 |
|
|
|||||
Fast Company explores the complicated truth about the effect social media has on this generation’s teen population.
Category:
E-Commerce
Meghan carries many titles these days. Besides being the Duchess of Sussex, she’s a podcaster, a philanthropist, a children’s book author, the star of a Netflix show, and the founder of a direct-to-consumer startup. But when I sit down to speak with her, she says she’s recently taken on a new role: that of Tooth Fairy. Archie, her 6-year-old son, recently lost his first tooth. Meghan rushed home to ensure she could be the one to leave a little money and a small dinosaur under his pillow. At 2 a.m., Archie woke Meghan up excitedly to tell her what had happened. “I had a lot of business meetings the next morning, but I still chose to cuddle with him the rest of the night,” she says. “Those mom moments energize me to be a better founder, a better employer, a better boss.” These are the kinds of work life details that Meghan likes to get into in her podcast series, Confessions of a Female Founder, made with the production company Lemonada Media (which is also behind podcasts by Sarah Silverman and David Duchovny, among others). It has had more than 800,000 downloads since its April launch. On the show, Meghan talks with female founders about the origins of their business, along the lines of Guy Raz’s How I Built This. But the show also has another dimension: It allows Meghan to get practical advice about launching her own lifestyle brand, As Ever. “I’m pulling back the curtain to allow people to see the candid experience of being a founder,” Meghan says. In the eight-part series, she’s spoken to guests ranging from Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd to Kitsch’s Cassandra Thurswell. The finale, released May 27, features Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx and Sneex. Sara Blakely [Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images/Fast Company] A Pioneering Netflix Deal In her conversation with Blakely, Meghan talks about how she partnered with Netflix to create As Ever, her new brand, which launched in February. The line included products like tea, jams, honey, cookie mixes, and her iconic “flower sprinkles,” which are edible flower petals that spruce up dishes (priced between $9 and $28). Over the past few years, even as Netflix’s subscriber numbers have continued to show impressive growth (it added 18.91 million subscribers, a year-over-year increase of 15.9%, in the fourth quarter of 2024), it has also been exploring how it can create products tied to the content of shows. The streaming service now has an online shop that sells everything from cosplay costumes for Squid Game to Stranger Things bomber jackets. With Bridgerton, one of Netflix’s biggest hits, the streaming service produced its own products, like coffee mugs, but also licensed Bridgerton branding to other companies, like Hill House Home and Selkie, to produce dresses. Meghan says that she had been exploring various ways of launching a business when Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, approached her. “At the time, I had been working towards building out my own in-house team,” Meghan says. “But I had a complete U-turn because I completely bought into the vision she was sharing, which is where content and commerce meet, not in a product placement way, but rather in an ideological way.” In many ways, this is a pioneering partnership for Netflix. Along with Meghan, the Netflix team decided that it made sense for As Ever to exists on its own, without any Netflix branding. This is why the line isn’t called, “With Love, Meghan,” like the show. “The brand is in the same universe at the show, but they’re not the same,” Meghan says. Meghan also points out that Netflix is not just a financial backer. The company’s consumer packaged goods team works closely with Meghan’s team to manufacture the products. “We are on calls daily, working through product development, SKUs, and inventory,” she says. “We have a field trip tomorrow to look at different manufacturers and suppliers as we expand the brand.” What Comes Next for As Ever As Ever’s first collection was a runaway success. Meghan says that even though the team spent a year preparing the line and forecasting demand, all the products on the site sold out in 45 minutes. Now, they’re trying to plan As Ever’s next phase. The easiest thing to do would have been to simply restock the products, which would likely sell out very quickly again. But instead, Meghan wants to take a step back, gather data from the launch, and figure out exactly what As Ever could be. She says she’s planning to announce new products in the first quarter of 2026. There are some clues about what new items might be in the pipeline. Meghan’s trademark application for her brand includes things like cookbooks, tableware, cutlery, and serving ware. “I want to really focus on the hospitality angle of As Ever, but as we take the learnings, we can understand what the customer’s needs are seasonally,” she says. There are now many models for successful celebrity brands. As Meghan contemplates what comes next, there are many directions she could go, from focusing on a single product category, like Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty and Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS, to a broader play, like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company. But for now, she believes it makes sense to build a brand around a single idea. “My heart is very deeply in my home,” she says. “Everything comes from being rooted in the love story of your home and garden, and then you can imagine different verticals coming out of that.” In the future, though, the sky’s the limit. I ask whether she might explore a clothing business, since many women are drawn to her personal style. “The category of fashion is something I will explore at a later date, because I do think that’s an interesting space for me,” she says. As she continues building As Ever, there’s a good chance we’ll hear about her twists and turns through through a podcast. There’s interest in doing a second season of Confessions of a Female Founder, and many female founders have approached her to be a guest on the series. But Meghan is now involved in such a wide range of projects, she’s sure to find some way to tell her story. “If I had to write a résumé, I don’t know what I would call myself,” she says. “I think it speaks to this chapter many of us find ourselves in, where none of us are one note. But I believe all the notes I am playing are part of the same song.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Keyboard shortcuts are efficiencys greatest secret weapon. Yes, they can take a bit to learn and yes, sometimes youve got togasp!take your hand off your mouse to reach all the keys. But man, oh man, once youve mastered the best ones, youll wonder how you ever lived without them. If you want to navigate Windows 11 faster, work smarter, and minimize unnecessary clicks, these are the 10 shortcuts worth memorizing. Alt + Tab: Switch Between Open Apps As far as most shortcut experts are concerned, this is the Windows shortcut to rule all shortcuts. This venerable classic lets you cycle through open applications with ease. Hold Alt and tap Tab to jump between the windows youve got open. Its perfect for multitasking without losing momentum. Win + E: Open File Explorer Instantly No more hunting for the File Explorer icon: just press Win + E, and all your files are right there. Whether youre accessing documents, downloads, or external drives, this shortcut is a must-learn. Win + D: Show the Desktop Im not ashamed to admit that sometimes I have so many projects going at once that I get overwhelmed by my own mess of windows, apps, and settings. Sometimes you just need a clean slate, you know? Press Win + D, and all your open windows will minimize, revealing the desktop instantly. Take a breath, and then tap it again to restore everything right where you left it. Win + V: Access Clipboard History Something of a dark horse in the handy shortcuts competition: Ever copied something only to lose it moments later? Win + V saves the day by opening the Clipboard history, allowing you to retrieve text or images youve copied earlier. Alt + Spacebar: Open Copilot Now for a relative newcomer. For quick assistance, answers, and creative ideas, Alt + Spacebar launches a little Copilot search box, making it easy to get help directly within Windows. Use it to look stuff up on the web, launch programs, or open folders, all with a quick keyboard combo. Win + I: Open Settings Tired of digging through menus just to get to Settings? Why did they bury it so deep?! Press Win + I to open Settings instantly, letting you tweak stuff much more quickly than navigating there by mouse. Win + Shift + S: Take a Screenshot When you need to capture something on your screen, the excellent Snipping Tool is your best friend. Win + Shift + S opens it, letting you select and save any part of your display. Ctrl + Shift + Esc: Open Task Manager Slow? Laggy? Chugging along? Keep tabs on your system performance by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc. This shortcut opens Task Manager immediately, letting you manage RAM-hogging apps and CPU-taxing processes with ease. Win + L: Lock Your Computer This ones especially handy for those of you whove been summoned back to the office. When you step away from your desk, pressing Win + L locks your screen instantly, securing your work and keeping prying eyes out. Win + Period (.) or Win + Semicolon (;): Open Emoji Panel Heres one for the youths out there. Spice up your messages with emojis and GIFs. Press Win + . or Win + ; to open the emoji panel and add some flair to your messages.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||