Ainsley Harris

This startup romantasy publisher has the book industry swooning

Entangled Publishing, the romantasy publisher behind Rebecca Yarros's hit Empyrean series, is writing a new formula for success in books.

The most innovative companies in finance and personal finance for 2025

Fast Company's 2025 list of the 10 Most Innovative Companies in finance and personal finance includes Nubank, Robinhood, Zip, and more.

Robinhood is winning by giving meme stock traders even more ways to gamble

The company is going all in on 'degen' traders, offering stocks, election and sports betting, and even $TRUMP coin.

How Brazil’s Nubank became the world’s third-largest digital bank

The Brazilian neobank focuses on the practical needs of its Latin American customers, including an oft-overlooked demographic: teenagers.

Scoop: Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global-backed Divvy Homes is being sold for parts to Brookfield Properties

Once valued at nearly $2 billion, Divvy Homes is being acquired in a fire sale by a division of Brookfield Properties.

Zyn, vapes, and the wild rebranding of nicotine

Vapes blew open the nicotine market, leading to a new era of experimentation—and a chance for brands like Zyn, Blip, and Jones to cash in.

Police departments are embracing AI-powered video surveillance. This company is leading the effort

Police departments across the country are buying Flock Safety surveillance cameras and drones in the name of stopping crime.

CRISPR co-creator Jennifer Doudna on watching her groundbreaking gene-editing technology help sickle cell patients: “It’s extraordinary.”

This story is part of a special series celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Fast Company Innovation Festival. When biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her research partner, Emmanuelle Charpentier, published a paper in Science 12 years ago, they had a…

23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki wants to take the struggling company private—then comes the real work

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing pioneer 23andMe unveiled a new product in May. Cofounder and CEO Anne Wojcicki had long promised that 23andMe would democratize genetics and, in the process, unleash a health revolution based on personalized genomic…

Democrats rely on this platform for grassroots donations—maybe they shouldn’t

With democracy on the line yet again in November, millions of progressive voters will do what they’ve been conditioned to do: They’ll open their digital wallets to try to save it. A practice that initially took off among anti–Iraq War protesters in…

Tech bro podcasts are obsessed with alpha men, and it’s dangerous for the rest of us

Jeff Bezos is a busy man. But in December, he found the time—two hours and 11 minutes, to be exact—to talk with Lex Fridman, a computer scientist and host of the Lex Fridman Podcast. Fridman’s podcast is the most popular in the technology category,…

Here’s how Sequoia teaches founders to find product-market fit

Sequoia Capital is one of the best-performing venture firms in Silicon Valley, thanks to bets on companies including Apple, Cisco, Google, Instagram, and Stripe. When Sequoia started Arc, an accelerator program for pre-seed and seed-stage startups,…

This digital deposit marketplace helps smaller banks take on Wall Street giants

ModernFi had the good fortune to launch around the same time that banks across the country were reminded, thanks to Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, that managing deposit levels is of the utmost importance. Historically, small and midsize banks have…

This company uses generative AI to generate savings for businesses

More than 10,000 businesses have signed up for spend management platform Ramp over the past year. That growth helped quadruple Ramp’s annualized revenue, which topped $300 million in 2023. Strong demand also positioned Ramp to close a $300 million…

How to process a trillion in transactions by replacing spreadsheets

Logistics, a $76 trillion industry still reliant on antiquated technology, has attracted a fleet of modernizing startups. Enable stands out by focusing on an arcane but valuable niche: the B2B rebates that accompany contracts between retailers,…

This company gives immigrants credit scores where credit is due

Credit histories don’t typically travel with immigrants across borders, leaving many newcomers without access to financial services. Nova Credit bridges that gap with such tools as income verification and Credit Passport, which translates…

This company created a digital wallet for global workforces

Papaya Global makes it possible for companies to manage far-flung employees taking advantage of remote work’s globetrotting possibilities. Founded in 2016, Papaya built momentum during the pandemic, leading to a $250 million Series D that it raised…

The most innovative companies in personal finance for 2024

Cash? Never heard of it. These days, consumers expect their financial services to be instant and digital. The sector’s top performers are meeting this demand with services that feel effortless. Among neobanks, Revolutis this year’s lone honoree. As…

This startup helps student debtors move from payments to planning

Most companies help their employees save for retirement. But for a generation burdened with student loan debt, paying off those balances is often a higher priority. Candidly, a New York-based startup which started working on this problem in 2016,…

The most innovative companies in finance for 2024

The downturn that many economists expected to see in 2023 has yet to transpire. Even so, businesses are highly attuned to that risk, and the top-performing financial services companies from this past year are taking advantage. There’s Ramp, a spend…