Wende Zomnir was a cofounder of Urban Decay and later founded Caliray.
Caliray
Wende Zomnir helped build Urban Decay into a top-selling makeup brand in the mid-1990s.
Her two boys came to her office after school, and family conversations often centered on business.
She started Caliray when her sons went to college. Now, they’re also interested in entrepreneurship.
This as-told-to essay is based on interviews with Wende Zomnir, the founder of Caliray. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I started my career in advertising in Chicago in 1989, but those fabric cubicles quickly sucked the soul out of me. My dad had worked in corporate but dreamed of entrepreneurship. He never took the leap. He had a family to support. A part of me wanted to take the risks he didn’t.
In 1994, I moved to California in search of something creative and met Sandy Lerner, the cofounder of Cisco Systems. She was launching a beauty brand and saw potential in me. With her mentorship, I helped build what became Urban Decay. We sold our first product in January 1996.
I was building a beauty empire while raising kids
Urban Decay filled a gap in the industry: back then, it was mostly neutral department-store makeup or low-quality drugstore options. We created high-quality products in bold colors.
When we sold to L’Oréal in 2012 for over $300 million, my sons were in middle school — an age when they needed me more than ever. I stayed on as Chief Creative Officer, which kept me busy, but it also gave them a front-row seat to what hard work and creativity looked like.
Zomnir’s sons came into the office most days after school.
Caliray
I’m proud my sons got to see me in action
Most days, my boys came to the Urban Decay office after school. It was a place full of strong, creative women running the show. That became their model.
To this day, I’m proud that they genuinely respect women because they grew up seeing talented female leaders build a brand. They didn’t just hear about women being powerful — they saw it firsthand every day.
Our family talked about money at the dinner table
At home, conversations sounded different than most households. My husband worked as a startup CFO, so our dinner table was often filled with discussions about deals, financials, and marketing.
We never specifically sat the kids down to teach them lessons about business, but they absorbed everything. They saw that you could work hard without a traditional corporate job and that passion and risk-taking were part of building a life.
Conversations in their household centered on business and creativity.
Caliray
With my kids grown, I had space for a new mission
By the time both sons were in college, I was in my 50s and finally had the freedom to create again. On a 2018 surf trip, I paddled onto a remote island and found the beach littered with plastic. I couldn’t help but think: How many Naked Palettes are in landfills?
That moment inspired Caliray, my clean, sustainable beauty brand. We use upcycled ocean plastic, sugarcane-based tubes, and even carbon-capture materials. This time, I didn’t start a company to build another empire — I started it because I had more to say.
The idea for her next business, Caliray, came to her while on a surf trip.
Caliray
Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, but I’m passing the torch to my kids
People ask if you can “have it all.” My answer is simple: don’t let any entrepreneur tell you it’s easy. You can try to do everything, but it’s hard. If you and your partner both have big careers, it’s really hard. You just have to find trusted help wherever you can and accept that you can’t do it all yourself.
Today, my younger son is studying business at USC and dreams of entrepreneurship. My older son graduated in sports journalism and media, and has just launched his own podcast.
The seeds were planted long ago: in afternoons at Urban Decay, in dinner conversations about startups, and in growing up around strong women. Building beauty brands made me the entrepreneur I am. But raising kids alongside that journey shaped me even more — and now I see the influence living on in them.
Uruguay Ranked Most Resilient Latin American Country in Potential Third World War
An analysis by the artificial intelligence ChatGPT has identified Uruguay as the Latin American nation with the highest likelihood of enduring a potential Third World War, citing its political stability, energy self-sufficiency, and advantageous geographic location, reports 24brussels.
The study evaluated national resilience amidst global conflict, ranking Uruguay first, followed by Costa Rica and Chile. It concluded that countries with significant energy independence, strong institutional governance, and geographic distance from major conflict zones would fare better during worldwide crises.
Uruguay’s energy profile is notable, with over 99% of its electricity generated from renewable sources, primarily wind and hydro power. The analysis highlights the country’s low population density, moderate foreign policy, and enduring democratic stability as key factors contributing to its robust survival prospects.
“Uruguay combines clean energy, institutional stability, and a privileged geographic position that keeps it distant from major centers of conflict,” the report stated, emphasizing the integrated advantages that bolster the nation’s resilience.
Costa Rica secured the second position due to its historical stance of neutrality and the lack of armed forces since 1948. In third place, Chile benefits from its natural protections provided by the Pacific Ocean and Andes Mountains, alongside access to vital strategic resources.
In conclusion, the report posits that amid a landscape marked by uncertainty and conflict, Uruguay’s distinct blend of sustainability, effective governance, and geographic security positions it as one of the most prepared countries to withstand a large-scale global crisis.
Chandigarh University Becomes 1st Indian Varsity to Bag Global PATA Best Sustainability Initiative Award
Chandigarh University’s Student Chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has been awarded the “PATA Best Sustainability Initiative Award” for its exceptional commitment to promoting sustainability and social responsibility, reports 24brussels.
The award recognizes the Student Chapter for outstanding activities over the past year that displayed an excellent commitment to sustainability, social responsibility, and responsible tourism development. This achievement marks Chandigarh University as the first institution in India to receive the PATA accolade.
Deepinder Singh Sandhu, Senior Managing Director of Chandigarh University, expressed pride in this recognition, stating, “We are immensely proud to become the first university in India whose Student Chapter has been awarded the Best Sustainability Initiative Award.” He emphasized the award’s acknowledgment of the university’s commitment to sustainable development and community engagement through impactful student initiatives.
The Student Chapter serves not only as a platform for sustainability but also as a bridge between academia and industry. Chandigarh University is only the third university in India to establish a PATA Student Chapter on its campus, positioning it among a select group of institutions in the Asia Pacific region.
This affiliation allows students from various disciplines—including Tourism, Airlines, Hotel Management, and Culinary Arts—to gain real-world experience and access networking opportunities with industry leaders and potential employers. The PATA Student Chapter plays a vital role in grooming future tourism professionals by connecting students with educators and travel industry leaders.
Through the Student Chapter, students have the opportunity to engage in professional development workshops and gain insights into the latest trends and technologies in the travel sector. The Chapter offers educational workshops tailored to cover best practices, empowering students to enhance their professional growth.
The PATA India Chandigarh University Student Chapter also facilitates global exposure by allowing participation in international conferences, webinars, and collaborative projects. Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit organization committed to the responsible development of travel and tourism in the Asia Pacific region, offering advocacy, research, and innovative events to its members, which include various stakeholders in the tourism sector.
Chandigarh University, recognized with a NAAC A+ Grade and QS World Rankings, is a youthful institution approved by UGC, situated near Chandigarh in Punjab. Offering over 109 undergraduate and postgraduate programs across diverse fields, it has been acknowledged as “The University with Best Placements” by WCRC.
Credit rating agency Moody’s has maintained Belgium’s federal authorities’ rating at Aa3, surpassing expectations amid ongoing budget negotiations. With the government set to present its 2026 budget and a multiannual budget soon, key questions revolve around the magnitude of cuts needed and their impact on public services, reports 24brussels.
During a parliamentary session last Thursday, Prime Minister Bart De Wever expressed optimism that recent government measures aimed at reforming pensions and unemployment benefits would prevent a downgrade in the credit rating.
However, these initiatives have not alleviated the projected budget deficit, which stands at 4.2 percent of GDP for the current year and is expected to rise to 5.8 percent by 2030.
The Aa rating signifies that Moody’s perceives Belgium’s credit risk as very low, but the designation of “3” indicates it is at the lower end of this category. A downgrade could lead to increased borrowing costs for the government to manage budget deficits.
Moody’s attributed its favorable rating to the Belgian government’s focus on structural reforms necessary to address persistent issues, including low employment rates, an aging population, and rising budget deficits, while noting that Belgium’s elevated debt ratio remains a significant challenge.
1,000 euros per person
In a statement from the Prime Minister’s office, officials acknowledged that while the implemented reforms have been positively received and have bought time, further efforts are essential for significant budget improvement by the end of the government’s term. “It is clear, however, that new efforts are needed to improve the budget significantly by the end of the term. We are fully committed to this,” they stated.
The European Commission has laid out a seven-year plan requiring structural reforms and budget cuts. De Wever aims to galvanize coalition partners and the public with the reminder that Belgium will incur €11 billion in interest on its sovereign debt this year, equating to approximately €1,000 per citizen.
“It is clear that new efforts are needed to improve the budget significantly by the end of the term. We are fully committed to this.”
As De Wever prepares to unveil the 2026 budget and multiannual budget to parliament on Tuesday, and subsequently to the EU Commission the following day, the specific measures and the extent of cuts remain unclear.
Return to work
In recent discussions, De Wever has proposed four potential measures to address the looming deficits.
The first entails suspending the indexing of wages and social benefits. This automatic indexation tied to inflation serves to balance the cost of living and labor; thus, a pause could reduce expenses across both public and private sectors.
A second option would involve increasing VAT rates on certain goods and services to boost government revenues. The remaining proposals focus on health insurance, suggesting that patients might need to shoulder higher costs, or unemployed individuals on sick leave could be encouraged to re-enter the workforce.
National strike
The viability of reaching a detailed and ambitious agreement by Tuesday’s deadline is uncertain. Trade unions have organized a national demonstration for the same day, expressing discontent with proposed pension cuts for civil servants. Further budget cuts could exacerbate these tensions.
Compounding the social unrest are budgetary reductions implemented by regional governments, with all regions facing fiscal challenges, except for Brussels, which has yet to form a government following the June 2024 elections.
The Brussels authorities are expected to receive their credit rating from Standard & Poor’s next week, likely reflecting a more negative outlook than that of Moody’s for Belgium, due to the region’s more severe financial issues.
Moody’s has emphasized that addressing Belgium’s financial challenges requires coordinated efforts from both national and regional governments.
Mark Cuban and his Cost Plus Drugs are having a moment on Sora 2 after the billionaire investor gave users permission to deepfake him.
Disney/Christopher Willard
Mark Cuban is going viral on Sora after the billionaire investor gave permission to use his likeness.
Cuban has a baked-in plugin ad for his affordable drugs company in every video with his likeness.
“It’s been a blast,” Cuban told Business Insider of his Sora experience so far.
Mark Cuban and his affordable drug company are having a viral moment — and the billionaire entrepreneur said he is having a “blast.”
On Thursday, the former “Shark Tank” judge and billionaire investor gave open permission for those on Sora to “have at it” if they would like to make AI videos featuring his likeness.
Within a day, as one of the first major public figures to openly welcome being part of OpenAI’s product experiment, Cuban’s face is taking over Sora and X.
However, there’s a catch.
If you use Cuban’s likeness in an AI video, you are also making an ad for his company, Cost Plus Drugs.
“It’s been a blast,” Cuban told Business Insider of his Sora experience. “I was just curious what people would come up with, and I wanted to experiment with the plug for costplusdrugs.com. So far it’s worked out great.”
Sora 2 is an OpenAI social media platform, featuring AI-generated audio and video. At the moment, it’s invite-based and only available in the US and Canada. In it, you can give permission to your friends or to other users to use your Cameo, or your likeness, to make videos.
In one video, Cuban appeared in a bright yellow cardigan with an apple on it, sitting in what looks like a kindergarten classroom, to rapidly deliver lines like “Cost Plus Drugs is clear and fair, shows the number right then and there” to the rhythm of cheerful music. Others depict Cuban on a vacation in Madrid, making dance moves to the styles of different eras, and performing onstage as a pop star. The line “Brought to you by Cost Plus Drugs” always appears toward the end of these clips.
He has been actively reposting his own Sora deepfakes on X. Each of these videos is now racking up tens of thousands of views on X alone.
“Sora has done a great job keeping the creepy stuff out,” Cuban said. “Which makes it all the better.”
Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, and Bill Peebles, head of Sora, both took notice of Cuban’s advertising move and talked about it on Friday’s “TBPN” podcast.
Co-host Jordi Hays said that while Cuban used to be a vocal opponent of AI in advertising, he is now “leveraging the feature to the max.”
“I think there’s gonna be all these weird new dynamics that we see emerge that weren’t possible in previous kinds of video,” Altman told Hay’s after the comment on Cuban. “This is like a fun period, because it’s all going to be so different every few days.”
Cars lined the Taneytown Senior & Community Center parking lot Thursday morning for a vaccine drive-thru clinic for seniors, run by Finksburg Pharmacy and the Carroll County Bureau of Aging and Disabilities. The pop-up clinic was held over five days at Mount Airy, North Carroll, South Carroll, Taneytown and Westminster. This is the clinic’s 10th se…
Interior designer Claire Zinnecker shared common design mistakes she sees in home listings.
They include displaying personal photos and over-furnishing rooms.
The key to a good home staging? “Buyers need to be able to visualize themselves in the home,” she said.
Whether you paint, buy new furniture, or simply rearrange what you have, sprucing up your home before listing it can boost its appeal. But the way you stage it can leave either a good or a bad impression on would-be buyers.
Claire Zinnecker, an Austin-based interior designer with more than 16 years of experience in residential and commercial design and the co-host and designer on the NBCUniversal children’s series “Get Out of My Room,” has some design advice for home sellers.
The key to staging? “Buyers need to be able to visualize themselves in the home,” Zinnecker told Business Insider.
But sometimes, design can get in the way.
Here are five common mistakes homeowners make when staging their homes for sale, according to Zinnecker.
1. Displaying personal photos can be a turnoff.
Ondrooo/Getty Images/iStockphoto
When Zinnecker designs homes, she recommends keeping personal photos in hallways and bedrooms. The same rule applies when staging — it’s best to limit them to those areas, or better yet, put them away entirely in a closet.
“Having personal photos throughout the house can be a mistake,” she said. “If you’re staging a home, maybe lessen those entirely so people can really visualize themselves being in that home.”
2. Loud or eccentric wall paint can be off-putting to buyers.
Boris SV/Getty Images
When it comes to wall paint, play it safe, Zinnecker said.
“If possible, neutralizing paint colors is a smart move,” she said. “Unfortunately, people are very, very visual. Even though it’s just paint, and can be a simple fix, when people walk into a room, the paint can be a make-or-break factor.”
“I really just think bold colors anywhere — accent colors and walls — is not the way to go,” she added. “You don’t want people to feel super overwhelmed.”
3. An ‘overstuffed’ room isn’t a good look.
alvarez/Getty Images
Sometimes less is more — especially when it comes to furniture.
“A mistake people make is overfilling a house with furniture,” Zinnecker said. “You want to make the spaces feel large, and you also want people to feel inspired and creative, and visualize their own lives happening in the house. Editing and paring down is really smart.”
4. Ignoring the little details can cost you.
Workers cleaning a home.
South_agency/Getty Images
Zinnecker said not to overlook small fixes, like baseboard repairs, addressing scuffs and scratches, and touch-up paint.
“It would behoove sellers to spend a little on those items to make the home feel fresh and new, and less lived-in,” she said.
She also recommends hiring professional cleaners and investing in small updates, such as fresh pillows and kitchen decor.
“Anything to make the home feel almost like a boutique hotel,” she added. “It’s an easy way to make it feel more upscale than it might actually be.”
5. Harsh artificial light in listing photos can make a home look less inviting.
AndreyPopov/Getty Images
A home’s online presentation is as important as its in-person presentation, Zinnecker said.
“My husband’s a realtor, and he might disagree with me, but I love photos with natural light,” she said. “A lot of the time, real estate photos blast artificial light in the house, and that can feel not very inviting when you’re looking online.”
Starship, Robot.com, and Avride have emerged as the primary competitors for campus robot deliveries.
Starship
Food delivery robots were once a novelty on college campuses. Now, they’re more common than ever.
Starship leads the space, operating on 60 college campuses, along with Robot.com and Avride.
As robot providers aim to take the delivery vehicles nationwide, college campuses may serve as a model.
Peyton Perry heard a rumor that delivery robots would be coming to campus when she was a student at Fairfield University.
Soon after, she saw her first robot at a campus Starbucks. She ordered food delivered by the robots multiple times during her junior year before her initial excitement wore off. By her senior year, she said, the robots had become a regular part of campus life.
“Every single day, I’d see multiple robots,” she told Business Insider. She said Starbucks and cafeteria workers were “constantly loading up the robots.”
A few years ago, food delivery robots were infamous for being kicked and vandalizedby students on college campuses. Then the market matured, the robots got better, and the programs expanded to more colleges. Major university food providers, including Sodexo and Aramark, began partnering with the robot companies. By now, at least 78 American universities have delivery robots roaming their campuses, based on figures three leading robot providers shared with Business Insider.
Delivery robots have now extended far beyond colleges, as big companies like DoorDash enter the game. But universities offered an early testing ground for many of these companies, and could provide a model for nationwide expansion.
The college robotic delivery market is bigger — and more competitive — than ever before.
Starship leads the pack
If your kid is getting robot deliveries at school, there’s a good chance it’s from Starship.
Created by Skype cofounders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis in 2014, Starship is the biggest campus provider, providing robot fleets to 60 universities. The company said it has over 2,000 robots deployed on campuses, delivering to 1.5 million students. It’s raised $230 million, and was valued at $151 million in its Series C round in 2024, according to PitchBook.
Starship said it’s turned a profit on each delivery for over three years.
“We have optimized costs a lot,” Heinla said, adding that bettering the technology means less money spent on repairs and maintenance. “We are now at the point where the unit economics work.”
Starship’s UCLA fleet of delivery robots
Don Liebig/Don Liebig/ASUCLA
Starship has partnered with food delivery app Grubhub to grow. About half of the campuses Starship works with use its app, while the other half place ordersthrough Grubhub. Starship isn’t Grubhub’s only partner; the food service app also works with Starship’s biggest direct competitor, Robot.com, and the rapidly growing Avride.
Over 40 of Grubhub’s campus partnerships now include robots. Steve Iarocci, senior director for Grubhub Campus, said some robots are better for city streets, and others are better for pedestrian-only campuses. “But, in general, it’s pretty ubiquitous technology at this point,” he said.
There’s no singular business model here. Contracts are signed between the robot companies and the food providers, though Grubhub sometimes functions as an intermediary. Some campuses pay monthly costs that are incorporated into students’ dining plans; others charge students a per-order delivery fee.
Robot.com and Avride race behind
While Starship is leading by its campus footprint, Robot.com is racing behind it. The company — formerly Kiwibot, as its robots are named — was founded in 2017 at UC Berkeley, and is now active on 16 campuses.
Cofounder and CEO Felipe Chavez said that the college campus has been “our sandbox.” The company is also expanding into major cities and golf courses.
Robot.com raised an estimated $33 million, according to PitchBook, though the company declined to comment on that figure and said it’s in the middle of a fundraising round. It also said its unit economics are positive, with an average gross margin of 40%.
Robot.com’s Curry College fleet of Kiwibots.
Robot.com
Robot.com recently acquired an ad company and introduced robotic advertisements. Advertising makes up 35% to 40% of its revenue, Chavez said.
Behind Robot.com is Avride, a US-based startup spun out of the Russian company Yandex, which faced international sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine. The publicly traded Nebius Group, Avride’s Dutch parent company, sold off Yandex’s Russia-based assets in 2024 while keeping some of its AI-focused businesses.
The company mainly operates on two college campuses, Ohio State University and the University of Arizona, where it has deployed 165 robots.
Chris Krnich, Avride’s business development manager, said that food providers saw the value in the robots when they began bringing in thousands of dollars a day.
Starship, Robot.com, and Avride have minor differences in tech. Starship said its robots are the most adaptive to different environments; Avride also makes robotaxis, and said that it shrunk the self-driving technology into their delivery bots. Much is the same, though. They all offer four-wheelers with cute eyes.
The challenges ahead
For Robot.com‘s Chavez, the industry’s real scaling point was when the “big three” university food providers — Sodexo, Aramark, and Compass — got on board with delivery bots.
Drew Nannis, Sodexo’s SVP and CMO of its campus segment, has watched robotic delivery grow since joining the company in 2019. He initially worried that robot deliveries would give students an excuse to hide in their rooms and not attend in-person dining. That hasn’t panned out, though.
“When the students are using them, they’re not replacing anything,” Nannis said. “They’re just supplementing and complementing.”
Avride’s fleet of delivery robots at Ohio State University.
Avride
There are still bumps in the road. When Starship launched at Miami University in 2023, graduate Meredith Perkins noticed that the robots struggled to cross the street. The issue never fully went away, she said.
“So many students I know joke about the fact that these robots are very slow,” Perkins said.
Fairfield’s Perry once ordered coffee with her friend from the Starbucks across campus. They watched the robot stop moving on the tracking map and went out to find it. The robot was stuck on the curb.
“We found the robot, helped it up, but it was programmed, of course, so we had to follow it back to my friend’s apartment,” she said. “As we opened it, the coffee spilled all over it.”
Then there’s the question of payment. The average Starship delivery fee is $2.49 — less than a human courier’s, but still a tough sum for some college students to stomach. Perkins said that Miami University’s $2 delivery fee kept most students from using the robots.
Sodexo’s Nannis said that, when an additional charge was added per robotic delivery, usage fell drastically.
“The subscription model is the one that works,” Nannis said. “Making them part of the meal plans that we’re selling, I think that’s the most important piece of how we’re making this work financially.”
Who’s actually using the robots?
While delivery robots are expanding to more and more campuses, they’re still niche.
At UNC Charlotte, the robots opened up a whole new 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. dining period, said Ben Kolnos, Chartwells Higher Education’s senior retail director. Kolnos estimated that late-night orders made up 15 to 20% of UNC Charlotte’s 40,000 deliveries a semester. That’s not a high volume for a campus with 24,868 undergraduate students.
Students mainly use them when they’re sick, hungover, or holed up in the library studying. They’re not coming close to replacing the dining hall experience.
But with 200 deliveries a day at UNC Charlotte, the college campus may serve as a model for other companies looking to expand nationwide.
“People used to think of this technology five years ago as futuristic, or that companies were piloting something,” Starship’s Heinla said. “We’re not testing anything anymore. We’re not piloting anything anymore. We know that it works.”
