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Sonder Holdings said on Monday it will wind down its operations and file for bankruptcy one day after Marriott International abruptly announced that it had terminated its licensing agreement with the San Francisco operator of thousands of rental properties. The one-two punch of news has caused chaos for employees and guests alike. Shares of Sonder have plummeted more than 64% as of mid-day trading on Monday. In a statement Monday, Sonder said it expects to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquid its U.S. business, in addition to initiating insolvency proceedings in the international countries where it operates. We are devastated to reach a point where a liquidation is the only viable path forward, said Janice Sears, interim chief executive officer of Sonder. We explored all viable alternatives to avoid this outcome, but we are left with no choice other than to proceed with an immediate wind-down of our operations and liquidation of our assets. Neither Marriott nor Sonder immediately responded to a request for comment from Fast Company. Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott said in a statement on Sunday that its immediate priority is supporting guests currently staying at Sonder properties and those with upcoming reservations and that it would contact guests who booked directly through Marriott channels to address their reservation and booking needs. Marriott remains committed to minimizing disruption to guests travel plans. EMPLOYEES, GUESTS IN CHAOS But the experiences of guests and employees alike indicate that this news has been nothing short of chaotic. On social media platforms including Reddit and LinkedIn, Sonder employees and guests recounted how the news of the termination of the Marriott partnership reached themwith some employees saying they learned their jobs had been terminated from news reports, while guests reported receiving notices that they had to vacate their rental immediately. One New York-based former Sonder employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she and her colleagues extended their shifts on Sunday to try to help guests and were on-site Monday cleaning things out and closing operations for the last time. She added that the now-former employees had no idea what would happen with their paid time off and sick time payouts. Another Sonder employee declined to comment about the situation amid a few developing scenarios that are currently taking place. On its website, Sonder said it has approximately 1,400 employees in more than 35 cities in 10 different countries. Meanwhile, guests have also been thrown into limbo during their stays. One Reddit user posted Sunday that they had been kicked out of a Sonder hotel mid-stay and weren’t allowed back in the room in the evening. The user didnt immediately respond to a request for an interview from Fast Company, but commented on another subreddit that after waiting on-hold with Marriott customer service for two hours, they had been refunded half of the $2,000 booking, along with a $50 credit for the inconvenience. Another Redditor posted Monday that the heating has been turned off and that theyve been asked to leave during a winter storm warning in Chicago. On LinkedIn, a woman shared that she had been staying at a Sonder location in London on Sunday night only to learn of the change from an email and note slipped under her door overnight. What a mess, she wrote. SONDERS WOES Financial woes for Sonder appear to have been too great for even a partnership with the worlds largest hotel chain to solve. The Marriott-Sonder partnership was announced in August 2024, and now the two companies are pointing fingers at each other, to some extent. Sonder has faced severe financial constraints arising from, among other things, prolonged challenges in the integration of the companys systems and booking arrangements with Marriott International, Sears said in the statement. Both Sonders CEO and CFO had left the company earlier in the year and the company had fallen into a pattern of reporting its earnings reports late. Sonder is also the latest bankruptcy victim that stems from the frenzy of special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deals that began about five years ago. These so-called blank check deals saw a number of companies go public, only to later file for bankruptcy, including 23andMe and WeWork. The hotelier went public with a blank-check deal with Gores Metropoulos II in January 2022. FALLOUT FOR MARRIOTT Marriott, meanwhile, could emerge from the dissolution of this experimental partnership relatively unscathed. The company said the termination was due to Sonders default when it announced the news on Sunday. In a separate statement, Marriott scaled back its financial outlook for net room growth in 2025, to roughly 4.5% with the removal of Sonder rooms from its system, down from a prior forecast of approximately 5%. On Monday, Marriott announced a new agreement with Pacifica Hotels to convert two existing hotels in Osaka, Japan to its line of City Express Hotels by Marriott next year. Marriott shares fell about 0.2% in mid-day trading. And Jefferies analyst David Katz even upgraded his price target for the stock on Monday to $315, up from $308.
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E-Commerce
Recently, New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat moderated a debate on the Interesting Times podcast between Helen Andrews and Leah Libresco Sargeant, two conservative critics of modern feminism. The podcast received major blowback, starting with (but not ending with) the fact that the original headline of the conversation was “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” Quickly, after the predictable backlash hit, the headline was changed to “Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?” But the diversion didn’t help the conversation’s case all that much. While the headline was softened to perhaps dress up the discussion as an urgent political issue, mostly, it felt like intellectualized sexisma debate about women’s rightswhen the real question should be, wait, why are they up for debate anyway? If you could make it through the whole podcast, good on you. In truth, the question “Did women ruin the workplace?” felt like it was just waiting for Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda to burst through the office door and tie it to its desk chair. All About “Wokeness” Mainly, the debate revolved around wokeness. It started with Andrews, who recently wrote an article called The Great Feminization that criticizes women as being emotional and lacking logic, started talking about “wokeness” at work, and suggested that women are to blame for its presence in the office, noting that “the pathology in our institutions known as wokeness is distinctively feminine and feminized.” Andrews continued: “And that, in a very literal sense, our institutions have gone woke because there are more women in them than there used to be.” She also went on to talk about the uptick in sex scandals being reported, and how backward she finds it that we’re “suddenly” expected to “believe all women” regardless of how credible many of them can surely not be. The very boys club argument seemed to suggest that women in the workplace are complaining about innocent flirtations or, men just being men. For Andrews, the platform felt like a continuation of her article. She also talked about female toxicity, which she explained means things like gossiping, being unable to “deal with conflict directly,” and a host of other dated stereotypes she claimed are female traits. Sargeant pushed back on Andrews’ rhetoric several times, but she had her own troubling views about women in the workplace, too. Her take seemed to be more about the idea that no one should really expect total fulfillment at work, and if that’s the case, then women really shouldn’t bring their “woke feminism” ideas to work in the first place. “I think we make a mistake in seeing the workplace as the primary space we work out our cultural foibles,” Sergeant explained. Predictable Outrage The podcast did genuinely feel like it was better suited for an era when objectifying women at work was totally cool, a lack of DEI (another topic the guests railed into), and policies protecting women simply didn’t exist rather than an era where many are pushing to obliterate women’s rights in the office (and everywhere). Of course, like the overt sexism in even posing the question “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?”, the response has been just as direct. Almost instantly, the response pieces started circulating, critiquing, not just the host of the podcast, or its guest, but NYT for running such a clearly anti-woman article, which asked whether women ruined the workplace with all of their incessant needs, like to be viewed as equal human beings and all. In a Vanity Fair response piece, journalist Kenneal Patterson pressed that such a question is ludicrous in today’s world, and showcases fear around “the encroachment of liberal feminism in the workplace.” Patterson suggests that women are essentially being coerced into standards of womanhood dictated “by the patriarchy.” Patterson continued, “Women are losing the rights to their bodies, dignities, and beliefs every day. Starting an article with the headline Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace? does nothing more than appeal to those who try to keep lower-income women oppressed and drive young people into a tradwife future that keeps them caged.” On X, the podcast is being slammed, too. In a reshare of the article, X user and author Jess Davies wrote, “Dunno, I think the men who created hostile working environments through sexual harassment, sexist behaviours, unfair promotions and being inconsiderate of basic needs like maternity, childcare and womens health ruined the workplace.”Davies added, “But sure, its womens fault for speaking up.” Who did women ruin the workplace for? Surely, there may be a ton of people who do believe that women have ruined the workplace simply by being in them and demanding to be respected and treated fairly. So, a better question, perhaps, would be, who did they ruin it for? Surely, not their employers because in many regards, women are killing it at work. While glaring pay gaps still exist, women are outpacing men in terms of education, they hold an ever-rising share of high paying occupations, and, according to recent findings, are often held to higher standards than men in CEO roles, too. And while the tradwife trope may be preferred by men and certain groups of women, most modern women want to work. In fact, labor force participation has been rising for young women at the same time it is falling for young men. Women surely may have complicated the workplace for those who are worried about women getting ahead, who fear diversity, or who don’t want the boys club to change. As far as ruining it goes, were still waiting for the case to be made.
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E-Commerce
Tesla is getting into the rental car market. Drivers can now rent a Tesla in two Southern California locationsSan Diego and Costa Mesafor three to seven days, starting at $60 daily, according to Electrek. Tesla will be renting, not leasing its EVs, and plans to continue rolling out additional U.S. locations starting this month. Fast Company has reached out to Tesla for comment. The news comes as the electric vehicle (EV) maker looks for new ways to head off further declines in U.S. sales following the expiration of its federal tax credits, and comes amid continued backlash against the company for CEO Elon Musks role in the U.S. government, coupled with growing competition in the EV market. Those federal EV tax credits of up to $7,500 expired on October 1, after President Donald Trump signed his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law. Each Tesla rental will include the option for supervised Full Self-Driving and Supercharging, at no extra cost, and as incentive to buy, customers will a receive a $250 credit if they purchase a model within a week, Electrek reported. Shares of Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) were trading up over 4% in midday trading on Monday. Shares of rental car company Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (HTZ) were down nearly 3% at the time of this writing in the aftermath of its recent quarterly earnings report. The car rental giant had purchased a fleet of Teslas to increase its EV offerings, but has been selling them as demand decreased, along with resale value. The news comes just days after shareholders approved a controversial pay package for CEO Elon Musk worth up to nearly $1 trillion in compensation, and as a head of Tesla’s ailing Cybertruck business announced he was leaving Tesla following the company’s recall of some 63,000 Cybertrucks due to their bright front lights, per the Associated Press. A look at the numbers shows Tesla’s third quarter earnings missed analyst expectations, even while it reported $28.1 billion in revenue, up 12% from the previous year. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at 50 cents versus an expected 54 cents. The company has reported year-over-year revenue declines the two previous quarters.
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E-Commerce
Think. Create. Change. These three verbs are the driving force behind the World Changing Ideas Summit, a first-of-its-kind event created in partnership with Fast Company and Johns Hopkins University (JHU). This November 19 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., the World Changing Ideas Summit will convene academics and senior business leaders for a day of immersive, thought-provoking experiences designed to advance Americas innovation ecosystem. From dynamic panels to interactive innovation showcases to hands-on breakout sessions, the World Changing Ideas Summit aims to go beyond dialogue and inspire action. “The World Changing Ideas Summit is a wholly new kind of event: a partnership between two very different organizations, both known for their commitment to innovation, coming together to explore the near future through the ideas they’re most excited about, says Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. The World Changing Ideas Summit is modeled after Fast Companys annual World Changing Ideas list, which celebrates the businesses and organizations developing creative solutions to the most pressing issues of our time. Paired with Johns Hopkins University’s renowned history of scientific discoveries, the World Changing Ideas Summit stands as a dynamic partnership between two of the most innovative forces in media and academic research, focusing on transformative advancements in healthcare, space exploration, and physical AI.As we celebrate our 150-year anniversary, Johns Hopkins is doubling down on our commitment to improving lives by bringing the benefits of research to the world, said Cybele Bjorklund executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center. This summit provides a fresh vision and venue to bolster America’s powerful innovation ecosystem, rooted in our drive to forge stronger connections between government, universities and the private sector.” The World Changing Ideas Summit features a mix of JHU faculty and World Changing Ideas honorees including Akhila Kosaraju, cofounder and CEO of Phare Bio; Jordan Shuff, research engineer at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute; Hongquan Li, cofounder and CEO of Cephla; Dennis Woodfork, mission area executive for National Security Space at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; and more who will unpack key topics from how to use star-mapping technology to analyze cancerous tumors to examining national security implications in space to how AI-powered predictive models are evolving professional sports, and much more. With spotlights on how these innovations can strengthen the health, well-being, and flourishing of the world (and beyond), the World Changing Ideas Summit will highlight the full extent of what is possible when government, academia, and business industries join forces. Visit the World Changing Ideas Summit event page to register for the event and stay up-to-date with the agenda and list of speakers.
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E-Commerce
Feed Mes Emily Sundberg has launched her first foray into podcasting with Expense Account. The first episode, out today, features chef and author Alison Roman in conversation with host Jason Lee (formerly Semi Anonymous Restaurant Critic J Lee)s, revealing her secret order at Keens, her new tomato sauce business, and the importance of keeping fresh flowers at home. Expense Account is a food podcast for everyone. Insiders, outsiders, your mom, your dad, New Yorkers, Angelenos and also people from Florida (we love you). Anyone who enjoys eating food, the shows description reads. Its even for people who hate food. The podcast marks Sundbergs first step in turning Feed Me from a popular Substack newsletter into a multi-format media brand. Since launching Feed Me in 2022, Sundberg has grown it into one of Substacks most popular business publications, recently bringing on a managing editor and associate editor to expand coverage. Podcasting is a logical next step. The global podcast industry generated $7.3 billion in sales last year, more than double most estimates, with celebrities, influencers, small businesses, and random dudes with mics launching podcasts daily. With Substacks new tools for video and podcasting, writers like Sundberg are evolving and embracing the studio model to reach new audiences and position themselves as thought leaders in their industries. In spite of a highly saturated market, Sundberg believes she has spotted a gap. Theres a white space in food media that Feed Me plans to fill: a good podcast about food, Sundberg wrote back in September, announcing the podcast venture. Something focused on the fast-paced news cycle of New Yorks hospitality worldthe gossip, secret doors, and personalities that make this the best food city in the world. We hope to build a hub where every lover of food can converge and converse. While newsletters remain Feed Mes bread and butter, Sundberg has made clear her plans to transition to a studio mindset. Expense Account is born from Lees restaurant column of the same name. A few months ago, while editing one of Jasons pieces, I paused on a line that read, Ill save that for the pod, wrote Sundberg in her daily newsletter. He didnt have a podcast, but the phrase felt like a manifestation. I texted him: Do you want one? He said yes, so we made one. For Expense Account, Feed Me is partnering with Public Sound, a New York-based production company that has worked with brands like Nike and Supreme. Substack serves as the presenting sponsor. Whats next for Feed Me studio? Maybe next year well make a movie, or open a bar, Sundberg wrote. Watch this space.
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E-Commerce
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