Patty Arvielo built her company, New American Funding, to weather uncertainty and she still finds time to pay it forward.  P atty Arvielo had her full-circle moment 15 years ago. At a sales meeting in Downey, California, she ran into the owner of a real estate business whose offices she used to clean. “I remember those offices,” muses Arvielo, who as a teen used to help her mother, a Mexican immigrant, with her cleaning business. Arvielo isn’t ashamed of her career history.

I got to interview tennis legend Billie Jean King and her wife Ilana Kloss for Inc.'s April 2024 Female Founders issue.   Billie Jean...

Now They Run a Thriving Cannabis Brand  Inside the creative minds behind Houseplant, a weed-focused lifestyle brand aiming to class-up cannabis. I wrote this profile of Michael Mohr , Seth Rogen's accomplished business partner and friend, for Inc.'s package on Celebrity Counterparts.    In 2018, the year  Canada legalized recreational weed , the cannabis company known as Houseplant joined forces with the Ontario-based corporation Canopy Growth and went on to scoop up more th

Behind the ‘Shark Tank’ judge’s body-inclusive empire, and why she’s paying it forward to new founders. I wrote this profile for Inc. in 2023. Emma Grede  wants you to know that she’s a college dropout . “I used to have a real hangup about not having a formal education — especially when you start hiring great people,” Grede says. “But it takes all sorts. I’ve had a different path — and that’s really worked for me.” It sure has. Today, Grede, 40, guides two powerhouse fashion

From growing kelp forests to making packaging out of mushrooms, these companies are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from every angle.  I wrote this round-up for Inc.'s Carbon Neutral package, in the May/June 2022 issue .  Entrepreneurs coast to coast are coming up with innovative technologies showing not only that we can live without carbon-based energy, but also that we can thrive without it. From a Maine startup that's growing kelp forests (which can sequester gigatons of

This story appeared in Inc.'s October, 2021 issue, as part of the Female Founders 100. Most jeans manufacturers rely on petroleum-based dyes and pollutants. Tammy Hsu and Michelle Zhu are on a mission to revolutionize the industry with planet-friendly, microbe-based dyes. Michelle Zhu (left) and Tammy Hsu run Huue, a startup developing sustainable textile dyes to replace the ecologically destructive colorants the fashion industry uses. About 20 percent of the world's industri

I've long been intrigued by people who have unconventional jobs. You know, the guy who makes robotic dinosaur models for museums , or the duo who composes the music for the Daily podcast. So it was fitting when my Inc. editors gave me a new column: Who Does That?  My first subject, in the May/ June 2020 issue, is none other than Tyler Malek, the flavor whiz at Salt & Straw. (If you're not familiar with Salt & Straw, it's the Portland-based ice-cream company known for flavo

This story on the evolution of Heath Ceramics appears in the July/August issue of Inc. Mention Heath Ceramics  to design nerds or  high-end restaurateurs , and chances are they'll fawn endlessly over its retro, midcentury tile or brightly glazed stoneware. Heath devotees are nothing new: Since visionary ceramicist Edith Heath and her husband started the company in 1948, enthusiasts have included architect Frank Lloyd Wright and chef Alice Waters. Yet the company likely woul

I wrote about Ben Jacobsen and his Oregon-harvested artisanal sea salt for Inc.'s May issue .  Netarts Bay, a protected estuary on the Oregon Coast, is an ideal spot to harvest salt.                While attending business school  in Copenhagen in 2004, Ben Jacobsen fell in love with Maldon sea salt, the flaky finishing salt prized by chefs. Returning to the United States--landing in  Portland, Oregon --he was shocked to find that no one here was harvesting anything like that