Entrepreneur Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm partnered with Entrepreneur Media that is dedicated to backing passionate and innovative founders as early as day one. In this series, we are profiling the amazing entrepreneurs Entrepreneur Ventures is working with to share their insights on building and growing a thriving business. Ryan Rottman spent more than two decades as an actor and producer, appearing on shows like 90210 and starring in nearly a dozen Hallmark films. Sean O’Brien invented a portable beach chair in his 20s that led to an eight-figure exit, then went on to co-found Autio, an audio-storytelling app,…
Author: Staff Writer
Key Takeaways YouTube is doubling the number of watch hours and views it takes to become a monetized channel. Effective February 1, 2027, monetized creators will need at least 8,000 watch hours over the past year or 20 million Shorts views over the past 90 days. According to tech journalist and consultant Emil Protalinski, YouTube wants to make it more difficult for spam accounts to gain a following and monetize their videos. YouTube is going to make it more difficult for new creators to earn money from ads and subscriptions by doubling its monetization thresholds. According to an announcement earlier…
For the past few years, Google has included an unusual feature on its most expensive Pro-series Pixel phones: a sensor that could detect the temperature of nearby surfaces. Widely assumed to have been a holdover from the pandemic days when we were regularly checking ourselves for signs of fever, the sensor didn’t actually work for human body temperature when it first launched. It still can’t be safely used in a cooking context. If it ever rose beyond the point of novelty for any Pixel users, I’m yet to hear from them. With today’s announcement of the Pixel 11 Pro, the…
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. How is a text-to-speech voice made? – Sarah G٫ age 11٫ Seguin٫ Texas When you talk to computerized assistants like Siri or Alexa, they reply in voices that sound very human. But how do computers, smartphones and apps actually talk like a person? They use a technology called text-to-speech. When you speak, your lungs push air up your windpipe and through the vocal cords in your throat. That makes the vocal cords vibrate, which creates…
Today around 15 million people will be able to view a total solar eclipse in its entirety, with hundreds of millions more able to view a partial eclipse. Here’s when the eclipse is set to occur and how and when you can watch it in person and online. What’s happening? A total solar eclipse will be visible today (Wednesday, August 12, 2026) in parts of North America and Europe, including Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, Russia, and Spain. Varying degrees of a partial eclipse will be visible over a much wider area, including in parts of Canada, the U.S., the U.K., France,…
Today’s corporate talent faces a quiet but meaningful disruption. Many of the pathways for professionals to build their skills and capabilities are disappearing. Not because companies are investing less in training, but because the work itself is rapidly changing. The early tasks that once allowed people to “learn by doing” are being reshaped or removed by AI tools. At first glance, the shift seems manageable. AI takes over routine work, freeing people to focus on higher-value activities. But that logic breaks down over time. The same work being automated today is the work that previously served as a critical training…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways The U.S. is in the midst of an unprecedented business formation boom, with nearly 2.9 million new businesses created in the first five months of 2026 alone. Entrepreneurial interest has notably risen, particularly among younger generations. The motivators include financial independence, flexibility and control over their careers. Technology lowering startup costs and momentum in business-friendly states are two other significant factors behind this surge. In the middle of one of the most turbulent economic stretches in recent memory, one trend has remained stubbornly positive: business formations. And behind those formations,…
I’ve interviewed entrepreneurs who built apps, entrepreneurs who built rockets, and entrepreneurs who built breakfast cereals. I have never interviewed anyone who built an empire out of the phrase “What do you wipe your butt with?” Until now. It’s a question Sam Nebel is never shy to ask complete strangers. Nebel is co-CEO of goodwipes, the flushable wipes brand he co-founded with Charlie Siciak 13 years ago after the two bonded over baby wipes in a fraternity bathroom at Florida State University. Since then, goodwipes has become a name-brand player in a wipes category that’s now worth billions, landing shelf…
QUESTION: You said Iran is playing 3-D Chess while we are playing checkers. That Iran is also using tactics to disrupt the Israeli and US elections. Can you provide any details to that assessment? Jeb ANSWER: There is never anything new under the sun. When the infighting with a country is dominant, an adversary can use that to prevent a unified decision of defense as they argue among themselves. This is the position the United States finds itself in and within Israel, the resistance toward Netanyahu is significant. This tactic has been adopted through history in military confrontations. I remember…
As a writer and editor at Entrepreneur, I get to pick the brains of some of the most inspiring and innovative people in business. Their missions never fail to fire me up, and when I spoke with Steve Distante, I was struck by his infectious passion for one goal: keeping kids’ entrepreneurial dreams alive. This sustainable investment pioneer and author of the Pitchology series has spent decades helping founders fine-tune their ideas and raise capital. And lately, his real work is happening with young people. Through his children’s book Once Upon a Time in Entrepreneurland, the annual entrepreneurship bootcamp he…