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The restaurant investors behind the success of Dave’s Hot Chicken are making a new nationwide bet on the next-hottest restaurant trend: birria.Mike’s Red Tacos, a San Diego-based birria chain with just two locations, plans to announce on Tuesday a new franchising initiative that will build hundreds of restaurants across the U.S., with support from early-stage backers Bill Phelps and Andrew Feghali, CNBC can report. Financial terms of their investment, which took place in early 2025, were not disclosed.”We just saw that this was a brand and a concept that really had legs to it,” Phelps told CNBC. “And then the…

Klarna’s workforce has halved in the last four years, but its CEO and cofounder says it isn’t done shrinking yet. In an interview with Harry Stebbings on the “20 VC” podcast on Monday, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski talked through the impact of AI and how he expects Klarna’s workforce to drop below 2,000 employees by 2030.He said there are about 3,000 employees at the company right now, down from 7,000 in 2022. This reduction is due to layoffs and “natural attrition” — where employees leave the company, and their roles are not replaced, he said. “Occasionally, we hire somebody here and…

Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday said it will reopen deal talks with Paramount Skydance under a seven-day waiver from Netflix to explore “deficiencies” in Paramount’s offer to buy the entirety of WBD. The legacy media company has a pending transaction with Netflix for its streaming and studio businesses. Paramount launched a hostile tender offer straight to WBD shareholders at $30 per share after losing out to Netflix in a bidding war. “Netflix has provided WBD a limited waiver under the terms of WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix, permitting WBD to engage in discussions with Paramount Skydance (“PSKY”) (NASDAQ: PSKY) for…

Stanley 1913 is ready to go beyond its viral moment.The drinkware company is best known for its Stanley Quencher line of 40-ounce tumblers, which has exploded in popularity since 2020 alongside reusable water bottles. Stanley has ridden that wave with viral product launches that have flown off of shelves. Its collaboration with the “Wicked” movie franchise, for example, caused a frenzy at Target in 2024.Now, Stanley is setting out to show it’s more than a TikTok fad known for limited-edition cup drops.It’s trying to turn a new tide by taking advantage of another hot trend: wellness. Global President Matt Navarro told Business…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Geetha Rajan, a director on the global strategy team at Freshworks, a SaaS company. She’s based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her identity and employment have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’m a director on the global strategy team at Freshworks, where I drive high-priority strategic initiatives that shape the company’s growth, investment decisions, and execution, including on AI adoption.Previously, I spent nearly a decade at PwC advising Fortune 500 companies across healthcare, financial services, and technology on growth strategy and digital…

Minnesota state Rep. Harry Niska testifies before an oversight hearing amid scrutiny over immigration enforcement and recent developments in his state on Feb 12 in Washington, D.C. Brendan Smialowski/AFP hide caption toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota Republicans have defended their decision to welcome social media influencers, including the MAGA-aligned content creator Nick Shirley, into the state to highlight the issue of fraud in Minnesota’s child care programs. What followed was a weeks-long federal immigration enforcement surge that led to upheaval in and around Minneapolis, thousands of arrests and the deaths of two U.S. citizens. Minnesota Democrats have blamed…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sam Perry, 40, who is based in the UK. His employment and redundancy have been verified by Business Insider. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.I’d always wanted to do an MBA. Job listings asked for them, colleagues seemed to get promoted because of them, and I came to see them as a cheat code for reaching the top of the corporate world.But when I was laid off in 2022 from a tech job in my late 30s, I used my mid-five-figure severance package to launch a startup.I 100%…

At Meta’s Manhattan office, employees line up for Mediterranean lamb loaded with mint and pomegranate molasses and dessert options like cassis and pear mousse. At KKR’s headquarters nearby, staff at the private equity firm order from a rotating lunch menu and have access to a full-service barista counter and a smoothie and juice bar.The competition over who does lunch best isn’t confined to the office. A recent debate on X pitted Anthropic’s pre-plated meals against OpenAI’s self-serve setup.”The glib answer is, it’s still cheaper than giving bonuses, stock options, and ownership.Against a backdrop of widespread corporate austerity, at Big Tech,…

“We’re the same age,” I told Ernest Ang, a 24-year-old who opened an eatery two years ago with his grandmother’s recipes.And yet, it feels like we live in different worlds.Every day, he whips up large batches of fried chicken and beef rendang in Singapore’s 90-degree tropical heat. On the other side of the island, in the glitzy financial district, I write about the Trump administration and the general chaos of the world.I started my first job in a newsroom after graduating from college in 2024, diving headfirst into the corporate grind. I sign off at 5:30 p.m. and value the…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nic Huzz, 28, who quit a Sydney-based venture capital job to run a silent disco business in Bali, Indonesia. It has been edited for length and clarity.I was never one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up.When I was six, we were asked to draw a picture of our future job. I stared at a blank page until I remembered a weekend trip to the mall with my mom, where I’d wandered into a game store and decided the owner must get to play…