 |
|
|
|||||
Fast Company is the official media partner of Summit Detroit.From the mouths of most companies, the word community amounts to nothing more than another cliched buzzword drained of any substance. But in some instances, the idea of community is so intrinsic to what the company is and stands for that the meaning behind the word evolves into something more. Its why Jody Levy, CEO of Summit, had a hard time defining the word as it applies to her organization that hosts conferences and immersive experiences around the world. Community is not the right word. Network is not the right word. Tribe is not the right word. None of these words actually describe what being part of Summit feels like and delivers for the people that choose to show up and participate in the ecosystem, Levy says. It’s like choosing to be a node in an interconnected latticework of people across the planet that have certain things in common. Or as Summit cofounder Brett Leve describes it: a mutual aid society for entrepreneurs. If you ask anyone who started a company, on Tuesday it’s a hiring problem. On Friday, it’s a finance problem. The next week it’s a supplier issue, Leve says. There’s all of these things that come up, and there just aren’t a lot of go-to resources or places that train people to address those challenges. That’s where we landed on the concept of community being this panacea. Brett Leve, cofounder of Summit [Photo: Summit] Summit was founded in 2008 by a group of entrepreneurs looking to pool their resources and knowledge with other like minded individuals. Leve, who, at the time, was two years out of college with a business degree, understood he was still limited in what he learned on paper. I don’t think any of that education gave me the tools that I needed to be an entrepreneur, he says. The entrepreneurial journey is so challenging. You need a very broad toolkit in order to address all of those challenges you bump up against. And so Summit was born as an invite-only organization using events as a way to bring members together to both educate them through curated programming touching on wellness, creativity, and beyondbut also to provide a unique atmosphere made to forge new relationships. Summits flagship event heads to Detroit this June 5-8 and promises to create the kind of connections it’s become known for. Take for example Christina Sass who, in 2012 at a Summit event, met someone who would change the course of my life, as she puts it. A fellow Summit member introduced Sass to Jeremy Johnson simply because they both seem interested in the same thing. You two wont stop talking about access to education, Sass recalls the Summit member telling her. You should talk to each other about it. She was absolutely right. [Photo: Summit] Fast forward two years and Sass and Johnson cofounded Andela, a marketplace for software engineers and other technical talent in emerging economies. The company grew to more than 2,000 employees and hit an annual revenue run rate of $50 million within five years of launching. Arturo Nunez, entrepreneur and board member of Estée Lauder and Abercrombie & Fitch, joined Summit in 2012 and says it reinforced his belief that being in the right rooms can change everything. Its not just about who you meet, but the energy, the exchange of ideas, and the way this community encourages you to think bigger, move with intention, and build with purpose, Nunez says. Its a space where people dont just dreamthey execute. [Photo: Summit] And sometimes the connections at Summit are less about front facing networking and more of an internal, personal journey.[Being part of Summit has] simultaneously helped me get over imposter syndrome while giving me a healthy dose of it, says Phillip Cooley, former co-owner of Slows Bar BQ in Detroit. It’s important to remain humble throughout life, but being in spaces with such wonderful people has also fortified my confidence and helped me trust my voice. Its those stories that speak exactly to why Leve and his cofounders created Summit. I’m still as inspired by the concept of it 17 years in as I was when we started, Leve says. Its like a collaborative art project that changes over time. That’s the exciting part about itevery time you add someone into the mix, the whole network becomes stronger.Click here to learn more about Summit and apply to attend Summit Detroit this June 5-8, 2025.
Category:
E-Commerce
On Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, a helicopter flew along the Manhattan skyline for less than 18 minutes before plunging into the Hudson River. The sightseeing helicopter carried a family of five from Spain. Law enforcement confirmed the identity of the passengers to ABC News as Agustin Escobar, an executive from European automation company Siemens, along with his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children. The family, along with the pilot, all died in the crash. The helicopter was chartered by the company New York Helicopter, which posted photos of the smiling family inside the aircraft just before it took off. The chopper appeared to be a N216MHa Bell 206L-4, according to a Flight Radar statement posted to X (formerly Twitter). The owner of the company and CEO, Michael Roth, said the pilot of the aircraft had radioed about needing fuel just before the aircraft began flying erratically. He [the pilot] called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didnt arrive, Roth told The Telegraph. Safety concerns in the wake of the tragedy The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, but the tragedy may concern potential future flyers. In the wake of the incident, the helicopter company’s track record is also being scoured, and it seems that a murky financial history, and previous close-calls. According to court records, per The Wall Street Journal, New York Helicopter seemed to be facing financial challenges. Just this February, Wynwood Capital Group, a cash-advance firm, sued the company. It alleged that it had advanced $50,000 to the company in January in exchange for nearly $75,000 in future receivables. But days later, the company was blocked from recouping the money. The outlet also reported that in December, one of the company’s aircrafts was repossessed by PHI Aviation, the company it was leased from for failure to make payments. In 2019, the New York Helicopter filed for bankruptcy. The New York Times also reported that in 2013, in an incident that now appears eerily similar to Thursday’s crash, one of the company’s aircrafts lost power. No one was injured in the incident, but the helicopter was forced to make an emergency “hard landing.” Another emergency situation occurred just two years later, in 2015. An investigation into the incident found that a faulty drive shaft had been painted, so it wasn’t possible to deduce whether it had been involved in a previous hard landing. Investigators called it deliberate concealment and reuse of the faulty component by unknown personnel. While adventurers may not want to swear off taking a helicopter ride just yet, it’s important to note that helicopter tours do come with some risk, and it’s important to research the tour company before booking.Still, according to data from the United States Helicopter Safety Team, crashes are not all that uncommon. Nationwide, there were 89 accidents in 2024, resulting in 30 fatalities. The previous year, there were even more accidents101, but only 29 fatalities as a result.Fast Company reached out to New York Helicopter but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Category:
E-Commerce
While President Trump likes to putt, traders are leaning into the Trump put. The “Trump put” was an idea that traders would lean on during his first term, and in essence, is rooted in the concept that Trump uses the stock market as something of a scoreboard. And now, some are saying that the “Trump put” is back, at least if you count the presidents latest actions in relation to the markets this past week. As the markets wobbled, and then cratered in response to the announcement of his tariff schedule, Trumpperhaps predictably, per the Trump put ideacanceled or paused most of what had previously been announced. In other words, the Trump put is the belief that when the markets start to fall, Trump will take action to turn them around. Thats exactly what he did this past weekmore or less confirming that theres something to the notion. Note, though, that there have been other variations of the Trump put over the years, too. For instance, theres been the Greenspan put, and even the Powell put. Again, the idea is that if the market falls too far, someone will step in and bail it out. More specifically this past week, however, Trump was likely swayed to reverse course on his wide-ranging tariff schedule due to action in the bond market. Bonds are typically considered something of a safe haven for investors, and the bond market itself is far less volatile than the equities market. But following Trumps announcements on tariffs, bond interest rates rapidly increased, which was a sign that investors were less confident in the strength of the economy going forward, and therefore, made it more expensive for the government and businesses to borrow money because theres more inherent risk. That was evidently enough to spook Trump who, despite his rhetoric, paused tariffs on most countries, although he dug in deeper against China. The question for traders and investors, going forward, is whether Trump will remain as susceptible to the whims of the market as he was during his first term. So far, hes shown more restraint, but as we learned this week, he has his limits.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||