The author wants her son to attend college, but not at the expense of the family's financial security. China Photos/Getty Images
College costs are steep and rising, and there are several compelling arguments for declining to foot the bill for your child's education.
It can help your child to understand the value of money and build a healthy relationship with it early on.
There are ways to encourage a college education without paying for tuition, such as supporting your child's high-school education and researching scholarships.
Let's get one thing straight: I am 100% pro-college.
If a college education helps you get to where you want to be professionally and if you can afford it, then you go ahead and earn that college degree! I spent six years in college and graduate school and benefitted hugely from both experiences. So I'd love to see my son succeed in higher education.
But the price tag for that education ... well, that's going to be on him. Here are four reasons I'm not paying for my kid's college costs:
1. I'm making sure our family is financially healthy
Being able to pay some or all of your child's college education is a luxury.
Your kid doesn't need to go to a four-year college at 18 to survive, and you don't need to cover the bill. Besides, there's no point in putting away college money if it forces you into debt or sets you up for a precarious financial future.
First and foremost, my family is committed to addressing our financial needs before shelling out for the wants. For most people, that means covering your basic expenses, paying down debt, and saving for retirement. (After all, you can get loans for college, but no one's lending you money to cover the costs of even a bare-bones retirement.)
2. I'm supporting his pre-college education 100%
My husband and I are socking away cash for a high-quality K-12 education. We've been funding our son's Coverdell ESA since his birth. Plus, with the new tax law, we're able to contribute to a 529 plan that will finance his high school years.
Our ultimate goal is to use our financial investment to provide an education that will get him ready for college and position him competitively for money-saving scholarships, grants, and aid. We'll be looking for a high school that offers a breadth of college preparatory classes, a strong core curriculum, and tons of electives that get students ready for their future majors and make them attractive college applicants.
We're also emotionally invested in our son's education. We prioritize everyday learning — experiences like reading together and answering those one million "why" questions. We solve math problems for fun, visit historic sites and museums, and actively involve ourselves in his schoolwork.
3. I'm psyched to help him slash that tuition bill
Of course, I don't want my son to face crippling debt out of school. But there's no rule that says my kid has to pay full price or go to the most expensive school.
In fact, there are plenty of ways to reduce that big bill dramatically. And I'll be wading through that process with my son when the time comes.
For instance, I plan to ...
Pay for high school Advanced Placement classes that translate to college credits.
Cover the costs for SAT prep books and courses.
Foot the bill for college visits.
Help him track down and apply for scholarships and aid.
Fill out the FAFSA and provide all necessary financial information.
Guide him in finding creative ways to pay for college — locating lesser-known scholarships, applying for part-time work, considering colleges with lower costs or special savings programs, and looking for job opportunities that offer college tuition reimbursement.
4. I'm giving him an invaluable financial education
Some kids face a rude awakening the day they graduate college.
After enjoying a lifestyle fully funded by Mom and Dad, they're suddenly forced to do some serious adulting — succeeding in a job, paying for all their expenses, and managing their money wisely.
By having my son cover his own college costs, I hope to provide him with a bridge into adulthood. While still living at home in high school, he'll have to start planning his expenses for college and beyond. Specifically, he'll have to figure out how much money he can reasonably expect to make out of college, how much he can put toward loan payments, and what college he can ultimately afford.
To get him to that point, my husband and I are infusing our kid's childhood with the principles of smart money management. That starts off with explaining the basics of what money is, how you get it, and what you need vs. want to buy with it. Later on, our purposeful instruction will involve the intricacies of creating a viable budget, managing savings and investments, understanding loans, and — of course — thinking ahead to college.
As a young adult, I put myself through six years of college and graduate school. The experience certainly came with its challenges and sacrifices, but overcoming those obstacles gave me a sense of tremendous accomplishment.
It's my dream that my child will embrace his pursuit of a college education. And I hope that he'll value that process and the character he builds along the way.
In this combination photo, Fox News personality Laura Ingraham speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 20, 2016, left, and David Hogg, a student survivor from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks at a rally for common sense gun legislation in Livingston, N.J. on Feb. 25, 2018. Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite and Rich Schultz
Fox News opinion-show host Laura Ingraham announced Friday she will take a week off.
The news comes amid ongoing fallout from her comments about a Parkland shooting survivor.
Multiple companies yanked ads from her show after she insulted Parkland student David Hogg, who said he was rejected from several colleges.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Friday she will take a week's vacation following an exodus of advertisers from her show after she insulted a Florida shooting survivor's grades.
Ingraham said on her show that the time off was due to the Easter break, and Fox News later told The New York Times that it was a "preplanned vacation with her kids."
Ingraham drew widespread scorn earlier that week for tweeting an article that said David Hogg, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student, had been rejected from several California universities. Hogg has emerged as a frequent target for prominent conservatives, who have criticized him over his gun-control activism.
"David Hogg Rejected by Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates.)" she tweeted.
Hogg and several other students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School responded by calling for an advertising boycott of Ingraham's show and tweeting a list of companies people could contact to demand they yank their ads.
Since then, roughly a dozen companies have announced plans to pull their commercials from her show, even despite an apology from Ingraham on Thursday.
"Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA — incl. @DavidHog111," Ingraham tweeted. "On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland."
Ingraham added that she believed her show was the first to feature Hogg immediately after the deadly high-school shooting on February 14, and complimented how "poised" he was.
"As always, he's welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion," Ingraham said.
The mea culpa didn't suffice for Hogg, who demanded that Ingraham also denounce comments made by others on her network before he would accept her apology.
Upon reading the news that Ingraham would be taking time off, Hogg tweeted, "Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week."
Michigan ended Loyola's Cinderella run with a strong second-half performance.
Loyola led by 7 points at the half, but the Wolverines went on a 47-28 run in the second half.
After the game, social media was quick to give Sister Jean the Crying Jordan treatment, because Twitter gonna Twitter.
Loyola-Chicago's Cinderella run came to an end on Saturday night with a 69-57 loss to Michigan in the Final Four.
After the game we quickly learned that nobody is safe from the Crying Jordan meme as multiple Twitter users were quick to use it on the most likeable of all March Madness stars, Sister Jean.
An illustration of a satellite damaged by space debris.Shutterstock
A falling Chinese space station dubbed Tiangong-1 will soon break up into chunks in the atmosphere and crash to Earth. It will likely go down on Sunday.
Scientists say it is nearly impossible to determine the exact time and location of the station's crash.
But you can follow along as it descends using sites from SatView, the European Space Agency, and more.
On Sunday, a Chinese space station called Tiangong-1 is expected to crash to Earth.
The 9.4-ton spacecraft went up into space in 2011, but in 2016, the Chinese government lost communication with it due to an apparent technical malfunction.
It's difficult to predict exactly when Tiangong-1 will re-enter Earth's atmosphere, and where it will break up into pieces before it lands. On Monday, the space station was at an altitude of about 130 miles. It has been falling more than a mile every day since then, and its rate of descent is also accelerating.
The exact location of the impending Tiangong-1 crash is still a mystery, but it will likely hit somewhere 42.7 degrees north or south of the equator. The chances of Tiangong-1's re-entry are slightly higher in New Zealand, Tasmania, the northern states of the US, northern China, the Middle East, central Italy, northern Spain, and parts of South America and southern Africa.
If you'd like to track Tiangong-1 as it falls, there are several sites you can check:
As of Friday at 3 p.m., Tiangong-1 is at an altitude of about 110 miles, with approximately 44 hours to go until it re-enters Earth's atmosphere on April 1 at 15:15 UTC (give or take 14 hours), according to the Aerospace Corporation.
Aerospace's map, seen below, shows the station's approximate location in its orbit (as of Friday afternoon):
A map of Tiangong-1's orbit and current location as of May 30 at 3 p.m.The Aerospace Corporation
After just about any meeting, successful or note, it never hurts to follow up with a thank you note. It shows you respect your client's time and even if your product wasn't a good fit this time, your client knows you're a courteous, professional colleague he'd like to do business with again.
Email or snail mail? You know best; think about the client's company culture. Usually email is fine, especially if you're thanking for something informal like time.
Your tone is also something only you can gauge. When in doubt, more formal is better. You don't have to be cold or stuffy but do be respectful.
Here are a few examples you can customize to your own situation.
Example 1:
Dear Todd,
It was a pleasure meeting you yesterday. Your ideas on new approaches to sales in our region were insightful and a great help to me. Thank you for making time to meet with me and for sharing your thoughts.
Sincerely,
-----------------------------------------
Dear Dr. Price,
Thank you for seeing me yesterday. I appreciated the chance to discuss our new products with you. Your opinions are always helpful and interesting. I hope the latest product will fit your needs.
It's always a pleasure to see you!
Best Regards,
-----------------------------------------
Josh,
It was a pleasure to finally get a chance to meet you today. Your research project sounds very interesting and offers a compelling value proposition to to the mobile phone carriers. As discussed, my team has done extensive work in the type of data collection that your research requires.
Please let me know if I can provide you with more details about how we would work on the project.
Look forward to speaking with you soon.
-----------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
Thank you for your time today. Jack and I very much appreciated your input on our new business development strategy. I know that you have a number of demands on your schedule right now so the fact that you took as much time as you did to guide us is even more welcome.
We will be sure to circle back with you when the plan is finalized in order for you to provide your stamp of approval as well as any final comments.
Coach K is, unsurprisingly, the highest-paid man in college basketball. Michael Reaves/Getty Images
College basketball coaches can make a lot of money.
As revenue deals increase and schools compete to stay atop their conferences, both long-tenured coaches and impressive journeymen can come to make a ton of money with just a few years of repeated success.
That said, in order to get to the top of the coaching world in terms of compensation, you have to have been in the game for a long, long time.
A recent report from USA Today ranked the top-paid coaches in college basketball, including what's known about their bonuses and the cost of a potential buyout.
You can check out the highest-paid coaches for the 2017-18 season below. All conference title notes reference coaches' tenures with their current team.
Grammar is important regardless of the field you're in.Strelka Institute/Flickr
Poor writing can make others think you aren't intelligent.
I'm the executive editor of a magazine and know firsthand how grammar can change the meaning of a sentence.
Don't get caught up in miscommunication. Master these simple tips.
As the executive editor of Avenue Magazine, a luxury lifestyle publication based in New York City, I see the importance of proper grammar every day. But you don't have to work in publishing to realize the necessity of good writing. Misplaced commas, an incorrect spelling, or a missing hyphen can change the meaning of a sentence.
Language rules exist for clarity. A classic example is the sentence "Let's eat mom," which reads much differently from "Let's eat, mom." In the first, the writer is having her mom for dinner. In the second, she is urging her mom to eat with her.
Don't get caught up in an email chain of miscommunication. Read on for seven tips on how to improve your English expertise.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May visits textile producers Alex Begg during a tour of the United Kingdom, timed to coincide with one year until the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, in Ayr, Scotland, March 29, 2018.REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/Pool
UK Prime Minister Theresa May uses Easter manager to praise "bravery of those facing adversity."
"Britain has faced some dark moments," May says, including terror attacks in London and Manchester, and the Grenfell Tower blaze that claimed 71 lives.
LONDON — Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May used her Easter message to praise "the bravery of those facing adversity" after a year in which "Britain has faced some dark moments."
"Over the last year, Britain has faced some dark moments, from the terrorist attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge, at Manchester Arena and Finsbury Park, and the fire at Grenfell Tower," the Prime Minister said in a statement.
Six people died in a terror attack on Westminster Bridge last March and 50 more were injured. Eight people died and 48 were injured when armed men attacked people on London Bridge and in Borough Market in June last year. 22 people, including some children, were killed and 59 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester last May. One person died and nine others were injured when a man drove a van into a crowd outside a mosque in Finsbury Park last June. 71 people died in a blaze at Grenfell Tower in Kensington last June.
May said in her Easter message: "I know from speaking to the victims and survivors of these terrible events how vital the love and support they have received from their friends, family and neighbours has been to them as they begin to rebuild their lives.
"In the bravery of those facing adversity, the dedication of our emergency services, and the generosity of local communities, we see the triumph of the human spirit."
May faced criticism for her handling of the Grenfell Tower blaze last June. The Prime Minister did not initially visit victims of the fire and rapper Stormzy used his performance at the Brits in February to accuse the PM of forgetting about those effect by the disaster.
May, who is the daughter of a vicar, said in her seasonal message on Sunday: "The Easter story contains an inspiring promise of new life and the triumph of hope."
Here's the Prime Minister's full message:
Easter is the most important time in the Christian calendar.
A time when we remember Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and give thanks for the promise of redemption afforded by his resurrection.
Over the last year, Britain has faced some dark moments, from the terrorist attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge, at Manchester Arena and Finsbury Park, and the fire at Grenfell Tower.
I know from speaking to the victims and survivors of these terrible events how vital the love and support they have received from their friends, family and neighbours has been to them as they begin to rebuild their lives.
In the bravery of those facing adversity, the dedication of our emergency services, and the generosity of local communities, we see the triumph of the human spirit.
The Easter story contains an inspiring promise of new life and the triumph of hope.
For Christians around the world facing persecution, the message of the Cross and the resurrection help them to stand firm in their faith.
Here in Britain, Easter arrives with the coming of spring - a time of rebirth and renewal.
It is a chance for families to come together, to share a meal, to be outdoors and to enjoy the first stirring of nature after winter.
However you are spending this Easter, I hope that you have a happy and peaceful time.
Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud got the job at 34 because of her vision of doing things quite differently from YouTube and Netflix.Sarah Jacobs/Business Insider
Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud got the job in July because she had a vision for how to differentiate Vimeo from larger video services like YouTube and Netflix.
At 34, she's the youngest CEO of an IAC company.
She explained what it was like growing up in Flint, Michigan, and described career advice she learned from her father, an entrepreneur and immigrant.
Anjali Sud has always sought out opportunities that aren't easy — that seem intimidating at first.
She left Flint, Michigan, at 14 for the elite Massachusetts boarding school Phillips Academy on a scholarship. And she became the CEO of Vimeo at 34.
"I think that when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone, you get off that learning curve so much faster and you develop as a leader so much faster," she told Business Insider in an episode of our podcast "Success! How I Did It."
Vimeo is an ad-free video platform for filmmakers, who Sud calls "creators." The videos on Vimeo generally have a higher production value than those on YouTube.
Sud worked at Vimeo for three years before getting the CEO job in July. Vimeo's owners weren't sure where they wanted to take the company, but they ultimately decided that Sud, who was leading the team working with filmmakers, had the best plan.
It was an opportunity she told me she wasn't expecting — so that's why she had to take it.
Read her full interview with Business Insider below:
Listen to the full episode here:
Subscribe to "Success! How I Did It" on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Check out previous episodes with:
The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
Anjali Sud: As I was leading that business, and as that business continued to get traction, the world around us sort of changed when it came to original content. We started to see companies — not just Netflix, but many others — spending billions of dollars on content, and it sort of became clear that we weren't really going to be solving a problem that wasn't already being solved.
On the other side, creator opportunity was just so big and was only growing, and we felt that we had a really unique story and a role to play.
Richard Feloni: Can you explain what Vimeo's approach is and how that would be different from, say, YouTube?
Sud: It is different from a YouTube. YouTube is providing tools specifically to get creators to get eyeballs and audience as they build their ad business.
Vimeo builds relationships with filmmakers. Vimeo
But Vimeo, we are sort of a platform-agnostic company. We provide creators with the tools to create video, review rough cuts, share them with their team members, use very advanced privacy tools. Then when they want to distribute those videos, we actually help them distribute not just on their own websites, but all over social media, including on YouTube and Facebook.
In many ways, we're not really a substitute to YouTube — we're actually an enabler in helping creators distribute and monetize their work anywhere.
Feloni: Maybe like a creator on YouTube, you could have this 14-year-old kid talking to his webcam, but with Vimeo, you're going to have an actual film-production team.
Sud: Yeah. Vimeo started off really as a community for independent filmmakers and for the video professionals, everyone from a freelancer to the videographer.
What's interesting is that now technology has enabled more and more types of professional creators, so what we actually see is every startup, every small business, every school, every church is using video now to communicate with their audiences, and in many cases, they want really professional-level tools.
They don't want to see ads on their videos and not be able to control or own that experience. They want to be able to control and own the customers who are watching those videos. In many cases, they actually want to build their own businesses on video. We actually provide the tools and technology to build your own Netflix and go directly to your own consumers. That's actually one of our fastest-growing businesses.
Feloni: Since there are no ads on Vimeo, how do you guys make money from this relationship?
Sud: We are, in today's nomenclature, a classic SaaS business, similar to a Dropbox or a Slack.
Feloni: What is SaaS?
Sud: Software as a service. You can use Vimeo's tools — you can use a basic version for free. Then you subscribe to an annual plan to get access to more professional services.
We do not make any money from advertising, which is fairly rare for a company of our size in the video space, and it's a really important part of our strategy, because we aren't incentivized to keep an audience on Vimeo — we don't want to monetize that audience. That means that we can actually make choices that we believe are really better for creators. That's why we can do things like help them get distribution out everywhere.
Feloni: Yeah, so it's the creator base, not necessarily the viewer base?
Sud: Exactly.
From Flint to Phillips Academy
Feloni: I want to talk about your story as well. You grew up in Flint, Michigan?
Sud: Yeah!
Feloni: What was that like?
Sud: Flint is a town that once had a very booming economy, and then as the auto industry left has really struggled for decades from a poverty perspective, crime, and then more recently health, with the water crisis.
Honestly, my experience growing up was as part of a wonderful community of loving, caring people, most of whom are still there today, including my family. So I think sometimes Flint probably gets a worse rap than the reality.
Flint, Michigan, a town that boomed when General Motors employed much of its population, has for decades struggled with poverty. Thomson Reuters Feloni: Is it tough to see that?
Sud: I think it's great that there's more emphasis, information, and the world is hearing more about what happened in Flint. I think that for many people, we hear about things happening outside the US, and people forget that in the US itself we have this dislocation. I think it's great that there's more awareness; I guess on a personal level, it's always a bit hard.
But I grew up in a town where you could see the impact that business can have on a community. My dad has his own plastics-recycling plant in Flint and was a big believer in how business can help create jobs for the local Flint community.
When I think about my role today at Vimeo, I really love the fact that Vimeo as a business can influence the creator community. I think that tie-in is something that influenced me. I come at it from more of an optimistic angle, which is the power that business can have to positively influence a community.
Feloni: Your parents were immigrants from India. What brought them to Flint?
Sud: They just settled in Flint because that's where they got jobs, and we had a really great — small, but great — Indian community there. They had left all their family and friends, so that was really important. They settled there, and they like it. I grew up in a family that was very interested in doing things to be an active part of the community. I certainly think that is part of what drives me.
Feloni: How do you think you've taken that to your role at Vimeo?
Sud: At Vimeo, we're a technology company, we're a SaaS company, but at the same time, we do invest a lot in our community on the platform, whether that's going out to festivals and conversations, and being out on the ground, and hearing from the creators about what their needs are.
We also have a whole team that sits at Vimeo and watches videos from our community and actually highlights some of the best work that's happening on the platform, not via algorithms, but more about the stuff you would never find. We've actually seen an enormous number of careers get launched on Vimeo because of that visibility.
That's the kind of certain empowerment that I think Vimeo can provide to our community. For me, that's one of the most meaningful parts of the job.
Feloni: You want a connection with your customers as opposed to just seeing them as numbers, basically?
Sud: Yeah. The other thing is that community can provide inspiration, right? Every day, there are new types of creators. They watch what others are making on Vimeo, and it makes them want to try to create.
Now, again, technology is making it so much easier to create video that I think we will continue to see more diverse types of creators on the platform, largely driven from the community.
Feloni: You ended up going out east to Massachusetts — Phillips Academy, this elite boarding school. How did you end up there?
Sud: It's a funny story.
So I was 13 at the time, and I was with my dad at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and we happened to walk past a book that was "The Best High Schools in America," and we just started flipping through it.
I didn't know there was a thing called prep schools; I didn't know that was a thing that existed. And it was sort of this moment where, like, "Wait, hold on — even though I'm sitting here in Flint, I could get access to a totally different kind of education than what I am getting, say, in public school."
We didn't really know what we were doing. My dad bought me the book. The next day, I started applying. I applied to maybe 30 schools, ranging from a military academy to a Catholic school. I really didn't know anything.
Feloni: This was your idea, not your parents' idea?
Sud: Yeah. It was more of an experiment. I was curious about what this world was outside of what I knew — and sort of through a lot of random steps, ending up getting into Phillips Academy, and after getting in, realizing that this was actually one of the best schools in America.
Phillips Academy Andover, one of the most prestigious prep schools in the US, has a college-like atmosphere.Facebook/phillipsacademy
My dad and mom drove me in our minivan there for the interview. You walk on this campus, and there's literal ivy on the buildings, and it's like the nicest place. They have their own museum.
I think once I saw it, I sort of realized, "Oh man, I'm never going to be able to just go back and stay in Flint and not give this a shot." It's just this world I never even knew existed. I left when I was 14.
Feloni: Was it at that point like, "Oh, I want to go to an Ivy League school and then get this job or that"? Were you thinking that far ahead?
Sud: No, I wasn't. Honestly, it was more about getting a better education.
I wasn't used to being around kids my age who were so intellectually stimulating, who were kind of like masters in their craft. I think for me, it was super intimidating and terrifying, but also really inspiring to see kids my age pursuing their interests. It was really that that drew me.
Feloni: What was your interest at this point?
Sud: I was really into chemistry. I was a science person, so that was sort of my thing. I always liked math and science. I was very interested in business because of my upbringing and particularly my dad's work, so I always thought I wanted to do something like that, but you know, you're in high school —
Feloni: To start a business, maybe, or something?
Sud: Yeah, I always thought maybe I could be an entrepreneur.
The truth is that as I got older, by the time I got to college, I kind of knew that I wasn't likely to be an entrepreneur myself, and the reason was just that I was really attracted to finding companies and problems where I could add value and help take something from growth stage to a whole other level.
Feloni: When did you realize that?
Sud: Probably by the time I was in college. I was surrounded by people who were really focused on finances, surrounded by entrepreneurs. And I think you just sort of become self-aware over time about what are the things that you're drawn to.
I had a job working as a consultant for other small businesses, and I just realized that helping them — I loved sitting with a woman who had just started a flower shop in Philadelphia and helping her think about her business plan and how she could grow it. I think that's when I realized that maybe instead of being the entrepreneur myself, what I really wanted to do was help really grow businesses.
Seeking opportunities to grow
Feloni: That path from Phillips to Wharton to Harvard Business School, that's like the prototype for a career on Wall Street, basically. How did you not end up as a Wall Street executive?
Sud: I did do investment banking right out of college! But I always knew I was not going to be an investment banker.
I did it for really one reason, which is I wanted to be really well-versed in finance, and I wanted to see how value was created and destroyed. I specifically worked in mergers and acquisitions because I wanted to develop that skill set. I always went in there with the view of "let me get the best training that I can, and hopefully I can take that and use it in the context of a business." I think that has largely been true for me.
On my first 90 days on the job as CEO of Vimeo, we did our biggest acquisition in our history: We acquired a company called Livestream. And that experience of having worked in mergers and acquisitions and seen it a bunch of times really helped me.
For me, it was really never about Wall Street, but it was about getting a really valuable skill set that I thought would make me a better leader.
Feloni: On your way to Vimeo, you worked at Amazon and Time Warner. At this point, did you still have an idea of what you wanted to get from each of these companies? Did you have a clear path in mind?
Sud: I knew I wanted to do finance first and get the experience, then I wanted to transition into an operational role. The reality is that it's hard to transition into an operational role when you're a banker.
When I was in business school, I applied to every startup in the city, and nobody really wanted me because I didn't have a great skill set for them. I had been doing mergers and acquisitions — most early-stage startups don't need that as an in-house job. I really struggled to transition.
Amazon was the opportunity that I had. I started at Amazon in a finance capacity in their corporate business development team in Seattle. Then after doing my summer internship there, I convinced them to give me an operational role, my first real operational role. I was a toy buyer; I worked in the toy category. And I remember I was the Javits Center Toy Fair, over here in New York, writing purchase orders for Melissa & Doug toys.
After a stint at Amazon, Sud joined Vimeo in 2014 as its head of marketing. Vimeo
It was my first real operational role. I had no idea what I was doing, no experience. And a big credit to Amazon — over the years that I was there, I was able to move into several different operational roles and get a really nice breadth of experience as an operator.
Feloni: IAC, which is Vimeo's parent company, is a big media conglomerate. They spent a year looking for a new CEO. Did you volunteer yourself? Did you actively go for this role?
Sud: I didn't explicitly raise my hand for the role, because I didn't really — it didn't occur to me that that would make sense. At the time, we were looking to do our own original content and programming play, and I would not be the right person to lead that. It wasn't explicit.
At the same time, I definitely implicitly was advocating for this other strategy, and I was leading the creator business — it was going well. I was definitely very patient about continuing to remind everyone of how well it was going and what a great opportunity it was. I think that certainly influenced the decision.
Feloni: When you saw the effectiveness of the strategy, did that give you an indication like "I could do this"?
Sud: Yeah, for sure. It definitely gave me an indication that I felt the strategy was right. Everything I believed about Vimeo, what's wrong with the industry, and what we could accomplish as a business — I was getting validation, and it definitely made me trust my gut around where we should grow.
I would be lying if I said it really occurred to me that this path would happen the way it unfolded.
Learning to swim in the deep end
Feloni: IAC's chairman, Barry Diller, he's got this unique philosophy where he doesn't like to hire outside CEOs — he prefers to get homegrown talent and kind of throw them into the deep end, see if they could rise to the challenge. Do you see that dynamic there with you?
Sud: Absolutely. I'm the perfect example of that strategy, and I'm obviously a beneficiary of it, but I also am a really big believer in it as a philosophy.
We're trying to build a company that also creates those accelerated career paths for people that gives them an opportunity to throw themselves in the deep end of the pool and own things that they might not normally get a chance to own. It's a trial-by-fire approach, but I think it rewards results and talent over pedigree, and that can be really powerful.
Feloni: When you have this kind of an approach that's ingrained in a company like IAC, does that inspire you? Is that scary at all, knowing that you're a part of this kind of experiment?
Sud: No, I think it's really exciting.
Honestly, it's a really eye-opening experience to work with people like Barry Diller — he's a visionary who has shaped the media industry for 40 years. The culture at IAC I would describe as one that's very intellectually honest, and it's very results-driven. I personally happen to be someone who likes that kind of cultural environment.
Feloni: You connect with it.
Sud: I connect with it. I think many of the people that come to Vimeo and that come to IAC also possess that. There's not a lot of politics. There's no ego. It's very intellectually honest. I think for me, it's been great.
Feloni: IAC's CEO, Joey Levin, he told Reuters earlier this year that he wants Vimeo to bring in $100 million in revenue, reach 1 million paid subscribers, and that it's IAC's biggest nonpublic opportunity. He states this publicly. How did you see this?
Sud: I'm totally aligned with that view. I think Vimeo is IAC's next big bet, and it's a next big bet for a reason.
Barry Diller, IAC's chairman, believes that a homegrown young executive who rises to a challenge will always be better than a veteran hire from the outside. Michael Seto/Business Insider
We put together our strategic plan for Vimeo. We've worked closely with Joey — he was our interim CEO for a year. He knows the business incredibly well, and I very much agree with him that those are our goals for the year and that we're going to accomplish them.
I think it's a really great time for video creators and for SaaS companies. Vimeo is in a really special place. We have an incredible brand, we have scale, and we combine technology and community in a way that no one else does.
So I think everything he's saying is what I'm in full agreement with.
Feloni: Having this go public motivates you?
Sud: Yeah, absolutely. I think it does, but it does to the extent that what's motivating is the ability to invest to achieve our mission: to empower creators to tell their stories.
What I think is exciting is having IAC's backing and knowing that if we want to be aggressive, we can make smart but big bets to capitalize on this opportunity and fulfill our mission, whether that is through investing more in the team, or in marketing, or in M&A, or improving our tool set — that we can do that. I think that's the beauty of being part of the IAC family.
Feloni: What motivates you in general?
Sud: The community aspect is a big one for me. Realizing the impact of what we're building and what that impact can have on people's lives and their livelihood is a big deal.
Feloni: Is that something you've thought of throughout your career?
Sud: Yeah, for sure. I mean, certainly there have been jobs where I haven't had that much at that time. What's awesome is when I think about my role today, I get to meet a lot of the people who are being impacted by the tools we're providing. That's a huge thing.
I think the other thing for me that's a big motivator is the team. Because I'm an internal promotion, I now lead a team of people who I worked personally with in the trenches for years.
Feloni: So that's the advantage instead of just bringing in an outsider CEO?
Sud: Yeah. I know them — I know them really well — and I care about them. We are a team that's together working towards this. That's also very motivating.
Feloni: You were saying how your dad, he's got a recycling company, right? In Flint?
Sud: Yes. Plastics recycling.
Feloni: Have you called him up for advice as CEO?
Sud: Yeah, for sure. I go to my dad for advice all the time. When I was offered this job, he was the first person I called.
Feloni: What was that call like?
Sud: He claims he saw it coming, which is, I think — I don't know if that's true. He said, "You'd be crazy not to take it."
My dad's given me great advice. Probably one piece of advice that I give to others that he's given to me is to live outside of your comfort zone. It speaks somewhat to the philosophy of "put yourself in positions where you might not have a ton of experience."
It's something I feel like I've done my whole life. Leaving home at 14, going to Andover, where I didn't know really anything, I was definitely outside my comfort zone then. In many of the roles I've had at Amazon and certainly at Vimeo, I've been in situations where it wasn't like I had the playbook and I knew exactly what to do.
I think that when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone, you get off that learning curve so much faster and you develop as a leader so much faster. I tell people to get comfortable doing that and do it as early as you can in your career.
Feloni: Would you recommend someone seek out opportunities like that? And if they feel that they're in a weird spot, it might be over their head, then that's good? How do you balance that?
Sud: I think — and I'd say this for most young people, but I would always say particularly for women — create your own opportunities. I absolutely think you should seek those out.
I would even say one sort of tip I have for how you create your own opportunities is look where others aren't looking. One of the reasons I was given ownership of the creator side of the business is because it wasn't, at the time, the area that was getting all the focus and attention, so they could take more of a chance on me.
That's not a bad strategy — it gives you an opportunity to own something yourself, especially if you're passionate about it. It gives you an opportunity to own that thing and maybe get an experience that you wouldn't normally get if you just went down the standard track.
Becoming a leader
Sud, second from left, with members of her Vimeo team in their New York headquarters. Vimeo
Feloni: You were saying that this approach helped you become a better leader. What are some insights that you've had in your role as CEO?
Sud: One is, for me, leadership is about doing the hard thing or the right thing, even when it's not the popular thing. That was a big lesson for me, because when you're young and you're moving up in your career, often you have to be well-regarded and popular to do well and to be able to have people want to work with you.
As a leader, I find now that often you're in a situation where you may be the only one in the world with all the information or all the contacts. Sometimes, you have to make decisions that aren't going to be popular or that people might not fully understand.
Feloni: Can you give an example?
Sud: When I took over as CEO, we pivoted away from this strategy to build Vimeo as an entertainment destination. That meant in the first couple weeks on the job, we had to make a lot of changes. We had to shut down parts of the business. We had to shut down offices and teams, and reallocate teams. That's hard, especially when you're stepping in for the first time.
But it was also my job to bring clarity and focus to the company. We had to be razor-focused on our mission. Our teams and our organizational structure needed to reflect that. I think that's an example of sometimes you have to do things that aren't easy.
Another thing that I really feel like is important in the way that I lead at Vimeo is transparency. I always say to my team that, to the extent possible, I will keep it real. We do open Q&A with the team regularly. We have lots of mechanisms through which we ensure that everybody is able to give their ideas, their feedback, as part of our strategic planning process, as part as any new initiatives that we roll out.
I think having that transparent culture is really important, especially when you're in a very fast-paced industry that's changing all the time. When you're a CEO, you can often develop blind spots, and you can often surround yourself with people who will just tell you "yes" instead of telling you what's honestly happening. Building that culture where everyone is comfortable being honest and keeping it real I think for us leads to better decision-making.
Feloni: What do you think the biggest challenge you faced in your career has been?
Sud: It's hard. Probably the biggest challenge has been having the guts to raise my hand for stuff. It is uncomfortable sometimes to feel — I've been accused of being too impatient in my career. Especially as a woman, I think there's always this "Ah, I don't want people to think I'm being too ambitious." But the truth is I am deeply impatient.
There have been times in my career where I felt like I really wanted an opportunity, but that opportunity didn't make sense. Actually, in those instances, I've been willing to walk away. But having the ability to do that and not question and second-guess yourself and wonder if you're being impatient has probably been the hardest part.
Feloni: With the repetition of that, you learn to trust yourself.
Sud: Yeah, and I was being impatient, and I knew it. There was that question of "Shouldn't I just play by the rules, and sit and wait, and just do what I'm supposed to do?" Then at some point, I just had to think back to my core, and I was like, "No, I'm not going to do that."
Feloni: How do you define success?
Sud: I define success for Vimeo in terms of our ability, long-term, to fulfill our mission — how are we going to help video creators in fundamental and life-changing ways?
Then for myself, I define success in terms of my ability to positively impact my community and the world around me through business. It's why I love business — there's no limit to the impact that you can have. You're not constrained by the number of hours of the day or the amount of dollars on your balance sheet. You can have this disproportionate amount of impact.
For me, that's really powerful. It's definitely the thing that I get up every day and I say, "I get to be the CEO of Vimeo!" And that's why I'm so excited!
David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and survivor of the February 14 shooting that took place at that school.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The national conversation about guns in America has been hijacked in recent days by a controversy between a Fox News host and David Hogg, one of the student leaders of the gun-control movement that erupted following February's mass shooting at a high school in Florida.
Ingraham and Hogg traded barbs this week after the TV pundit personally attacked Hogg for complaining about not getting accepted into a few universities.
But amid the feud, the debate over guns in America rages on.
Here's what Hogg and other gun control activists are trying to achieve.
The controversy between Fox News host Laura Ingraham and a 17-year-old Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist whom she mocked on Twitter continues to make headlines.
On Wednesday, Ingraham tweeted a link to a news article about David Hogg having received rejection letters from several California schools and said he "whines about it."
Hogg picked up on Ingraham's comments, tweeting "Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers...Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts."
Although Ingraham later issued an apology to Hogg, the damage was already done. So far, a dozen companies have withdrawn their advertisements from Ingraham's show.
But amid the feud, the debate over guns in America rages on.
Earlier this week, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote an op-ed in The New York Times urging a repeal of the Second Amendment.
Meanwhile, the Never Again movement, a gun control advocacy group formed by Hogg and fellow Parkland shooting survivors, continues its push for stricter gun laws.
Many manufacturers create brilliantly designed keys to add to the experience of driving their cars.
Key wristbands, mobile apps, and touchscreen keys are just a few of the innovative ways carmakers are improving keys
The excitement around innovative car exteriors often overshadows smaller details like a car key. But from simple, sleek key fobs to high-tech designs that ditch the physical key all-together, car makers are constantly trying to create keys as innovative and well-designed as the cars themselves.
Here's a look at some of our favorite key designs:
Business Insider's Aaron Brown wrote a previous version of this article.
I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of these. Well, maybe I'd spend a little less and get the Buick LaCrosse or the Chevy Impala. But then again, I wouldn't have a Cadillac. Part of me wants that badge on the grille so I can pretend I'm Fast Eddie Felson in the "The Color of Money."
We're definitely not talking about a modern sedan here. The XTS V-Sport isn't crisp-handling, nor is it breathtakingly quick, although with a 0-60 mph time of around 5.5 seconds, it isn't at all slow. Its mission in life is to tool along the highway in a steady state of speed. The V-Sport treatment isn't as aggressive as what you'd get in, say, the epic CTS-V, with its hulking V8 engine shared with the Corvette Z06.
But we are talking about a Cadillac that serves up the best of both worlds. While you wouldn't want to take this thing out on a race track, with that gutsy twin-turbo six under the hood, you won't feel even remotely underpowered on the highway. But better than that, you're going to feel like Mr. Smooth motoring around town as you one-hand steer the XTS in and out of driveways, parking lots, and garages. You float like a great big supercool butterfly in this sucker, and you could care less about stinging like a bee.
Frankly, with Cadillac's terrific Bose audio setup, there might be no better vehicle under $100,000 for driving around and listening to jazz and blues. The XTS V-Sport simply sets a marvelous mood.
Ok, true, you might consider this a bit of an old person's car. But so what? Once you're done blasting around in sports cars and hauling your family in a minivan, you might just want to settle into a set of wheels that's largely mellow but with some extra oomph in reserve.
As we learned when we tested the Impala a few years back, a sedan of ample size and calm ride, when coupled with GM's current suite of audio and infotainment features, is an appealing, rolling, high-tech platform. Mind you, the XTS V-Sport has a heads-up display, driver-assist features (such as parking assist, foward collision alert, and lane-departure warning, and a useful bird-eye-view camera setup), and adaptive cruise control, but it doesn't do semi-self-driving. And that's fine because it was such a pleasant car to drive all by myself that I didn't miss the autonomous stuff.
Here's the bottom line: The XTS V-Sport is a car in which you can set out on a drive of several hours and get some serious thinking done. It is a machine for meditation. A road-tripper that encourages contemplation.
No, it isn't the snazziest Caddy in the stable. But it's my new favorite.
"Direct to consumer" genetics tests have soared in popularity in recent years as the cost of genetics sequencing has plummeted.
AncestryDNA, Helix, and 23andMe are some of the companies offering the tests.
But 23andMe is the only one with approval from the Food and Drug Administration to include information about breast-cancer risk based on three mutations on the BRCA 1 and 2 genes.
Experts say a "negative" result on 23andMe's test may be give some people a false sense of security that they are not at risk for the disease.
The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but spit is increasingly the portal to your health.
The consumer genetics company 23andMe recently got a green light from the US Food and Drug Administration to include information on breast-cancer risk in its online customer reports, based on screening for three of the multiple genetic mutations linked to the disease. But the new test could be dangerously misleading, according to several genetics experts in the industry who spoke with Business Insider about the new test.
23andMe is one of a handful of new companies offering spit-in-a-tube genetics tests that don't require a doctor, also known as direct-to-consumer genetic testing. The tests have soared in popularity in recent years as the cost of genetics sequencing has plummeted.
According to 23andMe, the company has taken multiple steps to ensure that customers do not misinterpret their results. Still, experts say many people could be misled because they fail to read the so-called fine print.
The problem with 23andMe's new test is simple, according to John Witte, the program leader for the cancer genetics program at the University of California at San Francisco. If you do 23andMe's most recent genetics test and come up "negative" for the three cancer-linked mutations it screens for, you may believe your cancer risk is either low or nonexistent.
But it isn't.
That's something 23andMe clearly states in the report that will accompany the new test, Andy Kill, a representative for 23andMe, told Business Insider. The company's report will include a mandatory eight-page "education module" that customers must complete before they can see their results. It contains the following statement:
"Women without a variant are still at risk of developing cancer. It's important to continue with any cancer screenings your healthcare provider recommends."
Despite all those warnings, Witte and other experts believe the test could still be troublesome — especially for people who don't thoroughly read all of that information.
"There are many other genetic variants that are linked to breast cancer that wouldn't be picked up by 23andMe's test," Witte said. "A 'negative test' just means you don't carry one of the three mutations it tests for. That's all it means."
Angelina Jolie and the importance of genetic counselors
Ethan Miller/Getty Images 23andMe's latest test, which will be available to customers in the coming weeks, reveals whether you have a mutation on two genes that have been found to be closely linked to breast and ovarian cancer — also known as the BRCA genes.
The actress Angelina Jolie brought public awareness to the mutations when she made the decision to have her breasts and ovaries removed after testing positive for the BRCA1 mutation.
The problem with a genetics report coming without accompanying information from a doctor or genetic counselor, experts say, is that testing positive or negative for the mutations doesn't reveal whether you'll get breast cancer. It is merely one of several factors, including things like family history, ancestry, and lifestyle, that ultimately determine the development of the disease. To understand the next steps you should take, you should have a physician or a genetics counselor at hand, Witte said.
Jolie did not make the decision to have her breasts and ovaries removed solely because she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, which interferes with how genes — the blueprint for the proteins that make up cells — function. As she wrote in a 2015 essay for The New York Times, Jolie also had a family history of breast cancer, and that strongly influenced her choice.
Normally, BRCA genes function as safeguards against cancer. They protect cells from growing out of control and developing into the disease. Healthy BRCA genes repair genetic errors that can occur when cells multiply, for example, which is why an improperly functioning or mutated BRCA gene — though rare among the general population— can sharply increase cancer risk.
It's the job of a physician or genetic counselor to walk through all of this dense, complicated information with a patient.
"I hope the people who take this test have genetic counselors," Witte said. "I hope people will at least go see their doctor."
Other limitations of the new test
Because BRCA mutations are so rare among the general population, 23andMe's new test holds real value only for people with Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, Pamela Munster, a professor of oncology at the University of California at San Francisco who is a coleader of the Center for BRCA Research, said in an email. For people with Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, the chances of inheriting the mutation are 10 times as high as they are for the general population, of whom only 0.25% have the mutation.
"If you're Ashkenazi Jewish, those are the most common ones for that population, but I don't know that that distinction is going to come through to the average person," Witte said.
The new test does not address breast-cancer risk variants that are unusually common among members of other populations, such as people with Latino/Latina heritage, Witte added.
"I do know that in the Latino/Latina populations there are other variants linked with breast cancer risk. So the test isn't going to be very informative for them. But the point is — will they know that it's non-informative? That's a concern."
Kill, the 23andMe representative, said the new test underwent months of FDA review and was safe: "The BRCA-related report is in the same format as our other genetic health risk reports which have undergone extensive user comprehension studies submitted to FDA."
Tech stocks have been going through a rough patch, with the Nasdaq 100 dropping 8% over the past seven trading sessions.
One statistic suggests that increased volatility — and its accompanying stock losses — may just be getting underway.
If you think things have gotten bad for tech stocks, you'd better strap in, because the turbulence may just be getting started.
At least that's what one stock market measure is suggesting.
An index tracking the 30-day expected volatility in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is trading at its highest level since 2006, relative to a similar measure of implied price swings in the S&P 500. In fact, conditions got so dicey on Wednesday that the spread between the two so-called fear gauges went as far as to hit a 13-year high at one point.
Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bloomberg
That's terrible news for tech traders, who have already endured an 8% decline in the Nasdaq 100 over the past seven trading days — a rough patch that was kick-started by a privacy scandal at Facebook. And the industry's woes don't stop at Facebook, with headwinds rocking the stock prices of other massive companies like Apple, Amazon, and Tesla.
The fact that volatility expectations are spiking for tech suggests investors see no end in sight for the ongoing turmoil. Not to mention that, from a more ominous perspective, wide price swings have historically signaled the final stage of a market cycle.
But wait a minute, you might be saying. Doesn't volatility represent more opportunity for skilled fundamental investors?
That's true to a degree. But throughout history, the S&P 500's measure, known as the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, has traded inversely to the benchmark roughly 80% of the time. So if higher volatility is in store for the tech sector, it's likely to be accompanied by stock losses.
It's possible that investors will use weakness in tech as a way to boost exposure at discount share prices. But considering the way the volatility regime seems to have shifted into a choppier stage, they'd be well-advised to do so with extreme caution.
Retirement looks different for the world's richest people. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is pictured with Gwyneth Paltrow. Mike Windle / Getty
Retirement is inevitable, even for the world's richest people.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk will retire eventually.
Below, the world's richest people share their dream retirement plans.
It's hard to imagine the world's richest CEOs stepping down from their empires.
For some, like Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, they can't imagine it either. For others, like Bill Gates, handing over the reins wasn't so hard to do.
With billions of dollars to their name and a behemoth company under their wing, a bigwig CEO's retirement might look a little different than the norm, whether it's prolonged working or a life of leisure.
But, that's not to say their retirement plans can't inspire your own golden years.
Here, 12 of the world's richest CEOs on what retirement looks like to them — and what lessons you can steal from those ideals.
The Tesla Model 3. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Tesla boosters are seeing their story tested by a deluge of negative news about the company.
This distracts from what Tesla has actually achieved.
The company doesn't need to take over the world to be successful.
Gene Munster, a former technology analyst, now a venture capitalist, thinks Tesla will take over the world.
But on the heels of a recall last week, along with some other negative news, Munster admits that his patience is being tested.
"[D]o we still believe in the story?" he asks in a research post on the Loup Ventures site. "The answer is yes. Our support is based on a view that the company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on a dramatic shift in auto (computer on wheels), innovate in both EV and autonomy, and usher in a new paradigm of manufacturing efficiencies."
This is, of course, wrong. Tesla isn't anymore uniquely positioned than Waymo and Jaguar, which announced a self-driving-vehicle partnership last week, or General Motors, which has been selling thousands of all-electric Chevy Bolts, a sub-$40,000 car that the automaker rolled out in 2016, more than a year ahead of the Tesla Model 3.
Tesla is part of a transportation ecosystem where a tremendous amount of experimentation and investment is taking place. And in the grand scheme of things, Tesla is a minor player. Yes, it attracts outsized buzz due to the celebrity of CEO Elon Musk. But this is a carmaker that took 15 years to break the 100,000-cars-per-year production barrier.
Tesla is also a carmaker that fans see as both disruptive and embattled, which is also wrong. A company selling 100,000 vehicles annually, at an average price of $100,000, isn't disrupting anything. Rather, it's adding to the mix of luxury vehicles in the market.
Nor is Tesla under assault by competitors. In fact, the rest of the auto industry — contrary to what Musk often says about traditional companies wanting to kill Tesla off — is happy to watch Tesla take all the risks involved with electric vehicles and admires the emergence of a brave, new brand.
Concocting a story that doesn't match reality
Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Joe Skipper/Reuters
Tesla enthusiasts such as Munster, however, find themselves in a weird position. Profitability has long been a measure of success in the auto industry, which is hugely capital-intensive. But Tesla has never really made any money. Growth in the car business is determined by sales, but with the exception of China, sales growth is constrained in most markets. But Munster thinks Tesla could be selling 11 million cars a year in just the US, a 65% share in a market where the biggest company, GM, now has less than 20%.
Consequently, Tesla boosters have concocted a story that entails a radical remaking of mobility and how we relate to automobiles. This goes miles beyond Tesla commercializing a propulsion technology that's been around for over a century. I'd even wager that to call it a "story" is quaintly misdirected. At the extremes, it's a fantasy.
A lucrative fantasy, as it turns out. Even with Tesla's stock swoon of the past month, down close to 30%, if you'd bought after the 2010 IPO, you'd still be sitting on a nearly 900% return. For eight years, Tesla has been a great way to trade to the future.
It is worth it to know when a fantasy or a story is colliding with reality and becoming something else. From Tesla's point of view, the cars aren't even the full tale: ever since late 2016, when Tesla acquired SolarCity, the firm has been a holding company with an integrated vision about sustainable energy. Electric cars are just one piece of that strategy.
But for the moment, Tesla is still overwhelmingly a car company because that's where the money is being brought and being spent. And that aspect of the narrative is the one that's coming under tremendous pressure.
An information vacuum for investors
Tesla's factory. Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
Why? Simple: investors have nothing else to go on. It's easy to tell how Toyota and GM are faring. Just look at how much money they're making, what their return in invested capital is, how many assets they have, and how much cash they've stocked away to weather a sales downturn.
Tesla won't even tell investors how many vehicles it's selling every month — we have to wait until the close of a quarter to get those numbers — and the earnings reports every three months are simply opportunities to assess how much money the company is losing, and to get updates on ambitious production targets that aren't being met.
The cars are cool, Musk is an exciting personality, and Tesla has ridden a story that's very much of Silicon Valley and its values, rather than the more plodding, execution-based narrative that Detroit has cranked out for decades. But ultimately, the Tesla investment narrative is starved for meaningful plot points. That why Munster can have a minor crisis of confidence over something as trivial as a power-steering recall — a defect that a big carmaker would deal with in a month and move on.
Actually, this is the only really unique thing about Tesla. If the company beats expectations by a few thousand sales, the markets go bonkers. Accidents can send the stock into a tailspin. The fundamentals are objectively not very good. Lately, all anybody wants to talk about is the company's financial situation, which, technically speaking, isn't that far from bankruptcy (despite that, bankruptcy is unlikely, for now).
Meanwhile, there are plenty of wonderful stories coming out of Tesla that have nothing to do with computers on wheels or how seductively unique the company is. The Model 3 has been a struggle, but the Model S and Model X luxury business is actually pretty solid. Tesla is nowhere near what Waymo is doing with self-driving tech, but its Autopilot technology is, with Cadillac's Super Cruise system, the best cruise control money can buy.
It causes me pain to see the good Tesla story subsumed by the need to push this nonsensical, world-changing fantasy to ever-more-skeptical investors. Tesla has been a great tale for a decade and a half. It can stay that way without taking over the world.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is the best of Wall Street's top executives, according to ratings from investors compiled by Procensus.
Of the nine global bank CEOs rated, Dimon ranked the highest overall as well as in four of the six "competencies" the CEOs were judged on.
Morgan Stanley's James Gorman came in second, and he beat out Dimon on ratings for market communication and hitting financial plans and targets.
While the top-rated CEOs had strong stock performance, it wasn't a perfect indicator of investor favor. Citigroup's Michael Corbat ranked seventh despite the bank's strong performance in the past year.
JPMorgan Chase dominates nearly every Wall Street business, so it's not exactly a shock that investors consider Jamie Dimon the best of all the big-bank CEOs.
But Dimon isn't the top performer in every competency required of a Wall Street executive. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman is superior at market communication and executing on company plans and financial targets, according to a wide swath of buy-side investors.
Procensus, a data company that aggregates and analyzes investor sentiment, has compiled ratings of the CEOs of major financial companies based on the opinions of more than 1,350 investors across 448 institutions. The ratings, which are on a five-point scale and algorithmically weighted toward recency, judge the overall stewardship as well as specific competencies of CEOs.
Half of the opinions come from hedge funders and half from long-only money managers. (Read more about Procensus.)
Of the nine major global bank CEOs with a high volume of investor opinions registered, Dimon ranked No. 1, with an overall score of 4.62.
Gorman came in second with a score of 4.53, trailed by Brian Moynihan, the CEO Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who earned a score of 4.49.
These banks have all been strong performers in the past year — each has posted a one-year total return above 25% — so their endorsement from big-time money managers adds up.
Lloyd Blankfein, who reports indicate could step down as CEO of Goldman Sachs as early as this year, ranked fourth.
But stock performance doesn't always correspond with investor sentiment. Citigroup's Michael Corbat ranks seventh despite a total return in the past year of 17.7%, behind Deutsche Bank's John Cryan and Wells Fargo's Timothy Sloan, whose beleaguered firms have posted negative total returns in the past year.
Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam ranks dead last despite a total return the past year of 19.4%, though that figure is buoyed in part by aggressive share buybacks and dividends. Credit Suisse has been undergoing a restructuring since 2015.
Here are the ratings of the Wall Street CEOs, according to Procensus:
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan, 4.63 (Total return: 25.3%)
James Gorman, Morgan Stanley, 4.53 (Total return: 26.1%)
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America, 4.49 (Total return: 28.6%)
Procensus also rates the CEOs on six "competencies."
In addition to overall stewardship, Dimon was rated the highest in "Strategic Vision & Ability to Allocate Capital," "Strength & Breadth of Management Bench," "Understanding of Financial Detail," and "Industry Knowledge."
He came in second, behind Gorman, in "Ability to execute on Plans & Targets" and "Market Communication."
Given that Citigroup has performed well, where do investors think Corbat is lacking? He came in second to last in industry knowledge, beating out only Thiam. He came in seventh out of nine in both market communication and understanding financial detail.
His best rankings were for strategic vision and capital allocation as well as for ability to execute on plans and targets, coming in fifth for each.
Last year, the Goldman Sachs partner David Dase uprooted his family and moved to Atlanta to start a new investment-banking office for the firm.
The move was part of a broader effort by Goldman Sachs to penetrate regional business hubs, including Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto.
The initiative is a key component in achieving the firm's goal of covering more than 1,000 new companies and adding $500 million in new investment-banking revenue.
Starting from scratch, Dase quickly enmeshed himself in the Atlanta community, and the firm is now covering 50 new companies in the region.
David Dase knew moving to Atlanta wouldn't be easy.
The Goldman Sachs partner had spent much of his nearly 25 years at the firm orchestrating deals in the US's busiest financial hubs — New York and San Francisco — where the investment bank was entrenched in corporate boardrooms of the world's most important companies.
Atlanta, by comparison, was unmapped territory. The bank had a small presence of wealth managers and specialty lenders, but no bankers on the ground developing relationships with the region's extensive yet less visible roster of companies.
"You're starting from scratch," Dase told Business Insider. "It takes a lot of time and investment."
But Dase wasn't being banished from Goldman's power centers; on the contrary, he was being entrusted to lead the charge on a new initiative that Goldman has been telling investors will help generate $500 million in new investment-banking revenue.
In December 2016, the bank announced it was shaking up its approach to investment banking, opening up offices and deploying partners to previously undercovered regional hubs: Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto.
This gambit and others — like additional senior hires and the use of tech to engage clients — is expected to increase Goldman's investment-banking client base by 10%, to more than 9,000 by 2020 and to contribute $500 million of the $5 billion in new revenue the bank is chasing.
Dase — a veteran technology, media, and telecom investment banker — was tapped to build out the bank's presence in the booming Atlanta region, a job he readily accepted.
"I just thought it was fundamentally a really exciting opportunity to build a business in the Southeast and to take the Goldman platform and extend it," Dase said. "Getting immersed in the community seemed like a challenge and a lot of fun."
Why Atlanta?
Goldman Sachs
It's just one of the locations where Goldman is expanding its presence, but the opportunity in the US's Southeast is clear: The region clocks in at a gross domestic product of $4.1 trillion, the largest of any of the eight US regions, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That's larger than any country in Europe, including Germany.
Florida and Georgia ranked fifth and sixth in state GDP growth in 2016, with South Carolina and Tennessee cracking the top 15 as well.
Beyond the household names like Coca-Cola, Delta, and Home Depot, there are dozens of massive enterprises for Goldman to sink its claws into.
"There are over 75 S&P 500 companies in the Southeast," Dase said. "Many we have strong relationships with, but there are many, quite frankly, where our relationships aren't as strong."
The region is home to about 450 public companies with a market value of more than $500 million by Goldman Sachs' estimates.
"We feel that by being in the region, we will be able to significantly expand the number of companies we are covering," Dase said. "For companies where our relationships are not as strong, we want to get in front of them more frequently so we can improve these relationships over time."
Atlanta, home to the world's most traveled airport, is the business epicenter of the Southeast and the ideal headquarters for Dase and his team to start advancing their coverage.
Hala Moddelmog, who was president of Church's Chicken in the 1990s and Arby's from 2010 to 2013 — two Atlanta-based fast-food empires — said Goldman's announced expansion in Atlanta didn't come as a shock.
"I'm thrilled, but I wasn't surprised given all the growth that's going on in Atlanta," said Moddelmog, now the CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. "A lot of things have come together in the past few years to put us on a growth trajectory."
Yes, the city is home to 26 Fortune 1000 companies. But it has also become a financial-technology hub — the chamber says Georgia's fintech companies contribute $72 billion in annual revenue— as well as a popular location for large companies to expand their tech and digital operations.
GE and Honeywell chose Atlanta for their new digital headquarters in 2016, adding more than 1,000 high-paying jobs combined.
"We've really had a great last four to five years in terms of a few trends that have worked really well for us," Moddelmog said. "And one of those trends is becoming more of a tech hub and really getting known for that."
A key driver of Atlanta's attractiveness to tech companies is its reputation for higher education, especially for churning out skilled engineers. Georgia Tech graduates more engineers than MIT and Carnegie Mellon combined, and more women and black engineers than any other university, according to Moddelmog.
This economic driver wasn't lost on Goldman Sachs.
"Part of the juice feeding the job growth in Atlanta and in the Southeast in general are the incredibly strong education institutions which are graduating students which are highly attractive to employers," Dase said. "I don't think companies would be investing so heavily in the Southeast if there weren't so many bright, young, eager, college-educated kids who had a desire to live in these growth markets."
'He attends everything'
But, as Dase noted, he was effectively starting from scratch. With the breadth of opportunities in Atlanta and the broader Southeast, where do you begin?
David Dase. Goldman Sachs
Relationships are paramount in investment banking, so Dase immediately hit the ground, meeting local leaders in business and education, attending events, and enmeshing himself in the community.
Whether it was taking part in a seminar on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies with other area executives, hanging out at a barbecue, or attending the opening of a new play, Dase made his presence felt, and he says he and the company were met with "an enormous receptivity."
His efforts didn't go unnoticed.
Shortly after he arrived, Dase reached out to the Metro Atlanta Chamber to start networking, connecting with Moddelmog and others.
"He's out and about — he attends everything," Moddelmog said. "He has just really gone all-in to get to know people in the community."
She added: "I would hold Dave Dase up as the best example of somebody coming into the Atlanta market. He's done it exactly the way Atlanta likes to have their new CEOs come in."
Dase also regularly communicates with the regional heads in Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto to discuss what strategies and ideas are working.
He's also in frequent contact with the rest of Goldman Sachs' team in New York and across the country.
"We're not sitting here on an island by ourselves," Dase said.
So far, the initiative appears to be paying dividends.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein last week highlighted the client-coverage push in his annual investor letter, noting that it had resulted in more than 75 new mandates across a variety of industry groups and that the firm was 30% of the way toward reaching its goal of covering 1,000 new clients.
Goldman Sachs hasn't provided any specific revenue figures or deal examples stemming from the regional offices, but Dase's team is hiring to add to five full-time bankers who Dase said "are covering over 50 new companies and strengthening relationships with many of our existing clients."
"Those are 50 companies we weren't covering before," he added.
