• Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reportedly married her fiancé, hotel heir Billy Evans.
• Their wedding fueled speculation about what will happen to the couple's finances.
• We asked experts how wealthy people can protect their finances after they get married.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the biotech startup Theranos, married her fiancé Billy Evans in secret, according to a report earlier this week.

Holmes was once worth billions of dollars before reports revealed she had defrauded investors and based her company's blood-testing technology on faulty science. She now faces federal trial for several counts of wire fraud.

Following the news of her marriage, speculation has emerged over Holmes' motives, from contriving a pregnancy to garner sympathy in court to possibly using her husband's hotel fortune to pay off legal debts.

Of course, Holmes and Evans are far from the first couple whose financial arrangements are called into question following their marriage.

We asked experts the different ways wealthy people can protect their finances and assets after they get married.

Here's what they had to say.

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Separate your forms of income

For high-net-worth couples, an important first step to take when protecting individual assets in a marriage is to separate the different streams of cash flow they might have, New York divorce lawyer Jacqueline Newman said.

"It's a question of defining what income is," Newman told Business Insider. "Especially when you have someone who owns their own business, that really can get very, very tricky. A lot of times when you have family money … you may be in a situation where you really want to protect the money that comes in from the family. Trust income, any kind of inheritance, gifts … you just want to make sure that money that is from someone's family is able to come out."

For Evans, as an heir to the California chain Evans Hotels, separating his inheritance from any other forms of income could be a good way to insure that his family's money isn't on the line when legal dues come knocking.

Start estate planning

Another crucial step to take when coming into a high-net-worth marriage is to start estate planning, president and CEO of Francis Financial, Stacy Francis, told Business Insider in an email.

"High-net-worth couples should meet with a financial planner and make an estate plan immediately to organize their assets and designate where they should go in the case of death" Francis told Business Insider.

Bringing in an estate manager can also be an effective way to wash your hands of financial dealings and protect separate money in the case of a divorce, says Newman. If money is separated and never used during the marriage by the moneyed partner, it won't be considered joint income.

Sign a prenup

An obvious choice when entering a marriage — whether it be financially high-risk or not — is to sign a prenuptial agreement, or prenup. This is a legal agreement where both partners agree ahead of time to what division of assets they would accept in the case of a divorce.

While prenups are typically drawn up to protect the moneyed spouse, there are instances where the other spouse benefits as well.

"When drafting a prenup, each party should hire independent attorneys to draft and review the document before it is signed to make each party's best interests are represented," Francis told Business Insider. "Though prenups are typically designed to protect the moneyed spouse, stay-at-home parents can also greatly benefit from prenuptial agreements."

Prepare for spousal support in the case of divorce

Another topic to consider when entering into a high-net-worth marriage, Francis and Newman told Business Insider, is the potential for spousal support in the case of an eventual divorce. Unless otherwise specified within a prenuptial agreement, the moneyed spouse may be required to make payments to their ex-spouse after divorce.

"If one partner is sacrificing their career, peak earning years, and all associated benefits such as healthcare and retirement plans to raise children and run the household, they need to ensure that they will receive spousal support for an extended period of time in the case of a divorce," Francis told Business Insider.

In the case of a severe wealth disparity between the two partners, the moneyed partner may also be required to provide spousal support to maintain a certain standard of living for their ex — for example, if the ex had relied solely on the other's income and would have no means to provide for themselves directly after divorce.

"Without a prenuptial agreement, (a partner) may live a certain lifestyle, and there may be spousal support that the non-moneyed spouse may receive," Newman said. "But that person probably wouldn't receive much in the way of assets because the assets would in fact all be separate property."

Decide the fate of your debt

Another thing for engaged couples to consider is how debt will be dealt with during, and potentially at the end of, a marriage.

"If debt was acquired during the marriage in a joint account, you must acknowledge who pays for the debt within the divorce settlement," Francis said. "However, the lender goes by the contract, and if the assigned spouse does not pay and your name is still on the loan, your credit could be impacted."

Ideally, Francis said, the couple would close all joint accounts and refinance remaining loans separately.

And control the narrative in the public eye

In the case of high-net-worth marriages — especially when either person is in the public eye — outside factors can have an impact on the financial dealings of the marriage. In the case of a divorce, moneyed partners can face pressure from scandal that affects support for their public persona or company.

"Controlling the story is going to be a very important thing," Newman told Business Insider. "Otherwise you could be in a situation that affects the stock prices."

"And unfortunately there's an element of leverage that exists for, let's say, the non-celebrity spouse that says, 'Listen, if you don't do this, I'm going to leak XYZ.'"

An example Newman gives of a high-net-worth marriage ending "well" is the recent  divorce between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos.

"(Amazon) didn't take a big hit," Newman said. "There was a lot of things at risk there and they really, I think, orchestrated the announcement to press and their whole divorce in a very positive way."

• Facebook announced plans for its own cryptocurrency, Libra, on Tuesday.
• The announcement came complete with a logo featuring the currency's new symbol: three wavy lines stacked on top of each other.
• According to logo designer Debbie Millman, it's "completely generic."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

All eyes are on Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra— though when it comes to its logo, some are squinting.

The emblem (released Tuesday in tandem with the big announcement) consists of three tildes (~) placed on top of each other. We asked designer Debbie Millman, author of "Brand Thinking" and host of the "Design Matters" podcast, to give us her professional take on it. Millman, who has helped redesign logos for brands like Starbucks, Hershey's, and Dunkin' Donuts, was less than impressed with the results.

"While it is a solid, respectable mark that'll probably look okay in a financial scenario of any sort, I would have liked it to have been something that embedded a little more creativity and spirit," she told Business Insider by telephone.

"It looks like something between a hamburger menu and an almost equal sign," Millman said, referring to the striped button that typically leads to a drop-down menu on websites. The logo's resemblance to an approximately equal sign (≈) is disquieting for Millman, who expects a sense of precision when it comes to currency exchange.

The main issue is the logo's ambiguity. Millman likened the three wavy lines to "a stack of paper that's been left out in the rain."

Facebook unveiled the project after working on it for more than a year. Its goal is to give people without bank accounts access to money. Payment giants like Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal have backed the venture, which is set to launch in 2020. And while Millman likes the idea behind the project, she said much is left to be desired on the visual side.

"I'm scratching my head and thinking, 'Here's an opportunity, you're supposedly creating a new kind of currency — shouldn't you be creating a new kind of symbol that created intrigue and captured the imagination of the culture?'" she said. "It didn't do that."

Libra is supported by Facebook subsidiary Calibra, its digital wallet. Starting in 2020, users will send and receive Libra currency through the Calibra app. The Calibra logo, a single tilde with a circle around it, is already under fire for looking suspiciously like Current's (another fintech firm). Current's CEO, Stuart Sopp, told CNBC, "This is a funny way to try and create trust in a new global financial system – by ripping off another fintech firm."

According to Millman, currency symbols need to be unique. She compared Libra's symbol to the US dollar sign ($), which is said to have been composed of a "U" and an "S" superimposed on one another, until the "U" disintegrated into two parallel lines. It was this kind of Easter egg that Millman was hoping for, but didn't get. Easter eggs abound in logos. The FedEx logo is hiding a white arrow to denote speed. The Amazon logo is hiding a meaning in its own arrow — literally pointing to the fact that you can buy anything from A to Z.

But Millman couldn't find any further layers of meaning in the Libra logo. She also noted that the letters in the brand name are made of a simple, clean, lowercase font, which happens to be in vogue these days. "It's completely generic. It's the kind of thing you could see on a soft drink and think, 'Oh, could it mean that it's got bubbles in it?'"

Still, Millman isn't a complete critic. She likes that it's easily replicable and can be drawn quickly. "It doesn't require a lot of explanation in terms of making it. It's not like the NASA logo, which is gonna require really remembering the various elements in the mark," she said. "This is an easy thing to remember."

So, at least it's got that going for it.

This post has been updated to include the comment from Current CEO Stuart Sopp.

SEE ALSO: Libra is Facebook’s plan to bring cryptocurrency to the masses — but I don’t trust Facebook enough to use it

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• The world's top fashion labels have recently set ambitious sustainability goals.
• French president Emmanuel Macron appointed the CEO of Kering as the head of a coalition of fashion companies for this purpose. LVHM is collaborating with UNESCO, and Ralph Lauren is working toward 100% sustainably sourced materials.
• This article is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

High fashion is transforming in response to climate change.

Over the past couple months, luxury powerhouses LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy, Fendi), Kering (Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen), and the Ralph Lauren Corporation — all multibillion-dollar conglomerates — announced significant sustainability initiatives. French president Emmanuel Macron has even gotten involved. And if they achieve the goals they've set, they're in a position to actually make an impact.

The reason all of this is notable is because while the energy sector is by far the biggest industrial contributor to global climate change, the apparel industry can't be ignored. There is still major potential to transform the apparel supply chain, from raw materials to discarded clothing.

A 2018 study from the consulting firm Quantis found that the apparel and footwear industries accounted for an estimated 8.1% of the global greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. Another study from the consultancy Interbrand found that luxury fashion was the fastest-growing retail sector of 2018.

LVMH announced in May that it was joining the Man and Biosphere program, part of the United Nations' specialized agency UNESCO, which will work with various industry leaders and national governments to develop sourcing methods that protect biodiversity. Since 2012, LVMH has been working toward full traceability of all materials in its supply chain and a 25% reduction in energy consumption by 2020, and to continually reduce water and energy consumption and waste production. The UNESCO partnership will allow the conglomerate to share best practices and data with other participants in the program.

Days after that announcement, President Macron appointed Kering CEO Francois Henri-Pinault to create and lead a coalition of fashion-label CEOs to develop and work toward sustainability goals ahead of the G7 international summit in August. Pinault has already recruited the head of PVH, which includes labels like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Separately, Macron announced that he would work toward banning the destruction and incineration of unsold luxury goods.

Ahead of the announcement, Pinault said at the Copenhagen fashion summit he was disappointed with what he deemed to be slow progress toward achieving sustainability goals, and that partnerships among competitors would be necessary. "It's amazing what some of the biggest companies are doing. But the results don't work. We really need to define targets together," he said.

Then, in June, Ralph Lauren announced its Design the Change plan, as well as its commitment to the UN's Global Compact, a sustainability coalition. Design the Change's goals include achieving 100% sustainably-sourced materials by 2025 and setting science-backed greenhouse-gas-emission-reduction goals by the end of this year.

Beyond luxury, the entire apparel industry has been increasingly focused on sustainability over the past decade. When Patagonia and Walmart initiated the Sustainable Apparel Coalition in 2009, their pitch had an appeal beyond environmentalism: Not only are customers demanding more transparency around this, but if they don't do this themselves, governments will inevitably force them to change.

In Copenhagen, Pinault shared that sentiment: "Leaders have to put themselves in these uncomfortable positions. You may not meet the targets, but you'll make a difference."

SEE ALSO: Why the CEOs of Shell, BP, and 11 other major corporations have decided to lobby DC for climate change legislation

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• It's your responsibility to tell your boss when you're overextended at work.
• A WeWork HR exec recommends opening the conversation with questions so your manager doesn't go on the defensive.
• Ask about priorities to make sure you and your manager are on the same page.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

At a previous job, Alex Seiler signed up to work with an executive coach. The coach kicked things off with a 360-degree review of Seiler's performance (meaning he got comments from supervisors, peers, and reports).

"Some feedback bubbled up that I hadn't really heard before," Seiler told Business Insider. Uh-oh.

Several people had mentioned burnout and being overextended.

Seiler is a senior director and global HR business partner at WeWork; he's previously led HR teams at Citi, Time Inc., and Blue Shield of California. He spoke with Business Insider at the From Day One conference, in New York City in June.

As he reviewed the feedback the coach had gathered, Seiler knew he was partly responsible for these issues. "I hold myself accountable to high performance; and so I hold my team, too," he said.

But he knew his employees were partly responsible as well. "They should have come to me when they started feeling stretched too thin." Instead, the team waited until their work had gotten out of control.

Read more: The best bosses ask 2 simple questions when they check in with their team members every week

Avoid encouraging your manager to get defensive

Burnout has been in the news lately, since the World Health Organization recently classified it as a "syndrome." According to the WHO, symptoms of burnout include exhaustion, cynicism toward your job, and feeling less capable at work.

Meanwhile, a 2018 Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found that 23% said they felt burned out at work very often or always, and 44% said they felt burned out sometimes.

Still, it can be hard to approach your manager — the person with the power to fire you or decline your request for a raise — and tell them you can't handle your workload. Seiler had a few tips to make it easier.

First, be sure you're not "taking an aggressive stance" or approaching the conversation in an "adversarial way." Instead, Seiler recommended leading with questions.

The key here is not encouraging your boss to get defensive. You can initiate the conversation by asking simply, "Can I be honest with you?" Seiler wrote in a follow-up email. "This opens up the dialogue and can lead to a productive level-setting conversation around capacity."

Seiler also suggested asking about priorities to make sure you and your manager are on the same page. "That will quickly help an employee understand whether he or she is doing work that their boss considers adding value or not," Seiler wrote.

If you and your boss realize you're bogged down in something relatively unimportant or non-urgent, you can move on to something more valuable.

Seiler's comments recall advice from other career experts on declining assignments from your boss. If you're already overloaded, workplace expert Lynn Taylor recommends saying:

"I would be happy to do that project, but what that could mean is that [whatever other project you're working on] will have to be put off until tomorrow, because I was actually going to spend the next three hours finishing that proposal. Would you like me to put that off?"

As for Seiler, he said any effective manager will appreciate when their employee brings up a workflow problem. He said, "Somebody who is a truly rational, logical manager will be very supportive of that conversation."

SEE ALSO: A former Netflix exec shares 3 simple questions to ask yourself if you're thinking about leaving your job

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• If you are considering marrying someone who is in legal or financial trouble, there is a lot of legal planning you should do before walking down the aisle. 
• Below are the best types of protections spouses can take when they marry someone who's in legal or financial trouble.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the disgraced blood-testing startup Theranos, reportedly married her fiancé Billy Evans in a secret wedding ceremony recently.

Not much is known about the relationship between Holmes and Evans, a 27-year-old heir to the California hospitality group Evans Hotels.

But speculation immediately arose as to why they got married, including a theory from Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton that Holmes needed access to Evans' money to pay her legal bills. The entrepreneur is facing numerous federal charges of fraud related to Theranos, which was once valued at $9 billion before reports revealed it was based on faulty science. Following the reports, Holmes' net worth plummeted from $4.5 billion to zero, according to Forbes.

Could marriage be the answer to her legal and financial woes? That depends on what kind of legal planning — if any — went on before the pair walked down the aisle.

We asked experts what kind of protections spouses can take when they marry someone who's in legal or financial trouble.

Here's their best advice for people in that situation.

SEE ALSO: 6 things wealthy people do to protect their money when they get married

DON'T MISS: 4 celebrity couples who started successful businesses together — and 3 others who failed

Make sure you have a full understanding of the legal and financial issues

To start, have an open conversation with your soon-to-be spouse about the nature of their financial or legal issues, what led to them, and how they intend to address them. Also, have an understanding of what the consequences will be for your spouse and potentially for you.

"You should then consider reviewing all legal documents relating to the troubles and obtain your own counsel to see what the troubles may mean for you," Kelly Frawley, a lawyer focused on matrimonial and family law, told Business Insider.

Consider exchanging recent credit reports

Consider exchanging recent credit reports with your partner.

"This will help you see firsthand whether he or she has a history of financial irresponsibility that might have led to the current troubles or whether it's the result of aberrational behavior," Frawley said.

Consult with matrimonial counsel about what impact the trouble may have on the marriage

This consultation should not only cover financial issues, but possible custodial issues as well.

"During the same consultation, you should also ask in what ways a prenuptial agreement can protect you — or not — in the event of a divorce," Frawley said. "As soon as you know you intend to marry, you should become educated about what can be achieved by having a prenuptial agreement.

"If you decide you will only marry if a prenuptial agreement is executed by you and your partner, then you should find out right away whether your partner will agree to sign one with terms protecting you from his or her troubles."

Speak with attorneys who exclusively practice matrimonial and family law

Frawley said that beyond looking for a lawyer specializing in matrimonial and family law, it's important to find one who works in the area where you live or where you intend to live when you're first married.

"It's not uncommon for trust and estate practitioners to draft prenuptial agreements, but you would be better served by consulting with an attorney who regularly drafts them as well as litigates divorces, because he or she will have experience with how legal and/or financial trouble can play out in a divorce," Frawley said.

Laws also vary state by state.

"If your spouse gets sued and a judgment is issued against them, any joint assets such as your primary residence could be in danger," Glen B. Levine, cofounder and senior partner at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine, told Business Insider. "But this all will depend on whether your state is community property, tenancy by the entireties, or a common law state."

"Depending on the state, the lien could attach to the entire property, only your spouse's interest in the property, or not at all."

• Slack, the workplace chat platform geared toward millennials, went public yesterday with a direct listing, rather than a traditional IPO.
• The company's co-founder, Stewart Butterfield, who also co-founded Flickr, talked to Business Insider in 2015. 
• Butterfield explained the values that are important in his career, as well as the advice he'd give to his 20-year-old self. 

Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Slack and Flickr, has dual degrees in philosophy and expected to pursue a career as a professor. Then he changed courses completely. Butterfield stopped by Business Insider recently and explained his thoughts on what values are important in his career. He also passed along advice to his twenty-year-old self. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on July 13, 2015.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Amazon is seeking to fill some 190 advertising jobs in New York.
• With ongoing layoffs and restructuring impacting ad-tech, media companies and agencies, Amazon is seen as a big hirer for these roles.
• Amazon is luring talent with compensation packages that favor high base salaries and low commissions.
• Amazon was also reportedly recently interested in moving into New York offices near some of the agency giants.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Amazon has big advertising ambitions, and it's coming after Madison Avenue's talent to realize them.

Amazon trailed Facebook and Google in rolling out ads for fear of annoying consumers, but it's now hiring in earnest. As of the week of June 17, its site listed about 190 full-time jobs open in New York, the epicenter of the ad industry, ranging from account executives to copywriters to a head of OTT partnerships.

Last month, Amazon was reportedly looking at new office space at One and Two Manhattan West, nearby to commuter-heavy Penn Station and within a 20-block radius of major holding companies such as Omnicom, Dentsu, and Publicis.

"They're quietly building up the Manhattan garrison," said Jon Reily, VP and global commerce strategy lead at Publicis Sapient, an agency of the holding company Publicis, and a former Amazon e-commerce exec.

Amazon is hiring for big advertising roles

A scan of Amazon's advertising job postings shows that it's hiring for roles aimed at brands and agencies, and it comes at a time of a lot of volatility at agencies.

Out of the 190 open roles, 86 are for Amazon's self-serve performance marketing tool that marketers use to buy search and display ads on Amazon.com. Another 21 positions would focus on IMDb TV, Amazon's recently renamed ad-supported streaming service.

Read more:Big brands like Verizon and Toyota are backing Amazon's Freedive as the e-commerce giant pushes deeper into OTT advertising

People working on the self-serve platform tend to be aimed at brands that sell and promote items on Amazon like retailers and consumer-packaged goods, which requires deep expertise of where brands sell products on and off Amazon. The IMDb TV roles, in contrast, are more technical, akin to those employed at ad-tech companies.

"While they're both ad products, they represent very different types of people and talent," said Ari Lewine, co-founder and chief strategy officer at ad-tech firm TripleLift.

Across the board, Amazon is also hiring salespeople focused on specific verticals, including an open position to sell to financial service marketers — mimicking a tactic that big platforms like Facebook have used for years to make inroads with specific types of advertisers.

Amazon flips the script on commissions

Amazon favors bigger base salaries and less commission for salespeople compared to ad-tech and media companies, say advertising sources and recruiters. Rajeev Goel, CEO of ad-tech firm PubMatic, said senior sales roles at an ad-tech company are typically paid with half their salary coming from base, half from commission. For more junior employees, the mix is 70% base, 30% commission.

While Amazon's paying bigger base salaries means less pressure to hit incremental sales goals, it rewards employees for consistently delivering sales results.

"Amazon's compensation is totally different than other other tech company and it's almost customizable," said Richard Lear, managing partner at Vantage Partners, a recruiting firm that has helped fill data science roles at Amazon but has not worked with Amazon's advertising department.

TripleLift's Lewine said that the de-emphasis on commissions could reflect how Amazon takes its time to build ad products that are built with the user in mind.

"The sales job is very different working at Amazon than it is at any other company or a smaller, unknown company that isn't sitting on arguably one of the most valuable data sets ever," he said.

Amazon could benefit from instability in media and advertising

As ad tech, media companies, and agencies face consolidation and layoffs, Amazon could benefit from a glut of unemployed talent, said several ad-tech sources. Amazon's recent acquisition of part of bankrupt ad-tech firm Sizmek already gave it access to ad-tech talent and Sizmek's clients.

"There's a macro-level question about where are all of these people going to go," Lewine said. "The only clear, large-scale hirer when you counter-balance Vice, Oath, Refinery29, [and] Sizmek is Amazon."

According to one Amazon Advertising employee who spoke on background because they were not authorized to talk to the press, more creatives are moving to tech firms like Facebook and Amazon as agencies face growing competition from publishers, consultants, and marketers' in-house teams.

"The ad agency model is being more disrupted from all over the place," the employee said. "That's caused a lot of volatility in the job market of agencies, which has caused many creatives to look for calmer waters."

Read more: Amazon is acquiring an ad server from bankrupt ad-tech firm Sizmek, giving it a new tool to compete head-on with Google. Here's what it means for marketers.

Observers had mixed views on how successful Amazon will be in filling sales and marketing roles, though.

Goel said that he's not worried about Amazon because he's seen it hiring mostly engineers versus sales and marketing roles. In fact, Goel said PubMatic is growing its headcount by 20% with 100 hires this year. TripleLift also said that it plans to hire more than 200 employees this year across all departments.

Amazon isn't a fit for everyone, though

Amazon also has a reputation for having a rigorous hiring process and chaotic management. It uses a method called Loops, where potential hires meet with a variety of Amazon employees that they may or may not end up working with to suss out if a hire will fit into the culture.

"They're rigorous," Vantage Partners' Lear said of the cycles. "It's a classic [way] of viewing someone from as many angles as possible who may be coming in."

Several ad-tech companies referenced a 2015 investigation by The New York Times into Amazon's culture and work environment as a selling point in attracting talent.

"Amazon needs to demonstrate that they can offer what creative people are looking for — a nimble, entrepreneurial environment where they feel like their work serves a purpose, is appreciated, and supports learning," said Louise Peddell, VP of human resources at Undertone.

On the other hand, Publicis Sapient's Reily called Amazon's culture's "kind of like a religious experience," and one that he feels proud to be a part of even though he doesn't work at Amazon anymore.

"Amazonians are very proud to be Amazonians and they they feel like they're changing the world," he said. "That spirit moves through the whole company."

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• Slack opted to take the company public via a direct listing, rather than an IPO. 
• The move created buzz around Wall Street, and confusion outside of it for those who don't understand why the difference is significant. 
• Companies with a lot of money and brand recognition can save money on bank fees via a direct listing. 
• Still, an IPO is the preferred option for the majority of companies, expert say.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Slack chose to take its company public using a direct listing — something relatively rare on Wall Street.

Most companies opt for buzzy initial public offerings as a way of raising additional capital while also delivering a payday for prior shareholders. 

The fact Slack (and Spotify before it) opted for a quiet direct listing could signal a shift in how some startups go public, venture capitalists speculate. 

Business Insider spoke with two experts — Haran Segram, an assistant professor of finance at the NYU Stern School of Business, and Phillip Braun, a professor of finance at Northwestern's Kellogg Business School — to break down why founders would opt for a direct listing, and if two beloved brands doing so makes for a larger trend. 

Why choose a direct listing?

In an IPO, a company will offer a certain amount of new and/or existing shares to the public. If a company has 100 shares, for instance, it might create 10 more shares that it sells for extra cash. The total number of shares thus becomes 110. In selling these extra shares to wealthy investors, IPOs help raise additional capital for company operations and expansion.

In a traditional IPO, underwriters — or banks that help shares of the company to investors — play a big role in marketing the company. Underwriters do the leg work of bringing in prospective suitors, including hosting "roadshows" that explain to investors why they should buy shares in the company. 

But, as my colleague Troy Wolverton has written, with a direct listing, companies — or, rather, their early investors and employees — skip the middlemen. In that process, the existing stakeholders basically sell their shares directly to new investors once the company is listed. The company itself doesn't raise any cash, at least not initially. 

Banks do much less marketing with the direct approach. In the Slack listing, seven of the 10 banks that aided in the listing did virtually no work outside of committing to research coverage of the company, sources told Business Insider's Becky Peterson. 

Slack, however, did not need the money from an IPO: It became the fastest startup to reach a $1 billion valuation back in 2015 and reportedly raised $500 million in 2017. 

Who wins out?

With a direct listing, employees and early investors looking to sell their shares can make money outright as a company goes public. 

Employees, who often take shares during the early stages of a company to compensate for the lower salaries that come with working at a startup, might prefer a direct listing so they can quickly sell shares. 

In an IPO, early investors must wait during the "lock-up period," or a 90 to 180 days where they cannot sell their shares. Braun says employees may not prefer waiting, as markets could get too volatile and they'd make less off selling their stock. 

"It's definitely beneficial to do the entry offering for employees because they are more easily able to sell their shares, and they hope that they can sell them at a higher price," Braun said.

The company can also save money through not having to pay banks marketing the company to investors as much. When banks help raise money for companies during an IPO, they can charge 2-8% of the total capital raised, Segram said. He estimates that Spotify saved $100 million through its direct listing. 

What about the founders?

To Braun, the Kellogg finance professor, founders are largely indifferent as to whether their company opts for an IPO or direct listing, as they typically will not sell their shares right away, so there is no need for fast cash. 

While existing shareholders (like employees) and early investors (like VC companies and private equity firms) looking to cash out may pressure the founder to opt for a direct listing to get a quicker return on their investment, the CEO's investment will largely remain the same.

"The founder is relatively indifferent between whether they do a direct listing, an IPO, or don't list at all," Braun said. "They're really going to see pressure [for a direct listing] from the venture capital companies that forced the sale." 

Will direct listings become more common? It all comes down to brand recognition

Pete Flint, a managing partner at a big-time San Francisco VC firm NFX, told Business Insider the IPO process costs the company too much money and is "inefficient." "I am excited for this increasing trend for direct listings," he said.

Experts, however, don't know if a trend toward direct listing companies exists presently, or will eventually. 

For one thing, only a very select group of companies really benefit from a direct listing. For an IPO, banks can bring smaller companies that don't have the brand recognition of a Slack or Spotify to their network of prominent investors. But if you're running a larger company, then going for the direct listing makes a lot of sense.

But still, bypassing an IPO remains a luxury many companies cannot afford.

"[Slack] was not waiting for the money coming from IPO to run their day-to-day operations," Segram said. "It is a very selective group can do this direct listing, the major factor being the brand recognition."

Braun, too, said the only two companies he's seen opt for a direct listing were Slack and Spotify. He would not say these two companies constitute a trend that's geared toward crushing the IPO market. 

"It's impossible to say, but I'd be surprised if it's a pattern," he said.

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• Amazon has grown from an online bookseller to a domineering tech giant since Jeff Bezos founded it in 1994.
• Even when Amazon was young, Bezos had an extraordinary vision for his company.
• Here are some of the most accurate predictions Bezos made 20 years ago, in 1999.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Twenty years ago, in 1999, Amazon was a 5-year-old kindergartner startup navigating the early ecommerce market.

But that didn't stop CEO Jeff Bezos from dreaming big. At the time, Amazon had just started to expand its offerings beyond books. But Bezos was already painting outlandish visions of his customer-first website becoming the one-stop marketplace for everything.

Fast-forward to today, and Bezos is the richest man in the world, worth more than $141 billion.

Here are eight predictions Bezos made in 1999 that are right on the money:

SEE ALSO: IPO WATCH: All the tech startups that have taken steps toward going public in 2019 — and those rumored to be thinking about it

"We want to try and build a place where people can come to find and discover anything that they might want to buy online," Bezos said in an appearance on Charlie Rose's talk show.

Bezos' vision in 1999 has become a reality. A 2018 poll conducted by NPR and Marist found that online shoppers were most likely to start on Amazon — even before going on a search engine like Google.

"Strip malls are history."

Thousands of storefronts in malls across the US have been closing in a "retail apocalypse," and a 2017 report from Credit Suisse estimated that 20% to 25% of malls would close in the next five years, indicating that there's still more truth to what Bezos told Wired.

Bezos predicted that physical storefronts would survive only if they could provide at least one of two core features: entertainment value or immediate convenience.

Bezos told Wired that entertainment value is why places like movie theaters won't die.

"That experience is what you get when you go to movie theaters, and why you don't always rent movies, right?" he said.

Many malls and retailers have looked at these two paths to stay relevant, with some offering high-tech experiences to get customers into their brick-and-mortar locations.

Meanwhile, Bezos wanted a piece of that immediate convenience for Amazon, spurring it to buy Whole Foods and experiment with other physical retail stores.

Wired described Bezos' vision as being able to "take care of the last mile of delivery yourself at any time."

"I'm a big believer in this notion of sort of appliances, that there'll be lots of little things that are connected to the internet ... There'll be a whole bunch of things sort of connected to the network."

It seems as if Bezos predicted the smart home in 1999. Amazon now offers numerous Alexa-enabled smart-home devices, such as Echo speakers, plugs, clocks, microwaves, and home security systems.

In 1999, Amazon and Barnes & Noble were seen as direct competitors in the book-selling business. "I bet you a year from now they will not consider us direct competitors," Bezos told Wired. "Clearly they do today, but we're on different paths ... We're trying to invent the future of e-commerce, and they're just defending their turf."

While Barnes & Noble has largely remained a bookstore, Amazon counts books as just one product in its ever-growing marketplace. Perhaps in the early days of e-readers the two brands were seen as direct competitors, but Amazon's Kindle has greatly outpaced Barnes & Noble's Nook.

"Advertising is also a very valid model on the 'net. They're going to be able to make their ads more meaningful to customers by better targeting your ads, something that's hard to do in broadcast."

Personalized ads, using data from a person's search and shopping histories, are common today. And as live-TV consumption continues to decline, money is increasingly being put into digital advertising.

As of late 2018, Amazon was on track to become the third-largest digital advertiser in the US, behind Google and Facebook.

"There's nothing more frustrating than having to wait two minutes for your computer to boot up ... By the time I've waited the two minutes, I've forgotten what I was going to do. So that's I think a very important technology. And people are working on it. That one's going to happen sometime."

Bezos mentioned in several interviews in 1999 his gripe with long waits to start up his computer.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Bezos said computers would soon be equipped with what he referred to as "instant on."

Now, with smartphones that give you answers in the palm of your hand and laptops that don't need to be turned off after each use, it seems Bezos nailed that one. Technology has never been so readily accessible.

Wired's 1999 profile outlined the Amazon CEO's vision for 2020: "The vast bulk of store-bought goods — food staples, paper products, cleaning supplies, and the like — you will order electronically. "

While "vast bulk" may be an overstatement, online shopping has skyrocketed. Amazon has become a favorite for buying everyday essentials and household products, especially with offerings designed to streamline ordering these products, like subscriptions, voice-activated shopping via Alexa, and Prime Pantry.

But not every one of Bezos' predictions has been wholly accurate.

Bezos discussed Amazon's use of customer data in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes."

In the segment, the reporter Bob Simon said this startling line: "Bezos refuses to rule out selling the valuable information to other companies in the future. But he doesn't think his customers are concerned about the issue."

• Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg, and other leaders have been asked the same question in interviews time and time again: "What advice would you give to your younger self?"
• Business Insider has gathered our favorite quotes from successful leaders, pulled from interviews conducted over the years and quotes compiled by a marketing campaign from the company AdView.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
•  

The people we've come to associate with the most successful technology companies were once relatively unknown names with big dreams. So if they could do it all over again, would they do it any differently?

The answer to this commonly-asked interview question tells us what we want to learn from the people who have, in our eyes, "made it." And leaders in the tech industry are successful because they created something — or saw potential in something — in a way that no one else did. The advice they would give their younger selves, then, is often informative and motivational. 

Digital advertising company AdView compiled quotes from across the internet to create these inspirational posters for a series called "What Would You Tell Your Teenage Self?" We found our favorites and pulled a few others from various interviews over the years from the leaders and executives at companies like Apple, Facebook, Intel, Pandora, Airbnb, and more.

Here's the advice these 16 leaders in the tech industry told interviewers they would tell their younger selves:

SEE ALSO: 8 predictions made by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos 20 years ago that were right on the money

"Smartness is not single dimensional and not quite as important as I thought it was back then."

In Bill Gates' Reddit AMA from 2017, user UncomfortableChuckle asked "If you could give 19 year old Bill Gates some advice, what would it be?"

The second richest man in the world — behind Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — responded:

"I would explain that smartness is not single dimensional and not quite as important as I thought it was back then. I would say you might explore the developing world before you get into your forties. I wasn't very good socially back then but I am not sure there is advice that would fix that - maybe I had to be awkward and just grow up...."

"Find work you love. Believe you can do anything. There is no straight path to where you are going."

The question was posed by a Quora user, and Sandberg took the time to lay out a detailed response, in the form of three pieces of advice instead of just one.

1. Find work you love. When you believe in what you are doing, you can combine passion with contribution - and that is a true gift. Keep trying and you will find what you love to do… and once you do, you will crush it.
2. Believe you can do anything. This is important for everyone and especially for women. Don't let anyone tell you can't have both a meaningful professional career and a fulfilling personal life. When you hear someone say you can't do something, know that you can and start figuring out how. Ask yourself, "What would I do if I weren't afraid?"
3. There is no straight path to where you are going. If you try to draw that line you will not just get it wrong, but you will miss big opportunities. As Pattie Sellers of Fortune Magazine says, careers are not ladders but jungle gyms. You don't have to have it all figured out. I recommend adopting two concurrent goals.

"A healthier lifestyle ultimately makes me more creative and allows me to think more cohesively."

That was Dorsey's simple response when Y Combinator interviewed the Twitter CEO in 2016.

"When I was young I didn’t understand the value of exercise or health and how that affected my intellect," he said. "I think it was useful for me to go to all the extremes to find the balance I have now, but I wish I focused more on being healthier in the past. A healthier lifestyle ultimately makes me more creative and allows me to think more cohesively."

"You're going to make mistakes no matter what you do. People spend a lot of time focusing on not making mistakes or regretting them but you shouldn't strive to be right about everything."

Zuckerberg answered the question during a 2015 user Q&A that Facebook livestreamed.

"Before getting swept up in the competitors that define so much of life, ask yourself whether you even want the prize on offer."

He told conservative student magazine Intercollegiate Review this during an interview back in 2015.

"The joy is in the journey."

Cook has said this multiple times — during a commencement speech for Auburn, for example — but most recently said it in March in response to a question from the audience after an in-person interview

"No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people. 'Stuff' can be a lot of different things ... but, obviously, sitting around talking with your friends about how you guys really should build a website together does not count."

Here is Altman's whole response:

"Usually, people are deciding between going to college (and usually working on side projects while they do so), joining a company, or starting their own startup. The secret is that any of these can be right answer, and you should make your decision based on the specific circumstances of each option.

"The critical point is that you want to do the thing that is most likely to get you on a path to do something great. No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people. 'Stuff' can be a lot of different things — open source projects outside of class, a startup, a new sales process at a company you work at — but, obviously, sitting around talking with your friends about how you guys really should build a website together does not count."

"Be unapologetically true to yourself, both in business and in life in general ... if you do, and broadcast that to the world, over time, the right people will find you."

The entrepreneur responded to an email from show host Shivad Singh, who was compiling answers from "the world's most successful people."

"Problems happen. Plans fail. Don't be disheartened when things don't go as you'd hoped."

"It's very easy — in life or in work — to overreact, to think that problems indicate that you are incapable, or that the project you've undertaken is doomed to failure," he said.

Rosenstein also added:

"But almost any undertaking involves a steady stream of unforeseen difficulties and mistakes. The key is to not freak out; just calmly deal with each problem, one at a time, until you achieve your desired outcome, or feel inspired to choose a new one. With experience, you will learn to see the bigger picture, less fazed by life's ups and downs."

"Enjoy failing fast rather than spending so much time figuring out how to be perfect, or even worse, being paralyzed by fear of being perfect."

Source: Head Start

"Take the next step."

Source: Head Start

"Never see being different as a flaw or think that something is wrong with you. Being different is your biggest asset and will help you succeed."

This is an excerpt from a letter entitled "My letter to my younger dyslexic self," published to Virgin's website.

"It gets better ... it's important to learn new things and expand your horizons."

According to this response to Forbes, Spolsky was referring to an anthropology class he took in college to fulfill a required credit.

He said it was boring at the time, but it taught him a lot about making companies that are based on and driven by helping people.

"Whether it is a change of job, or an entrepreneurial dream, the less you need to spend each month, the easier it is to follow those dreams."

Wales told Fast Company:

"I think one of the things that most 21-year-old people should do is to recognize now that you can make life choices which control your expenses, and that controlling your expenses is one of the most crucial steps toward the kind of financial independence that you need in order to follow your dreams in the future."

His favorite rule of thumb for this piece of advice? Never go into debt to finance anything luxurious. Only do it for necessary investments like education.

"'No' is often just the starting point."

"And most careers worth having involve a fair amount of determination, grit, and just general 'try try again'-ing," she added.

"Be okay with things building up over time."

Mullenweg told Product Hunt:

"Something I didn’t appreciate until recently is that there any many productive decades ahead with which to build the things that I feel need to exist in the world. One of the best things I did then was avoid any press or capitalization on my age (to the extent I could) because youth is an ephemeral asset and just a novelty in business."

"Be sure to ‘notice’ ideas when you have them. Stop. Take the time to consider them seriously. And if your gut tells you they’re compelling, be fearless in their pursuit."

"For most people," he continued in his response to Forbes, "the idea of chasing a personal passion or being entrepreneurial is simply something they don’t think of themselves doing. We’re so programmed to walk well-trodden paths. But, we live life only once. So, rather than avoiding the risk of trying, avoid the risk of not trying. Nothing is more haunting than thinking, 'I wish I had...'."

"It’s not about building every feature or understanding everything the first time around. It’s about creating the best, tailored experience for your community and company."

Ljung said that when he makes decisions around leadership, design, and product, he often references a quote that T.S. Eliot had reportedly used: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

• Julia Hawkins, age 103, is a record-setting runner, according to a recent Q&A conducted by The New York Times.
• In the interview, she shared three life tips: Stay in shape, have passions, and take in life's "magic moments."
• Studies indicate that there are benefits to all of these, from clearing the mind to living longer.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Who better to take life advice from than a centenarian who's busy setting new records?

Julia Hawkins, age 103, is a record-setting runner at the National Senior Games (her best time on the 100-meter dash is 39.62 seconds), flower enthusiast, and great-grandmother, Sarah Mervosh wrote in a recent Q&A for The New York Times. 

Before taking up running, the Baton Rouge resident biked. In her spare time, she takes daily walks, cares for the bonsais on her acre of property, and goes out to lunch with friends nearly every day.

Nicknamed the "Hurricane" for her feats on the track, Hawkins closed out the interview with some parting tips: "Keep yourself in good shape if you can. Have many passions. And look for magic moments."

She added: "That is something that I have done in my life — think of the things that are magic moments that happen to you, like sunsets and sunrises, rainbows, beautiful birds, music, and people's lovely comments to you. All of those are magic moments and they are free for all. Be sure to keep your eye open for them."

Read more: A 100-year-old retired airline pilot with $5 million in the bank used a timeless tip to build his fortune

Her advice is on par with science-backed research.

Studies suggest that running, walking, and swimming help with positivity, clearing the mind, and even protecting from cognitive decline, Erin Brodwin previously reported for Business Insider. But the best mental and physical health results for people over age 50 stem from a combination of aerobic workouts and resistance training, which includes workouts like lifting weights or doing squats.

And an observational study of nearly 4,000 US adults found that people who walked around for about two minutes every hour had a roughly 33% lower risk of dying prematurely than those who sat all day, Brodwin wrote.

Having hobbies, or passions, also has benefits. They can have therapeutic effects, ignite creativity, help one explore new social opportunities, offer stress relief, and boost confidence. And, just as Hawkins suggests keeping an eye open for "magic moments," studies have suggested that people who are more open to new ideas and concepts may have a longer life.

Read the full story at The New York Times »

SEE ALSO: A 100-year-old retired airline pilot with $5 million in the bank used a timeless tip to build his fortune

SEE ALSO: The best ways to counter the negative effects of aging and live a long time — starting right now

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• Justin Kan is a mid-30s entrepreneur who sold his previous startup, Twitch, to Amazon for $1 billion, and has raised millions in VC funding for his current project, the legal startup Atrium.
• On Twitter, Kan recently shared everything he's realized about angel investing in the past eight years, during which time he's invested in Cruise, Ginkgo Bioworks, Razorpay, Bird, and 100 other companies.
• With his permission, we've shared his advice below, in full and in his words, as well as some of the reactions from his followers.
• Among other things, Kan writes that investors should figure out what companies they want to invest in, and convince those founders to take money, whether it's during a fundraising cycle or not.
• "The best angels I know will just start being helpful and build a relationship with the founders, and then get allocation or even included in previous rounds," he says.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Justin Kan is a successful founder and investor. He created Twitch, a game streaming company that was acquired by Amazon for $1 billion. He is also an active angel, and he has poured money into 100+ early stage startups. 

Some of his investments, like scooter company Bird and self-driving tech startup Cruise (which was founded by Kan's brother) have seen strong returns.

Kan reflected on his past eight years as an angel investor. Here's his best advice when determining which ideas will take off.

Rule 1: Only invest in founders, not ideas.

It's seductive to invest in pet ideas you want to see in the world.  Sometimes, you justify investing in a bad founder by thinking the idea is so good it will carry them.

This never works.

It turns out even good ideas still need to be executed!

Rule 2: Investors need to differentiate themselves to land the best deals.

There are now tons of investors in tech. Everyone seems to have their own fund. As an investor, there are three ways to differentiate from others: brand, analysis, hustle.

Read more:A CEO who sold his first startup for $1 billion explains how to build a company and stay happy at the same time

Brand is setting up a unique platform or positioning in the market that gets to differentiated deal flow. The best example is Y Combinator, which wasn't even really positioned as an investor at first. Instead, it was dubbed the "Harvard Business School of Silicon Valley."

On the newer side, I like SaaStr Fund, where Jason Lemkin has set up an investor brand in a specific vertical (with a conference, online media, etc.) and positioned himself as the expert in this area. If you have a SaaS company, you want to talk to him.

Analysis is, "Do you actually think about how the world will look in the future and do you make good investment decisions based on that view?"

Weirdly, this is pretty underrated in early stage tech investing.

I don't think there's any magic bullets here. You just need to do the work to do research on companies, call customers, figure out market size, etc. Many early stage investors don't do this.

Hustle is getting into deals. Many investors wait for founders to be raising and to come to them. This is lazy.

Instead, investors should figure out what companies they want to invest in, and convince those founders to take money (whether it's during a fundraising cycle or not).

The best angels I know will just start being helpful and build a relationship with the founders, and then get allocation or even included in previous rounds.

Observation: most SV gains (probably including my own) are purely because we have been investing into massive bull market. Everyone who started angel investing 10 years ago looks like a genius (you would have looked the same just buying a basket of FAANG stocks). This will change.

Rule 3: Invest in your friends.

Lastly, always invest in your friends for FOMO protection. If you don't, the FOMO when they sell for $1 billion two years later might literally kill you. 

One good example of FOMO protection is Slack. Many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs made money by investing early in Stuart Butterfield, the CEO, before his idea took off. 

Per Alex Konrad in Fortune:

"Years before the two [Slack] founders hit up powerhouse venture capital firms like SoftBank, they tapped influential friends, mostly tech founders: LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner; Stripe's Patrick and John Collison; Squarespace's Anthony Casalena; Twitter's Biz Stone; Yammer's David Sacks; and Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp. They all took stakes in seed or early rounds that were worth an estimated 16 to more than 1,600 times their original bet. "

Read more:A liberal Silicon Valley engineer got so tired of his peers constantly bashing Trump that he found the most conservative town in America and moved there.

The reaction on Twitter

After publishing the initial thread, Kan received plenty of reaction on Twitter.

"Your willingness to share what you have been through and learned along the way is appreciated. We could all use more of this in the world these days," one user wrote.

"There are tons of gems in the listed markets (with reduced risks compared to private illiquid deals). Go figure," another follower wrote.

"Brilliant recitation of stories of gain and pain. You captured the letter and spirit of your journeys.  Many of us are saying, 'Been there. Done that. Feeling it!' Thank you," another user commented.

SEE ALSO: A 35-year-old CEO who sold his first startup for $1 billion says he relied on alcohol for years to escape facing his life. Here's why he's giving it up permanently.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian have a combined net worth of $189 million. Here's how they make and spend their money.

• Microsleep involves brief, intermittent moments of sleep throughout the day, sometimes without you noticing it.
• You can have episodes of microsleep when you're feeling drowsy and performing daily tasks such as reading or driving.
• Microsleep is caused by sleep deprivation, so the best remedy is to get a good night's rest.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you've ever felt your eyelids droop for just a fraction of a second during some mundane task — like staring at a computer screen or driving down the highway — you've experienced a phenomenon known as "microsleep."

Discover Magazine's blog The Crux recently spotlighted the experience, which happens when key parts of the brain switch off for a few seconds at a time. This means that, while you're not quite asleep, you're certainly not awake either.

"It's sort of like being a zombie for a few brief moments — sans the whole 'eating human flesh' part," Megan Schmidt wrote for the blog. "And usually, people don't realize it's happening to them."

And while this can happen to anyone, the sleep-deprived are consistently most at risk.

The dangers of skipping bedtime

Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker previously told Business Insider that "the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life."

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a traffic research and safety organization, around 16.5% of fatal car crashes in the US are caused by microsleep. One of the biggest disasters involving microsleep, reports Discover Magazine, is the 2009 crash of AirFrance Flight 447 that resulted in 228 deaths. Once investigators listened to recordings from the plane, they found the captain complaining that he was running on just an hour of sleep.

According to Walker, even losing a single hour of sleep could be harmful. "There is a global experiment that is performed on 1.6 billion people twice a year and it's called daylight savings time," he said. "And we know that in the spring, when we lose one hour of sleep, we see a subsequent 24% increase in heart attacks the following day."

In a 2012 experiment, subjects were asked to play a 50-minute computer game in which they followed a dot around the screen using a joystick. During that time, researchers monitored eye movement and brain activity, looking for signs of drowsiness. According to the report, subjects experienced an average of 79 episodes of microsleep, with some episodes lasting a full six seconds.

The research found that during microsleep, certain parts of our brain "try to restore responsiveness" in the ones shutting off, perhaps triggering the sudden involuntary jolt you feel when your head starts to drop down.

How can microsleep be prevented?

A 2012 study by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety in Australia found that in drowsy drivers, pulling over at the first signs of sleepiness makes a big difference. The tired drivers (operating a computer-simulated car, of course) who didn't pull over were 15 times more likely to crash.

In a report by Queensland University of Technology, the study's lead investigator, Chris Watling, said, "The most important thing is if you notice signs of sleepiness you should stop straight away. Trying to push through is not a good idea."

Some products are designed to shock drivers back into consciousness, but so far there are only a few on the market, like a bracelet called Steer that monitors your pulse and sends an electric shock whenever it senses you dozing off.

It seems, however, that the best solution to microsleep is to get an adequate amount of sleep. 

SEE ALSO: Sleep deprivation can kill you — here's what sleeping less than 7 hours per night does to your body and brain

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A sleep expert explains what happens to your body and brain if you don't get enough sleep

• Women are making marginal gains in landing board seats but continue to lag behind men in this important business position, according to theBoardlist, a network that helps connect startups with qualified female board candidates.
• In September 2018 California created a law that required all public companies headquartered in the state to have to at least one woman on their boards of directors by the end of 2019.
• Shannon Gordon, CEO of theBoardlist, told Business Insider that founders and investors have to look outside their networks to broaden the candidate pool for board seats, especially since the roles are rarely publicly posted.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Call it the pipeline problem, the talent shortage, or the lowered bar— Shannon Gordon thinks the explanations many founders and investors use to justify an all-male board are all fallacies.

As the CEO of theBoardlist, a network that helps connect startups with qualified female board candidates, Gordon is one of the foremost experts on gender diversity in the boardroom. Since taking over the organization from founder and president Sukhinder Singh Cassidy in May 2018, Gordon says she's seen proof that the pipeline problem just "doesn't exist."

"It's always been a challenge, especially with board seats because so many are filled through referral," Gordon told Business Insider. "You as a founder ask your buddies, or colleagues, or investors for recommendation, and those networks tend to be homogeneous. It hits women and minorities hard because these networks are CEOs or board directors. We don't have those connections."

Read More:This 34-year-old CEO's own experience with workplace harassment led her to raise $4.2 million to find a better way to help victims band together and speed up investigations

Gordon said the outlook for gender parity at the board level is promising, especially with a new California law signed in September 2018 that required all publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to have at least one woman on the board by the end of 2019.

"I definitely think the tide is turning but none of us would say it's as fast as we want it to be," Gordon said. "If you as a founder don't have a deep network outside your investors, then you can leverage tools like theBoardlist that allow you to reach into other networks to find diverse candidates that meet your needs."

Singh Cassidy started theBoardlist in 2015 to help prove that it wasn't for lack of talent or the supposed pipeline problem that women weren't getting a seat at the board table. The network acts similarly to LinkedIn where members can search for candidates or list themselves as possible board candidates with specific areas of expertise.

"Be willing to look at leaders with the right experience even if they are not a CEO; the key is that they have relevant expertise to you in an area that is critical to your business," Singh Cassidy told Business Insider via email. "Set a mandate for the % of diverse candidates you expect to see in the pipeline; it doesn't just 'happen' naturally and needs to be a deliberate choice going in if you want a diverse board as the outcome."

Here are six of the top female executives from theBoardlist and what they could add to a startup's board:

SEE ALSO: Al Gore's environmental-sustainability fund has raised $1 billion to pump into new markets focused on health and wealth inequality

Promise Phelon

Current role: Founding Partner, Sueño Growth Partners and Business Mentor, Defy Ventures

Experience: Promise Phelon is no stranger to the entrepreneur journey after founding three of her own ventures, including her current investment firm. Phelon got her start at BEA Systems, an enterprise infrastructure software company that was acquired by Oracle. There, she worked up to Director of Product during her three-year tenure and has gone on to lead software startups JazzHR and TapFluence. She is currently a business mentor for early-stage venture firm Defy Ventures.

Find her on:LinkedIn

Sakina Arsiwala

Current role: Head of Growth, Nextdoor

Experience: Sakina Arsiwala has helped monetize some of the world's most popular products for some of the biggest names in consumer tech. Arsiwala moved to San Francisco from Mumbai to get her Masters in Computer Science from San Francisco State University and worked as a software engineer at Altavista and Yahoo before landing a product lead role at Google. She cofounded Campfire Labs, a social networking startup that was acquired by Groupon in 2011, where she remained as Head of Social and Growth for the deals website. She has been leading Growth at local social network Nextdoor since 2016.

Find her on: LinkedIn

Ellie Mertz

Current role: VP of Finance, Airbnb

Experience: Stanford Business School alumna Ellie Mertz has led the finance divisions of video streaming powerhouse Netflix and more recently vacation rental startup Airbnb, which is expected to IPO by sometime next year. Mertz has been leading Airbnb's financial division as VP of Finance since January after a brief stint as interim CFO. Before joining Airbnb, Mertz worked her way up from senior manager of financial planning to VP of Finance and Investor relations at Netflix. She started her career at Thomas Weisel Partners as a financial analyst in 1999.

Find her on: LinkedIn

Nisha Ahluwalia

Current role: Member, Bowery Capital Revenue Council and Marketing Faculty Chair, Heavybit Industries

Experience: Nisha Ahluwalia has cut her teeth at some of the biggest enterprise companies in Silicon Valley. She has held marketing roles at conferencing software maker WebEx, enterprise software giant Cisco, and enterprise communications provider RingCentral before landing at developer management tool PagerDuty as Chief Marketing Officer in 2013. She has been advising startups in Bowery Capital's portfolio since 2015, where she focuses on early-stage enterprise software companies needing to generate revenue.

Find her on: LinkedIn

Cheryl Chavez

Current role: Chief Product Officer, Engagio and Fellow, Sapphire Ventures

Experience: Cheryl Chavez had built an impressive career in enterprise marketing software even before graduating from Stanford Business School in 2016. She spent the early years of her career as a Product Manager for enterprise software giant Oracle, customer support management software maker Blue Pumpkin, online infrastructure provider Verisign, and client relationship management software maker Nextance. She helped take Marketo, a marketing software provider, private during the lead up to a planned IPO in 2017 and has been leading the product division at marketing software tool Engagio since September 2018.

Find her on: LinkedIn

Dawn Callahan

Current role: Chief Marketing Officer, Boingo Wireless

Experience: Dawn Callahan knows exactly what it takes to run marketing for a public company, having held senior leadership roles over the past two decades at Time Warner and Boingo Wireless. She started at Boingo Wireless in 2007 as VP of Marketing, and has worked up to the C-suite during her 12-year tenure. Prior to joining Boingo, Callahan led sales and marketing for telecom giant Time Warner for the Digital TV, Internet, and Phone divisions. Callahan helped take Boingo Wireless public in 2011, and has overseen just about every division of sales, marketing, public relations, and customer service during her time with the organization.

Find her on: LinkedIn

• Apple CEO Tim Cook was the commencement speaker at the graduation ceremonies for both Stanford University and Tulane University this year.
• His speeches reflected on the themes of accepting responsibility, having the courage to listen to others and to see things differently, and making an impact that will be remembered long after you're gone.
• Here's a look at some of the best pieces of advice from Cook's commencement speeches.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

When Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at Stanford University's commencement ceremony last Sunday, he urged graduates to learn from the recent controversies that have surrounded Silicon Valley tech giants like Facebook and Google in recent years. 

"Lately, it seems this industry is becoming better known for a less noble innovation: the belief that you can claim credit without accepting responsibility," Cook said. "We see it every day now. With every data breach, every privacy violation, every blind eye turned to hate speech. Fake news poisoning our national conversation. The miracles in exchange for a single drop of your blood."

Cook made a powerful statement about accepting responsibility when addressing Stanford's 2019 graduates, but it's just one of the many lessons he imparted to college graduates this year.

SEE ALSO: Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why you don't need a college degree to be successful

Be a builder.

During his speech at Stanford, Cook encouraged graduates to be builders — to make lasting contributions that will make a difference long after they're gone.

"Builders are comfortable in the belief that their life's work will one day be bigger than them, bigger than any person," he said. "They're mindful that its effects will span generations. That's not an accident. In a way it's the whole point."  

'Your mentors may leave you prepared, but they can't leave you ready.'

Being prepared isn't the same as being ready, another key piece of advice Cook shared with Stanford's 2019 graduates. Cook learned this lesson himself after Apple co-founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs died in 2011. 

"And when he was gone, truly gone, I learned the real visceral difference between preparation and readiness," he said. 

"When the dust settled, all I knew was that I was going to have to be the best version of myself that I could be." 

'Don't waste your time living someone else's life.'

Cook reiterated the famous advice his predecessor gave when addressing Stanford graduates in 2005. "Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life," Jobs said 14 years ago.

"Don't try to emulate the people who came before you to the exclusion of everything else, contorting into a shape that doesn't fit," Cook said last Sunday to Stanford's class of 2019. "It takes too much mental effort, effort that should be dedicated to creating and building. You'll waste precious time trying to re-wire your every thought. And in the meantime, you won't be fooling anybody." 

'If you want to take credit, first learn to take responsibility.'

A central theme of Cook's Stanford commencement speech was the importance of accepting responsibility.

Cook didn't mention any specific tech companies by name. But his remarks about data breaches, privacy violations, fake news, hate speech, and "false miracles in exchange for a single drop of your blood" seem to reference companies such as Facebook, Google's YouTube, and Theranos.

"Graduates, at the very least, learn from these mistakes," he said. "If you want to take credit, first learn to take responsibility." 

Don't believe the saying: 'If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.'

You've probably heard this expression countless times. But in another speech Cook gave to graduates — at Tulane University on May 18 — he said his tenure at Apple taught him that this maxim isn't true at all.

"At Apple, I learned that's a total crock," he said. "You'll work harder than you ever thought possible. But the tools will feel light in your hands." 

Take risks to build something better.

"Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of being too cautious," Cook said to Tulane University's 2019 graduates. "Don't assume that by staying put, the ground won't move beneath your feet. The status quo simply won't last. So get to work on building something better." 

Be open to looking at things in a different way.

When addressing Tulane's graduates, Cook urged graduates to open their eyes, look at things in a new way, and to have the courage to listen.

In what may have been another reference to Facebook, which has been criticized in the past for the "filter bubble" it creates, Cook encouraged graduates to "push back" against algorithms that "pull toward you the things you already know, believe, or like."

"It shouldn't be this way, but in 2019 opening your eyes and seeing things in a new way can be a revolutionary act," he said. "Summon the courage not just to hear but to listen. Not just to act but to act together." 

'Be motivated by your duty to build a better world."

Tackling big problems is never easy, but Cook urged Tulane's graduates to embrace the challenge.

"From climate change to immigration, from criminal justice reform to economic opportunity, be motivated by your duty to build a better world," Cook said. "Young people have changed the course of history time and time again. And now it's time to change it once more." 

Try.

"Call upon your grit," Cook told Tulane's graduates. "Try something. You may succeed. You may fail. But make it your life's work to remake the world." 

• Negotiations expert Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the Wharton School, disentangled what went wrong during President Donald Trump's negotiation with China on trade.
• Schweitzer says all negotiations, including those in your personal and professional life, take patience and skill. Negotiations aren't about "winning" but more about fostering a deal that both parties feel good about.
• Complex negotiations take a team of diverse opinions. One-to-one negotiations with your boss or vendor can be more about forming good relationships from the get-go.
• Here are all the lessons we can learn from Trump's messy trade negotiation with China.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump vowed to use his background as a businessman to reshape foreign policy. But the president has had mixed success in negotiations since taking office.

Trump hasn't been able to persuade Congress to pass his renegotiated NAFTA agreement. He failed at holding one summit with North Korea, and has seemed to quickly take the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin on multiple issues, despite evidence from US intelligence advising him otherwise.

Most recently, the president has found himself in a negotiations mess with China over trade. After a year of back-and-forth tariffs, Trump was finally able to secure a truce in December. Yet the president scrapped that deal within months, doubling the tariff rate and drawing the ire of 600 US companies.

Economists argue that tariffs, or taxes on products brought in from other countries, could mean American consumers eventually pay more for common items like bikes and pet supplies, since companies have to make up for paying the higher import fees.

Read more:It's been more than a year since the US-China trade war started. Here's a timeline of everything that's happened so far.

Maurice Schweitzer, the author of "Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both," is critical of the president's record so far.

"As a negotiator," the University of Pennsylvania professor says, "he's done a terrible job."

But it's not just a skill for world leaders. Whether asking a boss for more pay, a mortgage broker for a better rate, or a significant other for their buy-in on what series to stream next, bartering populates everyday life.

By studying how Trump's have gone awry, we can inform our ongoing and upcoming negotiations.

A negotiation isn't about winning

Trump has repeatedly said his goal with China is to "win."

"From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars," Trump tweeted last year. "Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!"

But, Schweitzer says, the goal of a good negotiation should be less about winning in the short-term and more about understanding the long-term objectives. Both sides should ultimately feel good about the deal. Implying one side defeated the other won't make for the outcomes you're looking for.

"The best negotiators never talk about winning the negotiation," Schweitzer adds. "The goal of a negotiation like this is to think strategically about what is the long-term goal."

The risk: Negotiators that focus too much on winning over another party are in danger of deadlocking, or being unable to come to an agreement. This could lead one or both parties to abandon the deal altogether. Plus, if a negotiator is overly competitive, the other party may take offense and choose not to continue.

Deals as complicated and intricate as trade negotiations take preparation and focus, Schweitzer says. Preparation usually comes from having an experienced team that can spend time researching different scenarios.

Trump's team, however, did not have much experience in mainstream foreign-policy tactics. Steve Mnuchin, Trump's treasury secretary, ran a hedge fund before taking office. Peter Navarro, Trump's director of trade, has alienated fellow economists with his outlandish ideas. Trump's own inner circle also vehemently disagree with each other at times, leading to screaming matches on one negotiating trip to Beijing.

As a result, China gets mixed messages from what Trump and his team want, adding volatility to the situation.

"Unpredictability is generally pretty bad," Schweitzer says. "His skillset is not well-suited for complex negotiations. Negotiations with China are complicated, and he doesn't have enough expertise on his team to navigate this."

Relationship building drives successful negotiations

No matter the industry you work in, you're bound to encounter the same people over and over again. Merger and acquisitions lawyers run into the same banks and investors; politicians meet with the same state representatives and city unions; sports agents representing different players meet with the same teams.

In whatever context, Schweitzer says you'll likely be working with the same people "for years or decades."

Hence the need to cultivate relationships.

Since you're set to encounter the same people again and again, negotiating a deal becomes easier if you treat the other party as a friend. People are more likely to strike a deal with people they know and like, Schweitzer has found.

But Trump makes enemies, not friends, Schweitzer says.

Read more: Trump's negotiating team just gave China a trade-war deadline that could have widespread consequences for the US economy

The president's use of name calling results in few friends both among Democrats and within his own party. His bullying may have alienated Republicans when he's needed them the most: the late John McCain, a target for Trump's bullying, voted against a repeal of parts of Obamacare, something Trump promised to do during his campaign.

With China, the relationships are more complicated. The US competes with the country on dominance in the technology space and for influence in the Pacific, yet also collaborates over trade — creating both a "friend" and "foe" situation, Schweitzer adds.

While China has disadvantaged the US by infringing on intellectual-property rights that have reportedly cost the economy between $225 billion and $600 billion annually, Trump should still have treated the country like a friend and focused on relationship building to sustain a long-term trade deal.

Instead, by focusing too much on beating China, Trump continues to alienate president Xi Jinping and his staff. For instance, the two nations reached a temporary truce in late 2018 after Xi and Trump sat down at the G20 summit in Argentina. Soon after, Trump tweeted he would be escalating the trade war, suddenly forcing China to retaliate.

"The ideal is to focus on building relationships, finding common ground, taking a long-term perspective," Schweitzer says. "The problem is once you burn through relationships, you end up leaving yourself few options of what to do next."

The takeaway: If you want to "win" negotiations, don't burn bridges. Build them.

SEE ALSO: THE TECH COLD WAR: Everything that's happened in the new China-US tech conflict involving Google, Huawei, Apple, and Trump

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian have a combined net worth of $189 million. Here's how they make and spend their money.

• ArangoDB offers a new kind of database software, one that supports different kinds of databases.
• What really makes it stand out, though, is that users of its software can search across the different kinds of databases it supports with just one query language.
• The startup's software has found a following among some of the biggest companies in the world, including Airbus and Barclays.
• It recently raised $10 million in a Series A funding round using the pitch deck below.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Database software is a long-established market in the tech industry, but Claudius Weinberger was still able to find a new niche within it.

A big trend in the database market over the last 20 years or so has been the the move away from traditional so-called relational databases. Those are the ones popularized by Oracle and typically represented by tables filled with columns and rows of data. They're also frequently known as SQL— or structured query language — databases, so named for the coding language used to search them.

Instead of focusing on tables of data, the newer, noSQL databases focus on the relationships among different bits of data, or on organizing data in the form of virtual documents. The noSQL databases offer advantages over their predecessors, particularly in being able to efficiently handle the vast amounts of data companies were now collecting in the post-iPhone era.

But they also had a big drawback. Each kind organized data differently. To find data within them, programmers had to learn different kinds of query languages for each one. Weinberger foresaw that managing all of that data, across all of those different types of database, was going becoming a major headache.

"We will see a lot of companies struggling with all the different products they have in place," he said he thought at the time.

ArangoDB offers three databases in one

Weinberger's epiphany led to ArangoDB, a new kind of database that he started as a project in 2012 and then built a company around two years later. ArangoDB was one of the first so-called multi-model databases. It natively supports three of the major kinds of noSQL databases — graph databases, document databases, and key-value database.

Perhaps more importantly, it allows programmers to search across the different kinds of databases it supports using the same querying language: A homebrewed variation on the ubiqitious SQL, called ArangoDB Query Language, or AQL.

So companies can just use ArangoDB instead of managing three different kinds of databases from three different vendors. And programmers only have to learn one query language to search it — a language that's based on the SQL thay are likely already familiar with. 

"That makes it much easier," Weinberger said in a recent interview with Business Insider. He continued: "It's a solution to handle many different use cases."

Combining the different databases and allowing users to search across all of them also allows ArangoDB to be used in new ways that just can't be done with older, separate ones, he said.

"That is the main point of ArangoDB and why we built it," he said.

Weinberger was something of a trend-setter. Many other companies, including industry stalwart Oracle, now offer what they call multi-model databases. The difference is that few of them natively support multiple database formats, Weinberger said. Instead, they typically start with one kind of database and bolt on to it support for other kinds, he said. The problem with that is that they generally don't allow users to search through the various databases using only one query language, he said.

"There's not really one native multi-model database like ours on the market," Weinberger said.

ArangoDB operates on a freemium model. Its core product is actually available as open source, meaning users can download, modify, and redistribute the software as they wish. It offers extra features and technical support for an annual fee, pitched to larger businesses who want to put the software to work at larger scales. 

ArangoDB is making a new home for itself in San Francisco

Many companies have bought into Weinberger's vision. Some 500 companies and other organizations around the globe use ArangoDB, largely for application development. Numbered among its customers are some of the biggest companies in the world, as well as Airbus, Barclays, and Thomson Reuters.

ArangoDB has also started to win favor among investors. In March, the company raised $10 million in a Series A funding round that was led by Bow Capital. Its now raised some $17 million in total.

The 55-person company is using the new funds in part to relocate its headquarters from Cologne, Germany, where Weinberger founded it, to San Francisco, so that it can have a bigger presence in its most important market, the US. While ArangoDB is keeping its core software development team in Germany, it's building out other teams in Silicon Valley, including sales and marketing and human resources.

It's also using its new funding to continue developing its database software.

Weinberger intends to "build the product to build the product to the next level ... so that we can add to the product what we are thinking about."

Here's the pitch deck Weinberger and his team used to raise ArangoDB's $10 million in new funding:

SEE ALSO: This Silicon Valley founder is an expert in designing presentations. Here's what he thinks your startup needs to include in a pitch deck — and what you should leave out.

• There are certain drinks bartenders like me will secretly judge you for ordering.
• We'll happily make you a mixed drink with top-shelf liquor, for example, but we'll be rolling our eyes on the inside.
• Here are 16 things you should think twice about before ordering at a bar.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Bars are filled with people trying to look cool.

Maybe you're trying to impress your squad. Maybe you're trying — and failing — to woo someone on a first date.

Or maybe you just want to appear cool in front of me, your bartender.

And why not? Bartenders are hip. We stand in front of people and do things that most people probably can't do.

So it's no surprise that folks sometimes try to impress us — or at least not disappoint us — when it's their big moment in front of us: ordering a drink.

No matter what kind of drink you order, we'll happily make it with a smile. But that said, there are some types of drinks we'll secretly judge you for requesting.

Here are 16 orders that bartenders are sure to secretly judge you for.

SEE ALSO: I'm a bartender who's witnessed countless first dates — here are all the things you're doing wrong

DON'T MISS: The 9 most annoying things your group can do at a bar, according to a bartender

You order a filthy martini with a top-shelf spirit

With a few exceptions, such as when the cocktail is super spirit-forward, house cocktails are always made with the bottom shelf — or "well" — spirits. Because why waste a perfectly good top-shelf spirit?

If I gave you a blind tasting of two filthy martinis, one with Grey Goose, one with the well vodka, I highly doubt you would be able to tell which was which. At least not in a meaningful way.

Read more: I'm a bartender who's witnessed countless first dates — here are all the things you're doing wrong

Some bartenders go so far as to judge any and all dirty martini orders — especially when a blue-cheese-stuffed olive is requested.

Personally, I'm unbothered. That is, until, you besmirch a perfectly good top-shelf gin or vodka that can stand on its own.

Actually, requesting an uppermost echelon spirit in any mixed drink is kind of silly

The same principle applies with any mixed drink. Even if it's a more refined cocktail, like an Old Fashioned.

I'll do it. But it will hurt me inside to add even a dash of bitters and a bar spoon of sweetener to the $25 Nikka Coffey Whiskey Old Fashioned you just ordered.

We judge when large groups all order the same thing

Don't be square. Live a little. Just because you're wearing watching bachelor or bachelorette tees doesn't mean your drink orders have to correspond too.

Read more:The 9 most annoying things your group can do at a bar, according to a bartender

You ask for your martini shaken

Please. Unless it's a Vesper— calm down, James Bond.

Hint: There's a reason martinis are stirred. And it has nothing to do with how manly you are, and everything to do with the type of ingredients involved.

Our decision to stir instead of shake is pretty cemented, and it's based on how the ingredients dilute, interact, and ultimately appear in the glass.

You order an LIT when you're somewhere fancy

Assess your environment. Look around.

Say, for example, there aren't peanut shells on the floor, the lighting is decent, and your bartender is wearing a tie, vest, or blouse: Don't order a Long Island Iced Tea. Or a Blue Motorcycle, an Irish Trash Can, or a Slippery Nipple.

These are cocktails designed basically to get you as drunk as possible as quickly as possible. And they taste … unremarkable.

Let a bartender at a refined joint get you drunk in at least a memorably tasty way.

But by all means, when you find yourself at a dive, go ahead and revel in the blasphemy of combining multiple spirits in one glass.

And when you're at a dive bar, you order something obnoxiously high-end

Don't ask the bartender what smoked salts the bar has available for a bespoke margarita when you're at a dive bar.

On second thought, never ask us about our smoked salts (yes, people actually request this). It's an inquiry that somehow manages to make you sound both silly and pretentious.

You order a rum and Diet Coke

You're drinking cane-based booze. You might as well pile it on.

You order your drink in 'fingers'

It's a joke amongst our crowd that the under-21 crowd orders in "fingers" to try to seem more sophisticated, and less underage.

That's when customers use the width of their fingers to indicate how much liquor they want.

Basically, if you order your drink like this, I will ask to see your ID. Seriously.

You order a complex drink whose substitutions make it a basic drink

When people try to mask their more basic, but desired, drink choice with substitutions, it's their insecurity that I judge, not their desire to have a vodka soda.

So please. Just ask for a vodka soda. Don't ask for a gimlet, sub-gin-for-vodka, sub-lime-and-sweetener-for-soda.

You arbitrarily add egg white to your drink

Whiskey sour. Amaretto sour. Ramos gin fizz. These are the drinks it is appropriate to request egg white with, if it's not already assumed.

A gin and tonic is not.

You ask me to make you 'whatever you want'

Bartenders hate this. Don't do it. Be decisive.

Or at least be decisive when I ask a follow-up question.

"Refreshing or spirit-forward?" "Up or on the rocks?" "Bitter or smoky?"

When people insist on sticking with the "whatever you want" script when pressed to answer questions to find a perfect drink, you're hurting me when you should be helping me help you.

Also, here's a trade secret from me to you: We have a favorite drink to make. It's called a neat pour of anything.

You order a well-known brand, but dismiss my suggestions for a better, lesser-known one

Partof our job is to know what's well marketed versus what's good.

So I'll always throw side-eye to someone who dismisses a suggested spirit that would have probably both saved them money, and enhanced their drink.

You order ice in your wine

I say this as a person who does this occasionally. But only on three-dollar wine night. And with a healthy dose of shame.

You order 'Tito's with vodka'

It never fails to amuse me when this happens. And for some reason, this slip of the tongue only happens with Tito's.

You request an obscure garnish

Some people have weird neuroses about drink garnishes, while others treat the bartender like a Subway sandwich artist at the garnish station.

I fondly recall when a guest asked for "a single blueberry" in his drink, which for some reason, we had on hand.

Another common eye-roll is asking for multiple Luxardo cherries. Fun fact: Those babies cost $0.33 a pop.

You request a menu drink, but ask to substitute vodka

Don't do this. Don't make me explain the vast taste difference between scotch and vodka and why that substitution won't fly.

Then again, it's fine. You do you. Live your best life. Order whatever you want.

Just know, we are judging you.

• These advertisements are "shockvertising" at its finest — or worst, depending on the consumer.
• Most of the organizations trying to shock the audience aren't pushing a product. Some ads come from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), PETA, or UN Women.
• However, ads that promote a product often shock consumers unintentionally.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

They call it "shockvertising" — ads made to shock their way into your memory by way of gruesome violence, over-the-top sexuality, or other taboo-shredding imagery. 

Ad agencies around the world have adopted the audacious method, with the marketing pros behind activist organizations like PETA specializing in scandalous imagery.

Italian clothing retailer Benetton pioneered the style in the 1980s. Its now-iconic campaigns have received mixed reviews, like an award-winning AIDS awareness ad from 1991 that showed a father holding the lifeless body of his son in a hospital bed.

The style is powerful, but it can backfire: the World Wildlife Fund drew ire for comparing the 2004 Tsunami disaster to the World Trade Center attack.

We took images from the past few decades to give you a look into the global shockvertising scene. It's up to you to decide if they're brilliant, offensive, or both.

Here are 33 of the most shocking ads in print history.

Kim Bhasin contributed research to a previous version of this article.

SEE ALSO: Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra, has a 'completely generic' logo, a designer who's worked with Burger King and Dunkin' says

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America suggests an imbalance in American legislation. "Little Red Riding Hood." (USA, 2013)

UN Women uses actual Google auto-completes to show how widespread misogyny is. "Women Need To Be Seen As Equal." (International, 2013)

The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism made an illustration of systemic racism. "Your skin color shouldn’t dictate your future." (France, 2013)

Crisis Relief Singapore won the Cannes Lion advertising award for its commentary of social media slacktivism. "Liking isn't helping." (Singapore, 2013)

Ekburg.ru makes a comment on distracted driving. "Think of Both Sides." (Russia, 2013)

PETA turned a circus's tagline on its head. "Welcome to the saddest show on earth." (USA, 2011)

Thai Health boldly illustrates the connection between sleepiness and accidents. "Don't Drive Sleepy." (Thailand, 2010)

Deutscher Tierschutz Bund e.V shows that animals suffer like people do. "Pig," and "Mink." (Germany, 2010)

Prachachat Newspaper makes a strong point about the role of the press in transparency. "School." (Thailand, 2010)

Droit des Non Fumeurs drew lots of anger for its anti-smoking campaign. "Smoking is being a slave to tobacco." (France, 2010)

Mettiamocilatesta.it used a decapitated Santa to ask people to keep spending money on advertising. "Don't Cut a Dream." (Italy, 2009)

Casa Do Menor makes the consequences of child abuse horrifyingly clear. "Hands." (Spain, 2009)

Reporters Without Borders frames the death of a journalist during conflict reporting as a terrible injustice. "Ink." (France, 2009)

Good Parent Poland makes the effects of child abuse vivid. "You can lose more than your patience." (Poland, 2009)

Caribu Bitter makes chocolate look deliciously evil. "Canari." (Peru, 2009)

Superette turned an idiom on its head. "Be Caught Dead In It." (New Zealand, 2009)

WWF Brazil triggered global anger (and issued a formal apology) after this image used 9/11 to illustrate the number of people killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami. "Tsunami." (Brazil, 2009)

Masterlock wants you to think that its product can't be broken. "Hippies." (South Africa, 2008)

Concordia Children's Services looks after abandoned babies in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. "Piglets." (Philippines, 2008)

Corporate Chhattisgarh sponsored an ad that asks a fundamental question about terrorism. "Martyr." (India, 2008)

Serve made a heavily sexualized ad confronting statutory rape. "You Need Help," and "It's Wrong." (USA, 2008)

Family Network Foundation cleverly speaks out against neglecting older parents. "Don't make your parents jealous of your other loved ones." (Thailand, 2008)

Hanes used caricatures of slurs to sell undergarments. "Because the World Gives You Enough Labels." (India, 2008)

Dolce and Gabbana was widely criticized for this ad that arguably glamorizes gang rape. Unnamed. (International, 2007)

Humans for Animals makes a shocking image in regard to animal cruelty. "Seal." (France, 2005)

IP Press Men's Magazine tried to make a point about gender-specific targeting. "Kennedy Assassination." (Belgium, 2007)

German Olympic Sport Federation made a link between activity and appearance. "David." (Germany, 2007)

Pony made a comment about the role of sport (and race) in its footwear ad."Black Jesus." (US, 2004)

Benetton used an image of the death of AIDS activist David Kirby as part of its inclusive — and divisive — ad campaign. "United Colors." (International, 1980s-90s)

CARA Welfare Philippines raises awareness for animal adoption with pictures of animals before and after being adopted, with the slogan: "Same dog, different owner." "Rescue Pets." (Philippines, 2014)

The Father Bob Maguire Foundation made a simple yet effective ad when they likened garbage to a fine meal. "For the homeless, every day is a struggle." (Australia, 2008)

Dunkin' Donuts put a model in "blackface" in a Thai ad to promote the Charcoal Donut. The model in question? A Dunkin' Donuts Thai executive's daughter. "Charcoal Donut." (Thailand, 2013)

The New York City Human Resources Administration's ads to lower teen pregnancy rates were met with controversy. Untitled. (USA, 2013)

• Technology is becoming ever more important in the digital workplace of the 21st century.
• Using data from the Department of Labor, we found 30 high-paying, fast-growing jobs that rely on skills and knowledge from the STEM disciplines.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The 21st century workplace is increasingly dominated by technology, and jobs that rely on a mastery of those machines are likely to become more important — and lucrative.

We assembled a list of fast-growing, high-paying jobs that are set to dominate the emerging digital workplace through 2026.

The Department of Labor's O*NET Online occupational databaseincludes survey-based measures of several work characteristics for the nearly 1,000 occupations tracked by the database.

To get a sense of what jobs will thrive in the emerging digital workplace, we looked at nine skills, knowledge areas, and work-style characteristics that reflect the growing importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM): mathematics, science, engineering and technology, computers and electronics, programming, innovation, analytical thinking, general design, and technology design. If you have an interest or talent in any of the above, then congratulations, your work future is looking bright.

The O*NET database assigns importance scores to each job between 0 and 100 for each of these characteristics, with 0 indicating that the job doesn't have that characteristic at all, and 100 suggesting that the characteristic is a major part of the job.

We averaged together the importance scores of the above skills to get an overall STEM score for each occupation. Because we are interested in high-paying, fast-growing jobs, we ranked those occupations with above-average annual salaries and growth prospects.

Specifically, we looked at occupations with an average salary in 2018 above the overall average of $51,960, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program, and a projected employment growth rate between 2016 and 2026 above the projected total employment growth rate of 7.4%, according to the Bureau's most recent employment projections data.

Here are the 30 jobs with above-average salaries and growth prospects with the highest STEM scores, along with descriptions of what each of the occupations entail from O*NET:

30. Postsecondary atmospheric, earth, marine, and space sciences instructors teach courses in these scientific fields

Average 2018 annual salary: $101,890

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 9.5%

STEM score: 55.1

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 94
2. Innovation: 87
3. Science: 78

O*NET description page»

29. Computer and information systems managers plan, direct, or coordinate activities in such fields as electronic data processing, information systems, systems analysis, and computer programming

Average 2018 annual salary: $152,860

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 12.0%

STEM score: 55.6

Top three STEM areas:

1. Computers and electronics: 94
2. Analytical thinking: 81
3. Innovation: 68

O*NET description page»

28. Statisticians develop or apply mathematical or statistical theory and methods to collect, organize, interpret, and summarize numerical data to provide usable information

Average 2018 annual salary: $92,600

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 33.8%

STEM score: 56.2

Top three STEM areas:

1. Mathematics: 97
2. Analytical thinking: 94
3. Computers and electronics: 76

O*NET description page»

27. Industrial engineers design, develop, test, and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes

Average 2018 annual salary: $91,630

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 9.7%

STEM score: 56.4

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 86
2. Analytical thinking: 86
3. Innovation: 79

O*NET description page»

26. Web developers design, create, and modify websites

Average 2018 annual salary: $75,580

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 15.0%

STEM score: 56.8

Top three STEM areas:

1. Computers and electronics: 85
2. Analytical thinking: 79
3. Programming: 78

O*NET description page»

25. Hydrologists research the distribution, circulation, and physical properties of underground and surface waters

Average 2018 annual salary: $82,790

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 9.9%

STEM score: 56.9

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 88
2. Engineering and technology: 75
3. Science: 72

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24. Geoscientists study the composition, structure, and other physical aspects of the Earth

Average 2018 annual salary: $107,800

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 14.0%

STEM score: 57.1

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 90
2. Science: 78
3. Innovation: 73

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22 (tie). Surveyors make measurements and determine property boundaries

Average 2018 annual salary: $66,440

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 11.2%

STEM score: 57.7

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 87
2. Engineering and technology: 75
3. Mathematics: 75

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22 (tie). Postsecondary architecture instructors teach courses in architecture and architectural design

Average 2018 annual salary: $99,320

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 10.6%

STEM score: 57.7

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 92
2. Design: 91
3. Innovation: 85

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21. Systems software developers research, design, develop, and test operating-systems-level software, compilers, and network distribution software

Average 2018 annual salary: $114,000

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 11.1%

STEM score: 57.9

Top three STEM areas:

1. Computers and electronics: 97
2. Analytical thinking: 89
3. Innovation: 78

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20. Civil engineering technicians apply theory and principles of civil engineering in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of structures and facilities

Average 2018 annual salary: $54,670

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.8%

STEM score: 58.4

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 87
2. Design: 79
3. Analytical thinking: 77

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19. Postsecondary physics teachers teach courses in physics

Average 2018 annual salary: $103,830

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 10.0%

STEM score: 59.2

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 98
2. Innovation: 95
3. Computers and electronics: 77

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18. Environmental engineers research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards

Average 2018 annual salary: $92,640

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.3%

STEM score: 59.8

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 91
2. Engineering and technology: 88
3. Design: 75

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16 (tie). Petroleum engineers devise methods to improve oil and gas extraction and production

Average 2018 annual salary: $156,370

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 15.2%

STEM score: 60.4

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 95
2. Analytical thinking: 88
3. Innovation: 76

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16 (tie). Postsecondary computer science instructors teach courses in that field

Average 2018 annual salary: $96,200

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.1%

STEM score: 60.4

Top three STEM areas:

1. Computers and electronics: 87
2. Analytical thinking: 86
3. Innovation: 81

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15. Operations research analysts formulate and apply mathematical modeling and other optimizing methods to develop and interpret information that assists management with decision making

Average 2018 annual salary: $88,350

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 27.4%

STEM score: 60.8

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 100
2. Mathematics: 88
3. Innovation: 84

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14. Biochemists and biophysicists study the chemical composition or physical principles of living cells and organisms

Average 2018 annual salary: $105,940

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 11.5%

STEM score: 60.9

Top three STEM areas:

1. Science: 91
2. Analytical thinking: 91
3. Innovation: 83

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13. Computer-controlled-machine-tool programmers develop the means to control machining or processing of metal or plastic parts by automatic machine tools

Average 2018 annual salary: $56,300

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 16.3%

STEM score: 61.0

Top three STEM areas:

1. Programming: 78
2. Computers and electronics: 78
3. Analytical thinking: 77

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12. Electrical engineers research, design, develop, test, or supervise the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment, components, or systems

Average 2018 annual salary: $101,600

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.6%

STEM score: 62.7

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 91
2. Analytical thinking: 86
3. Computers and electronics: 82

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11. Astronomers observe, research, and interpret astronomical phenomena

Average 2018 annual salary: $111,090

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 10.0%

STEM score: 62.9

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 96
2. Innovation: 87
3. Computers and electronics: 84

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10. Civil engineers perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures, and facilities

Average 2018 annual salary: $93,720

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 10.6%

STEM score: 63.0

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 90
2. Design: 81
3. Analytical thinking: 78

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9. Mathematicians conduct research in fundamental mathematics or in application of mathematical techniques

Average 2018 annual salary: $104,870

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 29.7%

STEM score: 63.1

Top three STEM areas:

1. Mathematics: 100
2. Analytical thinking: 98
3. Innovation: 87

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8. Mining and geological engineers conduct sub-surface surveys to identify the characteristics of potential land or mining development sites

Average 2018 annual salary: $98,420

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.2%

STEM score: 63.7

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 94
2. Engineering and technology: 87
3. Mathematics: 69

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7. Computer and information research scientists conduct research into fundamental components of that field

Average 2018 annual salary: $123,850

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 19.2%

STEM score: 64.3

Top three STEM areas:

1. Computers and electronics: 90
2. Analytical thinking: 79
3. Innovation: 77

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6. Postsecondary engineering teachers teach courses pertaining to the application of physical laws and principles of engineering

Average 2018 annual salary: $113,680

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 14.6%

STEM score: 66.9

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 96
2. Innovation: 91
3. Engineering and technology: 90

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5. Agricultural engineers apply knowledge of engineering technology and biological science to agricultural problems

Average 2018 annual salary: $79,090

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.2%

STEM score: 68.1

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 91
2. Analytical thinking: 87
3. Design: 85

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4. Applications software developers create and modify general computer applications software

Average 2018 annual salary: $108,080

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 30.7%

STEM score: 70.2

Top three STEM areas:

1. Computers and electronics: 99
2. Analytical thinking: 96
3. Innovation: 84

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3. Physicists conduct research into physical phenomena, develop theories on the basis of observation and experiments, and devise methods to apply physical laws and theories

Average 2018 annual salary: $125,280

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 14.5%

STEM score: 72.7

Top three STEM areas:

1. Analytical thinking: 93
2. Science: 88
3. Mathematics: 85

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2. Chemical engineers design chemical plant equipment and devise processes for manufacturing chemicals and products

Average 2018 annual salary: $114,470

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 7.5%

STEM score: 73.6

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 100
2. Analytical thinking: 97
3. Design: 82

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1. Mechanical engineers perform engineering duties in planning and designing tools, engines, machines, and other mechanically functioning equipment

Average 2018 annual salary: $92,800

Projected employment growth between 2016 and 2026: 8.8%

STEM score: 75.7

Top three STEM areas:

1. Engineering and technology: 97
2. Analytical thinking: 95
3. Innovation: 91

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