• I'm a chef who uses an air fryer for everything from breakfast to dinner.
• The compact countertop appliance offers an ideal way to make egg bites, potatoes, and cauliflower.
• I've also found simple recipes for air-fried cheesecake and French toast.

I trained as a chef and have worked in kitchens from Scotland to Sydney and Toronto to Martha's Vineyard.

With all that experience, I still think air fryers are one of the best kitchen hacks. I've tested a few varieties, but I usually find myself going back to my small, single-basket, 5-quart air fryer.

If you're looking for quick, easy snacks and meals, I keep coming back to these seven essential air-fryer recipes.

A sweet, salty breakfast sandwich is a brilliant start to any day.

One of the most requested air-fried items in my house is based on a breakfast I cooked in Dublin that led to a half dozen dirty pots and pans. Luckily, for this recipe, all I need is my air fryer and two ramekins.

Add 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and ¼ cup of chopped onion to a ramekin and mix well. Oil a second ramekin and crack an egg into it.

Slice a bun and put it face down next to both ramekins in the air-fryer basket. Place a few strips of bacon on a rack above the egg.

After three minutes, flip the buns, add sliced cheddar, and cook for about seven minutes — or until egg and bacon are to your liking.

Pile the onions, egg, and bacon onto the bun and serve with sliced tomato or tangy Irish Ballymaloe relish.

Anyone can throw together eggy breakfast bites — they're that easy.

I've adapted one of my favorite frittata recipes from the blog Every Little Crumb into a quick and easy air-fryer breakfast.

It has Mexican-inspired flavors and is made with eggs, cheese, cilantro, black olives, cherry tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, and red onion.

Basically, I halve the written recipe and pour the mixture into oiled silicone muffin cups that are super easy to clean and fit nicely in my air-fryer basket.

Air-fry at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes, and you have a tasty, portable breakfast.

I can make fantastic French-toast fingers in minutes.

I love Nigella Lawson's doughnut French toast, and it's even easier to make it in the air fryer.

She recommends soaking the bread in a mixture of eggs, milk, and vanilla extract for at least five to 10 minutes. Then, I slice the bread into fingers to fit more in my air-fryer basket and cook them at 375 degrees for four to six minutes on each side.

If your toast seems to be drying out, try spraying the basket with some oil before cooking.

Serve with a sprinkling of powdered sugar for an extra decadent breakfast.

Air-fried cheesecake is one of my go-to desserts.

One of my all-time favorite air-fryer desserts is the cheesecake recipe I found on Eating Well. It's super quick and easy, and you end up with cute bite-sized treats.

Start by crumbling up some graham crackers (gingersnaps and shortbread also work great) and combining them with sugar and butter.

Then, mix the cream cheese, yogurt, vanilla extract, egg, sugar, and lemon zest and divide it into muffin cups on top of the crumbly crust.

Preheat the air fryer to 350 degrees and put the mini cheesecakes in for eight to 10 minutes. Chill in the fridge for an hour and serve with compote, fresh fruit, or jam.

Twice-baked potatoes are twice as delicious in the air fryer.

The cooking time for baked potatoes can really depend on the type of air fryer you have. It takes a little experimenting — for example, when I used a larger air fryer, I had to cook them at a higher temperature for longer.

In my 5-quart basket, I air-fry my potatoes at 400 degrees for 45 minutes before scooping out the insides, mashing them up with toppings, and refilling the spuds.

Then, they go back in for about five minutes. The second baking brings out extra crispiness to the potato skin and extra creaminess to its insides.

The blog Cooking with Coit has a great basic recipe for the flavorings. I serve those spuds with classic toppings like bacon, more cheese, or coleslaw.

I've also had success with adding a teaspoon of gochujang paste to the mash and topping it with kimchi and green onions.

Sweet, sticky, crispy Buffalo cauliflower is the perfect snack or side.

I can whip up cauliflower Buffalo "wings" in less than 30 minutes.

I've tried tons of different recipes, but I've settled on one from the blog Love and Lemons. Using an air fryer shortens the cooking time, and they still come out extra sticky and delicious.

Quickly whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper, and water to make a batter for the cauliflower florets. Once they're well coated, they can go in the air fryer at 450 degrees for eight to 10 minutes.

Take the cauliflower out, brush the florets with Buffalo sauce (bottled or homemade), and pop them back in for another eight to 10 minutes.

Serve with ranch, blue cheese, more Buffalo sauce, or all of the above.

Irresistible caramelized bananas are super simple.

One of the simplest things I've made in an air fryer might also be my favorite: caramelized bananas.

I particularly like a recipe from the blog Girls Who Eat. It's really as simple as slicing a banana in half (or slices or chunks), brushing both sides with oil, ghee, or butter (I like coconut oil), dusting both sides with brown sugar and cinnamon, and popping them in the air fryer at 370 degrees for three to five minutes per side.

If you're short on time, slightly ripe bananas tend to cook faster and caramelize splendidly.

I also like adding ground cardamom and a dash of nutmeg to my cinnamon-sugar mixture and serving with ice cream.

• Demand for consulting firms has been down in key markets like the US and UK.
• However, the advisory business is booming in Gulf states thanks to national development projects.
• Working on major national projects is giving consultants "unique" influence in the region, experts told BI.

Recent years have been tough for the consulting business. Growth has plummeted in some key markets, and the challenging economic climate has led to layoffs and restructuring at major firms. But one region is proving to be a consulting bright spot.

International consultancies are finding success in the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC — a political and economic bloc that includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman.

According to Source Global, a UK-based research firm that tracks the consulting industry, the GCC consulting market grew 13.2% in 2023.

Source Global's research found that in the more mature US and British markets, growth in 2023 slowed to 5.2% and 4.7%, respectively. In previous years, growth in both countries had been in double digits.

Dane Albertelli, a senior analyst at Source Global, told Business Insider that the scale of growth in the GCC advisory market is "unprecedented" and that it has become "the place for opportunity and the place where these companies can make a lot of money."

Albertelli said that data for 2024 has yet to be finalized but that the GCC market was expected to have accelerated by more than 15%.

A 'cascade' of opportunities

Opportunities for consultants in the GCC started with the UAE roughly 20 years ago, when its government poured resources into plans to diversify its economy away from oil.

Heavy investment in tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services led to the need for planning and technical expertise. Consulting firms started to pour money and resources into meeting the needs of the Emirati government, and "it's just been a cascade from there," Albertelli said.

The scale of Western consulting firms' presence in Gulf nations is apparent in the volume of offices they have in the region. All of the Big Four — Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG — have 10 or more offices in GCC countries, while McKinsey has eight, BCG has six, and Accenture has four. The UAE is a particular hot spot, with Deloitte having nine offices in the country.

Saudi Arabia has been leading the drive in recent years with its Vision 2030 strategy, a $1 trillion project to reduce reliance on oil revenues and boost the country's standing on the global stage.

The centerpiece of Vision 2030 is Neom, an ambitious megacity and tourism hot spot being built in the country's northern deserts. But Saudi Arabia is also planning to construct a whole new district in Riyadh, preparing to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the 2034 FIFA World Cup, and aiming to become a "national champion" in AI.

Dubai is now a tourism and expat hot spot, and the UAE's economy is booming. But the drive for growth and the need for consultants hasn't stopped — the current push is toward healthcare innovation with the aim of becoming a medical tourism hub.

Similar tourism, sport, technology, and infrastructure initiatives are underway in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.

"That naturally translates into an awful lot of advisory work," Albertelli said. International consultants are being called in to design and implement projects ranging from transportation networks and city construction to education reform and public sector tech systems.

Such projects have not been without controversy. Saudi Arabia has been accused of human rights abuses against local tribespeople living close to the site of Neom, while hundreds of migrant workers were acknowledged to have died in Qatar in the lead-up to the 2022 World Cup.

Albertelli said that while they spend to diversify away from reliance on petrochemical dollars, the Gulf nations' backlog of oil funds has ensured that the advisory sector avoids the macroeconomic tension that has hit the European and US advisory markets.

Barring any massive geopolitical tension, opportunities aren't going anywhere, Albertelli said. He expects the rate of growth to continue for several years and says the main change to the market will be that, as infrastructure gets built, the work will shift from strategy to operations advice.

From the pull factor of little to no income tax to the recent opening up of society, the region has plenty to attract consultants besides a steady stream of projects.

"If you don't mind a bit of sun, it's probably the best place to go for your career," Albertelli said.

A unique market

The GCC consulting market is unique in that most firms' clients are national governments rather than private companies, giving international firms a significant role in shaping the public sector.

"The degree of access and influence that consultancies have over policymaking is far more extensive than what you see in most other regions," Dawud Ansari, President of the Majan Council, an Omani think tank focused on development in the Gulf region, told BI. "They don't just refine policies or draft reports — they design entire national visions and, in some cases, effectively take over the steering wheel of major policy initiatives."

"Most Gulf states have a limited number of national think tanks and independent expertise, meaning that when a decision needs to be made, the instinct is usually to bring in an external, mostly foreign, consultant," al-Ansari told BI.

"They come from a completely different cultural and institutional background, which inevitably affects how they operate and how aligned their recommendations are with local realities."

Al-Ansari said that the continued reliance on external expertise for policymaking could erode public trust and restrict nationals from developing career paths in public policy.

As the market continues to grow, a rising number of local boutique advisory firms are being created. The Saudi government's "Saudization" policy — which enforces a quota system on high-value industries — is also resulting in more nationals entering the offices of international consultancies.

Albertelli told BI that most Gulf states are focused on the outcomes and care about the brand rather than the nationality of consultants.

"All the big countries in the GCC want the best talent and they're willing to spend no matter where it's from. Obviously, these are all big Western companies, but I think they realize that, particularly with the Big Four, they're massive international firms," he said.

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• Ukraine's prime minister said Wednesday that Ukraine and the US had agreed on a mineral deal.
• Denys Shmyhal said they planned to set up an investment fund based on Ukraine's mineral wealth.
• Discussions about Ukraine's minerals have been a source of tension between the two countries' leadership.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Wednesday that his country and the US had agreed on a major deal for Ukraine's minerals.

While the full terms of the deal haven't been made public, Shmyhal told Ukrainian TV that the two countries plan to set up an investment fund based on much of Ukraine's mineral wealth, the BBC reported.

Kyiv and Washington will manage it on equal terms, he added.

Shmyhal also said Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenues from its mineral and metal extraction into the fund, which will go toward the country's reconstruction, according to Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump responded to reporter questions about the proposed agreement, details of which were first reported by the Financial Times,

He said he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was preparing to visit the US to formalize a deal on Friday. "I understand that's a big deal, a very big deal," he added.

Ukraine has significant deposits of valuable minerals, including uranium, titanium, and lithium — the last being a key component in batteries relied on by the EV industry. It also has considerable oil and gas fields.

The draft deal, seen by the FT, reportedly does not include mineral resources already being extracted by the likes of oil and gas producers Naftogaz and Ukrnafta.

The extent of the US' holding in the project remains undefined, the FT reported.

The Ukrainian government and various ministries did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

The Ukrainian minister who led the negotiations, Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, told the FT on Tuesday that the agreement is "only part of the picture."

"We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it's part of a bigger picture," she added.

On Monday, Stefanishyna wrote on X that Ukrainian and US teams were "in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement."

She added: "The negotiations have been very constructive, with nearly all key details finalized. We are committed to completing this swiftly to proceed with its signature. We hope both US and UA leaders might sign and endorse it in Washington the soonest to showcase our commitment for decades to come."

Trump said Tuesday that through the deal "the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back plus," without offering specifics.

"It could be a trillion-dollar deal," he said.

Asked what Ukraine gets, Trump said: "The right to fight on."

Both Ukraine and the US have dropped key demands that were earlier being discussed, the FT reported.

The US will no longer demand $500 billion in revenue from the resources extracted, while Ukraine will no longer demand security guarantees in return.

However, Shmyhal said Wednesday that the deal is "directly tied" to security guarantees, according to Euromaidan Press.

The reported deal would be a notable step in recent relations between Trump and Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy refused earlier proposed terms that would have seen Ukraine send the US up to $500 billion in proceeds from its minerals, while Trump has called the Ukrainian president a "dictator."

• Rune, a defense tech startup, raised $6.2 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
• Founded by former Anduril employees, Rune develops software to manage military field logistics.
• Investors are increasingly backing defense tech startups to modernize military capabilities.

Rune, a defense tech startup based in Roslyn, Va., emerged from stealth Wednesday with $6.2 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. Point72 Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and several defense industry executives, including Anduril's senior VP of software engineering Gokul Subramanian, participated.

Founded in 2024 by former Anduril employees David Tuttle and Peter Goldsborough, Rune is developing software to help the military manage field logistics. The current process of deciding whether a particular unit needs more food, fuel, or ammunition is "almost entirely a manual, human-centric process" that "runs off Excel spreadsheets," Tuttle, cofounder and CEO of Rune, told Business Insider.

TyrOS, Rune's software named after the Norse god of war Tyr, gathers data manually tabulated by frontline units. It then autonomously tracks supplies such as food or equipment, predicts future resupply needs, and helps the military determine when and where to restock, especially for resource—and location-constrained environments. An AI model that Rune is currently building enables its predictive modeling capabilities, but the company is also having initial conversations with "larger AI providers" to explore potential partnerships, Tuttle said.

The 11-person company has developed a prototype of the software, which "has already been in the hands of actual warfighters" in training exercises, Tuttle said. While Rune's software currently relies on manual data entry, TyrOS can integrate with government-owned software to automate logistics data collection, a capability that could become increasingly standard as other defense tech companies develop such technologies.

While several companies manage commercial logistics, TyrOS is built for the unique challenges of military operations. Rune is developing the software to work in areas with limited or disrupted communication, known as DDIL environments. It also enables military units to share data with each other, ensuring connectivity even if one unit's connection is compromised.

In recent years, investors in Silicon Valley have increasingly doubled down on defense tech startups, reflecting a growing commitment to companies hoping to strengthen national security and modernize military capabilities. "What we're seeing is a moment in time where technology can shift the balance between countries," Chris Morales, a partner at Point72 Ventures who also served in the US Navy for eight years, said. "And we're seeing teams that can actually take advantage of the moment."

Defense contractors and startups are also building in the military logistics space. Lockheed Martin, for example, develops battle management and equipment logistics software. Adyton, another startup, is working on mobile tools to streamline communication about equipment and other needs across the military.

Before cofounding Rune, Tuttle led the command and control hardware business at Andruil, where he met cofounder and CTO Peter Goldsborough. Tuttle previously worked at the Joint Special Operations Command, a special missions unit, and in investment banking at Citi. He also served as a field artillery officer in the US Army.

Goldsborough also worked in command and control at Anduril, where he was a chief engineer.

"We spent a lot of time on what we say, how do you fight the force?" Tuttle said. "But equally important and more so, even now is, how do you sustain the force? How do you keep the force fighting past the first day, two days — past the first 72 hours in an actual conflict?"

Almost a year into building the company, the cofounders will use Rune's new funding to continue building out its engineering, business development, and product teams, Tuttle said.

"July Fourth was actually our first official day as Rune employees, which is pretty cool," Tuttle said. "We've been off to the races since."

• Charta Health just raised an $8.1 million seed round from Bain Capital Ventures.
• Charta's founders left Rockset, which OpenAI acquired last year, to start the healthcare AI company.
• The startup, which uses AI to review patient charts, got $500,000 in contracts within 60 days.

Justin Liu and Scott Morris didn't have any healthcare experience when they left Rockset, the AI infrastructure startup that OpenAI acquired in June. This month, they're announcing an $8.1 million seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures for their new healthcare AI startup, the company told Business Insider exclusively.

Liu and Morris left Rockset in 2023 to dig deeper into healthcare, the industry in which they felt the tech could make the biggest impact. The two spent a year getting their medical coding credentials and interviewing over 100 healthcare professionals to figure out what healthcare technologies were worth building.

That exploration turned into Charta Health, which is using AI to automate patient chart reviews to help providers capture more revenue and reduce their administrative burdens.

Providers have to review patient charts to make decisions about patient care and select the right medical codes for billing. However, manual chart reviews can be time-consuming, potentially reducing the amount of time providers can spend with their patients and driving up costs.

Charta Health's AI automates that review process for a range of tasks, including helping to identify missed codes to increase provider revenue, flagging potential issues before billing to prevent claims denials, and ensuring the charts comply with payers' complex documentation requirements.

Charta began its outreach to potential clients through a series of cold emails. Within 60 days, those emails landed the startup $500,000 in revenue — all before Charta launched from stealth in June 2024.

That initial traction quickly brought Charta to profitability, leading Liu and Morris to reevaluate their strategy and pursue venture funding to focus on growth instead of sustaining early profits. "We didn't realize just how big of an opportunity this was going to be," Liu said.

SV Angel, South Park Commons, SpringRock Ventures, Refract Ventures, and strategic angel investors contributed to Charta's Bain-led seed round. The startup also hired Dr. Caesar Djavaherian, cofounder and chief clinical innovation officer of healthcare clinic startup Carbon Health, as its chief medical officer.

Healthcare executives and investors have been clamoring for AI-powered solutions to automate administrative tasks in healthcare as the industry struggles with a staffing crisis and low hospital margins. Dozens of startups have grabbed funding to address various tasks in that bucket, like CodaMetrix, which raised a $40 million Series B in March to analyze clinical notes and derive medical codes for billing and claims using AI.

Liu said Charta sets itself apart by offering solutions for a broad variety of use cases and personalizing the platform to its clients' needs. He said almost all of Charta's clients use the company's tech for multiple tasks related to patient chart reviews.

"Ultimately, the vision here is that we will create this layer that allows you to perform these chart reviews for any kind of use case at any point inside the revenue or care cycle," Liu said.

The startup typically works with high-volume, low-reimbursement specialties like primary care, urgent care, and behavioral healthcare. Charta Health focuses on outpatient settings, setting it apart further from healthcare AI startups like SmarterDx, which uses AI to analyze patient charts for inpatient care.

Liu said Charta plans to use most of the seed funding to build out its sales team to land more contracts, as well as for product expansion as the company looks to tackle more use cases for chart reviews in different specialties.

Here's the pitch deck Charta Health used to raise $8.1 million from Bain Capital Ventures.

• Continuous glucose monitors overestimated blood sugar levels in non-diabetic people in a small study.
• More health-conscious people are wearing the devices that were FDA-approved for over-the-counter sale last year.
• While useful for diabetics, most people who can regulate their blood sugar don't need CGMs, experts said.

Continuous glucose monitors overestimated the blood sugar levels of non-diabetic people in a small study, calling into question how useful the buzzy devices are for the average person.

Researchers from the University of Bath, UK, compared the results of one brand of CGM with the gold-standard finger prick test when measuring the blood glucose levels of 15 non-diabetic people.

CGM patches provide data on blood sugar with a delay of up to 20 minutes using a sensor placed under the skin with a small needle. Because of the way they collect blood from users, the researchers hypothesized that they may give different results to finger-prick tests.

They found that the CGMs consistently overestimated blood sugar levels by 30% after the participants consumed fruits in various forms: including whole, blended, and smoothies by a brand available in UK grocery stores. The results were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Wednesday.

The authors said the smoothie company Innocent Drinks funded the study but had no other involvement.

CGMs were designed for diabetics. But in recent years they have grown in popularity among health-conscious people interested in how different foods affect their blood sugar levels, in the hope of preventing chronic diseases and maintaining a healthy weight.

Last March, the US Food and Drug Administration changed their approval of CGMs from prescription-only to over-the-counter, meaning anyone could buy one.

Javier Gonzalez, a professor of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Bath and the study's lead researcher, said that CGMs are "fantastic tools" for people with diabetes.

"However, for someone with good glucose control, they can be misleading based on their current performance," Gonzalez said. "For healthy individuals, relying on CGMs could lead to unnecessary food restrictions or poor dietary choices."

The authors acknowledged that the study was limited because they tested one brand of CGM, and the relatively small number of participants meant the results might not be relevant to the wider population.

Non-diabetics should take blood sugar readings with a pinch of salt

Experts not involved in the study agreed that CGMs may be causing unnecessary worry in non-diabetics.

Nicola Guess, an academic dietitian and researcher at the University of Oxford who specializes in the dietary prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, said the study suggests that CGMs may wrongly lead non-diabetic people to believe they have pre-diabetes.

This is not the first study to flag inaccuracies with CGMs, so non-diabetic people should take the data they provide with a pinch of salt — or not use them at all, Guess said.

Responding to the study, Adam Collins, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Surrey, UK, referenced his own ongoing research, which found that two CGMs worn on different arms of the same person logged different data.

Guess previously explained to BI why, if you don't have diabetes or pre-diabetes, blood sugar fluctuations are nothing to worry about.

"When we're considering CGMs in healthy people, it is perfectly normal for your blood glucose to go up and down. It shouldn't be flat, so don't aim for flat. And I think that will help a lot of people relax," Guess said.

There's no evidence to suggest that a blood sugar rise is always followed by a stark drop or causes hunger either, she said.

Charles Brenner, a biochemist who chairs the Department of Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism at City of Hope in Los Angeles, told BI that data from CGMs can cause people to be more alarmed than they need to be.

However, CGMs may have some uses for non-diabetics. BI's Gabby Landsverk previously spoke to an endurance athlete who used one, with the help of a sports dietitian, to learn that she had more energy if she ate more food, including complex carbs, and ate earlier in the day.

And a woman who was pre-diabetic told Landsverk tracking blood sugar levels helped her understand the foods that best suited her lifestyle, helping her to lose weight.

• Customers making false refund requests are a big problem for food delivery apps, per a new report.
• Diners often can often get their money back even when nothing is wrong with their order.
• That can lead to losses for the delivery apps.

Asking for a refund on your food delivery — even when there's not anything wrong with it — is a big problem for delivery services, according to a new report.

About 48% of consumer fraud on delivery apps involved "refund fraud," according to a report released Wednesday by Incognia, a fraud-prevention company. Incognia works with gig delivery apps, including Grubhub and Texas-based Favor, and analyzed instances it detected on the apps.

"You can say the food wasn't good, the food was cold, there was something missing," André Ferraz, the CEO and cofounder of Incognia, told Business Insider. "How do you verify these things? It's very difficult."

It's an ongoing issue. Telegram groups and TikTok videos show would-be fraudsters how to request refunds and set up new accounts when the old ones get shut down, CNBC reported last year. Some even use "r3fund" instead of the correct spelling to avoid getting deleted.

On many apps, customers can get their money back on a few orders in a row, Ferraz said. "But if you do that 10 times, then the platform will not allow you to ask for refunds," he said. "You're abusing the platform."

However, some particularly determined fraudsters can obtain multiple emails and phone numbers to open multiple accounts and keep requesting refunds, Ferraz said.

Fraudulent returns cost retailers across the board $103 billion in 2024, a report from fraud prevention company Appriss Retail and Deloitte found.

Some users also use promotions from the apps to make money, Incognia's report found. In some cases that Incognia analyzed, for instance, a single user used multiple email addresses to create new accounts, each of which got a discount on an order for new customers.

That made up the 48% of fraud that Incognia found on food delivery platforms. Often, the scams draw on money that the apps have earmarked for attracting and retaining new customers.

"This method of abuse can drain marketing campaign budgets, increase user acquisition costs, and distort growth metrics," Incognia's report reads.

Some delivery services say that they have ways of detecting these types of fraud.

Uber Eats' website says that the company takes "fraudulent behavior seriously" and it has "filters in place to monitor both customer and delivery person behavior."

"We will not make adjustments on suspicious refunds," the company says.

DoorDash last year started sending a four-digit number to some customers to prevent fraud. The customers are supposed to provide the PIN to the delivery worker when they arrive as a verification that they received the delivery.

While the "vast majority" of customers are honest, "there may be times when a consumer makes a report that turns out to be inaccurate or even more rarely makes a false report," DoorDash said at the time.

Still, keeping up with fraudsters can be difficult, Incognia's Ferraz said, since they often use new tactics and ever-changing contact information.

But there are ways of identifying who is likely making an honest request and whether accounts are legitimate. When someone creates an account on a delivery service, for instance, Incognia looks to see whether their device's location is near the address listed on their driver's license. If it is, that makes it more likely that the applicant is who they say they are, Ferraz said.

"You need to keep up with all the things that fraudsters are creating," he said.

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• Surging government debt could trigger a "heart attack" for the US financial system, Ray Dalio said.
• The Bridgewater founder said years of deficit spending were causing "plaque" to accumulate.
• The elite investor said a failure to act could spell trouble for markets and the dollar.

Ray Dalio sounded the alarm on America's soaring debt, warning the US must act before it suffers the financial equivalent of a "heart attack."

The billionaire investor said "debt accumulates like plaque" in a financial system, and that poses a "problem" for governments as interest payments eat up more and more of their budgets.

The founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, was interviewed by Tucker Carlson at the World Governments Summit in Dubai earlier this month.

Dalio compared himself to a doctor telling a patient about a plaque buildup: "You're in a high risk of this heart attack, essentially, and now what are you going to do about it?"

The mentor to Bridgewater's three co-chief investors said it was vital to take action — such as exercising more — while the patient was still in good health. "Don't wait for this to happen and then try to make it better," Dalio said.

The federal government spent about $6.75 trillion last fiscal year but only collected $4.92 trillion in revenue, meaning it ran a $1.8 trillion deficit, according to the Treasury's website. The national debt has more than tripled since 2000 to an estimated $36.2 trillion, the website showed.

Dalio said that if the US doesn't cut its fiscal deficit from north of 6% of GDP to 3% in the next four years or so, the supply of government bonds will outstrip demand and push up interest rates, causing Treasury markets to spiral.

The author of several books about financial and economic history said that kind of "trauma" in the "backbone" of the financial system "affects all markets, and money as a storehold of wealth as we know it."

Despite Elon Musk's efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, Dalio said not enough was being done to address the debt crisis during a separate conversation at the Dubai event recorded for "The Tucker Carlson Show."

"There needs to be a game plan," Dalio said, agreeing with Carlson that the lack of one "seems crazy."

• My wife and I retired in England, then retired in Cyprus instead. We absolutely love it.
• Cyprus has a lot of history, sunshine, beautiful beaches, and fresh produce.
• Our life in Cyprus is laid-back and filled with joy, so we have no plans to leave.

In 2013, my wife and I retired in England.

We both have family connections there and thought we'd enjoy England's culture and beautiful countryside. Plus, it was fairly easy to do as my mother was Scottish and my wife had been born in Yorkshire.

After three years, we realized our home just didn't feel like the right fit for us, and we'd grown tired of the short summers and the long gray winters.

Our next move became clear when I needed cataract surgery and began to explore medical-tourism options in Europe.

We found a lot of local clinics in Cyprus that seemed like a good fit for me, so we traveled there for a week to check them out. In that short time, we fell in love with the island.

Six months later, in the spring of 2017, we moved into our new retirement home in a lovely apartment overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

At the time, England was still part of the European Union, so gaining permanent residency in Cyprus was a fairly simple process. We've now been retired here for almost a decade and love it.

Here's why we have no plans to leave.

Life is pretty laid-back in Cyprus, but we're never bored

Many are drawn to Cyprus for its sun, sand, and sea, but we've found so much more on the island in the Mediterranean Sea.

The country has over 10,000 years of history, and we never run out of things to learn and explore here. On our many local adventures, we've seen 600-year-old monasteries, Crusader villages, Roman ruins, botanical gardens, secluded beaches, mountain villages, spas, and more.

Plus, Cyprus has world-class golf, car rallies, marathons, scuba diving, and surfing. We're also spoiled with easy access to symphonies, ballets, operas, and film festivals.

Despite having so much to do, we still get to have a pretty laid-back lifestyle here.

On a typical day, we have a quiet breakfast of strong Cypriot coffee and fresh fruit and take a quick dip in the sea. In the afternoon, we explore the island or visit friends, then take a Cypriot siesta (a midday nap that's popular with locals).

We usually end our night with a dinner made with fresh local ingredients or a meal with friends at a nearby tavern.

Our food and beverage options feel fresh and varied

Speaking of meals, we feel lucky that the local Cypriot Mediterranean diet offers us so many excellent traditional, healthy choices.

Given its favorable climate, Cyprus is able to grow many crops and maintain a lot of livestock. We're never lacking in fresh fruits and vegetables, and the local chicken and pork seem tastier than what we've had back home.

We also have many options when it comes to drinking, with dozens of wineries on the island. Cyprus is also known for its beer (especially its lagers), and there are numerous festivals dedicated to it come October.

Of course, the sunny weather is a highlight

Cyprus is sunny about 75% of the year, and we adore it. We have long summers that typically stretch from May to October.

They can be very dry and hot, with temperatures often hitting over 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, but we've gotten acclimatized after a couple of years.

Spring and autumn are the most pleasant times of the year, with comfortably warm temperatures and, again, lots of sunshine.

The cool days of December and January bring the yearly rainfall with lots of thunderstorms. As residents, we don't mind since we need the rain to fill the reservoirs with water to prepare for the long summers.

The island experiences dust storms a few times a year, but they have been manageable. During the worst of them, we just avoid doing anything strenuous outside.

We've been happy with our healthcare, too

We appreciate having access to high-quality medical care and many modern general hospitals in cities throughout the country, especially as we get older.

Through the country's healthcare system, we've been able to access free and low-cost healthcare services, plus medication at a subsidized cost.

All that said, it's perhaps no surprise that Cyprus seems to be a pretty popular place for retirees — we've even met many from Europe.

• MrBeast says the value of a long-term employee is "unfathomable."
• Yet loyalty appears to be decaying across the workforce, and Gen Zers are increasingly disengaged.
• The top YouTuber also likened employees who share his tilted work-life balance to "unicorns."

MrBeast's videos are often measured in minutes, yet behind the scenes, the YouTube star prefers to think in years.

The creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, recently told "The Diary Of A CEO" podcast that he doesn't want to train someone for six months only to see them leave his company a few months later.

"The eighth wonder of the world is investing heavily in an employee, and then they stick around for a decade," 26-year-old Donaldson said.

He called that kind of value "unfathomable."

But loyalty to an employer can be hard to come by in the current market. The median number of years US workers had been with their employer was 3.9 in January 2024 — the lowest since 2002, per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It's perhaps a sign that job-hopping doesn't necessarily carry the same stigma it once did — and also that what Donaldson is seeking in tenure and devotion to the work is something not everyone is willing to give.

There's evidence that many GenZers are more disillusioned and disengaged than their older counterparts and that many young workers often "work to live" after having seen prior generations suffer.

Loyalty is "maybe more the exception these days than the norm," said Christopher Myers, the faculty director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. But it can benefit workers and employers alike.

Myers said Donaldson appears to understand that to keep workers for long periods, he needs to not just invest in them but give them opportunities to demonstrate the know-how they've developed.

For his part, Donaldson said he likely spent four years training and working with Tyler Conklin, who writes and directs many of his videos — including speaking with him five to six hours a day. Now, Donaldson said, Conklin can practically run the show.

"He knows exactly how I think, what I value," Donaldson said on the podcast.

A 'shared sense of purpose'

Margie Warrell, a leadership consultant and author of the book "The Courage Gap," told BI that that investment in Conklin and his loyalty to Donaldson are examples of what can happen when workers feel aligned with leadership on why they're doing the work.

"My guess is that MrBeast creates a lot of shared sense of purpose," she said. That, in turn, leads workers to give their best — not out of obligation but because they love the work.

A representative for Donaldson didn't respond to a request for comment.

In addition to showing loyalty, Donaldson said some of the company's top performers — including editors — often put in the same amount of hours each week as he does.

Donaldson said it's "hard to find" the kinds of people who match his hard-charging approach to craft and admittedly tilted work-life balance.

"When you do, you've got to treasure them and recognize that they're unicorns," he said.

Warrell said that founders and top execs often don't operate on a "balanced, 40-hour week." Instead, she said, many people in such roles try to integrate their work as best they can into their lives.

"When you're doing something that's exciting and inspiring, you do work a lot of hours," Warrell said.

She said that while it's likely not a good fit for everybody, it appears to be an attractive proposition for Donaldson's long-serving employees.

"He's saying, 'Here's part of the value exchange: I develop you, and I want you to hang around because I pour a lot into you,'" Warrell said.

• Victoria Wejchert founded a fast food company in Poland in her early 20s.
• Later, she created Kinship, an app for wealth managers, in the US.
• Polish people respected her title, and she encountered more biases in the US, she said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Victoria Wejchert, partner at Copia Wealth Studios and founder of Kinship. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in a family that did business around the globe. My parents were Polish, but they fled the country during communism, so I was born in Ireland. When I was about 7, we returned to Poland.

My parents ran a media company in Europe, and I learned about entrepreneurship from them firsthand. They rarely had a day off, and it was typical for them to attend board meetings during our family holidays.

Once, as a teenager, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life during a drive. My dad pulled the car over to look at me. "Your skill is entrepreneurship," he told me. He died only a few years later when I was 20, but it turns out he was right.

Now I'm 35, and I've successfully founded and exited two companies — one in the US and one in Poland. I've learned a lot about the differences between being a female founder in those markets.

In Poland, people respected my title and toughness

When I was in my early 20s, I was visiting a family member in Warsaw and noticed that there was nowhere to eat. At the time, I was working in London, where lunch options were endless. In Warsaw, people were still selling sandwiches from baskets that they brought to office buildings.

I saw an opportunity for more dining options. At the time, Starbucks was just starting to come into Poland, and the idea of a restaurant chain was new. I cofounded Friends — Taste Your Time, a healthy fast food option, and grew it to 12 locations within three years before it was acquired.

Although I was young and female, all I needed to do to earn respect in the restaurant industry was show up and be tough. Culturally, there's a lot of respect for the boss. People always referred to me formally by my title, which translates as "Ms. CEO." They took those seriously once colleagues knew I had expectations and boundaries — like not allowing workers to drink on the job.

In the US, I was more likely to be overlooked as a founder

By comparison, I felt like an outsider at a boys' club when I started a tech company in the US in 2019. Recently, a European asked me if it was harder starting a company in the more patriarchal, conservative Poland. He was surprised when I said no — there are biases against women everywhere, especially in the US.

Once, I was presenting at a conference, standing with a man. Another gentleman came up and started talking to him, assuming he was the founder of Kinship, my wealth management software. That sort of thing happens everywhere.

I overcame that by working extra hard. Before I started fundraising, I read that it typically takes a man 100 meetings to close a round of funding, while female founders need 200-300 meetings. So, I doubled down, knowing I'd have to do 2-3 times as much work. Luckily, people in America were also much more generous about sharing their contacts, which helped me get those extra meetings relatively quickly.

It's easier to grow a company in America

One major difference is the pace of work in the US versus Europe. In Europe, it's typical for people to take all of August off. I didn't take a vacation in the US for five years because I was constantly working on the company.

To be honest, that was fine with me. America's faster pace makes it easier to get work done, and companies can grow more quickly. Plus, I was raised by parents who rarely took time off despite their European roots. They taught me to prioritize the responsibility a founder has to employees, their families, and customers and to celebrate once the hard work pays off.

I did that last year after Kinship was acquired. I took a two-week vacation to Mongolia, my first real time off work in years. Knowing that my hard work had paid off made it extra enjoyable.

• On Tuesday, Donald Trump touted a "gold card" for wealthy foreigners to live and work in the US.
• He said it would allow wealthy individuals the chance to live in the US for about $5 million.
• The "gold card" would replace the EB-5 visa, which requires a minimum investment of $1.05 million.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US was creating a "gold card" that would enable wealthy foreigners to live and work in the US in exchange for a fee of about $5 million.

"You have a green card, this is a gold card," he told reporters in the Oval Office, calling it a route to citizenship with green card privileges.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking alongside Trump, said the card would replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which he described as "full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud."

Lutnick contrasted the new program with the EB-5, which he said was a "low-price" way to get a green card.

The EB-5 program grants foreign investors the chance to obtain a green card if they create jobs and make a minimum investment in US commercial enterprises of $1.05 million — or $800,000 in rural and high-unemployment areas.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the US issues about 10,000 EB-5 visas each year.

Lutnick said money raised by the new program could be used to reduce the US deficit.

The newly proposed "gold card" program would require a significantly higher investment.

"Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card," Trump said, adding, "They'll be wealthy, and they'll be successful, and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people."

Trump also didn't rule out selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, saying he knew "some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people."

But Lutnick said foreigners would be vetted to ensure they were "wonderful, world-class global citizens."

Trump and Lutnick said additional details would be available within two weeks.

Trump's latest proposal is not without precedent, as similar programs exist in the United Arab Emirates, the Caribbean, and, more recently, New Zealand.

Immigration has been a central focus for Trump since he returned to the White House, including efforts to implement mass deportations of migrants living in the US unlawfully and to end birthright citizenship — a move facing legal challenges.

• A new search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is being launched, Malaysia's transport minister said.
• It's being conducted by Ocean Infinity, a robotics company that previously led a search in 2018.
• It will receive $70 million if the wreckage of the 2014 disappearance is found within 18 months.

A new search is being launched for MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in March 2014.

Malaysia's transport minister, Anthony Loke, told a Tuesday press conference that Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics firm, is conducting the search. He added that the contracts were still being finalized.

Ocean Infinity, which is based in the US and UK, previously conducted a search for the missing Boeing 777 in 2018.

It took place over an area measuring 25,000 square kilometers, or around 9,600 square miles, while Loke has said the new search would cover 15,000 square kilometers.

In a December press conference, when the Malaysian government agreed to resume the search, Loke said that Ocean Infinity would receive $70 million if the wreckage was located within 18 months.

Oliver Plunket, the CEO of Ocean Infinity, told the New Straits Times last March: "This search is arguably the most challenging, and indeed the most pertinent one out there."

He added that innovations in robotics and other technologies had further advanced its search capabilities.

Grace Nathan, a 36-year-old Malaysian whose mother was on board the plane, told Agence France-Presse: "We're very relieved and pleased that the search is resuming once again after such a long hiatus."

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when it changed course from its scheduled path. It is still unknown what led to the plane's disappearance.

The jet, with 239 people on board, had entered Vietnamese airspace when its transponder was turned off, meaning air traffic controllers could no longer track it.

Military radar showed it then flew back across northern Malaysia, before turning south over the Indian Ocean.

For around six hours, it continued to ping an Inmarsat satellite, which helped to determine a search area.

The first searches continued until 2017, focusing on vast areas of the Indian Ocean. Debris was found on beaches in Réunion and Madagascar.

• I always wanted to be a scientist and I was thrilled to get my dream job.
• I quickly realized it wasn't for me, but I also didn't want to fail.
• After having my son, I quit. I didn't want him to have a stressed-out mom.

Ever since I was in fourth grade, I wanted to be a scientist. It all started when a fifth-grade teacher did a demonstration during science fair week. He lit his desk on fire and sat on it. I remember the excitement in the crowd, but I also remember that, at that moment, I wanted to be just like him.

Over the years, I immersed myself in everything science-related. Any TV show with state-of-the-art labs, I was watching. If a book series was about clones and had a twist where a scientist stole one to be her daughter, I was all in. I went to graduate school, and then, I was hired at a world-renowned lab.

But my story had its own twist — I was the girl who dreamt of being a scientist, only to realize once I started that I actually hated it. In my eyes, I had failed the little girl with bigger-than-life dreams.

I learned quickly it wasn't the job for me

After my first year of working in the immunology lab with how specific T-cells interact differently when stressed, COVID-19 took over the world. We were given shifts so that only two or three people would be in the lab at a time. Thankfully, I had a morning shift. I think the pandemic gave me the opportunity to step back during the times I wasn't there and realize that the job wasn't everything I had imagined.

I was burned out from being on call 24/7 because I was in charge of a sensitive area of work. During Christmas, Thanksgiving, or even major life events — I was still expected to answer calls, texts, and emails. I realized I was working on something that didn't bring me joy. I felt like I was stuck on a train going nowhere.

When I was hired, the woman I was replacing told me all these incredible things would happen for me. As a young woman with stars in her eyes, I didn't realize that everyone's experience is different, and what she wanted for me wasn't necessarily what was going to happen. That in itself was a huge learning experience, one I will never forget.

Shortly after the pandemic shutdowns were lifted, my mentors ended up leaving. I immersed myself in my studies and constantly asked if anyone needed help so I could learn more, but it was never enough. I felt like I was never enough, and like I was a failure in my field because I wasn't growing. A lot of it had to do with me losing my incredibly great mentors. Without them, my career fell stagnant.

It was only after I had my son that I decided to switch gears

When I got pregnant with my son during my fourth year there, I started to realize that I didn't want him growing up with a mom who was stressed, unfulfilled, and generally unhappy. I wanted him to see someone who stood up for herself, lived the life of her dreams, and had time for him. So, after he was born, I cut my contract with the lab. It broke my heart to walk away. The feeling of failure was so overwhelming that I think it contributed to my postpartum depression.

I felt like I didn't know who I was without science. That, in itself, was eye-opening — how little I had done outside my career to the point that my job had become my entire identity. But now, looking back, I realize I am so much more than a person in a lab coat. And I think that little girl would be proud.

Through all of this, I've learned that dreams change — and that's OK. I accomplished something that not a lot of biology graduates do: I became a scientist. I gave it my all, but it just wasn't for me. I will always love science, read the newest journals, discuss discoveries, and see the world through inquisitive eyes. But for now, I'm happy working for a women-owned financial advisory firm — and I love it. My boss is incredible, and best of all, I feel valued, and I have time with my son.

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

Nvidia reports earnings today, which means more questions about AI being overhyped.

The company's chips are so critical to AI development that its quarterly reports have become a State of the Union-type event for the tech. And in the three months since Nvidia last checked in, one company has shocked the AI industry: DeepSeek.

Business Insider's Emma Cosgrove and Hasan Chowdhury have a rundown on what to expect when Nvidia reports after the bell.

DeepSeek burst onto the scene in late January with reports it could produce high-performance models with fewer and less powerful hardware than its US competitors. And when you're in the business of selling AI chips like Nvidia is, some might view that as not great news.

At least, that was the market's initial reaction. Nvidia lost $600 billion in market capitalization in a single day.

The stock eventually stabilized — and some cloud firms said DeepSeek's AI models ultimately led to an increased demand for Nvidia chips — but it's still been a tough start to 2025 for the tech giant. Nvidia shares are down more than 8% this year compared to the S&P 500, which is up 1.48%.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang addressed the DeepSeek stock sell-off (you'll never guess this; he thinks investors got it wrong). Wednesday's earnings will be another chance for Nvidia to calm market nerves and address the ongoing doubt some have about AI: Are we spending too much money on this stuff?

If anyone's well suited to handle the critics, it's the world's second-largest company.

Time and again, Nvidia has answered the bell. Heading into last earnings there were concerns over AI models hitting a performance wall. Huang's response? Demand for Nvidia's new chip was "incredible."

Come to think of it, the biggest threat to Nvidia might be the incredible expectations Wall Street analysts have heaped onto it. Nvidia beat Q2 estimates in August, but its revenue guidance for the third quarter fell just short of the most ambitious predictions, causing its stock to drop. Such is life at the top of the AI kingdom.

Wall Street isn't letting up on the pressure, though. Most analysts expect Nvidia to beat earnings estimates again, and some even expect it to raise its first-quarter guidance on revenue, writes BI's Matthew Fox.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

• Taboola is expanding beyond its native advertising roots to the broader display ad market.
• The company said its new Realize platform opens up a $55 billion performance ad budget opportunity.
• CEO Adam Singolda said its relationships with 9,000 publishers give it the edge over rival players.

Taboola cornered the market for bottom-of-webpage "content you may like" advertising widgets — less affectionately referred to as the "chum box."

Now, it's moving beyond its native advertising roots by launching a new ad platform called Realize that expands its offering to more prominent ad placements on publisher websites and apps, the adtech company exclusively told Business Insider.

The move puts Taboola in more direct competition in the display ad market with traditional demand-side platforms — companies like The Trade Desk and AppLovin that help advertisers plan and buy their ad campaigns across various media — and supply-side platforms, such as Magnite and PubMatic, that help publishers connect with advertisers and monetize their webpages and apps.

Taboola CEO Adam Singolda told BI that the company has estimated that its new strategy can target an additional $55 billion in performance advertising budgets. The company reported Wednesday that it generated $1.8 billion in annual revenue in 2024.

Performance advertising refers to ads designed to drive a near-immediate outcome, such as a purchase, app download, or email subscription.

Most advertisers' performance advertising budgets lean heavily on Meta and Google, but these are highly competitive platforms, and acquiring new customers has become more difficult and expensive over time, Singolda said.

"Search and social are maxed out," he added.

A similar thesis has propelled rival AppLovin's market value in recent months after it expanded its performance advertising offering to e-commerce advertisers. It had traditionally focused on the mobile gaming market.

"Outside of search and social, two companies have done a good job: The Trade Desk, for the top of the funnel, for branding, and AppLovin for apps," Singolda said. "No one is the third leg."

While plenty of established demand-side platforms already offer access to similar web inventory outside Google and Meta, Singolda said many of these companies have shifted focus to areas like video and connected TV or require a minimum level of monthly spending, which can shut out many smaller advertisers.

"Adtech is fragmented, complicated, and not scaleable," Singolda said.

Taboola says its publisher relationships give it an edge

Taboola aims to make it easy for advertisers to set up campaigns by conversing with an AI assistant, Abby, which lets them upload their existing creative assets and select the outcome they hope to achieve, like driving website visits or encouraging customers to try a new product.

Singolda said Taboola's heritage in running code on publisher websites that operate its recommendation widgets gives it an edge over competitors because it has unique data about the type of content users read, what they click on, and what they buy. It counts Yahoo, Microsoft, NBC News, Apple News, and Business Insider among its 9,000-plus publisher partners.

Singolda said Taboola would continue to offer its content recommendation widgets.

Ana Milicevic, cofounder of the adtech consultancy Sparrow Advisors, said that Taboola's large publisher-direct footprint and access to data would appeal to performance advertisers, especially if it emphasizes that its platform is easy to use. However, those publishers may be highly alert to potential brand safety risks as performance advertising moves higher up their article pages.

"Let's say I'm on CNN's website and am seeing performance ads for a new diet fad or crypto course that readers or users may perceive as low-value — does that, in turn, turn off other advertisers who may be buying CNN directly," Milicevic said.

Earlier this year, Taboola's close rival, Oubtrain, also expanded its offering beyond traditional content recommendation widgets. It closed its acquisition of fellow adtech firm Teads, a specialist in video advertising. The combined company is now operating under the name Teads.

• Lizeth Cuara bought her first pallet of Amazon returns in 2015 for $5,000 to flip for a profit.
• Cuara worked long hours listing items on the platform and learned the business from YouTube.
• The hustle helped her launch her own retail business which brought in $5 million in sales last year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Lizeth Cuara, CEO of Misty Phases, a luxury postpartum wear line. Business Insider has verified the financials with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Compton and was living paycheck to paycheck, working in property management in LA. I didn't feel valued in my job and was looking for a way out.

My friend suggested I try flipping Amazon return pallets as a side hustle. He had seen friends do it and thought it would help me leave my job.

The pallets were filled with customer returns like shoes, electronics, and lotions. My friend said you could resell these items on platforms like eBay and make a profit. He knew the warehouses that sold pallets but didn't know more about how it worked.

This was in February 2015, I was 30 years old and had saved $10,000 since I started working at 17. I decided use my savings and buy two pallets. The worst thing that could happen was returning to the same job and living as I had been.

Learning how to flip Amazon returns pallets

Within days of having that conversation with my friend, I went to a warehouse in LA to buy my first pallet. The seller was hesitant; he'd seen people fail in this business. I persuaded him to sell me two $5,000 pallets.

I began sorting through the pallets with no idea what I was looking for. I kept whatever looked new. My friend had said people sold the items on eBay, so I searched 'how to list something on eBay' on YouTube.

I downloaded the eBay app and photographed each item on my phone. I uploaded them with the name and price, using YouTube as my guide. I sold items on the first day. Then I had to learn how to ship the items and get paid via PayPal. It was a process of trial, error and YouTube.

I initially focused on getting good reviews so buyers would trust my little eBay store. I also had to be careful not to list anything that was restricted by eBay so my account didn't get banned. There were strict and detailed rules about what you can list.

The products sold quickly at prices slightly lower than what people could find on Amazon. I didn't have to do marketing because people were already searching for them on eBay. Once I learned how to post, ship, and price items, it became about listing as many items as possible daily. The more I listed, the more I sold.

It was time-consuming, but I started making money from the pallets right away. With PayPal and eBay, your funds are available almost immediately, so I was able to live off that income. In my first month, I brought in $10,000 in sales, and within a few months, I hit $15,000.

Flipping pallets was lucrative but unpredictable

I was earning more than my old job, but the business was unpredictable. A $5,000 pallet could yield $3,000, break even, or bring in $15,000. One month in, I knew I was going to quit my full time job. Selling pallets was more work, but I enjoyed learning the process even if the days were long. I only slept a couple of hours every night and was constantly working.

My first step in scaling the business was learning I could buy larger pallets of all one item.

Within weeks of purchasing my first pallets, I went back to buy more. My initial seller told me I could go to a second warehouse that had products from Amazon sellers that were abandoned or defective. Those pallets would have repetitive items where I'd only have to create one post on eBay, but they were pricey.

I bought mixed pallets about twice a month until I could afford the more expensive pallets of repetitive items.

After the first few months, I began spotting patterns in the inventory. Certain types of products consistently sold well that weren't big brands. I learned they were called white-label goods. By researching on Amazon, I found that these lesser-known brands were generating impressive sales.

The pallet business was profitable, but lacked consistency. I couldn't rely on this model long-term.

About eight months after I started selling the pallets, I started researching how to develop and manufacture my own products.

Launching my own products

I used the money I had generated from eBay as seed money to create products. Having savings gave me the freedom to experiment with samples and overcome setbacks.

My first products were lotions, teas, waist trainers, and sauna belts. Through my experience with the pallets, I knew people wanted these items. I hired a marketing agency and promoted my products using Facebook ads and influencer marketing.

To my surprise, the products did exceptionally well. They were featured by Univision and CBS in their lifestyle segments.

Manufacturers often require large orders when you're making products. The downside is that not every product will succeed. In my experience, it's best to launch with three or four products because only one or two will likely perform well. I always advise against putting all your money into a single product.

The upside is that when you order in bulk, your cost per item goes down, which helps with margins. Plus, owning an original product means less competition and more control over pricing.

I learned invaluable lessons about pricing, demand, and customer behavior. These lessons helped me launch my luxury postpartum wear line Misty Phases based on my own traumatic birth and recovery.

I knew how to manufacture products, run Facebook ads, and sell on Amazon and my website. I started Misty Phases at the end of 2022, and it generated over $5 million in sales in 2024.

Betting on myself was the best decision

Buying Amazon return pallets was one of the best decisions I ever made. They provided seed money, insight into e-commerce, and a crash course in entrepreneurship. Now, I'm a single mom and I own a home in California.

There are risks and challenges in flipping pallets, but it's an incredible way to learn the ropes of selling online, test product ideas, and build capital for bigger dreams. The key is dedication and hard work.

Even now, I know that if everything came crashing down tomorrow, I'd go back to buying pallets in a heartbeat.

• The first Trader Joe's opened in Pasadena, California, in 1967.
• Many of its most recognizable traits, like the nautical theme, date back to its early days.
• Here's how the chain expanded to 42 states and gained cult status over the last 58 years.

When you walk into a Trader Joe's, it feels different from a typical grocery store.

While you can grab everything from bananas to paper towels to beer, the retailer tries to distinguish itself with its small size, low prices, unique products, and friendly staff.

The grocery store has been around for nearly 60 years. Some aspects — like the nautical decor and commitment to offbeat items — haven't changed.

Yet other events, like losing its founder and expanding nationwide, have left their marks on Trader Joe's.

Here are some significant milestones in the brand's history.

There's a real Joe behind the store name.

Born in 1930, Joe Coulombe fell into the retail business after attending Stanford University as an undergrad and then to get his MBA. He met his wife, Alice, there, and they would have three children together.

To make extra money as a graduate student, Coulombe sold vacuums door-to-door, according to his memoir, "Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys."

In the early 1960s, the San Diego native was running several Pronto Markets, what he called a "copy of 7-Eleven," which didn't yet exist in California. Yet he knew he wouldn't be able to compete with the convenience store chain when they did arrive.

The first Trader Joe's opened in 1967 in Pasadena, California.

With the specter of "the 800-pound gorilla" that was 7-Eleven looming, Coulombe had to try something different, he told The Los Angeles Times in 2011.

An avid reader of Scientific American, Coulombe learned in 1965 that more Americans were going to college.

"The demographics were changing in the United States because of the GI Bill of Rights, which was the largest experiment in mass higher education in the history of the human race," he said in a 2018 episode of the "Insider Trader Joe's" podcast. "And I thought that these people would want something different."

Analysts predicted that the upcoming Boeing 747 jumbo jets would dramatically drop the price of international travel, according to The Los Angeles Times. From his days at Pronto, Coulombe knew that people who liked to travel also liked trying new products.

Coulombe decided to cater to this group — the "overeducated and underpaid," as he described them — by offering something more niche than the same basics available in every grocery store or mini-mart.

In 1967, the experiment began with the first Trader Joe's in Pasadena, California. It sold everything from discounted paperbacks and records to pantyhose.

The store's aesthetic was purposefully nautical.

Coulombe wrote in his memoir that he was one of the many 30-somethings drinking mai tais at the tiki bar Trader Vic's in the 1960s. He wanted to capture a similar "fun-leisure-party-prosperity" atmosphere at his store. A trip on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise also influenced him.

At salvage companies near LA's harbor, he found oars, netting, and other marine paraphernalia to deck out the store.

Employees were called crew members and captains instead of cashiers and managers. They wore floral Hawaiian-style shirts. A limited selection of Hawaiian music poured out of the speakers until the workers complained about the lack of variety, according to Coulombe's memoir.

The tiki-inspired theme continues in stores today.

In its early days, Trader Joe's focused on alcohol.

At first, Coulombe planned for Trader Joe's to be tiny, just 4,500 square feet. Yet the building that housed it was almost twice that size. So, he expanded the wine section, bringing in 17 brands of California wines, whereas a gourmet competitor only had seven.

California's Fair Trade laws meant that Trader Joe's couldn't offer discounts on prices, so it hoped to lure customers with sheer variety. The store stocked dozens of brands of Scotch, bourbon, rum, and other liquor.

Coulombe also brought in French wines and managed to import them for cheaper than his competitors.

"I wanted to make sure that every family could afford a bottle of decent wine on the table every night," he wrote in his memoir.

In 1969, Trader Joe's started publishing a precursor to its Fearless Flyer newsletter. Then called the Insider's Wine Report, it helped the underage employees explain the bottles to customers, since they couldn't taste them themselves. A version for the store's food products soon followed.

Today, the Fearless Flyer gives shoppers detailed descriptions of new or seasonal products such as butternut squash mac & cheese or heart-shaped jelly beans.

Granola, bran, and almond butter were some early staples.

In 1970, Scientific American once again swayed the course of Trader Joe's history. An issue dedicated to threats to the environment stunned Coulombe.

Around the same time, the manager of the new Trader Joe's in Santa Ana was evangelizing for health foods. Coulombe was intrigued by the idea that a healthier diet might positively impact the environment, too.

In 1971, the company started introducing health foods alongside its many wines and other alcohol. Customers could get fresh orange juice from the stores' squeezing stations. They could also pick up wheat bran and almond butter, a rarity at the time.

The next year, Trader Joe's created its first private-label product, granola. Over the next few years, it added its branding to dried fruits, nuts, vitamins, and cheese.

In the late-1970s, Trader Joe's started focusing on products you wouldn't find anywhere else.

In 1976, Trader Joe's was still relying on recognizable brands for most of its products, like coffee, bread, and other basics. The small size of its stores meant space was at a premium, and this was when the company shifted its focus.

It got rid of items like soap and light bulbs. It stopped carrying many national brands, like Folgers coffee. Instead, the stores stocked rare items, like unfermented zinfandel grape juice, and gourmet goodies, like handmade berry pie.

Many of the products were unbranded or came under the Trader Joe's label.

Coulombe aimed to give the products names that would amuse his educated, well-traveled customers. These included nods to historical, artistic, and scientific figures, including The Bagel Spinoza, The Peanut Pascal, and Heisenberg's Uncertain Blend of coffee beans.

Small stores and niche products meant that some items weren't always available. They might be seasonal, like its vintage dated canned corn. Coulombe called it "vinous thinking," treating food products like they were rare bottles of wine.

Customers still treat it like a treasure hunt, always on the lookout for an unfamiliar taste or the bargain version of a pricey cheese.

Today, about 85% of Trader Joe's products are private label, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're locally sourced. Some are supplied by brands like Coca-Cola, Taylor Farms, and Campbell's, Fast Company reported in January.

In 1979, Coulombe sold Trader Joe's to the family behind Aldi.

In 1979, Trader Joe's was bought by Theo Albrecht's family trust.

Theo Albrecht was brother to Karl Albrecht. The two expanded dozens of stores across Germany and then split the family business in 1961. Karl's business, Aldi Süd, would eventually lead to the Aldi stores in North America, while Theo's, Aldi Nord, became involved with Trader Joe's.

Coulombe remained with the company until 1989, The LA Times reported, and Aldi Nord allowed the day-to-day running of Trader Joe's to remain the same.

After stepping back from the company, Coulombe went on to serve as president and chief executive for several other retailers. He died in 2020 at the age of 89.

The first Trader Joe's outside California was opened in Phoenix in 1993.

Trader Joe's continued to expand throughout the 1970s and '80s. Coulombe had targeted his ideal "unemployed PhD" customer by opening nearly 30 stores in Southern California, The New York Times reported in 2014.

The chain didn't move outside the state until 1993. By then, John Shields, Coulombe's Stanford fraternity brother, had become chief executive. Three years later, Trader Joe's headed to the East Coast, opening two stores in the Boston area.

When Shields retired in 2001, the company had 158 stores and its annual sales had exploded from $132 million to $2 billion.

Now, the store has over 500 locations in 42 states and Washington DC.

The store's Two-Buck Chuck phenomenon dates back to 2002.

As Trader Joe's started focusing on its private label products, it did away with its vast selection of liquor. However, alcohol, and wine in particular, remained a core part of its identity.

In 2002, the stores began stocking a $1.99 bottle of wine. The secret of how they could sell a wine for so cheap involves its own saga.

Chuck Shaw started his Charles Shaw winery in 1974, making a respected gamay, Thrillist reported in 2017. After several mishaps, the winery went bankrupt in the 1990s, and Fred Franzia, owner of Bronco Wine Company, bought the trade name.

Bronco would take grapes grown in California's Central Valley and bottle the wine at a facility in Napa, where grapes are more expensive, Marketplace reported in 2017. That allowed the company to use the prestige associated with Napa at a fraction of the cost.

Though its price has risen over the years, the wine retains the nickname Two-Buck Chuck. Over a billion bottles have been sold, per The New York Times.

Though Shaw hasn't seen any of that money himself, he told Business Insider in 2018 that he's come to terms with that and is now thrilled to be associated with the wine.

Trader Joe's has reached cult status.

Trader Joe's doesn't just have customers. It has fans who join Facebook pages and Reddit groups to enthuse about their favorite products.

Coulombe purposefully cultivated that response. "[W]e deliberately tried to make it a cult once we got a handle on what we were actually doing," he wrote in his memoir.

The excitement of discovering new products, the chance that your favorite item will be out of stock, and the excessively friendly staff all contribute to that feeling, the hosts of the "Sounds Like a Cult" podcast said in a 2022 episode.

Celebrities from Hillary Duff to Travis Kelce have raved about the chain or been spotted lugging shopping bags full of groceries.

For many people, its comparatively low prices are the biggest draw. Others love the ease of its wide selection of frozen meals.

Last year, Trader Joe's set off a frenzy when customers tried to snap up its $2.99 reusable mini canvas tote, an item that became as coveted as some Stanley cups.

Despite its early adoption of reusable totes and environmentally friendly reputation, groups like the Humane Society, the Climate-Friendly Supermarkets program, Green America, Friends of the Earth, and Toxic-Free Future have given the company low marks for some of its environmental practices or a lack of transparency around its animal welfare policies, for example, Fast Company reported in January.

In 2012, Pirate Joe's brought the store's products to Canada.

Mike Hallatt, the founder of Pirate Joe's, once owned a small Vancouver shop with shelves lined with marina sauce, sweet potato chips, and almonds, all bought from Trader Joe's. The chain had no stores in Canada, so Hallatt would cross the border to Washington State to buy the snacks, sauces, and toiletry items.

Trader Joe's sued Hallatt and barred him from its stores. In 2017, he closed Pirate Joe's for good.

"Many times I've thought I've got to just give this up, this is ridiculous," he told The Guardian in 2017. "Then people would come up to me and thank me for doing it. That was the curse: We had so many people who love what we were up to, and yet it was just so devilishly hard to do."

Tourists from other Trader Joe's-less countries still bring back suitcases full of snacks home.

In 2024, a traveler who returned from the US with 20 bottles of Everything but the Bagel seasoning had to surrender them at the airport in South Korea, CNN reported. The mix contains poppy seeds, which the country doesn't allow anyone to bring in.

Trader Joe's is known for its friendly employees, but some have complained about working conditions.

Crew members often talk with customers while they ring up their purchases. It's not flirting, just friendliness, a national director of public relations for Trader Joe's told Glamour in 2021.

In 2016, The New York Times reported that one employee said he was reprimanded for not smiling genuinely enough. "We do not fire crew members for trivial reasons," Trader Joe's said in a statement at the time. "We pride ourselves on operating our business with integrity and adhering to the law at all times."

In his memoir, Coulombe wrote that the average full-time employee at Trader Joe's made the median family income in California. This wasn't fully altruistic, he wrote, the "policy was grounded partly by the desire to stay un-organized by the Retail Clerks Union."

Concerns about workers' physical safety and the company's response to sexual harassment complaints led Hadley, Massachusetts employees to form the first Trader Joe's union in 2020, Fast Company reported in January.

In the years since, the National Labor Relations Board has filed dozens of unfair labor practice complaints against the company, saying it fired workers or closed stores in retaliation for organizing. In 2024, Trader Joe's joined SpaceX, Starbucks, and Amazon in arguing that the NLRB is unconstitutional.

Customers pushed the company to rename the Trader José line and other products.

Coulombe consciously cultivated Trader Joe's reputation for unique, worldwide products from early on. That included importing Brie from France and maple syrup from Quebec.

As the store started bringing in more international foods under the Trader Joe's branding, "we fell back on some useful naming devices," Coulombe wrote in his memoir. "All Mexican products were Trader Josés. All Japanese products, Trader Joe-San."

In 2020, customers circulated an online petition asking the company to remove the names.

Trader Joe's said it had "made the decision several years ago to use only the Trader Joe's name on our products moving forward," USA Today reported in 2020.

"We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions," Trader Joe's said in a statement at the time.

In 2024, Taste magazine spoke with several creators of small- and medium-sized food brands who said Trader Joe's solicited products from them and expressed interest in partnering up, only to come out with similar items soon after.

One founder said the company had created knockoffs of unique products from culturally diverse brands. "Ethnic foods are specialized items," the founder said. "There's so much history and culture and tradition that you can't do simple knockoffs like you do with everyday items like ketchup or mayo. You need brands like ours to educate you."

"Our common practice is to deal directly with producers or growers rather than purchasing through brokers, distributors, sales agents, or other middlemen," Trader Joe's told Business Insider at the time.

In 2023 and 2024, Trader Joe's recalled products that contained rocks, insects, glass, and plastic.

Over the course of a week in July 2023, Trader Joe's recalled cookies contaminated with rocks and broccoli cheddar soup containing insects, NBC News reported at the time. Just a few months earlier, the company removed its instant cold brew from the shelves over fears that the containers also held shards of glass, per The Takeout.

Several items in Trader Joe's lineup have been pulled for containing plastic, including its steamed chicken soup dumplings in 2024 and its organic acai bowls in February.

In general, food recalls increased by 15% between 2020 and 2024, according to TraceOne. These include outbreaks of listeria, salmonella, and hepatitis A, all of which have affected Trader Joe's.

Food-safety lawyer Bill Marler told Fast Company that Trader Joe's recalls may be linked to the way it sources its own private label. "If you buy from suppliers at low prices, but you don't ask how they could get the price so low and something goes sideways, that's on you," he said.

Trader Joe's did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

• A new study explored how birth order, gender, and personality traits influence parental favoritism.
• It found that parents tend to prefer their oldest kids and also daughters.
• Parents may show preferential treatment toward eldest daughters, who they see as more responsible.

It's a fact of life that parents play favorites, but which children are favored more — and why — is an ongoing topic of research.

A recent study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin in January, has shed some light on the matter, in hopes of pointing out how favoritism doesn't end well for anyone involved.

Which child parents are more likely to favor

The Brigham Young University researchers analyzed data from over 19,000 participants in 30 studies and 14 databases across North America and Western Europe.

They examined how birth order, gender, temperament, and personality played a role in favoritism and found that parents primarily tend to favor elder children, agreeable children, and daughters.

The data couldn't explain why this is the case, but the researchers have their theories.

Why parents favor eldest daughters

For example, daughters might be favored over sons because they're easier to parent and have more effortful control — the ability to sit still and ignore distractions.

Parents might also grant more autonomy, a measure of favoritism in the study, to older siblings because they are more "developmentally capable" than younger siblings.

Moreover, because eldest daughters may naturally take on more responsibilities and ease household burdens, "parents may naturally invest more in them," Annie Wright, a therapist practicing in California, told Business Insider.

She added that many cultures socialize girls to be "more emotionally expressive, empathetic, and communicative — traits that may make them more likable and easier for parents to bond with."

At the same time, the golden child can also wear a heavy crown.

The consequences of being the favorite

Wright is the eldest of six and identifies with eldest-daughter syndrome.

She told BI that there's a "shadow side" to being the favorite, such as people-pleasing and feeling relentless pressure to perform. Over time, it can lead to resentment and tension between siblings, Wright said.

Moreover, eldest daughters like Wright — who was given more chores growing up — can feel overly responsible for others. This mentality can eventually put them in a position as the caretakers in their families, a role that some lament because they feel like it holds them back.

Despite the societal messaging that women should make their own decisions, "there's still pressure for girls to care for the emotional needs of people in their immediate surroundings," Dr. Michelle Janning, a professor of sociology at Whitman College, told BI.

She added that these two expectations — to be great caretakers and to reach their ambitions — aren't mutually exclusive. "They are both in existence, but what's not happening maybe is how to manage both of them," she said.

In practice, it can lead to burnout and workaholism. Wright, for example, said she used to work 80-hour weeks while missing time spent with her daughter.

Wright added that eldest daughters, as a result, can also struggle with self-expression and independence later in life.

That said, life isn't too rosy for the less-favored kids, either.

Parents can make small adjustments

The study's authors believe that less-favored kids, like more defiant younger sons, are "at greater risk for maladaptive outcomes" because they receive less support from their parents.

In general, playing favorites isn't good for anyone involved and "negative outcomes happen for all siblings in the family," said Dr. Alexander C. Jensen, an associate professor at BYU and the study's lead researcher,

Parents can do small things to improve the dynamic, Wright said. They can ask themselves if they impose similar rules on their kids or if they provide more emotional attention to one child. And if they sense disparities, it's time to "level things out."

• I left my life in New Orleans for a completely different change of pace in Buenos Aires.
• After living here for two years, I can confidently say it was the best decision I ever made.
• My career and personal life are flourishing. While I make less, my cost of living is lower.

Two years ago, my life was very different. My relationship had just ended, my landlord died, and I was sad and anxious about finding a new apartment in the ever-more-costly New Orleans rental market.

Fast forward, and I'm now enjoying the happiest time of my life in Argentina. After my landlord passed, I stretched my savings to visit a friend in Buenos Aires and ultimately decided to move there.

One of the first phrases I learned after moving was "mejor calidad de vida," which translates to better quality of life — and I can confidently say that's been my experience in Argentina. After two years in Buenos Aires, I have no regrets or plans to return to the US.

As a gay man, I feel safer in Buenos Aires

Argentina was the first Latin American country to legalize same sex marriage, and Buenos Aires regularly tops lists of queer-friendly travel destinations.

Same-sex or queer couples are casually affectionate around town, and I find myself rarely tensing the way I sometimes did in Louisiana when something told me I needed to be cautious and alert.

I make less, but my creativity is flourishing

I've started freelancing again, and while I earn less, my expenses are much lower without a car and in the more affordable rental market here.

I live a short walk from greengrocers, butchers, grocery stores, and nearly everything else I might need, with a cheap and extensive (if not always timely) network of buses and subways.

The lower cost of living has given me more opportunities to be choosier about my freelance projects.

I've never been more pleased with my creative work: I recently sold my first horror short story and have 12,000 words and counting written toward my first novel manuscript.

My personal life is flourishing, too

I spent my first few months enjoying the bigger, more diverse dating pool of a big city.

I'm now in the early stages of a promising new relationship — with my Spanish teacher.

Humblingly for this former all-star French student, getting up to speed on the lingo has been tricky.

The region has a distinctive dialect, which preserves certain old-fashioned usages and incorporates features from Italians who arrived with the waves of late 19th and early 20th-century immigrants.

This local Spanish can challenge newcomers, and more than one person has compared learning Spanish in Argentina to learning English in Scotland.

In my experience, though, the people of Buenos Aires have been generous with my slow but steady progress, repeating themselves when I need to try again and trying their English when I'm completely lost.

I have different ice cream flavors for different moods

Buenos Aires is so densely populated with ice cream shops that I now have different favorites for different moods and situations.

Favorite local flavors include kumquats in whiskey, sambayon — an eggy, boozy custard, and crema del cielo, "cream of heaven," a sweet cream whose name only exaggerates slightly.

I've also embraced the city's elegant cafe culture. Instead of American-style coffee to go, I now sit and savor my coffee, along with the little glass of soda water and sweet biscuit that generally accompanies it.

And I'm constantly surrounded by the city's colorful plant life. Trees are planted in a curated assortment, so something is always in bloom: orange tipas, indigo jacarandas, pink palos borrachos.

I'm still adjusting to the city's different lifestyle

Argentinians dine late and party even later, which doesn't always align with my 40-year-old rise-and-shine circadian rhythms.

Fortunately, friends will occasionally compromise on an 8 o'clock dinner, and self-employment means I can nap when I need.

The bureaucracy can present a challenge, especially around the postal service. Cash-strapped Argentina balances its budget with a strict customs system, which means mail can be a hassle — sometimes it's delayed, sometimes you have to jump through hoops to get it, and sometimes it never arrives.

For example, to retrieve a T-shirt sent to me for my birthday, I had to receive a telegram, register online, go downtown twice, and speak to four people at separate desks.

These learning curves are a low price to pay for the life I have now. As I go about my day in my beautiful new home, I find myself smiling for no reason beyond the pleasure of the city.

Writer and editor Chris Turner-Neal writes about his new life in Argentina and other topics at upsidedownandinspanish.substack.com.