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The CEO of $2.5 billion Celonis explains the hot AI startup's big expansion push during the COVID crisis, and why it's looking to fill 600 new jobs with a base pay of up to $100,000

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Alexander Rinke CEO Celonis

  • Celonis, the $2.5 billion AI startup, is expanding its workforce by 60% and is looking to fill 600 jobs to meet the strong customer demand during the pandemic.
  • The company, whose platform uses AI to quickly analyze a company's computer network and find ways to make it operate faster and more efficiently, is planning to hire engineers, developers and sales reps, with typical base pay of $50,000 to $100,000, CEO Alex Rinke said.
  • "When this pandemic hit we didn't know how it would impact our business," he told Business Insider. "Overall, COVID has really been a tailwind for us in many ways and that's why we're hiring right now."
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Celonis CEO Alexander Rinke braced himself for what could be a tough ride when the coronavirus crisis escalated in March.

But the crisis actually created opportunities for the $2.5 billion AI startup, which is launching a big expansion push that includes filling 600 new jobs in the US, Canada and Europe, growing its workforce by roughly 60% to 1,600.

Celonis is looking to hire engineers, developers and sales professionals, with a typical base pay range of $50,000 to $100,000, Rinke said.

"When this pandemic hit we didn't know how it would impact our business," he told Business Insider. "Overall, COVID has really been a tailwind for us in many ways and that's why we're hiring right now."

Founded in 2011, Celonis uses AI to quickly analyze a company's computer network and find ways to make it operate faster and more efficiently. The startup's process-mining tools are used by major companies such as Airbus, Siemens, Lufthansa, and Uber.

Celonis has raised $370 million in funding from investors, including Accel and 83North, while scoring a $2.5 billion valuation.

As the crisis escalated, companies were forced to preserve their cash and more efficiently manage their supply chains, both needs that Celonis can help with, Rinke said. It immediately became clear that its customers needed to "complete years of digital transformation in months."

That meant that Celonis, which is based in Munich and New York, needed to build a bigger workforce, Rinke said.  It's currently looking to open four new locations in Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, and Stockholm. 

Many businesses went from "emergency mode" to "sustainability mode" as they figured out ways to adapt to the new normal of remote work and the ongoing impact of the pandemic. "There's just a need for improving processes and getting more efficiency," Rinke said.

Got a tip about Celonis or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentelor send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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SEE ALSO: The CEO of popular tech hiring site HackerRank says demand has surged for app developers, data scientists and interns as companies like Morgan Stanley, Riot Games or John Deere look to 'improve their online presence, or risk losing out'

SEE ALSO: Here's the pitch deck AI company Conexiom used to raise $40 million from Mark Zuckerberg's money manager ICONIQ to help businesses automate their sales and invoice processes

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


Here's the pitch deck a first-time CEO used to raise more than $9 million in less than 6 months to help anxious sleepers and pandemic insomniacs get a good nights' rest

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Nancy Ramamurthi

  • Proper, a telehealth startup that offers sleep supplements and wellness coaching, recently announced $9.5 million in funding from Casa Verde with participation from Redesign Health.
  • Cofounder and first-time CEO Nancy Ramamurthi told Business Insider that she started the company 6 months ago and ended up closing the funding round in even less time.
  • The company, which has just 7 employees, is entirely remote with no plans to head into the office any time soon, Ramamurthi said. 
  • Proper will have to stand out from other solutions that claim to address sleep issues right now, as more Americans are struggling with problematic sleep habits and anxiety-induced insomnia during the pandemic, but Ramamurthi said she's hopeful that her company's two-tiered approach will help differentiate it from other solutions.
  • See an abbreviated version of the pitch deck that Ramamurthi used to raise $9.5 million as a first-time CEO.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Americans can't sleep during the coronavirus pandemic and all the anxieties it has unleashed, but a new startup is trying to offer a solution that's better than snake-oil supplements and mythical remedies.

Proper is a 6-month-old startup with roots in telehealth and a first-time CEO with decades of experience in the tech industry. It combines personalized supplement regimens with nationally-certified wellness coaches who specialize in sleep behavior therapy. 

CEO and cofounder Nancy Ramamurthi said the two-tiered approach helps distinguish it from its competitors.

"My observation of the supplement space was that you have medications, you have over-the-counter solutions, and they all have negative side effects. Even natural supplements were really just melatonin and sugar in a gummy," Ramamurthi told Business Insider. "There was an opportunity to give the American consumer an option that was better and backed by science."

Ramamurthi's background is that of a tech executive, although she leans heavily on a group of trusted advisors and experts, in addition to her 7-person team, to develop Proper's formulas and vet the science during product development. She began her career in service to the United States as a captain in the Army, however, and she says her dedication to purpose was behind her desire to solve a problem that afflicted many Americans prior to the pandemic, and does even more so now that the coronavirus has engulfed the country.

"I had my own sleep issues but I really wanted to go after a massive problem," Ramamurthi said. "Then I realized, everyone sleeps. Sleep is super-individual, and sleep science is still very new. I could do something that had a massive impact on people."

Recently, Proper announced that it raised $9.5 million in funding from Casa Verde and Redesign Health. All told, the round took less than 6 months to come together, and while Ramamurthi had yet to sit down in the same room with  her cofounder due to the pandemic. The company has been remote almost its entire existence, and Ramamurthi doesn't expect that to change once business resumes a new normal.

"I hired our Chief Product Officer, my cofounder, and I've never met him in person," Ramamurthi said. "We were joking that we don't even know how tall he is."

Ramamurthi had seen the fundraising process mainly from the outer rings while she worked at various technology companies, but she said still had a lot to learn as a first-time CEO. She had more than an idea on the back of a napkin, she said, but finding investors aligned with her company's mission was still a challenge.

"I was connected to Redesign and Casa Verde at a good stage, so it hasn't been as hard for me as it has been for other new CEOs," Ramamurthi said. "It was really about quickly taking these concepts that we had in hand and building the business, and we did this through COVID in 6 months."

See an abbreviated version of the pitch deck first-time CEO Nancy Ramamurthi used to raise $9.5 million for her telehealth startup Proper in less than 6 months.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 24 designers, sales leaders, and other operators honored by a top early-stage VC firm as 'unsung heroes' who help founders build successful tech startups

























Mark Zuckerberg said there's 'no end in sight' for when employees will be able to return to the office and called the government's response to the coronavirus 'disappointing' (FB)

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mark zuckerberg

  • Mark Zuckerberg said there's "no end in sight" for when Facebook employees will return to the office. 
  • On a call with analysts Thursday following Facebook's second-quarter earnings report, Zuckerberg said he expects the rest of the year to be "unpredictable" and called the US government's response to the coronavirus "disappointing." 
  • Facebook initially planned to start sending employees back to the office on July 6, but never confirmed it had pushed back its reopening date. Google, which also had a July 6 reopening date, told employees this week that they could work from home through June 2021. Apple CEO Tim cook pushed back reopening to early 2021.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Mark Zuckerberg says he doesn't know when Facebook's employees will be able to return to the office. 

On a call with analysts Thursday following Facebook's second-quarter financial results, Zuckerberg discussed the US coronavirus response, which he described as "disappointing." Because the virus is still surging in parts of the country, Zuckerberg said, the company still hasn't sent employees back to the office.

"Looking forward, I expect the rest of this year to continue to be unpredictable," Zuckerberg said. "From a health perspective, with COVID growing quickly in the US, there's currently no end in sight for when our teams here will be able to return to our offices."

"It is incredibly disappointing because it seems like the US could have avoided this current surge in cases if our government had handled this better," Zuckerberg added, echoing comments he made earlier this month, when he told Dr. Anthony Fauci that the current state of the outbreak in the US was "avoidable."

Facebook had initially planned to start sending employees back to the office on July 6. At the time, the company didn't say whether it had gone forward with that plan, or if it had delayed its office reopening. Google had also named July 6 as its return-to-office date, but a surge in coronavirus cases in California led the company to push back its reopening.

Google said its US offices would stay closed until at least September 7, but earlier this week, the company announced it would extend its work from home policy through June 2021. Apple, similarly, pushed its reopening back from this fall to early 2021.

Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon all reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Thursday. Facebook's stock jumped 8% after the company beat Wall Street's expectations for revenue, profit, and growth in the second quarter. Despite an economic downtown amid the coronavirus crisis and an ongoing advertising boycott, Facebook reported that revenues were up 11% year-over-year. 

Facebook is also facing government scrutiny over potentially anticompetitive behavior. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg testified before the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee alongside Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, and Google's Sundar Pichai. The committee grilled Zuckerberg on Facebook's acquisition strategy and whether it copied competitors. 

SEE ALSO: Google will extend employee work-from-home until summer 2021

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

Marvel insiders say they're skeptical of its recent pledge to improve diversity in its comics and company, after employing only 2 Black editorial staffers in the last 5 years

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This story is for subscribers to Business Insider. For a brief period, we're making it widely available. Click here for more information on a subscription to Business Insider.

spiderman peter parker miles morales

  • In the early 2010s, Marvel's comics business focused on a diverse slate of new characters, but by 2017 comic sales had fallen, which resulted in the exit of editor-in-chief Axel Alonso.
  • Three former Marvel editors and one current editor told Business Insider that in the years since, Marvel has recommitted to nostalgia and classic, mostly white characters, often at the expense of some of those diverse characters like Miles Morales, a biracial teenage Spider-Man.
  • That shift was guided by an editorial department that lacked diversity, particularly in leadership roles. Today, there are no Black staffers on Marvel's editorial team of about 18 people, and only two people of color, Marvel confirmed.
  • "My voice and what I brought to the table wasn't valued equally," said Charles Beacham, one of two Black editorial staffers to work at Marvel in the past five years.
  • Have a tip? Email the author at tclark@businessinsider.com or DM him on Twitter @TravClark2.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Miles Morales was the character who pulled Charles Beacham into the world of comics.

Beacham was studying journalism at Brigham Young University, in Utah, when he walked into a comics shop in 2011 and picked up a copy of Morales' first appearance. Beacham, who is Black, said he was amazed to see Morales — a teenage Spider-Man who has a Black father and Puerto Rican mother — in its pages.

"When I was growing up, I always wanted to be the red Power Ranger, and the other kids would say I had to be the black Ranger," Beacham said. "The same thing happened with Spider-Man. They'd say, 'You can't be Spider-Man because Peter Parker's not a Black dude.' Seeing Miles Morales made me wish I had that as a kid."

Morales propelled Beacham into comics and into Marvel itself, where he worked as an assistant editor.

"I didn't have job prospects when I moved to New York in 2013, but the goal was to work for Marvel because of Miles Morales," Beacham said. When he landed a job at the company the next year, he loved it.

But Beacham, now 31, was living in New York City with a child on a $38,000 salary. He said that after three years as an assistant editor, from 2014 to 2017, without a promotion or raise, he was ready to leave. It wasn't about the money as much as the lack of a path forward.

"I thought I'd be at Marvel forever," he said. "If they had promoted me I'd probably still be there and surviving on ramen."

Beacham is one of two Black editorial staffers to have worked at Marvel in the past five years, the company confirmed. The second Black staffer, also an assistant editor, left this year after five years without a promotion or raise, a person familiar with the matter said. The editorial team of about 18 people now has two people of color.

"I want to be back there all the time," Beacham said. "But when it comes down to it, my voice and what I brought to the table wasn't valued equally."

Disney-owned Marvel has grown into a cultural force that extends beyond its comic books and into movies, video games, and other media. The comics are the foundation for it all, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has become the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time.

The stories that Marvel's small editorial team helps shape are central to popular culture in the US and around the world.

"Who works on these stories can help broaden them," said Regine Sawyer, the founder of Women in Comics Collective International, which helps to spotlight the comics work of marginalized people.

That was clear from 2011 to 2017, when Marvel ushered in a new era for its comic books under then editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, who is Mexican American.

New and diverse characters like Morales took center stage instead of Marvel's decades-old classic characters, who were primarily white. These characters inspired new fans like Beacham, and continue to inspire new fans as they make their way to other media.

But by 2017, Marvel's comic sales had fallen. Marvel's president of sales, David Gabriel, publicly blamed it on diversity. Alonso exited the company and was replaced by a white man in the role of top editor. Marvel reversed course.

Now, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed, Marvel is promising to once again introduce more diversity to its ranks and its stories.

Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter sent a letter to employees on June 18 saying the company would "support more Black voices."

And in a memo to staff sent July 6, Marvel's president, Dan Buckley, outlined three areas of focus for Marvel moving forward:

  • broaden Marvel's creative landscape, which includes identifying "what has traditionally prevented us in the industry from recruiting and fostering more BIPOC talent."
  • build a foundation of lasting growth by "examining our internal culture and rebuilding our long-term process for talent recruitment, retention, and outreach to communities of color."
  • create new initiatives and expansion opportunities by "looking to explore new projects that will enable us to reach and represent an even broader audience."

In addition to Beacham, Business Insider spoke with two former Marvel editors and a current editor. Aside from Beacham, the Marvel insiders spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their stance at the company or job prospects. They said they weren't confident in Marvel's latest initiative.

"The guy who made a commitment to diversity and wanted to try new things was fired," a former Marvel staffer said, referring to Alonso.

shameik Moore spider-verse miles morales

'Spider-Man with an asterisk'

Alonso led Marvel through a bold era during his time as editor-in-chief starting in 2011, helping to establish a diverse slate of characters.

Jane Foster was the new Thor. Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, a Black character, replaced Steve Rogers as Captain America. Riri Williams, a Black girl, was introduced as an Iron Man-like character named Ironheart. Kamala Khan, a Pakistani American Muslim teenager, was the new Ms. Marvel.

It wasn't a new phenomenon in comic books. Characters are regularly passing on their mantles, at least for a while. Dick Grayson, the first Robin, was DC's Batman for a time in the early 2010s, for instance. Sam Wilson wasn't the first person to take over as Captain America. This era at Marvel Comics, however, was notable for how it emphasized diversity.

But by 2017 — Alonso's final year as editor-in-chief — the company's sales had plummeted.

"What we heard is that people didn't want any more diversity," David Gabriel, the vice president of sales at Marvel Entertainment, said that year in an interview with ICv2, a website that covers the comics business.

"I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales," Gabriel said. "Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up."

What Gabriel meant by "core Marvel character" were the classic, decades-old characters being sidelined for new, younger, and more diverse characters.

Seven months later, in November 2017, Marvel's Alonso stepped down from his role and was replaced by C.B. Cebulski, a white man.

"The comics that [Alonso] made me think I could work in comics," Beacham said. "But when a Latinx guy is scapegoated for diversity and replaced by a white dude, and the sentiment was that Marvel was 'getting away from its roots,' what does that mean?"

In a statement after his 2017 comments, Gabriel emphasized that "our new heroes are not going anywhere."

But in the months between that retailer summit and Alonso's exit, Marvel introduced an initiative for editorial staff that had been discussed internally for some time: Phase out the familiar superhero codenames for some newer, diverse characters and give them their own, two former assistant editors including Beacham said.

Marvel confirmed to Business Insider that it had previously considered stripping Morales of his Spider-Man title and giving him a new name, but has no plans to do so right now. Marvel added that it discusses status quo changes for all of its top characters.

Today, some of the classic characters have been thrust back into the spotlight. Steve Rogers has taken back the mantle of Captain America, and Thor is a man again. Miles Morales shares the Spider-Man title with Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man.

Morales has grown in popularity beyond comic books, having starred in Sony's Oscar-winning animated "Into the Spider-Verse" movie in 2018 and in a coming PlayStation video game called "Spider-Man: Miles Morales."

Beacham said he was glad that Morales continued to be a Spider-Man.

"It would have made him less important," Beacham said of Morales' losing the Spider-Man title. "He becomes Spider-Man with an asterisk. It takes away the power for kids who relate to this character."

cosplayer miles morales nycc

'There's not a lack of people who can do the work'

Now, Marvel's comic-book slate is once again largely focused on classic characters, though characters like Morales and Khan remain. And there are some comics starring diverse characters from creators of color, like Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Black Panther." But their stories are in the hands of an editorial department run by an establishment of white male leadership.

"There's not a lack of people who can do the work," said Yumy Odom, the founder of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, which helps to showcase the talents of creators of color. "But it's about how receptive the industry is to them. I can think of 20 creators, mostly African Americans, who would be ready to work at Marvel."

Women faced an uphill battle at Marvel as well, the Marvel editors said. A female former assistant editor told Business Insider that she was never promoted or given a raise from her $30,000 salary in her three years at the company. She said she got promoted within a year at her new company, a different comics publisher.

Marvel declined to discuss employee salaries.

The Marvel insiders said a notable exception was Sana Amanat, who is Pakistani American and a former editor. She is now Marvel's head of content and character development, a leadership role outside the editorial department.

avengers video game kamala khan ms marvel

'There's a whole cohort of young readers'

Marvel has significantly bounced back from its 2017 sales decline, which might suggest that the refocus on its classic characters reeled longtime readers back.

Of the top 100 best-selling comics of 2020 so far, 69 belonged to Marvel, as of Wednesday, including four of the top five, and the company has accounted for 41% of comic sales this year, according to industry website Comichron. Three years ago, Marvel was lagging behind DC, its biggest competitor.

An example of the start of this resurgence was the first issue of Marvel's "Amazing Spider-Man" relaunch — starring the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker — which ranked fifth in 2018 out of all comics, according to data from Comichron. In contrast, when Marvel launched a series called "Miles Morales Spider-Man" in that year, the debut issue didn't crack the top 200 best-selling comics.

"People of a certain age have a connection with Peter Parker, not Miles Morales," a former Marvel staffer said. "Years from now, that may be different."

The current and former Marvel staffers Business Insider spoke with said they were hopeful that readership could broaden, particularly now that characters such as Morales and Khan are being introduced to audiences in other media like movies and TV. Khan is to appear in a Disney Plus TV series and the upcoming "Avengers" video game, for instance.

There are signs that the comics industry is going through a larger shift in how people read and who is reading, which could also spur change.

Last year, comic sales through the "book channel" — which includes chain and independent book stores and online retailers like Amazon — surpassed comic-book stores for the first time, driven by the increased popularity in children's graphic novels, according to an analysis by ICv2.

Milton Griepp, the chief executive of ICv2, said at the New York Comic Con conference last year that the shift could usher in a new audience for superhero comic books.

"There's a whole cohort of young readers that are being introduced to this medium and may graduate to other forms of content in the comic format over the course of their lifespans," Griepp said.

Beacham said: "Marvel needs to figure out the next stage of its core demographic because it could change rapidly."

Have a tip? Email the author at tclark@businessinsider.com or DM him on Twitter @TravClark2

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Beyoncé's new film 'Black Is King' is streaming exclusively on Disney Plus — here's how to watch

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  • Beyoncé's new film "Black Is King" is now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
  • "Black Is King" incorporates the themes of Disney's "The Lion King" into a new visual narrative that features images of the Black diaspora.
  • Beyoncé played the role of Nala in the 2019 remake of "The Lion King" and produced an album called "The Lion King: The Gift" to accompany the film's release.
  • Disney Plus subscription costs $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year.
  • For detailed Disney Plus impressions, you can read our full Disney Plus review here

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is the writer, director, and executive producer of "Black Is King," a new visual album that debuted exclusively through Disney Plus on July 31.

"Black Is King" incorporates the lessons of Disney's "The Lion King" into a new visual narrative. 

Beyoncé announced "Black Is King" with a one minute trailer on her website that was also featured on the Walt Disney Studios YouTube channel. The trailer reveals that the film has been in production for a year.

While Beyoncé is best known as a Grammy Award-winning musical artist, her recent film projects have also garnered critical acclaim. Her directorial credits include "Lemonade," the 2016 visual album delving into Knowles-Carter's experiences as a black woman, and "Homecoming," a Netflix-exclusive documentary chronicling her performance at Coachella 2018.

Knowles-Carter played the role of Nala in the 2019 remake of "The Lion King" and produced an album called "The Lion King: The Gift" to accompany the film's release. In June 2020 Beyoncé received the BET Humanitarian Award for her philanthropic work, which includes scholarship funding for women in the arts, and a recent program supporting Black people in Houston impacted by the coronavirus.

Updated on 7/31/2020 by Steven Cohen: Updated language to reflect the debut of "Black Is King" on Disney Plus.

How to watch 'Black Is King' on Disney Plus

To watch "Black Is King" you'll need to sign up for a Disney Plus subscription. The movie is exclusive to the service and won't be available anywhere else. The film debuted on July 31, 2020. Disney Plus offers monthly and annual plans, priced at $6.99 and $69.99, respectively.

Disney Plus is also available in a discounted bundle with Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99 per month, a deal that will save you about $5 per month compared to paying for all three services separately. If you're already a subscriber to one of those services, you can upgrade to the bundle here.

The Disney Plus platform includes support for up to 4K playback with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio through compatible devices. With that said, "Black Is King" is limited to HD resolution and standard 5.1 audio. 

Disney Plus is available to stream on Apple, PC, iOS, and Android devices, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and streaming devices from Amazon, Roku, and Chromecast. The Disney Plus app is also available on smart TVs, including models from LG, Samsung, Sony, and Vizio. You need an internet connection to stream Disney Plus, but the platform offers an option to download titles to a mobile device for future viewing when you're offline.

What other movies and shows can I watch on Disney Plus?

Disney Plus is home to an extensive library of movies and TV shows from DisneyPixarMarvelStar WarsNational Geographic, and 20th Century Fox. The catalog includes several original films and series developed exclusively for the streaming service. 

Though "Black Is King" is the first visual album to debut on Disney Plus, the platform features a growing assortment of musicals. A filmed version of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" premiered on July 3, and Disney Plus also includes a stage-to-screen adaptation of "Newsies."

Other movie-musicals on Disney Plus include the 1999 edition of "Annie," as well as Disney's many animated classics, like "The Lion King," "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid," and "Beauty and the Beast." 

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How to take a screenshot on any HP computer or tablet

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older woman using laptop computer

  • You can take a screenshot on your HP laptop or desktop computer by pressing the Print Screen key, often abbreviated as "prt sc." 
  • There are a number of ways to customize your screenshot using key combos.  
  • The Print Screen key is found in the top row of your keyboard.
  • To take a screenshot on an HP tablet, press and hold the Power button and Volume Down button at the same time. 
  • Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Taking a screenshot is such a common task that it has been a standard feature built into computers since the early days of personal computing. No matter what kind of HP computer, laptop, or tablet you own, you can take a screenshot with just a few clicks or taps. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

HP Chromebook 14 G5 (From $385.60 at HP)

HP Envy Desktop (From $869.99 at Best Buy)

How to take a screenshot on an HP desktop or laptop computer

The easiest way to take a screenshot is to use the Print Screen key on your keyboard. HP generally labels this key "prt sc" (though it may vary somewhat from model to model) and is found along the top row of keys. 

  • On most HP laptops, you'll find the Print Screen key beside the Delete key. 
  • An HP desktop computer can be combined with any keyboard, so the Print Screen key could be anywhere, though you'll still find it in the top row either near or among the Function keys. 

How to take a screenshot on HP 1

You have a lot of options for how you use the Print Screen key, such as screenshotting specific windows or just a portion of the screen. For details on getting the most out of the function and saving your screenshot once you use the key, see our article on Windows screenshot methods

How to take a screenshot on an HP tablet

You can also take a screenshot on an HP tablet, but because there is no keyboard, the process is different. In fact, taking a screenshot on a tablet is very similar to the way you take a screenshot on your phone. 

1. Press and hold the Power button and the Volume Down button at the same time.

2. After about two seconds, the screen will flash and your screenshot will be captured.

3. The screenshot is automatically saved in the Photos folder on your tablet.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

SEE ALSO: The best laptops

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

How Netflix's new CMO Bozoma Saint John rose to become the biggest 'badass' in marketing

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  • Bozoma Saint John, Netflix's newly named CMO, has climbed the corporate marketing ranks over 20 years, using her celebrity connections and ability to tie brands like Pepsi and Apple to cultural trends.
  • She's also known as unapologetically outspoken and a role model for women of color — notoriously underrepresented in the C-suites of corporations. 
  • Netflix has been synonymous with streaming video, but needs to convince people to keep subscribing as new options from HBO and Disney emerge.
  • Some warn that a CMO with huge personal stardom can risk overshadowing the very brands they're hired to promote.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Shorty after noon on a recent Saturday, Bozoma Saint John appeared on thousands of womens' computer screens.

It was the inaugural livestream of her event, "The Badass Workshop." Viewers paid $25 to learn Saint John's personal and work philosophies.

Ciara's "Level Up" began playing and in danced Saint John, blue stars glittering off her black jumpsuit. 

"I've seen all the descriptions of what it looks like to be a global CMO, and it's not supposed to look like this," Saint John said through fuchsia lipstick, half her hair pulled into a braided top-knot. 

Even when the livestream suddenly crashed, the expert marketer spun it positively: "WE BROKE THE INNANET!" Saint John proclaimed on Instagram.

Saint John, who was named CMO of Netflix in June, has always taken an unconventional path. While the CMO role has become increasingly the domain of data-based geeks, she's a glamourous executive who goes with her gut and is known for her work tying brands like Pepsi and Apple to cultural trends. Before joining Netflix, Saint John served as a marketing executive for Apple, Uber and Endeavor.

Netflix has become one of the world's most popular streaming video players. But it needs to convince people to keep subscribing as new options launch from competitors like HBO and Disney.

Her hire also comes at a moment when Silicon Valley, along the rest of Corporate America, desperately needs more executives of color.

Saint John, with her cultural magic touch, could be just what Netflix needs — but as her own persona grows, some question if she risks overshadowing the companies she serves.

Business Insider spoke to 18 of Saint John's colleagues, friends, and competitors for this story; Netflix declined to make Saint John available for an interview.

Saint John stood out from others since childhood

Bozoma Saint John Netflix

Until age 12, Bozoma Saint John lived in Ghana. After the country's government fell to a military coup in the 1980s, Saint John's family relocated to Colorado Springs. Now 43, the 5-foot-11 executive says she always stood out among mostly white faces in classrooms and boardrooms.

Over time, Saint John has built a robust list of connections from the worlds of media, politics, entertainment and tech, including Anna Wintour, the Obamas, and Facebook's Carolyn Everson. A recurring theme of Saint John is the idea of "bringing your whole self to work," which she frequently evokes in conversations and interviews.

In 2014, Saint John captivated a crowd when she was named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement. She gave a moving speech and talked about the loss of her husband Peter, who died from cancer one year prior.

"She won over not just the room but the whole industry," said Ross Martin, president of market research company Known, who received the same honor that year.

Those high-profile ties and honest nature are captured in Saint John's Instagram account, where she broadcasts a jetsetting life as "badassboz" as well as her role as the mother of a 10-year-old. She has also made rounds of the glossy lifestyle magazine circuit — with interviewers calling her the "Queen of Silicon Valley" and "a better brand than Uber."

Acquaintances like Tiffany R. Warren, SVP and chief diversity officer at ad giant Omnicom, speak of Saint John's open-book approach to life, informed by her African heritage and religious faith.

"What you see is what you get," Warren said. "That's how I think of Boz."

Other stories tell of her praying with investor Anjula Acharia before a high-stakes presentation and subbing in for Arianna Huffington at the Cannes Lions festival at the last minute when Huffington was recovering from hip replacement surgery.

She uses her position as one of the few visible Black women in her field, teaming up with Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Glennon Doyle, and Stacey Bendet to launch #ShareTheMicNow, an Instagram campaign to magnify people of color; and serving as the Ghana ambassador for education non-profit Pencils of Promise.

She built a career on emotional and cultural connections

At a time when CMOs increasingly live and die by the numbers, Saint John's stock in trade is connecting with consumers on an emotional level, and, in her own words, trusting her gut. This approach can open her to criticism that she doesn't care about ROI as much as a CMO should.

"There are some marketers that lead with logic and data, and there are other marketers that lead with instinct and culture; [Boz] sits far out on the instinct and culture side," said friend Jonathan Mildenhall, who is cofounder of consulting firm TwentyFirstCenturyBrand.

At Pepsi, Saint John spearheaded projects like a series of live-streamed Twitter concerts with Katy Perry and others that marked a new union of social media, advertising, and pop music, former Pepsi executive Shiv Singh said.

She helped land Beyoncé for the 2013 Pepsi Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans and assembled the trio of Kerry Washington, Mary J. Blige, and Taraji P. Henson for a buzzy Apple Music Emmy night ad in 2015.

"She has such a strong understanding of culture that she gets how to embed a brand in it without it seeming inauthentic," said Joe Anthony, founder of agency Hero Collective, who met Saint John while working with Pepsi.

At Apple's 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference, Saint John introduced a revamped Apple Music by leading the typically staid crowd through a raucous rendition of "Rapper's Delight." That and other public appearances paved the way for other Apple executives to develop public profiles, said Justina Omokhua, SVP of brand marketing at Endeavor, who also worked under Saint John at Apple.

Apple executive Bozoma Saint John

Putting out fires in Silicon Valley

At Uber and Endeavor, Saint John also put her celebrity- and emotionally driven approach to work to fix crises.

She joined Uber in 2017 as chief brand officer. The company's reputation was being dragged by a series of punishing revelations about its corporate culture and treatment of drivers.

After an eight-hour meeting with former CEO Travis Kalanick and board member Arianna Huffington, Saint John was hired. She and Huffington had first met six months earlier, at a private dinner at the CES trade show.

"I didn't know who she was, but she was such a force of nature that I was just taken by her," Huffington told Business Insider. "She recalled the story of how she once took her Uber driver to an Iggy Pop concert, and that's when I realized that she could really help humanize the brand."  

Saint John helped shift Uber's marketing focus from being a mere utility to something more essential in people's lives. Under her direction, the company worked with celebrities like LeBron James and ESPN's Cari Champion to promote that message and she helped craft a 2018 spot that featured a heartfelt apology from Uber's new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, about the company's toxic culture.

Hollywood dealmaker and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel wooed Saint John away from Uber in 2018. There, she rubbed elbows with celebrities like Wintour and Tom Ford at the Endeavor-owned New York Fashion Week, spoke to would-be investors for an ultimately unsuccessful IPO, and helped ad agency 160over90 win new work from clients like McDonald's and Lowes. She also helped Papa John's take responsibility for its founder John Schnatter's racist missteps by using angry customer tweets to apologize.

"She's the CMO of herself"

As her career has grown, so has Saint John's personal brand.

In recent years, she's flirted with the idea of a Starz docu-series; started an iHeartMedia podcast with Katie Couric; and launched "The Badass Workshop."

Acharia, who is Priyanka Chopra's manager in addition to being an investor, saw all these activities as a natural progression for Saint John, whom she called a "born star."

To Saint John, her sense of social responsibility is interconnected with the work she does as a marketer.

But where some see stardom, others see a potential problem. Multiple people interviewed for this article said Saint John's outsized personality could risk outshining the very brands that she's been hired to promote.

"She puts on other coats, jackets and uniforms sometimes, but she's only worked for one company the entire time, which is the Bozoma company," said one marketing executive. "She's the very definition of the CMO of herself." 

This tension can be more intense for executives of color, who already face systemic bias.

To Mildenhall, the bigger Saint John's profile gets, the greater tensions could become with the brands that employ her. 

"Everybody should figure out what their authentic brand is, but that personal brand can never be bigger than the brand that you're in service of, or bigger than the company that you're working at," Mildenhall said.

Netflix wants to have a bigger role in pop culture

Bozoma Saint John

Netflix added 10.1 million paid streaming subscribers during the second quarter of 2020, even as the coronavirus pandemic decimated many other legacy and digital media companies. It had a global marketing budget of $2.65 billion in 2019.

But new competitors are challenging its service, ranging from upstarts like Quibi to more successful launches like Disney Plus and HBO Max. Forrester principal analyst Jim Nail said co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandon have recently begun emphasizing Netflix's ability to influence pop culture through a steady stream of original hits like "Bird Box," which help it retain subscribers and sign up new ones who didn't want to miss out on the latest cultural phenomenon.

Netflix has also sought to deepen its relationship with the Black community through investments in Black-owned businesses and colleges, plus collaborations with influencers like Michelle Obama and Ava DuVernay. 

Nail said Netflix's goal of influencing culture lines up with Saint John's record of helping companies stand out by co-opting trends beyond their industries.

"It's almost a repositioning; they're certainly enhancing and enriching their positioning with the idea of being a key part of culture," he said.

There may be no one better suited to help it than Saint John, who built a career by ignoring the rules and finding a place in culture for everything from high-end headphones to canned sugar water.

And for that, Saint John isn't apologizing.

"You know how many times I've been told I'm too much? A lot. All the time," she said during her recent inaugural "Badass" workshop. "But it's the reason I'm successful. It's the same things that they'll celebrate you for that they'll criticize about you, too."

SEE ALSO: We mapped out Netflix's 56 most powerful executives including its new co-CEO and CMO in an exclusive interactive chart

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How to share your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on a Mac, PC, or web browser

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business meeting two women

When creating MicrosoftPowerPoint presentations for work or school, it's often necessary to collaborate with others on your projects.

Thankfully, it's easy to share a PowerPoint presentation no matter what version you use. The process looks fairly similar on both Mac and PC programs, as well as on the online version that can be accessed from any web browser. The online option is helpful if you don't have the Microsoft Office program downloaded to your desktop.

For all of these options, you can add a collaborator (which operates similarly to sharing Google Slides) or opt to send your file as a presentation or PDF via email. There are also alternative methods, such as sending via social media.

Here's how to share a presentation.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

Microsoft Office (From $149.99 at Best Buy)

Samsung Chromebook (From $269.00 at Amazon)

How to share a PowerPoint presentation on a PC

Sharing a presentation on the PC version of PowerPoint should look similar on most computer types. The following steps and accompanying photos detail the process on a Samsung Chromebook.

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you wish to share on your PC.

2. Click the "Share" symbol in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This should give you the option to share either the full document or just the current slide.

  • If you prefer to add a collaborator instead (similar to Google Slides functions), you will need to click the orange button to save a copy of the file to your OneDrive. 

image2 powerpoint share

3. Choose how you'd like to share the document or slide as an attachment. You can choose to send an email via Outlook or as a message via Zoom, for example.

image3 powerpoint share

Additionally, when you first launch the program, you can also find a "Share" tab on the left hand side. This will provide you with the same options for sharing a file.

image4 powerpoint share

How to share a PowerPoint Presentation on a Mac

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation on your Mac desktop or laptop.

2. Click the "File" tab in the top left corner. 

3. Select "Share" from the dropdown menu. This will grant you the option to either send or copy a link to share, send the file as a presentation or PDF, or manage access to a shared file. Select whichever option you'd like and follow the directions to add contact information.

  • If you wish to manage access and add collaborators, you will have to make sure the file has been uploaded to your OneDrive before proceeding. (If it hasn't, PowerPoint should prompt you to do so at this time.)

image5 powerpoint share

4. Sending the file as an email is the most common choice. Selecting this option will automatically open a new draft with the file attached. (Be sure to select "Send PDF" if you'd prefer it to send as a PDF file instead of as a presentation.) Add an address, subject, and body text before sending.

image6 powerpoint share

You can also share a presentation by clicking the "Share" button in the upper right hand corner. (This is similar to how it appears on a PC.)

This option is extremely helpful as it provides all of your possible options in a single pop-up. Enter a name or email address (along with an optional message) to send the document. 

You can change the permissions settings at the top before clicking "Send," "Copy Link," or "Mail" to share your work. Click "More Apps" to browse additional options, such as sending via social media or text message. Lastly, you can select "Send a Copy" to send as a traditional attachment.

image7 powerpoint share

How to share a PowerPoint presentation on a web browser

You can access PowerPoint online on either a Mac or PC, as long as you have your login information for Microsoft Office. Regardless of what browser you prefer to use, the steps to share a presentation are exactly the same.

1. Log in to your Microsoft Office account on your preferred web browser and open the presentation you wish to share.

2. Click the "Share" button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

3. This will open a pop-up in the center of the page. Enter a name or email address (along with an optional message) to send the document. You can change the permissions settings at the top before sending the link by clicking the "Send" or "Copy Link" option. (Those who have followed these steps on a Mac will recognize that it looks similar.)

image8 powerpoint share

Additionally, when you open the main menu, you can click the "Share" tab on the left hand side. This will allow you to invite others to edit the presentation or embed the presentation for a blog or website. 

image9 powerpoint share

If you are looking to embed online, this will open a different pop-up that will generate a code for you. Select the dimensions desired and then paste the text as needed. Click the "Close" or "X" buttons to minimize the window.

image10 powerpoint share

 

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Tech recruiters share the most — and least — in-demand roles in tech right now, and what they're looking for in winning candidates

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woman coding, coder, software engineer

  • Tech startups are among the many industries taking a hit from the pandemic — only 15% of tech executives see hiring as a top priority for the second half of 2020, according to one survey.
  • Business Insider reached out to technical recruiters to gain insights on the types of companies hiring for tech, jobs in the greatest demand, and strategies to land those coveted roles.
  • Health and wellness, online learning, and ecommerce are now hiring hotspots in tech, and the highest number of job openings are in software engineering.
  • Recruiting leaders are looking for adaptable individuals to adjust to virtual working, so emphasize any technical leadership, startup, and remote working experience.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

With the US experiencing a double-digit unemployment rate, industries across the board have been impacted, including many once-promising tech startups. According to the latest count from layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, 540 tech startups have downsized since the start of the pandemic, resulting in over 72,000 layoffs. 

"Tech jobs have not been spared in the pandemic, though they have fared better than other sectors," said Brianne Thomas, head of recruiting for recruitment software platform Jobvite. "Though tech companies initially pulled back on hiring, we're now seeing tech hiring get stronger."

She added that recruiters are starting to take advantage of the "flipped labor market" — where companies hold the power as a result of more job seekers than job openings

While more jobs are being created, the recovery may be a slow one, according to a survey of over 130 CIOs conducted by the social network Pulse, a platform leveraged by tech executives at Netflix, GE, Facebook, Clorox, Google, Amazon, and more. It found that only 15% of respondents listed hiring as a top priority for the rest of 2020.

Business Insider reached out to several technical recruiters to learn about the types of companies that are seeing growth for tech roles, the jobs that are in the greatest demand, and how candidates can stand out in a sea of tech talent. 

Health and wellness, online learning, and ecommerce among the top recruiters in tech right now

Recruiters and executives said they're seeing the most growth at highly relevant companies for the pandemic, such as telehealth providers as well as broader health and pharma companies, streaming services, education and online learning enterprises, food and product delivery services, online communication and collaboration tools, social commerce players, and fintech startups.

"If the company has an app or product that eliminates the need to leave the house, the demand has skyrocketed," said Jona Jennings, a senior technical sourcer at remote engineering staffing company Terminal.io who's worked in recruiting for Microsoft, Wayfair, and Tesla.

Kerri McKinney, the director of global sourcing for Terminal.io who has over 10 years of experience hiring for high-growth companies like PayPal and Amazon, added that she's also seen an increase in recruiting in the health and wellness industry "as more companies figure out how to help people during these unprecedented times." 

"A lot of our new positions are with companies who are fairly new to the industry but want to make a big impact," she said.

Software engineers remain the most in demand, particularly those at the senior level

The roles with the highest number of job openings, tech recruiters and executives said, include mobile, full-stack, front-end, backend, machine learning, and data science engineers.

Jennings said she's particularly looking for those "who are not only skilled in their specialty but also have the skill sets and ability to work across ends or help in other departments."

"The top five tech skills that recruiters are looking to hire for are JavaScript, Python, Java, Rust, and ReactJS," said Sachin Gupta, CEO of HackerEarth, citing trends gathered by his tech recruiting firm, which has helped place hires at over 1,000 companies including Walmart Labs, Wells Fargo, and Barclays. 

In addition to these skills, many of which Jennings said she's been looking for for the past few months, she has also been seeking out individuals with a background in Ruby on Rails.

"Though most recruiters look for tech and soft skills, we've also seen them focusing on how a candidate's career has grown in the past few years, how excited they are about picking up new projects and showing initiatives, and how they deal with change," Gupta said.

Beyond engineering and development, there's a need for roles that help keep the day-to-day tech systems that power company operations running. These positions include network engineers, system admins, and DevOps engineers, McKinney said.

"At least temporarily, companies no longer have the luxury to have everyone onsite in one building to deal with any tech issues that come up," she said. "Gone are the days of walking over to the IT desk to ask for help, and now more than ever it's more important that a company can be confident in their internal infrastructure, even when it's not all located under one roof."

"Effectively, any jobs that focus on making companies and customers successful through technology innovation and automation are going to be on the rise," Thomas added.

HR, business operations, and junior engineering roles are limited

Recruiting leaders said they're seeing fewer openings at companies that produce hardware (as these often require employees to be in an office) as well as within the aviation, travel, transportation, automobile, events, recruiting technology, and lifestyle industries.

Thomas said that Jobvite has noticed less need for business and operational roles that support the tech industry.

"Accounting and finance, human resources, business operations, and other roles that do not directly influence top-line growth will likely be slower to return and will likely return with increased automation of the administrative tasks in those jobs, leaving room for more strategic and customer experience-centric work," she said.

Evan Walden, CEO of Getro.com, a SaaS company that powers branded job boards and private talent networks for over 300 venture capital funds, startup accelerators, and professional communities, said that while there's a shortage of senior software engineers, there's an oversupply of junior engineers within the market.

"This may be due to both the predominance of coding schools over the past few years and the fact that layoffs tend to have a harder impact on junior employees who have had less time to add value to a company," he said.

Gupta said HackerEarth clients have seen a drop in demand for data analysts and system admins. "That's probably because a lot of data analyst roles are morphing into data engineering and data science roles," he said.

Tech candidates can stand apart by showing they're adaptable and comfortable with change

More than ever, recruitment leaders said that employers are looking for potential hires with technical leadership, startup, and remote working experience, and a track record of being flexible and adaptable.

"Even if someone hasn't worked exclusively remote from home, having the experience of supporting multiple offices in different locations is very beneficial," McKinney said. "Being able to show your ability to communicate in a virtual environment while supporting teams in locations other than their own is something our recruiters value, especially if they have no official remote work experience."

"Especially in times like these when the market is changing fast, there is a high premium for people who are comfortable with uncertainty," Walden added.

Thomas shared that there's one bright spot during this slower hiring period.

"Overall, across industries including tech, we're noticing a frankly overdue and much-needed shift in companies looking to address the impact of conscious and unconscious bias in the recruiting process," she said. "Tech has long-suffered (disproportionately to many other industries) a lack of diversity in the workforce."

The upside to lighter recruiting demands, fewer openings, and greater available talent she's seen is that companies are taking the opportunity to "double-down" prioritizing diversity in employment, starting with hiring.

SEE ALSO: Recruiters who've worked with companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and PayPal reveal how job seekers can prepare for the worst as the pandemic changes how companies hire

NOW READ: A new job search platform is helping match laid off talent with over 500 companies that are still hiring

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Meet the 20-year-old founder of @WallStreetConfessions, an Instagram account that's become an open forum to discuss the dark side of finance and gathered followers including the CEO of Jefferies

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Riya Sharma, Wall Street Confessions

  • Riya Sharma is the founder of @WallStreetConfessions, an Instagram account that shares caustic quotes about life in finance, and posts anonymous submissions of instances of sexism, racism, and discrimination in the industry.
  • Sharma, 20, has never publicly revealed her full identity before, and, in an interview with Business Insider, said she's using her social media platform to advocate for women and minorities.
  • One of her followers, Jefferies CEO Rich Handler, told Business Insider in an email that he admires Sharma's "entrepreneurialism, savvy and desire to positively influence the finance industry."
  • Are you a young person working on Wall Street? Contact this reporter via email at rhodkin@businessinsider.com, encrypted messaging app Signal (561-247-5758), or direct message on Twitter @reedalexander.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

At 20 years old, Riya Sharma has established her place as the whisperer of Wall Street.

To the ordinary passerby who isn't acquainted with her online persona, Sharma is a student at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, majoring in finance and international studies, and minoring in arts management.

Though she hopes to land her first investment banking internship next summer, she has no formal finance industry experience to date.

But that hasn't stopped Sharma from using her highly-followed social media account Wall Street Confessions, which so far has racked up an audience of more than 84,000 followers, to write her way into some of Wall Street's most sensitive conversations about racism, sexism, and anti-LBGT discrimination.

Sharma launched the account in January 2019 and, since then, has set about creating an enclave, of sorts, for Wall Street's whistleblowers. Anonymous users send her submissions via the online portal on her website, many of which are meant to force the finance industry to face its guilty conscience.

Then, they end up on Sharma's Instagram feed. Of the many issues her posts address, she seems to regard being a foil to misogyny as her most important role.

"It's just so terrible the way women are treated" in finance, she told Business Insider in an interview. "Banks have to stop being frat houses."

Rich Handler, the CEO of Jefferies Financial Group and highest-paid chief executive of a company based in New York, is among the Wall Street leaders who follow her account, occasionally leaving supportive comments on her posts.

Handler told Business Insider in an email that he occasionally comments on Sharma's page because it "strikes a good balance between keeping it light and fun while also including serious topics that are worthy of public discussion."

"I admire her entrepreneurialism, savvy and desire to positively influence the finance industry," he added.

Read more: One of Wall Street's highest-paid CEOs is hosting a virtual lunch with followers of finmeme account Litquidity. Jefferies' Rich Handler explained how he's 'trying to help in a small way while the world is so upside down.'

Earlier this year, he engaged with one post in particular which referenced a complaint that an anonymous user said they made about their managing director. The MD was said to be engaging in "all sorts of Matt Lauer-type creepy behavior," according to the post.

"Then they fired me the next day. I sued. I won," the user wrote.

Handler responded. "Hopefully someone else was also fired (for your unfair job loss)," he wrote. "This should be a huge wake-up call for HR and the firm. The victim can't be punished."

🙌🏼

A post shared by Wall Street Confessions (@wallstreetconfessions) on Jan 23, 2020 at 4:33am PST on

 

A sampling of a few of the other posts that Sharma has recently shared helps illustrate the seriousness with which she approaches her platform.

"I told an MD that my sister got a full scholarship to a prestigious school and he told me to check out programs that help inner city kids read their financial aid packages. Mind you, I am black and grew up in the suburbs," reads one post sent in from an anonymous user. 

"When I started as an IB analyst out of university, at the first dinner with my MD, he commented after being served by a gay waiter that they should 'go back to the day where they kill themselves,'" wrote another anonymous user. "I'm gay. I've since transitioned to [real estate private equity], but the homophobic behavior is even more prevalent. I've stayed in the closet." 

see something, say something

A post shared by Wall Street Confessions (@wallstreetconfessions) on Jun 26, 2020 at 10:25am PDT on

 

Sharma did say that, since the submissions she receives are anonymous, it's impossible to independently verify their authenticity.

But, "if someone really does want to lie about something like assault or racism or misogyny," she added, that's "on their conscience."

Along the way, some detractors have emerged. One even accused Sharma of making "every man on Wall Street look like a predator, by posting stories about #MeToo," she said.

The mudslinging hasn't distracted her from her goal, though.

"From the very beginning I have wanted to give women a voice," she said. "If someone feels confident enough or vulnerable enough to send in something about what happened to them, they should be supported."

Sharma sees herself as an advocate for women of color in finance — one reason why she started the page

Born to Indian parents who emigrated from New Delhi in 1999 to New Jersey, Sharma grew up speaking Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindi at home, describing her childhood as a "blue-collar upbringing," where she was "thrown into this place where there weren't that many people of color."

It was as a teenager that her budding fascination with finance began to emerge. At 16, she bought a copy of the book "Investment Banking for Dummies."

Reading it, "I was like, 'Wow, mergers and acquisitions are actually really interesting,'" she said. She was hooked.

Away from finance, Sharma has a passion for fiction writing and said that "one thing that I want to accomplish in my life is to write a great American novel."

She loves fashion and has an interest in pursuing opportunities in the sustainable clothing sector.

And like most young adults, Sharma's had her fair share of experiences with online dating: At any given time, she's got six dating apps on her phone. "A girl has to have not only options in ETFs," she said, "but options, in my opinion."

This interview with Business Insider marks the first time that Sharma has publicly revealed her full identity and gone on the record about why she's taken on her role as Wall Street's de facto confessor.

"I don't think there's enough space for women of color on Wall Street, or there's a very clear-cut vision of what the typical banker is — a white, heteronormative male," she said.

"I think it's really important to create a space for conversations that people are uncomfortable having otherwise."

..... why do people think this is okay

A post shared by Wall Street Confessions (@wallstreetconfessions) on Jan 18, 2020 at 11:23pm PST on

 

See more:One of the most powerful women at Bank of America explained how to defeat racial inequality at work: 'It's one thing to say Lives Matter. It's another thing to say, with clarity Black Lives Matter.'

'The culture is the biggest problem' for women to achieve equity in finance, Sharma said

For women, the finance industry remains one where they are glaringly underrepresented, especially in the C-suite. Sharma said that industry "culture is the biggest problem" to blame.

Research released earlier this year by the nonprofit group Catalyst found that roughly 31% of senior or executive officials and managers working at finance or insurance institutions in the US were women.

Of them, the vast majority were white (26%), followed by Asian women (nearly 2%), and then by Black and Latinx women (both at 1.3%).

And women control just one-third of the world's wealth (32%), according to a Boston Consulting Group report released in April. Though the report predicted that number to rise in the years ahead, it is a clear reminder of how stark the gender disparity around wealth continues to be.

In light of this, Sharma said, she plans to continue running her page for the foreseeable future — there's too much work left to do.

:(

A post shared by Wall Street Confessions (@wallstreetconfessions) on Jun 20, 2020 at 7:09pm PDT on

 

Read more: The biggest US wealth firms won't disclose adviser racial diversity data despite renewing commitments to make their mostly white adviser forces more inclusive

But first, job applications: She'll personally start applying for internships on Wall Street in the months ahead. She's prepared for her alter ego, @WallStreetConfessions, to be a subject that recruiters bring up in interviews once they have read this article.

"People will likely be professional enough to hold off directly saying it to me," she said of her newly revealed identity, "and, instead, talk about it behind my back once I leave."

But it will all be worth it, she said, if her work on social media helps women continue to forge inroads in an industry that has a lot further to go.

"I think that we have a broader glass ceiling to break," Sharma said. "We haven't really won the battle yet."

See also:

Billionaire-run hedge fund Schonfeld fired an executive assistant who added 'Black Lives Matter' to her email signature, saying she didn't get it approved properly first

Are you a young person working on Wall Street? Contact this reporter via email at rhodkin@businessinsider.com, encrypted messaging app Signal (561-247-5758), or direct message on Twitter @reedalexander.

SEE ALSO: Former employees say BTIG, a Wall Street firm backed by Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, had a toxic party culture that was stuck in the '80s

SEE ALSO: How to use cold emails to land a gig working on Wall Street, according to a JPMorgan banking analyst turned VC who did it herself

SEE ALSO: One of the most powerful women at Bank of America explained how to defeat racial inequality at work: 'It's one thing to say Lives Matter. It's another thing to say, with clarity, Black Lives Matter.'

Join the conversation about this story »

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HBO Max vs. HBO Go vs. HBO Now: The key differences explained

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Game of Thrones / Jon Snow wakes up

  • HBO and WarnerMedia just launched a new streaming service — HBO Max.
  • HBO already operates two major streaming platforms, HBO Go and HBO Now.
  • On July 31, HBO discontinued the HBO Go app on most devices and rebranded HBO Now as just "HBO".
  • In many cases, HBO Max is being offered as a free upgrade and replacement for those older services.
  • So, what's the difference between the three different streaming services? A surprising amount of stuff — let's dig in!

First, the bad news: "Friends" has left Netflix, and it's not coming back any time soon.

Turns out there's a good reason for that — it has a new home with HBO's new streaming service alongside "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "Rick and Morty," and a mess of other stuff. That new service is named HBO Max, and it's intended to serve as a deluxe version of HBO's older streaming services, HBO Go and HBO Now.

But what's so different about HBO Max from HBO's other streaming options? Well, it mostly comes down to content selection and device support. It's also important to note that big changes have recently been imposed upon HBO's other streaming offerings, and HBO Max is essentially being positioned as a replacement for HBO Go and HBO Now.

In fact, as of July 31, the HBO Go app is no longer available on most devices, though you can still access the service via HBOGo.com. Meanwhile, HBO Now has been branded as just "HBO". In most cases, current HBO Go and HBO Now users can access HBO Max instead at no extra cost.

To help further dispel some of the confusion surrounding all three services, we've broken down all of the key differences below.

Updated on 7/31/2020 by Steven Cohen: We've revised this article to include details about the recent termination of the HBO Go app and the rebranding of HBO Now to HBO.

What is HBO Max?

friends nbc

HBO Max is a standalone streaming service you don't need a cable subscription to use. It costs $14.99 per month and includes all of HBO's standard offerings, plus a ton of new stuff from various WarnerMedia properties, like DC Comics, CNN, TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network.

HBO Max also produces original shows and movies, just like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. The service launched with more than 1,300 movies and over 10,000 hours worth of programming. For more detailed impressions, you can read our full review of HBO Max here.

In most cases, people who were previously using HBO Go or HBO Now can now access HBO Max with their existing account details for no extra cost. There are some exceptions, but for most HBO users, HBO Max is being offered as a free upgrade and replacement for those older services. You can check the HBO Max website to see if your HBO subscription is eligible for HBO Max. 

What makes HBO Max different from HBO Now? Additional content.

Fresh Prince of Bel Air

HBO Max is the same price as HBO Now, an older streaming service that features HBO original shows and the cable channel's rotating package of movies. HBO Max currently offers all of HBO Now's content plus a ton of new stuff from a variety of WarnerMedia brands — all for the same $14.99 a month price.

Most HBO Now subscribers can watch HBO Max with their HBO Now account at no extra cost. In other words, HBO Max is basically an automatic upgrade to HBO Now. With that in mind, the HBO Now app has been rebranded to just "HBO".  

Since HBO Max offers a larger streaming library than HBO (formerly HBO Now), it's clearly the better choice for subscribers. With that said, the HBO Max app is currently missing from a few notable devices, including Roku and Fire TV products. If you use one of those devices as your primary streaming player, the HBO app is currently your only option. 

What is HBO Go? And what happens to subscribers now that the app has been discontinued?

HBO Now

In the past, if you had a cable TV subscription to HBO, you could also use the HBO Go app, a freebie streaming option that came as a bonus. Plug in your cable TV login details, and you got access to a vast library of HBO content on-demand. It cost nothing extra, and worked on everything from your smartphone to your Apple TV/Roku/etc. to your computer.

On July 31, the HBO Go app was removed from most connected devices. Thankfully, AT&T has brokered deals that give most HBO cable subscribers access to HBO Max instead. If you subscribe to HBO through any of the cable providers below, you can get access to HBO Max at no extra cost. Simply go to the HBO Max website and choose your provider to login.

  • Altice One
  • Atlantic Broadband
  • Apple TV Channels
  • AT&T/AT&T U-verse
  • Cox
  • DIRECTV
  • Optimum
  • RCN
  • Spectrum
  • Suddenlink
  • Verizon Fios
  • WOW!
  • Xfinity

If you happen to subscribe to HBO through a provider that isn't included, you can still access HBO Go through the HBO Go website.

The addition of other WarnerMedia networks' content to HBO's existing library is an enticing proposition.

The Not Too Late Show with Elmo HBO Max

Adding Adult Swim's content to HBO Max means adding "Rick & Morty." Adding CNN's content to HBO Max means adding "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown." Adding TBS' content to HBO Max means adding "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" and "Conan." 

All of which is to say that adding content from all these places adds up to a ton of really good stuff.

Looney Tunes cartoons! All the "Lord of the Rings" movies! There's a surprising amount of additional content in the HBO Max package.

HBO Max's lineup also features new original series, including "Love Life," a comedy show starring Anna Kendrick, and "Looney Tunes Cartoons," a new animated series featuring Bugs Bunny and company. 

Beyond original HBO programs, the HBO Max catalog features a wide range of TV series, including "Friends," "Rick and Morty," "The Big Bang Theory," "Sesame Street" and "Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown." The full library incorporates TV offerings from DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes, and Warner Bros.

What else is coming to HBO Max? A bunch of new original content, including a show based on "Dune" and a new movie from the director of "Bird Box."

big little lies

Here's everything that's announced for HBO Max thus far:

-"10,000 hours of premium content from HBO, Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, The CW, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes and more.

-The exclusive streaming rights at launch to all 236 episodes of 'Friends.'

-The exclusive streaming rights at launch to all episodes 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' and 'Pretty Little Liars.'

-The exclusive streaming home to a string of new Warner Bros.' produced dramas for The CW beginning with the fall 2019 season, including new DC Entertainment series 'Batwoman,' and 'Katy Keene' (spinoff of 'Riverdale').

-New exclusive movie production deals with Greg Berlanti and Reese Witherspoon ('Big Little Lies'). Berlanti will produce an initial four movies focused in the young adult space, while Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine will produce at least two films.

-'Dune: The Sisterhood,' an adaptation of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's book based in the world created by Frank Herbert's book 'Dune,' from director Denis Villeneuve.

-'Tokyo Vice,' based on Jake Adelstein's non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, starring Ansel Elgort.

-'The Flight Attendant,' a one-hour thriller series based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian. Kaley Cuoco, executive producing alongside Greg Berlanti, will star.

-'Love Life,' a 10-episode half-hour romantic comedy anthology series starring Anna Kendrick, who will also executive produce alongside Paul Feig.

-'Station Eleven,' a postapocalyptic limited series based on Emily St. John Mandel's international bestseller, adapted by Patrick Somerville ('The Leftovers') and directed by Hiro Murai ('Barry').

-'Made for Love,' a 10-episode, half-hour, straight-to-series adaptation based on the tragicomic novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting, also from Patrick Somerville and directed by S.J. Clarkson.

-'Gremlins,' an animated series from Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin Entertainment based on the original movie.

-Stephen King's 'The Outsider,' a dark mystery starring Ben Mendelsohn, produced and directed by Jason Bateman.

-'Lovecraft Country,' a unique horror series based on a novel by Matt Ruff, written and executive produced by Misha Green, and executive produced by Jordan Peele ('Us') and J.J. Abrams ('Westworld').

-'The Nevers,' Joss Whedon's new science fiction series starring Laura Donnelly.

-'The Gilded Age,' set the opulent world of 1885 New York from 'Downton Abbey's' Julian Fellowes.

-'Avenue 5,' a high satire aboard a space-bound cruise ship from Armando Iannucci ('Veep') starring Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad.

-'The Undoing,' a psychological thriller from David E. Kelley ('Big Little Lies'), directed by Susanne Bier ('Bird Box') starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.

-'The Plot Against America,' reimagined history based on Phillip Roth's novel written and executive produced by David Simon and Ed Burns, starring Winona Ryder and John Turturro.

-'Perry Mason', the classic legal drama for a new generation, executive produced by Robert Downey, Jr. and Susan Downey, with Matthew Rhys in the title role.

-'I Know This Much Is True,' a complex family drama starring Mark Ruffalo playing twin brothers, one of whom has schizophrenia. Based on the best-selling novel by Wally Lamb, written and directed by Derek Cianfrance."

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

From warehouses to office space, real-estate markets are getting turned upside down. Here's a look at key trends and must-know deals.

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hudson yards

  • Offices, hotels, and malls were emptied by the coronavirus. Even as they reopen, the disruption has created a new normal. 
  • Big firms are rethinking office needs — and some commercial real-estate deals are being put on ice as financing dries up. 
  • A surge in e-commerce, meanwhile, is fueling demand for warehouse and cold-storage space from companies like Amazon. 
  • For more stories like this, sign up here for our Wall Street Insider newsletter.

The coronavirus threw the real-estate world into disarray, as people emptied out of offices, hotels, and malls and worked from their homes. The disruption is transforming how people and companies finance, operate, and occupy real estate. 

Big firms are rethinking office needs — and some commercial real-estate deals are being put on ice as financing dries up. Coworking and flex-office firms are struggling under big rent obligations after years of rapid growth. A surge in e-commerce, meanwhile, is fueling demand for warehouse and cold storage space as companies look for new ways to reach customers.

Here's the latest news on how commercial and residential real estate is being upended, and how experts think these markets will play out in the long run. 

Have a tip about layoffs or major changes in this space? Contact this reporter through the secure messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-4772 using a non-work phone, email at anicoll@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @AlexONicoll. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Here's everything we know right now: 

Latest news and deals

Warehouse space is heating up

Office sublease deals adding supply to the market

How retail is faring 

State of the commercial real-estate market

Coworking, coliving, and short-term rentals

The future of real estate

SEE ALSO: The ultimate guide to Wall Street's summer internships: Here's how they'll go virtual, and how to impress remotely

SEE ALSO: POWER PLAYERS: Meet the bankers, traders, investors, and lawyers seeing huge opportunities in a wave of corporate distress and bankruptcies

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

Betterment's president of retail lays out how the robo-adviser is trying to tap into the do-it-yourself trading boom dominated by Robinhood

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Mike Reust, president of retail at Betterment.

  • In a recent interview with Business Insider, Betterment president of retail Mike Reust offered a window into how the robo-adviser thinks about the recent self-directed trading mania.
  • Betterment is not trying to launch a "Robinhood clone," Reust told us. But it is trying to tap into the retail trading surge with more tailored options than it currently offers. 
  • "I don't quite know where that will take us, but we are certainly thinking through how much more portfolio customization to offer, so I suspect you will see us offer more than we offer today, over time. It's an area where we will invest," he said.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Through the coronavirus pandemic and the market volatility that's ensued, analysts, investors, executives, and journalists have scrambled to get a handle on soaring levels of engagement with do-it-yourself trading. The team behind Betterment, the pioneering standalone digital wealth manager, is no exception.

"For us, it's not, 'Oh, jeez, Robinhood's driving serious [payment for order flow] revenue. What are we going to do about that to drive some PFOF revenue?' It's not like that," Mike Reust, the president of retail at New York-based Betterment, said in a recent interview over Zoom with Business Insider. 

"It's really more like, why are customers running to Robinhood in the millions? What are they doing? Why do they believe that's the right path?" he said.

That the digital wealth manager that made a name for itself on the back of slow, steady passive investments is considering what's driving the recent boom in quick, often volatile retail trading underlines the rise and influence of average investors jumping into the market with both feet. 

Betterment is examining the "psychology and the human side of it," as far as whether the company should give clients more control over their portfolios, or allow "you to do certain customizations that aren't possible today that help you sort of scratch that need for control," he said. 

Vlad Tenev, co-founder and co-CEO of investing app Robinhood.

"I don't quite know where that will take us, but we are certainly thinking through how much more portfolio customization to offer, so I suspect you will see us offer more than we offer today. Over time, it's an area where we will invest," said Reust, who has been with Betterment for seven years and was previously its chief technology officer.

The market's severe volatility this spring and summer mixed with people staying home during pandemic-related lockdowns with access to an array of commission-free trading platforms have helped contribute to record levels of do-it-yourself trading.

Explosive growth in retail trading

This month, legacy online brokerages E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, and Interactive Brokers all reported record levels of daily trades during the second quarter.

E-Trade Chief Executive Mike Pizzi called the quarter "extraordinary," with levels of customer engagement "that are without precedent in our nearly 40-year history" in a statement alongside earnings.

Reust told Business Insider that Betterment is not going to launch a product that looks like a "Robinhood clone," and the company declined to comment specifically on how it will allow customers to add more customization to their portfolios.

Read more: Wall Street is being shaken to its core by a legion of Gen Z day traders. From a casual hobbyist to a 20-year-old running a 14,000-person platform, meet the new generation of retail investors.

The company has always sat at the intersection of digital investing meeting human advice, Reust said, with some Certified Financial Planners (CFP) and other licensed investment professionals on staff for customers to complement its app. 

"Where I think COVID has taken us a little bit, is all of a sudden, across age groups, everyone cared a lot more about human-powered advice — real fast," he said. "We went from, it was a nice offering that a lot of customers took advantage of, to the team was oversubscribed with phone calls and appointments."

Betterment is looking to grow its team of experts to assist users, with plans to hire one more CFP. 

In recent months, it's hired customer-service representatives, engineers, and analytics roles. Overall, it has more than a dozen employees handling phone calls and emails from customers using its investing products, and nine people on banking products. A spokesperson said Betterment is growing both teams. 

On July 14, the day before this year's shifted tax day in the US, it experienced the highest volume of inbound customer requests it's ever seen as investors looked for help with navigating their filing situations.

Betterment also now has a team of four people directly supporting its premium customers, and several other CFPs serving other functions, a spokesperson said. Premium customers have at least $100,000 in assets with Betterment, and pay a 0.40% fee of those assets, as opposed to 0.25% for the digital tier that has no account minimum.

Betterment Jon Stein

Betterment's plans

Though it has an eye to greater customization, Betterment, which oversees $21 billion in client assets and has some 500,000 customers, still isn't trying to stray from its core digital wealth management and banking products. 

It's looking to launch joint checking accounts later this year, and on Thursday launched a feature that allows customers to create separate buckets of cash for short- and long-term financial goal-setting. 

Other fintech players have also applied for bank charters, something Reust said was a step Betterment may consider in the future, but said was not a priority.

Betterment has raised $275 million in outside funding, and last raised a $70 million round of capital in 2017 — an extension of a $100 million Series E round the year prior led by the Swedish investment company Kinnevik.

Outside of its New York City headquarters, the robo-adviser has two other offices in Denver, which opened in January, and Philadelphia, which opened in January 2019. 

SEE ALSO: Wall Street is being shaken to its core by a legion of Gen Z day traders. From a casual hobbyist to a 20-year-old running a 14,000-person platform, meet the new generation of retail investors.

SEE ALSO: Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones says the pandemic has thrown off economic models so much that people would 'be better off getting financial advice from TikTok'

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Netflix's 'Umbrella Academy' creator on how he used the show's budget 'more effectively' in season 2 and his plans for future seasons

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the umbrella academy

  • Netflix's "Umbrella Academy" showrunner Steve Blackman talked with Business Insider about how season two used the show's budget "more effectively."
  • Blackman teased plans for future seasons and said he already knows what season three would be about if Netflix renews it.
  • He also discussed the deviations from the comic book source material by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for "The Umbrella Academy" season two

When Netflix's comic-book series "The Umbrella Academy" debuted last year, it was an instant hit.

Netflix said that the show, based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name by writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá, was watched by 45 million member households in its first month of release, making it one of its most popular shows ever.

So expectations are high for season two, which debuted on the streaming giant on Friday. But showrunner Steve Blackman said that the show's popularity didn't change his plans for the second season. He always knew that he wanted it to be bigger in scope.

"The goal was always to step it up a little more but without losing what makes our show entertaining," Blackman told Business Insider.

Critics are already loving the season, which has a 92% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. With the show's popularity, it would be surprising if Netflix didn't renew it for a third season — and Blackman already knows what it would be about.

In his interview with Business Insider, Blackman teased future plans and talked about how season two deviates from the comic book. 

Read the full interview below:

the umbrella academy

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Travis Clark: The scope of this season feels bigger. After the popularity of the first season, did anything change from your initial plans for season two?

Steve Blackman: I had a pretty good sense of what season two was as I was finishing season one before we had even gotten picked up [for a second season]. I wanted the storytelling to feel bigger in season two and we stepped it up with the VFX and honed our craft a little more with that. And I think we told bigger, more rounded stories. We dealt with bigger issues this year, like what it would be like to be a person of color in the South [in 1960s America] and homophobia in that time period.

So the goal was always to step it up a little more but without losing what makes our show entertaining as this wonderful show about family dysfunction.

Clark: You mentioned that you stepped it up with VFX ... did Netflix throw more money at you after the first season was so popular?

Blackman: [laughs] I think there was a bit of an increase but we used our money more effectively. In the first season we were testing things out and trying different things, but once we got the rhythm of the show, in season two we were more effective in how we did things. 

The Dallas street [the setting for much of the season, including the restaurant where the sit-in protest takes place] was actually shot in a town in northern Ontario. It has no VFX treatment, it really looks like that. We just did physical changes on the storefronts. But we decided that if we could find a place like that where we didn't have to spend a lot of money, we could spend that money more on A.J. Carmichael, young Pogo, and other things.

We did actually go to Dallas to film on the Grassy Knoll, so there's obviously VFX treatment in the Kennedy motorcade, but the setting is all real. We were very careful about how we spent our money this year.

Clark: Allison's [played by Emmy Raver-Lampman] story [as a Civil Rights activist] this season takes on new meaning after recent events. Has that been on your mind leading up to the premiere of the season?

Blackman: Yeah. We wrote the show a year ago, but I knew we couldn't tell a story set in Dallas in 1963 and not address the racial issues and homophobia of the time period. We did an enormous amount of research, especially for the sit-in scene. It wasn't based on any one sit-in, it was an amalgamation of many sit-ins, but it was an emotional few days to shoot that scene. We wanted it to feel real and to tell an honest story about this time period and racial injustice.

the umbrella academy

Clark: One of my favorite aspects of the show is the musical cues. Were there any that were your favorites and how did those come to be?

Blackman: Music is a big part of my life and I see it as another character in this show. On most shows, they shoot it and then put music in afterwards. I pick the songs ahead of time. I encourage the writers to include them in the scripts. If I think of a song, I'll write a scene because of that song. So I know pretty much ahead of time all the music that will be used in the season and we like to use music that will subvert expectations.

For instance, the Backstreet Boys song probably shouldn't fit in that fight scene and that sequence, but it does magically work. It was fun to think of what lyric Klaus would steal from a song in the future and tell his followers "here's an inspirational quote of mine." Those are some of my favorites but I love all the music. 

Clark: I'm a big fan of the comic but respect the deviations the show takes from it.  I wanted to walk through some of those and how they came to be, like the Sissy and Harlan storyline, introducing Lila, and even Diego's powers, which aren't really explained in the comic but in the final episode we see him slow down those bullets.

Blackman: The source material is a great springboard and I have a great relationship with Gerard [Way, the writer] and Gabriel [Bá, the artist]. But we realized early on that it couldn't be a carbon copy. There were a lot of things we couldn't afford to do even with a feature budget. They've been kind of enough to allow me to deviate, as a TV creator, and do what I want to do. I'm always extremely respectful of the graphic novels. Like, I couldn't not do A.J. Carmichael this year. That was something I was striving to do and the VFX company Weta came through with that.

But it's a TV world and it's necessary for us to create some other characters. Lila was a lot of fun, because the premise of the comic was that there were 43 mothers out there who gave birth to 43 [superpowered] kids. It was great to meet another one of those kids this year, and it's fair to say we could meet some others.

With Diego, his powers aren't really defined, but we thought "if you can curve and bend metallic objects like knives, why can't you do that to bullets?" But all of their powers are still evolving. They never finished their training with their dad because the family broke up. I think as long as the show is on the air we're going to show that their powers are always evolving and they're discovering new bits of their powers.

the umbrella academy

Clark: Especially Vanya's [played by Ellen Page] powers, and her story really goes in a new direction this season. How did the relationship with Sissy come to be? That's the heart of the season and you realize that by the final episode. Did you always know, even looking back to season one, that you wanted to flesh out Vanya's storyline with this new character?

Blackman: Her love story in season one wasn't a real love story. In season two, her memory is gone and she's coming into her own, so I wanted her to have a beautiful love story, but I needed to complicate it, too. Being gay or queer in 1963 was a criminal offense, but also, Sissy has a family and a kid who can't speak, which is similar to my son. My son's on the spectrum. 

Ellen and I talked a lot about the LGBT storyline and how to tell a sweet love story but with all of these layers to it. And all of their powers come from something inside of them and Vanya inadvertently gives Harlan [Sissy's son] her powers when she saves his life. So the origin of their powers is something we may explore later on, too.

Clark: Did Ellen and the other actors give a lot of feedback for their characters' storylines this season?

Blackman: I always welcome their input. I talk with all of them about their storylines before and during the season. Ellen had many thoughts, all good, and a lot of that story we crafted together, especially the ending. Ellen really wanted to tell a story that still had hope in the end and wasn't a tragic queer love story. [Vanya and Sissy] aren't together in the end, but had they not separated they would have stayed together for many years. But yeah, the ending is definitely something Ellen and I talked about a lot and I think that's what made it beautiful in the end. 

Clark: You've mentioned a few things you'd want to explore in later seasons and season two ends on a big cliffhanger. Have you heard from Netflix about a third season?

Blackman: We haven't gotten picked up yet but I definitely know what it would be about. My fingers are crossed.

Clark: Do you have a longterm vision for the series or taking it one season at a time?

Blackman: I'm taking it one season at a time. With that said, I know Gerard has many volumes in his mind of what he wants to do and he's working on volume four [of the comic series] now. So as long as Gerard has ideas for the future, I like to think we could do at least four seasons. But I know season three and I'll worry about the next season as it comes. 

SEE ALSO: What AMC and Universal's deal to shorten the theatrical window to 17 days means for the future of movies

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Where are Steam screenshots saved? How to find you screen grabs on the Steam gaming app or your hard drive

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Zotac NEN Steam Machine gaming computer and Valve Steam wireless controller

  • Using the F12 key, you can capture Steam games' screenshots, which the app saves to a folder on your computer. 
  • Each Steam game you take screenshots of will have its own folder.
  • The easiest way to find screenshots is by using the View menu in the Steam app and choosing "Screenshots."
  • If you can't use the Steam app, you can manually navigate the screenshots folder by opening the location where the Steam app was installed. 
  • Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Steam makes it easy to take a screenshot within any game just by pressing the F12 function key. 

As soon as you do that, you should see a small notification that the screenshot has been saved to your computer. 

Unfortunately, it might not be obvious where that screenshot was saved. The good news is that it's easy to find from within the Steam app on your computer. 

You can locate the screenshots directly through the Steam app. If you need to find saved screenshots without using the Steam app – such as if the app has been uninstalled from your computer – you can open the folder in which Steam was installed. 

Here's how to find where Steam screenshots are saved. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Steam Gift Card (From $20 at Best Buy)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

How to find where Steam screenshots are saved using Steam

1. Open the Steam app on your computer.

2. In the menu bar, click "View," and then click "Screenshots." The Screenshot Uploader window will appear.

Where are Steam screenshots saved 1

3. In the Screenshot Uploader, use the Show dropdown menu to choose the game with the screenshots you want to find. 

4. Click "Show on Disk." A folder window will appear with the screenshots. This is where they are saved.

Where are Steam screenshots saved 2

How to find where Steam screenshots are saved without using Steam

1. You'll need to open a particular folder on your computer with the following text: 

  • On Windows 10, open this folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam. 
  • Mac users should open this folder: Users/[your Mac username]/Library/Application Support/Steam. 

2. If you installed Steam in a different location, you'd need to find it on your own.

Where are Steam screenshots saved 3

3. Within the Steam folder, open the "Userdata" subfolder.

4. If you only have one Steam account, there should only be one folder here, named with a string of numbers. Open it. 

5. If you have more than one account, there will be one folder for each account, and you might need to explore to figure out which folder is the one you want. 

6. Find and open the folder named "760."

7. Click "Remote." The folders in the Remote folder are games that have screenshots. 

8. Now open a folder and look in its "screenshots" folder to find the images.   

Where are Steam screenshots saved 4

 

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

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Affirm is reportedly eyeing an IPO that could value it at $10 billion. Here's how the buy now, pay later fintech became one of the breakout stars of 2020.

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Max Levchin

  • Affirm, a point-of-sale microlender that lets consumers make purchases with the flexibility to defer their payments over time, is eyeing an IPO with the aid of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal reported.
  • The move could see Affirm's value soar to up to $10 billion, according to the WSJ report.
  • The possible IPO comes as buy now, pay later has been riding a wave in 2020, buoyed by an increase in online shopping demand and consumers' caution about over-extending their budgets during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Buy now, pay later has been having a moment in 2020 — and one top fintech in the space is now reportedly seeking to go public, with Goldman Sachs's help.

The buy now, pay later lender Affirm, which enables online shoppers to use microloans to defer their payments on goods they purchase online, is said to be eyeing an initial public offering that could value it at up to $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday.

Last year, Pitchbook valued Affirm at $2.9 billion.

Goldman Sachs is said to be working with Affirm on listing preparations, WSJ noted. Both Affirm and Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the reporting to Business Insider.

The potential IPO isn't set in stone, however, WSJ said, noting that the prep work is still in its early stages and the company isn't guaranteed to go through with it. 

Affirm has been planting the flag in the digital retail space in recent months, in a trend that has gained steam as consumers have tightened their budgets and moved to online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic.

The digital lender is accepted by more than 6,000 merchants, Business Insider previously reported. Founded in 2012 by Max Levchin, Affirm has been on a roll this summer, announcing last week that it would be Shopify's exclusive partner for buy now, pay later transactions.

Read more: Here's how PayPal is looking to boost its credit business by leaning into a buy now, pay later frenzy

"Tens of millions of US consumers are going to be exposed to Affirm, which is a huge leap for us in terms of just being visible," Levchin told Business Insider at the time of the announcement.

If Affirm doesn't decide to go public with an IPO, another alternative available to the company would be selling itself to a special purpose acquisition company, WSJ noted.

SPACs, or so-called blank check companies, raise money through an IPO and then merge with existing companies to take them public.

There have been a rush of SPAC debuts in recent weeks, and they've cropped up elsewhere as an option as companies look for paths to the public markets. Uber announced a deal to buy food-delivery company Postmates earlier this month, but Postmates had also been looking at a traditional IPO as well as a possible SPAC deal

See more: UBS has started pitching its wealth management customers on 'blank-check' companies as the bank looks to tap into a SPAC frenzy

Affirm says its buy now, pay later flexibility can drive up consumers' spending — a boon for businesses that accept payments with the product

A wide variety of retailers including Walmart, Wayfair, Warby Parker, and even travel sites like Expedia and Travelocity, among others, have adopted the buy now, pay later microloans that Affirm offers customers.

It's a simple premise: When consumers can delay making full payments on items, they're more likely to spend more at the time of purchase, Affirm and its competitors say.

Indeed, Affirm has said it can drive up average purchase costs by more than 85%.

The buy now, pay later fintech niche has been riding a wave in 2020.

Read more: Snoop Dogg-backed fintech Klarna is taking a page out of Amex's playbook and launching a loyalty program to edge out its buy-now-pay-later rivals

Afterpay, a microlender which is based in Australia that functions similarly to Affirm, saw tremendous growth in the first half of 2020, expanding its customer base by 443% year-over-year, Business Insider reported in May.

And PayPal, the digital payments giant, has also made moves to ramp up its deferred payment options, launching a new product in France last month which would give customers the opportunity to divide the cost of their purchases into four installments, spread out over three months.

"With COVID and what's happening right now, credit can play a very important and critical role for us," Doug Band, PayPal's senior vice president and general manager of global credit, told Business Insider at the time.

Band said that millennials and Gen Z shoppers have been among the most enthusiastic adopters of the buy now, pay later craze.

"That's something we're certainly focused on," he said, "helping these consumers with flexibility around various financing options."

Read more: 

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Goldman Sachs is teaming up with JetBlue to help you book vacation now, and pay later. Here's a look at why it's a growing trend for travelers.

SEE ALSO: 60 fintechs set to take off in 2020, according to top VCs and investors

SEE ALSO: The CFO of Visa maps out 2 areas it's investing in beyond cards to keep up with fintechs that are transforming the payments game

SEE ALSO: Retail will need to be reinvented after the pandemic. PayPal cofounder Max Levchin lays out the future of brick-and-mortar, and the 'software fight' that will go on behind the scenes

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A former Salesforce exec left to build a startup that solved two key problems customer service reps faced on the platform. Now, a decade later, she's partnering with the cloud giant to make financial communication more personal

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Clara Shih Hearsay Social CEO founder

  • Hearsay Systems allows financial advisors and insurance agents to have a more personal relationship with clients while still keeping their communication secure and compliant.
  • CEO Clara Shih founded the company after working at Salesforce for three years and realizing that digital customer relationships often lost the personal touch that an advisor offers.
  • Almost a decade later, Shih's startup is deepening its partnership with Salesforce, as digital personalized customer service is valued more than ever during the coronavirus pandemic. 
  • Ther partnership will improve Hearsay's app on the AppExchange and develop more integrations and data sharing features between Salesforce and Hearsay, Shih said. 
  • Click here to read more BI Prime stories. 

When Clara Shih led product marketing for Salesforce's AppExchange for three years in the late 2000s, she saw two glaring problems:

First, Salesforce's customer relationship management system lacked tools allowing agents to update a customer's profile based on personal conversations with them. Also, while sales reps often turned to social media platforms to connect with customers on a personal level, they couldn't connect those apps back to their CRM.

She realized there was an opportunity to build a social selling tool that could connect the dots on those two opportunities, so she left Salesforce in 2009 to found Hearsay Systems, a startup that makes digital communication software for the financial services industry. 

Now, almost a decade later, as the coronavirus pandemic makes personalized digital customer service more important than ever, Shih's startup is partnering with her former employer. 

While Hearsay already had an app on Salesforce's AppExchange, the two company are now working together to develop additional integrations, and Salesforce Ventures poured some fresh funding into the startup. Shih declined to share the amount of the investment, though Hearsay previously raised $51 million at a $175 million valuation, according to PitchBook, from investors like Sequoia and NewView capital. 

In financial services, agents and advisors rely on cultivating personal relationships with their customers. While self service tools like chatbots are increasingly popular, they often don't actually drive customer loyalty, Shih said. 

"No one ever switches from Bank of America to Wells Fargo because Wells Fargo has a better chatbox," Shih said. "But on the advisor side, that happens all the time. People follow their advisor from company to company." 

However, it's often challenging for individual advisors to take insights from their one-on-one conversations and make them useful to other parts of the firm: Because all of their communication deals with finances, it's sensitive and needs to be protected. That's where Hearsay comes in.

Agents can use Heresay's tools to change settings or leave actionable notes based on conversations that they've had with customers, that coworkers in other parts of the business can read without seeing the nitty-gritty details of the conversations.

"The real people that we serve are the insurance agents and the financial advisors who are in what we call the 'last mile,'" Shih told Business Insider. "The reason this is important, especially in the last five months, is that the relationship in the last mile is really special. It's only in the last mile that clients feel comfortable sharing." 

Using technology to create personal relationships with customers

People rely on financial advisors to manage their money, estates, wills, retirement, and many other potentially life-altering matters. During tough situations, digitization itself can often do more harm than good, Shih said.

For example, someone who just lost a parent and has to manage their finances and estate would rely on a financial advisor during that process. Hearsay's tools allow the advisor to communicate with the client securely via text or voice chat, and track those conversations in the customer relationship management software. That's where it's real value-add comes in: Using Hearsay, an agent can leave notes to make sure sure that their conversations are informing the way the rest of a bank or management firm interacts with that customer. For example, as the customer is dealing with a difficult process, it would be inappropriate for the marketing team to send them targeted emails about other services, Shih said. Hearsay's product can prevent such snafus.  

Hearsay's partnership with Salesforce will let agents and advisors will make it easier for information to be communicated to other departments. That doesn't mean the entire company would be able to see a customer's personal information, Shih said. But it could allow an agent to turn off marketing emails for a customer, for example. 

"So much of the value in enterprise software is actually not about adding more technology," Shih said. "It's about making sure that the technology [customers] have is connected."

The partnership also lets Salesforce deepen its industry specific strategy

Given that Hearsay's tools are targeted towards the financial services industry, Shih sees the partnership as allowing Salesforce to deepen its commitment to its industry specific sales and product strategy. Salesforce acquired Vlocity earlier this year and named its leader — David Schmaier — as CEO of Salesforce Industries in June. 

Partnership like this one with Hearsay help Salesforce unlock a "last mile of value" for customers in regulated industries, Bill Patterson, Salesforce's executive VP and general manager of CRM, said in a video blog

Salesforce and Hearsay have a number of joint customers including Prudential, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, New York Life, Liberty Mutual, Barclays, and TD Ameritrade.

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pzaveri@businessinsider.com or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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Ford's CEO switch-out shows that the automaker is still a family business — and that Bill Ford is still in charge (F)

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bill ford

When Jim Hackett announced his retirement as CEO for Ford after a tough three years of restructuring, the first voice on a conference call with the media was that of Bill Ford.

"I thank him for his brave leadership and his friendship," Ford said of Hackett. 

The chairman of the automaker's board of directors served as CEO from 2001 to 2006, before stepping down to let former Boeing exec Alan Mulally steer Ford through the Great Recession. But 14 years and three CEOs later, Henry Ford's great-grandson commands a leading role in what is still very much a family business. 

On the call, Bill Ford praised Hackett, whom the board elevated to CEO in 2017, after Mulally's successor, Mark Fields, failed to deliver on profit forecasts to Wall Street. But the 117-year-old company's stock continued to slide under Hackett, dropping 40% since 2017. 

That puts Bill Ford in a tricky spot. Thanks to a special class of "super" shares, Henry Ford's descendants control 40% of the company — and they need their stake to perform well.

Ford suspended its dividend earlier this year, as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged its US and European operations. The company has a fortress balance sheet with $39 in total liquidity, but has borrowed billions to brace for the COVID-19 shutdown. CFO Tim Stone said much of those credit lines would be repaid and that Ford expects to return to profitability in the third quarter. But the carmaker's market performance had been disappointing, even before the pandemic struck, despite a run of positive bottom-line years since the 2009 downturn.

It hasn't been lost on Bill Ford, either, that Tesla's $266 billion market cap is ten times higher than Ford's, despite selling roughly 250,000 cars in 2019, compared to Ford's 5.4 million.

Bill Ford wants a different future for his family's 117-year-old business

Jim Hackett and Jim Farley Ford

Bill Ford has long been a forward-thinking leader, articulating a future for his family's company that stresses environmental stewardship and high-tech, urban-focused, connected mobility over simply building more F-150 pickup trucks. But the F-150s, with their juicy profit margins and history as America's best-selling vehicle, literally pay the bills. Ford's North American business makes up for struggles in Europe and South America, as well as a late start in China relative to competitors such as VW and GM.

When Hackett, now 65, became CEO, the view in the industry was that his primary mission was to articulate Bull Ford's vision, which made sense as he had been overseeing Ford's "smart mobility" initiatives after a stint on the board. Two other executives, Joe Hinrichs and Farley, would manage the actual car business. 

But Bill Ford remained very much in the picture, more so than he had been when Mulally was in charge, and even later when Fields became CEO. He made it clear on Tuesday that in Farley, Ford had committed to an industry veteran after taking a chance on an offbeat outsider who had run furniture maker Steelcase and had gotten involved with Silicon Valley through investments in influential California design firm IDEO.

"My closest ally in this was Bill Ford," Hackett told Business Insider in an interview several weeks ago. "I've gotten to test ideas with him constantly. He and I would talk three or four times a day. The other day, he said, 'It's a better company since you've been here.' You could have knocked me over with a feather."

Farley, who came to Ford from Toyota in 2007, was being tracked for the CEO job at least since the beginning of the year, when Hinrichs abruptly left the carmaker, clarifying the succession plan. Farley is a noted gearhead who likes to work on his own cars and frequents race tracks, but he's also known as a marketing maven.

And with Ford in the middle of rolling out critical products including a new F-150, the revived Bronco SUV, and a marquee electric vehicle in the new Mustang Mach-E, the chairman's view could be that the time for talking up the future is over — and that the company needs to core business to do its job.

That doesn't mean Ford can forget about the transformation of the auto industry that's now underway. But it could mean that in the next year or two, we'll be hearing a lot more about that from the man whose name is still on the building.

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The best deals on Nintendo Switch consoles, games, and accessories right now — including $15 off 'Octopath Traveler'

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Nintendo Switch vs Nintendo Switch Lite

  • Both the original Nintendo Switch and the Switch Lite have been hard to find online as they continue to explode in popularity, but we've been keeping an eye on the best deals for Switch consoles, games, and accessories.
  • We'll update this list regularly with the top Nintendo Switch deals as new discounts are announced.
  • Right now, "Octopath Traveler" is on sale for $44.99, which is $15 off its regular price.

The Nintendo Switch has been the best-selling video game console on the planet since its release in March 2017, and it's become one of the hottest products of 2020 as people look for ways to entertain themselves during the coronavirus pandemic.

Nintendo Switch sales doubled in March 2020 compared to March 2019, and even surpassed the number of consoles sold during the Switch's first month in March 2017, according to data from the NPD Group. 

Nintendo's $300 hybrid console offers many of the most popular games on the market in a portable package, with the option to connect the Switch to a larger television or home entertainment system. The $200 Switch Lite is smaller and can't connect to your TV, but it's still a popular pick for parents who want an affordable alternative to the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and gamers who want a second console.

Switch exclusive titles include iconic Nintendo franchises like "Super Mario," "Pokémon" and "The Legend of Zelda." The latest Nintendo exclusive, "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," was the best-selling game of March 2020 and is already the top selling game in the series.

Below, we've collected the best deals on Nintendo Switch consoles, exclusive games, and accessories. These discounts should all come in handy whether you're looking to buy a Switch for the first time, building your library of games, or trying to find the cheapest price on a Switch peripheral.

Here are the best Nintendo Switch deals for August 2020:

Prices and links are current as of 8/4/2020. Added new deals for Nintendo Switch games. Removed deals that are no longer active. Updated by Kevin Webb.

Best deals on Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite consoles

The Nintendo Switch can be connected to a TV for high-definition gameplay, or taken on-the-go as a portable console. Furthermore, the Switch's controls can be separated from the console and used as two separate controllers called Joy-Cons. Unfortunately, stock for the standard Switch remains low at many retailers. With that in mind, some of the below products might not currently be available for shipment. We'll update this section with more Switch purchase options and deals as stores start adding more inventory.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch Lite is a handheld-only version of the console that lacks the original Switch's removable controllers and ability to connect to a larger television. The Switch Lite appeals to gamers who may already own a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One and want to play games with a similar level of quality while they're traveling. Parents may also be more willing to invest in a handheld console at a lower price point when introducing their children to gaming.

The Nintendo Switch Lite comes in four colors (coral, turquoise, grey and yellow). There haven't been many deals that drop the Switch Lite's price below its standard retail price of $199.99, but a refurbished model is sold for a $5 discount when it's in stock at Best Buy.



Best deals on Nintendo Switch games

Though the Nintendo Switch has only been around for three years, there are already more than 2,300 games available for the console. Deals on Nintendo franchises, like "Super Mario," "Pokémon" and "The Legend of Zelda," are relatively rare, but "Super Mario Odyssey" is actually on sale for $10 off its regular price right now through Best Buy.

You can also find plenty of other fun Switch games on sale at popular retailers or from the Nintendo eShop, the console's home for digital releases.



Best deals on Nintendo Switch controllers

Though the Switch's Joy-Cons give players access to two controllers at all times, some gamers prefer the Nintendo Switch Pro controller, which more closely resembles a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One controller.

Nintendo also sells spare Joy-Cons with multiple color options for Switch owners who want to add some additional flair and an extra set of motion controllers for multiplayer games. However, Joy-Cons have been out of stock at most major retailers amid the coronavirus pandemic, with online stores charging prices well above their normal price of $79.99.

Nintendo's Pro Controller is currently on sale for $11 off its regular price on Amazon. Joy-Cons are also in stock right now for their regular price at GameStop. 



Best deals on on Nintendo Switch accessories

As a portable console with replaceable controllers, the Switch has no shortage of accessories. The most important addition you can make is a MicroSD card, which can expand the Switch's initial 32GB of storage to more than 250GB for about the same price as a new game.

If you plan on taking your Switch on the go, it's probably a good idea to pick up a basic case with space for extra game cartridges too. The Switch is fairly durable so you don't need to spend a ton protecting it.



New video shows SpaceX's astronaut crew plummeting through Earth's atmosphere, floating under parachutes, and landing in the ocean

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spacex crew dragon spaceship capsule splash down gulf mexico pensacola astronauts bob behnken doug hurley demo2 august 2 2020

  • NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley just completed a test flight of SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spaceship.
  • The Crew Dragon survived a fiery plunge through Earth's atmosphere, deployed its parachutes, and landed in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday — a process that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called his "biggest concern" for the mission.
  • Watch the reentry and landing of the world's first crewed commercial spaceship in the video below.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SpaceX and NASA just accomplished a historic feat: the first-ever crewed commercial spaceflight mission.

After a high-risk, fiery plunge through Earth's atmosphere, the Crew Dragon spaceship successfully deployed four parachutes to land in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, of the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley launched aboard the SpaceX-designed Crew Dragon two months prior, on May 30. The capsule then docked to the International Space Station, where it remained while Behnken and Hurley conducted experiments and spacewalks aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The mission, called Demo-2, was a test to show that SpaceX is capable of taking astronauts to and from Earth's orbit.

The launch went according to plan, but Sunday's landing was the mission's defining moment.

spacex crew dragon spaceship capsule splash down gulf mexico pensacola nasa astronauts bob behnken doug hurley thumbs up seats demo2 august 2 2020

From space, the Crew Dragon had to plunge through Earth's atmosphere, its heat shield deflecting and absorbing the energy of superheated plasma and enduring temperatures up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The shield successfully protected the hardware and astronauts as they fell at 25 times the speed of sound.

Then came two parachute deployments. The first, at about 18,000 feet, slowed Crew Dragon's plummet from 350 mph to 119 mph. Then at about 6,000 feet, more parachutes deployed to carry the capsule gently into the ocean.

"I'm not very religious, but I prayed for this one," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said during a NASA TV broadcast after the landing.

SpaceX filmed the capsule as it descended to Earth. The resulting video, below, condenses the 12-minute reentry and landing process into 1 minute and 11 seconds.

 

'It seemed to go extremely smoothly'

Demo-2 was the culmination of roughly $3.1 billion in funding that SpaceX got from NASA through the agency's Commercial Crew Program — an effort to resurrect the human-spaceflight capability that NASA lost after it retired its space shuttles in 2011.

The successful demonstration flight tees up six round-trips on Crew Dragon that NASA has contracted to fly its astronauts to and from the space station.

Ahead of the astronauts' May launch, Musk told Aviation Week's Irene Klotz that the mission's final stages were his biggest concern.

That's because of the Crew Dragon's asymmetric design, which is necessary for the emergency escape system that can jettison the capsule away from a failing rocket. Musk was concerned that the asymmetry could have caused the capsule to rotate too much, leading it to "catch the plasma in the super Draco escape thruster pods," he told Klotz. But the process went smoothly.

dragon v2 reentry

The parachutes were also cause for concern. During a briefing before the launch, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of mission assurance, was asked what kept him up at night in regard to the Demo-2 mission. He pointed to the chutes, since their packing can't be tested until they're deployed.

But after the landing, officials and astronauts remarked on how uneventful the astronaut's return flight was (except for a few surprises on the ground, such as civilian boats pulling up to the space capsule).

demo2 crew dragon splashdown reentry return

"It did not seem like this was the first NASA SpaceX mission with astronauts on board," Michael Hopkins, a NASA astronaut who's slated to fly on SpaceX's next mission, Crew-1, said. "It seemed to go extremely smoothly."

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and CEO, said even SpaceX leadership was a bit taken aback.

"I think we're surprised — minorly surprised, but obviously incredibly pleased — that this went as smoothly as it did," she said.

SEE ALSO: 27 epic images show how SpaceX made history by flying NASA astronauts to and from the space station

DON'T MISS: NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, whose husband just flew on SpaceX's Crew Dragon, will pilot the spaceship in the spring

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