Latest news with #Daher
The Age
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
How this hit show ensures contestants are ‘truly alone'
No matter how charismatic, inventive or resilient the contestants on Alone might be, there's always a standout star: the location. Or rather 10 locations, in which the contestants find themselves trying to survive. But how exactly are they chosen? 'It's a long process, and it's a very time-consuming process, to put this show together,' says Riima Daher, executive producer of Alone Australia 's three seasons. 'Thoughts of the next location, to be honest, are happening halfway through a season. Loading 'While I'm still on the ground with the cast, mid-series, we're already having thoughts about where the next season will be … As soon as the winner has gone home, I have about a week off, and then I'm back into it. 'It's very important that the participants remain uninterrupted and truly alone,' says the show's bushcraft consultant Gordon Dedman, a former army commando who now teaches survival skills and works as an outdoor guide in the Northern Territory. 'We rely heavily on natural features such as rivers, cliffs, mountains, inaccessible ridge lines to create naturally occurring boundaries and buffers. 'These need to be inaccessible in order to make it impossible for participants to accidentally roam into each other,' he adds. 'That's one of the critical jobs of the reconnaissance mission.' Daher is the principal location scout for the show, and travelled extensively throughout Tasmania's wilderness areas for season one, and New Zealand's South Island for season two. 'I visited every single lake on that South Island, and I can say almost the same thing of Tasmania,' she says. 'I had seen a lot of it for season one, so for this season I looked at about five lakes before we decided on the one that we ended up with.' Officially, the location is given in the show merely as the West Coast Ranges of Lutruwita (Tasmania). But a little online sleuthing reveals it to be Lake Burbury, near Queenstown. Proximity to medical facilities and a town capable of supporting a crew is essential. If a contestant is injured, the production needs to be able to get to them quickly. 'I need to make sure we can reach everyone within an acceptable timeframe for our safety officer,' says Daher. 'And when you've got distances like 56 kilometres [the maximum spread between contestants this season], it's a tight scenario.' The comfort zone varies from site to site, but Daher says it can take 'a couple of hours' to get help to the location in case of emergency. 'Which is why it's really important that we teach the contestants first aid, so they can triage themselves until we can get there.' Loading But finding a suitable location is just the beginning of the journey. From there, says Daher, 'there are three sets of permissions that I generally seek. Permission from the land itself: is it welcoming geographically, does it offer the resources that we need for this experiment to work? Cultural permissions – that means consultation with First Nations people, finding out who that land belongs to, or who belongs to that land, depending on where you are and how that First Nations group identifies with that land. And once we have that, we move into legal permission – finding out whether the land is public or private, what you can and can't do on that land.' There's a title card at the end of each episode in season 3 that gives a little hint about some of the negotiations that take place, specifically around hunting. It reads: 'Specific exemptions from environmental and wildlife legislation have been provided by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania as well as the Inland Fisheries Service to enable activities that would otherwise be illegal in Tasmania.' Apart from kangaroo and some wallaby species, killing Australian native animals is largely prohibited. And that makes for a survivalist's nightmare. 'Generally, all traps need to be live animal traps so as to be able to release any protected animals accidentally caught,' explains Dedman. 'This can be very challenging and forces experienced hunters to abandon their signature tried-and-true methodology altogether. They have to think about trapping in a completely different, and often less efficient and less effective way. 'In New Zealand [season 2], for example, the bow and arrow was not permitted for use after sunset and before sunrise – and that's when the possums are most active, so you can imagine how challenging that can be. But that law exists for the safety of humans – you don't want to be the recipient of a rogue arrow at night because a hunter couldn't see you – so it's an important responsibility of the show to advertise the restrictions for the sake of community awareness and education. 'Frustrations aside, at all times the welfare of all animals is of utmost importance,' he adds. 'It's the priority for everyone involved, and the taking of life of permitted animals is done in the most humane and respectful manner. I'm proud of that.' Of course, the mere presence of potential game is a critical requirement. So, too, is ensuring each contestant has access to the same potential supplies of food, water and material for shelter. 'No two pockets of land are ever the same – that's nature for you – so there is always going to be some ecological variation between sites that can't be avoided,' says Dedman. 'What we aim for instead is relative parity between each of the sites. 'Parity doesn't mean that you have exactly the same – it's physically impossible,' adds Daher. 'It just means one person might have more of something than another, but on balance, they're fair.' Wherever they end up, though, one thing's for sure: no one on Alone will put on weight. 'Periods of starvation and hunger are completely natural and normal in a hunter-gatherer society,' says Dedman. 'There are very few people alive today who have the depth of knowledge and skill to be able to thrive off the land indefinitely like our ancestors did, simply because those skills are not needed as much anymore, so we've discarded them, forgotten them.' And how would he do if it came to it? 'I think I might do OK on the survival front, but you've got Buckley's of getting any usable camera or audio content from me,' he says. 'I can barely operate my phone.'
Sydney Morning Herald
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
How this hit show ensures contestants are ‘truly alone'
No matter how charismatic, inventive or resilient the contestants on Alone might be, there's always a standout star: the location. Or rather 10 locations, in which the contestants find themselves trying to survive. But how exactly are they chosen? 'It's a long process, and it's a very time-consuming process, to put this show together,' says Riima Daher, executive producer of Alone Australia 's three seasons. 'Thoughts of the next location, to be honest, are happening halfway through a season. Loading 'While I'm still on the ground with the cast, mid-series, we're already having thoughts about where the next season will be … As soon as the winner has gone home, I have about a week off, and then I'm back into it. 'It's very important that the participants remain uninterrupted and truly alone,' says the show's bushcraft consultant Gordon Dedman, a former army commando who now teaches survival skills and works as an outdoor guide in the Northern Territory. 'We rely heavily on natural features such as rivers, cliffs, mountains, inaccessible ridge lines to create naturally occurring boundaries and buffers. 'These need to be inaccessible in order to make it impossible for participants to accidentally roam into each other,' he adds. 'That's one of the critical jobs of the reconnaissance mission.' Daher is the principal location scout for the show, and travelled extensively throughout Tasmania's wilderness areas for season one, and New Zealand's South Island for season two. 'I visited every single lake on that South Island, and I can say almost the same thing of Tasmania,' she says. 'I had seen a lot of it for season one, so for this season I looked at about five lakes before we decided on the one that we ended up with.' Officially, the location is given in the show merely as the West Coast Ranges of Lutruwita (Tasmania). But a little online sleuthing reveals it to be Lake Burbury, near Queenstown. Proximity to medical facilities and a town capable of supporting a crew is essential. If a contestant is injured, the production needs to be able to get to them quickly. 'I need to make sure we can reach everyone within an acceptable timeframe for our safety officer,' says Daher. 'And when you've got distances like 56 kilometres [the maximum spread between contestants this season], it's a tight scenario.' The comfort zone varies from site to site, but Daher says it can take 'a couple of hours' to get help to the location in case of emergency. 'Which is why it's really important that we teach the contestants first aid, so they can triage themselves until we can get there.' Loading But finding a suitable location is just the beginning of the journey. From there, says Daher, 'there are three sets of permissions that I generally seek. Permission from the land itself: is it welcoming geographically, does it offer the resources that we need for this experiment to work? Cultural permissions – that means consultation with First Nations people, finding out who that land belongs to, or who belongs to that land, depending on where you are and how that First Nations group identifies with that land. And once we have that, we move into legal permission – finding out whether the land is public or private, what you can and can't do on that land.' There's a title card at the end of each episode in season 3 that gives a little hint about some of the negotiations that take place, specifically around hunting. It reads: 'Specific exemptions from environmental and wildlife legislation have been provided by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania as well as the Inland Fisheries Service to enable activities that would otherwise be illegal in Tasmania.' Apart from kangaroo and some wallaby species, killing Australian native animals is largely prohibited. And that makes for a survivalist's nightmare. 'Generally, all traps need to be live animal traps so as to be able to release any protected animals accidentally caught,' explains Dedman. 'This can be very challenging and forces experienced hunters to abandon their signature tried-and-true methodology altogether. They have to think about trapping in a completely different, and often less efficient and less effective way. 'In New Zealand [season 2], for example, the bow and arrow was not permitted for use after sunset and before sunrise – and that's when the possums are most active, so you can imagine how challenging that can be. But that law exists for the safety of humans – you don't want to be the recipient of a rogue arrow at night because a hunter couldn't see you – so it's an important responsibility of the show to advertise the restrictions for the sake of community awareness and education. 'Frustrations aside, at all times the welfare of all animals is of utmost importance,' he adds. 'It's the priority for everyone involved, and the taking of life of permitted animals is done in the most humane and respectful manner. I'm proud of that.' Of course, the mere presence of potential game is a critical requirement. So, too, is ensuring each contestant has access to the same potential supplies of food, water and material for shelter. 'No two pockets of land are ever the same – that's nature for you – so there is always going to be some ecological variation between sites that can't be avoided,' says Dedman. 'What we aim for instead is relative parity between each of the sites. 'Parity doesn't mean that you have exactly the same – it's physically impossible,' adds Daher. 'It just means one person might have more of something than another, but on balance, they're fair.' Wherever they end up, though, one thing's for sure: no one on Alone will put on weight. 'Periods of starvation and hunger are completely natural and normal in a hunter-gatherer society,' says Dedman. 'There are very few people alive today who have the depth of knowledge and skill to be able to thrive off the land indefinitely like our ancestors did, simply because those skills are not needed as much anymore, so we've discarded them, forgotten them.' And how would he do if it came to it? 'I think I might do OK on the survival front, but you've got Buckley's of getting any usable camera or audio content from me,' he says. 'I can barely operate my phone.'
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pilot's 2025 Founder Salary Report Reveals 43% Drop in Founder Compensation as Capital Efficiency Takes Center Stage
The leading accounting firm's annual report shows dramatic shift in founder compensation as capital efficiency and fewer VC funding opportunities become available SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pilot, the leading accounting firm for startups and small businesses, today released its annual Founder Salary Report, revealing a dramatic 43% decrease in median founder compensation over the past year. Based on data from nearly 2,000 founders, the report highlights a fundamental shift in how startup leaders are approaching personal compensation in today's more challenging funding environment. "The data is super clear—founders are rethinking compensation," said Waseem Daher, co-founder & executive chair of Pilot. "We're seeing founders make smarter calls to extend runway while figuring out reasonable personal compensation. It's a stark contrast to previous years and signals an ecosystem getting serious about financial discipline—which is exactly what should be happening." Key findings from the 2025 Founder Salary Report include: Median founder salaries dropped 43%: The median founder salary fell from $132,000 in 2024 to $75,000 in 2025, with nearly twice as many founders (60%, up from 37%) now paying themselves less than $100,000 annually. Fewer founders taking zero salary: Only 5.4% of founders reported taking no salary, down from 9% last year. Founder salaries are down as venture capital (VC) is harder to come by, time between rounds is expanding, and bootstrapping is up. When founders invest their own money or funds from family and friends, they typically opt for lower salaries to fund operations, particularly when they believe in the long-term equity outcomes. AI startups buck the trend: In contrast to the overall decline, founders of AI startups (now representing 40% of respondents, up from 14% last year) report higher median compensation of $90,000, reflecting continued investor enthusiasm for the sector. Though like all salaries, AI founder salaries are lower than they were last year. Bootstrapping on the rise: The percentage of bootstrapped companies increased 77% from last year, now representing 18% of surveyed founders, as more entrepreneurs choose self-funding in today's challenging venture capital environment. Most founders (31%) reported setting their salaries based primarily on "what the startup can afford," while those who benchmarked against market rates earned 79% more on average. "Understanding where you fit in today's capital-efficient landscape is how you build companies that survive when things get tough," added Daher. "This isn't just about cutting costs—it's about making strategic decisions that balance personal sustainability with runway preservation." The 2025 Founder Salary Report is based on responses from 1,844 founders across various industries, funding stages, and geographic regions. The full report includes detailed breakdowns by industry, company size, company phase, funding level, and geographic location. To download the complete report, visit About Pilot Pilot is an accounting firm that specializes in providing expert bookkeeping, tax preparation, and CFO services specifically designed for startups and small businesses. Headquartered in San Francisco and Nashville, Pilot brings together U.S.-based finance experts and cutting-edge technology to deliver trustworthy financials and actionable insights, helping founders and business owners focus on what they do best—growing their businesses. Media Contact Sarah Evanssarah@ Alexandria Hurleyalexandria@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Pilot Sign in to access your portfolio
Associated Press
09-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Pilot's 2025 Founder Salary Report Reveals 43% Drop in Founder Compensation as Capital Efficiency Takes Center Stage
The leading accounting firm's annual report shows dramatic shift in founder compensation as capital efficiency and fewer VC funding opportunities become available SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pilot, the leading accounting firm for startups and small businesses, today released its annual Founder Salary Report, revealing a dramatic 43% decrease in median founder compensation over the past year. Based on data from nearly 2,000 founders, the report highlights a fundamental shift in how startup leaders are approaching personal compensation in today's more challenging funding environment. 'The data is super clear—founders are rethinking compensation,' said Waseem Daher, co-founder & executive chair of Pilot. 'We're seeing founders make smarter calls to extend runway while figuring out reasonable personal compensation. It's a stark contrast to previous years and signals an ecosystem getting serious about financial discipline—which is exactly what should be happening.' Key findings from the 2025 Founder Salary Report include: Median founder salaries dropped 43%: The median founder salary fell from $132,000 in 2024 to $75,000 in 2025, with nearly twice as many founders (60%, up from 37%) now paying themselves less than $100,000 annually. Fewer founders taking zero salary: Only 5.4% of founders reported taking no salary, down from 9% last year. Founder salaries are down as venture capital (VC) is harder to come by, time between rounds is expanding, and bootstrapping is up. When founders invest their own money or funds from family and friends, they typically opt for lower salaries to fund operations, particularly when they believe in the long-term equity outcomes. AI startups buck the trend: In contrast to the overall decline, founders of AI startups (now representing 40% of respondents, up from 14% last year) report higher median compensation of $90,000, reflecting continued investor enthusiasm for the sector. Though like all salaries, AI founder salaries are lower than they were last year. Bootstrapping on the rise: The percentage of bootstrapped companies increased 77% from last year, now representing 18% of surveyed founders, as more entrepreneurs choose self-funding in today's challenging venture capital environment. Most founders (31%) reported setting their salaries based primarily on 'what the startup can afford,' while those who benchmarked against market rates earned 79% more on average. 'Understanding where you fit in today's capital-efficient landscape is how you build companies that survive when things get tough,' added Daher. 'This isn't just about cutting costs—it's about making strategic decisions that balance personal sustainability with runway preservation.' The 2025 Founder Salary Report is based on responses from 1,844 founders across various industries, funding stages, and geographic regions. The full report includes detailed breakdowns by industry, company size, company phase, funding level, and geographic location. To download the complete report, visit About Pilot Pilot is an accounting firm that specializes in providing expert bookkeeping, tax preparation, and CFO services specifically designed for startups and small businesses. Headquartered in San Francisco and Nashville, Pilot brings together U.S.-based finance experts and cutting-edge technology to deliver trustworthy financials and actionable insights, helping founders and business owners focus on what they do best—growing their businesses. Media Contact
Ya Libnan
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Syria and Lebanon agree to withdraw troops from border town after tensions
Deal to restore calm in Hosh al-Sayyed Ali as Damascus warns Hezbollah of 'decisive' response to violations DAMASCUS: Syria and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to pull their armies from the border town of Hosh al-Sayyed Ali, with Damascus vowing a 'decisive and immediate' reaction to any breach by Hezbollah after the two sides exchanged fire in recent days. 'Coordination with the Lebanese Army's liaison officer led to an agreement for both armies to withdraw from Hosh al-Sayyed Ali, ensuring civilians' return without any military presence inside, with forces stationed on the outskirts,' Syrian state news agency, SANA quoted Col. Abdel Moneim Daher, commander of the 1st Brigade, 52nd Division. Daher stressed Syria's commitment to the deal. 'Any violation by Hezbollah will face a decisive, direct response without prior warning,' he said. The move follows a ceasefire pact on Monday between the Syrian and Lebanese defense ministries to halt border clashes and boost cooperation, though details were sparse. Tensions flared Sunday when Syria's Defense Ministry accused Hezbollah of abducting and killing three soldiers. It promised 'all necessary measures' against the 'dangerous escalation.' Hezbollah denied involvement. Lebanon's army, meanwhile, said Monday that the Hermel border area of Hosh al-Sayyid Ali came under shelling from the Syrian side. In response, Lebanese military units returned fire at the sources of the attack. Earlier Wednesday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun emphasized stabilizing the ceasefire and securing border villages, tracking developments with army chief Gen. Rodolph Haykal, per a presidency statement. The Lebanese military began deploying to the area, patrolling to maintain order, it said. Syria's government aims to tighten security and reinforce control on its borders, including with Lebanon, targeting drug smugglers and remnants of the former regime that have been stirring unrest. The border, spanning 375 kilometers (233 miles), features rugged terrain with no clear demarcation in many areas. While six official border crossings exist, the region remains porous, with frequent activity at unauthorized routes. Hezbollah had maintained strong ties with the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who ruled from 2000 to 2024. Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963. AA
