Working Girl's Guide #16: Billion dollar startups and surprise engagement parties

Billion dollar startups, chorizo Frappuccinos, and the collapse of a super old rock. I’m also trying on all my friends’ rocks, owning up to living in workout clothes around the clock, and giving some unsolicited interview advice.

Let’s get into it.

Founders and Companies to Watch

Forbes just released their list of next billion dollar startups, which (no surprise) is very heavy on AI. It includes Coactive AI, which analyzes, categorizes, and organizes promo images for marketers; Codeium, which autocompletes code snippets, and is very adorably created by former middle school Math Olympiad besties (don’t worry, they’re adults now); and a bunch of others. Always very humbling to read about all these very impressive and very young founders who are figuring out how to take over our jobs with robots!

Frappuccinos are Slowing

TBH, they were never my thing, but apparently everyone feels that way, because sales are down and Starbucks is sweating. Their solution? Brian Nicol, Chipotle’s CEO for the past 6ish years. If Starbucks releases a Chorizo Frap any time soon, you’ll know why.

Double Arch Collapse

A 190 million-year-old double arch at Utah’s Lake Powell collapsed last week, likely due to changing water levels and erosion as a result of climate change. Nothing to put that tough meeting in perspective like thinking about the fact that this arch thingy has been sitting there since before dinosaurs walked the earth and is now just… gone. Great, now I’m in an existential spiral and need a nap.

Sent it to Chicago for my bestie’s surprise engagement, which ofc included trying on her ring (even though she herself had only been wearing it for, like, 1 hour?) because I unfortunately have developed a crippling illness in which I must try on ever single engagement ring I see (no one is safe). Shoutout to my new Keratin treatment, which withstood that sweet sweet Chicago heat. No small task!

I’m not gonna lie, I feel like an absolute baddy in this fit. And good thing, because for all the time and money I spend on actual clothes, I spend 99% of my life in spandex. Gotta make it comfy/cute, down to the socks (I may be on the cusp of being a millennial, but I’m a diehard for ankle socks). If I was a different kind of person altogether, I’d have this set in Cold Foam White and Soft Almond Beige (who is naming these colors? Immediate raise). But tbh I will be sticking to all black.

August = fall fit prep, and I’m big on finding deals/shopping secondhand, but honestly the time it takes to find what I’m looking for is sometimes just... not it. I admit that I’ve been known to buy new what I definitely could have found secondhand because it can be so hard to find what I’m looking for. I was trying to find a brown suede belt on Poshmark the other day and a “Life is More Fun at the Beach” sign popped up?? Algorithm, you good?? But good news, because ThredUp (not sponsored!) just came out with a search by image too, which is huge and IMHO actually works! I’m not saying I’ll never shop new again, but now when I want something, I’ll be screenshotting the listing / searching for it on ThredUp / buying a dupe for way less.

This week on the pod, we’re talking job searches, which are notoriously hard right now. We’re getting into best practices, hot tips, and stories of our own early failures, including a particularly spooky story of Ross being given a phone in the middle of a sales interview to role play a surprise cold call. Terrifying. Stay tuned for our thoughts on Keratin treatments, non-romantic adult sleepovers, and practice pitching in empty parking structures. Listen here.

Thanks for reading!