Founder Reports

Joe Cecala is the founder and CEO of Dream Exchange, a Chicago-based exchange in formation that’s working to give small and emerging companies a real path to public capital while letting everyday investors take part. He arrived at the idea after about 30 years moving through finance from a lot of different angles, first as an accountant and military officer, then as a CPA, a lawyer, and a longtime advisor to entrepreneurs and investors.

Organic search is one of the few channels that keeps paying off long after you stop spending on it. For an online store, SEO is worth getting right. The catch is that ecommerce SEO is harder than most store owners expect, and a year with the wrong agency can leave you worse off than if you’d done nothing at all. This guide covers agencies with strong reputations for ecommerce work, plus a simple way to figure out which one fits your store. Some are dedicated ecommerce specialists.

A decade ago, hardly anyone used the word “solopreneur.” Now it’s everywhere, from LinkedIn bios to business school case studies. The problem is that most people still aren’t sure where the line falls between a solopreneur and a regular entrepreneur, and the terms are often used interchangeably. While there is some overlap, there are also important distinctions.

Artificial intelligence is automating tasks faster than most businesses anticipated, as our 2026 AI in the Workplace study found that 89% of American workers have already used AI for their jobs. But the leaders staying ahead are investing in better judgment.

A year ago, picking an AI video tool meant choosing between a handful of options that all did roughly the same thing. That’s no longer the case. The category has split apart, and the tools that lead it now serve genuinely different purposes. Some generate cinematic clips from a text prompt. Some build a complete video, including voiceover and captions, from a single idea. Others put a talking avatar on screen to deliver a script in dozens of languages.

As companies adopt AI tools to increase output and offset work that can be automated, new data shows AI use is creating a heavier review and rework burden for managers and senior leaders. Last month, we released our 2026 AI in the Workplace report, based on a survey of more than 2,000 American workers. The survey revealed that 57% of managers have had to fix or redo work from coworkers who that relied too heavily on AI, while only 38% of individual contributors have had to do the same.

The phrase “AI layoff” went from a niche concern in 2023 to the single most-cited reason for U.S. job cuts in both March and April of 2026. Over those two months alone, employers tied 36,831 layoffs directly to artificial intelligence, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Block cut 4,000 people. Meta cut 8,000. Oracle is cutting tens of thousands more.

Anthony Mongiello started Formaggio Cheese in 1991 inside an 1,800 square foot garage in Brooklyn. Today, Formaggio, a nine-figure company, employs more than 400 people, ships nationally and internationally, and supplies handcrafted mozzarella, charcuterie, and antipasto products to major retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Sam’s Club. But the early days looked nothing like the company’s current scale.

Ask any accountant or financial advisor what their clients actually want, and the answer rarely comes down to more reports or longer meetings. Clients want clarity, faster decisions, and the confidence that their advisor is thinking ahead on their behalf. The challenge for the professional delivering that experience is doing it without adding hours to an already full week. The good news is that the most valuable improvements rarely require more time.

Most SEO advice is written for companies with significant marketing and SEO budgets. It assumes you have a content team cranking out four posts a week, a developer ready to fix technical issues, and a budget for tools that cost more than your office rent. If that’s not your reality, most guides leave you with a vague sense that you’re already behind. Bootstrapped founders and indie hackers face a different version of the SEO problem.