Before I was ever involved in the flower business, I jumped from job to job, trying to figure out where I belonged. I grew up in South Queens, New York, where the role models on my block were police officers and firemen who showed up when others needed them most. Naturally, I thought Id follow that path and become a cop.
That dream shifted into social work, a field that fed my heart but not my wallet. To make ends meet, I took on whatever work I could, flipping houses, tending bar, you name it. Through it all, I never forgot what my dad, a painting contractor, used to tell me: If youre old enough to walk, youre old enough to work.
On paper, none of this looked like the résumé of someone who would build a company still thriving 50 years later. But every odd job and hard-earned lesson taught me the secret to longevity: the relationships you build along the way.
Plant the seed in a flower shop
In 1976, I bought my first flower shop on Manhattans Upper East Side and poured all I had into the little business. It soon became clear to me that we were not just selling bouquets but also becoming part of peoples lives. While customers came in to buy flowers, they also sought restaurant advice and shared stories of love and loss, among many other things. Before long, the shop had become a neighborhood hub.
As I opened more locationsfirst one, then another, until there were about 40the lesson became even clearer: Success didnt come from the number of shops, it came from the trust and connection inside them.
But physical store growth could only take us so far. Thats when opportunity knocked in the form of a failing company that owned the 800 number that spelled the word FLOWERS. Everyone told me I was crazy to buy it. After all, they said, who would order flowers over the phone?
Turns out, a lot of people do! Before long, thousands were calling every day, sending flowers across town or across the country, and discovering a new way to stay connected with the people they loved no matter the distance.
Stay the course in a changing world
A few years later, my younger brother Chris convinced me the internet was going to change everything. He was right. We became one of the first e-commerce retailers, making it even more convenient for people to show up for each other.
Of course, none of this was a straight line. We tried dozens of technologies and abandoned most of them. But failure never discouraged us; it reminded us that learning and evolving were part of our DNA.
Sometimes, luck and relationships create a breakthrough. In 1988, for instance, I met Ted Turner, who gave me a shot to run ads on CNN. When the Gulf War broke out a couple of years later and advertisers pulled their spots, Ted asked me to leave ours on. Suddenly, 1-800-Flowers was everywhere. The war, brought to you by 1-800-Flowers, people joked.
Such exposure transformed our brand overnight. But it never would have happened if Ted hadnt taken an interest, if I hadnt been willing to take a risk, or if we hadnt forged a relationship.
Over the ensuing years, we embraced social media, mobile shopping, and conversational commerce. We were one of the first retailers on Facebook. When COVID hit, we paused traditional marketing and started writing directly to our community. That Sunday newsletter, Celebrations Pulse, has grown to more than 14 million subscribers. It isnt about selling flowers but rather speaks about resilience, rituals, and the relationships that matter most.
Enter the latest wave
Today, AI is the latest wave. I know it sparks both excitement and concern, but to me its simply the next tool to help us serve people better. Imagine sitting down to write a note to your mom on Mothers Day and not knowing how to put your feelings into words. Our AI tools, properly positioned, can help you express yourself in a way that feels authentic. Or think about a campaign designed around your needs, not ours. Its technology that serves humanity, not the other way around.
If theres one lesson from five decades of building 1-800-Flowers, its this: Longevity comes from evolving with every new wave while staying rooted in your values. You have to listen, learn, adapt, and keep experimenting. But at the heart of it all, you have to remember why: More meaningful relationships are not only good for business, they also make life better for everyone.
Jim McCann is founder of 1-800-Flowers.com.
La Nia, a climate pattern that can affect weather worldwide, has officially arrived.
La Nia is fueled by colder-than-normal Pacific ocean temperatures, which then affect the pattern of the Pacific jet steam. Its the cooler counter to El Nio, which involves warmer-than-normal ocean waters. Both are part of a weather system called the El Nio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
La Nia conditions emerged in September, the National Weather Services Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday. They’re expected to continue through the end of the year, and potentially until February 2026.
This La Nia is expected to remain weak, weather experts said, but it could still affect the winter, and even the hurricane season.
[Image: NOAA]
What does La Nia mean for winter weather?
During La Nia, cold waters push the Pacific jet stream northward, which creates a ripple effect on the atmosphere. That jet stream then dips back down, dividing the U.S.
That then brings dry, warmer-than-usual conditions to southern states. Northern states see colder-than-normal temperatures and wetter conditions, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
La Nia winters tend to bring a lot of snow to the Pacific Northwest, and even across the Great Lakes and into New England. Southern states, by contrast, tend to see below-average snowfalls.
[Image: NOAA]
La Nia can also mean a more severe Atlantic hurricane season. So far this year, five tropical storms and four hurricanes have formed over the Atlantic, a bit below expectations. (On average, a hurricane season sees 18 topical storms.)
But La Nia could bring more. “La Nia conditions are associated with more activity (double the amount) in November when compared to ENSO Neutral and especially when compared to Novembers with El Nio conditions, Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane seasonal forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told USA Today.
La Nia events can last one to three years, and a La Nia did span 2020 to 2023. The 2020 hurricane season saw the most tropical storms in the Atlantic ocean in any year on record, with 30 total.
A weak La Nia, and whats next
This La Nia is expected to be weak, experts say, but it could still alter our weather. A weak La Nia can also make it more difficult to predict that weather.
A weak La Nia would be less likely to result in conventional winter impacts, though predictable signals could still influence the forecast guidance, per the Climate Prediction Center.
2024 saw a weak La Nia winter, but it still gave us typical La Nia impacts. Most of the southern U.S. and northern Mexico were predicted to be and turned out to be drier than average, with record-dry conditions in southern Arizona and parts of New Mexico, NOAA meteorologist Nat Johnson wrote last spring. Wetter conditions were forecasted and did prevail over the northern part of the continent, particularly in Alaska and parts of the Pacific Northwest.
In some instances, though, the reality differed from forecasts, like when a ribbon of wetter-than-expected weather hit Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, and western Virginia. Despite these regional differences from expectations, Johnson wrote, the big picture was pretty La Nia-ish overall.
La Nia and El Nio arent always active. These events typically happen every two to seven years, on average. The ENSO cycle is a break in normal wind and water patterns, and weather experts say well likely see a transition to ENSO-neutral conditions this spring.
For many high-impact runners, it fels like Mom and Dad are fighting.
Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, is suing the fitness wearable giant Garmin over alleged patent infringement and breach of conduct. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 30 in a Colorado district court, alleges that Garmin is infringing on two patents segments and heatmaps and also broke a written agreement between the two companies, as first reported by DC Rainmaker.
For many athletes, Strava and Garmin go together like Oakley sunglasses and On Running shoes. A trend report published last year by Strava showed that Garmins Forerunner was among the most popular smartwatches for its users. If you didn’t track your run on Garmin and upload it to Strava, did it even happen?
Now with a number of big races coming up, including the Chicago and New York City marathons, athletes are not taking the recent news well.
When Garmin is going to stop uploading data to Strava on November 1st and thats literally the date of your marathon youve been training for a big PR for, one running influencer posted on TikTok.
“Have you see the news that Mom and Dad are fighting?” ultra-runner Andy Glaze said in another video. “I’m sitting here with my thousand-dollar watch and my $80 app and thinking, can we just get a family meeting and start getting along again?”
Already, some are taking sides and pledging their loyalties to one or the other, or joking about giving up on running altogether now that they may not be able to easily track their runs and post for their followings to see.
On Thursday, Matt Salazar, Stravas chief product officer, took to Reddit to defend the companys lawsuit. Setting the record straight he shared that Garmin was requiring their logo be displayed alongside all activity posts or they will cut off access permitting Garmin activities to be uploaded to Strava.
“We consider this blatant advertising. These new guidelines actively degrade your user experience on Strava,” Salazar wrote. The post, however, was met with widespread criticism, with the most upvoted replies calling Stravas stance hypocritical at best. So how do I get rid of the Strava logo when I want to share my data on social media? one Reddit user asked.
As a premium (paid) Strava member I want to be clear that Strava’s only of use to me if works with Garmin, another wrote. The moment Strava no longer syncs with Garmin connect is the last time I open Strava.
Fast Company has reached out to Garmin and Strava for comment.
So what happens now? Likely nothing. Its in neither companys interest to stop the steady flow of data from Garmin to Strava, as the online backlash to the news of the lawsuit has shown.
For those planning to simply switch to another smartwatch, like Suunto, in case the integration between the two companies does end, bad news: The Finnish brand has launched its own lawsuit against Garmin for patent infringement.
Maybe its a sign to go back to when every 5K didnt need to be posted on social media.
Skyscanner, a leading global travel booking site, released its 2026 Travel Trends report on Thursday. And the forecast for the year ahead includes trips down the supermarket aisle, literary-inspired itineraries, in-flight beauty routines, and some surprising trending destinations (looking at you, New Haven).
If travel in 2025 was about collective experiences, the new travel mindset for 2026 is clearits no longer solely about community connections, its about prioritizing travelers’ individual interests and passions.
The report also looked at the role AI is likely to play in travel search and planning in 2026: 54% of travelers said they felt confident using AI to plan their trips in 2025’s survey, up from 47% in 2024.
Skyscanner, a search engine for flights, car rentals, and hotels, based its global survey on data from 22,000 travelers. Below are 7 travel trends to look out for in 2026, according to the report.
Vending machines over fancy restaurants
For one, travelers are redefining food tourism beyond hard-to-get restaurant reservations. Instead, they’re visiting local supermarkets and convenience stores, trying Tokyo’s vending machines and 7-Eleven Slurpees, and picking up loaves of Icelands geothermal baked bread. 55% of U.S. travelers say they often, or always, visit local supermarkets when abroad.
“Glowmads”
In 2026, beauty travel will shape where people go and how they explore a destinationin the form of in-flight skincare routines, shopping for local beauty products at global destinations, and visiting retail shops from cult-favorites.
32% of travelers said they do beauty-related activities while traveling because they want to experience local beauty culture. In 2026, 32% of Gen Z plan to seek out beauty treatments and skincare stores while travelingcompared to just 8% of baby boomers.
A room with a mountain view
Travelers are heading up into the mountains year-round, not just for the ski season, in destinations such as the Dolomites, Nepal, and the Canadian Rockies. Some 80% of travelers polled said they are considering or planning a mountain escape for summer or fall next year. On Skyscanner’s platform, searches for room with a mountain view are up 103% year-over-year globally.
Finding friends overseas
People are longing for real-time connection with friends and in dating. 53% of travelers have gone, or considered going, overseas specifically to meet new people. Meanwhile, 42% said they are more open to meeting others when theyre traveling, and 29% said its because they feel freer to be themselves.
And those travelers are looking to connect on a deep level: 28% said they want to meet people from different cultures/backgrounds, 18% want to make meaningful friendships, and 14% want to explore new destinations with a local.
Literary travels
People are traveling for destination reading retreats, to destination bookshops and libraries, and to travel the route of a beloved literary character. 55% of travelers said they have booked, or would consider, a trip inspired by literature.
Multigenerational trips
With more 20-somethings living at home, Gen Z and millennials are embracing multigenerational travel. In the past two years, 52% of Gen Z adults have traveled with their parents, while 25% of millennials have traveled with their children and parents.
Hotel retreats
More travelers are choosing where to go based on hotels, making the destination about where they stay: 56% of travelers picked a destination based purely on accommodation, including 65% of Gen Z, 70% of millennials, and 38% of baby boomers.
Hottest destinations for 2026
Skyscanner also included a list of top 10 trending destinations for 2026, based on year-over-year increases in search:
Limon, Costa Rica: +289%
Jaipur, India: +107%
Bodrum, Turkey: +85%
Madeira, Portugal: +78%
Vail, Colorado: +78%
Zadar, Croatia: +72%
Olbia, Italy: +64%
New Haven, Connecticut: +39%
Bilbao, Spain: +37%
Mykonos, Greece: +32%
Lesser-known leisure destinations are capturing the attention of U.S. travelers in 2026, said Lourdes Losada, Skyscanner’s director of Americas. Vacationers turn their attention to seaside escapes and gateways to natural landscapes. Many of the trending destinations reflect a desire for unique scenery and memorable, luxurious experiences, from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to the mountain vistas of Colorado and beach clubs of Mykonos.
Ask the most bullish representatives of big AI companies, and theyll tell you that robotic colleagues and house staff are just around the corner. A massive market for robotic aids, powered by AI brains, could contribute huge sums to the bottom line of tech firms. Elon Musk predicted earlier this year that they could produce $30 trillion in revenue for his companies alone.
Picture what those robots are, and your minds eye likely conjures an image of a humanoid robot: Two arms, two legs, a head, all in human-like proportions. Thats what the biggest players in the sector like Tesla, Figure and Unitree see, too: Distinctly human-shaped cutting-edge hardware.
Yet the fixation on making robots look human could, perhaps, lead the tech sector into trouble, reckons Jonathan Aitken, a robotics researcher at the University of Sheffield. This makes them harder to design and build well, especially with the kind of robustness and efficiency required to perform tasks in the environment, he says.
Aitken points out that the human hand has some 27 degrees of freedom, making it a significantly complex system, which is both lightweight, yet powerful and with significant redundancy in movement. Teslas Optimus robot doesnt include all those degrees, paring it down instead to 22 different degrees of freedom. But it still relies on a huge number of parts, working in tandem.
Tendons are tricky
It’s little surprise, then, that The Information reports Tesla, which aimed to produce thousands of the robots by this summer, quietly scrapped that goal when they realized that making hands that can grip, move, and manipulate objects at the level of dexterity required, was too tricky.
The hand-based holdup is just the start of Teslas travails with its Optimus robots, as Fast Company has previously reported. But its not unique to Musks company.
Smaller connections like human-sized digits on humanoid robots that come into frequent use can also wear and tear more easily than larger joints, powered by actuators, the robotic equivalent of muscle: pumps that turn power into movement, and connected by planetary roller screws, which have been described as the expensive secret behind humanoid robots.
Tendons are tricky, says Scott Walter, one of the worlds leading experts on robot design and the chief technical advisor for Visual Components, a manufacturing production design company. They are likely having creep elongation over time and abrasion issues that hinder long term reliability, he says. It’s not just the weaker elements of the robotic joints, like tendons, that would face abrasion issues, he says. The regular rubbing can damage contact surfaces, made from aluminum.
But even the actuators at a humanoid hand-sized scale can be tiny and finicky in terms of maintenance. Only a handful of manufacturers, many of them based in China, can produce actuators at the scale and standard needed for such frequent use.
Better than human
It all begs the question of why tech firms are building robots that look like humanshands and allin the first place. Aitken says theres no good reason why a robot needs to resemble a human, adding that the better question is what a robot would look like if designed specifically for the tasks it was expected to carry out.
However, one way that humanoid robots may be an impovement on their more mundane-looking alternatives is in how they interact with the environment weve built up over centuries. The easiest robot to adapt into the world are humanoid robots because we built the world for us, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last year. Its not just in terms of what happens when robots get let loose in the world. Its also how they are trained to interact with that environment. We also have the most amount of data to train these robots than other types of robots because we have the same physique, said Huang, whose company is developing the GR00T operating system for robots. The humanoid form is ideal for general purpose robotics, especially as a drop-in replacement for human tasks, Walter says. But for special or narrow applications, different form factors make sense.
Others agree that humanoids arent always up to the job. The humanoid form factor is somewhat of a red herring, says Aaron Dollar, professor of mechanical engineering and computer science at Yale University. Yes, it makes for a more complex system that introduces a lot of additional challenges over simpler form-factors. But we haven’t figured out how to reliably do practical dexterous manipulation in simpler systems, either. Its unsurprising, then, that Tesla is struggling with Optimus.
Optics versus utility
Aitken suggests that the reason Musk has chosen a humanoid design has more to do with optics than utility. Undoubtedly Optimus is driven by the sci-fi view of what a humanoid robot is, given the sleek lines and frame. But there’s no need for it to look in this way as it’s just an aestheticarguably though, people may find it more acceptable in this form as it fits the public perception of a robot.
However, humanity has been more welcoming of change than we perhaps would think in the last century or more: Weve hopped into planes and cars that would have looked out of place or unusual and gotten used to it, just as we have to mobile checkouts and other odd-looking tech thats come our way. Non-humanoid robots could be just another example where we adapt.
It’s for that reasonthe belief that humanoid robots will soon be encroaching into our lives, and interacting with people, and need to seem non-threatening. Aitken points out that from an object manipulation, payload carrying capacity, and stability perspective a quadruped robot with an arm attached to the top of it may well be a better option than a humanoid. The question is whether this would seem more threatening, he says. I do think that people may well find the look of it a little more challenging.
In the midst of the current government shutdown, thousands of flights across the U.S. have been delayed or cancelled. With no clear end to the shutdown in sight, its time to revive a tried-and-true tool thats dependably delivered soul-crushing news to fliers for more than a decade: the Misery Map.
The Misery Map is a live tool that tracks weather across the U.S., tallies the number of delays and cancellations at every major airport in the country across 17 city hubs, and graphs popular flight destinations with the chances that upcoming flights will actually make it on time.
Operated by the flight tracking website Flight Aware, the map has been delivering a no-nonsense picture of how bad your day at the airport will be since 2013and if the last few days are anything to go by, you should probably just bookmark it now.
Why is air travel so bad right now?
During a government shutdown, air travel is one of the services to feel an immediate impact. Thats because, during a shutdown, air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, but not quite essential enough to receive a paycheckmeaning they have to keep showing up to work with only the promise of future retroactive pay.
Back in 2019 during a partial government shutdown, rampant air traffic control and TSA agent absences were one key factor that pressured the government to reopen. And now, just nine days into the current shutdown, those absences are already putting a strain on air travel infrastructure.
Over the last several days, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered a reduction in the number of flights in and out of Orlando International Airport in Florida and Newark Liberty International Airport due to low staffing. On the afternoon of October 6, Hollywood Burbank Airports control tower shut down entirely due to a lack of air controllers, forcing pilots to follow procedures typically used at small airports with no control tower.
According to data from Flight Aware, total daily flight delays and cancellations averaged around 5,000 between October 6 and October 8. The FAA told NBC News on October 8 that delays have been reported at airports in Boston; Burbank, California; Chicago; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia; and Phoenix. As long as the government shutdown continues, delays are expected to become more common.
How to use the Misery Map
For anyone with an upcoming flight, the current uncertain state of air travel means that an already stressful travel day might get exponentially worse. Thats where Misery Map comes in.
The beauty of the Misery Map is in its simplicity. According to this tool, a flight can only have two states of being: on time or misery. Flights in the on time category are noted in green, whereas “miserable” flights are recorded in red. Each of the maps 17 hubs includes a circular graph thats divided into red and green chunks based on how many of its flights have proceeded according to plan for that day. At a quick glance, the map dilutes the complicated flight landscape to help travelers understand their odds of a pain-free travel experience at any given time.
For those looking for more details, the Misery Map includes several other helpful features. By hovering over any given city, fliers can see how other flights have fared on popular routes that day. Routes indicated in green have seen a majority of on-time flights, while those in red have already seen delays.
A play button in the lower left side of the screen even lets users watch a mutli-day timelapse of the tracker to understand how flight conditions have evolved based on the day, time, and weather conditions. Travelers can also search for a specific departing flight for more details on its flight path and average delay times.
We can all agree that flight delays are miserablebut at least there’s a way to see that you’re not the only one dealing with travel woes. After all, misery loves company.
[Screenshot: FlightAware]
Flight delays and disruptions at U.S. airports have persisted for a fourth consecutive day due to staffing issues stemming from the government shutdown, which began on October 1.
Air traffic controllers are expected to work without pay during the shutdown. As federal employees begin to feel the financial impact of the shutdown, many are calling out of work. And as the shutdown continues, many airports are struggling with growing staffing issues.
Here’s what you need to knowespecially if you’re flying soon.
Over 16,000 flights have been delayed since Monday
According to FlightAware, which tracks flight delays, disruptions, and cancellations, as of late Thursday morning, more than 16,000 flights flying into, within, or out of the U.S. have been delayed since Monday, October 6.
On Monday, October 6,154 flights were delayed and 84 were canceled.
On Tuesday, October 7, 3,849 flights were delayed and 70 were canceled.
On Wednesday, October 8, 4,608 flights were delayed and 60 were canceled.
As of 11:50 a.m. ET today, 1,698 flights flying into, within, or out of the U.S. have been delayed, and 55 flights were canceled.
Temporary ground delays have been issued to slow air traffic
The FAA has issued temporary ground delays at several airports this week. Some of the impacted airports include Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Nashville International Airport (BNA), and Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).
On Monday, the FAA issued a temporary ground stop at Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR). Reports indicate that the airport was unstaffed for several hours.
An October 9 FAA operational plan notes the following airports may experience possible ground delays today:
Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport (FLL)
LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
Miami International Airport (MIA)
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Orlando International Airport (MCO)
Whats causing continued flight delays?
Federal employees working at airports, including air traffic controllers and TSA agents, are considered essential workers. That means they must keep working without pay during the government shutdown.
Airports are experiencing staffing issues as more employees call out sick. Flight disruptions are expected to continue throughout the shutdown.
Heres what to do if youre flying soon
The impact of flight delays may be more noticeable this weekend.
There will likely be an increase in air travel as Monday is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and some people may have off work and choose to travel during the long weekend.
If you have a flight scheduled in the coming days, you may face disruptions. Remember to be kind to airport and airline employees. They have no control over flight delays and cancellations.
It’s good practice to check your flight status before heading to the airport; you can check the status of your flight on your airline’s website or mobile app.
Travelers can also check the FAA’s National Airspace System Status website for information regarding widespread delays at specific airports.
FlightAware also publishes its MiseryMap, which uses recent data to compare flight delays and cancellations vs. on-time flights at major airports nationwide.
If your flight is canceled or if a flight delay causes you to miss a connection, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines have policies that state they’ll rebook you on the next available flight.
Fast Company reached out to American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines for comment on the flight delays. We’ll update this story if we receive replies.
When a winter storm took out the grid across Texas in 2021, Matt Popovits and his family didnt have power for four days, and didnt have heat in the record cold. We spent the night huddled up lying on the floor in our living room next to our gas fireplace, just desperately trying to stay warm, he says. And I remember looking at my wife and saying, We can never let this happen again.
They started researching whole-house generators, but the cost, at around $15,000, was prohibitive. Last year, another storm took out the familys power again for several days. They relied on a small generator, but it didnt work well. Now theyve turned to a new solution: a battery backup system that they didnt have to buy.
The system was installed by Base Power, a Texas-based startup thats trying to reinvent the power company. The two-year-old companywhich announced this week that it raised $1 billion in a Series C round of funding, from sources like Addition, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, an othersowns a fleet of large batteries that it installs at homesboth to help homeowners and to provide critical support for the electric grid.
[Photo: Base]
A new type of power company
Instead of buying the batteries, homeowners pay an installation fee and a $19 monthly rental fee. Then they also choose Base Power as their electric company. The total monthly cost is often less than customers previously paid on their utility bill.
Base Power can charge low fees because of the second part of its business model: it uses the batteries to sell power to the grid when utilities need it. The startups software tracks electricity prices, charging the batteries when the cost of power is low, and selling it back for a profit that it can share with homeowners.
Base CEO Zach_Dell [Photo: Base]
We don’t sell batteries, we sell power, says Base Power founder Zach Dell. We install the battery on your home. We own it. We operate it. When the grid’s up and running, we use it to support the grid. When the grid’s down, you get it to back up your home. The customer gets all the benefits of the power backup without the high upfront cost. And we get to deploy this really efficient asset class of distributed batteries.
Dell started thinking about the need for utilities to change while working in private equity at Blackstone and as an investor at the VC firm Thrive Capital. I identified that there was a paradigm shift happening in the industry, he says. The last five decades of energy have been defined by coal and natural gas. And the next five decades are likely to be defined by solar and storage.
As an investor, he watched tech companies go after slow-moving industries and quickly take market share. It occurred to me that the energy industry was really the last great part of the economy that had gone undisrupted, Dell says. If you look at electric utilities and the businesses in that category, theyre big, and not necessarily innovative, and not focused on technology and R&D. So the idea was okay, lets go build the category-defining, technology-driven energy company around this paradigm shift.
[Photo: Base]
A different approach to battery storage
Most batteries on the grid today are utility-scalepacked in shipping containers in fields that often sit next to a solar or wind farm. Like renewable projects, they face long delays waiting for interconnection approval. Because theyre typically far from the cities that need the power, they also face challenges with congestion on the grids outdated wires.
Distributed batteries allow you to circumvent the two constraints, says Dell. You dont have to wait in the interconnection queue, because you deploy the batteries where interconnection already exists. And the deployment are co-located with the load, so you dont have those transmission constraints.
Other home batteries already exist, but the company wanted to offer something different. First, most home batteries are out of reach for many consumers. The home batteries on the market today are very expensive, very premium, he says. Theyre literally made of glass. They cost $20,000 and they look like an iPhone strapped to the wall.
Instead of a premium product, the company decided to offer something utilitarian. Unlike other sleek home batteries, it looks more like an air conditioning unit. At 25 kilowatt-hours of storage, it has around twice as much power as some other home batteries, enough to fully power a house.
Some homeowners, like the Popovits family, get two units. While they’ve only had it installed for the month and the power hasn’t gone out in the neighborhood yet, they’ve run the system in test mode. “It really does run everything,” Popvits says. “It runs your air conditioner, which is a really big deal.”
Over the year and a half that the company has been installing the units, Dell says that other customers have used the batteries in thousands of outages. In some parts of Texas, it’s common for the power to go out once or twice a month.
[Photo: Base]
A fast way to supply power to the grid
Using batteries as virtual power plants is increasingly seen as a critical tool to support electric grids. In California, two large utilities recently ran a massive test with customers who signed up to let their Tesla Powerwalls and Sunrun batteries send power to the grid; together, thousands of homes delivered 535 megawatts of electricity as proof of how the system could work when the grid is under strain.
In some cases, utilities are helping pay for distributed batteries. California’s PG&E offers some customers in wildfire zones free or low-cost batteries. In Minnesota, Xcel Energy plans to deploy a network of large batteries at businesses (the companies will be paid for the use of their space, but won’t use the power directly).
Some other companies also try to make it as easy as possible for customers to get home battery systems. In Texas, Sonnen and Solrite offer no-money-down batteries, though customers have to commit to 25 years; Base Power has a three-year contract.
Base Power’s low-friction approach could help virtual power plants grow much more quicklyand add capacity to the grid far faster than building standard solar farms or gas power plants. The company is now making plans to expand outside of Texas.
“We are in an unprecedented time of electricity demand, and we need more supply,” Dell says. The company can add supply to the grid faster and more cost-effectively than any other approach, he argues. “We’re deploying hundreds of megawatts a quarter now,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll be doing hundreds of megawatts a month.” We need to rise to the occasion and meet this massive demand.”
So far, the company has installed batteries in around 5,000 homes, and has more demand from homeowners than it can currently meet. “When I did my homework and I discovered that I could lower my energy bills and have power generation when I was in an outage or a storm, it just kind of seemed like a no-brainer for me,” says Popovits, who learned about the company from a friend who also has a system installed. “The lights stay on, my bills go down, and my overall cost to get whole-house generation is just really, really small.”
There are many reasons why someone may have a second job or some kind of side gig when theyre working for you. They may have financial needs that are greater than what you can pay. They may have expertise that enables them to consult or engage with other businesses. They may have a passion project or startup that theyre nurturing while they work for you.
Whatever it is that is driving your employees, their other line of work can affect their performance for you. It is valuable to understand what your team members are doing and the impact it is having on their responsibilities for you.
Some workplaces (like mine) require explicit declarations of conflicts of interest that include any outside employment. Even if that is not a requirement, you may want to encourage members of your team to keep you apprised of their other commitments (including their work with nonprofits that might burnish the image of your organization).
Ultimately, it is important to know three things about any outside employment of your team members: the drawbacks, the synergies, and the potential for an exit.
The real and perceived drawbacks
When you find out that someone working for you has another job as well, that can be disconcerting. It may even feel like a betrayal. It is important to separate the actual drawbacks of this arrangement from your feelings.
Clearly, one problem with an employee who has a second job is that they may not be spending enough time on the primary work you need them to do. If your organization has a formal policy around the number of hours an employee is working, then you need to ensure that they are actually putting in the time. This can be particularly difficult to do when your workforce is remote. But, if you have concerns about the hours and effort, then have a conversation with your employee and and develop a system for accountability.
Another significant problem is the potential for conflicts of interest. For one thing, your employee may be taking information or client engagement and siphoning it off to their other venture. For another, they may want to bias their work in directions that benefit their other venture. It is important to create clear documentation of the way your team is making decisions and to require that employees be transparent about their other jobs to ensure that decisions are not being made in ways that benefit the secondary engagement of your employees.
That said, you also dont want to penalize your employees from doing other work. You dont know their personal situation, and an extra income may be crucial for their survival. In addition, the modern workforce gives employees no reason to believe that the organization will be looking out for them if times get difficult. So, employees should not be punished for looking out for themselves. Be sympathetic to your employees’ needs and ambitions rather than taking it as a person affront.
The synergies
A less obvious aspect of secondary employment is that it may benefit the organization or your team members performance. Some industries recognize this explicitly. For example, I have been a faculty member for over three decades. Universities often encourage their faculty to consult or do work for other companies. Often, faculty can work up to one day a week for an outside entity. At times, faculty members have split appointments in which they have named roles at companies as well as faculty roles at the university.
These arrangements allow knowledge and expertise developed at the university to benefit the broader community, bring prestige to the university, and can feed back positively on a faculty members research. These outside engagements also create opportunities for students and solidify connections between the university and prospective employers of graduates.
Similarly, your employees are developing additional skills in their secondary work. These skills may help them to bring new perspectives to the work they are doing for you. You are prone to think of the ways that employees are siphoning time and ideas from their primary employment to second jobs. Dont forget that the flow of knowledge and skills can go in the other direction as well.
Is the second job an off-ramp?
Another reason to track the other jobs and side-gigs of employees is that they may reflect a passion project of the employee that they are hoping will become a full-time source of income and fulfillment. Knowing your team members goals can help you to plan for the future. You want to hold onto your productive employees, but the more advance warning you can get of an employees departure, the more that you can do good succession planning.
Indeed, if you suspect that one of your supervisees is working to create an alternative career path, engage them in conversation. Support their efforts in exchange for getting a longer runway to find their replacement. Having a few months before a key employee departs enables you to hire someone new and let your new team member get trained by the old one.
In addition, your employees side gigs are often in the same neighborhood as the business youre in. Treating your employees well gives you the best possible relationship to the new firm they join or create. You never know when that positive relationship can be turned into a mutually beneficial collaboration in the future. Give your support without expectation of a return, but recognize that your good deeds may very well pay off down the line.
Around 70,000 Discord users may have had images of their government IDs stolen, according to an update from the company. Last week, the popular chat platform notified users that the third-party vendor the platform uses for customer service was hacked, affecting Discord users who had interacted with the apps customer support or trust and safety teams.
Discord initially announced last week that an unauthorized group gained access to a small number of government ID images. That includes images of sensitive documents like drivers licenses, passports, and potentially even selfies of people holding those documentsa common way to verify identity for online accounts.
On Wednesday, the company updated its blog post, estimating the number of affected users to be 70,000. While that is a small sliver of the chat apps 200 million monthly users, its still a large swath of people who now have very good reason to be worried about identity theft.
Beyond government ID images, the hackers may have gained access to Discord users names, usernames, emails, contact information, the last four digits of credit cards linked to accounts, IP addresses, and messages with customer service agents. Discord emphasized that full credit card numbers and CCV codes were not compromised, nor were passwords or messages on Discord that werent with its third-party customer support provider.
As soon as we became aware of this attack, we took immediate steps to address the situation, Discord said in a newly updated blog post. This included revoking the customer support providers access to our ticketing system, launching an internal investigation, engaging a leading computer forensics firm to support our investigation and remediation efforts, and engaging law enforcement.
The hacking group stole the documents explicitly in an effort to extort a financial ransom, Discord disclosed in its blog post.
Age verification comes with its own risks
Discord emphasizes that this wasnt a breach of its own systems and servers, but rather one that succeeded in compromising an external vendor the company uses. That distinction is important: Discord hosts a massive trove of chat logs and private conversations for its hundreds of millions of monthly active users.
This hack is still very bad news, particularly given the nature of the images that were stolenthe very images people rely on to establish the legitimacy of accounts around the web. Still, Discord users should know that server logs and private chats werent part of this hack. Discord says that it is in the process of contacting users affected by the ID document breach with an email from noreply@discord.com.
Discord did not name the vendor in its public statements, but signs and initial reports seem to point to Zendesk, which handles customer support for the platform. In a statement to Fast Company, Zendesk said that its investigation indicates this incident did not arise from a vulnerability within Zendesk’s platform and that its own systems were not compromised. Discord also uses the age verification provider k-ID for automated facial age estimation and identity document verification, though the company states that neither company permanently stores ID documents or the video selfies users upload to verify their age.
The hack is the latest example of the risks companies take when they collect sensitive personal data from users. As age verification laws spread, companies like Discord are increasingly requiring users to upload their passports and drivers licenses to prove that they are adults.
In July, Discord announced that it would make changes to comply with the U.K.s newly enacted Online Safety Act. That law requires platforms to shield young people from pornography and content promoting self-harm, eating disorders, or suicide through the implementation of age gates. While the Online Safety Act and similar U.S. state-specific age verification laws may have noble goals, they have faced pushback from critics concerned over their efficacy, privacy implications, and the broader risk of letting governments decide what people are allowed to see online.
