Mike Hofman

The Future of Your Office Is an Events Space These CEOs have found new revenue streams by opening their offices for everything from weddings to meetings.

With many offices being used 3 days a week versus 5, what is the future of commercial real estate? One mini solution/mini trend: Refashion your office as an events space www.inc.com/kelli-maria-...

How the AI Bubble Ate Y Combinator The program is shorter, startups are pushed to build faster, and just about everyone has an AI company. What could go wrong?

As Y Combinator devotes more energy to AI startups, @inc.com’s @samblum.bsky.social asks whether the powerful incubator is merely reflecting the latest hype cycle—or actively exacerbating it. www.inc.com/sam-blum/how...

Vacation's $80 Million Sunscreen Brand Is Surfing on More Than Just Vibes How did these founders build a cult sunscreen with celebrity investors and a devoted customer base? One piña colada at a time.

People are kind of obsessed with Vacation sunscreen. For @inc.com, @jenniferconrad.bsky.social unpacks why and how it propelled them to $80 million www.inc.com/jennifer-con...

Meta Acquired His Company for $1 Billion, and Then Changed Its Mind. Now, He's Charting a New Path Exclusive: The AI customer service company Kustomer just raised $30 million in funding after being spun off by Meta.

What happens when the company that buys you changes its mind? www.inc.com/brian-contre...

Why Is Frozen Cod Taking Over the Internet? With this new drop, protein bar-maker David wants its customers to believe it's getting into the fish business.

Has our national obsession with protein gone too far? David's frozen cod protein bar suggests the answer is yes--but also the people want it, per @inc.com www.inc.com/jennifer-con...

How 2 Brothers With No Automotive Experience Created a Scooter That Looks Like a Cybertruck Infinite Machine's P1 has a $10,000 price tag. Can it compete with the likes of Vespa?

Is this the Cybertruck of scooters? How Infinite Machine plans to reinvent the Vespa www.inc.com/rob-verger/i...

5 Small Businesses Are Showing Big Business How to Stand Up to Trump's Tariffs Leave it to a handful of Florida-based entrepreneurs to show some backbone and sue the Trump administration over its senseless tariff regime.

A group of Florida business owners are fighting the state's most famous resident over tariffs www.inc.com/bill-saporit...

She Sold Her Company but Was Still Liable for Its Debt After This Critical Mistake Amanda Goetz was done with her startup, House of Wise, after an exit. It wasn't done with her.

@amandagoetz.bsky.social learned a hard lesson when selling a business www.inc.com/brian-contre...

Meet the Alpha Male Sales Bros Influencing Your Sales Team These 'elite sales warriors' are blowing up TikTok and LinkedIn. But are they offering good business advice?

Andy Elliott is a self-described "elite sales warrior" who trains salespeople on what he calls "the 1 percenter mentality" for success. @samblum.bsky.social takes a look at his rapid rise for @inc.com www.inc.com/sam-blum/mee...

Does Your Company Have Too Much Conflict, or Too Little? Every business should have a healthy amount of conflict, says Karen Dillon. You just need a strategy to navigate it.

Does your workplace suffer from "fake harmony"? "In the short term, skipping a disagreement is probably easiest," writes @karendillon.bsky.social for @inc.com, but "getting comfortable with a healthy amount of conflict, and having a strategy to navigate it, is essential." www.inc.com/karen-dillon...

Jonathan Adler Is Grateful for Growth Capital The home decor entrepreneur discusses the evolution of his namesake company and why he sold to private equity.

Jonathan Adler cops to having made a million mistakes in building his business. And yet his brand endures www.inc.com/christine-la...

Should Managers Stay Out Of Employees' Private Slack Channels? ... and three other tricky workplace dilemmas.

This is a juicy one from @askamanager.org: Slack feels private but is in many cases a company-owned platform. Is it ok for a manager to take a look at private channels? Is it wise? www.inc.com/alison-green...

Beyond Burnout: Adam Grant Warns of Rising 'Boreout' Among Employees The Wharton organizational psychologist joins other workplace experts noting the rise of worker ‘boreout’ produced by unchallenging jobs offering few growth opportunities that now rivals burnout as a ...

Is employee "bore-out" the new employee "burnout"? @adamgrant.bsky.social says unchallenging work could be sapping morale at your company (@inc.com) www.inc.com/bruce-crumle...

Who Is Lovette Dobson and Why Does Her Name Appear on More Than 70,000 Business Filings? In the anonymous paperwork of LLC registrations, scam victims are desperate to find a real person to help them. Sometimes all they have is Lovette.

Fun little investigation by @inc.com's @samblum.bsky.social on Lovette Dobson, the Zelig of the business world, a mysterious person whose name appears on tens of thousands of LLC documents www.inc.com/sam-blum/who...

Elon Musk Says Government Needs Innovation. His Former Employees Disagree Moving fast and breaking things—as Musk did at Twitter—doesn’t work as well when you're disrupting the delivery of vital public services.

For ex-Twitter workers, Musk's headlong implementation of the DOGE agenda is painfully familiar, writes @stokel.bsky.social for @inc.com: "I see his changes as less about efficiency for the U.S. citizen and more about efficiency for him,” says one former employee www.inc.com/chris-stokel...

How to Tell If Your Job Candidate Is an AI Deepfake Scammers are creating AI-generated deepfakes to land jobs, steal company data, and funnel money to nation states.

Is your top job candidate an AI deepfake? www.inc.com/emilymccrary...

Y Combinator Takes Heat for Helping Launch a Startup That Spies on Factory Workers Optifye.ai has been called a 'sweatshop-as-a-service' provider after its demo launch video left people stunned.

“Sweatshop as a service” is so dark. @inc.com’s @samblum.bsky.social reports on a Y Combinator concept drawing criticism www.inc.com/sam-blum/y-c...

Back Market’s Plan to Get America to ‘Downgrade’ Starts in NYC’s Subway System Buying refurbished devices is popular among Europeans. Can this company persuade Americans to get on board with old stuff?

Downgrading your phone is the new upgrading www.inc.com/charlotte-hu...

Great read by @lagorio.bsky.social for @inc.com

DeepSeek Is Fueling a Stock Market Reckoning Wall Street is panicking as China seems to have created a real competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT for cheap.

How real is the threat of DeepSeek to Nvidia? Phil Rosen of @openingbell.bsky.social takes a look for @inc.com www.inc.com/phil-rosen/d...

What Will Marketing Look Like in 2025? 'It’s Going to Get Weird.' Retail executives and branding experts predict how companies will–and won’t–be reaching consumers this year.

In 2025, “it’s going to get weird with retail,” branding consultant Tom Rinks tells @inc.com, as consumers increasingly adopt a “treasure hunt” approach to shopping because, for buyers, “it just feels so good to find something that everybody else doesn’t have.” www.inc.com/ali-donaldso...

The Federal RTO Crackdown Prompts a Scramble for Office Space The General Services Administration must find workspaces for 2.3 million civil servants ordered back to offices full time—while also carrying out Trump's pending order to sell off two-thirds of the bu...

Like many employers before it, the federal government is learning that requiring 5-day-a-week RTO often outstrips existing office space www.inc.com/bruce-crumle...

Trump Announces Project Stargate, a Massive New Investment in AI The venture involves OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle, and starts with an investment of $100 billion.

So what exactly is Project Stargate? @inc.com's @bensherry.bsky.social takes a look at the Trump-blessed AI initiative www.inc.com/ben-sherry/p...

How Trump Could Move Markets and Reshape the Economy Trump has vowed to cut taxes and implement tariffs, among other initiatives that will affect the economy.

Trump's tax cut-tariff-DOGE mix of policies are intended to fuel growth. Will they? @openingbell.bsky.social's Phil Rosen takes a look for @inc.com www.inc.com/phil-rosen/t...

Trump's RTO Plans Could Slash Federal Employee Headcount The threat of DOGE-led job cuts may get further backing as the president vows to require government staffers to work in-person five days a week.

Is the federal government the next front line in the RTO wars? www.inc.com/bruce-crumle...

The Quest to Purge PFAS: How Brands Are Taking Up Arms Against the Invisible Toxins Forever chemicals are as pervasive as they are insidious, and some brands have found opportunity in their elimination.

The next trend in consumer products? Developing goods that are explicitly free from PFAS. @inc.com's @chloeaiello.bsky.social reports www.inc.com/chloe-aiello...

As Bitcoin Booms, More and More Companies Are Taking a Stake Businesses that have nothing to do with crypto still see BTC as a hedge against inflation or a way to entice investors.

Suddenly, lots of companies are investing in bitcoin. @inc.com's @bric.bsky.social explains why www.inc.com/brian-contre...

Behind the Spike in Contract Bundling and How It’s Hitting Small Businesses the Hardest Contract bundling soared more than 2,000 percent under the Trump administration, displacing hundreds of businesses. Then it reached a 10-year-high under Biden.

If you sell services to the federal government, you are likely aware of the rise of contract bundling. @inc.com's @melisskawrites.bsky.social takes a look at the trend and why it may well accelerate under Trump 2.0 www.inc.com/melissa-ange...

Amazon Workers Return to the Office Today. Business Leaders Are Watching All eyes are on the tech giant as its return-to-office mandate goes into effect, but some surveys show the policy could turn employees away.

Amazon's workforce is set to return to the office full time today, and business leaders of all kinds are watching to see how it goes. Is a talent exodus soon to follow or will most workers grumble but fall in line? @inc.com's Sarah Lynch reports www.inc.com/sarahlynch/a...

No One on Wall Street Expects the Stock Market to Go Down in 2025 Every forecaster and bank sees the S&P 500 adding to its banner two-year run.

Going into 2025, Wall Street forecasts are unanimously optimistic. www.inc.com/phil-rosen/n...