops—coffee included. Are new synthetic alternatives the answer? Startups are exploring beanless “coffee” made in a variety of ways.

The top 100 companies in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley has pumped out some of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple, Meta, and Google. Thousands of companies operate in the area, ranging from valuations in the trillions to startups only worth thousands.

Watch Bill Nye discuss biomechanics and sustainability while shopping for sneakers

While exploring sneaker history and technology, Nye covers the science of structural design, air bubbles and materials, including algae foam. He once voiced a 20-minute guided run on the Nike Run Club app.

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.

The infrastructure, talent, and markets of Silicon Valley make the high-tech region ideal for startups

The number of startup employees, founders, and investors who have flocked to Silicon Valley over the years makes the California region ideal for networking in the tech space. Plus, California’s laws and specific rules around trade secrets help founders of fledgling businesses in Silicon Valley feel protected.

7 angel investors funded Google in its early days

Entrepreneur Shaan Puri shares how seven strangers acted as Google’s earliest angel investors. The first gave Google $100K without even putting his equity agreement in writing. The investors on “Shark Tank” use their personal funds to support startups, but they’re often more predatory about terms than typical angels.

More than $3.5B has been invested through AngelList

AngelList was created to connect startups and angel investors. It’s evolved since its 2010 founding and has been used by companies like Uber and OpenSea.

Global investing in startups hit a record $297B in Q1 2026

The level of startup funding around the world broke all previous records in Q1 2026 by a significant margin: Only $118B was raised in the previous quarter, and Q1's haul outpaced every full year of global VC activity before 2019. The increase was partly due to the enormous funding rounds from AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

How companies track you around the internet, explained

Being able to track how users behave on websites is a massive opportunity for companies to hone their products, target their ads, and more. Dozens of trackers are on the average website you visit, depending on how you deal with that site's cookie policy, and Google is the chief tracker of them all. Learn about these companies and what they are tracking with this informative blog visualization.

Why can't we just turn the empty offices into apartments?

As both rent prices and mortgage rates rise across the US, many companies have simultaneously continued operating hybrid or remote workforces post-pandemic. A podcast episode dives into why city dwellers aren't all living in their prepandemic break rooms just yet.

Nonprofit VC funds invest in startups, but have donors instead of LPs

Examples include Andreessen Horowitz’s TxO (Talent x Opportunity) Initiative and Fifth Star Funds, which allows donors to write “Friends & Family” checks for Black tech founders.

Many of the top companies in the US by market cap began as tech startups

Combined, the top seven companies by market cap in the US as of December 2024—Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla—were worth more than $16T at the time.

Startups follow a 'minimum viable product' strategy to determine demand

Michael Seibel, group partner for startup incubator Y Combinator, explains how to build a minimum viable product (also known as an MVP) for any startup idea. Using real companies that experienced the Y Combinator program as examples, he walks through how to determine an MVP feature set, how to present an MVP to potential investors, and more.

Andreessen Horowitz is among the most well-known venture capital firms

Also known as a16z, the firm has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Facebook, and Lyft since its founding in 2009. A podcast episode offers a deep dive into how the firm got started and became the industry disruptor it is today.

Sam Altman gave his first-ever startup pitch after dropping out of Stanford

He dropped out of Stanford to start Loopt, which sold in 2012 for $43.4M. You can watch his first-ever startup pitch in a video.

In 2021, Colorado became the first state in the US to require companies to publicly disclose salary ranges on job postings.

In 2021, Colorado became the first state in the US to require public disclosures of salary ranges. Flash forward a few years, and other places in America would get salary transparency laws, too, like Washington state, New York City, and California. But the salary transparency movement might have a downside: Some researchers believe it could hurt wage growth for workers over time. Watch this video to learn more.

Elon Musk is known to sleep under his desk during intense periods of work

The tech company founder and CEO has a wide variety of leadership principles he has kept consistent while building multiple different companies, including eschewing middle management and using the "idiot index," a formula he uses to identify manufacturing inefficiencies.

The impact of knowing your coworker’s salary

In 2025, five more states enacted pay transparency laws, requiring employers to disclose salaries in job postings. The goal? Reduce wage gaps and promote fairness. But despite these laws, 42% of job listings still hide pay details.

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.