• I'm getting married in six months, but I'm unsure if I want to change my last name.
• I feel no connection to my last name and my partner feels none to his.
• We both don't want to take each other's, so we wonder if we should create a new one.

My great-grandfather, whose surname was Olynyk, came to the US via Ukraine sometime in his '20s. He was a man who could tell a story with fantastical exaggeration, so much so that he claimed that he changed our family surname from "Olynyk" to "Lane" due to his run from the law in Ukraine.

We never did find out what the crime was. The truth is probably closer to his desire to blend into American culture. He might have read it on a street sign and decided it was simple and easy to pronounce, but the former is better lore.

Not only is my last name entirely made up, plucked from the imagination of a man fleeing from a former life, but it feels disconnected from any ancestry. My father never had a relationship with his dad, my grandfather, and we come from a small estranged family in general.

So here I am, stuck with "Lane," a name that holds no real meaning to me or my family. With my wedding soon approaching, I must decide if I will give that last name up entirely.

My wedding is a chance for change

In six months, I'll be married. I always imagined this could be my excuse to discard my last name. I daydreamed of something romantic, something that could fit into my journalism career and make me stand out. Something where I could slough off "Lane" and adopt a new name and beginning.

Unfortunately, Miles, my lovely fiancé's surname, has a similar broken lineage. With descendants from Syria and Turkey, how did he end up with a surname like "MacClure?"

Through a string of events, his dad was given the last name by a stepfather, who passed this name on to Miles. In a similar vein to mine, it's sort of made up. It has no family heritage and no resemblance to where his family comes from.

Neither of us is interested in taking each other's names. He hates his last name, and I find mine painfully boring, so what now?

By getting married, we have some options

We floated the idea of taking his mom's surname — Alwan — from her Turkish father. My mom is from Austria, but her maiden name — Windisch — is a mouthful and easily mispronounced.

We could make up our own name. In fact, if you Google "endangered last names," there's an entire list of last names with fewer than 20 bearers.

Of course, we could dig further into family history and find something exciting, making it our own.

We could also just stick with what we have. We both have careers, bank accounts, memberships, paperwork, etc., tied to our names. Is all of this worth the hassle? Miles says, "No," but I can't help but think this is finally my chance.

It feels strange for me to bring a future child into the world and attach a hyphenated surname of not just one but two names that don't hold any symbolism. Why should "MacClure" and "Lane" be the ball and chain our nonexistent children have to carry around for the rest of their lives?

With busy lives, who knows what the outcome will be

Friends have told me that keeping our names could be a way to reclaim them. We are starting our own future together, and it could be special to breathe new life into them. Others have said I'm thinking about it too much. It's just a name.

But names are who we are. In his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," Dale Carnegie wrote, "Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language."

They should bring us pride — and remind us of our bloodline and the future that follows.

For now, our surname hangs in limbo. With the panic of planning a wedding alone, I'll probably let this slip by. Suddenly, it'll be six months from now, and I'll shrug and surrender to keeping "Lane." A name that's like a thorn in my side, a millstone around my neck, a cold I can't shake, but hey, at least it's mine.

• Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, said he expects the future of work to include "symbiotic relationships" with AI.
• In a podcast interview, he said younger generations will inherit a changed world.
• In order to prepare, he suggests people "play" with the models that are currently available.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman expects the workers of the future to develop close relationships with artificial intelligence agents, to the point of symbiosis.

"I do think your day-to-day workflow just isn't going to look like this in 10 or 15 years time," Suleyman said on a recent episode of the "Big Technology" Podcast.

"It's going to be much more about you managing your AI agent, you asking it to go do things, checking in on its quality, getting feedback, and getting into this symbiotic relationship where you iterate with it," he said.

Suleyman, the cofounder of Google DeepMind, believes that people are too tied up in the "day-to-day" of AI and failing to reckon with its possible long-term impacts.

"After all, it is intelligence that has produced everything that is of value in our human civilization," Suleyman said. "Everything around us is a product of smart human beings getting together, organizing, creating, inventing, and producing everything that you see in your line of sight at this very moment."

Artificial intelligence, shrouded in its fair share of hype, hasn't yet delivered on the vision often painted by tech leaders — such as breakthroughs in medicine, like treatments for deadly diseases, or solutions to the climate crisis.

But the technology has certainly begun to alter the world we live in. In some cases, applications of the technology have drawn concerns — such as AI's use in warfare or companies leaning on AI agents over human workers. Demis Hassabis, who co-founded Google DeepMind with Suleyman, has gone so far as to say he worries about ending up like Robert Oppenheimer.

And there's no going back now — Suleyman, who's particularly optimistic about AI's future effects, only expects the pace of innovation to increase.

"And we're now about to make that very same technique, those set of capabilities, really cheap — if not, like, zero marginal cost," he said.

In order for younger generations to best prepare themselves to inherit a changed world, Suleyman suggests they familiarize themselves with the technology.

"It's a little bit like saying, 'What should young people do when they get access to the internet for the first time?'" he said. "Like, part of it is sort of obvious, where it's like — use it, experiment, try stuff out, do crazy things, make mistakes, get it wrong."

It's technology's users, Suleyman added, rather than its creators, that ultimately help determine the direction of its future development by identifying how it's best used.

"As we've seen over and over in the history of technology, the things that people choose to do with their phones, with internet, with their laptops, with the tools that they have are always like mind-blowing," Suleyman said. "They're always way more inventive and surprising than anything you could possibly think of ahead of time."

"I think the same applies to a 15-year-old who's in high school, thinking about what they do next in college or whatever, or whether or not they go to college," he added.

In order to sort through the noise, Suleyman said, anyone curious should experiment with the models themselves.

"I think the answer is, play with these things," he said. "Try them out, keep an open mind. Try everything that you possibly can with these models, and then you'll start to see their weaknesses as well, by the way, and you'll start to chip away at the hype."

• Snowmass in Colorado is nearing the completion of its $1 billion Base Village.
• Once its final complex opens in late 2027, there won't be land left in Base Village to develop.
• Wealthy Americans are buying the building's few remaining condos for millions of dollars.

Three decades ago, Snowmass Village was known mainly for its mountain. It was a quiet town where serious skiers searched for powder in the winter, and mountain bikers flew down trails in the summer.

Now, Snowmass has a different reputation. It's still luring skiers, mountain bikers, and nature lovers, but it's also attracting those with large pocketbooks.

That's because the town has added a $1 billion development at the bottom of its mountain called Snowmass Base Village.

It's home to luxury hotels, fine dining, shopping, and multimillion-dollar residential complexes.

As Base Village nears the finish line of construction, only a few luxury condominiums remain, and after those are sold, there won't be land left in Base Village to develop.

A $1 billion development nears completion

On and off for the past two decades, Snowmass has been developing and building its Snowmass Base Village.

The area sits down the road from Snowmass Mall, a two-story complex built in the 1960s. With a few restaurants, cafés, and stores, this was a limited area for tourists.

In an attempt to make Snowmass a popular destination, Aspen Skiing Company bought 11 acres down the road from the mall and planned to develop Snowmass Base Village. The hope was that the town would become a place where wealthy visitors could vacation, dine, shop, and explore Snowmass Mountain.

"To keep Snowmass relevant in the world of ski resorts, this was needed," Andy Gunion, a managing partner at the development firm East West Partners, told Business Insider.

Plans for Base Village were approved in 2004 after a contentious vote. Construction started and stalled during the recession. In late 2016, East West Partners acquired the base with KSL Capital Partners and Aspen Skiing Company.

Nearly a decade later, East West Partners is finishing its final residential structure: the Stratos, a two-building, 89-unit luxury complex.

Beyond this final project, Base Village includes nine other residential buildings with amenities like heated pools, fitness rooms, housekeeping, ski valets, and 24-hour concierge. The complexes also have ski-in, ski-out access — a prime perk in a ski town.

In addition to the residences, there's a community center, hotel, restaurants, an ice rink, a medical clinic, and a children's area.

Gunion said potential buyers were initially skeptical about whether Base Village would be successful after years of stalled construction. The first 14 condo units sold by East West Partners went for low prices.

"Our profit margins on these were not great because we just needed to start," Gunion said. "The people who bought early got great deals."

Gunion said interest picked up as time went on, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Selling units hasn't been a challenge in recent years.

For example, the Cirque Building, which was completed in 2024 and is part of the Viceroy Hotel, sold out of most of its privately owned units within the first two weeks of being released for $2,700 a square foot.

Meanwhile, the first Stratos building won't be finished until early 2027, and the second is set for late 2027. Though the opening is two years away, the buildings have nearly sold out. Sales launched at the end of January, and only 21 units of the 89-unit complex remain.

Originally, the Stratos units started at $2.85 million. The cheapest option is no longer available; today, units range from $2.95 million to $30 million.

There isn't a cookie-cutter buyer

Gunion told BI that buyers come from across the country and the world.

Florida is the No. 1 market, but Gunion said that's by a slim margin. Others come from Texas, California, Chicago, and New York. He added that international interest is also increasing, especially with Brazilian buyers.

Most of these people are second homeowners or are purchasing condos as investments. While they might vacation in Snowmass, few owners are full-time residents.

Gunion said that was the expectation when designing and building Base Village.

"Here's a neighborhood that's for second homeowners and resort guests, and that's what Base Village is always intended to be," he said.

Once Stratos is complete, Base Village will also be finished, which means there will be limited new construction in the area.

Wealthy buyers interested in Base Village will have to buy condos being relisted at a higher price or expand their search outside the ski hub.

Either way, luxury seems to be the theme when it comes to real estate in Snowmass.

"We've elevated the market with all these residences," Gunion said.

• Just before I turned 31, I ended a 10-year relationship.
• The decision was difficult to make, but I learned a lot about myself while healing.
• I actually love spending time alone, and I've become so much more confident.

Last year, I ended my relationship a few days short of my 31st birthday after spending months on end considering what the best thing to do was and how we could salvage what was left of our decadelong partnership.

In the end, as heartbreaking as it was, I couldn't see another way forward. Making the decision to break up was scary, not only because of how long we had been together but also because, being over 30, as much as I hate to admit it, I subconsciously felt like damaged goods. But I also learned from the experience.

I actually enjoy spending time alone

I've always valued alone time, but this is the first time in my life that I've been spending an extensive amount of time by myself. Surprisingly, I realized that I love it.

Yes, it can get a bit lonely sometimes, and there are times I find myself going to the gym just to be around people. But waking up to a complete and utter quiet and being able to do whatever and whenever I want is also pretty blissful. Living alone is a different kind of freedom that I never experienced before.

Speaking my mind is important

As someone who used to be codependent in the first few years of my relationship, I spent years being a people pleaser. This ranged from minor things like not voicing my opinion if I wanted to see a different film at the cinema, agreeing on a holiday destination I wasn't too interested in, or acting like certain situations didn't upset me even though they did. I told myself that I was easygoing and not causing hassle.

I learned the hard way that if I'm not OK with something, it's my job to voice my opinion because my partner can't read my mind. I wasn't, in fact, nice and easygoing; I was not advocating for myself, which is a highway to resentment.

I have to budget more now, but I feel more in control of my finances

In London, where I live, it's pretty common for people to live in flat shares in their early 30s, but I knew I couldn't go back to sharing a flat with strangers, even if it meant that I might need to consider selling my kidneys to afford rent. Having my own space is fantastic, but it also means that I'm spending double on rent and bills.

Because of this, I finally took budgeting seriously, and while I've got less disposable income, I've also never felt this in control of my finances.

Some relationship clichés are true

It sounds silly, but I finally understand a lot of clichés I used to roll my eyes at. For example, "love isn't enough." I used to think that our love could move mountains. But then, little by little, mistakes are made, a few too many words are said, and one day, you wake up and catch yourself thinking that maybe love wasn't the powerful force you thought it to be and that you can't build a successful relationship on love alone.

I'm more confident in myself than I ever was

Having gone through the loss of someone so close to me has put things in perspective. As heartbreaking as making the decision was, and as much as I'm still grieving my relationship, I also feel stronger. There are so many couples that stay in relationships because they're too scared to leave, even though any positive feelings they had toward each other are long gone.

Ending my relationship has built a level of trust in myself that I never had before — the kind that you only feel when you know that you have your own back. I don't get as stressed by small problems and big life changes because I trust myself to be able to handle them.

• US special operations forces are working with a lot of different drones.
• Operators said the speed of technological innovation requires constant learning.
• Each type of uncrewed system has a different purpose, but the goal is to acquire a lot of it for cheap.

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — I play a lot of video games, and the simulator in front of me looked familiar enough: a handheld controller hooked up to a laptop.

Picking up the controller with confidence, I figured my years of gaming would give me an advantage. I was ready to fly my drone through an abandoned city, or so I thought.

The controls for movement — up, down, front, back — were extremely sensitive, far more than I expected.

I tried flying my drone into an empty, concrete building. I shakily skirted the edge of it and landed on the street. Then I just flew up and down for a bit, crashing a few more times as I went along.

"I'm not very good at this," I said. The US Army special operator who had been attempting to coach me, agreed, telling me that I probably wouldn't make a good drone pilot.

The good thing is that I don't need this particular skill, but the soldiers preparing for future fights and modern war need it as much as they do small arms skills and fieldcraft. Drones are fast becoming an unavoidable part of warfare.

War is changing

The operator took the controller and effortlessly flew in and out of small windows in buildings. He cut sharp corners and soared through the open air. He made it look easy. It's not.

US special forces have been leading the charge on acquiring drones and training with them, working closely with industry partners on what capabilities are needed and then honing the skills required to operate them effectively.

At the US Army Special Operations Command's Capabilities Exercise at Fort Bragg in North Carolina last week, drones were everywhere. Small quadcopters, uncrewed ground vehicle systems, robot dogs, loitering munitions, and more were on display.

Operators and officials cited a number of reasons as to why uncrewed systems seemed to be such a priority.

Ground drones

Pointing at one of wheeled drones, Bryan Boyea, the ground robotics capabilities manager with USASOC's robotics division under its force modernization center, said that the goal was to "eliminate first contact ever being a human being."

The drone, Boyea noted, allowed operators to extend their eyes and ears on the battlefield.

Another, smaller drone — white and flatter to the ground — was nearby. This one, he said, is mostly for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes, gathering information on potential enemies in both urban and subterranean environments instead of a human being or military dog.

The drones are among the smaller ground equipment available to special operators, portable so teams can pick them up and carry them around. The bigger one weighs around 30 pounds.

Quadcopters

First-person-view, or FPV, quadcopters were sitting nearby. These are smaller uncrewed aerial systems, lightweight and used for either intelligence-gathering or dropping smaller payloads.

One of the key attributes of these types of drones, operators said, was their adaptability — being able to change the sensors and payloads based on the mission requirements. They're also highly mobile, relatively easy to learn, and — ideally — scalable, meaning operators could use them in swarms.

A variety of companies are involved in producing different types of drones, and one operator said an important project is ensuring that the technology can work together with other systems via similar software.

Because the technology is developing so quickly, there's often a debate surrounding whether learning drones is an additional duty for operators — or an entirely new job in itself.

One Army special forces operator, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the difference may come down to the type of drone.

A small ground drone with limited controls, it's likely that "anybody can pick that up in like 20 seconds," he said. But a quadcopter, for example, something that requires more flight skill and maintenance, "that's a job."

Loitering munitions

Some other uncrewed aerial systems, or UAS, such as UVision's Hero loitering munition and AeroVironment's Switchblade, were on display as well. Loitering munitions are one-way attack drones that loiter in an area before striking a selected target.

UVision's Hero has smaller and larger models; the former is easier to transport for forward-deployed operators, while the latter requires a launching platform and is designed for greater ranges.

The Switchblade, also a loitering munition, has been used by the US military for over a decade and saw heavy use in conflicts in the Middle East. They're designed to be small, although larger models do exist as well. This technology, much like FPV quadcopters, has been employed extensively in Ukraine.

Robot dogs

Multiple robot dogs — quadruped ground drones — were also at the CAPEX, including one toting a rifle on its head. One such model was from Ghost Robotics.

These drones have been a growing interest for militaries around the world as ways to enhance the reach and reconnaissance of soldiers, as well as keep humans and military dogs out of harm's way.

Controlled by an operator, a robot dog's resting position looks, well, like a dog sitting. After it rises, it can move around on its four legs, twist and turn to look around, and run. When the camera at the front of it points in a direction, it does sort of feel like a dog looking up.

Operators, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told Business Insider the biggest challenge with all these drones is quickly learning all of the different controls and specifications.

Operators said it's becoming a bigger requirement, and it falls in line with SOF's larger shift towards great-power competition and preparation for the possibility of a war with a near-peer or peer-level adversary, a fight that could see prolific drone use, as well as countermeasures like electronic warfare.

It's a process bringing in new warfighting technologies, but one operator said "we're very good at integrating and training with the teams to make sure everyone's on the same wavelength when it comes to how we're going to integrate sUAS [small uncrewed aerial systems] and UGVs into the battlefield and onto a team."

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Welcome back to our Saturday edition! Gen Z is driving a golf and tennis boom. See why they're obsessed with these "old money" sports.

On the agenda:

• Designer totes and luxury duffels: Successful men told BI the bags they swear by.
• Nine foods a neurologist always buys at the grocery store for better brain health.
• A wealthy family is selling their private island in Connecticut for $35 million.
• "The White Lotus" star Jason Isaacs discusses the future of the Ratliff family.

But first: The greens are calling.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.

This week's dispatch

Fore the love of golf

It's officially golf season as the first major tournament of the year is underway. While we're all watching to see which lucky golfer will receive a coveted green jacket when the Masters concludes on Sunday, some are excited to get back on the links themselves.

Golf isn't just good cardio. It's also a proven avenue for fostering strategic connections. Mastering the game's often unspoken etiquette can not only elevate your performance but also give you a serious edge when you're building those relationships.

David Weiss, a golfer and contributing writer to Business Insider who's been to over 200 golf courses around the world, advises thinking strategically to maximize your game.

Weiss writes that you don't need to bring too much to the course with you, especially because packing a lot can be cumbersome and hurt your back. Instead, "most courses are well-stocked with high-end rental clubs and sell everything from golf balls to Gatorade," he says.

The golfer also suggests checking a course's dress code, picking the right tee, and paying in advance for your tee time if it's a popular golf course.

There's plenty of other solid advice — from making sure you're using the golf cart responsibly to not drinking too much on the course — that PGA pros and professionals told BI. Check out those tips before you head out the door.

Money in the bag

Laptops, water bottles, notebooks. We all reach for a lot of things daily, and there are plenty of options for the bags that carry them.

Founders, venture capitalists, and other successful men told BI about their bags of choice, from designer totes and luxury duffels to classic commuter backpacks.

Bag secured.

Brain food a neurologist lives by

Dr. Aaron Lord doesn't think there is one "cure-all" superfood or supplement for brain health. Instead, he said "everyday choices" are key.

Good nutrition can lower Alzheimer's and stroke risks while boosting focus and performance. The neurologist isn't short on recommendations: How about cooking with fresh parsley or snacking on homemade popcorn?

A doctor's grocery list.

Touring a $35 million Connecticut private island

Off the Connecticut coast, Hay Island has been in the Ziegler family — known for their baking powder empire — for over a century. Now, it's for sale, but it will cost you a pretty penny.

The 18-acre island's New England colonial house, built in 2010, boasts an infinity pool, views of the Long Island Sound, and a two-bedroom guest house. Not too shabby, right?

Take a look around.

Jason Isaacs doesn't want you to read this

Throughout his career, the actor Jason Isaacs has made it his business to melt into his characters without pretense or fanfare. However, his character Timothy Ratliff on "The White Lotus" might make his spotlight brighter than ever — much to his chagrin.

For BI's Role Play series, Isaacs reflects on the twist-filled season three finale of "The White Lotus," the "odd experience" working on a Michael Bay set, and the real-life roots of Lucius Malfoy's evil in "Harry Potter."

Checking out of "The White Lotus."

Also read:

• There's a million-dollar tax lesson in 'The White Lotus' season finale

What we're watching this weekend

• "The Last of Us": Picking up five years after the events of the first season, season two of the post-apocalyptic drama debuts on Max.
• "The Hating Game": In the mood for an enemies-to-lovers flick? This 2021 rom-com, based on Sally Thorne's bestselling book, stars Lucy Hale and is streaming on Netflix.
• "Black Mirror": The satirical sci-fi hit is back on Netflix with six new episodes and a robust cast list including Issa Rae, Will Poulter, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

See the full list

What to shop

• Bye-bye, fine lines: Research and evidence show that retinol is one of the best solutions for wrinkles and discoloration, even around the eyes. These are the best retinol eye creams, including luxury, mid-range, and affordable options.
• Organize your luggage: If you're skeptical of the power of packing cubes, let us change your mind. These simple travel accessories can make or break your next trip, and the Monos Packing Cubes are one of our favorites.
• Where to find the best candles: Rather than impulse buying the jar you see while grocery shopping, we recommend shopping from these retailers for the best candles. They offer the most variety, highest quality, and beautiful containers.

More of this week's top reads:

• Saunas are the hot new hangout spot, so I tried a $44 social cold plunge class.
• 12 gut-friendly foods high in protein and fiber that a doctor keeps stocked in his kitchen.
• Judy Greer is much more than a rom-com heroine's best friend.
• The real-life von Trapp family from "The Sound of Music" built a hotel in Vermont. Here's what it's like to visit.
• I went on a solo trip to Paris after a breakup. It helped me start healing.
• They hoped RFK Jr. would help their kids with autism. Then the cuts began.
• I attempted to dunk my face in ice-cold water for a week. It made me dread getting out of bed.

The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York City (on paternity leave). Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

• I took my first international flight at 6 weeks old and had moved four times by age 5.
• My nomadic childhood wasn't a series of disruptions — it was the ultimate entrepreneurial boot camp.
• The military mindset I developed as a kid helped me launch a successful startup in uncertain times.

As a child of the military, I learned early that change wasn't just a possibility — it was an inevitability.

Logging in two countries and four moves before the age of 5 will teach you that. Attending a different elementary school nearly every single year will ingrain it in you.

Looking back, I now recognize that my nomadic childhood wasn't a series of disruptions — it was the ultimate entrepreneurial boot camp.

Every new school, every carefully packed box, and every farewell taught me invaluable lessons in thriving amid uncertainty — lessons that have proven instrumental in helping me navigate the tumultuous waters of startup life.

How I used my military mindset to launch a successful health startup

My journey into adaptability began before I could even walk. At just 6 weeks old, I embarked on my first international flight, cradled in my mother's arms as she deftly managed my nonverbal 5-year-old sister and a mountain of luggage.

This was long before smartphones and Google Translate, and watching my mother face the challenges of living in a foreign country instilled in me a fundamental belief: no obstacle is insurmountable.

It's a mindset that has served me well in the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship.

In early 2020, at age 35, just as the pandemic disrupted traditional healthcare models, I co-founded MyUTI, a startup focused on accessible, at-home urinary tract infection testing.

Our logic was simple: if people could swab their noses for COVID-19 at home, surely there was a better way to handle UTIs — the second-most common infection in the US.

Launching a healthcare startup without external funding in such uncertain times didn't feel impossible; it felt like exactly the kind of puzzle I had grown accustomed to solving.

For example, growing up, each military move forced me not just to react to change, but to anticipate it. When my co-founder and I started pitching our idea for MyUTI, it was to rooms filled with predominantly men who often viewed our focus as "too niche."

Instead of backing down, we doubled down, leaned directly into the skepticism, and started proactively addressing objections at the start of our pitches.

The result: we secured a grant from the state of Colorado, validating both our strategy and its importance to the market.

Getting our product to market didn't mean the challenges ended though

Next, we had to build a marketing strategy that complied with stringent healthcare regulations.

My instinct isn't to dwell on difficulties but to immediately shift into solution mode, asking, "How do we make this work?"

We chose to prioritize high-quality educational content for social media to boost organic traffic and consumer trust, which helped establish our brand's credibility in the very noisy digital health landscape.

That proactive, solutions-focused mindset — honed through years of military-driven transitions — enabled me to successfully navigate uncharted territory and ultimately build a thriving business in uncertain times.

Today, the business helps thousands navigate their healthcare.

For all the difficulties and bittersweet goodbyes, I wouldn't trade my military upbringing for anything

Today, as I face the myriad challenges of co-founding and running a healthcare startup, I draw strength from my upbringing and more recent achievements.

In moments of doubt, I remind myself that I've navigated uncharted territories countless times before.

Whether it was switching to a new school and quickly learning local social customs as a kid or code-switching from customer interactions to pitching for grant funding in my current role.

I take a deep breath, embrace the unknown, and trust in my ability to find innovative solutions.

My military upbringing has shaped me into the entrepreneur I am today, equipping me with a unique set of skills that no business school could replicate.

• Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 and has been competing with SpaceX.
• Blue Origin has two rockets and is developing a moon lander and multifunctional spacecraft.
• Here's the rocket company's history, mission, customers, and biggest rocket launches.

Blue Origin's rockets are making a name for themselves in the private space race.

Jeff Bezos founded the aerospace company in 2000 with the idea of moving heavy, polluting industries off our planet and into space, where millions of people would live and work. The company's name, Blue Origin, refers to Earth.

Bezos called Blue Origin his "most important work," in a 2018 interview with Axel Springer.

Blue Origin's mission is to "build a road to space" by developing reliable, cost-effective rockets.

Blue Origin is vying for space industry dominance as spaceflight companies aim for the moon and Mars. The company's New Shepard rockets regularly fly tourists on short flights to the edge of space. Its New Glenn rocket is designed to carry heavy missions into orbit or to the moon. Blue Origin engineers are also developing a moon lander, called Blue Moon, for future NASA use.

Blue Origin's ambitions have been a source of rivalry between Bezos and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX remains the world's leading rocket-launch provider.

History and founding

Bezos has said he founded Blue Origin with the vision of giant space stations hosting entire mega-cities of people, based on concepts proposed by the physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in 1976.

Bezos told Lex Fridman in 2023 that he wants to support one trillion humans living throughout the solar system. He added that would result in 1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins at any given time.

"We could easily support a civilization that large with all the resources in the solar system," he added.

Still, Bezos says in a video on Blue Origin's website that "Earth is the best planet."

Blue Origin did not initially seem to improve Jeff Bezos' net worth, though. Bezos later revealed, in 2017, that he was selling Amazon stock to finance the rocket company.

The company kept a very low profile for its first two decades. Blue Origin's first rocket launch was in 2015. That was an uncrewed test flight of the suborbital New Shepard rocket.

Bezos himself flew on New Shepard's first passenger flight in July 2021, making history as the first billionaire to reach the Kármán line, which is a somewhat arbitrary but internationally recognized boundary at 100 kilometers (62 miles) altitude. It's sometimes referred to as the beginning of outer space.

Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO that same year, saying he wanted to focus on Blue Origin.

In May 2023, Blue Origin won a NASA contract to land astronauts on the moon, after suing the agency for awarding its first moon-landing contract to only SpaceX. The company lost the lawsuit.

Blue Origin's super-sized orbital rocket, New Glenn, launched for the first time in January 2025.

In April 2025, the company clinched its first Pentagon launch contracts.

Blue Origin's CEO is Dave Limp. The company is headquartered in Kent, Washington, and has rocket launch facilities in West Texas. It has also used a launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Blue Origin rockets

Blue Origin has one suborbital rocket and one orbital rocket. It's also developing a moon lander and a moon-orbiting spacecraft.

New Glenn

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is designed to launch missions into Earth's orbit and to the moon, with a reusable booster to reduce launch costs.

New Glenn is named after the first American to reach orbit, John Glenn. Seven BE-4 engines on the booster give it enough power to carry up to 45 metric tons into space.

New Glenn belongs to a new generation of the largest, most powerful rockets ever built, next to SpaceX's Starship and NASA's new moon rocket, the Space Launch System.

Blue Origin had begun developing an orbital launch system by 2013, and New Glenn finally made its inaugural flight in January 2025.

New Glenn's first launch was a major leap forward for Blue Origin. It was the first time a rocket company successfully reached orbit on its first-ever attempt.

Here's how the rocket's launch works: As New Glenn screams through the skies, the booster does most of the heavy lifting. Once its fuel is spent and the rocket is on a strong trajectory toward space, the booster separates from the rocket's second stage, which continues onward using BE-3U engines.

Blue Origin aims to land the booster on a platform in the ocean, but on New Glenn's first flight, the booster was lost as it fell back to Earth. Eventually, the company wants to reuse boosters up to 25 times.

According to Blue Origin, the company is already working with customers for New Glenn missions, including AST SpaceMobile, telecommunications companies, and the US Space Force.

New Shepard

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket is designed for suborbital flights which skim the edge of space. It has been flying tourist crews of up to six passengers since 2021.

Bezos himself flew on New Shepard's first flight, then took the Star Trek actor William Shatner on the rocket's second flight later that year.

Upon landing, Shatner said seeing the blackness of space was like looking at death, and added, "I hope I never recover from this."

Blue Origin plans to fly its first all-female passenger crew aboard New Shepard on April 14, including Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Bezos's fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.

Flights on New Shepard last about 11 minutes. Passengers get about three minutes of microgravity, where they can unbuckle from their seats, drift around the spaceship's cabin, and peer out the windows at Earth, before strapping back in for the plummet home.

Because it doesn't need to push itself all the way into orbit, New Shepard is a tiny rocket at just 61 feet tall. BE-3PM engines launch the rocket, then re-fire to softly land it back on the ground. New Shepard is completely reusable.

New Shepard's development involved nine years of testing, which included 16 test flights and three tests of the capsule's emergency escape system.

The vehicle is named after astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to travel to space. Unlike Glenn's orbital flight, Shepard's flight was suborbital.

Blue Moon

Blue Origin is developing the Blue Moon vehicle to land missions on the surface of the moon, launched by the New Glenn rocket.

The company is developing variations of the spacecraft for cargo — up to three metric tons of it — and human crews.

Blue Origin is building BE-7 engines for the lander. The engines are designed to operate in the vacuum of space with enough power to land heavy missions on the moon.

Blue Origin is developing the lander under a $3.4 billion NASA contract.

The contract calls for Blue Origin to conduct an uncrewed test mission to the lunar surface before carrying two astronauts there in 2029.

For NASA astronaut missions, Blue Moon must be able to dock to the Lunar Gateway space station the agency is planning to build in lunar orbit.

Blue Ring

In 2023 Blue Origin announced it was working on a highly maneuverable spacecraft called Blue Ring.

The company plans to sell Blue Ring missions to other companies, which can put more than 3,000 kilograms (about 6,600 pounds) of hardware on board.

Blue Origin says the vehicle can enter a variety of orbits between Earth and the moon.

"Blue Ring addresses two of the most difficult challenges in spaceflight today: growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit," Paul Ebertz, the senior vice president of Blue Origin's in-space systems, said in a statement.

The first New Glenn launch carried a prototype of Blue Ring.

Blue Origin vs. SpaceX

Blue Origin and SpaceX have competed for NASA contracts and clout. SpaceX frequently wins the competition.

SpaceX was founded two years later than Blue Origin, but it was launching rockets to orbit by 2008. Its highly influential orbital Falcon 9 rocket first began flying in 2010. Blue Origin didn't launch its first orbital rocket until 2025.

Some of Bezos' space projects mirror Musk's.

For example, like SpaceX's Starship, Blue Origin's New Glenn is designed to be a reusable super-heavy-lift mega-rocket.

While SpaceX launches thousands of Starlink internet satellites into orbit, Bezos's counterpart — Amazon's Kuiper satellites — have been building to their first launch.

At the New York Times DealBook Summit in December 2024, Bezos said that Blue Origin "is not a very good business, yet."

Still, he added, "It's going to be the best business that I've ever been involved in."

• I'm Gen X and my daughter is Gen Z. Across the generational divide, there are differences.
• We've had varying experiences with education, communication, and money, among other things.
• Even though we approach things differently, we still get along.

As a Gen X dad, I get along well with my Gen Z daughter, but occasionally we butt heads across the generational divide. While we have a lot of things in common, we also have some different perspectives on life.

We communicate differently

My daughter is approaching 20 and has been comfortable with technology from a young age. She's grown up with smartphones and social media and has benefited from technology in so many aspects of her life. Like much of her generation, my daughter prefers quick and informal communication methods, like texting or messaging apps. I grew up without the constant presence of social networking and continue to plod through the advances of technology, and I tend to prefer more structured communication, like phone calls.

While quick texts don't always cut it for me, I admit they can be convenient. My daughter and her friends message quickly and use emojis, abbreviations, and memes to express themselves They use social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat to stay connected, but I feel uncomfortable sharing photos and videos to keep everyone informed about aspects of my life. I find that most of my peers plod steadily through messaging, keep it simple, and use formal wording.

We recently chatted over FaceTime when my daughter was overseas, and it was great to see her face on the other side of the world. Growing up in a technology-rich environment has shaped her proficiency and comfort with various digital tools, including videoconferencing platforms like Zoom. I envy that.

Technology has changed education, and she's benefited from that

I went through a traditional education system focused on formal classroom learning, while my daughter has benefited from digital learning tools and online education. She can watch a recording of a university lecture if she misses it in person and can find information easily and quickly, which puts her in a good position for a possible legal career.

What frustrates me, however, is the use of the internet as a superpower. My daughter is more inclined to search for answers on Google and seek easy solutions for mundane things. I was always encouraged to be a free-thinker and to figure things out for myself.

We also view work and money differently

In the workplace, many of my peers typically value loyalty and job stability, while my daughter and many of her friends prioritize flexibility and work-life balance. While she is keen to pursue a high-paying job, and it's possible she may change employers regularly, I have spent two-thirds of my working life with just two employers.

In terms of finance and money, my daughter is typical of her generation and lives in a world of immediate gratification. She likes the convenience of swiping and paying for everything with a card, and I like the old-fashioned way of paying with cash. She would rather we transfer money to her electronically than hand over cold, hard cash. Ironically, when she had a student job in a supermarket, the electronic payment system went down, and she admitted that cash had a place in society.

She also prioritizes speed when it comes to food (and, of course, paying for it). While my daughter thinks nothing of hopping on her phone to order Uber Eats, I don't mind the delayed gratification that comes with cooking a delicious homemade stew. One action is quick and easy, and the other is rewarding but requires more effort. My daughter wants quick and convenient every time.

We both value responsible spending and security, but we have different approaches to how we handle our money. I have a more conservative approach to finances. My daughter prioritizes travel and experiences over saving for a house deposit and is not overly worried about accumulating student debt.

Though we don't always see things the same way, she gives me hope

One area I envy my daughter's generation is the strong commitment to environmental sustainability and eco-friendly practices. While I was growing up, I didn't see the same level of awareness of environmental issues and the climate crisis in many of my peers.

My daughter's passion for making the world a better place is inspiring and makes me feel proud and hopeful for the future. Her generation seems to talk more openly than mine about issues like mental health with friends, family, and colleagues, and that honesty is a good thing.

I am learning to accept that sometimes I won't see eye-to-eye with my daughter. It can be frustrating, but disagreements are opportunities for growth and learning. It's a journey of mutual compromise and appreciation for each other's unique perspectives. And fortunately, we share core values, such as respect, kindness, and empathy, which strengthen our relationship.

• Natalie White started Moolah Kicks to create shoes designed specifically for women's basketball.
• She saw an opportunity after seeing WNBA stars show off shoes named after NBA players.
• Moolah Kicks is now in 631 stores. It is worn by college athletes, AAU teams, and WNBA players.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Natalie White, the founder of Moolah Kicks, which makes women's basketball sneakers. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I started playing basketball when I was five years old. I'm from New York City, and one of my earliest memories of the sport was traveling to Ocean City, New Jersey, to play in a tournament. I was the only girl on the team. But it didn't matter. Basketball soon became my life.

I played on the girls' team in high school. Then, I went to Boston College, where I joined the women's club team and managed the varsity team while studying finance and art.

While picking out basketball shoes for my senior year, I came across an ad featuring WNBA players. The ad pictured stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi promoting other athletes' signature sneakers. Sue Bird held the Kyrie 4 shoe, and Diana Taurasi held the LeBron 12.

I saw that ad, and it hit me. What is this saying? You can be the absolute best in the game but you will still be wearing and promoting sneakers named after someone else?

I looked into the issue and saw that not only is there a social implication, but a performance one as well. The female foot form differs in five key areas, including the ankle. So, when we play in these shoes, we're more at risk for knee, ankle, and leg injuries that are so common in basketball. It felt like a one-two punch.

In 2020, as a senior in college, I started Moolah Kicks to create sneakers for female basketball players.

The brand name is slang for money and a nod to the street culture of women's basketball that I grew up with. It also signifies the financial opportunity the Moolah brand creates for female players with the help of our partners and the women's basketball community that has embraced us.

Working with female athletes to grow the brand

We work with female athletes to grow our brand.

WNBA player Courtney Williams wears our shoes. We've collaborated with major brands, including Stanley, and we've been on the "Today" show.

We've also expanded our reach into youth and amateur sports over the last few years. Since we started, we have signed over 100 name, image, and likeness deals with athletes and gotten hundreds of Amateur Athletic Union teams to wear our shoes.

We produce a shoe called the Press Break designed for girls' feet. We wanted girls to have shoes earlier, as young as in grade school. It is so important that when she plays in her first game or practice, she can take the court in shoes that will elevate her game and promote career longevity.

We're just getting started with the women's basketball movement.

We've gone from an idea to selling our sneakers in 631 stores. I cold-called businesses to get them to carry our shoes. It can feel daunting to put yourself out there, but if you are intentional with your approach, describe some clear value that you may be able to add, and honor the other person's time, it can change your life.

Three pieces of advice that I would give to anyone is to always be ready, hustle, and remember that the cream always rises to the top.

Every challenge is an opportunity to get stronger

When you're at a startup, one day can completely change the company. It is countless when you think about what could go wrong.

There are challenges in everything: manufacturing, contract and legal stuff, cash flow, operations, admin, and freight charges. What happens if there is an error on our duty bill?

COVID disruptions to the supply chain, along with being a startup brand caused some challenges to our brand early on. Now, we are incredibly lucky to partner with one of the top factories for performance footwear in the world.

The biggest lesson I learned is that every challenge is an opportunity to get stronger.

Moolah is a story about what happens when you lean into your community.

We want to be synonymous with women's basketball. We want to create our own lane in which success is not compared to men's basketball. It's our own sport, our own identity, our own image and success.

• Shoppers have a plan for avoiding tariffs: Costco.
• Warehouse club chains saw a jump in foot traffic at the end of March, according to Placer.ai.
• Costco and Sam's Club rely on store brands, which might be attractive to tariff-wary buyers.

American shoppers are flocking to stores like Costco and Walmart's Sam's Club for refuge from tariffs.

Foot traffic at those sorts of stores — known in the retail industry as "warehouse clubs" — spiked 9.7% between March 24 and March 30 on a year-over-year basis, according to location-data provider Placer.ai. Visits were down at both grocery stores and superstores for the same period.

That "indicates a possible pull forward in demand during the weeks leading up to the expected implementation of the latest tariffs — particularly at 'stock-up' retailers like warehouse clubs," R.J. Hottovy, the head of analytical research at Placer.ai, wrote in a post on Friday.

The data aren't perfect, Hottovy added, saying that they compare the last full week of March 2025 with the same week in 2024, which included higher-than-normal foot traffic as consumers shopped for an early Easter last year.

Costco did some stocking up of its own ahead of tariffs. Executives said in an earnings call last month that the retailer was bringing in extra inventory to the US to soften the blow of the duties.

Some shoppers started stockpiling essentials, such as meat and skincare products, after President Donald Trump announced a series of tariffs on goods originating everywhere from France to Vietnam at the start of this month.

On Wednesday, Trump paused many of those tariffs for 90 days. At the same time, he upped duties on imports from China to 145%, escalating the US's conflict with one of its most important trading partners.

While it's still early, other retailers have also started to see evidence of stockpiling. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Thursday that some data indicated that shoppers were pulling forward some purchases.

Warehouse club chains tend to focus on underpricing other retailers for essentials by selling items in bulk and under their own store brands instead of national ones.

"Consumers are likely to increasingly gravitate toward retailers that offer bulk purchasing, strong private-label alternatives, and everyday low prices," Placer.ai's Hottovy wrote. Those are "areas where warehouse clubs and discount grocers with robust private-label assortments excel."

• I tried Meghan Markle's first collection of As Ever products, which sold out in an hour.
• I bought the three teas, crepe and shortbread cookie mixes, raspberry spread, and flower sprinkles.
• My favorite was the crepe mix, which was quick, easy, and made delicious crepes.

Ever since Meghan Markle's jams started popping up on celebrities' Instagrams, everyone has wondered the same thing. Could the Duchess of Sussex become the next lifestyle queen?

It's a question that's been endlessly debated in think pieces, not to mention hundreds of articles from British tabloids dissecting every potential rumor and snafu with Meghan's new brand. The interest only intensified when it was revealed earlier this year that she was releasing a whole line of products and a new Netflix show.

But how do Meghan's new products actually taste? We got our hands on the first drop from her As Ever brand, including the famous jam, and are ready to tell you all about it.

Meghan's As Ever line is part of her new push into the lifestyle space.

Many wondered what Meghan's next move would be as she and Prince Harry continued to navigate their post-royal life.

There have been highs (the hit Netflix series "Harry & Meghan") and lows (that Spotify deal) along the way. However, in March 2024, Meghan revealed she was ready to venture into the lifestyle space with her new brand, American Riviera Orchard.

One year and a trademark dispute later, the brand has been renamed to As Ever and has a key investor in Netflix, which also released Meghan's new lifestyle show "With Love, Meghan," a Martha Stewart-style series that features the duchess in her ultra-luxurious Montecito neighborhood.

The show, which premiered on March 4, was derided by critics but still made Netflix's top 10 list and has already been renewed for a second season.

As Ever's first collection sold out in an hour.

On April 4, Meghan released six items in her first As Ever collection.

There were mixes for crepes and shortbread cookies, three different teas, a tin of flower sprinkles, the famous jam (now called raspberry spread), and a limited-edition wildflower honey. We were able to buy everything except the honey, which sold out in five minutes.

With the exception of the $28 honey, each product cost between $12 and $15. Meghan recently told Fortune that she wanted her brand to look prestigious but have an "accessible and affordable" price point.

"I think during any time of recession, people still want to find creature comforts, items that can bring them joy," she added.

Our review begins with the teas, which are packaged in beautiful tins.

If you've seen "With Love, Meghan," then you know tea might be the only thing she loves making more than a crudité platter, so it didn't surprise me that it was a big part of her brand. The collection features hibiscus, peppermint, and lemon ginger teas, and each $12 tin comes with 12 sachets.

Each tea comes in a black and gold tin featuring a label with "As Ever" written in the Duchess of Sussex's lovely handwriting. At the top of each label is the gold As Ever logo, a palm tree flanked by two hummingbirds. It's definitely pretty enough to show off on your kitchen counter.

My one design critique? There's no branding on the tea bag labels! It's just a small blank white square. The little label would've been the perfect place to add the logo again or another nice touch to elevate the tea as it dangles from your cup.

First, I tried the hibiscus tea, which had a beautiful color.

Meghan recommends enjoying the hibiscus tea as she does with her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — by letting it "brew with the warmth of the sun." I popped a bag of hibiscus tea into my glass, letting it sit on my windowsill for a few hours.

There was something romantic about watching the color bloom into a bright and beautiful fuchsia hue every time I walked by my kitchen.

Per Meghan's instructions, I served the tea over ice, which allowed its flavor to sing. The floral notes were subtle, with a delightful pop of tartness.

The herbal lemon ginger tea reminded me of my childhood.

According to the packaging, this tea was inspired by a "soothing tincture of lemon and ginger" that Meghan has been making "for years."

I have a Greek mother who believes chamomile tea can cure just about any ailment, whether it be a cold, a tummy ache, or a bout of sadness. When I poured a hot cup of Meghan's lemon ginger tea and breathed in deeply, the smells brought me back to being a kid again.

Along with lemon and ginger, the blend has lemongrass, lemon peel, licorice root, and spearmint (all organic, of course). It makes for a very soothing cup of tea.

Meghan said the peppermint tea is "easily the favorite tea in our home."

I compared Meghan's peppermint tea to a bag from the Traditional Medicinals box I had in my kitchen, and it was hard to discern the difference between the two, although the As Ever bag had a bit of a deeper flavor.

It's not exactly groundbreaking, but it's a nice cup of tea!

After all that tea, I was ready for some crepes.

"Why does a crepe feel more special than a pancake? I don't know, but it does," Meghan says before making a version of these crepes on her show.

According to her newsletter and the As Ever website, the mix was inspired by the crepes Meghan ate at Parisian cafés when she was backpacking as a student. She promises the $14 mix is "easy to prepare and endlessly adaptable."

I'd never made crepes before, so I was intrigued to see if it was as easy as Meghan promised.

My first crepe was a pale and soggy mess that went straight into the trash. This is through no fault of Meghan's instructions — I'm just not a very confident home chef.

But as Meghan repeatedly says in her show, "we're not in the pursuit of perfection, we're in the pursuit of joy," so I tried again. And again.

By the third crepe, I was getting the hang of it, and by the fifth, I felt like a total pro. "Am now domestic goddess," I thought to myself. (Apparently, my internal voice is now Bridget Jones.)

Meghan's crepes were my favorite product from the As Ever line.

While making homemade crepes seemed extremely daunting, it was validating to know that even I could quickly whip them up at home. And they were delicious!

The crepes came out light and crispy, providing a bit of crunch with each bite. I followed Meghan's recommendation to try them with a chocolate hazelnut spread, a lovely little sweet treat my boyfriend couldn't get enough of.

I also tried the crepes with the famous raspberry spread that started it all.

Meghan calls herself a "preserving nerd" and clearly loves to make homemade batches. The Duchess of Sussex told Fortune that she'd been sending her homemade products to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos every Christmas for years.

The $14 As Ever raspberry spread is based on her recipe and comes in a special keepsake box. According to the website, a $9 version sans box will be available soon.

The raspberry spread tastes surprisingly fresh and homemade.

I've seen complaints that Meghan's raspberry spread is "runny." But as she notes on the website, the spread has been crafted with a "fluid texture so it can be drizzled, spread, poured, and enjoyed for so much more than your morning toast."

I personally liked the texture and that I could see dozens of seeds in every spoonful. It made the spread feel like something a friend had crafted in their kitchen. It's slightly sweet, with a refreshing zing from its lemon juice.

I ended the day by making Meghan's shortbread cookies, which came with a package of her flower sprinkles.

I ran into a few issues while making the shortbread cookie mix, which costs $14.

The box says that your batter should become "light and creamy," which… wasn't the case for me. My batter was powdery and dry, and I struggled to roll the dough onto my counter without it breaking apart.

After some panic Googling, I added a few drops of cold water to help bind the dough. I was able to form the dough into a log and placed it in my fridge for an hour to chill.

Once the dough had properly chilled, the cookies were ready in 11 minutes.

After taking the dough out of the oven, I could easily slice the cookies.

I filled two baking sheets with about 20 cookies and still had over a quarter of the dough left over to store in my freezer.

I topped off the cookies with more flower sprinkles before digging in.

Meghan tells Mindy Kaling on her show that the flower sprinkles are "just an accessory." But she loves putting them on almost everything, including doughnuts, salad, and eggs.

They added more of a pop to the cookies, which came out pretty pale from the oven. I wish the instructions had included some of the tricks Meghan uses while making these on her show, including adding a little egg wash on top, which would've helped turn them golden, and rolling the sides in sugar to add some needed sweetness.

Still, the shortbread was a great base for the raspberry spread, and my boyfriend and I found that the cookies were slowly growing on us.

"These are actually good," he declared the next day.

Meghan's first As Ever collection is playing it safe, but her crepes are really great.

After finishing Meghan's new Netflix show, I told my friend Sam that it felt like the equivalent of placing cucumbers over your eyes for an at-home spa day.

"It doesn't ultimately do anything for your skin, but boy, is it relaxing!" she replied, calling it the perfect metaphor.

I'm not surprised Meghan is playing it safe, both with the first season of her show and with her first collection of products. She's tentatively staging a comeback and is all too aware that just about everything she does will be picked apart in the process.

Her first As Ever collection is full of solid products I'd happily use again — especially those delicious crepes. But I hope we see Meghan take some risks and infuse her brand with a bit more personality as she gains more confidence in the lifestyle space.

• TJ Semanchin is the co-owner of Wonderstate Coffee, a Wisconsin-based coffee roaster.
• Donald Trump's 10% blanket tariffs mean Semanchin's company will have to make some hard decisions.
• Wonderstate typically imports 40,000 pounds of coffee in one transaction.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 51-year-old TJ Semanchin, the co-owner of Wonderstate Coffee. Business Insider has confirmed Semanchin's identity and role at the company. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been in the coffee business for the last 25 years. Before that, I was living in Latin America studying issues around sustainable development in coffee lands.

After moving to a small rural town in Wisconsin in 2005, my wife and I started what was Kickapoo Coffee at the time — we've since rebranded — with our business partner, Caleb Nichols. We're a small company. We employ 85 people here in Wisconsin.

Today, Donald Trump's tariffs are 10% across the board, and we're in a business climate where there's so much uncertainty. You can't produce coffee in the United States. There's no replacement.

As an industry, we were in denial when Trump was talking about tariffs last year or earlier. Even as we've gotten closer, we were like, "Well, of course, he's going to make an exception."

We thought we were likely immune, so this has been something that is so disruptive. Importing a product that can only be produced outside of our borders is at the core of our business.

The coffee industry was already in a shaky place

The coffee market is getting zigzagged in every direction because there's so much uncertainty and volatility in everything right now.

For the last six months, the coffee industry has been dealing with historically high commodity prices.

Over the course of a few years, the world's largest producers of coffee, Brazil and Vietnam, have been hit with climate disruptions. It's unprecedented. This affects everyone, from a roaster like us to huge brands like the Maxwell Houses and Starbucks.

So, there's been a supply crunch, which has pushed the price up due to it just being harder for farmers to grow the beans.

It's going to cost a lot

We have coffee on the water right now that we think will be hit with tariffs.

Ethiopia is our biggest African source. In Central America, it's Guatemala, and Peru is the main source in South America.

If I want to bring that coffee into the country and get it through customs, that tariff needs to be paid. I pay that.

We deal in containers, which are 40,000 pounds of coffee. At $5 per pound, I'd pay $200,000 for one container. If we start at 10%, the tariff would be $20,000. We buy about 14 containers a year.

So we're looking at $250,000 to $300,000 of tariff impact. Some of that, no matter what, I have to absorb upfront. I have to finance it, I have to come up with the dollars.

I have to figure out how to afford that unexpected business cost. That means borrowing more money, which comes with interest, but it's also tying up my cash.

What now?

We have 33 coffee shops here in Wisconsin, around the state. We're in Whole Foods regionally, a bunch of Midwest grocery chains, and natural food cooperatives. We also sell to independent coffee shops, restaurants, and corporate campuses.

Tariffs are making me way more conservative in our outlook this year. We can't afford to invest in our people, invest in equipment, or invest in growth. We're pulling back on plans we had for this year.

We are working with the two sides of the coffee world: we're working to empower farmers while providing consumers with some of the best coffees.

We have loyal customers, but as we increase prices, where and when do people stop drinking coffee or go somewhere else? The business environment is really dicey.

I don't even know what the price of the bags that we put our coffee in is going to be. A lot of them come from Asia, and those tariffs are bouncing all over the place. Some come from China; some come from Taiwan.

I've talked to two of the elected officials and a senator from my state. I'm trying to make waves in Washington, DC. This is clearly going to slow our job growth.

Worst case scenario, we're going to have to cut jobs.

• Noah Pickholtz, a tech investor, wrote a children's book about autonomous vehicles.
• The book centers on a superpowered car called Ayvee Hickel, who fights against the evil Distracto.
• Distracto represents all the bad behaviors of human driving, Pickholtz told BI.

In the real world, autonomous vehicles are a work in progress as they pass onto our city roads.

In Noah Pickholtz's fictional world, they're heroes combatting against the evils of distracted driving.

Pickholtz, a founder and tech investor based in Jerusalem, wrote a pro-autonomous vehicle children's book that centers on the titular heroine, cheekily named "Ayvee Hickle."

It's part of a broader effort by a small team at StellarNova publishing to familiarize the next generation with "autonomous vehicles, women in STEM fields, and beyond," Pickholtz, StellarNova's chief creative officer, told Business Insider.

In Eastern countries like Japan, society tends to look favorably upon "autonomous elements," he said, whereas the West can tend to think "Terminator" when they hear of robots. Books like "Ayvee Hickle" could be the antidote.

"That perception is definitely changing, and hopefully, we can be assistive in moving people's minds to appreciate the value of what can be done," he said.

In the story, Ayvee Hickel is a young female car with "extraordinary" gifts that later allow her to fight against the book's villain, the diabolical Distracto.

Distracto is a monster truck representing everything wrong with human drivers. He causes other cars on the road to crash with his "Distracto-ray," which sends vehicles "non-stop texts and notifications." The book doesn't explicitly depict human drivers, but the reference is clear.

"There was an externality concept of moving it out from the individual as being responsible to an external bad character," Pickholtz said, wanting to depict the behaviors rather than the humans doing them.

Ayvee Hickel overcomes the obstacles thrown at her in the book — including bad weather — using superpowers activated by a computer named "Chippy." The powers include camera vision and "radar and lidar super-sensors." (Pickholtz acknowledged that the anti-lidar camp might not like this one.)

The book also adds in some ELI5 teachings on some of the underlying technologies of autonomy.

Algorithms are explained as "magical rules that teach machines to do anything we want, like how to drive safely." Lidar sensors use "radio waves and laser beams to sense and identify objects clearly — even in bad weather!"

"Ayvee Hickle" was made in partnership with Mobileye, an Israeli-based autonomous vehicle software firm. Pickholtz said it was first distributed internally among employees, with plans for wider distribution.

"Ayvee Hickel is Mobileye's way of passing along the spark of innovation," Diane Be'ery, Mobileye's VP of marketing, said in a statement to BI. "By showing how technology, like an autonomous vehicle, can turn big ideas into real-world impact, we hope we can encourage children to imagine what bold ideas they can bring to life."

Countless studies have shown that children are susceptible to and generally accept emerging technologies or things that are just … different.

So, if the adults in the room may not trust AVs, maybe the kids will?

• Financial market volatility is ratcheting up some workers' stress and making it hard to focus.
• One CEO uses humor to manage tension amid trade war and recession fears.
• Bosses can help by modeling calm behavior and checking up on workers, a leadership coach told BI.

As a CEO, Terry MacCauley often reaches for a joke when things get stressful in the office.

He's been doing that more lately, as fears of a trade war and possible recession have clients calling the marketing and advertising firm he started more than a decade ago near St. Louis.

"Just having a wonderful day at work, with the stock market tickers on in the background. No big deal," MacCauley wrote on April 4th on X as the Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded toward a loss of more than 2,200 points on the day.

The gallows humor was a tacit acknowledgment that keeping calm and carrying on is often hard, especially for those whose work involves a lot of screentime. Our computers — to say nothing of our phones — can pile up with news updates that tweak our fight-or-flight responses.

Weeks of whipsaws in financial markets and uncertainty about the economy is making it hard for some bosses and workers to keep both eyes on their work and not, say, on their 401(k). Yet finding a way to push ahead is key, even though it's often difficult.

"I am a new mom who is also working, so it has been very stressful and difficult to focus!" a woman who said she lives in Buffalo, New York, and gave her name as Erika, told Business Insider in a message. She declined to give her full name because she wanted to maintain privacy.

Erika is worried about tariffs hurting her employer's supply chain, though her primary concern, she said, is the big swings on Wall Street. Beyond that, Erika is fretful that the public libraries, like the one where she likes to take her daughter, will face funding cuts.

Taking a breath

MacCauley manages to forge ahead in a topsy-turvy news environment partly because the developments on tariffs have made his Chesterfield, Missouri, company, Big Time Advertising & Marketing, busier, he told BI.

MacCauley set up the firm, which caters to automotive dealerships, after years of selling cars himself.

He said clients had been calling to ask whether they should pause their marketing spending to help preserve cash because of tariff costs. The inquiries have given his 10-person team plenty to do.

MacCauley said he's tried to remind his team that it was too early to tell what the tariff impacts might be. He compared it to receiving a tornado warning and taking shelter — a not-uncommon occurrence in the Midwest.

"You go to your basement, and you don't know if you're going to come up and the house is going to be gone or it's all good," he said.

MacCauley's counsel to his team came before President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would institute a partial 90-day pause and leave tariffs, other than for China, at 10%.

In any case, finding peace — at work and beyond — isn't always easy when the news flow balloons from gardenhose to firehose.

Every 30 minutes

Matthew Hassett, founder and CEO of Loftie, which makes a lamp and digital clock designed to promote sound sleep, said frequent shifts in government policy have him sometimes checking news feeds every 30 minutes or so.

"I never consumed this much news content, and I'm an avid news reader," he told BI.

Loftie is based in New York City but manufactures its products in China because, Hassett said, the capacity to do so in the US doesn't exist.

He said he's in a Slack group for founders where participants share information, ask questions, and simply try to stay abreast of the day's developments.

"We're all just sharing information and asking questions and trying to keep up, but it also just is a huge waste of our time," Hassett said.

He tries to keep up with what's going on in part to shield his staff from having to worry about how the company will survive a tariff that, in the case of the lamp, he said amounts to 175%.

"I'm grateful to my team, who are actually managing to stay somewhat heads-down and work on the course that I've charted out," Hassett said.

Leaders can be a model

Finding a way to carve out peace in uncertain times is essential, Julie Donley, a leadership coach, told BI.

She said that when you're feeling anything at a high level, including stress, it's hard to think clearly. Lately, Donley has been hearing from some of the execs she coaches.

"They think out loud, and they get that off their chest," she said, adding that their shared goal is to have less "emotional reactivity" and calm down so they can make better decisions.

Donley, who is the author of the book "Leading at the Speed of People," said bosses need to model good behaviors and check on their teams when unsettling headlines could cause anxiety to spike.

"They may need to keep a pulse on whether someone really is freaking out," she said of leaders.

MacCauley, the ad exec, said he tries to create a culture at his company of not dwelling on what they can't control.

"We're just going to work hard and do what we do," he said.

Calming distractions can also help block the more worrisome ones. On a recent weekday, as markets tumbled, MacCauley had the TV in his office tuned to his beloved New York Yankees.

"That makes me happy, even though they're losing," he said.

• Nader Akhnoukh was living in Colorado and founded two successful tech startups.
• He and his wife wanted a change of pace for their young family and moved to Portugal.
• Akhnoukh pivoted from tech to building Portugese olive oil business — which he said aren't so different.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Nader Akhnoukh, an entrepreneur living in Portugal. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I began my career as a software design engineer in 1999, working at various technology companies in Boston and San Francisco. In 2008, my wife and I took a year off to travel the world and it was eye-opening.

In 2009, we relocated to Colorado and I founded a content management software company, Kapost. I was the CTO and grew the business for nine years until it was acquired by Upland for $50 million in 2019. As a major shareholder, I was happy with my share of the proceeds.

Following the acquisition, I worked as the cofounder and CTO for Onward, an assisted transportation marketplace in California. I helped scale the business until it was acquired in the summer of 2021.

Moving to Portugal and considering my career options

After a lengthy career in tech, I felt ready for a change. At 42, my family and I left Colorado for Portugal. My wife and I wanted a slower pace of life and better weather for our three sons ages 5, 8, and 10.

We applied for the Portugal Golden Residence Permit Program, which is a five-year residence-by-investment program for non-EU nationals. The process was fairly straightforward. We had to show that we were contributing to Portugal's economy through investment, real estate or donation. We ended up investing in a Portuguese real estate fund.

Upon arriving in 2020, I fell in love with the culture, the people, and the food. Our sons, especially the younger two, quickly acclimatized.

I was still working with Onward, but I yearned to step away from screens and connect with something tangible that would ground me in my new home's culture.

Exploring the culinary scene in Portugal, I learned how it revolves around olive oil. I began touring olive farms and researching the industry. I considered buying an olive farm but quickly realized local producers had perfected their craft over generations — expertise I couldn't replicate.

I brainstormed business ideas with a former colleague back in Colorado, Riley Gibson. We had complementary skill sets and were keen to work together again. Neither of us had experience in agriculture or exporting, but Riley said he wanted to help me build something new.

The Portuguese love for olive oil inspired me to start a business

In January 2024, we officially launched an olive oil business called Wildly Virgin. We source oil from local growers and ship it to the States.

I immersed myself in the local olive-growing regions and completed an olive oil sommelier program. I took lessons to improve my Portugese and get to an intermediate level to connect with producers who had limited English.

I used the proceeds of my past business ventures to fund Wildly Virgin and live off while in Portugal. Luckily, the low cost of living compared to the US means my family and I have maintained our comfortable lifestyle.

I don't take a salary from Wildly Virgin. I see a path to profitability this year, but I don't know if I'll be able to pay myself yet. The financial reality of running an olive oil company is very different from working in tech.

Tech and olive oil startups aren't that different

People were surprised at my transition from tech to olive oil, but my background has proven valuable. The fundamentals of startups are the same. You have to deliver customer value and achieve product-market fit, whether it's software or olive oil.

Scaling Wildy has demanded the same workload as my tech startup career. We establish quarterly objectives, track metrics and analyze operational challenges and market positioning.

In software, you can iterate weekly, constantly refining your offering. With olive oil, certain elements like marketing strategy can evolve quickly, but the core product development follows nature's timeline: there's only one olive harvest annually, demanding thoughtful planning and patience.

The harvest occurs at year's end, so the beginning of the year is operationally intensive as we test and select oils, source packaging, and coordinate with vendors for corks and labels. When summer arrives and our products become available for sale, we shift focus to marketing.

I hope this endeavor will bridge the gap between my new and old experiences

Portugal was a cultural shift for my family, but also an eye-opening career pivot.

The business culture here operates on a different rhythm. I've spent an entire year traveling throughout the country, meeting producers, practicing Portuguese, and establishing connections. Relationships are paramount in business here.

In the States, networking is important, but on a lesser scale in the software world, where conversations happen remotely or behind the scenes.

Though I cherish living in Portugal, I felt somewhat disconnected from my professional network back in the States. I'm hoping a hands-on venture like Wildly Virgin helps bridge this gap, especially by working with RIley in the US.

Stepping away from technology has given me perspective on what made that industry special. I sometimes miss the nimbleness of software development. However, I can envision a future where we might blend both the tech and olive oil worlds, perhaps by incorporating a subscription model or innovation of our tech aspects

Living in Portugal and building Wildy Virgin here is central to our company. I've fallen in love with this country.

• Ed Sheeran collects movie props, he shared on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast this week.
• The "Bad Habits" singer said he owns "Hook" costumes, C-3PO from "Star Wars," and a Batgirl suit.
• Sheeran said he wanted George Clooney's "Batman & Robin" costume — and would pay six figures for it.

Even the world's biggest pop stars have nerdy hobbies, Ed Sheeran revealed on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast this week.

When he's not penning record-breaking songs or performing them to sold-out stadiums, the "Shivers" and "Shape of You" singer enjoys browsing online auctions and scooping up movie props.

"I'm a huge 'Hook' fan, so I bought Robin Williams' Pan costume and Rufio's sword and then Julia Roberts' Tinkerbell costume," Sheeran said. Actor Dante Brasco plays Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys, in the Peter Pan sequel.

The British singer-songwriter said those items cost less than six figures each, but he's spent that kind of money on props in the past.

"I bought C-3PO. That was … not cheap," he said. Other props from the original "Star Wars: A New Hope" movie have sold for huge amounts in recent years, including two X-Wing starfighters that fetched about $2.4 million and $3.1 million each.

Podcast host Alex Cooper asked Sheeran if he regretted spending so much. He replied emphatically that he did not.

"I just buy one prop a year for my birthday," Sheeran said, adding that he looked forward to his annual purchase and thought all year about what he'd buy next.

"I'm trying to get the George Clooney 'Batman costume," he said, noting "Batman & Robin" has a special draw for him as it's the first movie in the franchise he watched.

Sheeran said he already owned the Batgirl costume worn by Alicia Silverstone in the movie, and he wanted a matching set.

Cooper asked Sheeran how much he'd be willing to shell out for the Batman costume. "I would go up to six figures for it, I think … that's like history though, it's history."

The costume in question appears to have sold at auction for $63,000 on March 26, an online listing shows. Sheeran didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Cooper also queried his eBay habit. Sheeran said he spent "a lot of time in hotel rooms," and music and movies were his "two passions."

During their conversation, the former busker revealed that he'd purchased an old pub counter on eBay. He used it to convert a run-down barn on his property into a pub where he keeps his movie props and memorabilia such as signed footballs.

Sheeran added that there's a tunnel connecting to the pub and he's built a cinema and listening room in it, so it's less of a ""man cave" than a "man catacombs."

• Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is raising $2 billion for her AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab.
• The startup's high valuation may be driven by venture capital's "Power Law" strategy.
• Big Tech acquisitions also offer a potential safety net for VC investors if startups struggle.

Business Insider reporter Ben Bergman broke the news this week that Mira Murati is raising about $2 billion for her AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab.

This company is only a few months old, and employs just a handful of people. There are no products yet. So, why would investors put in so much money and value such a young enterprise at around $10 billion?

I think there are two main explanations. Both are based on how venture capital works in the age of generative AI and Big Tech.

The Power Law

First up: This is a very expensive option on Mira's startup working out spectacularly well. If that happens, a $10 billion valuation could become $100 billion. Or $1 trillion. OpenAI, where Murati used to work, was recently valued at $300 billion. Google is worth almost $2 trillion.

If Thinking Machines Lab turns into a success like these two companies, then your venture capital fund is done for the decade. You made 10x or 100x your investment, so the rest of your portfolio of early startups doesn't really matter. Those businesses can all fail and you've still generated impressive returns.

This is known as the "Power Law," which states that VC funds cannot achieve success without at least one bet so extraordinary that its gains return the entire value of the fund to investors. One potential example that comes to mind is Accel Partners' early stake in Facebook. 

"Each year brings a handful of outliers that hit the proverbial grand slam," wrote Sebastian Mallaby in his 2022 book on the subject. "The only thing that matters in venture is to own a piece of them."

The "Big Tech put"

Most startups don't work out, though. If Thinking Machines doesn't do amazingly well, there's another path where investors can still make money — even if they've put what seems like a ridiculously high valuation on this startup. 

Sometimes, startups that struggle to sell products and generate revenue still have other valuable assets. Maybe they've invented a new tech thing and have patents to back it up. Or they employ talented technical people. Or both. (To be sure, Murati is incredibly talented and she's hired quite a few experts from her OpenAI days).

In situations like this, big tech companies sometimes swoop in and acquire these startups. When these transactions are mostly for talent, these deals are called acqui-hires. 

In the generative AI era, when tech companies are racing for domination, some of these deals have been huge. 

Last year, Google agreed to pay $2.5 billion to license Character.AI's technology and hire the startup's two superstar cofounders, along with 20% of the other employees.

Microsoft crafted a similar deal with Inflection, a startup run by Deepmind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman. Amazon did a similar one with Adept. 

These types of transactions don't generate 10x or 100x returns for VCs. But they can get them out of struggling startup investments with little financial damage or sometimes even a relatively healthy gain.

For instance, the Character.ai deal netted investors a return of about 2.5x, BI's Ben Bergman wrote last year. 

Let's call this the "Big Tech put." 

A put option is a financial contract that gives the owner the right to sell an asset at a specific price by a specific date.

More generally, a put is the idea that if the price of something falls a lot, someone important will step in and support it. Or even more generally, it's the idea that if the sh*t hits the fan, higher powers will intervene to clean up the mess. 

There's a "Fed put," which is the belief by investors that the Federal Reserve will step in to buoy markets if prices drop to a certain level.

And now there's even a "Trump put." This is the belief that US President Donald Trump will do what it takes to prop up the market. This theory did the rounds recently when he paused global tariffs after the bond market went berserk for a day or 2. 

If broader markets can have "put" theories, then why can't venture capitalists have their very own "Big Tech put"?

I just Googled this phrase by the way, and I couldn't find anyone using it. So I'm claiming it as my own. I came up with this, OK? 

• Emily Ley, owner of Simplified, sued Trump over tariffs on China that are threatening her business.
• Ley's lawsuit challenges Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
• Simplified faces potential closure due to tariffs, risking up to $1 million in costs this year.

Until about a month ago, Emily Ley's social media posts consisted almost entirely of delicious recipes and photos of idyllic time spent with her family.

But since President Donald Trump began to impose tariffs Ley says would end her American Dream, she suddenly found herself at the forefront of a fight impacting the livelihoods of millions.

"I was seeing so much misinformation and confusion about what tariffs are, who pays the tariffs, and how tariffs impact employees and businesses and consumers," Ley told Business Insider, "so just a couple weeks ago, I decided I have got to speak up and say something."

Aside from being a published cookbook author, an influencer with more than 230,000 followers, and the mother of two young children, Ley is also the CEO of Simplified, a small stationary company in Florida run by a team of nine women. The company relies on Chinese manufacturers to produce its signature planners for busy women — and Trump's tariffs could shut her business down.

"I posted on Instagram just a couple of detailed slides about what the tariffs are, how it has impacted Simplified, and how much money we have paid in tariffs over the last few years — and it quickly went viral," said Ley. "I have the facts because I'm the one signing the checks."

A constitutional challenge to Trump's tariffs

Ley's posts led to a call with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a Libertarian legal group. The group now represents her as a stakeholder in a lawsuit against Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and the Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Peter R. Flores.

The lawsuit filed at the Northern District of Florida states that Trump has misused the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on all exports from China, as the law was meant for "sanctions as a rapid response to international emergencies," which "does not allow a president to impose tariffs on the American people."

The IEEPA, a 1970s law that grants the president sweeping powers only during an economic emergency, was invoked by Trump to justify his duties on almost all other countries. So if Ley's case succeeds, it could undo all of his tariffs.

"The constitutional power 'to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises' and 'to regulate commerce with foreign Nations' belongs to Congress," said John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel of NCLA, in a statement. "The Administration's actions followed none of these constitutional commands."

After rounds of retaliations, the US tariffs on China stand at 145%, while China's counter-tariffs on the US increased to 125% as of April 11.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Ley plans to 'go down fighting'

Ley started making planners in 2012 after she had her first child and realized that there were no notebooks out there that met her needs as a woman juggling many tasks.

Her first instinct was to work with a manufacturer close to home. However, it cost $38 each to make the most basic planner domestically, so even though she priced them at $50 each and sold out an initial run, she was left with no profits after deducting other fees and business expenses from the balance.

After a year of looking for an affordable US manufacturer, Ley began working with factories with ethics certifications in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city, in 2013. Simplified now has more than 50 different planner designs, selling between $20 and $60 each. The production cost of each planner is around 25% of the price listed on the Simplified website.

"We were only able to grow because China has the infrastructure to do all of the things we wanted to do with our products, like having gold binding, gold corners, pockets and stickers, and beautiful keepsake boxes for packaging," said Ley. "That infrastructure just doesn't exist here."

Since Trump's first round of tariffs on China in 2017, Simplified has been paying 25% in tariffs, which, as of January 1 this year, cost the business just under $1.2 million over 8 years.

Now, with the prospect of a 145% tariff, the business would be paying anywhere between $830,000 and a million dollars this year alone. Ley would be looking at the "scary prospect" of cutting staff, hiking prices, or shutting her doors if she couldn't find a domestic manufacturer capable of making the same products.

"I did not have it on my Bingo card for 2025 to sue the president, but I am proud to stand up as a small-business owner, as a women-owned business," said Ley. "If this is going to be the end for my company, I'm going to go down fighting."

• Airbus is developing self-driving technology, testing it with a truck at a French airport.
• `Business Insider got to take a ride during a summit at the planemaker's headquarters.
• It could be key to reducing airport congestion and collisions in the future.

Self-driving planes might be closer than you think.

Airbus sees autonomous technology as a way to relieve airport congestion — at a time when near-misses have been getting more common and air traffic control is under increasing pressure.

At a summit hosted by the European planemaker last month, Business Insider got to experience the technology firsthand.

Optimate is a three-year research project from the Airbus research-and-development subsidiary called UpNext.

It's been testing out the technology on a small electric truck — equipped with a sidestick and elements of an A350 flight deck. Airbus calls it a "cockpit on wheels."

As well as geo-location sensors, the Optimate team have been testing lidar, radar, and cameras to let the truck drive itself.

With the registration "OPTI1", 150 hours of tests have taken place at Airbus headquarters and the adjacent runways of Toulouse-Blagnac Airport — working with air traffic control.

This reporter had the chance to sit alongside two Airbus engineers in the back of the truck during a short journey, while another reporter sat in the front.

Two monitors in the back showed an array of visuals from interior and exterior cameras to a map — created by the sensors with a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) algorithm.

The engineer was able to remotely control the parking brake and, after we got moving, set the truck to drive autonomously. It smoothly followed the centerline of a taxiway in the company's delivery center.

Close calls on the rise

Optimate is also testing the ability for automatic braking, detecting obstacles, and avoiding collisions.

It could be a vital technology as close calls have been on the rise at airports.

In 2023, The New York Times reported that they were happening multiple times a week on average.

A Southwest Airlines plane had to go around in February after a private jet entered a runway "without authorization" at Chicago's Midway Airport in February, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

While taxiing, aircraft have clipped wings or collided with ground vehicles.

Airport operations have suffered due to a lack of air traffic control staffing as well as much of its technology being outdated.

Reduce delays

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has called for more funding in staffing, technology, and facilities — backing Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's plan to "supercharge" hiring by accelerating the process and boosting pay.

As well as the risk of collisions on the tarmac, airport congestion can cause delays. Kirby said air traffic control restrictions were responsible for just over two-thirds of United's delays.

It's set to get more complicated, too. In 20 years, Airbus predicts there will be twice as many planes in the sky.

Ultimately, UpNext is aiming for aircraft to automatically communicate with one another as well as the airport control tower. The autonomous system could then respond or alert the crew accordingly.

Airbus hopes to test its autonomous taxiing tech with an A350 next year.

While Optimate is focused on automating the taxiing phase for now, there's more work on automation ahead.

As well as offering virtual assistance, staffers at the summit told BI that they're working on using AI to predict traffic and help pilots reroute to avoid bad weather or turbulence.