Luxury perfume brands have always poured resources into elaborate packaging with bottles shaped like sky-high stilettos, sculpted torsos, or capped with oversize daisies. Yet for all the creativity devoted to packaging, the mechanics have barely evolved. Nearly every alcohol-based perfume still relies on the same one-finger actuator to dispense the fragrance. While this design mechanism has become synonymous with eau de parfum, it also makes the product inaccessible for anyone with limited hand strength or dexterity.Thats why the debut fragrance from Rare Beauty feels so disruptive. The brand spent more than two years developing the scent and also a custom bottle, collaborating with occupational therapists and hand specialists to make it easier to hold and spray. The design features a rounded silhouette and a cap with a low-resistance twist-lock closure, replacing the industry-standard pull-off lid. Its broad, flat surface eliminates the need for precise, one-finger pressure and instead allows for multiple ways to press the atomizer using several fingers, the palm of a hand, or even the chin. The result is a bottle that looks elegant on a vanity yet functions in ways most perfume packaging has never even considered.[Photo: courtesy Rare Beauty]Avoiding accessibility washingThat focus on purpose-built accessibility was born from earlier lessons. When Rare Beauty launched its makeup line in 2020, customers began sharing online feedback that its packaging was easier to grip and open than most. One standout product was the Soft Pinch Liquid Blush cap design, which minimizes resistance for easy opening. The success of that cap led the brand to carry over the same design into other hero products like the new Positive Light Luminizing Lip Gloss (launched in July) and Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil.Accessibility wasnt something we intentionally set out to design for at first, says Joyce Kim, Rare Beautys chief product officer. But our founder, Selena Gomez, who lives with lupus, consistently gravitated toward prototypes that were easier for her to use. Combined with what we were hearing from our community, that pushed us to start building accessibility into our DNA. [Photo: courtesy Rare Beauty]As a disabled person who loves beauty products, Ive unfortunately grown used to seeing inclusive launches that feel more like optics than long-term investments in accessibility. Rare stands out from that pattern with its ongoing commitment to designing inclusive packaging for current and future products. We would never claim to be the experts, Kim says. But if youre going to make accessibility part of your brand ethos, you have to lean into it. It cant just be a compliance checkbox or a passing trend. Consumers are incredibly attuned to whether a brands values are authentic.Despite the dedication to accessible innovation, R&D hasnt been an easy or intuitive process for the team. Unlike other areas of beauty that have clear industry standards, like long-wear claims in lipstick or waterproof mascara, no comparable framework exists for accessibility. When Rare Beauty set out to validate the usability of its packaging, the team quickly realized it was working without a map. Since there wasnt a formal framework, we partnered with occupational therapists at Casa Colina, a research and rehabilitation center in Southern California, to create one, Kim says. That collaboration led to Rare Beautys Made Accessible Initiative, which studies the features that make products easier to open, close, hold, and apply for people with limited dexterity. The brand plans to use those findings to guide its own future packaging, and to share them with the broader beauty industry in hopes that others will follow. Were hoping to start the conversation, to show how meaningful accessibility can be in this space, and to encourage other brands to make it part of their own initiatives, Kim says.[Photo: courtesy Rare Beauty]A big business opportunity The lack of standards is especially striking given the scale of the market. Fragrance is one of the fastest-growing beauty categories, and was estimated to rise from $56.6 billion in 2024 to nearly $75 billion by 2030. Fragrance as a category has been around for so long, and yet there’s just been no innovation in terms of accessiblepackaging, Kim explains. This gap in the market gave us the opportunity to really do our homework, and through research and collaboration with designers, hand therapists, and the disability community, we’ve brought a much-needed yet relatively simple solution to this space.[Image: courtesy Rare Beauty]Ive mostly been limited to using roll-on perfume bottles since traditional eau de parfum atomizers are nearly impossible for me to press with my reduced hand strength. Thats why Rares understated bottle feels so revolutionary. For once, I could mist on fragrance easily, in a fine, even spray. And honestly, its a good thing the scent itself is great because in the thrill of finally getting that satisfying spritz-on-skin moment, I may have overdone it. Full-on smell-maxxing, as the kids would say.Rares flagship fragrance is a creamy vanilla-forward gourmand with notes of pistachio, caramel, and ginger, followed by sandalwood and musk in the drydown. It retails at $75 for a 50-milliliter bottle, but the brand also introduced a deluxe mini version of its full-size bottle, along with a series of layering balms that let consumers customize the fragrance more affordably.Accessibility is about price as much as functionality, Kim explains. We didnt want to bring innovation to our consumers and then make it unaffordable. So we introduced our layering balms to give you more variety from the base scent, and we built the cost of the custom bottle into the back end instead of passing it on to our customers.For a mainstream brand with a celebrity founder, Rare has the scale to absorb the expense of customization. Indie brands, meanwhile, often face prohibitive costs in developing new, more usable packaging. But by proving that inclusive design can sit at the heart of a mainstream launch, Rare is showing whats possible. The hope is that its fragrance will spark broader industry change, encouraging luxury houses and niche labels alike to prioritize accessibility as a design value, not an afterthought. Beauty in itself is an emotional experience, Kim says. With fragrance, the way you interact with the bottle is part of that experience. When designers consider accessibility and create products that work for a wide range of people, thats when consumers feel truly seen and represented.
The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in nearly a year, reflecting a pullback in Treasury yields ahead of an expected interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week.The long-term rate eased to 6.35% from 6.5% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.2%.Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate slipped to 5.5% from 5.6% last week. A year ago, it was 5.27%, Freddie Mac said.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.Rates have been mostly declining since late July amid growing expectations that the Fed will cut its benchmark short-term interest rate for the first time this year at the central bank’s meeting of policymakers next week.While the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, its actions can influence bond investors’ appetite for long-term U.S. government bonds, like 10-year Treasury notes. Lenders use the yield on 10-year Treasurys as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4% Thursday afternoon.The Fed has kept its main interest rate on hold this year because it’s been more worried about inflation potentially worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market.But in a high-profile speech last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank may cut rates in coming months amid concerns about weaker job gains following a grim July jobs report, which included massive downward revisions for June and May.More recent job market data have fueled speculation that the central bank could be preparing to lower rates. The Labor Department said last week that the economy added just 22,000 jobs in August. And on Tuesday, revised jobs data from the government showed the U.S. job market had been much weaker last year and this year than earlier data suggested.Meanwhile, the latest weekly snapshot of unemployment benefit claims shows more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the number of layoffs could be rising.The housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. Sales have remained sluggish so far this year as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has mostly hovered above 6.5%.The average rate is now at its lowest level since Oct. 10, when it was 6.32%.A similar pullback in rates happened last year in the weeks leading up to the Fed’s interest rate policy meeting in September. That’s when the Fed cut its key interest rate for the first time since March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Back then, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage got down to a 2-year low of 6.08%, but soon after climbed again, reaching above 7% by mid-January.Mortgage rates could follow a similar trajectory this time, given that expectations of a Fed rate cut have already brought mortgage rates lower.“We should not expect rates to drop much further, and in fact, there is a possibility that mortgage rates could actually increase after the Fed cut,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.For now, the recent pullback in mortgage rates has been encouraging to many prospective homebuyers and homeowners eager to refinance.Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, jumped to a three-year high last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.Applications for mortgage refinancing loans made up nearly 50% of all applications last week, as homeowners who bought in recent years when mortgage rates surged seized the opportunity to lower their monthly home loan payment.If mortgage rates continue to ease, home shoppers will benefit from more affordable financing. But lower mortgage rates could also bring in more buyers, making the market more competitive, at a time when sellers across the country are having a tougher time driving a hard bargain.
Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
This week has seen a series of initial public offerings from tech companies, including market debuts from the flexible payments fintech Klarna Group and the blockchain lender Figure Technology Solutions.
But today is about the food service industry, with Black Rock Coffee Bar expected to make its debut on the Nasdaq after pricing shares on Thursday.
Black Rock Coffee Bar will offer 14,705,882 shares of Class A common stock under the ticker BRCB.
It will be priced at $20 per share, exceeding its initial prediction of $16 to $18 per share and totaling $294.1 million. Its underwriters have 30 days to buy another 2,205,882 shares of its Class A common stock at a set price of $20 per share.
The coffee chains store revenue for the 12 months ending June 30, 2025, was $179 million.
A humble origin story
Black Rock Coffee Bar started in 2008 in Beaverton, Oregon, as a 160-square-foot drive-thru location.
The company has since moved its base to Scottsdale, Arizona, and runs over 150 stores throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
Along with standard coffee and tea, Black Rock Coffee Bar also serves energy drinks and all-day breakfast.
The company is an aspiring rival to fellow coffee chains Dutch Bros. and Starbucks.
The former has a similar model of prioritizing drive-thrus and had a successful IPO in 2021. At the time, Dutch Bros (NYSE: BROS) jumped 70% after opening. In January, the company announced its 1,000th location, and its stock this year has outperformed the S&P 500.
Meanwhile, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has seen its stock price drop nearly 10% this year. The worlds largest coffeehouse chain has been struggling to improve its financial picture, recently reporting its sixth consecutive quarter of declining same-store sales.
Another tech-focused company is going public. On Wednesday, the buy now, pay later firm Klarna Group finally made its public debut, one of a number of high-profile listings to take place this week alone.
Now, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Space Station is expected to begin trading today. Heres what you need to know about Gemini and its initial public offering (IPO).
What is Gemini?
Gemini Space Station, Inc., better known simply as Gemini, is a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
While you may not have heard of Gemini, theres a good chance you know the name of the exchanges founders: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The two twin brothers were immortalized in 2010 film The Social Network, which explored the beginnings of Facebook.
After the Winklevoss twins settled their lawsuit with Mark Zuckerberg, the duo became interested in the then-burgeoning world of cryptocurrency. In 2014, after being dissatisfied with other cryptocurrency exchanges, the brothers decided to launch their own.
Today, Gemini is one of many global cryptocurrency exchanges, offering investors a platform to buy and sell numerous tokens. But Gemini also offers a selection of other financial services, including a Gemini Credit Card, which lets users earn cryptocurrency rewards for spending on the card.
Gemini by the numbers
According to the companys most recent amendment to its Form F-1 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Geminis key metrics include:
Over $21 billion worth of assets on the platform
1.5 million lifetime transacting users
More than 700 employees worldwide
Over $830 billion worth of transfers on the platform
More than 70,000 credit cards issued
Gemini, like most crypto exchanges, primarily monetizes its platform through fees it collects on various transactions.
For the year ending December 31, 2023, Gemini says it brought in total revenue of $98.1 million. And for the year ending December 31, 2024, the company says it brought in $142.2 million in total revenue.
However, the company still had a net loss for both years. In 2023, the net loss was $319.7 million, and in 2024, the net loss was $158.5 million.
Geminis finances before that are been is a bit of a mystery. As the firm notes in its prospectus, it currently qualifies as an emerging growth company, which means it can follow less stringent financial disclosure requirements.
As a result, we are permitted to, and intend to, rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other companies that are not emerging growth companies, the company states.
When is Geminis IPO?
Gemini priced its shares on Thursday at $28. It is expected to list its stock today, Friday, September 12.
What is Geminis stock ticker?
Geminis shares will trade under the ticker GEMI.
What exchange will Geminis shares trade on?
Gemini shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
What is the IPO share price of GEMI?
Geminis shares will begin trading at $28 each. As noted by CNBC, this is well above the share price range Gemini had originally forecast, which was between $17 and $19 apiece. The higher offering price was the result of more demand than originally expected in Geminis shares.
How many GEMI shares are available in its IPO?
Over 15.1 million shares of Class A common stock are being offered in Geminis IPO. But whats interesting is that this number of shares is actually below the initial planned offering of 16.67 million shares.
The reduction is due to the fact that Gemini decided to cap the proceeds of its IPO at $425 million, which Reuters noted is unusual.
But due to that cap limitand with shares priced at $28 apieceGemini needed to reduce the amount of shares it offered from its initially planned 16.67 million shares to fewer than 15.2 million.
How much will Gemini raise in its IPO?
Gemini raised just over $425 million in its IPO. As noted above, this was a limit the company itself set on the proceeds.
How much is Gemini worth?
with its IPO share price of $28, Gemini is now worth around $3.3 billion, according to CNBC.
Gemini is the latest high-profile tech IPO in 2025
Geminis IPO today will be closely watched by Wall Street to see how investors react to the newly listed shares once they begin trading.
While theres no predicting which way GEMI shares will move in the days and weeks ahead, Gemini likely does stand to benefit from investor enthusiasm in the crypto and fintech space.
The company is far from the only crypto and fintech firm to go public this year.
In March, crypto and stock trading platform eToro went public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Then, in June, Circle Internet Group went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
That offering was followed in August by cryptocurrency exchange Bullishs IPO on the NYSE.
However, not all these IPOs have seen their shares rise in the weeks after their listings.
As of yesterdays market close, eToros shares are down more than 14% since their debut, according to Yahoo Finance data. Bullish shares have taken a worse beatingdown more than 43%.
The story is better for Circle Internet Group, whose shares are up 93% so far.
In short, Gemini and its investors are hoping the stock will perform more like Circle. But only time will tell whether that ends up being the case.
Trading on Wall Street was quietly mixed early Friday as markets near the end of another record-setting week ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday.Futures for the S&P 500 were flat, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2% and Nasdaq futures ticked up 0.1%.Following a mixed set of U.S. data on Thursday, markets are banking that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week, which should give the economy a boost.The Fed has been hesitant to cut interest rates throughout 2025 because of the threat that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could make inflation worse. Lower interest rates could exacerbate inflation. The Fed’s inaction has infuriated Trump, who has threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell and has escalated his attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, accusing her of mortgage fraud.On Thursday, the Trump administration asked an appeals court to remove Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s votes on interest rates. Trump initially sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.In equities trading, RH shares slid 7% after the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware missed sales and profit targets and lowered its full-year guidance due to the impacts of tariffs.Microsoft rose modestly after European Union regulators accepted the tech giant’s proposed changes to its Teams platform, resolving a long-running antitrust investigation.The European Commission said in a statement Friday that Microsoft’s final commitments to unbundle Teams from its Office software suite, including further tweaks following a market test in May and June, are enough to satisfy competition concerns.Microsoft shares rose 1% before the opening bell.Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX edged down 0.3%, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.5% and Britain’s FTSE 100 added nearly 0.3%.Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.9% higher to 44,768.12, with Japanese stocks hitting fresh records. Shares in semiconductor company Tokyo Electron, Sony Group and Fast Retailing were among the movers.In Chinese markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.2% to 26,388.16. Tech shares led gainers on AI optimism, while property stocks climbed as Beijing moves to help cover unpaid bills of local governments. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.1% to 3,870.60.In Seoul, the Kospi climbed 1.5% to 3,395.54 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.7% to 8,864.90. India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.5% while Taiwan’s Taiex was up 1%.In energy trading early Friday, benchmark U.S. crude gained 1.5% to $63.29 per barrel.
Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott, Associated Press
You dont have to be a gamer to know who Mario of Super Mario Bros. fame is. The plumbers presence has permeated popular culture since the Nintendo video games release in Japan on September 13, 1985. It reached the United States about a month later.
Ahead of the game’s big 40th anniversary, Nintendo is hosting a Nintendo Direct live stream event today (Friday, September 12) at 9 a.m. ET. It’s expected to last around an hour.
Lets take a look at the history of this popular gaming franchise before we get into how to watch Fridays event.
Mario could have been Popeye
In 1977 Marios creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, was hired by Nintendo when he was 24 years old, having recently finished a degree in industrial design, as the New Yorker reported. He started out working in the planning department.
After a game called Radar Scope failed to be a commercial success, he was tasked with creating a new one. Miyamoto wanted to use the characters from the popular comic Popeye, but when Nintendo could not secure the rights, he was forced to get creative.
Mario made his debut in ‘Donkey Kong’
Instead Miyamoto came up with characters of his own. His final product was called Donkey Kong, which was released in 1981. Players were transformed into the avatar of Jumpman, who was on a mission to get his girlfriend back from his pet gorilla. Eventually, Jumpman would evolve into the Mario that fans know and love today.
Mario got his name thanks to American executives
Nintendo executives in America were skeptical of Miyamotos platform game. They didnt think it would be a hit. They also couldnt help but notice that Jumpman looked similar to their landlord, so they started to call the character Mario. The execs might have been wrong about Donkey Kongit was a huge successbut the new moniker stuck. Miyamoto even gave his seal of approval.
‘Super Mario Bros.’ reinvigorated video games
In 1985, the gaming industry was in shambles, due to a crash two years earlier caused by market saturation and too many lackluster games.
Instead of getting out of the business, Nintendo doubled down by releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Super Mario Bros. was the console’s calling card.
About a year after the release of the NES, the Super Mario Bros. game was bundled with the system, meaning the two products were sold together. This only strengthened Marios popularity.
Mario was now a plumber with a brother named Luigi on a mission to rescue Princess Toadstool, the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, from the evil Bowser. This one game has inspired over 200 spinoffs in the Nintendo catalog alone. There are also three movies with a fourth one set to be released on April 3, 2026.
How to watch Fridays Nintendo Direct live stream
Fans are already speculating about what Nintendo is going to announce during its live stream. It is safe to assume that there will be some Mario news ahead of the big anniversary.
Its simple to catch Nintendo Direct and see for yourself. You can watch it on Nintendo’s YouTube or Twitch channels. It will also be available on the Nintendo Today app. Finally, we’ve embedded the stream below.
Hello again from Fast Companyand thank you for reading this edition of Plugged In.
Last Tuesday, the world marked International Apple Day, a name I just made up to describe a very real annual ritual. Certainly, the annual unveiling of new iPhonesalong with updated Apple Watches and AirPodsis the biggest day on Apples product calendar. Its the moment when many people either decide a new iPhone is in their future or that they can eke another year out of the one theyve already got.
The headline this week was the long-anticipated debut of the iPhone Air, a new phone whose selling point is that its an iPhone, except thinner and lighter. Much of the other announcements involved new Apple products that offer even more of what folks liked about predecessorslonger battery life, additional megapixels, improved noise cancellation. Apple gave the base iPhone 17 the ProMotion and always-on display technologies formerly reserved for the iPhone Pro and (finally!) decided to release an iPhone Pro in an exuberantly fun color, Cosmic Orange. It also gave all the new iPhones front-facing camera a square sensor, allowing you to shoot in landscape mode even if youre holding the phone vertically, a feature I never realized I wanted but now crave.
Even when Apple doesnt have anything radically new to reveal (like, oh, a folding iPhone), its good at the kind of incrementalism that keeps its hardware progressing in logical directions with clear benefits. This weeks launch was dominated by that sort of news. But Apple didnt have much to say about AI, an area thats critical to the future of the companys products. For now, its quietly trying to regain its footing after a period of embarrassingly public failure with the technology, leaving the details of whats ahead uncertain.
Lets recap. At its WWDC conference in June 2024, Apple introduced a portfolio of AI-powered features called Apple Intelligence. Among the most ambitious was the Siri voice assistants new ability to answer questions that involved seamlessly plucking bits of information from different apps on the flysuch as Siri, when is my Moms flight landing?; Whats our lunch plan?; and How long will it take us to get there from the airport?
Apple stoked expectations: This year marks the beginning of a new era for Siri, explained the executive who demonstrated the mom-visit scenario in the WWDC keynote video. By the end of the year, however, the company hadnt shipped the most ambitious elements of its Siri improvements. Last March, it acknowledged, Its going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year. At this years WWDC, it didnt say anything about Siris AI future other than to reiterate the coming year timetable.
A new twist developed last month when Bloombergs Mark Gurman reported that Apple was in early talks with Google to build a new version of Siri on top of Googles Gemini LLM. Given that more than 15 months had passed since Apples announcements at WWDC 2024, I did a double-take at Gurmans scoop. How could Apple still be in the process of assembling third-party ingredients to build something it had already demoed and claimed was an era-shifting step forward?
Any Gemini partnership might have as much to do with Siris longer-term AI trajectory as implementing the specific features Apple announced and then failed to complete. Still, considering the companys instinctive preference to develop its own technologies rather than rely on others, even a whiff of Google AI becoming essential to one of the iPhones highest-profile features would be a big deal. Particularly given that Apple and Google are both long-time partners and fierce competitors.
Clarity about Siris smarter, more personalized future is probably months off and wont arrive all at once. After burning itself with premature hoopla, Apple has every incentive to stay mum until its absolutely, positively certain its ready to deploy the features it announced at WWDC 2024. According to Gurman, its shooting for next spring. That would make them an off-cycle update before Apples standard round of OS upgrades for fall 2026, which will likely bring another round of AI enhancements to Siri.
Meanwhile, Google has been bounding forward with its own AI game plan for Android. At its Pixel 10 phone launch last month, it showed off a feature called Magic Cue. Its not a precise counterpart to the new, unreleased Siri, but also relates to dynamically weaving together data from multiple apps to keep users informed about everyday life. Having lost time to its Siri mishap, Apple may still be scrambling to catch up with Googles version of this helpful AI vision a year from now.
Now, Apple has hardly dug itself an AI hole it can never emerge from. For one thing, its not clear to me that most consumers are prioritizing AI when choosing which devices to buy. The new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods Pro have plenty of other new features that should appeal to upgraders even if elements of their AI story remain fuzzy, giving Apple some breathing room to figure out whats next. Deciding to build a Siri experience on top of Gemini might be a healthy sign that Apple understands its own limitations and is willing to try new approaches to overcoming them.
From the Apple II to the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad to the Apple Watch, Apple is legenary not for inventing product categories but for reinventing them. Once it shows up, its offerings are often so well thought-out that people forget it was late to the party. So far, nobody else has figured out how to build AI into smartphones and other consumer devices in a way thats so life-changing that Apple cant theoretically top it.
Im not arguing that the new-and-improved Siris delayed rollout is a classically Apple-esque act of confidence. Instead, it reflects the enormous pressure the company is under to deliver tangible AI in its products, and its relative inexperience with the technology. But the company still has a shot at turning its misadventures in AI into a fresh start that works to its advantage. That might be the biggest challengeand opportunityit faces in 2026.
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
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The current college football season enters its third weekend with something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: universities cutting actual paychecks to star players. Thanks to the $2.8 billion House v. NCAA settlement approved in June, schools can now share up to $20.5 million of their revenue directly with players across all college sports this year. That figure will climb by at least 4% annually over the decade-long agreement.
It’s a far cry from the “they’re not employees” rhetoric we’ve heard from universities in recent decades and represents a fundamental reordering not just of college football but of college athletics in general. Until 2021, college athletes couldn’t profit from their talents at allno endorsements, no appearance fees, nothing. Then name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals provided the first crack in the dam, allowing players to finally monetize their name, image, and likeness through third-party deals.
Welcome to the age of post-amateurism
Now, direct payments from schools represent an even bigger shift. Under the new revenue-sharing model, roughly 75% of revenue will go to college football players, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball, and 5% to all other sports. The booster collectives that dominated NIL since 2021 are being absorbed into athletic departments or fighting for their lives as NIL returns to actual endorsements rather than disguised pay-for-play. And now, as private equity money begins flowing into college sports through media rights deals and conference partnerships, the dam has officially collapsed.
The rapid evolution has created a landscape where every move is scrutinized for potential conflicts of interest and precedent-setting implications. Even established players like OneTeam Partnerswhich represents over 20,000 professional and college athletes through a joint venture between the NFL and MLB players’ unionshave found themselves under scrutiny as regulators and stakeholders attempt to navigate the blurred lines between advocacy, representation, and business interests.
But Sean Sansiveri, CEO of OneTeam Partners, views this regulatory complexity as expensive theaternecessary steps toward professionalization, but ultimately a detour from the real solution. OneTeam is not the target of the ongoing investigation and has fully cooperated from the beginning, the company says.
During his previous 13-year tenure with the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), Sansiveri helped develop concussion protocols and grew the union’s licensing program from $90 million to nearly $400 million.
Sansiveri spoke with Fast Company to discuss why unions are key to sustainable athlete compensation, how private equity could accelerate this process, and how the next three to five years have the potential to transform college sports as we know them.
House v. NCAA
The House v. NCAA settlement allows schools to pay players directly for the first time, but NIL deals have been the main source of athlete compensation since 2021. How do you see the relationship between these two compensation streams?
NIL was never meant to replace fair compensation from the system itselfit was just a first step. The House settlement creates, for the first time, a direct compensation stream from schools to athletes. But it doesnt replace NILit sits alongside it. Increased revenue sharing is going to be the biggest determination of what the future looks like. Some schools and conferences are already exploring alternative direct payment models, and we expect that to accelerate.
I think the issue thats going to continue to change everything is primarily employment status. Will college athletes be recognized as employees? They should be, but that’s going to carry the most significant implications for compensation, benefits, rights to organize, etc.
So in this new world where schools can pay up to $20.5 million directly to athletes, what role do third-party NIL deals actually play?
In the pros, you have revenue sharing from the league and the teams. Roughly 50% of the revenue generated in the NFL, for example, funds the salaries and benefits of players. But we also have a group licensing program and individual athlete endorsement deals. A comparable model is likely in the best interests of collegiate athleteseach existing in parallel. But if the schools assume the duty to represent athlete NIL directlyas opposed to a collective bargaining unitand fail to maximize the value of those rights, I anticipate there being a lot of legal pain for those schools down the line.
Booster Collectives get the boot?
Booster collectives have been the dominant force in NIL since 2021. With schools now able to pay players directly, what’s happening to these collective organizations?
I think it depends on whether they’re going to professionalize themselves and find an athlete empowerment role. If they don’t, they’re probably not going to play much of a role at all.
It’s no longer about donations. It’s about investing in systems that generate long-term value. Private equity money typically goes into media rights, licensing, and infrastructure. To meand I think to every athlete who’s focused on thisthat means players should benefit through structured revenue sharing, formal employment models, and eventually maybe even equity in the teams themselves. So it’s less of this one-off cash model and more of a long-term compensation model, very much similar to what the pros have.
Private Equity is in the house
Speaking of long-term value, private equity has started investing in college sports in ways that weren’t previously allowed. What’s the significance of that shift?
Private equity (PE) seems to be quietly becoming one of the most consequential forces in shaping the future of college sports. Unlike the NIL headlines, the story there is about who owns the ecosystem, not who’s getting paid within it. PE firms are eyeing long-term media deals as high upside investments. Infrastructure and commercializationthink stadium upgrades, campus entertainment districts, immersive fan experiencesare areas that private equity has a lot of experience in. If you can turn college athletics into a year-round multi-channel revenue engine, of course they’re interested.
The problem, though, is that athletes aren’t formal stakeholders. Private equity is coming in to extract long-term value from the athletes who deserve and don’t currently have a seat at the table. How are they going to share in the upside? In my mind, that’s the biggest question.
That raises an interesting question about power dynamics. Could private equity actually help athletes gain more leverage through unionzation?
You could actually see an acceleration towards employment status and collective bargaining if private equity decides to really jump fully into this space. If you’re going to roll up schools, roll up conferences, you’re going to want an antitrust exemption, and you’re either going to get that from Congress or through a non-statutory labor exemption by having a union.
In the professional models, if a union had decertified for purposes of antitrust in a lockout or strike, the first thing the professional leagues insist is that the union be reconstituted because of the antitrust exemption. So we could see private equity make a similar push in college sports.
The licensing gold rush
Your company, OneTeam Partners, focuses heavily on group licensing. How does that model work in college sports, and why is it important in this changing landscape?
Group licensing can be a powerful equalizer. It allows athletes across entire teams, even in non-revenue-generating sports, to benefit collectively. What started as a mechanism primarily used by the professional sports unions is now unlocking revenue for college athletes through video games, jersey sales, and brand campaigns. It’s not just the stars who are participatingit’s the walk-ons, it’s the backups. They’re all earning alongside the All-Americans.
At OneTeam, we have over 20,000 college athletes in our group licensing program today, and in just the first seven months of 2025, we’ve already delivered nearly $20 million in NIL payments to those athletes. But without a union in the space that actually represents those rights in an exclusive capacity, athletes aren’t achieving their full value.
Looking ahead three to five years, what do you think the compensation landscape will look like for college athletes?
Compensation packages would probably look more like their pro counterpartsanchored in direct payments from the schools, revenue sharing hopefully through union-negotiated agreements, and robust exclusive group licensing income from media, merchandise, gaming, trading cards, and jerseys.
With organized labor at the table, that’ll make for a more transparent, structured, and sustainable system that addresses all of these issues. Whether it’s boosters, agent regulation, health and safety concerns, commercialization of data, AIall of that could be addressed through collective bargaining.
What do you see as the biggest risk if college sports doesn’t move toward that professional model?
The biggest risk is a fractured system with no central voice for athletes. As schools, private equity, and new pay models come into college, I don’t think the danger is chaos anymore. It’s overreach. When employees don’t have a strong voice representing them and without player unions or collective governance, the money is still going to flow. But the athlete rightsthe protections, the long-term sustainabilitywould fall through the cracks.
The pro model: collective bargaining
For someone trying to understand where all this is headed, how would you explain what college sports could, and maybe should, ultimately look like?
The simplest way to explain it is to look at how it’s done in the pros. You have sustainable revenue models that fairly compensate athletes, focus on important issues like player safety, life after sporteverything ranging from prescription drug registry programs to protections for counterfeit merchandise. All of that is handled through a collective bargaining scheme that best serves the athletes.
By serving the talent that drives the value of these sports, you are ensuring a sustainable model. Follow the blueprint that has been forged by the professional sports unions over the past several decades, and do that in college. That’s the simplest path to organization and eliminating the chaos and the potential for overreach.
What advice would you give to college athletes as they navigate this rapidly changing landscape?
When I’m looking at these NIL opportunities, especially in the context of group licensing, until there’s employee recognition and a professional-style union in place, so many of these entities that are participating in the value growth are doing so for their investors. The unique factor in professional sports is that if money from NIL is going to a union, that money is strengthening a union and advocating for fair wages, hours, and working conditions on behalf of the athletes.
In the current ecosystem, we don’t have that. So who is participating in the value chain and what are their ultimate incentives? If I’m an athlete, those are the questions I’d be asking.
For years, millennials have watched the C-suite from just on the other side of the glass wallmanaging divisions, leading teams, and driving innovation while patiently waiting their turn. That turn is now arriving. With baby boomers rapidly aging out of leadership, a long-stalled generational shift is gaining momentum. The question is no longer if millennials will lead, but whether they will be ready when the moment comes.
Born between 1981 and 1996, millennials are now between 29 and 44 years old. Many have spent 15 to 20 years climbing the corporate ladder, only to find the final rung out of reach. Executive bottleneckscreated by boomer longevity, flat org charts, and limited enterprise-level roleshave kept many qualified candidates in a holding pattern. Ironically, the very lack of top-tier experience that holds them back is also the result of being held back.
And yet, the baton is clearly passing. By 2030, millennials and Generation Z are projected to make up 74% of the global workforce. As boomer retirements accelerateoften for reasons no strategic plan could predictmillennials are stepping into the void. But the rules have changed. There is no clear playbook for how to assume leadership amid organizational flux, economic volatility, and rapidly shifting workplace values. Thats why now is the time for intentional preparation, not hopeful waiting.
The Case for a New Succession Mindset
Most companies still treat succession planning as a private conversation among top brass, an exercise postponed until a health scare or sudden resignation forces action. This approach is no longer sustainable. Succession isnt a milestone; its a business continuity strategy. Organizations that fail to modernize their models risk losing talent, stability, and credibility.
Heres what companies need to start doing differently:
Spot leadership potential earlier. Relying on time-in-role or box-checking delays progress and demotivates high performers.
Design stretch and rotational assignments. Exposure to cross-functional leadership and enterprise-level challenges builds the experience candidates need before they step up.
Normalize and celebrate planning. Succession should be seen as a mark of maturity and foresight, not a threat.
Hold legacy leaders accountable. Preparing the next generation isnt optional; its a fiduciary responsibility.
Organizations that embrace these strategies will build stronger, more resilient leadership pipelines and send a clear message to ambitious millennials: Youre wanted here.
Millennial Leaders: Its Go Time
For millennial leaders-in-waiting, the opportunity is real, but so is the responsibility. This is not the moment for entitlement. The next wave of executive leadership must be as self-directed as it is strategic. Whether your current employer has a plan for your promotion or not, heres how to proactively build executive readiness:
1. Take on initiatives with real enterprise risk.
Its not enough to manage well within your silo. To lead at the enterprise level, you need experience with complexity, ambiguity, and full-spectrum accountability. Raise your hand for projects with broad impactlike spearheading entry into a new market with defined revenue targets and budget oversight or volunteering to lead an ERP implementation that spans all departments. These high-stakes opportunities will sharpen your financial literacy, strategic agility, and ability to drive results across functions.
2. Get inside the roomeven if its just as a listener.
You dont need a title to learn how decisions get made at the top. Ask to observe board meetings, quarterly earnings calls, or executive strategy sessionseven if your initial role is just to take notes. If that feels too bold, start by listening in on investor calls and studying how leadership communicates priorities under pressure. Youll build fluency in the language of power, understand the dynamics of alignment and dissent, and develop a mental model of how high-level decisions unfold.
3. Build a cross-generational, cross-industry bench of mentors.
Relying solely on internal sponsors can leave you with a limited view. Seek mentorship beyond your company and comfort zone. Reach out to retired industry executives on LinkedIn, or connect with entrepreneurs in your alumni networkespecially those with experience in areas like private equity exits or value creation. These relationships can provide unfiltered insights, challenge your assumptions, and give you access to perspectives that rarely surface in internal conversations.
4. Invest in structured learningand signal that youre serious.
If your company isnt investing in your executive development, youll need to take the lead. Enroll in executive education programs like Whartons Advanced Management Program, or join a peer-learning group such as Vistage. These environments offer both credibility and capability. They help you build critical skills like systems thinking, strategic finance, and leadership under uncertainty. Just as important, they show your readiness to step into bigger roles without waiting for permission.
5. Understand how power really works.
Its not enough to want a seat at the tableyou need to understand how the table is constructed and governed. Track your companys stock performance, read analyst reports, and follow how boards evaluate CEO performance, especially through compensation committee disclosures. Develop an understanding of how governance shapes strategy and how shareholder sentiment influences executive decision-making. This level of fluency sets you apart as someone who can lead for long-term value, not just short-term gains.
6. Cultivate executive presence before the title arrives.
Leadership isnt just about the decisions you makeits about how you carry them. Start practicing now. Record yourself presenting and review your communication habits with a critical eye. Join Toastmasters to refine public speaking under pressure. Or step in to mediate a cross-functional conflict, not as a referee but as a bridge-builder. Presence is earned through discipline, self-awareness, and repeated exposure to uncomfortable moments. The earlier you start, the more natural it becomes when the stakes are highest.
Its important to remember that your next big move might not come from your current company. Promotions are earned, not inherited. Be visible. Be prepared. And be open to opportunities beyond your corporate backyard.
Mindset Over Milestones
Millennials have often been stereotyped as entitled or impatient, labels that obscure the realities of a generation that has navigated recessions, restructuring, and rapid transformation. The most successful leaders will move beyond these narratives by pairing confidence with humility and urgency with preparedness.
The core mindset shift is this: Be ready, not owed. That means embracing ambiguity, staying coachable, and resisting the temptation to assume the job is yours by default. Leadership is earned every day, in the way you show up, guide teams, and respond under pressure.
Legacy Leaders: Your Moment of Impact Is Now
Forsenior executives still in the seat, this generational transition is not on the horizonits happening now. How you handle it will define your legacy. Smooth handoffs signal strength to the market and provide incoming leaders with the support they need to succeed.
Whats at stake if you dont? Unplanned exits, talent flight, and misaligned leadership choices can create chaos and erode shareholder confidence. Companies that delay succession planning until the eleventh hour often end up with rushed decisions and rocky transitions.
Warren Buffetts long-anticipated succession plan is a recent, high-profile example of doing it right: public, planned, and deliberate. Not every company needs a Buffett-scale blueprint, but every leader should view transition as an act of stewardship, not surrender.
The Road Ahead
Millennials arent just coming for the C-suitetheyre already sitting at the table in growing numbers. What they need isnt permission. Its a road map, a challenge, and a vote of confidence.
Organizations that invest in preparing themand leaders who take responsibility for their own readinesswill shape the next generation of executives and the future of business itself.
The era of waiting is over. The window is open. Step through.
They are as short as a toothbrushing tutorial but pack the same spicy wallop as a BookTok romantasy. Theyre as bingeable as a bajillion-dollar Netflix series, but with the stripped-down aesthetics of a Hallmark movie.
Im talking, of course, about microdramasthe fast, fizzy serialized videos flooding phones worldwide. In just a few years, theyve become a full-blown phenomenon, generating billions in revenue without Hollywoods help. At least, not until now.
As studios grapple with a sluggish summer box office and another thin fall TV lineup, a growing legion of viewers is glued to stories made exclusively for their phones. Microdramasor vertical shows, as theyre often calledblend the raw emotion of K-dramas with a TikTok sensibility. Think high-intensity, telenovela-like series, unfurling in one-to-three-minute chunks across 50 to 100 mostly paywalled episodes. They may have titles such as Doctor Boss Is My Baby Daddy or Signed, Sealed, Deceived by My Billionaire Mailboy, but their massive, global fan base makes them impossible to dismiss.
A structural shift
Born in China during the early COVID years, microdramas have since ballooned into a $7 billion industry, and are projected to generate $10 to $13 billion in revenue by 2027. More than 40 dedicated apps, including Seoul-based Vigloo and Californias ReelShort, operate on a freemium model. Curious viewers can try a multi-episode taste of most series, with the option to continue by either paying to subscribe or making in-app purchases.
Although the format first gained traction in Eastern regions, the U.S. emerged last year as the largest market for microdrama apps, contributing 60% of global revenue, according to data analysis firm Sensor Tower. Apps like GoodShort and DramaBox now regularly jostle with Netflix for top slots in entertainment rankings. (To be clear, these companies remain well behind Netflix in revenue and profit.)
Now, as U.S. demand for vertical shows surges, a group of Hollywood veterans is jumping in. MicroCo, a new partnership between horror-focused studio Cineverse and Lloyd Brauns Banyan Ventures, has tapped former Showtime president Jana Winograde as CEO and ex-NBCUniversal content chief Susan Rovner as COO. The companys still-unnamed app wont launch until next spring, but its very existence suggests a massive sea change is currently underway.
Vertical viewing is not just a passing trend,” says Neil Hyuk-jae Choi, CEO of Vigloo parent company SpoonLabs, “but a structural shift.
Dont call it Quibi 2.0
To understand what microdramas are, its important to know what theyre not, which is: Quibi.
Jeffrey Katzenbergs quixotic quest to bring short-form A-list streaming content to the masses failed spectacularly, lasting all of seven months in 2020. Once it officially folded, Quibi became both a cautionary tale and an all-purpose punch line for jokes about doomed media projects.
Heres the thing, though: For all its flaws, the “quick bites” concept now seems rather prescient.
Quibi launched in April 2020, at the dawn of the pandemic, about a split-second before TikTok exploded. At the time, the average U.S. social media user had not yet internalized the habit of swiftly thumbing through a succession of vertical videos, nor had TikTok yet matured into a marketing juggernaut. (Indeed, microdrama studios now frequently seed samples on TikTok to reel in fresh viewers.)
If theyd launched two years later, we’d probably be telling a very different story now, says Cineverse president Erick Opeka, who is part of the MicroCo team.
It wasnt just the length of the clips that sank Quibi. The company banked on repackaging star-driven cable-style shows into bite-size chunks. If consumers had wanted to see so-so cable TV shows in seven-minute increments, well, there were already plenty of streaming apps aroundand all of them came equipped with pause buttons. What potential viewers seemed to want, in retrospect, was something they hadnt seen before.
Quibi was less microdrama and more micro-TV show, says Sammi Cohen, a tech and culture influencer who runs the YouTube channel and podcast Social Currency. The concept made so much sense to me, though; as people have shorter and shorter attention spans, it seemed like the obvious direction shift for the entertainment industry.
Katzenbergs venture had the right tech too early, and with the wrong content. Microdramas, however, seem to have arrived right on scheduleand many viewers are now quick to bite.
All gas, no brakes
These shows arent just TV that’s been shrunk down. They thrive on hyper-speed pacing, heightened dialogue, and Kabuki-level performances.
A conventional three-act structure in cinema requires 20 to 30 minutes spent setting up the characters and their goals, followed by another 40 to 50 minutes of compelling complications, and finally, 20 to 30 minutes of resolution. Microdramas, however, speed-run much of that process and fill it with the emerging conventions of the format, such as hidden identities, rescue moments, and love-triangle showdowns.
In effect, that means ubtlety is out, and nearly every episode ends on a cliffhanger. (Viewers will never have to question, for instance, the motives of Escaping the Bridezilla’s protagonist as she tears through one conflict after another.)
Its a format designed for a generation hyper-exposed to endless streams of content, where you must capture attention instantly and sustain it across 50 or 60 episodes,” says Mauricio Osaki, a filmmaker with several microdramas to his credit, including 2025’s Fight for Love, the most-watched English-language series on Vigloo.
Closed-captioning is standard, so viewers can keep up while watching with the sound off during downtime in a college classroom, during a Zoom meeting, or at their kids Little League game. (The latter seems more likely, too, given that 70% of Vigloos viewership is over the age of 35.)
Its not really meant to be sat down and fully engaged with, says Tristan McKenzie, a young filmmaker who has been producing microdramas, like this years Under the Hood, since 2022. It’s a new type of media, in a language that’s actively being created.
How your microdrama sausage is made
As several creators who spoke with Fast Company tell it, the all-gas-no-brakes urgency of these series carries over to production. Microdramas come together with head-spinning speed and efficiency, going from concept to streaming in a matter of months or even weeks. Budgets are tight, typically in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.
Apps like Vigloo look for creative partners who have already notched vertical hits, or those who seem most open to working in an experimental style and with limited resources. Those who deliver highly viewed shows for the app tend to come back for more, with the two sides working hand in glove to optimize the material. According to Osaki, who has made several microdramas with Vigloo, the company regularly shares data with returning collaborators.
The data may reveal patternsmoments when viewers skip ahead or exit the story,” he says. “When we see those weak points, we rework them in future scripts, whether its adding a dramatic element, shifting when a reveal happens, or strengthening a cliffhanger.”
Because microdramas are tailored for vertical viewing, they require not only the ability to work lean, but also with a vastly different approach to visual storytelling. The 9:16 aspect ratio makes for a more intimate format, with much less room in each frame to add directorial razzle-dazzle. Instead, microdrama creators tend to focus heavily on the interactions between people, and what they are doing with their facessometimes with the assistance of an inner monologue.
You can’t really do expansive vistas and big special effects, Opeka says.
The industry has already spun up its own talent ecosystem to form a kind of MicroHollywood. Actor Kasey Esser, dubbed the Brad Pitt of microdramas by The Ankler, has starred in more than 50 vertical shows and now writes and produces them as well. Beyond Esser, a growing roster of recognizable, camera-ready actors has emergedenough that, according to Choi, many Vigloo subscribers in the U.S. pick shows based largely on whos in the cast.
Given that these projects operate outside the traditional entertainment system, theyre unsurprisingly non-union productions. Many of them also rely on AI to some degree, a practice still largely frowned on in Hollywood, as evidenced by this years Oscars fracas around minor AI usage in The Brutalist.
For us, the question isnt whether to use AI, but how to apply it creatively and responsibly, Choi says.
The CEO claims that Vigloo has been testing AI in post-production, visual effects, and marketing assets. Considering how quickly Vigloos rival studios are churning out content, though, and how cookie-cutter the dialogue can get, it seems inevitable that some series are (or will be) written with AI. As for MicroCo, although Braun has signaled his intention to use AI tools to keep costs down, Opeka says the team has no plans for using them on the storytelling side.
My perception is that AI scriptwriting is just not ready for prime time, he says.
Microdramas, American-style
The shows geared toward U.S. audiences have started to develop their own identity. Romance is still the top genre everywhere, but some subgenres have especially taken off stateside. Romantasy titles, like Vigloos A Vampire in the Alphas Den, are huge in the U.S., the epicenter of BookTok, as are sports romances and high school-set dramas.
The storytelling is definitely adapting [for Western audiences,] Osaki says. Compared to Asian IP, there are fewer toxic relationships; stronger, more empowered female characters; and the narratives are beginning to reflect settings and cultural touchpoints that feel distinctly American. (One show, for example, takes place during spring break.)
Microdramas are on the verge of becoming even more Americanized as MicroCo assembles its in-house team of writers and prepares to flood the zone with fresh content. The team is wary, however, of messing too much with a winning formula.
Romance is working very well in the microdrama space, and so we want to lean into that, says MicroCo CEO Jana Winograde. But it will have the same formatted nature. We’re not trying to change what it is.
Beyond content, the fledgling company also aims to shake up the tech. Winograde says the app wont just host viewing but will add social featuresletting users like, comment, clip, share, and engage in ways the team hasnt yet disclosed.
We all wanted to make watercooler TV, she says, and now we have this thing in our hands that is both the TV and the watercooler.
Microdramas may be light-years away from Hollywood film and television, but as audiences continue flocking to the bite-size series, the industry may have little choice but to rethink what storytelling looks like in the palm of a hand.
Ultimately, humans will always crave stories, Osaki says. “Thats part of who we are. And well continue to explore new ways to tell them.
