Juliet Bennett Rylah

Mental health apps are changing strategies

Sometimes looking for a therapist is so frustrating, you need a therapist just to talk about that. In the US, patients face financial barriers, confusing insurance systems, too few providers, and long wait times. Tech startups have tried to make it…

Yahoo is betting on a clickbait powerhouse

Yahoo and its yodel ruled the late ‘90s internet — but in the years since, it’s seen ups, downs, and a whole lot of acquisitions. So, what’s next? This week, Yahoo announced a ~25% stake in ad company Taboola, per TechCrunch. Taboola provides…

Singles want partners who vote

There’s apparently no hotter accessory than an “I voted” sticker. Tinder dropped its “Year in Swipe” this week, revealing an interest in political engagement among its users: 47% of surveyed singles said not voting is a deal breaker; 53% said regular…

Let’s talk about dabloons

Doubloons were Spanish gold coins coveted by pirates. Dabloons are something else — an elaborate, entirely user-generated TikTok game surrounding a fake currency. It started with a cat In 2021, an image of a kitten’s paw with the caption “4 dabloons”…

Black Friday boomed online

For a shopping holiday known for overnight campouts and irrational customer behavior, in-person retail was kinda mild. Although in-person visits increased 2.9% from last year, analysts told Retail Dive that the long queues of yore had vanished, while…

What happened to Beyond Meat?

Plant-based meat sales have slowed amid inflation, health concerns, and company fumbles. Beyond Meat was soaring when it went public in 2019. Its faux-meats popped up in myriad restaurant and grocery chains, and at one point it reached a $10B+…

Why even QVC has a holiday rom-com

QVC, best known as a home shopping channel, is producing a holiday movie, Holly & the Hot Chocolate. And yes, it’s a romance between a big-city gal and a small-town guy. The movie will drop on the network’s free streaming service, QVC+, on…

The problem with rental applications

Moving sucks. Making matters worse, a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found tenant screening reports are often inaccurate. How it works In the US, prospective tenants pay an average of $40-$59 to apply for an apartment,…

Everyone loves Cheez-It

The humble Cheez-It: salty, flaky, flavored with real cheddar cheese, perfect in its simplicity. The crackers generate $1B in annual sales, and have become a top bet for owner Kellogg, per Food Dive. Wait, doesn’t Kellogg do cereal? Sure, but cereal…

One fake Tweet may have cost Twitter a lot

Twitter owner Elon Musk recently announced anyone could get a verified blue check for $8/mo. Chaos ensued. Last Thursday, Eli Lilly and Co. appeared to tweet that insulin would be free, but it was actually someone posing as the pharma giant after…

Young people want EVs… but their wallets don’t

Gen Z apparently thinks EVs are “cool,” per a survey from auto insurance platform Jerry. They and millennials are the generations most interested in purchasing electric vehicles, citing climate worries and rising gas prices as additional reasons. The…

Hangover-free beer is in

Nonalcoholic alternatives were often shunned because, well, they didn’t taste great. That’s what inspired Athletic Brewing co-founders John Walker and Bill Shufelt to brew 100+ test beers to find a process that yielded a tasty booze-free beer. Today,…

TikTok vs. record labels

In the beginning, TikTok paid labels a flat fee to license music for use in users’ videos. Today, TikTok is massive: It earned $4B in revenue in 2021 and is on track to earn $12B in 2022. There are 1B+ users with videos featuring music on the…

Airbnb guests don’t want to pay to do chores

Airbnb once offered affordable travel that made you feel like a local. Now, prices — and cleaning fees — often exceed those of hotels, while faceless serial hosts are more likely to leave a lockbox code and a list of chores than sightseeing tips.…

The top posthumous earners

They say you can’t take it with you, but you can apparently keep earning big bucks after you’ve died. Forbes revealed the year’s 13 top-earning dead celebrities. Collectively, they’ve earned $1.6B, up 72% from last year and the biggest take since…

How Massachusetts’ election could change dental insurance

Dental insurance is confusing, and not just because you need entirely separate insurance just for your mouth bones. There’s also very little transparency into how insurers spend their money — something a Massachusetts ballot initiative aims to…

Pay transparency is coming

NYC’s pay transparency laws went into effect this week. If you’re considering a new job, you want to know how much it pays, right? But how often do you find bullshit non-info like “competitive” instead? In NYC, employment agencies and businesses with…

The future of Miss Universe

It’s unclear what the winner of the Miss Universe pageant receives, but it’s rumored to include a six-figure salary, a free apartment and travel, and numerous other perks. The Miss Universe Organization was just bought by Thai entrepreneur Anne…

Pantone colors are disappearing from Adobe

Things are about to get less colorful for Adobe software users. Pantone is paywalling 15k colors in products including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign this month, per Vice. For designers who don’t pay up, some colors will switch to black. What’s…

Sorry, night owls — restaurants are closing early

Late-night bites are out. Dinner at 6pm is in. A new report from restaurant data platform Datassential found that US restaurants’ weekly operating hours are down by 7.5% on average, or 6.4 hours per week, compared to 2019. Overall, 58.6% of US…