In 1944, the US dollar became the world’s reserve currency, and steadily it became the default currency for international trade. This is why globalization and international trade helped the US economy flourish for over eight decades. However, the presently unfolding tariff tensions may end up disrupting business models across the US, especially those directly dependent …
Private companies and early-stage startups require funding, for which they need to raise capital with the help of shareholders and investors. Congress created a tax law in the United States that provides several tax incentives to people who invest in these early-stage businesses. The U.S. government passed The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act, …
Juho Hyytiäinen is the CEO and co-founder of Way, a company dedicated to transforming commercial fleet management with advanced digital infrastructure and data-driven solutions. In an exclusive interview with Eqvista, Juho shares the inspiration behind founding Way and outlines his vision for a more connected, efficient, and sustainable transport ecosystem. Drawing upon a decade of …
An emerging startup can sustain momentum only if the new hires are as driven as the existing team. Disparities in motivation can cause internal friction, disengagement, and a decline in morale. Such a work environment can considerably hinder a startup’s growth trajectory. One proven way to bridge this gap is to offer stock options in …
A lack of liquidity can kill businesses sooner than insolvency. While a business can continue operating for a while after becoming insolvent, a lack of liquidity will certainly bring operations to a screeching halt. This statement is particularly true for businesses such as banks that operate with significant leverage. Hence, in this article, we will …
In this exclusive interview for Eqvista, Nicolaus Radford, co-founder and CEO of Persona AI, shares his perspective on shaping the future of humanoid robotics in industry. With an extensive background in robotics and notable leadership at NASA and Nauticus Robotics, Nicolaus focuses on bringing advanced humanoid robots out of the lab and into real-world industrial …
Facebook has been the largest of the long-standing websites that we all know as “social networking” sites. Facebook has about 3.07 billion monthly active users on it with 10.5 billion monthly organic traffic, and has worked to increase its dominance of social media with smart acquisitions of the photo sharing platform Instagram in 2012 and …
Here’s a scenario: your star employee, who joined your startup when it was at its nascent stage, receives a life-altering tax bill exceeding $100,000. Why? Because they simply exercised their stock options after your valuation skyrocketed. This isn’t fiction – it’s the direct consequence of delaying your stock option plan. Founders who obsess over product …
Inaccurate NAVs can erode investor trust and trigger severe regulatory consequences. Consider the case of Calvert Investment Management (Calvert). The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that, between 2008 and 2011, Calvert had incorrectly valued certain securities. As a result, performance was misreported, shareholder transactions were executed at incorrect NAVs, and Calvert collected inflated asset-based …
David Merry started his entrepreneurial journey at 16, teaching himself to code and launching small websites that earned just enough to keep him experimenting. By 18, he’d built and sold his first company to Catena Media for enough to change his life. But instead of chasing Silicon Valley’s next unicorn, he did something different: he …
On 4th July 2025, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) into law. The OBBB has introduced significant tax benefits for investors, including QSBS reforms and an increase in the gift and estate tax exemption limit. The OBBB also provides numerous benefits to businesses, such as enhanced R&D deductions, introduction of …
With the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expiring by the end of 2025, the gift and estate tax exemption limit could drop from $13.99 million to just $7 million. High net worth individuals need to accelerate their estate planning efforts by leveraging trusts to minimize tax liabilities. People often underestimate the impact …
A disruptive notion is the starting point for a startup. Not every business idea, however, becomes a reality. Some fail, while others are abandoned throughout the course. However, in order to assure that a startup concept can turn into a profitable business, an entrepreneur needs to validate it. Frequently, this validation involves monetary input from …
In this edition of Founder Spotlight, we’re featuring Adir Ben Yehuda, the Founder and CEO of AutonomyAI, an AI startup based in New York. Under his leadership, AutonomyAI developed the Agentic Context Engine (ACE), enabling AI agents to generate production-ready code with 95% acceptance rates, significantly accelerating development cycles. The company emerged from stealth mode …
Trust-based estate planning remains one of the most effective tools for protecting wealth, minimizing tax liability, and transferring assets to future generations. Its success often hinges on a critical factor: accurate asset valuation. Although recent legislation has made the current federal estate and gift tax exemption of $15 million per person permanent, many families are …
Recently, OpenAI became the world’s second-most valuable startup after a $40 billion funding round, reaching a valuation of $300 billion. In 2025, we are no strangers to such headlines regarding AI startups. For instance, Safe Superintelligence reached a valuation of $32 billion without even having a product. With such strong hype surrounding the sector, keeping …
The process of raising enough capital is the backbone of every startup. But company founders will agree that it is easier said than done. With a limited operating period, few assets and no reputation to rely on, convincing investors, ie. venture capital firms, to fund your startup is always a challenge. Over the years, various …
Venture capital has always been a risky asset class. The general consensus is that 90% of startups fail, and more than 66.67% of startups do not provide positive returns to investors. These risks pushed venture capitalists to develop a valuation method that secures desirable exits. The importance of the venture capital (VC) valuation method has …
Throughout a startup’s lifecycle, its business model, cash flows, and nature of operations keep evolving. Initially, many startups focus primarily on research and development. As they grow and reach key milestones, they begin generating regular revenue, attracting investor interest, and expanding operations to include product development, customer acquisition, and marketing. By the latter stage of …
Welcome to another edition of Founder Spotlight with Boris Paskalev, the co-founder and CEO of LogicStar AI, a Swiss deep-tech startup focused on building agentic AI for autonomous application maintenance. Agentic AI is rapidly scaling, with expectations of transformative impact across business operations, decision-making, and automation in the coming decade. In the United States, the …
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