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For women reading this article, how old were you when you received your first sexual advance from a man? For men reading, ask any woman you know. Better yet, ask several of them. I bet their answers turn your stomach. In late September, The Guardian reported that Meta used back-to-school photos of teenage girls to advertise the Threads app to fully grown men. Girls as young as 13. These photos were posted by regular moms on Facebook and Instagram, some of whom had their profiles set to private. The photos of girls in their school uniforms appeared in-feed as advertisements resembling organic suggested threads posts, or were outright cross-posted without consent. Their faces werent hidden or blurred. In fact, some ads even bore the childs real name. According to one mother with fewer than 300 Instagram followers, the cross-posted photo of her 15-year-old daughter garnered almost 7,000 views, with 90% of them from nonfollowers. Also, 90% of the views came from men, half from men at least in their forties. TRUST AND POLICIES This reporting sent me reeling back into my memories of high school and earlier. Memories Ive never re-examined or tried to make sense of as an adult. I talked it out with my best friend, and we were both taken aback by how common, how frequent this harassment was visited upon us and our peers. I polled another friend, who grew up in a completely separate part of the country. Yep, they said. We lost at least one teacher every year to that kind of thing. Of course, a Meta spokesperson said the images didnt violate their policies and blah blah blah. I and others have written extensively about Metas history of manipulating its users. I dont know why they trust me, dumb fucks, Zuckerberg wrote of the early Facebook users, while he was still at Harvard around 20 years ago. Ill note here that before Facebook, then-college sophomore Zuckerberg created a website called Facemash, where people could vote on the attractiveness of Harvards female students. He got the girls photos by hacking into the universitys official directories. WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU WHO THEY ARE, BELIEVE THEM Zuckerberg, like Elon Musk, hit the millionaire mark in his twenties. Sometimes I wonder if theres some sort of arrested development thing happening here. As Musk turns up the Nazi and porn dials on X and Zuckerberg rebrands himself as a jiu jitsu guy, it has never been clearer to me that we are all suffering a world in which morally stunted men wield immense power, often with a sneer. Dumb fucks. Thats what they think when we trust them. Even if they present themselves before Congress as mild, soft-spoken brainiacs, I dont think they cant be trusted to police themselves or remediate harmful aspects of their platforms. In my opinion, simple, common decency seems beyond their reach. THE NEED FOR REGULATION I desperately hope regulations take shape that curb the exploitation of our minds, bodies, and identities for the financial gain of any company. And in this specific case, it feels fairly minimal to me that it should illegal for companies like Meta to use our personal images, especially minors, without explicit, informed consent. We need clear laws that prevent teen content from being served to adult audiences. Platforms should be required to prove how their algorithms target and amplify posts, and to give families real legal recourse when their childrens photos are repurposed as ad bait. Until we have that kind of accountability, these platforms will keep hiding behind their terms of service while building empires on our faces, our trust, and our kids. As we wait and advocate for those regulations, I have to ask: At what point do these platforms become so flagrantly harmful, manipulative, and bot-bloated that we are compelled to divest our time and attention away from them? Lindsey Witmer Collins is CEO of WLCM App Studio and CEO of Scribbly.
Category:
E-Commerce
In September, the U.S. Labor Department reported that weekly applications for unemployment aid jumped by 27,000 to 263,000, the highest in four years and a warning sign for the future of low-income populations. And at a time when government policy couldnt be less interested in addressing systemic economic disparities, solving these issues will depend on the ability of business leaders to listen, learn, and come together to tackle the socioeconomic issues impacting a majority of Americans every day. Ive seen these challenges up close for years in my New York Capital Region homeand the challenges are just as present in cities around the U.S. So on a national level, one thing is clear. If were going to help close the wealth gap, we need to focus on two foundational pillars: workforce development and housing affordability. A HANDS-ON APPROACH TO WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT From our foundations local work, I can confidently say that revitalizing underserved communities simply isnt possible without first developing and fostering a strong workforce, a task that will likely face a wide range of critical challenges in the coming decade. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy is projected to create 5.2 million new jobs between now and 2034. However, the situation looks less optimistic when you consider that so many workers today remain underemployed and cant find access to quality opportunities. The countrys already massive wealth gap only continues to grow, with nearly 70% of U.S. wealth belonging to the top 10% of earners, compared to a mere 3% owned by the bottom 50%, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This level of income inequality is not only deeply unconscionable but unsustainable, and it almost certainly wont be fixed by simply creating more jobs. Instead, what private and public sector leaders should focus on is ensuring access to quality education and job training that aligns with local economic opportunities, equipping residents with the skills and credentials needed to obtain and thrive in roles that provide more than a barely livable wage. While this kind of work requires more of business leaders than pulling out a checkbook, the hands-on approach is also extremely effective. In just five years, the model I created through the Business for Good Foundation in supporting local organizations and business has resulted in a variety of new and expansive opportunities for the regions underserved populations. This includes the revitalization of Albanys Black Chamber of Commerce, a pivotal source of mentorship and networking opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. It also includes ongoing support for career training and fellowship programs in essential areas like education and healthcare, such as Teach Brother Teach and Pulse Career Solutions. GET REAL ABOUT U.S. HOUSING AFFORDABILITY At the same time, no workforce initiative will succeed if people dont have stable housing. A good start would be simply acknowledging that were currently facing a full-blown housing crisis, in which supply shortages are colliding with rising home and rent prices to disastrous effect. This, of course, impacts every state and region across the U.S., but particularly communities that have already been disadvantaged by the market for decades. For example, close to 1,000 properties in Albany today are abandoned, according to the citys vacant properties registry, most of which are in low-income neighborhoods that have historically borne the impacts of illegal and discriminatory redlining practices. In other major cities, like Atlanta, where I recently spoke at the ForbesBLK Summit, the cost of rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment is now equal to 132% of a federal minimum-wage workers monthly income. These are just two of many examples underscoring the clear and urgent need to both increase access to quality, affordable housing and reduce displacement among vulnerable populations in the U.S. And again, with no generalized fix at our disposal, these are issues that will require active engagement with communities and policymakers to come up with highly creative and localized solutions. In the New York Capital Region, for example, Governor Hochul recently announced the launch of MOVE-IN NY, a program aimed at improving housing affordability through accelerated construction and the use of low-cost, modular building materials. Backed by multiple state agencies and private sector developers, the initiative offers a new way to build on the critical, hands-on work already being done in parallel by our foundation, and other nonprofit entities in the area, including the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless, as well as the Veterans & Community Housing Coalition, whose Foreverly House project provides shelter and essential support for unhoused female veterans living with children. CONNECT WITH OTHER LEADERS Of course, these efforts represent only the start of an uphill battle, and models like our pilot program will be significantly more effective with the support of other like-minded business leaders across the country. But its clear we need more programs like this, and in cities with strong business hubs like that of Atlanta, theres a prime opportunity to create one. Now is the time to connect with other leaders who share a vision of closing the wealth gap by tackling systemic barriers in housing and workforce development. These issues arent abstract; they affect real people, real families, and the long-term health of our communities. My call to my peers is simple: Join us. Partner, collaborate, and scale whats already working. Together, we can create a blueprint for communities across the country to thrive. Ed Mitzen is cofounder of Business for Good Foundation.
Category:
E-Commerce
In a crowded market, building strong, lasting relationships is one of the biggest differentiators a business can create. And while product-market fit is table stakes, true customer loyalty comes from putting people at the center of the product experience. Overlooking that opportunity can leave growth on the table. The companies that stand out are the ones that design not just for functionality, but for connection, trust, and stickiness. These three overlooked pillars help transform software from a useful tool into an essential partner. 1. Engagement that drives daily value The most successful products give customers reasons to return again and again, not just when they need to solve a problem, but as part of their everyday workflow. Regular, meaningful touchpoints remind users of the value you deliver and strengthen the habit of coming back. Take Shopify. Your online store may run automatically, but Shopify keeps merchants engaged with real-time sales notifications, performance dashboards, and promotional insights. A cha-ching alert for a new order or a traffic spike becomes a small but powerful reason to log in. Over time, these touchpoints transform a back-office necessity into a daily habit, making Shopify central to how merchants run their businesses. When evaluating software, ask yourself: How often are customers logging in? Are they engaging deeply with features, or just skimming the surface? Are you giving them insights and reminders that matter in real time? Companies that build engagement into their productthrough reports, dashboards, notifications, or personalized nudgesensure customers not only see value but experience it consistently. Over time, those moments turn into loyalty. 2. Integration that feels effortless No matter how powerful your product is, it risks being sidelined if it doesnt fit seamlessly into the tools and workflows customers already rely on. People want solutions that just work, eliminating friction rather than creating it. Consider QuickBooks. Beyond bookkeeping, it integrates seamlessly with banks, payroll systems, and payment platforms. These connections remove the manual work of reconciling accounts or entering transactions multiple times. By fitting naturally into the existing workflow, QuickBooks ensures that customers rely on it not just for accounting, but for running the financial side of their business every day. This kind of integration turns a once-in-a-while task into a central part of daily operations, boosting adoption and creating advocates inside the organization. Seamless integration ensures adoption doesnt stall and that your champions inside the business keep their credibility. By offering native integrations, robust APIs, or automation that connects the dots, you reduce the hidden costs of manual workarounds and help your product feel like a natural part of the stack. When your software is easy to adopt, easy to use, and easy to connect, it becomes harder to replace, and more likely to spread organically across teams. 3. Embedded value that makes your product indispensable Customers stay with products that go beyond solving a single problem and become central to how they work and make decisions. The best software identifies the moments when customers would otherwise have to leave your platformand bring those capabilities inside. Uber Eats Manager is a great example here. Its not just an ordering platform; it provides restaurant owners with daily insights into orders, peak hours, menu performance, promotional recommendations, and even merchant financing. By surfacing actionable data directly where owners manage their business, Uber Eats gives them a reason to keep logging in every day. This embedded value reduces the need to track information elsewhere, making the platform indispensable for day-to-day operations. That doesnt mean adding features for the sake of it. It means embedding value where it matters most. Whether its surfacing insights at the right time, streamlining a workflow end-to-end, or offering complementary tools like embedded finance, these touches eliminate the need for external solutions and create deeper reliance on your product. When customers see your platform as the place where multiple needs are met, it stops being optional and becomes essential. THE BOTTOM LINE Customer relationships are the real engine of software growth. Companies that invest in engagement, seamless integration, and embedded value not only reduce churn and reduce the burden of CAC, they also create advocates who expand adoption, share their success stories, and accelerate growth. By focusing on these three overlooked pillars, your software evolves from being another app in the stack to becoming a trusted partner in your customers success. And thats the kind of relationship that lasts. Luke Voiles is the CEO at Pipe.
Category:
E-Commerce
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