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Just a handful of years ago, the idea of one person creating a company worth over a billion dollars seemed like a pipe dream. Thanks to rapid advancements in AI, the possibility of a solopreneur unicorn is less a matter of “if and more a matter of when. Earlier this year, OpenAI founder Sam Altman told Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian that his group chat of tech CEO friends have a betting pool for when the world will see a one-person billion-dollar company. Ten months later, some experts suggest that the company could be founded in 2026, if it hasn’t been already, due to rapid advancements in agentic AI. The ability of a person to scale themselves, to automate their lives, has just become amazing, says Kyle Jensen, the director of entrepreneurship programs, associate dean and professor in the practice of entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management. If you’re very skilled with those tools, you can have the productivity of 10 people. Jensen adds that solopreneurship has historically been more akin to mom-and-pop-style small business ownership, with practitioners selling goods and services through the internet. While many solopreneurs still fit that mold, he sees another kind of solopreneur emerging; one that better resembles a high-growth startup, using new tools in lieu of hiring. There have been a handful of companies that had private market valuations in excess of a billion dollars with very small teamsWhatsApp is a very famous example, he says. What is the probability that you’ll see a solo-entrepreneur who’s like, some engineer from Google, who decided she doesn’t want to do that anymoreand she’s going to do her AI startup from home, and become the first unicorn? I think its a pretty decent probability. Unicorns are shrinking The first one-person company to surpass a billion dollars may not be all that far off. In recent years some one-person businesses have achieved smaller, yet still eye-popping valuations. At the same time the record for smallest unicorn company keeps getting broken. Earlier this year, for example, solopreneur Maor Sholomo sold his AI app-building platform Base44 to website builder Wix for $80 million, just six months after launch. Instagram had only 13 employees when it was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012. One of those cofounders, Mike Krieger, went on to found Anthropic in 2021, which was recently valued at $350 billion. Speaking with Fast Company earlier this year, Krieger suggested the one-person unicorn is closer than you think. It feels like every month were getting closer and closer, says Anthropics Head of Startup Sales, Jamie Neuwirth. Companies that we’re working with, for example, at Y Combinator who are very smallusually two or three peoplethey’re getting to market faster, and that opportunity for them to become a unicorn is very real. A virtual cofounder In the recent past, solopreneurs were able to automate certain operations, but it often required a high degree of technical know-how and many hours of building custom tools. Now, Neuwirth says AI tools like Anthropics AI assistant Claude can serve as a collaborator, taking on more advanced and critical tasks, without requiring founders to have a deep technical background. I think of AIand Claude in particularas everything from this virtual collaborator to a kind of the chief of staff, but the way I think about it when it comes to solopreneurs is more of your virtual cofounder, he says. You can have a less technical background, and there’s still a lot that can be achieved with these tools. Where to look for solo unicorns In recent months, AI companies like Base 44, Anthropic, and Swedish vibe coding app Loveablewhich lets users build apps and websites by describing it in plain languagehave dominated the headlines with eye-popping valuations, but Neuwirth says the first one-person unicorn wont necessarily emerge from the AI field. Thats because those very solutions are allowing small teams and individuals to build, test, prototype, and ultimately sell technical solutions without deep technical skills. As the model capabilities get a lot better, I think we’re going to see it come from different industries, he says. To me, it goes back to, where is the need immediate, and the market really big? One sector Neuwirth believes is ripe for a first solo-unicorn is healthcare, where he says there are lots of legacy practices and processes, and a massive, global market eager for innovation. Tim Cortinovis, speaker and author of The Single-Handed Unicorn, meanwhile, believes the first one-person billion-dollar company will offer an easy interface to a complicated process, or a simple solution to a universal problem. If you are able to put in a very easy interface between agents and the tasks at hand in, let’s say, a heavy machinery industry or the energy sector, I think this will solve a massive problem, he says. My advice is, dont try to create the first single-handed unicorn, but try to solve a huge problem. You wont win the game by thinking about winning. The first solo unicorn may have already been born Though it may take that solopreneur founder several years to reach a 10-figure valuation, Cortinovis says 2025 will go down as the year that the necessary tools to accomplish such a feat became available. In other words, it is possible that the first individual who will accomplish that feat has already begun building their business. In 2025 we reached the capacities of AI agents to accomplish these complicated tasks and orchestration, Cortinovis says, explaining that this year AI broke out of the chatbot box and is now able to work with other tools and apps to complete more complicated tasks, like build apps and websites, manage a marketing campaign, or handle more complicated customer service inquiries. Maybe we will see the first results at the end of ’26 or at the beginning of ’27 and then maybe two years later well get the first real single-handed unicorn on the market with that valuation. Whenever that one-person company does emerge, Cortinovis says the implications would extend well beyond the individual founder. I think it opens up the path for more people [to pursue entrepreneurship] because it proves you don#8217;t need an extensive team, you don’t need to start hiring massively to start an enterprise, he says. It symbolizes a new wave of founders. Even if youre not going after a massive valuation, it will make them more willing to found an enterprise, because it shows how much easier it is with the technology.
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E-Commerce
For the past 99 years at Macys annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, spectators have craned their necks to watch giant balloons and larger-than-life floats pass through the streets of New York City. But a word to the wise this year: Dont forget to look down. You might just catch a glimpse of the tiniest float in the parades history. The floatwhich is 49 times smaller than the average displaycomes courtesy of Goldfish, which is returning to the parade for the first time in more than a decade. The floats design features a wintery snowscape covered with frolicking Goldfish crackers towed by an equally tiny Ram truck. According to Brendan Kennedy, director of creative production at Macys Studios, the float measures less than 8 inches tall and 14 inches long. Throughout the parade, it will be circling Herald Square, just outside Macys department store. [Photo: Goldfish] Kennedy, who stepped into his role at the helm of the parade in April 2024, says hes been spending quite a bit of time digging through the events history for its upcoming centennial anniversary. In all that research, hes never come across another float quite like this one. I don’t think this has ever come close to happening, Kennedy says. [Photo: Goldfish] Inside Goldfishs return to the parade Every year, Kennedy says the team at Macys is working around 18 months ahead of time to prepare for the next Thanksgiving parade: ensuring the event will have enough street space, selecting brand partners, and ironing out the production schedule. The floats themselves take anywhere from three to six months to fully plan and design. When Goldfish reached out to Macys with the idea to build what the company is calling the Littlest Float in early September, Kennedy says the team was already in the home stretch of building this years six new floats. Despite the quick turnaround, he knew they had to make it happen. I got a call from our partnership team, and they said Goldfish has this idea, what do you think? Kennedy says. I was like, Absolutely. I’m in. Designing a new float always starts with nailing down a solid story, Kennedy says. In this case, the Goldfish and Macys teams pulled inspiration from Snow Day, a Goldfish ad originally released in 2015 that shows a crew of three hat-wearing Goldfish crackers sledding, playing hockey, building snowmen, and warming up by the fire. The floats mock-up included a team of Goldfish enjoying wintery activities in a snowy landscape, topped off by a Goldfish-shaped mound of snow. The last time Goldfish was in the parade was back in 2012, when the brand debuted a somewhat meta float of Goldfish crackers putting on their own parade. “After more than a decade, returning with the Littlest Float allowed us to show up in a way that feels both true to the brand and meaningful to fans, says Mike Fanelli, the brand’s senior director of marketing. [Photo: Goldfish] Bringing the tiniest Thanksgiving float ever to life Bringing the design to life was an entirely new challenge for the Macys team. Typically, Kennedy explains, theyre contending with the massive scale of the floats, which need to be simultaneously spectacular but also street-safe and foldable in order to pack up for transport. Designing a tiny float invited its own host of unique considerations: namely, how to make the wintery scene durable at such a small size. Kennedys team addressed that concern by building a custom base, which is hidden by a lining of orange fringe around the float. Its an aluminum structure, made in the shape of a Goldfish cracker, that was hand-cut in-house. Kennedy describes it as essentially a thick skateboard. Most important for the floats longevity, its wheels are omnidirectional, meaning it wont easily be tripped up on uneven surfaces. [The wheels] kind of look like a Ping-Pong ball inside of a metal scoop, Kennedy says. They’re used in robotics a lot of the time. We found that these worked best because of their omnidirectional ability. A traditional float bed just has to roll straight and then turn, and it’s just these big old tires. But for this, it could basically go in any direction at any point. [Photo: Goldfish] On top of the aluminum base, the part of the Littlest Float thats actually visible is a 3D-printed landscape thats been sanded down and hand-painted to achieve a detailed look up close. As a finishing touch, the whole contraption is pulled by a tiny Ram truck with workable blinkers and side mirrors, manufactured by a company called Primal RC that makes an officially licensed miniature of the vehicle. Kennedy says this element was important for continuity, since Ram is a sponsor of the parade, and its trucks will be pulling all the standard-size floats. To get the right shot of the diminutive float, the Macys team worked with NBC, the parades broadcast partner, to set up a dedicated steady rig camera that sits just 6 inches off the ground. On the day of the event, a team of actorspurposefully selected to be above-average height in order to play up the conceitwill follow the Littlest Float around the square and keep an eye on it. I think it’s really fun and silly, and it’s such a good way of showing how the Macy’s Studios team can come together and reinvent what it means to parade, Kennedy says. It’s clowns, and performances, and magicto make everybody look up, see some balloons, forget about their day or week or year, and just have some fun. We really just like coming up with new ways to do that for all the folks on the street and at home.
Category:
E-Commerce
Thanksgiving is a beautiful day filled with family, loved ones, and good food. All that merriment takes copious amounts of labor and planning ahead. It is almost inevitable that something will fall between the cracks and a last-minute store run will be necessary. But is that even possible? Heres a quick breakdown of what is open and closed on Thanksgiving 2025 to help you out in a pinch should you have a missing cranberry sauce crisis. But first lets take a look at everyday services: Is Thanksgiving a federal holiday? Yes, Thanksgiving is a federal holiday celebrated annually in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. This makes November 27 the big day in 2025. Federal workers get a day off to observe the holiday. Will mail be delivered on Thanksgiving? No, there will be no letter or bills delivered on Thanksgiving. The only exception is Priority Mail Express. The United States Postal Service (USPS) will keep post offices closed, but some self-service kiosks will still be open. UPS will also be closed and not delivering on turkey day. The only exception is UPS Express Critical service. Similarly, FedEx locations will be closed. The only deliveries being made on Thanksgiving day are FedEx Custom Critical. Are banks open on Thanksgiving? No, banks are not open on Thanksgiving day. If you need some cash, though, ATMs outside of locations are generally open. Online banking is also an option. Is the stock market trading on Thanksgiving? No. Both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq exchange will be closed for business. No opening bells will ring out. What stores are open on Thanksgiving? Its time to get into the cranberry sauce of it all. The following stores are open. Grocery stores Whole Foods: Open with limited hours. Hours vary by location Sprouts: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. H Mart: Hours vary by location. Kroger: Some stores open with limited hours and a 5 p.m. closing time. Some pharmacies will be closed. Meijer: 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Save A Lot: Hours vary by location Retailers Starbucks: Hours vary by location Dollar General: Hours vary by location Family Dollar: Hours vary by location Bass Pro Shops: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Big Lots: Most open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. but hours vary by location. Cabelas: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. What stores are closed on Thanksgiving? Do not try your luck at the following stores, as they will all be closed: Trader Joes Publix Costco Walmart My kid is sick. Are any 24-hour pharmacies open? Many regular Walgreens stores will be closed on Thanksgiving, but its another story for their 24-pharmacy locations. Most of these will be open for business and emergency medicine runs. CVS, meanwhile, is open but with limited holiday hours. If you need medication, be sure to check your local store hours before making a trip.
Category:
E-Commerce
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