Not just product placement, and not just "today" either. I can recall so many cartoons from my childhood in the 80's (He-Man and G.I. Joe come to mind) which were nothing but long-form promotional content aimed directly at kids.
I recently watched a couple of episodes of Street Sharks because I liked it growing up and wanted to have a bit of a nostalgia binge. The whole thing is an ad for the toys.
The long-standing prohibition of non-compete agreements in California is really the X factor in why it continues to be the innovation juggernaut. So many startups here are the result of founders capitalizing on some element of their experience at prior employers. And the ability to hire top talent away from direct competitors also provides a significant advantage for rising startups.
Even if other states pass legislation to end non-competes (as MA has tried to do a few times), it will take time for regional business culture to adapt. I've worked for a few East coast tech firms where company loyalty is taken very seriously, and defectors were semi-publicly shamed even if not outright sued for violating a non-compete.
This isn't a Florida-specific thing. It's a requirement of the National Electrical Code (NEC) that grid-tie inverters shut down on grid power loss, for exactly the stated reason. Every commercially produced grid-tie inverter has that feature built in.
Yes, this. Whatever was used to share or transfer the files generated a cleartext log with MD5 hashes, which was written somewhere other than the encrypted volume.
The idea that insurance won't cover fires from unpermitted, DIY stuff is mostly urban legend. Most homeowners' policies are what are called "all hazards" policies. They cover any kind of damage for any reason, with explicit exclusions like war, earthquake, flood. Outright arson / fraud by the policyholder would also obviously be excluded.
Banks would object to policies that excluded unpermitted work, since it's relatively common and this type of exclusion would leave them with lots of exposure.
So, they may decide to drop you like a hot potato afterward, but a fire from your homebrew powerwall would likely be covered. Read your policy fine print to be sure.
Is there a reason not to block that 10,000th number? I'm having a hard time imagining circumstances under which you'd get a legitimate call from your own telephone. In fact, that seems like it might even be a good way to confuse people into picking up, at least once.
I'm all for lifestyle businesses and side hustles. But some ideas really do require a lot of up-front capital. It's hard to imagine Tesla, SpaceX, Boom, or Nest succeeding as lifestyle businesses.
Author's title is "Why A Lifestyle Business Beats a Startup" which implies that no one should be pursuing a VC-backed startup, in favor of lifestyle businesses. That would leave all of these (subjectively) great ideas by the wayside.
I agree the title could be better. I don't think (or at least I hope) the author isn't speaking in absolutes though. Obviously, there are places for both styles of business.
Early exercise / 83(b) has another benefit that most people aren't aware of -- if the exit is at least 5 years out, you can exclude 100% of your gain from federal cap gains tax under IRS Section 1202.
No, it's at the discretion of the company. I asked for an 83(b) option at a 10 person startup I worked at and the CEO made it happen. The startup still went under so it didn't matter in the end, but management definitely did what they could for the employees.
