Vision boards are now getting the AI treatment.
From Lucky Girl Syndrome to the whisper method, the idea of manifesting your dream life into existence has been trending on social media for some time. Now, with the rise of generative AI tools, people are creating personalized life trailers with the help of platforms like Freepik, Runway, and ChatGPT in order to bring those dreams to life in entirely new ways.
For one 24-year-old The New York Times recently interviewed, her digital vision boardcreated using Freepikincluded flying on a private plane, giving a keynote address to a packed room, and getting a notification on her computer that she reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, the newspaper reported.
Instead of writing down her wishes in a journal or cutting out aspirational images from magazines and Pinterest boards, she was able to place an avatar of herself directly into her ideal future using artificial intelligence technology.
Shes not alone. I accidentally manifested a trip to Paris with AI, one TikTok creator claimed, showing AI-generated images of herself in front of the Eiffel Tower, followed by a text from her boyfriend with a booking confirmation. If you are not using AI to read you a play-by-play of your future, you are using it wrong, another user posted. I am literally giddy and kicking my feet right now.
@sabi.manifests Was playing with an AI to visualise myself in Paris, didnt tell a soul about it – and my man sends me this.. HOW? #lawofattraction #manifestation #howtomanifest Jet2 Advert – A7-BBH | MAN
Some TikTokers have shared prompts theyve used to clarify the life they want to manifest. Others suggest writing down those visions, turning them into a podcast using ChatGPT or Google AI, and listening to it on repeat throughout the day.
@sophie.riichards Go manifest your dream life queens! Who says AI is bad now ey? #chatgpt #manifesting #manifestyourdreamlife #visionboard #goals #howtomanifest original sound – Sophie Richards
As AI becomes more embedded in daily life, its no surprise that people are finding inventive ways to maximize these tools. Earlier this year, a Harvard Business Review study found organizing my life and finding purpose were the second- and third-most popular uses for generative AIjust behind therapy/companionship.
At the same time, with much of the world feeling uncertain, manifestation content has seen a surge. After months of bleak headlines, rising unemployment, and ongoing economic instability, who wouldnt want to watch a personalized highlight reel of themselves landing their dream job or stepping into the life theyve always envisioned?
Just dont get so caught up in replaying your life trailer that you forget to actually live it.
U.S. President Donald Trump raised the tariffs on Canadian goods to 35% last week, but a key exemption for Canada and Mexico shields the vast majority of goods from the punishing duties.Goods that comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term are excluded from the tariffs.Here’s a look at Trump’s tariffs on the two countries and their exemptions:
Most Canadian exports reaching the US duty free
Canada’s central bank says 100% of energy exports and 95% of other exports are compliant with the trade pact, known as USMCA. The Royal Bank estimated that almost 90% of Canadian exports appear to have accessed the U.S. market duty free in April.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the commitment of the U.S. to the core of USMCA, reaffirmed again last week, means the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods remains one of its lowest, and over 85% of Canada-U.S. trade continues to be tariff free.“Canada is better off than any of the trading partners right now because the Americans appear to be relying as a default on USMCA,” said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association. “That gives them the tough tariff headline but also allows them the access to the stuff they need from us. Because of that we’re in a relative better position.”Canadian and Mexican companies can claim preferential treatment under the USMCA based on where the products are made.“The headline news is 35% tariffs but it’s somewhat targeted,” said John Manley, Canada’s former industry minister, finance minister, foreign affairs minister and deputy prime minister.Manley said Canada is doing okay despite the economic uncertainty.“There is a lot of resilience I’d say. The Canadian economy has done relatively well, better than most of us expected, and remember that there is no tariffs on any of our energy exports,” he said.
25% tariffs on Mexican goods target a small slice of trade
Trump said last week he would enter into a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico, also one of America’s largest trading partners. The current 25% tariff rates are staying in place, down from the 30% he had threatened earlier.But that 25% only applies to the fraction of Mexico’s trade with the U.S. that isn’t covered by the USMCA. Shortly after speaking with Trump on Thursday, President Claudia Sheinbaum said that within the “new commercial world order,” Mexico was still the best positioned nation because of the free trade agreement.“What’s within (USMCA) has no tariff, with the exception of what we already know: autos, steel and aluminum; and what is outside the treaty has 25%,” Sheinbaum said.But Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard pointed out that under the USMCA no tariffs were paid on more than 84% of Mexico’s trade with the United States.Most imports from Canada and Mexico are still protected by the USMCA, but the deal is up for review next year. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month: “I think the president is absolutely going to renegotiate USMCA.”Preserving the free trade pact will be critical for Canada and Mexico.“It would be an incredible disruption to lose it especially if you lost it to the levels of tariffs Trump is imposing, 30%, 25% or even 20%. You can absorb a single digit tariff level across the board but you can’t adjust that kind of increase,” Manley said.More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. while more than 80% of Mexico’s exports go there.Manley said that depending on how the trade war plays out the risk to the USMCA is very high. “Uncertainty in business is the enemy of decision making,” he said.
Charging for access
Carney said in a series of recent agreements with other countries that America is, in effect, charging for access to its economy.Manley said the investment thesis for Canada is pretty straightforward as Canada is rich in natural resources, has a skilled labor force, is open to immigration and has unfettered access to the U.S. market, the largest economy in the world.“If that latter point is no longer the case, we’ve still got all the others, but we’ve got to really redevelop the investment thesis for attracting investment to Canada,” Manley said.Trump has some sector specific tariffs, known as 232 tariffs, that are having an impact. There is a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum imports and a 25% tariff on auto imports, though there is a carve-out for Canadian and Mexican made cars.“Despite our advantages, certain major Canadian industries are being severely impacted by U.S. trade actions. These strategic sectors include autos, steel, aluminum, copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and of course, softwood lumber,” Carney said on Tuesday as he announced an aid package for the lumber industry as the U.S, ratches up duties.“It is clear we cannot count or fully rely on what has been our most valued trading relationship for our prosperity,” he added.
Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Rob Gillies, Associated Press
One of the worlds newest so-called meme stocks is having a very bad day today. Shares in Opendoor Technologies (Nasdaq: OPEN) are currently slumping more than 20% in premarket trading. Heres what you need to know.
Opendoor reports its Q2 2025 results
Yesterday, Opendoor announced second-quarter results for its fiscal 2025. Heres what Opendoor reported:
Revenue of $1.6 billion
Gross profit of $128 million
Net loss of $29 million
The company also revealed that it had an inventory balance of 4,538 homes with a total value of $1.5 billion. Additionally, it said that during the quarter, it purchased 1,757 homes, which was down 51% from the previous quarter and down 63% from the same quarter a year earlier.
For its current Q3, Opendoor issued revenue guidance of $800 million to $875 million.
But unfortunately for the companys shareholders, after Opendoor announced its results, the stock plummeted over 20%.
When are OPEN shares down so much?
There are a few reasons why OPEN shares have fallen so much since the company announced its results yesterday.
The first is that the company reported a disappointing revenue guidance for the current Q3. It said it expects revenue of $800 million to $875 million. As noted by CNBC, that would represent a 36% decline from the same period a year ago.
This revenue decline is partly expected due to the current challenging home-buying environment. High interest rates, which in turn make mortgage rates high, deter home buyers, resulting in decreased home sales.
Another possible factor in Opendoors stock price slump today is that the company did not give much detailed information on its evolving business model, which it has dubbed Product to Platform.
This new model will see Opendoor moving from a single product to a distributed platform with multiple offerings delivered through agents, according to comments from CEO Carrie A. Wheeler on the companys earnings call.
When a company radically changes its business model, it introduces uncertaintyand uncertainty makes investors nervous.
A third possible reason why OPEN stock is falling so much today is much simpler: It’s a meme stock, and meme stocks are highly volatile.
Yesterday’s earnings announcement was the first since OPEN stock went stratospheric last month, and the lackluster results may be prompting some investors who got in at the right time to take profits.
OPEN stocks wild summer
Over the past month, Opendoors stock has been on a wild ride. Starting around mid-July, the stock surged in popularity within the meme stock community. Shares went from being worth around 75 cents each to surging to over $3.20 per share in little more than a week.
As of yesterdays close, OPEN shares had surged more than 313% in the past month.
However, as todays 20% share price drop shows, when it comes to meme stocks, what goes up rapidly can come down just as rapidly.
Cyberattacks are on the rise, and artificial intelligence is making it easier for bad actors to scam individuals and businesses alike. In response, Visa is launching a new initiative that offers businesses tailored data to better combat cybercrime.
Today, August 6, Visa unveils its new Cybersecurity Advisory Practice, providing customers and businesses with access to advanced tools designed to protect against the growing threat of cybercrime.
Over the past year, the digital payments giant says it has invested billions in cybersecurity infrastructure and enhanced its global payments network by deploying generative AI to detect and block fraud. With its latest initiative, Visa plans to share those capabilities directly with clients to address mounting concerns around information security in the AI era. The new practice will leverage Visas internal fraud-fighting insights and adapt them to meet the specific needs of each business.
Utilizing AI and drawing from a team of 2,000 consultants, data scientists, and product experts, Visa aims to help clients defend against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
Visas Cybersecurity Advisory Practice emerged from what Carl Rutstein, the companys global head of advisory services, describes as a clear need from clients for deeper, more proactive support amid a rapidly evolving threat landscape. As online commerce grows, so does cybercrime. There has been a nearly 300% increase in internet fraud just over the last few years, he tells Fast Company, prompting businesses to seek new ways to proactively identify, evaluate, and obviously mitigate emerging cyber threats.
According to cybersecurity and compliance firm VikingCloud, cybercrime could cost businesses as much as $10.5 trillion by years end, and up to $15.63 trillion by 2029.
The FBI reported that in 2024 the top three internet crimes were phishing/spoofing, extortion, and personal data breaches. Cybercriminals are increasingly turning to AI, using it to crack passwords, manipulate or poison data, and create deepfakes.
Rutstein says fraud has escalated as bad actors adopt AI to exploit the financial system. Visa, he notes, blocked $14 million in presumed fraud in 2024a 30% increase over 2023.
The Cybersecurity Advisory Practice is intended to build on Visas current payment ecosystem, offering services such as dark web threat detection, vulnerability testing, enumeration defense, employee training, and cybersecurity maturity assessments.
Other digital payments providers are also responding to the growing threat. Just last month, Mastercard announced its Security Solutions Program, which includes financial investments in startups that are developing cybersecurity and fraud prevention technologies.
Much like Mastercards strategy of investing in next-gen security, Visa says its approach focuses on advising businesses of all sizes directly, emphasizing a proactive, rather than reactive, stance.
We built it to just help our clients, Rutstein said. We do exactly what you would expect an advisory firm connected to a network to be doing, and therefore these are resources and capabilities that are available.
Two of the tech industrys AI hardware companies are seeing their share prices drop after they reported their most recent quarterly earnings after the closing bell yesterday.
The stock prices of Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD) are down significantly over investor fears that artificial intelligence-related growth is lagging expectations. Heres what you need to know.
Supermicro misses expectations
Shares in Super Micro Computer (aka Supermicro) are trading sharply lower in premarket as of the time of this writing. Currently, SMCI shares are down more than 16.2% to $47.95. The reason for this dramatic stock price drop has everything to do with the companys just-announced Q4 2025 results.
The server maker announced Q4 net sales of $5.8 billion, which was up significantly from the $4.6 billion it posted in Q3. Net income for the quarter was $195 million, which was also up from Q3, when the company posted $109 million in net income. Finally, its Q4 earnings per share (EPS) were 41 cents, up from 31 cents in Q3.
So if Supermicro’s results were up over the last quarter, why is the stock falling?
Its a combination of expectations and sales that fall short of past quarters. While Supermicro posted net income of $195 millionaround $86 million more than the previous quarterthat was down from its $297 million in net income during the same quarter a year earlier.
As noted by CNBC, the year-over-year Q4 net income decline is partially attributable to Supermicro’s costs from President Trumps tariffs. However, costs arent the only thing bugging Super Micro Computer investors. The company’s results also didnt meet investor expectations.
LSEG consensus estimates for the quarter were an EPS of 44 cents, three cents short of what Supermicro delivered. Investors also expected revenue of $5.89 billionmore than the $5.76 billion that Supermicro reported.
As Reuters notes, many attribute the companys lower-than-estimated revenue to Supermicro losing out on AI server sales to its bigger competitors, including Dell and HP.
Finally, Super Micro Computer also disappointed investors by forecasting full-year fiscal 2026 net sales to total at least $33 billion. Previously, the company had said it expected net sales of around $40 billion in 2026.
All this has led to growth fears: While the AI revolution may mean high demand for servers that are needed for artificial intelligence, Supermicro isnt benefiting from that demand as much as hoped.
AMD missed expectations, too
AI chipmaker AMD is also facing stock price declines this morningthough not as severe as Super Micros.
The company posted its Q2 2025 results after the bell yesterday, and since then its shares are down nearly 7% to $162.16 in premarket trading as of the time of this writing.
AMD posted a Q2 revenue of $7.7 billion and net income of $781 million. Its earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter was 48 cents.
However, as with Supermicro, AMDs EPS was below expectations. As noted by CNBC, the LSEG consensus was that AMD would report an EPS of 49 cents.
The company also suffered hundreds of millions in lost sales after the Trump administration banned sales of its MI308 chips to China. However, this ban may soon be reversed.
As Reuters notes, AMD did post a 14% revenue rise in its important data center unit, yet this sum of $3.2 billion was also slightly below expectations, suggesting investors fear that AMD isnt benefiting to the maximum degree that it can from the AI chip boom.
Stock price history and future challenges
Before todays premarket decline for Supermicro and AMD, shares in both companies have had a good run in 2025.
As of yesterdays close of market, AMD shares had risen 44% in 2025. SMCI shares surged 87% in the same period.
Looking back over the past 12 months, AMD shares were up nearly 30% as of yesterdays close.
SMCI shares were down nearly 6% for the same period. However, the company had been plagued last year and earlier this year by an accounting crisis that had risked its delisting from the Nasdaq. It eventually filed delinquent forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February.
The CEO of Disney is the most renowned CEO job in America. Wondering who will succeed Bob Iger and be just the eighth person to hold the job in the companys 102-year history has been a parlor game/obsession in Hollywood and beyond since, well, at least October 2011 (!), when Disneys board first started succession planning. Igers early successes (acquiring Pixar and Marvel, reviving Disney Animation) have made him hard to replace, and his general refusal to leave hasnt helped either.
Iger will announce his successor in early 2026 (in theory!) and then step away (for real this time!) later next year, at age 75. While most speculation has centered on two to four internal candidates, theres a singular leader who should be Disneys next chief executive: Brian Chesky, Airbnbs cofounder and CEO.
In this piece, premium subscribers will learn:
How running Airbnb is the perfect training to lead Disney now
The key relationship Chesky brings that no one else can offer
Why Disney needs a tech CEO to survive the 21st Century
Disney is now a hospitality and experiences company
Dont get distracted by The Fantastic Four: First Steps or the Alien: Earth series. Disney may have movie studios, TV production companies, and streaming services, but it is not an entertainment company.
Look to where the companys growth story is and where much of its profits are coming from. They arent from Disneys Entertainment or Sports divisions.
No, theyre thanks to its Experiences division, which houses Disney theme parks, hotels, cruise ships, and merchandise.
In Disneys fiscal 2024 (which ended September 30 last year), Experiences made $34.2 billion in revenue and $9.3 billion in operating income (an internal measure of segment profitability, minus some restructuring and other expenses). Its Entertainment division garnered $41.2 billion in revenue, the largest slice of its revenue pie, but just $3.9 billion in operating income.
Heres the revenue breakdown in percentage form:
Entertainment: 44%Experiences: 37%Sports: 19%
Now consider operating income:Experiences: 60%Entertainment: 25%Sports: 15%
Disneys investments in its future also signal the direction of the company. In September 2023, it committed to spend approximately $60 billion over the next decade on capital expenditures for the Experiences division, expanding parks and adding cruise ships. In May, Iger used the companys earnings call to announce that Disney had partnered with the Miral Group to build its first-ever theme park in the Middle East (he was actually in Abu Dhabi during the call).
There is no comparable investment to grow the entertainment business. Thats a business of managed decline at the moment, largely driven by a failure of imagination. Disney has oversaturated the market with superhero movies and TV spinoffs, live action remakes of animated classics, as well as sequels, reboots, and reimaginings. (The forthcoming Freakier Friday being emblematic of the latter trend.) The company makes about half as many movies as it did when Iger took over, despite him acquiring the rival studio 20th Century Fox in 2017.
That strategy needs a creative reset.
Disneys broadcast network, ABC, will air just five hours of scripted programming this fall in primetime (which is 22 hours) and ordered just one new show. The rest of the schedule is sports, reality, and game shows.
Unsurprisingly, the ostensible leading internal candidate to be the next CEO is Josh DAmaro, who runs the Experiences division. DAmaro, 54, has worked for Disneys theme parks since 1998 and been chairman of Disney Experiences since 2020. The other rumored internal candidates are the chair of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro, and the cochairs of Disney Entertainment Dana Walden and Alan Bergman.
Although DAmaro arguably runs a larger business than Cheskys Airbnb, $34.2 billion to $11.1 billion, Airbnb is the most innovative, disruptive hospitality company to emerge since, what, Holiday Inn in 1952? Also, if you were to consider Airbnbs gross booking value (the total sum consumers spend on Airbnb), that number, $81.8 billion, swells well past Disneys Experiences business.
Chesky speaking at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City, 2023. [Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images/Fast Company]
Chesky is a generational talent
Airbnbs cofounder and CEO, who turns 44 on August 29, is one of the most successful startup CEOs of the last two decades. Chesky has taken a kernel of an ideapeople sharing their homes for travelers in lieu of a hoteland grown it into a global behemoth thats more valuable than any other hotel company in the world. (Marriott, at about $71 billion, is the largest traditional hotel chain.) Hes done this in the face of extreme doubters, existential crises, local regulatory fights, and more.
Chesky is a designer by training. Hes capable, as he puts it, of seeing the world through the eyes of a child. He believes in spending as much time in the field as in the lab, routinely experiencing Airbnbs offering as both a host (having people in his own San Francisco home) and as a guest, traveling the world.
As a Y Combinator graduate (winter 2009 batch), hes guided by the deceptively simple precept make something people love.
Think about someone with that mindset and approach running Disney.
Chesky is a showman, exactly what Disney needs
The CEO of Disney not only has to run the company but be the public face of the brand, the emissary for millions of fans. Former CEO Michael Eisner (19842005) hosted Disneys iconic Sunday night ABC TV showcase. Iger is a fixture at premieres and theme park openings, exuding the kind of easy charisma that had some people thinking he could run for president.
Lacking this ability is fatal in the role. Look no further than Bob Chapek, who replaced Iger as CEO in February 2020 until he was fired in November 2022 and Iger returned. Chapek skipped the Disney fan event, D23, in 2021 for fear of being booed and then was booed by some fans in 2022, even amid his effort to soften his chilly image by growing a beard.
Chesky is well suited to this public-facig part of the job, with his boundless energy and penchant for grand gestures.
He has shifted Airbnbs product releases into winter and summer reveals designed to garner more attention than most companies usual drip-drip-drip of product updates. Airbnb has also found a clever marketing hack with iconic, often movie-related home experiences from Barbies Malibu Dream House to re-creations the balloon house in Up and Rileys internal control center in Inside Out 2.
Chesky with a replica of the house from Disney’s 2009 film Up, 2024. [Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Airbnb]
But more than being the companys chief evangelist, to thrive as Disney CEO, you have to be in founder mode, treating the company as your own. In September 2024, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, who admitted Airbnb into the startup accelerator, lauded a Chesky talk about how, as Graham put it, conventional wisdom about how to run larger companies is mistaken. Shifting into being a manager rather than retaining some aspect of how you ran your company as a startup is a trap that damaged rather than helped company leaders.
Chesky has described founder mode as being willing to be in the details, pushing people to think bigger, and having a direct connection to the leaders in charge of every part of the company.
Although the current Experiences chief, DAmaro, has some fans among theme park obsessives, all the internal candidates feel more like management suits rather than founder showmen.
How Disney thinking built Airbnb
I got this text message from Brian one night. It said, Snow White. Ill tell you later.
So begins the video above, an introduction to how Chesky and Airbnb redesigned its entire end-to-end customer experience in 2012, inspired by how Walt Disney himself created the first animated feature film. I realized that Disney as a company was actually at a similar stage where we are now when they created Snow White, Chesky told Fast Company at the time, relaying how a Disney biography proved foundational in how he thought about the companys next chapter.
As we wrote: [Disney] had success with shorter cartoons, but Walt wanted to create a feature-length film with enough depth that people would care about, not just laugh at, the characters. He wanted to tell a complete story.
Airbnbs process included hiring a Pixar animator to storyboard the new customer experience, conveying the emotion they wanted guests to feel.
He would go on to hire Bruce Vaughn, former head of Disney Imagineering and the person who led the redesign of California Adventure and helped develop Star Wars Land, to work on the design of Airbnbs real-world experience.
In the last several years, almost every longform interview Chesky has given features references to Disney. (Apple is the only other company Chesky mentions besides his own.) I convinced my dad to buy some Disney stock, he told Amy Devers on the Clever podcast in 2020, recalling an early experience with the Walt Disney Company as a teenager. We couldnt buy a lot, but if you became a shareholder at Disney you could get this thing called the Annual Report and the Annual Reports, they used to be these beautiful magazines, with these paintings of theme parks. And I became obsessive about kind of reimagine [sic] the design of theme parks.
Walt Disney’s 1957 ‘flywheel’ graphic. [Image: Disney]
There have been Disney-obsessed techies before, of course. The famed 1957 Disney flywheel graphic is oft-cited in tech circles. Jason Kilar, who went from Amazon exec to Hulu CEO and then Warner Bros. chief, was also obsessed with Disney, but he rubbed some Hollywood people the wrong way with his brash style, particularly his 2020 decision to put all of WBs theatrical movies onto the Max streaming service at the same time for a year.
That decision still looms large in Hollywood, so another tech leader taking over a studio (that, again, is much more a travel experiences company today) would likely be met with significant resistance in the highly insular entertainment business. But . . .
Disney desperately needs to figure out a real tech future
For as many things that Disney has arguably done well in the last 30 years, developing a coherent, sustainable digital strategy is not among them. Eisner bought a big stake in third-rate search engine Infoseek in 1998 and then doubled down on that strategy a year later in creating the ill-fated Go.com to compete as userss starting point on the internet.
Igers tenure has had one successful tech acquisition (paying about $2.5 billion to control BAMTech, the infrastructure to power its streaming services) and one opportunistic deal in 20056 to be the first to sell movies and shows on AppleiTunes.
But Igers reign also been marked by several disappointing and/or disastrous big-ticket digital acquisitions and investments:
Disney acquired the massive multiplayer online game Club Penguin in 2007 for $350 million. The growth of the childrens game failed to meet early goals, its popularity waned, and it shuttered in 2017.
It acquired the social gaming company Playdom in 2010 for at least $563.2 million, was doing layoffs within six months, and shut the whole thing down in 2016.
In 2014, it spent $500 million to buy the popular YouTube network of channels, Maker Studios, a poor fit within Disney, which quickly lost its appetite to create original shows for the video streaming giant.
In 2015, it put $400 million into the then high-flying Vice Media; it wrote that investment down to zero in 2019.
Along the way in the mid-2010s, as Iger was initially preparing to leave the first time, he considered buying Snap, Spotify, and Twitter, any of which would have given Disney the kind of modern digital distribution platform it still desperately needs.
But its track record of managing consumer internet acquisitions doesnt present a compelling Sliding Doorsstyle scenario for any of those apps.
Meanwhile, Chesky is Silicon Valley royalty
By contrast, Chesky started and built a tech platform with an approximately $80 billion market cap. Hes also a leading member of the Y Combinator mafia.
When fellow YC alum Sam Altman was removed as CEO of OpenAIthe most important tech company of the last decadeChesky played a key role rallying support for Altman during those few days.
As a YC board member, Chesky has an early look at some of the most impressive young founders, their companies, and the tech trends they represent. A connected player like Chesky gives Disney its best possible chance to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube and maybe even surpass them by finding the next big thing early before anyone else and then nurture rather than stymie it.
The cockroach Disney needs
Hollywood currently faces a cataclysmic series of challenges, AI chief among them. Worse, the leadership of entertainment companies seem largely powerless and/or disinterested in doing anything about saving Hollywood from being further diminished in the broader popular culture.
What it needs in this moment is a cockroach, in Y Combinator parlance. Meaning, it needs someone who is effectively unkillable and refuses to let their company die, someone built to survive events that would kill lesser leaders.
Someone like Chesky, whom YC founder Paul Graham complimented as one of these cockroaches.
COVID should have killed Airbnb. Lord knows a lot of people thought it was a goner in March 2020 when Chesky saw 80% of his business evaporate seemingly overnight.
But Chesky would not let that happen to Airbnb, and after a series of rapid moves, he not only stabilized the company but pulled off a successful IPO in December 2020. Hes told the story innumerable times, and if you want to hear it, check out this particularly good version of the tale:
Many people are convinced that Apple should, and perhaps will, buy Disney. But if Disney is to survive and thrive as an independent company, then it needs a young, tireless cockroach to bring it into the 21st Century. It needs Brian Chesky.
The daily standup is perhaps the most recognizable ceremony observed by modern teams. Maybe thats part of the problem. People know theyre supposed to be holding standups, but they don’t remember why.
When the reasons behind daily standups get lost, they become status updates. Instead of opportunities to keep everyone aligned behind the constant progress that should be happening, these daily meetings become platforms for people to justify their paychecks to their bosses.
Its a daily version of government employees emailing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to advocate for their continued employment. Funnily enough, the people who do the least feel compelled to talk the most. The least productive people spend more time thinking about what theyll say in front of their peers and boss than they do contributing to outcomes that matter.
Come to think of it, this has been the case every single time Ive found myself in a standup that wasnt quite working. Theres always been someone who talks and talks, but still leaves the rest of us wondering what they actually accomplished. The next thing you know, you have long meetings that dont focus on real progress. Its easier for the boss to micromanage everyone, and harder for individuals to spend time doing what theyre paid to do. If any or all of this sounds familiar, you have three ways out of the daily standup rut.
1. Mix It Up
People get the idea that daily standups have to be in the morning, but thats not the case. You might be surprised by how much simply changing the time of your meeting can change the outcome. If your people start the workday fresh and fired up, let them put that energy into their work instead of making them wait around for a meeting to start.
Holding the standup around noon can help break the day into parts, which helps some teams. Other teams might benefit more from holding the standup at the end of the day, like having a recap and setting an intention for the next day. As an added benefit, its easier to remember whats worth mentioning in the Monday standup when you dont have to think back to what you did all day on Friday before the weekend.
If youre unsure of when to schedule the standups, you can always ask the team about their preferences. Which parts of the day are they most prepared to do great work? Schedule the standup for some other time to protect those most productive hours.
2. Focus on Outcomes, Not Activities
Traditional daily standups revolve around three questions:
What did you do yesterday?
What are you doing today?
Whats in your way?
If these questions arent being answered in your standups, its time to reinvigorate the habit. But theres no need to get stuck on tradition or dogma, especially because it sometimes puts your focus on the wrong thing. You can probably think of questions that are more important and more relevant to your team. You should already have a tracker where all of your work is visible, whether on a traditional corkboard or in Jira or Airtable. Instead of going person by person, try gathering around the tracker and going item by item.
Now youre focused on advancing the work instead of assessing individual performance. Its not about who got the most done between Mary versus Taylor versus Steve anymore. It’s about tracking the progress Mary, Taylor, and Steve are making against shared problems and goals.
3. Stop Going
The very best way to stop your standups from being upward status reports is to remove power differentials from the room. Its impossible to show off for the boss when the boss isnt there.
The least satisfactory standups Ive seen as a leader have been when Im in there with my management team trying to run the show and keep things on track. The times when Im most satisfied are the times when Im just peeking in to see whats going on. But the best standups I ever joined as a manager were the ones where I kept my mouth shut. And the standups I didnt join were probably even better. Even if youre sitting in the back and being quiet, people know youre there, and the observer effect comes into play. Productive teams deserve, and even need, autonomy.
Saving the standup
If you think about why youre having standups, the ways to make them better might become obvious. This isnt about reporting progress upwardsave that for the demo at the end of the sprint. Its about making sure everyone is aligned on whats changing and what needs to happen next.
Mix up the time. Then change the format to return the focus to the items youre working on and the outcomes youre after. Make sure theres no audience for performative displays. Everything else will fall into place.
Modern television doesnt have much more of a sure thing than Season 2 of the hit Netflix show Wednesday. The new season comes almost three years after the shows initial 2022 debut, which garnered 350 million views and holds the record as the streamers most popular English-language show ever.
These levels of scale and pop cultural pull make Wednesday a marketing dream. So far, its been Netflixs largest prelaunch social campaign ever, with more than 3 billion owned social impressions.
I spoke to Netflix CMO Marian Lee about the streamer’s investment in outdoor advertising, how the team chooses its limited number of brand partnerships, and the strategies it uses to evolve the campaign in real time.
[Photo: Jonathan Hession/Netflix 2025]
Big Outcast Energy
Last March, Lee told me that every campaign for a Netflix property has to begin by establishing a clear overall creative strategy and point of view, which then provides a lens or filter through which the marketing teams in countries around the world can determine the best way to express it in their markets. For Wednesday Season 2, that perspective was what Lee calls Big outcast energy.
#WEDNESDAY Season 2 billboards spotted all across LA.PART1: Aug 6th and PART2: Sep 3rd only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/hUMPrclBOQ— Jenna Ortega Updates (@JennaOrtegaUpds) July 22, 2025
There is so much fan connection with Wednesday being an outcast that the creative platform almost writes itself, Lee says. Everything was through the lens of this girl who is a doom-and-gloom outcast. Everyone has a little bit of that inside of them, and so there is that emotional connection. So for Season 2, we did a lot more around this big outcast energy and playing off of Wednesday and Enid, in particular. When you have a character like Wednesday, it really brings a lot to the table for us to work with.
The brand has leaned into outdoor ads in a big way, using billboards and bus benches to juxtapose Wednesdays doom and gloom with Enids bright and shiny vibe.
@wednesdaynetflix trying not to take it personally that enid called *Wednesday* her bestie… original sound – ThingTok – Wednesday Netflix
One of Lees favorite pieces of work is when Wednesday and Enid go full meta about advertising the show itself. Jenna Ortegas Wednesday is bemoaning the obligation, while Emma Myerss Enid is fully bought in. It’s just perfect, Lee says. Of course, Wednesday would hate making promotional material. Its just a cute self-awareness that I love.
Picking brand partners
Brand partners have been scrambling to work with Netflix since before Stranger Things chugged New Coke back in 2019. Squid Game rolled out collabs with Kia, Duolingo, and Crocs earlier this year. And Wednesday is no exception.
Wendys has collaborated on an entire Wednesday-curated Meal of Misfortune that includes two of four inferno-inspired mystery sauces called “Dips of Dread,” along with “Rest in 10-Piece” nuggets, “Cursed & Crispy” fries, and a “Raven’s Blood” Frosty, all served in custom packaging.
Netflix has teamed with Booking.com for a campaign that will invite travelers to discover the world through the eyes of Catherine Zeta-Joness Morticia Addams. And for Cheetos, the focus is on the shows mischievous severed-hand character, Thing. The brands new spokeshand makes the tie-in to orange-dusted fingertips obvious and inspired.
The approach we take with all partnerships is that we set the creative bar really high, Lee says. We want to work with partners who can appreciate the IP and appreciate that our bar for creative work that we’re going to put out in the world utilizing our IP isn’t just going to be a logo slap.
The companys international brand partnerships for the show include Spanish insurance company Línea Directa Aseguradora, Brazilian soda Guaraná, Cheetos in Mexico, and So Paulo, Brazi-based Nubank.
Netflix would not comment on specific marketing budget and revenue numbers. The company’s 2024 earnings report showed an overall sales and marketing spend of $2.9 billion. According to data firm Parrot Analytics, Wednesday made $360 million in advertising and subscription revenue for Netflix between its November 2022 release and March of this year.
[Brands] have their own goals, and we have our own goals, and so when we set out to have a partnership, overall we’re really thinking about what would fit here, Lee says. And not everything will work, right? So we tend to bring big creative ideas to partners that we know share that same sensibility and are willing to go out with us and ideate on something.
[Photo: Bernard Walsh/Netflix 2024]
Led by fandom
When Lee started at Netflix four years ago, the company was in the midst of shooting the first season of Wednesday in Romania. The marketing team told her that the show was going to be a hit. Like, a really big hit. But even then, the scale of the fan response surprised everyone.
We knew it would be big and we had planned for it, but not for how deep the fandom went, how they were going to dress, how they were going to do their makeup, how they were going to look, how it almost normalized anyone who’s never fit in, Lee says. And we rode off of a lot of the fan momentum.
That included partnering with Lady Gaga after a fan cut together a dance scene from the show with the artists song Bloody Mary. It sparked a tremendous 1,800% spike in the songs Spotify streams, and led to Gaga shooting a Wednesday-inspired video herself.
@ladygaga BLOODY WEDNESDAY #fyp original sound – Paul
Lee says that in all of its marketing, Netflix tries to plan for the unexpected to react to how fans are embracing and engaging with its shows.
For Season 2 of Wednesday, Lady Gaga is reportedly dropping a new song called Dead Dance that will make an appearance in the show.
The marketing team for the new season is the same as it was for the original, so Lee says there is a built-in expertise on the IP and how fans are engaging with it. That requires constant, real-time monitoring of what fans are up to across all platforms, particularly Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok. This gives the marketing team invaluable feedback on everything from brand partnerships to billboard copy.
They’re really vocal, Lee says, because they have such heart and love for these characters.
A snack from Pezzy, a mission-driven pet food startup, has just one ingredient: wild-caught silver carp from the Mississippi River.
Carp are an invasive species in the river and incredibly destructive. Pezzy is one of a handful of brands now using it as a healthy ingredient in pet snacksso your dog or cat can help fight against the environmental problem.
In theory, its possible to create a robust industry around invasive species, says Mike Mitchell, the founder of Pezzy Pets, which also makes treats from other invasive species like the devil fish (armored catfish) and lionfish.
[Photo: Keith Arnold/WWF-US]
The problem with carp
Asian carp were intentionally introduced to the U.S. in the 1970s to help clean aquaculture ponds. The idea almost immediately went awry when the carp escaped into rivers during the first heavy rainstorm. Without any natural predators, their population exploded. They outcompete native fish for food and have broken the larger food chain.
Theyre really decimating native species populations, as well as water quality, says Julia Kurnik, senior director of innovation startups at the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund’s Markets Institute. In June, the environmental group published a report looking at the potential for the pet food industry to help mitigate the challenge.
In some parts of the Mississippi River, carp now make up 95% of the biomass. The fish are largeup to 100 poundsand can jump out of the water and hit people in boats. That, along with the fact that Americans dont eat carp, means that fewer people want to fish in Midwestern riversso the species is also impacting the regions $10 billion sport fishing industry.
Why most carp go unfished in the U.S.
[Photo: Keith Arnold/WWF-US]
Some states have attempted to get more people to eat the fish. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources tried to rebrand the fish as “copi” (short for copious”) and talk up its nutritional profile. Carp are extremely high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, have a long list of vitamins and essential minerals, and are low in toxins. The flavor is mild.
But the fish is also bony, so it can’t easily be made into a filet like American consumers expect. It’s also hard to get consumers to eat new types of fish. Pezzy initially tried making snacks for humans. “The story resonated with peoplethe environmental angle and what we were doing with the communities,” Mitchell says. “But it’s difficult to get people to eat what I would call ‘weird fish.”
Some carp are also used to make fertilizer, but because the profit margins are low, there aren’t many fisheries focused on it. There’s more potential for its use in pet food.
[Photo: Keith Arnold/WWF-US]
Carp in pet food
Right now, most pet food is made from byproducts of processing meat for humans. That’s a good thing, since it’s making use of food that might otherwise be wasted. Still, the number of pets is growing in the U.S., and manufacturers need more supply. “The growth in pet food demand is really outpacing the availability of those byproducts,” WWF’s Kurnik says.
A growing number of pet owners also want human-grade food for their dogs or cats, which means producing more meat, and a bigger environmental footprint. “Instead of sourcing beef directly for one’s dog, perhaps carp could fill in there and be a much more environmentally friendly alternative while still being the fresh, nutritious, produced-in-the-U.S. product that I think those pet owners are looking for,” she says.
[Photo: Pezzy]
The fish doesn’t easily fit into the pet food industry’s current supply chain, which isn’t set up to process it. The supply is limited at the moment. Small brands like Pezzy, along with others like Archway, Chippin, and Wilder Harrier, have been able to source carp for relatively small production runs. But it would still be a challenge for larger producers to use it as an ingredient.
“There’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg prblem in that it’s hard to invest, go get funds, and invest in large-scale processing for pet food if you don’t see demand from the pet food industry. But the pet food industry doesn’t typically engage before there’s a consistent quality supply that they can judge and then look at and decide,” Kurnik says.
WWF has been working to bring together all of the industry players to help move the idea forward. “I am optimistic that we’ll see continued scale on the processing side, and that we’ll then be able to reach these bigger pet food companies,” she adds.
Four species of Asian carp are so widespread in U.S. rivers that it really isn’t feasible to eradicate them. “You could suppress density, though, which would then lead to increased biodiversity,” Kurnik says. “You can’t eradicate carp, but [you could] lower its population down to a level that native species have a chance and can begin to bounce back and be healthier.”
The project could be a model for other invasive species, such as Japanese kelp or apple snails.
A growing number of men are flocking to Pinterest.
The companys first-ever trend report reveals that male users now make up more than one-third of its 570 million global active users. That equates to over 171 million men, most of whom are part of Generation Z, according to Pinterest. Interestingly, these men challenge the typical stereotypes of social media behavior.
“Our data paints a picture of a nuanced group of male users on Pinterest that largely rejects the toxicity you might find elsewhere onlineand engages with content in positive, authentic ways,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Pinterest has been on a roll lately. Its stock is up more than 25% year to date, and it has risen 34% in the past year. The company is scheduled to report its Q2 earnings after the bell on August 7, and Wall Street expects a 14.2% year-over-year increase in revenue.
This influx of male users is engaging with a wide range of content, from Pilates to smart parenting. Many are also turning to Pinterest to research products before buying or to find unique travel destinations, the company said.
To attract even more men to the site, Pinterest has introduced a “Pinterest Man” hub, where male users can explore trending topics and shop the latest styles. This move may intensify competition with TikTok, which is projected to draw over 50 million buyers to its TikTok Shop this year, making it the fourth-largest social commerce platform in the U.S.
Here’s a closer look at what men are interested in on Pinterest.
Health and fitness
Well-being is a key driver for men who join the platform. Searches by male users for Pilates and rock climbing are surging, with Pilates outfits up 300% and rock climber searches up 115%. Interest in health hacks like electrolytes and coconut water is also climbing (both up 45%), along with searches for hydration, which are up 50%.
Style
According to audience insights platform GWI, half of Gen Z and millennial men on Pinterest care about their appearance. This has sparked increased searches for grooming and fashion tips. Healthy hair routines, such as using sea salt spray, have surged, along with skincare trends like microneedling, which some believe has anti-inflammatory and antiaging effects.
Theres also been a 115% spike in searches for male nail art designs and a 230% increase in men’s facials. On the fashion front, Goth and grunge looks appear to be making a comeback. (Andfair warningsearches for jorts are on the rise too.)
Next-gen tech
If you thought 3D printing was fading, think again. Mens searches for 3D printing designs are up over 1,200%, outpacing even the 800% jump in AI video and the 265% rise in programming tutorials. Fintech is also heating up, with investment app searches increasing 620%.
Home, hobbies, and family
Interests vary by life stage. Gen Z users are diving into gaming content, with a 590% increase in searches for League of Legends characters. Millennials, who are entering parenthood, are searching for advice on everything from smart parenting to screen timewith daddy and son searches up 415%. Home decor is also gaining traction among this group.
“On Pinterest, men are finding a community that empowers them to pursue their unique interests with confidence,” the company wrote.
