• After a major heartbreak, I pack up and move to a new city — sometimes, even a different continent.
• It makes it easier for me to heal from the heartbreak.
• I've done this three times, and I'm not about to stop now.

Some people cope with a breakup by starting a new hobby, throwing themselves immediately back into dating, or finally giving in to those BetterHelp ads. Me? I pack up my life and book a one-way flight to a new city, sometimes even a different continent.

It started in 2014 after a brutal three-month run: a breakup, a messy rebound, and getting fired from a brand-new job. I was sitting at home in Johannesburg, doomscrolling on Facebook, when an email came through from an airline offering a deal on flights to Cape Town, South Africa. My interest? Piqued. My credit card? Ready to swipe. My impulse control? At an all-time low.

I booked a flight for the following week and immediately began boxing up my room at my mom's into three small boxes and sending out invites for farewell drinks at my favorite bar. Little did I know, this major life decision I had made in less than 60 seconds would go on to start a pattern of shaking up my surroundings to an extreme after heartbreak. I did it again in 2021, when I left Cape Town for Namibia, and last year, I said bon voyage to South Africa and moved to France.

Moving after a break-up means I get to break old habits

Is making a major move after a breakup a little dramatic? Absolutely, but there is a method to my madness. Every move forces me to confront the post-breakup identity crisis and answer the million-dollar question: Who am I without anyone else?

Starting over in a new place strips away all the relationship compromises, shared daily routines, and habits. The only thing left is me: my habits, my desires, and my identity beyond another person.

It gives me the space to figure out where I may have been performing in the relationship and identify where I lost myself. The crisis I had where I wondered whether I was changing my mind about having kids? It turns out I was never unsure about having children — I always knew deep down that it wasn't my path. I was just too scared to choose myself and lose my partner in the process.

During my last relationship, I stopped doing all the things I love: DJing, hiking, and going to festivals. It wasn't until it ended and I moved yet again that I realized how much I'd been missing out on when I found myself in Paris at a rave, cheezing so hard my cheeks hurt, asking myself, "How did I forget how much I loved this?"

It's taught me the art of being alone, not lonely

I believe my heartbreak wanderlust has helped me avoid the trap of using other people as emotional Band-Aids instead of processing the pain and grief after a break-up. My self-imposed exile gives me the space to sit with my emotions without any familiar distractions (after all, you can't call up your roster or ex when you're 7,000 miles away in France). It's a launchpad to a life of independence and self-confidence, where I'm showing myself every day how capable I am without someone else, each time I figure out something new.

That said, should everyone move to a new city after a break-up? If you have a remote career like mine and no responsibilities tying you to a specific location, I'd say go for it. Being in a completely different city soothes the sting of rumination because nothing is familiar.

The first time I moved after a breakup was on impulse. When I realized it was helping me process what had happened and improve my relationship with myself, I got curious and wanted to know why. I learned that when I create new memories and daily habits, I'm training my brain to form new associations that aren't tied to my ex. So when I move, I'm rewiring neural pathways, and I'm spending less energy stuck in a loop replaying the same old story.

But if you can't move cities, plan a solo trip for two weeks. You'll still get to reap the benefits of taking yourself out of the familiar and give your heart and brain the chance to reset and interrupt the emotional ties.

It's an incredible heartbreak cure, and reader, it's probably the greatest gift I've given myself.

• Joan Nguyen co-founded Bumo to help parents book last-minute childcare.
• The app features vetted childcare providers and works similarly to Airbnb.
• The pitch deck has raised $10 million so far, with another $10 million seed round coming up.

Modern life makes it easy to order late-night cars home, book spontaneous vacation rentals, and get lightning-fast takeout. But getting childcare on short notice? For many that's still a pipe dream.

Joan Nguyen founded Bumo, an app that allows parents to book empty slots at local childcare centers, after starting two childcare ventures during the pandemic.

From working with parents, Nguyen said she realized that they often needed what she calls "fractional childcare," such as when their nanny called in sick or something pressing came up at work.

"As a parent, I also felt the pain of not being able to get childcare when you absolutely needed it," Nguyen told Business Insider. "Why is it easier for me to find a dog walker than it is to find a sitter or a nanny?"

Launched in 2024 after raising $10 million, the Bumo app was co-founded by Nguyen and Chriselle Lim. It's a continuation of a joint co-working and childcare center they launched in late 2019, followed by BumoBrain, an online learning platform they created at the height of the pandemic to help working parents.

This week, Bumo is preparing to announce a $10 million seed funding round, led by venture capital firms Offline Ventures and True Ventures, Bumo shared exclusively with Business Insider.

The app, which has about 10,000 users and offers services in 200 locations within 13 states, works similarly to Airbnb. Parents can filter and sift through childcare options from drop-in daycares to summer camps, some of them offering same-day availability.

Nguyen said Bumo also fits in with the consumer demand "to want things instantly," now accustomed to quick bookings and deliveries. Meanwhile, "you see childcare as this kind of monolithic thing that hasn't really changed a lot," she said.

Filling a gap in childcare demands

Bumo aims to offer more convenience and fill a gap in the US childcare system.

Parents are more isolated than they have been in generations, not always being able to rely on family members to help them. Many also can't afford full-time daycare, but still need some part-time childcare options.

To ensure safety, Nguyen said every service listed on Bumo is licensed by their respective state and has a "digital footprint" including past reviews. Bumo staff also interviews with each facility at least once a year (sometimes virtually depending on the provider's location) to make sure that they're up-to-date on background checks and that all staff have proper certifications.

Nguyen said that Bumo only uses original photography and videos for each facility instead of stock photos. Parents can also upload photos in their reviews.

Bumo's next step is to keep expanding in other cities; right now, Los Angeles has the highest number of childcare offerings on the app. The goal is to increase Bumo's density in San Francisco and to introduce its service in New York City.

Read the 16-page pitch deck Bumo used to secure $10 million.

Bumo opens with a positive press quote.

It sums up the key benefit of Bumo: expediency.

Introducing the founding team and each member's accomplishments.

The slide features the team members' experience levels, follower counts, and press mentions.

It defines the app and what makes it stand out.

The slide includes a graphic of the app in action.

It addresses the core childcare problems working parents face.

A simple graphic illustrates the obstacles parents face in securing childcare.

It then shows how childcare providers benefit from the app.

It highlights the practicality of the app: childcare providers have empty slots they want to fill, incentivizing them to use Bumo.

The next slide demonstrates how simple the app is to use.

It uses a similar calendar booking system to Airbnb or Rover.

The deck emphasizes lower costs.

Parents don't have to commit to full programs they can't afford.

Another slide sums up the key benefits for everyone.

It emphasizes the mutual relationship between parents and childcare providers.

The deck then transitions into Bumo's accomplishments.

It addresses how many families currently use Bumo, the number of providers, and the social media reach. It also shows investors the opportunities for growth.

Another slide highlights Bumo's commitment to digital outreach.

It shows a concerted strategy to promote the app in smaller parenting communities on Facebook and Instagram.

The presentation winds down by zooming out on the market.

It illustrates how big the childcare market is.

It draws comparisons to other successful apps.

It also asserts that, unlike the other apps, Bumo has no competition so far.

The second-to-last slide shows Bumo's projected growth.

It includes other methods of revenue and its target numbers for childcare service expansion.

The deck ends with a strong tagline.

It brands Bumo as a company that also cares about parents' well-being and understands their struggles.

Tesla shares fell sharply again Monday, as Elon Musk's split with the Trump administration deepened over his threats to launch a new political party.

Why it matters: Musk is personally out nearly $20 billion since breaking with President Trump last month, and his investors are out more than $100 billion on top of that.

Catch up quick: Over the holiday weekend, Musk said he'd launch a new political party, the America Party, and suggested a strategy of targeting a few key House and Senate seats in 2026.

• Trump posted to Truth Social that Musk had become a "TRAIN WRECK," and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — long a Musk foe — told CNN he expected the boards of Musk's companies would be opposed to his activities.

By the numbers: Tesla shares fell about 7% in pre-market trading Monday.

• They're down about 14% since early June, when Musk first publicly blasted the "big, beautiful bill," which quickly spiraled into a full split with the administration.

Yes, but: This coming Sunday is the one-year anniversary of Musk endorsing Trump — and Tesla shares are still up more than 20% since then, even with the recent sharp declines.

The intrigue: Tesla's problems aren't just Musk's politics, though.

• The company reported last week that deliveries fell almost 14% in the second quarter.
• Late Sunday, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy report on the company's mounting problems in China, noting that its local employees complained its cars were falling badly behind competitors.
• The WSJ story also noted that the Chinese government no longer considered a Musk relationship as much of an asset, given his falling out with Trump.

The bottom line: "Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that most Tesla investors want him to take during this crucial period for Tesla," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, one of the company's most outspoken supporters on Wall Street, posted to X on Sunday.

President Trump's tax and spending bill sets in motion nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and other health policy changes that could loom over the midterm elections.

• But the real effects likely won't be felt until well after the ballots are cast.

Why it matters: Despite negative polls and headlines, bill supporters could be insulated from political blame by a slow drip of policy changes that will play out over the next decade — a contrast to when the GOP tried to repeal Obamacare in 2017.

• "Republicans backloaded a lot of the Medicaid and ACA cuts," said Larry Levitt, executive vice president at KFF. "There will be few tangible effects in health care from this bill before the midterms."
• That creates a messaging challenge for Democrats, he added. "There's not going to be a day where everyone wakes up and all of a sudden ... more people are uninsured."

What's inside: Medicaid work requirements, which account for many of the nearly 12 million people projected to lose coverage under the bill, generally won't kick in until 2027, and some states could get extensions.

• Though beneficiaries will get warnings ahead of time, able-bodied recipients ages 19 to 64 wouldn't actually be dropped from program rolls for failure to meet or properly report the required 80 hours a month until after November 2026.
• The bill also increases the frequency of Medicaid eligibility checks to every six months, starting on Dec. 31, 2026. People in the Medicaid expansion population who retain coverage under the new system could have to pay up to $35 in cost-sharing per service starting in October 2028.

The phasedown of Medicaid provider taxes and state-directed payments, which states use to help fund their share of program costs and which hospitals in particular have come to rely on for funding, only begins in 2028.

• The legislation's $930 billion cut to federal Medicaid funding will likely force states to make corresponding cuts to their programs or pick up a greater share of obligations, but those wouldn't take effect right away, either.

Yes, but: People covered through the Affordable Care Act exchanges will see changes more swiftly. The bill does not extend the Biden-era enhanced premium subsidies, which are set to expire on Jan. 1, 2026. The GOP-led Congress still can do so, but has shown little appetite so far.

• Obamacare premiums would increase by more than 75% on average for enrollees next year without the enhanced subsidies.
• That would give Democrats "a very potent talking point going into the midterms," Levitt noted.
• Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood will also be cut off for next year under the bill — a change the family planning organization said could result in the closure of nearly 200 clinics.
• Restrictions on which lawfully residing immigrants can access Medicaid will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2026, just before the primaries.

Reality check: Hospitals and clinics have to plan ahead and already are making contingencies for the Medicaid cuts and coverage losses. That could translate into facility closures or the elimination of some services.

Case in point: Community Hospital in McCook, Nebraska, announced last week that it's closing as a result of uncertainty over the upcoming Medicaid cuts, per Nebraska Public Media.

What to watch: Patient advocates and provider groups will likely press Congress to further delay the provisions, or stop them from taking effect.

• Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who argued against the steep health insurance cuts before voting for the package, said he would "do everything in his power" to reverse the future Medicaid cuts.
• "The fact that this all plays out over a period of time creates an opportunity for opponents to try to delay and overturn," Levitt said.
• Democrats, meanwhile, plan to launch the first fusillade of ads about the cuts in swing states this week, and want to turn the August recess into a referendum on the bill at town halls and through mobilization efforts.
• "House Democrats will spend every day of the next 16 months making sure moms, dads, seniors, and veterans know that Republicans took away their health care, raised their energy bills, and hiked their grocery costs," Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts said in a statement.

The bottom line: If nothing changes, it will take nine years for the effects of the bill to fully play out.

• To put that in perspective: Former President Barak Obama was still in office nine years ago.

Millions of Americans got a confusing email from the Social Security Administration over the weekend, celebrating the passage of the "big, beautiful bill."

Why it matters: It's unusual for the agency to blast an overtly political message to its massive email list, which includes retirees and those who've signed up at their website.

• Tax experts, former agency leaders and advocates for the agency are criticizing the email for spreading misinformation.

Zoom in: The email claims that the spending bill "eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries."

• It says this elimination is in addition to providing "an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned."

Reality check: The big bill does contain a big temporary tax break for seniors, who get an enhanced deduction on their federal income tax for the next four years. That will mean fewer seniors will pay taxes on benefits until 2028.

• However, the bill does not eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits — though President Trump and the White House keep claiming it does.
• "There is no provision in the budget bill that directly 'eliminates' or even reduces taxes on Social Security benefits," Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the Washington Post.

By the numbers: The email appears to have gone out to everyone who is signed up for a "My Social Security" account — that's 71 million people.

What they're saying: While the agency has sent out press releases, or tweets, from time to time that could be viewed as political, sending a mass email like this to this large a list is something new, say experts.

• "The Social Security Administration's communications shop has been politicized," wrote Nathan Osburn, a former deputy commissioner for the agency, on LinkedIn.
• "I agree," replied Leland Dudek, who was the acting commissioner of the agency, appointed by Trump, during the first few months of the year.
• The email confused some people who aren't used to hearing from the Social Security agency, says Kathleen Romig, a former senior adviser at the agency.
• "I've gotten a lot of correspondence from people who never hear from SSA except an annual notice to check their account," said Romig, who is now a director at the liberal Center on Policy and Budget Priorities. Some of them thought it was a scam, she added, claiming the email was "unprecedented."

The other side: A Social Security official tells Axios that the agency was just trying to communicate helpful information.

• "The deduction would apply to many of our beneficiaries, and we wanted to share that information with our beneficiaries so that they can take advantage of it," the official said.
• If we find the email "requires clarification, then we're certainly happy to clarify that," they said. "That hasn't presented itself so far."
• The agency has sent out information like this before on its various channels, they said.

• $6 billion New Holland Capital has started a new unit to recruit internal investment staff.
• The firm had previously invested in external funds in a structure similar to a fund-of-funds.
• Former North Rock Capital COO Omar Qaiser was hired to lead the new platform named Plum Island.

The competition for top investing talent is higher than ever.

Megafunds like Izzy Englander's Millennium, Ken Griffin's Citadel, and Steve Cohen's Point72 offer moneymakers tens of millions in potential payouts and top-tier perks. Up-and-coming funds and new launches such as Verition, Walleye, and Jain Global are constantly scouring the landscape for investors. Explosive growth in private market assets means PE funds and new private credit firms need head count.

In short, it's a labor market that favors the employee, not the employer. Englander himself called it a "talent bubble" in 2023.

Despite this dynamic, $6 billion New York-based New Holland Capital is expanding from its traditional, fund-of-funds structure with a new unit focused on bringing investment talent in-house. Plum Island Partners, named after a small spit of land off Long Island discovered by Dutch explorers in the 17th century, will be run by Omar Qaiser, according to a note sent to clients seen by Business Insider. Qaiser is the former COO of investment platform North Rock Capital.

"While the majority of our platform will continue to be composed of external teams, we've now established Plum Island Partners to serve as New Holland's internal trading and operations arm," the note reads.

"While our focus on niche, capacity-constrained strategies will not change, this evolution allows us to expand the universe of potential PMs to include those who have no interest in running a business," the note adds.

When it comes to potential payouts, small platforms cannot compete with firms like Millennium and Citadel. But there are investment strategies that can only manage a certain amount of money — say $100 million — that are not of interest to the biggest players because the potential returns are too marginal to make a difference, several smaller platforms have said.

Some tenured investors are also looking for more customized risk parameters, which the largest funds struggle to offer given their organizations' size.

It's why places like New Holland, among other smaller funds, have decided to bring more talent in-house even as bigger firms like Millennium increasingly allocate to external managers.

"We're trying to be indifferent — we want to find good talent and have a home for them," said New Holland CEO Scott Radke, who noted that he still expects most of the firm's investors to be external.

He said the manager has more than 40 external managers right now, while Plum Island has one internal PM, an equity capital markets investor. The new unit expects to add several more this year, but has no set goal.

New Holland began as an investment advisor for Dutch pension plans and has since become independent. Last month, it hired former Brevan Howard executive Stephan Brohme as its chief risk officer.

• Eli Lilly has outpaced Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk in the race to develop new incretin drugs.
• The company is set to capture 50% of the $95 billion obesity market by 2050.
• We got a glimpse into Eli Lilly's upcoming menu of metabolic drugs to treat obesity, preserve muscle, and more.

In sports, the best athletes compete against themselves. In the world of weight loss drugs, Eli Lilly is quickly becoming that all-star player that bests the competition every time.

"Lilly is the king. They're the king of the mountain," Deutsche Bank's James Shin, director of biopharma equity research, told Business Insider.

Investors are increasingly buzzing about the world's most valuable healthcare company, the one that they say has left its rivals in the dust.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, the company that developed Ozempic, initially seemed unbeatable in the new market for injectable diabetes and weight loss medications. But ever since 2022, when Eli Lilly's tirzepatide was first approved for use in the US, Lilly's been steadily gaining ground.

Now, the company is developing a menu of other obesity drugs that could cater to anyone. There's a pill for weight loss instead of an injection. There are drugs that tap into new appetite-regulating hormones; an antibody injection to protect muscles while burning up excess fat.

"Investors are starting to talk about Lilly on their own cue, rather than in the context of Novo," Asad Haider, Goldman Sachs's lead analyst for US pharmaceuticals, told BI. "They are at the forefront of almost every existing as well as emerging mechanism across anti-obesity, and it's going to be really hard, in our view, to leapfrog them."

So, we caught up with Eli Lilly Executive Vice President Ken Custer, the man overseeing it all. Custer is the new president of Lilly's cardiometabolic health division, and in a recent one-on-one with BI, he shared the strategy behind the company's success so far and how they plan to maintain their big lead in the long run.

Eli Lilly is set to dominate the market by 2030

Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, the drug currently leading the charge, is the strongest weight loss drug available so far. While Novo's Wegovy supercharges one of our hunger hormones (GLP-1), Lilly's Mounjaro has two (GLP-1 and GIP), making it a more powerful weekly shot to control appetite and blood sugar.

One recent head-to-head study showed patients who spent a year on tirzepatide lost, on average, about 15% of their body weight, while those on semaglutide (the drug in Ozempic) lost just 8%.

By 2030, Goldman is forecasting, conservatively, that Lilly will capture nearly 50% of the $95 billion anti-obesity medicine market. That forecast includes the injectable drugs we have now, like Mounjaro and Ozempic (for diabetes) plus Wegovy and Zepbound (for obesity) but may also extend to new drugs in the pipeline, both at Eli Lilly and coming from other drugmakers with smaller portfolios. But right now, Lilly seems to be ahead of the competition in just about every category.

In June, at the American Diabetes Association's big annual research conference (ADA), Lilly's updates from ongoing trials were "incrementally better" than investors had expected, Haider said.

"Then on the other side of that, a lot of their late-stage competition — specifically Novo Nordisk, but also Amgen — the updates that you got from them at ADA had a little bit more hair on them, and were frankly met with more disappointment."

1. Speed: 'This ratchet mindset' drives Lilly to develop drugs faster and faster

Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks shared some of the secrets behind the big speed up that's shifted the company from an 11-year average time to market (when he first became CEO in 2017) to a six-year average now.

"We really track things very carefully on speed," Ricks said in an interview last October on the "All-In" podcast. "The big idea is like this ratchet mindset that every time we beat a timeline, that becomes the new norm. We just re-benchmark internally."

Case in point: It took about two decades to get Trulicity, Eli Lilly's first GLP-1 drug, on the market. Tirzepatide? About eight years — "blistering speed," Custer said.

2. Convenience: a cheap(er) pill to rival Ozempic

Eli Lilly is in the late stages of developing the first Ozempic-like pill, designed to be just as strong as Novo's injectable drug. The drug, orforglipron, could be available as early as 2026.

There are only about 8 million people currently on Mounjaro, Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound in the US, which speaks to both the high cost of the injectable drugs and the supply bottlenecks.

"The injectable GLP-1s are wonderful medicines, but manufacturing those medicines is hard," Custer said. "The factories that you have to use to do the sterile filling of the vials, the syringes, the devices, the cartridges are extraordinarily hard to build and operate."

Custer believes a daily pill could completely change the game — opening up this new class of hormone-mimicking weight loss and diabetes drugs called incretins to hundreds of millions more people across the globe.

"I think we're at a defining moment in our company's history," Custer said. He added that he sees this as "a generational opportunity that is probably close to what was seen with the early days of vaccines and antibiotics."

Eli Lilly is already manufacturing hundreds of thousands of orforglipron pills, just to make sure it will be able to meet the demand if the drug is approved for use in the US next year. That's a somewhat risky move, considering that the company's final Phase 3 clinical trials that the US Food and Drug administration requires to evaluate the drug aren't even done yet. If approved, orforglipron should also (thankfully) have a more pronounceable brand name.

Expect the cost of the pill to rival a "fancy gym membership," Shin said, meaning maybe around $300 for one month — a quarter of the cost of some injectable weight-loss drugs.

Other companies' attempts to develop a new weight loss pill have been lackluster. Pfizer ditched its obesity pill candidate earlier this year, while Novo Nordisk's pill version of semaglutide, called Rybelsus, is not nearly as effective as Ozempic: Most patients on the pill lose less than 5% of their body weight, while people using the weekly shot can often achieve 10-15% weight loss, or more.

3. Creating a laundry list of new options to get ahead

The north star of Eli Lilly's strategy now is variety — developing a broader range of options for consumers than any of their competitors.

"If you have a billion people around the world or more living with overweight or obesity, they're not all going to be helped by one medicine," Custer said. "We see this segmenting it into several logical categories."

The shift is already underway to find new weight loss options that will harness different hunger hormones (like amylin), use new routes of administration (pills or IVs instead of just injection pens), and have different dosing schedules (daily, weekly, or monthly).

"They're trying to address every type of patient," Shin said.

Here's the menu, beyond orforglipron:

• Bimagrumab: Looking to protect muscle while you lose fat? This is an Eli Lilly drug which may become available after orforglipron, if the mid-stage trials go well in the next couple of years.

  In the most recent trial results, the company shared on bimagrumab at ADA, patients on the drug achieved 100% fat loss, essentially preserving all their muscles. This idea of making sure patients lose the right kind of weight — not compromising their strength just to slim down — is the holy grail in incretin drug development right now, generating tons of buzz and investment.

• Retatrutide: If it's more powerful drugs you're after, then there's the "king kong" triple agonist that the company has been working on. It won't likely be ready to approve until late 2026, at the very earliest, but in clinical trials, it has shown weight loss on par with bariatric surgery, and some patients have lost more than a third of their total body weight, requiring entirely new wardrobes.
• Eloralintide: Finally, there's Lilly's investigational drug that mimics amylin, another metabolism-regulating hormone. It's still early days for eloralintide and for amylin medications in general. So it's possible that competitors like Novo Nordisk or Amgen could develop a compelling amylin drug before Eli Lilly does.

"What's exciting is we feel like we're leading in most, if not all of those categories, but we'll come up with new categories," Custer said. "It is really about tailoring. I think bimagrumab and eloralintide and retatrutide and orforglipron are really the first part of that story, but of course, we have other ideas we're working on as well."

Investors want in on that action. Both Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank sent BI disclosure statements for this story, because they each have a financial relationship with Eli Lilly (I challenge you, dear reader, to find a major investment bank that does not).

In the long run, Eli Lilly is thinking ahead to a day when this class of medications could even treat conditions beyond metabolism and heart health, including dementia, inflammation, substance abuse, and pain. (Scientists are starting to study whether incretin drugs might treat migraines, for example).

"It may be even in the future, when you're checking out at Kroger, in addition to the 'get your annual flu vaccine,' you see a sign that says 'get your annual metabolic shot,'" Custer said.

• A consulting firm found that tech companies are "strategically overpaying" recruits with AI experience.
• They found firms pay premiums of up to $200,000 for data scientists with machine learning skills.
• The report also tracked a rise in bonuses for lower-level software engineers and analysts.

The AI talent bidding war is heating up, and the data scientists and software engineers behind the tech are benefiting from being caught in the middle.

Many tech companies are "strategically overpaying" recruits with AI experience, shelling out premiums of up to $200,000 for some roles with machine learning skills, J. Thelander Consulting, a compensation data and consulting firm for the private capital market, found in a recent report.

The report, compiled from a compensation analysis of roles across 153 companies, showed that data scientists and analysts with machine learning skills tend to receive a higher premium than software engineers with the same skills. However, the consulting firm also tracked a rise in bonuses for lower-level software engineers and analysts.

The payouts are a big bet, especially among startups. About half of the surveyed companies paying premiums for employees with AI skills had no revenue in the past year, and a majority (71%) had no profit.

Smaller firms need to stand out and be competitive among Big Tech giants — a likely driver behind the pricey recruitment tactic, a spokesperson for the consulting firm told Business Insider.

But while the J. Thelander Consulting report focused on smaller firms, some Big Tech companies have also recently made headlines for their sky-high recruitment incentives.

Meta was in the spotlight last month after Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said the social media giant had tried to poach his best employees with $100 million signing bonuses. 

While Business Insider previously reported that Altman later quipped that none of his "best people" had been enticed by the deal, Meta's chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, said in an interview with CNBC that Altman "neglected to mention that he's countering those offers."

• Elon Musk started a new political party after conducting a poll on his social media platform X.
• But this is not the first time Musk has outsourced his decision-making to social media.
• Musk had run polls on whether he should sell his Tesla stock or step down as X's CEO.

Elon Musk announced the formation of his new political party a day after conducting a poll on his social media platform, X.

But this isn't the first time Musk has outsourced his decision-making to social media.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has conducted several polls on X over the years. Musk has asked users whether he should sell his Tesla stock or if he should reinstate President Donald Trump to the platform.

Here's a list of some of the polls Musk has done, and what happened after.

Selling 10% of his Tesla stock

On November 6, 2021, Musk posted a poll on X asking his followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.

"I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes," Musk added.

Musk's poll received over 3.5 million votes, with over 57% of them supporting the sale of his stock. Then, on November 10, 2021, Tesla said in an SEC filing that Musk sold about $1.1 billion in Tesla stock.

In its filing, Tesla said the sale of Musk's shares was "automatically effected" as part of a trading plan that was adopted on September 14, 2021. It added that the trading plan was in relation to Musk exercising stock options that were set to expire in 2022.

Musk had talked about the planned sale during an interview he gave at the Code Conference in September 2021.

"I have a bunch of options that are expiring early next year, so a huge block of options will sell in Q4. Because I have to or they'll expire," he said.

Buying Twitter

Months before buying Twitter in late 2022, Musk conducted several polls on the platform, asking his followers about their views on it. These polls took place while Musk had been quietly purchasing the company's stock since the start of the year.

On March 25, 2022, Musk asked his followers if Twitter "rigorously adheres" to the principle of free speech.

"The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully," Musk added.

Musk's poll received over 2 million votes. Over 70% of them said the platform did not adhere to the principle.

"Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?" Musk wrote in a follow-up post on March 26, 2022.

"Is a new platform needed?" Musk added.

Earlier, Musk had conducted a separate poll asking his followers if Twitter's algorithm should be open source. That poll received over 1.1 million votes, and nearly 83% of them voted "Yes."

Then, on April 4, 2022, Musk asked his followers if they wanted an "edit button" on Twitter. The poll obtained over 4.4 million votes and nearly 74% of them voted "Yes."

Musk eventually acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and renamed it X in July 2023.

Reinstating Trump's Twitter account

Shortly after buying Twitter, Musk polled his followers on whether Trump should be reinstated to the platform. Trump had been an avid user of the platform but was banned in January 2021 after the Capitol riot.

Musk's poll drew over 15 million votes, with nearly 52% supporting Trump's reinstatement.

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated," Musk wrote on November 19, 2022, a day after he had conducted the poll.

"Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk continued, using a Latin phrase that translates to "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

Musk had talked about reinstating Trump even before his acquisition of Twitter was complete. In May 2022, Musk said in an interview with the Financial Times that he would "reverse the permaban" on Trump, calling it a "morally bad decision" that was "foolish in the extreme."

Stepping down as Twitter's CEO

A month later, Musk conducted another poll, this time he asked his followers if he should step down as Twitter's CEO.

"I will abide by the results of this poll," Musk wrote on December 18, 2022.

Shortly after acquiring the platform, Musk laid off more than half of the company's employees. Musk's takeover also saw several celebrities such as Elton John opting to quit the platform over misinformation concerns.

Musk's poll received over 17.5 million votes, and nearly 58% voted "Yes."

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams," Musk wrote in a follow-up post on December 20, 2022.

In May 2023, Musk announced that he had hired Linda Yaccarino, an executive at NBCUniversal as X's new CEO. Musk said Yaccarino would "focus primarily on business operations" while he dealt with "product design and new technology."

Starting a new political party

Musk's most recent poll took place on July 4, when he asked his followers if they wanted him to start a new political party. Musk had floated the idea of starting the America Party after criticizing Trump and the GOP for the "One Big Beautiful Bill."

The poll received over 1.2 million votes, and over 65% of them voted "Yes."

"By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!" Musk wrote on X a day later.

"When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom," he added.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Shannon Liu Shair and her husband started saving for college for their children when they were born.
• She puts money into 529 plans and custodial Roth IRAs for both of them.
• The 529 plans have around $100,000 each, and she plans to grow them to $200,000 by college time.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shannon Liu Shair, a 38-year-old estate planning attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It has been edited for length and clarity.

As an estate planning attorney at Liu Shair Law, I work with families to plan for the future and establish their legacy. Many of my clients have children, and their primary goal is to ensure their children are provided for through college and beyond.

In addition to understanding each client's goals, I ask how they've already invested and saved for their family. This is something that's deeply personal for me, too, as my husband and I have faced the same questions.

These conversations in my work and my own life have given me a unique perspective on how to get started and stay committed. It helps my clients to have someone they can trust with their sensitive information who also "gets it."

Saving and investing for our kids was not instant or overnight; it's taken years of learning and contributing. First, we had to make sure our own retirement and savings were healthily funded.

Here's how I set up my kids for financial success.

I started 529s for each of my two kids when they were born

529s are special accounts that allow you to save tax-free for education expenses. My parents did the same for me before I was college-age. Not needing to worry about finances, loans, and tuition made it much easier for me to focus on my studies.

We set up these accounts because we want our kids to have flexibility. I want them to be able to comfortably search for their ideal job fit since they already have a savings cushion.

My husband and I have saved over $100,000 in each of their 529s. I fund their accounts so that they'll be similarly situated based on the year they attend college.

Every state has its own 529 providers. I decided to use California's plan, Scholar Share, because it was easy to set up. I want to save 100% of what is expected for a public university in California. The target goal for each of the 529s is $200,000.

We don't have a specific backup plan for the money if one of the kids doesn't attend college, but up to $35,000 can be diverted to a Roth IRA. Additionally, the funds can still be withdrawn (with a penalty on earnings), which is not an issue for us.

We could also change the beneficiary to a different family member (e.g., hypothetical grandchild). I'd rather be over-prepared financially than under-prepared and have to scramble to figure things out.

I also set up custodial Roth IRAs for them

Custodial Roth IRAs are retirement accounts in which a child can deposit earnings from a job while they're minors, allowing them to start their retirement savings early. I've saved five figures in each of their custodial Roth IRAs.

For business owners, there are ways to employ your kids to set up a Roth IRA legally. Now that my kids are 10 and 8, they've been able to help me with shredding paperwork and other small tasks. They know that they're earning money for the work that they contribute to my business.

Anyone can set up a 529 for their loved ones, but custodial Roth IRAs are only available if a child has earned income. If someone is not a business owner and their child is old enough, the child can work and still have a custodial Roth IRA. The work can be with an established business, or even helping others in the community with babysitting and other chores.

They also have their own bank accounts

Their UTMA bank accounts are kept leaner, in the hundreds of dollars. UTMA bank accounts hold money that your child owns, and an adult is the custodian until the child becomes an adult. A portion of birthday money or gifts goes into the UTMA account.

Birthday and Christmas gifts in cash are typically from grandparents or other family members. Because these gifts are not earned income, the "save" goes to UTMA accounts and not to their Roth IRAs.

I don't have a set savings strategy. I add funds when I have more money in my account.

There are 2 things I could've done differently

I could do better at automating a monthly amount to ensure consistency and streamline the process.

Another thing I could've done differently is deeper research into 529 providers. I'm OK with our California provider, but researching more couldn't hurt. 529s can have differences, such as the types of investments available, the funds set up, the minimum amount required to get started, or the maintenance fees.

I tell my clients it's a good idea to teach financial acumen at a young age so their children don't spend their savings inappropriately. Our kids know how much is in their retirement accounts because I want them to learn cause and effect.

They used to get annoyed about helping me with the administrative tasks, but since I've educated them, they understand these funds will help alleviate stress when they enter the job market.

My advice to parents is to see this as a long game

There will be dips, and people need to understand the time value of money and compounding. If they move things around or make big shifts every time there's a decline in the market, it could be counterproductive and go against their goals.

For 529s, I've taken a more passive approach and use age-based funds (enrollment-year portfolios) rather than risk-based portfolios or guaranteed investment options. I have not changed the fund allocations during market shifts.

If you're just getting started or aren't in a position to make big contributions, saving even a few dollars a week or a month is better than nothing. It makes a difference. It's especially helpful if your children are young and time is on your side.

• Hollywood companies continue to integrate AI, even as they challenge its applications in court.
• AI startups like Toonstar and Chronicle Studios are innovating in animation.
• Studios are using the tech to promote content discovery and reduce production costs.

Hollywood giants are pushing back on AI's encroachment. Disney and Universal recently sued Midjourney, accusing it of using tech to rip off their famous characters.

But inside entertainment companies, it's a whole different story. The biggest studios and filmmakers are using AI technology in various ways — and people in Hollywood are taking note. The AI on the Lot conference in May has doubled its attendance to 1,200 over three years, while AI editing company Runway attracted some 1,000 people to its third film festival.

The tantalizing promise of AI is that it could solve big problems in the entertainment business, like content discovery and high production costs.

"No matter how you feel about AI tools in the media and entertainment business, they're here to stay," said Peter Csathy, who advises media companies.

Investors are climbing on board companies like Ecco, an AI startup that helps people find titles across multiple streamers using queries like "find me all the shows about F1." It has raised $7 million from Ben Silverman, Shaquille O'Neal, and others.

One such investor is Ishan Sinha, a consumer partner at Point72 Ventures. He said the hype around AI-generated video hasn't translated into consumer interest. He sees the most potential in companies that use AI to promote distribution through personalization, translation, and IP ownership.

"We believe the winning consumer businesses aggregate eyeballs — they have some type of a hook, whether it's content aggregation, playlists, proprietary IP, etc., that acquires and retains users," he said.

Point72 Ventures' investments include GlobalComix, which uses AI to bring recommendations and language translation to comic book and manga readers that they couldn't otherwise find, and Cheehoo, which is working with studios to simplify animation.

The firm also invested in Chronicle Studios, which aims to help animators grow their audiences and monetize their projects beyond YouTube.

Here are some AI companies transforming different areas of Hollywood, and the pitch decks some of them used to raise funding.

Faster, cheaper animation

AI may still be a long way from making full-length movies, but it's quickly making inroads in animation. Toonstar, a startup behind "StEvEn & Parker," uses AI for tasks ranging from developing storylines to creating images and says it can make episodes at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods.

Chronicle Studios is a startup cofounded by Chris deFaria, a former animation president at Warner Bros. and Comcast's DreamWorks, that's using AI to help creators level up, with a focus on animators. Others chasing the animation or independent creator opportunity are Further Adventures, a new studio that's investing in digital creators and independent filmmakers; Invisible Universe, an animation studio backed by Seven Seven Six; and Promise, an AI studio backed by Peter Chernin's North Road, Andreessen Horowitz, and Google.

"AI can't really make stories that are enduring," deFaria told BI. "The biggest pain point is getting an audience."

Read more:

• A former DreamWorks president just raised $11.6 million to build franchises using AI
• Read the pitch deck for a Toonstar NFT animated series backed by Mila Kunis

AI is transforming special effects

Other companies, such as Runway, which has raised $545 million from General Atlantic and others, and Connect Ventures-backed Deep Voodoo, are using AI to provide tools for de-aging and other special effects work.

Some have entered the rollup stage. Metaphysic, which was known for de-aging Tom Hanks and Robin Wright for the Robert Zemeckis film "Here," was acquired in February by DNEG Group's AI company Brahma. Papercup's voice-cloning IP was acquired in June by RWS, a content solutions company, while its team was acquired by Scale AI.

AI is also being applied to speed the dubbing process, recreate the voices of bygone actors, and restore old films and TV series. With streamers going global, there's a big demand to translate titles for new markets, and new approaches to AI promise to eliminate awkward dubbing of the past.

Runway made news this past year for deals with Lionsgate to train an AI model on its library and with AMC Networks, which will use its tools to generate promotional material for its shows.

One player, Deepdub, which uses AI to dub movies and shows, just extended its tech to real-time dubbing of live sports commentary, esports shoutcasting, and breaking news coverage.

"For the first time, broadcasters can deliver real-time, multilingual dubbing that captures not just words, but the energy, urgency, and authenticity of live content," said Ofir Krakowski, the company's CEO.

Read more:

• Read the pitch deck from Metaphysic, an AI startup behind a viral Tom Cruise deepfake
• How AI Startup Runway aims to simplify video editing and filmmaking
• Here's the pitch deck AI startup Papercup used to raise $20 million to help media go global

Startups are tackling different phases of production

A third area where AI startups have been active in Hollywood is in the content creation process more broadly.

This can involve everything from AI in the script reading phase to scouring video libraries to generate new ideas for titles based on what's performed well in the past.

One, Paris-based Moments Lab, recently raised a $24 million round from backers including Oxx and Orange Ventures to expand its AI tools that are used by Warner Bros. Discovery, Hearst, and others.

Moments can make clips for social media seven times faster than the conventional approach, cofounder Phil Petitpont recently told BI, citing internal research. He said media companies would be able to use AI to help make full-length documentaries based on their video libraries in several months, while predictive modeling tools that can suggest audience-boosting changes are a year away.

"We're not very far from that because audience data is very easily available on YouTube," he said.

Read more:

• This startup raised $24 million to help Hollywood use AI to save time and money. Read its pitch deck.
• A new AI product being tested by top YouTubers like MrBeast scans a creator's catalog to give them fresh video ideas
• The pitch deck Strada, an AI startup to streamline content creation, used to raise $2 million
• Here's the pitch deck Filmustage, an AI startup focused on streamlining pre-production, used to raise $1.5 million

• Tech is hiring again, but the roles and skills in demand look different this time around.
• Atli Thorkelsson, head of network at Redpoint Ventures, put together a slide deck on hiring trends.
• The top of the market is "the most competitive it's been in years," Thorkelsson said.

The tech industry is now split between two starkly different job markets.

On one side, there's a stalled job market where more workers are staying put. On the other there is a rapidly expanding artificial intelligence sector that's reshaping the talent landscape.

To help founders understand the situation, Atli Thorkelsson, head of talent network at Redpoint Ventures, created a slide deck on the state of tech hiring. He presented it at the firm's third annual InfraRed Summit, which brings together founders of up-and-coming companies in cloud infrastructure.

The deck includes data cobbled together from Pave, a compensation management tool; TrueUp, a tech jobs marketplace; and SignalFire, an early-stage venture capital firm.

Thorkelsson notes that the charts throughout the deck represent fast-growing tech firms. Since Redpoint used data from vendors that mainly serve tech clients with open roles, those companies end up overrepresented.

Here's an exclusive look at the 13-slide deck that Redpoint shared with founders.

Tech is hiring again, but the roles and skills in demand look different this time around.

The top of the market is "the most competitive it's been in years," Thorkelsson said.

Throkelsson said more employees are staying put in a tougher job market.

Retention is key. An analysis of pay data suggests companies are burning more equity and cash to keep people happy.

The companies that are hiring are hiring across the board.

The bulk of new hires have gone to AI companies.

Entry-level hiring is on the decline. An efficiency drive means leaner teams packed with battle-tested veterans.

AI companies tilt toward technical talent more than their peers at the same stage.

Premium talent is landing at AI firms, and with that comes premium paychecks.

Machine learning engineers are pulling in more cash and equity than their software engineering counterparts.

Red lines show individual contributors; white lines indicate managers.

Interviews are getting more AI-focused. Candidates are being asked about their AI skills far more often than a year ago.

In recent years, some HR teams toyed with shorter or front-loaded vesting schedules. Now, most are reverting to the standard linear vest, sticking with what candidates already understand, Thorkelsson said.

San Francisco still leads for AI jobs, but New York City is gaining ground as a tech hub.

• Perplexity AI is cautiously growing its ad business.
• Its main ad product is 'sponsored follow-up questions,' and it recently introduced a perks program.
• Perplexity has a revenue share program with publishers, but its ads business is still nascent.

Perplexity AI is taking a softly, softly approach to building its ad business.

The AI company had a low-key presence at last month's Cannes Lions ad festival in France. Amid the huge multimillion-dollar beach structures erected by tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google, Perplexity sent just a handful of executives to meet with current and potential business partners.

Perplexity, a conversational AI-powered search engine, began testing ads last year. Brands such as Whole Foods and Indeed have bought "sponsored follow-up questions," which appear alongside an answer to a user's prompt, encouraging them to dig deeper into the topic. Advertisers themselves don't write or edit the sponsored questions, which are generated by Perplexity's AI.

It's a contrast to traditional search engine marketing, where ads typically appear before the organic results.

Speaking to Business Insider at Cannes Lions in June, Ryan Foutty, Perplexity's VP of business development, said the company is still figuring out which advertising model will work best.

He described sponsored follow-up questions as "a really incredible brand advertorial."

"It's additive because you're helping users figure out the next question they need to ask to make a better decision or figure out what they're trying to do versus just trying to put something in your face," Foutty said, adding that 40% of its users click on related questions.

Perplexity advertisers pay on a CPM, or cost to reach a thousand impressions, model. A Perplexity spokesperson said advertising currently comprises less than a tenth of a percent of the company's total revenue, and declined to comment on the company's current ad prices.

In recent weeks, Perplexity has also introduced a perks program, where it provides subscribers to its Perplexity Pro service with offers and discounts from brands including Turbotax, the smart ring company Oura, and hotel booking service Selfbook.

Both Perplexity ads and perks are only active in the US. Foutty said the company was also considering more ways to monetize Perplexity's shopping and travel booking features, which could theoretically include further ad formats.

"It's very manual today," Foutty said, "But when we find something that works for everyone, then it's very easy, naturally, for us to scale it."

Perplexity hasn't released its user numbers, but its CEO, Aravind Srinivas, said the company received 780 million queries in May, up 20% from April. But compare that to Google's AI Overviews, which the search giant said reached 1.5 billion monthly users in May. Google recently brought advertising to more areas of its AI Overviews product, and it's testing ads within its AI Mode, a newer feature where users can conduct deeper research.

With its relatively small scale and only one specific ad format available, Perplexity's advertising offering is only getting tepid interest from marketers for now, said Eric Hoover, director of search engine optimization at the digital marketing agency Jellyfish.

"I don't see strong adoption by users," Hoover told BI. "People rarely click out of 'regular' AI results; I don't see them being eager to click on sponsored ones."

Perplexity wants to build 'long-term incentive' deals with publishers

Perplexity shares a portion of its ad revenue with the publisher partners it uses to help source its answers, which include Time, Fortune, and Der Spiegel.

The company doesn't cut up-front licensing deals with these publishers because it isn't building foundational large language models that require content for training, Foutty said. It does offer these partners access to its enterprise product and APIs that can help publishers embed Perplexity's tech, like conversational search, into their own sites. (Disclosure: Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, has a multi-year content licensing deal with Perplexity rival OpenAI.)

"The model that we're creating on the revenue share side is a long-term incentive," Foutty said. "It's not a one-and-done."

When asked whether any publishers were making serious money from the program, Foutty said it was still early days. The publisher program launched in June of last year.

"We're focused on building the right product before we scale it to everyone," he added.

The relationship between AI companies and publishers can often be fraught, and many are locked in legal battles. Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones and the New York Post filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Perplexity engaged in copyright infringement by scraping and using their content. Perplexity said last year that the facts alleged in the complaint were "misleading at best" and that it planned to defend itself.

This week, the content delivery network and security provider Cloudflare announced it has begun automatically blocking AI crawlers from scraping the websites it powers unless site owners explicitly opt-in or the AI companies pay.

• Lucia Soares is helming Carlyle's AI transformation after years of bringing tech to big companies.
• She spoke to BI about the firm's AI rollout and how it's already resulting in cost savings.
• She also spoke about life as a bicoastal executive and what she learned from her immigrant parents.

Lucia Soares had been working for Carlyle for four years when the private equity giant's CEO called to ask if she would take on a new role.

"I originally focused on using tech to create portfolio value," she told Business Insider, referring to the companies Carlyle controls. "Then, two years ago, our new CEO called me and said, 'Can you please do what you're doing for our portfolio companies but for our own company internally?'

Now, Soares — as Carlyle's chief information officer and head of technology transformation — is taking on a new challenge: Bringing artificial intelligence to the investment giant's 2,300 global employees.

She spoke with Business Insider about the rollout, including the successes, the pitfalls, and how the company is implementing checks and balances. She explained where the company is already seeing cost savings, for example.

She also walked us through her life as a bicoastal tech executive — and how she learned to hustle from a young age, helping her immigrant parents sell plants at the flea market on weekends. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are your tech goals for Carlyle?

In my 27 years in technology, I've learned that you can't start with technology itself as the goal. People said that e-commerce is the goal, or that digital is the goal. Now, they say AI is the goal. And actually it's not.

Instead, we start with our business goals: we want to grow, create efficiencies, and build a strong tech foundation. AI and other technologies are levers to achieve these goals.

Tell us about Carlyle's AI rollout.

Increasing our employees' AI fluency is a strategic priority. They get AI training from the day they start at Carlyle, and are introduced to a wide range of tools they can use.

Now, 90% of our employees use tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot. We also have an AI champions' council where early adopters can play around with tools and eventually share best practices.

We're using AI to transform our workflows through Project Catalyst, which automates processes. We're also developing custom tools that leverage proprietary data to deliver insights instantly—saving investors from sifting through endless materials. Today, Carlyle's credit investors can assess a company in hours using generative AI, instead of spending weeks on research.

How is AI impacting the average worker at Carlyle? Are they required to use the technology?

It depends. Some business leaders have made it a requirement to put all investment committee memos in an AI tool for them to review. Others are not so direct about it, but everybody is seeing how it can make their jobs easier and challenging their teams in meetings to talk about the value they are deriving from AI tools.

As a firm, we have a return-on-investment strategy, and my team aims to deliver a certain amount of ROI every year.

We're not eliminating people's jobs, but we believe that it can help reduce dependency on outside services costs. For example, we can use AI to review legal invoices and catch errors that will reduce our costs. We've seen real savings as a result.

How do you balance autonomy with the risks of adoption?

I think a lot about that. I worry about kids in school using a tool to write an essay and not being able to think. But you have to wonder how people felt when the calculator came out, and if they thought no one would ever be able to do math on their own again.

We never allow AI to make a final decision. There's always a human in the loop, and someone needs to be accountable for the final results.

For example, when employees use AI to write a report, we have employees write a final paragraph summarizing the output to ensure they're thinking critically about it.

Can you give examples of success and failure in Carlyle's tech transformation?

Let's start with success.

When investors invest with us, we can at times receive up to 80-page documents with questions about everything from our employees to cybersecurity training. It's very manual.

We had one team decide they'd try to use AI to make investor diligence easier. Despite having just one technologist, this team found a solution to automate the process, which we're launching later this year.

We seek to empower people to solve things themselves, with embedded technologists across the organization.

We experienced more challenges dealing with regulatory restrictions on large language models globally. We learned the hard way that these regulatory hurdles require a lot of evaluation. We're launching solutions, but it's taking longer than expected to deploy.

You might think you can go fast with AI, but it doesn't always work that way, especially in today's global climate.

Has any single piece of career advice stuck with you over the years, and what is it?

Early on, I was advised to always raise my hand for the extra hard assignments. In other words, take a risk and bet on yourself.

My parents are immigrants, and I learned work ethic, courage, and audacity from them. But when I entered the workforce, I had impostor syndrome. With blue-collar parents, the office environment was completely different for me.

By taking on difficult assignments, I created relationships and visibility and was able to learn and grow more.

Tell me about your parents.

They are from the Azores Islands in Portugal. They came to the US during the dictatorship years. My dad only went to school up until the age of 10, because his family could not afford to pay for more education. He can add, subtract, and multiply, but was never taught how to divide.

He came to the US after serving in the Portuguese Army to give his family a better future. He knew no English.

He became a custodian, cleaning schools, and had a side hustle selling house plants at a flea market on the weekends. We all helped cultivate and sell the plants. I learned a lot from my parents.

What does your morning routine look like?

I am bicoastal: I spend one week a month in DC and also time in New York, but I live on the West Coast and work out of our Menlo Park office.

On the East coast, I might start my day — work permitting — listening to news podcasts, going for a run, meditating, and eating a healthy breakfast.

At home, I start really early in the morning. I don't always get that workout in, but I start with some early calls, and then take a break to drive my daughter to school before heading to the office.

When I get to my desk, I write down the day's priorities. I've done this my whole career, and try not to let constant fire drills overtake those priorities. When you're driving transformation, you have to keep strategy at the forefront.

What are the most important meetings of your week?

The most important meetings are the unplanned ones. For example, I run into a coworker, and we start talking about our kids. Then they bring up a company we should partner with. Or I run into an administrative assistant, and they show me new ways they're using Copilot. I get inspired by solving problems with people in real time.

The second most important meetings are the ones where we drive strategy and brainstorm. As technologists, you can fall into the Dilbert category of employees, where you just work through problem resolutions. So I force strategy onto the calendar to ensure we think big and ambitiously about tech transformation.