Morning Brew Daily

One year and about 1,000 Zoom happy hours into widespread WFH, here we are...still remote.

The business world has changed because of our collective shift to a remote work model. And while we're doing our best to get work done and connect with the world around us, there is lots of room for improvement.

Priya Parker, a facilitator, strategic advisor and author, joins Business Casual to explore the new world of remote gathering and effective communication.

We know a few things in life to be unavoidable: death, taxes, and the failure of traditional venture capital to fairly fund a diverse array of entrepreneurs. Equity crowdfunding might be able to solve one of those, and it’s not death or taxes.

Today on Business Casual, we’re exploring the ways a more democratic system of fundraising for private-sector businesses (read: equity crowdfunding) might empower more founders from diverse backgrounds.

And we’re doing it with Max Tuchman, the CEO of Caribu who’s seen fundraising from all angles—traditional VC and equity crowdfunding included. Get ready for an entrepreneurial story that’s unmissable.

It’s possible, thanks to the advent of a relatively new financial tool called equity crowdfunding. It’s opening up venture capital—and venture capital returns—to everyone, regardless of how much they make or where they are. Consider this another step toward a fully democratized financial world.

Sounds good, right? Absolutely...but where equity crowdfunding goes, change and its fallout inevitably follow. How might the role of the venture capitalist change if anyone can add “investor” to their Twitter bio? And what might a crowdfunded future mean for eager entrepreneurs?

Today, we’re finding out with Ken Nguyen, cofounder and CEO of the equity crowdfunding platform Republic. Don’t miss it.

For decades, the music industry has existed pretty much absent of innovation. But as the creator economy enables musical talent to take their careers into their own hands...it begs the question: Can record labels survive?

Or will independent creators control the future of this enormous and enormously influential industry? 

We’re considering that very question today with independent musician Flawless Real Talk, a rapper, producer, entrepreneur, and runner-up on Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow hip hop competition series.

So you think you might be the next big thing...how do you get from bedroom pop covers on YouTube to headlining this weekend’s Grammy Awards?

Historically speaking, it’s because you signed to the right label. But as music follows the rest of the economy online and onto social media, that paradigm is shifting.

Today on Business Casual, we explore the role of the modern record label in a music industry in flux with Chris Zarou, founder and president of Visionary Music Group.

We know small businesses are struggling. But what can we as individuals and consumers do to ensure they make it through to the other side of this pandemic?

There are plentiful options—smart legislation, effective regulation, and consumer choice, to name a few—but today on Business Casual, we’re diving deep into one strategy geared toward insulating small businesses from the chill of globalization and multinational competition. 

That strategy: local currencies, or alternative forms of money that can only be used in particular regions. We’re taking the show up to the Berkshires in Massachusetts, where a local currency has kept a small business economy thriving despite...everything.

Small businesses account for 48% of American jobs and 44% of American GDP. What would our economy look like without them?

Unfortunately, we might soon find out.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the year of lockdown that came with it, a vast share of our small business economy has been cornered into financial distress. How did we get here, and, more importantly, how do we bounce back?

Today on Business Casual, Freakonomics co-creator Steven Levitt explains how vital small businesses are to the US economy and what action we can’t afford not to take to keep them afloat. Don’t miss it.

What comes to mind when you think about bankruptcy? Sears? Liquidation sales? The sleepy Zzz emoji? Look, I get it—unless you’re a lawyer or a CFO, bankruptcy probably isn’t something you consider very sexy. Or consider at all.

But chances are, you’re not thinking about bankruptcy in the way you should be. It’s not a last ditch effort for a failure in capitalism. It’s a financial tool rife with opportunity. 

And as we (eventually) move into the post-Covid world, financial tools like bankruptcy used to unlock potential are going to be the actual new normal. It’s time we understood what bankruptcy is, why it matters so much in corporate America, and how it fits into our evolving economy.

Today, get a masterclass on a topic you never knew you needed to know about...bankruptcy. I’m bringing in law professor and bankruptcy expert Jared Ellias to school all of us on the B word.

Over the last month, GameStop’s run and the memes that inspired it have peeled back layers of the stock market few among us had considered. We’ve had a front-row seat to the action, watching as social media irrevocably changes investing.

But one big question remains: Was this really a realignment of the inherent power of the market toward individual investors, or is this a blip on the radar for entrenched institutional investors? And whose job is it to make sure both are protected?

Today on Business Casual, Morning Brew Managing Editor Neal Freyman explains what GameStop and its social roots mean for the future of Wall Street. Don’t miss this one.

It’s time. We’re talking about GameStop, AMC, and the meme stocks that got the entire country watching the stock market this winter.

How did we get here, where do we go next, and how might trading platforms like Robinhood and Public play a role in answering both of those questions? That’s what we’re tackling today on Business Casual with Public’s co-CEO Jannick Malling.  

Because whether you invested in $GME or not, the intense shift in power dynamics on Wall Street and Main Street impact us all. It’s time to learn what increased access means for the future of the stock market—and, importantly, to whom it belongs.