Author: wildgreenquest@gmail.com

Key Takeaways Duolingo, the $4.6 billion language learning app, evaluates candidates from the minute they step into a taxi cab. Duolingo’s cofounder and CEO, Luis von Ahn, pays taxi drivers to evaluate whether candidates deserve to be hired. The company has passed on hiring otherwise strong candidates because of the way they treated the taxi driver. After a year-long search, Duolingo was about to hire a chief financial officer. One person shone above the rest, with a stellar resume and strong interpersonal skills. The entire hiring committee “really liked” the candidate, Luis von Ahn, Duolingo’s cofounder and CEO, told The…

Compliance comes for every industry. Healthcare has HIPAA. Retail had the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Now it’s defense industrial base (DIB).With the rollout of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), the Department of War (DOW)—and Katie Arrington’s advocacy through her former role as DOW chief information officer—are forcing a generational shift in how the defense supply chain protects sensitive data.CMMC isn’t mere guidance. It’s a contractual line in the sand that won’t stop with mega defense contractors. CMMC covers the small and midsize businesses across the U.S. that keep the nation’s economy moving and its security intact. It…

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Most coffee conversations ignore contaminants like mold, acrylamide, fillers and pesticides Transparency, lab testing and sourcing matter more than caffeine for performance-focused entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs are known for two things: relentless drive and relentless coffee consumption.Coffee is the fuel behind early mornings, back-to-back meetings, late nights and the myth that productivity comes from pushing harder rather than recovering smarter. For many founders, coffee is not a beverage. It is a coping mechanism.Yet an increasing number of high performers are reporting something strange. They are drinking the same amount of coffee but…

It’s no secret that children and adolescents have a lot more eyes on them these days thanks to everything from social media to cameras in everyone’s pockets. This experience (along with encouragement from brands such as Disney) has created space for young people to mimic adults, embracing cosmetics and anti-aging creams. Now, Italy’s consumer protection regulator says it is looking into the marketing strategies of some of the main contributors to this phenomenon: beauty companies. The country’s Competition Authority (AGCM) has launched two investigations into Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics for allegedly failing to clearly indicate that their products are not for children…

The Senate early Friday morning approved Homeland Security funds to pay Transportation Security Administration agents and most other agencies, but not the immigration enforcement operations at the heart of the budget impasse that has jammed airports, disrupted travel and imposed financial hardship on workers.The deal, which the Senate approved unanimously without a roll call, next goes to the House, which is expected to consider it Friday.“We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “Obviously, we’ll still have some work ahead of us.”With…

Designers love intention. Architects draw immaculate plans; curators craft pristine galleries; developers imagine carefully choreographed public experiences. But once the general population shows up, those spaces tend to change. Sometimes there’s an instinct among designers to fight against it; it’s hard to let go of an aesthetic goal.But—more often than not—the public makes spaces and designs better. It’s the people, not solely the place, who spark true imagination and inevitably shape its character. It’s the people who have the power to turn a design into something more welcoming and relevant, and push designers to think outside the box in creativity…

From the creators of ‘The Alpinist’ and ‘The Dawn Wall,’ this docuseries explores the high-stakes life of the climbing legend who fell to his death at 43 years old. Watch the exclusive trailer here.Published March 27, 2026 07:00AMDean Potter isn’t a name you forget. On May 16, 2015, the famous climber and BASE jumper fell to his death after a wingsuit flight in Yosemite. He was 43 years old. I had just started working for Outside as a news writer and social media manager a couple of weeks earlier. I stumbled upon the news on an old climbing forum, and those far…

You’ve spent years building a robust professional network. You’ve cultivated relationships with peers, mentors, and industry leaders. So when you signal that you’re exploring new opportunities, you expect your network to perform. Yet too often, promising conversations dissolve into silence. Warm introductions never materialize. Emails go unanswered. This isn’t a reflection of your professional standing. It’s a design problem: you’re making it too hard for people to help you. The fix is straightforward. Make it easy. Here are three ways to do so. Ask To Write to Their Contact Directly When you reach out to a contact seeking an introduction…

Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. Before we get underway, a little self-promotion: Apple’s 50th anniversary is on April 1. As the big day approached, I realized that many people present at the company’s creation were still very much with us. So I interviewed 23 of them for an oral history, “How Apple Became Apple: The Definitive Oral History of its Earliest Years.” It’s chock-full of great tales as told by everyone from cofounder Steve Wozniak to Liza Loop, the first Apple user. Hearing these pioneers reminisce, I felt like I had been there, too—and so…

As brand obsessions go, our collective love/hate relationship with airlines may be one of the most passionate and unique. It’s a perfect storm of time pressure, cost, emotional stakes, and a complete lack of control as a customer. An airline’s product is the experience, and that experience has a laundry list of potential pain points—check-in, lost luggage, boarding, seat comfort—that can ruin the entire thing. Now, the U.S. government is throwing a shutdown-size wrench into the mix.Due to a partial government shutdown, funding for the Transportation Security Administration has been paused. TSA workers have not been paid for more than a…