Seed 100: Read BI's coverage on the dealmakers backing the next big thing
All great companies begin with an idea, and investors who help those companies grow. The Seed 100 highlights and celebrates those early sage dealmakers who provide the essential first push to startups that go on to become some of the greatest successes in the tech world. Likewise, the Seed 40 spotlights the top women early-stage investors who have a knack for finding breakout companies and the startup founders building them. Since 2021, Business Insider has partnered with Termina to use its data analysis to produce these lists. Read the full methodology behind the lists.
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Business Insider
25 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Finnish soldiers are going old school with paper maps so they're ready if an enemy shuts down GPS
Finnish soldiers are getting back to the basics — paper maps — to train for scenarios where GPS isn't an option. A Finnish officer told BI that GPS vulnerability is one of the lessons learned from Ukraine. The Ukraine war has featured a dramatic amount of electronic warfare tactics. Finnish soldiers are training with basic navigation tools — paper maps and compasses — to make sure they can operate in environments where enemy activity means GPS isn't available to them, a top military officer told Business Insider. Col. Matti Honko, the commanding officer of Finland's Guard Jaeger Regiment, said that an important lesson from Ukraine is that the satellite-navigation tool known as the Global Positioning System, or simply GPS, is vulnerable to interference. The Ukraine conflict has seen heavy electronic warfare on both sides of the battlefield. Kyiv and Moscow rely on tactics like signal jamming, GPS spoofing, and other methods of remote interference to confuse and disable enemy weaponry. GPS interference has caused problems for a range of combat systems, from cheap drones to sophisticated guided munitions. To ensure readiness for future conflicts where GPS isn't an option, the Finnish Guard jaegers are using paper maps like the ones commonly found in glove compartments for road trips in the days before GPS became the norm in cars and personal phones. "I think everyone has recognized the fact that GPS can be spoofed, and you might not be able to rely on it," Honko said during an interview on the sidelines of last week's Lively Sabre 25 exercise in southern Finland. The colonel said that Finland is not abandoning the use of GPS. Rather, soldiers are being taught not to rely exclusively on it and are learning how to check things like making sure a grid reference actually matches a map, as spoofed GPS data could be wildly out of sync with real-world situations. Honko said that this training is happening across the Finnish Army and likely within the country's navy and air force, too. He said that Finland's proximity to Russia forces it to train on GPS-denial scenarios because jamming is a frequent occurrence, possibly due to the air defenses in the nearby city of St. Petersburg. "I would just call it a reminder that this is real, actually," Honko said. "You can see for yourself that, yes, my GPS isn't working." Electronic warfare challenges are not exclusive to the war in Ukraine. In the Middle East, for instance, GPS interference has been a feature of Israel's conflicts with Iranian proxy groups. It has also been an issue in the turbulent Red Sea, where Western naval forces have spent over a year and a half defending shipping lanes from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Militaries like Finland are closely watching the constantly developing electronic warfare practices and planning for scenarios where they may be tested in battle. And they're not alone, either. Defense industry companies are similarly making sure that their products are more survivable. One such example is Saildrone, an American company that makes uncrewed surface vessels in service with a handful of naval forces, including the US Navy. Richard Jenkins, Saildrone's founder and CEO, explained to BI in a recent interview that the company has integrated technology into its USVs, enabling them to work in environments where GPS and communications technology are compromised or unavailable. Some of the company's drones that the US military operates in the Middle East have been sailing in spoofed areas for months, he said. Jenkins said he believes this is the future of warfare. "I think in a real conflict, satellites will be the first thing to go entirely." He added that "everyone needs to work out how to survive without" satellites, GPS, and communications. And for militaries, that means not just new technologies but also making sure that basic skills are preserved.
Business Insider
29 minutes ago
- Business Insider
There's really only one way to get a new job these days
You've had it drilled into you that networking is essential for your career. Yet, if you're busy actually doing your job, it can feel like yet another thing on your list. So, you like a few posts on LinkedIn and move on. Increasingly, that's not going to cut it, workplace observers told Business Insider. That's especially true if you're among the growing share of workers who feel restless and wouldn't mind finding a new gig. Professional elbow-rubbing is becoming more important partly because many of us, especially desk workers, don't have the leverage with employers that we did in the pandemic years, when bosses were often desperate to fill seats. So, landing a new role can require more effort. Plus, as artificial intelligence threatens to take on more work and swallow some jobs entirely, more employers could become choosier about the people they hire. Add in economic X factors like tariffs and interest rates, which are further curbing some employers' appetites for hiring, and you've got more reasons to treat networking like healthy eating or hitting the gym — and not something you only do in January. "Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It's about cultivating relationships with people," Ivan Misner, founder of BNI, a business networking organization focused on referrals, told BI. That's why he said he encourages people to start now, before they're unemployed. Misner, who for decades has been an evangelist of networking, compares the act of building relationships to the adage about the best time to plant a tree being 20 years ago — and the second-best time being today. "For those employees who have not planted an oak tree, who have not been out networking, they need to go do it now," he said. Joining the 'favor economy' One reason networking is more essential than ever is that our attention is often fractured by the amount of information coming at us, Dorie Clark, a communication coach who teaches at Columbia Business School and who wrote the book "The Long Game," told BI. "What is always going to get your attention is a close relationship with people that you care about and want to help," she told BI. Many of us, though, often find jobs not through our close contacts but through their acquaintances, Clark said. What can play out, she said, is an example of what's sometimes called the "favor economy." "You will help someone that you don't know that well, because you are indirectly doing a favor for the person you do know well," she said. Clark said that because AI threatens to take jobs and because many employers are cautious about hiring, some old-school relationship-building is essential. "The thing that is going to get you to the front of the line when jobs are scarce is interpersonal relationships with people who are willing to go above and beyond and expend political capital to help you," she said. Clark said that relying too much on social media as a means of networking can be dangerous because it's often a poor substitute for making deeper connections with people over time. "It gives you the illusion of productive networking. It gives you the illusion of connection," she said. Instead, Clark advises workers and job seekers to look for more "bespoke" ways of connecting. It might be as simple as sending someone you know a text once in a while without expecting a response. She said sharing something that reminds you of that person or simply saying hello can make a difference. "As long as you're friendly, you're thoughtful, you're relevant, you're not seeking something from them — most people will be very happy to hear from you," Clark said. The gold standard, however, remains spending time with someone IRL, she said. When you don't know someone well — and especially when there's a power imbalance — it's best to make a single small ask. So, don't request a coffee date, a job referral, and a testimonial quote, Clark said. Instead, she said, think about what would be the "highest and best use" of how someone might help you and what feels appropriate as an ask. Finding ways to stand out Networking is also important because as piles of résumés stack up for an open job, sifting through them, even with the help of applicant-tracking software, can be a heavy lift for busy managers, Gorick Ng, a Harvard University career advisor and the author of the book "The Unspoken Rules," told BI. What often stands out, he said, is someone walking down the hall and saying, "My niece is looking for a job. Here's their résumé. Do you mind just taking a closer look?" Or, Ng said, it could be that someone on the inside of an organization vouches for a former colleague by saying to the hiring manager that a candidate is likeable and trustworthy. "And just like that, somebody else who you do not know just got that leg up because they have somebody else behind the scenes pounding on the table for their name to be picked," Ng said. That's why, he said, it's so important for job seekers to be seen, heard, and remembered. After all, Ng said, hiring managers aren't likely to hire someone they haven't fallen in love with as a candidate. "It's hard to fall in love with an applicant that is nothing more than just a Word document that you may not even look at," he said.
Business Insider
37 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Selling pre-owned watches is like running a 'candy store' as Trump's tariffs loom
While luxury retailers are bumping up the prices of watches, the pre-owned market is sitting pretty. Douglas Kaplan, chief commercial officer at Bob's Watches, told Business Insider that the company's sales jumped 20% from March to the end of May. BI viewed documentation verifying the increase. Meanwhile, Switzerland-based Rolex, one of the most sought-after luxury watch brands, plans to raise prices for watches due to tariffs and the increasing cost of gold. Bob's Watches is a marketplace for pre-owned watches. About 90% of its inventory is discontinued styles from collectors' favorite luxury brands. Unlike the watches imported from Switzerland, Kaplan said his company deals mostly with US sellers. That means it has plenty of supply and isn't "jumping to raise prices because of a tariff," Kaplan said. "We really are like a candy store of the industry," Kaplan told BI. Switzerland is facing a 31% tariff on goods imported to the US. The country is home to some of the biggest luxury watch makers. Swiss-made brands are shipping more watches to the US to get ahead of the tariff, which is paused until July. Exports from Switzerland to the US were up 149.2% year-over-year in April, when tariffs were announced, the Federation of the Swiss Watch industry reported. Kaplan is more worried about the impact on watch sellers than buyers. Bob's Watches buys watches from sellers and lists them on its website. Sellers may want to be paid more for their pre-owned watches if retail prices for similar models are spiking due to tariffs. Kaplan said his company may have to revisit how it negotiates prices if complaints from sellers become widespread. The company operates internationally, but sellers outside the US don't make up a significant amount of its business, Kaplan said. The company charges a $150 shipping fee for orders from abroad. Kaplan has been at Bob's Watches for six years and in the Swiss watch industry for 27 years. He's worked at brands like Movado, Fendi, and Swatch Group. He said business has grown recently in part because of younger buyers. They aren't as interested in the $300 to $500 watches they can purchase at a department store. Luxury watches are an asset that can appreciate in value, depending on the style and condition. "They have their eyes on something for the future because they now understand," Kaplan said. "They're educated."
