Donate today and get a Marketplace mug — perfect for all your liquid assets! Donate now

Calling for a new way to fund startups

Dec 19, 2017
Chamath Palihapitiya believes venture capitalists need to play with their own money.
Chamath Palihapitiya speaks onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 at The Manhattan Center on April 29, 2013 in New York City.
Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Where does Silicon Valley's bro culture start? VC

Nov 15, 2017
Venture capital begets the tech industry. What happens if it's rotten from the start?
DFJ Partner Steve Jurvetson (L) and TechCrunch moderator Connie Loizos speak onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017 at Pier 48 on September 18, 2017 in San Francisco, California.
Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Another spin of the revolving door between industry and Washington

Nov 13, 2017
President Donald Trump today announced his pick for HHS Secretary.
Alex Azar was U.S. deputy secretary of Health and Human Services in 2006 when this photo was taken in Paris with Alice Dautry, director of the Pasteur Institute, a French research laboratory.
STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images

As women speak out on sexual harassment, investors take note

Nov 10, 2017
Harassment-related issues haven't been viewed by companies as a risk factor. That's changing.
A video board with the closing numbers on the floor at the closing bell of the Dow Industrial Average at the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 1 in New York.
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images

How consumers hold businesses accountable

Nov 3, 2017
Boycotts and protests can have a big effect when it comes to regulating businesses.
American Airlines joins the ranks of companies faced with consumer boycotts.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Botox is a multi-billion dollar, potentially deadly monopoly

The product comes from a substance so lethal that it could be used as a potential agent of bioterrorism.
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

On infrastructure, now what? Trump's sudden turn away from public-private model brings uncertainty

Oct 5, 2017
With private money at a record level and projects ready to go, the president decides the partnerships are "more trouble than they're worth," leaving states to make their own deals with investors and to hope for federal funding.
President Donald Trump delivers a speech on June 7, 2017 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Donald Trump spoke about transportation and infrastructure projects. 
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Why is Rihanna's makeup line selling like wild?

Sep 22, 2017
Fenty Beauty boasts 40 shades of foundation. Fans say it gives women of color something they can't find elsewhere.
Bamike Ogunrinu, left, sits as New York City-based makeup artist Etzel Ecleston does her makeup with Fenty Beauty products. The brand, launched this month by popstar Rihanna, has been selling out online and in stores.
Peter Balonon-Rosen/Marketplace

Chanel launches its first big fragrance in 15 years

Sep 22, 2017
The long gap is part of the perfume-making process. But it's also a business strategy.
A perfume flask of 'Chanel N°5', created in 1921, is displayed as part of the exhibition 'N°5 culture Chanel' referring to French fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971) at the Palais de Tokyo art museum in Paris
ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images

Google makes a $1 billion bet on hardware

Sep 21, 2017
In the everything old is new again department, Google is betting big on hardware. The company already bought and sold Motorola in the past five years and now Google’s announced it’ll pay $1.1 billion for a chunk of HTC. To be clear Google’s not acquiring the company here. It’s acqui-hiring pretty much the entire engineering […]