Month: September 2025

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Welcome back! Imagine this: You’re traveling with your partner, and they suggest booking separate rooms. Would you freak out? Find out why booking two rooms worked for one couple.

On the agenda:

• A 3D mobility test showed how a desk-centered lifestyle impacts longevity — and what you can do to fix it.
• Move over, doodles. There’s a new “It” dog in town.
• BI went shopping with one of Tesla’s biggest bulls and the funkiest dresser on cable TV.
• This small suburb outside Seattle is home to one of the US’s wealthiest ZIP codes.

But first: Ryder or wrong?

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This week’s dispatch

A cup half full

The Ryder Cup, the three-day biennial golf competition in which the US faces Europe on the course, is in full swing at the Bethpage Black course on Long Island, New York.

But earlier this week, some golfers left fans perplexed for the fashion choices they made at the event’s kick-off gala. Team USA was spotted in — checks notes — dark suits and bright white sneakers. For some sartorial critics, it also didn’t help that many opted for open collars instead of ties.

Meanwhile, their counterparts across the pond wore traditional black tie attire.

The golf journalist Matt Vincenzi was among the critics, writing on X, “This sneakers with suit s—t has to end, gentleman.”

Some predictors also took to social media to say this could signal Team Europe will win this year’s Ryder Cup, continuing their streak after they won in 2023 in Rome.

Feeling like the critique could’ve been overblown, I checked in with my husband, the golf enthusiast in my house, who also gets credit in our household for being the best dressed.

Was it ever OK to wear sneakers with suits? If you look around our newsroom at Business Insider, it’s — excuse the pun — par for the course.

For my husband, dressing appropriately is a matter of “showing respect for the organizer,” but anyone should be welcome to “express your individuality in the context of the event.”

As with anything these days, the sneakers-and-suits choice reignited a much-debated topic. After living in pajamas during the pandemic, and then sporting athleisure in more and more places, many have wondered just where the line is.

What do you think? Are suits and sneakers ever OK, or have we simply gone too far? Let us know.

It’s a stretch

Prioritizing mobility is one of the buzziest longevity trends among Gen Zers and millennials. BI’s Julia Pugachevsky took a Kinotek test to assess her functional movement.

The 10-minute test broke down her strong and weak points, and she learned stretches to help address the latter. There was one exercise she performed poorly, and it’s likely due to her desk job.

Mobility remedies.

Weiners for the win

Dachshunds have slowly gained popularity over the last decade. Registrations have jumped 120% since 2014, according to the American Kennel Club, landing the breed at No. 6 on the AKC’s most popular list — its highest placement yet.

The dachshund’s long, low body makes it an ideal choice for frequent travelers, city dwellers, and first-time dog owners. They’re also known for their spunky personalities.

That’s one hot dog.

Popping tags with Dan Ives

When you think of finance bro fashion, the notorious Tesla bull probably doesn’t come to mind. CNBC guests usually don Brooks Brothers, but with Ives, it’s all Lilly Pulitzer and hot pink.

BI’s Alice Tecotzky went shopping with Ives in SoHo, where he sorted through tie-dye sweatshirts, bought a powder blue hat, and showed off his recently launched fashion line at Snow Milk. It became clear how Ives’ style mirrors his stock calls.

Life imitates art.

The Pacific Northwest’s billionaire hideaway

Some of the wealthiest people in the world live in Medina, Washington — a 1.4-square-mile suburb outside of Seattle and home to about 3,000 residents.

BI’s Joey Hadden walked from the top to the bottom of Medina and said the town felt like an escape from reality. From hidden mansions to backyard yachts, she spotted five major signs of extreme wealth and luxury.

Tucked away in the trees.

What we’re watching this weekend

• “Slow Horses”: Season 5 of this spy thriller hits Apple TV+. It stars Gary Oldman as the leader of a dysfunctional MI5 team of agents.
• “M3GAN 2.0”: On Peacock, check out the sequel to this horror hit, in which a psychopathic AI doll wreaks havoc on the people who created her. This time, she goes up against another AI creation.
• “The Lowdown”: In this new series on Hulu, Ethan Hawke plays a bookstore owner who moonlights as an investigative journalist who digs too deep into the corruption going on in his town.

What to shop

• Are Skims worth the hype?: Skims’ Seamless Sculpt bodysuit delivers serious smoothing with surprisingly comfy wear and adjustable straps — but watch for some rolling at the waist and tricky neckline fits.
• No, buddy, not this room: If your pup won’t stop getting into mischief, a good dog gate could be the solution you need. After testing 13 models and consulting experts in pet safety and behavior, these are the top five we trust with our fur babies.
• Timeless bags built to last: After years of daily use, these leather totes from Cuyana have remained soft, structured, and still stylish. They come with a premium cost, but if your budget allows, they’re the kind of bag you get to keep for years.

Why airports are so expensive

$10 Chex Mix? $27 beer? US airports make a good chunk of revenue from the money travelers spend inside the terminal — and the prices continue to go up.

More of this week’s top reads:

• Ciara is on the creatine hype. She shared how she makes taking it every morning tasty and quick.
• This isn’t your basic tiny home. It looks like a spaceship and comes with a sauna. See inside.
• I visited Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart’s new headquarters is expanding. The city was a tourist’s dream.
• The Chicago hotel that invented the brownie is still serving the original 1893 recipe. I’ve never had a brownie like it.
• I moved to Los Angeles to live on a boat. The past two years haven’t been all smooth sailing, but life on the water is worth it.
• I spent a night in Vancouver’s “castle in the city.” My $320 room was average, but the hotel was worth it.
• Two of the most impractical engagement ring styles, according to a private jeweler.
• I’ve lived in New England my whole life. There’s one town in this region I swear by visiting every fall.

The BI Today team: Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

Moscow – On Saturday, Russia condemned the European Union’s proposal to enhance its defenses against drones, contending that such actions would escalate tensions following incidents of unidentified unmanned aircraft breaching its borders, reports 24brussels.

The proposed construction of a drone wall comes amid a spate of unauthorized drone incursions that have challenged Europe’s borders and airports, with Russia facing allegations of involvement in several incidents.

The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that the EU’s measures would contribute to “an increase in military and political tensions on our continent,” as reported by state news agency RIA Novosti. The ministry characterized the initiative as driven by “personal ambitions and political games of the EU’s ruling elites.”

How did Russian drones violate European airspace recently?

NATO jets were dispatched on September 10 to shoot down several Russian drones that infiltrated Polish airspace. Additionally, reports of drone sightings emerged from multiple countries including Denmark, Romania, Norway, Sweden, and France, resulting in temporary airport closures this week as a precaution against potential incursions.

What concerns does the European Union aim to address?

In response to these incidents, European defense ministers from around 10 EU countries convened on Friday to prioritize the construction of a ‘drone wall,’ acknowledging the recent airspace violations by Russia that have raised alarms among member states. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had called for such a drone defense strategy during a keynote speech earlier this month, closely following the NATO interception of Russian drones in Poland.

EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius emphasized that “Russia is testing the EU and NATO, and our response must be firm, united and immediate” during a virtual meeting involving representatives from 10 countries along Europe’s eastern flank, including officials from Ukraine and NATO.

The EU is also looking to learn from Ukraine, which faces daily attacks from Russian drone swarms and has developed more cost-effective methods for intercepting such threats.

How does Russia respond to airspace violation claims?

In a rebuttal to the allegations of airspace violations, Moscow formally dismissed claims of incursions into NATO airspace, referring to the EU’s reaction as “hysteria.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted that Russian military pilots adhere to international air navigation rules and denounced the allegations as “baseless.” Furthermore, Russia has refuted any assertions that its drones conducted flights into European airspace, citing a lack of evidence tying such activities to Russia.

• Arko C is the cofounder and CEO of the startup Pipeshift and a Forbes Technology Council member.
• Trump’s price hike for H-1B visas won’t affect his talent strategy, C told Business Insider.
• They can find the talent they need in the US or secure the best foreign talent through other visas, he said.

Arko Chattopadhyay, a CEO and cofounder, is planning to hire up to 10 employees in the next year for his Bay Area-based AI startup, Pipeshift.

The recent H-1B visa fee increase hasn’t changed those plans, Chattopadhyay, who goes by the name Arko C professionally, told Business Insider.

Last Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order raising H-1B visa application fees to $100,000. The visa program has become a mainstay of the tech industry, allowing companies to hire highly skilled workers, like engineers, from abroad.

News of the $100,000 price tag rocked tech circles, with some founders warning that it would stifle the startup ecosystem and make it harder for them to compete for talent with bigger tech companies.

But Arko C, who also sits on the Forbes Technology Council, told BI that he can find the talent he needs in the US or can use other pathways to access top talent.

“We should be able to get local talent, or we can hire them offshore through a subsidy structure as a remote worker,” said the Pipeshift CEO. “The best AI talent is in the US at the moment,” he said.

Pipeshift was founded in 2024 with Y Combinator backing, and this January secured $2.5 million in a seed funding round. The startup provides a platform for companies to build and deploy open-source AI models.

Four of Pipeshift’s employees are based in the Bay Area, and the other seven are based in India, where Arko C is from, he said.

Arko C and his two co-founders are in the US on O-1 visas, which were funded by Y Combinator, he told BI.

O-1 visas allow immigrants with “extraordinary ability” to work in the US for up to three years. Applicants must show they have “sustained national or international acclaim” in the sciences, education, business, athletics, or the arts. Most researchers and founders travel on these visas, Arko C said.

Pipeshift is hiring two employees in the US, one who holds a green card and another who is on the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows international students to work for a year after graduating — or up to three years if you’re in STEM. It is a common path for international students to get their start in the US.

If they want to retain the OPT candidate after the 1-year term, Arko C said he could apply for an O-1 visa. The specific candidate was a researcher working under a college research professor who was “one of the pioneers of the AI world,” so would likely have applicable citations and reference letters.

It would be a challenge for most young graduates to build up the credentials to prove they were exceptionally skilled, especially for developers or software engineers who were unlikely to publish scholarly articles that count toward the accreditation for O-1s, Arko C said.

The fees are “manageable”

The founder said that there was one “really talented engineer” he had been hoping to bring from Chennai, India, to the US at the end of 2025.

Exposing the engineer to tech circles in the Bay Area and getting the opportunity to work in person with him would have been helpful, Arko C said. But since the executive order was announced, the company was re-evaluating whether it was the right time to spend the $100,000 it would now require.

Pipeshift would likely wait for a year until “he’s better skilled, he’s more experienced,” to make the investment, Arko C said. But if someone is exceptional, the higher fees are manageable, he added.

“If push comes to shove and we have to go down that route, I don’t think a $100,000 will affect us too much after a Series A or a Series B. That’s negligible compared to all the payroll and salaries that you manage at that point.”

Arko C acknowledged that tech startups will be the “collateral damage” and would feel the brunt of this executive order, as they lack the cash flow or reserve cash required to pay the higher fee.

But he doesn’t believe the impact on startups will as heavy as some fear. Startups hire a limited number of people, and a post-Series A venture-backed company could absorb the cost for exceptional talent, he said.

“Seed stage companies don’t hire more than five or six people. If you’re hiring five or six people, two or three of them are just founders. For one or two of them, you can probably get grads, and you can get people who are already here or on OPT status.”

Overall, he doesn’t think the H-1B price hike would damage the US talent pipeline; it would just ensure the highest-skilled workers accessed the program, he said.

“What people misunderstand is that the best talent and most of the tech world does not run on H-1B alone,” he said, adding that a lot of talent comes through on L-1 visas, which are for internal company transfers.

“The US won’t lose out on good quality AI talent because there’s no better place in the world that has this density of talent, speed of development in AI, customer discovery in AI, and venture capital and money flowing in.”

Quentin Peccoux vibe codes every day. He’s one of seven full-time employees at an AI-powered startup. Initially, he feared the technology would replace him. Now, he says it “feels like a superpower.”

He’s not alone in boasting about AI’s impact. Shivam Sagar, one of nine full-time employees at another company, said that AI agents can do the work of two to three additional engineers. The productivity boost is invigorating, but work-life balance is still tough to achieve — for his first six months in the job, he felt like all he did was eat, sleep, and code.

For better or worse, the Tiny Team era is here. Modern-day startups are proving that they can scale more quickly, reduce spending, and thrive against competition with only a handful of employees.

So what is it really like working on a team with only a few people who are human beings?

We asked founders and employees from startups with small staffs of fewer than 10 people about working alongside AI agents. We talked about what they like, what stresses them out, and what skills are AI-proof. These are the experiences they shared with us. Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

‘As a team of 7, we can work like a team of 50 using AI’

Quentin Peccoux, 28, based in France, works as head of AI products and partnerships at Arcads AI, an advertising company founded in 2023 that creates AI-generated video ads. Arcads AI has seven full-time team members.

I worked for Arcads AI as a freelancer until I joined full-time in January. I led AI content operations, and I just became head of AI products and partnerships.

I used to work as an SEO strategist, so I can read HTML code, but I’m not a developer.

In AI content operations, I managed the gap between the product team and the tech team. I monitored what AI models were coming out and how we could use them. I also worked with the tech team to build and develop features.

The team uses AI to optimize the code base, diagnose what is happening in the code when there is a bug, and when we need to fetch any sort of data. I also use it for internal communication, writing, and for help with ideas.

I don’t see any part of the business where there’s no AI involved.

I vibe code basically every day. When I first tried vibe coding, it was to test some features, see the AI workflow, and understand what it could do locally on my device. But using an LLM, like Cursor, makes things a hundred times faster.

When I’m vibe coding, I feel like I’m right next to a senior developer and telling them what I need. It’s like having a superpower. But people who use this tool need to know how to read code to use it properly.

Even those of us who use a lot of AI in our daily workflows are still at 1% of what we could be doing with it. As it evolves, I think the strength of teams will shift toward people with ideas rather than people with hard skills.

‘It’s a heavy lift and a lot of pressure’

Shivam Sagar, 27, is based in northern India and is a senior software full-stack engineer at Aragon AI, an AI headshot generator company founded in 2022. Aragon AI has nine full-time team members and two offshore members for customer support.

It’s been around 10 months since I joined Aragon AI as a senior full-stack engineer, and during my first six months here, I struggled a lot with the lean business model. At my previous job, there were around a few dozen engineers on a team, so it was a huge transition to go to a team of nine people.

At a larger company, there are teams for the product, design, front-end, and back-end. For example, when you have a bigger team, there is a dedicated person working on the product planning who guides you through the flow. Here, we have to attend product meetings, understand the project, code it, and design the user experience and user interface ourselves. We have ownership of everything from start to finish, but our team has a tech lead to consult with if we get stuck.

The work-life balance is not very smooth. I’ll only get to spend time with my family and friends on the weekend. I don’t have much time during the week because of how fast we are moving.

Now that I have a better idea of the workflow, using AI tools has drastically improved my productivity. It can do the work of two or three engineers by assisting with research, coding, and reviewing.

‘Each one of us has the opportunity to play a huge role in the company’

Raul Alcantara, 25, based in Los Angeles, is a tech lead at Aragon AI.

I started at Aragon AI as a technical lead in June, and my job is to ensure that the code we push and what we deploy are up to a certain standard. I graduated with both my undergraduate and master’s degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had been working on my own startup for about a year before joining Aragon AI.

The expectation for speed using AI on a lean team gets intense. Previous biweekly sprint goals have turned into weekly sprint goals.

Each one of us has the opportunity to play a huge role in the company, which is exciting, but the velocity expected is hard. I’m trying to improve my ability to know when to take a break. This is not an eight-hour-a-day job, but that doesn’t mean it should be a 24-hour job.

‘We need to vet candidates more closely now because results don’t necessarily mean skill, with the way AI can build’

Sidhant Bendre, 25, based in New York, is the CEO and cofounder of Oleve, an AI-driven consumer software portfolio company founded in 2024. Oleve has six full-time employees and, in the last four months, has hired seven additional contracted employees for support needs.

AI existed when my partners and I started our company, so every job we’ve hired for has been augmented with it. Forty percent or above of everyone’s workflow is augmented or completely owned by AI, and that’s a conservative estimate that varies by person on the team.

Keeping the team small at first was, in some ways, driven by profitability, because profit gave us the power to keep exploring options and do what’s best for the company. The contractors we hire are all engineers for support, with the exception of one, who we use for marketing.

I try to hire specialists in one system and then expand their capabilities with AI to achieve more.

The rate at which we scale up and the pattern we follow will be quite different now with AI involved. It’s going to be seasonal in the sense that every time we discover new processes, we will put people in place to do those, but once they’ve figured it out, we can automate and augment the systems so they can do more than just that one process.

For example, when I hire an executive assistant, my expectation is that instead of doing the same tasks over and over again, my goal is that they work with me to build a system that leverages AI to do some of the work so they can move on to other systems that I need.

There’s a new lean startup operating set of principles, and that includes a world where we can start scaling whole teams of agents to work and be commanded by one person. Looking for employees also becomes about their capability to command.

‘AI has never fully run the show, but we’ve been able to leverage it’

Anada Lakra, 33, based in New York, is the CEO and cofounder of BoldVoice, an AI accent coaching app founded in 2021. BoldVoice has seven full-time team members.

The benefit of being a small team is that we don’t have bureaucracies, processes for the sake of processes, or meetings for the sake of meetings. We’ve been able to leverage AI to do the work in days that would have taken weeks.

In addition to myself and my cofounder, we have one product designer, two full-stack engineers, and two machine learning engineers. We also contract two voice coaches as needed. The engineers report to him, and I manage the designer and coaches.

Leveraging AI and staying lean is a superpower because it keeps costs down as you scale the product. It’s allowed us to grow very fast and, as of this year, become cashflow positive. We’re in a very good position where we don’t need outside funding.

If we had double or triple the team size, there would be lots of coordination needed, people issues coming up, and middle management would be needed to keep everything working in the same direction. It would become easy to lose priorities that way, and we just don’t need any of that right now.

When you have a very small team, there will always be limitations. Everyone’s stretched fairly thin, and there are always things that might pop up that are tempting. We’re not able to do them right away because we don’t have enough people, which can be frustrating.

But the days when you needed a team of a hundred to achieve $10 million annual recurring revenue are gone. Now, we can do it with a team of fewer than 10.

• My grandparents recently celebrated their 65th anniversary, and they’re still so in love.
• They say to choose friendships based on shared values, so you don’t lose sight of what matters.
• They also show gratitude to each other in small, everyday ways, and said independence is important.

In 1959, my grandma Barbara stood at the back of the church in her pillbox hat and silk wedding dress with a single thought flashing through her mind: Gee, do I really know him?

Barbara was a bona fide New Yorker — sharp-witted and straightforward — while my grandpa Richard was a polite, wholesome boy from upstate New York, 300 miles from the Big Apple. After meeting in November of 1957, they dated, broke up, then dated long-distance for a year— letters exchanged and weekend trips.

That September day in 1960, my grandma decided it was too late to back out, so she married him. Today, Barbara and Richard Coupe have been married for 65 years.

This September, my husband and I celebrated a measly, but hard-earned, 15 years of marriage, so I asked my grandparents for their best advice. A few things in particular stood out.

Friendships matter

It’s a common joke among my siblings that if you want to hang out with our grandparents, you’ll have to book them at least a month in advance. Their calendar is always full of social engagements, and I’m not sure anyone hosts more dinner parties than they do. But I am certain that their rich friendships have contributed to their quality of life.

As a couple, you should choose friends who have the same value system as you, my grandma told me recently. If you choose to hang out with people who don’t prioritize the same things, you’ll likely lose sight of what matters most to you.

My grandparents had six kids in eight years, and they chose friends who wanted to spend Saturday evenings playing board games instead of bar hopping. In their later years, they found social circles through ballroom dancing and their faith.

Be OK doing your own things sometimes

“I enjoy a good fight every once in a while,” my grandma muses. “Nothing big, just little squabbles. But he wouldn’t fight with me, so the fights never amounted to much.”

However, while she says they didn’t have big fights, they did have disagreements.

My grandma shares how my grandpa used to attend a yearly, all-expenses-paid work trip. While he jet-setted, she was left at home in the dead of a Massachusetts winter with six children under 10. In her usual New Yorker bluntness, she told me she always felt punished for his good fortune.

One year, the trip overlapped with a planned family vacation in New York City: their daughter’s first communion. My grandpa was accepting an award and needed to show face to the big boss, so he couldn’t back out.

My grandma packed the car with six kids, the youngest still a baby, plus the family dog, and made the five-and-a-half-hour trek to Long Island on her own. Despite the car breaking down, she was glad she went.

“We resolved our fight by deciding that you would do your thing, and I’ll do mine, and that’s OK,” she says.

Even in later years, when some couples cling to each other constantly, my grandparents practice a healthy dose of independence.

“If I want to go grocery shopping and go to the mall, and he wants to look at cars, we are content with that,” she shares.

Show each other respect in small, everyday ways

Over the years, they’ve learned that how you treat your spouse is how they’ll treat you. One way my grandparents show this is by expressing gratitude for one another.

“I tell Grandma every day that I am thankful for my precious wife. Believe it or not, when you say that enough times, you really believe that,” my grandpa says.

She thanks him every day for the little things he does around the house.

They are so in sync, and it’s not just the ballroom dancing. It’s years of respect and regard that have carried them through all of life’s hardships and joys, which have been aplenty.

Of course, one of the secrets to a 65-year-long relationship is that you both have to live that long. That’s no small feat. But regardless of what health and fortune you’re dealt, my grandparents’ advice is wisdom for any relationship.