CATEGORIES

Gin Blossoms

How an award-winning Mississippi distiller crafts its signature spirit from rice

MercedesBenz AMG GT 63

Mercedes has just revealed an enticing sports car to rival the class-leading Porsche 911. The new-generation AMG GT is a two-door that’s fast but crucially lacks any practicalities.

Comfort Zones

Airport Dimensions CEO Mignon Buckingham enhances the airport experience for travelers with posh lounges and new technologies

Bright Ideas

PEOPLE, DESTINATIONS AND TRENDS INFLUENCING THE CULTURE

Where Next?

American Express reveals trending business destinations— and they’re not where you think

Top Secret

Beyond their advertised premium tiers, airlines offer clandestine ultra-elite status to their most valued clients

Iberia Next Business Class

Iberia has introduced its new Next cabin across its fleet, with upgrades in all classes, including significant improvements in Business.

Il Gattopardo

With a name evoking Luchino Visconti’s 1963 film, Il Gattopardo, this London restaurant pays homage to ’60s Italy. Located on Albemarle Street, it joins the family of international luxury restaurant brands that include übersuccessful Coya, Amazónico and the intimately elegant Bar des Prés.

Bar Iris

Bar Iris is a brilliant partnership between Michelin-starred chef David Yoshimura of Nisei, a California-Japanese restaurant located next door, the late Ilya Romanov and Timofei Osipenko, who now manages this elegant space and makes sure guests have a joyful time.

How to Hire for the Future - Small businesses are struggling to find quality labor. So flip the conversation: Show workers how your business will set them up for opportunity.

Small businesses have a hiring problem. According to the July monthly jobs report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), 19% of small businesses rank the inability to find quality labor as the single most important issue facing their company, while 38% reported job openings they could not fill. Overall, 49% reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.

How Small Shops Take Big Risks - It's not easy for mom-and-pops to try something new, because they rarely have a safety net to fail.But there are ways to innovate cautiously-as one small business on our list, All My Heart tattoo studio, has found.

The Charlotte, North Carolina, studio is airy and suffused with natural light. In the reception area, there are modular chairs, midcentury couches, and a vase of fresh flowers on a Japanese-influenced cabinet. But the real surprise goes beyond aesthetics. All My Heart's owner, Graham Beech, isn't just playing with a new look; he's trying out a whole new business model. Historically, tattoo shops have wanted to control the clientele, and use the tattoo artist as kind of a cog in the wheel, Beech says. What's different about our business is that the client is the artist, and they have their own individual clients.

5 Ways to Multitask Your Fall - From a corporate office to working from the living room, Emmy Award winner Mario Armstrong has five new products designed to make putting in the hours more enjoyable.

From a corporate office to working from the living room, Emmy Award winner Mario Armstrong has five new products designed to make putting in the hours more enjoyable.

You Can Hire Like Netflix - The streaming platform built an incredible team with a strategy called

Looking for a job? ClassDojo has 15 positions open, but heads up: The bar is death zone high, and they're in no rush to hire. The children's education company has a team of 220 and a hiring rate of 0.09% of those who apply.How can a company grow while hiring that slowly? The answer is "talent density", a concept that's gaining steam lately.

Speedy Growth Killed My Startup - We seemed to be rocking it-lots of press, major partnerships. Then we learned the harsh consequences of overlooking our customers.

Three months after I launched my company, we were featured in The New York Times. Other national outlets followed. The attention led to partnerships with Shake Shack, Bombas, Urban Outfitters, and hundreds of other major brands.You might think this sounds good. I sure did when it happened. Hockey stick growth is a sign of success, right? But it wasn't. My company, This App Saves Lives, had fallen into one of the most surprising and ultimately fatal traps for entrepreneurs: We grew before truly understanding our product-market fit. That mistake would ultimately result in the demise of our business.

Three Pivots to $100 Million - How do you find a working business model? Do it like Rowan-a brand that reinvented itself many times before finally piercing the ear-piercing market

If you have a tween girl, you've probably heard of Rowan. It's the cool brand for piercings, where licensed nurses insert hypoallergenic studs into thousands of ears every day. With more than 500 employees, it's on track to have 65 stores and an annual run rate of $100 million in revenue this year.But in 2017, Rowan was just a fledgling startup with a great idea and a bad business model. It survived because founder Louisa Schneider was willing to pivot, and pivot, and pivot again, until its mission, profit, and market all clicked into place.

HOW TO BOUNCE BACK FROM A BAD REVIEW

A one-star review can hurt your egoand your business. But it's possible to prevent (and remedy!) this scary scenario.

HOW TRUST SAVED KFC

The former CEO of Yum! Brands explains how he turned around a struggling KFC and the important lesson it offers for anyone in franchising.

America's Favorite MOM POP SHOPS 2024

HOW WE PICKED 150 BUSINESSES ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

The $414,000 Side Hustle

I have a day job-and a highly profitable interior design company on the side. Here's how I did it.

'Only the Strongest Are Going to Survive'

Brian Lee cofounded companies like LegalZoom and ShoeDazzle-and he believes a lot of conventional business wisdom is backward. Sure, it's harder to raise capital. But it's actually cheaper than ever to start a company. by JASON FEIFER

MY MVP EMPLOYEE

One amazing team member can make an outsize impact on your business. We asked some of the shops on our list to share their No. 1 team member-and what makes them so special.

THE CURSE OF GROWING TOO FAST

FAIRE is a platform for small businesses, but it grew big the wrong way-almost becoming a $12 billion wreck. Here's how it fixed the problem, and why you should think twice before skyrocketing.

HOW TO ASK FAMILY FOR MONEY

Your friends-and-family fundraising round doesn't have to be scary and awkward. Here's advice from one of the world's leading investors.

Trust Equals Sales

For their business to work, Dianne and Gabrielle Melillo need more than customers. They need a community that has total confidence in them.

THE NEW RULES OF BUSINESS TRAVEL

In the era of hybrid teams, everyone is a road warrior-not just sales teams and C-suite execs. It's part of why business travel spending is expected to finally reach, and perhaps surpass, pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, according to Deloitte. But, as with everything, work trips are not what they were in 2019. From airlines to banks, companies are finding new ways to make business travel easier-and even a little fun.

REDDIT'S REVENGE

IN AN ERA OF AI UPHEAVAL. THE CACOPHONOUS SOCIAL HUB EMERGES AS THE HUMAN-DRIVEN INTERNET'S LAST GREAT HOPE.

The Fast and the Furious

High prices at McDonald's, Taco Bell, and other chains are sparking consumer revolt.

10/10 - THE 10 MOST INNOVATIVE PEOPLE OF THE LAST 10 YEARS

In honor of Fast Company's 10th Innovation Festival in September, we identified 10 industrious leaders whose groundbreaking efforts defined the past decade in business. We spoke to them about their extraordinary achievements in tech, medicine, entertainment, and more. And we explored how the impact of their work has withstood passing fads, various presidential administrations, a pandemic, and many, many quarterly reports.

SO MANY WAYS TO LOSE

In the Ozempic era, Weight-Watchers is remaking itself to be something for everyone meal-plan program and a tele-health prescription service. But have consumers already lost their appetite?

INTELLIGENT IMPACT

BUSINESS LUMINARIES SHARE HOW AI CAN INTERSECT WITH SOCIAL MISSION.