Tabla de contenidos para December/January 2023 en Fortune

“With the amount that I put into Call Her Daddy there was no doubt about it that I was going to fight quite literally till the end for that IP.”—ALEXANDRA COOPER, HOST, CALL HER DADDY IT’S FRIDAY NIGHT in New York City’s Meatpacking District, and Spotify’s most popular female podcaster is cold and looking for a place to drink. Alexandra Cooper started her podcast, Call Her Daddy, not far from here. She and then-cohost Sofia Franklyn taped the show from their Lower East Side apartment, chronicling their sexcapades through the city. “Sofia and I walk to the subway every day because we’re peasants and we don’t have fucking sugar daddies,” Cooper said in an early episode. Now a limo driver is trailing her around the city, proof of just…

IN JULY, THE GIANT cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX looked like a pillar of stability. The company and its slacker-chic founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, projected calm and confidence during so-called Crypto Winter, even swooping in to rescue weaker rivals. That facade crumbled in just a few days in November. First, the value of FTX’s in-house token cratered; then FTX was in talks to be acquired by a rival; then it declared bankruptcy as the rival walked away. It was a stunning turn of events for a company that had been valued at over $30 billion, one regarded as a best-in-breed firm that could bring crypto into the mainstream of American finance. The worst was still to come. FTX appears to have engaged in a massive fraud, lying to investors and looting…

Content Managers Help top creators distribute posts across social media ▶ Spotter ▶ Jellysmack Influencer Brand Partnerships Use tech to choose the creators and brands that would work best together ▶ Influential ▶ Obviously ▶ Village Marketing (WPP) Video Editing Tools used by creators to tweak raw videos ▶ Videoleap (Lightricks) ▶ InShot ▶ Frame.io Photo Editing Tools used by creators to touch up photos ▶ Lightroom (Adobe) ▶ Facetune (Lightricks) ▶ Picsart Design Tools Services used to collaborate on design work such as graphics and product prototyping ▶ Canva ▶ Figma (being acquired by Adobe)…

DURING THE FIRST WEEK of November, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, two of the most recognizable names in venture capital, put on a show for their firm’s backers—an audience of gold-plated endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and pension plans. The three-day affair was held virtually on Hopin, an online platform funded by the VC firm, and paired with in-person dinners for more than 100 guests in New York City and at the posh San Francisco sushi restaurant Pabu Izakaya. Amid a battery of distractions competing for the audience’s attention—from jarring economic data, to the war in Ukraine and midterm elections—Andreessen Horowitz’s coterie of fund managers stayed on message, framing the market turbulence and tumbling tech valuations as an opportunity. More than ever before in the firm’s history, Andreessen Horowitz’s partners…

THE PAST 12 MONTHS featured some relatively grim milestones—including the highest inflation in four decades and the first truly durable bear market since the Great Recession. That concatenation of bad news poses two challenges for investing pros: They need to figure out where to find positive returns, and they need to talk their clients out from under their proverbial beds. Neither of those prospects daunted our experts. Indeed, they were united in the view that a rough 2022 could pave the way for a better 2023—for stocks, society, and our psyches. Joining us for this year’s panel were Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management; Georgia Lee Hussey, founder and CEO of Modernist Financial; and Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy as well as global ESG…

To quote a colleague: Oof. We believed our “Stocks for Smoother Sailing” for 2022 would withstand inflation. But prices and interest rates rose far faster than we expected, and our picks lost a median of 41% over the past 12 months. Here’s how it went down. BIG TECH, TAMED Tech giants are hardly teetering on the verge of extinction. But the growth they saw in the COVID work-and-shop-from-home lockdown era wasn’t sustainable—nor, it turns out, were the share valuations that our picks Microsoft, Amazon, and Salesforce were commanding a year ago. They racked up losses of 29%, 49%, and 51%, respectively. CHIP SHOT Few companies dominate their industry like chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., and in the five years through January 2022, its stock nearly quintupled. This year, the…

● IF YOU HAVE TOUCHED your phone or computer today, you very likely have been touched by a vast business few outside the technology world are aware of. Maybe you’ve checked the Wall Street Journal or MarketWatch, traded a stock on Robinhood, bet on a football game through DraftKings, or posted on Pinterest or Yelp; ordered treats for Fido on Chewy or treats for yourself on DoorDash; submitted an expense report on Workday or made plans for the evening via Tinder, OkCupid, or Hinge. If so, you did it with the help of Amazon Web Services. The less glamorous sibling to Amazon’s operations in ecommerce, streaming video, and smart devices, AWS is no less ubiquitous, deploying millions of computers worldwide, humming away somewhere in the cloud. For all those…

● WHEN LAXMAN NARASIMHAN was hired to be the next Starbucks CEO in September, he joined a club that includes the chief executives of some of America’s biggest and best-known companies—Brian Cornell of Target, Chris Kempczinski of McDonald’s, Ed Bastian of Delta Air Lines, Al Kelly Jr. of Visa, Ron Coughlin of Petco, Lauren Hobart of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Vivek Sankaran of Albertsons, Dave Kimbell of Ulta Beauty, Mary Dillon of Foot Locker, and Ann Mukherjee of Pernod Ricard North America. What do these leaders have in common? They all spent significant time rising through the ranks of the same company. But they aren’t alums of the expected “academy companies” known for turning out leadership talent, such as Procter & Gamble, nor a buzzy tech pioneer famous for its…

BARRY MILES BELGOROD, MD, FACS Ophthalmologist Private Practice New York, NY Recognized for more than four decades of contributions to the field of ophthalmology, Dr. Barry Miles Belgorod has earned distinction for his work in private practice. In this capacity, he has demonstrated dedication to personalized service on behalf of every patient in his care. Likewise, well-regarded for his work in research, he has been issued several U.S. and international patents for non-opioid-based analgesics. Among his accomplishments, Dr. Belgorod is most proud to have been named a Jonas Salk Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine from 1973 until 1977. ALEXLEVETO Chief Operating Officer Realty Companies Alpharetta, GA Specializing in real estate, Alex Leveto serves as the chief operating officer of Realty Companies, a family-owned enterprise…

FOR BUSINESS, 2022 has been a dizzying year, and the fourth quarter has only upped the ante on the insanity. In November alone, we watched Elon Musk take over Twitter and decimate the company and its workforce, one tweet at a time. A $32 billion crypto exchange, FTX, was exposed as a de facto Ponzi scheme and collapsed in 48 hours. And bloated Big Tech companies announced plans to lay off more than 50,000 employees, in total, in a quest to become more efficient. With all this chaos swirling, perhaps the only certain thing is that 2023 will be even more uncertain. With inflation still punishingly strong, and a U.S. recession looking increasingly likely, the biggest challenge business leaders face is how to steer a course between those two…

KATHERINE BOYLE FOCUS: AMERICAN DYNAMISM JOINED: 2021 Katherine Boyle co-leads the firm’s pro-America investment thesis, along with David Ulevitch. MARTIN CASADO FOCUS: ENTERPRISE JOINED: 2016 A Stanford computer science Ph.D., Casado cofounded the startup Nicira, acquired by VMware for $1.26 billion. CONNIE CHAN FOCUS: CONSUMER JOINED: 2011 The first person a16z promoted to general partner from within, Chan has emerged as an expert on China consumer tech. CHRIS DIXON FOCUS: CRYPTO JOINED: 2012 An early Bitcoin believer, Dixon led the firm’s 2013 investment in Coinbase, which turned out to be its most pivotal. DAVID GEORGE FOCUS: GROWTH, PUBLIC MARKETS JOINED: 2019 George is driving a16z’s push into public equities, opening the door to new investment opportunities. JEFF JORDAN FOCUS: CONSUMER JOINED: 2011 The former OpenTable CEO became a VC…

GET EXCITED ABOUT LARGE-CAP STOCKS ON SALE In November, the S&P 500 traded at 15 to 16 times estimated forward earnings, below its 25-year average. Some pros see that as a sign of better returns in the near future. TAX BREAKS IN A BEAR MARKET Investors who have to sell assets in a down market can use the losses to reduce their taxable income. That fact also makes this a good time for a Roth IRA conversion. GREEN KEEPS GOING In a hot market for energy stocks, investors are rewarding companies that are committing to renewable fuels, an encouraging sign of momentum in the climate fight. WORRY ABOUT CORPORATE PROFITS UNDER THREAT Companies have been able to pass rising costs along to customers, but those days may end soon;…

IF THE INVESTMENT THEME for 2021 was the post-COVID rebound, and the theme for 2022 was bracing for inflation, think of 2023 as the year investors should buckle up for a downturn. “Certainly the odds have increased that we’re heading into a recession,” says Ramiz Chelat, a portfolio manager for Vontobel’s Quality Growth Boutique. In fact, a whopping 98% of CEOs polled in a recent survey by the Conference Board said they were preparing for a recession in the U.S. in the next year. The engine driving those recession fears, ultimately, is inflation—which in turn has launched the Federal Reserve on a campaign of interest rate hikes that has threatened corporate profits and helped drive the stock markets into bear territory over the past year. There are glimmers of…

FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN Jerome “Jay” Powell stood at a podium at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., sending a stern message to the global investment community: The central bank was going to tighten the money supply, even if it hurt. The Fed had been maintaining rock-bottom interest rates and pumping trillions of dollars into the banking system through an extraordinary program called “quantitative easing.” But now it was time to withdraw that stimulus, to keep the economy growing and inflation low. The process, Powell proclaimed, was on “automatic pilot”: It would not be slowed or hindered, even if stock prices plunged or the bond market panicked. The Fed was created to do hard things like this, insulated from political pressure, and Powell was determined to do them. Taking a…

WHAT MIGHT BE the next industry to get Amazon’s AWS-style mega-venture treatment? The leading candidate is health care. In 2018 Amazon bought PillPack, an online pharmacy, and last summer it paid $3.9 billion for One Medical, a membership-based primary-care provider operating across the U.S., saying in its announcement that “we think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention.” No one would disagree. For a company that seeks big problems to solve, this may be the biggest opportunity of all. Health care is the largest sector of the U.S. economy, and the industry is growing fast worldwide. Data is the problem at the heart of health care’s inefficiency and unfathomable, wearisome customer experiences—and it’s possible that it could be the solution. That data is staggering…

Chris Kempczinski • MCDONALD’S Vivek Sankaran • ALBERTSONS Michele Buck • HERSHEY Brian Cornell • TARGET David Kimbell • ULTA BEAUTY Tom Greco • ADVANCE AUTO PARTS Al Kelly Jr. • VISA Lauren Hobart • DICK’S SPORTING GOODS Laxman Narasimhan • STARBUCKS Darren Rebelez • CASEY’S GENERAL STORES Ed Bastian • DELTA AIR LINES Mary Dillon • FOOT LOCKER Tony Sarsam • SPARTANNASH Hock Tan • BROADCOM Beth Ford • LAND O’LAKES David Gibbs • YUM BRANDS…

COVID'S devastation shows up starkly in life expectancy data: The pandemic's peak marked the first time since World War II that LE (as demographers call it) declined across the globe. The graphic above is based on a data set that focuses mostly on Europe, but similar trends emerged worldwide. In the U.S., LE fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020—the biggest peacetime decline on record. LE has fallen particularly sharply among Americans ages 40 to 59, a trend that reflects the opioid and homicide crises as well as COVID. This human tragedy is compounded by an ominous economic dimension. Shorter life spans may presage slower growth in industries such as health care and financial services that cater to older people. Falling LE can also result…

In Pennsylvania’s pivotal midterm elections, Outback Steakhouse’s attempt to back a pro-business candidate went over like a week-old Bloomin’ Onion. Mehmet Oz, a talk-show doctor endorsed by Donald Trump, was hoping to win the Keystone State’s hotly contested U.S. Senate seat—and had promised that he would “not take one dime of corporate PAC money.” But some companies’ political action committees donated anyway, wooed by Oz’s opposition to environmental regulations and tax hikes—stances that won him the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement as a “probusiness champion.” In July, the PAC of Outback’s publicly traded owner, Tampa-based Bloomin’ Brands, donated $2,500 to Oz. To be sure, that’s a pittance for the restaurant operator, which is on track for more than $4 billion in 2022 revenue. But the donation paid off primarily…

WHILE WORKING at the mall to save up for graduate school, Xenia Adonts saw her fashion photos going viral on Instagram. Eventually, brands noticed and started offering her up to $400 to post photos on social media that trumpeted their clothes. Realizing she could earn more in a day as an influencer than in a week as a store greeter, she eventually quit her retail job. Today, with 2.1 million Instagram followers, the 31-year-old continues to hawk products on social media for luxury brands like Fendi and Elemis. She also started her own sustainable fashion company, Attire, which has 14 employees. “Influencers work much more than people on the outside think,” says Adonts in her New York studio, a day after meeting remotely with the brand’s team in Paris…

3 VALUABLE INVESTMENTS DATABRICKS FIRST A16Z ROUND: 2013 CURRENT VALUE: $31 billion Since Ben Horowitz led a $25 million Series A round in the cloud database company, a16z has led four further rounds. FIVETRAN FIRST A16Z ROUND: 2019 CURRENT VALUE: $5.6 billion A16z has been the lead investor in two funding rounds in data-integration startup Fivetran, totaling $600 million. DEEL FIRST A16Z ROUND: 2020 CURRENT VALUE: $12 billion The pandemic had just begun when a16z invested $14 million in Deel, a remote hiring startup whose valuation has since soared. 3 BIG RETURNS COINBASE FIRST INVESTMENT: $125 million valuation; 2013 EXIT VALUE: $100 billion In a VC grand slam, a16z returned $4 billion to its investors. GITHUB FIRST INVESTMENT: $750 million valuation; 2012 EXIT VALUE: $7.5 billion A16z funded GitHub’s…

STARTUPS SEEKING to go public faced a tough time in 2022, as a sobering economic reality extinguished the overblown valuations and rapid dealmaking that defined Silicon Valley in recent years. As of mid-November, there had been only 64 IPOs with a market cap over $50 million, raising a total of $7.6 billion; through the same period in 2021, there were 397 IPOs of that size, raising $142.2 billion, according to Renaissance Capital. Analysts say macro economic conditions are far from where they need to be to see IPO activity pick up significantly. Still, there’s pent-up demand—and eventually there will be huge opportunities for investors when the more than 1,200 unicorns worldwide begin to enter the public market. And a few hit IPOs could revive investor interest. “After a few…

5 POWERFUL STRATEGIES FOR NAVIGATING A BUSINESS DOWNTURN Frank Bisignano has been a CEO for almost 10 years and a top-ranking financial executive for three decades. He survived the dotcom crash at Citigroup. He helped steer JPMorgan Chase through the tumult of the Great Recession—managing the megabank’s acquisition of the dumpster fire that was Washington Mutual, no less. And he led his own company, fintech and payments platform Fiserv (2021 revenues: $16.2 billion), through the insanity of the COVID pandemic. Still, he sees today’s business climate, where recession is now viewed as a virtual certainty, as perhaps the most difficult he’s ever confronted. “We have lots of experience with economic challenges, and they come in all shapes and sizes,” Bisignano told Fortune recently. “But this is inflation like no…

Kyushu Prairie Stuart-Wolff spoke next to no Japanese when she moved to Japan with her wife, ceramist Hanako Nakazato. Had she relocated to Tokyo or Osaka, the American writer and photographer would have probably gotten by just fine with English alone, but her aging in-laws lived in rural Mirukashi on the island of Kyushu. While Nakazato worked and oversaw construction of their new home and studio, Stuart-Wolff hung around the kitchen with her mother-in-law, Kuniko. “I was just watching at first, then helping with dishes, and slowly trying my hand at prep tasks,” she recalls. Kuniko’s kitchen is “how and where I started to feel at home in Japan.” She took notes, which evolved into a book of recipes—which in turn flourished into Mirukashi Salon, the immersive culinary workshop…