Indholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2025 i Inc. Magazine

It’s hard to think of two people who are more constitutionally illequipped to be partners with anyone else, let alone each other, than Elon Musk and Donald Trump. And yet the world’s richest entrepreneur and its most powerful political leader have joined forces to upend what they see as an outdated order. They’ve brought along for the ride some of Musk’s fellow contrarian billionaires, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia, and others. What lies beneath the alliance between Trump and the most successful founders of the past 25 years? To get a sense of what these founder fathers want, I spoke with Margaret O’Mara, author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America and a historian at the University of…

Business owners can take proactive steps to prepare themselves for this important— and possibly final—step in their journey. But first, they need to drop some common misconceptions about the process. 1. Thinking valuation is just about income. When small-business owners estimate their company’s valuation, they are often off by as much as 10 times in either direction, says Chat Joglekar, co-founder and CEO of Baton, a marketplace for selling businesses. That’s because they’re thinking about revenue— when really, they should be taking into account factors like nonrecurring expenses and the business owner’s salary. 2. Thinking overwork is good for business. Joglekar tells owners: “Get yourself out of working in the business” and instead work on the business, building systems, processes, and strategy for the future. That will make your company…

1 Sleek Sneaks Nike Zoom Vomero 5, $160 “Sneakers speak a universal language. We work with so many different types of companies and individuals who come from a variety of backgrounds. I like to make sure the way I present myself makes whomever I’m meeting with comfortable in any setting.” —Brian “Bwrightous” Wright, co-founder and CEO, Six Degrees Creative 2 Modern Heirloom Kinn Rome Bold Link Chain Necklace, $2,780 “Wearing jewelry with personal meaning, like a necklace gifted for a major milestone, connects me to my journey and accomplishments.” —Neha Kumar, co-founder, Full Glass Wine Co. 3 Wrist Reminder Shinola the Runwell Chrono 41mm, $895 “A beautiful Shinola watch my fiancée, Rachael, gifted to me adds class to any outfit, and wearing it reminds me of the support she’s given…

“Your customer base should always serve as your north star, guiding your decision-making. Flexibility doesn’t mean abandoning your vision; it means evolving it to create a product or service that truly resonates.” ANU DUGGAL, founding partner at Female Founders Fund “Become an expert in both supporting and investing in yourself, so you can consistently operate at the level of excellence required to do great things.” DANY GARCIA, founder, CEO, and chairperson of the Garcia Companies “It’s easy to get caught up in the passion of an idea, but for it to be a great investment—of your time and others’ money—it must have the potential to scale and generate returns. That means building a business not only with a strong economic foundation, but also that solves a pain point.” KATHERINE POWER,…

“Risk is a muscle. It has to be trained, it has to be worked on. That’s what’s going to differentiate somebody who runs a safe, small business from somebody who really can make an impact in a big way.” CARRIE KERPEN, founder of the business advisory firm the Whisper Group “Investors have hundreds of thousands of horses they can bet on. And unless your horse is very clearly one that could win the race, you probably won’t. If you get their game, it’s a lot easier.” MADISON MAXEY, founder and CEO of the e-textile circuit brand Loomia “The incumbents don’t need to innovate, because they know women are conditioned to think there’s no other way. We’re not only providing a solution, but also breaking through to women to defy the…

“We’ve grown from a very fast paced startup to a more steady, scaling company. While we want to retain the scrappiness of a startup, we’re constantly thinking about the balance of the right processes and tools to have this stability.” NEHA SAMPAT, founder and CEO of the headless CMS platform Contentstack “It’s really important to remain authentic and really believe in the direction you’re going—and not wavering just because trends may come and go or pressures may change a little.” JENNI KAYNE, founder and creative director of the lifestyle brand Jenni Kayne “We’ve always had a point of view, and it’s a very personal point of view that I think people can connect to. And I think that’s what sets apart a brand from a product.” JING GAO, founder and…

In a year when jam-packed arenas for women’s sports became the norm rather than the exception, Sanja Komljenovic stood out. Sure, she doesn’t have the same name recognition as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, but that’s not the goal. The 40-year-old entrepreneur has been a behind-the-camera spark, driving the women’s sports boom, as money and attention have poured in at record levels—sending viewership, ticket sales, broadcast deals, brand deals, and team valuations skyrocketing. With a client roster that includes the WNBA, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, the San Antonio Spurs, Nike, Jordan Brand, Meta, Amazon, Oakley, Converse, and Nordstrom, Komljenovic’s L.A.-based creative agency and production company, ONA Creative, has carved out an enviable niche, telling the stories of female athletes through social media, content production, and brand campaigns. That…

Consumer goods are a well-studied source of PFAS exposure, but the only limits for this class of chemicals in cosmetics, textiles, and other household products exist on a state-by-state basis. Still, some companies are doing the grueling work of purging PFAS from their products and supply chains. Other entrepreneurs are founding companies with a hard line against PFAS baked into their mission. In 2007, Shiza Shahid emigrated from Pakistan on a scholarship to Stanford, where she studied international relations and business. After Stanford, she served as founding CEO of the Malala Fund. As she got acclimated to life in the U.S., she and her now-husband and co-founder, who emigrated from Iran, found their community in the U.S. through cooking and eating. In 2019, she founded the clean and minimal cookware…

IN WHAT SEEMS LIKE A GAFFE TAKEN FROM HIS OWN SHOW, LARRY DAVID, THE WRITER AND CURMUDGEONLY ANTIHERO OF CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, HAS GONE TO THE WRONG AIRPORT—LAX RATHER THAN BURBANK. “Excuse me for one second,” says Alex Wilcox, co-founder and CEO of the air carrier JSX, as we sit in a conference room in the company’s headquarters at Dallas’s Love Field, overlooking a spacious hangar filled with a handful of Embraer jets. He dials up the Burbank station manager. “Hey, Arya, you at the station?” he asks. An affirmative crackles from the phone. “Larry David apparently went to the wrong airport— can you hold until 8:05, 8:10? Don’t hold more than 8:15.” Ending the call, Wilcox smiles, a look of mild exasperation on his face that signals he’s experienced…

SMARTCHOICEAGENTS.COM CATEGORY WINNER: INSURANCE PARTNERS WITH: 100+ CARRIERS SERVING: 10,000+ AGENCIES OPERATES ACROSS: 48 STATES Most business decisions come with a trade-off. Leave a large insurance carrier to start an independent agency, and you will gain autonomy but sacrifice infrastructure, support, and access to products. Create an independent agency from scratch, and you will have to learn how to run your own business and struggle to gain access to carriers. Smart Choice fills in those gaps. This Inc. Power Partner was founded on a simple premise: to provide independent agencies with the freedom to succeed. “We believe in letting agents reach their full potential by providing market access and expertise,” says Carol Drake, senior vice president, personal lines, at Smart Choice. She explains that many independent insurance agencies aren’t writing…

“I say this every year, but, wow. Inc. is featuring even more women this year—500, up from 250 in 2024—and every one of them has what it takes to make it big.” Diana Ransom Executive editor Ransom has long found inspiration in Inc.’s Female Founders list (page 51), and this year is no exception. “There are some known figures—Kim Kardashian and Jenni Kayne to name two—but the bulk of the list represents emerging and veteran founders who don’t rise to the level of household names—yet,” she says. “As the first business publication to put Anita Roddick and Alli Webb on the cover, we prize first-mover advantages.” Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan After exploring the origins of the internet in the first season of Inc.’s podcast Computer Freaks, editor-at-large Haughney Dare-Bryan examines Silicon…

● Since ChatGPT launched over two years ago, people have fixated on artificial intelligence. To better understand all the hype, it helps to take a step back and tackle some misunderstandings about AI—as well as some history. Artificial intelligence as a field, since beginning in the 1950s, has already achieved a great deal. AI systems have driven advances in computer vision, fraud detection, online advertising, and many other disciplines, primarily through machine learning on large data sets. But what has ignited unprecedented interest in the past few years is a specific type of artificial intelligence: generative AI. GenAI is fundamentally different from the AI forms used in prior decades. Unlike supervised machine learning systems that are used to analyze and act upon new data, genAI trains models on previous data…

There wasn’t a single moment when the word fearless took on a particular resonance for Arian Simone. Perhaps it’s been core to her since birth, she says. But now, the word is nearly synonymous with her brand, enshrined in the titles of her three books, her podcast, the magazine she founded, the school she opened in Ivory Coast in West Africa, and the venture capital firm and foundation she now helms. And yet, the past year and change put that fearlessness to the test. In August 2023, Simone was thrust into a new kind of national spotlight when her Atlanta-based venture capital firm, Fearless Fund, was sued by the conservative nonprofit American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), alleging that one of its grant programs was discriminatory. It was a fight…

When Jen Zeszut sold her first company, a social media startup, for $22.5 million in 2010, an executive from the acquiring company pulled her aside. “Your team loves you and you build a great culture,” he told her, “but you’re never going to build a really big business because you think people matter.” While Zeszut disagreed, she realized he was right about something: Your company’s “cute” culture doesn’t matter unless you get, as she called them, “legendary business results.” With her third company, Goodles, Zeszut wants to have her mac and cheese and eat it, too. The Santa Cruz, California, company set out to reinvent consumer packaged goods from the inside out, by packing its products with nutrients like fiber and protein, making them ideal for kids. Its boxes are…

Innovators YOONA KIM Co-founder/CEO Arine PENJIT MOORHEAD Co-founder/CIO/CTO Arine PRIYANKA JAIN Co-founder/CEO Evvy PITA NAVARRO Co-founder/chief science officer Evvy KATHY LEE-SEPSICK CEO Femasys ALISSA BAIER-LENTZ Co-founder/COO Kintra Fibers GRACE CHANG CEO Kintsugi LAURA ALEXIS CEO Pop Recovery Systems PAROMA VARMA Co-founder Snorkel AI JANE MOSBACHER MORRIS CEO TO THE MARKET Trail Blazers STEPHANIE MURPHY CEO Aegis Aerospace LAURA SPIEKERMAN Co-founder/president Alloy EVETTE ELLIS Co-founder/chief people officer ChargerHelp! KAMEALE TERRY Co-founder/CEO ChargerHelp! TOYIN AJAYI Co-founder/CEO Cityblock Health INES RIVAS-HUTCHINS President INTEC Group POORNIMA DEBOLLE Co-founder Menlo Security MEGAN O’CONNOR Co-founder/CEO Nth Cycle IVY LI Co-founder/COO ShipSaving ANGELINA LAWTON CEO Sportsdigita Power Brokers TAMMY SUN Co-founder/CEO Carrot Fertility ASIMA AHMAD Co-founder/chief medical officer Carrot Fertility IMAN ABUZEID Co-founder/CEO Incredible Health SANDRA OH LIN CEO KiwiCo ASHLEY MURPHY Co-founder/CEO Neat Method MARISSA HAGMEYER…

“The only reason we’ve been able to succeed is that we’ve learned to be nimble and flexible. Since we’re limited with what we can do in advertising, we lean into community building.” ARANA HANKIN-BIGGERS, co-founder and president of cannabis retailer the Travel Agency “Be in love with the problem you’re trying to solve. It has to be something you are so passionate about that you will continue to push against the grain every single day, even on those days when it gets so hard, you just want to pull your hair out and give up.” ALEX TAYLOR, co-founder and co-CEO of women’s vitamin brand Perelel “I came here [from Gaza] and felt like a small fish in an ocean. I did 60 interviews to get my first job, but I…

“There’s nothing more important to me than taking care of our team. It’s what has allowed us to drive our best case studies and the kind of innovation we sought to do.” LAUREN KLEINMAN, founder and CEO of the PR and affiliate agency Dreamday “Build in a hard stop to have you-time every single day. You need 30 minutes to be yourself. It will enable you to work much harder and much smarter long-term because you’ve had a moment to let your brain relax.” TAI CHRISTENSEN, co-founder and president of the affordable housing program Arrive Home “Every day I go for a hike in the woods and tune in to the ecosystems I’m trying to keep intact. Being part of the subject matter we’re deeply in keeps the passion, keeps…

It doesn’t take a counseling psychologist with 15 years of experience to understand professional athletes have stressful work environments. But with a countrywide mental- health provider shortage, a psychologist who can help relieve athletes’ pressure at scale is exactly what they need—and it may be the key to unlocking stress for high- performing individuals generally, too. That’s the hope behind the Playbook, a Minneapolis-based consultation firm with a research-backed, HIPAA- compliant platform for tracking mental health in athletes. With clients including the NBA, the WNBA, the NFL, and MLB, the company founded by T.M. Robinson- Mosley in 2018 is making its mark in the sports world. But it’s the world beyond that holds space in Mosley’s mind. The 40-year-old entrepreneur imagines creating a playbook for doctors, attorneys, executives— anyone in…

In her latest book, Big Goals: The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life, Caroline Adams Miller shares a methodology for psychology- backed goal setting. Inspired by a goal-setting theory pioneered by psychologists Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham in 1990, as well as 20 years of Adams Miller’s own executive coaching experience, the Bridge framework can help anyone—and business leaders, in particular—craft objectives and accomplish them through brainstorming, relationships, investments, decisions, grit, and excellence. Here’s how it works. CUT OUT THE NOISE A very under-addressed topic in goal setting is the “decision-making matrix,” Adams Miller says—how you make the decisions that you do about “hiring or firing or work feedback” and more. To make good decisions, leaders need to cut out bias and noise,…

If a candidate’s résumé seems too good to be true, it might indeed be, thanks to “AI catfishing,” says Michelle Volberg, the founder and CEO of Twill, a New York City-based talent platform that leverages referrals. She says that over the past six months, she’s seen the use of AIgenerated résumés explode. Here’s how she suggests dealing with this tomfoolery. BE SKEPTICAL Managers should take note if a candidate’s résumé has both all of the required and all of the ideal (too good to be true) qualifications, uniform sentences with stiff language, and vague achievements. PEEL BACK THE LAYERS Managers can also employ some trickery of their own. Incorporate a random word, like banana, somewhere in the job posting, Volberg says. If a candidate’s résumé comes back with the word…

● Raising capital can feel like a rite of passage for startup founders—a signal that your company is on the map. Shows like Shark Tank have made raising appear shiny and accessible, inspiring countless entrepreneurs to pursue equity funding. Offscreen, a cottage industry of pitch competitions and programs teaches founders how to pitch their companies to investors. So many founders focus on fundraising because securing capital can fuel a business’s rapid growth and ambitious plans. But it’s not the only way to fund your business, and it’s not always the savviest choice. When I launched Hugimals World in 2022, I chose to bootstrap my business. This let me retain full creative control over my weighted, anxiety-relief plush gifts even as I continued to figure out my vision. There are tradeoffs,…

IT WAS AFTER MY SONIC SOUL JOURNEY AND BEFORE MY INFRARED-LIGHT THERAPY SESSION IN A GIANT VIBRATING CLAMSHELL THAT MY LONGEVITY CONSULTANT TOLD ME I COULD STAND TO DROP 20 POUNDS OF FAT. I was nearing the end of a new Canyon Ranch program called Longevity8, a fiveday immersion in wellness practices aimed at extending one’s healthy lifespan, and I bristled at the suggestion. I’d come to Longevity8 resolved to tackle the second half of my adulthood with as much energy as I’d had in the first. I turned 50 last year, and I’m proud of the effort I’ve made over the past five years to get healthy. I avoid junk food, except for a minor late-night cookie habit. I work out most days, even if it’s not exactly grueling…

Every month for the past several years, Cate Luzio has been inviting groups of women to the Manhattan headquarters of Luminary, the professional education and networking company she founded in 2018 and leads as CEO. Over intimate dinners and cheery breakfasts on the rooftop, enclosed, fittingly, by a great glass ceiling, they have spent hours delving into the different ways they define success. For a long time, Luzio says, that definition was clear: “It was all about getting to the top. How do I get there? How fast can I get there? And by what means?” Then came the pandemic, and with it, what Luzio calls a “reset on priorities.” The race to the C-suite gave way to the desire among these women for more flexibility, more family time, and…

Five minutes into a Zoom call, which Babba Rivera is taking from an empty room, someone pounds on the door. She apologizes and shuts off her screen, popping on 30 seconds later with a slightly harried smile. “Sorry, I’m remodeling my house and I’m in the only room where I can be alone, and still, people are like, ‘knock, knock,’” she laughs. It’s a metaphor for her life as the founder of the popular hair care brand Ceremonia and the mother of four daughters under the age of 5. Rivera, 34, is in building mode. Ceremonia, which Rivera launched in 2020, celebrates hair care rituals and Latin American ingredients like guava and yucca, a nod to her Chilean heritage. A guava leave-in conditioner is a bestseller, a stat that’s helped…

Patty Arvielo had her full-circle moment 15 years ago. At a sales meeting in Downey, California, she ran into the owner of a real estate business whose offices she used to clean. “I remember those offices,” muses Arvielo, who as a teen used to help her mother, a Mexican immigrant, with her cleaning business. Arvielo isn’t ashamed of her career history. At 60, the co-founder of New American Funding, one of the largest private mortgage lenders in the U.S., is proud of where she’s been. “I was able to tell him that I was his maid!” she says. Arvielo earned that moment. But to hear her tell it, her rise from maid to CEO, a title she shares with her husband, Rick Arvielo, could be traced to a series of…

CAMILLA MARCUS CEO west~bourne Mountain Climbers ROBIN ROBERSON Co-founder/president Agentech JENNY GROBERG CEO BookSmarts Accounting & Bookkeeping JOHANNA WETMORE Co-founder EvoText, Content2Classroom MELVA LAJOY LEGRAND CEO LaJoy Plans LINDSAY TANNE CEO LogicPrep CHANTEL POWELL CEO Play Pits CHRISTINE TAO Co-founder/CEO Sounding Board LORI MAZAN Co-founder/president Sounding Board SUZANNE MILLER President SPM Communications VICTORIA JACKSON Co-founder The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation Wellness Warriors MARI LLEWELLYN Co-founder Bloom Nutrition SYDNEY GRAY Principal Gray Ink GABBY REECE Co-founder Laird Superfood CINDY JORDAN Co-founder/CEO Pyx Health ANNE JORDAN Co-founder/CCO Pyx Health APRIL KOH Co-founder/CEO Spring Health ZAIRA SOLANO Founding attorney Solano Law Firm MAYA SMITH Co-founder/CEO The Doux SUNNY WHITE CEO Xavier Creative House SARAH PARKS CEO ZenToes Trendsetters CRYSTAL UNG CEO Bowlcut DANESSA MYRICKS Founder Danessa Myricks Beauty MELANIE MASARIN CEO Ghia ARIANA FERWERDA…

Methodology HOW INC. SELECTED THE 2025 FEMALE FOUNDERS 500 The Female Founders 500 list was culled from thousands of entries through three rounds of judging— two internal and one by Inc.’s Female Founder advisory board—that looked at each entrepreneur’s bona fides in the past year. Criteria included quantifiable metrics such as revenue, sales, revenue growth, funding, and audience size. Inc. also looked for qualitative metrics such as social media momentum and stories of impact. Inc. considered only those running for-profit and nonprofit entities that were non-subsidiary, U.S.-based organizations, provided any acquisition happened in 2024 and not before. For Chloe Coscarelli, 37, opening her new restaurant wasn’t just a career high point. It was a sweet homecoming. The vegan chef and cookbook author opened her first, and now-shuttered, restaurant, By Chloe,…

Lake Huron, in Northern Michigan, may not be as mysterious as Lake Superior, or as beachy as Lake Michigan, but it boasts long stretches of shoreline, dotted with dunes, cliffs, forests, and towns that an estimated three million people call home. One of those small towns, tucked into the northeastern edge of the mitten, is earning a reputation for much more than its breathtaking views. Oscoda (pop. 7,200) is developing an industry around innovatively testing for and remediating PFAS, the toxic group of close to 15,000 chemicals that have blighted the region and so many others in the U.S. Dean Wiltse, 67, is the founder and CFO of Enviro Lab Services, which he runs out of a building on the decommissioned Wurtsmith Air Force Base, about 200 miles north of…

Lucy Guo’s résumé oozes accomplishment. The 30-year-old entrepreneur dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University’s computer science program in 2014 to become a Thiel Fellow, and two years later she co-founded Scale AI, which trains large language models, including those built by OpenAI and Meta. Today, the San Francisco-based company is valued at $14 billion. Since leaving Scale AI in 2018, Guo hasn’t kept a low profile. In 2022, she founded Passes, an app that connects creators directly to their audiences by facilitating subscriptions and Cameostyle meet-and-greets and allowing direct messaging with fans. For creators, it’s a moneymaker. “Nowadays, we’re responsible for 80 to 100 percent of the creators’ income,” she says. Guo is a living advertisement for Passes. Her Instagram, full of red carpets and parties, is basically a sales…

“The truth is that companies should not be funded forever. You know how the ecosystem needs a balance of deer and wolves? You can’t have too many wolves and you can’t have too many deer, and their populations self-regulate. Not every company is going to make it—and for a long time every company was getting funded. I think we’ll continue to see funding in health care because that’s a space that’s not solved yet. The other areas I’m excited about are deep tech. We’re just seeing continued science breakthroughs, whether it’s new drug discovery, robotics, space, or climate tech.”…

In response to an ongoing, wide-ranging compromise of U.S. telecommunications believed to be the work of the Chinese government, CISA has released a very specific and actionable set of best practices that businesses should put into place, including: Use end-to-end encrypted apps such as Signal. Adopt strong forms of multifactor authentication. Set up PIN codes for SIM cards. Keep all software up to date. Update to the latest cell phone model. Use a password manager. Do not use VPNs. According to the 2024 Inc. 5000 CEO Survey, 63% expect generative AI to help with sales-related tasks.…

● I’ve always prided myself on getting along with others. But a few years ago, one colleague got under my skin. A forceful advocate for his own ideas, he would sometimes talk over co-workers—including me—who asked questions or had a different perspective. I stewed over how difficult he was to work with. But that’s all I did—I silently stewed. After one unusually frustrating meeting, I decided not to let it go. When this colleague came by my office later that day, I explained why he might have sensed my tension in the meeting. My candor, in turn, inspired some from him. We quickly realized we had misread each other’s intentions. What I saw as pushiness, he viewed as enthusiasm. What he saw as a negative peppering of questions was my…