• Refraction AI's last-mile delivery robot, the REV-1, is completing lunch deliveries in Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Customers who live within the 2.5-mile delivery radius can sign up for REV-1's pilot lunch delivery program from a choice of four Asian and Mexican restaurants, according to Refraction AI.
• Refraction AI has seen a three to four-time increase in orders with REV-1 since the start of the pandemic.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Refraction AI's last-mile delivery robot, the REV-1, has seen an increase in lunch delivery requests since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

REV-1's delivery process is simple: the robot picks up the product order at a store and then drives itself to the customer's home. Unsurprisingly, this contactless delivery option is now seeing a demand surge amid the coronavirus pandemic: Refraction AI has received three to four times more orders with the REV-1 since the start of the pandemic.

The company, which first launched in July 2019, built the robot specifically for last-mile deliveries between stores and customers in urban communities like Ann Arbor, Mich., where the pilot program is now taking place.

Customers in the Ann Arbor community who live within the 2.5-mile delivery radius can sign up for REV-1's pilot lunch delivery program that's partnered with four — three Asian and one Mexican — restaurants, according to Refraction AI. There are also currently more potential partners still on a waitlist.

SEE ALSO: Camper van conversion companies are seeing a surge in customer interest despite COVID-19 ravaging the travel and transportation industry

Customers who have placed an order with REV-1 will receive delivery updates and a numerical code.

The code is used to open REV-1's delivery compartment.

The compartment is about 16 cubic feet, allowing it to hold up to four or five bags.

The REV-1 program can reduce a restaurant's carbon footprint and costs, according to a statement by REV-1 restaurant partner Miss Kim's managing partner Ji Hye.

Source: Refraction AI 

Refraction AI charges the restaurants a 15% commission per order, which is about half of what delivery platforms like Doordash and Grubhub charge.

Source: Business Insider

Customers are charged a $3 delivery fee per order.

In order to keep all parties safe amid the pandemic, Refraction AI added disinfecting UV lights in the bag compartment of the robot.

The REV-1 is also disinfected between every delivery.

A REV-1 unit is about the size of a bicycle, standing at 5 feet tall, 4.5 feet long, and 2.5 feet wide.

Source: Refraction AI

It weighs roughly 100 pounds and can travel up to 15 miles per hour.

The robot is also "low-power" enough to operate in the bicycle lane, but quick enough to ride in the vehicle lane without increasing traffic, according to its maker.

Source: Refraction AI

The "nimble" delivery robot — which can operate through all four seasons — also has a short stopping distance, which means it doesn't require expensive sensors, according to its maker.

Source: Refraction AI

The startup is now building more robots to meet its rising demands.

The REV-1s are all controlled by Refraction AI employees who are currently working from home.

• Stack Overflow, a popular Q&A site for developers, surveyed 65,000 users about what programming languages they use and their salaries.
• Based on those responses, Stack Overflow compiled a list of which programming languages are associated with the highest salaries.
• This survey was conducted in February, before the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic in March.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you want to make a lot of money as a programmer, it might be worth brushing up on your skills.

Working as a programmer in the US can land you a six-figure salary, but there are some languages that are in even more demand. Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for developers with 50 million unique monthly visitors, surveyed 65,000 developers to ask about what languages they use, their salaries, and more. From this data, it put together a list of the programming languages associated with the highest salaries.

While some of the top moneymaking programming languages are well loved, a few of them made it onto Stack Overflow's list of most dreaded languages. Perhaps these high salaries compensate for having to work with languages that most developers don't want to use.

This survey showed developers' median salaries worldwide and in the US, and Stack Overflow converted currencies to USD using the exchange rate on February 2, 2020, and assumed 12 working months and 50 working weeks for annual salaries.

Also, the survey was taken in February, before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic in March. Different routines and challenges around remote work may have affected developers' choices, but we'll just have to wait until the next survey to see how, if at all. 

For now, here are the top programming languages associated with the highest salaries, according to Stack Overflow, in descending order. 

SEE ALSO: Stack Overflow, the site where millions of programmers get their questions answered, is reducing its workforce by 15% because of coronavirus

9. Swift

Apple launched this programming language in 2014, and it has since become one of the fastest growing programming languages. Swift makes it easier to build iOS apps on mobile and desktop, and it's becoming more common for AI applications as well. Swift developers make a median salary of $58,000 globally and $125,000 in the US.

Uber, Airbnb, Square, the meditation app Calm, and some 500,000 other apps on the App Store are at least partially written in Swift. 

8. C

C is one of the oldest programming languages and still one of the most popular today, developed by American computer scientist Dennis Ritchie in 1972. C developers make a median salary of $125,000 in the US and $50,000 globally.

C was designed to be a general-purpose language, for programming a wide array of computer systems and hardware. Many popular languages today, including Java, PHP, and JavaScript, have their roots in C. 

7. Rust

Mozilla developed Rust as a fast, reliable programming language that's efficient with its memory and prevents many bugs. Rust developers report a median salary of $74,000 globally and $130,00o in the US.

Today, it's used in web services like Firefox, Dropbox, and Amazon, and it can also run on hardware devices and networking services. It's also one of the fastest growing programming languages, according to GitHub, growing 235% last year. And developers love it – it topped Stack Overflow's list of "most loved" programming languages five years in a row.

6. Ruby

Ruby developers earn a median salary of $71,000 globally and $130,000 in the US. This open source programming language was created by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, who blended the best parts of his favorite languages to create it. 

Ruby was released in 1995, and since then, it's become one of the most popular programming languages, with several conferences and meetups based on the Ruby language. 

5. Perl

Perl is a family of programming languages that's over 30 years old, built by programmer Larry Wall. Globally, Perl is the top paying programming language, as developers make a median salary of $76,000. In the US, Perl programmers make a median salary of $130,000.

Perl is used for prototyping, large scale projects, text manipulation, system administration, web development, network programming, and more.

4. Kotlin

Kotlin, which was developed by the software tools company JetBrains, helps developers write Android apps faster and in a more productive way. Today, Kotlin developers make a median salary of $130,000 in the US. Globally, it's less popular, and Kotlin developers worldwide make a median salary of $54,000.

It's similar to the older programming language Java, which is also used for developing Android apps, but it's more modern and requires writing less code. It also has features that help developers avoid common programming mistakes. It's now an official language for Android development and one of the fastest growing programming languages, according to GitHub, as it grew by 182% in the past year. Today, it's used by companies like Google, Square, and Atlassian.

3. Objective-C

Objective-C is based on the C programming language, and it's one of the main programming language Apple uses for building its OS X and iOS operating systems. Objective-C developers make a median salary of $135,000 in the US and $64,000 globally.

Objective-C is also used for developing iOS apps. It was first developed in the 1980s and used for the NeXTSTEP operating system developed by NeXT before Apple acquired it. 

2. Go

Google engineers developed the programming language Go in 2007 and launched it in 2009. Go developers have a median salary of $74,000 globally and $140,000 in the US.

It's modeled after an older programming language called C and is used to build simple and reliable software. Today, Go is used in many of Google's production systems and is one of the fastest growing programming languages, according to GitHub.

1. Scala

Scala, which is short for Scalable Language, was first developed by German computer science Martin Odersky. Scala developers have a median salary of $76,000 globally and $150,000 in the US.

It's used by many developers of Java, an older and very popular programming language. Developers use Scala to make their business applications more productive, reliable, and scalable and is designed to avoid common bugs.

• On Friday, Dartmouth University researchers announced a new five-year study to bring more privacy protection to the Internet of Things. 
• Big tech companies will advise researchers from seven universities on how security can be built into "smart" devices, which are now in two-thirds of American homes. 
• The study comes as IoT security issues extend to companies with remote workers, who allow malware into corporate networks via unsecured home devices. 
• A key goal of the project is to require more privacy protections from companies, which now often simply ask for consumer consent to use their data in long-winded advisories. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dartmouth University researchers just announced a new five-year, federally-funded Internet of Things security project that enlists Amazon, Apple, Google, and other device makers to advise on privacy protections – including how the companies themselves can take more responsibility. 

The Security and Privacy in the Lifecycle of IoT for Consumer Environments project, announced Friday and funded by a $10-million grant from the federal government's National Science Foundation, comes at a time of heightened risk from the booming world of IoT devices, which now are found in an estimated 66% of US homes. In April, researchers at cybersecurity-rating company BitSight found that 45% of companies have been exposed to criminal malware that entered corporate networks from a remote worker's home network, where smart devices and work computers are on the same wifi. 

IBM, Samsung, Intel, Underwriters Laboratories, Consumer Reports, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Arm Research, and tech-focused law firm Saul Ewing, Arnstein & Lehr will also advise the research. 

A key goal of the project is to make those companies more responsible for protecting consumer information, rather than limiting their role to dumping long-winded privacy disclaimers on consumers. Research leaders say they want to create "tools that move away from the failed 'notice and consent' model of privacy management – shifting the privacy burden away from end users, who are ill-equipped to manage an increase in the number of devices and decisions."

That issue has been called out by other recent IoT research. Carnegie Mellon University dinged companies in February for dumping legally required privacy messages on users that are "often long, difficult to understand and don't appear at opportune times." In 2019, Stanford researchers found that "the weak security posture of many popular IoT devices has enabled attackers to launch record-breaking DDoS attacks, compromise local networks, and break into homes."

The new project's leader says tech companies can offer feedback and guidance that helps reshape cybersecurity in the world of IoT. "By working with a diverse group of leaders in the technology sector, we hope to influence the future of smart-home devices from design to disposal," says David Kotz, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth, and the leader of the project. "This is a win for consumers and for companies who want to make more privacy-respectful choices but feel they cannot do so while remaining competitive in the current market."

Other key goals of the project are to help consumers identify smart devices in their homes and to provide tools and best practices for management of the devices. 

Kotz says an example of where the work will help consumers is how to handle the sale of a home containing many smart devices. "As you leave the home, you want to make sure you have fully disconnected from all the smart things in your home. Similarly, when the new owner walks into the house, she will want to know about every smart thing in the house and be sure that you are indeed disconnected from all those devices."

The other universities involved in research are the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, Morgan State University, and Tufts University.

Nina Amla, the NSF director overseeing the project funding, said the agency's "investments in foundational research will transform our capacity to secure personal privacy, financial assets, and national interests."

Join the conversation about this story »

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• The ongoing protests over police brutality and systemic racism have led to scrutiny in Silicon Valley over its poor track record on racial diversity, particularly in the venture industry.
• Many in and around the industry see parallels to the #MeToo movement and spotlight it shone on gender discrimination in the tech and venture businesses.
• While many advocates for Black investors and founders think there are lessons to be learned from that movement but say the movement for racial equality in the Valley faces additional challenges and obstacles.
• Still, many are optimistic that the present moment could spur real change.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Three years ago, Susan Fowler reflected on her "very, very strange year at Uber" and helped spark a movement in Silicon Valley.

Fowler's memo recounting the sexual harassment she endured at the San Francisco ride-hailing company helped prompt other women in the tech industry and its venture capital arm to speak out. Within months, numerous executives and venture partners were ousted; companies and firms promised to address gender discrimination and the longstanding exclusion of women in leadership, tech, founder, and investor roles; and women investors came together to form an organization to promote the hiring and funding of women within the venture industry.

Many inside and outside the tech and venture industries see an analogy between that moment three years ago and the present one. Nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd have led to much broader discussions about systemic racism. The venture industry in particular is being pressured to address its poor record of hiring and funding Black people. And some see the movement to promote gender equality in the industry as a model for getting the venture world to address its racial problems.

"There are absolute parallels" between the two moments, said Pam Kostka, the CEO of All Raise, the organization founded by female investors to promote gender equality in the venture industry. There's "an opportunity," she continued, "for moving forward and finally addressing some of the systemic issues and obstacles."

But while the movement for gender equality in tech and venture capital has achieved some notable successes, it could also be looked on as something of a cautionary tale. Despite the intense publicity and pressure that was brought to bear, the gains have been limited at best, particularly within the venture industry.

And, advocates say, there are important distinctions between the two movements. Black people face challenges and obstacles that white or even Asian women don't have to overcome.

"Yes there's lessons to be learned" from the movement for gender equality in the industry, said Brian Dixon, a partner with Kapor Capital. "But it's not a carbon copy of — that movement is the exact same as this movement."

Susan Fowler helped spark a change

At the time of Fowler's memo, the venture industry wasn't a particularly hospitable place for women. Few firms had even one woman partner. A small fraction of startups that got venture funding had a female founder. Sexual harassment was rampant at some firms, as was exposed later. And the most prominent airing of gender issues in the industry — Ellen Pao's discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins — ended in defeat for Pao little more than two years earlier.

But that started to change with the movement that Fowler helped spark. Numerous other women came forward and publicly accused prominent men in the industry of sexual harassment and discrimination and promoting toxic workplaces. Such accusations led to the resignations of venture investors including Binary Capital's Justin Caldbeck,  Sherpa Capital's Shervin Pishevar, 500 Startups' Dave McClure, and Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

In response to the movement, the industry opened up opportunities for women with many firms adding female investors and partners to their staff. That reflected not just outside pressure, but a cultural shift, those in the industry say.

"Firms started to be held accountable for not having female investors on their team," said Charles Hudson, the managing partner at Precursor Capital.

Although there are still firms that don't have any women investors, "they're uncomfortable about it," Hudson continued. "They haven't fixed it, but they know ... it's something you're allowed to criticize someone about now."

In its work to diversify the industry, All Raise has focused on helping women investors and entrepreneurs build their networks. The organization runs programs that help connect women working in different levels of the venture industry or at firms that specialize in funding startups of different maturity levels. It also helps pair up female founders with potential investors and women working in the lower ranks of the VC industry with senior partners.

All Raise has also made a big point of tracking and encouraging the industry to measure gender diversity.

"The numbers are are so important," Kostka said. "We are big believers that you cannot fix or address what you don't measure."

The #MeToo movement offers some lessons

Those now pushing the industry to be more racially diverse see some definite lessons that can be learned from All Raise and the movement to promote gender diversity. Many see the opportunity to follow the #MeToo movement's lead and use the attention and outrage sparked by the current moment to push for significant and lasting changes. Many are focused on measurement — getting the venture firms and the industry to systematically track how many Black people they employ, how many they fund, and how much money they're putting into Black-founded startups.

And many think there's a chance to change the culture of the industry.

"I hope we get to a point where it's OK to say, 'It's not normal to have a venture fund that doesn't have a person of color in a junior or senior role and that doesn't have anybody in their portfolio," Hudson said. "'This is weird.'"

But as much as the gender equality movement has achieved in the last three years and the lessons it can impart to those pushing for racial inclusion, the hard fact is that numerically speaking, the gains have been small. As of 2018, more than two-thirds of venture firms still didn't have a female partner, the National Venture Capital Association and Deloitte reported in a study last year. Only 9% of venture-backed founders are female, according to a report last year from RateMyInvestor and Diversity VC.

Thus far this year, only about 22% of venture investments — and only 14% of the money invested in such deals — were made in companies with at least one female founder, according to PitchBook. Even as venture funding surged in the last two years, the portion going to startups launched by women actually declined from where it was in 2017, according to PitchBook's data.

The progress has been "mixed, in all honesty," Kostka said. The small share of money going to female-founded firms is "a huge fail by the industry," she continued.

Black investors and founders face big obstacles

What's more, the movement for racial equality faces a different and in some ways more daunting set of obstacles than does the corresponding push for gender equity, Black investors and advocates say.

The #MeToo moment in tech was spurred by Fowler's experience and that of other women inside and outside the industry who spoke out publicly about sexual harassment and discrimination. In many ways, the movement was both spurred by and focused on the ways in which corporate America excluded women, said Sydney Sykes, a cofounder of BLCK VC, an organization that promotes diversity in the venture industry.

By contrast, the spark for the current moment was Floyd's death and the outrage of police brutality. That's led to a wider discussion about racism and exclusion in all kinds of systems, but it's not as narrowly focused on the issue of inequality in business as the #MeToo moment was, Sykes said. The business world is just one of many areas in which Black people have experienced systemic racism and the venture industry is just one sector among many in corporate America where that's taken place.

"You can't just focus on the business aspects of racism, because there are people dying," said Sykes, a former analyst at venture firm New Enterprise Associates. "That's one of the big differences that makes this a challenging conversation to have ... There are so many different problems, that it's hard to create a focus and attention on just one."

Another big challenge for the racial inclusion movement compared to the gender equity one is the difference in networks. Every venture investor knows a woman, whether it's their mother, wife, or daughter. Many could make a connection between the aspirations of the women in their lives and those of women who wanted to be founders or investors and empathize with what they faced, Hudson said. 

By contrast, there are few Black people in tech in general and in the venture industry in particular and exceedingly few that move in the same circles as venture investors.

"I think a lot of investors — they don't have regular social or professional interactions with Black people," Hudson said.

Intrinsic bias is a deep-seated problem

And Black investors face an even more deep-seated and onerous problem — intrinsic bias. A peer-reviewed study conducted at Stanford and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that asset managers rated white investors higher than Black ones even when they had the exact same strong credentials and the only difference between them was their race.

That study indicates that even if advocates can convince venture firms to consider more Black candidates for jobs or funding, the firms will continue discriminating against them unless they are aware of and work to address that bias, said Daryn Dodson, managing director of Illumen Capital and a member of the research team behind the study.

"The higher a Black manager performs, the more likely they are to be overlooked by those allocating assets," Dodson said. "People [are] pitching right in front of their faces, and [they're] systematically discounting them, because of nothing other than the race of the people pitching them."

In perhaps one example of that, even as the venture industry has moved to hire and fund more women, it has almost entirely overlooked Black and Latino women. Last year, a record number of women — 54 — were named partners at venture firms but only one was Black and only one was a Latina, said Kostka. Meanwhile, just 0.06% of all venture funding from 2009 to 2017 went to Black women founders, according to Project Diane.

"Those are appalling numbers," Kostka said.

Advocates are still hopeful

Many in the industry recognize that addressing the racial disparities in the venture industry is likely going take years. And it's likely going to have to start in small ways, many of them similar to what women in the industry have been doing — encouraging firms to make a concerted effort to broaden their networks of contacts; making a conscious effort to think about diversity; collecting data on inclusion.

But even with all the challenges, many are still hopeful that the present moment will spur meaningful change.

"We have to realize this is not going to be a sprint. It's going to be a marathon," Dixon said.

"I think the thing, though, that's different now ... is firms are publicly saying, 'We want to see this change,'" he continued. "That is the difference, and that is the opportunity."

Got a tip about the tech industry? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

• Read more about diversity in Silicon Valley:
• Every venture firm can take these quick steps toward greater diversity, says one of Silicon Valley's few black VCs. What the steps have in common: Reach out.
• One of Silicon Valley's few black VCs says the industry has a systemic problem with race, but he's hopeful the George Floyd protests are finally going to spark real change
• A diversity consultant says real change may hit the tech industry due to the George Floyd protests and the coronavirus crisis. Silicon Valley hasn't changed much after past scrutiny, but this time could be different.
• 'THIS IS NOT A CHARITY': Andreessen Horowitz defends itself against the criticism surrounding the size and structure of its new nonprofit fund

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley billionaires are lining up to condemn racism. But the tech and VC industry has a shameful, decades-long history of ignoring and perpetuating inequality.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Walker's Legacy is a networking and entrepreneurship organization for women of color known for giving fledgling founders the support they need to thrive.
• Natalie Madeira Cofield started the company after her own attempts to network for clients, mentors and investors meant dealing with the "ole boys network" where she was more often propositioned than listened to.
• She eventually started her company by purging her closet and selling her expensive clothing and apparel.
• As protesters take to the streets worldwide to protest police brutality and demand racial justice, Cofield celebrated her company's 10th year.
• She tells Business Insider that now is actually the perfect time to start a company and offers her five best tips on how to turn chaos into opportunity.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A decade ago, when Natalie Madeira Cofield was in her mid-20's, she already knew exactly what she wanted out of life: to build a business.

She was living in Washington, DC, had just graduated from the prestigious Howard University with a business degree and had started her own consulting company.

She was doing what all the books and business gurus always said to do, networking to find clients and investors.

"No matter which way I looked, it was this good 'ole boy's network. Good 'ole boys from a white male perspective or good 'ole boys from a black male perspective, there were very few examples of successful women in business that I had access to," she recalls. "I often found myself in a position of being propositioned instead of being listened to."

She went home one day in tears, and called a friend and mentor. He asked her who her female mentor was. Except for her mom, who did teach her a lot about business, she didn't have one.

"So I started reaching out to women [that] I wanted to be like, and they wouldn't respond," Cofield says. They were busy. They didn't know her and "my subject line said, 'I want to be like you,'" which, in retrospect, she laughs, was both naive and creepy.

And so, to help herself and all the other multi-cultural woman like her, she switched up her tactics.

Instead of asking business women to dine with her, she asked them to speak to a roomful of people like her.

And Walker's Legacy was born, named after Madam C. J. Walker, the first female self-made millionaire who created her wealth with a Black hair-care and cosmetics company at the turn of the century.

The first event had 30 people in the room, "and now Walker's Legacy does programs with 6,000 women a year in person, in 15 cities in the country with a network that is close to hundreds of thousands each year," Cofield says. Since COVID-19, her business offers a plateful of online events, too.

Business owners pay a membership fee, and members have gone on to found national beverage products, beauty care products, and other businesses. (The company also runs a charitable foundation with programs for economically disadvantaged women and girls.)

By 2016, Cofield 's company had made enough of a name for itself to work with the Small Business Administrationn and the The National Women's Business Council (NWBC) to produce the first report on the state of Black women entrepreneurship.

That study and others since have documented what Cofield and the women in her network already knew: while Black female-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing segments of the economy (as are Latina women-owned businesses), women of color are stymied by a lack of access to capital.

Their business loans tend to be half the size, with higher interest rates, than loans made to non-minority businesses, the research shows. And a study by Project Diane found that Black female founders are receiving only 0.2% of all venture capital funding, an amount so small, it rounds to zero.

"It is never about not having education, grit, knowledge, wherewithal. It is always about not having access to the social and financial capital to succeed. That is part of the racist institutions of this country," she said.

Now is the perfect time to start a company

While Cofield is working to help women of color get their share of the over $130 billion in venture funding deployed to startups each year, she says that no one should ever let a lack of money stop them from launching their company.

And right now — with the global pandemic, the economy in tatters, and civil unrest in the streets — is actually the perfect time to start. In fact, that's one of her top five entrepreneurial tips. 

Here are Cofield's five pieces of advice for anyone looking to start a business:

No. 1.A rough economy builds a strong business. Her favorite motto is: the Chinese character for chaos includes the character for opportunity. "While this moment may look like the worst time to create something new, it is the best moment," Cofield says. "Companies built under circumstances like this are far better positioned to grow and be nimble."

No. 2. Purge your closet to raise funds. "If you are financially challenged, which many of us are in this COVID environment, look into your closet for things to turn into assets. Ask yourself what can I sell?" she said. "When I started my company, I sold my Gucci bags and clothing and used that money to fund my company."

By selling her designer apparel, she raised $5,000.

And if your closet doesn't hold enough valuables, look for odd jobs to raise extra cash, she advises. Consider it an investment in your future. Gig economy marketplaces like Fiverr, Instacart, TaskRabbit, Postmates, GrubHub may be a place to start.

No. 3. Start with the work that you can do for free. Spend this time learning more about your idea and target market. Do your own market research by talking to people about your idea and how much people would be willing to pay for your products. "It's free to do a survey. It's free to do outreach. Why not put info in front of people that will help you hone your business model?"

No. 4. Engage with people in ways that resonate with them. As you launch into market research, listen more than you talk.

Just like Cofield had to change tactics when her "I want to be like you" emails bombed, keep changing tactics until you find an idea that resonates. "If you are not embarrassed by your first demo, you waited too long," she says.

So, whether you have a great initial idea, or just the urge to be your own boss and need to find a business idea, you should be" interacting and fine-tuning" your ideas and plans so when look back at your first business plan draft, it makes you laugh, or cringe. "It was your first demo," she says. 

No. 5. Just start. "I think people are always waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect pitch. But there's no time that's perfect for anything.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Generation Z, those born between 1996 and 2010, is coming of age.
• There are 68 million Gen Zers in the US, and in the coming years they'll replace Millennials as the newest generation of workers and consumers.
• From childhood allowances to college finances, fintechs are looking for ways to tap into this group of consumers who are starting to enter the workforce.
• Here are seven startups focused on personal finance targeting Generation Z.
• Click here to sign up for Wall Street Insider.

Generation Z is coming of age. 

There are 68 million Gen Z consumers in the US, and they hold up to $143 billion in spending power, according to Business Insider Intelligence. In the coming years, Gen Z — the cohort born between 1996 and 2010 — will replace Millennials as the newest generation of workers and consumers.

As the oldest members of Gen Z are starting to graduate from college and enter the workforce, fintechs and banks alike are vying for their business.

When it comes to personal finance — not something most teens think much about — fintechs are looking for ways to win Gen Z over as customers. And gaining users early is key, given consumers start to develop brand loyalty in their early 20s.

Most of Gen Z, often called the smartphone generation, doesn't remember a time before the internet, so fintechs are pursuing digital and mobile-first strategies. Fintechs are also looking to get involved in Gen Z's finances well before college, offering mobile-forward spending apps for kids.

From parent-monitored allowances paid to digital wallets to loans for college students, here are seven fintechs eyeing Gen Z.

Boro

Boro is an app-based lender targeted at college students. It lends students up to $2,000 for terms ranging between one to 12 months at rates up to 19.9%. Boro also offers auto loans. Its loans are marketed as an alternative to credit cards, with no annual fees and clear repayment plans including fixed interest rates.

Boro was founded in 2015 as an alternative credit product for international students in the US. It's since broadened its target customer to all college students, and has over 50,000 users, according to its website.

The Chicago-based fintech has raised $114 million to-date from investors including Arcadia Funds, the Evolve Foundation, and Knights Genesis. 

Greenlight

Greenlight offers a debit card for kids. Parents can give allowances, pay for chores, and even specify which stores their kids can shop at. Kids also have the ability to set aside money in savings and earn parent-paid interest.

The service costs $4.99 per month, which includes Mastercard debit cards for up to five kids. Greenlight has over 500,000 members, according to its website.

The Atlanta-based fintech launched in 2017 and has raised $81 million to-date from investors including Drive Capital, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo.

Read more:4 startups are changing the way millennials pay for brands like Casper and Warby Parker and have attracted investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Snoop Dogg

GoHenry

GoHenry offers an account for parents, from which they can give their kids debit cards. Parents can monitor and control spending and issue allowances. Kids can complete chores to get paid and set up savings goals.

It costs $3.99 per month per child. GoHenry has over 500,000 members in the UK and US, according to its website.

GoHenry has raised over $15 million, all crowd-funded, since its launch in 2012.

Jassby

Jassby markets itself as the chores and allowances app. In the app, parents can set up recurring payments tied to chores, and kids can request money. 

Kids can then shop in-app through the Jassby Mall at partner merchants like Apple, American Eagle, and Domino's Pizza. The app is free to use.

The Massachusetts-based fintech was founded in 2017 and has raised $5 million to-date from investors including Blumberg Capital and Correlation Ventures.

Pluto Money

Pluto Money is a free personal finance management fintech for college students. It tracks users' spending, lets them set goals and challenges, and offers anonymized peer comparisons on spending habits.

The app links into users' bank accounts to analyze spending habits, then gamifies saving through suggested challenges for users to spend less on things like coffee and eating out. Users can then put cash in their Pluto accounts to save toward goals like spring break travel and paying off debt.

Founded by two recent UCLA grads in 2017, the San Francisco-based startup is an alumnus of Barclay's Accelerator and has raised over $120,000 to-date in seed funding.

Step

Step is a mobile-based digital bank for Gen Z. Specifically targeted toward teenagers, Step wants to be the first bank account and debit card for its users.

It offers a checking account and a Mastercard-powered debit card. Step doesn't charge fees, and its accounts are FDIC insured by partner bank Evolve Bank & Trust.

It debuted in January last year, amassing a waitlist of over 500,000 potential users. It's $22 million Series A was led by $36 billion fintech Stripe last July, with participation from Crosslink Capital and Will Smith's Dreamer's Fund. The Palo Alto-based startup has raised $26 million to-date.

Read more:Meet the under-the-radar startups raising millions by helping big brands like Sephora upend customer rewards with cash and celebrities — and why they're so effective

ThriveCash

ThriveCash lends to college students and recent grads to make ends meet between the end of the school year and the start of their internships or full-time jobs. It can help students cover things like flights, moving expenses, and living expenses before they start working.

Students can send ThriveCash their offer letters to secure lines of credit up to $25,000. Users can borrow up to 25% of their total internship pay, or up to 25% of the first three months' salary for full-time jobs. Instead of interest, users pay a monthly fee based on how much they borrow, starting at $7 for every $1,000 drawn.

The San Francisco-based startup was founded in 2017 and has raised $10 million to-date from investors including Craft Ventures and Affirm CEO Max Levchin.

Read more:

• 4 startups are changing the way millennials pay for brands like Casper and Warby Parker and have attracted investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Snoop Dogg
• These 5 under-the-radar startups have raised millions from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins to make it easy for millennials to start saving
• Gen Z is leading an evolution in shopping that could kill brands as we know them

SEE ALSO: 4 startups are changing the way millennials pay for brands like Casper and Warby Parker and have attracted investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Snoop Dogg

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley is betting $750 million that people don't want to buy stuff anymore. These 14 startups are bringing the sharing economy to sailboats, swimming pools, and luxury watches.

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• Fliteboard sells the Fliteboard efoil, a battery-powered hydro craft.
• It looks like a surfboard, but moves above the water without relying on waves.
• It can go nearly 30 miles per hour, depending on the customization options. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Australian company Fliteboard introduced its first e-surfboard in 2018. Founder David Trewern has always been a fan of surfing and kite sailing, and when he came up with the idea for Fliteboard, he left his current job to work on it seven days a week.

The Fliteboard looks like a surfboard from far away, but the person on it appears to be floating above water. For anyone who can afford the hefty price tag, the Fliteboard is a new way to experience the water. Because it doesn't rely on wave, the Fliteboard can go in the ocean, rivers, lakes, or anywhere with at least three feet of water.

Here's how it works. 

SEE ALSO: The startup making this 'space-age' wearable face shield raised nearly $300,000 on Indiegogo, says it will begin shipping to backers in June

Fliteboard sells three versions of the device.

The Fliteboard Air is six feet and six inches by 30 inches, an inflatable board meant for beginners.

The standard Fliteboard is in the middle of the company's offerings, at five feet eight inches by 28 inches. Fliteboard says it's suitable for beginners and more experiences riders.

Finally, the Fliteboard Pro is the smallest option, five feet by 24 inches, it's not recommended for beginners.

Each board starts at $12,935, but the price can go up based on other customization options.

The piece that holds the Fliteboard above the water, the mast, is available in two sizes.

A higher mast means a smoother ride above waves and better turning angle, but the lower mast makes it easier for the rider to stay on.

Each Fliteboard is powered by a silent e-motor.

With the e-motor and G force gearhead, the Fliteboard can go as fast as 28 miles per hour.

The Fliteboard is emission free, and doesn't leave splashes behind.

Power for the motor comes from the Flitecell, a rechargeable, waterproof battery.

The Flitecell magnetic charger comes in two options, both fully charging the battery in under three hours. One charge lasts about 90 minutes.

The Flite controller is a handheld remote that lets the rider control the Fliteboard.

It's waterproof and wearable.

The remote is connected to the board with bluetooth, so it gives the rider useful information to help them plan their trip.

For example, it gives speed, distance, battery range, and energy efficiency. Riders can even set their boards to cruise control.

10 Fliteschools, or places where enthusiasts can get Fliteboard lessons, are around the world, mostly in Australia and Europe.

A few more are planning to open, in New Zealand, Indonesia, and other countries, although none in North America are listed.

The nearly $13,000 price tag is for the US, and includes shipping.

Fliteboard says there is a six week lead time on orders right now.

• Leland Melvin — a Black astronaut, engineer, and NFL football player — recently hosted NASA TV's coverage of the first crewed rocket launch by SpaceX on May 30.
• Before the launch, Melvin juxtaposed the mission with the police killing of George Floyd. "America, let's get our crap together, this is unsatisfactory. We gotta stop this," he said.
• Bill Nye later interviewed Melvin after the launch about his life, career, and struggles with racism. Melvin revealed that, as a new high-school graduate, he was nearly arrested on false charges.
• "You and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now because I would have been in prison," Melvin said, had the incident resulted in his arrest. "Once you get in that system, it's sometimes very hard to get out."
• Melvin said it's not enough just to be a "good" person when it comes to racism: "If you sit there and watch and allow that atrocity to take place ... you're a part of the problem."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Leland Melvin launched to orbit twice aboard NASA space shuttles. Long before his decorated astronaut career, though, Melvin was a materials science engineer and even got drafted by the NFL to play for the Detroit Lions.

But in a conversation with famed science communicator Bill Nye, who's the president of the nonprofit Planetary Society, Melvin revealed a moment where his future hung in the balance — between a meteoric career and the prison system — because of the color of his skin.

In 1979, Melvin had just graduated from Heritage High School in Lynchburg, Virginia, and was enjoying his time off before heading to the University of Richmond, where he'd go on to earn a bachelor's degree in chemistry.

"I was in a car with my girlfriend after graduation, and a police officer rolls up on us," Melvin told Nye, each of whom are friends, in a YouTube video published by the Planetary Society. "We were just making out, talking, whatever."

When the state trooper approached the car, Melvin said the officer pulled his girlfriend out and put her into his cruiser. While in his custody, the officer tried "to convince her that I was raping her, because he wanted me to go to jail," Melvin said.

"He said, 'If you don't say that he's raping you, I'm gonna take you to jail, your parents are going to have to come get you, and then you're going to have a record,'" he added, paraphrasing the officer's words to his girlfriend at the time. "She said, 'No, I love him, he's my boyfriend, he's going to college on a football scholarship, he's this and that,''" and that she was headed to college, too.

Eventually, Melvin said the officer gave up and let them go.

Had he been arrested on false charges, Melvin told Nye, "you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now, because I would have been in prison in the prison system. And once you get in that system, it's sometimes very hard to get out of that system."

'America, let's get our crap together'

Nye and Melvin spoke about two weeks after he drove down to Cape Canaveral to witness SpaceX launch its first people into space: NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

Melvin provided live commentary on NASA TV in a joint broadcast with SpaceX during the mission's launch. On May 30, the two men soared to space inside the private company's new Crew Dragon spaceship atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

But after a scrubbed launch attempt on May 27 — as the US was reeling with protests over a white police officer's killing of George Floyd, a Black man, just two days earlier — Melvin stepped onto Cocoa Beach in Florida to record his thoughts in a video he uploaded to Instagram.

"This has got to stop. There's a pandemic now against Black men in this country, and I truly feel that it's hatred, it's evil, it's racism — it's all of these things — but it's the good people beside these people [who] are complicit, that allow this continue to go on," Melvin said in the video, which was later highlighted in a Space.com story.

"I am heartbroken ... I'm looking at the juxtaposition of doing the most technologically advanced thing — sending people to space — but a man dies in police custody?" he added. "America, let's get our crap together. This is unsatisfactory. We've got to stop this. And it's going to be the good people that do nothing now that start doing something to stamp this hatred, evil, and racism out."

During his chat with Nye, Melvin explained the connection he felt in watching the video of Floyd's death. (Derek Chauvin, the officer in Minneapolis now charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, kneeled on Floyd's neck as the man pleaded not only to breathe, but for his mother.)

"Bill, I started crying," Melvin said. "I think, that could have been me, that could have been Bobby Satcher — the first time two African American men were in space together — on STS 129," Melvin said, referring to his last spaceflight in November 2009.

Melvin expressed optimism that things could change if the "good people" stop watching, step off the sidelines, and consistently speak out against racism they see while also pushing for reforms of racist policies and systems that have persisted in America for generations.

"I think we're in an inflection point in our country, really in the world with civil rights," he said.

Of the Black Lives Matter movement, and addressing the refrain among unsympathetic supporters that "all lives matter," Melvin acknowledged the hurt of other communities. But he emphasized the all-too-often deadly consequences of systemic racism against Black people, who are disproportionately killed by police relative to other races.

"'Black Lives Matter' doesn't mean that all lives don't matter. There's a pandemic in the Black community now that's causing our lives to be squashed out," Melvin said. "So we have to focus on the Black lives right now."

SEE ALSO: The US didn't send the first Black astronaut into space — the Soviet Union did with the launch of Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, an Afro-Cuban man who cleared the way for others to follow

DON'T MISS: 'I doubted us': Elon Musk says it took 100,000 people to launch 2 NASA astronauts into orbit — and that he wasn't sure SpaceX would ever pull off the feat

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why NASA waited nearly a decade to send astronauts into space from the US

• The ongoing Black Lives Matter protests have put a spotlight on systemic racism around the nation, including in the venture capital industry.
• Just 3% of venture partners and only 1% of venture-backed startup founders are Black.
• Venture firms can start to become more inclusive by taking two fairly simple steps, said Sydney Sykes, a cofounder of BLCK VC, an organization focused on promoting diversity in the industry.
• Firms can put diversity top-of-mind in everything they do, and they can start measuring how many Black people they are employing and funding, Sykes said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sydney Sykes has two simple suggestions for venture investors that want to do something right away about their industry's extreme lack of racial diversity that can be boiled down to just this: think and measure.

Venture partners and employees should make a point to think about and discuss diversity and inclusion in everything they do, said Sykes, a cofounder of BLCK VC, an organization that encourages firms to hire and promote more Black investors. They should also be keeping close track of how many African-American they employ and fund, she said.

Such moves could have a sizeable effect on the industry without requiring a lot of effort or cost, she said.

"They're the two things that a Black person would be advocating for if they were there, but they're not hard things," Sykes said. "They're things that change the DNA, they're things that change the way you think about diversity, but they're not heavy lifts."

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests going on around the country, the venture industry has found itself under scrutiny for its poor track record of hiring and funding Black people and other People of Color. Black people and Latinos each comprise just 3% of all venture partners, Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association reported in a study released last year. Among all founders of venture-backed companies, just 1% were African-American and 1.8% Latino, according a report from RateMyInvestor and Diversity VC.

In recent weeks, some in the industry have already pledged to make the industry more inclusive. SoftBank and Andreeseen Horowitz have both announced new funds that are targeted at underrepresented entrepreneurs and underserved communities.

Those kinds of efforts may take a while — years even — to make a difference. But firms can take steps today that can have a much nearer term impact, said Sykes, a former investment analyst at venture firm New Enterprise Associates. 

Firms should put diversity top-of-mind

They can start with just putting diversity top-of-mind, she said. Firms should be regularly and routinely thinking about racism and inclusion and having the kinds of conversations about such topics that they would be happening if they actually had Black people on their teams and in their rooms, she said. 

Investors and venture employees should be thinking about diversity when they're discussing their portfolios, when they're hiring, even — and especially — when they're planning events or small dinners, Sykes said. Much of the industry's networking takes place at such events, and all too often, no Black people are present at them, she said. 

"All of that stuff is the kind of things where it goes totally unnoticed by the team planning whatever it is that there's not a single Black person in the room," Sykes said. It's important to include African-Americans at such events, she continued, "because that's where so much of the power is, is in these relationships."

The other big move firms can make right away is to start measuring diversity, she said. They should track how many Black employees and investors they have at various levels. They should keep tabs on how many Black founders they back and how much money they're putting into those startups, she said. And that measurement shouldn't be a one-time thing, but an ongoing effort.

"That makes a firm pay attention to the lack of diversity," Sykes said. "Even if you only have six investors, it's important to say to yourself every month, 'Zero of them are Black,' 'Zero of them are still black,' on and on and on again."

Such steps won't fix the systemic racism in the venture industry, Sykes said. Firms need to make lots of other changes to address the problem, from broadening their networks of contacts and making sure their pools of job candidates are truly diverse, to simply hiring and funding more Black people. But simply thinking about and measuring diversity would go a long way to pointing the industry in the right direction, she said.

"I think you get to those things on your own if you're constantly asking questions about diversity and if you're constantly tracking your numbers," Sykes said.

Got a tip about the tech industry? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Read more about diversity in Silicon Valley:

Every venture firm can take these quick steps toward greater diversity, says one of Silicon Valley's few black VCs. What the steps have in common: Reach out.

One of Silicon Valley's few black VCs says the industry has a systemic problem with race, but he's hopeful the George Floyd protests are finally going to spark real change

A diversity consultant says real change may hit the tech industry due to the George Floyd protests and the coronavirus crisis. Silicon Valley hasn't changed much after past scrutiny, but this time could be different.

'THIS IS NOT A CHARITY': Andreessen Horowitz defends itself against the criticism surrounding the size and structure of its new nonprofit fund

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley billionaires are lining up to condemn racism. But the tech and VC industry has a shameful, decades-long history of ignoring and perpetuating inequality.

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• A close adviser of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Facebook peddles in anger, and compared it to selling drugs of cigarettes.
• "It's just like tobacco, it's no different than the opioids," Joanna Hoffman said at the CogX conference this week, according to CNBC.
• Hoffman, a member of the original Macintosh team, added that some parts of Facebook are "destroying the very fabric of democracy."
• Facebook has come under fire recently for not taking down a post by President Trump about the George Floyd protests reading "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook traffics in anger like a pharmaceutical company hawking drugs or a tobacco giant selling cigarettes, one of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs' most-trusted lieutenants said at the CogX conference this week.

"It's just like tobacco, it's no different than the opioids," Joanna Hoffman said, according to CNBC.

"We know anger is addictive, we know we can attract people to our platform and get engagement if we get them pissed off enough," she continued. "So therefore what, we should capitalize on that each and every time?" 

Hoffman, a member of the original Macintosh team, made the comments during a panel with her former coworkers from General Magic, an Apple offshoot. She was replying to a question about leadership in the technology industry, CNBC said.

"I keep thinking, are they really that ignorant or is this motivated by something … darker than what appears?" Hoffman said about Facebook.

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Hoffman expressed respect for the social-media titan's accomplishments, CNBC said. However, she argued that some parts of its service are "destroying the very fabric of democracy, destroying the very fabric of human relationships and peddling in an addictive drug called anger."

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm in 2004 and now boasts a $650 billion market capitalization. It has been repeatedly criticized for allowing misinformation, hate speech, and violent content to proliferate on its platform.

Zuckerberg recently defended his company's decision not to touch a post by President Donald Trump warning "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" in reference to the George Floyd protests.

"We think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force," he said in a Facebook post.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We tested a machine that brews beer at the push of a button

• Four years after its public launch and nearly $80 million in outside funding later, women-focused digital wealth manager Ellevest's $635 million in assets trails rival robo-advisers.
• That Ellevest, co-founded by wealth management industry veteran Sallie Krawcheck, hasn't had more traction highlights the ultra-competitive nature of managing money.
• Its growth is further complicated by marketing to women whose tastes vary wildly between generations. And at least six software engineers left the company last year.
• For more stories like this, sign up here for our Wall Street Insider newsletter.

Ellevest, a women-focused digital wealth manager, launched just ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. 

At the time, the dialogue on gender playing out across the country was impossible to ignore. Krawcheck and Charlie Kroll, Ellevest's co-founder and chief operating officer, wanted to unveil a startup they hoped would empower women, just as Hillary Clinton was facing off with Donald Trump in hopes of becoming the country's first woman president.

That May, Sallie Krawcheck, the chief executive of Ellevest and once one of the most senior women on Wall Street, appeared on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY to discuss her new investing startup.

"This isn't 'for women,' 'pink it and shrink it,' 'make it smaller,'" Krawcheck said. "We're going to forecast out your life so that you can achieve your goals. And then we'll put a bespoke investment portfolio against each goal to help her achieve them."

Four years later, Krawcheck is promoting the same message that helped lift Ellevest off the ground: women in the US earn less than men and have different trajectories, and should have tailored financial services.

Now, mission-driven VC investing has gained renewed attention amid a national outcry over systemic racism and pledges by venture-capital firms to earmark funding to back firms led by Black Americans and people of color. Some women-focused startups have also been called on to do more to promote intersectional feminism and broaden their notion of diversity beyond gender.

With backing from some of the biggest names in Corporate America, Ellevest has grown its assets under management to more than $600 million, a good amount for a startup that's just a few years old. But that's a sum far smaller than rivals catering to a broader audience.

Business Insider spoke with a dozen people including former Ellevest employees, analysts, VC investors, and other fintech and wealth insiders about the rise and positioning of Ellevest in the ultra-competitive business of managing money — and whether or not a startup targeting a smaller subset of users, women versus everyone, can compete long term.

Read more: Robo-advisers like Wealthfront and Betterment are in a tricky spot — here's why one fintech banker thinks buyers and public investors will be hard to win over

Ellevest drew big-name backers

Investors have come out in droves to back Ellevest, which now offers both automated investing and premium advisory offerings. From Melinda Gates and Valerie Jarrett to tennis star Venus Williams, Ellevest has raised nearly $80 million from notable women investors and philanthropists. 

Ellevest oversees some $635 million in assets across digital, premium, and private wealth management as of June 7, a spokesperson said. That's up from the $580 million disclosed in a February SEC filing. 

That pales in comparison to other older fintech firms in the wealth space who cater to customers of all kinds. Some of the largest robo-advisers, like Wealthfront and Betterment (launched in 2011 and 2010, respectively), and hybrid firms like Personal Capital, launched in 2011, each manage billions. Wealthfront has a war chest of venture capital dollars that's more than double what Ellevest has raised. Traditional wealth giants like UBS and Morgan Stanley oversee trillions. 

In an interview with Business Insider, Krawcheck said Ellevest's uniqueness as the only wealth offering specifically geared towards women make it difficult to compare to others, and that pay gaps make AUM an imperfect measuring stick for Ellevest. With women making less than men, the amount of wealth they generally have for Ellevest to manage is lower too.

"There have been so many people who went after the target market and failed," Krawcheck told Business Insider. "If you'd woken me up in the middle of the night three years ago and asked if we'd be at $640 million in assets under management, I'd have said, 'We'll be lucky to be at one.'"

Read more:Inside the quest to reboot Personal Capital, the wealth manager grappling with its identity in the cutthroat robo-advisory age

A career in wealth

Krawcheck led some of the largest wealth-management businesses on Wall Street years before rallying cries for a more inclusive financial services industry.

She began her career as an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, today AllianceBernstein, and rose to become the firm's chief executive. Krawcheck later served as CEO of Smith Barney (what is today Morgan Stanley Wealth Management), Citi's finance chief and head of strategy, chairman and chief executive of Citi's Global Wealth Management, and head of global wealth and investment management at Bank of America. 

Her last job in traditional wealth management was heading up Merrill Lynch until 2011.

She and Kroll — the founder of financial-technology firm Andera, which was acquired for roughly $47.6 million  — founded Ellevest in November 2014. 

Kroll, who is still president at the company, is far less visible than Krawcheck, who regularly discusses Ellevest, investing, and the gender wealth gap in the press.

A clear mission from the start

Ellevest, headquartered in New York City's Flatiron neighborhood, started with a core team focused on investments, engineering, product, design, and marketing, with some still there today. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, around 75% of Ellevest's 92 employees worked out of that office, a spokesperson said.

Sylvia Kwan, the chief investment officer, and Melissa Cullens, chief experience officer overseeing design efforts, both joined in 2015.

Alexandria Stried, the chief product officer, also joined that year from Weight Watchers, where she was the director of product management. 

One former employee said the feeling and culture formed during earlier days of the company was very much mission-driven, and Krawcheck's reputation leading massive wealth units was core to getting it off the ground.

"The credibility Sallie has is what made Ellevest what it is" today, the person said.

In 2016, Ellevest hired the once-hot, now-shuttered home interior design startup Homepolish to design the glossy new offices, the website Officelovin' reported. 

There were some hallmarks of a fresh startup, with funky twists: pastel armchairs and modern lamps; a sunny, open-office concept; and a whiteboard with rows of Post-it notes scattered nearby. There were twin seats with white shag covering near the reception area, where a hardcover Coco Chanel biography was kept on a table.

In earlier days, Kroll's thinking around Ellevest's hires was that everyone "had to have a story," the former employee said. 

Stried, for instance, had experience at Weight Watchers creating a personalized coaching program for customers. Cullens, a creative and design strategist, had worked with clients like Vogue. 

"Incorporating someone's 'story' is one of many factors in our hiring process," a spokesperson said. "Ellevest was built on foundational belief in the power of diversity in building strong businesses, and we take that seriously." 

But in a message on Ellevest's website earlier this month, Krawcheck, like executives at many other firms, publicly addressed her failings and commitments around diversity and inclusion. She noted Ellevest doesn't have "a single Black person" on her leadership team. 

In the post, she included a breakdown of diversity across Ellevest: some 15% of all employees are Black, and 46% are people of color. At the leadership level, 30% of employees are people of color. 

"You also have my commitment that the amplification we've been doing of Black voices on our social channels, in our articles, and in our newsletters will continue," Krawcheck wrote as she vowed to add Black executives to her leadership team. 

Building Ellevest 

The early focus at Ellevest was on building up a team of engineers, creating infrastructure for the eventual platform, and cultivating research on women and investing. 

While the official launch came in November 2016, Ellevest ran a closed-beta version with a small number of users beginning earlier in the year, a spokesperson said.

At the time, there were only automated tools in mind. The financial-planner offering and private wealth management services would come later. 

The team worked to create tools with fees that could compete with existing robo-advisers. For the straightforward investing tool, clients pay an annual fee of 0.25% of assets under management, with no minimum balance.

For Ellevest's premium product, which requires a $50,000 minimum and comes with a fee of 0.50%, clients also have access to certified financial planners and executive coaching. 

Krawcheck said that the idea wasn't welcomed with open arms by all women, but it was able to win over skeptics. 

"We had a double-digit percent of women, essentially at the time, shoot us the bird," Krawcheck said. "They said, 'For women? That sounds sexist, how dare you. I don't need my own thing to manage money, you know, for women.'" 

Quest to add deluxe offerings

September 2017 marked another milestone for Ellevest:  a $34.6 million fundraise. Rethink Impact, a US-based venture firm investing in female tech entrepreneurs, led the round.

Ellevest had some $54 million under management at the time. 

PSP Growth, the growth-equity arm of PSP Partners — run by billionaire businesswoman and former US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker — and Salesforce Ventures joined as first-time investors. 

Ellevest said it would use the funds to launch a financial-planning offering and a private-wealth service for clients with investable assets of at least $1 million.

Initially branded Ellevest Ascent, financial advisers would help customers strategize various areas of their personal finances. 

From a financial perspective, it was easy to see why the rollout was attractive: the margins on the business are traditionally much higher than robo-advisers, and bringing on bigger accounts would help offset customer acquisition costs.

Anisha Kothapa, an analyst at the market intelligence and research firm CB Insights, told Business Insider that Ellevest made a smart move shifting into more of a hybrid wealth-management product, rather than stick with an automated-only offering. 

Still, one way to propel asset growth would be to widen its approach and cater to different demographics, rather than focusing on women, she said. 

Heartstrings and purse strings

Three former employees, all of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about their experience, noted there was never much talk of an end-game for Ellevest, and one said they never received a real straight answer about what any eventual exit might look like.

This isn't necessarily unusual for a startup. Founders focus on building big businesses rather than discussing ways to hand them off. However, many startups that have focused on niche audiences, such as women or college students, either find they later need to expand their userbases to stay competitive or wind up with disappointing outcomes. 

SheCapital, Swell, and WorthFM, all of which targeted either women or socially-responsible investing, have shuttered within the past few years. 

It's a delicate balance between deciding what "pulls at the heartstrings, as well as the purse strings," Genevieve O'Connor, an assistant professor of marketing at Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business, said in a recent phone interview. 

"Companies need to stay away from 'pink-washing,'" O'Connor said. The phrase has roots in labeling brands that critics say exploit rainbow color schemes and the color pink in marketing around breast cancer awareness and LGBTQ causes, but has widened to describe the notion that products for women should come with a lighter touch — a general practice Krawcheck has railed against.

Building the wealth-management side of the business could also help improve key metrics or statistics potential investors would look at. But according to one former employee, the announcement came before the actual tech platform needed to support the wealth-management offering was complete.

"They weren't really bridging the gap between the robo side and being tech-enabled on the wealth-management side," the source said. 

Reporting features and the actual client site lagged behind the robo offering.

"They just weren't applying the technology with the same, I would say, gusto, that they were with the other side because the other side was the tried and true proven business that really kept the funding going," the source added.

However, that lack of a wealth-management platform didn't stop the push to try and build the business up.

The directive from management was to continue to get assets in the door from high-net worth individuals with the caveat of, "we'll figure the rest out later," the source said.

The wealth-management platform was in a closed beta phase at the time of the announcement, a spokesperson said. 

As for the discrepancies between the robo and wealth-management side, the spokesperson said it's natural for products to mature over time.

"There are fundamental differences in the service models for our digital and private wealth management offerings," the spokesperson said. "Our digital investing offering relies almost exclusively on technology, whereas our private wealth offering is driven by financial advisers, who are tech-enabled. We continue to invest in all of our products."

Turnover had also become an issue for some teams, according to the source. In 2019, at least six software engineers left between February and August. 

A spokesperson confirmed that turnover and said Ellevest took actions to improve retention, and that since August 1, 2019, voluntary attrition among engineers has been less than 5%.

There was also a departure at the C-level as Lisa Stone, who joined in August 2017 as chief marketing officer before transitioning to chief strategy officer in April 2018 and leaving one year after, according to her LinkedIn. 

More big names get involved 

The company nabbed more funding in March 2019, raising $34.5 million in an extension of its Series A round.

Rethink Impact and PSP Growth led the extension, but a who's who of backers also joined. 

Among them were Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures; PayPal Ventures; Mastercard; Elaine Wynn, the cofounder of Wynn Resorts; Eric Schmidt, the former executive chairman of Google and Alphabet; and Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama. Former Goldman Sachs tech banker Linnea Roberts, through her VC firm Gingerbread Capital, also participated.

"Unlike other fintech start-ups, Ellevest is changing women's behavior, changing the narrative around women and money, and in so doing, giving women the means to change their own lives," Jenny Abramson, founder and managing partner of Rethink Impact, said, adding Ellevest is "more than meeting its benchmarks for success." 

None of Ellevest's other investors returned Business Insider's requests for comment, while a representative for Elaine Wynn could not be reached.

The wealth-management business, re-branded Ellevest Private Wealth Management, had reached $100 million in assets under management, Krawcheck said in a statement at the time of the last fundraise. 

"After this round, I feel like I'm at the end of a marathon — one in which I threw up, hallucinated a giant rabbit running next to me for the final four miles, and broke my knee," she wrote in an annotated press release posted to Ellevest's website.

The road ahead for Ellevest

The March 2019 raise was the last big news the company reported.

A spokesperson declined to disclose how its assets are currently split across digital, premium, and private wealth beyond noting the latter has grown "in multiples" over the past year. 

Ellevest still lags behind both upstarts and traditional players. It's not profitable, a spokesperson said, declining to disclose burn rate or profitability figures. To be sure, many startups in the space have yet to turn a profit, as most tend to focus on growth. 

"At Ellevest, we don't see digital investment platforms as direct competitors because we have a different audience demographic," Krawcheck said in a statement, adding that "in comparing us to other companies in the category, you have to consider the fact that Ellevest's membership base doesn't have the same amount of money to invest as others' users."

So where does Ellevest go from here?

"This idea of you build a startup with an eye on the exit door, and who are you going to sell to, and who's it going to be — it hasn't entered the equation. We've never talked to our investors about it. We spend no time as a leadership team about it," Krawcheck said. 

"We can easily be a publicly traded company. We can easily be a profitable private company. Any of those things can be available to us as we're successful," she said. 

Business Insider spoke with five venture capitalists who have made investments in personal-finance startups. They were not authorized to speak publicly about Ellevest and requested anonymity to preserve relationships in the industry. 

While all spoke highly of Krawcheck and her vision for the platform, none had pursued making an investment beyond initial conversations.

Ellevest's relatively small total assets versus the amount of money it's raised was one red flag cited by a few of the VCs.

"They are way smaller than they should be," one venture investor said. "For the amount of money they have raised … It doesn't make sense."

Another venture investor highlighted the risks that come with focusing on a specific segment. That approach, some venture sources said, can sometimes limit scale.

In interviews, multiple sources pointed to another woman-focused financial planning startup, LearnVest, as one way they could see Ellevest's path playing out.

The personal-finance software startup was acquired by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance for $250 million in 2015. Three years later, in May 2018, LearnVest's offering was discontinued. 

There are no shortage of onlookers rooting for what's been the most successful women-focused investing startup in the wave of digital wealth managers over the last decade. Still, not every woman has wanted an investing service with a gender lens.

"Many of women's money woes do originate in unequal pay and lopsided caretaking burdens, and it's nice to see that acknowledged — but financial advice can't fit it," personal finance writer Helaine Olen wrote for Slate in 2015. "Only social change can do that."

"Women are not monolithic, any more than men are," she wrote. 

A former employee said in an interview that Ellevest's stated goal was never unclear: get more women investing in the market, and close the gender wealth and income gap. 

"We were all, and many of us still are, true believers," they said. "There were a million things that went wrong, as with any new company. But one thing that was true was everyone believed in that mission, and the goals."

Read more: 

• • Why Morgan Stanley, which has 15,000-plus financial advisers catering to the super-wealthy, is buying a discount broker known for its talking baby ads
  • Wells Fargo is eyeing even lower minimums for its robo-adviser as it looks to go head-to-head with Robinhood and Acorns

SEE ALSO: Inside the quest to reboot Personal Capital, the wealth manager grappling with its identity in the cutthroat robo-advisory age

SEE ALSO: Robo-advisers like Wealthfront and Betterment are in a tricky spot — here's why one fintech banker thinks buyers and public investors will be hard to win over

SEE ALSO: SigFig raised $120 million on the promise of reinventing investing, but hasn't announced a big partnership in years. Here's how it went from inking deals with UBS and Wells Fargo to struggling to compete.

SEE ALSO: WEALTH MANAGEMENT 2030: Read the full responses to our survey about wealth management and the financial adviser of the future

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NOW WATCH: We tested a machine that brews beer at the push of a button

• Many companies have frozen or slowed down hiring during the coronavirus pandemic, but for the companies that are still hiring, recruiters are busier than ever.
• Recruiters say that they're seeing more candidates apply than before, and they're also sourcing from lists of people who have been laid off.
• They also say the priorities of candidates have changed, as they're more interested in a company's stability and less interested in perks like free lunch and commuter benefits.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Asana has been onboarding 15 to 20 new hires every week since moving to remote work in mid-March. 

Because there are now more people on the market, recruiting has become easier, says Kayla Vatalaro, global head of talent at Asana. Vatalaro estimates that Asana is reviewing eight times more applications now than just a month ago.

Not all tech companies are still hiring like Asana. Since the outbreak began, many companies have taken a hit and have had to lay off staff. But for recruiters at companies that are still hiring, work has only gotten busier because of the massive influx of candidates. 

Plus, recruiters now have to adapt the process to work virtually, while making sure they're hiring a diverse team, conducting a fair process, and spending more time with candidates so that they feel more connected, Vatalaro says. And recruiters have noticed that the priorities of candidates have changed. Above all, they want to make sure they are joining a stable company.

"Humanizing our virtual process for us continues to be a top priority," Vatalaro told Business Insider. "We're making sure every touchpoint with our candidate feels personal. That extends all the way to our virtual onboarding experience."

Likewise, the AI startup ArthurAI has been getting more inbound candidates than before, says Priscilla Alexander, co-founder and vice president of engineering at ArthurAI. Before, candidates often had multiple rounds of interviews with other companies and even multiple offers. But the market has completely flipped. 

"Previously since the response rate has been low, you've had to reach out to a lot more candidates," Alexander told Business Insider. "Filling the recruiting funnel and doing recruiting outreach was the biggest part of the work. Now sourcing is really easy. We're looking at all the candidates out there and filtering the ones we want to talk to. We can be very picky."

The pace of hiring has changed during the coronavirus pandemic

At the staffing services company Collabera, hiring has slowed down because many of its clients have taken a hit and had to lay off staff during the coronavirus pandemic. Because of widespread layoffs across the industry, there has been a larger flood of candidates onto the market, and the number of open positions isn't catching up. 

However, cloud, streaming, gaming, and remote work app companies have been more immune to the economic impact of the pandemic. 

"It's made an interesting pivot," Sam Plasman, senior manager of recruiting at Collabera, told Business Insider. "There are certain companies that are business positive due to corona. It's making us all pivot into markets that are flourishing due to the pandemic."

For example, because of the demand for its cloud computing services during the pandemic, Amazon Web Services says it's still hiring at a "rapid pace."

"Our recruiters are also dealing with many of the same issues our candidates are, and we strive to be flexible with hours in order to accommodate the changes," Jay Shankar, vice president of global talent acquisition at AWS, told Business Insider in a statement.

Other companies that are still hiring are focusing on certain roles. Vatalaro says Asana is "full speed ahead" in hiring, although it's prioritizing roles that help fulfill its short-term objectives, such as in product development, product management, and customer success.

Similarly, while it's still hiring engineers, the AI startup ArthurAI has slowed down to focus on more marketing roles because it has "become more critical to get exposure to the market," Alexander says.

The interview process has gotten faster

In some ways, the recruiting and interview process has gotten more efficient without the need to fly in and lodge candidates. Scheduling virtual interviews has become more flexible, but recruiting teams now have to prepare candidates by giving them an overview of the technology they need to use for an interview.

While these processes have been streamlined, many recruiting firms have had to deal with hiring slowdowns. 

As a manager, Plasman says much of his job now involves boosting employees' morale because it's not a "super happy-go-lucky bubbling time." Some things he might do include starting a competition with incentives, encouraging team members to build each other up, and having more check-ins.

"Overall, most recruiting teams have seen a hit in terms of individual production and team production," Plasman said. "That's disappointing because a lot of what our compensation has been is personal production. All of a sudden you're not producing at the same level, and it affects your morale too."

Duolingo has not decreased or slowed down hiring, but the pressure is higher because so many companies are laying off staff, says Jocelyn Lai, director of talent acquisition at Duolingo. However, she says this helps her team feel that there's more purpose in what they do.

"Whether it's helping someone find a new opportunity or someone who got laid off, it's an opportunity to help them find a job," Lai said. "Morale actually goes up because our purpose is even bigger now."

Recruiters will check lists of people who have gotten laid off

Companies will often put together lists and databases of people who have been laid off and circulate them to tech companies. During this time, recruiters frequently check these lists, and they will take them into consideration, knowing that these people are on the lookout for new opportunities. 

Alexander estimates that before, Arthur.ai mostly found candidates through LinkedIn searches and referrals, and now it's 90% through layoff lists. And while Plasman will reach out to engineers who just got laid off, he will also reach out to employees remaining at the same company because they're likely to be strong talent, and they may be worried about another layoff round.

Kristine Ona, a talent acquisition partner at the student loan platform Earnest, says she also frequently receives emails from VCs and other connections who know people who got laid off and are now job seeking. 

"They made a point to connect people who they've laid off with other recruiters out there," Ona told Business Insider. "It's really interesting to see how companies are adapting to and dealing with the layoffs. It really comes down to how leaders approach this."

Now, Ona says, there is plenty of good talent that is actively looking, and she will take time to connect with people on these lists. While Earnest has slowed down in hiring its business and marketing roles, it's focusing on hiring tech talent. Ona says she has been doing triple the number of calls she normally does. 

"Even though it's busy, it feels really rewarding to connect with some of them," Ona said.

Office perks are becoming less important

Recruiters say candidates are less interested in learning more about perks like free lunch and commuter benefits, or even what the office looks like. Duolingo created an office tour video for candidates, but Lai says these types of perks have become less important "considering there are bigger societal pieces going on." 

However, candidates may be interested in learning what companies do in lieu of those perks. For example, while office perks are less relevant at Asana, the company introduced benefits in mental wellness and virtual therapy. 

"The question around the company has changed," Lai said. "It used to be what cool things we do as a company and now the question is how authentic are you as a company and how well are you taking care of your current employees. These employees want to know what do you do to care for employees."

The priorities of candidates have changed

Because of layoffs, Plasman says that many potential candidates are now more "risk-averse," especially if they work at large companies like Facebook and Amazon. They also want to make sure that the job they're interviewing for won't be eliminated later. 

"They're second guessing if that's the best move right now," Plasman said. "During this specific time, they're definitely evaluating the long-term potential or short-term potential of the product and company. Can it survive the pandemic, and can it survive another pandemic?"

Ona also noticed that more candidates are afraid to leave their jobs. Since Earnest has already been acquired, Ona says that one of its biggest selling features is that her company provides more stability. 

"For me, I feel like I have this duty to connect with people to find their next fit and be really self-aware and open about it," Ona said.

Typically, there are two types of candidates, Lai says. One is risk-averse and does not want to make a move from a large tech giant because of its stability. The other type cares about the mission of a company. 

"We don't force someone into a decision because it has to be the right fit, but we are honest about yeah, there are risks associated with leaving a big tech company," Lai told Business Insider. "The trade off is there's huge upside if you join us as the company grows...It's definitely become more of a coaching process with candidates."

Still, some candidates are willing to jump into a startup. Alexander, who works at an earlier stage startup, says the pandemic has allowed people to be more "experimental" with the next step in their careers. In general, Arthur.ai will seek out candidates who are motivated to join a startup and motivated by its mission. 

That being said, Alexander says she finds more candidates who are willing to have a conversation from companies like Lyft and Uber that have been struggling during the pandemic, while people in more stable tech companies are less likely to budge.  

"A lot of companies, it's hard to guarantee any stability, but I think folks who have a lot of stability in their current job, they're just staying put," Alexander said.

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SEE ALSO: Tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce are taking a stand against systemic racism, but their work with law enforcement could contradict their stances

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NOW WATCH: What makes 'Parasite' so shocking is the twist that happens in a 10-minute sequence

Digital transformation has just begun.

Not a single industry is safe from the unstoppable wave of digitization that is sweeping through finance, retail, healthcare, and more.

In 2020, we expect to see even more transformative developments that will change our businesses, careers, and lives.

To help you stay ahead of the curve, Business Insider Intelligence has put together a list of 30 Big Tech Predictions for 2020 across Banking, Connectivity & Tech, Digital Media, Payments & Commerce, Fintech, and Digital Health.

This exclusive report can be yours for FREE today.

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• Sgt. 1st Class Joshua David, a Green Beret, gets paid by the US Army to play video games.
• David and the Army's other esports players stream for roughly five hours a day, but still maintain the service's military standards.
• Here's what his day looks like and how recruits can also become a member of the Army's esports league.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

US Army Sgt. 1st Class Joshua David, a Green Beret, can speak two dialects of Arabic and handle a Special Forces attack dog.

But David isn't conducting close-quarters combat training for the Army at his regular job — he could instead be found playing video games, for hours on end, as a member of the Army's esports team.

David, an active-duty soldier, is getting paid by the federal government to play video games.

The 30-year-old Oklahoma native started off playing video games during the Nintendo-64 era with titles like "Perfect Dark" and "GoldenEye," and eventually made his way to the Halo series following the launch of the Xbox.

"When Xbox came out with 'Halo: Combat Evolved', I pretty much became obsessed," David said. "When 'Halo 2' came out, I chased that."

The third title of the Halo series eventually tempered his expectations and set him on the path to public service.

"When 'Halo 3' came out, that's when I figured I wasn't going to be good at the 'Halo' series anymore," David said. "And that's right around when I joined the Army. They may be linked."

"There's probably a good relation there," David joked. "That might be why I'm not good in school, because I was playing too much Halo."

With his academic prospects dimmed, David, who "didn't know anything about the military," joined the Army as an infantryman in 2008.

"I didn't even know what a Ranger was," he said, referring to the title earned by completing one of the Army's light infantry training schools. "It got offered to me in Basic Training and I said, 'Sure.'"

After a few years in a Ranger regiment and two deployments to Afghanistan, David tried out for the Army's Special Forces selection process and then made his way to the 5th Special Forces Group. Four deployments later, he volunteered to become part of the Army's newest initiative with the esports community and began streaming video games on a full-time basis.

Much like the difficulty in the Special Forces selection process, the Army had to filter through thousands of applicants for their esports team — about 6,500 in total.

Not all of his colleagues in the Special Forces community were on board with his career move while others cast friendly shade: "He was doing the 'Call of Duty' thing in real life and now he's doing it in a video game," David recalled.

"When I got offered to do it full-time ... it was probably about 70-30 in favor of what I was doing," David said. "Guys my age and younger really are open and they understand what was going on."

"Some of the older guys weren't that happy," he added. "You know, they don't really understand how many people actually play videos games and watch it. But once you start showing them statistics, they really start to open up."

Esports and game streaming has exploded in recent years. Business Insider Intelligence estimates esports viewership to increase at a 9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2023 — from 454 million to 646 million — nearly doubling the audience from 2017.

A separate study from the Activate consulting firm indicates that the number of American esports viewers will exceed the audience from every other US-based professional sports league, except the NFL, by next year.

David's transition from using real weapons to firing them in-game wasn't all too difficult and he says there wasn't an overlap with his military training. But there were other social barriers he needed to overcome in order to fit in with his new community.

"For me, being a little older than what most people ... by 8-10 years, I'd say the hardest thing for me is that I had to learn the terminology," David said. "There's so many words people use these days that I have no idea what they're saying."

'Nerdy soldiers'

David's day starts out just like any other active-duty soldier in the Army: physical training (PT) in the morning and a day out of the week for administrative tasks.

"Just like a normal unit, we have PT every morning, usually around 6:30; and then go eat breakfast; shower; get in your uniform," David said. "We're usually back to work by 9:00. Basically from there, we're either practicing our game and creating content for YouTube or whatever social media platform."

The esports league is part of the Army's broader Marketing and Engagement Brigade based in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where other military marketing teams are also stationed, such as the Golden Knights parachuting team.

"So the cool thing about the esports team is that we're right next door to the Army Crossfit and Strongman Team — so we get that unique opportunity [for] them kind of designating a workout for us," David said. "So now we have all these, you know, 'nerdy soldiers' because of how much video games they play."

David and the Army's other esports players stream to the public for roughly five hours a day, and then select highlights for upload on platforms like Twitch.

"When you're gaming ... it's really hard to get off that and then go sit back and try to clip stuff and create content if you want to do multiple platforms," he said. "There's really not enough time in the day to do everything, so you have to try and micromanage that time."

'I want to enlist as a gamer'

As a community outreach program and a recruiting tool, David and other members of the Army's esports league are bombarded with questions from potential recruits. Through their conversations, the esports team realized there have been misconceptions about what they do and how to become a member.

"I'd say the biggest misconception about our program is that you cannot join the Army to be a 'video game player,'" David said. "It's not a job in the Army where you can just come off the street and say, 'Hey, I want to enlist as a gamer. Let's do that.'"

"You're still an infantryman, you're still a medic, you're still something," David added. "You can try out as an extracurricular activity, and maybe make the E-sports team."

Because the Army and every other military branch does not offer it as an occupational specialty, recruits are not able to join the esports league at the beginning of their military careers. Once they become a soldier, they can apply to become a member on an extracurricular basis, and then, hopefully, transition into becoming a full-time streamer or competitive gamer on the team.

"It's almost daily — the younger guys, 16-17, they're like, 'I want to do what you're doing,'" David said. "But then they kind of want to do everything that I'm doing and they don't want to put in a lot of work. To even be a Green Beret, it's two years of school."

"But I actually get a lot of interest on this," David added. "Guys actually talk to me about wanting to game, and ... maybe they want to try out for Special Forces or want to be a Ranger."

Soldiers with the esports league are also required to abide by certain rules, such as not being able to solicit subscriptions from the Army's official Twitch account and keeping their profanity down to a minimum.

"The last 12 years of my life I had quite a mouth on me," David said. "When we're streaming to the Army channels, we definitely try to be family friendly because you never know who's going come in and watch you."

"We're usually very good about our language," David added. "I mean, every now and then we'll slip up, followed by a quick apology, Especially if we're in the heat of the moment in a 'Call of Duty' match, sometimes we do slip up."

Once a soldier becomes a member of the esports team, they are assigned that role for the next three years. Soldiers must maintain the Army's requirements, including keeping up with its physical standards.

"If you're in any kind of negative standing in the military, or if you can't pass your PT test, you're not even eligible to try out," David said. "Soldier first, gamer second."

"You just got to remember: Yeah you're a gamer, but at the same time you're a soldier representing the United States Army," David added. "A lot of gamers these days are pretty toxic, especially in the "Call of Duty" world. You might be best player ... but if you can't portray the Army in a positive light, there's nothing we can really do with you."

SEE ALSO: Navy SEAL who oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid says 'Batman and Superman are not coming' in a speech advising college graduates to become their own heroes

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• On Saturday BTS, the widely popular Korean pop group with a rabid fanbase across the world, tweeted an anniversary message to fans from an iPhone before quickly deleting the post.
• BTS has a prominent partnership with Samsung and reshared the post from an Android device moments later.
• The short-lived mistake was instantly picked up by the group's active internet fanbase and shared thousands of times.
• The group has featured its latest Galaxy Z Flip phone heavily in music videos and other promoted posts.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Internet veterans may recall one of the most memorable spon-con gaffes — or at least it was, prior to Saturday. Alicia Keys, a creative director for phone maker Blackberry, was tweeting from an iPhone back in 2013. She left her role with Blackberry shortly after.

But Keys' mistake was overshadowed on Saturday when the internationally beloved Korean pop group BTS made a similar error. The group tweeted an anniversary message to fans from an iPhone before quickly deleting the post and resharing it from an Android device, according to screenshots posted by BTS fans.

The group has a prominent partnership with South Korean electronics giant Samsung, which runs Android software on its mobile devices.

The group's highly active internet fanbase caught the mistake almost immediately and posts pointing out the misstep were shared thousands of times.

The group has a highly visible partnership with Samsung and prominently features its latest Galaxy Z Flip phone in music videos and other promoted posts on members' personal pages and those for the group.

SEE ALSO: The Information reporter apologizes for 'judgmental' tweet that called out Andreessen Horowitz's silence after pressure from firm founder Ben Horowitz's wife, Felicia

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NOW WATCH: What makes 'Parasite' so shocking is the twist that happens in a 10-minute sequence

Many companies use the term artificial intelligence, or AI, as a way to generate excitement for their products and to present themselves as on the cutting edge of tech development.

But what exactly is artificial intelligence? What does it involve? And how will it help the development of future generations?

Find out the answers to these questions and more in AI 101, a brand new FREE report fromBusiness Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, that describes how AI works and looks at its present and potential future applications.

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• SpaceX launched dozens new internet-providing Starlink satellites on Saturday morning along with a few of Planet Labs' imaging spacecraft.
• The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the mission to orbit lifted off just before dawn from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• This caused the rocket's expanding plume of exhaust fumes to catch beams of morning sunlight, creating an enormous and spectacular multi-colored glowing cloud.
• People as far as Alabama saw the blue-hued cloud with a rainbow of colors in it and took photos and video of the phenomenon.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The best time to see a rocket launch is amid the twilight of dusk or dawn, when darkness blankets the ground but sunlight still shines high in the sky. In such moments, billowing plumes of rocket-engine exhaust high above Earth can catch the sun and create spectacular glowing clouds.

On Saturday morning at 5:21 a.m. ET, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 58 internet-beaming Starlink satellites to space along with three of Planet Labs' new high-resolution SkySat Earth-observing spacecraft.

The Starlink-8 mission, as it's called, was SpaceX's eighth batch of its latest Starlink satellites after two earlierexperimental launches, and it marks the company's 540th such satellite delivered to orbit.

It's also one of three Starlink missions the company hopes to fly in less than three weeks to work toward providing global internet service before the end of 2020. (That is, if the SpaceX can figure out an affordable means of connecting users to its network, as founder Elon Musk recently intimated.)

As the rocket ascended from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and over the Atlantic Ocean, it created the glowing-cloud phenomenon, and people from multiple states were around to document it in photos and videos to breathtaking effect.

"An epic display on Florida's Space Coast this morning!" photographer John Pisani tweeted shortly after the launch, sharing two stunning long-exposure photos he took of the rocket ascending to orbit.

John Kraus, the house photographer for the space media company SuperCluster, recorded a time-lapse movie of the entire launch and uploaded it to Twitter.

The clip compresses about eight minutes of flight into 15 seconds: 

SuperCluster also tweeted one of Kraus' still photos, and it shows how the expanding exhaust plume glowed in a rainbow of colors in the predawn twilight.

Jamie Groh, a teacher and part-time reporter for Teslarati.com, also shared a photo of the predawn launch — but one she took from 140 miles away from the rocket's launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"I'm fairly certain all of my neighbors were wondering why there was a crazy lady outside screaming at 5am," Groh said in her post.

The launch plume was so bright and large that it could be seen as far as Daleville, Alabama, wrote Twitter user Chance Belloise.

High-altitude winds eventually blew around the expanding exhaust trail into a winding cloud, creating a snake-like pattern in the sky, as shown in an image tweeted by photographer Greg Diesel Walck.

Starlink-8 is not the first time SpaceX's rocket launches, which are now the most frequent of any US-based aerospace company, has produced such a widely celebrated light show.

After SpaceX's June 2018 launch of a Cargo Dragon resupply spaceship to the International Space Station, its rocket-launch plume similarly grabbed high-altitude light to create an amazing glowing "dragon's tail."

And on December 22, 2017, SpaceX's liftoff of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites created over coastal California what is arguably the rocket company's most beautiful launch scene.

Why rocket exhaust plumes can look so beautiful

When rockets launch, they leave behind a trail of hot exhaust, also called a plume. The appearance of the plume depends on the fuel, in SpaceX's case it's RP-1 — a high-grade kerosene — burned by liquid oxygen.

Falcon 9 rockets can send payloads more than 250 miles above Earth, beyond the edge of space and where the space station orbits our planet.

At first, a rocket leaves behind a relatively thin plume. But as it climbs higher and higher toward space, the air pressure gets lower and lower. About a dozen miles up, the air pressure is less than 1% of that at Earth's surface, causing hot launch plumes to dramatically expand.

If atmospheric conditions are right, these billowing plumes can make water condense out of the air, which then freezes into tiny ice crystals. And if the timing is right, these crystals can reflect the sun's light from far over the horizon like a mirror, beaming it down to a dark, pre-dawn or post-sunset location (at least until high-altitude winds blow around the plume and ice).

The phenomenon is known to scientists as noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds, which form naturally and most frequently over the Arctic and Antarctic.

For a visual walkthrough of why twilight rocket launches look so stunning, watch the video below by Scott Manley, an astrophysicist and popular YouTuber, who uses SpaceX's December 2017 mission as an example.

SEE ALSO: An incredible new SpaceX video shows what it's like to be inside the nose cone of a Falcon 9 rocket launching Starlink internet satellites into orbit

DON'T MISS: Elon Musk says the biggest challenge of SpaceX's Starlink internet project is not satellites, but rather 'UFO on a stick' devices users will need to get online

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NOW WATCH: How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship

• Irish grocery delivery startup Buymie has raised $9 million to grow its business and expand into the UK. 
• The delivery app, backed by new investors Wheatsheaf Group, will begin operations in Bristol, UK as part of its growth plans. 
• "Back in 2014, I realised that the online grocery business was dysfunctional but that demand would grow," Devan Hughes, CEO and cofounder of Buymie, told Business Insider in an interview. "Covid has brought around a gold rush of businesses trying to shoehorn same-day grocery delivery but we work because we are an ally of retailers, not a disruptor."
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Online grocery delivery is one of the few sectors set to benefit from economic changes wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, with shoppers stuck at home during lockdown.

In the UK alone, the online grocery market in 2020 could be worth £16.8 billion ($21 billion) according to research firm Mintel. Mintel links a 33% year-on-year growth in the space to COVID-19, although it's already a lucrative market for companies that get it right.

It's with this in mind that Buymie, a grocery delivery startup from Ireland, is making the UK its next market. 

Dublin-based Buymie, founded in 2015, operates a same-day grocery delivery service, where you can order groceries and have them delivered to your door. It plans to expand to Bristol, UK armed with €8 million ($9 million) in fresh funding.

The startup's additional capital comes from new investors Wheatsheaf Group, part of the Grosvenor Estate, a British property group with $36.7 billion assets under management as of 2019. Follow-on investments were also committed from existing backers including: Act Venture Capital, Sure Valley Ventures, Haatch Ventures, and HBAN.

"Back in 2014, I realized that the online grocery business was dysfunctional but that demand would grow," Devan Hughes, CEO and cofounder of Buymie, told Business Insider in an interview. "COVID-19 has brought around a gold rush of businesses trying to shoehorn same-day grocery delivery but we work because we are an ally of retailers, not a disruptor."

UK food delivery startup Deliveroo has expanded into grocery, as has Uber via its Uber Eats service through partnerships with grocers such as Morrisons and Aldi.

Buymie's latest round came about due to the coronavirus. The company closed a €2.2 million round in Q4 2019 after strong growth but opted to extend it with new investment. The company is trading nine months ahead of its 2020 business plan, Hughes said. 

Buymie says its partnership model with retailers, including Lidl in Ireland, and the Co-op in the UK, allow it to leverage its tech and algorithm better than its competitors. "Retail partnerships are key to our business," Hughes added. 

These latest funds will go towards investment in the startup's IP and scaling its infrastructure alongside increased headcount in the company's operations and tech teams. Beyond Bristol, Buymie is also considering expansion into 15 other UK cities.

Check out Buymie's pitch deck below: 

SEE ALSO: Live events startup Hopin is in talks to raise an estimated $40 million as investors fight to fund pandemic-proof businesses

• Demand for artificial intelligence technology has been growing over the last five years and is poised to grow even faster due to the COVID-19 crisis, experts say.
• As businesses adapt to major changes caused by the crisis, they'll likely turn to AI technology to streamline operations and become more efficient, analysts and investors said.
• AI technology has helped businesses with tasks like making long-term sales growth projections to automating routine, time-consuming tasks.
• Two VCs say industry-specific AI software is especially poised to see strong growth and increased investment.
• Here are 12 startups that well-positioned to grow in a post-COVID world, including Tempus, Replicant, and Olive. 
• Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

Artificial intelligence — once relegated to academic studies and sci-fi nerds — has become one of the hottest technologies, infiltrating every industry.

AI adoption was already accelerating before the COVID-19 crisis, but experts say that demand for AI tools is now is poised to grow even faster. 

"The entire industry of AI is getting a huge boost from this unfortunate crisis," David Blumberg, founder and managing partner at Blumberg Capital, told Business Insider in May. "There is a silver lining to this dark cloud that we've all been living in for over two and a half, three months."

Former Cisco CEO John Chambers, who now runs his own venture firm JC2 Ventures, told Business Insider in an interview in May that he expects one to five major AI players to emerge from the current crisis. 

AI has helped businesses take on big and small tasks, from making long-term sales growth projections to the automation of routine, time-consuming tasks. A 2019 Gartner survey found that major organizations planned to double their number of AI-related initiatives in the following year, from an average of 4 to 10. But as they pandemic has forced businesses to try to adapt to major changes, like the sudden pivot to remote work and tightening budgets, they're looking for ways to streamline and operate more efficiently. 

"AI is best at solving all these really boring meat-and-potato problems," James Cham, a partner at Bloomberg Partners, told Business Insider. Many of the opportunities for using AI involve "straightforward process engineering," he said, where the technology can be used to shorten or streamline a process.

Industries like collaboration, shipping logistics, and manufacturing and warehousing will be particularly keen on using AI, said Sandeep Bhadra, a partner at Vertex Ventures. 

Jake Saper at Emergence Capital had a similar prediction, that "vertical" specific AI software will be in more demand. 

Here are 12 startups that analysts and investors say are well-positioned to grow thanks to a surge in demand for AI tools:

SEE ALSO: The tech industry has a terrible track record on diversity. Here's how 17 companies that spoke out against racism this week say they plan to improve.

Replicant

Funding: $8 million

Major Investors: Atomic, Norwest Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta

Recommended by: James Cham, partner with Bloomberg Beta (investor)

Replicant develops AI-powered voice chat bots to help businesses handle customer queries and complaints.  

The San Francisco-based startup launched in 2017, just in time to catch the surge in demand for customer support technologies, especially with the rise of delivery services companies.

Replicant was growing steadily before the pandemic, but has experienced even stronger demand during the crisis as more consumers turned to delivery services firms, Bloomberg's Cham said.

With many traditional call centers in lockdown, these delivery services companies turned to companies like Replicant to manage customer services, Cham said. There was "a dramatic uptick in demand," he told Business Insider. 

Ferrum Health

Funding: $9 million

Major Investors: Blumberg Capital, GSR Ventures, Vulcan Capital

Recommended by: David Blumberg, managing partner at Blumberg Capital (investor)

Ferrum Health developed an AI-powered health monitoring system aimed at minimizing medical errors. The San Francisco-based startup analyzes medical records, such as chest X-rays or MRI scans, in order to catch critical medical details that a health care provider may miss.

Blumberg Capital's David Blumberg said Ferrum Health is helping address medical errors, which is a serious problem in health care. "Even the the best-trained, most well intentioned doctors will miss things," he said.

The COVID-19 crisis has led to the expanded role of technology in health care, highlighted by the sudden widespread use of telemedicine.  Blumberg sees AI becoming a key part of that trend.

Cultivate

Funding: $10 million

Major Investors: Trinity Ventures, Bloomberg Beta

Recommended by: James Cham, partner at Bloomberg Beta (investor)

Cultivate helps businesses train better managers and develop a nurturing, employee-friendly environment.

The company's AI system scans and analyzes a company's data, including email and chat communications, and offers feedback on how to improve systems and interactions.

It's a "coaching tool at a scale you just can't imagine," Bloomberg's Cham said. A traditional management coach "isn't going to track my email flows, or note that you have an increasingly negative tone with Mary." 

Replicant's tool has become even more valuable during the crisis when managers must offer guidance and leadership to employees working from home, he added. 

"Managers don't know how to manage in this environment," he said. "This is such a different, complicated way of working. So managers are looking for any kind of guidance possible to say give me some feedback on how to do it."

Slync.io

Funding: $15.9 million

Major Investor: Blumberg Capital 

Recommended by: David Blumberg, managing partner of Blumberg Capital (investor)

Slync.io helps businesses manage their global supply chain, by autonomously tracking their international shipping and freight forwarding operations.

The San Francisco-based startup is focused on a complex market with many moving parts, taking into account different regulatory bodies in multiple countries and even natural disasters, said Blumberg Capital's David Blumberg.

"It deals with multiple partners like warehousing companies, trucking, shipping, airplanes, trains," he told Business Insider. "There's so many 'what ifs' and different scenarios that have to be managed."

There are now more 'what ifs' to grapple with as a result of the crisis, which makes Slync.io's technology even more valuable, he added. It also underscores how AI has evolved from an academic field to a technology that's addressing basic needs.

"It's actually working in the operational day-to-day management of truck containers and ships and railroads that move goods and keep us fed, housed and warm," he said.

Uniphore

Funding: $67 million

Major Investor: JC2 Ventures 

Recommended by: John Chambers, CEO of JC2 Ventures (investor)

Uniphore uses voice AI to help businesses improve customer calls and relationships. Founded in India in 2008, the startup moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley late last year.

CEO Umesh Sachdev described the move as "a big personal risk" in an interview with Business Insider last year. 

"Let's say something goes wrong and this fails," he told Business Insider in an interview last year. "I'm putting all my so far success on this new big risk."

Like other startups, Uniphore has taken a hit from the COVID-19 downturn. But one of its top investors, John Chambers, predicted that Uniphore will emerge from the crisis as a major player in AI.

Guru

Funding: $68 million

Major Investors: Emergence Capital, Accel, Salesforce Ventures, Slack

Recommended by: Jake Saper, partner at Emergence Capital (investor)

Guru uses browser extensions and Slack plugins powered to make sure the information that workers need to do their jobs "finds them wherever they need it," according to Saper. It finds data across a worker's set of cloud apps and surfaces it directly into whatever workflow tool a user is currently in.

The company raised a $30 million Series C round led by Accel in April. Guru is "poised for continued acceleration in 2020" because it is critical to helping remote and distributed teams get work done, Saper said. 

Deep Instinct

Funding: $92.1 million

Major Investors: Millennium Technology Partners, Blumberg Capital

Recommended by: David Blumberg, managing partner at Blumberg Capital (investor)

New York-based Deep Instinct uses AI to identify cybersecurity threats and competes with security companies like McAfee and Crowdstrike.

Deep Instinct's platform is based on deep learning, the branch of AI that enables a computing system to process data and signals and organize the information similar to the way human memory operates.

Blumberg of Blumberg Capital said that Deep Instinct has been building a massive database of malware and other threats which enables it to flag threats that "have never been seen before."

Olive

Funding: $123.8 million

Major Investors: General Catalyst, Kholsa Ventures, Drive Capital

Recommended by: Jake Saper, partner at Emergence Capital (no relationship)

Olive.ai sells hospital administration software to make hospital systems run more efficiently, and therefore reduce the overall cost of running a hospital.

It can automate some of the most redundant, data-heavy tasks in healthcare, like prior authorizations, insurance verifications, and account updates.

The company raised $51 million in Series E funding in April in a round led by General Catalyst and says it was already seeing massive growth even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The product is likely to see a surge in demand due to the pandemic, said Emergence Capital's Saper. 

"You could imagine that the verticals that are really impacted by COVID are going to see acceleration in AI-related efficiency driven solutions," Saper said.

C3.ai

Funding: $355.74 million

Major Investors: Shell ventures, Breyer Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures

Recommended by: Jake Saper, partner at Emergence Capital (no relationship) 

C3.ai sells software for predictive analytics and big data analysis, including for IoT devices, among other things, and was founded by Tom Siebel, who wrote the book on digital transformation. 

C3.ai has previously been focused on targeting industries like electric utilities, oil and gas, and manufacturing. Those are industries that are likely being forced to modernize rapidly right now, said Saper. 

"In the near term, while we're trying to have less people putting themselves at risk in a densely populated work environment, you could imagine a world where there's a bigger investments in AI driven solutions that can keep people safer by not having them in the field," he said.

Graphcore

Funding: $460 million

Major Investors: Sequoia, Dell Technologies Capital

Recommended by: Scott Darling, president of Dell Technologies Capital (investor)

What it does: AI technologies are data-hungry systems that require powerful processors with massive computing power. Traditional chipmakers led by Intel and Nvidia are trying to address that need, but AI chip startups have emerged as well. 

One of them is Graphcore, which Scott Darling of Dell Technologies Capital says  "may fundamentally redefine what the silicon looks like for machine learning."

Tempus

Funding: $620 million

Major Investors: Novo Holdings, New Enterprise Associates, T. Rowe Price

Recommended by: Dan Newman, analyst at Futurum Research

Tempus gathers and analyzes big pools of medical and clinical data to deliver personalized care for patients.

Healthcare and biotechnology are sectors that will likely see increased investment due to the current pandemic, said Dan Newman, an analyst at Futurum Research. 

"Biotech and healthcare is in this interesting crosshairs with COVID, but on the backend of this we're going to accelerate a lot of investment in health," Newman said.

Tempus closed a $100 million funding round led by Novo Holdings, New Enterprise Associates and Baillie Gifford in early March. 

• Former Apple engineer Sabrina Paseman says the key to getting hired at Apple is proving that you're a problem solver.
• That's how she believes she landed her interview at the company, where she worked for more than five years as an engineer on the Mac team.
• Paseman brought prototypes of a product she had previously tried to develop and walked through her mistakes during the interview.
• She left Apple recently and founded Fix The Mask, a project that provides designs for creating a brace that can be used to make surgical masks more effective for protection against the coronavirus.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sabrina Paseman has simple advice for anyone hoping to land a job at Apple: prove that you're a problem solver.

"People just want problem solvers in all aspects of all fields," Paseman, who spent more than five years at Apple as a product design engineer on the Mac team, recently said to Business Insider. "So that would be my advice for anyone starting out in product design."

Paseman recently started a project called Fix The Mask that teaches people how create a brace that makes surgical masks more effective for COVID-19 prevention. When she was interviewing at Apple years ago, Paseman says she was surprised to receive an offer. That's because she majored in biological engineering during her undergraduate studies, not mechanical engineering which is what she was hired to do at Apple.

But there is one reason why Paseman believes her interview likely stood out from the rest: She provided concrete evidence of her ability to think through mistakes and address problems.

Instead of just referencing past experiences, Paseman brought prototypes of a medical device that she had been working on the previous summer and walked through what she would have done differently. It's this choice that Paseman said she believes "blew them away" and landed her the job.

"I said, 'These are the things that I did, and this is what I would do differently,'" Paseman said. "And I showed them my thought process [and] iterations. And I think the fact that I brought tangible things to them and I was able to elaborate on what was good and what was bad about them, that itself made them want to hire me."

Paseman said she believes that principle could be valuable in all disciplines, not just engineering.

"Just showing that whenever you encounter a problem that you don't necessarily know how to solve, you have a really open mindset of, 'Okay, there's something wrong here. Let's try to dive down into details and figure out what's wrong,'" Paseman said.

Apple employs 80,000 people, according to the company's job creation website. According to the job search and reviews site Glassdoor, 65% of applicants have had a positive experience interviewing at the company. Apple also ranked 84th in Glassdoor's current list of the 100 Best Places to Work.  

Apple doesn't say much about its interview process publicly, but CEO Tim Cook has been vocal about how he views the next generation of Apple's workforce and beyond.

When speaking during an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting last year, Cook advocated for more coding education in schools, saying that there's a "mismatch" between the skills that are needed in the future and those coming out of colleges.

"So we've never really thought that a college degree was the thing that you had to do well," said Cook. "We've always tried to expand our horizons."

As for Paseman, she's applying what she's learned at Apple to her new Fix The Mask project, which she co-founded in March along with another former Apple employee Megan Duong. 

"I learned that good design comes from simple design," Paseman said. "And simple design can only be achieved by really fully understanding the problem." 

SEE ALSO: Major tech companies are letting their employees work from home. But Apple thinks different.

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