Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
New York
As seen in:
The New York Times,
Business Insider,
The Guardian,
CBS News,
Chicago Tribune,
Fast Company,
Slate,
Vanity Fair,
Flipboard,
Inc.
and
Author of many articles & one book, WE ARE THE NERDS.
Past: Editor at Large of Inc. magazine.
Co-host of From the Ground Up podcast.
Articles by Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
How to Improve Your Hiring Practices
Think you know what works when hiring a new employee? Experts say: Think again. Most managers skimp on time and energy needed to find the best candidates for a job. You run your own company. You’ve grown it from the ground-up, and things are going so smoothly you’re ready to expand. That should be simple enough: You have a knack for finding the right people to help business thrive. Right? Wrong, says Mark Clark, an associate professor at American University’s Kosgod School of Business.
Phil Libin’s Next Startup? Bringing Michelin-Starred Chefs to Bentonville
“I don’t think an Ancient Roman restaurant would do well in Bentonville,” said Phil Libin, the serial founder, who relocated to Arkansas from San Francisco nearly five years ago. Libin was telling me this because he’d recently encountered a “reasonably popular” YouTuber who did a series what gladiators feasted on in Ancient Rome. “But I could sell tickets for it for one night.
They Had the Ultimate Exit. Here's Why They Bought Their Companies Back
The email would lead to the $1 million acquisition of her company. But when it landed in her in-box in September 2016, Ashley Murphy thought it was spam. The co-founder of Neat Method, a home-organization franchise she’d launched in San Francisco, had never considered an acquisition. The company, founded by Murphy, Molly Graves, and Marissa Hagmeyer, was still relatively young. It had 17 franchise licensees across the United States, but they still considered it a lifestyle business.
A T-Shirt Was Grown, Spun, Knit, and Made Entirely in America. It Took Only 4 Years
It set out to make a T-shirt. On the one hand, it’s just a T-shirt that comes in seven sizes and two colors. On the other hand, this particular T-shirt can be seen as a symbol for many larger national conversations: about economic revival, sustainability, and supply-chain traceability, about small farmers and fair wages, about revitalizing American factories.
What Really Builds a Customer Base, According to Mr. Wonderful: Your Authenticity
Kevin O’Leary isn’t exactly known for his sunny disposition on Shark Tank. But when he really adores a business, he beams. In an exclusive interview for Inc.’s Small Business Week Series in partnership with Shark Tank, I asked the Canadian businessman, investor, and reality-show star best known as Mr. Wonderful to specify some of the top examples he’s seen of finding and nurturing a customer base.
Flexport's Ryan Peterson Knows What Small Businesses Need to Do to Survive the Trade War
The effects of President Trump’s trade war are being felt in ports, on roadways, and on the open seas—not to mention inside the companies whose supply chains are in tumult. Ocean container bookings from China to the U.S. have dropped precipitously this week; companies that have brought goods to shore from China since Monday are scrambling to store them in bonded warehouses or foreign-trade zones. Others are grappling for tax adjustments, or are rebalancing their sourcing.
Fair Trade Founder Paul Rice on What U.S. Businesses Lose in a Trump Trade War
When companies are getting squeezed, sustainability and social benefits tend to be the first things to go. That’s a problem for the planet and sets back the conscious capital ecosystem. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN @LAGORIO APR 7, 2025 Paul Rice. Photography by Nathan Bajar Listen to this ArticleMore info Paul Rice founded Fair Trade USA in a one-room warehouse in Oakland, California, in 1998.
Why Does Everyone Think They Can Fix Social Networking?
Eliminate content? Let AI moderate? Change the discourse? These entrepreneurs are on a mission to fix our social media hellscape. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN @LAGORIO MAR 26, 2025 Illustration: Inc.; Photo: Getty Images Tucked among splashy affairs of SXSW in early March was a talk by Ev Williams, the investor known for having founded Twitter, Medium, and Blogger. This year he is promoting his new social app, Mozi.
Jonathan Adler Is Grateful for Growth Capital
Jonathan Adler never thought he’d become a brand. The one-time potter got his big break in 1993 by selling a collection of ceramics to Barneys New York, a deal that helped him launch his eponymous home decor and furniture company.
Steve Blank Thinks AI Can Help You Find Your Customers-and Your Next Business Model
In 1999, after founding and running eight startups, serial entrepreneur Steve Blank decided it was time to step back and reflect on what it really takes to pursue an early-stage company.
On this Clothing Brand's Website, You Can ‘Add To Cart’ the Entire $1.5M Business
Wendy Mullen was an undergraduate at the University of Kansas when she set up a clothing rack on a sidewalk in Lawrence, Kansas, to peddle her hand-sewn garments. Passers-by thought it was a garage sale. The self-taught designer and sewist enrolled in New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology the following year to professionalize her skills. That didn’t quite go as planned, either. “I didn’t really connect with the fashion world that much,” she says.
Bookshop Achieved the Impossible Against Amazon. Now It’s Coming for E-Books.
In just five years, the platform has made a profit while supporting brick-and-mortar bookstores. Next up, taking on Amazon’s 76 percent of the e-book market. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN @LAGORIO JAN 28, 2025 Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop. Photography by Nathan Bajar Andy Hunter looked mostly satisfied, but there was some latent unease as we sat in his drafty home office in East Williamsburg.
Kevin Ryan Has Invested in More Than 180 Startups. Here's What He Says Founders Should Focus On
A founding father of New York City’s tech scene explains his unconventional investment philosophy and outlook for venture capital in 2025. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN @LAGORIO DEC 11, 2024 Serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan is sometimes referred to as “Godfather of NYC tech,” and for good reason.
The Hiring Spree That Almost Broke Discord
During the pandemic, Discord took off—and so did head count. CEO Jason Citron has since wrangled back control and transformed company culture in the process. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN @LAGORIO DEC 11, 2024 Illustration by Marylou Faure. Photo: Courtesy subject In 2012, Jason Citron was restless. He’d sold his company, OpenFeint, for more than $100 million—and he wanted to do it again. He co-founded Discord with the aim of innovating again in game development.
Maternal Mortality Is a Crisis. This Founder Is Training a New Generation of Doulas to End It
Latham Thomas’s Mama Glow is fighting for birth equity and, in the process, supporting thousands of new entrepreneurs. Source link
Michael Posner Wants You to Lead an Ethical Company
And it might involve avoiding money from Sand Hill Road and slowing down generative AI releases. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN @LAGORIO NOV 19, 2024 Michael Posner has some ways to think about the standards you can set and choices you can make while still growing a business. Posner is the director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and he helped found Human Rights First in 1978 and was its first executive director.
Would You Pay This Man $50,000 to Touch the Edge of Space?
Meet the entrepreneurs providing a rarefied clientele with once-in-a-lifetime journey in a stratospheric air balloon. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO, EDITOR AT LARGE, INC. @LAGORIO NOV 18, 2024 World View CEO Ryan Hartman inside the Explorer capsule prototype. Photo: Jesse Rieser So you want to go to space. To take in the expansive curvature of the Earth glowing miles above the atmosphere, surrounded by pure darkness.
Rebecca Minkoff Doubles Down, Says 'Real Housewives' Is Good for Business
Minkoff recently announced she was joining the show solely to promote her brand. She thinks it was a sound decision–and now she has the numbers to prove it. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO, EDITOR AT LARGE, INC. @LAGORIO OCT 21, 2024 Rebecca Minkoff. Photography by Nathan Bajar. When Rebecca Minkoff told a reporter recently that her decision to open her life to Bravo’s cameras on Season 15 of Real Housewives of New York was a sound strategy for promoting her brand, she ignited a small Internet firestorm.
Why Fashion Icon Rebecca Minkoff Says Entrepreneurs Need to Stop Chasing Social Media Virality
The ‘RHONY’ star and fashion entrepreneur encouraged startup founders to stop fixating on social media fame at the Inc. 5000 conference in Palm Desert. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO, EDITOR AT LARGE, INC. @LAGORIO OCT 18, 2024 Rebecca Minkoff. Photo: Getty Images. For many consumer-products founders, TikTok is not just an addiction–it’s a fixation.
Bradley Tusk Gets Real About Tech Regulations
When local regulations are standing in the way of doing business, startups call Bradley Tusk. He helped Uber convince municipalities to allow its drivers to operate, and today he invests early in health care, gaming, and transit companies through Tusk Venture Partners. He’s optimistic about the future of small business, but is less sunny about the future of adequate tech regulation, which has become one of the core issues at stake in the upcoming election.
White House Takes to Reddit to Fight Hurricane Misinformation
The Biden-Harris administration took a groundbreaking step to “reach people where they are” by activating a Reddit user account. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO, EDITOR AT LARGE, INC. @LAGORIO OCT 8, 2024 President Joe Biden. Photos: Getty Images. As President Biden warned Tuesday that Hurricane Milton could be the worst storm to hit Florida in more than 100 years, the White House made a fresh move toward broadcasting accurate information: It logged into Reddit.
Jennifer Garner's Once Upon a Farm Joins Equitable Food Initiative to Champion Farmworker Rights
In a first for the CPG industry, Once Upon a Farm is pledging to source seven million pounds of produce from the EFI. BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO, EDITOR AT LARGE, INC. @LAGORIO OCT 8, 2024 Jennifer Garner and John Foraker. Illustration: Inc; Photo: Getty Images, Once Upon A Table Seven million pounds of apples and pears: that’s a lot of fruit. It’s about 30 percent of the produce that goes into Once Upon a Farm products, which range from baby-food pouches to bars.
What Women Founders Still Have to Prove
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Anu Duggal is 10 years into running her seed-stage venture fund, Female Founders Fund. She still has something to prove. "We're really trying to make more of a statement than your typical VC fund that's only looking for returns," Duggal tells Inc.'s From the Ground Up podcast."Our goal is to prove that you can generate top-tier returns by investing in this demographic," Duggal says.
Spanx Founder Sara Blakely's New Invention: High-Heeled Sneakers
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Sara Blakely, 53, the inventor of Spanx, posted Monday on Instagram: "BIG NEWS!!! I've been secretly working on/dreaming about something for years. A new invention, and a new brand!" She's launching it next Tuesday, August 20, and says it's been in the works for nine years. But today, there's a website up, Sneex.com, that looks like it's her next venture.
How Tiny Changes Reap Enormous Results at America's Fastest Growing Company
By , Editor at Large, Inc. From the September 2024 issue of Inc. Magazine To understand the power of small, nonobvious changes, consider the Long Island patient who kept landing in the emergency room after failing to show up to her scheduled heart surgery. Vytalize Health, the No. 1 company on this year's Inc. 5000, sent a social worker to the patient's home and discovered two dozen pet parakeets. The patient had refused to leave the birds alone to go to her procedure.
How This Entrepreneur Launched a Cool Baby Brand Despite Having No Kids
Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental hotel is an odd place to be passing around diapers, Frank Yu, 33, will admit. It was there, in 2016, that he met some friends who were fresh from a baby shower. They'd been gifted diapers that felt nothing like the plasticky ones in the United States. These felt soft--similar to cashmere, even. The gears of Yu's strategic brain, trained by London Business School, sent him hurtling into a years-long quest to design a fabric-like disposable diaper for the American market.
How Tiny Changes Reap Enormous Results at America's Fastest-Growing Company
The founders of Vytalize Health aimed to create a primary care clinic that produced better results at lower costs. They ended up reframing American medicine, and landed at the top of the Inc. 5000. To understand the power of small, nonobvious changes, consider the Long Island patient who kept landing in the emergency room after failing to show up to her scheduled heart surgery. Vytalize Health, the No. 1 company on this year’s Inc.
She's a Cyborg Anthropologist. But Can She Stop Tech From Invading Our Space?
Frantic alerts. Glaring lights. Failing batteries. Humans tolerate a great deal of distraction, harassment, and sleep deprivation because of technology. Amber Case wants to change that. Amber Case has co-founded multiple startups, most notably Portland-based geotrigger-platform Geoloqi, which was acquired in 2012 by Esri, the private geographic-information-systems company founded and run by Jack Dangermond.
She's a Cyborg Anthropologist. But Can She Stop Tech From Invading Our Space?
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Amber Case has co-founded multiple startups, most notably Portland-based geotrigger-platform Geoloqi, which was acquired in 2012 by Esri, the private geographic-information-systems company founded and run by Jack Dangermond. But in recent years, she's returned to her academic roots in cyborg anthropology and directed her focus toward ensuring that machines and innovations truly benefit us--rather than interrupting, distracting, and perturbing us.
How a Blind Date Got Airbnb's Joe Gebbia His Next Co-Founder
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Some things really are easier the second time around. Just ask Joe Gebbia. The co-founder of Airbnb had many moments of doubt in the company's early days. There was the "trough of sorrow," the period of time that Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator had warned him about--when web traffic slows and new users seem to crawl to a halt as your company still hasn't found the ideal product-market fit.
How a Blind Date Got Airbnb's Joe Gebbia His Next Co-Founder
inc-article-body-registration-wall Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia discussses starting over with Mike McNamara, the co-founder of his latest venture, Samara, on this week’s episode of From the Ground Up. Some things really are easier the second time around. Just ask Joe Gebbia. The co-founder of Airbnb had many moments of doubt in the company’s early days.
This Construction Company Runs Its Own Daycare for Employees' Children
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Out of work and recently married in 2021, carpenter Anthony Castle applied for a handful of union-shop construction jobs near his home in Madison, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Hailey Castle, were searching for a classroom-setting preschool for their 4-year-old daughter, who needed full-time care. But care options were slim and eye-poppingly pricey.
This Construction Company Runs Its Own Daycare for Employees' Children
Tri-North Builders attracts employees with something that’s hard to find these days: affordable child care. Out of work and recently married in 2021, carpenter Anthony Castle applied for a handful of union-shop construction jobs near his home in Madison, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Hailey Castle, were searching for a classroom-setting preschool for their 4-year-old daughter, who needed full-time care. But care options were slim and eye-poppingly pricey.
Inside a 'Weird Economy,' Rare IPO, and the State of AI
By , Editor at Large, Inc. From a business news standpoint, the first few months of 2024 had it all: the rare IPO of a social media company, a very strange economic situation facing founders, and enough developments in artificial intelligence to train a new LLM. Inc.'s editors have been chewing over all of it. In this roundtable episode of From the Ground Up, we hear from Inc.
How to Avoid Supply Chain Disasters Original
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Ah, the irony: After grinding it out during the early days of your business trying to cobble together a critical mass of customers, a sudden surge of demand cripples your company. Whether it's a highly effective marketing campaign or a new hit product, a crush of new customers is, on the surface, fantastic--but can also have potentially catastrophic ripple effects.
Surging Demand Nearly Broke Their Businesses. What They Learned Is a Case Study in Resilience
By , Editor at Large, Inc. The infant formula startup Bobbie had only been on the market for about 12 months when a crisis hit. America was having a baby formula shortage. This wasn't Bobbie's crisis; it was caused by supply chain delays of 2021 and exacerbated in February 2022 by a recall of Abbott baby formulas. That resulted in a wave of new customers finding Bobbie, which was mostly selling its formula for infants and children online, directly to consumers.
He's Spent More Than 40 Years at Patagonia. Here Are His Tips For Growing a Company and Social Mission at the Same Time
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Launching a startup with a social-mission that's aligned with your company's purpose is smart business. But as we learned on the last episode of From the Ground Up, sometimes as a company grows, the mission no longer fits as snugly. One of the most remarkable stories of a company shifting its mission over decades--and succeeding--is that of Patagonia.
Google's New AI Search: Founders and CEOs Share Fears, Hopes About the Future
A creative disruption? An industry decimator? We asked founders and thought leaders their predictions for what Google will transform in the age of generative AI. Google’s new artificial intelligence-powered search results aren’t going over well with business leaders. Since the company’s integration last week of AI-powered search results for all U.S. users, there’s been a host of gloomy predictions for a range of industries.
E.l.f. Cosmetics Calls Out Lack of U.S. Board Diversity With 'Dicks' Campaign
By , Editor at Large, Inc. E.l.f., the beauty company known for its accessible prices and propensity for TikTok virality, is embarking on an unusual campaign with old-school physical advertising and a corporate-social mission. The goal: to confront the lack of board diversity in big business--and push it to change.
What to Do When Your Company's Mission Isn't Enough
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Jacq and Scot Tatelman founded State Bags with a built-in mission: To give high-quality bags to kids who needed them--for camping, for school. It was their way to support America's families in need. It was 2013, and the New York City-based company had settled on a clean, one-for-one model: For every bag sold, State Bags would give one away. It was modeled on Warby Parker's mission. But Flint, Michigan, changed everything.
Your Startup Should Be an 'Experimentation Machine,' According to This Harvard Business School Professor
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Which should come first, the perfect product, or the ideal customer? Either is possible when you're starting a company, venture capitalist and Harvard Business School lecturer Jeff Bussgang explains on Inc.'s From the Ground Up podcast. But one might give you more of an advantage than the other. One approach is to have an innovation, or an educated hunch on a new product--and then go out and find its customers.
Relationship Guru Esther Perel's 7 Ideas for Keeping Calm and Staying Inspired
The Belgian-born psychotherapist has plenty of pointers for individuals–and business leaders. Esther Perel has heard it all. There's the tale of a marriage born of the Iraq War and the one about a twice-married (to each other) couple. And, of course, there's the classic couple's dilemma: She wants change, and he can't let go. Perel has explored these stories and more in her podcast Where Should We Begin?
Relationship Guru Esther Perel's 7 Ideas for Keeping Calm and Staying Inspired
By , Editor at Large, Inc. From the April 2024 issue of Inc. Magazine Esther Perel has heard it all. There's the tale of a marriage born of the Iraq War and the one about a twice-married (to each other) couple. And, of course, there's the classic couple's dilemma: She wants change, and he can't let go. Perel has explored these stories and more in her podcast Where Should We Begin?
You Can Now Buy The Wing's $4,500 Meat Slicer (and Its Feminist Library)
By , Editor at Large, Inc. The Wing is being sold off for parts--again. Nearly two years after the buzzy women's co-working space permanently closed its doors, the Wing's landlord in New York City's Soho neighborhood is trying to unload a few items. Items from another location were previously put up for sale in 2023.
Puppies, Mascots, and ... a Jungle? Welcome to the IPO Day Circus
By , Editor at Large, Inc. When it comes to initial public offerings, some executives shine their shoes, show up to the stock exchange, and smile through their televised interviews. Others raise a bit more hell when they ring the bell. When Reddit made its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange in March, dozens of the company's employees, bankers, and lawyers took to the trading floor, but when the clock struck 9:30 a.m., none of them actually rang the bell. Instead, Snoo did.
Transcript: Tracy Dennis-Tiwary on Grieving While Starting a Company
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Diana Ransom, co-host: I am Inc. executive editor, Diana Ransom. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, co-host: And I'm editor-at-large, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin. Ransom: And you're listening to From the Ground Up. Today's episode, How to Handle Grief as You're Starting a Company.
Can You Start a Company While Grieving? Should You?
By , Editor at Large, Inc. Grief wears many faces. Sadness. Guilt. Longing. Anger. Bitterness. These can also affect individuals to an extreme for longer than a year, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM, which added "prolonged grief disorder" in March of 2022.
For Cloudflare's Michelle Zatlyn, This Past Year--and a War in Gaza--Pushed Her as a Leader
Geopolitical instability. Cyber-landscape complications. Fiscal constraints. A hack. A viral firing. And the most inspiring work of the Cloudflare co-founder’s career. Almost immediately after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that led to the war in Gaza, another battle was brewing. Hackers first went after the Israeli internet with DDoS attacks, deluging websites that provide critical alerts and information to civilians.
For Michelle Zatlyn, This Past Year--and a War in Gaza--Pushed Her as a Leader
Almost immediately after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that led to the war in Gaza, another battle was brewing. Hackers first went after the Israeli internet with DDoS attacks, deluging websites that provide critical alerts and information to civilians. Cyberattackers then went after Palestinian sites, too--particularly in the banking sector. Michelle Zatlyn, 44, was on the virtual frontlines.
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